The Party continues snooping upon Majorie's Tribe, and eventually confronts her. We are introduced to the tribe, and the Speaker, and learn of the mysteries of the forest. The tribe are eating poison all the time, but aren't harmed because they're Touched By The Forest. They do this to prevent the spread of the forest's corruption, when the Assassin killed the mother of the forest, leaving behind the Ancient Elm and the Assassin's Tears.
We find Majorie's "tribe" among the warty trees, where they cut the warts off the trees and eat them like apples. The warts have a consistency like a s'more, with layers like an onion. The trees in the vicinity of the warts are squishy, rubbery.
The Tribe spends all night staring up at the sky, not sleeping, but maybe somehow resting?
In the Morning
We examine the forest. The trees' leaves stretch a little as they are pulled off the tree. They're jungle trees, set for this environment. We examine a leaf; the rubberiness isn't native to the trees. But the trees seem healthy.
Ryltar casts Detect Magic, looks around: there's a faint ambient magic. A slight orange tint everywhere, a tint of transmutation.
We stealthily follow the tribe back to their village, and watch them eat. They do their morning errands; they assign tasks. Majorie groups up with four other tribefolk and head away from the village, taking a new trail opposite from the clearing. We decide to follow her group, and cast Pass Without Trace. Salris Disguises Self as a member of the group.
They go to a berry bush thicket and start picking. They look like blackberries. Two of the group stay to pick; the other three move on. Majorie is one of the two who stay. She picks the berries closer to the ground. The other member picks higher in the trees. He is jumping to get berries; eventually he stops jumping and his arm stretches, grows hairy. He's a werebear, and using that hybrid transformation to get at the higher berries.
So rather than speaking to Majorie when she's on the opposite side of the thicket, we elect to wait. Wererats are skittery, projecting their ratlike existence upon their human existence. Werebears are more selective, careful in who they turn. They might even be civilized. It's been about eight months since we fought the were-rat guards that turned out to be employees of the West Haven.
They continue picking berries for about 15 minutes, and move further away from each other, getting to other berries in the thicket.
We have a hushed discussion about how to contact Majorie; we learn that Ryltar has Message as a cantrip and Salris has Modify Memory. We discuss things that Jerry might ask Majorie, through Ryltar. Jerry settles on: "Hush, daughter. We're in the area; are the werebears your tribe?"
Majorie settles into another bush, 180 feet from us. Ryltar and Jerry sneak forward into the 12-foot range of Message, and.
The Conversation With Majorie
Majorie: Hello. Who is this?
Ryltar: Ryltar, your mother's traveling companion.
Majorie asks why we don't reveal ourselves, so she can show us to the tribe.
Ryltar: "The aura of transmutation magic is amiss."
Majorie shouts to Fernard, "Have you heard of a transmutation aura?" She asides to Ryltar, "What did you call it?"
Ryltar doesn't reply.
Fernard comes over and talks with Majorie. We listen in. And then Majorie calls out, "Ryltar?"
Jerry casts Silence, stands up, and walks over to Majorie and Fernard, and facepalms. Majorie walks over to hug her mother. Tries to speak to her mother. Fernard is confused by the silence. Ryltar notices that Fernard has noticed Jerry.
Jerry pulls out her book, writes a message of her concern about the group's weirdness, the flesh of the trees.
Majorie writes back that she's okay. That the flesh of the trees is sustenance. That they get enough sleep. That the trees of the forest get their rest without sleep, and so do they.
Jerry: Why the trees? Why here?
Majorie: ?
Jerry: How did you come to be here, with this group?
Majorie: long story
Jerry: There are so many red flags here
Majorie: Then let me explain and show you.
Jerry: … We just finished killing a Fey who tried to charm people. We're not going to do that.
Table talk: We've got trust issues. Lycanthropes - we trust them, they attack us, we kill them, we're fined for killing them.
Ryltar watches Majorie and Jerry. Salris watches Fernard, who's still trying to figure out what's going on. They stand up and wave.
Majorie: Oh.
Jerry: I'm not saying that I don't Things are weird.
Ryltar walks forward, and as he gets within 40 feet, Fernard notices. Fernard points to Jerry, Ryltar raises his hands. Salris stays back, still waving. Fernard waves. Vurguron walks forward.
