Session 88: A Salty Wagon | Summer
Hidden Grove of the Deep Druids | Played on June 11, 2022
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Party Members Present:
Avaunt
Velxori
-Itty Bitsy
-Skelby (The Handskull)
-Unnamed Slime
-Big Round Beetle (no longer on a string)
Ecco
-Zeehaw
-Bluepie
-Bree Yark
(Talking Horses)
-Annette
-Bqarbara
-Stacy
Party Members Absent:
Elrica
-Steve (Pig)
-Dillan (Undead Myrmidon)
Glint
-Hibub Karate
-Bulgurd
Adelaide
-Ornoc the Waif
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DOWNTIME:
Spring to Summer
Elrica: Attempted to cure Dillan of his mental malady, using the method described in Session 85. Unfortunately, this attempte failed disasterously. (Failed by 7!) His malady actually gets worse, and he now refuses to be outside for more than a few hours around mid-day. He’s useful for about 8 hours each day in the summer, 6 in the spring/fall, and 4 hours each day in the winter. As stated, if he manages to remain invisible through another full Downtime Turn the check can be made again with a target number of 14. If the roll fails, Dillan’s condition will worsen to the point that he completely refuses to go outside at all.
Velxori: Consulted with Fon, Arkayz, and the Alchemist about getting her mom’s friend’s soul out of her dagger. The Alchemist actually had the best answer, a sort of spiritual solvent. It took a few days of soaking, but the dude’s ghost popped out of the dagger, thanked Velxori for being decent about it, and zipped off to haunt his former companions.
Also, her pets evolved:
Itty Bitty grew 5″, (14″ total now!) and has 4hp.
Unnamed Slime grew to an 8″ diameter blob, and has 4hp
Skelby drained 400xp out of Velxori, and how has 4hp. (Must drain 400xp to level up again)
The Beetle does not develop, but it is no longer on a string and appears not to be running away. Perhaps it likes being fed?
Ecco: Continued to help out around the keep and socialize Blupie. Used his ring of plant control to do some nice little bits of landscaping around town, and put some viney potted plants onto the party’s cart. Something that can wrap around the frame, and also ropey enough to be useful if needed. Added one thorny vine, and one smooth vine.
Avaunt, Chris’ new character, visited the alchemist to pick up Wob’s order of potions. There were 9! Eight of which were intended to be useful to adventuerers, and the ninth of which was just an art project:
Potion of detect evil intent within 100 yards, lasts 40 minutes
8d6 fireball centered on you. You’re immune. After you drink you must focus all your effort to keep the fireball contained until you release it.
Potion of value detection makes things turn on illusory fire. 10 minutes
Potion to summon and control a giant scorpion large enough for the entire party to ride on, control lasts 1 hour after which the scorpion is MEAN
Potion of transform into supreme leader of a religion lasts 1 hour.
Potion of teleport to the nearest hiding place.
Potion of 30 seconds of complete invulnerability
Oil which makes a thing function as solid iron for a day.
Weird one: Potion of life flash before eyes. Takes 0.5 seconds per year of life.
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Ecco was approached by a local mercantile group about a missing caravan, operated by Hakeem. Last seen way back in session 25, Hakeem the merchant is a huge fan of Ecco the Enduring. Over the years this has mostly involved him being excited to hear about Ecco’s latest adventures whenever the two are in the keep together. Recently, however, Hakeem learned of a treasure he wished to purchase for Ecco: a golden sewing needle, once given as a prize to the Greatest Seamster in the Land, way back in the Age of Legends. He informed his contacts in the Keep that his caravan would be late as he diverted course to purchase this needle; and that instead of taking his usual backwoods roads he would instead be returning to the keep via the Eastern Marshlands. That was some weeks ago, and Hakeem was now long overdue. They asked if Ecco the Enduring and his companions would be willing to follow the river through the marshes to search for the missing Hakeem.
