Session 25
Fact sheet: worlds collide, with Virgil and Eluviel and Körperwelten
Players present: Ecchima, Meinhart, Tuur and Vinnie. Dins was our GM. Marty was excused.
Date: 19-07-23
Date in-universe: this Friday was almost Storm’s last day
Major developments:
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Previously: session 24 surprises in Yaruda and on The Spine
Next: session 26: goodbye captain, hello captain
Notes
We're still gaping, mouths open, at the Wandering Isle and gawping at Fyllion banishing Virgil. What’s happening?!
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Stumbling over his own feet, Storm hurries to scribble a note Bella Swan can carry to the Wandering Isle "ELUVIEL - WE ARE COMING - THE YOUNG KRAKEN". El suggests showing their mask to Bella Storm, so Storm can ask her to fly to the isle and deliver the message to someone with a similar mask, or if she's unable, just any trustworthy looking person. Letter delivered, please hurry back.
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Ezra asks if we're just going to ignore Virgil’s projection, and what he said about listening in on our travels, and the deal he apparently offered to Fyllion. Gladiola shrilly concurs: first of all, she hired us for protection, not to endanger her by putting a devil in the mix. And secondly, as we grew closer, she trusted us with her family’s deepest secret, namely her magical skill! From there on, the discussion completely derails: Virgil sent his monsters, how come the holy water Sabor prayed all night over didn’t work, why is Fyllion compounding his bad decision with Simeon with a worse decision about Virgil…
In defeat, Fyllion sighs deeply and confesses to his lies: the totem never was in the holy water & he was negotiating a deal with Virgil.
His admission scares Storm who activates primal savagery and cowers behind a fiery-eyed Ezra. El and Hali scold Fyllion: all our confidential information was revealed, and we didn't even know it. El quotes our pirates' code directly, underlining there is no I in "crew".
In despair, Fyllion explains himself: he was just trying to make sure we had every advantage possible, he just wanted to be sure to have a solution on stand-by in case any of us ever needed it.
Ezra takes a deep breath and tries to relax every tensed muscle in their body. With another deep breath, they say: “I'm not angry over your motivations, I'm just disappointed over your actions”.
A beat of silence follows, as we all feel how that lands, both with our friend who told the tale of the scorpion and the frog (see session 18), and secretly with each of us…
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Trying to focus on the way forward, we make a concerted effort to brainstorm what to do now.
Would it be unreasonable to hope Fyllion’s charm has been swaying Virgil enough that the Cambian might give us a ride to The Wandering Isle? That might be our only way to reach the Wandering Isle in time (The Spine is at least one day’s travel away, not even accounting for the mountains in the way). After all, Virgil knows we’ve also got some questions to pose Eluviel, especially since Fyllion reminded us in the previous squabble that we don’t actually remember if we’re even friends with Eluviel or Laithe… Fyllion agrees to try and reach out to Virgil with the totem, but Virgil is just being sarcastic and not helpful in the least. He's not even swayed by the idea of new foot pics now Storm wears the golden sandals of the Seraphim... rude!
That brings us to the next question: what do we do with the totem? We can't just toss a satanic artifact in a forest, especially one that's already struggling with those creepy vines and roots everywhere. Gladiola remains confused. Though a little reluctant, she's willing to offer us a lead box from her magic supplies, in the hope that will block out Virgil’s connection to the totem. After all, we haven’t got any holy water right now… When Gladiola insists the box and the totem are nowhere near her or her dog or her cart, El agrees to carry it on Madonna.
After she rummages in her work station in her cart, she returns with a sizeable box, which she hands over. With the same graceful movement, she presses 100 gold on Fyllion: she doesn't want to owe him anything for saving her and her cargo from Satine and Sahir of the Gilded Blade. In her opinion, Fyllion just proved the reputation of Arch Fey as unpredictable, unfathomable, amoral, weird and wild. Though she doesn’t express any direct ill-will, it’s clear she prefers to not be beholden to an Arch Fey in any way.
