Adventure Brunch #43 - 7/18/20 - To rest or not to rest...
General Summary
The party of Cyrus, Jingles, Panthro, Razana, Shakkax, and Zura fast-traveled from her Tower to the Valley of the Two Sages to meet the Timbermaw Clan of furbolgs and begin their epic quest to finally reach the eldergleam and collect its sap. The shaman of the clan’s son, Vahorn Timbermaw, went with them to open the cave mouths and guide them through. Beforehand, Zura shared the wealth of (often repeated) information she had collected about the fomorians likely still in the area and corrupting it—henceforth referred to as f-bombs.
For a while the party debated how to deal with the low light situation since Cyrus was the only one unable to see in the dark. After about 15 minutes, Vahorn informed them that large sections of the cave were bio-luminescent, then opened the bear cave mouth of the tunnel leading to the eldergleam.
Once inside the tunnel, Zura reiterated her concerns about the f-bombs and the party came up with a safety strategy. Jingles and Panthro scouted ahead, checked for traps, etc., and everything was going smoothly until Panthro tripped into a bush and disturbed the monsters in the cave... and the party readied themselves to fight one of the f-bombs that Zura would not shut up about. However, what attacked them turned out to be animated dead hands and some very large (possibly firbolg) zombies!
During the fight, Jingles found his bow and arrows to be ineffective, and really missed his magical bow that Kano stole. However, with his superior archery skills, he was able to stake the dead hands to the ground with arrows while the rest of the party took them out along with the firbolg zombies—which were unnaturally resilient and hit really, really hard! A little beaten, battered, and spell slot-reduced, the party continued on. "Are the f-bombs next?" worried Zura.
The party paused periodically to allow Cyrus to collect some “singing” and glowing plants as well as some interesting looking fungus, but he botched the collection of the latter and ended up being paralyzed for an hour and poisoned. Jingles and Panthro continued to scout ahead as the party traversed the subterranean terrain, until the tunnel made a sudden, sharp turn and opened up into a huge cavern. Danger senses tingling, they went no further and reported back to the party.
Zura was pretty sure this was the likely lair of the f-bombs, and concocted a plan to ambush them: Cyrus summoned 8 radiant mephits (his new favorite spell) and sent them into the room to “scout” and hopefully lure the f-bombs (who are light sensitive and hate fey) into the tunnel where the party was ready and waiting. Instead, the mephits drew the attention of a host of creatures inside the room, shambling about unbeknownst to our heroes. Suddenly a powerful wind blew down the tunnel, around the corner, and beyond their ambush point, bringing with it a gust of debris, rocks, and dead leaves.
The wind coalesced behind the ambushers into a terrifying, bandaged-wrapped undead figure with a hot brand at its waist (It’s the f-bomb! thought Zura). Razana tried to Turn Undead but the creature shrugged it off and struck her with blows from his undead fists. Cyrus felt his 8 radiant mephits dying one at a time around the large cavern, severing his link to them and suggesting more trouble on the way... but the party successfully dispatched the undead enemy surprisingly quickly (thanks in part to Zura’s radiant damage dealing capabilities). As the creature died (again), the party heard what sounded like an army of skeletons fall apart all at once in the cavern. They went and investigated and found a host of monsters which had been on their way to ambush them (hey, weren’t they the ambushers?!) now lay unmoving and unanimated throughout the space. The party deemed the cavern cleared of enemies, collected the kin beads of the dead firbolg as requested, and rested.
Afterwards, the party traveled unimpeded to the end of the tunnel. At the cave mouth, Vahorn Timbermaw told them that he would wait for three days in the cave, after which he would assume them dead. He prayed for them and sealed the exiting cave mouth behind them.
Looking out, the party noticed that in leaving the cave they had entered a monochrome world, with black wispy fumes coming out the ground. All color was muted and all light was dim and subdued. They saw the very top of a gigantic tree--the object of their quest--at a great distance in front of them. The trip from their current position looked like a long hard trek, including a very steep incline, though roughly midway they saw a strange (compared to the surroundings) lit and colorful area that looked like a large burning fire.
To their left was a mountain, acting as a wall to the valley in front of them. To their right was a huge lake of black, bubbling and viscous liquid with thick, black fumes coming off it. In the far distance, they could slightly make out small semi-circle of a mountain range that greatly reminded Zura of that which nestled around her stronghold. It also looked like it was the source of the black goo. Beyond the mountain range was a long bridge made of stone with obsidian accents that stretched across a vast chasm to reach a set of towers and continue to the base of a spire.
The area around the spire looked extremely hot, with the air around it shimmering in heat and emanating a dull red light. The spire in the center looked to be a made of obsidian and stone, with faint red accents swirling throughout. There was no black ooze to be seen in that area.
The party proceeded forward towards the eldergleam. They moved slowly, cautiously, and stealthily after using various stealth spells from Jingles and poultices from Cyrus. Even Shakkax was stealthy! The “blighted” woods looked thickly planted with extremely thorny brambles, bushes, and small trees--difficult terrain that would very obviously injure them. As they crept along, they didn’t notice any malevolent creatures but, more importantly, they did get noticed either. Zura was really concerned about the f-bombs as well as getting back to the cave (alive and) within three days.
