The Wunderfauna Arkiv is a one-shot adventure set in the city of Hollin. When the party investigates an attack on the Admiralty brig, they discover a larger, alarming threat to the city.
Thanks to the players, Carrie, Karen, Keith, and Scott!
Gwynnith, Hughe Lane, Roland Gray, and Rowan Hashin investigate a stink bug attack on the Admiralty brig, and they're attacked by scorpionflies there themselves. They discover that Hollin's 7-year stink bug, 11-year lanternfly, 13-year scorpionfly, and 17-year silvermote broods have all emerged this year. Under Lofton, they find the sanctum of the stink bug, lanternfly, and scorpionfly queens - human manifestations of the broods; discover that the queens destroyed Lofton 1,001 years ago; and that the queens are attacking Braddock now. They enlist the gentler silvermote king Barleycorn, and defeat the queens and their bug minions in Braddock's square.
Carrie, Karen, Keith, and Scott reprised their characters from The Far Shore, Rowan Hashin, Gwynnith, Hughe Lane, and Roland Gray, respectively. Carrie and Keith played in the first Far Shore playthrough, and Karen And Scott played in the second, so I introduced the players briefly and they introduced their characters.
Messengers came to the characters' homes, asking for help with an emergency at the Admiralty brig in the shipyards. Going there, they found the brig was in a basement of the Admiralty complex, and they took the stairs down.
The Admiralty brig
While still in the stair (upper right on the map), they saw the first steel door into the brig had been torn off and thrown into a corner of the stairwell, mangled. Entering the brig itself (G1), they saw a few Admiralty officers dead on the floor, and other officers crouched beside them, examining them.
An officer quickly came over to them, introduced himself as Omar, and thanked them for coming. Omar said that when he came to the brig for his shift an hour ago, he found all of the officers and prisoners dead, except one escaped prisoner, Unger. He asked them to investigate the attack and recapture Unger.
They explored further into the brig. G1's west door had been torn from its hinges, just like the east door. They saw dead prisoners in the cells (C1, etc.), but noted that the cell doors hadn't actually been opened. They found a few stink bugs on the floor and found some bite marks on the prisoners' exposed skin, but a Medicine check showed they'd actually died from suffocation.
The party asked about Unger. Omar said that Unger had been imprisoned for two years. Unger never spoke, but a woman Hiral, Gregor the Naturalist, and a young woman Mirabelle visited him and (unsuccessfully) advocated for him. Omar didn't know why Unger had been brought in, but looking in the brig's records, found that Unger was arrested following a complaint at Gregor the Naturalist's house, on the orders of the Admiralty medic Aisha. They went to Unger's cell, C10, and they noticed that the doors into G2 and C10 had also been torn off. They also found a strange chalk mark in Unger's cell: "▢⭘⭘▢".
As they talked in Unger's cell, Omar received a package. Omar opened it, became very pale, and handed it to Roland. Inside, Roland found the head of the Admiralty medic Aisha, and a curious note that he read to the others.
doubletap, verb: to attack (for example, bomb) a facility, wait briefly for rescue workers to arrive, then attack again to kill the rescuers.
▢⭘⭘▢
As Roland finished reading, there was a burst of light and the brig shook. The brig was suddenly filled with swarms of scorpionflies and giant scorpionflies, which attacked the party - they'd been doubletapped.
We learned in The Far Shore that Roland was "alarmed and grossed out" by insects, and he immediately fled the brig and received an inspiration point for roleplaying. Gwynnith, Hughe, and Rowan remained and fought two scorpionfly swarms and three giant scorpionflies while brig officers handled the rest.
Gwynnith jumped out into a front rank to protect the others, but the reduced party struggled, especially Hughe. Gwynnith cast Protection from Poison on herself in Round 1, but she was still poisoned, and had to cure herself with her Paladin Lay On Hands. She ran low on hits, and Hughe cast Cure Wounds on her, but he soon ran low himself and had to flee.
However, they did prevail in six rounds. Gwynnith killed two of the giant scorpionflies, one with a critical from her necrotic sword Nadim, which she described as "massive overkill: it starts to rot as if dead for years, into a puddle of goo." Rowan also killed one with a critical, saying the scorpionfly was "split down the middle, front to end."
While the fight raged, Roland escaped onto Ballard street. He sent his owl familiar Oz to Gregor the Naturalist's house, warning Gregor his house might be attacked and telling him to go to Roland's house. Now with the fight over, the party went to Roland's to find Gregor.
