Session 002 - The Shining Shrine

General Summary

The session begins with the monster hunters Crumbisur Sayax, Luna Jadeflower, and Richard Reigh partaking drinks in the bar of Lut's Tavern. They are interrupted by Heliana who introduces them to Strider and Theophania Thunderthighs, two fledgling monster hunters that Heliana has been training. She askes for the more veteran hunters to take them under their wing for their next bounty. When they agree, Heliana provides the group with their bounty poster.

Figure 1: Monster Bounty Poster given to the heroes by Heliana

The group step through one of the many doors of Lut's Tavern and enter into the Shard of Springwood, the home to all sorts of fantastical beasts and fey. They group is met by Threeflower and his pet blink squirrel named Moo. When the party asked more information about Moo, Threeflower explained that he was a fey creature and not a beast, warning against the use of spells such as Speak with Animals. He gleefully explained that many creatures from The Dreamwyld often pop over, and the more fey they see, the closer to Springarden, the main settlement of the Shard.

Figure 2: Knowledge about the abundance of fey creatures in Springwood was the first clue given to the hunters

Threeflower begins to guide the group through Springwood, telling tales of the world to pass time. The group comes upon a party of sprites, who invite them to play a game of high stakes hide and seek. In order for them to participate they are required to place 200 gold pieces into a chest provided by the sprites. In return the sprites placed 1000 gold pieces. In the first round, the sprites were able to win, the second round went to the heroes, the third to the sprites, the fourth to the heroes, and the final round was taken by sprites. However Strider was able to determine that the sprites were being mischevious and their gold wasn't real. Following fey law, the sprites returned the heroes their gold and gifted Strider with a Fey Twig, explaining that breaking the twig will allow Stride to contact the sprites and ask for help.
Continuing on with Crumbisur Sayax taking lead in front, the group comes upon a young green dragon who appeared to be trapped in a cage. Sayax attempts twice to pull the trap open, both times failing, causing a painful electric shock to the young dragon. Realising that he needs the help of a rogue, Sayax requests Theophania Thunderthighs to use her skills to unlock the trap, which she does with ease. The young dragon thanks the group, introducing himself as Sibillus. He promises a favour from his mother, Verdanya, an ancient green dragon as a reward and flies off into the forest.
As the party continues on the road, Chalice of the Gods identifies a majestic white stag observing the group, and on closer inspection, the stag telepathically challenges the party to pursue it, then vanishes. The group track the set of tracks left behind deeper into Springwood. Each time they saw the stag, they attempted different magic before realising that magic automatically missed the majestic creature. Chalice of the Gods gets Strider to shoot an arrow, which he does. Before the arrow could hit the stag, the beast vanished again. This time however a heroes feast was left behind, and the heroes gorged themselves on the sumptuous feast.
Following the path towards Springarden, Threeflower talked of the Feyfest, an annual festival that occurs when the constellation of give starts forms overhead:

“Every year we celebrate the coming of the fey. When the stars align, the barrier is weakened and we celebrate with them in joyous mischief. You can see the constellation even now,” he indicates to a cross of five stars in the sky, directly overhead.
“Yorith, the big yellow one in the middle moves west to east. Nagar is the black barely visible one above to the north. Sagin is the fierce red one to its south, Wiyfa—the shimmering white one—is on the west, and Bolubos is the pulsing blue one on the right there. I even have them tattooed,” he says, showing the nape of his neck. His face takes a downcast, melancholy turn. “This year the mischief has turned violent; the beast at the shrine is corrupting the festival.”

Shortly after this Richard Reigh goes off the road and meets a hag by the name of Cumely Carmila who requested support in finishing brewring her potion, promising three doses of whatever they procedure. After much discussion the group helps, choosing the correct plants with each instruction; belladona for "add the most toxic of plants to the cauldron" and blood lily for "add the plan that grew on the bodies of the fallen after the last great battle of the realm. After stirring a number of times, Cumely Carmila gifted three potions of resistance.
After the encounter with the hag, the group reached the edges of Springarden, where Threeflower encouraged them to meet his brother Pyrax who was recently injured by an unknown beast and is located in the healer's hut. Threeflower also gifted the group a flyer advertising the annual Feyfest.

Figure 3: A flyer of the annual Feyfest of Springarden given to the heroes from Threeflower

The group walk over to the healing hut where they see the body of Pyrax who was in a critical condition, and notice that Pyrax's eyes were milky white, skin was red and blistered, and that they were holding a purple feather in their hand. Luna Jadeflower was able to remove the feather from the hand and identified that the feather was resistance to being burned and that any damage to the feather was healed when it was exposed to bright sunlight.

