Session 18 - "Give Up Your Dead" Report
General Summary
Kona 37, 1246
The morning dawns cold and wet, with a rainstorm pitter-pattering down upon the tent roofs. It would be even more miserable, were it not for Jacob's natural sorcerous abilities, which work to create a dome of rain-free terrain.
Olena and Thais Argyri take a moment before heading out to change their socks, upon which time time Foenix Stolnent mentions casually that he never wears socks, earning him the ire of both women. As soldiers, they are quite familiar with the dangers of wearing the same soaked equipment for days upon days, and even as Foenix defends himself that halflings do not wear shoes more often than not and that he has not lived in such wet places before, they express deep concern for him. Still, he refuses to put on (much less change) socks, and so they reluctantly allow him his bacteria-filled boots.
As they head out for the day, Thais takes a moment to survey the criss-crossing pathways in the swamp, and her eyes immediately light upon an almost-invisible trail, lined by wildflowers not found in most bog environments (critical success). She begins to lead them along the path, but the party soon halts as the cold rainwater mixes with the warm swamp water and the mist obscures their path forward... but there is some humanoid creature further up it.
Foenix takes point, getting close enough to see it is some sort of lurching half-plant, half-undead creature that simply seems to be meandering around a certain island of dry land. He returns to the others safely, and Micaiah takes the opportunity to send out Jonquil to deal with the obstacle.
The little sprite gets close enough to shoot the bog mummy with one of its arrows - and surprisingly, the undead creature is felled by the poison of its arrows. It slumps forward, unconscious, giving the party the opportunity to approach.
Foenix and Micaiah are the furthest forward, and Foenix puts out an arm to halt the tiefling's progress as he notices a green creature in the bog, eyes and nose just barely above the surface of the water. He points it out to Micaiah, and Micaiah calls to Jonquil once again. The sprite's arrow hits the creature - a moss dog - and while it is stung by the poison, it does not fall unconscious as the bog mummy did. Instead, it explodes out of the water, running at the rogue and warlock.
Foenix reacts immediately, and uses his shortbow to shoot an arrow that lodges into the moss dog's shoulder before backing up quickly.
Olena rages, and charges forward past Foenix to strike at the moss dog twice, recklessly disregarding her own safety. It is unfortunate then when her lance swings downward, it catches in the undergrowth instead of in the moss dog's flank, leaving her open (critical failure). The moss dog does not wait for a moment and leaps forward, lodging its teeth into her neck with ruthless brutality (critical success).
Its weight upon her body makes it obvious that it intends to knock her into the water and drown her, and so Olena grits her teeth and rips herself free from the moss dog's grasp before grabbing up her lance again and striking again, this time hitting it in the flank.
Jonquil, on Micaiah's command, once again shooting a tiny bolt into the moss dog. But the plant creature is much hardier than they expected, and it shakes off the poison. So Micaiah returns to an old favorite, casting out an eldritch blast that has one bolt nearly taking out Olena (critical failure) and the other hitting the moss dog squarely in the chest and blowing its verdant form to bits.
Thais catches up with the forward party and, upon looking around for more enemies, notices the unconscious bog mummy. She approaches and ignites her sun blade, dispassionately bringing down the sword upon its head and killing it.
Jacob, picking his way through the swamp, notices a quagmire up ahead and warns the other adventurers to avoid it. Foenix also spots growing out of the murky water a strange, pulsing vine that upon his prodding of it with the end of his blade begins to curl up into a knot, swelling larger and larger. Thais, afraid of the consequences of the plant reaching its biggest size after facing sentient plants in the form of the bog mummy and moss dog, dispatches it quickly with her sword, severing it at the root and letting it slip into the water.
Foenix identifies it as a swelling vine - the main component of a potion of growth. He and Thais spend the next half hour scouring the nearby bayou for more swelling vine, and do manage to find a bit. Thais also finds some gillyweed, which can be used to create a potion of water breathing.
Meanwhile, Jonquil has done some scouting on its own, and soon returns to Micaiah and secretly gifts its master the leaves of the plant demon's tongue - used to create truth serum.
