Lamannia - The Twilight Forest

The Party finds themselves in Lamannia - The Twilight Forest and at the mercy of Ulsaria, the female variant of Randolfo, who has been guarding the Grimoire for the last 7000 years.

The canopy completely covers the sky and the trees are all shapes and sizes. Lamaria. This plane contains all types of climates, as it would be with no interference or interruption. There is not a currently known way to collapse a manifest zone. There are guys who come here specifically to get the more potent plants that are from here. Druid powers are amplified here, her beasties get bonuses, time passes normally, and any survival checks based on finding food have advantage. There are megafauna and megaflora here as well. The presence of the primordials here is manifested (as discovered by this one researcher) as animals. He found himself on an island that was a giant turtle. He was in a forest that was the fur on the back of a gigantic wolf. This guy was researching lycanthropes. People who worship the moon end up here because they cannot pass on their lycanthropy. Druids and rangers like to chill here. At one point, an Elven community set up a permanent trading post here, but they kept getting wrecked by nature, so they gave it up.     Moz spots a goodberry bush along the shore of the river. And Plumewood grows here. We decide to go get the book first, then try to rest.     Moz notices that an animal has snatched the book out of the water. Thuniel notices that it is a gross carp-looking fish, the size of an orca, and someone is riding it. And we get the feeling of attention on us. Moz very much feels like the fish went with the flow, and we follow it, but cannot gain on it. As we follow, we see things surfacing in the river, carcasses and bones. There’s a boat traveling down the river with no sails or occupants, but a big smear of fresh blood smeared across the surface. There’s an abnormally large fish with a platter in its mouth that dives into a hole in the riverbank. We fly past a frozen bend of the river. And the farther we go, we notice animals noticing the giant owls.     Momo whispers to Moz that he can talk to her now, but he doesn’t know why. He’s confused why this place is so weird. The rest of us can hear and understand him now too.       Gilly tries to fire a warning shot, and hits the guy riding the fish. He pulls his fish up short and we gain on him. He seems to be heading toward a small sandbank in the center of the river. We’re still about two hundred feet away when he gets to the island. He walks onto the island and we see this shrine on the outcropping. He looks back at us, then disappears. He looked like a shifter like Rusty and Hazel. Moz can no longer locate object.     Bobushio casts detect magic to see if the shrine still has magic about it. We hop off the owls and approach the shrine. It’s a shrine to a Totem (primordial manifestation), specifically a dragon turtle, and it has Randolfo’s symbol on it. This shrine has a password. At first glance, the Randolfo symbol does have a different flourish to it. Moz does Sending to our Randolfo, who tells Moz, “Password is probably swordfish, and that sounds like my sister.”     We have to use Elvish to open it, and it wakes up the island. It’s the crest of a dragon turtle’s head. He’s hungry, and Bobushio gives him griffin snacks. Dragon turtle asks why we are waking him. Bobushio says someone stole the book. Dragon turtle says that a friend was tasked to stay there for thousands of years until there was a waterfall, at which point he was meant to grab the book. We say that Randolfo told us to grab the book too. He says, “Randolfo hasn’t been here for ages.” Gilly asks where the “friend” took the book. Ulsaria’s Lair. And because we’re cool, he sends us to a cave.     It’s very damp and cold in here. At one point, it was very elven, but it has been overgrown. The guy that we chased is there and is surprised that we made it this far. Bobushio tries to lie to him that Ulsaria sent us to make sure it’s okay. But the guy knows what he’s up to. “I know what my job is. I’m trying to tell you what your job is.” While the shifter is distracted, Gilly sneaks off to see what she can see. This shifter seems otterly-inclined. “They’ve never had anyone get this far. This is the safe-guard to make sure only the worthy ones get the book.” His family has been waiting for the waterfall for thousands of years.     He starts to notice that Gilly is gone and Bobushio tries to distract him. The guy’s name is Marsh, and his mistress has one more job for us. Marsh starts to say the rules of hospitality, and Bobushio interrupts him again. Thuniel tells Bobushio to shut up. 1. Do not kill any sentient employees. 2. Do not attempt to bypass any locked doors. 3. We cannot sleep in this domain. There will be consequences.     We ask if we can come back later, and he goes to ask Ulsaria. If we leave to rest, our challenge will be harder when we come back. We decide to go now.     