DND Blog

A place to keep DND session recaps, from various campaigns.

The Sevnty-Fourth Session

October 1, 2022, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We slay a great many Yuan-Ti, but not their self-deifying leader. The prophet, Sev, leads us to a fungal grove where the Mother of the Forest sleeps, and we try to wake her, to no avail, It's time to contact Bugfood!

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. Next moves
  3. Beyond the Zombie Room
  4. The Mother of the Forest
  5. Hello, Bugfood>?
  6. Next Session

Last session

We rescued 9 prisoners:

From the south door into the big blood room come one snake-bottomed Yuan-ti, two headdress-wearing Malisons, and a Brood Guard. Jerry and Vurguron retreat, but Vurguron is seen by that group. A Yuan-Ti Abomination appeared atop the big statue of the blood room, and it fireballed Jerry and Vurguron as they ran out of the room.

Next moves

We do some healing up. Rather a lot of healing up, in fact.

We decide to split up and flank the Yuan-ti that we know are in the big blood room of the underground temple:

So we stack up, and Ryltar arranges for us to do the thing using Message.

A lot of combat ensues, and your humble correspondent needs to focus on actually running stuff. Key points:

  1. Round 1
    1. The Abomination is gone.
    2. Jerry runs up to the Feathered Malison in the headdress and swings twice, hitting once for 21 slashing. Then she retreats to the corridor.
    3. Sailor Glaive stays in the corridor.
    4. Sailor Quarterstaff stays in the corridor.
    5. Feathered Malison attacks Jerry, failing to have any effect with bite or scimitar.
    6. Red Malison climbs up the ramp of the blood pool and shoots at Jerry twice with a longbow, hitting once for 13 piercing and 9 poison
    7. Vurguron moves through the Silence and attacks the snake-bottomed Yuan-Ti ("Mr. Snake"), hitting it several times with his psychic sword for 30 psychic damage.
    8. Mr. Snake hits Vurguron three times with a Greatsword, dealing 36 slashing in total.
    9. Percival does some Storm Boomerang against Mr. Snake.
    10. Ryltar advances behind Jerry, and shoots some Rays of Frost at Feathered Malison.
    11. Two Brood Guards move into the room, and so do the Human and Goliath Thugs.
    12. Salris enters the fray, jumping over the railing down into the room, and attacking the two Brood Guards with his sword and whip. Black Brood Guard dies. Then he attacks the Brown Brood Guard.
    13. The Goblin, in the tunnels, advances to stay out of the way.
    14. The Child does nothing.
  2. Round 2
    1. Jerry Pops Hunter's Mark on the dude in front of her, critting for 4d10 + 6d6 + 6 = 57, and then she pulls it out and whips him with it again for 1d10 + 3d6 + 6 = 20; he dies.
    2. The two Sailor Scouts advance, and hold their attacks until someone's in range.
    3. Two longbow attacks at Jerry; both miss.
    4. Vurguron attacks Mr. Snake, dealing 14 psychic, 12 psychic, 13 psychic, then Action Surge, 15 psychic, 10 psychic, 17 psychic. Total 81.
    5. Mr. Snake inhales, gaining a Second Wind for three attacks against Vurguron, who Shields. One misses, one bounces, and one crits.
    6. Percival nimbly moves across the battlefield, coming behind the Brown Malison. He Inspires Jerry.
    7. Salris Ray of Frosts the Brown Malison.
    8. The Goliath Thug hits Mr. Snake with Jerry's Longhammer for 11 bludgeoning.
    9. Human Thug attacks Brown Malison with a small weapon, and misses.
    10. Brown Malison attacks Human Thug, who is flanked by Mr. Snake. Human Thug takes two critical hits and another, but only deals 20 total damage. Human Thug survives!
    11. Salris kills Brown Malison, then moves to where he can whip Red Malison.
    12. Human Prophet runs around in the catacombs.
    13. Goblin moved into the blood room.
  3. Round 3
    1. Jerry moves Hunter's Mark onto Mr. Snake, for 23 and 28, killing him. She instructs everyone to look for the big ugly shedding snake.
    2. Sailors Glaive and Quarterstaff look around, and do not see the big snake.
    3. Red Malison tries to run. He takes Salris' whip attack via Sentinel, and can't move. Percival stabs him for 8 piercing, and Salris' whip does 8 as well. So Red swings at Percival with a bite and a scimitar, hitting both times.
    4. Vurguron joins in the crowd attacking Red.
    5. Ryltar Ray of Frosts the Red Malison.
    6. Goliath Thug goes over to bludgeon the Red Malison. Human Thug checks the doors.
    7. Salris attacks the Red Malison, killing him.
    8. The Goblin approaches the dead body, stabs the ankle, and starts looting the body.
    9. Human Prophet, the crazy guy, is still going through the corridors.
  4. Round 4
    1. Jerry and the sailors hear scampering from the tunnels, and murmurs coming from the prostitutes' room. Sailor Glaive goes to have a look, and sees Human Prophet running. She calls out to Ryltar. Also there's a bunch of zombies in one room, and a closed door. Jerry Hears Sailor Glaive, and dashes off to go intercept the Human Prophet.
    2. Ryltar and Salris loot Mr. Snake. They find an obsidian greatsword, 275 more gold, and some snake rations.
    3. Human Prophet is panting pretty bad; it's the first physical exertion that they've had for a while. And they have a forked tongue.

