Forest Fey Party

The next week or do were an uneventful blur. I ended up using Blood Transcription again on what I now believe was a cleric. I ended up getting notes on Cure Light Wounds. After I make it into Brentwood I gotta buy materials to scribe it into my notes. The winds seemed to have swelled during the time. Must be a stable front for now, good fortune for the marriage to me. Kniana nursed the captive back to health, as expected. I've been told that there are two entities that we're dealing with that awoken from their homeland. One being this masked man that they say the rats carry a message of freedom for those who's carried. Makes me think the ones with the blackened blood. Not totally sure something didn't get lost in translation, but it seems that this masked man uses rats as messengers for the individuals he taints with the blackened blood? The captive said that she believes that the masked man brings a message of beauty. The other mystery entity she was too afraid to mention. Kniana ended up asking for a bit in talking to her. I offered what I can do. Pretty easy few techniques I've picked up. I told then about the usefullness of Cup of Dust, Feast of Ashes, and Confess. They [Kniana and Eval] seemed taken aback about it all. I should have figured the bleeding heart wouldn't want to provoke an answer so effectively. I had to backtrack a bit at that. I should have explained that the first two I've used as a lesson for those who think stealing from me is a good idea. As for Confess, it is only considered torture if they decide it to be. If they tell the truth they have no pain to fear. Though usually combining it with another painful method tends to get them cooperating faster. Even without my help they managed to find out where in Leshraka they all came from. At one point while the captive was talking after getting nervous Kniana said that the veins in her face blackened and she calmed down unusually fast. This is defiantly related to that curse. I suspect that someone else invaded her mind either directly or influenced her, I would even go so far as to suspect our masked friend.
After this little talk, Kniana, Eval, and I talked about bringing this to noble's attention. They wanted to storm right up to a highborn and give them the elf and our story. I just rolled my eyes at such an outlandish thought. These nobles care very little about anything that doesn't affect them directly and even less so about the words of a group of a strange band of travelers. The events we have witnessed make sense to us because of the relations WE and we alone currently know about. To just about anyone else they seem to be unrelated issues happening across the realm. Dare I say, RRRoshin might have the political sway in his group that he was meeting with to possibly back our claims, but we must finish our current task to see if he has even survived his. I don't even know if his group has much political sway either. Either way this has me writing a letter to the Snaggletooth Brotherhood to give warnings and some insight as to beefing up our security. I am glad that these others that RRRoshin has called are as good as they are in combat. It saves me significant gold from having to officially hire Clan Dire. I just have to look out for areas of mismatched morality as evident from the captive. They kept discussing about letting her go versus keeping her hostage and I simple did not care. Lilly lost and found asked to see the flower from the encounter and I divulged. Turns out that the dirt around the base seems to be turning into a mycelium of sorts with spores around it. Curiously, a bee landed on the flower to do it's thing. It then fell to the dirt and the yellow on the bee turned a faint gray-purple. It reawoke and flew into the forest. I observed the flight while Lilly I think tried to catch it with Mage Hand. Very interesting as the flower seemed to create an individual compulsion effect in an otherwise mindless swarming creature. This must be powerful magics indeed. I now keep the flowers under glass bells to prevent unexpected exposure. The Corpl. saw and told me for the love of god to keep it away from Bessy. I quite frankly was mildly insulted. Bessy is my guard, my cart pull, and my loyal companion. There are no good reasons that Bessy should ever be exposed to this by my hands! I ~might~ see the effects on the young, but never my defender and cart puller. This flower now had even more of my curiosity and I spent more time looking in to it. Might it be used as pest control?
 
During some such research I was interrupted. Eval came to see me with pixies? They [pixies] talked about a more kind masked man. Something more of a street prophet that was thrown out of town. Sounds significantly lass "evil" that ours. Apparently the prisoner that we had was one they were looking for according to Kniana. Apparently her group also attacked the pixie's before ours. They even stabbed her with a small blade to show her darkened blood. One of the pixies pulled a wand and cast Enlarge while one of the others pulled out a cord that wrapped around the Elf's body until she was completely bound. I'm guessing it was something like an animated rope. I think a total of nine pixies started dragging the elf away Eval was going to join them but the Corpl. didn't want him going alone so he asked me to join. I couldn't really say no as I HAD been avoiding watch this entire time pretty successfully. It was kinda funny though as some of the pixies seemed to be following Dancing Lights that they themselves cast. Such whimsical creatures, so carefree.