The party arranged for a river boat large enough to carry their cart, and set off upriver. On the way they encountered a pair of dirty hippies making a reed raft. They asked for passage across the river. The party obliged, and were given some stem-filled weed as thanks. Further on the party encountered spider webs which alerted them to the presence of giant treetop spiders. Yet further, the party spotted some of those giant treetop spiders, but managed to avoid them when Ecco used an expert feather-light touch of his control plants ring to obscure the party’s boat from view.
It was around 4 in the afternoon when the party came upon the wreckage of the merchant caravan. Two mouldering and half-devoured corpses lay on the shore, and there were four destroyed carts surrounded by scattered trade goods, and deep drag marks moving going off inland. The carts had been fused with, and partially transformed into, massive swamp trees. The party opted to make camp for the night, and used some of their remaining daylight to gather up the non-destroyed trade goods and load them into the extradimensional cellar of their wagon.
The next morning they set out with their wagon to follow the trail, which ended about 40 minutes later with the discovery of another caravan wagon. The wood of this one had also come to life and “grown” to form a cage. The party examined the wreck, and found the letters “DRUI” carved inside the cage.
Nearby they found three great gnarled oak trees, each with a door set in amid their roots. Small desire paths led to a pond full of crawdads (which the party gathered a satchel of), and a plot for growing celery (which the party gathered a few stalks of). Peeking into the three doors, the party discovered very very steep steps leading down (18 inches per step!). The first and third had a musky smell, with the third being particularly pollen-y. The central door didn’t smell quite as strong, and the sound of the opening door echoed a bit as if the space beyond was larger.
The party entered the first door, which led down into a dense patch of mushrooms. Simple, common, edible things. The sort of thing poor peasants could freely gather out in the woods, because nobody likes them enough to make selling them worthwhile. They were growing in mud loose enough that characters sunk up to their ankles near the door, and even deeper once they’d moved further in! Poking around in there, Velxori found a small patch of unusual mucous-dripping mushrooms that nobody could identify, Ecco found two pairs of mudwalking shoes (too late for anyone to make use of them), and Avaunt found the chitinous corpse of a giant spider under the mushrooms. There were two other heaps as well, presumably with other corpses under them, but before the party could investigate a pair of figures entered behind them. Velxori did her best to hide in shadows, while, Ecco detached his legs and rolled over to lie still near the wall. When the pair of robed figures entered, only Avaush was visible to them.
The two robed figures described themselves as religious asetics. They asked if Avaunt had come to listen to the master’s teachings, and gently chastised him for gathering from their little community’s garden without asking. They led him outside (and noticed Ecco, who they thought was a corpse, and who Avaush carried with him when he followed them).
NEXT SESSION:
Two robed figures have invited Avaunt and Bluepie to listen to their Master’s sermon.
Velxori is successfully hidden back in the mushroom patch.
Ecco is successfully pretending to be a dead body that Avaunt was carrying around.
What does the party do!?
If Chris is unable to make next session, Zeehaw can stand in for Avaunt.
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LOOT:
The cart is loaded up with the remains of Hakeem’s caravan’s trade goods. Lots of fancy salt, seasonings, uncommon fruits, and other trade goods. Enough to turn a decent profit if the party keep them for themselves, or to defray Hakeem’s losses if he’s alive and the party return them to him.
11 Daggers
A satchel of basic food mushrooms
Satchel of 30 crawdads
1 bunch of celery
ant-covered marmalade.
2 of the unusual mushrooms from Room 1 of the dungeon, which the party has not yet successfully identified.
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INJURIES:
Dillon can only go outside again for 8hrs around noon in the summer, 6hrs in spring/fall, and 4hours in winter. Refer to session 88 for details.
Zeehaw has Tomb Crystal Poisoning level 1.
