Session 10 - Into Lockbox

Having settled all side business for now, the group proceeded to Green Spires to meet up with House Zhao about their Lockbox job. On meeting Anastri, boss of House Zhao, explained the job in full: the druids of Orchestra Forest had made contact with a dryad from Lockbox Forest named Faeror. Faeror had agreed to move to Orchestra in order to awaken some of the trees there, which would then help defend Orchestra against monster invasions and illegal logging. However the dryad needed help safely getting out of Lockbox as the semi-sentient forest had grown aggressive and possessive of her. House Zhao had been tasked with this by the druids of Orchestra, but being high elves themselves worried that setting foot in Lockbox would either aggravate the forest itself or the local wood elves, given the bad blood between their people. As such, they needed a more neutral party to complete the task for them. Anastri warned them that there are some wood elf tribes who are friendly but many disagreed with helping a dryad leave and to be wary of who to trust. She gave them a glimpse of the job's payment - a chest full of coin and most importantly, what looked like a Bag of Holding - and 2 scrolls of Sending. These scrolls are special in that anyone can use them including non-spell casters, but the full spell takes 1 minute to cast and fails if the caster is interrupted. They were to be used to contact House Zhao when ready for extraction, and a portal from Lockbox to Thousand could be opened. If both scrolls ended up failing however, the group would be on their own with no quick way back home. The group made their way through a portal to Lockbox forest, arriving in a relatively safe clearing. Shinzu used Speak With Animals to ask a nearby bird for directions, who pointed them towards a wood elf camp. On drawing near they found a grave in the dirt with the name Hito - Shinzu recognised this as one of the elves who left the forest to seek the stolen Reikishi tome. They were interrupted by another wood elf drawing a bow on them, however they recognised Shinzu and relaxed. This elf was Kaisa, another seeker. Kaisa explained that she discovered Hito had died to unknown causes during their search; kindly locals had buried the body, but she exhumed it and returned it to the forest. She then gave up her own search after 4 years of no leads and the realisation that she too might be killed along the way. Although she considers herself a failure, she encouraged Shinzu to keep looking. With her directions the group found the Tora wood elf tribe - Shinzu's native tribe, in fact. Shinzu reunited with her mother, an old rival Jidan and the clan elder Khanzi. Although saddened that the Reikishi, the sacred elf text, was still lost the elder was glad to see her. He was not opposed to the group extracting the dryad Faeror from Lockbox, stating that it was her choice if she wished to leave, but warned everyone to be careful of angering the forest. Shinzu discussed her trip to the Feywild with him, and Lun gave him a pinch of Glittering Satsuma to study (Rou previously used three pinches, so as of writing this there is 1 dose left). Khanzi also asked for the group's help. His grand-daughter Lauka left the camp a day ago and hadn't returned, which was unusual for her. Despite being beloved by the forest and thus somewhat protected against its dangers, there are plenty of other creatures in the forest to be wary of. He asked the group to look for her and bring her back to the camp if possible, pointing them in the direction she travelled. The group discovered that Lauka is considered (by both the wood elf tribe and the forest itself) to be the reincarnation of Llostrian, one of the original wood elves that advocated following Lockbox Forest during The Great Move. This makes her something akin to a princess, although Lauka herself disagrees with this. Shinzu was familiar with Lauka's status, and also her reluctance to accept it. While searching for Lauka the group came across one of the lumbering forest guardians. When it suspiciously asked them why they were here, they wisely avoided discussing Faeror and instead stated they were looking for Lauka. The guardian mentioned she was nearby and there was something else and 'unwelcome' near her as well, but it could not see where. They then parted ways. They eventually came across Lauka playing flute song in a clearing by herself, however Kyto picked up on something red hiding in the trees nearby. Lauka, unaware of the creature, declined to return to the camp for now as she was fed up of being put on a pedestal and wanted some solitude. When Kyto alerted the group to the intruder it revealed itself as a fiend who had intended to kidnap Lauka, telling the group to step aside. Frightened, Lauka hid as the group fought it. It notably charmed Tera into almost killing Lun and Yunhu into attacking Tera with his greatsword, though he wasn't able to hit her. Eventually the group overwhelmed and killed it, sending it back to the Hells. Lauka was safely escorted back to the camp, though she asked the group to keep quiet about the encounter or she would find herself closely guarded by her overprotective peers. Khanzi then pointed the group towards the dryad grove. On the way they found themselves intercepted by strange plantlike monsters, though killing these did not overly anger the forest. When they reached the dryad grove they were stopped by another unnamed dryad. She made a surprisingly convincing case for why the Orchestra druids weren't to be trusted, implying that they had targeted Faeror specifically and were bombarding her with messages to come over. She claimed Faeror was young and didn't know what she wanted, and that the druids were preying upon that. Her words left the group doubtful about their mission. Sekket, who was not very doubtful about the mission, attempted to barge past the dryad to find Faeror, but this caused several awakened trees to lash out at the party, nearly killing Sekket in the process. The group tried to fight but were divided and didn't wish to harm the dryad herself. They soon found themselves overwhelmed and were forced to retreat without Faeror. The session ended with them licking their wounds and debating whether they were doing the right thing...