They asked Gregor about the stink bugs and scorpionflies, showing him the specimens they'd found. He was excited to see the specimens and asked if he could have them for his Wunderfauna Arkiv. Gregor said the stink bugs were a 7-year brood, which had emerged this year; and similarly, the scorpionflies were a 13-year brood, which by coincidence had also emerged this year. I believe Keith mentioned that broods were a Hollin thing, and Scott also remembered them, and we discussed the 17-year silvermote brood their characters had encountered before.
They asked Gregor about Unger, and he told them about Unger, Mirabelle, and Aisha.
Gregor says that as a naturalist, he’s in Lofton Forest a few times a week looking for specimens, usually plants. He often talks with Admiralty lumberjacks there, and some of them are amateur naturalists themselves. They keep each other abreast of what’s happening in the forest as the seasons change, and he’s learned a lot from them.
But Gregor says his best leads don’t come from the lumberjacks, but from Mirabelle, a friend who lives in the forest. He first met Mirabelle when she was a young girl, and he was alarmed that she was wandering the wood without any apparent supervision. But Mirabelle said had family in both the forest and Braddock, and she actually seemed to be safer and healthier than the street urchins in Braddock. So he slowly stopped worrying, but he’d still visit her haunts to check up on her, and she knew to come to his house across the bridge if she ever needed anything.
Over the years Mirabelle grew up, and two years ago she did come to Gregor’s house, with some bruises and a hurt arm. Gregor says he stepped out onto Quay Street and scanned the docks for an Admiralty medic, who wear distinctive uniforms. He spotted one, Aisha, and waved her over to the house.
Aisha looked at Mirabelle’s arm and said it was strained. She put ice on it for a little while, then tied it up and told Mirabelle to go easy on it.
Gregor thought that would be it, but Aisha insisted on knowing how Mirabelle was hurt. Mirabelle said for the last few months she’d had her eye on a young man who also lived in the forest, the trapper Unger. One day she found him alone and lured him to a secluded spot. They became amorous, and Unger became too passionate and hurt her arm.
Mirabelle said that as soon as he hurt her, Unger backed off and left, but Aisha wouldn’t have it. Aisha had Admiralty marines and lumberjacks find Unger and bring him to the brig in the shipyards.
Gregor asked them to find Mirabelle, saying she was often in the Glade in Lofton. He gave them a simple necklace that Mirabelle had given him, so she could recognize that they were with Gregor; Roland claimed it.
They long rested at Roland's, and Roland examined the necklace.
Gregor's (Mirabelle's) necklace
The next morning they prepared to head to Lofton to look for Mirabelle. Wary of more bugs, they visited Chambers the Apothecary to buy antivenom. Chambers sold them his deluxe antivenom, which protected against stink bug effects in addition to poison, for the price of standard antivenom. They asked for bug repellant, and Chambers said his old formulary might have such a thing, and asked them to check back the next day.
The Mooncalf was on their way to Lofton, so they decided to stop there and talk with Hiral, who lived there.
Roland had the Diplomat feat via his Quite Flattering Broach, but he still failed his Persuasion rolls with Hiral and didn't get much information from her. But, she did tell them that she was Unger's half-aunt and Mirabelle's half-sister, and that Unger lived in Lofton near the Glade, in a cave with a stream flowing out of the mouth.
They also tried to see what might be relevant in her apartment, and did notice a craft table with some jewelry on it, but didn't ask about it.
The party went to the Glade in Lofton to look for Mirabelle, but they only found an old man relaxing on a bench there.
They talked with him, and he said he was there enjoying the summer solstice, which was when the broods were most active. They asked if there was anything special about this solstice, and he enthusiastically said yes - the 7-year stink bug, 11-year lanternfly, 13-year scorpionfly, and 17-year silvermote broods all emerged in the same year, which only happens once every 17,017 years. They asked if he was afraid to be in Lofton with the broods, but he said no, they gave him energy.
They asked him about Mirabelle and Unger. He said he had never met Mirabelle, since he was in Hollin only rarely, but knew of her and was looking forward to meeting her. He said he had never met Unger. His comment that he was in Hollin only rarely prompted Karen to note that Unger had been in prison for two years.
Roland's owl Oz scouted overhead while the party talked with the old man, and he found a stream flowing out of a cave's mouth like Hiral had described. Going there and going inside, they found that the stream issued from a spring in the middle of the cave, with a vacant three-person campsite nearby. A dense forest of trees with green leaves filled the cave.
