Session 30

Fact Sheet Let's get at the root of the problem

Players present: Ecchima, Marty, Meinhart and Vinnie. Tuur was excused unexpectedly. Dins was our GM.

Date: 11-10-23

Date in-universe: the session started on Saturday, Hali played the bagpipes, we reached The Grove shortly after noon on Sunday

Major developments

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Previously session 29 Friendship is magic

Up next session 31 Sing me a song of a love that goes on

Notes

Gasping for breath between rounds, we take stock of the battle:

Czernobog has been using Sangrün’s gifts to collect power in hopes of becoming powerful enough to kill the mad dryad & take control of the portal. Lutiel clearly doesn’t want the dryad to die & isn’t pleased with this devil’s presence in the forest
Defeating several zombies & Daisy has given us new courage
Outside, Fyllion and Cedar are still scrabbling up to the temple, trying to get out of reach of the barghest, who’s now unexpectedly wrestling with the owlbear.

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1. El takes a new position & uses healing light to recover from their single hit point. As soon as they're a little more steady on their legs, El launches an Eldrin Blast at the remaining zombie

2. Hali slams her moonbeam into Czernobog & follows it up with a starry arrow on the devil toad

3. Ezra clambers up to the parapet on the first floor & chooses a new position. Our captain drops the fairy fire spell on Czernobog & activates their hunter's mark. They follow it up with a longbow arrow & Czernobog is angry at the amount of pain Ezra inflicts on them

4. Czernobog curses out Ezra for invoking Taurillon in a Sangrün sanctuary! He tries to siphon off their life energy, but halfway through the spell peters out... as Ezra stares defiantly at them & as Hali's moonbeam fatally fries him! We gape at him as he flakes apart. He grumbles: “fine, free me from this shell, you're only sending me home!”

The zombie and the quasit seem to falter a bit, looking unsure of themselves. The quasit squeaks out "I was just the messenger" and turns invisible. The zombie remains focused on Lutiel, but Lutiel bonks his former friend over the head & concludes the fight.

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Through the portcullis, Bella Swan titters that the barghest is levitating the owlbear in order to interrupt its attack. With supreme speed it climbs up the building, out of sight of Bella Swan. Since she alerted us to Fyllion’s predicament, we hear some scuffling on the roof, followed by some yelping. Suddenly, we hear panicked bleating, followed by a dull thud.

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Silence descends into the dappled light in the beautiful ruin. As we pick up ourselves & our weapons, Lutiel bars us from rushing outside & extracts a promise that we won't plot to kill the mad dryad, not even to control the portal. Ezra speaks up as our captain and points out he should no longer doubt our intentions and morality – haven’t we shown we care about the owlbear, and Frauki the wolf familiar, and just in general we’re here to help the forest. Of course we promise!

Hali heals El from the poison and their major wounds.

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Once outside, we see the owlbear gently floating down towards the ground & on the ground, we see an unconscious Cedar, tossed aside from the top of the building. Ezra goes to check on Cedar, while Storm asks Bella Swan to scout the surrounding area. After a short exploration, Bella Swan trumpets that she saw something interesting : she spotted Fyllion and the barghest moving into the direction of the heart of the forest. Fyllion doesn't seem injured, is he under a spell?

Hurriedly, we debate what to do? Despite Storm’s eagerness to storm off after Fyllion, we’re in no shape for a vigorous pursuit, never mind another confrontation with the barghest and perhaps, who knows, an ensorcelled Fyllion. Lutiel and Ezra decide to:

tie up Cedar before he wakes up, so there's no chance of more backstabbing
allow Fyllion to travel on with the barghest: we agree that there's little chance the barghest can open portals (otherwise it would have left as soon as Virgil abandoned it in the mortal plane) & we're hoping that Fyllion just changed too much & can't access his full power right now so he won’t be able to open any portals either
lead us all back into the temple, since that’s the safest place for us to sleep and recover from this battle which left us pretty beat up.

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Hali explores the temple & finds Czernobog's lair. Somehow he collected a heap of carpets to build a sort of nest... it's all looking pretty grody. There's also a handful of novels & one book of Soliman sermons. Hali finds a mirror (20 gold) and a comb (10 gold) and 90 gold in different coins.

Storm tries to repair the golden dome over the prism. He can shift the segments that are still closed. Though the opening in the ceiling is almost entirely covered by the invasive vines, there’s still enough dappled light filtering down to allow the crystal to cast Soliman’s soothing golden light in the whole temple! Now the segments are open, Storm can see enough of the rusted inner workings to successfully use prestidigitation to repair the mechanism. He’s quietly delighted!

