The Adventures of the Big HELP, Session 40

General Summary

• Following lunch with Onyo Flashvring, The Big HELP waffled a bit on what they wanted to do next. Onyo listed several points of interest around Moonvale Grove. He seemed a little unwilling to take them to see the resident enchanter at the Water of Life enchanting workshop. Petrichor recalled that Ivy had been brought to Healer's Grace injured and wanted to check on her. On the way, Onyo asked about the world beyond the grove. Larka explained the tumultuous state of Udarich right now. She still wanted to launch herself into the air via catapult to contact King Hespiro and warn him about meeting the mysterious Lord Montreaux.
• At Healer's Grace, Bigwig ran to meet the healer, Arthyris, and was immediately rebuked. Arthyris was more focused on Ivy, horribly injured while fending off the corruption outside. An orc wizard, Vandwyn, sat reading scrolls and spellbooks in the bed next to her. Petrichor rushed over to see Ivy. Corrupted goo caked her fur and actually seemed to flood out from her. Ivy woke for a minute and called for Petrichor and Zinnia before muttering about how she could feel her connection to nature dwindle.
• Thinking back to how her Staff of the Woodlands allowed her to walk through the corruption sea safely, Petrichor tried to bathe Ivy in the same aura. Arthyris looked up as Petrichor started casting. She swore she saw an image of Sindara above Petrichor and took the opportunity to help as much as she could by casting Greater Restoration. With one more push from Petrichor, the aura burned out all corruption and Ivy began to rest easily.
• Vandwyn watched the entire process, taking notes with every step. Larka saw he was a smart wizard and walked over to ask for help designing her catapult. The wizard was immediately smitten with her, despite her questionable plan. He offered to work with her and modify the plans for her catapult. While they worked, Vandwyn asked if Larka had ever been to Rigaren's Glory, claiming to be the second strongest wizard in the city. Though it didn't share the beauty of Valadris, he knew it was one of the best cities to visit on Udarich, and the best city to get a nice baked brie.
• Bigwig took her chance to ask Arthyris to cure her curse. Arthyris said it would be easily fixed with a Greater Restoration spell, but she was spent for the day. Arthyris then suggested she may still be able to help if Bigwig brought her some sunflowers from Sinclair Fields. On their way for pastries, Petrichor, Larka, and Zirabelle decided to join her.
• Bigwig found the sunflower patch easily. When she went to pick them, the sunflowers bent to avoid her touch. A couple little girls saw this and started to tease Bigwig, saying she was icky and the flowers didn't want to play with her. Bigwig shouted back at them that their mothers cried because their children were so awful. The girls started crying until the were consoled by Zirabelle of all people. Larka remarked that Zirabelle had good parenting skills, which earned her a death stare from Zirabelle once the girls were on their way. Petrichor was surprised how well Zirabelle was managing her emotions since coming to the grove.
• Petrichor suggested she cast Speak with Plants to talk to the sunflowers and understand why they moved away from Bigwig. It turned out the sunflowers were repulsed by her curse and wanted to avoid touching her. They would let Petrichor pick them, so long as she didn't give them to Bigwig. Petrichor said she couldn't promise that, ended the spell, and uprooted three of the flowers. She handed them to Bigwig, but couldn't get over the idea that the sunflower heads were eyes watching her. Bigwig continued on to Healer's Grace while the others stopped in Domna's Bakery.
• Larka bolted to the front counter and waited for Domna, the male dwarf baker running the shop, noticed her. Zirabelle moved to grab a berry pie sitting on the counter until Petrichor stopped her and said they had to pay for it before they could eat it.
• Larka caught Domna's attention. He was a bit surprised to see her at first until he realized she was one of the outsiders people were talking about. He explained that Moonvale Grove didn't use any kind of monetary system and people would just take what they needed and help out where they could. Larka told the others she wanted to get Vandwyn some pastries as a thank you. Domna suggested some chocolates he liked and Larka offered an old hallucinogenic mushroom she had. Domna got excited and described a favorite childhood pastry he could make with it (which Petrichor found unusual). Zirabelle took the pie and ate it a handful at a time saying she'd never tasted berries before.
• Bigwig dropped off the sunflowers with Arthyris, who created a potion with them that restored her ability to cast Greater Restoration for the day. With a bit of diamond dust, she was able to cure Bigwig's curse. Bigwig was surprised diamonds were needed for the spell. Arthyris said not to worry, diamonds formed in the bottom of the hot spring and could be harvested every couple of decades. Vandwyn then stepped in and announced that he had finished Larka's catapult. He grabbed hold of Larka's hand to show her, then grabbed Zirabelle's, too.
• The final catapult ended up working like a pin ball launcher (obviously that's an out-of-world explanation). Larka knew she'd forget her goal as soon as she passed through the grove's protection, so she attached a parchment reminding her to warn King Hespiro about Montreaux's threat. Vandwyn expressed concern regarding this note and The Big HELP learned he was Montreaux's student in the magical arts. He tried to convince them that Montreaux was working to make peace with Hespiro and gave Larka a magical artifact that would warn Montreaux as well. Larka was unsure whether to trust Vandwyn after that exchange but stuffed the device deep in her pocket.
• Larka launched into the air. Bigwig pushed the crank and managed to send Larka higher than expected. As Larka hurtled through the air, Bigwig and Petrichor noticed a look on Vandwyn's face and realized he had a crush on her. Larka passed beyond the grove's aura and lost all of her memories of the grove. With immense effort, she kept her composure and read the parchment on her arm.