As the hours passed, the party passed some interesting sights and structures, though did not deter from the path to the eldergleam. They passed a three story building made from petrified wood with a top that looked like a flower. This was quickly dubbed the "flower power tower" by Zura. The party also passed a small grove with a grouping of stones that had what looked (from far away) like writing. The party continued on without exploring (this time) in order to conserve their resources for the real reason they were here. The f-bombs(!) and the eldergleam.
Finally, the party came to the midway point of color, which turned out to be a “V” shaped wall of fire--very real fire and not an illusion because they noted it was very hot and also disintegrated a hapless undead creature that stumbled into it. They noticed a large c-shape standing stone on one side the fire wall; it was blank to everyone but Cyrus who is capable of reading Druidcraft. Though it made the ground shake (and made him nervous and sweaty enough to take his armor off), Cyrus read the full inscription only to discover it was the the verbal and somatic components of the spell “Fire Slash”. Upon reading the spell, a ball of flame erupted from the ground and exploded to form a ten foot tall humanoid creature that spoke of "let only the worthy pass" and needing to test intruders, and immediately attacked them.
Zura pleaded with it in the Ignan language to no avail. Jingles found his arrows to again not be very effective. Several burns and healing spells later, they slew the fiery creature which extinguished half of the fire wall, allowing the party to pass through (barely) to find an open air temple of sorts.
Everyone entered the temple and explored the ground level. They found several smaller “c” shape stones which could only be seen by someone who knows the Druidcraft language. Zura was really seriously concerned about the f-bombs and proceeded very cautiously. Panthro and Jingles tried to take cat naps but it was too hot.
On the second floor, the group (minus the tabaxies) found an obsidian statue of carved glassy flames with red fiery swirls throughout. The pedestal read “Lord Firecloak”. Cyrus found and stole a water meta-orb from what looked like a large stone bathing tub. Our curious heroes finally opened the one door in the far wall and discovered a fiery malevolent spirit! They fought and defeated it but received a few more burns.
When the room was clear, they looked around what turned out to be a bedroom, and were sad to think that someone had been left here so long to guard the temple that they had become a malevolent spirit. Regardless, they looted the room. They found a locked chest that Panthro opened as if it was child play, and discovered a Robe of Fire Resistance, a Wand of Fire Bolt, a small cracked stone giving off a magical aura, and a book titled The Book of the Circle of Cinders.
The party was very tired and hurt and out of spell slots, however the area had an ambient temperature of 120 degrees and was deemed too hot to rest in so they pressed on despite having depleted resources.
TO BE CONTINUED...
For a while the party debated how to deal with the low light situation since Cyrus was the only one unable to see in the dark. After about 15 minutes, Vahorn informed them that large sections of the cave were bio-luminescent, then opened the bear cave mouth of the tunnel leading to the eldergleam.
Once inside the tunnel, Zura reiterated her concerns about the f-bombs and the party came up with a safety strategy. Jingles and Panthro scouted ahead, checked for traps, etc., and everything was going smoothly until Panthro tripped into a bush and disturbed the monsters in the cave... and the party readied themselves to fight one of the f-bombs that Zura would not shut up about. However, what attacked them turned out to be animated dead hands and some very large (possibly firbolg) zombies!
During the fight, Jingles found his bow and arrows to be ineffective, and really missed his magical bow that Kano stole. However, with his superior archery skills, he was able to stake the dead hands to the ground with arrows while the rest of the party took them out along with the firbolg zombies—which were unnaturally resilient and hit really, really hard! A little beaten, battered, and spell slot-reduced, the party continued on. "Are the f-bombs next?" worried Zura.
The party paused periodically to allow Cyrus to collect some “singing” and glowing plants as well as some interesting looking fungus, but he botched the collection of the latter and ended up being paralyzed for an hour and poisoned. Jingles and Panthro continued to scout ahead as the party traversed the subterranean terrain, until the tunnel made a sudden, sharp turn and opened up into a huge cavern. Danger senses tingling, they went no further and reported back to the party.
Zura was pretty sure this was the likely lair of the f-bombs, and concocted a plan to ambush them: Cyrus summoned 8 radiant mephits (his new favorite spell) and sent them into the room to “scout” and hopefully lure the f-bombs (who are light sensitive and hate fey) into the tunnel where the party was ready and waiting. Instead, the mephits drew the attention of a host of creatures inside the room, shambling about unbeknownst to our heroes. Suddenly a powerful wind blew down the tunnel, around the corner, and beyond their ambush point, bringing with it a gust of debris, rocks, and dead leaves.
