Session 21. - Mapping The Forest
General Summary
4th of Icegrip, 1440 A.P.
The ruined tower of Aldergrove Keep gave a final shudder and as a cloud of dust settled around them, the party collectively heaved a sigh of relief that the tower hadn't come down on top of them. They took a moment to assess their wounds and decided that they needed to rest. They gathered their things and headed back to town as the sun dipped behind the mountains to the west, stretching their shadows out in front of them. As the others talked about returning and searching the outbuilding for further clues, Urith kept his eyes peeled for the remains of the gargoyle that he'd brought down as it attempted to fly away.
It took a moment for him to orient himself and locate it but he managed to find it relatively easily. He sifted through the stone remains, searching for a piece that he felt they could use as evidence for Lord Davram. He finally settled on a partial stone face and quickly caught up to the others. They arrived in town in short order and headed straight to the inn and their beds, with their only thoughts being their daily bacon ration the following morning.
The next morning they awoke relatively early and as the innkeeper brought in breakfast, they discussed their plan of action. Oorr had spent the evening taking a much closer look at the map they'd discovered and had translated all the symbols that were marked into Goblinese, for everyone's benefit. They perused the map, Urith making no attempts to wipe the bacon grease from his fingers before handling it. The group were curious about the house marked "Loyal", vocally assuming that it was someone loyal to whomever had made the map. Angrar also noted that there was a large circle labelled "Danger. Do Not Cross" encompassing Lady Vera's house along with two other houses. Arbor was interested in the building marked "Trusted Fence" and they wondered if the "Trouble?" mark next to the inn referred to them. They wondered if anything was hidden under the prolific ink spill as they could see something marked as "Good Loot, No Guards".
Angrar was of the opinion that they should go back to the tower and explore the other buildings or the "Safe Camp" in the forest, but first, he said they had to go to the blacksmith and try and fix his bent sword. The others acquiesced and they finished up their breakfast quickly, though not before Angrar watched both Urith and Suljurn stuffing their pockets with extra bacon slices.
They made their way to the blacksmith as he was stoking the fires for the day. Angrar approached and presented his mangled blade, hoping that the smith could fix it. After a few minutes of inspection the smith handed it back with regret saying he couldn't fix it. Urith chimed in that he had an all-powerful mending spell to which the blacksmith scoffed at, saying that the spell would accomplish much the same as his hammer. He then clarified to Angrar that while he could straighten the blade, any work that he did would ruin the spells that were ingrained in the metal. The others chimed in with suggestions, asking if the smith had any magic blades he'd be willing to sell, and Deadeye offered his magic short sword as a replacement, saying he wasn't using it.
While Angrar decided what he wanted to do, Arbor pulled out the map of town and asked the smith if he knew who lived in the house marked "Loyal". After the smith took the map and after a moment of trying to orient himself, he said he thought it was likely young Danyel, the squire's house. As they pondered the implications that the loyal mark might not be to whomever wrote the map, Angrar decided that he'd take Deadeye up on his offer and took the short sword. They thanked the smith and were about to leave when Arbor ran back and again showed him the map, asking who lived at the "Trusted Fence" mark. The others cringed visibly, worried that the smith would see the writing, but completely forgetting it was written in goblinese. The smith made no indication that he noticed the writing or even could read it, and answered easily, saying that was the general store, run by his friend, Viggo.
Angrar strapped on his new blade as they made their way to the general store. When they arrived, Oorr took charge and told the others to let him do the talking, to which they reluctantly agreed, worried that he'd say something stupid again. He seemed a mite shocked that they didn't put up any resistance and so when they entered the shop he stumbled over his words slightly as the shopkeep greeted them. Oorr immediately started asking him very cryptic questions that didn't seem to make any sense at all, and when the shopkeeper responded with sensible answers, Oorr was puzzled. He enquired if the shopkeep was Viggo, who responded that he was. Oorr flashed a few guild handsigns while he introduced himself as Captain Oorr Rosetta del Hilltopple and the shopkeep turned somewhat sour to him, not wanting to talk to "the law". Oorr ignored the change in Viggo's mood and continued headfirst into the conversation. Eventually Oorr started asking about weapons, which seemed to confuse the shopkeep, who still didn't want to talk to him, but eventually let slip that he had just received a shipment in the back and reluctantly offered Oorr to come and inspect the goods. Oorr loudly told the others to wait and they headed behind the curtain into the back of the shop.
