Session 13: Druid of Soulsaisir Report
General Summary
Surrounded by unconcious or dead root wardens, Lacy successfuly ties up the remaining three living members and places them at the root of the tree itself. Naomi starts healing Ayame, who sees the pile of bones of sebastian come together with a relieved sigh.
Ragia stumbles onto the scene, looking ill just as Naomi was earlier, so she heals Ragias disease as well. "Look like y'all had so much fun you forgot to pick me up." ragia says rubbing their head.
Eleanor turns to the group, after making her way to the entrence to the root of the tree. "Oy, we're... going to kill that thing those cunts were talking about, right? Sounded bad."
Ayame jumps back onto Sebastians shoulder, while lacy responds. "Not without knowing what it is... Any of you mage types know what they were casting?"
"Mnn...I'd have to check and that'd take precious time that I'm not sure we have. I'm not very proficient in magic that isn't aligned to what my Goddess provides." Naomi says.
Eleanor raises her hand, "This should go without saying but I barely know the basics about magic, I hear that one went to school though" she says, gesturing to Ragia.
ragia turns to Naomi. "Weren't you the one who made the scroll? Wouldn't the scroll tell of the creatures it could invoque?" she says before looking to the battlefield before the tree. "I just arrived, can someone explain what this warzone is about?"
Naomi pouts, "Well I know it was summoning magic. But I can't possibly know how they corrupted and twisted the scroll I gave them."
Ayame pipes up, her tail swishing nervously behind her against sebastians armor. "Ah...I don't know much about it, all I know is its a unique creature, created without a soul."
After a discussion to get their composure together, the players make their way into the roots of the tree together.
The party makes their way into the center of the roots of Willows Reach. Upon entering a chamber, only fourty feet wide at the widest point, they find a few things. First, the cultist that had approached them with an offer of coin just the previous day, his throat cut, and bleeding out onto the ground. This blood is pooling around him in the middle of a summoning circle, brimming with power, with green tendrils snaking up into the tree itself from the floor. Finally, the party sees a familiar face for Ayame as the one remaining figure stands before the portal. An elf, with goat like horns on the side of his head stares at the party. "Do not approach. You cannot stop the ritual now." he says, looking ready to cast a spell at the slightest provocation.
Eleanor looks over the man from afar. "Are you what folks call part of a cult? I hear you're summonin' some sorta monstrous being"
Lacy freezes in place, she doesn't prevent anyone from going ahead of her, but does stare down the druid. "You're the one causing all this trouble... Can't I just sip my ale in peace?"
As lacy speaks, Twine scuttles out from under her feet and starts sneaking along the roots, trying to catch the elf off guard.
"This is no cult. This is vengence. Our people have been hunted and killed for as long as I can remember. All elves are bound to Vitia, and Whisper Elves are closer than all others to the land of our birthplace. Im taking vengence on those that forced us into hiding, and nothing more." He says as he spots the spider on the wall. He sighs and nods. "Even my death is worth freeing my brothers from tyranny."
As soon as he finishes speaking, a spell he had prepped the moment he heard the commotion from outside gets lose, with four wolves appearing before him, protecting him on all sides, but unlike normal wolves, made entirely out of plants.
Naomi notices him getting ready to cast a spell, and counterspells it, while Lacy takes out her chain, fending off the plant like creatures before her, but only managing to knock a paw out of the way, preventing its advance.
A merciless melee between Eleanor, Lacy and the wolves takes place, while spells are flung back and forth, while Ragia seems to be chanting to herself, given the large amount of plants within the chamber.
Ayame focuses on blasting the wolves with rays of necrotic energy, while Naomi casts a few spells to improve Eleanors strength and durability between counterspelling the druid.
Suddenly, tendrils of plants come out from the floor, entangling all of the party and preventing them from moving, while the wolves attack even more vicously, unaffected by the plant life. Ragia, finally finishing her incantation, lets forth a burst of firey rage, where everything but the tree itself in the small room is engulfed with flames, and the plantlife smolders into ash.
Stunned by htis outcome, Wolle transforms into a tiger like creature with large teeth, and an earth elemental plops out of the ground and starts to keep Eleanor at bay, while Lacy tries to trip the tiger into submission, failing due to its size.
"End this sick ritual you petal muncher!" she cries out.
The druids snarl and direct eye contact with the fighter showed his intent to treat lacy as his opponent, fighting quickly while Lacy skillfully dodges the flurry of assaults, but taking a hit from beside her from the elemental.
Naomi, drained and tired from the fighting of the day raises her staff and her holy symbol starts to glow, the light from it flowing into liquid making three glowing spheres of light, which lets forth three rays of light blasting into the druid.
