Session 5 - Twisted Gardens
General Summary
20 Planting, 498 TA
The party woke in the dawn light, rested and refreshed. After making a hearty breakfast of porridge that had been left in the embers overnight, everyone began preparing to head back down into the fortress. Talking a moment to move the horses to fresh fodder and headed down to talk to slash deal with that rogue druid downstairs. The party negotiated their way down to the crumbling stairs and into the citadel where you make your way to the hall of the goblin chief.Entering the small chamber, the group found Targg, the new hobgoblin. kind of sitting off to one side on a bench, purposely avoiding sitting on the throne. Beside him stood a young looking gnome cleric wearing a dark gray robe with a lighter gray panel down the front. His shock of blonde hair is tangled and matted and one of his dark green eyes is almost swollen shut by a black eye. Around his neck is a dark chain with his holy symbol hanging from it and overtop his robes he's wearing what looks like a goblin breastplate with a club leaning against his leg.
Targg looked up as the party entered and said, “Good, I have been waiting for you. This gnome is Erky Timbers. He was captured some time ago by the goblins and was being held for ransom by Durnn. I went to release him last night and Erky asked if you had gone down the well yet? Seems he already knew about the mission and wanted to come along.”
Jilken looks suspiciously at this newcomer and asks, “What’s your interest down in the well?”
Erky shakes his head and smiles, “No particular interest but my It was my fate to be here and so I will do my part.
Denye looked him over and spent several long moments studying his holy symbol before asking, “Do you know many healing spells?”
“I do indeed,” agreed the small cleric rubbing the back of his neck and muttered, “I really wish she would have told me how long I was going to be there.”
“Be where?”, pressed Janora.
Erky answered, “Why in that cage of course. But fate is fate and I do not fight Her whims.”
Walking up to peer down into the well Janora asks, “Do you happen to know what we should expect down there? Have you ever been down there before?”
Erk shook his head again, “ I have not. My goddess did not give me word of what we would face, only that it was my fate to be here with you. To help if I was able.”
At that the party turned their attention to the well itself, looking for a convenient way down. Look over the edge you see the room below is illuminated with a dim violet light and that there are grayish vines growing thickly enough that they can be used to climb most of the way down, with only about a four-five foot drop.
Dropping into this new chamber the party found that the light is coming from a bioluminescent fungus all over the walls and clinging to the ceiling as well in this wide room. A layer of earth mixed with rotting vegetation and the remains of several small cave animals covered the floor, with multiple varieties of mushrooms and fungi grow on detritus as well as a few saplings of some variety. There was a door leading south and one leading east as well as an opening to what looks like a natural tunnel area to the north. As everyone gathered in this first chamber Targg points towards the tunnel and says, “Balsag is that way, but the Outcast’s domain is through the east door.
Ell glances around, “Didn’t Durnn fall down here after the fight yesterday? Who would have moved it?”
Looking around a bit more, Denye found the moss bed that he had fallen on. It had absorbed much of the blood, and was now a dirty rust brown. From there it was clear to see the drag marks that led through the east door. Taking a sample of the glowing fungus, she points out the tracks to the others, “Something took the body that way, but that's not the direction that Balsag is in so we probably have two things to deal with down here.
Ell nodded, “But we only have to deal with one at a time. Let’s go make sure Balsag is onboard for the new regime.” With that he began heading up the tunnel and into the next chamber. This rough cave was stained and the smells of blood and animal musk lingered in the air. There was dim light from the glowing fungus as well as the smoldering fire in the center revealing the bodies of two giant rats sleeping in filthy piles of rags and straw.
Janora started looking around and opening boxes and moving bedding. As they did so Denye came up behind and said, “If this is somebody's home, we probably shouldn't be taking their stuff. I don't want to have to fight him if we can avoid it. I'd like to say ‘Hey, are you on board? Before we move on are you...are you gonna fly in formation?’”
This noise woke both the rats, who jumped up and started attacking the party. One tried to take a bite of Ell’s arm, but he pulled it away just in time. The other rat went after the small gnome cleric, seeing a person almost it’s same size, and took a large bite out of Erky’s shoulder
Janora ran up and swung their dogstaff at the large rat that was biting into Erky’s upper body and knocked it free with a vicious blow to the rat’s temple. As the staff impacted a loud, deep “WOOF” echoed through the cave and both the north and south tunnel entrances.