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Sleep settles all emotions and time heals all wounds, so:
- Ezra and El head to bed
- Gladiola retreats in her cart, with Chalcedony and an arcane sigil to pointedly lock everyone out
- Hali comforts Aqueel and they go to sleep as well
- Fyllion settles on top of the cart, keeping watch from atop the cart. He moodily stares at nothing, radiating pain and misery
- Storm joins Fyllion in keeping watch. They don't talk any further, but Storm stretches to his full height to reach up onto the roof in order to squeeze Fyllion’s foot as a silent token of support. Fyllion remains frozen & doesn’t respond
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As the Friday sun filters through the ancient forest, we wake up. We see Bella Swan hasn't returned yet. The Wandering Isle is still present. In the morning light, we can see some more details: one spire has been topped off and it was replaced with a garden with several lush plants; this is clearly an artificial addition. What happened there?
Before breakfast, Ezra has a quiet word with Fyllion: "trust is hard to earn back. I know you'll have our back in a difficult situation, but the longer term is more confusing. You'll have to win back our trust, but I'll make sure no one wants to exile you, nor will I let them bully you".
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Gladiola starts breakfast, with the most difficult egg dish Ezra showed her yesterday. Unfortunately, it’s the blandest eggs benedict we’ve ever tasted. Ezra continues the lessons, today's theme is "please include spices in your cooking", while El brushes Madonna after their morning prayer.
She also addresses Fyllion: “What with my evading the royal call to arms and my evasiveness about my true talents, I won't be a hypocrite about to lecture you about lying, but I want to make sure nothing threatens my family or my family's empire. Having a devil know that we have magic is very worrying, especially in these times. Still, as Eladrin and high Elves, we can be civil as long as we travel together”.
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We discuss our next step:
- cut a path through the blockade, just enough so Gladiola can travel north?
- solve the entire issue, as Taurillon appears to desire from Ezra, through Baaloo’s mediation?
We all confirm we do still want to help Gladiola across the Spine, back to Rosaria. We can’t reach the Wandering Isle any faster anyway. As for the vines and roots vs the blockade, we agree to wait and see. The main road leads deeper into the forest anyway.
Ezra picks up a handcrafted braided Taurillon symbol from one of the huts and another holy symbol with two crossed spears in a wreath of thorns. It might legitimize our claims we've been in Yaruda, or should we find a druid in distress, maybe that holy symbol will be of help or comfort to them.
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As we start travelling, the forest gets denser and noisier with animal life, although we still don't see a lot of animals.
Baaloo keeps pointing to one fixed point, which is directly to the east of us after a few hours' travel.
One hour into our trip, the vines and roots start appearing. By the time we've travelled 3 hours, they've overtaken the road. Lapis and Madonna have to tread on them, but luckily, they don't break. El travels on Madonna, Storm uses the carpet to look if Bella Swan is returning yet and Fyllion sits on his own on the roof, keeping a look-out. The others are inside, no one wants to walk on those weird rubbery roots!
By noon, Fyllion notices the air is getting drier, enough to suck the moisture from your mouth.
El realises they have seen these plants once before: it's the same vines that bound Na'Dir's sacrifices to the altar in the Sable Serpent's lair! When El points it out, we shout in revulsion and worry! When El implores us to rephrase the swear “holy fucky shit”, Ezra grins "peepee poopoo". El side-eyes them, but we carry on.
Gladiola theorises that Sangrün is also called the heart underneath the earth. It might make some kind of weird sense that he’d manifest unnatural blood-filled vines in the world… but why? Is he trying to take over? Is this an incursion from the Fey Wild, or towards the Fey Wild? Or are there Sangrün followers nearby who might have created this…?
Ezra groans out loud: “Sangrün followers, really? Will we need to face Na’Dir a third time? How many times can that guy die?”. At the mention of Na’Dir, Storm remembers the bloodletting dagger he snatched out of the sand when Reva Mehrabi let us go (in session 20). Politely he asks the carpet to hover over one particularly gnarly root somewhere in the underbrush on the side of the road. With a shout of warning to the crew, he prepares to plunge Na’Dir’s dagger straight down to pierce the root.
Ready to support the experiment, El takes out their Lunaire's sword. They step off of Madonna and tie her bridle loosely to Gladiola’s cart. It’s a special knot that will lead her along if she chooses, but should she panic, or feel the need to flee, she can shake it off and free herself easily.
