Mini 6: Warped Environment Report

General Summary

1st of Keltier 1524 Continued   At 3:30am the group meets up at the edge of town and is ready to go. Killi reports that the guards are keeping people inside and there have been a few deaths due to portal incidences.   They start the long walk to the next town with Leolen scouting ahead of the group to keep an eye out for trouble. Balthazar focuses on keeping his old bones warms as they walk. Isabelle keeps a keen eye out for trouble from the sides and behind. Galanith keeps an eye on Brienda since she is not tied up and could run off at any minute. Killi keeps to herself, muttering now and again as they walk through the snow.   After five hours of trudging through the snow the sun starts to rise. It's been an uneventful, if a very cold walk. The group has made it into a more hilly area of the forest that eventually starts to thin into clearings. As the group pass through one of the clearings on a hill about 10 minute walk away from the town Isabelle sees a young woman limping as she attends to some sheep. She has one of those Sheppard crook staff things.   Isabelle asks Brienda to speak into the girl's mind and ask her if she needs help. Brienda is a little hesitant since she doesn't want to be labelled as a witch due to the laws in the land with some of the population from the North. Brienda learns she doesn't need help. She was confused and defensive. Thought Brienda was working for another Sheppard. A druid who manages the rival family to this one. Apparently the druid is not very nice.  

  The group continues on and arrives at Greendale. Before entering the town Isabelle stops the group and tells the party a little bit about the town. The Mayor and the majority of the population here have an issue with excitement and celebration. So they should keep their heads down while here. Isabelle looks at Killi and Leolen pointedly during this. Balthazar uses Disguise Self to look human Khinasi man.   This disappoints Leolen and he wants to push through past this town and try to make it to the next one. Brienda is a little worried about trying to walk all day when they have already walked for such a long time. She at least wants to get breakfast here and a few supplies. The group agrees to this and heads into town. Galanith is looking for places that might be friendly to elvenkind here as they look at different inns are town.   The Feyplace   The Red Flask This district distinctly has homes with a slight elven and druidic style to them in a subtle way. On Clay Alley, near an outcrop of rune-carved stone of Elven origin, there is an inn. The inn is a two-storey timber and brick building, with unusually high ceilings. It stands adjacent to the large home.   The Old District   The Unicorn's Lodge The inn is a large two-storey timber framed building, with vaulted ceilings.   Copper Place   The Lucky Maiden In a caravan ward of crowded inns and nomadic vagabonds. It stands next to a sprawling oxen pen. This seems to be the poorer side of town. The inn is a single storey wooden building, with a single salvaged stone wall.   Galanith believes the Red Flask in The Feyplace to be the most friendly for elvenking given the stones out the front. The group is agreeable to going to this inn. The common room is simple in nature. The group moves two tables together to fit the entire group. Balthazar goes up to the female elf behind the bar. He pays for the group to have breakfast foods. It's a stew with breakfast ale. The woman is a little overwhelmed by the size of the group. It costs a silver per person. He gives her 8 silver.   The group settles at the tables while they wait. They discuss moving on and what they need to do before leaving. Brienda needs a bedroll and rations at least. Galanith wants some slightly heavier armour. Brienda always queries the party on if they know how to get to the capital. If they head West the next town is Urgot's Den.   When food is brought out the group digs in and Brienda tries the breakfast ale. Balthazar is suddenly worried about Brienda having alcohol. He tries to move the tankard away and she moves it back and away from him. Killi backs up Brienda's choices to keep drinking. Killi wants Brienda to learn herself what her limits are.   Partway through breakfast Balthazar goes to the outhouse to recast his disguise self spell. Meanwhile Brienda moves Balthazar's ale away from his stew and Killi drinks Balthazar's ale. Isabella eats the chucks of the stew and gives the broth to Kaida and Brienda does the same.   While Balthazar is gone Leolen and Isabelle overhear a rumour about Urgot's Den. The other patrons talk about the trouble there with goblins recently. Some travellers have been having trouble finding their way around the area. Lords that follow Avani have been trying to follow up with this trouble. Leolen goes over to the patrons and talks to them about this.   