Session 127 - February 2, 2023 Report
General Summary
1306 - 2nd Moon of Spring - Ruanes (14th Day)
- Alethar, Merry, and Roth arrive at the Barony with Oakly in a box and Arannis, via a tree that Fenton opened. Fenton is slightly nervous about meeting Arannis, but soon relaxes and seems to enjoy the conversation.
- Fenton shows the new house he is working on to the group, and then mentions to Alethra about trying to see if she has any druid powers. He then holds out a hand and grows a small cabbage. Alethra holds out a hand and feels a slight tingle in her fingertips, which Merry creates the minor illusion of a mushroom, which then shrivels and dies after Alethra stops "concentrating". Alethra is confused, Fenton is delights, and Roth saw the trick, but says nothing.
- The group then has a conversation about the possibly of plane shifting, a very high level magical ability, which is done with the aid of a fork attuned to that plane. Roth takes a small rock from the Barony and with the help of Arannis and Fenton crates a fork tuned to the material plane and the Tanglewood estate. While chatting, Oakly is happy to offer a small branch with leaf to create an item attuned to the Feywilde, though since Oakly is from spring, they are not sure how that will work with travel between planes, and if they need to go to winter.
- Merry goes and buys some spell components, with the snake skin gloves being a bit hard to find.
- Oakly offers the two small bits of itself so that both Fenton and Arannis can have a possible chance to arrive in the Feywilde with it.
- Arannis and Fenton help Roth to complete his fork to get back to the Barony. General day of rest and relaxation.
- Soot is added to the telepathic bond and the group explains the time that they are going to be away may be short or may be long, and that Soot will stay on the Barony with Fenton and that they will have all sorts of adventures to tell Soot about when they return.
- Evening before sunset, Beartrum, Alethra, Roth, Merry, Arannis, and Fenton all head to the gate with Olly riding on Roth's shoulder.
- Oakly riding in the box now has a ring of spell storage and a ring of necrotic resistance.
- All arrive at the gate and Roth sees a ring of 8 stones, mostly hidden that mark the boundary of trees and a clearing around the gate. There is a small set of 2 stone bowls, 1 of milk and 1 of water.
- As the sunset approaches, the space within the gate begins to fill, slowly with what looks like snow. At sunset, there is no way to see through the gate, and the inside of the gate looks just like a blizzard.
- Olly is sent through the gate, told to be invisible and silent, get two items, and then try to fly back through the gate. If Olly cannot get back through the gate, she is to wait, as Roth will then call her back after a minute.
- Olly goes through the gate, and returns with a small tree branch for Fenton and a small rock for Arannis, and she has snow on her. She tells the group about the hill, the group of trees, and the colorful creatures sliding down the hill. There is very little light, as there does not seem to be any sun, just deep twilight. Roth casts the telepathic bond and all get dressed in winter gear. They head to the gate and pass through.
- After going through the gate, the group cannot see back though, and then walk around a bit to see the environment. Merry casts a high level invisibility spell, so everyone is invisible, and they watch the penguins (red, black, green and blue) slide down the hill. Olly then flies up and see a woodland which seems to be close to a large ice-looking palace and 3 guards on patrol all 3 riding polar bears approaching miles away.
- Olly scouts and then flies down invisible to have Roth speak through his voice, as Olly hears a few words in Sylvan about the Groundskeeper losing them again. Roth speaks to the guards, as an invisible voice, and offers to help the guards find their missing creatures.
- Once Roth learns that the creatures are called penguins (they are specific to the winter Fey it seems), all 4 penguins then run into the trees around the invisible party. Roth confirms that the penguins are pets/valued, and so the party squares off with the 3 large polar bears who appear (without armor or riders) atop the ridge the penguins were just sliding down.
- Merry kicks off the fight with a scroll of chain lightening, and rolls very high damage, with the one spell taking out all 3 animals. She is surprised, and relived that the large white bears are no longer a threat. All the penguins come out and are happy to play around Merry, now visible, who plays them a little song to keep them occupied. Roth then works to get the skins from all 3 polar bears (he is visible). Sliding occurs, and Beartrum and Alethra stay invisible.
