Session 27

Fact Sheet: A dark path in the forest, darkly

Players present: Ecchima, Marty, Meinhart, Tuur and Vinnie. Dins was our DM. We played in person, in Chiro Lips in Lier!

Date: Sat 05-08-23

Date in-universe: it’s still Friday, we’re sleeping in preparation for Saturday

Major developments

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Previously: session 26 goodbye captain, hello captain

Next: session 28

Notes

As the owlbear disappears, we confirm our equipment:

the carpet and Bella Swan are here
Hali has the shell phone in order to contact Aqueel, who has a basic grasp of Common
Chalcedony, Lapis and Madonna with Gladiola and Aqueel.

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Under the thick canopy, the light of the later afternoon already feels like dusk. Lutiel pushes on though - setting up camp, especially if we want to make a fire, needs a very specific setting, so he’s not willing to stop just anywhere. As we travel on, we notice the Fey Wild influences keep increasing: the landscape looks uneven and bizarre. At times Lutiel even has to scout ahead in his bird form.

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As we look around, Hali and El point out that the veins are getting ticker, almost the size of a human thigh. Remarkably, the trees here seem to do better: they have fresh leaves, even though they're still damaged. We also notice that Lutiel keeps communing with the plants and animals, but animals either ignore him, or respond curtly, like Baaloo.

Lutiel theorizes that maybe Taurillon can't counter this invasion, but maybe Fey magic can?

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Bella Swan scouts ahead from overhead, looking for a place to spend the night – several of the clearings Lutiel had in mind, have been invaded, so we must keep travelling further than we’d hoped.

As we travel on, Hali notices that Lutiel turns to give us an assessing glare when some of the animals talk to him. Lutiel doesn’t say anything, so Hali keeps shtum as well.

Whenever he communes with Bella Swan, Storm is blind to his own surroundings and needs help navigating the forest. Fyllion steps up and offers to guide his blinded friend. During one of these moments, when Fyllion sees the others are scattered about a little, he whispers to Storm: “you know that bloodletting dagger you took off Na’Dir? We saw the blood from the vines doesn’t work, but I figured if you gave it to me, I could maybe experiment on myself a little…”.

A beat of silence.

Then, a yell from Storm: “Captain Ezra, he’s doing it again”!

After a confused explanation and some debate, Storm decides to hand over the dagger to Fyllion after all. In the new spirit of openness, we all nod along earnestly when Captain Ezra implores Fyllion to reserve the Dagger of Sacrifice for absolute emergencies only!

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During the debate, El reiterates their idea that all gods are one god. However, the way they word it, makes it sound like they think only one god is truly a god. Most of us are pretty confused, several of us have direct experience with divine magic, and Captain Ezra carries their Taurillon snake Baaloo around… Lutiel just scoffs at that notion, being a druid in Taurillon’s service. Storm does pick up on El’s idea that all gods are different aspects of one god, though, and is quiet afterwards, contemplating that notion. Maybe the world’s current upheaval is the result of worshippers focusing disproportionately on particular aspects, rather than the whole…?

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As we set up camp, we debate the use of fire: fire will keep the beasts away but might attract intelligent predators. After all the efforts by Lutiel and Bella Swan to find a spot relatively free of fire hazards, we decide to risk the trade-off anyway and prepare to divide the night watch:

Hali and Storm
Ezra and El with their increased dark vision
Fyllion and Lutiel

As we prepare the camp, El remarks that Lutiel has a kind of weird voice. Lutiel grumbles that that’s just normal wear and tear after 650 years. In a bout of melancholy, we muse about our former captain’s age. John Magpie is an old gnome, will he ever sound this creaky? And will we ever see him again to hear how he sounds now…?

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We're allowed to make a small fire. The sun hasn't set, but under the trees it's already dark.

Hali makes soup in the pan'demonium
Ezra makes some extra arrows
El asks Hali to ask Aqueel through the shell phone how the care for Madonna goes. Aqueel shares he's been practicing the gargouillade Storm showed him! Miss Gladiola is doing her best to brush Madonna. We reassure El they'll still be the one Madonna loves best, because camels are very steadfast in their affections. When we hang up, we giggle a little over Gladiola’s struggles with basic chores, but we appreciate how earnestly she’s trying.

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As we settle down some more, Storm asks Lutiel about Lharsham, but the old druid doesn't really focus on Soliman. Subsequently it’s no surprise he only knows the city in the north as a pacifist place, whose destruction led to the current warmongering atmosphere. Currently there’s a lake in the place of destruction – people call it The Pit of Tears now.

