Narrative

Day 60 began after the road camp and a long rest. Morgana/Betty scouted while the party continued toward Lost Vein. Around midday they passed a small lived-in hamlet of about thirty buildings earthwise of the road but did not investigate.

Near dark, they reached a wide, fast, silty or polluted river crossed by an ancient dwarven stone bridge, roughly 2,000 years old. The bridge was utilitarian, well crafted, and later poorly maintained. Its guards included a scorpion-faced humanoid in heavy armour and another figure who may have been dragonborn, snake-like, or scorpion-like. The scorpion guard had mandibles and asked, “what stuff?” The party’s bluff about tithes, gifts, and jade nearly failed because the guards knew they were not Belburners. The guards asked who was in the wagon; Eliana stepped out, and they seemed to mistake her for one of the Twisted. After conferring, they allowed the party to pass. A garbled transcript line suggests they noticed a “healthier specimen” travelling with the party, probably Dirk, but the exact target and wording remain uncertain.

Lost Vein was a town around a giant crater or pit full of mine entrances, with old houses around the rim. Kobolds worked in the pit under human-looking guards, snake people, scorpion people, and flying wasp-like humanoids with insect wings, buzzing, mandibles, and armour. As the sun set, two moons rose over the pit while pickaxes kept ringing below. Most workers were kobolds, with some other slaves or labourers. They were not all chained, but they were watched, whipped, and outnumbered their guards about twenty to one.

Valenth connected the wasp, scorpion, snake, and jellyfish creatures to Noxia, “creatures of poison.” The party remembered that Envy and Noxia had cooperated with Peridita, and that Peridita had been consumed or imbued by Noxia’s poison or blood.

The party disguised itself with Seeming. The cover story made some members kobolds, others sickly Goliaths, and Eliana a dragonborn or dragon-related claimant using the false name Gemma Teal. Other false names included Shorty Panface for Invar, Duffel for Dotharl, and Bartholomew Louis Montblanc Vuitton the Fourth Junior Senior for Geldrin. They claimed interest in freeing Lady Hartwall and seeking Envy.

The party parked among loading wagons. A snake guard asked whether they were loading or unloading, and “parking” confused him. A kobold animal-handler said, “I look after animals. I won’t eat. Don’t, not to or I die,” gave them a black disc or token, and insisted on no joyrides and no eating the lizards. Wagons carried copper ore, iron ore, jade, amethyst, and semi-precious stones. A small kobold said the loads went to the “dwarf place,” where “all the smelters” were, “to make the weapons… the army… and we will be saved.” The possible phrase Frost Peak Deep Fire was associated with that place, but uncertain. The kobolds also mentioned “brain wiggles” near the Dome or bun, possibly because “the breeze comes from underneath the bun.”

In an old dwarven temporary mining house, the party found two kobold children hiding from Captain Cutstone. They treated “friend” as a strange concept: “People steal and stab,” “friend not steal stab,” and “friend’s stupid.” A human-looking guard said Lady Envy was “very busy” and “basically a god,” and suggested waiting or speaking to an earl.

Dirk visited an old, half-blind quartermaster kobold with greying beard-fur who sold wood, meat, candles, oil, and tools by wooden ration-token fractions. He said ore carts went up to the hills and mountains, to Lady Envy’s home “with the dwarves,” where dwarves forged weapons for her people. Envy had tried to take over another dwarven city and been beaten off: “she cross. That’s why she made the army.” He said “the uglies” came with “the butt people” after Envy moved in and took everything. Kobolds had been happier when they only paid tax. His “stab day” was at least a week ago, and he may have survived partly because no one wanted to stab the person who controlled meat.

A commotion in the pit revealed the reason for the intensified mining. A kobold staggered out of a mine transforming into a wasp form, with tiny wings, mandibles forcing teeth out, and black veins. A guard killed it. Another said, “You need to tell the earl, I think he’s found some.” Nearby kobolds called the find “Blood” and “what they want… the creepies.” The party concluded that Noxia’s blood had been found in the caves and could transform kobolds into wasp creatures.

A wasp emissary announced, “The Countess will see you now.” The party entered an old dwarven stone building covered in papery hive material. Inside were hexagonal wax-like cells, white pulsating grubs, and nurse wasps regurgitating into grubs. The Countess or Countessor Nuxia was a 14-foot wasp queen on a wax throne, with extended abdomen and stinger, furs or ermine-like dress, a gold necklace with jade, attendants, large halberd guards, and two emaciated elves used as footrests.

The Countess said she worked adjacent to Lady Envy and that Envy was not present. Lady Hartwall was “the beast” and Envy’s incapacitated emissary or tax collector. The Countess detected or inferred that the party had Noxia’s blood hidden magically somewhere far away, perhaps another plane or a bag of displacement, and wanted blood for “my royal jelly.” Another count was trying to claim the newly found blood. She said all of them worked for Noxia but each provided their own power. She had met Peridita, who was “brimming with the essence of Noxia” and had foolishly tried to imbue herself because “No one could contain the blood of a god.” Envy’s army had been repelled at Dwarven Fortress, where “that strange creature, Merikok, had this one.” She had heard that a Noxia avatar walked the earth and was slain by the same adventurers, which she called problematic. She also knew or guessed that one adventurer was a betrayer of Eliana’s people and carried “a gun and a curved-ish blade.”

The Countess tested the party’s disguise by forcing Invar, disguised as a kobold, to eat a grub. She insisted that gifts to slaves must come “through me” and punished refusal with “No food for a day,” then “No food for two days.” The disguise failed when a struck “kobold” clanged against hidden armour or shield, and a guard shouted, “Intruders.”