They went behind a curtain, ostensibly so as Oorr could "check out the merchandise" and as soon as they were out of sight, Oorr found a poniard under his chin and Viggo angrily demanding to know who he worked for. Not wasting a second, Oorr cast Charm Person and Viggo's demeanour went from hostile to friendly in a heartbeat. Once Oorr was certain that the spell had taken hold, he started asking some questions. He was fairly blunt in his line of questioning and despite now being best friends, the shopkeeper didn't want to give up the names of his sources. Oorr managed to convince his new friend to tell him where the delivery would be and was told about a meeting spot in the nearby woods by a large white tree stump. Feeling like he had all the information he needed, Oorr exited the backroom and informed the others that they really should go.... now. When the others asked, Oorr hastily told them about the tree stump and was very emphatic about leaving. He also advised them never to return to this shop ever again.
Once in the street, the group decided that their next logical step should be to check out the camp. Deadeye was happy to show them the route that he'd taken, but they'd noticed an unlabelled stump marked on the map that was on the way to the camp and wanted to check it out. They left their horses behind, figuring that the wagon wouldn't handle the woods.
The morning was quickly warming up up as they made their way back down the road towards the mansion. They kept their eyes out for a stump and eventually spotted it. It looked like the tree had been cut down to make way for the stone fence that lined the lane but the roots had proved too stubborn to be removed and so there was a small gap in the fence around the stump. They stepped off the road and examined the stump closely. The stump had definitely been there for several generations with a few initials carved into its top and sides. Arbor spotted a symbol that looked familiar to the ones on the map and called Oorr over to investigate. After a quick glance, he confirmed that it was a marker pointing north.
Taking the direction, the party followed the fence line off the road. They crossed over the fields, thankfully not seeing any workers and eventually came to the forest's edge. There was initially some debate of sending Deadeye ahead to scout the camp quietly but they decided on a more direct approach. They headed into the woods and quickly found the trail Deadeye had followed a few days ago. He even pointed out a few of his trail signs and pointed out that the clearing was just up ahead.
As he said that, the trail opened up onto a wide clearing with a low rise. In the center of the rise could be seen a large, dark rusty brown tree stump. Sunlight streamed down and a few rabbits idly hopped and nibbled at the grass around the stump. Around the edge of the clearing, a path had been worn down in the grass in a circle around the stump and the could see trails lead off into the forest at roughly the cardinal compass points. Deadeye led them to the southern edge of the clearing where a camp had been set out.
The bulk of the group started to investigate the campsite and Oorr headed to the center to get a better look at the tree. Arbor felt somewhat offended by the innocence of the rabbits and casually flicked an eldritch blast at one, thinking he might be able to provide lunch. Unsurprisingly, the spell was far more powerful than what was needed and the rabbit instantly became a fine red mist rather than anything suitable to eat. Oorr was nonplussed and just glad he didn't get anything on his clothing.
Oorr placed his hand on the stump and communed with Rayah to give him guidance and direction. The stump was warm to his touch. As he closed his eyes and quieted his mind to listen to his goddess, he felt a tingling sensation. At first he thought it was the touch of his goddess but it quickly escalated from a pleasant warmth to a painful, burning sensation. When he opened his eyes, his hand was engulfed by the tree and he let out a yelp, quickly pulling his hand away only to find it covered in a caustic sap that continued to burn as it dripped down his arm.
While Oorr and Arbor investigated the tree, the others were searching the campsite, noting that it had been at least two days since anyone had been there and that the trail led East and South from the clearing, going deeper into the woods. While they searched, Urith started telling them about this story from his childhood that he remembered one of the village elders telling. It was a tale about a tree stump with little rabbits nearby similar to what was up on the hill. In the story, the tree used the rabbits as lures and when prey got close, it came to life and devoured them. Urith scoffed and laughed as he told the tale, obviously not believing it was anything more than a metaphor for teaching young children not to go into the woods alone. His laughter quickly died once he heard Oorr's pitiful wail and he turned to see his story come to life.
The tree in the center of the clearing burst into life with roots and vines erupting around Arbor, entangling him and Oorr. The others rushed forward to help. Oorr was able to slip out of the entangling vines but managed to lose his hat in the process. Arbor was not so lucky and got dragged closer to the stump which now had a massive maw along its side, dripping with caustic sap. Suljurn and Angrar charged forward, heedless of the vines whipping around them while Deadeye and Urith hung back at the clearing's edge, thinking themselves safe from the tree's reach. Unfortunately the tree's roots easily reached to them and Urith got entangled. Arbor managed to cast a spell to get himself free and Urith was limber enough to wriggle out of harms way. The tree ensnared Suljurn but he tried to ignore it and continued to attack but all the jostling from the vines made every one of his swings go wide. Thankfully his and Angrar's armour protected them from the worst of the creature's acidic counterstrikes.
