The Tiny Bigs (History)

## Sessions 1-5

### Session 1

Your group found themselves at a tavern making your way to ***Hol***, as you had received a letter inviting you to a lunch with Duke **Ulakrek Vallery**. Being affiliated with an adventurers guild, he mentioned in your letter there would be an opportunity to make gold and even earn some reputation.

While indulging in drinks you heard a large explosion from outside, and as you exited the tavern, you saw out near the docks a sailboat split in two engulfed in flames. There were tentacles flying about and a large number of unconscious people in the wreckage, so as a party (bar **Odsni**) you decided to jump in boats and help the drowning strangers.

Afterwards, one of the survivors (an angry gnomish captain), stormed off and is enraged that he wasn't allowed a true captains death in going down with his ship. You decided to make your way to ***Hol***, exploring the town a little, Lilith stole a magical glowing ring, and **Odsni** fed on a rat. During this, **Bradley** and **Elara** made their way to ***Grole's Hole***, where they find a red orc bashing the head of someone against the corner of a table. A fight breaks out when he exclaims they should mind their business which is broken up by **Grole** (the tavern owner) and some guards outside.

The party made their way to the keep and ate a glorious lunch while listening to the duke explain the quest he would like to send them on. He made them swear their undying loyalty before discussing details, most of the other adventures left, but there were two left, a bald woman and an elf. The party accepted the quest, learning that the duke needs his son broken out of the ***Hol Prison*** because he thinks he does not deserve the punishment for the crime he committed.

### Session 2

After leaving the keep, being well fed on an assortment of cooked meats, sliced fruits and roasted vegetables, you were approached by a desperate looking halfling woman who tells you her goods were stolen by a group of goblins. You made your way north to the goblin camp, running into the bald woman and elf packing up their own camping site. They told you that the bridge to the north is broken and you can either head through the caves just west of the northern bridge, or make your way south using a password to get through a secret entrance in the walled boarder.

After learning this info, you decided to head north, first stopping at the goblin camp to attempt a stealthy approach. As you made your way along the path, sticking close to the flora in an attempt to stay hidden, you saw the camp ahead and a goblin poking at the fire with a stick. Before you could make your attack, a small green dot of light appeared in the middle of the camp, splitting and cracking, spreading like lightning and glowing brightly. You heard a boom and saw a flash of white light which put out the goblin's fire and flung him backward.

Out of the green light dropped a fairy, and the grass around them bloomed and flourished. A fight broke out which resulted in the goblins being defeated with **Elara** downed. As Lilith was looting the tents, and the others outside were discussing amongst themselves the intentions of **Fox** the fairy, a black pulsing orb pluming thick smoke floated out of the cauldron.

It began pulsing faster, almost vibrating, making everyone experience nausea, vertigo, and a wave of migraine oscillating from the front to the back of their head. The orb shot off to the west and released a wave of energy and a loud boom, knocking most of the party unconscious. Waiting for a few hours, and returning the rest of Linda's goods, they follow the main road north to ***Krakaset***. Nightmares are beset upon most of those who were knocked out by the orb (**Odsni**, **Big E** and **Bradly**), seeing ghostly flashing images and being unable to rest, fortunately, they arrive at ***Krakaset***.

### Session 3

**The Tiny Bigs** continue their march northward, walking through ***Krakaset*** deciding to make their way to the bridge as fast as possible to assess the damage. They find the bridge used to cross a gaping chasm dropping to sea level and stretching about 500m, any plans to fly across being snuffed out. **Big E** wants to investigate what kind of damage the bridge has sustained, looking specifically for char marks. But as she steps onto the bridge a board gives way and she drops about a foot, before **Lilith's** reflexes kick in, grabbing **Big E**'s collar before she can plummet.

As they are recovering, a cart full of prisoners being guided by a small group of guards arrives, and they agree to navigate the caves while protecting each other as best they can. Arriving at the caves, the party is investigated for any markings on their hands, the guards find nothing and they are let through.

