Neglected Count: 0 - 2 Coin
Mission Ad:
- Take a ride down the Siltstream River and assist the resident ranger of Camp Crawlwoods in exploring uncharted jungle terrain for viable crops and other valuable resources.
The Crawlwoods is the jungle that was discovered during Toosehn Year One, where the F.E.C. lives.
The first day of the mission:
- The PCs get on the Rail System heading from the Guildhall Station to the Embassy Station.
- They meet Conductor Richard Blacktrack.
- He checks their passes, making some chit chat. A number of the party members mention that they are very excited by the prospect of possibly coming across the F.E.C. while exploring the Crawlwoods. Conductor Richard Blacktrack introduces the Famous Toosehn Saying: “The F.E.C. is as real as Toosehn’s Second Sun.”
- He tells the PCs about the Dining Car and Casino Car.
- Toshmo inquires about whether Copycatfish is served on the Dining Car.
- Urrakka wants to know what powers the Rail System. Drogath challenges Conductor Richard Blacktrack’s knowledge.
- Conductor Richard Blacktrack says they’re both on his shitlist and walks away.
- The Dining Car is a Panera Bread.
- Doodledip purchases a charged lemonade and stores it in his inventory.
- Other members of the party also purchase charged lemonades and drink them.
- Bizzle acquires and slurps down a hotdog from the secret menu.
- Urrakka purchases turkey chili and makes it a Sweet Deal to get an orange scone for free.
- The Panera Bread employee awkwardly tries to make conversation about how they also love that combo.
- The party then goes to the Casino Car.
- Doodledip wants to play some blackjack and sits at the table with Toshmo and Bizzle.
- Doodledip’s longtime gambling rival Reynold is there, and looks annoyed to see Doodledip. Doodledip in turn feels a need to show up Reynold, ignoring Toshmo’s requests to focus on the mission and Drogath’s implication that the two of them should just talk it out.
- Reynold attempts to guess Toshmo’s card and embarrassingly fails. He grumbles about how the Secret Society will certainly be hearing from him regarding their faulty illusion props.
- Reynold then confidently declares that rest assured, he will certainly at least win the hand of blackjack. He is wrong. Bizzle and Doodledip win, with Bizzle earning an extra Coin due to his wager of a Coin.
- Reynold has an angry outburst and leaves the Casino Car.
- Doodledip is satisfied that he defeated Reynold and Bizzle is satisfied with his profit.
- Toshmo shares with Drogath that he really wants to prove to his dad that he can adventure successfully. He therefore organizes the team to do a little bit of strategic planning before arriving at their destination.
- Drogath also inquires about Bizzle’s inventions.
- Urrakka looks around to see if there are any Keepers on the train but fails to identify any.
- As they disembark at the Embassy Station, Doodledip notices out of the corner of his eye that Reynold is reaching to take his hat and stops him. Reynold throws smoke at his feet and runs away, drawing the ire of Conductor Richard Blacktrack.
- Urrakka is disappointed, as the Train was less glamorous than she had hoped.
- They meet Conductor Richard Blacktrack.
- The team arrives at the Embassy Station and see the Siltstream River meandering into the Crawlwoods ahead of them. The Embassy itself is currently locked up but the team is able to acquire canoes from a Guild lockbox next to the Station, scanning their rail passes to open it.
- The team splits into two canoes and begin down the river. Drogath seems to be a rowing prodigy despite being unskilled in boating. Urrakka locates and consumes an Ornanaa.
- The air is increasingly humid and thick with insects, making party members wearing heavy leather and furs uncomfortable.
- The party spots some orange Manatees munching on river kelp. Drogath takes a picture of his new friends in front of them.
- Some mushrooms on the shore puff out clouds of spores, leading to Doodledip getting very drowsy.
- Some colorful fish come up alongside the canoes. Bizzle is intrigued by the shiny, sharp scales and Doodledip offers to use his net to catch some.
- The party begins to get accustomed to the dangers of the jungle. They decide to make camp on an island for the night, pulling up the canoes and making a fire. Doodledip and Bizzle decide to take turns keeping watch with their reduced sleep needs. The island is largely taken up by a giant stump and its fallen log, and it’s likely that the island itself was formed around this tree’s roots.
The first night of the mission:
- The night gets very dark, almost pitch black. The jungle sounds noticeably louder than during the day.