Marsh opens the first door into a circular room with five alcoves along the wall. Each alcove contains a text of skill; a figure of a twisted female with arms crossed and a disappointed look. “Each petitioner must impress me with their own merit.” A lever “Pull me”. Crisscrossed wires with a ring “Move the ring to the other side without touching the wire.” Puzzle cube “Solve me” Line splits the alcove “Find the differences.” Twisted puppet “Entertain us.”     Thuniel downs the drink from the Dueling Knight and manages to do the puzzle box, though an illusionary timer pops up and the box begins to heat up as she solves it. And the statue says, “Hmph.” Bobushio attaches ISAC to his hand and they manage to just pull the lever, which also heats up as it approaches the bottom. Gilly tries to do the wire on the ring, and there’s a hairy moment when she thinks she can’t get it, but then she’s able to do it. Moz is able to spot the differences between two creatures in the wisdom alcove and the green mist they started to generate gets sucked back in. Bobushio manages to entertain with the puppets, which cheer and clap for him. The statue says, “Very impressive,” and a door opens to let us into the next space.     In this room are four podiums along a wide hallway. The podiums hold items and obvious traps. Each podium is five feet in diameter and has anti-magic fields on them. 2,000 platinum pieces (glowing arcane sigils in the stone), clearly magical gloves (arcane web around the podium), a trident (surrounded by a pink mist), and a spell scroll of some kind (with vines around them). The door at the far end is unlocked.     Gilly and Bobushio are not in favor of moving on and leaving the goodies. Gilly tosses some ball bearings, and nothing happens to the ball bearings, but the money itself does not move. Gilly does convince herself to walk away.     We walk into the next room where a young elven boy is suspended above a pool of bubbling acid. He gestures to us to get him out, but cannot seem to speak. The door forward is unlocked and slightly ajar. Thuniel tries to determine if the test is to help this boy or to focus on the book. He seems genuinely panicked and is a real person. He does have shifter characteristics that are water adaptations. Thuniel tests the acid, and it is acidic. Moz mind-links with him and he’s surprised because he exchanged his ability to speak in order to be able to swim, but he wasn’t born a shifter. Moz asks if there’s a way to get him down. He says it’s part of the test. Bobushio asks if Ulsaria put him up there just for the test. He needs our help to get him out. Is it part of his test or our test? Yes.   Bobushio vortex warps him out of the cage. He thanks us and leaves.   We proceed to the next room and pass the Sudoku challenge.   The next room has an arcane circle of light on the floor that casts uneven light on the walls. Each Petitioner must face their fears. Moz fears failure after all her work comes to naught and failing in her role as the savior of her people, but she shakes off the illusion. Bobushio sees his future where he is countryless, feeble-minded, and imprisoned, and he’s no longer remembered. Bobushio fails to recognize the illusion for what it is. Thuniel witnesses herself trapped in her body, seemingly dead, but completely lucid as she is buried alive, and she manages to shake it off. Gilly sees her failures and naivety kill her family and friends in the beam of light that destroyed her half-brother. Gilly fails to recognize the illusion too.   The next room is filled with plants and logs and old bones and calf-deep water. We are reminded not to kill any employees. Multiple serpentine heads with vines and mossy coverings come out of the water, and it seems the water is deeper over there. Two water elementals appear too. We cautiously try to take the temperature of the room. Moz tries to comprehend Aquan, and immediately hears a bunch of chattering like she’s surrounded by dozens. Moz recognizes that there is one voice that is trying to fit in and is not a hydra or water elemental.     Bobushio dazzles one of the elementals. The hydra advances on Bobushio and an elemental grapples Gilly. ISAC vortex warps the hydra away and up so it splashes down and takes some damage.     Moz is still listening in and trying to understand what the voices are saying. The odd voice out seems to be yelling at someone to stop, as a sibling might yell at siblings. Moz tries to mind link with a voice and manages to get the odd voice out. While the hydra tries to advance on Bobushio, the odd head tells Moz how relieved he is to talk to someone besides the other heads and elementals. Bobushio is struck with fear.     