The following is the in-character diary entry of Shal Noctis, a character in the live-play TTRPG podcast Spooky Dice Bag. This entry covers episode 147 – “Fun In the Mine Cart.” You can listen to the episode below.
1498 DR – Day 73,998 – Going Off the Rails
Arriving in the hidden room, the Strixhaven crew confirmed their intent to steal the statue – or at least acquire it for a local faction. I confronted them on this – not with hostile intent – but to remind them I was there. I expressed their actions were similar to my own desire to acquire materials, and I offered to help them with their task. I may be able to leverage help from them for my own purposes later.
The plan, as I understood it, was to leverage a combination of spells and strength elixirs to remove the statue and spirit it away to another location. In order to help, I defenestrated myself from the second story to scout a position a few hundred feet ahead for the dragonborn, Randril, to cast a teleportation spell to that location. In order to remain inconspicuous, I removed a pinky to make it appear as if I were carrying an hors d’oeuvre.
As soon as Randril and Umbra teleported into position nearby I detected an overwhelming scent of alcohol. Apparently those elixirs were spiked with something. We quickly threw together a plan to use a nearby mine cart from a dig site to ferry the statue to a safe location. From what I gather, Deliverance, Forte, and Astrid stayed behind with Nordaleen to make the collective group’s exist from the festivities.
We secured the statue into a cart, but with the fit being tight, I opted to stand on the statue. The track descended toward Stonehaven and other mining stations. As we careened downward, Randril and Umbra seemed to hallucinate the presence of flying bananas, barrels, and golden letters. The vapors of alcohol were so powerful I could have sworn I saw some of these things as well. We almost took a detour toward a mining station, but I was able to trigger a switch in the track with a well-placed dart throw.
Arriving at the end of the line, I was sent ahead to their current base, the Shitty Mule, a small inn. I attempted to make small talk with the proprietor as they carried in the statue, now covered with a cloak, upstairs to a room, stating it was a keg.
My small-talk exhausted, I excused myself to “drink” with my new friends.
Might they be friends? That would be nice.
Tovarn and the others as scratching around in my skull and growing impatient. I could use someone else to talk to.
To be continued in Spooky Dice Bag #148.