Ryltar catches up with Jerry, and she conveys the idea that the prophet has a forked tongue.

Ryltar goes to Sailor Glaive and asks to see her tongue; he learns that her tongue isn't forked. On further questioning, we learn that the prophet was there before anyone else. He's always been there, always by himself. The forked tongue indicates that he's a Yuan-Ti Pureblood.

Jerry slowly lets him move down the corridors; it turns out that he wants to go to the Zombie Room. He's typically famished. And he's whispering, "Mother! Mother, I hear you!" Jerry asks him what she says. He continues to blather. He is apparently one of those who is Touched by the Forest, by the Jimenju tree.

Percival notices that he can hear the Mother too, a sort of soft anticipation. A restlessness that calls him to action, but he doesn't know why or to what purpose.

So we rearrange our parties:

  1. The stay-behinds:
    • Kid
    • Scholar
    • Goliath Thug
    • Tabaxi
    • Sailor Quarterstaff
  2. The Main Stack
    • Yuan-Ti Prophet Sev
    • Jerry
    • Sailor Glaive
    • Ryltar
    • Salris
    • Percival, thoughtful
    • Vurguron
    • Goblin
    • Human Thug

We enter into the Zombie Room, moist and dank with decay.

  1. Human Prophet runs straight through, passing straight to the door on the opposite side.
  2. The Five Zombies chase after Crazy Guy
  3. Ryltar Ray of Frosts the Brown Zombie, killing it outright.
  4. Jerry rushes up and, not quite close enough for Whirlwind Attack to attack them all, hits three of the four zombies for a little damage each.
  5. Human Prophet tries the door, and fails. It's locked. He turns around and runs past all the zombies, taking four attacks of opportunity, and survives.
  6. Sailor Glaive moves up.
  7. Salris moves up with his held action, and starts Eldritch Blasting with Red Zombie. Red dies.
  8. Vurguron moves forward, Firebolts Blue Zombie, and destroys it.
  9. Percival does some blasting.
  10. The Two Zombies attack Jerry, and deal 6 bludgeoning.
  11. Jerry kills Green Zombie.
  12. Salris kills Black Zombie.
  13. The fleeing Human Prophet is restrained.

We spend a short moment debating paths forward. Ryltar finds a key in the main blood room. None of the keys the Party has work to open the chest we'd found in a room last session, as the chest doesn't have any keys. It opens; there's 500 more gold in that chest. Ryltar pokes in the chest to find a false bottom; no dice. Salris examines the stone urn; he removes the lid and a puff of stuff comes out.

  1. Round 1.
    1. A blast of air explodes out; Salris is bludgeoned by an invisible blast of air
    2. Ryltar slams the lid back on.
    3. Sailor Staff holds an attack against something becoming visible.
  2. Round 2
    1. Invisible pummel attacks Salris.
    2. Salris slashes at the air and slashes out with his whip, dealing a bunch of damage.
    3. Sailor Staff flails at the air above the urn, missing with her nonmagical stick.
    4. Ryltar attacks the same spot that Salris attacked, doing more damage.
  3. Round 3
    1. Salris does some attacking, and tells Sailor to rummage in his pack for the magical longsword. He chugs a potion.
    2. She does so.
    3. Ryltar continues blasting.
    4. Salris gets punched again.
  4. Round 4.
    1. Salris does some more slashing and necrotic damage, and chugs another potion. His second slash does something, and in Auroran Primordial, he hears the word "Fenthaza", which he knows is a name. The wind seems to die down.

Percival pulls a pocket open, and finds the deed to his grandfather's house. "If I am what you desire most, you shall find me," reads the location.

Percival tries to soothe the Yuan-Ti Pureblood Prophet, and has some success. His name is Sev, pronounced 'sev'.

We spend some time trying keys on the Zombie Room Door, and find that the lone key from the Blood Room ceremonial chamber opens it.

Beyond the Zombie Room

There's a sound of softly-lapping water. And two Brood Guard, guarding two boats.

  1. Round 1
    1. Human Prophet Sev runs into the room and begins to prepare the boat, right in front of the Brood Guard.
    2. Percival throws his boomerang at the guards;
    3. Jerry runs into the room and deals 26 to Black Brood Guard, 20 to Green.
    4. Sailor Glaive enters the room to help Sev with the boat.
    5. Salris enters and does some Eldritch Blasting, killing Black and damaging Green
    6. Green attacks Jerry recklessly, biting, clawing, and clawing, landing a bite and claw for 13 damage.
    7. Ryltar enters and kills Green.

There are two boats; we have the Party and Sev rowed over by the Sailors, who then row back to pick up the former prisoners.

We ask Sev if there's anything in the water. "Ras's pet. Heads. Heads. Heads."

We set up two boats:

The boats have cowbells at the front; we still them with fingers.