Jerry: How do I know that you're not under a spell or a curse.
Majorie: I am not under a spell or curse.
Jerry: That's what someone who is under a spell or curse would say.
Salris borrows the book, writes: Remove Curse?
Jerry offers the book to Majorie.
Majorie: How would someone who is not cursed respond if asked?
Ryltar casts Detect Magic subtly, within the cone of Silence, and he sees the sphere of silence. And the grey-orange of the lycanthropic curse within Fernard. And a faint trace, a faint orange around Majorie. He borrows the book: Are you afflicted as well?
Majorie: No
Jerry: Why did you ask that?
Salris goes over to interview Fernard about his name and stuff. He's Half-elven.
Ryltar: She shares the same transmutation aura with the forest. (He writes this on its own piece of paper, and shows it only to Jerry.)
Jerry, to Majorie: What did the people who brought you here tell you about the forest?
Majorie: It could save me?
Jerry: Save you from what?
Majorie: Strife, injury, death.
Tabletalk: Jerry presses X to doubt
Jerry: Yeah, I hear that from every streetcorner preacher. Be more specific.
Majorie: I can show you
Salris thinks Fernard seems nice, gives the thumbs up of good vibes.
Jerry intensely frowns. She's very frustrated.
Majorie: Are you okay?
Salris to Fernard: Do you know where we are?
Fernard: The Kulahar Wilds.
Ryltar is worried that the Tribe might have been tricked into going someplace else. He worries that this might be the Fey Wilds or the Fey Realms. He knows that we've met Fey creatures before, like Grat. Travel between the planes is possible. And once we were Teleported by the painting, we may have wandered into the Fey Wild. There's a section of the Fey Realm which is known as the Fey Dark, a more-twisted version: Hags, Lycans, the nasty sorts of Fey who destroy and corrupt. But with his knowledge of religion, he knows that we're not in the Fey Wilds.
Ryltar casts Detect Magic as a ritual and goes to go poke transmutation-orange things with a knife. Neither Fernard nor Majorie have magical items on them.
Salris to Fernard: Are you content with your affliction?
Fernard: Yep. It's helpful.
So Salris doesn't remove the curse.
Jerry: My daughter disappears across the continent, leaving no note, with a group no one has heard of, to a place way out in the middle of nowhere, with no one she knows, abandoning her commitments in the West Haven, abandoning the Militia, abandoning her mentors, abandoning her bow
Something is not right.
Majorie: I found my calling
Jerry: What is your calling
Majorie: To protect this forest
Jerry: Why this forest
Majorie: Because it needs protecting
Jerry: What makes this forest unique, compared to any other forest
Ryltar discovers that the trees' sap is purplish, and the purple-black berries' insides are also purple-black. But the berries don't have magical essence in them. The tree warts are.
Majorie: This one, I can help save
Jerry: What threat is there to this forest that does not apply to any other forest?
Majorie: The Assassin's Tears.
Jerry: ?
Majorie smiles and shrugs, writes: The Speaker knows more than me
Jerry's casting of Silence is fading.
Ryltar pulls Salris aside. Salris says, "This guy is really cool." Ryltar: "The trees are wrong." He wanders to look at the baskets, and there's two different colors of berries, white and black. He recognizes the white berry as mistletoe. The black berry is nightshade.
Jerry scrawls, "The Assassin's Tears is a threat to the forest?" and hands it off to Salris and Ryltar. They discuss it.
Jerry lets Silence lapse, and the first words out of her mouth are: "I don't trust your Speaker."
Salris and Ryltar discuss how they don't trust people who don't sleep.
Majorie: "I found clarity when I was injured. They nursed me back to health."
"Why didn't the West Haven do that?"
"Because half of them died as well."
"Half of the West Haven?"
"We were sent to search to the north. Ambushed. We were barely able to limp away. I didn't know what was happening."
"Caught underneath of what?"
"We call it 'The Eyes of the Forest'. It limped off. We didn't see the body. I was barely conscious. We were found, brought back to the village. Not that one, but the one before it. And they brought me back. Healed the rest of my group, the captain. We decided we didn't want to continue. This was a better idea. We worked until we were strong enough, and decided to stay."
Ryltar: "I understand why you might gather mistletoe, but why nightshade?"