Viscount Randal is the lord in charge. He has been trying to hire help. The lord of this town refused him since they don't have mercenaries or such riffraff here. He would likely offer a reward for help. Leolen gives the patrons a gold for their information which immediately makes them like the group and the idea of adventurers.   They fill Balthazar in on what they have learned when he returns. The group is interested in seeing if they can't use this as a chance to earn gold along the way on this escort journey. Isabelle mentions that anything they do in the Captial will likely be expensive. Balthazar realises that his ale is gone and the whole party just can't help him find it as Killi has a sneaky second ale. Brienda at this point is clearly effected by the ale.   The group then hits up the general store before heading out of town. Brienda gets a bedroll, blanket and rations. They have studded leather armour and Galanith gets a set of that. Balthazar 20 rations. After that they leave town, heading West at 10:30am! They notice on their way out of town. An Elven woman with a flock of sheep is on the way out. The group doesn't pay her much mind. Brienda can't walk in a straight line but she is walking with gusto   At 1:30pm Balthazar is starting to feel the effects of the walk and the cold as he grows exhausted. He starts to complain about the cold. Killi lights a torch to give to Balthazar to try and help but he is still tired. As they stop to do this Galanith, Killi and Isabelle notice that the group is being stalked by large owl like bears and the path behind them doesn't look like what they just walked past. The group realises these are owlbears.   Galanith immediately protective of Brienda and positions herself between the creatures and her ward. Killi casts mage armour on herself. Galanith and Isabelle notch arrows. Killi and Leolen combine their minor illusion spells to create an injured owlbear and the other makes the sound of this. This seems to have fully distracted one of them, and the other two seem concerned but are keeping an eye on the party.   Isabella tells the group to run. Galanith grabs Brienda and starts leading her away from the fight. Everyone runs as instructed. Leolen runs into the forested area as he flees. Isabella tries to keep herself between Leolen and the group, but can't see him.   Leolen moves forward but keeps an eye on the owlbears. They scratch around confused. They move behind a tree but never come out the other side. The tree is not wide enough to hide an owlbear.   Killi tries to fly up and see Leolen but can't spot him. Isabelle speaks to the rest of the group when she catches up and warns them not to leave the trail.   Killi tries to message Leolen with the message spell but doesn't get a reply. They all start yelling for Leolen and an annoyed Leolen comes out of the forest. Brienda gives him a welcome back hug now she knows he is real and wasn't a dream due to drinkingness. Leolen moves ahead of the group as they start moving again, had enough physical contact for the day. Balthazar complains for the next hour. By the end of the hour Balthazar is even more exhausted. Galanith and Killi are also starting to feel exhausted as well.   At 2:30pm they decide to stop for the day. Balthazar is so grateful. Isabelle instructs them to pick up as many sticks as they can from the side of the road without going into the forest. She arranges the sticks into a fire and lights it. Killi flies up and gets many dead logs nearby. It should be enough to last the night.   Balthazar gets his bed roll out and curls up to sleep. Galanith suggests to the group, excluding Balthazar, that they stay up until sunset. Which they do. The rest of the day is uneventful. Galanith takes first watch with Isabelle joining in at the start. Isabelle gets four hours sleep and joining Leolen for second watch.   2nd of Keltier 1524   During the night Leolen and Isabelle both notice that Brienda has gotten out of bed and gone for a walk. Leolen tries to get her attention but she doesn't notice him. Isabelle turns her around and carefully trips her into the bedroll. Then sits on her in a way that isn't really sit on her. They position themselves so they are blocking the path.   Over the course of the night each sleeping person (the trancing people are unaffected) has a strange dream. They dream of:   The sky grows dark about you and the rivers turn to blood, your dreams are filled with the screams of the dying as the village you find yourself standing in is attacked by goblins and fiends, the folk not lying at your feet butchered are chained and wait weeping for their fate to be decided.   