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CTDDND wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2026 2:35 am Base XP granted. I'll double check my sleepy math tomorrow. Good times!

Sorry, how much is base XP?

Varies by adventure and is on your sub-sheet in the Global Character Log. 1056xp in this case.

Summary XP for Y'all'd'nt've and Devin granted!

Milo walks into the Biscuit, a beat-up guitar in hand. He spends several minutes unskillfully tuning it and another 20 seconds attempting the intro to Stairway to Heaven. He clears his throat and speaks to the sullen patrons.

“S’up, dudes! Been working on a song!”

He begins picking his way through a familiar chord progression; the tune is a well-known sea chanty. Nearby, a sour old man messily eats cherry tomatoes for no particular narrative reason, and Milo, in a surprisingly lovely voice, begins to sing.

“Just sit right back, and you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this undead port
Aboard a trireme ship

“Caleb was the skipper there
His mate, I forgot his name
Six passengers set sail that day
An axe beak to tame
An axe beak to tame.”

As he sings, he stands up and steps onto the bench table as if it were a stage, his eyes fixated on some unseen, distant star—a spotlight, in his mind. His voice evokes a promise of impending drama as the song slowly crescendos:

“With Ehrlinger…
And Lutrum too…
With Y’all’d’nt’ve
And Devin
That Druid dude
The Sorcerer and Leelou too

There on FORBIDDEN Iiiiiiiisle!”

With the song’s end, he is atop the table, posing freeze-frame style, arms out stretched and chin lifted high.

Somewhere, a patron coughs.

Milo relaxes and says, “Hold your applause, fam. For this is just the beginning of my tale!’

He then relates the events of the Ides of Springrise and the perilous voyage to Tasty Chicken Island through shark-infested waters.

“We were crammed into a tiny dinghy, and all you could see were tail fins circling round and round us.” Milo takes a moment to gauge the reaction of his audience. He notes a glint of interest in the eyes of a young boy, and is inspired to embellish the beach landing: “The dinghy was taking on water, and we were on the verge of sinking, and the sharks began closing in! I reached deep into the arcane fabric of, um, arcana, searching for a tear in the Weave where Wild Magic unravels, and just before the jaws of a bloodthirsty beast were about to clamp down on us…” the child gasped, “I levitated the boat out of the water, and carried us all safely to shore.

The child claps his hands excitedly; another patron groans in disbelief.

“That’s mostly true!” Milo assures the patrons, some of whom had begun to listen.

“The beach was covered with flipper tracks: probably like hundreds of them. A sure sign that the kung-fu frogs were afoot! (Or aflipper?) Mr Houston needed some time to edge-lord max, so he made us stay on the beach while he took off into the jungle. Y’all, the backwoods elf, kept watch while Mr Bludwirth’s magic owl flew above, watching for danger. Devin did some crabbing, and Linden and I gathered mangos. Bro, we gonna be eating mangos for days once we get these gardens set up, and let me tell you: mangos are bussin’!”

The child looks sadly at his bowl of gruel.

Milo relates Torbin’s return from scouting, and how the party sets out into the rain forest to find the Bullywug village. He explains how peaceful communication was established, giving Ehrlingr full credit for casting Comprehend Languages, but over-dramatizing the ritual, a spectacle he claimed involved ecstatic dancing around a pentacle drawn in bone-dust, the sacrificing of a chicken, and the drinking of its blood. He also mentioned how Linden had shape-shifted into a Giant Toad, and claimed that the Bullywug villagers might have bowed down to worship Linden.

A few patrons nod. “That makes sense,” someone says.

“Their chief’s name was Gribsworth Croke, and he was a fearsome warrior who had killed thousands of people in battle back in the day. But when he saw us, he was like, ‘yo, I don’t wanna mess with you, dudes! Let’s make a peace treaty!’ and he told us where to meet his King, the illustrious Wartleby Marsh (or did he say he lived *in* Wartleby Marsh?). Anyways, the King of the Bullywugs lives close by, and he wants to trade for our steel cuz, um, he EATS steel!”

