Climate Crisis: Defilement & Sacred Groves

[Jernau35]

Hake

Hake looks around at his companions to see if anyone is injured to the point of requiring a prayer of healing. If not, he waits to follow someone down into the cellar. Just common sense, he thinks. No point getting the healer killed by a lurking guard spider...

[ravenn4544]

Jorly will carefully examine the top rooms first.

[gurusql]

Cadeweed

Cadeweed wanting to investigate, but know we need to deal with the threats first the spiders only sleep for a limited time, but this Drider is still active. He will stand just behind and to the side of Moriartus with his arms and swords crossed trying to look like his enforcer.

[Spearmint]

Drider Nest, One Tree Grove.

Raven can send his Familiar, a violet-black cat with starry features, Lenore. He has an emphatic link to be able to see, smell, hear through its sensory perceptions.

Another chamber, into the roots of the tree and subterranean is below. This acts as a cellar type room and contains 'food stocks', wineskins, hanging game meats.

Lenore sneaks around, instinctively catching a house mouse, pawing at the flight of flittering moths. She smells the place out, moving under Raven's thoughtful direction.

Raven: concealed and secret doors: vs 50% & 33% [1d100]=9

The Sith-Cat shares his elven traits and the cat paws at one particular spot. Giving a "Meow" and earning an extra titbit or saucer of cream for recognising a secret door.

The rest of the chamber is as described.

Conmhaol & Dougal turn spider killers. Slaying sleeping critters. Hake & Jorly search, going through the upper and lower portions of the nest. The upper branch portion is sleeping nests. You can investigate too the hanging Drider body and wind chime set up.

The Driders have base personal gear. Hide or linen raiments to clothe their torso, a basic weapon of choice. One had a shortbow which you can equip. Enough arrows to replenish quivers. One Drider holstered a hand crossbow, her pouch of bolts contains eight shafts that are coated in a poison. (Probably a spider-based one). The scimitar is a fine but normal blade. One Drider blew a rams horn that seemed to summon spider help.

You can locate their personal hoard, a collective treasure that includes two unidentified potions.

One, a ruby-crimson effervescent liquid that contains many bubbles.

The other a verdant green elixir that has a herbal quality.

asked about them, the surviving Drider points to the slain one suggesting he doesn't know but 'she made them'.

A set of hand-sized tiles, each one bears an intricate mosaic made from little glassy stones. Various pictures on the tiles depict scenes such as moonlight skies, a blazing comet, an elven throne, a leering jester in a flamboyant striped outfit and a hat with a bell. Several tiles are dull, worn, fracturing; but a couple look cleaner and worthy of attention.

A lockbox, that looks easily bypassed by an intrepid thief. Perhaps to curry favour, the Drider passes over a key. The lock (poison trapped of course), the halfling failing to notice the pinhead

Cadeweed traps: [1d100]=69

It contains coins, a mixed bag amounting to +640gp, +810sp. An egg, dappled brown, wrapped in a silken cocoon, it is warm to the touch, about the size of a small melon. Unlike any chicken or duck egg you may have seen before.

Drider: Gold [5d20]=64 Silvers [10d20]=81

As to interrogation: Two-Birds & Cadeweed guard overwatch while Moriartus asks a few questions.

Moriartus: Charisma Reactions [1d100+30]=9+30=39

Drider Reactions [1d100]=4

It is definitely a poor reaction. The Drider reacts with animosity towards Two-Birds, even towards Moriartus who speaks in Elven to understand it.

He pauses to let this revelation sink in. "We are here to cleanse the sacred groves of a viral corruption spread by the cult of Impurax."

It doesn't know of any Impurax affliction or cult but suggests the Thornswild elves have become cultic and apostate themselves. He decries all faiths, Silvanus in particular since that God remained passive and ignorant of their sufferings or complicit in it.

"What affliction have you placed on the One Tree?"

Through ritual spell craft they have afflicted the One Tree so that it repels elves and Silvanus devotees in particular. A general hex on all humanoids alike but a greater repulse to the former.

They did this to bar the area from the Thornswild elves and he insists that if you try to dispel the magic in force, it will only lead to greater harm for it will open the way for the Thornswild to come and use the grove for their malignant practices.

You can gather various parchment snippets and verses of rites from notes that put together and studied might shine a greater light upon the actual magic enchantment and thereby improve and 'Dispel Magic' cast upon the One Tree.

With the two comrades dead and the spider horde slain, the Drider insists you either put him out of his misery or allow him to go into exile.

