Book 2, Chapter 3: Palmetto’s bigger cousins and the rise of a new deity
An ongoing adventure of the Mary Lin D&D Club
Departing the relatively safe shores of the Momota forest, the Mighty Scratcher again led the refugee flotilla out onto the increasingly rough waters of Great Bear Lake, this time, to the north and the promise of a city of caves. Again, leaking boats needed repair, and flimsier emergency craft found themselves unable to stay afloat, lost to the cold depths. The villagers persevered, but each day, with more squabbling and uncertainty. With the village gone, was there still a mayor? With the mayor’s daughter having thrown the birthday party that seemed to bring about the destruction of their village, can he be trusted to steer the village through a crisis? And why was a group of teenagers who were supposed to be in detention making decisions for everyone? The party wondered the same thing.
After a rough week on the lake, the flotilla reached the northern shores and began searching the area Griff and the Momota suspected could have caves. Realizing they had a nearly infinite supply of help, Indigo and Mia started talking with the local wildlife and taking turns themselves as birds, bats, and fish of various stripes. In short order, near to where the shore turned and the lake opened up again to a large northern branch, a massive opening in the cliff face was found. Reaching down to a broad shelf on the lake’s edge, it looked to reach endlessly back into the rock. The party, preferring the chance of getting mauled by a bear to continuing to hear the grousing of the village, volunteered to go explore.
After they disembarked and started into the darkness of the vast cave mouth, they found a little river maybe 10 or 20 paces across running down the middle of the chamber. They followed it. As the mouth of the cave shrunk into the distance, the party started finding signs of life — first the smell of smoke, then a small camp, then artistically arranged piles of tiny bones, stones, sticks, and wire. These were not the deserted caves they had hoped for. As they investigated the tableau, a blood-curdling screech echoed through the chamber and a number of childsize albino dragon-people glided towards them from the opposite shore. The party readied weapons and spells, except for Indigo, who smiled. Rather than fight, Indigo, who speaks Draconic, screeched back a similarly friendly greeting. Everyone else looked confused. As the tiny dragon people landed, they invited the group to share their feast of bugs, crawlies, fruit, and tea.
Over lunch, the party learned about this little colony of flying, albino kobolds, and how they’d been chased out of their cave home by two “beetles.” Concerned, and more interested in helping their new tiny dragon friends, Mia and Indigo transformed into bats and set off, scouting the cavern with the group of kobolds and the party following along behind. A few hundred yards up stream, deeper into the darkness, they found a bluff, and on top, stumbled on two giant underground bug-rock-monsters, busy chewing on a lunch of rocks and other things.
Stumbling on to the two giant underground monsters, the two adventurers grew confused. Mia shook off her confusion and raced back towards the group, flapping and squeaking wildly. The rest of the party — Faerun, Minnie, and Avani — rushed to her aid and engaged in combat with the hulking rock beetle monsters. Indigo, still confused, flapped around aimlessly for a few moments bouncing into walls and creatures in a very un-bat-like way. Seeing this new un-bat-like morsel, the creatures reached out to try and snag, and hopefully eat it.
The group fought back, looking to find little advantages: Avani snuck under an overhang from which she could shoot at them with her bow. Minnie turned invisible, then snuck around behind them on the ledge to better aim her spells. Faerun kept her distance and peppered them with flaming arrows. Mia backed away, then brought a moonbeam down on the creatures. The hulks advanced, bringing confusion with them. One surprised itself by accidentally stopping next to Avani. She, in turn, dazzled and confused, critically stabbed it with her rapier, nearly killing the monster. Minnie stepped out from her cover on the ledge, smiled in a terrifying way, and with sparks in her eyes and the shouts of “no!” from Mia, called down a fireball on both monsters and half the party. The flames exploded, filling the cavern, startling the bats above their heads, and roasting both of the hulks. Faerun jumped into the river to avoid the swarm of bats, Avani dove in to avoid the wall of fire, and while a rock from Indigo’s sling finished one off, the other, beaten, possibly sad at the fate of its companion, burrowed into the rock and mud beneath its feet, quickly disappearing into the dark.
As the bats quieted down again, and the glow from Minnie’s pyrotechnics faded, the party, victorious for the moment, debated what to do next. The Kobolds already knew.
