August 19th, 2019
Players
- Ender the Rogue (Steven)
- Morgana the Druid (Liz)
- Maardaar the Warlock (Matt)
OUT OF THE WOODS
The party frees the 3 Night Watch men from their cage outside Agatha’s, and sets out into the wood. One of them is Austin Stonehill, son of Toblin Stonehill the barkeep. As they look over their shoulder, they see that Agatha’s Hut is actually a twisted, gnarled hovel made of dead trees. This dead, lifeless path extends beyond the hut, into the woods, a horrifying path of death and destruction into the horizon.
The party leaves and makes it several miles down the road before setting up camp. Morgana studies the stars and points out the Zoar constellation as the one that points north. Ender examines the gold pin from Agatha and he realizes with horror that it is actually a scrying device: Agatha has been listening the whole time. He digs a deep hole and buries it. Maardaar studies the journal of Bob and comes across Elvish passages, which Morgana translates. It appears Bob was reaching out to Agatha on behalf of his “master” to offer a trade: her old castle returned to her, in exchange for an unspecified favor for the master. The letters are trying to set up a meeting between the two, but there is no record of a response from Agatha.
In the night, the faeries return, but Morgana is woken up by them and sees one trying to steal from Ender’s pack. Ender wakes up and grabs it by the wings. The faerie casts Dancing Lights in an effort to distract, but that doesn’t work, so it casts Confusion which causes Ender to let go. It escapes into the night and the party hears giggling in the woods.
PHANDALIN
The townspeople come out to greet the missing Night Watchmen, and everyone celebrates and hugs the adventurers and buys them a round of glog at the bar. Toblin the barkeep says he owes everything to the party for bringing his son home, and that they can stay at the Stonehill Inn as if it were their own. He also hands Maardaar a letter that was delivered. A bard plays a song by the fire, something about the ‘All Father’ of the giants smashing something called the Ordning and a hill giant attacking a village. He says he doesn’t have any clue what it means, just a neat song he heard from another bard in Triboar.
The party goes upstairs to sleep off the glog.
During the night, Morgana is awakened again – this time by a racoon tapping on the window. It holds a scroll in it’s hand and says to her telepathically: “I have a message for you, but right now, there is a more pressing matter at hand.” It points with it’s tiny hands to two human forms who seem to be caught up in some vines and wrestling a bush outside.
Ender uses his rogue abilities to spider man down the wall and advance towards the figures, while Morgana drops a rope from the window to follow with Maardaar.
Coming on to the figures they see two men encased and struggling against vines, being slowly dragged toward the forest. Ender cuts one open with his dagger and the man jumps out and takes off at a full sprint screaming. The other vine blight is defeated and the man released – a very drunk human who says he was walking home from the bar when the ‘bushes attacked’.
They look toward the forest and see dead, leafless trees just like outside Agatha’s.
THE BLIGHTED TREE
In the dawn light they follow the path of destruction back into the forest and quickly come upon a hill. Centered on this mound is a twisted, lifeless silhouette of a tree. Several crows circle and peck at it’s leafless branches. A path has been worn by strange tracks up the hill, and it branches off to the left into a door set into the earth. The other continues up to the tree.
The party goes to the door and examines it, clearing away vines. There is no mechanical lock – it is magically sealed. After several unsuccesful ideas, they find some Elvish runes and Morgana reads: TO ENTER – KNOCK. They do it and door swings open.
They enter into the pitch black of an earthen tunnel. Small roots curl along the walls of the passage, leading down. Maardaar casts Light on his backpack, and Morgana takes the lead with her darkvision. The steps continue down… and lead to a large cave.
Morgana wild shapes into a Giant Spider and crawls up the wall. She doesn’t see anything except a large crack in the earth to the left, two large roots descending from above, and a square opening on the far right side. The stench of rot and decomposing flesh fills the air. On investigation, the roots are covered in sticky red blood.
As Ender investigates the crack in the wall, two Gricks emerge from the rotten vegetation littering the floor. The evil worms fight with their tentacles and beaks, and the party emerges victorious. Ender finds the skull of a past adventurer who met his fate here in the break in the wall – and on the skull’s head is a pair of Night Goggles.
Advancing through the passage on the other side of the cave, it leads further and further down. As they descend the walls and floor disappear into organic matter – vines, roots, and others leading down. On close inspection, the vines are slowly moving and writhing in the darkness, reaching out to the adventurers as they pass.
THE CRUCIFIXION
The passage enters into a main cavern, cathedral like. This room is domed and completely entangled and covered in the roots. They guess they are directly below the tree now. The stench of death is awful, and beneath their feet their boots sink into the wet, decaying organic matter that covers everything.
In the center of the room, there is a large pile of sticks as if prepared for a bonfire. Above it, descending the 40′ from the ceiling, is a large tree root. On it a human figure is crucified upside down. In the darkness, Morgana investigates by climing her spider form up the wall and sees that it is the body of Bob Dabbledob: no eyes, no hands, hanging upside down. Clearly the work of Agatha. His blood slowly trickles from his wounds and drip… drip… drips onto the tree branches below.
As the others move into the room, the twigs and vines start to coalesce into a form, 9′ tall and somewhat humanoid, a demon with large horns stands up and begins to chant in an Infernal language. The party hears something else – a heartbeat, beating in time to the dripping of the blood. The Demon Blight’s skin is made up of animated, writhing vines, his eyes light up red. He casts Fire Bolt but misses, lighting the rest of the branches at his feet on fire. The fire rises beneath Bob and he lets out a scream.
The party fights the demon, Maardaar coming perilously close to death, and many spells are expended back and forth. Morgana as spider, climbs the ceiling and attacks with her bite from above, while the others attempt to do what damage they can. Morgana does several critical hits, greatly reducing the demon’s health. Finally, the monster is defeated, and the vines fall back to the floor – no longer possessed by whatever animated it.
The bonfire burns down to ash and what is left is a glass throne, exactly like the dagger Morgana carries. She reads the Elvish writing across it’s top: THE THRONE OF ILSUNDAL.
BOB’S CONFESSION
Bob, barely holding on to consciousness, is interrogated by the party. They ask who his master is and he responds: “a drow”
He says the drow took his family and forced him to go to Agatha to offer her her ancestral castle back, in exchange for something the drow wanted, but he did not know what. He says the castle is southeast of town, in the forest of the foothills.
Bob vomits blood and dies. Ender sits down on the still hot throne and burns his ass.