Hali hands over the Soliman prayer book to El, along with the fistful of coins worth 90 gold in order to add to the bank (thank you Vinnie). El immediately puts the book to good use & opens it to a random page, to use the sermon as inspiration for a prayer:

Generous Soliman, you have told me to ask you for whatever I need. You said that if I ask, it will be given. If I seek, I will find. If I knock, the door will be opened to me. I ask you for guidance and direction now, Soliman and pray that you would answer my request. You are a perfectly good parent who only ever gives good gifts to his children. You love to give good gifts to those who ask. As your humble child, I ask for the gift of wisdom today. Amen.

In the dappled light gleaming off the crystal, Storm wanders over to El and crouches nearby, joining them in prayer. The atmosphere is much enhanced by Hali’s melancholy lamentations on the bagpipes, whose echoes in the temple harmonize perfectly with the forest under l’heure bleue… (author’s note: in my mind it sounds a lot like this clip (youtube), which also has visuals that I connect very strongly to the story “the excorism by Emily McBanner” in Hali's backstory (HTML)).

El feels a warm surge of nostalgia (with a DIRTY TWENTY), thinking back to their childhood days in Thalm Samut & Thalm Sashari when they visited the temples with their parents or their friends… Thanks to a NATURAL TWENTY, Storm feels a warmth welling up inside him in response to the prayer, as if he's made contact with a benevolent entity observing him.

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When they see Storm dazed and overwhelmed by the prayer’s effect, El lays their hand on Storm's shoulder & welcomes him to the honor of being seen by a god. Lutiel kind of ruins the moment by reminding us that Czernobog had a point about there being many entities listening for desperate prayers.

Storm seizes the opportunity to ask what happened to Lutiel's idea of acceptable collateral damage. We were the ones who volunteered our help, who saved the owlbear, who freed Frauki the wolf familiar... Meanwhile Lutiel kept pushing on & insisting small losses were acceptable as long as we solved the mystery & saved the forest in its entirety. In line with our principles, our words and our actions so far, it’s obvious that we wouldn't plan to kill the elder dryad of the grove, a manifestation of Taurillon, she has served the forest god for decades & doesn't deserve to be murdered just so she can be replaced by just any random dryad willing to create a new portal… but why would he suddenly worry about this dryad? We’d expect him to argue for her death, if that would turn out to be the most efficient solution to save the forest…

Ezra adds on that such decisions are guided by our Young Kraken code, even if John Magpie has dismissed us from his crew, or renounced his role as our captain… which does seem to suggest that perhaps John Magpie was compromised or compelled into doing unethical things.

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Storm wakes up Cedar, in order to ask if we need to bury Daisy or what we should do with her body... Cedar asks that we bring her to the Fey Wild. Lutiel preserves her body with Gentle Repose, so Storm can put her body in his backpack to transport her.

Cedar bleats Fyllion fell under the spell "suggestion" & we should hurry to free him. He kind of sobs that we had promised we'd return for them & when we took so long to come, he & Daisy felt forced to find new allies: they were all alone in an increasingly dangerous forest where they were waiting for 2 long years for their master & us all as Fyllion’s friends. That’s the only reason they cast in their lot as warlocks to Czernobog… and now his friend Daisy is dead & his master Fyllion is taken by the enemy!

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Before we turn in for the night, we check in on Gladiola, Aqueel and Madonna through the shellphone. According to Aqueel’s report, they've just been vibing: no one is travelling on this road anymore & they know not to rustle the vines into attacking. Aqueel is a little bored & he reports that Gladiola has been reading her books quite a lot. We talk a little longer through Hali & then we all turn in for the night.

As we clean some of Bog’s carpets with prestidigitation to set up beds, we realize why Bog and his minions chose this place: the temple keeps out the elements & the vines keep out any predators.

We all sleep deeply, healing as we rest, but Storm in particular has a deep and restorative sleep, better than he's had in a long time. Under the influence of his previous NATURAL TWENTY during the prayer, his dreams fade away & he finds himself standing in a void - an angel with long white wings stands before him, golden hair gracefully floating around his head. With a cheeky smile and a corresponding twinkle in the opal in his forehead, he turns to Storm. Torn between bowing and supplication, Storm falls on one knee looking up at the angel. He recognizes Eluvelon from the stories at the Rosarian court & from the paintings in the Damanhour shrine.