We get distracted a bit when Lutiel thinks back on his long centuries of service. He came to this forest around The Vale with plans to die on duty, using his divinely given talents till the end, as a final sign of his love for all that grows and blooms and crawls. Rotting in the place you served till you return to the earth is the druid's greatest purpose… but instead he’s forced to face this random adventure.

Moved by his stories and his plight, Fyllion promises Lutiel a song.

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One of Lutiel’s tales stands out: he mentions he recently left the forest to serve crown and country by growing extra trees in The Vale, in response to Prince Mordecai’s war plans to build more ships (in order to sail to Kharkhorin)… that's why several animals are grumpy: they felt he was derelict in his duty to them & now look what happened to their forest?!

Hali pounces on the opportunity to ask why some animals keep pointing at us & Lutiel explains they seem to think our scents are familiar, somehow…

Storm’s the one to bite the bullet and ask when exactly those animals might have smelled us? Was it recently, or more like two years ago? Lutiel remains vague: animals don’t have a very clear sense of time anyway & he didn’t really care to ask. When Storm rebuts that we do care about knowing the timeline, Lutiel merely shrugs & repeats he hasn’t high hopes of us being capable of much of anything, so he hasn’t felt the need to dig much… Didn’t Storm almost die, twice, in the first 15 minutes he met us?

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Lutiel shrugs off Hali and Storm’s questions and turns his attention to Fyllion. He casually asks him how his own portal is guarded.

We're amazed to learn Fyllion has a portal in the Blackwood to the north of the Pit of Tears (formerly Lharsham). Fyllion explains it's where he grew up with Ifykon: we knew that, we knew he was part in this plane, and part in the Fey Wild, right? With varying degrees of confusion, we nod in confirmation.

Fyllion also reminisces a little about his mentor and manny Ifykon: like most satyrs, that guy is crazy, but in a loving way. Sure, Fyllion misses him, but he’s also happy to travel without him, because now Fyllion can finally eat goat cheese. El side-eyes Fyllion the most over this weird dietary choice.

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Casting about for yet another subject, hoping this one will be safe, finally, Lutiel and Ezra bond a little over their connection to Taurillon. A snake made of sand in a humid forest is a sight to behold, after all, even though it’s not exactly the strangest thing one could find in this particular forest where the Fey Wild has such a strong influence.

We settle down for the night:

Lutiel goes to sleep
Hali, Ezra and Storm keep up the language lessons even though Aqueel isn’t here: 11 points for Aquan
Fyllion works on his song for Lutiel

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Hali and Storm take first watch. Suddenly we hear running one set of footsteps, making no effort whatsoever to be stealthy. They seem to head towards us. We also hear voices!

look, there’s light up ahead, it must be a fire
I bet it’s that druid again, he didn’t help us before, what’s he going to do now?
it's better than what you're doing, you're going to leave me, I know.
it's every Fey for themselves

Right as we wake Fyllion (as another Fey) and El (for their night vision), the voices call out "help help, something's behind me". Despite his bedhead hair, Fyllion magically commands them to reveal themselves.

A small satyr approaches, followed further in the dark by a silhouette, perhaps a goblin? They both look a lot less dangerous than we expected. As we’re still assessing the situation, the satyr bleats “Master Fyllion, it's you”! He immediately follows it with a despairing “Oh no, forget I said that”!

Fyllion's wide-eyed stare reveals he doesn't know this person.

The small satyr is obviously terrified of the goblin creeping in the shadows behind him, so Fyllion uses another magical command to stop the goblin from advancing. With his arms linked behind him and a sweetly tinkling giggle, the goblin asks if he is talking to the real Fyllion?

In the confusion between the unknown satyr, a confused Fyllion and an unhelpfully helpful El, the truth is revealed! The goblin chortles he was planning to simply have a midnight snack but now the night is looking up: acquiring this bargaining chip is a lot more interesting!

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Fyllion asks who the satyr is. His only response is a bleat of “oh master Fyllion, don’t you recognize me anymore”?

When the interrogation turns to the goblin, Storm stage-whispers the name Skaravel, but despite Fyllion’s grandiose repetition of the name Skara, the goblin doesn't seem phased.

The little satyr interrupts us to ask us where the powerful members of master Fyllion’s retinue are? He doesn’t see the blind one anywhere, nor the blond elf…? Waking up further, Fyllion thinks to bluff they'll be back soon, but it seems the deception doesn’t really take…

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The goblin interrupts our babbling: “Fyllion, just open a portal, we’ll go meet Morrigan, the queen of this forest. She’s bound to welcome me in her arms when I bring her such an MVP”. At the same time Lutiel is helping us figure out Morrigan is the queen of the Night Court which wants to kill Fyllion, the goblin grins he’s got plans for the rest of us, Lutiel included.

