The Fourteenth Session

October 6, 2018, Campaign: Wildfire

1. The Road to Ofinor
2. In the Fae Wild
3. Against the Revenant
4. The Mansion
5. Next session
6. Meta

The Road to Ofinor

We're currently on the road to Ofinor, planning a side trip to the Fae Wild in the Lororona Forest to do something about the Revenant chasing Belmac.

Last session, we had just finished killing a trio of Hill Giants. Ship extracts 14 teeth from the mouths of the 3 Hill Giants, for later sale.

We continue onwards for the remainder of the day, eventually falling out of the hills onto plains with copses of trees. We spend the night well away from any trees.

Ship takes the first watch, which passes without incident. Belmac's 3 perception gives him a feeling of looming doom, but he doesn't notice anything unusual in the surrounds. Zoltar's check is fine. Theren's 17 sees small groups of bats. The night passes without incident.

Halfway through the third day, we come into a fork in the path. In one direction, Ofinor. In the other, Lororna Forest and the entrance to the Fae Wild. We turn towards the Fae Wild. With their keen eyes, Ship notices animals that may be tracking the Party, but we pass them all.

In Lororona Forest we encounter a clearing. It has a fairy ring of mushrooms growing in the middle. In the middle, we see a light mist.

After some discussion, we decide to bring the cart (with its 10 platinum of wheat) and the two horses (Sebastian and Esmerelda) through the portal with us. We don't want to come back from the Fae Wild to find that several months have passed and our cargo of wheat has spoiled, along with the two horses being eaten by the wolves that Ship can hear.

We step into the portal.

In the Fae Wild

Our vision is assaulted by vibrantly colourful trees, similar in shape to what we saw in Lororona Forest, but the leaves are rainbows and the grasses are in pastels. The small path that is within this Fae forest continues onwards, into a stretch of dead trees. There are no animal noises, just insects and wind in the trees. We continue into the dead zone, staying on the path, which is marked by a thin border of living grass.

It was late when we exited the material plane; we talk forwards for about 20 minutes. The light levels drop enough to make us think it's getting towards night in the Fae Wild.We talk about setting up camp.

Ship determines that the path has not been traveled in some time.

A short distance ahead, we find a bulge in the path that expands into a small clearing with a little more life on its margins. But the trees on the borders are still dead. In the middle of the clearing there's a henge, and sitting in the middle of the henge is a feminine character, in appearances almost made of plants. And she's meditating, and old, and drained like the trees along the path.

Belmac calls out "Hello?"

"Hello," she says. "I haven't had travelers in some time."

"We seek your assistance," says Marnoc, and tells the story of the Revenant hunting Belmac.

The fae says that she has experience with this sort of thing. There's a ritual that will attract the spirit of the Revenant to her. It will return more quickly in the Fae Wild than in the Material plane, meaning we get more opportunities to damage the Revenant in a day.

The fae woman is bound to the henge, and the forest is a reflection of her health. She says her poor health is because of a fiendish influence, a manor that has appeared nearby. Ship asks; the fae says that the animals refer to it as "Dolgras".

Marnoc is surprised that she can talk to the animals; he asks what the name of Ship's bear is. She says that the bear has no name because bears have no names.

But we offer to take care of the manor; "We're trouble-shooters," says Theren.

Marnoc asks if there's towns nearby; she says there's collections of pixies and and other fae creatures, but there's no towns as such.

She says that the ritual will take an hour. We decide to do the ritual before going to the manor.

So we ready ourselves. Ship asks about the Revenant's weaknesses and strengths. She says it's resistant to necrotic and psychic, and immune to poison.

Against the Revenant

The fae stands in the middle of a 15 foot by 15 foot platform in the middle of the henge, which is about 45 feet across. There are gaps in the henge at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. The party takes positions around the henge; Ship shoots from atop it.

The Revenant and two shades appear, with the Revenant at 12 o'clock on the clock and the shades at 9 and 6. Ship casts Barkskin on Ship, and the Magical Bear Hat copies that to the Bear.

