Session 7 - 21JUL2024

Attendees
Tim ✅
Walter ✅
Erica ✅
Jin ✅
Nick ✅
Alex ❌
Copy/Paste Source: ✅ ❌
Recap to Current Situation
 We researched dragon necklaces, made friends with a single mom and kid, and ended up getting transported to a mysterious place from Erica's dreams...
Session Notes
The figure in this room apologizes for the abrupt way in which we were summoned
He says that we can refer to him as "The Archivist," working for the Council of the Few
He was unaware of us until we started making inquiries into dragon artifacts
When he learned more about us, he was relieved to find out that we were not the other group of mercenaries, members of Red Omen
He asks if we want to do some work for him to work against the Red Omen
Red Omen info
order that existed >3000 years ago
thought not to exist any longer
if it was alive, but in hiding, then it is likely most well informed about artifacts
The Archivist is hoping that we can help go to the Grayogen Empire to ask the Empress (also known as the Oba), Lalali-puy, for cooperation against the Red Omen
He says to ask the Empress, "Are you aware that Rajat still exists?"
He can also help us get into the Empire
Currently the Empire is having trouble with rural villages having their population suddenly disappear
We hand The Archivist the amulet to examine and he says that the Cantrell family history about heroes is likely exaggerated
Upon inspection, he believes that the amulet belonged to Naezo, a dragon heroine that protected the weak with a fiery temper
Her residual magic resides in the amulet
The Archivist thinks that the hobgoblins were being attacked because the Red Omen wishes for hobgoblin extermination (as one of their goals)
We also ask The Archivist about "The One," previous owner of the VARDIS
He says that The One is an extra-dimensional being, history is full of them
Striking up bargains with warlocks to grant temporary power for some future cost
Most beings like this try to remain anonymous, so The One might be a bit different in that regard
In his youth, The Archivist ran across a similar being that The Archivist turned down
Jin asks The Archivist about the Graves family
Investigating birth records, Mrs. Graves is 35 years old, no father of the kids on record
Completely unremarkable
Quest begin: Seek audience with the Empress and collaborate to thwart the Red Omen
Next steps:
Go back to Wudu, say our goodbyes, fetch our VARDIS (and Porkchop)
Head outside of town, somewhere unseen, teleport away to the Grayogen Empire
Doing this, Jin inspects Osulf, the kid, and finds traces of magic on one of his shoes
Jin reads the scroll to use the teleportation scroll
He does a great job and we teleport right to where we were meant to, just inside the border of the Grayogen Empire
We are in a temperate rainforest (think Pacific NW), weather is a little windy with light mist
Our VARDIS is now located on the side of the road
There is some motion ahead of us on the road, with armored humans approaching us
Nick recognizes the banners as the colors of the Grayogen Empire
Walter and Erica are driving the VARDIS and greet the soldiers
We are welcomed by the soldiers due to our paperwork
They want us to help them out with some things and will offer us a payment of 100 gold
The captain's name is Adare Havsa
We are asked to investigate a village whose population recently disappeared
Villages have been disappearing since 5 months ago
New village disappears each three weeks like clockwork
Looks like people just literally disappeared
~30 soldiers in the town
Upon investigating:
The captain says this happened ~3 weeks ago
However, nature has reclaimed too much to have just happened a couple weeks back
The recent growth in the forest show that the tree roots are all growing in one direction toward the town
We ask if there is a map of the empire with the town that have disappeared
The map shows that the towns closer to their border have been effected first, moving closer to the center of the empire
It is clear from arcana investigation that magic is influencing the natural growth here, possibly from a spirit of some kind
Detecting magic reveals that this is due to the effect of transmutation magic
We relay all this to the guards
Bordering countries:
Acium
Whisper of Revan
Cormendia
some other one I missed the name of
Our current plan:
This happens every three week - this village was the most recent one - it happened here ~3 weeks ago
Next village over is ~1 day from here
We are going to head over to the next village and get that village evacuated
We quickly make our way over to the next village over
We approach the city with the message that the villagers are in danger due to a rampaging nature spirit
We ask for volunteers from within the populace to help fight back
Erica tries to persuade the residents to help out, but fails
However, Jin lies to them about being helpful and is able to gather ~10 posse members to help out and get a couple families to skip town (~20 people)
That evening, the weather was remarkably average for that time of year and location...
Jin sets out members of his posse on patrol
After a couple patrol rounds, one of our patrol groups fails to return
The missing patrol last went to the North of the village
Investigating where the patrol went missing, we see drag marks heading into the forest
There is nothing unusual about the trees/roots
We ask the other posse members to rouse the town and gather in the center of town since there seems to be some kind of attack
The group goes deeper into the forest, looking for what caused the patrol to go missing
We are assaulted by a sweet smell and survive a charisma saving throw
We know enough to know that we just survived an attempt to put us to sleep
As Nick asks some nearby roots about what is going on, we are assaulted by some tree people (Blights X6)
Roll Initiative
We killed the blights and Nick is almost dead, but Erica is able to reluctantly save him
Combat ends