- Doodledip, especially vigilant due to his consumption of charged lemonade, notices some rustling noises approaching the campfire during his watch. Three venomous snakes approach as he blows his whistle and turn based mode begins.
- Drogath goes first and casts Beast Friend on the snakes. He asks them why they are approaching. The snakes respond, “sssssSSSS avoiding ssSSsssSSss big sssSs hopper SSSsss” and say they are no longer intending harm to the party.
- A giant carnivorous frog leaps out of the dark swamp.
- Toshmo swings at it with his warhammer, missing as the frog steps back.
- Korarath shoots an arrow at the frog, which glances off.
- Bizzle approaches, opening a box that billows out a cone of cold air at the frog, creating a sheet of ice on it but otherwise not harming it.
- Doodledip tests the frog with a taunt, shouting “get your stupid frog ass outta here!”
- The frog attempts to grab Toshmo with its tongue, but is distracted by Doodledip and roars in anger.
- Urrakka attempts to throw the dead fish into the mouth of the frog, but she accidentally sticks her finger into the sharp fish mouth and becomes shaken.
- Doodledip conjures fire, making the frog become shaken and melting its icy layer.
- The frog fails to recover from being shaken and jumps onto the log.
- Toshmo attempts an upward hammer strike at the frog, creating a fleshy thudding gong clash.
- Through the use of another successful casting of Beast Friend, Drogath determines that the frog is simply hungry, and after offering some snacks, the frog leaps off into the water and departs along with the snakes.
- The rest of the night passes uneventfully.
The second day of the mission:
- After a bit more canoeing, the party arrives at Camp Crawlwoods. It’s an expansive treehouse with an intricate zipline system.
- Drogath immediately attempts to zipline, falling from the canopy and only through sheer luck manages to avoid shattering his leg.
- They meet Ranger Lyra, a Half-Folk wearing fieldwork clothes including a festive Hawaiian shirt, cargo pants, hiking boots, and a wide-brimmed hat.
- Doodledip is already familiar with Ranger Lyra, and they quickly catch up.
- She provides the group with special gear, such as hemp ropes and candles that keep away most insects and critters.
- She also upon request shows the party around Camp Crawlwoods. Bizzle inspects some jarred specimens and recognizes Creepvine among them.
- The party and Ranger Lyra head out together eastwards into the Crawlwoods, bushwhacking their way deep into the dense growth.
- They inspect an unknown large globule cluster fruit: Melonberry.
- Ranger Lyra begins collecting a specimen.
- Doodledip notices a large feline face peering at them through the underbrush and raises the alarm with his whistle. The cat is alarmed, roars, and prepares to pounce.
- Bizzle walks over and shoots at the cat point-blank with his flintlock, making it shaken and wounded in the head. The cat is very blooded, having lost an ear.
- The cat, recovering from shaken, in its panic attempts to leap at Bizzle, but overshoots and lands on his other side.
- Korarath shoots an ice bolt at the cat, reshakening it.
- Doodledip taunts the cat, calling it a “Vincent Van Gogh ass tiger.”
- The cat seems unaffected, likely because its ears are ringing and missing.
- Urrakka attempts to throw the fish again to create a diversion, but the cat is too enraged and panicked to care. Urrakka protectively jumps in front of Ranger Lyra.
- Toshmo bashes the cat in the head, dealing insane damage. It crumples, lifeless.
- Ranger Lyra finishes collecting the Melonberry specimen, jarring it up for later analysis.
- The party arrives at a massive boulder field in the middle of the Crawlwoods, the destination that Ranger Lyra had been leading them to.
- They spot a Condor flying in the distance above.
- The party begins scaling the rock face with their ropes. Bizzle, Korarath, and Urrakka seem unconfident with this method at first, but Korarath and Urrakka luckily make it up alright. Bizzle impresses all by walking sideways up the cliff with his spiked boots. The top is expansive, at least a half mile in circumference.
The second night of the mission:
- The beautiful pinks and oranges of the sunset highlight more Condor silhouettes. Ranger Lyra suggests that they make camp on the flat top of the rock face before it gets too dark.
- Toshmo and Urrakka come across a cave entrance while scouting the area. It seems to be wide, flat, and shallow. Urrakka wants to delve into the very back of the cave, and look for any possible traces of the F.E.C.. Toshmo alerts the rest of the group and they are joined in the cave. Drogath and Bizzle start setting up camp at the mouth of the cave, while Toshmo, Urrakka, Doodledip, and Korarath begin exploring deeper with Ranger Lyra, holding up their small light sources ahead of them.