1. Round 1
   1. Theren advances to Shade #2 and attacks it, and dissipates it with some slicing and dicing. And then Hexblade Cursees the Revenant, before casting Blink. He remains in this plane.
   2. The Revenant advances to Belmac and attacks, doing 19 damage.
   3. Ship casts Hail of Thorns and does 14 piercing to the Revenant.
   4. The Bear advances to Shade #1 and does 9 slashing damage.
   5. Belmac Rages, does attack, bonus attack, Action Surge for total 26 slashing with his Bear Claws.
   6. Shade #1 swipes at the bear, but fails to pierce the bear's Barkskin.
   7. Marnoc casts Spirit Guardians on himself. If any hostile creature starts its turn within 15 feet of him, it takes 3d8 necrotic.
2. Round 2
   1. Theren does 15 slashing and 9 cold to the Revenant with his Frost Brand, and then 15 slashing and 1 cold.
   2. The Revenant takes 3d8 = 16 necrotic, halved because it passed the Wisdom save, halved because it's resistant, so 4 necrotic damage from Spirit Guardian. It attacks Belmac, who takes 1 damage from the 6d6 that the Revenant rolled.
   3. Ship critically shoots the Revenant for 2d8+4 magical piercing. Bear claws Shade #1 for 9.
   4. The Bear misses.
   5. Belmac attacks the Revenant; it looks ragged.
   6. Shade #1 attacks the bear and misses.
   7. Marnoc swings at the Revenant with his warhammer for 4 bludgeoning damage, and a humorous ringing noise.
3. Round 3.
   1. Theren misses his first swing at the Revenant. And a critical hit on his second swing means 6d6 equals 21 slashing and 7 cold, resulting in cleaving the revanant in half.
   2. Ship shoots Shade #1 and dissipates it.

Belmac sits down and starts a short rest; his Primal Strength ends.

Some time passes, about 15 minutes.

The fae says, "He's coming back." and it's round 2.

This time, the Revenant is accompanied by four shades.

1. Round 1
   1. Ship shoots the Revenant with Hail of Thorns, which adds 1 point of nonmagical piercing damage to the Revenant and Shade #4, on top of the bow's damage to the Revenant.
   2. Bear claws at Shade #2, but misses.
   3. The Revenant moves out of Marnoc's range, taking 5 slashing. Then it balefully glares at Belmac.
   4. Theren deals 12 slashing and 4 to Shade #1, and another 16 slashing, cutting through it and dissipating it. Then he moves next to the bear.
   5. Shade #2 misses the bear.
   6. Shade #3 tries to run up behind Marnoc, and it misses.
   7. Shade #4 attacks Belmac, who takes 11 points of Necrotic, and his strength is temporarily reduced by four.
   8. Belmac attacks Shade #4 for 17 damage, misses the second attack.
   9. Marnoc casses Spirit Guardian again.
2. Round 2.
   1. Ship shoots the Revenant for 7 damage, then hops to the next space of the henge. Bear claws at the Shade and deals 4d4+2=11/2=6 damage, killing Shade #2.
   2. Bear moves over to Shade #3 and deals 2d4+2=6/2=3 damage.
   3. The Revenant fails its Vengeful Glare to Belmac, but deals 23 bludgeoning to him and shouts "I will have back what is mine!"
   4. Theren moves into the melee, and kills Shade #3.
   5. Shade #4 isn't affected by the Spirit Guardians. Shadows can't grab shades. It attacks Marnoc with its Life Drain attack, which just barely hits for 12 damage. His strength is reduced by 4. Marnoc calls down Wrath of the Storm on Shade #4, killing it.
   6. Belmac hits the Revenant for 22 magical slashing.
   7. Marnoc casts Guiding Bolt on the Revenant, doing a bunch of radiant damage to it. And he has advantage on hitting it next round.
3. Round 3.
   1. Ship shoots the Revenant for 6 magical piercing.
   2. The bear claws the Revenant for 4 damage.
   3. The Revenant fails its Wisdom check and takes 9 damage from the Spirit Guardians. It attacks Belmac for 23 points of bludgeoning damage, downing him. THe Spirit Guardians of Noidesop interfere with the Revenant's second attack, and it does not succeed in attacking him whil he's down.
   4. Theren deals 9 slashing and 1 cold to the Revenant, then misses his second attack.
   5. Belmac passes his first death save.
   6. Marnoc casts Healing Word with a loud burp in his direction, for 1d4=1+4=5 health. And then casts Sacred Flame as a cantrip to do 4 radiant damage to the Revenant.
4. Round 4.
   1. Ship misses the Revenant. The bear claws for 9 damage.
   2. The bear claws for 9 damage.
   3. The Revenant fails its wisdom save and takes 13 damage from the Spirit Guardians. It then downs Belmac again, and critically misses (two 1s) the second attack. The fae's chants emit a throb of energy that hit the Revenant and it stumbles.
   4. Theren critically misses and critically hits, doing 25 slashing and 6 cold, rebanishing the Revenant.
   5. Theren casts Spare the Dying on Belmac.