Unger's cave
They immediately questioned how a cave could have trees without sunlight. Roland closely inspected one tree, and realized that the trunks of the trees weren't wood, but were expertly carved from the rock of the cave; and that the leaves weren't leaves at all, but a swarm of leaf insects. Roland screamed, which caused the leaf insects to swarm and fly out through the mouth of the cave.
With the "leaves" gone, the party could now see another opening at the cave's southeast point, opposite the northwest point they'd come in. They went in, with Oz scouting ahead, and found a beautifully crafted hall.
The brood queens' sanctum
When Oz reached room 5, he could hear two women talking, with one apologizing that she couldn't release the other "from the cage."
The party ran down to 5. On the floor, they saw the strange marking from Unger's cell in the brig and the "doubletap" letter, ▢⭘⭘▢. Above the doors to 3, 4, and 6, they saw stylized carvings of a stink bug, lanternfly, and scorpionfly, respectively.
They ran into 6, where they found Hiral crouched beside a cage with a young woman inside - Mirabelle. Gwynnith immediately accused her of lying to the party, but Hiral straightened up and said defiantly that she didn't owe the party anything, and I reminded them how badly they'd failed their Persuasion checks in Hiral's apartment. She said that Mirabelle had been captured by the queens of the stink bug, lanternfly, and scorpionfly broods - Mamba, Sable, and Raven, respectively - and that they were human-like manifestations of the broods. She said the queens had destroyed Lofton the last time they all appeared together, 1,001 years ago, and that they had gone to Braddock to destroy Hollin now in revenge for Unger's imprisonment. She urged them to run to Braddock and stop them.
Roland lockpicked Mirabelle's cage, and she urged them to ask the silvermote king Barleycorn for help - the old man from the Glade. The party hurried back to the Glade and Persuaded Barleycorn to help them.
The party and Barleycorn hurried to Braddock's market square, where the queens and their bug minions were already attacking. They fought the three queens, a giant stink bug, and a giant lanternfly, while the three broods spread out to attack the city.
Gwynnith and Hughe fought together, attacking Sable and Raven. Gwynnith hit Sable with her Divine Smite twice, describing the Smite as her weapon "glowing and burning," and we discussed how her sword could do both Divine Smite damage and necrotic critical damage. Gwynnith beat Sable, with Karen saying, "energy comes from her sword and superheats her own bioluminescent goo and burns her out from the inside." She used her level 2 Divine Smite on Raven, defeating her and saying "big old lightning from the sky comes down and blows her up."
Rowan defeated Mamba with her sneak attack and her Blade of Inflict Wounds, saying that Mamba was "skewered and carried back with the force of the blow right into the ground," or had her head lopped off, or both. After beating Mamba, Rowan claimed her Brood Staff.
Mamba's Brood Staff
A polished hardwood staff with a stylized stink bug carved into the end.
Once per day, the bearer can do one of:
In addition:
The bearer can use the abilities without necessarily wielding the staff.
With the queens defeated, the party finished up the giant lanternbug and the giant stink bug and the three swarms dissipated. Although the queens were beaten, Barleycorn said they could return when their respective broods emerged again, then left the square to find Mirabelle.
The party returned to Chambers's shop the next day, and he gave them each Chambers's Bug and Troll Repellent.
Chambers's Bug and Troll Repellent
A blue atomizer, which smells of bog-myrtle, catnip, and garlic. The tag reads:
"Chambers’s Bug and Troll Repellent is not a substitute for following proper avoidance safety techniques. Chambers’s Bug and Troll Repellent should be used as a deterrent only in an aggressive or attacking confrontation. Chambers’s Bug and Troll Repellent may attract brownies.”
The bearer can cast Sanctuary against insects or troll attacks. The Repellent can be used as a free action or as a reaction to an attack, which brings up Sanctuary before the triggering attack.
Chambers said that the four potions exhausted his supply of bog-myrtle, and he asked them to bring him any bog-myrtle they found in their travels.
Here are Scott's player notes from the game.
After the game, Keith used an AI generator to make a fantastic image of Raven.
Although the game is called "Gregor the Naturalist's Marvelous Wunderfauna Arkiv," the party never saw the Arkiv because they met Gregor at Roland's house.
Karen pointed out that the party never found Unger. The game included an optional fight with Unger and his parents at the cave campsite, but I skipped it because we were running long. We decided that Mirabelle and Unger would reunite after the game.
"▢⭘⭘▢" is code for the three queens' broods emerging together, which happens every 1,001 years.