An Emergency Situation (Pt 4)

Session 8 Recap

General Summary

Upon returning to Two Pines, the group is pulled aside by Veliel and asked to meet with Bellusial on a matter of some importance. Bellusial meets the group in his laboratory and tells them of his findings in regards to the strange vines and the creatures infested with them: they are known as Yellow Musk Creepers, a parasitic plant that burrows into the living bodies of its victims and turns them into mindless "zombies" for incubation. The nature of the plant, and the activity of the zombies it has created, are normal within nature, and are even indigenous to the area, but the quantity of victims is wholly outside of the norm, leading him to have some concern about the situation. Despite this, he insists that his part in this issue is finished and lets them know that he will be leaving shortly to fulfill their order of herbs for Annie. Back at the guard post, the group finds Deputy Mrazek debriefing the Wells family, who instructs them to standby and wait their turn. Before he can get to them, however, Captain Stonehammer descends from his office and calls for the group to attend him upstairs. What follows is a short but uncomfortable debriefing of their own, where the captain's disdain for Qas is on full display, and his respect for their actions is begrudgingly given. Upon leaving his office, however, Rayne spots a very distinctly colored burnt orange banner hanging among a display of worn arms. Rayne keeps quiet about her discovery at first, moving with the group downstairs where they are thanked profusely by both Richard Wells and his family, as well as Deptuty Mrazek. Once the group returns to their temporary tavern home, they start inquiring about the banner, hoping to find some link to Verant. All they manage to discover, however, is that it, and many of the armaments in the captain's collection, once belonged to the Amaelians, a noble family of elves that were wiped out during The Lizardfolk Wars. Having more questions now than answers, the group decides to relax for the day to rest from the previous night's exhausting events.