The Curious Case of Coldwater Crater

The Curious Case of Coldwater Crater is a pre-recorded oneshot released on December 20th, 2021 on all podcasting platforms (and Patreon) as well as YouTube. It is a level 5 monsterhunter oneshot DMed by Haley, with special guest Travis McElroy, and part of the holiday specials of 2021.

Before the episode, they did a short character introduction that was released for free on Patreon, you can find it here. During this introduction, Haley gave the players a list of patreon submitted items from which they could choose one for their character.

## Characters and Players

**DM** - Haley

**Buckminster Eden** (He/Him) (played by Travis - He/Him), also known as Buck, is a Human Mastermind Rogue. He is the son of the Iron Lord, an important and wealthy man whose territory produces a lot of iron. Buckminster is ordered on this adventure by his father, and at the behest of the Baron of the region of Coldwater, as a sort of punishment after something went wrong at a party he threw. Usually, he tries to talk himself out of any dangerous situation and prefers to avoid combat.

Buckminster is accompanied by his butler and valet Leon, who does not function like a PC, but more like a familiar. Leon is a shy man, deep and soft spoken, and mostly there to carry Buck's things.

Travis has played the character before, and Buck is part of the The Adventure Zone canon (you can find his TAZ wiki article here).

**John Borple** (He/Him) (played by Gus - He/Him), Human Artillerist Artificer, was born as Battlebox Borple but decided to go by John instead and make a name for himself. His character was inspired by John McClane, and he has platinum blonde hair and a huge "bikerstache". He goes around and helps people, trying to look good while doing it, and getting the love, glory, and attention. With him, he carries his weapon, the Megablaster, also called Blasty. It is Eldritch Canon, Arcane Firearm, Light Crossbow and source of many of his spells combined in one big canon that he has strapped around his shoulders. He is filled with determination and new ambitious ideas for weapons he can build.

Buckminster and John have met before the adventure, and have been travelling together. While Buckminster was happy to find a strong person he could hide behind should it come to fighting (and then later take the credit), John was glad to find someone that needed saving who was also willing to pay for his artificer expenses. They met as John carried Buck out of a burning building.

**Wagonwheel** (They/Them) (played by Madison - She/Her), a Skeleton College of Swords Bard, chose their name as they woke up in a dungeon hallway next to a wagonwheel. There, they also found a rapier that they call Toothpick, and armed with it they travel around, taking odd jobs. They wear a lot of scarfs and a wizard's hat to cover their skelettal appearance. They want to impress people and put them at awe, but sometimes they get closer to frightening them accidentally.

**Southbound Train** (Any/All) (played by Amelia - Any/None), the Warforged Samurai Fighter with the original model number SK-42 Southbound Train also goes simply by Southbound or South. They were originally intended to be a spy, and after every mission, their mind got wiped, but one time something went wrong and now they walk around helping people with no memory of ever doing anything else. He is fairly large, wearing several coats, and is completely sexless. South was inspired by a word search Amelia saw on Twitter ("the first two words you see are your next DnD character"), and by Fender from the movie Robots.

South and Wagonwheel have come across each others a couple of years prior to the adventure, when Wagonwheel found South in a sleeping state and activated them, and they have been friends ever since, travelling together. Wagonwheel gave Southbound a "best friend scarf" that she wears like a sash because it is to small for her to wear like a scarf. Often, Wagonwheel's bones have to be put back together by Southbound Train. The two of them decided to go to Coldwater Crater as they saw a Flyer offering 3000 gold to anyone who would defeat the Coldwater Crater creature.

