ARC 1: Goodhaven

## General Summary

\**The following summary is as described by by Kroa'Goa, a witness to the events in question, and was later edited by Watchguard Loremongers with further relevant information.*

[BEGIN]

At the Watchguard headquarters in Marta, the party was given a packet of information by Elias and Sara Bellar, and were told to turn it in to a police precinct in the north side of the city. The party did as instructed, only to be arrested immediately, finding out the packet contained information that falsely implicated the party in the recent murder of a visiting noble. The party is taken north to a prison known as Goodhaven State Penitentiary. Right off the bat the party's items are taken from them, and they discover the Warden, a human man named Dean Masters, is clearly extremely religious as he hands each of the party members a copy of the holy texts of Bahamut. The head guard of the prison, a half-orc named Raphael Hadley, is an asshole and a bully. Kroa'Goa gets thrown in a separate cell from Coriander and Skralgt't, and bunks with a deranged goblin named Twitch. That evening, the party had dinner at wooden tables set up in in the middle of the cell-block. Before dinner however, the Warden and Hadley attempts to force all inmates to read from the tome of Bahamut they were given, and join in prayer. The party is unnerved by this and managed to barely get away with not reading the text and are sent back to their cells.

That evening, Kroa'Goa's bunkmate Twitch attempts to attack him with an improvised blade and the two end up fighting which results in Twitch's death. However, Kroa'Goa watched horrified as the skin melted off of Twitch's body and he rose again as an undead skeleton. Kroa'Goa destroyed the abomination as it attempted to attack him. Defeated, the skeleton of the former inmate whispered, "I go to swim the sunless sea beneath the soil" and melted into the prison's stone floor. Meanwhile, Coriander and Skralgt't attempted to use magic to determine the nature of the holy books they were given, learning the books were laced with enchantment magic. Afterwards, unable to cast any of his wizard spells without his spellbook, Coriander decided to use Skralgt't's blood as ink in the tome of Bahamut in order to make a proxy spellbook and stayed up all night copying spells from memory.

The next morning the party goes to eat breakfast, and finds that no one - including Hadley - seems particularly bothered or surprised that Twitch has disappeared. After breakfast the party were allowed to go out to the prison's courtyard for free time, and allowed to interacted with the other inmates. Coriander gambles for cigarettes with a Halfling named "Big Eddie" a former narcotics dealer. Skralgt't participated in an arm wrestling match with a dangerously violent Dueregar named Blast, and Kroa'Goa went to speak with the prison's most feared inmate, a Bugbear named Dufresne. Dufresne had been at Goodhaven for over 30 years, and was infamous for his unarmed killing of three men in his first week at the prison.

Upon interacting with Dufresne, Kroa'Goa learned that he was actually pretty chill, and only resorts to violence to protect himself from the more dangerous inmates of the prison. Kroa'Goa learns that Dufresne didn't actually commit a crime, but was instead blamed for one because of his large and intimidating appearance. He has a small rock collection, and spends most of his time trying to dig up a strange rock in the back left corner of the courtyard. Dufresne warns Kroa'Goa not to read from the book the Warden has given them, and that in his time at the prison he has seen every new inmate degenerate rapidly into violence and paranoia after reading it. Dufrense explains how he has not been affected by the book, despite his long stay in the prison, as he is unable to read.

Free time ends and the party made their way back to their cells. Around the time for dinner again, the Warden decided to personally chat/have a sermon with the inmates, choosing one of party members to "aid" him by reading from the tome. Masters selects Skalgt't, who refuses, prompting Hadley to beat him badly and return him to his cell. Point made, the Warden then chooses Coriander, who acquiesces. Coriander proceeded to read from the tome and managed to resist the book's psychic effects but was granted a vision during his exposure to the text in which he saw the room filled with filthy mud-like energy, all seeming to flow from the books the inmates held. He also saw the spectral image of a massive set of jaws floating in the air behind the Warden. After this, the party realized their stay in the prison would only get worse, as the Warden and guards seemed insistent on forcing them to read from the tome. To further drive their point in, Hadley, seemingly as punishment for the party's lack of enthusiasm at reading the tome, selects Walter, an aged and kindly human prisoner, and brutally beats him to death in front of the party. The party are sent back to their cells for the night, and begin planning a prison break, as there doesn't seem to be anything left to learn by playing along.