In the underbrush, Storm spots a deer, lying motionless on its side. Red liquid pours out of its mouth. The tendrils of the vines have started burrowing into its wounds, under its skin, piercing her flesh. At his exclamation of worry and revulsion, Ezra hops onto the carpet to join Storm and investigate. We can see the carpet is straining with two passengers, one bulky and muscled, the other tall and strong. They determine the cause of death was probably something the deer ate. Maybe it was poison, or maybe it somehow ate needles, shredding its throat from the inside…?
Undeterred, Storm slams the dagger into a root. It pierces without issue and blood gushes out. We can all clearly see this is blood. Any illusions of red tree sap or coloured water are ripped away. A second observation we make: at the moment of piercing the root, a ripple of warning goes out through the plants nearby, and a handful of spikes shoot up. Ezra and Storm avoid them because the carpet is hovering high enough, El is a safe distance away. The spikes look vile though.
The dagger doesn't respond, not even when the channel in the blade draws the blood to the ruby in the hilt. Continuing the experiment, El uses their Lunaire sword to cleave another vine. The presence of another god doesn’t seem to have any impact, as the plant doesn’t respond beyond poking out the same spikes as before. Thankfully El was prepared and they can jump away in time.
Fyllion and Ezra warn us we should stop attacking these vines: don't eat it, don't cut it... this isn't the real obstacle to the travellers.
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As the carpet works hard to carry Ezra back to the cart, Ezra keeps an eye out for the thing that stresses out Baaloo so badly. With their navigational skills and in tune with their sandy snake, Ezra is able to decipher that, whatever it is, is still several kilometres away.
Meanwhile, we’ve all noticed there are a lot of weird pollen in the air, looking like tiny red dots. It feels very similar to the tiny cave where the dead bulette lay (in session 14)... We need to cover the water barrel, Hali is looking pretty sticky instead of her usual dewy complexion, Aqueel is uneasy, and we all have to cover mouth and nose in order to breathe properly.
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In the early afternoon, we arrive at the real problem. It's an enormous red mass that has engulfed the road entirely. Trees and dead animals have been caught in its coils, which are often as thick as Lapis' haunches.
Gladiola compliments our intuition... and wryly asks us what our next step will be? Her own suggestions range from the stash of alchemist fire in her strongbox underneath her cart to a repeated and vigorous application of her diamond-cutting spell, whose effectiveness she’s demonstrated last night on the mushrooms we harvested in Yaruda’s vegetable gardens…
El creates a magical sound of wood cutting in the hopes we can scare the vines away. Alas, the vines don't hear the threat & don't really respond in any way. Storm encourages Gladiola and El to muzzle Lapis and Madonna, just so we’re sure they won’t accidentally eat anything.
Since El’s attempt didn’t result in any changes, we decide to try the cutting – fire is too dangerous with these vines sucking all the water and moisture out of the forest. Keeping the load of our carpet light, we agree to have Gladiola and Fyllion fly closer to the mass with the carpet, while Storm follows on foot. Hali, Ezra and El observe from atop the cart. Peeking between their legs, safely on the second line, Aqueel and Chalcedony look on curiously.
Fyllion sees the mass has entangled a lot of things:
- uprooted trees
- dead animals sucked dry
- an axe slammed into the mass, completely entangled, as if the vines caught it to prevent it from striking again. The owner is nowhere to be seen though
Fyllion hums "shine bright, like a diamond" as Gladiola readies her diamond-cutting spell: she holds her diamond pendant and draws the sigil on a 5ft scale, bigger than we’ve ever seen it. When the sigil is complete and the mirrored effect seems to break the light in a dozen different directions, she launches it towards the mass and all the tendrils and vines are cut! We hear a lot of hissing as gallons of blood splash down from the razor sharp edges of the chomp she just cut out of the mass. As the vines retract instinctively, the whole mass shudders like a wounded animal and a lot of spikes spring out... but we're all still safe, and the hole is substantial. It looks like our first plan worked!