The fae lady says that the Revenant will probably return one more time. The party uses up health potions and spell slots to bring belmac up to 40 health. We move Belmac up onto the mound in the middle of the henge, which is 5 feet tall. And then we surround Belmac with the bear, Theren, Maroc, and the fae. Ship is sniping from across the thing.

The Revenant appears, alone.

1. Round 1.
   1. Theren advances to the Revenant, on the edge of the henge, and "This is a pocket dimension where pain is God and I am the pope!" says Marnocs player. deals 35 damage to it, blocking the gap in the henge.
   2. Belmac shoots the Revenant twice for 12 damage.
   3. The Revenant uses his Vengeful Glare on Theren, but fails. "You are in my wayyyy" is exhales. The Revenant tries to push him out of the way, and pushes him out, but takes some damage from the attack of opportunity.
   4. Ship shoots the Revenant with their last arrow of 1d8 force, for 11 damage. The bear's reaction misses.
   5. The bear's attack misses.
   6. Marnoc casts Hold Person, but it's not effective because the Revenant's undead form is not humanoid.
2. Round 2.
   1. Theren comes up behind the Revenant, and hits it for 11 slashing 5 cold, 12 slashing 2 cold. The Revenant looks quite hurt, just under half health.
   2. Belmac disengages and runs away, and triggers Rage before shooting at the Revenant some.
   3. The Revenant chases Blemac, proviking atttacks of opportunity from Theren and Marnoc. And then it attacks Belmac. "He will have them back," it hisses. Belmac spits on it.
   4. Ship shots the Revenant with 10 piercing and fire arrow.
   5. The bear moves up behind the Revenant and claws at it, missing.
   6. Marnoc casts Healing Word at Belmac, for 10 health.
3. Round 3 r16. Theren hits it for 7 damage and 13 slashing and 5 cold.
   1. Belmac deals 21 damage, bringing it to death's door.
   2. The Revenant attacks twice more to Belmac, hitting and missing for 19 halved to 9 damage.
   3. Ship shoots and misses.
   4. The bear kills the Revenant.

"It wanted bear hands, and it got them," says Marnoc.

"The ritual should be done soon," says the fae.

Just when we hear the screams of the Revenant approaching again, the Revenant's bones clatter and fall to the ground. Belmac walks over, picks up the revanant's hands, and pees on its bones. Marnoc chastises him; the fae woman walks over. "It seem that that was successful. If you could help with the other issue that I have, that would be fantastic."

We elect to stay in the henge for the night. Marnoc's insight thinks that it'll be safe, even though we've missing some detail in the conversation that just happened.

We sleep through the night, with small woodland creatures and insects and not much beyond the rustling of the close trees around us. Marnoc and the bear take watches. Marnoc at one point asks Ship to kill a woodland creature for breakfast; Ship says "why" too much and doesn't. We eat rations for the day; Marnoc drinks of the fae water from a spring.

There's a bit of discussion about waterskins now that Zoltar is gone. She was carrying five of them, after the third session's adventure into Hell, which was a substantial portion of our party's reserve.

Belmac asks the fae about his claws, she doesn't have anything to say about it.