Thuniel notices the central hydra head has a golden eye. Gilly breaks free of the elemental. Moz asks if she can persuade it not to attack. The hydra says maybe. Moz asks about the book. The hydra says that it’s supposed to attack us. The gold eye makes it smarter than everyone else. His mistress gave him the eye and also probably has the book.     Gilly climbs the hydra and gets in position to take the eye, then Bobushio punches it. Moz asks it to stop, but the hydra says he can’t promise the other heads will. He can sometimes control the legs, but the hydra attacks Thuniel anyway and she hits it back. Gilly taps the golden eye, then hops to another head and tries to tie its mouth shut, but it snaps the rope.     Bobushio uses ISAC to get rid of Thuniel’s poisoned condition, then sends a Vosgan strap Gilly’s way. Moz keeps trying to persuade the hydra, and it agrees to try to get the others to stop. The hydra does get a majority to agree to stop attacking. Thuniel takes out the charmed elemental in a turn.     Once the elemental is dead, the hydra opens the door for us. It mentions that we won’t like the next room. It shares a secret with Moz, “If you happened upon a pearl, it might save your life.” Moz asks for his eye, but it’s what gives him his sentience. Then he offers a fang, which he rips out of his least favorite sister. “Marsh Hydra’s fang”. We exit the room.     The next room has a small pond ringed with carved stones. There’s a chilly mist. A number of ghostly figures appear. Gilly sees her mother. Bobushio sees Arlan Soren. Thuniel sees the old stablemaster who treated her as family against my grandfather’s wishes. Moz sees a Kalashtar that seems familiar. The ghosts each try to blame their related player for their death.     Bobushio and Moz each understand these are not the real deal. But Gilly and Thuniel are crippled by the guilt, remorse, sadness, and shock. Bobushio tries to tell Arlan that clearly this isn’t real, but the moment Bobushio indicates the illusion didn’t work, all four ghosts disappear. Gilly and Thuniel are further disadvantaged.   The next room is very different from every other place we have been to this point. Sitting in a ornate chair is a woman that looks like Randolfo, with long, white hair. Next to her is the book. We are completely submerged in water, like in a fishbowl. The plants and foliage reach toward us as we enter.   She tells us we have done well. Bobushio notices that her entire bottom half is illusionary. She has octopus tentacles.   She says she has been guarding the book for seven thousand years, so she’s the only one who is worthy to wield its power. She grows to enormous size, the water drains to about a foot deep, and water elementals pop out of nowhere.     Bobushio tries to flirt with her and she says she’ll kill him last, then tries to absorb his essence to use him. She does Prismatic Spray, and we all take different kinds of damage. Moz summons raptors and the game begins. An elemental grabs Gilly and Moz, and Thuniel wails on it. Ulsaria throws a trident at Bobushio. Gilly slays the elemental, Bobushio punches things and discovers that Ulsaria is resistant to Thunder damage. ISAC tries to Vortex Warp Ulsaria, but she resists.     Ian Lightfoot comes to save the day. Ulsaria creates an ice wall and deluges Gilly and Thuniel. Ian shocks Ulsaria, Thuniel eviscerates the second water elemental, and Bobushio heals and backs up. Ulsaria doesn’t like that there is an unknown on the battlefield and attacks Ian. Ian hits her back. Gilly gets her with Curvy. Thuniel leaps over to get the book, then Ulsaria turns her and Bobushio into sea slugs. Ian zaps her into ash, then gets exhausted and Moz puts him back in the pendant.     LEVEL UP!!!     There are a lot of artifacts from the Age of Allurement. Rare Elven artifacts from Age of Allurement. Moz finds a giant silvery fish scale that she can add to her cloak. Moz also looks for Quori language stuff, but doesn’t find it. She has an entire shelf of histories and journals. Reading them, we find out that she was assigned by the other Randolfos to be here. She didn’t want to be here, but it was better than some of the other assignments. One was assigned to a haunted canyon, and she hasn’t heard from him for forever. She thinks he’s dead or he abandoned it. Over time, she started thinking that she felt she was better than all of them. Her hubris grew over the centuries, which is probably what happened to all or most of the Randolfos. Even the first Randolfo had the same sort of ego. We also find a chapter of the Hrothbart. Gilly checks for hidden passages then takes a nap while Moz is reading.     Bobushio wants to go back to the treasure room because he wants the treasures that we were promised. He manages to open the door to get Gilly into the treasure room to get 2000 Platinum off the pedestal. We take a long rest.     Gilly and Thuniel have nightmares as we try to sleep. We wake up still with a point of exhaustion. Bobushio and Moz wake up fully rested (because their thing was something different, yet to happen).