With a frown, El asks him if he’s a friend of the Cambion Virgil? He also always talked about evil plans for us. The goblin immediately snarls: “don't mention that fucking guy, he stranded me here”. El nods that that seems to be a recurring theme with Virgil, but it’s not enough to sway the goblin from his own evil designs.

To add to the confusion, a tiny pixie pops into visibility. She explains that her name is Daisy, the satyr’s name is Cedar and he’s Ifykon’s brother, although she’s not surprised Fyllion doesn’t recognize him – Cedar is entirely forgettable, despite being from the family that has served Fyllion’s family for generations, and Cedar has served Fyllion in particular for just as long as Ifykon.

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Finally losing his patience, the goblin tries to expedite everything: he attempts to magically command Fyllion to follow him, while the rest of us can just sit and wait till his hounds come to devour us. Alas for him, his will can’t overpower Fyllion's confusion.

Immediately El responds with a wild flash of dark energy & Hali shoots a starry arrow. We’re surprised to see the goblin seems to take less damage from the arrow than expected. Several strangely ethereal forms descend from the shadows: they're huge dogs, but with human faces drooling onto the floor. Three yeth hounds (HTML) join the battle!

El snarls “stay away from my friends”, and Eldrin’s blasts one of the yeth hounds. The beast is still taking form, so the blast goes through and doesn’t really does do anything. El follows up with a hex
Storm hurries forward & casts blinding lights, but the goblin and hound C shake it off, their health is too high to be affected. Bella Swan comes to shield Storm. Combined, their elegant movements do distract them a little bit, with dancer’s influence
hound A slinks up to Ezra and bites them with unhuman teeth in his human-looking mouth
Lutiel dances away, looking very wary of the hounds. He still manages to tap Ezra (with permission) and give them stone skin. he also activates his spirit totem in bear form to give us 13 temporary hit points
Ezra puts their hunter’s mark on the beast that bit them. Baaloo reinforces their strike (though not as much as on the veiny vines) and the hound whines in pain
Fyllion whispers in sylvan at the goblin, who’s perturbed and stumbles back. Fyllion apologizes to Cedar & then seeks cover behind the nearest tree
hound B hovers over to El and Storm, and he readies himself: he howls an inhuman screech and horrifies everyone
1. Lutiel, El and Ezra are frightened: in a panic they stumble away as far as they can go
2. the screech causes the veins to writhe in agony or hatred, and their spikes rise up and trap us in this tiny clearing
the goblin rips off his skin and a rhino-sized version of the yet hounds stands in his stead, slavering. El and Storm get an attack of opportunity: Storm’s golden sandals hurt this new shape, as does El’s favour of the gods. The former goblin growls in displeasure & tries to overwhelm Fyllion again, but Fyllion resists. The goblin promises he’ll take Fyllion’s corpse, that’ll motivate the court to open the portal in The Vale from their side
Hali conjures a moonbeam onto the goblin & hits hound a with a starry arrow
hound C swats at Bella Swan, but thanks to Fyllion’s spell, she survives!
Daisy the pixie titters that this isn’t going well! She flies over to Ezra and sprinkles pixie dust on Ezra: "don’t you fucking die, we need you in order to survive". Ezra gains the ability to fly. Cedar is just frozen in panic