With a warm voice filled with amusement, Eluvelon starts a conversation:

He’s amused to see Storm so deferential, he wasn’t like that before. When Storm boggles at him “do you know me, wait, do I know you”, Eluvelon grins that all these questions remind him of a conversation he once had the wizard Ghorann in the badlands of Breheima, about how well you can know yourself, and thus other people
At Storm’s continued sputtering “if you know me, if you know us, and if you came to me in a vision, implying you were with John Magpie and Eluviel when we were sent away, does that mean you’ll wait for us atop The Spire?”, Eluvelon frowns it’s impossible to for the Wandering Isle to tarry: enemies and devils and their minions flock to them as soon as they land the city of Lharsam somewhere. He can see Storm knows what he’s talking about, Storm has memories of what happened to Nawa as the aftermath…
Finally gathering some of his wits, Storm explains he can tell from muscle memory that he was close to completing his Züchtungsreise, and he knows we all lost memories we think we held dear (looking at you Saksham & Hali’s compendium pages)… can Eluvelon at least restore our memories? Eluvelon sighs that he can’t just do that. We should keep heading towards Crescent Cove. That’s the one location where Eluviel can let the Wandering Isle appear without risk of invasion: military vessels can’t enter the Crescent Cove, there’s too many sharp rocks
Finally, with another cheeky grin, Eluvelon broaches the subject he intended the vision for: he’s amused to see Storm on his one knee, while Storm was also bold enough to simply take a centuries-old, angelic relic just because it looked like they might fit… before Storm can even blush, Eluvelon continues he reckons we will need it, so he’ll awaken the seraphim boots’ full potential! Impressed by this magical gift, Storm follows up with a question about the necessary magic to control or destroy Virgil’s totem? Czernobog had mentioned it was very possible, but he didn’t give any details. It still feels way too risky to leave the totem behind, even if the temple where we’re sleeping used to be shared between Soliman and Taurillon… Eluvelon nods that infernal flames could destroy the totem: it figures Czernobog would know that. He or Virgil’s other lieutenant the barghest could summon the necessary flames, but are we really in a position to ask them? Eluvelon warns us that it's all very dangerous anyway: the totem, the barghest, any other source of infernal flames we might find... With Virgil we shouldn’t make any deals at all: though he’s younger and less powerful than his father Daeis the deceiver, Virgil remains a Cambian, lethally dangerous!

As dawn approaches and the vision begins to fade, Eluvelon adds one last warning: he’s less thrilled that El is using Eluviel’s mask to facilitate Lunaire’s mission…

Speaking of that mission, Eluvelon warns Storm that a woman fell into the clutches of Lunaire’s vengeance. She’s also hunting the Wandering Isle, and Eluvelon hopes we’ll try to show her forgiveness, more than she has shown us…

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When we’re all awake, Storm shares all the details he remembers about Eluvelon’s visit. El muses out loud about Lunaire’s mission (see the vision in session 16): has this mysterious woman been given the same vision of destroying Eluvelon’s soul by breaking the opal residing in Eluviel’s forehead, no matter the potential risk to Eluviel’s skull…?

When Storm puts on the sandals, he feels their increased power! In fact, this Sunday morning, the first dawn after we actually killed an actual devil, one of Virgil’s lieutenants, we feel stronger & more hopeful than before (we get to level up).

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We decide to travel on towards The Grove, at the heart of the forest. It’s where the barghest and Fyllion seemed to be headed anyway. We decide to keep Cedar tied up. He’s too scared to remain behind, but we don’t want to give him any opportunity. Lutiel grabs Cedar's leash & we walk deeper into the forest.

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Near noon, the forest around us grows more disparate - some trees are charred and burnt, worse than ever before… but there's also more regrowth than before (see IMAGES) with a lot of leaves and buds and even flowers returning…

Bella Swan trumpets, she has spotted something. Storm connects telepathically & reports what he sees:

a cocoonlike structure made of vines, completely entangling the center of The Grove
some shapes moving through the trees, actually stepping in and out the trees, awkwardly hovering in this area. They're 4 or 5 dryads, looking very alien and unheimlich. As far as Storm and Bella Swan can interpret the body language of beings who only have the most rudimentary resemblance to humanoid entities, what with all the plantlike and woodlike motifs they show, the dryads appear uncertain, looking for a way to get into the cocoon.

