Session 41: Wild Forest Winds Report

General Summary

The party has fought land sharks, and found a way to rest the night. Waking in the morning, Roisin Marshfield gives one of her "patented" inspirational morning speeches, and strangely enough, with the inspiring words and flourishing scarf, the party feels bolstered and ready to tackle this dangerous land. Looking about this wild grassland, the party talked for a bit about the constructed dragon creature seen the night before, and also discussed various options for where to go. They considered the more mountainous route to the north along the river, a more direct route through the middle, or a longer route to the south and the border forests. The northern route is thought to have more of the foul unliving horrors, the middle route was more open and easy to see things coming, and the southern route was less open but also ran the risk of encountering giants from the ancient realm of giants to the far southeast. Deciding to take the southern route, the party headed off to the south. The travel was reasonably pleasant, for such capable individuals. They saw large ruminants, some wolves, a hippogriff taking a wild horse. Nothing concerning to them, but it was clear this was not a settled or safe land. Late in the day, observing another herd of large ruminants, strange animals perhaps 6 foot tall at the shoulder, with massive horns on the males. The adult animals weighing perhaps a ton or more. As they observed a herd of perhaps 600 of these creatures from a respectful distance, they noticed a dragon swoop out of the air to lift four of these creatures in its massive claws. Even from over a mile away the sight of the midnight scales and its lightning breath that fried several creatures, apparently for no reason, caused the party to take notice. They thought about what that might mean, but Cigfran asserted that if they saw the dragon, it saw them and must not consider them worth the effort. Cigfran continued at a brisk pace to the south, but this land was wide open and almost as flat as a pane of glass. As the sun fell beneath the distant horizon, the party considered the best option for where to sleep, believing that being less obvious might be best this night. Roy summoned the wondrous watcher ward, making it appear to be just another small hill, among thousands of others. Within the dome Roy pitched a canvas tent, then cast another spell, before ducking into the tent while muttering "I should just start charging you all, like an inn". As Roy entered the tent, the wondrous watcher ward popped like a soap bubble as the spell ended. The rest of the party followed Roy into the tent, and found themselves in a foyer with a full dining area and seating for six, with two doors leading out. On one side was a fine master suite, and the other door contained three two-person bunks. In the small cooking area within the foyer and dining area pots and utensils were already in motion as an unseen servant began to prepare a meal. The night was uneventful, and morning began with the usual spells and speeches. As the party continued south this day they encountered a strange effect in the middle of this vast plain. Jeeves natural perceptiveness enabled them to notice the odd magical effect, and the party quickly moved to investigate. Looking at this 10-foot circle in the air, they could see a forest on the other side of what appeared to be a portal or gateway to some distant land. Traveling through, the party found themselves in a forested land, just as the portal winked out behind them. After engaging in some paranoid worry about traps and similar dangers, the party began walking to the west, spending a completely uneventful day traveling in this deciduous forest. The most eventful thing the whole day was that a cloud of gnats tormented Roy all day; and nobody else. Roisin Marshfield and Roy , as the shadows grew long, discussed this, and Roisin Marshfield suggested Roy 's blood might be tasty, which led to an odd interchange as both asserted that their blood was not for drinking. Jeeves suggested possibly traveling through the night, but Roisin Marshfield suggested it might be better to setup a place to sleep. Roy conjured a much enhanced cottage as a two story log cabin approximately 20 feet square with a common area at ground level and a sleeping area above. Late in the night the party was rudely awakened by a trio of creatures of elemental air which began to attack them in the sleep chamber. Thanks to Boris' mystical faithful hound, they were alerted to these unseen creatures' approach, and were not caught completely unaware. A fierce battle ensued, as Boris, aided by his mystical hound, and the rest of the party fought powerfully against animate whirlwinds that threw them about the room and shattered much of the furniture. In the course of the fight Cigfran was thrown down the stairs by the whirling winds and nearly died, but Jeeves quickly healed the wound as the last of the animate creatures of air was destroyed. Boris donned his armor and stood a short watch, feeling safer with his armor around him. The rest of