The Adventures of the Big HELP, Session 41

General Summary

• The Big HELP swam through the tunnel they had made at the bottom of a hot spring in Moonvale Grove. Zirabelle and Bigwig had some difficulty swimming, especially as Bigwig was unable to see in the dark. The two slowly became more entangled in each other and the started elbowing and bickering. Larka swam back to help them by offering a rope they could follow along.
• The HELP eventually saw light glimmer from above. They swam towards the light and noticed four figures appearing and disappearing. The HELP swam closer and realized, when the figures disappeared they were replaced by turbulent spheres of water in the otherwise calm spring. They debated what to do before risking it and breaking the surface of the water. As they did, the spheres of water solidified into the form of a lizard-like person each. The bagienniks attacked the HELP immediately, having had their spring bath interrupted. Larka tried to telepathically reach out to them and drive them away. Her attempt failed and she found she couldn't use many of her telepathic powers. She then heard a voice urge her to not use her psionic powers down here. The voice was eager to see how far Larka had come, but told her that those powers would prevent Petrichor from being tested properly. Larka took a second, but soon realized that the voice was similar to the echo of Mother Wonder they had met at the Six Tenet Monastery.
• Larka struck first. When she cut one of the bagienniks, green motes of light burst forth instead of blood. Petrichor saw the same thing when she attacked. They both started to feel bad, wondering if the creatures actually were hostile as they started fleeing. Petrichor tried to talk to them to calm them down and claimed to be the Chosen of Sindara. They responded in the fey language Sylvan and said that she wasn't supposed to arrive through the hot springs. They hinted that they were there to help test the "successor" without explaining what that really meant. Hoping to take them out without fighting, Petrichor tried to intimidating them into surrender. One that had already taken a bit of damage immediately dissolved into green light and disappeared but the others were not phased.
• The bagienniks kept trying to keep space between the HELP and themselves. The HELP weren't sure if they were fleeing or not. The Big HELP dispatched the lizard creatures with ease, though Bigwig was burned by one of their nasal spray attacks. Looking around the room they were in, Bigwig pointed out a stone relief and a fragment of a portrait painted on wood to Petrichor. Petrichor picked up the portrait fragment. She could tell it looked like the bottom right portion. Turning it around, she felt grooves and notches but couldn't figure out what they're purpose were.
• The relief depicted five figures, one with the iconography of Sindara around it, and a lone druid. Text carved into the wall read "The final days of the Element War. Frieda stood with Sindara as the gods readied their truce. With Scrios gone, the other gods were in shock, realizing how their game had turned to war. Frieda felt uneasy, like a darkness watched over them." Vandwyn jumped as Petrichor read it aloud and rushed over to examine it himself. Petrichor and the others vaguely remember references to Frieda Sinclair from the scrolls they had stolen from the Six Tenet Monastery and references the people of Moonvale Grove made. Vandwyn made some charcoal rubbings of the relief and got very excited about what history lost to the ages they could learn down here.
• Larka suggested they all take a hot spring break while Vandwyn did his work. She and Bigwig relaxed in the hot spring closest to Vandwyn. Petrichor wanted to explore a little further and checked out a spring they hadn't been to yet with Zirabelle. They both relaxed for a minute before Petrichor caught a glint at the bottom of the spring. She and Zirabelle swam down and found a 1000G diamond alongside a magic ring they couldn't identify.
• When Vandwyn wrapped up, they all reunited to move onwards. As the party walked through the grotto, they realized it looked different than expected. Petrichor had expected some kind of underground forest. Instead, Beneath the Grove looked like a forest that had long rotted away, replaced my mushrooms and moss. She and Larka worried that the corruption had seeped in. Vandwyn cast Detect Magic to look for corruption. He didn't find any, but realized the area was overwhelmed with fey magic. The HELP weren't aware of the significance of that so he explained that fey magic was mainly found on Nirania and very rare on Udarich. As the others became more confused by this, Vandwyn just seemed to become more excited, thinking about all they could discover here.