Slowly but surely, they whittled away at the creature, trading blows back and forth. Suljurn got knocked into Angrar, causing the big half-ghrym to stumble mid attack and stab himself in the foot. Before he managed to escape, Arbor suffered a vicious blow that nearly killed him and Oorr's dodging and weaving came to naught as he got caught heavily by one of the roots and went down hard. Suljurn finally managed to land a blow but did little more than scrape some of the bark off the tree. Oorr was bleeding out and everyone was entangled or engaged and unable to reach him. In the end, Deadeye brought the creature low, shooting it in the spot Suljurn had cleared of bark. The tree shuddered and went still, slowly releasing its victims. Urith and Suljurn started to head back to the camp, oblivious to Oorr's plight. Deadeye quickly realised that Oorr was in bad shape and cast a spell to stabilise his friend.
Once Oorr regained consciousness he immediately said that Rayah told him to move the stump. After catching their breath Angrar and Suljurn leaned into the task and with a titanic effort, they managed to tip the tree stump's corpse over revealing a larger, white Stump whose roots went deep into the earth. Embedded at a steep angle in the side of the white stump was a narrow wooden door that was sealed shut. The door was locked and when the group looked expectantly to Oorr, he protested that he wasn't that type of rogue and that hanging out with them was a bad influence. In moments though he had finessed the lock and the door swung silently inward revealing a narrow spiral stone staircase leading down into darkness.
Reflexively Deadeye asked if anyone had a torch, before realising that they could all see perfectly well in the dark. The worn stone steps descended down about 30 feet into a short hallway lined with chiselled natural stone. As they descended, the air was heavy with the musty smell of earth and sounds became muted with little echo by the time they reached the bottom. The hallway was barely ten feet long and about the same wide, ending in a set of carved stone doors that were propped open. In the chamber beyond they could see a natural hollowed out cavern beneath the tree. Looking up into the darkness the massive white roots could be seen faintly poking out of the earth like ancient bones. The hall ended in a smooth stone floor sporadically covered in dirt. In the middle of the chamber was a black stone circle with three jagged prongs curving towards the center of the circle. A stone table sat in the center of the circle. As they'd descended, there'd been some idle speculation that this may have once been a burial chamber but the sight of the ritual circle erased that thought from everyone's mind and drove a chill deep into their bones. The only other things in the room were a small wooden table and what looked like a bookcase against the far wall.
The group were extremely cautious as they approached the circle, nervously joking that maybe it would teleport them back to the north but none of them brave enough to step close and see. Arbor attempted to identify the markings around the circle's edge as they seemed familiar. In the dim light he couldn't make out the details well enough, but something nagged at him.
As he pondered the problem, the others drifted over to examine the table and shelf. There they found seven dark robes neatly folded on the shelf. On the table was a tinderbox, a censer, and several sticks of incense along with a small ritual athame knife.
Angrar suggested that Arbor light a torch to get a better look, and Deadeye volunteered a torch. Arbor lit it and everyone was briefly blinded by its harsh yellow light. When their eyes had adjusted back to the normal spectrum, Arbor summoned a Mage Hand and directed it over the table. In the flickering torchlight, Arbor was easily able to recognise the writing as the same writing they'd seen on The Book of Moloch. When he attempted to read it though, he received the same splitting headache and bloody nose he'd got last time.
Once the pain passed, he shifted the torch to get a better look at the stone table in the center of the circle. Arbor could seen seven distinct notches spaced evenly around the table radiating outward like the spokes of a wheel. he couldn't quite figure out what they were for until someone suggested that maybe they would fit a sword and then it all clicked together. Arbor wasted no time and started rummaging around in his bag. He eventually pulled out several vials of Frigid Woe and everyone instinctively took a step back. Again using his mage hand, he manoeuvred the vials over the stone table and started sprinkling the dust liberally over the table leaving a thin blue layer that glittered like frost. It took him two vials to coat the whole table and for good measure he used another two vials to lace the robes on the shelf.