As we celebrate this early success, Hali is the only one who goes pale. She shouts out a desperate cry: the plant matter is rising up into the sky, in a vaguely humanoid form. With a vegetable fist, it slaps at the carpet; this is its true response and defence. It looks like someone messed up the Körperwelten exhibition and jumbled a heap of vascular systems into one giant knot.
As she cries out, we hurriedly look around & see several more of the vine monsters rise from the large knots of vines, though smaller than the one who attacked the carpet. They look unnervingly humanoid, like a vascular system!
The Körperwelten bloody briar hits at the carpet with a NATURAL TWENTY! Fyllion leans in front of Gladiola and takes the full brunt of the attack. He's barely conscious, but he can maintain his position on the carpet (thanks to Tuur's NATURAL TWENTY). Ezra screams that's not what they meant when they said Fyllion had to win back our trust!
1. Hali fumbles her guiding bolt at Körperwelten. She quickly shifts into her starry archer form and looses a starry arrow, which slams into the briar
2. El pats Madonna, so the camel retreats to a safer distance away from the cart, protected by El's magical force. El uses their Lunaire sword, helped by GM inspiration and the gods' favour. They lob off part of the closest vein blight's body (with a NATURAL TEN). El chooses a new position to protect Aqueel.
3. Körperwelten moves under the carpet & reaches up to claw at it. It misses Gladiola both times & we're relieved to notice the carpet doesn't really suffer damage from the blunt impacts
4. Ezra puts their hunter's mark on the vein blight El has just hurt. Their arrow slams into the creature and it looks like it pierced the blight's heart. The plant matter slumps to the ground and one enemy is defeated!
5. the remaining 5 vein blights move in on us! Though they're slow, they’re clearly surrounding us
- one lumbers forward
- one slaps the ground to raise more vines, which entangle Storm
- the next one uses the opportunity and hurts Storm
- the next one also raises vines, entangling El and Chalcedony on top of the cart, while Ezra, Hali, Aqueel and Lapis remain free
- the next one lashes out at Ezra on the cart, but misses
6. Gladiola wraps Fyllion in one of her vortices and drops him in the underbrush somewhere out of range of either Körperwelten or the vein blights. Next, she begs the carpet to flee, they rise higher into the sky, hovering over Fyllion slumped on the ground. Gladiola frets that maybe this attack without planning a defence was a bad idea… but Fyllion retorts “I'm a firm believer in bad ideas” and who can argue with that?
7. Storm rips out the vines to free himself. Next, he combines expeditious retreat with hushed movements, in preparation of rushing around the battle field
8. Fyllion uses healing word on himself, looking a little better. With viscously mocking words, like "your father smells of elderberry" he hurts Körperwelten’s feelings
1. Hali chooses a new position, but the nearest blight manages to grapple her as soon as she moves. Undeterred, Hali calls down a moonbeam, causing the blight to recoil wrathfully. Hali follows it up with another starry arrow, despite the vines tying her down
2. El rips free from the vines restraining them and chooses a new position. They unleash a hex on the blight harassing Ezra & move a little further
3. Körperwelten the bloody briar lumbers towards Storm & slaps Storm with devastating effect. Körperwelten at once engulfs his unconscious body. Storm can't hear, see or breathe.
4. Ezra responds, quickly putting their hunter's mark on Körperwelten. Their arrow makes a DIRTY TWENTY of damage, including a NATURAL SIX, aided by Baaloo's furious sand blast
5. Two vein blights head for Fyllion in the underbrush: one dashes, and one lumbers over to raise vines to entangle Fyllion. Our bard is quick on his feet & manages to evade the plants (with another NATURAL TWENTY)
- one blight moves out of the moonbeam, inviting an attack of opportunity by Chalcedony. The dog bites its head off and manages to kill it that way! The vines entangling Hali disappear!
- one blight attacks Chalcedony but in her fury biting the other one, she evades it.