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El, terrified by hound B’s shriek, runs into the brambles. Hound B takes an attack of opportunity & bites El: both its teeth and its bloodlust hurt El, physically and mentally. El hexes hound B and launches another Eldrin’s blast, which misses
Storm hits the goblin with his whip, causing a small cut. He also uses his dancer’s influence
hound A attacks Ezra again but they have stone skin
under the influence of hound B’s shriek, Lutiel blunders into a nearby cluster of brambles. He’s hurt a bit, but he casts wither and bloom, sucking energy from hound A and transfusing that energy to Ezra… Lutiel follows it up with a fireball on hound A
Ezra, still terrified by hound B’s shriek, storms off, taking an attack of opportunity and stumbles into the brambles (taking 20 points of damage). Next Ezra shifts into their tiger form and throws their dagger, but the weapon goes wide
Fyllion cuts his hand with Na’Dir’s sacrificial dagger in order to prepare dissonant whispers against the goblin. We see how Fyllion’s blood is sucked into the dagger. Fyllion demands Cedar should help, but he bleats he’s a diplomat
hound B steps forward but misses Cedar
the goblin feels the impact of Hali’s moonbeam to its fullest extent, and aided by storm’s dancers influence, Fyllion’s dissonant whisper “don’t fuck with the summer court, you fucking bitch” takes effect, causing the goblin to take attacks of opportunity from Hali and Storm
1. Hali slashes with her scimitar
2. Storm completely misses the goblin with his golden sandals with a NATURAL ONE
3. the goblin steps back, staring at Fyllion, promising to return at an unguarded moment, he dimension doors away!
Hali moves her moonbeam towards hound B & follows it up with a starry arrow
hound C moves past Bella Swan to get closer to Storm, howling in his face. Ezra and Lutiel are frightened again, but they manage to overcome it enough to avoid running away
Cedar misty steps away, into a tent out of sight of all of us, causing most of us to gasp in outrage. Daisy flies 30 feet into the air, attempting to keep out of reach of the slavering hounds

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El is pissed off and jumps out of the spikes. their Eldrin’s blast is augmented by their rage into an agonizing blast: get away from my friends! They focus on recovering one of their spell slots
Storm kicks hound C who looks displeased. Storm screams into its human face: “Fyllion will pay you 100 gold if you leave”, but the hound merely grunts in reply while Fyllion grunts WTF at Storm
hound A misses Lutiel
Lutiel turns into a bird and disengages, feeling the battle is getting too hot to handle
Ezra can’t see hound C, so though still frightened, they’re not impeded from their actions. They shoot an arrow with Baaloo’s aid at hound B
Fyllion uses thaumaturgy “I’m pretty loud, I changed my mind I’ll open a portal and it would please me to see queen Morrigan again”. Fyllion chooses a new position, notices Cedar in the tent and nods reassuringly
hound B takes a lot of damage from Hali’s moonbeam. It decides to attack Hali and claws at her
the goblin isn’t in another dimension, but we don’t hear anything
Hali positions her moonbeam over both hound B and C. Her starry arrow jabs into hound A and the radiant path of her arrow fatally disrupts the hound’s shadows…
hound C feels the pain of the moonbeam but still turns to El, who decides to retaliate with hellish rebuke
Daisy keeps fluttering in the air. Cedar begs Fyllion to flee with him, these mortals don’t mean anything, do they? He quickly genuflects that it’s not his place, but when Fyllion calls us his friends, a vicious look passes over Cedar’s face: you don’t remember me, but you call these farm animals your friends??

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El uses their last DM inspiration to attack hound C with their sword. We see how slow El moves, they’re very wounded
Storm kicks hound C, trying to distract it from El. The golden sandals hurt, but the beast remains alive
in the shape of a giant harpy eagle, Lutiel hovers of El. He’s looking just as weak as El, but we hope he’s ready to help El should it be needed
Ezra flies over the brambles, picks up their poisonous dagger and shoots an arrow at hound C, just managing to hit it. the hunter’s mark and Baaloo help hurt the hound
Fyllion casts dissonant whispers on hound C… and the hound is done for. Cedar still insists they should go and ditch this new crew: “I guess you were always a little forgetful, master Fyllion, but we are your allies, not this rag tag group of wet bandits”
hound B feels the sting of the moonbeam. Hali attacks hound B several times: she looks quite done with these motherfucking dogs in this motherfucking campsite & obediently the hound perishes
Daisy just hovers, maintaining the flying spell on Ezra. Cedar asks if this is the secret plan, Fyllion snaps back he already said he’s forgotten everything! Cedar blanches and asks, “even your partner”?

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El blasts the last hound again, with their hex: their fury still causes it to be an agonizing blast & the hound roars for the last time, fading from the material plane

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Seeing how badly El is hurt, Fyllion prepares to cut himself again with Na’Dir’s dagger. Seeing his forgetful master futzing about with a suspicious looking dagger, Cedar stops him with a massive healing spell. Obviously, he doesn’t waste it on El, he heals Fyllion, who is barely half as hurt as El…

Completely fed up with this confusion and conflicting information, Fyllion grabs Cedar. Staring into Cedar’s eyes, Fyllion repeats explicitly that he has a gap in his memories. He spells out what he knows:

Ifykon raised him as the hidden son of Titania and Oberon of the Spring Court
They used to live close to a portal near Lharsham, half in the Fey Wild and half in this material plane
the Gloaming Court sent assassins, so he left the Fey Wild to amass enough power to reclaim his throne
During his travels, he befriended the crew of the Young Kraken & during one of our adventures involving Virgil and Eluviel, he lost 18 months of memories, like the rest of us. We’re working to recover them now, that’s why we’re here in these woods.