Majorie pops a handful of nightshade into her body. "It's quite tasty."
Ryltar is surprised; that's enough to kill him. Majorie explains that they're touched by the forest; it's not poisonous to them. "It's a striking taste; reminds me of embers." "Do you eat fire, too?" "No."
Jerry doubts. The captain and the whole party decided to abandon the West Haven, to not report back?
"Our captain reported back, speaking into a Sending stone. I assumed he was reporting."
Ryltar: "What are these Eyes of the Forest?"
Majorie: "Large, brutish, six-armed, many eyes, long tusks." No one recognizes it.
Fernard doesn't really chime in on the explanation.
Jerry and Ryltar explain their doubts. "It's really okay, there's nothing to worry about," says Majorie, and the Party explains why that doesn't engender trust.
Ryltar asks why there's an urge to eat the tree knots. It's sustaining and healthful, says Majorie. But the urge doesn't match the healthful, sustaining rations, we point out.
Where are the animals? "They're here, they just keep quiet." But even silent animals would leave signs, and we don't see that.
Majorie offers to have them speak with the Speaker, but Jerry would rather speak with her captain.
Where is Majorie's bow, asks Ryltar. "At my home tree." Which is what? A tree that spoke to her. She left it with the tree. She'll see it again, when the village moves back there, in a year or so. Why'd they move? They'd depleted the knots in the area. They'll cycle back there in a year.
Ryltar is curious, and almost wants to speak with the Speaker.
Jerry would rather speak with her captain. The captain apparently went with a knot harvesting group, in the other direction.
Fernand and Majorie pack up their bags, and the other three are heard approaching. They all stop to eat lunch together, and offer us berries and knots. But we politely refuse and eat our rations. They're eating the knots, and mistletoe, and nightshade, and hemlock roots.
We eat our rations in silence. What on earth.
The conversation with
Majorie explains to her group that she's heading back to the village, "Showing her mother and friends around."
Ryltar asks whether the poisonous berries are the only things that grow here. She replies that there's the trees, the berries, the vines, the moss. But they don't find anything else. And they can eat these poison things because they're Touched By The Forest&trademark;.
Fernard et al. go back to their gathering; Ryltar casts Detect Magic again and sees that they're all suffused with that transmutation magic. They confirm that they're Touched. But only Fernard is a Werebear.
Majorie leads us through the trails back to the village.
Along the way, Jerry continues to question Majorie. Who else survived from the militia group? There were 20 in the group, 10 survived. Some casters survived, one dabbling in fire magics. They tend to the fire. The trees approve of burning fallen wood. Rennick, Jocely, Reika.
What does the Speaker do? "She speaks to the Ancient." Ryltar says he can, too. Majorie is surprised. "The Ancient" is a great elm tree in "the Mother's Grove." The Speaker goes alone to the tree. The tribe moves their village about every month, moving in a circle around the great elm tree. They'll move in another couple weeks.
Does anyone ever leave the group? "Some get lost, yes." Lost to the forest. Majorie tells of people who don't come back from foraging. Perhaps they're taken by the Eyes of the Forest. It happens once every few weeks. The tribe gets new members every so often. We were the second group that Majorie has seen since she was saved; the first was a group similarly battered and broken. Including several Dragonborn, a blue and a red.
We're passing the open area where they rest. It's a big moss-covered field. In the middle of the field is an overgrown stump, two and a half feet wide, cut close to the ground, rotted brown. Nothing happens when Jerry stands on it. It's a normal jungle tree.
There's a clearing at this village, but not every village does. Different villages have different attributes; one is a cave. They always sleep under the sky.
The stones mark the hometrees; someone's possessions are buried under the tree. One stone per year.
Jerry tries to convince Majorie to go direct to the Captain, but is unable to do so.
Majorie leads the group into the village, announcing our presence. The village isn't structure-heavy; they're mostly tents and light structures that can be moved. There are sounds of flint knapping and basketweaving. Majorie leads us to a green-scaled Lizardfolk woman, supported by a staff.
The Lizardfolk woman notices Majorie's early return, and greets her. Majorie introduces her. The Speaker inquires why we're here. We explain that Jerry had heard that her daughter had gone off on a scouting mission and hadn't returned. The Speaker explains that Majorie is quite content to remain here, to help save the forest. "To help save the forest from what?" "The Assassin's Tears." "And what is that?"