- the last blight misses Ezra
4. Gladiola decides to help Fyllion back onto the carpet. Aqueel is infuriated but Hali sternly told him to remain up high on the cart, so obediently he limits himself to blasting the vine blight away from Ezra! Those of us who can, praise him for his contribution. He implores them to help Storm. Ezra stammers that they're trying
5. Storm experiences a crushing pressure. The crew can just hear his bones creaking inside Körperwelten
6. Fyllion sings "El El El, you're magic, please save Storm. Please. Please, save Storm, please". El groans they're trying. Fyllion's dissonant whispers slam into Körperwelten pushing the briar towards the cart (see images below)
From over the plant barrier from which Körperwelten sprouted, a harpy eagle appears, looking old but still very beautiful (see images below). He circles overhead and lands on the trees. At his piercing call, an emanation of energy arises from the ground. The totem is shaped like a roaring bear, infusing us all with extra hit points (except Storm).
1. Hali carefully aims her moonbeam, so it is set to hurt Körperwelten and one blight. She also shoots another starry arrow at Körperwelten
2. El orders Ezra to open up Körperwelten and gets ready to help Storm
3. Körperwelten feels the sting of the moonbeam & steps away. The briar takes aim at Aqueel, but Ezra pushes him back roughly and takes one of the hits. The other misses
4. Ezra shifts into their tiger form & with their poison dagger they start to cut Storm free. Their damage stacks: hunter's mark, plus slashing dagger, plus poison from the dagger, plus Baaloo's help! Together they manage to make a hole, so everyone can see Storm
5. El runs towards Körperwelten, but they don't manage to drag Storm out... Luckily Ezra drives their claws into Storm and helps drag him out. El can heal Storm!
6. The vein blight moves out of the moonbeam and lashes at Ezra, who's now grappled and restrained
- the next one targets Hali and also grapples her
- 2 of the blights close in on Lapis!
4. Gladiola is worried about Lapis & vortex wraps her far away. Aqueel hides in the cart! Chalcedony struggles free from the vines constricting her and growls at the blight threatening Hali
5. Blinking the stars out of his eyes, Storm tosses Ridwan's vial of alchemist fire into Körperwelten. The plant matter tangled up in its vascular system is incinerated but the vines don't really seem affected. Has Storm created a sort of hellfire golem??
6. Fyllion launches another dissonant whispers. When Körperwelten tries to flee, it heavily rocks the cart. Aqueel squeals from inside but luckily no one falls off. Thanks to Fyllion's intervention, El can slash at it (with a NATURAL TWENTY) and Storm gives a healthy kick. Fyllion gives Hali an inspiration
The harpy eagle flies to another tree but decides that the bear totem is the best aid he can render, so doesn't do anything else.
1. Hali fails to struggle free, despite the encouraging roars of the bear totem. She still shoots a starry arrow
2. Körperwelten lumbers back to Storm and though one arm misses him, the other knocks Storm unconscious again, despite another NATURAL FOUR from the alchemist fire
3. Ezra doesn't manage to get free, but still manages to slam their dagger into the blight restraining them. Unfortunately, this time Baaloo only manages a NATURAL ONE
4. El chooses a new position, evading the attack of opportunity. They blast an Eldrin's blast at the blight wrestling with Ezra. Then they quickly heal Storm a tiny bit.
5. One blight attacks Hali and hurts her, one blight misses Chalcedony and one blight restrains Ezra again.
6. Chalcedony bites the closest blight. We hear Aqueel whimper softly from inside the cart. Gladiola activates a cloud of flying daggers onto Körperwelten, causing it to rock back a little, looking rather hurt now.
7. Storm disengages & manages to get some distance, finally feeling a little safer
8. Fyllion pushes another dissonant whispers at Körperwelten, causing it to move out of Gladiola’s cloud of daggers
The ancient harpy eagle flies over to Storm and as he lands, he reverts into the shape of a very old but very noble looking wood Elf. Taking in Storm's bruises and cuts and blood splatters everywhere, he grumpily heals Storm, with the words "you never should have come here".
Images
| a map showing the distance between Yaruda and the Wandering Isle is almost the same as the distance we travelled from Damanhour | Dins' battlemap with the vein blights surrounding us & Körperwelten threatening to knock over the cart | the harpy eagle who's helping us in the battle by manifesting a bear totem. He came flying in from beyond the barrier of Sangrün vines |
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| the harpy eagle's Elven form | As a bonus, Dins shared a bratty Gladiola when she was several decades younger | |