At this, a well-to-do patron clutches her pearls.

“Yeah,” Milo gestures vaguely to the west. “The Warrior King Wartleby Marsh lives in the watery Waterleby marshes of the West. He awaits our awwival — er, arrival — and offers many wondrous magical trade goods for the low cost of our steel. Behold…!” With a flourish, Milo unrolls a beautifully woven sleeping mat. “This is the +5 Vorpal Sleeping Mat of Frogkind, gifted to me by the Kung Fu Frogs of Forbidden Island (which in their strange tongue means Tasty Chicken Island).”

One of the bar wenches makes a low whistle. “I’d like to sleep on *that*,” she says.

Milo also tells of the many gifts of exotic fruit the Bullywugs had given the party, and their admonishment never to return to that sacred place. He tells of the party’s departure from Forbidden Island, and their decision to head south to explore another Island, and of Torbin’s disappointment at not capturing an axe beak.

“By the gods, I shall have my Tasty Chicken!” Milo shouts in his best impersonation of Torbin, his fist raised to the sky, as if defying the gods themselves.

Some more nods of approval. “Torbin *would* say that,” the growing crowd murmurs.

The boat sailed southward and reached the rocky shores of the island south of TCI. A wall of fractured cliffs impeded their progress inland, but the party soon found a fissure in the stone wall large enough for everyone to squeeze through.

“We sent Caleb and,” Milo snaps his fingers, “Deck-hand Joe; I just remembered his name! We sent Caleb and Joe back to Prima Statio while we proceeded to explore this strange, foreboding island.”

Joe, who was nursing a beer at the bar, perks up, “Hey! That’s me!” And a few other patrons pat him on the back. “Ya done good, kid!” someone says.

Beyond the wall, progress through the island’s interior was impeded by the thick foliage. The air was still and oppressively humid; the ground was muddy and clung to their boots. Swarms of tiny insects harried and stung them.

“Y’all, used Druidcraft to make the smell of peppermint, which helped repel the insects. But the spell only lasts for a few seconds, so he had to cast it over and over again

Milo continues to describe the island. The howls of the unfamiliar fauna echoed under the canopy. The party moved cautiously so as not to garner unwanted attention. Little by little, the ground sloped upward, and the vegetation became less and less dense. At long last, ahead in the clearing, they came upon a manmade structure. Was it some lost temple? A pyramid, perhaps? The ruins of an ancient race of giants?

“Not gonna lie, it was a shack,” Milo explains.

But what lived in the shack? A lich? A vampire? A shambling mound, perhaps?

“It was an old lady in a rocking chair,” Milo says, but with a hint of mystery in his voice. “She looked at us and said, ‘Howdy, y’all’, and Y’all said howdy back, and then we all said hi. She introduced herself as Smiling Jenny, and we totally remembered to introduce ourselves right back, cuz we got manners. But I did think it was weird that we could understand each other, cuz why would she speak our language if she lived in such isolation. And that’s when I realized that, even though she looked frail and innocent, she commanded powerful magics that were beyond our ken (right after she explained to me that she commanded powerful magics that were beyond our ken).”

Milo explains that Smiling Jenny told them that the island belonged to Smiling Jenny, and that she lived there alone. She had also mentioned that she had some fey lineage on her mother’s side, and that’s where she learned her arcane skills. Milo had asked about the local flora, specifically asking about anything that was either good to eat or good to expand one’s mind with. Smiling Jenny smiled and said she had just the thing and invited the group into her shack while she set some tea to boil. Though several members of the group were suspicious at the prospect of drinking this wyrdling’s brew, Milo was eager to drink some.

“And then,” Milo says, “the mechanical elves appeared and carried me away on a ship that sailed through the air. We traversed a cosmos that pulsated with love and light and arrived at their fractal palace, where their king spoke to me in a language that consisted only of shapes and colors. He revealed to me occult lore about the Weave, and my knowledge of magic deepened sevenfold. Not, like, in any way that I can put into practical use or even explain to you in any meaningful way, really. But it was pretty chill. All I can say is: think, orange rhombus.