Their camp was a bit of a walk away, and as we entered the other fey that were there seemed to be preforming their own ritual. Between the the 15 dancers or so they had satyrs, a minotaur, and an ursine. Nearly all of them wore barely any clothing. They ere dancing around a lowering fire chanting in Terran and Sylvan celebrating and thanking the earth for everything it provides. I couldn't recommend doing that around a fire, but what does someone with scales know of hair and floppy bits. Anyway, I think that they were chanting about Shelyn and Pharasma. Shelyn, the goddess dragon of beauty, art, and music. Pharasma, the goddess dragon of time and fate also known as the deity crypt dragon. I can understand Shelyn, but the bits about Pharasma confuse me a bit. I would venture the whole life death cycle thing, but I didn't want to be rude and ask at the time. The pixies led Eval and I to a stool near the fire and the stump next to us stood up. Turned out to me an extremely mossy mudenal [molefolk] with a stump on his back. It urks me to think what cralls through his fur... But muldenal are extremely good miners, great farmers, and the best tour guides around. Though their obsession with fine masonry leads them to nearly worship finely crafted stone buildings. I get that as a high class craftsman, admiring the great's work. But this one seemed to be the more uh... natUrAL type, more druidic in nature to me. He took out a rough looking dusty makeshift wood bowl and pulled a plant bulb out of the ground. Using a mortar and pestle he mashed the bulb, added a small vile of liquid to it and proceeded to cast a spell on it. I didn't have my glasses on but I did see that it was some spell that had to do with dreams. One of the pixies sat down and said "I'll show you." and "You ready for the ride of your life?" talking about their masked man. They referenced the spell mixing essences or something while motioning to Eval. Apparently he is elemental or kin of one or something. We talked about it later. At the time The pixie said in sylvan "As roots of trees connect to the ground what is tall, let this now connect us all." Then as the pixie was sitting on a bench a brightly colored blueish reptilian with butterfly looking wings landed on him. It looked up and spoke to me in draconic "As the roots of the tree connects us all, and the branches reach for the skies, let us now see through his eyes." and gestured with his nose. Now I wasn't really sure but I could feel it had a connection with one of the Dragonic gods the only downside was it was a majority blue.... It made me a bit hesitant, but I followed the instructions, repeated what it said and consumed the concoction. It was kinda gross and thick tasting primarily like dirt. Figures that I have a taste like this in my mouth after not really eating for a few days again. I'd deal with that later because of the spells effects took hold.
 
After being dizzy for a few seconds, I was standing in a city that I had never seen before. The buildings were built amongst the trees, no built into the trees, or rather they were one and the same. I couldn't tell if it was day or night the trees were too tall and everywhere. Among the streets bustled races of elves, pixies, fairies, minotaur, minotaur with bear heads?, and other small winged things. In a slightly open area a four foot tall figure was standing in the area. It looked almost exactly like our masked man but their clothes were brighter in colors. The wore different grays in reds, blues, and greens as opposed to the straight black that I've seen. He had fairy like wings, from what I could tell, and spoke in sylvan only to repeat himself in common and some other language I don't know. He was preaching about how the time for change has come. About how a message must be received by all. Continued with how you're being betrayed and don't have the freedoms promised. He offered that if you join the cause you will experience freedoms you never knew you had. By this time I realized that I was not myself. I was floating about a foot and a half off the ground watching something that had already happened through another's eyes. I couldn't alter anything in any way. I didn't have to though as after a bit more repetitions of his preaching their masked man faced a few armed elves and a minotaur. They took the masked man off his pedestal and drag him away. The masked man didn't particularly resist, bit he kept preaching even as a black tear ran down his mask. An all to common thing anymore. Then the whole thing ended, and rather violently for my taste. I had a weightless sensation just before being yanked into the sky as my vision blurred. I ended up coming to on the ground by the fire looking into the starry night sky. Apparently the pixie had the same experience viewing from my perspective. I didn't exactly agree to that and I should hope that all they saw was the visions I had with out masked man... But after this whole dream we started talking about the subject.
