Session 18: Plant Puns and Petrification

General Summary

The party and Viridian continued into the forest, headed to the place Viridian thought was the core of the petrification: a hill with a large, flat, top. As they headed deeper into the trees, the light grew darker, as the trees grew taller and their unmoving canopies let less of the sunlight through to the forest floor. The gnarled bark made it look that the party saw faces in some of the trees. Convinced one seemed more real-looking than the rest, Shadow psychically whispered to it, and it responded by attacking him, along with another tree and a pair of vine blights. These trees, like the vine blights, were still unpetrified. The trees were powerful, knocking Eirame unconscious with swipes from their branches, but a timely healing spell from Viridian saved her.   Defeating them and continuing on, the party crested the long, shallow, hill from the southeast and pushed through the trees to the edge of a large clearing. Here, the party faces a gorgon, a large bull-like creature with petrifying breath. It turned Eirame to stone, with Viridian using Greater Restoration to restore her to normal, before the party took it down. Another awakened tree and two vine blights joined the battle, with the tree knocking both Doug and Eirame unconscious before the party prevailed.   In the clearing, the party saw a fire pit which had been used for some kind of necromantic ritual. The trees in the clearing were unpetrified. A battleaxe, used to chop branches from the trees to fuel the ritualistic fire was embedded in one of the trees. A curved dagger, with a pommel shaped like a serpent with a pair of emeralds for eyes, and a leatherbound book lay near the fire. Alden and Shadow investigated the clearing carefully, spotting markings that looked to have been made by a large snake, winding their way down the hillside to the north. Rome, meanwhile, was severing the gorgon's head from its body as a trophy.   The book was written in an unknown language and using an unknown alphabet, with all the characters looking very curvy, almost serpentine. Shadow, born under the sign of the Tome, cast Comprehend Languages and discovered that the book was written in a language called Vash'atar, which no one had heard of, and was a journal of sorts, with very brief, hurried entries.   The text described the writer's journey from Marash (a place none of the party had heard about) to the rocky wastes of southern Ormr to catch a gorgon, which was brought back to the Marash outskirts and trained. The text frequently mentioned taking the first steps to a new order, and the phrase "snake eyes in the sky" stood out to Shadow. The final entries described the writer travelling to the forest of the cats, staying in the caves where the beasts were buried, and talking about neutralizing their healing abilities, raising plant creatures, and sowing disorder.   Viridian suggested that the caves might be the Shifter's Catacombs, an ancient druidic burial site farther north in the forest. The party decided it would be better to return to Ma'Zar and check in with J'Lanni before heading to the catacombs. Viridian refused to leave this part of the forest; as the forest's keeper, she felt responsible and she had the magic to return the forest to normal in time. Rome refused to leave her long-lost friend. The pair stayed atop the hill as the remainder of the party journeyed back towards Ma'Zar, camping for the night a few hours past the Silverdew Pools, less than half a day's journey from the town.   While taking their night's rest, the party identified that the axe was the Axe of the Timber-Splitter, a magical axe that does additional damage to plants, and that the dagger was Serpent's Strike, a magical dagger that could be returned to its owner's hand up to three times a day.

Rewards Granted

For completing a story arc, the party has advanced to level 5.

Notes

Takes place on YA 2269, The Panther, day 19