Session 24/25: Abandoned Burrows

General Summary

The Regulators set up camp and took turns on watch as the Fae Realm equivalent of night began. While Zuko was on watch, he spotted what appeared to be orange glowing eyes looking at him from the woods. He woke up the party and they called out to the unseen creature, which vanished in a cacophony of childlike laughter.
They eyes continued to stare out at each party member in turn, and when morning came, Malcolm went with Zuko to pursue the creature. It vanished and reappeared in a new spot every time they got close, until finally it disappeared entirely. The party continued down the gorge, and a couple miles later, Malcolm heard a voice calling to him. After a moment he realized it was was the voice of Arget Ethyn, and caught a glimpse of her at the edge of the woods before she disappeared into the trees, seemingly dragged in from behind. He left the group and chased here in, seeing her more clearly this time. She was being dragged into the woods at knife point by none other than Jesper. The rest of the party had difficulty catching up, but made several attemptes to tell Malcolm that whatever was drawing him in was an illusion. Deeper in the woods, they suddenly found themselves on the main street of Elta. Malcolm saw Jesper drag Arget into The Welcoming Maiden and took a shot at Jesper, but he seemed unaffected.
Zuko tackled Malcolm and tried to snap him out of it again, but Malcolm seemed to be unaware of his presence. Kaylee caught up and cast a spell on Malcolm that finally brought him back to his senses. He still felt the need to investigate, and looked through the window of the inn, seeing Arget tied to a chair inside. He stepped through the front door, and the image of Arget was replaced with a Fae Pitcher Plant, but Malcolm now found himself unable to pull away from it. The party attacked and destroyed the plant, which released Malcolm and ended the illusion of Elta.
Further down the gorge, a strong wind blew the trees overhead and a flurry of glowing blossoms surrounded the party. Zuko was unaffected, Meara became intoxicated, Malcolm and Kaylee fell unconscious. Zukoe managed to get Malcolm secured to his horse, but by the time he got to Kaylee, the wall of purple fog was approaching them again. He braced himself, and when the wall passed, they were back in the Mortal Realm. The effects from the Fae blossoms gradually wore off as they made their way out of the gorge. A short distance from the cliff edge, they found a long unused path that cut through a perimeter of triangular stones engraved with strange sigils. Looking back the way they came, they could see that the purple fog that put them in the Fae Realm was actually made of tendrils that were constantly changing size, and a spun on an axis at a point somewhere deep in the woods on the southern side of the gorge.
As one of these smaller tendrils approached them, they noticed that it was cut off as it hit the line of stones. They proceeded through, Zuko and Meara, noticing some resistance as they passed the stones. A short way down the path, they came upon large mounds of earth, evenly spaced on both sides of the old path. Large round holes were visible in the front of each. It was clear they had found the old halfling village of Presterwick.
The main road through the abandoned village split three ways, and the party first chose to check the left path. The road was short and led to a collapsed stone bridge next to the remains of a flour mill and a tavern. They then walked down the center path, noticing on the way that one burrow to the right side was, unlike the others, greatly segregated, and the front door was still sealed. They made a note of it, and followed the path until it ended in a clearing filled with raised garden beds. Each of the beds had a carved stone with a halfling family name. Kaylee explained that it was an ancient halfling cemetery.
A garden was grown in each of the plots, and when a family member died, they were cremated and their ashes were mixed into the soil. While examining the names, the party recognized the name "Lowhill" and couldn't remember why. Kaylee stopped at a plot labeled "Slànachadh" which wasn't a real family name. Nallula was an orphan and used it, it being the halfling word for "healer." Kaylee also pointed out that her remains were in a temple in Sacramond, so it couldn't be her real grave.
They dug into the garden bed and found a makeshift chest from a chiseled out boulder. Inside was a very old journal. Kaylee skimmed through it and confirmed that they had found Nallula's diary. The party checked the plots belonging to two other family names they recognized, including Lowhill, but they did not find anything. Returning to the village they proceeded to the strange burrow. The path to the home seemed to fall out of use long before the rest of the village, and they could now see a large stone wheel blocked the door, and was covered in the same sigils as the stones outside of the villlage. The name Lowhill was engraved in a stone at the edge of the yeard, and Malcolm finally remembered it was the name of the author of the book Grandmother, Grandmother. Meara perused through the book again to refresh their memory. They then realized that the box they were asked to look for may be the same one that Kaslan Lowhill trapped the witch's iron teeth in.
They chose to go in and investigate. Malcolm and Zuko rolled the stone out of the way, but Zuko felt a burning sensation as he touched it. Inside, more of the sigils adorned the walls. A closed room at the end of the hall contained a halfling sized casket sitting on a circular platform with the same sigils. The party worked out that the sigils were wards against fae creatures, which is why it affected Zuko and Meara, as they were both Half-Elf. Malcolm pried open the casket and found Kaslan's corpse gripping a small box with infernal engravings and a hide binding that seemed more like human flesh than bovine. They chose to take the box for themselves to ensure that it never got back to the witch, and used the homing scroll to return to the bear cave in the gorge. They made it to the edge of the woods near nightfall and made camp.
During Zuko's watch, he found himself being pelted in the head with squirrel droppings by the orange eyed creature they saw the last time they camped. It was riding their carpet of flying. Zuko woke the party and asked for the carpet back. It said it would be happy to return it, but they would have to buy it back. Remembering that Cadnost had mentioned the creature, and explained that conventional currency wouldn't satisfy it, Malcolm offered the horse manure currently filling the Wizard's Door storage room to give it more ammunition against Zuko. The creature was amused by the suggestion, but said something else would need to be added to the deal. Zuko offered a flute, which the creature accepted. Then it spent several moments throwing horse dung at Zuko before it played the flute and vanished entirely.
During Meara's watch, she noticed that the moon of Cyuna was full, meaning they had been in the Fae Realm for longer than they thought. They broke camp in the morning and continued back to Bridhosle. When they stepped into The Lord's Secret, Carric looked shocked to see them, saying they were gone longer than he expected.
to be continued....

Report Date

06 May 2020