Arc 3 Flashback

This is a one shot in between arc 3 and 4 on the week taken off from posting episodes on the podcast. This one shot was DMed by Kyle (who played Thavius in Arc 1). It aired via a livestream on Twitch on Monday, August 9, 2021, and was uploaded as a VOD on YouTube afterwards.

## Characters and Players

**DM** (Kyle - He/Him)

**Lathe** (He/Him) (played by Haley - She/Her\*) - a Protector Aasimar Level 5 Oath of Devotion Paladin

**Annie** (She/Her) (played by Gus - He/Him) - a Lightfoot Halfling Level 5 Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer/School of Evocation Wizard

**Aldrum** (He/Him) (played by Josh - He/Him) - a Firbolg Level 5 Runeknight Fighter

**Bombyx** (She/They) (played by Amelia - She/They\*) - a Reborn Level 5 Swarmkeeper Ranger

**Diarmad** (He/Him) (played by Owen - He/Him) - a Stout Halfling Level 5 Circle of Wildfire Druid

**Fey Moss** (She/Her) (played by Sedona - She/Her) - a Half-Elf Level 5 College of Valor Bard

\*Amelia has since changed their pronouns to Any/None and Haley has since changed their pronouns to She/Any)

## Plot

This adventure takes place two years before the parties final battle in Dis, and four years before Arc 3. The party is level 5, no one of them has their Patreon item from Arc 3, yet, and they are just getting together for an adventure for the first time. Lathe, who has been wandering the country in search for a team, has gotten the group together one time before for brunch, where they all met, but parted again afterwards. Then, he received news that in the town of Yelna, a necromancer named Veznia had been killed, but now people were going missing again, so he assembled the new team again to take care of it.

The group travels from Tyle to Yelna, which is a one-day journey. Arriving in Yelna, they meet a teenage couple who points them towards the tavern to meet with an older halfling woman, whose husband has been missing, and who claims that she saw a skeleton standing in front of her window that looked just like him. Since everyone assumes that the necromancy problem has been taken care of, nobody believes her, though, but apparently the owner of the pet shop reported a similar incident. The party also has a brief encounter with Tin, a barely mediocre musician, who pays to be allowed to play in the tavern.

After that, they visit the pet shop to speak with its owner, an old man named Crimno Crumley. One of the rats from his shop got turned into a skeleton, and he brought it outside. A week or two before, there also was a break-in at his shop, where about a third of his pets got stolen. At the shop, Bombyx befriends one of the wolves he is selling, and Fey buys it for her.

Lathe then discovers an undead energy, that seems to originate from just outside the shop. They leave the shop and get into an alley, where they encounter two skeletons they fight. A figure hiding in the dark tries to get away towards the center of town, and when the party follows it, they find Tin and an undead creature in the town square. Tin takes out a seemingly unhappy magic snake, Snakespeare, and wants to use his magic to win against the party, but after a brief fight, Fey kills him, and Bombyx kills his creature. Snakespeare finds refuge at Diarmad's side and informs the party about what happened: Tin watched the necromancer Veznia, and after she was killed, he stole Snakespeare to make him work for him. He used his power to kill people that laughed about his music, and force them to become his audience.

## Trivia

* This was Kyle's first DM of the podcast