DND Blog

A place to keep DND session recaps, from various campaigns.

The Sixty-Seventh Session

May 28, 2022, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

Heading to the Jimenju tree to find out more about how to become TOuched be the Forest, we encounter Percival. He's pursued by one of the Eyes of the Forest, which we kill. Salris' new patron expresses itself in his casting. Then the half-Elf Werebear Fernard leads us to the Jimenju tree, which is very very creepy.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. Leaving the Tribe's Village
  3. Into the Forest
  4. Next Session

Last session

We're in a big fucking jungle with weird trees and Transmutation magic everywhere. We found Jerry's kiddo. Everything is both less and more fucked up than we thought, and a half-elven were-bear is gonna tag along with us. Majorie's tribe moves every month and then moves on, eating the "corruption" poison plants around the edge of the forest, which is centered on an Ancient Elm which marks the death of the forest's creator, the Mother. The tribe has been pruning the corruption for decades, eating poisonous plants: nightshade, wolfsbane, hemlock, misteletoe, and the galls from trees. They become Touched by the Forest by eating the white fruit from the Jimenju trees. Once Touched, they leave behind their old lives in order to care for the Forest.

We're going to search for the Mother's body, journeying to the Ancient Elm with the Fernard the Werebear. The goal is to find the source of the corruption, do something about the Assassin's Tears monsters that roam the forest, and figure out how to free the Tribe so that Majorie can be freed. Also we need to find the purple-leaved plant that is used to make the anti-corruption salve.

Leaving the Tribe's Village

Vurguron sleeps among the Tribe; Salris participates in staring at the sky all night.

At dawn, we discuss whether to become Touched by the Forest. We don't like the idea of leaving behind our lives for all time.

Majorie has decided at the village; she will not accompany us. She sticks around to Fernard will accompany us, though.

The villagers return to the village; we watch them eat the tree galls, and all except Ryltar are overcome with a powerful urge to eat. We eat breakfast.

The Speaker says it normally takes her half a day to travel to the Ancient Elm, off to the northwest, in the direction of the nighttime booms. She doesn't know how well the white fruit keeps, they eat it fresh. We discuss preservation methods, and a scheme for watching them to learn when we might need to make a decision to use it via picking at different times.

Into the Forest

Fernard leads us down a game trail, into a darker part of the forest. The underbrush is shoulder-height bushes and briers, and the trees have all been cut.

Three hours into the trek, Jerry hears a popping sound, and a low growl. She stops the Party. Ryltar didn't hear it. And then there's a deep, bellowing roar. The crashing of trees against each other, another popping sound, closer, 200 feet away. The crashing gets louder, with a small crashing followed by a larger crashing farther off.

Ryltar thinks it's Percival, being chased by the crashing noise.

We debate whether to make some noise

Ryltar's player's fortune cookie: "People gravitate towards your winsome personality."

Jerry's: "Your warmth radiates upon those around you."

Vurguron's: "You will always be surrounded by true friends." "You have good luck in your personal affairs."

The small crashing now contains screaming, which Jerry recognizes as Percival. She shouts out, "PERCIVAL!"

Percival hears a shout above the crashing of his passage through the undergrowth, and he heads for it. The thing which is chasing him has legendary resistances; it shrugged off a Hold Creature.