“When the mechanical elves brought me back to this world, six hours had passed, and somebody — I’m not sure who — had shit my pants. Not cool! Anyway, I’m a little fuzzy about what led up to this point, but they were all talking. Smiling Jenny told us of some mysteries of this land that we have yet to uncover. She told us where we could find lumber and axe beaks on the mainland. She said giant raptors prowled the heart of the bog on Jenny’s Island (that’s what she calls her island), and she said we weren’t ready to face them. On the mainland, there is a waterfall that ‘don’t run true’ in the mountains northwest of here, where a band of goblins and their eyeless leader were up to villainous deeds.

“And I was like, ‘we’d sure like to unalive those goblins for you, Aunt Jenny’, and she was like, ‘y’all would do that for little ole me?’, and Y’all was like, ‘sho nuff we would!’ So we could gain some huge boons from Smiling Jenny, but she doesn’t care about money— just goblin ears, and the head of the eyeless goblin leader, and any other favors she comes up with. Like, she could be a quest-giver, you could say, and there’s probably definitely no downside to dealing with her!

“Anyways, it was late, so we decided to camp out on her front porch. We still kept watch, I’m told, even though Smiling Jenny was right there. Most of the night went by quietly, but Linden was tired from being a giant toad so much, and maybe a little from Jenny’s magic tea. As he dozed off, one of the giant raptors crept up on us.”

Milo notices that the boy from earlier is looking at him quizzically. Milo says, “Oh, um, a raptor is like a--“ he searches for a word, then exclaims, “like a LAND shark!” The child gasps, and Milo nods approvingly. Realizing that the crowd’s attention had trailed off now, he fabricates a tale about the party awaking to fight off the dread beast, which stood 30 feet high if he was an inch. They had doffed their armor for comfort while sleeping, so now they had only their agility and wiles to protect them from the foot-long teeth and talons of this voracious raptor. With horror, he describes how he tripped in the darkness and how the raptor’s jaws swooped down over him and swallowed him whole. Milo relates how he reached in desperation to connect with the Weave and, shooting off some Sorcerous Blasts into the air for dramatic effect, he tells of how the wild magic triggered within him, and no less than a fireball exploded from within the stomach of the raptor, ripping the beast apart and freeing Milo from its gizzards.

The crowd of patrons takes a few steps back away from Milo, partly fearful that he might be telling the truth, and partly disgusted at the thought of exploding gizzards.

“Anyways, Smiling Jenny was so thankful for my intervention that she awarded me a whole pound of her special tea. Which I’ll be selling dime bags of outside the Biscuit later.”

Milo leaves the Biscuit. The patrons quieten down, and one person says, “Wait, what happened with ‘the axe beak to tame’ bit?”

Expedition Island hoppers 2
Crew: Devin, Milo, Torbin, Linden, Y'all'd'nt've

Major Findings: smilin Jenny as fey patron/teacher
Locations of resources and expeditions

Full account:
The party left for tasty chicken island on the morning of the 15th. With the intent to explore the island more, capture an axebeak, contact the bullywogs, and scout a supply of wood. It was decided to land on the secondary beach and approach the frogs first. They knew people had been there since they had laid traps along the previous path. We approached and using my skills as wizard and diplomat we learned that this is a sacred island and none but the bullywogs are allowed on it. They told us that north of the city is an area with more resources and less undead. Their people live in the swamps to the west. In addition we were told that their king, King Wordlebe Marsh, may work with us if approached correctly. We must have hands open and away from body and tell them Chief Gribes Worth Croake sent us to trade. They appear interested in steel primarily. It appears they are unaware which individuals defended themselves on this island. In addition their secrets regarding their sacred rites, who or what they worship are a sensitive topic and forbidden to be discussed or seen by outsiders. Out of respect for this possible new trading partner of the empire we left the island without taking more resources.