Working their way through the winding tunnels and dangers ahead, they are now wedged in a tight, twisting passage after killing a couple of large halfling-sized spiders. Indulging in their victory, they hear a ruckus at the tunnel's entrance, clanging of armour and swords… have the prisoners escaped?

### Session 4

Exploring the caves, **The Tiny Bigs** found their navigation crew had been compromised, the prisoners that were being escorted had broken free from their bonds and knocked the guards unconscious in an attempt to escape. Meanwhile, **Elara** made her way to the entrance of the caves, hearing banging on the door from the inside and voices yelling to escape. The prisoners burst free, and **Elara** made her way into the caves to try and reunite with her friends, worried they could be in danger.

Although there was some kerfuffle among the guards, they split up to chase the prisoners and the other half made their way through the caves with the group. Squeezing through the webbed tunnel and making their way into a large chamber with a giant spider. An easy defeat, the party tries to rest for a while, and **Elara** stays guard on look out. Hearing strange noises coming from one of the tunnels, she decides to investigate and is ambushed by a group of Kobolds muttering in a language she doesn't understand. They menacingly whisper "Queen" in common slashing and stabbing **Elara** until she is unconscious, as she's trying to stay awake, she feels them trying to tug and drag her away before they give up and she is knocked out.

The party finally leaves the caves, and heads to the prison, **Elara** and **Big E** enter, and are in a small room with the Duke's son and **Sayzha**, an elven guard. The rest of the party stays scouting outside, as the other guards leave to go to ***Flussdorf***.

### Session 5

After failing to secretly interview the Duke's son by speaking orcish, **Big E** and **Elara** exit the prison trying to cause a distraction using Thaumaturgy. Causing slight suspicion, the party travels to ***Flussdorf*** and run into **Shmeed** and **Flankton** drinking at the tavern. They inquire about the history of the prison and what the Duke's son did. In the morning, the group splits up to go shopping for their individual needs, but **Elara** has a different idea.

**Elara** walks down to the lake and lies to a group of children, exploiting their ignorance to the world of the fey. She convinces them the prison is a castle and that the ugly orc that's locked up in there is a princess. She manages to convince three of them to join her, running into **Big E** who further gaslights them. After meeting the rest of the party though, the children are filled with fear and flee hoping to get away from these "bad guys".

The party decides to wait until nightfall and head to the prison, narrowly avoiding the two others the duke hired, and keeping an eye on the guard making their watch. The bomb is planted, the secret door is used, and **Elara** sets off the signal. Now… with the chaos ensuing, will the party succeed?

## Sessions 6-10

### Session 6

The party settles on a plan to break **Ulakrek Vallery Jr**. out of the ***Hol Prison***, using an explosive that **Big E** found as a means of causing a distraction. The party gets into their positions and detonates the bomb while **Elara** and **Big E** are speaking to the half-elven guard at the front gate. As the explosion goes off, chaos begins to ensue some of the party sneak through the secret backdoor. They end up having to confront the guards, knocking a couple of them unconscious, and having their limited stealth compromised.

**Lilith** stumbles across a halfling woman trembling in terror under the front desk begging to not be killed, she leaves her and closes the door promising she will be safe. **Odsni** and **Big E** delve into the basement and find **Sayzha** standing guard who hits **Odsni** with an icy beam. She attempts to stop them but bolt of radiant energy pierces her chest, and she drops down dead. The group decide to heal her, and in her shameful defeat, she lets the party go. They decide to break out **Ulakrek Vallery Jr**. and a Dragonborn who told them his name was **Dagma**. They make their way to the caves and run into **Straeta** and **Cyrus** who battle them for the right to return the duke. Being defeated, they let the party go, and as **The Tiny Bigs** exit they are stopped by the guards who take **Ulakrek** aside. **Odsni** positions himself, ready to strike if needed, and the rest of the party brace themselves.

### Session 7

After collecting **Ulakrek** and **Dagma** from the prison, **The Tiny Bigs**, in their last ditch effort, knock the guards at the cave entrance unconscious and flee into the forest. Camping the night, and trekking towards ***Hol***, they finally return, only to have the guards not want to let them in, stating **Ulakrek** should've been taken to the southern jail. **Elara** manages to convince them to let the party in by saying that **Ulakrek** would be held in the cellars at the keep. The guards think this is reasonable and escort the party to the Duke's Keep.

