The Thirtieth Session

September 5, 2020, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

Last session

We've made it to the Day's Catch Inn in the town of Malcolm's Wharf.

In Malcolm's Landing

Salris is the last one to enter the Inn, and as he's entering, he sees Rezzik Brazzik across the street: a stocky Dwarf who gave Salris his contracts, who we thought we might've killed. He faded away when he was "killed", and revealed himself as a Greater Demon.

Salris and Rezzik

Salris doesn't enter the bar, and instead follows Rezzik. Rezzik notices, and continues walking away. Salris follows him for more time, and Rezzik begins to pick up his pace.

Rezzik turns a corner, Salris about 60 feet behind him. Salris pops Invisibility and turns the corner as well.

Rezzik Brazzik is 200 feet away and accelerating, and as Salris dashes after him, Salris falls behind. He still continues to follow, though.

Rezzik begins to slow and turns into another alley. Salris keeps following, 250 feet behind, and once he rounds the corner, he doesn't see Rezzik.

The Party sends a message

Meanwhile, back in the bar, everyone looks around and is somewhat confused, because Salris was right behind us.

Zelrathi reads his books, and contemplates where he will need to be during the next eclipse.

Salris, still invisible, pulls out a chair, sits down, and drops his invisibility before waving down the server.

Bugfood, to maintain parity, casts Invisibility himself.

Jerry tells Moon about her backstory: how she lost all the people under her command, and what she did. Moon asks after locations and such; Jerry talks instead about how she responded to the moral weight of having lost the people who were under her command, who were her responsibility, through no fault of her own. Moon quiets down some, and Jerry gets the sense that this is still fresh in her mind, though she is listening.

Ryltar asks if anyone has anything pressing that needs to be taken care of.

• Jerry hasn't.
• Salris doesn't have anything.
• Zelrathi needs to find a willow-bark tree: "The wound will open in a willow's shade."

We ask about this need and the wound; it's mentioned in the book but might be relevant to Zelrathi's personal prophecies. He needs to be there during the eclipse, and since the book is written in Elvish, it's probably a place tangential to the Ice Lord. And there's "a mountain cast in shadow" in Zelrathi's personal prophecy, which is in the middle of the ocean.

The matter of the Ice Lord's missing tower makes us wonder if the "mountain" was his tower, in the middle of the lake. And there were trees "down, down, down" underground in the catacombs in the tower.

Moon pipes up: "Dirius is not the sort to sit idly by and let people walk away with her prize.

We discuss other possible locations for the mountain, but it will really require knowledge of the eclipse. We'd need to talk to Guy, in Sky Diamond Academy, which is very far away. We have a long-distance Send spell cypher that can be used to talk to Guy, but it's somewhat limited: one minute's speech, one-way, with no reply from him.

Zelrathi knows that he needs to "release the traitor's curse of howling might/and guide the fallen star to sister's light." He wants to keep the cypher for a more-important time.

Salris suggests that "the stars disappearing from the sky" might include the sun being stolen during the eclipse. An eclipse would be an excellent time for some unnamed thief to steal the star: the perfect heist.

But while we're waiting for Guy to reply, what would we do?

Well, Zelrathi and Salris need spellcasting components, so let's go to Quaddroads, and then if there's no idea about what else is needed to do, we could go to the missing library in the northern desert.

While we're drafting the message, Moon says that Sky Diamond Academy is "safe" now, and that we don't need to worry about it. She got rid of all the Battle Locusts. She doesn't say how it's "safe" and we're on edge about her unwillingness to elaborate.

So we decide to send Guy:

• info from the book about eclipses and timing
• we still don't know anything about the missing star
• and ask him to reply if he can.

We ask the barkeep what the lake's name is; she tells us.

We're worried about anyone spying on us here in the inn; but there's no one who seems to be paying too much attention. Ryltar bribes the barkeep with 10 gold to not remember that we were here.

Hi Guy! It's Jerry Falone. There's an eclipse coming within a year, according to a book written by the Ice Lord of Storm's Eye. We suspect it's focused around Malcolm's Lake, at Malcolm's Landing south of Quadroads. We don't know anything new about the missing star. Bugfood wants to know if you've seen any clouds; what shapes are they in? How are things at Sky Diamond? Moon has joined our party. Reply to us directly if you can; otherwise, we're heading to Quadroads.

