Session 47 – Portals to the Abyss

Written by KoshcheiBessmertnyi

General Summary

Adrie, Brandon, Theobald and Miletus awaken in the Dire Wolf hunting camp. All is still – they were untroubled during the night. Adrie informs the rest of the group that Lorenz has somehow established contact with her, and is tracking their movements. She says that he instructed them to seek out Theodoric, which puzzles Theobald, as he does not know exactly where his ancestor is. Neither do the dark elves, he says.
Talk of Lorenz’s magical outreach leads Adrie to scan the rest of the party for magic. Both Miletus and Theobald carry magical materials, some of unknown provenance. Theobald empties his pockets, and recalls that he has a magical map from the Salamander, the purpose of which he has never divined. The map itself appears to be nothing of the ordinary to Adrie, but a close search reveals a raised corner – two sheets of paper seem to have been glued together, and the magic appears to be inside, on the underside of the map. Brandon, who is experienced in opening mail, steams the paper open, and a scroll is discovered on the underside of the map. Theobald cannot read the script, however, while Adrie, who can, can make no sense of it, except to note that it contains ancient elvish priestly cadences. Perhaps she can try to study it at leisure later – Theobald sells it to her for 20 guilders.
Having finished taking stock, the group opts to go exploring. Adrie wants to inspect the area with mystic pentagonal patterns that Brandon found first. Then, it’s off to the cave the party explored on the edge of the woods on the day Aster disappeared, and finally, the ring of mushrooms deep in the woods. Understanding the risks, the group leaves Miletus in the roundhouse alone, to rest.
The mystical patterns take a while to find, because Brandon is not sure exactly where they are, and gets the party lost. Along the way, they discover the owlbear carcasses killed by Theobald and Glitterstem, and Adrie collects some features from them. Finally, Brandon recognizes the locale, but it turns out to be the bijzweijn hive. There is still a stench of corpses about – apparently, not all have been removed. Theobald explains about the beasts and their honey, and Adrie decides not to search the cells.
Next, the party finds the cave entrance, without much trouble, though the trio discover along the way that the forest is apparently expanding – there are new trees growing past the forest line, and even a few fungal growths resembling those of the Underdark. Once they have arrived at the cave, Adrie digs around the rubble blocking it, and discovers a tunnel leading below. It is reminiscent of the goblin tunnel under the sweatlodge. Deciding not to search further, the group commits the place to memory in case they want to decide to use it to travel through the Underdark later. Then, they return to the encampment.
Miletus was untroubled, but it is now late, and the group decides to make a foray into the woods in daylight, after they rest. At night, however, Adrie sneaks out during her watch. She has been distraught since learning of Triboar’s fate, and wants to take her rage out on some orcs. She changes into a panther, jumps the fence, and searches the perimeter of the woods. Finding no one, she stalks close to the orc forward base, and there, she does locate a scouting party of four, along with a dire wolf. Panther Adrie stalks them for a time – they appear to be heading southward, not straight toward the encampment. She stays downwind of the wolf, and the orcs do not notice her. Deciding finally to take action, she hides behind a bush, changes back to elf, and creates a large patch of spikes on the ground directly in front of the orcs. The orcs do blunder into it, and begin to yell as they look for a way out, but the wolf picks up her scent, and goes around, engaging her. Though it snaps its jaws in vain, the orcs do manage to make it out of the spike patch, wounded but angry. Adrie attempts to push them back in with a wave of arcane thunder, but to no avail. They close in, and proceed to cut her down with their newly acquired iron axes.

Report Date

01 Jun 2018