Session Thirteen: Strange creatures in the woods

General Summary

- 12 of Han -

Yarrow and Alabaster led the group into the wilds of the woods. The two maneuvered through the rough terrain with ease, navigating the group quickly through the wooded lands. They made their way until dark and then set up camp;

• Yarrow looked for more herbs and plants and read his book on potions.
• Alabaster practiced and studied his magics in order to learn ways to detect magic.
• Cyrus studied with Kathon learning her dances.
• Aldous used his eldritch sight on the group and looked at what each of his companions were doing.

That night Aldous cast Detect Poison and Disease to search the nearby area for the disease he had been studying. No where within range of his spell was infected with the blight. He then turned his focus to his Ashen tome.
Looking at the diagram in his Ashen Tome the orange circle was not nearly as bright as before but the grey still shown bright. Also the edges of the pages were aging and looked darker and more damaged.
Aldous cast Detect Thoughts on the grey circle and heard faint voices of determination and intrigue wildly asking questions. He pushed, trying to dig deeper, but was pushed out of the book. Aldous grimaced and put his claw to the grey circle and cast Message.

"Testing."

His own voice echoed in his head reverberating. Aldous held his head and returned to his book for the night.

- 13 of Han -

Alabaster and Yarrow led the group through the woods again. As they continued through the wilds the woods began to change slightly. The plants grew more lush and full and the tree were taller and grew more erratic branches.

As the group continued Cyrus began to hear voices. Little voices chattering in the distance and in the sides of his vision shadows moved. Yarrow looked around and noticed a small perfectly smooth stone purposefully placed on the ground. He pointed it out to the group and shrugging Aldous went to pick up the stone. Yarrow held him back and pointed out another in the distance. Aldous opened his eldritch sight and saw thin magic threads tying the stones together.

The stones seemed to be separating an area of the forest. To go around it would take a good amount of time and Alabaster decided that they should go through it. The Hedge stepped over the line and into the area with no noticeable change. Aldous followed suit and also noticed nothing. Yarrow knocked on the rock and wiped his paws saying that one should knock before entering another persons home. When Yarrow, Cyrus, and Kathon passed the rocks they felt a strange pressure as if the air here was different.

The group pressed onward into the strange woods. This area was a bit strange. The trees seemed closer together and there were no animals to be seen. Marching through the area Cyrus felt eyes upon him. Yarrow heard the whispering as well and called out to the creatures around him. Aldous, growing concerned, cast Detect Thoughts, and was suddenly made aware of many minds around him besides his companions. He directed his thoughts towards one and the voice he heard was speaking in Sylvan. Aldous knew Sylvan from his studies but had never heard it before.

The voice was intrigued by them and seemed to be asking someone else in a whisper about them. Aldous called out to the voices in Sylvan asking them who they were. The others looked around and saw no one nearby. Yarrow shrugged and grabbed the Flute of the White Stag and began to play it. All around them the creatures gasped and then ran away into the forest. Leaves and grass rustled and moved around but no creatures could be seen.

The group decided to follow the creatures into the area. As Alabaster tracked the invisible beasts Yarrow followed behind but felt a pull towards a slightly different area. Looking at his companions heading a different way he decided to follow them for now.

The party came to a grove full of flowers and a ring of trees. They heard tiny voices around them and Alabaster went forward to look inside one of the trees. Inside were little wooden foot holds and a tunnel going up and down the whole tree as if creatures lived inside it. Yarrow went forward to the middle of the grove and called out to the creatures. Soon Yarrow felt a tug at his tunic about half a foot up. Yarrow refused to look but continued to talk in Birdfolk. The creature at Yarrow's feet couldn't understand him and replied in Sylvan asking what he wanted. Aldous snickered and responded in Sylvan which made a few of the creatures surround him.

Aldous acted as a translator and helped converse with the creatures. The creatures asked why the group was here and how the animals learned to talk. Some of the creatures clambered over Alabaster and looked over his instrument. They asked him if he knew how to play music and the Hedge started to play. Invisible creatures surrounded the group. Alabaster used Prestidigitation to colour a few of them. Colouring one blue, one pink, and one lime green.

Now since they had colour to them the group could see them. They were small creatures about half a foot tall. They had large bulbous heads with toothy mouths that spread the head almost entirely in half. They had small eyes and large ears and mouths and had lithe spiraling limbs with torsos that split in half vertically. They looked almost bestial with their arms and feet and seemed good at climbing and running.

While most danced some talked with Aldous. They claimed that they were happy to have animals who played music again and that the group should stay with them. Aldous asked where they had heard music and they said that they had magic at home. The Corvum asked them why they didn't go home.

"We were kicked out."

The small beings replied. Aldous braced himself and asked,

"Why were you kicked out?"

Aldous felt the creature turn towards him.

"For eating all the animals."