  1. Round 1
    1. Percival sprints headlong through the forest, dashing through the difficult terrain and taking 1 damage per space. He gives Jerry inspiration.
    2. Ryltar greets Percival, and asks him what the fuck. Percival points over his shoulder, and Ryltar shoots off a Ray of Frost at whatever it is, that has three-quarters cover.
    3. The crashing noise comes closer, crashing straight at us. Glowing orange eyes, three on each side and one in the center of its concave skull, above a mouth of foot-long fangs and teeth with two rooting tusks. It's black and blubbery, all muscle. Four arms in front, with two stout legs, like a thin elephant.
    4. Vurguron's nature check returns that this is unknown. He sees Fernard panicking. He casts Ice Knife and misses, but the cryonic explosion does half damage to it for 3 damage. He moves forward, off the path, and takes 3 piercing damage from the shrubs.
    5. Fernard transforms into his bear form, and runs away.
    6. Salris Summons Greater Demon and almost gets the usual Balgora, but suddenly the demonic energy turns a soft white-orange, and the nascent Balgora gets slammed into the ground by a Guardian of the Faith. The patron swap has changed what gets summoned.
    7. The Eye of the Forest moves a little further forward, and takes 10 radiant from the Guardian of Faith. The monster lashes out blindly, missing Percival and the Guardian.
    8. The Eye of the Forest bites at Percival for 10 piercing. Then it slashes twice for 31 slashing against Salris and 18 to Percival.
    9. Jerry holds Lightning Arrow until Salris and Percival are away.
    10. The Eye of the Forest stares at Salris, and he sees darkness creeping in. The eyes multiply in the darkness. He's blinded.
  2. Round 2
    1. Percival disengages, and moves away from the monster, taking 3 slashing.
    2. The monster swipes at Salris for 14 slashing.
    3. Ryltar casts Slow on the eyes of the forest, but it shrugs off the spell. He summons the Hound of Ill Omen behind the monster.
    4. Vurguron moves to Salris and casts Protection from Good and Evil on him.
    5. Fernard continues running.
    6. Salris, blinded, still knows where Jerry was. He stumbles backwards diagonally off the path, taking 13 slashing from the monster's reaction and 3 damage from 15 feet of movement through the trees, and chugs a potion. But he is still blinded.
    7. Salris and Percival are clear; Jerry throws a lightning arrow dart for 17 lightning damage to the monster, and 7 to the dog. The lightning arrow isn't as effective as we thought.
    8. Everyone save Ryltar and the dog are now frightened.
    9. The monster attacks the Hound, dealing 13 slashing. It takes 20 radiant damage from the Guardian of Faith, and evades the dog. It attacks Percival, hiding behind Vurguron, dealing 19 slashing. Then it attacks Jerry with 20 slashing and piercing to Jerry, and makes three more attacks against Vurguron, missing.
    10. The Shadow Hound, good pupper, attacks the Eye and misses with a 20.
    11. Jerry is Frightened and can't move towards the thing, so Jerry casts Web to hold it in place.
    12. It slashes at Jerry, for 13 damage.
  3. Round 3.
    1. Percival takes a healing potion.
    2. Jerry becomes blinded.
    3. Ryltar tries to Slow it, and the creature is forced to burn its last Legendary Resistance (not like our characters know that). He decides to chill for a bit.
    4. The monster attacks Ryltar for 14 slashing.
    5. Vurguron noticed that his Protection from Good and Evil did nothing to protect Ryltar, so he casts Shadow Blade and hacks away at the monster. With a 17 he misses his first attack, and hits on a 27. The monster recoils. Vurguron remains frightened.
    6. Salris still sees the orange eyes. He's frightened and blinded, He casts Eldritch Blast and misses thrice. He's still blind, but is no longer frightened.
    7. The monster attacks Jerry with a bite, dealing 24 piercing, then slashing for 15, then attacks the shadow hound which remains alive, and Vurguron for a little more.
    8. The Shadow Hound attacks, dealing 9 nonmagical piercing damage. It bites the haunches of the monster, and we think it's dealing damage.
    9. The monster attacks Ryltar, but he casts Shield.
    10. Jerry attacks twice with her Slayer of the Unnatural, missing once and hitting once for 21 magical slashing, picking up the 2d6 from its antipathy for monstrosities.
    11. It slashes jerry for 9.
  4. Round 4
    1. Percival attacks, dealing a little damage.
    2. The monster blinds Ryltar.
    3. Ryltar casts Slow again, because he doesn't need to see it to cast it. The monster is now Slowed.
    4. The monster uses its last action to kill the dog.
    5. Vurguron moves beside the monster and attacks three times, missing each time. He is no longer frightened.
    6. Salris fires off three Eldritch Blasts, dealing a little damage. He loses the fright and blind conditions.
    7. The monster is no longer restrained by the web, but is still slowed in difficult terrain. It bites Jerry and misses. It tries to defeat the slow, and fails.
    8. Jerry hits once for 20 and retreats 10 feet. She remains frightened.
    9. The monster slashes Vurguron for 10.
  5. Round 5.
    1. Percival tries to Polymorph the monster into a toad, and barely fails. He bardically inspires Ryltar.
    2. The monster uses a legendary action to move towards Ryltar, taking 20 from the Guardian of Faith.
    3. Ryltar, hearing the noise, casts Ray of Frost and misses. He burns the bardic inspiration to recover from blindness.
    4. The monster slaps him for 13 slashing.
    5. Vurguron moves behind the creature, attacking twice with his Shadow Blade for 17 psychic plus 26 psychic. The monster looks like it's got about one fifth of its health left, so he Action Surges for three more attacks, hitting twice, dealing some more damage.
    6. With Thalia's Grace, Salris forgets that the monster is in a poisonous forest and immune to poison. Then he attacks with his sword and the Whip of Wounding, dealing enough damage to mostly decapitate it with the bone whip. The head remains attached, but the creature is dead. Its back half slumps into the ground.