And then we all go to bed.

Bugfood's dream

The same dream: running across the woods, coming to the stream, the small town across the stream. Staring into the water, blood pooling around him, staring into his reflection to see his eyes of different colors. Hearing the word, but never recalling it, struggling to remember it but failing.

And now he hears a female voice, yelling the word, but now he hears it as a whisper: "Brother!"

He wakes up, and remembers. He doesn't tell anyone.

Off to Quadroads

Breakfast is kinda blah; Bugfood's Druidcraft predicts rain.

In the morning, Jerry hears an ethereal voice, like Jerry's voice.

Right, yes, Ice Lord. That said, I was hoping for more information about the star. Clouds? Unicorns, swords. Sky Diamond is fine. Moon? Why?

Jerry can reply in 25 words or less. She says:

Drow expedition to Storm's Eye, Moon disguised. Dirius probably maddened, we abandoned them. Ice Lord chart hasn't Abraxes. Quadroads shopping. Please recommend quests. Thanks.

Breakfast is blood sausages. Jerry tells Bugfood about the clouds; he is worried.

Should we use Bugfood's spell slots of Summon Woodland Creature to ride horses, or should we rent horses?

Bugfood conjures 8 horses, 7 for us to ride and 1 as a packhorse.

Travel Day 1: The Phantom Roc

As we start off the day's travel, the clouds begin to rain. It's stormy and miserable; the first hour passes uneventfully. The summoned horses disappear and Bugfood resummons them. Uneventful. We walk for an hour, and the rain ceases. Then we resummon horses for an hour, and finally walk to sunset.

We arrive at the edge of the forest, which seems to be an okay place to camp.

Bugfood casts Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow, and we set up watches for the night. In the second watch, Ryltar and Zelrathi see a large bird flying, a shadow off in the distance. Zelrathi tells Ryltar of stories he's heard of giant birds that hunt at night, as long as a horse and many times as wide.

Zelrathi tells Jerry; she's heard of them in tales. No one really survives Roc attacks. Wingspan up to 200 feet. They hunt by snatching and grabbing.

Travel Day 2: Attack of the Treents

The next day, we travel on foot. Bugfood takes the form of a Panther, and chases rabbits rather than eating rations. He follows a rabbit and attacks it, but misses. He's then hit in the side by a tree, dealing enough damage to knock him out of panther shape, and then the tree punches him again for more damage.

