Session 9 - 13OCT2024

Attendees

• Tim ✅
• Walter ✅
• Erica ✅
• Jin ✅
  
• Nick ✅
  
• Alex ❌
  

Copy/Paste Source: ✅ ❌

Recap to Current Situation

•  We met the Empress. She is pretty sassy when we got her alone. She is going to commune with the forest to calm it down and thinks that the Red Omen is extinct and The Archivist is freaking out about nothing. We have been tasked with finding proof that the Red Omen is back and bring it back to her for her to take this more seriously.
  

Session Notes

• We decide to poke around Gulg for a bit
  
• The city might have heavily integrated with nature, but the amenities are pretty backwater
• We decide to check out the local wandwright - a kind of unusual store
  • "Nichye & Odag's Wands"
  • wands in this context are preloaded with spells, so basically magic for the mundane man
• Erica checks them out and finds that the wands are pretty dated in their magical design
  • After conversing with the shopkeeper, she figures out that this shopkeeper, Nichye, really does know what he is talking about
• Erica decides to buy a wand with False Life (at 2nd level) (gives 1d4+9 temp HP that lasts 1 hr) that has a single charge for 80 gold (we all contribute 16 gold)
• Nick decides to turn invisible to try to watch Nichye make the wand...but it doesn't work as the room is protected against invisibility

• Weather report for Gulg: a little breezy, beautiful temperate weather

• As we leave the shop, we see a royal page that tries to talk to us...but he is extremely nervous
• Nick decides to loudly yell "Tell us what you know about the Red Omen"
• This page asks to go somewhere more private
• We head into "The Ugly Apple's Pub" to chat some more
• The people in here are, true to their namesake, pretty ugly
• After sitting down, this guy is named, Kaeso Crito
  
• He explains...
  • He believes he has some useful information for us
  • ~2 days ride to the northeast, there is a set of ruins that has been reclaimed by the forest
  • He provides us a map/sketch showing the location and entrance
  • He is too scared of curses to go himself
  • He believes that this is related to the Red Omen due to it being kept secret for so long
  • He learned about it because he is a royal surveyor and had surveyed this area as part of his duties
  • Despite previous survey teams in this area, nobody had previously reported it...which scared him about reporting it himself
• Before we leave the town, Nick picks up a freshly cut Gulgian Tulip (favorite flower of his dead wife) and sticks it behind his ear in her memory
• We head to a small town between us and the ruins that Kaeso told us about and stop by a Council of the Few building
• As we enter the building, we find ourselves in that cave again where we previously met The Archivist
• We chat with him and he allows us to call him Nibenay if we want
• We fill him in with our conversation with the Oba
• The Archivist says that the Oba's relationship with the forest is something that she has been cultivating for some time
• When we told The Archivist about the forest telling us about Bashuk Ushat...
  • he thinks it is concerning, but it could also just be a side effect of the forest's extremely long memory
  • Bashuk Ushat - archaic term that would now be translated something like black beast or black mist
  • Bashuk Ushat was trying to return the world to a more primitive or basic state, simplifying things through purging more complex things (like sentient life)
  • Thousands of years ago, the great dragons and followers were able to seal away Bashuk Ushat
  • These signs are indications that the seal on Bashuk Ushat may be weakening
  • Bashuk Ushat, during its reign, did have a soft spot for humanity and found them useful as tools and followers
• We ask his opinion on the ruins that we were told about
  • He thinks it is a decent lead. The location matches up with the location of an ancient city named Gring.
• We decide to head to the ruins

• There is a light drizzle as we head out for the ruins

• We manage to find the location easy enough, and wriggle our way through a hole underground
• Heading further down, we see less natural cave, and more architecture and hallways
• It is very thick with roots and other naturey things
• The architecture seems to have been formed rather than carved from the earth
• It reminds us a lot of the first set of ruins we came across
• We are heading down some stairs and Erica sees some small critters scurry about ahead of us
• We enter a large room that contains a skeleton that is overgrown by roots
• Nick casts detect magic and the skeleton is non-magical while the roots have a faint trace of conjuration magic
• Erica investigates the room's exit and finds that the door can be slid open
• Walter throws the door open and makes a large noise
• We hear shuffling noises grow louder and louder up ahead in the hallway
• Jin decides to use an ability to crawl on the ceiling up ahead and scout things out
• Jin sees a room up ahead that contains a couple of metal caterpillars that are attached to some rope that move out of sight
• Jin enters the room by crawling on the ceiling
  • There are two doors, one straight ahead (closed) and one to the right (open, where the caterpillars went)
• We head to the right, in pursuit of the caterpillars
• We go into another room that has a pedestal. On the pedestal is a gauntleted forearm. The metal caterpillars are actually fingers that are being sucked back towards this arm

• Roll Initiative

• We are attacked by some humanoid creatures wielding clubs dressed in tatters
• Three of the fingers for the gauntlet are still on their way to the gauntlet
• We blast the gauntlet away from the pedestal and it stopped all the fingers in their tracks

• Battle Won!

• Erica decides to check out the gauntlet now that it is seemingly inactive now that it has been knocked off the pedestal
• It turns out to be mundane, filled with a jerky-like flesh
• Jin decides to investigate the pedestal
• In the pedestal is a cavity that contains a contusion of plant matter that seems to have a slow pulse
• Erica does a nature check on the tree-heart and finds that there is also flesh intermingled with the plant matter

• Inside the cave, it is fairly chilly and humid

• We go through a series of foibles as we engage with the tree-heart. We end up taking a bunch of psychic damage and Walter almost loses his arm
• We do a rest where Jin and Nick do a short rest and Walter and Erica do a long rest
• First watch: Nick
  • Hears a lot of activity and movement coming from deep below, not getting closer
• Second watch: Jin
  • Hears the activity start to die down, feels a large thud of some kind
• Jin's watch has ended
• We decide to head deeper
• The odor changes to the smell of rot
• We end up in something that looks like a city square with buildings all around us
• Roots and plants are grown up and ensnaring all the buildings around us
• We run across a standing figure, roughly Walter's size, clad in armor
• Its right forearm is unarmored and looks like it has been torn off of a troglodyte

• Roll initiative!

• After a grueling battle, we manage to win
  

• Victory!

• As the big boss falls apart, the helmet is making noises, seemingly still alive
• Jin tries to commune with the helmet/skull
• He detects that the thoughts are pure, unbridled rage
• When he asks, "Who created you" he gets back one single, clear word, "Myself"
• We decide to bring this with us back to the Empress as proof of the Red Omen
• We stick it in a bag of holding that Erica whipped up
• Options for next session:
  • Go directly back to the Empress
  • Go to the archivist first