Actions and discussions please

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus


Sensing Two-Birds is reluctant to cast judgement on the outcast, Moriartus twice taps his staff on the ground, pronouncing, "We were attacked, unprovoked. You admit to placing a hex upon the One Tree. However ... I believe you speak the truth. As such, your actions have protected the One Tree from those who would seek to corrupt it. You are therefore free to leave in peace."

He pivots to allow the drider to pass and exit the tree. After it leaves, he translates the conversation to those in the party not fluent in Elvish. "They apparently were not in league with the cult of Impurax, and the One Tree was not infected. That suggests elves were responsible for the virus, perhaps an unknown faction. The hex warded them from the tree."

"With no treant present, we are also no closer to locating the secret treant grove. If the elves of the Thornswild are truly apostate now, they will almost certainly be hostile to us and our mission."

He summons an Unseen Servant to open the secret door.

Spell retention (17): [_4d6+1]=(3+1+6+2)=12+1=13

[gurusql]

Cadeweed

Cadeweed gets look of confusion on his face with the dismissing of the Drider. He will move on and help searching for treasure and other trinkets.

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus


He notices the confusion in Cadeweed's demeanour. "He is more valuable to us alive, than dead. I consumed the memories of the one killed first, so I was confident this one was telling the truth about the Thornswild elves. We are unprepared to deal with them right now, so the only things stopping them from maligning the One Tree is the hex, and him. The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

[Karaunios]

Dougal, who has already dispensed with his invisibility after joining the fight against the arachnids, descends from the tree to join the rest of the group.

"Well, I trust yer judgment. It's possible we'll cross paths wi' 'it in the future. I hope it's for the better rather than the worse. Now, I'd suggest we carry on our journey tae find the Treants' sanctuary... but not without investigatin' this place further... and havin' ourselves a wee rest. What d'ye think?"

[ravenn4544]

Jorly places the material things he found in the lair softly in the grass for the others to make something of. He pads off then quietly to monitor their forward perimeter.

[Ahlmzhad]

Raven

Will look over the assembled items, and note those he would prefer to choose. He wonders about the lack of spell books, and contemplates using spider climb to search the trees boughs thoroughly. He will go down to collect Lenore and witness what the secret door reveals.

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus


"I concur, Mr. Dougal. I suggest after we rest, we first stop at the One Tree. There may be a secret door we overlooked in the Root Cave. Mr. Raven, do you have any knowledge of the Thornswild elves?"

[Karaunios]

Dougal looks over the treasure laid out by Jorly.

"Ah'm intrigued aboot the egg, ya ken? Is it a drider's, like? Usually, spider eggs look a bit... hairy, ya see. An' Ah dinnae think this one looks the pairt. We should tak' it wi' us. It should be right interestin' when it hatches.

As for the rest, dae ye mind if Ah tak' the mosaic wi' the moonlight sky? Ah find that yin particularly bonnie, ya ken?"

[Ahlmzhad]

Raven

"As for the items lets check for magic. I do think the tiles may be a set possibly for divination so we might not want to break them up if they're magical."

He'll cast detect magic, and run it over the items found.

1st lvl spell retention vs 16: [4d6+1]=17+1=18

"I don't remember much off the top of my head about the Thornwild elves."

Do I have a knowledge roll I can make or already know something about these elves?

[Spearmint]

Do I have a knowledge roll I can make or already know something about these elves?

Sure, add an Intelligence check and a [1d22] ...

[Jernau35]

Hake

While not entirely happy to see something as evil as the drider be given its freedom, Hake understands Moriartus' reasoning. As the others complete the search, he goes to help Ash recover the mule.

[Spearmint]

Silvanus Grove. One Tree and Drider Nest.

edits coming here next.

[Spearmint]

Drider Nest, One Tree Grove.

Okay, there is lots happening and I shall try to cover the actions and the investigations.

Perseverance Hake returns to the One Tree to recover Ash Gnolem and the pack mule. They are safe, sheltering away from spiders and the Gnolem is happy to hear the encounter is resolved positively.

Raven has little specific knowledge of the Thornswild elves. There are two communities in the campaign setting and it is presumed all characters are foreigners to the region. The Wrymwood elves (see location thread) have been visited in game. A village sized community of mostly elven humanoids who live an arboreal existence in the trees. They are a mixed Herne / Silvanus group who trade with Moon Peak dwarven clans and the frontier settlement of Bogtown. The Wrymwood is though to be slowly atrophic, the trees dying which is possibly Impurax linked.