Using his newfound nicotine addiction and smoking one of the hand-rolled cigarettes he won from Big Eddie, Coriander was able to calm himself down enough to pick his and Skralgt't cell's lock with a knife he snagged during dinner, using only the burning bud as a light source. He then helped free Kroa'Goa from his own cell. Unfortunately, one of the guards was alerted by the other inmates begging the party to free them as well, and while the party quickly dispatched him the alarm was already set. Preparing themselves, Kroa'Goa positioned himself behind a table, Coriander cast **Cloud of Daggers** on the doorway, and Skralgt't prayed and buffed the party for the worst. Hadley and his guards opened the door, and Kroa'Goa promptly launched the table at him via **Thunderwave**, forming a makeshift barrier at the door and forcing the guards to sit in the spinning blades to try and force the space open again. Hadley sacrificed one of his own men by throwing him into the whirling blades in order to test the danger. The guard was killed near-instantly, but Hadley used what he learned to sneak into the room: though not without taking some damage. The party engaged Hadley in combat and killed him, though his body rose as a zombie and continued to fight. As the party finished off the undead creature, the rest of the guards decided it wasn't worth it and elected to stay outside the cell block instead of attempting to enter. Unfortunately for them, Hadley's body had the keys the cells, allowing us to free all the inmates. With a small army of criminals, we were able to riot and storm the remaining guards, who were vastly outnumbered.

Kroa'Goa and Skralgt't went to retrieve the party's belongings, while Coriander went with Dufresne to go investigate the Warden's room. To Cori's horror, the Warden responded to this intrusion into his chambers with blasts of dark magic, blowing a large and bloody hole in Dufrense's chest and then teleporting away to the prison's courtyard. Upon further investigation, the party saw that the Warden's room was filled to the brim with hand-written alterations to The Platinum Dragon's religious books. It seemed whatever fuckery was going on, it had twisted the warden's understanding of the Platinum Dragon and coerced him to spread this perverted interpretation to the inmates. Skralgt't was able to use Healing magic to save Dufresne's life, though he was heavily injured.

The party elected to chase after the Warden as the prison's front door was still locked, and Masters was the only one with the keys. The group prepared to follow, only to realize it had begun heavily storming, and all of the inmates were acting strange and refusing to go outside into the courtyard. They each insisted that, "The dirt's bad", as if it were common sense, much to the confusion of the party. Regardless, they steeled themselves to go outside.

The party found the Warden digging at the strange rock in the back of the courtyard, chanting obsessively about it. Just as the party confronted him, Coriander was struck by some sort of psychic influence that reinforced the concept that "the dirt is bad", making him too afraid to join the others. Skralgt't tried to reason with the warden, and seemed to be succeeding for a brief moment, until the Strange Rock began to uproot itself. What was thought to just be a rock, turned out to be some kind of fossilized bone, and the thick black mud of the courtyard began rising around it to mold the shape of the rest of the creature's body revealing it to be a fossilized aboleth: an ancient and twisted creature that pre-dates the Gods and cannot die.

The appearance of this creature forced the Warden back into his deranged state, who began attacking the party with blasts from an arcane wand. Meanwhile, the Aboleth began swimming through the mud like a shark to assist in the Warden's attacks. The party attempted to fight back, but realized they had better luck of reaching out to the sanity still left in the Warden. With Skralgt't's religious knowledge being put to good use, he was able to remind the Warden of his true faith in the Platinum Dragon and break him out of his mania. The Warden realized that it was his own twisted faith that had allowed the Aboleth to awaken, and the only way to stop it was to sacrifice himself. He apologized to the party, handed them the keys to the prison, and urged them to run, before turning and charging at the Aboleth: stabbing his wand into the Aboleth's central eye, prompting it to eat him.

The party ran into the prison building, yelling to the confused inmates to flee. Just as they made it to the cellblock door, the stony visage of the Aboleth burst through the courtyard door in a frenzied rage and began using its massive tentacle to attempt to tear the prison down onto the heads of the fleeing inmates and Party. Having a head start, Coriander was able to unlock the door and open it just as the Aboleth began overtaking them. However, so far from the mud of the courtyard and without the faith of the Warden, the Aboleth could no longer sustain its manifestation and froze, once again fossilized.

Outside, the party was met by Watchguard containment and research, who then rounded up the prisoners. The party was congratulated for a job well done, and reassured that the Aboleth would be collected. Cori requested that the Aboleth fossil be sent to R-23 for research, and the group collectively vouched for Dufresne to be accepted into Watchguard, prompting for him to be made into their majordomo.