Session 1: Puppies and Berries (Oct 30th, 2024)
The Players
- Traugon the hill dwarf forge cleric, played by Hunter
- Bjorn the mountain dwarf fighter, played by Cody
- Nipip the gnomish wizard, played by Brandon
- Valhalen Vrocks the paladin, played by Kimble
- Shadow the halfling thief, played by Richard
The Adventure Notes & Stat Blocks
The Void
The characters woke up in a void, inside sealed glass tubes with magic circles under their feet. After deciding not to break out due to the surrounding void, they attempted to communicate, though it was difficult to hear each other.
Next, a window in space opened, revealing a silhouette made of swirling galaxies and stars. The figure appeared to be a wizard sitting in a rustic study. The figure introduced himself as Prime and informed the characters that they had been selected to be "Stellar Troubleshooters." Prime explained that their mission was to travel throughout the multiverse, addressing cosmic imbalances and mistakes. Prime then assigned them a simple first mission to gauge their skills: "Save the puppies." With that cryptic instruction, the floor beneath the players turned into portals, sucking them out of their tubes and teleporting them to a new location.
The Puppy Paradise Plane
They found themselves in a beautiful field brimming with wildflowers and butterflies, surrounded by angelic puppies with wings and halos. It quickly became apparent they were in a "puppy paradise" plane. The characters started searching for threats or issues to understand how to "save the puppies," but nothing obvious stood out.
The Puppy Tender Jeb
After some searching, they encountered an angel dressed as a farmer, named Jeb. He was a kindly, old man-like figure with pockets full of puppies and treats. Bjorn asked for some treats, and Jeb obliged, giving Bjorn the most delicious snacks he'd ever tasted, which he compulsively munched on throughout the conversation.
Jeb explained, using a 3D model, that the Puppy Paradise Planes were in danger. The planners had underestimated how many good dogs would end up in Puppy Paradise—approximately all the dogs are good boys and are being sent to the puppy paradise! This caused an overload of positive puppy energy, supercharging the plane's core to a critical point, leading to cracks and the risk of an explosion. To save the puppies, the characters needed to make the puppies less happy, a task that plunged them into moral and emotional turmoil.
Making Puppies Sad...Sickos
Valhalen proposed introducing cats to the plane. With Jeb's help, they created a bunch of cats, which made the puppies slightly less happy initially. However, the good-natured puppies soon befriended the cats, minimizing the effect. Next, Bjorn convinced Jeb to replace the delicious puppy treats with vegetables, which the puppies disliked, causing more unhappiness. But it still wasn't enough.
After much deliberation, they agreed on a drastic solution. They lined up all the puppies and, one by one, called them "bad boys." As each puppy slunk away whimpering, a wave of sadness spread across the plane, affecting all the puppies as they saw their friends' distress. This chain reaction of sadness finally dampened the plane's energy enough to avert disaster and save the Puppy Planes.
Onwards to Adventure!
At that point, Prime recalled them back to the Tubes, where he graded their performance. Prime explained that this “puppy mission” was merely a test of their problem-solving skills, teamwork, and moral flexibility. While Prime talked, Shadow decided to cut a hole in his tube with the glass cutter from his thieve's tools. He succeeded in creating a small circular hole. When he poked out the glass circle, all the air began rushing from his tube and he hastily covered the hole with his hand leaving himself with dangerously thin air inside his tube.
Prime noticed that Shadow was running low on air and quickly briefed them on their next mission: locate the last storm giant in the salt flats and extract information from him. The giant would apparently know what information Prime wanted.
The Tub Giant and the Salt Flats
After the portals reopened, they were shot out and found themselves falling through the air. Nipip floated down with magical levitation. Traugon was immune to fall damage and landed gracefully. The others landed with bruising force. They landed atop a sandy, salty hill in a vast plain of salt and grit. Noticing a stone structure about a mile away, they decided to walk towards it. The structure turned out to be an enormous stone tub, 30 feet wide and 10 feet tall. Peering into the tub, they saw an ancient storm giant lounging on the edge.
The players approached the peaceful seeming giant and started a conversation. When they asked for the information, he demanded a trade in his booming voice. He requested a Grungle Grungle Berry pie, the sweetest thing from his youth. The berries for the pie could be found in an oasis to the north, which, according to the giant, wasn't far. However, the players quickly realized that a giant's idea of distance and the size of these berries were quite different from their own.
After asking for directions, the giant reached down into the tub of water in which he loitered and slapped a wet map onto the dry ground. The salty ground quickly dried it out but the party was somewhat disgusted by receiving a map that had been in his bathwater. They decided to take it along anyway as it showed the way to the oasis. The map showed the oasis lay due north. So, they headed out.