When we're ready, she points us up a path towards the manor. The plants uncurl from the path as she points.

The Mansion

Ship takes a minute of meditation to use Primeval Awareness to check for their favored enemies (fiends and monstrosities), and learns of a fiend and a monstrosity, roughly the same distance, in the same direction, deeper into the Fae Wild. In the mansion.

The mansion is a three-story building, deep and wide, having six small-to-medium-sized rooms on each floor. (Mount Vernon.)

Marnoc takes 10 minutes to cast Detect Magic as a ritual. The wrought-iron gate is just a gate. The grounds behind the gate are thick and overgrown with hostile vines and thorns, and the drive leads to a doorway that is not covered in vines and thorns. The door is covered in nonmagical runes. We enter the grounds through the gate. Marnoc uses Thaumaturgy to open the door.

We notice a large looming shape come around the edge of the courtyard. Ship doesn't know its name, but it's a Large boar-like creature with arms grafted onto it. Its eyes are large, round, beady black eyes. We sprint inside the house, and the monstrosity charges the door but stops before hitting the door. It eyes us.

We're in the foyer. There's a closed door on the left. A door under the stairwell begins rattling and shaking.

Marnoc uses Thaumaturgy to loudly and deeply shout "Hello!" in Common. It echoes through the rooms.

The door under the stairwell stops shaking.

Marnoc cracks open the closed other door. The room is about 15' by 15', with comfortable tables and chairs and sofas, and there's a table with a decanter of bright violet liquid. Belmac yoinks the decanter and dips his finger in. Marnoc determines that the magic is evocation. Belmac's finger is covered in a watery film of lightly-glowing purple liquid. Belmac tastes it; it tastes like water. He glows violet for six seconds, like he was subject of Fairy Fire. We put the decanter in the bag of holding.

We entered on the short end of the house, and checked the sitting room on the left. The stiars are to the right. The hallway stretches along the center of the house, with one door on the left, one at the end, and two on the right.

Belmac examines the stonework: the material demonic in nature, basaltic in kind, but abnormally placed in the Fae Wild. It's clearly demonic in construction patterns as well.

Marnoc opens the first door on the right, leaving Belmac to continue to explain demonic geology.

Room #5 is a 20'x20' parlour, with comfortable furnishing, with an ornate vase in one corner. And there's a pair of matching wooden chairs facing a small table with a chessboard. Belmac walks up and grabs the vase, at Marnoc's encouragement. It's an empty vase, and Belmac cannot shove his head in it.

The chess board is set up; it's black's turn. Theren moves the black knight to put the white king in check. There's a click; a compartment in the table opens. In the compartment is a skull with a waxing gibbous moon symbol on it.

As we move the piece into place, the magic on the vase fades. Belmac wants to put the vase in the bag of holding, but Marnoc objects, saying it is too big for his bag. Belmac puts it in his bag.

Marnoc takes the gibbous skull and puts it in the chair on the white player's side.

We realize that we put the chess game into checkmate.

Marnoc puts the skull in his bag of holding.

We move to the next room on the right-hand side of the corridor, a 25x20' room. (Room #6.) There are two chairs opposite a table, and the walls are covered in mounted and framed butterflies. Sitting on one table in the center of the room, there are three butterflies fluttering around inside the jar, above a golden gemstone. Belmac shatters the jar, freeing the butterflies. The gem is a fairly valuable gem, worth 100gp. The butterflies begin fluttering around the room.

The butterflies begin to grow.

Ship lights a torch and swings at the nearest big butterfly; Ship misses critically. All the butterflies pinned to the wall burst free and form a maelstrom.