We traveled east to the next island. There is little beach but a rocky landing spot on the northern coast. Going through two natural columns of rock, 100ft tall, we were able to enter the interior. It opens up rapidly showing damage to the walls, indications of some ancient implosion. The jungle is dense and marshy. A quick scouting by my familiar showed a clearing with a structure deeper within. We sent the boat away with a preliminary report and orders to return the next morning. As we traveled deeper in, the forest showed evidence of being shallows swamped with any storm surge. The further south we traveled the elevation increased leaving the swampy shallows behind. As we approached the clearing we saw a well built home with porch. The owner, on the porch seat, greeted us. She introduced herself as smilin Jenny. She talked with us of the region. She stated that the bullwogs fear her and stay away but the goblins attack her occasionally. Their kingdom is northwest of the bullywogs in the mountains. They are lead by a king that gave up his eyes for power. She seeks his head as proof of his demise and in return may be willing to teach magic to sorcerers or become a patron. She also has books of magic from her mother she may part with. It would seem from her discussions that she is part fey and her mother is full fey from the feywild. Her family was on the main land last she knew. She values goblin ears not gold. She also said that there is beaver dams blocking the flow of the river to the water fall. That this area is inhabited by people unwilling to share.

She offered us tea. The tea tasted strongly of mushrooms and mud. The effect was little more than nausea and vomiting for hours. The heart of her island is a bog and large pool infested with raptors. One of which attacked during the night. She felt we were not able to survive there and sent us off her island the next morning. Duringa final discussion she told us of axebeaks on the forested shores to the east of Brightwater. We traveled by boat between islands 3 and 4 (counter clockwise TCI is island 1). In passing island 4, a saddle shaped twin peak island we saw a giant raptor stick his head out of the trees and eat his prey. We continued to the eastern shore and with some effort captured an adult breeding pair of axebeaks. I gathered their two eggs as well. Having succeded at our goals we returned to reletive safety of the harbor.

Final Findings: Two adult axebeaks, two eggs, and knowledge

Future Endevours:
goblins in nw mountians
Goblin kings head
Raptors at Jennys pool
Giant raptor at twinpeaks isle
Bullywog trading
Beaver dams and greedy mountian people
Resources north of city

Summary XP Lutrum, Milo, and Erlingr granted!

Thank you for your efforts!

Linden's Journal

The expedition returned to the island previously visited by another group with the goals of making contact with the bullywogs, finding resources, and scouting additional islands.

We landed near a bullywog village after a close encounter with sharks and gathered medicinal plants, edible plants, and mangos. Following tracks and a path to the village, Eringer successfully negotiated with the bullywogs. We learned that:

- The island is sacred to the bullywogs and is known as the Forbidden Island.
- Lumber can be found north of our port city.
- Dangerous "bloodseekers" (Sharks) now inhabit the surrounding waters.
- The bullywogs may trade food and lumber for steel.
- Travelers should mention Grubsworth Croke and approach with empty hands.
- The bullywog king resides in a swamp west of the city.
- Axebeaks should not be hunted without the king's permission.
- Humans killed by undead may rise as undead themselves.

On another island, Erlingr spotted a clearing containing a house occupied by Aunt Jenny, an elderly woman who appears to be from the Feywild. She likes frogs, has family on the mainland, and claims the nearby goblins are also fae. She asked us to stop the goblins from harassing her and specifically wants the head of their eyeless magical leader. Jenny hinted that the mysterious Heart of the Bog is important but beyond our current capabilities.

Jenny is willing to trade medicines and supplies in exchange for useful goods and goblin ears.

During the night, a raptor-like creature cast a spell at us before retreating. We also observed a large raptor on another island while traveling.

Before returning home, we successfully captured 2 axebeaks and recovered 2 axebeak eggs, along with valuable information about trade opportunities, local politics, and future adventure hooks.

Follow-up Missions:
- Establish trade relations with the bullywogs.
- Meet the bullywog king.
- Investigate the Heart of the Bog.
- Deal with Aunt Jenny's goblin problem.
- Explore the crater-like island that appears to have been formed by a massive implosion.
- Secure future access to axebeak hunting and domestication.