The Speaker invites us to sit, and drink tea, and eat. Salris accepts the offer of tea. We make a Wisdom save, and all save Salris fail, and are hungry. We pick at our rations to reject the
The Speaker's Story
The story of the Assassin's Tears was given to me by the Ancient Elm. The mother of this forest gave birth to it. What was once a continuation of the desert to the south; she came and made into this jungle. Created it, made it, nurtured it. A gret many bountiful plants grew here, all different types of flowers, fruits, trees, ferns. From the smallest lichen to the greatest of trees, she grew. She gave upon herself to this forest.
Then the assassin came. Struck her down. Robbed this place of its mother. As the assassin ran, tears streamed from their eyes, turning a once-vibrant yellow berry to black and white, turning soft leaves into razors, turning vines that grew to constrictors. Everyhting that was once beautiful changed.
This forest still resembles that beauty. We go about to undo the Assassin's Tears.
The Party's Questions
"How do you propose to undo the Assassin's Tears?" asks Jerry.
"What this group has done for many years prior, and will continue to do: rid it of its corruption."
"Harvesting all the things that the Assassin's Tears brought?" asks Ryltar.
"Indeed. The forest provides a great many things for us. And we provide it a way to heal."
Jerry is doubtful that harvesting works. The Speaker says the group has been able to keep it at bay, but not yet reverse it.
Ryltar: "Why do you think the Assassin cried those tears?"
The Speaker: "I would have to ask the Great Elm. It never occurred to me."
Ryltar: "How often do you speak to this Great Elm?"
Speaker: "I usually make a trip a day or so before we move. But I have also taken trips when it calls me, and when I need guidance."
"How do you speak to it?"
"How do I speak to you?"
"In Common?"
"The Forest speaks its own language, other than the Common tongue?"
Ryltar asks her to speak some words in the forest's tongue. The Speaker does so, and we listen. Common, Elvish, Orc, Dwarvish, Primordial. None of us speak that tongue, but we recognize it coming from Bugfood: Is it Druidic? We say we recognize it, but can't speak it.
What happened to the Mother? The mother's body became a tree, became one of the trees, and then was stolen.
Can we go and speak with the tree? Well, apparently there's a journey that is necessary. Only those who would be able to speak to the Ancient would be able to succeed on it.
We debate whether to go on this path; whether it'd solve Majorie's problems if we address the corruption. The Party seems favorable. We ask the Speaker about the journey, and how to get to the tree.
"We travel on the outskirts, to keep it contained. The closer you get to the center, the more steeped in corruption it is. It's older. Darker. Many things call it home, and lash out."
We ask if there's anything that might help us on this journey.
"It would help — One thing that helps many people here is to become Touched By The Forest. Consuming of the white fruit. It comes from the Jimenju Trees."
"What does it mean to be touched by the forest?" asks Ryltar. "This place is steeped in Transmutation magic; the people who claim to be touched also have that essence. How will this assist us."
"The corruption has less effect on those who are touched."
"Like the desire to consume these things, the knots?"
"Those are the seeds of corruption."
"You bring the corruption into your own body, to fight it?"
"Yes."
The Speaker believes what she's saying. Salris thinks that they're legit. He's inclined to trust them.
We all want to help them. But Ryltar doesn't like eating the knots.
The Eyes of the Forest seem to be related to the corruption.
The Speaker travels through trees, through flight, through the ground. She has many ways. She evades the corrupt animals rather than fight them.
What do they do at night? They give themselves over to the forest. They coexist, one helping the other. They look at the sky to offer themselves to the forest.
Is the Speaker the only one who can speak to the Ancient? No, but the current Speaker is the only one who has returned. She's been training replacements. When one Speaker goes out and doesn't return, another steps up to take their place.
"If you are to venture forth, to save the Mother Tree and this forest, I'll offer this as a way to make the journey easier." She holds up a small clay pot, sealed with wax around the top. "This will help you fight off the corruption, and restore yourself." There's enough there for four applications, probably. It's made from a purple leaf, properly processed. We spend some Minor Illusion to get to a small purple leaf with furled edges. It's a natural plant, which Jerry recognizes: a night mango rib wort. It takes a full lunar cycle to make on the fly.