As they crossed the salt flat it became incredibly hot and uncomfortable, and before long they were quite miserable from the heat and the ever-present salt and grit. After a few hours of travel, Shadow noticed a rumbling in the ground under their feet. They began to run from something bursting forth from the ground. They barely managed to scatter a few feet away when an enormous geyser of sand, salt, and silt burst out of the ground, burning and cutting them with the abrasive salts. Fortunately, they managed to escape major injury, but it was a close call. They continued on, now even more wary of their surroundings, knowing that the salt flats held more dangers than just the heat.
After a scorching first day, they opted to travel at night for comfort. They pushed through the first day, continued for a few hours after nightfall, and then, feeling somewhat exhausted, decided to stop. Traugon used his Instant Fortress to create a safe resting spot to weather the day's heat. He was also able to use magic to replenish their food and water.
The next evening, after resting in the fortress, the group traveled north. They discovered a beautiful blue pool. Seeing no plant life they began suspecting something amiss. They investigated cautiously. It turned out the pool was a powerful acid, not water, revealed by the barren surroundings and confirmed when Traugon tested it with his pinky finger. The acid was quite powerful, able to melt even most non-magical metals after a few minutes. Traugon wanted to collect some, but lacked a way to carry it. He planned to use the Fabricate spell to create vials on their return.
The Salt Devils
They rested during the day and traveled at night. On the second night, they were attacked by strange salt and air elementals resembling dust devils made of salt. The group swiftly dispatched the creatures and chased away a few survivors, who fled into the desert, vanishing into the ground's cracks.
On their last night in the desert, strange whispers and curses, in an unknown language, filled the air. As they pressed on, ominous messages appeared in the sand, urging them to betray Kralothos and stop killing "my children." Undeterred, they faced a giant salt elemental and its dust devil offspring. After a fierce battle, they unleashed a barrage of spells and crossbow bolts, destroying the fleeing giant and leaving only one unnoticed small salt elemental to escape in terror.
Having conquered the Salt Flats, they reached the edge of a jungle oasis, dominated by a towering Grungle Grungle Berry tree. They decided to rest and recover their strength before venturing further.
The Jungle and Berries
Though the jungle was eerily quiet, with no animal cries, bird calls, or insect noises, they found no danger within, and quickly proceeded to the base of the Grungle Grungle tree. The group discovered that the Grungle Grungle Berries were massive, the size of beach balls, growing in huge 15' clusters weighing hundreds of pounds.
They sent Shadow, equipped with magical climbing slippers, 100' up to the lowest branches of the tree. He cut loose a cluster of berries, which Traugon animated to float safely to the ground. Then Bjorn and Traugon carried the berries over the rough jungle terrain to the edge of the oasis.
There, they used the Fabricate spell to turn trees into a Viking longboat, planning to sail across the Saltflats. However, lacking wind and magical means to create it, they turned to Shadow's Bag of Tricks, summoning a giant weasel, an axe beak, and a baboon. The first two proved strong enough to pull the longboat across the desert. Meanwhile, the baboon merely enjoyed the ride, flinging poo at random.
They journeyed for several days across the desert. During the day, they used animals from the Bag of Tricks to pull their makeshift sled. On the second day, they summoned another set of animals after the first set disappeared. This time, they got an axe beak, a tiger, and an ape. The ape and the axe beak managed to pull the sled, but the tiger, once harnessed, flopped over and refused to move. Thankfully, the other two animals were enough to keep them going.
In the final stretch of the salt flats, just when they thought they were safe, a cracking noise signaled a hidden salt cave collapsing beneath them, creating a sinkhole. Thinking quickly, Traugon urged the ape and axe beak to pull harder (Nat 20 on Animal Handling), narrowly escaping the collapse. With a final effort, they reached solid ground and continued their journey.
Time to Bake a Pie
Returning to the storm giant, they requested cooking supplies. The giant revealed a hidden, dilapidated kitchen, filled with giant-sized tools and an old, rusty oven. Together, they crafted a grongle-grongle berry pie and set it to bake. As it cooked, they explored the kitchen, discovering several treasures to pocket.
The group demanded information from the giant before turning over the completed pie, suspicious of the pie's effects. They discovered he was unable to bake it himself due to crippled legs. Out of pity, they transformed the Viking longboat into a giant wooden wheelchair. Grateful, the giant revealed a golden bracelet with runes on it, containing the secret to creating a Spelljammer helm. He told them this was the information Prime sought. Nipip copied the runes, suspecting Prime would claim the bracelet. After handing over the pie, the giant devoured it in a few bites, then fell unconscious as his eyes glazed over.
WTF?! Watch Your Toes!
With the giant in a pie coma, the group explored the area. Hesitant to search his deep, murky pool, they instead inexplicably decided to steal one of his toes, cutting it off without him noticing. Apparently, the giant could feel nothing below his waist. After searching the area for a while, they felt the pull of Prime's spell dragging them back to their tubes. Once there, they handed over the bracelet to Prime, who teleported it away, compensating Bjorn for its price. Declaring the mission a success, Prime told them he would call upon them again soon. He then sent them back to their various homes.