1. Round 1: There are trees attacking? And they wake each other up.
   1. Vurguron moves 30 feet towards Bugfood, pulls out his crossbow, and shoots at Tree #2, but misses.
   2. Bugfood walks away from Tree #1, then Conjures Woodland Being for two quicklings, which he tells to attack. Each quickling makes three knife attacks on the tree. The first misses its first attack, then lands one normal and one critical hit, and the third makes three successful attacks. The quicklings' shivs don't do much damage to the tree.
   3. Tree #1 pummels Bugfood for 13 bludgeoning, and then misses a quickling.
   4. Tree #2 wakes up and stretches its arms out, waking up Tree #3 next to Vurguron and Tree #4.
   5. Jerry moves 40 feet towards Tree #2, casts HUnter's Mark, throws a flask of oil at it, followed by a lit torch, for 4d6 = 12 fire damage. The tree flinches.
   6. Salris advances to Tree #3 and casts something on it that does 26 damage and frightens it until its next turn.
   7. Ryltar casts Fairy Fire on Bugfood and Trees #1 and #2.
2. Round 2.
   1. Vurguron drops his crossbow, casts Shadow Blade, advances on the tree, and chops at it for some.
   2. Bugfood casts Inflict Wounds as a fourth-level spell, dealing 7d10 = 35 necrotic to Tree #1, then Balm of the Summer Court to himself for 11 health and 3 temporary HP.
   3. The quicklings deal 18 and 23 piercing to Tree #1.
   4. Tree #1 punches Bugfood and the quickling, hitting Bugfood for 17 and missing the quick quickling.
   5. Tree #2 picks up its roots, walks over to Jerry, and punches her twice for 17 and 19 bludgeoning damage.
   6. Moon is still lost in thought.
   7. Tree #3 punches Salris, hitting once.
   8. Tree #4 advances on Vurguron and hits him for a little damage.
   9. Jerry's burning oil deals 8 damage to tree #2. She knows that these trees are made of wood, they're plants, and fire and chopping is best. She misses her first attack and then cuts it for 15, then runs the fuck away.
   10. Zelrathi moves back behind Jerry again, and the he unloads on Tree #1 who she still has advantage on. With a Eldritch Blast and Eldritch Blast and Quickened Firebolt, he does 10 + 8 + 2 = 20 damage.
   11. Salris cuts Tree #3 twice with his pact khopesh, critting twice, dealing 28 and 28 damage: 56 total, tearing chunks from the tree.
   12. Ryltar casts Ice Storm on Tree #1, for 3 bludgeoning and 14 cold.
   13. Moon, seeing Firebolt work, casts Firebolt on Tree #2, and hits for some useful damage.
3. Round 3
   1. Vurguron attacks Tree #3 twice for some psychic damage, hitting and missing. The tree is barely alive anymore.
   2. Bugfood casts Inflict Wounds at third level on Tree #1, reaching into its heartwood, grabbing its center and draining the last of the life from the tree. He points at Tree #4 and sics the quicklings on it. That's 5 piercing attacks dealing a total of 45 piercing to the tree.
   3. Tree #4 swings at each quickling, missing one and smearing the other into paste.
   4. Tree #2 runs up to Jerry, and punches her twice for a total of 32 damage.
   5. Tree #3 punches Salris some.
   6. Jerry recasts Hunter's Mark on Tree #2 and deals 14 slashing damage, taking a decent whack at this flaming corpse of a tree. It crumbles into ash, and trees #3 and #4 lose their animating force, sinking back into normal trees.

Jerry kicks dirt onto the ashes of the flaming tree, dousing its flames. "And from this, we've learned that you don't go running off into the woods," says Jerry. Bugfood takes the form of a panther to run away, and Jerry grabs him by the neck for a moment before he slips her grasp, and then spends the rest of his time running around the party.

The village of Quarary: Return of the Drow

We see the smoke of a village ahead. The village is brick-built. And there's a train of people coming into town from the North: another Drow expedition, perhaps the group that was left behind at Leen, the group that we were going to meet back up with. Bugfood, Salris, and Moon Disguise Self as humans.

Jerry, Ryltar, Vurguron, Zelrathi and Moon decide to camp outside of town.

On the wall of the town is a sign saying, "Welcome to Quarary". Salris and Bugfood skulk off into town in human form: Seamus and Jorgensen Waterbird wander through the town, hanging near the edges of the Drow party. Posing as a couple, they banter with a headstone dealer, debating whether the stones match Bugfood's eyes, asking if there's a layaway plan. The lead Drow woman approaches and Salris steers the conversation towards more-normal topics; the Drow lady walks past without deviating. She's watching, scanning, looking.

Outside the town, Jerry casts Pass without Trace on the Party, as they set up camp.

Bugfood and Salris determine that the Drow party are on high alert, looking for lodging and material goods and supplies. They're not looking at the crowd.

Bugfood and Salris eventually duck into a side alley. Bugfood goes invisible; Salris changes his face again and returns to the main street. Bugfood takes the shape of a wildcat. Eventually they leave town and meet back up with the rest of the party.

Their estimation is that the Drow party are collecting supplies, perhaps for a rescue plan. They're also looking for lodging, but maybe not long-term.

We decide to move to the north side of town, to avoid the Drow party's potential paths, Jerry casts Pass without Trace again, and the party moves around to the north side. Most of the Drow expedition is setting up tents on the North side of town. We go further north for an hour, out of site of the town, and Bugfood casts Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow, to hide our fire and give +5 to Stealth and Perception checks.

Zelrathi fails his Perception checks for the night. He spends too much time looking for Rocs. In the second watch of the night, a small patrol of Drow get within 250 feet of our shelter, but turn back.

The rest of the night passes uneventfully.

Next session

• North along the main road, to Quadroads
• Will we see Rezzik Brazzik again?
• Jerry's ongoing therapy and leadership lessons for Moon
• What's the aboveground Drow expedition up to?