Eval suggested that there are multiple "messengers" I proposed that they are some sort of eccentric cult. The pixie said that It had the Deep Lords out of their hidey holes. Eval inquired as to who they were. I shoulda known he be digging for another story, but it make it easier for me to just observe and think while he's asking all the questions. The Deep Lords are the older forest elves that lived before the great war. They were the ones to survive the shard of the shattered heart that hit Leshraka. It ended up wiping out most of the forest, but the ones who survived were changed. Of the different possibilities, they grew horns, their skin changes colors, and their kin started to grow plants or even bark. It makes me wonder about the one Deep Caster that we encountered. Was he a Deep Lord, or was he magically changed like what Kniana told me about? They are a collective of a few thousand so it is possible... I guess that those changes aren't always shown though as out captive is a Deep Lord. They did say the numbers are spread between the group past the north wall were a shard fell into the sea, and some of the mountains near Baldir. The pixie made a humorous remark acting all posh "Oh I'm a lord." I guess the lord is a self assigned title. They went to say that this group of fey volunteered to find who killed a hunting party. They found the remains with some mutilated remains and other strange things happening to the bodies. They even spoke of moldy fungi already growing and one of the corpses had lost almost all it's fur and skin had shrunken. They even mentioned the flowers were everywhere. The same ones as that I have from our encounter. To me this is even more of a reason to keep this assigned group nearby. If this Deep Lord group killed their own [forest fey] so readily, I don't think that we will be able to reason with any similar. Their accusations of resource use seem false to me after witnessing this group and I assume the hunters were of like mind being more fey. I will likely have to lie my tail off to get through if I try to reason with them [attacking fey]... The pixie that was about my height continued by saying that some of the flowers were bigger than them. Also made mention about the wishing-for-death taste with their cousin trying one of the flowers out. Eval told them about the bee incident how it "died" and "resurrected" that made the pixie laugh talking about zom-bees, heh. The pixie talked to Eval about clouds and rain? Says that he never will get caught in the rain again after what he knows of Eval's people? I didn't get it until the pixie told me Eval is a damn cloud fucker or kin or something. Now I defiantly will never get caught in the rain or snow again, blegh. I talked to him more about it later, but the pixie said that assimilation would be "free" kinda. I'm not so sure how they define their freedom, but it sounds about right for a kobold warren. Not exactly MY style, but eh. Eval pressed to get the group here to talk to their elders but the pixie said that we could talk to them ourselves possibly using magics. Eval said more or less fuck magic to which I retorted "Hold your tongue cloud fucker." Grinds me, his lack of understanding magic and just how it can be used. But after this little talk we took our leave and part with good wishes. I wasn't sure to the alignment of the dragon-kin was, but I bowed none the less. She telepathically said "Thankyou for your interesting dream Tink, I am called Ezzussi. [a-zoo-see] Travel well, and you friend is haunted." I ended up flubbing it a bit by thinking? back "It is an honor, and same to you. Erm, traveling." Gods I felt like an embarrassment to my clan. I do wonder who she says is haunted though...
 
As we left the group Eval and I had an interesting conversation about linages. He is what is called a Silf. One of his ancestors had relations with a genie and now his family line is half elementals and whatnot. Makes me wonder what all magics he has innate, not that he would know if they were innate or not... I told him of the mighty Coppertail line and our direct decent from Calistria herself! He eventually asked about the languages and what the fey party was doing of which I told him. He seemed upset about my mentioned use of earth elementals for golems that I have helped make with my master. It seems he thinks of them as kin too? I likened it to more of giving them purpose or even like training a dog. In reality I have not super sure, but I'd rather keep his bow pointed away from me. The rest of the day was quiet after I told Kniana and the others about the dream-vision I had as well as the other events.
 
The next few days were pretty quiet, routine things. Kniana ended up keeping the captives stuff which I wasn't thrilled about at first. She told me it was payment for room, board, food, and damages. She asked me to evaluate the items which I did. There ended up being a Ring of Resistance 1, a cloak that gives hiding benefit for forests [Elven Kind only for forest], a scroll of Levitate, a scroll of Feather Fall, two Cure Moderate Wounds potions, a Feather Fall potion, a staff of Mirror Image with five charges, a shameful dagger, and an awful short sword. There was also a beetle broach with no magic, but it was kinda nice. Reminds me of Bessy, I offered my salvaging service should she not want any of the gear. I might have to tempt her with using it as part of her payment plan to Maki. She still has the good stuff. Those weapons aren't even masterwork, bah! shoddy work.