Amongst the slaves you see yourself, your dream self kneels before a great goblin priest and is branded with a symbol of some sorts. "You cannot resist" whispers the dream about you, "I am strength, I am conquest, I am inevitable victory for the true lords of Aebrynis."   The ground fell away and the goblins saw the forest passing under their feet at great speed, the bridge a days run north was barely above the water of the swollen river - swollen from the rain expected this eve, the goblins knew, a wagon slowly crossed the bridge, driven by a stout man of advancing years and a young girl.   The group wakes up the next morning at 5am, trying to shake off this dream. Isabelle looks over where she got the mark and notices the skin is irritated though there is no actual brand. Isabelle apologises to Brienda for sitting on her as she wakes up. Brienda puts the dreams down to the ale and doesn't want to drink anymore again.   Leolen suggests making a lead for Brienda, which upsets her. He thinks a rope with a steak in the ground would be helpful. Galanith thinks everyone could actually benefit from being tied together if they need to leave the trail. Killi flies up to have a look around all she can see is forest and a mire. Galanith feels something isn't right with this area. Leolen suspects portal shenanigans. The group decides that following the path isn't helping them, so try to head for the mire since it is the first new thing. Killi gets out a rope for everyone to hold as they walk so they don't get separated.   They then share the dreams they had and learn that they all almost had a the same dream. Except Brienda who seemed to get some extra. A statue told her she had to free him or else. Leolen suggests next time they go to sleep that they should follow Brienda when she goes for walk. Brienda doesn't think she could sleep now and Leolen offers to fix that with a spell. This upsets her. They decide to walk until she's tired and then try the follow the sleeping girl idea.   The group heads off the trail to head for the mire at 6am. For the next four hours the group walks. They're amazed at how quickly the area stops being wooded and seems to become more boggy, swampy and squishy. Which is strange given it is winter and should be frozen.   At 10am Killi flies up to have a look around. She sees in the direction the group is heading there is an outcropping of dead trees. As Killi moves to fly towards it a little closes, she glances back she sees the group is gone. Then quickly spots then 100 feet towards the dead outcropping of mire despite being stationary. Killi tells them about movement and the group is confused. They regroup. They agree that they need to head to the trees since they clearly can't fight it.   They start walking again. Another hour passes and the mire is becoming more dead with a sulphur smell to the area. Very suddenly Brienda screams as she into the Earth and loses her grip on the rope. Isabelle goes to check the ground and it seems solid. Then they can hear Brienda screaming again and it's 200 ft away from them. The group takes off in that direction.   As they come to the clearing they see Brienda on an altar. They can see a 12 foot tall statue of half a fiend (the top half, legs may exist under the ground). The statue has a shifting coloration of crimson, pitch black highlighted with gold flecks. A voice echoes around the clearing as the statue demands to be freed. A black slightly translucent creature crawls into Brienda's mouth as dark shakes appear within sight in the mire.   The dark shapes from the mire get closer and look to be spirits. Balthazar recognises the statue is probably an actual fiend instead of just shaped like a fiend. Isabelle and Galanith run forward and try to reassure Brienda they are coming. The statue demands that the group kneels and gives them a chance to live. Killi and Leolen attack the statue. Killi misses but Leolen hits as the arrow imbeds itself in the statue. Brienda is struggling and her neck starts to bulg.   The spirits swarm the clearing as the ground starts to shake. Balthazar casts mage armour. Leolen runs over to Brienda, dodging a spirit and tries to push down on her stomach to force the spirit out. Galanith runs after Leolen with her holy symbol high and turns the undead away from them. Isabelle misty steps to the statue and investigates the statue but she cannot find anything. Kaida stays near the spirit that approached her, taking the dodge action. The statue is miffed that no one is bowing and he was shot at. The shaking ground grows more violent as Leolen and Balthazar full prone as they forced down as the statue demands they kneel. Killi sees that this battle is becoming more violent she casts mage armour on herself. Brienda is forcing the creature back to her mouth from her neck but seems to be struggling against herself in this.   