Figure 4: The feather found on Pyrax by the hunters

With the information they had at hand, the party decided to enter into the spa that was situated at the far north of Springarden. When they entered, they found a beautiful and tranquil place, and Richard encouraged by the ambience, stripped naked and entered into the water. When the dwarf did this, the hunters learned that the water had inherent magical properties, causing either calm emotions or rage. Richard succumbed to the rage, causing him to attack his allies. With the noise caused by this chaos, the Suneater Owlbear awoke and began to attack the hunters.
While difficult, the hunters were able to slowly wear the Suneater Owlbear down, causing a bright-golden forcefield of energy bloom out from the owlbear, causing its body to be suspended in the sphere. The air tingled with the scent of ozone as four glowing orbs coalesced around the garden. These smaller 1-foot-diameter orbs were each a different colour; one sparkled with bright white light, a second swirled with fiery reds, a blue one pulsed rhythmically, and the last was a dark black that drunk in the light of the others. As they bobbed slowly, levitating in the air, the hunters remembered the tale that Threeflower told them about the stars in the sky, and were able to move the orbs in the formation of the constellation.
When they did this, it caused the golden forcefield to drop, and the Suneater Owlbear attacked them again. The second time, the fey creature clearly had more power, and the hunters slowly but surely defeated the creature. Strider used his Fey Twig to call the sprites to help him, and was able to kill the Suneater Owlbear with a well placed shot.
The minute the Suneater Owlbear died, a large ripping sound, and the small of ozone filled the area, causing a black hole to be created. Strider, Luna Jadeflower, Theophania Thunderthighs and Richard Reigh were pulled into the black hole and ended up within The Dreamwyld.
Meanwhile, Crumbisur Sayax remained in the garden where he found a fledging Suneater Owlbear called Sunsnacker. Shortly after Threeflower arrived in the garden and informed Sayax that the people of Springarden had been fighting a number of fey creatures who had popped up throughout the city. Disamayed, Sayax informed what happen to his friends, to which Threeflower informed him they probably transported to the Dreamwyld and took him to a teleportation device that allowed the inhabitants of Springarden to physically visit the Dreamwyld.
In the Dreamwyld, the group identify a number of magical items were left behind by the owlbear and they separated them amongst each other:

• Luna Jadeflower obtained the Suncatcher
• Strider obtained the Sunwing Bow
• Chalice of the Gods obtained Bonze's Bokken, Wind Ripper
• Richard Reigh obtained the Suneater Featherfrond and Ring of Birdseye Maple
• Theophania Thunderthighs obtained the Sunfeather Shroud

With all that settled, the group stuck in the Dreamwyld decide to follow the road to see if it led to a way out. Along the way they met the human monk Thar Zen who challenged Chalice of the Gods to a race through the surrounding jungle. Chalice of the Gods was ultimately the winner, recieving a Potion of Speed.

Figure 5: Art drawn by Heliana after hearing the hunters tale

The group eventually met up with Crumbisur Sayax at a crossroads, and then Heliana who helped them return to Lut's Tavern. Once settled in the tavern and telling their story, Cacophonics prepared and performed a song about their exploits.

Rewards Granted

• Bonze's Bokken, Wind Ripper 
• Fey Twig
• 3 x Potion of Resistance
• 1 x Potion of Speed 
• Suncatcher 
• Ring of Birdseye Maple 
• Suneater Featherfrond 
• Sunsnacker 
• Sunwing Bow 

Missions/Quests Completed

• Hunted and successfully defeated the Suneater Owlbear, helping the inhabitants of Springarden.

Character(s) interacted with

• Cumely Carmila: A green hag that resides in Shard of Springwood who the party assisted with breweing her potion.
• Heliana: Heliana recruits the group of monster hunters to investigate the curious happenings of Shard of Springwood and hunt down any monster that may be causing issues.
• Moo: Pet blink squirrel of Threeflower.
• Pyrax: Adoptive brother of Threeflower who was injured in a skirmish with the Suneater Owlbear.
• Sibillus: A young green dragon who was trapped in an enchanted steel trap and was freed by the heroes. He offered a favour from his mother as a reward.
• Thar Zen: A monk who resides in the Dreamwyld.
• Threeflower: A druid in training who met with the monster hunters at the doorway into Springwood, he acted as their guide.
• Verdanya: An ancient green dragon who is the mother of Sibillus.

Notes

• Feyfest: An annual festival in Springarden that celebrates the alignment of a constellation. 
• Shard of Springwood: A forest biome that has a close connection with the Dreamwyld.
• Springarden: Main settlement of Springwood, where majority of the inhabitants of the Shard reside.
• Suneater Owlbear: A rare owlbear species that reside in the Dreamwyld.

Report Date

24 Nov 2024

Primary Location

Shard of Springwood

Secondary Location

Springarden

Related Plots

• The Shardlands Saga

Related Characters

• Crumbisur Sayax
• Cumely Carmila
• Heliana
• Luna Jadeflower
• Moo
• Pyrax
• Richard Reigh
• Sibillus
• Strider
• Thar Zen
• Theophania Thunderthighs
• Threeflower

Ballad of the Suneater by Cacophonics

The story begins at the festival

Where stars are all symmetrical

But a monster is its mimicked face

And anger it does bring.

Its nature is to steal the sun

And wish the night time not to come

Oh the wicked beast would fire its beam

And burn the skin of those who’d seen.

Some brave adventurers would cross its path

And hold their swords aloft

And once defeated they would find

The monster rose a final time

Defiant till its end.

Our travellers overcame the night

And brought the sunlight back to life

Our friends, we owe our world to you

You’re heroes through and through.