Aldous called out to his compatriots saying that they had to leave. Alabaster finished his song and the creatures began to climb over him.

"Play more, play more!"

They called and cheered in Sylvan. Aldous told Alabaster to play and the group started to plan what to do. They began to walk and perform forming a line of the creatures and the group as they moved back to the entrance of the area. Once nearly there Yarrow had an idea and turned down to the blue creature he could see.

"Would you like to play a game? We could play hide and seek!"

Yarrow exclaimed with a smile. Aldous explained the situation and the rules to the creatures who agreed. The group went to the edge of the area to count and once they were within distance to cross the line they jumped across. After jumping out the group all felt a magical difference to the air outside. Yarrow reached in and placed a plate of cookies which were quickly devoured and floated in the air one by one.

The group gathered themselves and pressed onward around the area. After the day of travel they made themselves a camp in the woods.

• Yarrow asked Aldous to help him with his studies. Aldous asked Yarrow for a favour in exchange. For Yarrow to get him a small animal. Yarrow refused and Aldous agreed to help him anyway but would ask for a different favour in the future.
• Alabaster practiced his magics but after his day of playing and running from creatures he was distracted and couldn't concentrate on his songs.
• Cyrus, similar to Alabaster, worked on learning his new moves but the evening didn't prove terribly fruitful.

Aldous spent the night looking for nocturnal birds in the sky. Finding one he pointed his staff and cast Mind Sliver holding back from killing the creature. When Aldous cast his psychic spells he would assail the victim with the thoughts that constantly plagued his mind. With the thoughts out of his head Aldous opened his Ashen Tome and used Detect Thoughts on the glowing grey circle in the diagram. When he read the surface thoughts he could hear the thoughts that were normally in the back of his head once more and with the effects of mind spike could tell their general location as being over by the bird.

- 14 of Han -

The group spent the day quickly traversing the forest. At night Yarrow and Aldous spoke Sylvan, while Cyrus and Alabaster studied their magic and performances.

- 15 of Han -

After half a day of travel the group came to   The main thing here is that the magistrate of Winnowing Reach believes that a" href="/w/mardlo-arias-nuactna/a/winnowing-reach-article">Winnowing Reach. They quickly entered the town and after a bit of walking came on a stand and house that had a crest with a fiddle and a hoe covered in flowers and vines. Yarrow hopped towards the stand and hugged Louise Barkton, his sister in law. Louise told him that his brother Mint Fermata would be back soon but he was talking to the magistrate about something that had happened. The group decided to spend some time and go shopping.

Alabaster and Aldous went around and found some scribes. Alabaster talked to them and bought a map of Humblewood to help with travel. Aldous asked them about things going on and the scorched grove. Afterwards Aldous went to the station for the Avium in town and outside he saw Professor Clara Oaces talking with some researchers. Panicking he retreated back to the Fermata stand.

Cyrus and Yarrow went to the Apothecary. There Cyrus bought a few health potions and Yarrow traded his cactus seeds for some herbs and a notebook on how how to make health potions specifically from the the luma there.

Yarrow soon saw his brother Mint, and while remaining quiet, came up behind him and jumped on him. Mint and Yarrow wrestled around for a while until Mint stopped him and seemed to be beside himself. Yarrow interrogated him and found that he was worried about his friend Kenna who had traveled to the Caverns to the south to study the slimes there. Mint was talking to the Magistrate about sending people to find her but the troops were too busy with everything else going on.

Yarrow volunteered the group to go and help her after they dropped off their friend Kathon in Meadowfern. She was being hunted by assassins and needed a place to stay. Mint sighed and thanked Yarrow. The group decided to make their way to Meadowfern the same day in order to go to the caverns in the morning.

Meadowfern was only half a day away and by the time they reached the Fermata farm it was getting dark. Yarrow hopped in front and saw Beatrice chasing Sage and Allium. Sage had stolen Alliums clothes and the two boys were chasing one another through the yard of the house. Yarrow caught one and Beatrice caught the other and Beatrice sent Yarrow and his friends inside.

Inside Mayapple Fermata was shouting throughout the house for the Tola to prepare the guest rooms and whatnot. Out of the kitchen came Aiden, the Mapach bandit from a few weeks ago. The group looked at him, Cyrus smiling cruely, which made the Mapach start to sink back into the kitchen. Mayapple said that he'd really turned around and that he was very good with a knife and made a good cook. The group explained the situation and asked if Kathon could stay hidden in the house. Mayapple said of course and put her in a secret room of Criothe's, Yarrow's grandfather. The group were all placed into different rooms in the large farm house and started to prepare for the next day.

Cyrus finished learning Shield of Faith from Kathon. Alabaster perfected Detect Magic to the point that he could now cast it easily. Yarrow spent some time with Petunia and Aldous tried his best to sleep for a while to no avail.

Report Date

11 Apr 2020