Episode 60: The Mantle

A razed city. A buzzing hive. Enormous scorpion-like insects. The Heroes of Bingle have made their way to Kingdon, but now face challenges they never expected. How will they deal with these strange new enemies and undercover the secrets that will lead them to the hidden underground chamber known as the Mantle?

#### **DM/GM Intro**

*It started as a simple dungeon run…*

*A quick trip for easy treasure.  But now, as these 5 adventurers find themselves on the hunt for treasure again, things have gotten much more complicated.*

*Incredible magic has catapulted our team back in time and put them into bodies that are not their own - working as sellswords, 22 years in the past, aboard a pirate ship captained by a notorious scoundrel named Whitebeard.  Whitebeard tracked a bounty across the sea - a fugitive trying to escape the Shaxen Gao empire.  A Triton named Cho’Ran whose life was deemed forfeit by the Dragonborn dynasty because he courted a princess of the royal family and had a child with her in secret.  For that transgression, five thousand gold was put on his head - gold that Whitebeard meant to claim.*

*But Cho’Ran knew the location of an even bigger prize.  A treasure cache that the Shaxen Gao moved from place to place.  A treasure so valuable and dangerous that the Dragonborn enlisted the services of the Tritons to help them hide and guard it.  Cho’Ran offered the location of this treasure to Whitebeard in exchange for his life, and the lives of his wife and son.  But Whitebeard grew impatient with this deal, and decided to cash in on the bounty, selling Cho’Ran and his family to the Dragonborn Empire.*

*Unfortunately for White beard, the resulting exchange did not go smoothly, and the Heroes of Bingle barely escaped with their lives, fighting off the assassin monks of the Shaxen Gao as they attacked Whitebeard’s ship at sea.  Cho’Ran was killed in the battle, and the Heroes were forced to attempt drastic measures to secure repairs and stay afloat.  They made a deal with the vicious Yuan-Ti pirates known as the Snakes for the materials and manpower needed to fix their ship - but it took all of their 5,000 gold, and left them with dozens of new, untested crewmembers on board.*

*Undaunted, Whitebeard seized the opportunity to galvanize the new recruits into a loyal pirate army, promising them revenge against the Yuan-Ti and a portion of the Shaxen Gao’s grand treasure - a portion taken from the Heroes’ share of the plunder.  But first they had to find it… in the city of Kingdon.*

*So, the newly repaired ship sailed for the mainland and arrived on the shores of Latlan nearly two weeks later.  Anchoring safely offshore in a discreet and unoccupied section of the coastline, the pirates made 2 camps: one on the shore, and another a day's journey inland, to create easy fallback positions, should the authorities of Kingdon attempt to apprehend Whitebeard and his crew of outlaws.  Lily and Fahima also disguised Whitebeard, convincing him to braid his signature beard, against his better judgement.*

*But all of that preparation proved unnecessary.  Arriving at the mighty walled city of Kingdon, the Heroes found it destroyed - razed to the ground from an apparent attack from above.  Siv climbed the city’s broken belltower and spied a strange growth at the exact center of town.  A hive surrounded by insects the size of bears, hovering and creeping through the city's shattered streets.*

*Fahima decided to investigate the site by turning herself invisible.  As we ended last week, she inched ever closer to the buzzing, oozing pod - her teammates huddled behind her - and she glimpsed something solid beneath it.*