1. Round 1.
   1. Ship is blinded by the butterflies, but Ship uses Primeval Awareness to say, "Hello, flighty friends! Be free!" Ship learns that the butterflies are under magical control, and all desire to kill us.
   2. The bear attacks a large butterfly with blinded disadvantage, doing 9 damage.
   3. Belmac walks over to the same large butterfly, doing 26 across his attack and bonus attack.
   4. Theren is also blinded by the butterfly swarm, and misses his first attack against the previously-damaged butterfly. He then cleaves it in twain.
   5. Among the chaos of the butterfly swarm, Theren and the Bear take tiny cuts from the wings of the butterflies.
   6. Butterfly #1 attacks Theren for 12 slashing, triggering Theren's Armor of Agathys that does 15 to it.
   7. Butterfly #2 attacks Ship for 26 damage.
   8. "Everyone needs to make a constitution check", says Marnoc's player, and Marnoc casts Thunder Wave, pushing everyone back against the walls. The swarm of litte butterflies smash against the walls. Marnoc is left standing in the middle of the room. He is the one clean person in the room He is the one clean person in the room
2. Round 2
   1. Ship stabs the Butterfly #1 with the torch, for 5 bludgeoning and 6 flame.
   2. Bear deals 7 slashing against #1.
   3. Belmac walks up to Butterfly #2, next to Theren, and does 18 to it, bringing it to within an inch of its life.
   4. Theren reaches over and stabs #2 real quick, killing it. He moves over to #1 and kills it too.

Theren Prestigitates everyone clean of gore. The bear wanders around nibbling on butterfly chunks. We take a short rest. There's nothing else interesting in this room.

We go to room #3, the room on the left side of the hall. It is a dining hall, with a long, finely-crafted table. There are plate settings with domed covers, and 8 chairs, each with a headless skeleton. None of them seem to match Marnoc's waxing gibbous skull, but he pulls the skull out of his bag and puts it on the skeleton closest to the door. Belmac looks under all the dish covers; the last of the eight has a third-quarter moon. He puts that skull back.

There's three 25gp candelabras and 8 sets of 5gp cutlery, which Belmac yoinks all of.

There's a door at the end of the dining hall; it's a servant's dining area. (Room #4.) All the food is spoiled to mold, and covered in dust. There's nothing magical in this room, by Marnoc's Detect Magic.

We go to the big room at the end of the hall. It's a 15x35' room with a door on one 15' wall. Looks like it was set up as the kitchen. It's got lots of cooking utensils. Sitting on the largest table there is a large woodeb bowl, with a blue, a red, and a yellow apple. Each very vibrantly magical, of the school of transmutation. On the south wall there is a row of clay jars.

Marnoc grabs the red apple and turns red. He puts it down, and is still red.

The bear eats the red apple, and turns #f00; red.

Marnoc picks up the yellow apple and turns yellow. He puts it down, and the bear eats the yellow apple. He pockets the blue apple; he turns blue and so do his pants.

Belmac heads up the stairs in the back corner; there's a room with rain dripping from the ceiling. The floor is covered in mold, and the bathtub is full of algae-filled water. He goes back downstairs.

Marnoc enters the room off of the kitchen; the pantry is full of a magical wall of darkness. He casts Light on his shield as a cantrip, and pokes his shield in it. The Light goes out. He throws a mug into the room; it hits something on the other side that goes oof. He casts Shatter into the room against the far wall, doing 3d8 thunder damage for 13. We hear the sound of something dying, and a lot of jars exploding. A lot of glass shattering.

Ship attempts to dissuade Marnoc from entering the room full of shattered glass, but Marnoc enters and pats around, being careful. There's a lot of glass jars like would have have preserved food. There's a skull, which he grabs — a full-moon skull — and a lot of expensive potion-holding glass.A potion of mage armor, two healing potions, and a potion of magical weapon. Belmac grabs the corpse and pulls it out. It's simiar to the creature we killed on the way to Tennult; it's a Doppleganger.

Marnoc goes up to the bathroom, and he puts his hammer in the bathtub and swishes it around. There's a thing in the bottom of the tub. Belmac reaches in and tries to grab what feels like a skull; a frog tongue shoots out which he dodges. But he retrieves the new moon skull.

In the bathroom there are two doors; one in the direction of the short axis of the house and one in the long axis. The room through the short-axis door is a changing room. There are four wizardly robes, which Belmac takes. Marnoc looks at the big mirror on the wall, which is magical, and is forced to look away before he's blinded by the flashing lights. He shatters it with his hammer. Theren rummages through the desk, there's nothing of interest.