Gulping down his apprehension, Cedar starts with a hesitant “you’re a lot older than everyone here seems to think: you were born several centuries ago, before Cedar, Daisy or Ifykon were born”. Eventually we gather the gist of this timeline:

Skaravel is Fyllion’s other name, Skara for the friends. Think of it like The Green Lord of Spring as Oberon’s other name
Fyllion fell in love with a changeling. Changelings, a specific race who can shapeshift into any kind of humanoid creature, are typically in the employ of the Gloaming Court, who uses them as a means to prank, trick or enslave humans (in order to use them as servants, spies, courtly artists or, say, surrogate children). Despite their dedication to this essential function, they’re mostly viewed as second-class Fey, a situation which changed dramatically when the prince of the Spring Court elevated one of them to royal status… His recognition of changelings as sentient and worthy of respect and love inspired many changelings to view Fyllion as their patron. There's a vague implication that Fyllion hadn't chosen a patronage yet. The Gloaming Court viewed this a hostile overture against their interests (stealing both their agents and their influence), that’s why queen Morrigan wants Fyllion dead
30 years ago, there was a serious assassin attack against Fyllion. His enemies claim they killed him, his allies pretend he survived and is merely hiding to prepare his counterstrike, we listeners wonder if his body was killed but not his spirit and he had to develop a new aspect…? This might explain why Gladiola seemed to know about “Fyllion the Arch Fey” and why she was so surprised to see him wandering about as a (not so) humble bard…? Fyllion nods that that’s not impossible, but he’d always heard that Fey spirits reincarnating like that do remember their previous lives…
a few months ago, Fyllion’s personal assistant Filavensea sent a message to Cedar and Daisy: Fyllion's cover was blown & he needs to leave the Fey Wild immediately, so can you (meaning Cedar and Daisy) help?
Cedar and Daisy were left behind 5 months ago when Fyllion’s friend with the golden mask teleported all of us away (implying we knew Cedar and Daisy too)

As Ezra and El work hard to calm Fyllion down so he doesn’t scare Cedar to death, Cedar finishes his bleating tale with a flourish: the Viola he mentioned is a sexy blonde elf with big boobs. She travels with Eluviel and Laithe as a bard!

Daisy joins the conversation: “I gather you forget everything & you don’t have your power? Like, why aren’t you creating a portal like you did 5 months ago”?

When a flabbergasted Fyllion wordlessly nods, Daisy suggests we go see Bog, a powerful frog who lives in this forest. None of us know this Bog, not even Lutiel.

Without agreeing either way, Fyllion asks an important question: “Would you Cedar and Daisy describe me as sane”? Cedar tries to side-step the question, but Fyllion clearly understands Cedar is thinking Fyllion is beyond bonkers, forgetting his title, his power, his lover and his enemies, and most egregiously his faithful servants.

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We decide we need rest first. Daisy thinks Bog the frog is about half a day’s walk, living in an ancient shrine of Soliman, from before the time the Fey Wild grew into this forest. Lutiel implores us to carry on with our mission, but we manage to reassure him that the visit will have a dual purpose: visit someone from Fyllion’s past & find someone with the power to help us against these veiny vines.

Daisy twitters that she’s surprised to see Fyllion preparing to sleep. He never used to, he didn’t even meditate like an ordinary elf, being an Arch Fey after all. Before this final revelation can utterly destroy Fyllion’s mind, young captain Ezra commands him to go to sleep. Daisy cringes at the notion that Fyllion takes orders from a mortal, but no one else pays it any mind.

When it’s his turn to keep watch, Fyllion demands Cedar and Daisy tell him all they know about his life. At first, they stick to bland details, like what his favourite foods used to be, but eventually they share several of the rumours (see Fyllion's personal page) they've heard or collected, as well as more personal details. As the stories pile up, Fyllion perceives that he used to be hard to please as a master. He apologizes for that, further confusing the 2 little creatures.

When Fyllion’s watch ends and he returns to bed, Daisy and Cedar seek some privacy at the edge of the clearing, where they argue in hushed voices.

Cedar thinks this version of Fyllion is a lot nicer and they should go with him
Daisy seems more rebellious and wants to dump Fyllion, since he forgot his own plan & doesn’t even seem like the same guy anymore.

Images


Daisy the pixie	Cedar the satyr