The river curves around to the right; at the curve there's an embankment that Sev jumps off onto and continues up. We follow.

The Mother of the Forest

The passage widens to a cavern full of fungi. And in the middle of the room is a white tree, resembling a human female, with a gashed chest; milky sap leaks from it. The room has 10 sealed jars, which we assume are full of this sap. And one which is hooked up to a sap collector.

Percival rushes over and starts licking it. "Why" asks Jerry. "Mother's Milk," says Percival. "Y'know, sure," says Jerry.

Percival feels a rush of satisfaction, and accomplishment. It tastes like maple syrup and blood. A warm feeling rushes over him; he feels a clarity that he hasn't had in a while.

He changes back.

"I feel so much wiser. But also, I've lost my appetite for poison," he says.

"Okay," says everyone.

Percival motions Sev forward, but he's already there, scooping fingerfuls from the jar to lick off his hand.

The tree looks like a beautiful woman, and a small weeping willow.

Ryltar asks: Is she conscious?

No response.

He removes the syrup tap, and pours a healing potion over the wound. Nothing happens. After some discussion, we try Mending. But there's unnatural resistance, a curse or something like that. We use 100gp of Salris' 150gp of residuum, in order to preserve Percival's 300gp of diamonds for future revivifications, and he casts Greater Restoration. He's trying to heal the cause of the wound; he sprinkles the powder around the wound and the warm healing energy seeps into the tree. It seeps into the tree. There's something dark in the tree, which this cleaning force doesn't penetrate. The healing glow dies; everything remains the same.

Ryltar begins trying all his other languages, Primordial and Terron, asking, "Can you understand me?"

When we were going to the Ancient Elm, Ryltar found a pair of wedding rings, for the Lord of Ice and Snow and the Lady of the Forest. He pulls them out of a pocket, and looks at them: silver rings, engraved with a pattern that moves from branches to snow and back again. One has a blue gem. He puts them in her hands, which are outstretched. The gem one slips into her hand and reappears on her finger. The other one grows colder.

He picks it up, and says, "Your friend, an ancient elm, sent us to bring you back."

The dim whiteness of the tree glows brighter, as of hope restored.

We debate taking a short rest to regain spell slots.

Sev comes back to his senses, and begins looking around. His rope is held by Vurguron. Ryltar notices, and says, "You have exactly one chance not to die. Are you with us, or are you against us?"

Conversation ensues: he says it was his duty, before succumbing, to do something. He sees the world with a wider view. They used the sap! "Ras says it will bring about his ascension. Cleanse the soul of its weakness."

"Do you feel cleansed, Sev?"

"Yes."

Ryltar looks back at the lady, pondering.

The Sailors return with the escaped prisoners; Jerry tasks the prisoners with keeping watch. She helps them disguise with mud to be less visible.

Ryltar settles down next to the tree, to meditate and try to sense what's going on in her. There's a lack of commonality; he feels energy slowly waking up, but nothing else. He pulls out the Ice Heart of Winter. It's cold. He touches the ring to the wand, and there's a soft blue flash. Soft leaves trickle down from her hair.

The rest of the Party rests.

The ring fuses to the Ice Heart of Winter. It's been a long while since she knew his touch; he is "long since passed," a thousand years or more. The wooden parts of the wand recede; it is more icy than it was.

Ryltar puts the wand in her hand.

Salris casts Remove Curse. With a 26, helped by his class bonus to Charisma saves, and he uses the hand that contains Burning Blood. He pushes that warmth into the tree. His yes are closed, and he hears a scream, and a face appears in the darkness behind his eyes.

He takes 3 psychic damage, and the curse fades. A ghastly woman rears out, pushes him away from the tree. It's a figure he's seen before, in dreams and visions.

The arcana folk in our group intuit that the thing which afflicts her is old, and dark, and binds itself to the very essence of what's afflicted. It's probably beyond our techniques.

Jerry asks the rescued prisoners if any of them are a cleric; the boy holds up a holy symbol. So that's a no. We won't use him, if it was damaging Salris.

But maybe Salris could contact his patron? He pulls out the dagger that he had used to stab his patron, and it's a little tarnished. He decides to meditate, to contact his patron. He sees a flash of vision, reminding him of the stab, and the link is severed.

Ryltar looks up his mycelial knowledge from the Underdark, and learns that these are generic puffball mushrooms, quite poisonous.

Sev tells us that the one who leads all this is "Ras Nisi". He says that "Fenthaza" was the oracle, whom we killed. On further questioning, he shuts up.

We think about other ways.

Jerry cracks open a cypher, a bright yellow crystal which contains the spell Daylight.

The tree's opalescence returns. It's less grey; it's whiter now.

Hello, Bugfood>?

So we use a scroll of Sending to contact Bugfood:

Ancient Evil infests Lady of Forest. Used Greater Restoration, Remove Curse. Returned her wedding ring. How to heal her? Banish the Possessor? Need advice, please.

Bugfood replies:

Get them to some good soil? Nice sunlight. Water them daily. Return them to their home? They must be lonely, away…

Next Session