Shenanigans: Episode 076

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==Recap==
===Letter Delivery===
The party consisting out of Zen, Rince, Gallum, Tersam Adoy and Kascadia is in Shenanigans. Desmond is behind the bar and Lizzy his wife had just come back from hunting and enjoys now the day. The bar is kind of empty when the door opens, and a man dressed as servant enters the bar. He speaks with Desmond and Desmond points to the group. The man approaches the table. He is looking for a group of adventures to deliver an urgent letter to Lord Branson. Lord Branson is on his way back to Bergshire and this letter needs to reach him before he reaches Bergshire. The servant gets out a kind of small letter.
The party knows that Lord Branson is a merchant who lives in Bergshire. He recently received his title when he was helping out other nobles with money. Lord Branson is currently coming back from Renkore and should be on the road between Renkore and Bergshire. Lord Bransom will pay the party on delivery. The party accepts the task and the servant leaves the bar.
Zen is worried that the letter might be magically trapped, and they will be held accountable if something is happening. The other members of the party are not that hesitant and get their animals from the stable. They leave Bergshire on the road to the west.
Not too long after setting out the Party see a carriage pulled by two strong horses, accompanyed with a knight on horse. They signal the carriage driver and shortly before they halt. The knight approaches carefully and asked for their intend. The party explains they have a letter for Lord Branson. The knight takes the letter and hands it into the carriage. Then some inside is handing the knight a pouch and the knight hands the pouch to Zen who is giving it to Rince. Rince opens the pouch and counts 500 gold pieces. The party is a bit confused why they get paid that well. 
The party then travel back to Bergshire without incident.
===The Curse===
Back in Shenanigans the party tries out the new soups Borch is testing. He wants to get back customers from Big Ben's Brothel (soup kitchen across the road). Borch offers Zen noodles in alcohol but Zen is not convinced that it tastes that well.
Shortly after, a tall muscular man enters Shenanigans. He looks around and as soon as he sees Rince, he approaches the table and tries to grab Rince. Combat breaks out. Rince is punched and knocked out. The party attacks the man with strikes from quarterstaffs and swords, but the man doesn't seem to notice. Flesh is cut and beneath his flesh the party discovers pure metal and strange pistons moving the arms. The man seems to be a machine.
Desmond yells to take the combat outside. Rince is brought back up and tries to hide behind the bar, but Desmond pushes him back. Tersam and Kascadia wrap some rope around the machines legs and get him to trip. Gallum gets an excellent hit on him, but the only thing happening is that his axe is shattered. Kascadia spills some beer on the machine and now the first time a reaction can be seen. The machine begins to jitter and move more slowly. Gallum gets the horse trove from outside and drench the machine in the water. Smoke arises and the machine stops working, but not for long. Kascadia goes for one eye and smashes the lens of it. An oily substance pours out. Gallum runs out getting another barrel of water, running over a peasant in that process. Kascadia gets knocked out by the machine. Rince is fleeing to the Sheriff. Zen turns invisible and into wrathform after he notice that his magic missiles aren't doing any damage. Tersam heals Kascadia and they follow the machine outside. The machine is clearly in pursuit of Rince. Rince convinces the Sheriff to help. The Sheriff and Kascadia try to attack the machine again, but shortly after the machine had smashed the skull of the Sheriff. The party flees to the docks and buy a canoe.
===Down the Berg River===
The party start travelling downstream. 
They travel until the next bridge and make a brief stop to discuss their plan to overcome this monster machine. They want to reach a village to buy some oil and light the machine on fire. They continue their journey downstream. No sign of anyone following them. The reach a nameless fisher village and begin to mingle with the folk in the bar. They get an opportunity to stay in a barn for the night.
During the night, Gallum is keeping watch, a strange red-light approach and Gallum sounds the alarm when he realizes that it's the machine monsters’ eye. The party again flees to the river onto the boat. Gallum stay back and hides. He wants to charge the machine and pushes it into the water. The machine is only focused on Rince and passes Gallum. Gallum charges the machine. A strong but unlucky hit. He breaks of both horns but pushes the machine into the water. For a moment it seems they finally won, but the machine reemerges from the waters, wading towards RInce. Rince jumps into the canoe and is sailing downstream. Unfortunately, Rince capsizes the canoe when he hits some underwater branches. The next the remaining party sees is that the machine punshes Rince's chest and pulls out his beating heart. The machine sinks into the water again and does not reappear.
Zen throws a fireball at the assumed location of the machine, but nothing happens.
The party returns to Shenanigans. Zen pays Desmond 30 gold pieces for the damages done to the bar. The party realizes that the 100 gold piece each of them got from job has disappeared.
== Experience Edit ==
500 XP each 
== Significant NPCs ==
* Lord Branson - mysterious quest giver
* Desmond - owner of Shenanigans
* The Monster Machine - a tireless hunter
== Significant Locations ==
*Bergshire - Shenanigans
Category:Shenanigans Episodes