## Items

* Buckminster:
	+ The Lantern of Moths: "It's a hooded lantern that casts dim light in a 10 foot radius. When activated, the light changes to a magical darkness that only the wielder can see through. Any light entering the 10 foot radius is snuffed out." (Submitted by Juliana, she/her)

* John:
	+ The One True Hand: "An enchanted grappling hook that 100 feet of retractable rope. It can be hooked on magical or non-magical surfaces. Once per Short Rest the player can activate the One True Hand, imbuing it with magical energy that allows the player to use the grappling hook in an attack action. The player is proficient in this weapon and it has a range of 100 feet. It deals 2d10 lightning damage and forces the target to make a CON saving throw at DC12. On a fail, the creature is stunned until the end of their next turn." (Submitted by Charisma, she/her)
* Wagonwheel:
	+ Whispers on the Wind: "This is a magic coin. You can speak a message, up to 25 words, into it and tell it how far you want the coin to go, up to 1000 feet away. Once you've given it all the information, it will blink, teleport away to where you told it to go, and yell your message. However, it is extremely bad at hearing you, so the message it shouts is as if it went through three rounds of telephone. Example: The message is 'I'm over here, so suck it!'. The coin might yell: 'Your mom's over here, we're fucking!' Once the message has been yelled, it will blink, teleport right back to you where you sent the message." (Submitted by Jesse Dubin, they/them)
* Southbound Train:
	+ Ambulance (Ambu-lance): "This is a lance that deals negative damage. You can take an attack action to stab a creature within 5 feet of you and heal them for 1d4 hitpoints." (Submitted by Tattdinterpreter, he/him)

## Plot

The little group meets at the entrance to the old mining shaft, the Coldwater Crater. Buckminster is sent there by his father, John accompanies him, and Wagonwheel and Southbound Train got there after they saw a flyer put up by the baron of the region, Uriah Yuramo, offering 3000 gold to anyone who would get rid of the Coldwater Crater creature for them. (See the opening description.) The four of them introduce themselves, decide to team up, and enter the cave.

Going through the cave, they don't find much at first, until they use the elevator shaft to go down into the Coldwater Crater. There, they see the smear of a bloody handprint, and some more smears around the floor. They follow the long hallway, and then go to the right, following the sound of wind going through the hallways. Down that hallway, they get to a sharp incline, and a corridor to the left, which leads to a room with a vent from which poisoned air is coming. As they go back towards the incline to try and scale it, they accidentally activate a pressure plate, and they barely make it back into the room with the air vent as a big stone boulder comes down behind them. But now, on the other side of the vent, there is an opening that wasn't there before, through which they continue.

Through a shaft with a ladder, they descend into a room with the statue of a woman. The woman has her mouth slightly opened, as if she were drinking something, and her open hands turned upwards. As Buckminster gives her water to drink from his waterskin, and a gold coin each in her hands, the statue sinks into the wall behind her and slides down to reveal an opening. The group goes through it and down another ladder, then they find a trapdoor which Wagonwheel opens.

Below the trapdoor is a ladder leading to a room in which the missing people of Coldwater are standing, lead by a blonde, middle aged, Half-Elf woman named Juniper. She is not happy to see that they have come to their rescue, and after being threatened by John and Buck reveals that they have not been kidnapped by a monster at all. Instead, the townsfolk who were desperate for a way out of their ghost-town-in-the-making have staged the whole thing so that adventurers would come, try to rescue them, and then get killed by the traps. After that, the people would take the expensive weapons and magic items. Juniper also tells them that there is a monster that has eaten someone before, but they trapped it in a different, closed-off section of the mine.

The party decides that Juniper, as the leader of the whole operation, should be held responsible, and that the "monster" living in the Coldwater Crater should not be trapped in its own home. Thus, they let Juniper lead them towards the troll, break down the rubble that kept it from the section the people were hiding in, and tell it that it is free to go now. After that, they help the people of Coldwater to get out of the mine, and eventually out of the town. For this, Buckminster helps fund some relocation efforts, and they all offer some suggestions as to what the people of Coldwater could do instead of killing adventurers willing to help them. Juniper will be put to justice by the baron.

The oneshot ends with Buckminster inviting them all for a drink, and his butler Leon embroidering "Team Buck" jackets for all party members and the troll.

## Trivia

* It is the first ever video episode of the podcast.
* This is also the first oneshot that had an Episode 0 for character introductions.
* The intro of the audio-only version that aired on all podcasting platforms is slightly different from the intro for the video episode that got released on YouTube. The video intro is done only by Gus, instead of both hosts, and a bit shorter.