Shadowdark Session 5

August 17, 2026•470 words

7/6/26 7-9:08pm

the Party

Arda, lvl 2 halfling wizard apprentice, banished, lawful follower of Madeera (Kim)

Hiralia, lvl 2 elvish seeker-priest of the Lost, neutral, wanted (Sophia)

Zeb, lvl 2 goblin initiate-priest of Memnon, chaotic churgeon (Dan)

Yuri, lvl 2 human wizard apprentice, noble, lawful follower of Ord (Stuart)

Corvin's Crest politics
- Roothaulers
  - A small subset of the halfling population who allege their ancestors felled the tree that became the stump and founded the town
  - They have strong ties in the Mulch, among them the maligned (now burned-down) Golden Castle
- Lizardfolk
  - The Lizardfolk are generally amicable and keen to trade and contribute to Corvin's Crest's stability and well-being
  - A small minority live in town, but most come and go between the stump and their own decentralized communities in the Deep Swamp
The founding of Corvin's Crest by a small group of halflings many, many years ago, ancestry of whom is now claimed by the Roothaulers
Got a lay of the land in the Market Ring
- Trinkets & Toadstools, by Matteo
- Sundry Haven, by Remy
- Osmin's Oddities, by Jala
- Willie the Red, fortune teller
  - extravagantly wealthy, middle-aged
  - cleft chin
  - speaks quietly
  - can literally smell lies

Blugbort the Potioneer
- Blugbort has a home laboratory carved into the stump below the Market Ring
- He is always on the lookout for reagents that he can use in experimental brews
- He will happily provide a free sample in exchange for ingredients--as long as his test subjects document their effects
Jolly the dockworker will cut Zeb a deal on his boat if he gets in touch with his Roothauler buddies and does them a favor
Arda sets herself up as a resource for Tzatlin and those impacted in his neighborhood by the Golden Castle
- Tzatlin is appreciative of Arda's offer of cash up front, but Lizardfolk tend to be more comfortable with barter and favors in-kind
- Tzatlin supposes the rat problems first arose from natural corridors that formed below the Stump
Rastut'en needs a new pied-a-terre and asks Yuri to spruce up the abandoned tower south of Corvin's Crest
- Arda, Zeb, and Hiralia ran into a group of shimmer-smitten cultists here at night
- Rastut'en provided cash up front to finance any labor that Yuri wants to outsource

review where we're at with the Arda/Tzatlin situation, that one kind of got away from me
review where we're at with shopping & Willie, that one also kind of got away from me