I ended up doing some experiments on the flowers with an interesting revelation. When exposed to a crystal, the dark halo gets darker. It had no apparent effect when exposed to metal, or leather. It seems highly resistant to temperature change. Wood turned a gray-black color, and bugs exposed loose there color and try to flee towards the forest. I wonder if these could be used for pest control... Anyway, the wood the is interesting. Combining that with the information gathered up to this point has led me to find that this flower is used in the corrupting/control ritual. It also would make sense if our masked man grew these in whatever place he is to darken all the nearby wood like my experiments.
Additionally, during this down time I finally was able to have a little sit-down with the Corpl.. Corporal Fizbin was adopted by Matias Crimson, a high noble in the Ruby Clan. Her brother works for Clan Dire and he saw her desire for adventure so she joined Dire as well. He made sure that she was well taken care of within the clan. Makes sense to me now. She's from some money and had a few people givin her stuff to take care of her. Worried parents do tend to splurge more. It seems that some of the staffs themselves have an unstable crystal making them cheaper, but tend to smoke and breakdown easier if pushed too far. I would suspect that these staves are more experimental in nature as I'm sure any reputable Snaggletooth crafter would only use the finest. I should hope that the staves are also of Vesuki's make. Eh, maybe she's trying to lower costs to get more business for the next guild turnover...
Many days later we finally made it to Brentwood. Kniana is intreated in what Pharasma has is store for us here. Brentwood is such a lovely place and now is particularly busy with the excitement of the event. Kniana took off to the Firelilly Tavern probably to look for board. As the rest of the caravan unloads and disbands to go their separate ways, I gave the Corpl. back her glove. She and I talked briefly about Vesuki Coppercrest up in Grenwell. I'll have to make a visit before setting up shop somewhere. Either way, I was given a banknote from the Topaz servant for the rest of the sword as promised. I handed over the beauty to them, gods that was a fine sword! But now that that project is finished, time to resupply. I'm sure the local shops will be pleased with the sudden business. I will have to set shop for this event to maybe squeeze some more coin for late gifts.
 
~raw~
use blood spell again, otherwise uneventful, higher than normal winds for awhile, few days later Kniana and Eval talked to the survivor that they took, Kniana says there are 2 entities that are awoken from their homeland, the masked man, says the rats carry a message of freedom for those whos carried {the blood?}, other is afraid of by mention, believes the white masked man has a message of beauty, offer services, they are like WHAT?, torture only if stolen from to teach a lesson, one isn't torture unless they make it so. range from in leshraka, add to letter, black veins and got calm fast, relates to the curse, talks about noble's reactions to "unrelated" attacks and events. and should we keep hostage?, should we let her go?, dirt around flower is discolored, darker, spores seem to be around bottom, a bee lands on flower, does it's thing, it falls to dirt , yellow color turns to faint gray purple, flys toward forest, compulsion on mindless creatures, place glass bells on flowers, corpl. says to keep flower away from bessy for the love of god., would maybe see about young, but not my defender/cart puller.
interrupted during research. talk about a more kind, white masked man, kinda a profit that got thrown out of town. less "evil" seeming one. from 2-3 pixies from another group nearby, they look at prisoner that she was there's, pixie stabbed prisoner and showed the dark blood, kniana said that she was part of a group that attacked the other group, pixie pulls wand, uses on partner casts enlarge type spell, one pulls a cord that wrapped around her body until she cannot move, Eval is joining with corpl. doesn't want going alone, 9 total, pixies help drag prisoner. some are chasing their own dancing lights, they seem to be caught in a ritual, chanting in sylvan, talk in terran and sylvan, seem to be celebrating the earth and thanking it for everything. seem to be talking about shellan and farazma god dragons, frazma goddess of time and fate known as the deity crypt dragon, shellan goddess of beauty art music. let to a lowering fire, sit on a stool, about 15 dancers around the fire, satyrs centaurs, 1 minotaur, 1 ursine. all in minimal clothing, barely decent. next to stool, a stump that stood up, a moss covered Munldal (mole folk)(extremely good miners farmers, BEST TOURGUIDES ANYWHERE, seems to worship finely crafted stone buildings, highly admire stonemasonry) very mossy and whatnot with a stump on back, has a dusty makeshift bowl , pulls a bulb of plant out of ground, starts using with mortar pestle, someone else adds a small vile to mash, he then casts a spell on it, cant really tell but probably has to due with a dream spell, pixie says "ill just show you" "you ready for the ride of your life?" Eval was made of mixed essences? elemental? kin of one? anyways... pixie in sylvan "as roots of trees connect to the ground what is tall, let this now connect us all." as sitting on bench, very colorful bright reptilian looking thing lands in lap, looks up at me and says in draconic, "as the roots of the tree connect us all, and the branches reach for the skies, let us now see through his eyes" gestures at his knows. feel it in bones it is a dragon.... a blueish one... skeptically follow instructions. repeat it and take a drink of concoction, kinda gross and thick, tastes like dirt. 2-3 secs very dizzy, than standing in city I've never seen before,
