SESSION 8

General Summary

Askr

The party begins their day by heading over to Fabled Fabrics to see Celeste. When they get there they exchange pleasantries before the party shows her the spider silks that they collected. Celeste says that she's impressed by how much they've collected and is glad to see them back safely. She then begins by rewarding every 5 platinum pieces of front then starts taking everyone's personal clothing orders down. She says that the clothes should be done within a week and then gets started on planning the outfits. The party then decides to split up and agrees to meet back at the guild hall afterwards.

• Carvey uses his free time by heading to Forged from the Heart. There he meets Rena, the eldest Cruspell sister. He shows her the Basilisk tail he had previously carved and asked her if there was any way she could make a sheathe for his Elven Curve Blade. She notices how finely crafted his curve blade was and how well he takes care of his weapons and decides to take on the task for free since she notices that the scales from this Basilisk match the ones previously given to them. Carvey thanks her and continues going about his day until it's time to meet up at the AA.
• Rowan goes back to the dorms to write a letter to Giselle thanking her once again and stating that if he's in the area he'll be sure to stop by her shop. He also mentions that if she happens to have any other visions of or knows anything about him not being from "here" if she could write back and let him know. He then starts heading over to the AA.
• Zenaster heads over to Of Ale and Glory to meet up with Suel who he sees cheering on another fight. Suel notices Zen and waves him over. He asks how he's been and then Zen asks if he has anymore information about the heist. Suel mentions that the owner of the mansion is a high ranking noble by the name of Augustus Argento. He tells Zen that he's been known to mistreat his maids and even go as far to own sex slaves. Suel mentions also having a personal vendetta against the guy and that's why he specifically choose this place to begin with, but he won't let that interfere with their mission. Zen tells him that knowing Augustus is an asshole will make convincing his party a bit easier. Afterwards, Zen stays to watch some fights for a bit before heading off to Forged from the Heart. There he meets Rena whom he asks if she can make a rapier and a dagger out of the phase spider fangs he's gotten. Rena agrees to make these items for him in exchange for 15gp since he has supplied the core materials up front. After this exchange, he heads over to the AA.
• Reed heads into the market place to buy an extra set of alchemist tools so he can double his output. He then goes back to his dorms and sets up two potions with the help of Jessica and Rowan. He then heads over to the AA where he sees Theo talking with two women. They appear to be having a serious discussion so Reed chills back and waits for Theo to come to him. He asks what's up and gets Reed a drink then he gets reminded that Reed's party has a personal request from Daisy to go into the Feywild. He hands him stamps and hands over the request notice to Reed and tells him of the dangers of the Feywild. He says that he believes his party will be able to handle it wishes him the best of luck before he goes to sit back down with the two women.
• Ren decides to head to the library to read his book in peace and quiet. Upon entering, Laurelle greets him and he begins to take a seat and start reading. After a bit Laurelle gets up and asks him what he's been up to. He tells her about his adventures with the spiders and she seems really intrigued. Ren asks what she does and she says she mostly just stays at the library because she has no one to go out with. Eventually the conversation leads to Ren explaining that he's getting clothes from Celeste that should make him look presentable enough to get into the upper-class district. Laurelle seems excited and asks him to show her his new outfit when it's finished because she loves Celeste's clothing. Ren agrees and asks Laurelle if she's ever been there before and she tells him that she has briefly on business before. Ren asks if she would show him around the parts of the upper district that she's familiar with and she excitedly agrees to it. Afterwards Laurelle leaves Ren to his book to let him catch up on reading. Once finished Ren heads over to the AA.