They reunite father and son and collect their reward, with the Duke stating he will hold a festival for the return of his son and they should make a speech to cover their tracks, but the Duke wants **Elara** to stay back. She does so begrudgingly, and has a personal meeting with the Duke where he asks her of her nobility. She doesn't mention much, only the name of the kingdom she is from and that she is not really associated with them anymore. The Duke chuckles to himself and happily hands her the money, stating that she'll need it, before briskly asking her to leave as he has much to organise.

The party heads off to find a horse to purchase, as **Linda** mentioned she could get them a discount, but as they continue, they find a building from **Odsni's** past. They begin to investigate…

### Session 8

With newfound determination and a sense for adventure, **The Tiny Bigs** go to buy a noble stead. On the way they run into a woman dressed in leathers by the side of the road, standing next to a horse. She seems defensive and insists the party is scaring the horse, after some exchange, **The Tiny Bigs** continue their journey southward running into an old windmill.

**Odsni** recognises it, but it looks more rundown than he remembers, so they take a look inside. They find that is has been overgrown with a glowing fungus, and the main study room has fallen to pieces. A strange flesh creature sits, fused to an altar surrounded by carvings with a single arm and a pit of teeth. Fox almost kills it by trying to feed it some scraps of food. They decide to leave it and do some more exploring, finding a room full of flower beds, a prison chamber with large fungus and skeletons in cages, a room filled with rotting corpses from which a creature escapes, and a library destroyed by water damage.

**Fox** wanders in from guarding outside and stumbles across the room barricaded with old furniture by the entrance, he breaks it down and finds a ruined bedroom with the corpse of a woman and a disfigured creature. It looks into **Fox's** mind, and **Fox** decides to flee, being chased closely by the creature crying out for help. The rest of the party hear this and sprint to save **Fox**, they end up killing the creature and searching the room it was found in. They discover some terrible secrets, and leave to explore the upper floor of the windmill. A chest is found in a small room, which **Odsni** tries to open, but it turns out to be a creature disguised as a chest, grabbing **Odsni** and biting him multiple times. **The Tiny Bigs** defeat the creature and make their way out of the windmill… once they are, they hear a voice calling for them.

### Session 9

The Tiny Bigs exit the abandoned windmill from Odsni's past and are called by a person they previously met. It was the woman who told them to move along from earlier, this time trying to sell them a horse. They bargain and get the price down to 40gp, and with no sign of the strange shadowy creature they released from the dungeon, they make their way to where the horse was tied up. Arriving, they find it's missing, and chase the woman down running into an ambush. Elara puts her to sleep, and Odsni brutally murders her compatriot before Fox threatens to kill their leader, ending the fight.

They explain they are "The Red Vipers" and that they don't want any more trouble, if they should meet in the future, they will not bother you. Looting the body and leaving to buy a horse, Elara commits a felony (lying about her identity) and is given a fine, while Big E. purchases a new steed. They make their way back to Hol for a rest, running into a large maine coon, and seeing little of Dagma.

Headed for Druid's Tree, the party reluctantly pays for entry and begin exploring. They find the environment intoxicating and dangerous, eventually attempting to slap patrons awake, warning them to flee. Only after a few slaps, they are greeted by the first talking dryad they have seen during their stay.

### Session 10

The Tiny Bigs find themselves in an enchanting getaway, full of delicious food and sleepy patrons. After some exploring they found the area to be crawling with magic and investigated further, with half the party walking through a door and the others staying inside. Elara and Lilith left the tree and found themselves in the middle of nowhere, marching forward for about 2 hours, they run into Gryve, the cart keeper. He asks if they enjoyed their stay and that they were there for almost a full 24hrs. Hearing this news, they quickly buy more tickets and make their way back, explaining what happened to the party.