the party returned to their beds, and Boris followed about an hour later. Fortunately, the rest of the night was quiet and uneventful. As morning came, the party gathered in the lower floor for a simple breakfast, and Jeeves began a discussion of magical attacks, the high number of mournful bells that ring during a fight with the party. Jeeves mention he had only incidental magical ability, and Roy asserted that is was a joy to see Jeeves embrace magic and the arcane. Jeeves also mentioned he was much in need of a magical weapon, and Roy mentioned he had magic to help with that. Jeeves made the mistake of asking how he would do that, and it didn't take long for Jeeves to find himself completely lost in the rapid dive into the details of advanced arcane theory. Shortly after the party made ready, Roy suddenly turned to liquid and drained away, leaving the party staring in shocked horror. Jeeves randomly told a terrible joke "Knock Knock. Who's There? Gnome One!". Jeeves also mentioned that humanoids are mostly liquid, and Roisin Marshfield asserted that they are just fleshy bags of blood. Boris suddenly doubled over in pain, as Roisin Marshfield pondered if there might be wild magic at play. After a minute of releasing straps, Roisin Marshfield managed to remove the breastplate and reveal a vulture's wing under Boris' gambeson. Roy considered the situation for a moment, and a bright flame appeared above his head for a moment as he realized that The Weave must be somehow unstable in this area, causing these strange effects. Moments later the cottage and a good area around it lit up as a column of bright green light shone forth into the bright sky above. The door of the cottage became a jar, the surrounding area became shrouded in fog, the light began to fade, and Jeeves discovered his left foot would not move due to growing roots into the ground, large, thick, deep roots. As Roisin Marshfield turned around she saw her own badly decomposed corpse laying nearby, and Boris was suddenly sealed inside an oak barrel. Jeeves took his short sword and cut free of the roots, which felt nothing at first, but then, a moment later, hurt horrible as the root stubs began to bleed and Jeeves was forced to quickly bandage the stumps to stanch the bleeding. Roisin Marshfield broke Boris out of the barrel, and as Boris laid a hand on her shoulder to climb out, she suddenly sank neck deep into the earth. Boris quickly dug her out, and Jeeves used minor magic to clean the dirt off, causing his hands to be encased in boxing gloves that he could not remove. Roy laid out a uniform on the ground and spent an hour casting a spell during all this; the uniform inflated and became a person, whom Roy named Bishop, a construct servant who would serve Roy as a personal valet for one month. As Bishop introduced itself, Roy asserted that one day they could have an entire staff of these; each person could have their own valet, all directed by a more advanced foreman, butler, majordomo, or even seneschal. The fog faded from everyone's eyes, and their vision cleared. They started traveling to the west, but Cigfran suddenly grew to the size of a large ogre or small hill giant. Roisin Marshfield felt terrible shooting pain in her hands, and discovered that her magical rings had sprouted needles that pierced the adjacent fingers and now could not be removed. Boris just began running and everyone else noticed Boris head erupted with illusory green flame. Roy used a minor illusion to show Boris how the fire looked, and suddenly all the trees nearby were made of glass. Boris kept running but Cigfran charged in front of him and told him to stop running and just walk quickly instead. Moments later Boris suddenly fell to the ground unconscious and dying. Jeeves ran forward and magically healed Boris, then promptly begged Roy to bite off a finger, Roy ordered Bishop to do so, and Bishop chewed off one of Jeeves ' fingers. Jeeves wept slightly from the pain, then turned and further healed Boris, but then stabbed his friend viciously and nearly killed the halfling priest. Jeeves threw down his weapon and apologized, asserting he knew not why he had done that, and bound Boris' wounds as best he could. Roisin Marshfield, meanwhile, vomited forth 3 gallons of boiling pitch, which burst into very hot flame. A fountain of iron filings erupted nearby pouring out fine iron bits into a massive pile around the fountain, growing at perhaps a ton per minute, a blacksmith's dream indeed. Roy suddenly asserted that they needed to go to a lake nearby, where Roy cast magic to enable all of them to breathe water, then Roy investigated the lake thoroughly, finding only a beautiful red-haired woman seated on a divan in the deepest part of the lake (roughly 100 feet below the surface), weeping into her hands. This woman begged Roy to kill her, to end her immortal life. Roy asserted he had no reason to kill her, so she gave him a reason by striking him powerfully with a sword. As everyone around reacted in shock, Roy used the powerful phasing bolt he preferred, the party drew their weapons, and the group prepared to fight.