- Olly, who has been leading the 3 riders and mounts in the direction of the party then arrives. Gwendolyn introduces herself and her mount, Pandora, while speaking Sylvan. Olly, Roth and Merry have a conversation while Gwen taps each penguin on the head with a rock, and they vanish. Gwen asks to escort the party to the main guardhouse, as they arrived on property without warning, and it is a breach of security that will need to be addressed.
- Gwen is not sure about the transportation, and Merry drops the invisibility spell, and Gwen sees Beartrum, and is very awe-struck, as owlbears are not seen in the winter Feywilde, particularly one who can speak. The other two guards are also fair haired and pale eyed full elves, and Roth reveals his features, black hair/eyes and elf ears, and Gwen greets him as "cousin".
- Roth casts a spell to summon a steed, Merry rides Beartrum, and Alethra rides a broom back to the main gate to the palace. Merry translates from Sylvan to Common for Alethra to keep up the appearance of her not speaking the language.
- Gwen shows them around the area, the oak orchard, the formal garden, the maze, a glass house, with an addition in progress, and small cozy looking cottage with a large pen outside, which houses 8 additional penguins. Takes about an hour to get to the castle proper.
- Gwen knocks on the door and greets Hal, the head groundskeeper, who is happy to get the additional penguins back from the stone that Gwen carries. To repay the kindness, Hal, short for Halbert, invites the group in for tea and a small meal (freely given). Gwen will drop by later if she needs them for anything, but asks they eventually stop by the tower to give a full report to the captain.
- Hal is very taken with Beartrum, as a talking owl bear is quite the novelty. Hal offers the food and drink in his thanks for retrieving the missing penguins. Beartrum asks to meet a penguin, but fails a check and the penguin chooses to hide. Apparently Beartrum looks too much like a polar bear. Roth learns that elves with black and dark hair are more common in the Fall Feywilde and he uses a spell to give his hair and eyes a lighter tone.
- Hal meets Olly and is concerned, as the winter has Fairy Dragons, and they are full of mischief, of which he has had to clean up after the chaos, so he is pleased Olly seems civilized. Hal gives them a tour of the ice maze (center with ice sculpted to look like water), the lighting in the sky has not changed, so there is no direct indication that time has passed. Hal lets the group know Lady Sylvan is in charge of outdoor logistics, but the Queen of the Winter is named Queen Torlee. While in the center, Alethra suggests several lights in the fountain which would mimic the movement of water. Olly casts dancing lights to demonstrate.
- After the maze, to the green house, where many flowers are in bloom, there is a constant daylight spell, and even a few smaller fruit trees.
- Roth gives Alethra the Helm of Comprehend Languages, so that she can now communicate with Hal in common and he will understand her without worrying about revealing her monk language skill. Hal mentions he went to the spring Feywilde once, and it took him 1 cycle to get there. A cycle is one full moon to the next full moon. Currently the moon is at 3/4 full.
- Next to the stable to see the horse, reindeer, and polar bears. Hal then offers to escort them to the main gate so that they can give their report to the Captain on duty. Roth offers Hal a small jar of the spices from their home plane, and he is delighted, gifting Roth a small white rose make of quartz.
- Cpt Broady then arrives to speak with the party. He takes them into a small meeting room, where there is a large map of the territory, patrol routes, a list of various guards on duty, and some cups for drinks. Beartrum is given a large mat to sit on, and the Cpt runs them through the questions he has as Head Guard of the Citadel of Torlee.
- The Cpt is confused on how the gate, which is not a gate on this side, opened, as the magic to teleport or shift in should have set off an alarm. The Cpt shows the party a map of the winter Feywilde, which is almost pie shaped, taking up 1/4 of the area, with spring on one side and fall on the other. The Cpt is unsure of what to do, but in the effort to be hospitably, offers to take the group on tour of the castle while he sends 2 guards to the area of the opening so that they can guard it.
- Due to the differences in time, Cpt Broady is not sure how to guard against this possible point of intrusion, but thinks that a brief show of the public areas of the castle would be a fun way to explore the Feywilde. Also, Beartrum seems to be of much interest, so Cpt may be wanting to show him off as well.
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