Ell meanwhile pulled out two daggers and lept at the rat that had tried to attack him. The first dagger went straight up through the lower jaw, pinning the mouth closed while the second slid easily into the ear, scrambling the creature’s brains.
Denye shot off a firebolt at the remaining rat, but missed as did Jilken’s arrow. Targg’s arrow did not miss however, and the rat collapsed at Janora and Denye’s feet.
As the hobgoblin stepped forward to pull his arrow free, the sound of someone approaching came echoing down the tunnel to the north and a moment later a larger bugbear who yells, “What are you doing here? What did you do to my rats.”
Janora stepped forward, “I'm afraid they rushed us and we had no choice but to defend ourselves.”
“You should see the bite that one took out of Erky,” added Denye pointing at the cleric's shoulder.
Balsag just grunted in reply and shouted in Goblin, “Get ready to meet the cook pot” as he pulled out a large pitted spiked morningstar and prepared to rush the party. With a quick flick of their wrist the fire at the center of the cave flared up and Janora called out “WAIT!” in a commanding voice.
Struck dumb for a secound Balsag paused and Ell took that moment of confusion to cast Charm Person on the bugbear convincing him that they were friends. After a moment or two Ell was able to convince Balsag to sit down and weapons were lowered around the room. Ell’s silver tongue continued to work it’s will on the helpless bugbear as he convinced Balsag to accept Targg as the new leader.
Asked where the party can find Belak, the Outcast, Balsag points to the southeast, “He’ll be in the Twilight Grove with the tree.”
Ell replied, “Oh that definitely sounds like something we need to see. Is there anything else that you can tell us that might help us deal with the Outcast?”
The bugbear shrugged his shoulders. “Watch out for the frog. He'll swallow you if you aren't careful.” That news brought exclamations from several of the party.
Ell pointed at the tunnel Blasag had recently exited, “And where does that one go to?”
Balsag just looked at his hands and muttered, “It goes to the Underdark.”
“What’s the Underdark?” asked Ell, with a friendly puzzled expression.
Balsag looked up at the young human and said, “The underdark is the underdark. It is the caves and tunnels deep within the earth where live the duergar, and the drow and all other races that prefer dark quiet caverns to sunlit skies.”
Deciding that sounded like an exploration for another day, the party decided to leave Balsag in Targg’s hands and made their way back into the first chamber once more. Examining the two doors leading out, the one two the south is locked. Asking to borrow Ell’s lockpicks Janora attempted to open the door, but only managed to bend one of the picks.
The door to the east however appears to be unlocked and opens easily. Deciding that they would keep going that way the party made their way into a larger hall with two rows of Dragon carved marble columns that marched down the length of the hall, most were completely covered in that luminous fungus. The marble floor is cracked and stained, and there are a bunch of small wooden tables all around. The contents on the tables include mortars and pestles, small tools, bowls filled with crushed leaves, chopped fungus stocks, and other plant specimens. There are several doors leading off around the room and several of them are partially open.
Looking around at the various tables, Janora was able to pull together complete sets of herbalism and healer’s kits as well as a set of alchemists tools. Denye happily accepted the latter while Janora kept both of the former.
Exploring the various doors that led off this hall the party found several goblins who they sent back to join Targg and Balsag. They also found a bloated and diseased rat strapped to a table, the apparent subject of Belak’s experiments. Durnn’s body was also found, dumped in one of the store rooms and the party quickly found the key to the locked chest upstairs as well as one of the signet rings that Kerowyn had asked them to look for.
One of the empty rooms had a tunnel that had collapsed part of the back wall that leads into a natural tunnel of some kind. Following that down the party quickly found a hall leading to another stone door. This door appears to be quite stuck and nothing the party did could shift it.
Moving back up to the tunnel, the heroes found a large cavern with several odd holes burning into the cave walls near the floor. As the party approached, several firesnakes slithered out and started aggressive posturing.
Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, the party backed up and left the snakes alone, making their way back up to the laboratory area where they found another door that led into a large ornate hall, nodules of luminous fungi hang from the ceiling and walls and grow in clumps on the flagstone floor. The light illuminates portions of grand basrelief carvings on the stone walls that aren't covered in fungus and these carvings depict dragons in various stages of raining fire down upon terrified people.
Soil and compost cover about half the chamber floor and which allows a variety of plants to grow There is a bench containing simple gardening implements along the west wall. Exploring the various rooms along this hall revealed rooms filled with a variety of Underdark flora that seemed to be thriving in this environment. One room also held another firesnake, which the party avoided. They were unable to avoid the three skeletons they found tending the garden in one chamber, but the unholy creatures were quickly dispatched.
