Horrors of Hickorydale 5: More questions than answers
Operation Parameters
| Date | 1492 DR, 30 Nightal (26/12/2022) |
| Soldiers | Teddie, Lark, Laef 2.0, Baenor, Luminos |
| Status | |
| Casualties | Philius |
Objective
Rid the undead force inhabiting Phil's chest. Return Tasha's wooden box which Tempest entrusted us with.Observations
The Entity that some soldiers have received messages from may be located within Hickorydale.Why are the portals more closer in proximity within Hickorydale compared to the locations where they lead to in the Feywild. Could this be evidence that the source of the dark forces resides within Hickorydale rather than the Feywild?
Tempest shared that addressing the dark forces within the Feywild should weaken the source, so it would be easier to deal with later on.
There is still a lot more ground to investigate within Hickorydale.
It is a bad idea to bring Fey folk back to Hickorydale: Phil was killed by the shadow Entity.
The wooden box has been safely returned to Tasha.
If future parties encounter Fey folk with ghosts inhabiting their bodies, it may be worth a shot to knock them out unconscious to see if the ghost will try to leave the host body.
While no discoloration was observed in the near vicinity of the portal by Phil and Mae's house, a more thorough investigation may uncover signs of dark forces.
Follow up
Minute details should be reported, as there are more questions than answers. Confirm that the portal in the church has disappeared. The recommended next party line-up should include soldiers with resistance to necrotic energy, soldiers with high magical investigative spells, are good at infiltration, and have abilities to repel undead. The next party should investigate the farm land where the third Feycrossing was located in a field. The local area should be checked for any sign of dark forces, and enter the portal if time and resources permit. A group with high stealth and surveillance abilities should do a more thorough check of Hickorydale and its people, especially the main building at the center of the town, as the building has yet to be explored. Mae, Phil's pregnant wife, needs to be notified about her husband's death. She can be reached through the Feycrossing in the Tavern/inn bath. In addition to reporting the bad news, the local area should be investigated again for any signs of dark forces. WARNING: The Entity is very powerful and its anger is growing more and more with each consecutive mission to Hickorydale. A map of Hickorydale should be developed so we can track and make references in future excursions more accurately. Check to see if curing a disease can affect the behavior of the people of Hickorydale.Preparation Details
Operation Details
When we first teleported to Hickorydale from Fort Vegepath, several of us arrived asleep, and we shared the same dream of a stone structure standing in a mountain range with forests full of gnarled trees, moss covered vines, and a voice full of malice that tried to intimidate us but we all woke up before it could finish its message, as Baenor, who had not fallen alseep, shook us awake.As planned, we investigated the remaining rooms within the HickorydaleTavern/Inn which we could not accomplish the day before.
Luminos struck a wooden post on the second floor and found it to be quite sturdy, unlike the objects noted in reports from Lehigh.
Rubble and Lark noted that the woman in the Inn/Tavern had stopped mid-motion as if frozen while the party was exploring other rooms (Rubble was invisible). This behavior is consistent with the soldiers who were playing cards in the barracks which Teddie had observed while hidden.
After crossing over to the Feywild from the portal in the Tavern bath, we met Phil again and asked him to lead us to the location where he had been grasshopper counting. According to Phil, his eyes turned purple after working there, and we had reason to believe that there would be clues to what was inside Phil if we investigated the area.
Phil guided us to an old ruin, and Luminos used his divine sense to search for undead, but he did not sense anything unnatural in the vicinity.
Lark cast Stone Shape to gain access into the ruin. Inside, the party found poorly crafted statues of Harengones in a cavernous room. There were some magical/cursed items which are in the possession of Teddie and Laef 2.0.: A whistle with a red gem stuck on it, a satchel, and a clay urn that could fit in one's palm. Teddie blew the whistle, which conjured a stage with a quartet of imps playing instruments. Teddie also opened the satchel and a goose who called itself the "overlord" emerged. There did not seem to be anything magical or extraordinary about the goose. Other than some spare coin, there was nothing much else worth noting.
At this point, we felt that it would be best to escort Phil to Tasha's castle, as we could not find anything that we thought would help Phil's condition or achieve the greater objective of removing the dark forces from the Feywild. Phil seemed impressed that we had dealings with Tasha, and knew how to get there. It took us about 40 minutes to reach the castle from the Harengone ruins.
As Tasha happily accepted the wooden box which Tempest entrusted to Laef, we felt comfortable enough to asked if she could provide some advice for helping Phil.
Tasha said there was a ghost inside of Phil, and she expected our party to get rid of it.
According to Tasha, the only way to get rid of the ghost was to either kill Phil
or move the ghost to a new body, which could only be accomplished if the ghost felt that the new body would be more comfortable to live in.
As we were out of ideas, and we did not want to kill Phil, we decided to escort Phil back to Hickorydale and see if there would be some kind of reaction from the ghost or the townsfolk.
The moment we passed back through the portal and arrived in the Tavern/Inn bath, a powerful shadow figure (whom I shall refer to as "The Entity"), possibly a ghost, apparated and killed Phil with a blade made of shadow, despite Lark casting a protection spell on Phil. Alas, we did not have the wherewithal to deal with the Entity, and save Phil.
The Entity had purple eyes that glowed, and sounded just like the voice we heard in our dreams when we first arrived at Hickorydale. It seemed to be unhappy that we brought Phil with us, but was grateful that we did not kill him.
the Entity teleported the party back to Fort Vegepath where Luminos tried to heal Phil to no avail. Phil was already dead.