Special Treat: Tomb Of OBLUEteration - Session Two

It's the second session of my blueberry inflation themed D&D campaign. Tina, Beth, Liv, and I got together after having to miss last weekend, and lemme tell you...everybody showed up ready to bust some heads!

You can read what happened in session one here to catch up.

The biggest thing to know is that the party has been ambushed by goblins...and Liv's character Greta Mountainhead has just contracted the Blue Curse!

The Goblin Ambush

Seven goblins versus three 5th level adventurers looking for some payback. We began the session in the middle of combat, rolling a new initiative order. Oguina and Snex got the drop on the goblins, so they went first.

Snex noticed how some of them were clustered together amid the ruins of the camp, so she let loose a fireball spell, instantly roasting five of them! Oguina uses a 3rd level thunderwave to crush the remainders, and now the combat is over almost as quickly as it began.

As her skin starts to turn blue all over, slowly spreading through her like ink blotted on parchment, Greta does her best not to panic. She grunts and growls at her companions, annoyed that they killed all the goblins, as now they cannot question them as to why they’re spreading the Blue Curse and where it comes from.

In the heat of the moment, this did not occur to any of them.

Greta's once chalky gray skin is now almost completely blue, as she's in Stage One of the curse.

Level One. Your skin slowly turns blue, marking you with the curse. You have disadvantage on all Charisma checks to interact with non-cursed individuals.

They pick through the goblin’s corpses, finding nothing of use. The mood sours, and the time for 'adventuring' seems to have passed. They end the day one Alchemy Jug richer, and all it cost them was Greta being cursed.

They decide to make camp for the rest of the day so they can pick over the rest of the camp for supplies, as well as investigate the magic item they found.

That night, Greta turns completely blue from head to toe. She’s worried about what this means for their quest, and worries that this will be the death of her. The second stage of the curse is upon her as she sleeps.

She advances to stage two, growing distracted by her predicament.

Level Two. You grow light headed and easily distracted, as a strange euphoria overtakes you, getting you a little hot and bothered. You have disadvantage on all Wisdom checks to spot and hear things.

For fun, Liv asks if she can roll to see if Greta is horny enough to want to make a pass at one of the other characters. She rolls pitifully low...disappointing the party.

The following morning, they load up their canoe and row downriver towards their destination. It is 160 miles to their destination in the Aldani Basin; seven days of travel by river and on foot.

Red Wizards and Funky Lizards

Only a few hours into their day of travel, the trio runs into not one, but two encounters!

It's a Red Wizard and her entourage fighting with a group of yuan-ti pureblood scouts. The Red Wizard's party is made up of two human guards and six skeletons, fighting off five yuan-ti armed with poison daggers and scimitars. The party can't figure out why they're attacking one another, but their combat is blocking the path of their canoe.

Oguina doesn’t have any familial ties with these yuan-ti, but recognizes the markings on their clothing, identifying them as a rival clan. Wanting to keep her snake person heritage a secret, she lies and claims not to know them at all.

Meanwhile, Snex sees the Red Wizard as a potential tutor, so she’s eager to help her side. Snex is lowkey obsessed with the red wizards.

The party jumps in and aids the wizard and her guards.

In the end, the human guards are killed along with two skeletons, but all of the yuan-ti purebloods are slain.

The Red Wizard introduces herself as Lotra Duskult. Now favorable towards the trio, she doesn’t especially like them, but she sees the value in their loyalty and protection. She admits that she is headed south to a place called the Heart Of Ubtao, seeking to meet with her mistress.

She takes a curious liking to Snex but doesn’t trust the others. She performs a medicine check on Greta, revealing she only has about 3-4 days to live before she inevitably explodes. Her mistress’ lair is over ten days away, and there’s no guarantee she knows how to curb the flow of the curse. Still, she gives them directions to the Heart of Ubtao and leaves them to their fate.

That night, Greta's curse worsens as they're having dinner. Her body slowly starts to inflate with juice, as she grows bigger and rounder every hour.

Level Three. You begin to swell up with juice, growing bigger and heavier. Your speed is halved.

Greta is slowly losing her mind to the changes, becoming an anxious mess. Meanwhile, Snex is fascinated, taking the time to carefully observe Greta, poking and prodding her, much to Greta's chagrin.

Rolling Downhill Towards Salvation

On Day 10, there's no encounters.

Just Greta slowly expanding and growing bigger and bigger.

By the end of this day, Greta grows so big that she becomes too heavy for the canoe. They’re forced to continue on foot the following day. Snex and Oguina are now very worried. If they don't find a cure or a temporary fix to Greta's condition...she'll soon explode!

Greta swells until she's almost completely spherical, outgrowing her tent by morning.

Level Four. You swell up even bigger. Your size increases by one level. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws.

On Day 11, the party hustles towards the smoke of campfires, as a pack of quetzelcoterasauruses swoop at them from the sky. If they're not quick, they're going to get picked off one by one.

But Greta is enormous and round, having to be rolled just to get her to move!

Miraculously, the way to the nearby fort is downhill...and Oguina gets an idea.

They survive the encounter with the flying dinosaurs by rolling atop of Greta and using her a ball to roll down the hill all the way to Camp Vengeance! They collide with its crude wooden palisades, avoiding the sharp defensive spikes but damaging the wall somewhat with Greta's gigantic bulk!

It turns out this fort, Camp Vengeance, is run by soldiers of the Order of the Gauntlet, a knightly order from the Sword Coast. At first the characters think that they’re saved, but they are refused entrance to the camp by its leader, a viscous woman named Commander Nila Breakbone, who says that they clearly all carry the Blue Curse, and should all be put to death to avoid spreading the curse!

Suddenly the trio find themselves surrounded by sick and weary soldiers of the Order Of The Gauntlet, about to be captured!

And that's where the session ended.

Next week, we'll see how our heroes get out of this particular scrape!