We return to the bathroom and take the door into the hallway. There's a slight breeze in the hallway.

We enter room 15, at the end of a short hallway. Room 15 is well-lit, 20x25 feet, with light coming from a glass sphere sitting on a dresser. It looks like it contains a raging fire. The bed is covered with beautiful furs, and a high-backed chair with a carving depicting a battle between elves and goblins on it. Belmac swings his hammer at the glowing sphere; his hammer bounces off. Marnoc ducks out of the room. Belmac swings again; the sphere emits a fireball that scorches Marnoc and Theren, the only two people in the room. Marnoc reenters. He checks the bedside table and finds a small silver key.

Belmac waves his hammer above his head, trying to open the hatch in the ceiling. He can't reach it. He climbs onto the table, and tries to grab it. Marnoc reaches up and opens the hatch. A ladder falls down.

Belmac climbs up into Room 18, which is a windowless tiny room. There is a square table with a candle, and a skeleton is on the floor, with a skull but with no symbol. Belmac takes the 5gp candlestick, and notices that the skeleton has the waning crescent skull. "I'm going to borrow this," he says.

Marnoc returns to the hallway and enters Room 12. It's the library. The legs of the desk in the room represent dragons. In the corner of the library there is a standing suit of nonmagical armor. And on the desk there is a leatherbound book, which is a wizard's arcane spellbook. Marnoc takes the book and puts it in his bag, because it is very valuable.

Belmac finds a door to the rest of the attic, and opens it. At the far end of the attic there is a wall with a door. The attic is full of strange things, like a stuffed two-headed cat, a pile of nonhuman bones, a bird cage, a chunk of rock, a pile of antique holy symbols. The door on the far side of the room has a metallic silver door, which requires a key. He heads back down to the second floor, to tell Marnoc about the door with the key.

We go up to the attic. The pile of holy symbols are for religions long dead. The key does not fit the door.

Belmac tries to knock down the door, but he is unable to do it.

The bones are a pile of fortunetelling bones.

And we go back down the ladder. Marnoc checks the closet in room 15, which is room 14, and there's a pile of 30 gemstones there. Belmac checks to see how much they're worth. They're worth 1gp each.

We go to room 13, the closet at the end of the hallway, past the library. It is a hall closet. Something skitters by our feet, but we don't see anything. The closet seems empty. There's something magical about the room; it's got an illusion. Marnoc asks Belmac to hit the walls inside the closet. Belmac steps in, but he vanishes. He smacks the wall as hard as he can, reappears momentarily as he hits. Those outside the closet don't see him. We ask him to step out; he steps out but no one can see him. Turns out it's a closet of invisibility. We all duck in. Everyone is invisible.

Belmac attacks the wall outside the closet and becomes visible. We follow him into room 11, which is a bedroom with a dresser and a bed. Belmac yoinks the entire makeup kit, for 105gp. The bed is magical; Belmac approaches the bed to touch it, and he starts hearing voices. He backs away. He tells the Party about the voices. He appraches the bed again; it turns out that he can hear the surface thoughts of the people in the room. He puts his hatchet on the bed, nothing happens. He walks away.

The bear walks over to the bed, noses through the pillows. It seems confused by the voices. It hears Ship thinking a desire for it to move away. THe bear moves away.

Theren lies down on the bed, and he can now focus on specific presences in the house. THere are three presences in the attic. There's one in the basement. There's one outside. There's everyone from the Party in this room, and there's one other presence in this room.

Theren spends a charge from his Mask of Shadows to focus on that creature; its surface thoughts are mostly variants of hide, hide. It's trying to stay hidden from us. The bear doesn't smell it.

Next session

We have the full, waxing gibbous, new, waning crescent, and 3/4 moon skulls.

We need to explore the rest of the second floor, and the locked room in the attic, and the basement. There's the monstrous boar outside, and the fiend somewhere. What's in the basement?

The GM says we won't need the basement map.

And then we need to leave the Fae Wild, and continue on to Ofinor.

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