DND Blog

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

The Seventieth Session

July 23, 2022, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

Commissioned by the Ancient Elm, the Party goes to find the Mother of the Forest, who may have been kidnapped by the Yuan-Ti. We find a Yuan-Ti compound in the forest, and Salris reconnoiters it.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. The first day
  3. The Yuan-Ti
  4. The Compound
    1. Running Recce
  5. Next session

Last session

The Party was attacked by hordes of undead trees, and then by screaming mushrooms. Ryltar stole a pair of rings from an icy pillar. The Party gave a pair of injured humans some stuff, and followed them down a path. Eventually we came to a clearing with signs of civilization, a council area that's the center of the Forest, where the Ancient Elm once was. Eight of them, in fact, opposite a chamber with a throne.

Ryltar had a long conversation with the remaining Ancient Elm, who addressed him as "the Lord of Ice and Snow." The Mother of the Forest was taken by "those who slither and wield the mountain glass," which we assume is the Yuan-ti. So we're going to go rescue her.

Bugfood visited Salris in a dream; a conversation of awkward niceties on a beach. But eventually, Bugfood points up, and among the stars, the Green Star (the third star) flickers. "But we gotta worry about them, too," says Bugfood, pointing to a shadowy fishing village.

The Ancient Elm helps us convince Percival to leave the forest.

The first day

In the morning, Jerry asks (and Ryltar translates) of the Ancient Elm: "When we find the Mother of the Forest, and bring her back, should we exercise mercy towards her captors?"

"What they have done, cannot be pardoned."

So we ask: What did they do, besides stealing the Mother of the Forest?

The Ancient Elm speaks like the Entmoot, very slowly. The attackers/kidnappers killed the Ancient Ash, which we see was cut down by tools.

We skirt around the flowered hedge, making our way back out into the jungle proper. We quickly determine the northwesterly direction, and head in that direction. The hedge trails off to the southwest, and we leave it behind. The black vines and gnarled trees reappear, oozing, and we continue.

A shadow passes overhead, and we feel as if it is scanning the forest. But it does not notice us.

The further we head, the more the corruption lessens. We come across makeshift shelters: huts, lean-tos, remnants of tents. They're built using corrupted wood. We decide to investigate, and Pass Without Trace. We carefully investigate the village.

Massive scaly green-skinned creatures emerge from their tents, and scrape their skin against the corrupted trees, absorbing the galls' ooze.

We carefully walk around the edge of the village. One of the ogres moves towards us, slowly. Salris accidentally rubs up against a tree, causing it to emit a rubbery squeak. The nearest troll looks at him, and then goes back to picking up downed wood.

In the final moment, Vurguron steps into a shaft of light, and quickly jumps out of it. The troll looks up to see what flashed in the corner of his eye — a gold Dragonborn in mithril plate — but Vurguron has already retreated to the gloom.

We leave the danger zone.

After a couple hours' walk, we cross some sort of transition line between the heavier corruption and lesser corruption. There aren't any signs of galls-cutters.

We come across a swath of stacked stone cairns, and decide to leave them be.

The Hunger comes across us again. Ryltar realizes that the Abracadabrus' food has lost taste, and he has the deep hunger that only forest garlic knots can serve. He watches Percival hack a gnarl off a tree, drooling. "If I didn't know that those are probably poisonous, and would kill me, I'd eat one." "C'mon, try it," says Percival.

Jerry picks up Ryltar and walks off with him. He eats two rations, picking at them to find the tastiest bits.

As we travel further, the gnarls grow smaller, and the oozing ichor disappears.

As night comes, Percival casts Tiny Hut for us, to hide from the horrors of the forest.

The Yuan-Ti

We continue to the Northwest.

Four people become visible: a bluish-green humanoid figure approaches from our direction of travel, carrying a spear. Three others, heavily hunched, walking beside them.

The shaft of Jerry's glaive flexes with every step she takes towards the figures. She pops Pass Without Trace and the Party realizes that there is a Yuan-Ti ahead. We take up more-stealthy positions among the trees, as the hunched figure approach us.

Percival browses on a tree for snacks.

The figure leading the group is a malaison, with snake head and humanoid body. The other three fingers scramble, clambering on all four limbs, covered head to toe in scales, enlongated heads with longer mouths, barely clothed at all.

The malaison carries their spear, and a thin cord bearing a pouch. Leather bracers, fixed with gold. Their demeanor is that of a troll, which means that they will eventually go back to their home.

They lead the slaves past us, heading north-easterly. The wind comes from behind us now, and one of the creatures picks up its nose. Pass Without Trace would have helped us, but the creatures exist to sniff, and now we are upwind. We get out of upwindness.

The beast who paused receives a kick from its master, and eventually the group heads northwest, and then west.

Around midday, we come to the first real sign of civilization we've seen since we entered the jungle: A 15' stone wall, stretching in a long circular arc. There's a whole bunch of Yuan-Ti, including one that looks like a human with snakes coming out of their shoulders. Two guards with spears and swords, tons of the hunched bestial doglike Yuan-Ti.

We have found the home of the Yuan-Ti.

The Compound

There doesn't appear to be a prison in the area surrounded by the wall, but that's just from our one vantage point. We circle around the fort, sticking to the trees. The structure is sizeable, and there's another open gate, with a similar guard detachment. No gates, just guards. And inside, there's a big ziggurat.

Jerry climbs a tree and takes notes on the interior of the compound.

Running Recce

We decide to send Salris in to scout.

He waits for a gap in the guard, uses the Rope of Climbing to get up the wall, Prestidigitates to disguise his scent, then casts Invisibility and climbs the wall. Atopthe wall, he discovers there's no inner walkway, so he uses the rope again to lower himself inside the wall. He approaches the ziggurat from the north, and climbs the big outdoor block steps.

Still invisible, he enter the ziggurat, in between the social elites. The ziggurat has a central area, with rooms coming off. One is guarded; he checks the rest.

Salris throws his khopesh away, and then scurries to the side so the guard won't collide with him. The guard goes to look; Salris looks in the door, and sees a 30' corridor leading to a stone door with two more guards.

The abomination guard picks up the khopesh, an calls an alarm. Everyone gathers to see what the abomination has found; Salris skedaddles out of the ziggurat, and makes it to the wall without being noticed. With the Rope of Climbing he makes it atop the wall, and slides down once the outside guards are gone. He walks clean and free into the forest, and drops Invisibility just as he finds Ryltar.

He delivers his report, and resummons his khopesh. It appears that one of the Yuan-Ti has stabbed another with the khopesh, as one of its charges has been spent.

Next session