The wind coalesced behind the ambushers into a terrifying, bandaged-wrapped undead figure with a hot brand at its waist (It’s the f-bomb! thought Zura). Razana tried to Turn Undead but the creature shrugged it off and struck her with blows from his undead fists. Cyrus felt his 8 radiant mephits dying one at a time around the large cavern, severing his link to them and suggesting more trouble on the way... but the party successfully dispatched the undead enemy surprisingly quickly (thanks in part to Zura’s radiant damage dealing capabilities). As the creature died (again), the party heard what sounded like an army of skeletons fall apart all at once in the cavern. They went and investigated and found a host of monsters which had been on their way to ambush them (hey, weren’t they the ambushers?!) now lay unmoving and unanimated throughout the space. The party deemed the cavern cleared of enemies, collected the kin beads of the dead firbolg as requested, and rested.
Afterwards, the party traveled unimpeded to the end of the tunnel. At the cave mouth, Vahorn Timbermaw told them that he would wait for three days in the cave, after which he would assume them dead. He prayed for them and sealed the exiting cave mouth behind them.
Looking out, the party noticed that in leaving the cave they had entered a monochrome world, with black wispy fumes coming out the ground. All color was muted and all light was dim and subdued. They saw the very top of a gigantic tree--the object of their quest--at a great distance in front of them. The trip from their current position looked like a long hard trek, including a very steep incline, though roughly midway they saw a strange (compared to the surroundings) lit and colorful area that looked like a large burning fire.
To their left was a mountain, acting as a wall to the valley in front of them. To their right was a huge lake of black, bubbling and viscous liquid with thick, black fumes coming off it. In the far distance, they could slightly make out small semi-circle of a mountain range that greatly reminded Zura of that which nestled around her stronghold. It also looked like it was the source of the black goo. Beyond the mountain range was a long bridge made of stone with obsidian accents that stretched across a vast chasm to reach a set of towers and continue to the base of a spire.
The area around the spire looked extremely hot, with the air around it shimmering in heat and emanating a dull red light. The spire in the center looked to be a made of obsidian and stone, with faint red accents swirling throughout. There was no black ooze to be seen in that area.
The party proceeded forward towards the eldergleam. They moved slowly, cautiously, and stealthily after using various stealth spells from Jingles and poultices from Cyrus. Even Shakkax was stealthy! The “blighted” woods looked thickly planted with extremely thorny brambles, bushes, and small trees--difficult terrain that would very obviously injure them. As they crept along, they didn’t notice any malevolent creatures but, more importantly, they did get noticed either. Zura was really concerned about the f-bombs as well as getting back to the cave (alive and) within three days.
As the hours passed, the party passed some interesting sights and structures, though did not deter from the path to the eldergleam. They passed a three story building made from petrified wood with a top that looked like a flower. This was quickly dubbed the "flower power tower" by Zura. The party also passed a small grove with a grouping of stones that had what looked (from far away) like writing. The party continued on without exploring (this time) in order to conserve their resources for the real reason they were here. The f-bombs(!) and the eldergleam.
Finally, the party came to the midway point of color, which turned out to be a “V” shaped wall of fire--very real fire and not an illusion because they noted it was very hot and also disintegrated a hapless undead creature that stumbled into it. They noticed a large c-shape standing stone on one side the fire wall; it was blank to everyone but Cyrus who is capable of reading Druidcraft. Though it made the ground shake (and made him nervous and sweaty enough to take his armor off), Cyrus read the full inscription only to discover it was the the verbal and somatic components of the spell “Fire Slash”. Upon reading the spell, a ball of flame erupted from the ground and exploded to form a ten foot tall humanoid creature that spoke of "let only the worthy pass" and needing to test intruders, and immediately attacked them.
Zura pleaded with it in the Ignan language to no avail. Jingles found his arrows to again not be very effective. Several burns and healing spells later, they slew the fiery creature which extinguished half of the fire wall, allowing the party to pass through (barely) to find an open air temple of sorts.
Everyone entered the temple and explored the ground level. They found several smaller “c” shape stones which could only be seen by someone who knows the Druidcraft language. Zura was really seriously concerned about the f-bombs and proceeded very cautiously. Panthro and Jingles tried to take cat naps but it was too hot.
On the second floor, the group (minus the tabaxies) found an obsidian statue of carved glassy flames with red fiery swirls throughout. The pedestal read “Lord Firecloak”. Cyrus found and stole a water meta-orb from what looked like a large stone bathing tub. Our curious heroes finally opened the one door in the far wall and discovered a fiery malevolent spirit! They fought and defeated it but received a few more burns.
When the room was clear, they looked around what turned out to be a bedroom, and were sad to think that someone had been left here so long to guard the temple that they had become a malevolent spirit. Regardless, they looted the room. They found a locked chest that Panthro opened as if it was child play, and discovered a Robe of Fire Resistance, a Wand of Fire Bolt, a small cracked stone giving off a magical aura, and a book titled The Book of the Circle of Cinders.
The party was very tired and hurt and out of spell slots, however the area had an ambient temperature of 120 degrees and was deemed too hot to rest in so they pressed on despite having depleted resources.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Report Date
11 Sep 2020
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