Session 22 (09. 01. 2019)

Having fled the scene of the ambush, the party came across the blood orc renegade Kharish and the tabaxi druid Leaf, who led them to a cave with an underwater entrance. On their way in, Shegal tragically died, and not long after, Carthigan went into a strange coma, which prompted the decision to summon the Emissary for help. The night passed in the cave, and the Emissary failed to show up. Leaf confirmed that the cave was protected from all sorts of divination magic, and their summons probably never reached her. After some wondering about what to do with Carthigan’s still-unconscious body, the party decided to put him in Vincent’s portable hole. As he did not seem to use as much air as a normal person, they surmised that he would survive in there as long as they kept checking on him regularly and brought him back out whenever they camped. Leaving the cave proved deceptively easy compared to their tragic entrance. In a mournful march, the party continued towards the Tail. Soon, they came to a pleasant grove and were greeted by an unusual sight: some sort of odd tree person, who called himself the Verdent and greeted them as friends. He explained that he served the Emerald Spirit, protector of the forest. He also warned them of a terrible danger: a lieutenant of Zel Tarka’s, called Makuba, had come to this area and begun to gather an army of orcs to assault Sshilcass and take the Nightstone for himself. His many servants would make reaching Sshilcass difficult for the party, and were he to actually succeed at his goal, he would gain a great deal of power and bring terrible destruction. So it was decided that they’d take Makuba down before proceeding with their quest. The Verdent pinpointed his main camp on the other side of the Tail (now only a couple of hours’ journey away), claiming that most of his forces were away at the moment, and thus it would be an ideal time to strike. The Verdent joined them in this task.