D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

[Wrathbone]

Yes, you believe he somehow ended up in this multiverse as well, but not by the same means you did.

[Raid]

After examining the staff and giving the offer some consideration, he agrees that for the gold and the staff, you can purchase three +1 bows of your choosing and the Ring of Spell Storing. If you go for the more expensive longbows over the shortbows, he winces (presumably because he's getting a raw deal and is being generous) but does not object.

Just before you leave, he asks you to wait a moment as he scurries off, then he returns with a book that he insists you take as a free gift: The Novice Guide to Economics, by the renowned merchant lord, Alastaire Montfort.

Opus gives Jontu a handshake as he has seen merchants do when concluding business. Opus' hand is slightly sticky, and leaves several strands of fur stuck to Jontu's. If Jontu isn't too exasperated to watch, he'll see Opus tear out the first page and stuff it in his mouth as he leaves, chewing happily.

The mist in the crystal swirls and then clears, revealing the familiar sight of your village, but not as you remember it. The homes you scurried around as a young child - some on the ground, some built into or on top of the trees - are all overgrown and collapsing. Nobody is in sight. The village has been reclaimed by the forest.

At the site of your family's home, near the centre of the village, a great tree with two tangled trunks has grown through the roof. It is starkly unlike any tree in the Greywood, with long, thin branches flowing like unruly hair, but you immediately know that this is a Willow tree. Your mother told you that the tabaxi were first born of willow catkins, and she would describe every detail of the tree to you, such that you longed to one day see one. Its presence in your home is, you think, surely beyond coincidence.

Unsure what this means for your parents, but armed with a fresh memory and details of the Greywood, your hope of finally returning home is invigorated. You gain +1 to your wisdom. You return to Geldrun and begin scouring the Grand Library and bothering scholars to try and determine its location. Roll an investigation check with advantage.

[Wrathbone]

You narrow down various possible locations based on taxonomy of trees and creatures, areas with known human expeditions and old tales of the tabaxi, until finally, with logical certainty, you determine there is only one possible place it could be: the island of Chekret Jatarr, off the southern shore of the continent. Though where exactly on the island your village is remains a mystery.

Every book you can find on the island describes it as a colony that was once highly profitable for its furs, but it was mostly abandoned over a short period of time after a bizarre incident left many of the colonists twisted and changed. Now it is regarded as a feral and lethal place favoured only by a scant few Velathi pirates. As much as your instincts may be to teleport there immediately, you think the potential dangers would warrant the aid of your companions.

[Raid]

Having obtained the Ring of Spell Storing, Fauxpus will spend a day attuning to it. The item description says that "When found, it contains 1d6 − 1 levels of stored spells chosen by the DM." I figure this is likely Jontu testing the ring by storing random spells before handing it over. I'd like Fauxpus to practice with the ring to make sure it works by casting the already stored spells, with predictably silly results. I'm imagining accidental ignition of someone's robes, covering a floor with grease and causing everyone to fall over, that sort of thing.

Once the ring's empty, I'd like to try and find some time in his busy touring schedule to have Farley cast a level 1 Cure Wounds spell into the ring. Opus will then add a casting of Bless (level 1), Catapult (level 1), and Vortex Warp (level 2) for the maximum of 5 spell levels held.

Knowing the likely outcome, but not being able to shake the urge regardless, Opus will ask the scrying crystal to show him Dust on the Wind (Opus' father).

[Wrathbone]

The crystal shows the exact same scene as before.

[Mantis]

If Jontu isn't too exasperated to watch, he'll see Opus tear out the first page and stuff it in his mouth as he leaves, chewing happily.

I'm going to regret teaching Opus that eating books is the key to digesting the contents when we find a really important ancient tome at some point and he immediately starts tearing pages out.

[Sly Boots]

If Jontu isn't too exasperated to watch, he'll see Opus tear out the first page and stuff it in his mouth as he leaves, chewing happily.

I'm going to regret teaching Opus that eating books is the key to digesting the contents when we find a really important ancient tome at some point and he immediately starts tearing pages out.

I can already tell Opus is going to eat the last page of the golden tome, it will teleport to another corner of the multiverse and no-one gets the full benefits of it

[Raid]

Not gonna lie, I was considering at one point saying that Opus sneaks a little nibble on the Book of Exalted Deeds. Stop teaching the impressionable youth things!

---

Opus is going to be pretty despondent after that last scry. Struggling to really process the news, he'll make several trips back to the scrying crystal to look for others in his village, presumably to no avail, but after a few days he'll give up and mope around wherever we're currently staying, sleeping all day in inconvenient places, that sort of thing. Fauxpus will be bored by this lack of activity and will be scrabbling over the walls in his vaguely unsettling manner, leaving claw marks in all of the furniture, batting at anyone that tries to remove him, occasionally Vortex Warping people from one side of a room to another.

Eventually Opus will try to snap himself out of this malaise by trying to research any legend he can get his paws on around willow trees and any magical significance they may have. The Tabaxi don't really have a written history so he'll not find anything from a more immediate source, but it's possible things may have been transmitted via word of mouth to any other civilisations they interacted with.

[Wrathbone]

You quite easily find books describing the willow’s association with healing, being of particular interest to druidic circles as a natural remedy. But you can’t shake the feeling that the tree’s significance is more personal - something symbolic intended for you. Your dreams during your frequent catnaps are consumed by thoughts of the tree, and more than once you feel like you can momentarily hear the rustling of its branches after waking up.