Adventurer's Association

Aside from Reed, Rowan is the second of the party to arrive at the AA. Rowan immediately notices the stunning beauty at Theo's table and upon seeing their discussion seeming to end goes over to her and attempts to make a move. Just then the rest of the party walks in and sits with Reed at the bar. Rowan begins to make his move but is interrupted by the angry woman sitting next to the lady he was attempting to hit on. She glares at him and says "Who the fuck are you?". Rowan is taken aback by this and then introduces himself. The woman still pissed says "So do you just hit on every woman you see? Fuck off." Rowan nopes out of there after that. Rowan goes to sit down with the group when suddenly Dustine notices Carvey and goes up to him. "Are you Carvey Firwing?" she asks him. Confused, Carvey says yes when suddenly Dustine swings at him. Upon the first swing the party turns their heads to see what's going on, just in time to see Carvey get punched straight in the face. Dustine then inquires what Carvey is going to do about this. Carvey says he's not going to hit a women and that only serves to add fuel to the fire. Dustine is even more pissed and punches him again. Carvey finally had enough and tackles her to the ground, he manages to just barely overpower her and she starts to calm down a bit. She sits at the bar with Carvey and says that she's the vice captain of the Queen's Blade, which is the queens personal military unit. She explains that Pryce and Theo have said good things about Carvey and his group respectively and that she had to test him a bit to see if he was worth a damn. Carvey suddenly wants to get to know her more and asks her to get in touch again. He fumbles with his words however and she laughs at him and tells him to keep dreaming. This hit Carvey hard and he gets up and walks back to the dorm without a word.
After Carvey heads out, Reed signals to Zen to meet him at the town fountain to discuss the request that he got from Daisy. Upon them leaving Dustine tells Rowan and Ren that since he’s part of the Greenbottle Brigade that she’s willing to give him another chance to prove himself by making it to silver rank then coming to find her again. She then gets up and walks out of the AA. Bryn walks over to Rowan and Ren and apologizes for Dustine’s behavior. She says that she has always been like that but she’s not a bad person. She then goes on to explain that her, Dustine, and Theo all used to be part of the same adventuring party together and how Theo also used to be pretty crass. Theo asks her to stop but she keeps going saying that Theo used to be a total hot head and always went around picking fights with everyone he could. Theo gets embarrassed and tells her to man the bar. He hurriedly walks away and goes to the second floor of the AA. Bryn laughs and Rowan and Ren say that they could never imagine Theo being such a hot head and if there was anything that caused him to mellow out. Bryn’s face shows a hint of sadness for a second and she says that yes there was something that occurred however it is not something she has the right to tell them without him being involved. Ren and Rowan then prepare to head out and Bryn wishes them the best of luck moving up the ranks and says she looks forward to the day that she will begin working with them up on the second floor.
Meanwhile in the town square near the fountain, Reed and Zen’s meeting has begun. Reed asks Zen that since he’s a “super elf” is it possible that he knows anything about the feywild. Zen then proceeds to say that he knows a little about the feywild but doesn’t know how much help he’ll be. Reed confesses that the request to go to the “jungle” is actually an excuse so that he can get into the feywild to pick some exotic flowers to expand upon the Greenbottle name. He then says that if Zen agrees to help and persuade the group to go into the feywild he’ll help him out with the heist. Zen agrees to it then also has more information about the heist to give to Reed. He tells him the details about the person whose house it was. After learning that Augustus Argento is a supposed piece of shit, Reed agrees to help Zen when the time comes.
In the morning, the party goes to pick up Zen at the Askr Inn and then head off to Daisy’s. Daisy appears a bit nervous and then asks the party of they’re ready to go. They agree and she starts to explain on the way there that this will be dangerous. Reed seems insistent to call this a trip to the “jungle”. Although confused, Daisy goes along with it assuming that Reed would have at least told his group what they’re getting into. She states that she would like them to check up on a town called Sporeville when they get there. She also explains that she can only create the portal once, that it will only last five minutes so they would need to make their final decision fast and that the portal is a one-way trip. She says she doesn’t know how to open a portal to come back here, but the locals may be able to help. Daisy places a flower at the base of a tree, the flower glows for a bit then disappears into the tree causing a door to appear within the trunk of the tree. Reed insists that the party take the risk and go in, he stays back so that he’s the last one going in and thanks Daisy before jumping in with them. She tells him to please come back alive and Reed assures her that he and his party would come back safely.