The tiger like creature fades back into that of his mortal form, the druid coughing blood onto the floor, his elemental now powered down, and lifeless beside Eleanor.
Woozy from her spell, Naomi makes her way to her companions and heals everyone.
"It is too late." Wolle whispers. "We finished the ritual an hour ago, in case you -hack- tried to stop us."
"Soulsaisir will grant... revenge." He says weakly looking up at the rest of the party.
"Revenge isn't very good if your dead" Ayame says, squatting in front of his face looking down at him, looming over him.
"Neither is, living..." he says, looking back into Ayames eyes. "When your race are treated as monsters."
The portal behind Wolle does have its swirls of energy still protruding into the tree above the party, and the sound of groaning wood is plentiful in the cavernous root system room.
Naomi frowns angrilly at Wolle, gripping tightly onto her stave.
Eleanor lets out an irritated "snrk" on the elf's comment and approaches him, grabbing him by the collar of whatever he's wearing and lifting him up.
Ayame stands up, sighing. "I think I have an idea on how to close it..." she says looking to the whirling portal along with everyone else.
Eleanor isn't paying attention, and focuses on her own "conversation" between her and Wolle. "Tell us more about this being and whats going on and I'll make your death less painful than what I already had planned."
He laughs. "They chose for whisper elves to be feared, and kicked us from all passages of life, so for 400 years, we grew this tree to make the ultimate weapon, our ancester, solsair. A fallen god, to inhabit the world and destroy our enemies."
Ayame puts a hand on Eleanors shoulder, taking the druid with her other hand. "I know what to do, it's a little risky, but I think I can close it." she says pulling the druid towards the portal.
Eleanor sighs and lets Ayame take Wolle without issue.
noticing he is being dragged to the portal Wolle coughs up more blood. "It is impossible, nothing can stop his advance into the world!" he cries out before coughing up even more blood, his hands stained red.
"Not on my own. Right now, you are a neccessary ingredient." Ayame says stepping into the portal itself.
Eleanor raises a brow and chuckles. "Ooh an ingredient, that's a fun one."
Naomi, shields her eyes to what is about to happen, unwilling to watch such an act.
Ayame holds the druid tightly, giving the party a wink efore leaning herself and the druid halfway in between the portal, leaning to him as if about to deliver a sultry kiss, stopping just a few inches from his mouth, and breathing in. A shimmering thin line of purple and black magic flowing from his mouth to Ayames as his skin starts to pale.
The druid tries to resist the magic as the purple and black of his own soul starts to transfer into Ayame, but alongside that, Ayame can't seem to stop as well. The green tendrils that were snaking up into the tree curve down towards the pair of them, joining into the purple and black magic as the druid starts to shrivel away from being unable to breathe. Ayame has now become a part of the spell, and even those who notice that something is wrong are unable to move her from her position. In fact, their hands and weapons swipe right through her, like she was only a figment of the immagination instead.
The green tendrils wind up, and flow through ayames body, which starts to glow in four different shades of color. White, red, green and yellow, before a blinding flash of white light nearly blinds the party, revealing a slightly different looking Ayame on the floor, next to a mummified corpse, and no magic portal.
"What in the hell?" lacy mouths silently as the ritual finishes.
"can someone tell me what happened? i can't see anything! It was too bright." Ragia whines, rubbing her eyes.
Eleanor was watching curiously for a moment, muttering somethingtendrilssomething before the big flash of light, which makes her let out a yell and she seems as blind as Ragia, cursing "AHG fucking-" and she continues in various incoherent grumbles.
Ayame groans, sitting up seemingly disoriented and a little confused, her skin much paler then before, her confusing banished by sharp stinging pain, quickly removing some of her jewelry, the skin they lay upon seemingly burned. "W-weird." she says with a smidgeon of concern.
Eleanor continues to rub her eyes alongside Ragia. "That was a bit... extra.." "Just a bit?" Lacy says snapping out of her awed state.
Naomi just faces towards the exit, so she doesn't have to see the mummified corpse. "L-let's just go talk to the mayor and let him know everything that happened... I don't want to be here anymore."
After quickly stripping the mummy of valuables, Ayame stands up and nods, with the party making their way to the mayor.
"Like I said, the tree is still perfectly healthy, and everyone is fine." The mayor says to a small handful of wood and high elves talking to him in his home. He notices the party entering and nods to them, when Naomi approaches him first, still obviously shaken. "S-sir...We have good news and bad. Could we clear the room? It's of upmost importance to the safety of this Tree and it's inhabitants."