- The caving team begins to see some faint light ahead of them as they scramble inwards, deeper into the boulders. They come across bioluminescent moss that’s covering the walls of the cavern. Ranger Lyra hasn’t come across this species before, and begins jarring some specimens for studying. Doodledip and Urrakka pocket some moss as well. Bizzle nibbles on some. He burps. His mouth glows a little. Urrakka tries to smoke some but it falls and burns up, turning the flame bluish-green.
- Rounding the last turn in the cave, the party comes across a roosting colony of bats. On attempting to creep away, Toshmo inhales some dust and sneezes loudly.
- The bats awake all at once, and cacophonously mob overhead, exiting the cavern chamber while creating loud rumbling echoes. Rocks begin to fall from the cave ceiling. The party is largely okay, although a pebble bounces off Bizzle’s head, leaving a sore red lump.
- The party emerges from the cave and returns to their camp to find that the night has become pitch black away from the campfire’s glow. The rest of the night passes uneventfully.
The third day of the mission:
- Ranger Lyra wants to explore the environment some more and leads the party alongside the cliff face. They come upon an immense bird’s nest, about 15 feet up a rock scramble on the cliff.
- Doodledip throws his grappling hook up onto the nest and secures a rope to investigate further. The party discovers a single impressively sized egg and offers it to Ranger Lyra, who pads it and stows it securely for later study. She is satisfied with the samples that they’ve collected and recommends that they start heading back to Camp Crawlwoods.
- Drogath inquires about the F.E.C.. Ranger Lyra says that it lives underground, not up on the boulders, and it only appears a few times each year at Camp Crawlwoods when it seeks conclave.
- While rappelling off the cliff back down to the jungle floor, a Condor begins swooping down aggressively at the party. Seemingly on cue, the egg bursts open and around a hundred baby Condors swarm out around the party.
- When their parent calls, the babies fly to it and latch onto its flight feathers, embellishing the bird and making themselves largely indistinguishable from it.
- Bizzle grabs up the remains of the egg and pockets them.
- Toshmo and Korarath get stranded on the cliff and continue to be exposed to the Condor’s swoops as the rest of the party are able to disengage and are prepared to take cover in the jungle canopy below.
- As Korarath swings out from the cliff face while trying to avoid the Condor’s battering, she notices that the rockslide heard the night before while in the cave resulted in a changed landscape below. The jungle seems much more brown and gray than the uniform green that it had been the day before.
- Doodledip tries to divert the Condor by throwing his grappling hook at it, but accidentally lets go of the rope, leaving it skittering 40 feet away over the exposed rubble.
- Toshmo is able to find a gap in the rockface and takes cover in it temporarily.
- Urrakka unsuccessfully attempts to throw an unlit candle at the Condor to make it divert its course.
- Korarath is able to descend the final leg of the rope and find cover in the rubble before her and Toshmo sprint into the jungle canopy.
- The party successfully loses the Condor.
- The party begins walking in the direction of where they had approached the day before. A little baby Condor flits to Bizzle’s backpack, drawn to the eggshell. Bizzle offers the shell to it, and it sits down inside, donning a little shell hat. It has apparently imprinted on the party. Toshmo offers the name Lizzle, and everyone approves.
- The party successfully meanders back to Camp Crawlwoods.
The third night of the mission:
- Passes uneventfully. The night is more quiet than normal.
The fourth day of the mission:
- Ranger Lyra thinks it’s very unlikely that the F.E.C. will arrive soon, as it visits seasonally. She plans on studying the specimens collected on this mission and thanks the party for their help. After the harrowing display of the swarming and coordinated Condors the day before, she’s come up with a unique name for them: Throngdors.
- After saying goodbye, the party begins to row home on the Siltstream River. The rockslide has deposited jagged rubble into the river, creating unstable sections of rapids.
- Drogath is able to preform extremely well under pressure and negotiates his canoe carefully through the rapids, keeping his boat crew dry.
- Bizzle is able to keep his canoe afloat, but Korarath falls out into the water as their canoe strikes a boulder. Urrakka reaches out with a paddle, pulling out Korarath just in time as the canoe dislodges and they continue out of the rapids.
- The party, along with little Lizzle, arrives at the Embassy Station and rides the Train back to the Guildhall without further incident.