The Feywild

Upon entering the portal, the groups vision is enveloped in a variety of colors and they lose consciousness in the portal. When they come too, they are bruised and battered and wake up exhausted. Immediately after waking up they hear chuckling coming from the bushes. Reed manages to catch a glimpse of one of the creatures. They turn out to be quicklings, mischievous fey creatures that move at blinding speeds. While Reed is focused on the one that manages to hide poorly, the group is then ambushed by two that were hiding on the other side of the forest outing they woke up in. Although the party was unprepared, they managed to take the quicklings down after being roughed up quite a bit. After the fight, Ren asks to see the quest application that Reed received from Theo. He is angry because this is clearly not the “jungle” that Reed said they were going to. After much interrogation from Ren, Reed finally gives in and says that he asks Daisy to make a personal request for the group to go into the Feywild in an attempt to trick the party to going there so Reed could procure exotic flowers to use in his greenbottle line. Reed ends up apologizing to the group although Ren seems to trust him less no and his disappointed with him. He would have rather Reed just have been honest with the group from the start instead of trying to lie to get his way. Eventually, the party decides that now that they’re here they might as well continue on with Daisy’s request. Once they settle down, Reed goes to check on a flower and almost passes out from the smell. The group then decides to try to scope out the place to try to locate the village that Daisy had mentioned. The group devises a plan that Reed would hop up on Rowan’s shoulders and he would leap up from on top of one of the giant mushrooms around to get a better view. Ren upon seeing Rowan jump decides to boost his height even more by using his wind abilities. Through the team effort, the group sees that the mushrooms get denser to the north, so they decide to head that way. During their stroll down the path, they end up in the same place they just were as if they had just walked in a full circle. They attempt to walk through again, and the same thing happens, they then try going south instead of north and it once again loops around to the same outing. They decide to take a short rest before attempting to try again.
After they rest up a bit their rest is cut short by tremors and a loud booming voice coming from all directions. The voice then asks them what they think they’re doing in the forest. After the party explains that they’re just here on a request, the voice then once again exclaims as if in confirmation that they’re only there to do their request and not harm the forest or the locals. After confirmation, a pixie pops out of the brushes with a huge sigh of relief stating that he’s thankful the party isn’t going to attack him. He introduces himself as Pippin and states that he saw the party walking in circles. He can tell that they’re outsiders, so he starts to come up with a deal for them. Since they don’t know how to traverse the feywilds, he says that he’ll help them in exchange that they let him go through the portal with them when they decide to go back to Mira. Reed is incredibly apprehensive about the whole thing since he studied about the feywild, he knows that the locals are usually up to no go and trying to pull one over on anyone they can. After a lengthy conversation with the group, they finally come to an agreement that they’ll seem to help him but they’re going to try and trick him before they go back home to leave him in the feywild. They go back to Pippin and say that they’re okay with the agreement. Pippin seems happy and then flies over to a flower and pulls petals for the party. He gives them to the party and says not to breathe it in and to follow him through the trail. The petals work and the party is able to continue along the path until they come across a stone archway which Pippin tells them is the Sporeville Gateway. He then says that locals don’t take kindly to outsiders and that they won’t let them in. The group thinks they have a chance by mentioning Daisy’s full name to the guards so they think they can get in disregarding Pippin’s previous words. Once they get to the guards, they are immediately on edge and pull their weapons out against the party asking them to state their business. They mention that they’re here to check up on the village on behalf of Daisy Feyborne. The guards say that just because they know of her name doesn’t mean they’re trustworthy people. They say that they’d only let the group in if they can acquire a phial of dryad tears.
The party heads back as they see Pippin confidently waiting for their return. He asks them what kind of ridiculous request they asked of them and the party tells him that they need dryad tears. He says that it’s not surprising that they’d ask for something near impossible from them. He offers to guide them to the dryads’ nest where they reside, but he strongly recommends not fighting with them since it will be a tough battle if it came to it. After traveling for a bit, the party eventually makes it to the dryad next. There they see three dryads all tending to the local plant life. One of the dryads notices them and briefly smiles at them before going back to tending to the plants. The party notices that they seem like very peaceful creatures, so they go to try and reason with them. They begin speaking with a very calm looking dryad. Reed attempts to talk to him, but the dryad just looks on with confusion. Reed attempts to say hello in every language he knows but still seems like the dryad is confused by this. Finally, Rowan attempts to speak to them in Sylvan to which the dryad finally responds back. He introduces himself as Syl and asks the party what they are here for. Rowan exclaims that they’re here for dryad tears and for some flowers. Syl tells him that he can