Ryltar calls out, "Ferndard! It's dead!"

Salris is amazed at what he can do once he can see the enemy.

"So, how've you been," asks Percival.

"It's good to see you again! Where were you?" asks Rytlar.

"I returned to give my presentation with Dirius; she was pretty happy. It was the end of my tutelage with her, until my father gives me another apprenticeship. After I graduated, I was approached by a woman named Moon in the Darkness—" "Oh we know her!" the Party interjects. "— and she has a necklace that prevents using magic and she can't leave the library. She was keeping eyes on Dirius, did some eavesdropping, and it turns out that maybe Dirius might be bad?" The Party is shocked, shocked, I tell you. "Moon is a follower of Ioun, and Dirius isn't, so Dirius isn't allowed to learn stuff from inside the temple. And it turns out that maybe my report let her learn things that will advance her plan."

Percival's report was about the Library of Ioun in the Quadroads, and Dirius' plan is about the Great Library, lost in the desert.

We ask about Moon and learn that she's doing as well as she can, while she's confined to prison basically. Ryltar explains how Ryltar got Moon into the mess of her current situation, what with the murderous Battle Cricket weapons she'd crafted and the forced confession of crimes at Sky Diamond. Percival thanks him for the context.

"And then I won a treasure map in a bar bet," Percival says. "We had a contest to see about who could tell the most interesting story. I fibbed a bit about our A.R.N. adventure."

an overhead photograph of the map: a scroll with curious illustrations and writing.

Percival's treasure map.

The map is in Sylvan, which Percival reads out to us all:

The reflection upon the Mirror lake Stone Forest the Path shall make The Howling Breath of the Corridor of Ice Guides to climb The Mountain thrice.

We think that there's a lot of references to Wint's Lair. Stone forests might be stalagmites and stalactites. We didn't try burning wood down there; the map says "Wood doesn't burn." No idea what the "Crawl upon the stone" bit is about. Ryltar says he'd go with Percival to help him solve the map.

After this conversation, Fernard comes back to the noise. He hasn't seen one dead before, and is somewhat concerned by his proximity to it. "This is the deadest I've ever seen one." He is very uncomfortable. "Let's move on."

Jerry takes its tusks; Salris and Ryltar poke out its eyes.

"Were we not supposed to do that?" Ryltar asks Fernard.

"I don't know. We tend to not venture this way, besides not getting their fruits."

All except Vurguron feel the hunger again. We eat lunch out of the microwave: three Abracadabrus charges of meat and berry pies, and one of water. We put the remaining 25 gallons of water into 40-pound ice backpacks. Fernard eats some berries and tree galls. We're still horrified by the crunchy texture of the galls.

We take a short rest, and heal up, aided by Percival's bagpipe Song of Rest.

Over lunch, we ask Fernard if he thinks he could leave, if he wanted to. He'eats our normal food just fine.

Percival tells us of where he spawned in: a group of trees with marked bark, like something big was using it as scrathing posts.

We travel through the forest and come across a sea of flowering yellow bushes, with branches climbing into the trees. The flowers are more than what they seem, says Percival. They have an alluring and attraction.

Jerry knows what these flowers are; she encountered them before. They're Yellow Musk Creepers. Flowering bulbs that drift and encroach upon living creatures, to drain them of their essence. Some of them drift with the wind. Fernard looks around, trying to find a path through the swarm. There's a central cluster, dispersing out from there.

Fernard is opposed to clear-cutting the forest. Jerry uses Land's Stride to find a nearby trail, which is somewhat tangential to the clot of Yellow Musk Creepers. She pries apart the bushes to clear a connecting game trail without cutting a trail, and the Party moves through it. Ryltar and Salris aren't nimble enough to avoid damage, but only take 4 piercing.

We follow the secondary path; Jerry climbs from tree to tree. The path comes to an end in a small clearing. Jerry tells people of it; Fernard enters and drops immediately into quicksand. Ryltar slides in to his middle; Salris trips and falls out.

