Reuniting the Squad
General Summary
We hang out celebrating the new updates within Hero City, the new chipmunk mascot stealing snacks whenever possible. Brick catches up with Tilly and introduces Brack to the team.
Tomas the singing druid sings about the 'lonely dryads' and Bork starts to wonder where the dryad might have gone. It's been a few days since he's seen her, now that he thinks on it. Just then, Karenalia bursts through the front door of the tavern.
"They stole my tree!" She screams, and storms out still shouting. "Where is that useless mayor?"
Rissa suggests that we should check on the dryads and everyone agrees that Karen is the worst. Giver comes up from the basement holding metal brooches, that all say 'Hero City, 23 Years'. He looks extremely happy, giddy even. I've never seen him like that but he quickly catches himself and his expression returns to his usual scowl.
We catch up with Eli and Karenalia outside his house. There's a verbal argument between Rissa, Tilly, and Karenalia. Tilly managed to get her to back down and she storms off. We head out towards my shack on the border of our lands with the official writ from Eli. Eli is calling it the 'Case of the Stolen Tree' but I think he's just being dramatic.
As we get nearer to the grove, we see that although the area has mostly been clear-cut, there is a spot where a tree has been dug up. Grigor Montuban, the legal representative of Karenalia, charging the ladies living here with stealing her tree! We head off after the dirt trail and follow it through the forest, past the grove, and into the woods.
I find it extremely easy to follow the track, however I have to keep correcting Bork as he gets off track pretty easily. We take a break at dusk and sleep the night peacefully in the woods.
The next morning we head out and find the trail again. Bork does a great job and I take credit for teaching him how to track wheels through the forest. As the afternoon wears on we enter a region of open plains. Rissa sees a cart with a very out of place tree being attacked by a strange mammalian beast!
Rissa tells us it's a Dogmole, a large dog-like mole. She says they're pretty tough and have nasty claws and teeth. Rissa says they're usually not bright yellow but these ones are! It's very strange since they're not usually aggressive and live mostly underground so she's not sure what's happening here.
As Tilly, Brack, and Me move towards the cart trying to scare away the dogmole, another one pops up in front of us and tries to bite me! I squash it with my hammer as a dryad hops out of the tree on the cart and runs towards us.
We battle it out and I do a decent job of connecting with my hammer for the first time in years! Afterwards I beg Rissa to heal Brack as he's almost dead! She does and we start talking to the dryad and she explains that she came looking for her sister that they left behind when a yellow light descended and turned all the local animals crazy.
I can't tell that there's anything wrong with the are, so we continue off towards the direction of the 'Oldhome' our dryad friend talked about. We travel for another two days and Branch helps to direct us since none of us know where we're headed. The forest looks ancient, extremely old. Once we get closer, we can see that the inside of the forest past ten feet is turned the same gross yellow that the dogmoles were colored.
Inside the big barren space, there's a depression, like a crater. Branch tells us that the sickness has clearly gotten worse and the flash of light is where it all started. Bork tells us that there's some kind of magical aura emanating from the dead, yellow spots. Tilly pipes up that she is certain that this is a Necromancy type of magic that can kill stuff pretty quickly, as well as something related to other Planes.
I'm worried that he sister is probably dead or changed like the dogmoles. As we're discussing this and the sun is setting we see a bright flash of light shoot up into the sky. Sam & Rissa each track a small light break off in two different directions. Tilly makes a noise, and declares that it's a Color-out-of-Space! It's an E.T. ooze that absorbs energy around it and then launches itself back into space.
We talk about how the dryad might've been affected but ultimately decide that we should still find her. Resting at the edge of the dead forest, we agree that we should stick together going forward.
Rewards Granted
Mini-Game Rewards: 150xp
Character(s) interacted with
Giver & Graham
Sapphire
Eli Whitney
Karenalia
Sapphire
Eli Whitney
Karenalia
Report Date
13 Jul 2021