The area mostly cleared out, the party continues on until they come to a ruined stone gate, guarded on the right hand side by three stone statues that have been so worn away by moss and age that the features are hard to make out. Each one holds an object within it's hands: a geode, a scroll, and a pair of gardening shears.
Thais quickly puts two and two together and realizes the two silver keys hanging on hooks near the statues relate to the objects held, as each has a geode and a scroll carved into them, respectively.
Foenix digs into the bag of holding and pulls out the third key, engraved with a pair of shears, and hands it to Thais, who confidently slots the geode key next to the statue holding the shears; the scroll key next to the statue holding the geode; and the shears key next to the statue holding the scroll. The gate opens, letting them into the garden.
As they enter in, the rain stops, and the party is standing in an overgrown garden and manor. The pathways of paving stones have weeds growing from between them, the fruits on the trees are heavy and overripe or rotting, and the manor and outbuildings are crumbled, caving in, or abandoned (at best).
There is also a large outcropping of stone with an opening leading deep underground and with an engraving in Draconic above it, difficult to read after the years abandoned to the elements. Olena manages to make out the word "Cirvai" before a dark shadow passes over the entrance and the party is met face to face with the guardian: a dragon that has, overtime, become subsumed (and perhaps replaced) by plantlife.
It immediately comes running towards the party, and Thais acts quickly. She tells Arkeo to run away, hopefully drawing the dragon's attention from them. Foenix unhitches the horses and sends Matty and Patty the opposite direction. Out of the cart, Thais grabs Ali's body and runs towards the entrance to the underground. The rest of the party follows suit.
The dragon at first is totally focused on the party, sending out a plume of supercharged wind with bits of branches and leaves that buffet and cut up the bodies of the adventurers and makes Jonquil disappear in a puff of smoke. But as Arkeo begins to run, the dragon's attention switches to him. It attempts to change course, but skids on the muddy ground and slams into the entrance underground. The impact throws all of the adventurers back, but as Foenix gets to his feet, he sees the dragon's side basically being bulls-eyed by the small entrance that it now blocks. He takes the opportunity, stabbing deep into the dragon's side with his blade (critical hit).
The crackling and crumbling of stone is the only warning the adventurers get as the dragon gets back to its feet and begins to fly after Arkeo, the impact of its body completely compromising the entrance's structural integrity and the only thing holding up the doorway its own form (until it leaves). The party runs further down the staircase, taking hits from the falling stonework as the front of the passageway caves in, trapping them underneath.
Thais keeps her telepathic connection with Arkeo, making sure he keeps away - and thankfully, as far as she can tell, he is uninjured and maintaining distance from the dragon.
The party sits down, taking a short rest to recover (Jacob especially needs it, nearly being knocked unconscious by an especially big boulder that had hit him in the back as they had escaped). Micaiah resummons Jonquil as Foenix and Olena walk further down the steps of the passage.
Meanwhile, Thais takes this opportunity to not only use her armor to instigate a bond with Jacob to protect him from damage, and creates a rope harness to tie Ali's body to her more securely.
As Olena and Foenix walk deeper down the staircase, both sides of the passage are covered in high-relief sculptures, with passages in Draconic, that feature a figure known as Cirvai - though she is alternatively shown as a dragon or as a human woman (the scaly brow ridge of the draconic form is shown as a diadem or jewelry on the forehead of the human form). Though much of the sculptures has been broken off or worn away with age, Olena is able to read enough to tell that Cirvai was a gardener and healer, supposedly granted a long life by the gods to continue her work.
Foenix wonders how much of that story is true, but that will have to wait until they find a way out of this underground cavern that may soon become their tomb...
Rewards Granted
- one portion of swelling vine
- one portion of gillyweed
- FOR MICAIAH ONLY: one portion of demon's tongue
Thais Argyri
Paladin (Oath of Redemption) 7
18
13
16
10
11
18
Foenix Stolnent
Rogue 3
Arcane Trickster 4
14
18
19
18
13
13
Micaiah Louvre
Warlock 7
7
18
14
12
15
20
Jacob Sterling
Sorcerer 7
9
8
16
12
12
19
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