Salris throws a rope; Ryltar catches it, and tries to reach to Fernard. He fails to grab Fernard, but then touches Fernard's flailing, and Dimension Doors out as they go under. The sand collapses as Fernard and Rytlar port out;

Jerry does some more exploring and finds another continuing trail, 50 feet away, and again levers apart the bushes to create a temporary trail for the Party to pass unhindered.

Once on the new trail, Fernard's nose perks up, and he says, "We're close."

We come to a small area full of twisting vines. He parts a curtain of vines, and leads us into an open area, still covered by canopy. The area is full of a fruity, citrusy scent, and the air is dryer than the rest of the forest. There's a discordant laughter in the air, little laughs in different voices. In the center of the room is a gnarled tree with oval leaves, 10 feet tall and wide, and among the boughs of the little tree are white fruits in the shape of heads, with clear eyes and nose and mouth and ears. Among the billowing roots are two Dragonborn, eyes open, staring at the sky, supported by the roots of the tree.

The voices say, "Welcome," and the fruits' mouths move as well. "Fernard. You bring guests. Those who wish to join us, to protect us. Welcome, welcome."

"Yes, Jimenju", he says, bowing.

"These are nearly done, as well. I will be happy to get them started, on the way. Who are you?" ask the tree.

"I'm Percival." The boughs of the tree creep towards him, and one face turns towards him.

Ryltar's Detect Magic shows the tree and each fruit has an orange tint of Transmutation, with a purple hint of Enchantment magic. The Dragonborn are very orange; the air is not.

"Who are you all," asks the tree?

"How does eating this fruit help us?" asks Ryltar. He interrogates the tree, and receives the following:

The tree wants to know our names; Ryltar says that he's careful with his name. "Untrusting, are you?" "Yes." "Do you want to become unburdened by distrust, to be free of the need to feel unsafe?" Ryltar explains that he finds trust to be good in remaining safe; he questions the tree to maybe find some way of trusting.

"I was born to protect this forest. I make those who are its protectors." The face looks down on the Dragonborn. "These will be our protectors, where we cannot protect ourselves." The Dragonborn are red and green, still with their equipment.

We ask how the fruit get faces; the tree shows that the fruit can change the face it wears. It uses faces it knows and understands. Percival caresses the fruit. "Do you understand me?" "Are you wanting my fruit?" He gets the sense that he could pluck the fruit.

We ask whether the tree knows of the Goddess and the Assassin. "That is why I am here," it says. The tree starts speaking Sylvan; it describes to Percival that there's connection between the tree and the Tears, and it would not exist otherwise. In Common, we ask it what it knows of the Eyes of the Forest; it says it's never seen them within "this space", and it doesn't describe how or whether it can see beyond "this space" or through the eyes of those who are Touched.

What benefit comes to those who become Touched? "They come to me bearing stress, pain, sorrows. I give them a peaceful life, a rebirth." We don't like it.

What does it know of the Ancient Elm? "I was made here. What is beyond here, is beyond me." "But you know of the forest," says Jerry. "I am of the forest, and it is me." "So the Ancient Elm is beyond the forest?" asks Jerry. The tree doesn't answer.

"Fernard, how are you?" "I'm fine, Jimenju." "Do you have any questions, Fernard?" "No, Jimenju."

We're getting lots of hostage-situation vibes.

We ask why we're drawn to eat the corruption; "That is the nature of the forest." Jerry asks whether there's a difference between someone who eats of the corruption without becoming Touched, and a Touched who eats of the corruption.

"What is your name," asks the fruit of Salris. "Leon," he says, and it takes his face. He uses his Mask of Many Faces to change his face again, every minute. "You have something to hide; running away from something," it says to him. "You can disguise yourself; I can too." "How many faces do you know?" He brags.

Ryltar edges over to Jerry, asks if we've been heading in the right direction. We have been, knows, Jerry.

"I've felt that icy touch before," says a fruit to Ryltar. "Long gone."

Jerry asks, "How long have you been here, tree? A thousand years or more?" "I have seen the full moon thirteen thousand, three hundred and eleven times. Just about as long as it's been since The Divergence, when the Gods left the mortal plane. Was The Assassin responsible for the death of the Gods which led to the Divergence? Religion checks all around, but no one has actual knowledge of that. The Great Library of Ioun would know, but that's lost in the desert and all its pre-Divergence tomes too.

We make Insight checks. But with no one rolling a 28 or above, the tree is quite persuasive.

Percival takes a bite of the nose of the fruit. His intelligence save is a 9.

Next Session