Hearing this information, they decide to try and wrap things up quickly, confronting Magna, the owner of the establishment who has been acting a little strangely. She reveals herself to be of fiendish nature, attempting to make a getaway, however Elara blinds her and Magna can't find her way about. She ends up flying to the top of the tree and making a break for it. The party takes chase, and finds her preparing forces to take them down. A group of her followers hiding in the top of the tree charging a giant crystal with strange energy. They defeat her easily and she disappears in a flash.

Fox looks into the crystal and finds Olivia Raphodean, an elder dryad, trapped inside. After some conversation they discover the tree is alive, an ancient Treant named Mortimer who the dryads were trying to escort to Grolshire before being ambushed by Magna. Olivia explains that they are in a pocket version of the fey wilds as a protective measure against outside forces, they assumed it would cloak them and make them hard to discover, but Magna had weaponised it. Fox wonders if he can get back to the fey wilds using this same magic, and Olivia explains why interplanar travel is so dangerous. The party realises that they may have been involved in the releasing of a fragment of an ancient evil mage… Itabrius Vren, but a festival awaits

## Sessions 11-15

### Session 11

The party return from Druid's Tree, speaking to a caravan of performers, finding Hol has undergone a dramatic change, with many new faces about and folk setting up stalls and tents for the festival. The Tiny Bigs minus one tiny start making their way around the shops, inquiring about the recent happenings they read about in the paper. They find to be moving in a circle as each shop keeper is being affected by another while claiming they were not involved in any sort of sabotage. Nonetheless, they make their way around every shop, meeting each keeper and asking what suffering they experienced. Fox thinks the paper boy might be involved somehow, perhaps generating fake news. They find a halfling boy keeping vigilant as he puts a scrap of paper under a rock, Fox and Big E chase him down while Lilith and Elara read the note. It's a crudely written invitation to join the "Fighting Against Rival Teams Club"; Big E has successfully tackled the small child and Fox begins binding him with rope. A guard runs up and unties the child asking them what's going on. After some discussion they decide Big E should use the invitation and follow the child, while the others find another kid looking around for their invitation.

The group makes their way to the forest being escorted by the children, and discover the missing goods from the shops have been used to set up a fort. The halfling's brother arrives telling Gildahl they were already warned not to play in the woods as there are dangerous creatures that dwell out here. As they leave an Owlbear lunges from the forest and attacks the boys leaving them unconscious and in a bloody state. A fight ensues with another child being attacked and members being downed. Eventually the bear is killed and the children are returned home, the party going back to their own. Elara stays awake, awaiting the arrival of Dagma, as she hears the front door unlock at midnight…

### Session 12

Elara stays awake, following Dagma for an hour, she finds out he has been begging on the main road and tending to "personal business", until he starts briskly walking through the side forest to the east. He stands between two large pillars of smooth, stacked rocks and watches the sunrise on the beach. Elara gives up and makes her way back home remaining suspicious.

The rest of The Tiny Bigs wait for the festival to start, grabbing breakfast at the tavern. Big E. and Elara find a cloaked figure in the back corner of the tavern willing to buy or sell anything from enchanted items to organs from humanoids. The cloaked figure gives them a means to call on them at any time, (able to summon them) if they wish to buy or sell illegal or magical goods. They decide it's about time to head to the festival.

The Tiny Bigs attempt many games, playing a cup shuffling game, log tossing, shooting targets, attempting to grab eels, and tug of war. They passed on most food stalls which offered intercontinental goods and unique foods, except for Fox, who decided to try Kua-Toan sushi which he found remarkably fresh and flavorful, with a distinct lack of fishiness and more of an umami sea food flavour. They won a few prizes, with Big E. being a shining star in many games, and went to a strange tent offering fortunes. Elara went in first and found a small old woman with a large turban on, who, just by looking at Elara could determine her past and present. She then took a huff of a long cigarette, providing a mysterious fortune about a dark future; as others inspected the tent, they found it to be empty.

Elara had a quick tussle with Straeta and then decided to make her speech. As she spoke the clouds grew dark and black, the ground begins rumbling rhythmically, you hear the sound of shaking growing louder. The sound of shaking armour… the sound of a small army.