Wildare hires the Homeshard Heroes to accompany him on his new
voidship, the Polywog, as it travels back home with a secret cargo he calls the “Fruits of Debauchery.”
The Polywog is ambushed by
Wyrmslugs led by faceless hags as it navigated through an asteroid field of small shards.
The Polywog is crippled. With Kip's help, Psithuris is barely able to land it on a nearby Fey Shard before it comes apart.
The hold is breached and fresh, bright oranges meant for “adults only” in
Flaygallows spill out. Wildare is ashamed.
The Polywog is a total loss–unable to venture out into the void again–leaving the party stranded on this shard named the Painted Jungle.
This shard features a ruined palace, a waterfall down to a clearing in a thick, colorful jungle, and finally a barren area filled with crystal elements and a far cave.
The Homeshard Heroes see some pygmy dinosaurs frolicking below them in a field by a waterfall. They begin to feed them oranges which they gulp down with gusto.
Wyrmslugs emerge from the jungle and wrestle one of the one-hundred pound pygmy dinosaurs to the ground to kidnap it. Kip and Reed spring into action! Kip mounts Reed in lion form and casts Feather Fall on them as they jump down from the top of the waterfall. While riding Reed bareback at full sprint, Kip shoots the demons swarming the pygmy dinosaur with three well-placed Scorching Rays, turning the demons made flesh into just smoldering flesh before Reed and Kip reached the downed dinosaur!
Kip adopts the small brontosaurus who was attacked, naming her “Tim.” She begins to follow him everywhere.
The party breaks up to search the shard. Myrrha and Inari ride Reed bareback to investigate the crystal fields and cave while Psithuris, Balia, and Kip search the jungle for more
Wyrmslugs.
Reed realizes just in time that the crystals are a lure–this entire section of the shard nothing more than a crystalline mimic colony! Reed turns tail and sprints away just in time to prevent he and his passengers from being enveloped by the crystalline cave mouth! The titanic beast striking at the heroes shakes the entire shard.
The others encounter an abandoned Wyrmslug origin pit where cute, helpless pygmy dinosaurs were hung to bleed out and complete the dark ritual that creates more of their spawn. The heroes theorize that perhaps these evil beings are about to create a new “batch” from the remaining pygmy dinos.
The Homeshard Heroes resolve to somehow get all the dinos and their eggs off this shard before it becomes a breeding ground for more Wyrmslugs. However, to do that they need to find a way back across the Aether.
The party investigates the palace. They find a monument identifying it as once belonging to an Eladrin named Prince Gregarious.
Inside, they find all sorts of decorations made from the corpses of the court and servants of Gregarious.
Kip begins drinking, picking up a flagon made from a servant's skull.
Reed uses the Moonbeam spell to sear a horde of Wyrmslugs and a hag as they fly in on a fancy, Elven
voidship. The voidship is small and maneuverable, but is very fragile and unarmed.
As the heroes fight, they hear a disembodied voice who identifies himself as Tetaro Ten-Tails. Inari seeks him out, looking for the source of the voice.
As the heroes turn the tables on the Wyrmslugs and their hag mistress, Tetaro reveals himself. He had secretly replaced “Tim” the dinosaur! He prepares to inflict horrible magic on the party turning them against one another for his amusement.
Once Tetaro Ten-Tails is revealed the heroes burn him down with a multi-inspired Guiding Bolt and a backstab from Inari FTW!
The heroes give Kip control of the voidship, and they complete their voyage to Flaygallows. After a few more trips, all the tiny dinos that populated the shard of the Painted Jungle have been rescued and now live with Psithuris on his dino ranch.
Each of the Homeshard Heroes are tasked with hatching and raising three pygmy dino eggs as pets. There are tiny brontosaurus, parasaurolophus, stegosaurus, dimetrodon, and even one triceratops. None of these animals will ever be as terrible and intimidating as their full-grown counterparts, but they are all very cute and snuggly.