Session 91 - Conversations With A Drunken Rabbit
8th November 2024
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1490DR Tarsakh 20. End of session: 1490DR Tarsakh 22
Our "Heroes" spend some time debating whether to have a rest in the relatively safe room of the grand entrance hallway. They make up their mind quickly when they realise that as soon as they start to relax and rest their eyes and limbs, they begin to feel very, unnaturally, sleepy. Not wanting to risk falling asleep in this dream world, they decide to press on.
Choosing another door from the hallway that they have yet to pick, they carefully enter a dark room. This room turns out to be an attic room, up a slight stairwell from the doorway, and seemingly kitted out as an alter to the undead lich king, Vecna. Even those of the group who have not heard of Vecna, or who do not recognise the statue of the one-handed and one-eyed evil deity are put off by the bones, blood and skulls holding torches that decorate the room.
They do enter the room, however, and carefully look over the altar, the statue and the two sarcophagi that are in there, but are careful not to touch anything. Finding nothing that will obviously help their cause, and no handy loot left lying around, they decide to exit the room quickly, leaving by the only door - the one they came in.
Luckily this exit led to an obvious cellar - the room they had been searching for as they believed it to contain the last pebble. The cellar contained numerous barrels of beer, all labelled with exotic names - as well as other containers of wine, water etc. The more interesting item in the cellar was a 6' tall rabbit, perched on a stool, drinking beer - and from his demeanour he had been drinking beer for a while now.
The rabbit was friendly enough, and invited the group to join him in a beer. Derrick immediately agreed and poured himself a pint of ale from one of the barrels, while Iwee and Jaxii tried to discretely look under all the barrels in the room for the missing pebble. Karoshi tried to engage the rabbit in conversation, but his drunken state meant getting information out of him was a little difficult.
They did eventually learn that the rabbit had found the pebble under one of the barrels earlier, and had popped it into a barrel of beer, to see if it added flavour. He refused to tell them which barrel he put it in, finding it more humorous to watch them work it out. He did however let them know that he had added a few of his pet "kippers" (he found it hard to pronounce Quippers) into each barrel as he likes the taste that they add to the ales.
The party's first thought to drain the beers from the barrel to find the pebble was met by incredulous anger by the rabbit. He seemed to grow in size briefly for a moment as he warned them NOT TO SPILL A DROP OF THE BEER! The party seemed to get the message and thought of other methods.
Karoshi started to empty out one of the barrels using a container, and emptied it into an empty barrel, trying carefully not to spill any. This seemed to be working, though a little dangerous in carrying the beer across the room each time, but was slow work. Jaxii shoved her arm into the inspection hatch at the top of one of the barrels to try to see if she could feel for the pebble. She felt nothing but some quippers, who took some significant bites out of her arm. This method was possible, but painful. Derrick drank a couple more pints of beer - finding his own method of emptying a barrel - a method of which the rabbit heartily approved!
This was all taking time, however, and time was not something they had unlimited amounts of. Jaxii rummaged around her backpack and found… the portable hole! Thinking hard, she tried to ignore the single use to which they had put the hole in the past, and to come up with an alternative.
Placing the portable hole on the top of a barrel enabled a wide enough hole to insert a ladle into the barrel. Attached to the 10' pole that Derrick somehow carries around with his numerous javelins, great weapons and potions, this created a great scoop that could reach to the bottom of a barrel and scoop out something small… like a pebble!
Fully prepared to use this method on every barrel, they asked the rabbit, who was looking at them with wide, drunken eyes as they built their contraption, and he told them his preferred brew, which gave them as good a starting point at any other. Their first attempt worked! They found the pebble at the bottom of the barrel and managed to scoop it out without spilling any beer. Impressive!
They bade goodbye to the rabbit, who was sorry to see them go - Derrick decided to have a 4th pint of beer before he left, gaining a level of exhaustion in the process.
Leaving the room, they are fortunate to find themselves back in the great hall, with all 4 pebbles. They carefully place them back in the open arms of the idol and take a step back as a manifestation of the idol, some 10 feet high with pale blue skin, appears beside them and tell them that the stolen idol should be returned to the Dreamkin people, else he would not be so lenient next time! With that he disappears, and the enchantment that seemed to have been placed upon the mansion seems to dissipate.
With that all the members of the Graysing family eventually appear from their respective confinements, along with Penny and the two delegates from the Little Fingers - Master Calzu and Ethelred. Lord Graysing promised to have the idol returned to the Dreamkin very quickly, and they all settled down to tea.
From Graysing, they discovered the information that both they, and the Little Fingers, were after, about where Neverember was heading, and where his treasure was heading, as well as an interesting item that is apparently in this treasure. A little more gold handed over gave some information on Neverember's brother - or lack of - and more information on the Hag's escape from the prison in Neverwinter.
Jaxii risked the ridicule of her ancestors to ask them where the Clan lands are located. As expected, she was ridiculed - or rather, her lack of education was ridiculed, but they did pass on the knowledge that the Nakshatra clan is located in the Storm Horn mountains to the south.