Session 7: The Elf, the Ooze, and the Clusterfuck

Upon returning to the material world, Ahrm chews out Vica and Arran for not telling the others about their demonic ties. He demands to know more, but Vica tells him it's none of his business, while Arran cryptically promises he won't be a threat to the group. The group agrees to continue trusting them for now. Vojta starts guiding the group towards his home village. Along the way, Ahrm and Vica gather a large amount of herbs to make healing potions from. Vojta finds an aquamarine gem stuck between the spikes on Ahrm's back, originating from the demon, and pockets it for later.

Suddenly, the elf from earlier appears, yelling about how they wasted his time by not making a pact with Pha’uel, and nukes the group with a fireball. Thorim sprints through the flames and stuns the elf with a barrage of punches, and the others scramble in an attempt to restrain him. Before they can, the elf teleports out of their grasp and burns them with a wall of fire, knocking out half the group. The others struggle to pull their allies from the flames and continue fighting. The elf seems to have more fight left in him, but once he gets cornered a magical spark bursts from his eyes and he collapses gibbering. The group can get no sensible answers out of him, so Ahrm knocks him out and ties him up. On his person they find an arcane focus ring and a letter stating "stop playing, she is yet to have died for nothing", similar to the one they received earlier.

The group carries the elf along, hoping to eventually get answers out of him, and heads to the nearest town to recuperate. He remains incoherent even the next morning. That morning, Thorim realises that the beer he's been brewing is done and opens his keg. Intoxicating fumes come out that cause Vica to hiss and bolt into the woods. It turns out that the beer was exposed to enough magic energy to turn it into a booze ooze. Thorim keeps the ooze in his barrel as a pet and calls it Fir.

Vojta then leads the group to his hometown, Banska, which Ahrm recognises as the town from his vision. The town has very few inhabitants left. Vojta’s old mentor, Lavoi, explains that the water has become tainted, and all who drink it get visions and compulsively leave the town. The group asks about Tusk. Lavoi confirms that she passed through briefly, and the group figures she was looking for Vojta but couldn't find him at the time. Lavoi asks about the prisoner, and when told the story suggests that a surge of magical energy may be able to make him coherent again.

The group imprisons the elf in one of the empty houses and goes to check out the water supply. There is nothing physically wrong with the water, so they head into the underground cave system to see if anything is tainting it from below. They explore the caves and spot a giant creature crawling through the tunnels, leaving slimy webs. They follow it, but Ahrm steps on a web and gets entangled. When Vojta turns into a bear and pulls Ahrm free, the cave dragon emerges and mauls the shit out of him. The group unleashes a hail of punches and arrows, but the dragon uses a blur spell to dodge their attacks while slapping them around with its tentacles. Arran and Vojta bypass its defences with a barrage of earth slides and magic missiles, but the dragon spews poisonous gas, knocking Vojta out and injuring the others. The rest of the group fights on and eventually manages a fatal blow against the monster.

The group takes some scales and teeth as trophies, then returns to Lavoi to discuss their findings. Lavoi is glad to be rid of the threat, but deems it unlikely that the dragon caused the tainted water. Ahrm uses Lavoi's alchemy supplies to turn his herbs into several healing potions, then the group rests for the night. While the others sleep, Arran stealthily makes Thorim drink some of the tainted water to observe the effect. Thorim sees a vision of a dam in Ironclad, and when he wakes in the morning he is dedicated to go there and destroy it. The group stops Thorim from leaving and ties him up, then Ahrm figures out what Arran did and kicks him in the nuts. Arran declares that it was worth it for science. Vica figures that the urge to destroy the dam is a spell created by a water spirit, who is angry that its river has dried up. The group heads back to Ironclad to inspect the dam.

In Ironclad, the dam is still under construction and protected by a line of dwarven soldiers who shout at the group to back the fuck off. They explain that the dam is protected because several others have shown up and attempted to destroy it. The dam is meant to become a weir with a water wheel, so the water flow will return once it's completed, but construction has been delayed by the repeated attempts to destroy it. Ahrm and Vica explain the situation, and after much arguing the guards agree to send a negotiator to the town in return for keeping a hostage in Ironclad. The group offers Arran, but the dwarves don't want him because the group clearly harbours resentment towards him, so they take Vojta as a hostage instead.

The others return to Banska to discuss with Lavoi and the negotiator. It turns out a deal was made to supply food and water to the village until the dam was done, but the deal ran out due to the delays caused by the attackers. Ahrm and Vica argue heatedly with the negotiator, with Ahrm once again threatening to kick him in the nuts, but eventually they come to an agreement to provide clean water to the village from Ironclad, so that the attacks can stop and the dam can be completed.

The group is forced to stick around in Banska until the water returns, lest they have to drag the still-enchanted Thorim around. Ahrm and Arran return to Ironclad to free Vojta, and together they sell the arcane ring and the aquamarine gem for a fair sum of gold. Arran and Vojta have the dragon scales they harvested crafted into two sets of poison-resistant armour. Back in Banska, Vica crafts a fabulous scarf of dragon leather, and makes a sketch of Thorim and his booze ooze.