buildings built amongst trees, built into trees, cant tell if day or night, too much tree, races of elves and pixies fairies other creatures some minotaur's? have bear heads? other small winged things, city bustling, 4ft figure standing in an area, likes like masked man almost exactly but clothes are lighter in color, different grays reds blues and greens as apposed to straight black , very fairies type wings, talking in sylvan and common, and another language, preaching about time for change has come, message must be received by all, your are being betray not having freedoms promised, if join cause, you will experience freedoms you never knew you had, i am not myself, i am floating about 1.5ft off ground, watching something that has already happened through another's eyes. keeps preaching same thing a bit. several armed elves minotaur and take guy off pedestal doesn't really resist and keeps preaching as drug away, then black tear runs down front of mask, feel very weightless for a sec then violently pulled into sky as vision blurred, wake up on ground by fire looking at starry sky, he saw our visions as i saw him, might be multiple messengers as suggested by eval, maybe a cult of this messenger, has deep lords out of hidey holes, who -eval, older forest elves that lived before war, crystal hitting forest wiped out most and changed them, they grew horns skin different colors, grow plants or bark out of skin. kinda like the encountered wizard, like a collective of few thousand, the one captured one is a part of the group, deep lords of see past north wall, deep lords of mountains near baldir, pixie says "oh I'm a lord" posh, volunteered to find who killed hunting party, some mutilated, weird things happening to their bodies, moldy fungi was happening to body, one started loosing all fur and sunken skin, said flowers appearing everywhere, the get bigger than i do pixie -3ish feet. talked about clouds and eval and rain? pixie tells me eval is a cloud fucker, never getting in rain again. council not standing for these raiding groups. pixie says flowers taste horrible from cousin wished he died. Eval talk about the bee eating pollen dieing and resurrecting, zombies lol from pixie, pixie says assimilation would be "free" kinda. eval says to talk to elders, pixie says to talk yourself possibly, eval fuck magic, hold your toung cloud fucker... take our leave and part on good wishes bows to fairydragon, will talk to eval about eval being silf, ancestor had relations with a genie.
she telepathically, "thank you for your interesting dream Tink, I am called Ezzussi. travel well, and your friend is haunted" A-zoo-see "It is an honor, and same to you. erm, traveling"
talk with Eval about lineage and what being a silf is and whatnot, talk to kniana and others that shared dreams about events, about an hour later get really tired, doesn't happen often. talk about background stuff and about the celebration languages, use of earth elementals, talk about the visions, rest of day is quiet,
next few days quiet, swear to see other group at one point headed other way. kniana not returning captives stuff as payment for room and board as well as damages, had me evaluate stuff, ring of resist1, cloak of elven kind kinda, forest only, scroll of levitate and feather fall, 2cure moderate wounds, 1featherfall potions, staff of mirror image with 5 charges. dagger short sword, broach of beetle no magic. offer salvage services,
MANY days later after everything make it to Brentwood. see what farazma has in store -kniana, Brentwood is a very nice place, busy with excitement, kniana looks for board in fire lilly tavern, give coprl. back glove talk a bit about vesuki coppercrest.
GET PAID, GET RESUPPLIES -get notes on cleric spell, get notes on curse, get notes on coprl, get notes on flowers-
1) Bless Weapon, Cure Light wounds
2) ritual requires 8 hours, blood of a foreign born, a rooted flower
3) fizbin was adopted by Matias Crimson, a high noble in the Ruby clan. His brother works for clan Dire and he saw her desire for adventure so she joined the Dire. He made sure she was well taken care of and that the staff smokes because it has an unstable crystal. Basically how she got them cheap
4) the crystal makes the halo around the flower darker but nothing major, metal stays the same, leather seems fine, wood turns slightly gray-blue black, it seems to be highly resistant to temperature change, bugs that interact lose their color and try to flee towards the forest.