Once Arbor was done, the group collectively decided that there was nothing left to do and they climbed back up the stairs into the sunlight. Urith suggested that they replace the wolf-in-sheep's clothing back onto the stump and make it look like they had never been there so Suljurn and Angrar again heaved the massive creature back onto the large stump and Urith and Deadeye put their tradecraft to good use hiding their tracks. They even tried resetting the bunny lure but without the living creature, the lure just flopped around lifelessly so they gave up.
Once their presence was hidden, they decided to set off and follow the trail leading away from the camp, hoping it would them to the thieves. Oorr said that he expected it to head north towards Morwen's Tower, but surprisingly the trail veered East and occasionally to the south. After some time, it broke out of the trees and continued East across the open grassland. Only once it reached the trees near the river, did the trail finally start to veer north. They could hear the river in the distance, getting louder as they approached and eventually they came upon a wide river near a natural ford.
The trail led them across the river and when they were half-way across the sky darkened ominously. The party looked around confused, at first looking for storm clouds, and then when the gloom darkened, for the sun itself. Suljurn laughed bemusedly (as only a 400 year old can) and realised it was likely just an eclipse and warned everyone else not to look at the Sun, Angrar tried to heed the warning but accidentally glanced at the Sun. Thankfully he was able to look away quickly and didn't seem to do any permanent damage to his eyes. The others were luckier but were comically "paralyzed" in the middle of the river. Suljurn suggested they continue crossing and once they did, they spent a rough half hour drying off their gear, while they waited for the darkness to pass.
In time, the darkness faded and the light from the afternoon sun returned. Angrar and the others were a little put off by the suddenness of the eclipse. They wondered if it had been a natural phenomena or if it had been triggered by something (they did). No one had any answers so they continued following the trail. Now that they were across the river, Oorr was certain the trail would head towards the tower, but it instead continued mostly easterly, sometimes veering south into a more marshy area of the forest.
The trail seemed to hug the transition between the forest and the marshland for some time, continuing eastwards and a little north. With the land getting softer and wetter, the insects, which hadn't been a noticeable problem in Dhabara yet, started swarming around them. Despite the bugs, they stopped in the middle of the trail when they saw saw what looked like a dead horse on the side of the trail ahead. As he was on point, Deadeye approached to investigate it and the the flies seemed to get thicker as he approached. Soon everyone was swatting the bite-mes and midges, getting more irritated by the moment. Deadeye was getting particularly frustrated. He kept feeling this irritating tickle on the back of his neck and instinctively kept brushing it away while he tried to investigate the horse. The last time he went to swat it away, he realised too late that it was a sticky spiderweb and he was quickly entangled by it. He saw several large spiders and three humanoid spider creatures descending from the trees. He managed to shout a warning to the others just as the creatures swarmed out of the trees and surrounded them.
The fight was much rougher than they expected. The spiders swarmed around them and the ettercaps ensured that they were limited in their mobility. Suljurn swung repeatedly, but consistently missed almost everything. He was beginning to think his lack of faith was effecting his aim. Urith stepped up and tried tanking while Angrar tried untangling the small Kenku and managed to survive long enough for Angrar to free Deadeye. Once he was free though, Deadeye almost immediately managed to get his bow snagged on some webbing and ended up accidentally throwing it at one of the ettercaps. At that moment he wished he had a backup weapon while he pointedly looked at Angrar. He summoned his Drake to try and retrieve it. While Arbor and Oorr both remained relatively free of webbing, they had both taken severe bites from the spiders and were feeling the poison course through their veins.
Eventually the tide of the battle turned and the party was triumphant, though extremely battered and bruised. They were in the midst of debating if they'd continue following the trail or break off and head to Morwen's Tower when they heard a muffled cry from a little ways off the path. Investigating, they soon came across the dessicated corpses of several more horses along with the cocooned bodies of several humanoids, only one of which was still moving.
This cocoon was the source of the muffled screams. They pinned the squirming figure down and cut away at the silk enshrouding it as quickly as they could. After a short time, they extracted a human male from the cocoon. He looked deathly ill and as he gasped for fresh air, they were surprised he was even still breathing.
The man gasped his thanks and asked between gruesome wet coughs if the party were from the Daymaster? Whether they intended to or not, he read their reaction on their faces.
Don't likely matter much now anyways... **Cough** You fellas wouldn happen to have a drink would ye? **cough**
Arbor quickly said yes, but instead of providing his waterskin, he added some water to another vial of Frigid Woe and shoved it in the man's face. The man drank it down greedily, and commented on the sudden chill. Arbor said he'd build him a fire soon if the man just answered a few questions for them to which the man agreed wearily.