Ezra and El work together to keep Storm's body safe while he reports what Bella Swan can see. The pattern of the vines confirms what Lutiel had theorized all along: this is the source from where all the vines sprouted!

As Storm mentions the dryads, Lutiel gets angry: “These vultures weren't there to protect their leader nor the forest, but now they're trying to profit, looking to supersede her and ascend to the exalted position of elder dryad and Keeper of The Grove’s Portal between the Fey Wild and the mortal plane!”.

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Storm asks Bella Swan to distract the dryads, but Bella Swan's aerial ballet wasn't very successful (with a DIRTY ONE). As she slams into a tree, one dryad comes over, but as soon as she understands Bella Swan is a spirit, rather than an actual animal, she figures her help isn’t wanted or useful.

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With Bella Swan in his arms to comfort her, Storms suggests we check Hali's compendium. The dryads we met in Maggie’s apple orchard near Lindenvale were like buttercup flowers dotted in the grass compared to these dryads reminiscent of oaks or redwood trees… but the whole point of the compendium is learning about creatures and entities, so it’s worth a shot. After a careful consultation, Hali figures the best strategy is to offer the mirror she found in Bog’s lair as a gift. At a minimum it should placate them, and best case scenario, they’re distracted, like a magpie with a glittering toy. Our hope is to convince them to go away so we can deal with the elder dryad on our own terms.

Hali leads Storm & Lutiel over & leads the negotiations. One of the dryads starts the conversation with us. The others keep trying to wend their way through the vines forming the cocoon, but their attention is clearly divided. Hali is talking with Saylara. Though she's charmed by the gift, she’s clearly displeased to see Lutiel.

Hali develops the strategy we’d concocted: she asks if the dryads could go clean up Bog's lair to help the forest there. We slew the devil residing there & are trying to help out with the infection, but would prefer to do that on our own
Speaking of devils, Saylara warns us that the other devil who’s been haunting her forest is nearby. When the barghest saw that the dryads were on this path, it circled around, looking for another entry. The dryads know there’s no way into the cocoon, but Saylara doesn’t think he’d have given up so quickly…
Saylara is more in favour of granting her sister Lusídhe a swift death, if only she could enter that cocoon… Saylara feels Lusídhe’s time has come & Taurillon is calling her home
When Lutiel angrily huffs that she’s just saying that because she’s the next eldest dryad and stands ready to ascend, Saylara implies that Lutiel (whose name means lover of trees or lover of a tree) and Lusídhe (whose name means elf-lover) have a more personal, even intimate connection, something Lutiel hasn’t shared with us!

In the end, Saylara agrees to withdraw with the other dryads. With a meaningful glance at Hali, Saylara offers us passage through the portal once it's under her control, in recognition of the gift.

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Lutiel is relieved to see they're leaving and reminds us of Ezra's promise not to harm Lusídhe, no matter what Hali seems to have inferred from the dryads.

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Lutiel grumbles that those blasted vines, no matter how invasive, are still plants, and thus bound to respond to his magic, decrepit and depleted as it is… As he makes an commanding gesture, we’re delighted to see that the vines do respond!

Before we head inside, Lutiel takes out his flute and, bracing himself, he lifts it to his lips. As the tones float over the clearing, his familiar, a giant harpy eagle, is summoned to keep an eye on Cedar, whom Ezra orders to wait outside.

Cautiously we step into the heart of The Grove. We see:

a ring of blackened trees at the perimeter of the clearing
a gigantic gnarled tree, which dominates this central clearing in The Grove. It’s completely blackened and burnt
ashy and baked earth
an incredible amount of twisted, pulsing red vines…

The vines are streaming from The Grove’s gnarled tree in thick corded ropes, weaving around the ring of trees and themselves to make the impenetrable cocoon, and then flowing out towards the rest of the forest, forever tangling more plants, animals and passers-by… We’re a little startled to see that underneath the burn marks & the vines, regrowth is spurting forth everywhere. It’s as if the vines have been drinking the forest dry in order to repair this heart of The Grove… we can see where the vines’ barbs puncture the trees or the earth, dark red spider lilies are flourishing. The flowers seem to glow with vibrancy and life in the dim light.

Inside the tree is a huge hollow. It used to be the portal, leading to the Fay Wild, but now it's just an opening into the tree. Above the opening, like a crucifixion, a form is suspended (see IMAGES); half majestic & half burnt. With a quiet gasp of horror, Hali and Storm realize this must be Lusídhe. The vines are holding her 20 foot off the ground, bracing her against the enormous tree. It seems to be just as damaged as her, and slowly recovering like her. As The Grove's elder dryad, this tree was an extension of her. When we look closer, we can see that the vines' barbs have been driven deep into her bark-like skin… would they also be trying to heal her?