In the fight, the Countess’s elf footrests projected terrible emptiness. When Dirk approached, he felt hollowness, endless torment, and something like Phantasmal Killer. Invar tried to cast Spirit Guardians, but one of the elf husks opened its mouth and devoured or countered the spell, showing why magic near them was dangerous. The Countess and her minions used poison, Cloudkill, Black Tentacles, Blight, Phantasmal Killer, swords, and stingers. Geldrin/Cardinal cast fireball during the fight, killing at least one creature engaged with Dirk and Eliana, and later disintegrated the Countess hard enough to crack her carapace, jewellery, and robes. She called the hive and drew on royal jelly, mutating into a hybrid wasp, jellyfish, scorpion, and snake form. Dotharl killed her. Her carapace split and black goo poured out. Dirk helped take over at the door while Invar remembered the earlier Noxia ooze interaction and cast Mass Cure Wounds, healing the party and deliberately targeting the goo with the final slot. The goo bubbled, solidified into tar-like matter, and stopped moving. The effect of healing or radiant magic on Noxia ooze remains important and not fully understood.

When the Countess died, the two elven footrests collapsed unconscious. Valenth said they were likely among the “truest of my people,” elves who stayed for the ritual and lost major portions of emotion. Losing pride, anger, jealousy, and envy had removed their fire or passion. They might have horrific lives unless emotions could be restored, and it was uncertain whether killing personifications would return those emotions. Valenth also warned that such husks could be receptacles or vessels for other things; Grand Towers inhabitants may have been similar, and Browning may have some. The party decided to take the two elves, restrained and blindfolded, possibly to Benu and War/Benandwar [uncertain] for repair or atonement.

The hive collapsed into chaos. Wasps attacked guards and slaves randomly; some drank from broken mead barrels, some flew away, and some were put down by snake, scorpion, and human-looking guards. Kobolds exploited the chaos by stabbing isolated wasp guards, chewing on wasp legs, and freeing chained kobolds. The party changed disguises, carried out the unconscious elves, and set the hive building on fire with fire bolts. They returned to the wagons, where kobolds were looting ore while guards were distracted. They built a false wall or cover with crates, took additional cargo or a cart, and recruited a kobold driver with a lucky wheel strapped to his back.

The driver was Colonel Bilgewater Windle the 7th. He said, “I drive dwarf city, I’ve been twice.” He cared about meat, candles, and more meat. He interpreted honour as meat and belted the lizards’ mouths because “they eat my meat.” Payment remained meat-based and imprecise, including fish jerky, prairie dogs, birds, and “21” meat because kobold counting made two and one into twenty-one.

The party left Lost Vein by a dusty earthwise path toward the mountains, disguised as an official convoy. The road was an old dwarven, trading, or mining road recently re-exposed by heavy wagon traffic. The destination was about 100 miles away; Colonel Bilgewater Windle estimated four days, or three with luck and no wheel problems. When Seeming dropped, he panicked, then accepted the party’s true forms as “disguises” after persuasion and meat promises. At night, the party pulled off-road and set watches. The unconscious elves were kept away from magic and armour. Around midnight, day 61 began.

People, Factions, and Places Mentioned

People and name-like figures include Eliana/Gemma Teal, Dirk, Morgana/Betty, Invar/Shorty Panface, Geldrin/Cardinal/Bartholomew Louis Montblanc Vuitton the Fourth Junior Senior, Dotharl/Duffel, Valenth, Lady Envy, Peridita, Noxia/Nuxia/Noxie, the scorpion bridge guard, snake and human-looking guards, the kobold animal-handler, Captain Cutstone, the two kobold children, the quartermaster kobold, the Earl [unnamed], the Countess/Countessor Nuxia, another count, Lady Evalina Hartwall/Lady Hartwall [context uncertain], Merikok, the two elven husks, Browning, and Colonel Bilgewater Windle the 7th.

Groups and factions include the party, kobold miners, slaves and workers, human-looking guards, snake people, scorpion people, wasp people, jellyfish-related poison creatures, Noxia’s count hierarchy, Lady Envy’s army, dwarven forgers, possible Grand Towers husks, and Lost Vein rebels or escapees.

Places include the road from Belburn, the small hamlet, the ancient dwarven bridge, Lost Vein, the mine crater and rim town, the old dwarven mining house, the hive building, the hills and mountains, Lady Envy’s home with the dwarves, Dwarven Fortress [uncertain], and the road toward the dwarf city.

Items, Rewards, and Resources

Items and resources include copper ore, iron ore, jade, amethyst, semi-precious stones, black parking token/disc, fish jerky, wood, meat, candles, oil, tools, ration tokens, Noxia’s blood, royal jelly, hive grubs, damaged Countess jewellery and robes, tar-like Noxia ooze, the rescued elven husks, stolen or commandeered wagons, crates used as false cover, and Colonel Bilgewater Windle’s lucky wheel.

Clues, Mysteries, and Open Threads

Envy appears to be at a mountain or dwarven city where weapons are being forged for her army. Noxia’s blood has been found in Lost Vein and can mutate kobolds into wasp creatures. Another Noxia count is trying to claim the blood. The destroyed hive and dead Countess may destabilize Lost Vein. The elven husks may connect to the old elven emotion ritual, Grand Towers vessels, Browning’s plans, and possible restoration by Benu or another figure. The party’s convoy disguise, stolen cargo, and meat-paid driver remain fragile cover for the approach to Envy’s mountain.