not give them anything due to them not having the blessing of the forest. Pippin eventually notices that only Rowan is talking and translating and mentions that these guys probably know elvish, and since you’re mostly elves assumes that the party speaks it. Ren then attempts to introduce himself in elvish and Syl also speaks in elvish allowing most of the party to know what is being said now. Ren tries to get him to allow them an exception to get the flowers and accidently offends Syl, but seeing how Ren quickly apologized, Syl accepted it as simply being ignorant to the ways of the forest. The party asks if there’s potentially some way they could gain the forests blessings and Syl explains that they should attempt to pray and attune themselves to the forest. He shows them a quiet place in which the party can meditate so having no other options, they go and begin to pray when suddenly their vision is filled with a bright white light, and then when they come to, they are at a campfire near a huge ethereal lake.
Besides the clearing of the forest, they notice that the border is too thick to leave. They decide to walk around some and check out the lake which when they investigate is crystal clear. They can clearly see themselves as if looking into a mirror however they can also see past that yet can’t see a bottom to the lake. Reed touches the water, and it feels very cool and refreshing. Eventually they decide to throw a small rock into the lake. As a result, the middle of the lake begins to ripple and spread apart creating a huge circle in the center. Shortly after a giant elvish looking woman begins to float out of the circle in the middle, the water then comes back together and she floats slightly above the lake. She then speaks to the party asking them why they have come to the Feywilds. The party states that they have come to check up on the village of Sporeville. She looks at the party then introduces herself as Aurelia and tells them that she is in charge of the entirety of the Feywild. She then says that they’ve entered against her will and that is why their journey through the portal was rough. Her protective field was attempting to close the portal as they were in it and ended up battering them around. She then goes to say that since she doesn’t sense any animosity from them, she’s willing to turn a blind eye towards their transgression. Zenaster, knowing that he willingly left the feywilds previously was concerned if he could gain her blessing after losing it once before. She told him not to worry and that she’d give them her blessing if they can gather a few things from the forest for her as a test. The three objects she asked for were a “gate stone”, a palm sized mushroom, and a “read” flower. Reed happened to have a rose on him, and he offered it to her as the “red” flower. She picks up the rose and notes that it’s a very lovely flower, however it’s not “read” it’s not even “written”. At this point, the party starts to realize that the items she asked for are part of the test. Aurelia then looks at all the party again stopping on Ren specifically as if she’s studying him. She then moves on to say that they have already come across all these objects in the forest before and sends them off.
Upon leaving Aurelia’s inner sanctum the party appears back where they were praying. They then go out of the prayer space to talk to Syl again. Pippin greets them and asks how it all went and they told him they needed a gate stone which he had no idea what that meant. Still feeling beaten up, they get back to Syl and ask him if they would be allowed to rest somewhere before they begin their challenge from Aurelia. Oddly Syl had never heard of the name Aurelia before but with quick thinking, they corrected themselves and simply said it was a challenge from the forest itself. After hearing this he offered them a safe space for them to rest before they go to undertake the challenges. Their first idea was to go back to the Sporeville gateway and get a stone from it to act as their “gate stone”. On the way there, they came across the area that the portal dropped them off at. They notice the giant mushrooms and begin to assume that by palm sized mushroom, she means palm size from her point of view. They decide to grab the giant mushroom last however and divert their attention towards a bunch of small flowers near the bases of trees. Due to a previous hint given by Pippin that the trees tell a story, Reed knew that touching the tree would make a vision appear in their minds. There were three trees, and each gave a different vision, the first was a blank book cover, the second was an open book filled with an indecipherable language, the last was the back of a book. The party agreed that the last tree with the back of the book signified that these flowers must be “read”. With the “read” flower in tow, they head towards the Sporeville gateway and once there, Reed and Zen take their hammers and begin to chisel a piece of the stone out. They then head back to the prayer space to contact Aurelia again, but not before Carvey and Rowan pick up one of the giant mushrooms to carry back with them.
Just like before as they prayed, they once again found themselves in Aurelia’s inner realm. She appeared from the lake once again and asked how their trial went. They began to throw each of the items into the lake one by one and she confirms that all of the items they brought her are correct. She congratulates them and then tells them that she has one final challenge for them. She then shrinks herself down to their size and descends back into the lake. Shortly after three copies of Aurelia pop out of the lake, one wearing a red dress who is wielding an elven glaive, one wearing a green dress wielding a dagger, and a the last copy wearing a white dress wielding a staff. She then says that their challenge is to take her down in combat. The party then braces themselves for a presumably tough fight.

Report Date

21 Feb 2021