Mission: In Vino Obscuras

The party set out to find the missing villagers Lesli, Nelly, and Chelsee along with a missing crate of wine. The three villagers partook in some secret sampling which caused oozing boils to cover their bodies. The three were eventually found, along with experiments of ooze-humanoid hybrids. The villagers were returned to town and locked up; a former chateau worker (Jaspero) returned to town with the party; the wine was put in tighter security; and more research is being put into Juiblex and the strange experiments.

In Vino Obscuras (by Rheinhart)
I had just returned from the northern woods when the call went out to search for three missing persons that may or may not have a connection to a missing crate of wine recovered from that accursed vineyard. My old pal Chappy the Chagrined, the acrobatic Akame (who has been practicing trick shots with that bow of hers!), and The Enigmatic Touch, saviour and priest of the goddess Hestia also answered this particular call.

The Touch discovered 3 sets of tracks out of the cave where the wine was taken and it did not look good for our missing trio as it looked like they were indeed the wine thieves. Lesli, Nelly, and Chelsee and a missing crate of wine from an accursed vineyard whose basement contained a shring to some “bad juju” named Jubilex. Oh, and by the by, Jubilex is the Demon Lord of Oozes, also known as The Faceless One. That tidbit will be relevant.

The first night we camped in that small cave where a few of us slew a great big mame bear. Spent the night remembering that day, but we met up with Lesli, who looks in bad shape with mushroom-like boils festering over half his body. Turns out our trio had sampled the wine as they felt overworked and under-appreciated. So they helped themselves to some wine, which quickly drove them to madness. Lesli said he only had a sip and therefore was less affected by the madness and decided to avoid trouble by leading the others away and out of town. They got as far as this cave and that’s when the other two ran off spouting something about “heeding the call” and promptly headed in the direction of the cursed vineyard. Chappy was visibly distressed at the thought of going back. The others who had been there before were also not thrilled.

As a form of penance, I made Lesli come with us and carry the half crate that was left of the unfinished wine. Some thought to destroy the wine on the spot, but I still think the wine itself can help provide some hint on how to cure them. Like how snake poison can be used to help distill anti-toxins. Once we arrived at the vineyard, however, we had Lesli wait for us by the entrance to the estate rather than walk unarmed into probable danger with the rest of us.

Inside the well, the others discovered that an illusion was placed in it to obscure the ladder hidden within it. After a bit of rope and spike use, we managed to lower everyone down to the ladder and then to the bottom of the well. A vast, underground cistern and sewer system was down here. Lanterns and torches were lit and we skulked about looking for our lost villagers Nelly and Chelsee. Most of what we found were undead zombies with similar boils and various colored acids that spewed forth whenever you struck them. The fluids usually burned like acid, but some would harden as if encasing you in stone.

We eventually found Chelsee and Nelly and even this old farm hand that used to work the fields of this very vineyard hidden away behind a vast door, named Jaspero whom we convinced to come back to Farhaven with us. Apparently the zombies were puppets controlled by… I don’t know… blobs? Oozes? Slimes? I think the others referred to them as “oozes” but all the names suit them. We witnessed a pink ooze schop down onto an unmoving zombie, afterwards it “woke up” and started attacking us. That particular one gave me a small blemish on my right cheek near my jawline as we killed it and all manner of burning slime sprayed out all around it. If it weren’t for Nelly and Akame being right there, I may have succumbed to the pain. But if they could withstand the burns, I could too!

It was a tough choice on whether or not to bring every one of our missing trio back to Farhaven with us as we did not find any cure for them and we saw what they will likely eventually all become. But I have hope that we may still find a way to help them out before we are forced to deal with that ugly truth. I hope and pray that we can save them, yet. Alice has placed the remaining wine in tighter security in the meantime and more people are investigating Jubilex and the weird experiments that were going on over at the chateau.

Wine Country (by Chappy)
I'll admit, I was more than nervous to go out on this adventure. I knew the missing wine and campers would somehow take me back to the Chateau...the place I died. But I've also been taught tis best to face your fears.

Also, I needed new material for song I've been working on... Anywho, We, The Touch, Rheinhart, Akame and I started by taking a look at where the missing wine was stored. The Touch, though senile as hell, still has great senses and spotted some tracks we followed.

With a short stop at the bear cave in the north (no cobs left) we met up with one of the missing campers. He had some green stuff growig on him that we suspect hs something to do with the wine he drank. He said the others drank a lot more and hes very worried about them.

We headed back to the chateau, the only logical place. The well in the back had some sort of illusion that was not there before. And i ventured in down below. Theere was a secret passage! We all entered into what was a maze of sewers and aqueducts.

We found more writings and scribblings about Juiblex and he has to be linked to this somehow. I was told he's some demonlord of oozes, whatever that means. We founf the other two campers that were missing, in different stages of green goo growing and taking hold of their brains.

One such was Chelsee. We almost decided to put him down as the risk of spreading the infection is too great. But we didn't. We returned with all three, though Chelsee was chained up. As well we returned with an old man named Jaspero Scissorwick, that had beenliving down there for years.

He holed himself up and had some stores of food that by now for sure were ritten. He's lucky we found him. And I am too. I have faced my fear of death and I have survived. My only hope now is that someone may learn how to cure these three infected, before it's too late.