• The grotto began to branch off and the HELP took the first path they found. Petrichor led the way down this new branch. After passing through a door, she noticed parts of a red rune glowing subtly under some of the moss and earth. Larka helped clear the moss away. Petrichor and Vandwyn identified the rune and realized it symbolized fear. The whole party quickly became uneasy and wondered why Sindara would test her Chosen in such a way. Petrichor told the others to step back and cast Erupting Earth, hoping to destroy the rune. Even after the spell, they could see the dull glow of the rune in spots.
• Moving to the end of this branch, the HELP found another of the portrait fragments. Bigwig suggested they could be a key of some sort. Petrichor picked up the portrait but forgot to check for traps. They soon found themselves of an elaborate enchanted trap. Small fairies floated around them, carrying sharp knives. In the distance, they could see large bolder fairies rising and falling. At the far end, the red rune began to glow brightly and filled the exit with a red light. Larka and Vandwyn ran for the exit the fastest. Bigwig and Zirabelle followed close behind. Petrichor was cut by a few of the fairies. Everyone managed to avoid the bolder fairies, even when the rune of fear drove Vandwyn and Bigwig crazy.
• Despite the trap, the HELP felt they were still going strong. Faced with another branching path, they decided to follow the light of some purple mushrooms. They wandered into a large room with an enormous, long dead and rotted, tree in the center. Many other rotted trees filled the room, now covered in the glowing purple mushrooms. Bigwig caught sight of something moving in the shrooms. She asked Petrichor if she could talk to mushrooms with Speak with Plants and wondered if they could be myconids. Larka argued that mushrooms weren't plants. Petrichor then suggested that she could use Detect Magic instead to learn what might be moving.
• The HELP separated into two groups as both Vandwyn and Petrichor cast Detect Magic to look over the entire chamber. The chamber was flooded with fey magic. Petrichor said it was like the fey magic overwhelmed the nature magic this place had been crafted with. Vandwyn compared it to a small seed that grew into a great vine, choking out the life of a large tree. Once they had become accustomed to the background magic, they both picked up on two fey creatures rustling through the mushrooms.
• Two creatures, called alps, emerged from the mushrooms. As they did, the HELP heard a callous fey voice speak from the aether. It recognized Petrichor's goal, her quest to find the gemstone that would complete the Staff of the Woodlands and become Sindara's chosen. It laughed and announced it would be her final test. She asked the voice why it tested her. It said it was compelled to do so by its contract. The voice explained that "Sindara's lackey" had contracted him to guard the gemstone for Frieda Sinclair's successor. What he thought would be a short time became millennia. The voice raged that it had been fooled and trapped. Over time, it twisted the grotto, blotting out its druidic magic with fey power. His solitude twisted him and he began to plan. Should the successor eventually show up, he would kill them and take their power. The voice taunted Petrichor saying it could not lose. Should Petrichor defeat it, it would be set free to return to Nirania. Should the fey creature defeat Petrichor, he would take the power of Sindara's Chosen from her.
• Petrichor taunted back, saying she came here to win. The voice laughed at her, urging the alps to kill the others and bring him Petrichor's body. As the voice ended, three new creatures, redcaps, appeared as well.
• Vandwyn and Larka were surrounded by redcaps while the others were watched by the alps. Vandwyn almost went down from a single hit despite Larka's protection. Zirabelle and Bigwig dispatched the redcap near them, then split up to each take on an alp. They soon learned of the nightmarish power of an alp when voice forced Zirabelle to sleep. Bigwig returned to wake Zirabelle before charging after the other alp. Larka helped keep Vandwyn safe while he Misty Stepped to safety. The HELP managed to defeat the redcaps with ease, but the alps proved more difficult.
• Zirabelle managed to hold off one on her own for a while before it leapt onto her. The other alp put Vandwyn and Petrichor to sleep. Larka and Bigwig woke them up, respectively, but it was too late for Petrichor as the alp leapt onto her chest and began sucking her blood away while Petrichor was powerless to force it off. Larka moved to help Zirabelle by shooting the alp off of it with a psychic arrow. Vandwyn cast Polymorph to transform the alp on Petrichor's chest into a worm. Larka and Zirabelle finished off the weaker alp. The HELP took a minute to take a breath then surrounded the alp-turned-worm. Vandwyn dropped the spell when they were all ready and the others prepared to wail on the alp. The alp tried to fight back by putting them to sleep now that they were all concentrated in one spot, but only Bigwig succumbed to its spell. The others finished it off.

<Previous Session Next Session>

53 Days after the Crash of the Raziel

Report Date

04 May 2025