The mayor looks to the party with a sigh before turning to the inhabitants of willows reach. "I know its not even noon, but please go to your homes and continue on. Keep an eye on the roots of the tree, Ill give a signal if we need to evacuate." he says before getting the party to follow him into his office.
"Now then... What happened exactly?" he says sitting down at his desk.
Naomi places a belt, obviously magical onto the table. "This belongs to the former guardian of this tree. Here is the bad news first. I say 'belongs' but really should have said 'belonged.' He's dead."
She sighs and tears up before composing herself. "That... fool was planning on bringing something beyond evil into this world. He had opened a portal to let the creature in, him and his underlings. The...good news...if there can be any from this mess...Is that we stopped him."
Naomi explains everything other than what Ayame did to the man, while the mayor listens intently.
"I think we stopped him real good too." Eleanor says with a hint of too much enthusiasm.
Throughout the conversation, the mayor cannot help but eye the obviously changed Ayame within his room, but listens overall. "I see..." he says. "This... this is a lot to process but it makes sense..." He sighs, leaning back in his chair, pulling out a piece of vellum, a quill and some ink. "It saddens me that we have lost some of our ground based members of the city, but he dug his own grave." he says while scratching in elven into the parchment. "I don't have any way of re-paying you for your service, since I wasn't aware of the plot..."
"Sir, personally I am fine with no recompense. It's my duty to quell Chaos wherever it shows its face in this realm. Though I do not speak for my comrades." Naomi says nervously. "Ah...I wouldn't mind any books you have about sudden allergic reactions to iron..." Ayame pipes up.
Eleanor nods. "Im not going to turn down a reward," she says rubbing her chin in thought, "Especially in cash, mostly cause I dunno what else I'd ask for."
The mayor pulls out a candle from his desk, some dirt, and lights the candle, continuing to write. "I don't have any sort of grand library here, but that isn't important right now." He says putting his quill down, his scribbling on velumn finished.
"Well its important to me." Ayame says with a pout.
"Tallaut will have the answers you seek." he says, folding the vellum and sealing with the wax from the candle, pressed in by dirt and he holds it out to the party. "Especially since in your version of events, you not only saved a port city from certain destruction, but also defeated an enemy siege weapon that was hellbent on destroying our kingdom. I can't reward you. The queen might do so."
Ayame takes the sealed document. "Oh yeah I guess y'all have some stuff to get done with a god of destruction cult under your feet" Eleanor speaks up before blinking, looking to Naomi. "Queen?" she mutters quietly.
Ragia, still feeling ill, takes lacy's hand and they both go out to drink, uninterested in what is going on in the conversation.
"E-eh?! The Queen?! Really?!" Naomi says before turning excitedly to Eleanor "Basically this country has two rulers. The Queen "rules over the night", from what I've been told."
Eleanor gasps, excitedly whispering back to Naomi. "Ooh that sounds badass actually"
Naomi looks back to the mayor. "But why would the Queen see to us Unknowns, foreign adventurers? Do you hold some sort of sway within the Court?"
The mayor shakes his head. "I don't think that will get you to the queen herself, but it is a letter stating your service to the safety and protection of Gwillith as a private citizen... So, ill let them decide what saving this city was worth."
"I see..." Naomi ponders.
Eleanor nods. "I guess that works, we wanted to move on anyways right?"
Meanwhile in the fresh air, Ragia takes out a slip of paper she retrieved from one of the root wardens, looking it over. "Aparently this is a recipt from a warehouse for stored goods..." Ragia says looking to lacy. "Want to check it out?"
The two agree and make their way to the only warehouse in the city, near the docks at the base of the tree.
They easilly find someone there, who upon being given the recipt, brings out a box, setting it on the counter and thanking them for their patronage. Ragia waits until the clerk is no longer in sight, before opening the box.
They quickly find that inside is a plushie slime of reasonable size, with large 'beans' inside. Ragia is almost small enough to use it as a bean bag chair.
Ragia's eyes nearly sparkle with greed as she takes hold of it, glaring at Lacy. "Mine! You can't have it!"
Lacy raises an eyebrow "No need to claw at it, as if I'd want something as useless and grotesque as that. Move aside" Lacy doesn't wait to push Ragia out of the way and begins digging through the crate. "I'm starting to think aligning with you was the right idea.." she mumbles.
Ragia quickly stores the plushie in her pack while Lacy kicks the empty box in frustration, retreating back to the party with their newfound gains.
Rewards Granted
Slime "Plushie."
Anklet of Translocation
Bracers of Repulsion
1850 GP
Healing Belt
Ring of Freedom of Movement
Missions/Quests Completed
Soulsaisir.
Character(s) interacted with
Wolle, Golv.