Name's Arv. Me 'n Rhazi... **cough** Rhazi? is Rhazi **cough** okay?
Angrar checked the other cocoons and shook his head silently to Arbor who relayed that Rhazi didn't make it. Arv nodded grimly and continued.
Me 'n Rhazi were whachu call independent acc- **cough** accquisition **cough** specialists. We was hangin' in Shadymist between jobs... as you do. Waitin' on a ship wanting to dodge customs in the capital **cough** when this old fat bloke comes ups to us and **cough** wants to hire us for a simple dip and dodge. **cough** He's offering large coin for us to steal a sword. Some family **cough** 'airloom or summat. Wif the amount he's offerin' Arv an' me **cough** woulda been stupid to say no so we's take him up on his offer. **cough** Shoulda known better.
We round up our **cough** crew **cough** and totter up the road. When we's get to the capital and scout the **cough** site, it's the bloody Temple o' Bloody Rayah innit. **cough**. Anyways. So Rhazi goes talks to the Daymaster on account o' them bein' cousins and all and **cough** **cough** soooo cold **cough** we hires some local flash as backup. The local flash gets us in like Flynn and we **cough** ghost down to the crypt without seein' a soul. **cough** **cough** **cough**. We's grab the sword from the statue's lap easy as anythi **cough**-ng. The local flash is gettin' antsy but we's not seen anyone yet so Chara tells 'em to shuttit and we continue with our sneakshow. Chara's right scary **cough** when she wants to be. Think its the horns.
We was comin' up through the Library and almost out when **cough** our luck ran out. We's ran into the high priest hisself. Mardy got spooked an afore you knows it he's gone all stabby on the ol' goat but not afore he cried out **cough**. So much for the sneakshow. So we's turn our noise on and things gets loud. **cough** Arv tells the locals to go loot whatever they can an' the res o' us head for the doors, bein loud an' messy. **cough** **cough** You got any more water? **cough** Thanks...
Anyways. we continue to be loud all the way to the Cross just like **cough** the plan. We lost Micah on the ride. Fucker'd taken an arrow and nought said anyfing. Mussa bled out during the ride. Nuffin **cough** coulda done. **cough**. We meets our guy 'cept it's not a fat bloke this time, but a pretty *cough* young thing with teats that would raise the dead. She slapped Arv or was it Rhazi when they tried to grabs em. **chuckle** **cough**. She tells us to meet our guy in Shadymist and she'll make sure there's **cough** a **cough* dis-straction. We's go silent. Strapped Micah to his horse ta bury hims later and made for Shadymist like we was told.
We gets to the Cove an go lookin' for our man, the fat bloke but he's not there. Instead it's a tall feller with a massive ugly **cough** scar on his face. He squares up then offers us more money to **cough** go steal a book from the haunted tower ins the middle of the fuckin' forest. **cough**. Now I's happy enough with the coin we alreadys got but Arv's a greedy fuck and says yes for us all. I **cough** hate that ass sometimes but I'm not gonna let her swing without me so I says I'm in too. We goes **cough** **cough** **cough** steal book. Meet up with...... **cough** in town.... rest at tree. **cough** figured we'd head back to **cough** Shadymist and catch .... with one of the smugglers.... Hear Cìrdan **cough** is nice this time... of year... Jumped by......
The man took a final, ragged breath and collapsed against Arbor. As Arbor carefully disentangled himself from the corpse, the others started snooping through the other bodies. Between what they found stashed on the horses and bodies of the other thieves as well as what the ettercaps a significant pile of loot which they gather together. Everyone looks at each other silently across the treasure, wondering what they should do next...
Rewards Granted
- 756 xp
- A large pile of unsorted coin, gems and jewelry along with several objets d'art as well as a few weapons and a suit of armour
Character(s) interacted with
- Viggo, the "Merchant"
- Randall, the Blacksmith
- Arv? or Rhavi?, the Bandit
Notes
Contact the GM privately via messenger and mention Avacado prior to next game for an xp reward.
This offer has now expired
</FNORD!>
Deadeye Cliffhanger
Oorr Rosetta del Hilltopple
Rogue 4
Sorcerer 1
10
18
12
8
12
16
Urith Thane
Suljurn sah-Ghad
Arbor Nox