The Thornswild is more xenophobic. The elves withdrawn and intolerant of outsiders. Presumed to be a Silvanus worshipping community. Recent rumours allegedly point to them turning into some apostasy and experimenting with genetic science or magics to create a new host of hybrid critters. The Owl-wolves, the Driders, (other players have encountered other strange beasts, even an alpha Silverback gorilla spoke to a druid saying, 'they change our skins' in regard to the elves).

In game the community has not been contacted directly by characters, indirectly by Raven-post or magic scrying has failed to provide any insight into them.

Drow elves are just a rumour as far as you know. Most elves alive only believe they are the bogeymen of bedtime stories. (Though that has recently proven to be untrue since Impuraxian Drow in disguise were uncovered in the Silvanus Embassy and Temple at Bogtown and in Ironguard).

That is the current 'elf lore' known.

Raven casts Detect Magic upon the haul of goods; as expected the Rams-horn and two potions ping as magical. You think the horn summins spiders, whether it just does those specifically or it may provoke other creatures is yet to be determined. You can Identify it or just 'trial & error'.

The tiled mosaics have pretty pictures. As a whole they radiate an enchantment, those that have dull pictures or fractures only radiate a dim aura as of the residue of past enchantments cast. More than half the plates contain this 'redundant' glow and eight contain a brighter glow which resembles that given off by runic tablets still active.

Dougal takes a couple of the tiles to inspect. The 'Moonlit Sky' has a full moon blazing in a night sky over a pine forest. It could represent the Blackened Forest though it is a very generic image. Holding it or looking at it does not provoke any immediate manifestations though it is one of the magic ones. However the second one he touches instantly crumbles into dust. Gold dust, fine grains as sand that form a little glittery pile at his feet. Before the breeze blows the dust away, you can pouch up the flakes, about a single pounds worth in weight.

The Egg: oval shaped, warm to the touch. It must be being incubated. It is not a Harpy egg, a spider egg or any kind of common bird or reptile egg that you may know. Too small for a dragon egg before anyone asks.

He wonders about the lack of spell books, and contemplates using spider climb to search the trees boughs thoroughly.

There are books and papers but no spell books, only these:

You can gather various parchment snippets and verses of rites from notes that put together and studied might shine a greater light upon the actual magic enchantment and thereby improve any 'Dispel Magic' cast upon the One Tree.

It may be the Driders ability to cast Magic Missiles, Darkness and other spells is more 'instinctive or congenital' than learned through study.

Two-Birds might happily kill the Drider but if he honours his commitment to go into exile, ie: out of the region and never return, she will reluctantly agree to that. "After your mourning, we will burn them and scatter their ashes." she says of the deceased Driders and spider cohort. The Drider bows his torso, sheathes his scimitar and quickly leaves without a look back.

Unseen Servant is summoned. It opens the secret door in the hollow of roots. It opens into a small chamber, another cellar. Branches of roots layer themselves as steps. The cellar dark, musty. Flies abound and the smell of rot and decay. The source suddenly alarmingly clear but not threatening. A slim elven figure, pale green skin like olives, high cheekbones and a definitive sprite look, curled up in a foetus position, folded in on herself, rotting, deceased. Observing, you can imagine that person may have once used this hollow tree to step inside or use as a resting place. But diseased, she secluded itself away, leaving the tree unoccupied which the Driders simply took over.

Two-Birds assesses the corpse, calling in Hake and Ash for their wisdom and expertise.

Two-Birds: Treant investigation vs 15 wisdom [4d6]=13 Hake vs 15 [4d6]=10

"A Dryad and she yet lives!" they recognise.

Actions everyone please.

[Ahlmzhad]

Do I have a knowledge roll I can make or already know something about these elves?

Sure, add an Intelligence check and a [1d22] ...

Int Chk vs 16: [1d22]=8

[Ahlmzhad]

Raven

Raven will move to the dryad "Thing of beauty and mirth, how may we help you? We might have some healing, and the fouls creatures we have removed from you home left behind some potions that might aid you."

[Jernau35]

Hake

Hake kneels beside the dryad.

"Creature of nature, thy spirit cannot be claimed by St Ygg. But thou art not beyond his power. Wherever thou art wandering, the Light can still reach thee. Come forth, come back into this world." Hake places his hand on the side of the dryad's face.

Cure Light Wounds [1d8]=7

After a moment he looks up at the others. "That was a powerful prayer. I believe she will respond, but..." Hake hesitates, not wanting to admit that there may be a limit to the power of his deity. "There's always the honeycomb brick, or even the powerful healing prayer on the scroll".