Session 89: Elrika Robs The Cradle | Summer
Hidden Grove of the Deep Druids | Played on June 25, 2022
Party Members Present:
Avaunt
Velxori
-Itty Bitsy
-Skelby (The Handskull)
-Unnamed Slime
-Big Round Beetle (no longer on a string)
Elrica
-Steve (Pig)
-Dillan (Undead Myrmidon)
(Talking Horses)
-Annette
-Bqarbara
-Stacy
Party Members Absent:
Glint
-Hibub Karate
-Bulgurd
Adelaide
-Ornoc the Waif
Ecco
-Zeehaw
-Bluepie
-Bree Yark
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The cultists led Avaunt into their hovel to hear The Master speak, but before they did Avaunt ran back to the cart to get some of the seasonings the party discovered last session, ostensibly to share with the cultists at mealtime, but secretly to leave a little trail of salt for Velxori to follow. After gathering the rest of the special mushrooms and dropping them off at the wagon, Velxori did indeed follow the salt trail, and so was able to avoid the pit trap in the first room. In the second room, however, she became distracted by some tree carvings on the walls which–when fiddled with–produced a secret door! She followed the newly revealed passage into a room lit by luminescent fungus in sconces, and dominated by three strange trees.
Velxori attempted to move through the room, by was ambushed by three Wood Woads. She fended them off with a valiant array of tricks, but was ultimately clobbered in the skull and knocked unconscious. Fortunately, the Wood Woads were more interested in feeding her to their trees than in killing her, so they dragged her to the dungeon to await religious sacrifice.
Meanwhile, Avaunt and Elrika were led to a platform built around the trunk of a massive tree, where they sat among a group of cultists in surprisingly well-tailored robes. On a ledge up above, a young man—a teenager—began to speak. It was a repetitive sort of sermon about the virtues of nature and the evils of civiliziation. The reckless pleasure-seeking of the world that rejects harmonious living, yadda yadda. The cultists were eating it up. Elrika employed her aura of intimidation to draw the young fellow’s attention, break his concentration, prompt his voice to crack and his sentences to stumble. This flustered the cult leader, and when the party started to question his theology in a way he wasn’t able to quickly react to, he decalred them unwilling to learn and commanded that they be seized. A melee broke out in which Avaunt leapt the gap to his speaking platform and pushed the young cult leader off so he was hanging from the ledge by his fingers. He then used his own jumping abilities to move to the platform while his bodyguards dealt with Avaunt.
Meanwhile, Elrika had conjured an area of darkness, in which the Cult Leader was now blind. She suggested that if he called off his goons she would be his GF, and he crumbled under the possibility. He declared that there had been a misunderstanding, and that Elrika (and her followers) should not be harmed. Elrika alternated between placating the teenager (who, it turned out, was not a teenager but just a powerful archdruid who had decided to stop his body from physically aging 100 years ago when he was 14 years old), and snapping orders to the cult to take care of him / carry out his will in ways that served her interests as well.
Avaunt, having dealt with the acrchdruids bodyguards using a self-immolation potion, took a moment to root through the room’s treasures and stuff as much as he could into his backpack. He found a high quality sewing kit, including some excellent sewing scissors, and the very golden needle the party had come to find! There were also two bolts of very fine cloth.
Elrica managed to convince / command that Velxori be released so Avaunt and she could leave; and also that Hakeem (who was being held prisoner with Velxori!) be released as her “personal servant.” She would remain in the cult with the express intent of displacing the weird guy who decided to stop aging at 14 (who the fuck does that?) and building a powerbase for herself.
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LOOT:
7 Nilhog’s Nose Mushrooms total. When eaten they give you a nose as good as a hunting dogs for 1 hour.
Sewing Kit
Fabric Scissors
Bolts of cloth x2 (500gp)
That’s 167gp/xp each for Velxori, Avaunt, and Elrika.
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INJURIES:
Dillon can only go outside again for 8hrs around noon in the summer, 6hrs in spring/fall, and 4hours in winter. Refer to session 88 for details.
Zeehaw has Tomb Crystal Poisoning level 1.