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Sisyphean Attempts at Self-Improvement #1097366 added September 14, 2025 at 4:02pm
Restrictions: None
Homeward Bound
During the week-long trek home to Armore, you have two notable encounters. First, as you traversed a low mountain road with mysterious gusts of wind, you ran into a full-grown chimera who emerged from its cave to attack, breathing fire and cutting off the path behind you. Antonio gets in a couple of good shots with his bow and magic missiles before Big-D and Big-E attempt a double-jump, just barely missing a grapple. Thogun casts an Incite Greed spell which captivates the chimera’s attention and draws it within ten feet of him. Everyone holds their actions until Big-E successfully pulls off the double-jump maneuver for the second time and successfully grapples the hovering chimera and pumps a Divine Smite into it, thus breaking the charmed condition on the chimera. Reggie also grapples the beast from the ground and holds it steady while everyone unloads their held actions, and Thogun downs it with a final Inflict Wounds spell, dropping the mythical beast’s carcass directly onto Reggie.
Big-E and Reggie investigate the chimera’s lair where they find a small treasure hoard offering up roughly 1,000 gold apiece, and Big-E tries to convince Reggie that there’s a magical door in a completely unremarkable section of the cave wall. You then hitch the remains of the chimera to Big-D and drag it along on your journey, which next brings you to a tiny village whose tavern is hosting a single-elimination karaoke competition. Antonio watches from the sidelines while Reggie and Thogun both advance in the quarterfinals to face off against each other in the semis. On the other side of the bracket, Big-E advances through the quarterfinals only to fall to a dark horse competitor in the semis.
Reggie knocks Thogun out in their semifinal face-off by taking advantage of many of his runes and tactical abilities, and is victorious after Thogun’s Deafness spell fails to land. Reggie goes on to beat the dark-horse local and win the competition, for which the bartender Sera offers him a magical ring with three diamonds on it, one cracked. Sera offers you all free food and lodging for competing in the contest, and you have the best night’s sleep you’ve had in ages. But you wake up to find yourselves in a roadside campsite with the town nowhere in sight. You’re in the same location, the town is just... gone. Now it’s just you and your chimera corpse. And the ring that Reggie won in the previous night’s contest.
Arriving in Armore, Reggie, Thogun, and Antonio immediately recall the years they spent growing up in this sleepy little hamlet. At the orphanage where Reggie and Tho first met, you discover that it’s boarded up, with a sign nailed to the door stating that The Little Miracles Home for Orphans, Bastards, Urchins, Reprobates, Degenerates, and Other Wayward Youths has moved to Driscoll. Even so, Reggie is determined to get inside the building...
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484 words
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