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When Lusídhe senses our approach, she blinks her remaining eye open, its cloudy sclera is filled with Sangrün's red:

Lusídhe: numié you're back, it's been a while
Lutiel: My love, I was delayed, but I brought these strangers to help you
Lusídhe: I'm ready to go
Lusídhe: don't say that! You promised, you promised you would live! And I promised to help you, if it's the last thing I do!
Hali: we’re sad for your friend Lutiel, but she sounds reasonable and of sound mind… I’m sorry to say this, but look at her and see her suffering… shouldn't you let her go?
Lutiel: Lusídhe has been my better half for 600 years! We’ve taken care of this forest, side by side, prospering in love and our duty! As the longer-lived species, she’s always, always promised me to carry on after I reached my natural death. I never planned to bury the one I love! I refuse to deprive her of the 200 more years she could live beyond me! And why should she die now? For a stupid promise she made that charmer Fyllion, Fyllion the feckless fay, who isn’t even her patron?? She promised to keep his movements through the portal a secret when he came gallivanting by, with you all in tow! And now you want her to die, because she’s honourable enough to keep her promise despite the torture she suffered at the hands of the devils who were chasing you and demanded information about you?

As Lutiel forces out this last declaration, El is tightening their mask on their face, Hali is shuffling her feet, Storm is wringing his hands & Ezra is frowning at Lutiel’s reasoning: life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans, you know? Change is inevitable, so no plan is ever sacrosanct.

Storm, that blabbermouth can’t keep quiet: Lutiel, did you summon these vines to steal the life force from those you deem undeserving?

Lutiel details his descent: Taurillon didn’t hear my pleas. When I poured all my magic into The Grove, it didn’t help. Look how I’ve wasted away till I have nothing left! Soliman refused me his gift of healing and Lunaire is still indulging her tantrum... None of the gods wanted to help. And then, unexpectedly... a hope beyond hope arose: in my deepest despair, Sangrün answered me. Didn’t I tell you you never know who will listen to the desperate? The equalizer underneath the earth was agreeable to my plan: let’s drink up the lives of the unworthy & redistribute their life force. And then you came wandering by… with gratitude and a little regret (because you've shown that today you're good people, no matter who you might have been before), I accept that your life force and your magical energy are exactly what's needed to heal Lusídhe. Let's get this over with...

Ezra's arm hair and even the hair at the nape of their neck puffs up in fury, but Lutiel's temper matches our mood & the vines respond to his mood.

Ezra snaps that Lutiel took away Lusídhe's choice, as well as the choice of everyone and everything in the forest! He even murdered his colleague, we saw the claw marks on the body! Does Lutiel really think that Lusídhe would be pleased by all this? The gods were clear, and she agrees: it’s her time to move on!

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Several things happen simultaneously:

a flash of fury and protective rage flits over Lutiel's face
Storm sobs we have healers in the party, just untangle Lusídhe from these vile vines & see if El & Hali can help her!
Ezra attacks Lutiel, using their bow
Hali prepares to shoot Lusídhe with a guiding bolt
El has been sneaking towards a new, better position & prepares an El(drin) blast aimed at Lutiel
Lutiel activates the vines who rear up and make a shield protecting him; it deflects Ezra's arrow & the El(drin) blast
the dryad Lusídhe panics at the explosion of violence & flails in the vines bearing her aloft.
several bestial forms rise up from the vines to capture us as a sacrifice to heal Lusídhe, in an act of poetic justice. They're ready to protect their champion of blood.

Lutiel still manages to look sad and disappointed that we don't seem quite ready to help his girlfriend heal. No matter, he promises to make it short: our blood must run in The Grove & he's the man to do it!

Story line

Previously session 29 Friendship is magic

Up next session 31

Images


Sangrün's vines are bringing life back to the scorched heart of The Grove, too bad it's at the cost of everyone and everything in the rest of the forest	Lusídhe, the elder dryad and Keeper of The Grove's Portal between the Fey Wild and the mortal plane, after Virgil's lieutenants tortured her to the edge of death	Lutiel clad in armour made of Sangrün's vines He's wasted away by pouring all his magic into Lusídhe, hence his scrawny frame. Still, his despair & drive to sacrifice us as a cosmic karma make him a dangerous foe