Making their way deeper into the fortress the party finds a long hall made of carved granite blocks line this chamber’s walls and ceiling, though many are crumbled and broken, leaving stony debris on the floor. A huge marble statue of a rearing red dragon stood in the curve of the western wall. The eye sockets of the dragon were empty, but a red glow lingers there, providing reddish light throughout the chamber. The radiance cast an inky shadow behind the statue’s wide wings.
A five-foot-diameter, circular tile of dark stone is set in the floor in front of the dragon statue with runes are carved around the circular tile’s inner edge Denye moved forward to examine the disc and see if they could decipher the runes and discover what kind of magic had been employed. Both the tile and the statue gave off an aura of transmutation magic, but the text was in Draconic so she wasn’t able to make out exactly what it did. Stepping back she pulled out a few implements and started ritually casting Comprehend Languages.
While she was setting up the rest of the party started looking around and investigating the rest of the room. Janora spent a few moments examining the glowing red eyes of the statue but was unable to determine anything else other than the faint trace of magic.
Meanwhile Jilken had started to circle around behind to get a better look. As she did so, one portion of the shadows moved, throwing itself at Jilken in an attempt to strangle her. Her quick instincts allowed her to back up quickly out of its grasp.
Ell looked up startled at Jilken’s cry of alarm and cast Create Bonfire at the thing, hoping that even if it didn’t burn some light might hurt it. As he cast the spell however, the Shadow darted back as a small pillar of flame leapt up between this creature and Jilken.
Now that it was dtracted, Jilken danced around the fire and grabbed for the Shadow’s arm. Finding purchase, but no real substance, the Aiel elf cast Shocking Grasp and sent a jolt of electricity through the protoplasm of the creature’s form. It clearly hurt, but not quite as much as expected.
Janora, not wanting to get close to this thing, pulled out their sling and slammed a shot through the creature’s form. The stone did some damage, ripping a hole through the spector, but it’s focus was clearly on Jilken. Denye abandoned her ritual to deal with this higher threat and moving to stand by Janora, the small Corva sent a Fire Bolt straight into the Shadow’s form, again doing damage, but not as much as expected.
Erky hearing the commotion ran the rest of the way into the room from where he had been examining carvings and seeing this evil spirit cast Sacred Flame, sending a bolt of gray/silver light at the Shadow. As the beam neared it split into a hundred little darts of flame that burned holes throughout the creature’s form.
Angered at the gnome who had caused it so much damage, the Shadow flew at Erky and wrapped it’s shredded form around him, attempting to drain his lifeforce. Ell quickly pulled out his daggers in a vain attempt to pull the monster off the little cleric. Surprisingly it proved to be enough to fully shred the thing and it dissipated into nothingness.
Ell looked around at the party and asked, “Anybody know what that was?”
“It looked like a Shadow,” Denye said helpfully.
Ell sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose before saying, “Thank you Denye.”
The young wizard brightened at this, her head feathers puffing out slightly said, “You’re quite welcome.” Turning back to her ritual she realized that her statement might not have been quite as helpful as she thought and quickly restarted the ritual, her feathers slicked back and close to her body.
This time the rest the party decided to sit down and wait for the ritual to be finished. As the spell completed, Denye stood up and walked over to the circular tile and looking down, easily read the Draconic runes that said, “Let the sorcerous power illuminate my spirit.”
Walking around in a small circle, she started to explain to the rest of the party piece by piece, like she was diagramming a sentence, doing her best to deconstruct the magic so she did not invoke it.
As Denye was finishing her explanation, Janora sat up, “I think you should say it.”
“I really don’t think I should,” said Denye, “anything that says sorcerous on it, kinda gets my hackles up.” Janora laughed and stood up and said, “Sound it out for me, I’ll say it.” As they looked down Janora realized that they could still read it. “Oh I completely forgot about the that spell scroll. I could have read this the whole time.”
Standing on the plate, Janora recited the incantation. As the last word died away, the eyes shoot out into a puff of spectral flames that enveloped the half-elven witch. It dissipated harmlessly and Janora felt extra charismatic. The room descended into darkness now that the light was gone from the eyes of the dragon. Deciding that a short rest might be in order, the party sat down and pulled out some rations for a quick snack.
Report Date
31 Jul 2020
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