The Fish Festival

Last session, Tiberius the cat¹ and Pabst Beerbeard the dwarven druid traveled to the Fish Festival. This annual display of mass animal slaughter and naval prowess was held near Orsus, a port town on the north side of Kilvas. This year, the Festival was also host to the majority of the naval fleet of Kilvas, which was organizing an assault against a fearsome bandit leader, Torvid. At the Fish Festival, Tiberius and Pabst went to a bar² to meet Platelet McVodka³, a dwarven barbarian and cousin of Pabst. While there, they stumbled across Balrox, a tiefling⁴ rogue who always speaks softly. He seemed friendly enough, and immediately joined the impromptu party with little discussion. Meanwhile, Lorelai, an enigmatic elven wanderer with an unusually large walking stick, enigmatically wandered around the Fish Festival doing nothing interesting.

As the group started to get to know each other, they noticed signs of a powerful storm approaching from the ocean. They decided to take shelter in the town of Orsus, leaving the Fish Festival behind⁵. When they arrived in town, drenched with rain, they sought out the most sturdy building they could find: the temple to Clockwork. There, they met Jimmers, a gnome cleric with a whimsical sense of humor and a passion for clockwork⁶. Jimmers let them inside the temple and showed them around. As they were talking, a grizzled ranger named Jed visited the temple briefly. He was full of dire warnings about the storm, and demanded that the party help prepare the town for the storm. They agreed, and with the help of Jimmers, they started fortifying the temple and preparing it for the arrival of other people from the festival.

Soon enough, other festival goers came to Orsus seeking refuge from the storm. Jed returned with several of them, along with Lorelai, and intructed them to aid the party in fortifying the temple. Outside, torrential rain poured, the sky was black, and howling winds threatened the safety of the more flimsily built houses. Then from the darkness came a strangled scream. Mac rushed out furiously towards the sound, weapon in hand. He was soon joined by everyone except Lorelai. Ahead, a flash of lightning revealed the source of the sound: a dead guard in front of a broken door. Mac rushed into the dark building first, and was rewarded with a squad of goblins that immediately swarmed around him. Fortunately, he had allies, and the party joined its first battle.

The goblins had the advantage of numbers, but the party had the advantage of actually being competent and also not being three feet tall⁷, so they soon prevailed. In the final moments of the fight, a flurry of arrows destroyed the remaining goblins, and Jed appeared out of the storm. He told the party that the goblins were raiding the town's storehouses of food - they had already raided one, and were going after a third. He told the party to save the storehouse while he made sure that the mayor was safe.

The party rushed to the remaining storehouse, accompanied by Lorelai. There, they found it empty of food - but full of goblins, who had laid an ambush. The party proved more than a match for their assualt, however, and managed to take two of the goblins prisoner. They soon regretted this decision when Kelsinelenelvial Gil'Rahvadry, the famous⁸ elven paladin, burst in the door demanding that the party and/or goblins be taken to justice. A tense standoff followed, and Balrox and Kelsinelenelvial Gil'Rahvadry traded inconclusive blows. Kelsinelenelvial Gil'Rahvadry soon left, swearing that he would go get Jed to teach them a lesson.

The party took the goblins back to the temple of Clockwork and interrogated them. The goblins revealed that they had known about the storm ahead of time, and were planning on taking the food to some nearby caves along the shore that would offer protection from the storm. Jed came by before long, thanked the party for their aid, and enlisted Mac and Lorelai to help save people from the houses being destroyed by the storm. He also took the goblins to the town jail. Mac and Lorelai continued working for the next few hours until the storm died down, while the rest of the group got some rest.

When the storm finally diminished enough for people to start walking around, the full extent of its devastation became clear. Half the town had been destroyed, and the rest had been badly damaged. The ships had all been utterly destroyed, along with all of their crew - including the majority of Kilvas's military strength. But there was no time to mourn - the goblins had escaped with most of the town's food during the storm, and without that food, it would be unable to feed the refugees that now overcrowded the town. Jed came to the party and asked them to help however they could. They agreed to chase the goblins down and retrieve the town's food, and set off towards the caves.

Join us this week to explore the goblin-infested caves!

1. Yes, a cat. With kitten mittens.
2. Because of course this campaign starts in a bar.
3. He goes by "Mac".
4. Humanoid creature with a demonic ancestor. Nobody really likes them.
5. Without warning anyone, including all the nice people in the flimsy looking boats.
6. Jimmers originally started worshipping Clockwork out of her love for gears, clocks, and other such contraptions. This led to some conflict when she met the more mainstream followers of Clockwork, who are better known for their devotion to athletic pursuits, physical speed, and somewhat ambiguous morality. As a gnome, she is not particularly good at any of those things - but you can ask her about the details.
7. This is technically also true of Tiberius, who is about one foot tall.
8. In his own mind.