Ramblin' Tortle

"Ramblin' Tortle" is the fourth episode of the Materia D&D Crass Menagerie campaign. The adventuring party has found some foul corruption at Simon's ranch south of Vulpine. Roque learns a lot from some seemingly cursed wealth and is now on a mission to understand what it all means.

## Synopsis

### Recap

Last time, the party met up with Gryssa the dryad, who informed the party of the growing corruption in the area. The party also learned about Simon, the pig-rancher from the south who had gone missing after losing his wife. The party traveled south to seek out information, ending up at a barn on a ranch that had been transformed into a house for incubation of these worm-like creatures that they discovered. The group set this barn on fire to destroy it. Roque's familiar, Pebble, located the homestead of the ranch which the group investigated, coming upon a corrupted ogre nearby that they fought off. Upon the ogre's death, hundreds of worms emerged from its corpse which Roque took care of via *Fire Bolts*.

### Part 1

*32nd Schema 268 PBT, afternoon*

Davis, having been pushed to the brink, opts to rest out in front of the house. Marb unsuccessfully attempts to find a perch from which he can look out. Roque and Gustav peer into the house to see if it is safe to investigate inside. Seeing no threats, they tentatively enter. As before they see a house that is thoroughly in disarray with what appears to be long-dried mud scrawlings of glyphs and symbols on the walls. Roque does notice a glint of something shiny in one of the corners, which he moves toward while investigating. Outside, Al engages in a *Song of Rest* while everyone recuperates. Marb scouts around and sees the corpse that the ogre had been feasting on: one of the "double bear pig" large bear creatures.

Roque examines the scrawlings and determines that they are comprised of manure and blood. He is able to discern from the scrawlings on the wall that they depict a cycle through which the worms are incubated within a creature from which they erupt, then the worms are housed and fed flesh, resulting in the birth of a new creature. Roque finds a massive pile of wealth in the corner which has a cold presence to it. Gustav warns him to stay away as it seems entirely out of place and is likely cursed. Roque begins ritual-casting *Identify* to determine what might be affecting these valuables. Gustav heads outside to keep Marb away from the valuables, and Marb shows him his findings. They incinerate the corpse as it appears to be infested as well. The rest of the group comes over and treats it as a campfire for their rest.

As Grant surveys the horizon, he does notice something far off in the distance moving which might be heading toward the ranch, which he informs the group of and Marb confirms. Everyone but Marb find shelter just inside the homestead, with Marb up in a tree on lookout. Roque seems to complete his ritual, but his vision is taken from him and he starts having visions. He is in this house, but in a time before it fell into disrepair. He has visions of a woman violently coughing. He then has a vision from an alley in Vulpine where he approaches a fine-dressed figure, unconscious, with a fine leather satchel on the ground next to him. He takes the satchel and runs. His vision shifts again back to this house before it was destroyed. Now he sees his human hands rifling through the satchel finding precious gems, coins, and a leather-bound locked tome. Roque has further visions of lavish spending of this wealth and leaving the ranch to neglect. Eventually, he sees the woman fall seriously ill and the wealth he once had is now gone. Someone comes to treat the woman but she is beyond saving, and she eventually passes away. Now he's at the table, mourning his wife when he opens the tome and begins reading it. With a flash, he's now outside looking at a barn and out from underneath the robes of his outreached hand a worm emerges and he sets it on the ground and it wriggles its way over to a pregnant plainscow. Then Roque's senses return to him.

Outside, Marb sees the approaching things are likely "double bear pigs" and they are likely heading toward the raging fire that has engulfed the nearby barn. Shaken by his visions and rambling in a panic, Roque attempts to leave the house but is prevented by Grant and Gustav. Marb runs inside the house and tells everyone that two "double bear pigs" are headed to the house. Soon thereafter they arrive and the group now sees the two pigs have distinct mutations: one is covered in extra eyes and the other is abnormally large. They sniff the burnt husk of the ogre and scatter it, then slowly check out the house sniffing and circling. The party inside remain as quiet and still as possible. The giant boar starts rutting against the tree that Marb was in shortly before, and then they wander off toward the burning barn.

Roque discovers a map of the local ranches amongst the scattered papers with each ranch marked with one of three distinct symbols and drawn in the manure/blood mixture are lines connecting them. He also has a premonition that perhaps the magic affecting this area made the dryads completely unaware of its existence, and that burning the barn may have started to disrupt that. Roque shares what he saw in his visions as well as his revelations of the map. They're able to determine that the barn they burned down had a "corkscrew" symbol under it, and they think that marks them as incubator facilities. They decide to head back into town hitting as many of these as possible on the way, intending to burn them all.

After about a 40 minute walk, they arrive at the first corkscrew barn. Al peers inside and it appears to be very similar to the previous incubator barn. Al and Davis immediately set it alight and head out. They then head to the last corkscrew location on the map, and they set it ablaze as well and then head toward town.

### Part 2

*32nd Schema 268 PBT, late afternoon/early evening*

Within just two and a half hours, the group is back in Vulpine. The group heads back to The Fox Den hoping to find Gryssa there. Davis asks Jango if Gryssa could make an appearance but is shortly interrupted by Roque rambling about what he saw in his visions of Simon. Unsatisfied, Roque storms off and excitedly pesters others with his ramblings about "a very well-dressed elf". Eventually, not getting the information he sought, Roque gives up and sits quietly with the group. In a fit of frustration, Roque conjures a *Minor Illusion* of the satchel from his vision and loudly calls out to the tavern asking if anyone has seen it before. Most people ignore this but two people started toward the party's table, then headed to the exit. Roque chases after them but they initially dismiss him as crazy until Al helps out at which point they say they may have seen it on a merchant from Whitlaw a few months ago, and if they were killed as Roque said that the Verdant Cause would likely be the ones to know about it. At this, Roque rushes off to the barracks with Al and then Davis and Gustav following after.

At the barracks, Roque finds Sam and immediately launches into his rambling and shows him the satchel via *Minor Illusion*. Sam says he's never seen it but is very confused at the line of questioning, but beckons the group inside. Gustav tells Roque to calmly explain everything, which he does yet it still sounds completely unbelievable. Suddenly, Roque's vision gets shunted into Pebble's vision who is in the back of the barracks and he sees the eviscerated plainscow. Then his senses return, and he announces that the group needs to find out about the satchel because he is "on a mission" and then stalks off to the back of the barracks, with the group following shortly after. Peeling back the tarp from the plainscow, its empty chest cavity indicates no heart present, and Davis points out that he saw a pattern in the blood trail that might have indicated it was still beating after it was taken from the tent. Meanwhile, Roque notices that the cow's third eye was also removed.

## Featured Characters

### Adventuring Party

* Allegretto
* Davis Cantrell
* Grant Frostmason
* Gustav
* Marb
* Roque
	+ Pebble

### Returning

* The Weatherbys
* Sam

## Trivia

* Grant refers to "tentacles flying out of the house" jokingly, which then happens for real four sessions later
* This is the first episode with no combat

## Notes

* While not officially level 3 yet, the group is informed they will reach level 3 upon completion of a long rest.
* The house rule of using maximum HP for the first three levels is hinted at in the after-session discussion.

## References

1. ↑ See "Ramblin' Tortle" at 39:44
2. ↑ See "Ramblin' Tortle" at 2:54:29