• Larka took a moment to relax and reach out to Hespiro, though she couldn't find him to receive the message. Larka took a second to think of a back up plan and saw a giant eagle in the distance avoiding attacks from creatures in the corrupted sea. Larka sent her message to her mother, Leelu, but passed back through the grove's aura before she could tell if the message was received.
• Petrichor had wild shaped into a giant eagle to catch Larka and pull her back into the grove's protection. Her first attempt to catch Larka failed. When Larka entered the aura without Petrichor's help, she found herself plummeting to an empty field. To everyone else, Larka just vanished. Larka reached out to Petrichor with one last attempt that allowed Petrichor to locate her and pull her into the grove's aura.
• The two women arrived safely back to where the magical catapult had been. Larka did not regain her memories when she re-entered the grove's protection and didn't recognize Vandwyn. Vandwyn was both disappointed and extremely interested in how the magic worked. Larka realized she had some pastries in her bag and wondered why they were there. Vandwyn started to suggest that she had gotten them for him, but was too polite to actually do that. Petrichor tried to explain Vandwyn's feelings to Larka, but Larka brushed them off and told Vandwyn to take the bag of pastries. After some debate as to who should take which pastries, Vandwyn left to continue his work.
• The HELP decided to check out the hot spring. Bigwig wanted to grab a couple of diamonds for herself. Petrichor brought Larka up to speed on what had happened since they entered the grove. Zirabelle, with her newfound zen, thought she could restore Larka's memories with a calm and comforting hug, which didn't work.
• The Big HELP saw that the hot spring was right at the edge of the grove. The attendant explained the view is much more relaxing when the corruption sea wasn't there. She let the HELP know that they were welcome to enter either gender bath, with or without swimwear depending on their comfort level. Bigwig and Larka knew the water would be too warm to stay in too long. Petrichor was a little more comfortable. Zirabelle's innate fire resistance kept her comfortable no matter how long she stayed in.
• Zirabelle tried to float and meditate while in the spring. The others swam to the bottom to look for diamonds. Larka also thought there might be a secret cave that would take them to the real gemstone. Bigwig identified small cracks running along the floor of the spring and saw diamonds forming along them before having to return to the surface. Larka noticed that a water current bubbled up from the cracks and telepathically told the others to smash through the cracks. Zirabelle answered the call and tried to Punch through the diamond, but just ended up with bloodied knuckles.
• Petrichor stayed below while Larka had to swim back to the surface. She swam back and tried casting Erupting Earth to break through the hot spring floor. She successfully widened one of the cracks and returned to talk to the others. The HELP decided they would visit the Waters of Life for some resources before exploring the underwater cave.
• Upon entering the Waters of Life looking for enchantments and potions, the HELP were immediately told that outsiders weren't welcome by the female goliath that had greeted them rudely when they first entered the grove. The woman focused on her work and turned away from the outsiders. One of the enchanters working under her offered to help them in secret. Petrichor asked for a few healing potions. Larka asked for an enchantment but froze when asked what kind. Bigwig asked if he could transfer an enchantment from an old Enspelled piece of armor to her current armor. The enchanter said it would take a couple days so Bigwig left the old armor with him to work on extracting the spell and would return later when it could be applied.
• Larka suddenly remembered Onyo talking about a crafting hall and bolted over to weave some handkerchiefs as thanks to those who helped launch her. Zirabelle and Petrichor took some time to fingerpaint (as Zirabelle had little understanding or interest in brushes). Zirabelle worked on a surprisingly good self-portrait of herself living in Moonvale Grove. Petrichor confided that she thought the grove was having a good effect on her and suggested Zirabelle settle down there. Petrichor painted her own portrait of Zirabelle. Flattered, Zirabelle added Petrichor to her own painting and decided to give her suggestion some thought.
• Bigwig wanted to do a couple paint pours and happened to sit next to Vandwyn who was inscribing spells into his spellbook. She stopped and said hello, realizing that he was working on the spell Fly at that moment. Vandwyn explained that it seemed like a prudent spell to have on hand and Bigwig teased and egged him on for his crush on Larka.
• Once Larka finished, she gave Petrichor, Bigwig, Zirabelle, and Vandwyn each an inscribed, woven handkerchief. When giving Vandwyn his, she asked if he could cast Water Breathing. He turned red for a moment and said yes before asking why. The HELP had to explain that they found an underwater cave in the hot spring and wanted to explore it, omitting the details of how they found it. Vandwyn was excited to explore and asked to join. After some deliberation, the HELP decided an extra spellcaster would be useful with Hest out of commission and let him come along.
• The hot spring attendant was a little confused why the HELP returned in their full armor and asked that they make sure to change into swimwear at least before entering the spring. Before anyone had a chance to notice, Vandwyn cast Disguise Self so that he could get to the cave entrance with the others. He asked Larka to help cover his eyes as they passed through the female changing room. Vandwyn cast the spell and the HELP readied to dive.

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53 Days after the Crash of the Raziel

Report Date

06 Apr 2025