"The Assassin" sounds like a minor god.
At the end of the day, the gathering parties come back. There's about 80, 85 people.
Vurguron is curious about the Dragonborn here: blue, red, silver, copper, bronze. He hails them. One is younger than he. One recognizes Vurguron: It's Mulush, a silver male, who'd been to parties with him, invited and crashed. Mulush asks what we're doing here. We explain. But why is Mulush here?
Mulush says he's been here a few months; Gaere (female copper) has been here a couple years. He has the same "this forest needs our help" line. Can he talk with the forest? "Everything is always talking; you just have to listen." Vurguron reminisces about Bugfood. Mulush says that some of the trees around here move around. They shuffle. But there are other things in the forest that need attention: clearing streams. There was a deer the other day. They haven't seen any dragon, they say. They're kind of put off at the question; they've never through about dragons here. They're a little afraid of the question. The seed of rumor has been planted.
Ryltar elbows him.
"Thanks for the info; I guess we don't need to worry about that," says Vurguron. The Dragonborn are not reassured.
"Have you seen any pyramids," asks Jerry with a laugh, but Salris turns the conversation to homebrew. Can those who are Touched by the Forest get drunk?
The Captain's Report
Majorie leads Jerry over to a stocky human male, muscular, black curly hair. Majorie introduces Captain Ulmos Morro, of the Verdant Guard. "A former captain, I'd say, since I'm no longer here."
"Sometimes, Captain, I prefer to dwell on old formalities. What's your expedition's final report?"
"We weren't able to complete our mission. We were ambushed before we were able to find even a trail."
"A trail of what?"
"Ehhh. A Yuan-Ti?"
"This far north? That's unusual."
"That's what we thought. But apparently there's some civilization of them up here. But we didn't find even a sign."
"If they're someowhere out here, is it possible that they were ambushed by the same things that ambushed you?"
"Possible."
"Is it possible that they weren't Yuan-Ti, but instead a Merrilith?" Like the demon in Kerjes' employ.
"I was told to look for Yuan-Ti. People had seen them. And that's what we were looking for, before we were set upon."
"And what set upon you?"
"They call them the Eyes of the Forest."
"What did you see."
"Black flesh, a swirl of claws and teeth. Many eyes, glowing orange." Unlike the night-glow eyes.
"Did you tell your command structure about this?"
"No; after I woke here, informing them about some far-off war seemed like a much lower priority." He buried the Sending Stone at his hometree, and isn't willing to show us where to dig it up. "We bury things to leave them behind."
It looks like we'll stay the night with the tribe, and then go out with Fernand tomorrow to find stuff.
That night, as they tribe lines up, Majorie invites us to join in the tribe's sleeping line. Salris and Vurguron accept the offer to sleep in the clearing with the tribe. Jerry and Ryltar sleep outside the clearing, keeping watch for six of the knight's four hours.
Ryltar offers to help Jerry find people's buried magic items; Jerry is reluctant. But mossy-topped cairns are ones without active people.
Salris joins in the ritual, staring at the sky, though a tribesman had said that he wouldn't benefit without having been Touched by the Forest. Vurguron drifts off to sleep without participating.
That night, there's another odd bellow. Every sleeper bows their head. With a natural 24, Ryltar knows that the sound comes from the northwest.
Next Session
What on earth is up with that deep bellow, to the northwest?
Where is the Ancient Elm? Who is the Assassin? Where is the Mother's Body?
Collect some of those leaves.
Shopping List:
Spell Scroll of Comprehend Languages
Ryltar needs to do something for the missionaries of Denier.
Was Seamus poisoning the whole bar? Is that why he wasn't drinking? Is Salris' brother also a bearer of the curse that afflicts Salris? Or is he just part of Rezzik Brazzik now?
We know how to trap the Jester, with Magic Circle
What's going on with the stars? Are Ryltar's theories about colors and significant plot-relevant things' colors correct?
How can the Mummy Lord be defeated?
Determine how to resolve the Eta'el-Kerjes plot
Remember to un-petrify Ockoh in the Ice Lord Wint's Lair, so that we can give him the foodservice contract for the Irregular Inn