Four of the spirits run away but the other two attack Balthazar and Kaida. Kaida dodges her attacker, but Balthazar is hit. Isabelle tries to help as a silvery vine tries to distract the spirit but it doesn't help. The vine gives energy to Brienda to try and give her more power to fight back. Balthazar curses at the creature and hellish flame hurts it before he also hurls some magical darts at the spirit which evaporates before him. On the front of the altar right near the Leolen and Kaida an eye appears staring out at the clearing. Leolen continues to help Brienda with getting this thing out of her by punching her in the stomach. His ferret digs around the statue and notices the statue continues into the ground below the hips. Kaida communicates to Isabelle about the eye so she can come round to shoot at the eye. This causes it to squint as it's damaged as they move away from the eye a little. The eye looks at Leolen and he catches on fire briefly. Galanath calls down a holy energy on the remaining spirit as she makes it to the altar. Killi flies towards the altar to fire off a chaos bolt at the statue and suddenly she becomes larger in size as her magic surges with power. Brienda is able to force the strange creature out of her mouth with the help and support of her guardians.   Pouring out the back of the statue are more spirits. The eyeball disappears in the blink of an eye as a red mist appears and Brienda breaths it in. Galanith reacts by blessing Brienda with Avani's protection from good and evil which forces the mist back out. Balthazar fires magic missile at the creature Brienda has forced out of herself and destroys it. Leolen is sure that the tendrils holding Brienda down is dark energy. He knows that they can interact and destroy them. He attacks and destroys one, as he directs others on how to destory them. Isabelle looks around while Kaida tries to naw a tendril to weaken it. Killi continues to attack the statue in her large form. The statue altar starts to crush Brienda as the statue threatens the group. Brienda tries to use the power the statue is trying to force it her to use against it, but the attempt falls flat.   The spirits attack the group and hit Isabelle and Killi. Isabelle uses the silvery vine to try get the creature to miss, but it hits anyway. Isabelle redirects some of the energy from the spirit into Brienda. A tendril comes back and re-grabs Brienda's free wrist. Balthazar fires off a magic missile at the spirit in front of him and critically injuries it. Leolen cuts the new tendril off Brienda while his ferret gnaws at Brienda's wrist that makes her scream. Isabelle draws her magical handaxe and attack the spirit in front of her and with Kaida's lightning destroys it. Galanith summons a spectral spear to attack the spirit attacking her after sending some radiant flame on Brienda's bindings which destroys one. The statue keeps trying to crush Brienda with the altar but she is doing well to resist most of the damage. Killi shocks the creature with her magic so she can run away from it as it can't seem to attack her. Brienda sits up, mostly free, her eyes going black as she yells at the statue. Tendrils of black magic hit the statue as it starts to crack.   The spirits start attacking the group. Balthazar throws up a shield to protect himself as he is almost hit. Killi is nearly hit but Leolen casts Silvery Barbs to protect her as he directs the extra magic into Brienda. A black mist fills the air. Balthazar sends some magical fire at the spirit in front of him that finishes it off. Leolen destroys the last binding keeping Brienda restrained and tells her to get out of there. Isabelle sees the cracks starting to grow on the statue, she moves to see if she can't make that worse. She calls on Erik's grace to empower her strike as she hits it with wind and lightning empowering it. The damage to the statue to grow. Galanith destroys a spirit with her spiritual spear as she scoops Brienda off the altar and runs away. Isabelle and Kaida grow confused in the mist. Killi destroys a spirit with a chaos bolt and tries to use her shard to damage the statue but the statue resists it. Brienda starts to whisper, which echoes and grow louder, which damages the statue more.   Leolen and Kaida are attacked by the spirits but they miss. The area around the statue gets very hot. Balthazar fires off a magic missile at the statue. There is not much left of the statue now at the point. Leolen jumps up onto the altar and stabs his dagger into its heart. A storm of lightning goes up through the dagger and into Leolen. The statue turns to rubble as Leolen stands there, a little confused by what just happened.