C2 Session 16: The Hidden Village Down Below Report
General Summary
16th of Anarire 1545 Continued
The party finds themselves in a fight with some invisible foes. The group for the most part is doing well in the fight but things take a turn as Brin is knocked out and dragged towards the well by the Invisible Stalker. Margaret takes out one of the foes as Brin manages to bring himself round. Jamal finishes the other off at it tries to kill Margaret for killing it's friend. The party decides they are done for the day and need rest. They head back outside and set up camp for the night. They put up the dome and set up some alarms. They start their watches at 9pm where Margaret takes first watch and the others get some rest.During Margaret's watch, Luna sees one of the pseudodragon creatures carefully approaching the ruins. Margaret smiles and nudges Ana with her foot and wakes her up. She tells Ana about the pseudodragon is back. Margaret can't leave the dome, so she sends Ana out of the dome to go and see the creature. They have a brief chat of sorts. It is curious about the group but not sure if it wants to hand around yet. Margaret remakes the dome so the little dragon can join them. Ana feeds it some jerky before getting back to sleep with the little dragon laying down nearby.
17th of Anarire 1545
When Brin is woken up for his watch by Jamal, he notices the little dragon now in their dome. Brin asks Jamal, but he doesn't know much about. It was here when he woke up and Ana was happy about it.At 6am everyone in the party is up and ready for the day. Brin quickly asks Ana about the dragon. She doesn't have the full story since they had limited communication, but reassures them they have here for now and she would be happy if they stayed. They all get some breakfast before getting ready for the day. Margaret ritually casts Detect Magic to help keep an eye out for magical traps. Ana gives the little dragon the choice to follow or stay outside. It follows to the entrance and will stay there. They head to where the icy magical trap was and Margaret is able to dispel the magic now she can see it's location. They move into a new space. The floor has a pit between where the party comes into the room and two visible doors. A set of stairs are nearby heading down to another area. The pit has plants growing out of it. On this side of the pit, there are also three bells which are magical. Luna is sent to look at one of the doors, which has an inscription of symbols on it. Pine cone, acorns and a vial or container with liquid in it. Looking over the bells, they each have a different tree, but Margaret isn't sure which one is which. Ana however can see which tree is maple, pine and oak. They ring them in order of pine, oak and maple. This causes the metal door on the side of the pit to open. They head down the stairs, hoping to find a way round to the metal door. The Eastern room is moss covered and has a swampy appearance. As they traverse the area, Margaret notices some of the plants turn to face the party slightly as they pass. Margaret tries to wave, trying to show that she means no harm, but the feeling is not mutual. Three large mounds attack the party. They hit hard and can take a lot of hits themselves. The party works together, Brin stunning the mounds while Ana and Ubek rain down damage. Margaret ensures their actions are limited and Jamal banes them to ensure they're not being super effect with their attempts to attack. Brin and Ubek are badly hurt by this encounter, but Ubek fells the last mound. With the danger passed, Margaret investigates the mounds. Looking the plants over, they seem unwell. The leaves droop and have a red patches on them that don't match the rest of the plants. It concerns the group. Brin can see that it looks like these plants have been tainted by a fungi of some sort that took them over. Ana uses her wand of cure wounds to do a bit of healing for the party. The party heads to the metal door and look inside. They see there is a short hallway that has stairs heading down to a larger space. Carefully descend into the room. There are a few chests down here and a tapestry on the North wall. A suit of armour on a stand in one corner. The tapestry tells a tale of red haired people travelling from the North to here and how black haired people travelled from the desert to here and seemed to form an alliance of sorts. They decide to leave the treasures for the moment, heading back to the room with the pit and instead going towards the Northern doors. Two stairs go down from this door into the larger space. The corridor to the north is blocked off but before it in the open space is a dying tree on one side and a statue on the other side. The party carefully moves down the stairs and into the room. Ana and Margaret goes over to inspect the dead looking tree. Ana can see the tree isn't 100% dead yet, but it is very close to being dead. There is rot around the place but not on the tree. It's like it is trying to get on the tree. They track the rot to the statue. Which attacks them when they get too close. The statue looks like a fiend with four arms. It's a heavy hitting, badly hurting the party with every successful hit. The party quickly realises their error of not having a short rest after their last hectic battle. Margaret blinds the statue which helps them a great deal with minimising the threat of this statue in combat. Jamal provides some needed healing to keep them all going while Ana, Ubek and Brin do a lot of damage to it through spells and melee. Upon being defeated, the fiend is sent back to it's home plant in a blast of fire which hits Ubek and Brin as it disappears. They check the fungi and notice that it is slowly dying with the fiend now gone. Brin and Margaret can see signs of a broken altar that was with the original statue that was here. Margaret looks for larger chunks of the altar that can at least be placed more respectfully. With Ana's help some of it is able to be moved back into position but it is definitely not fixed. The party checks the blocked off tunnel to the North and send Nyla down there through the gaps to see if there are more rooms beyond it. While this happens, Ana suggests she uses a ritual to look for secret doors. Brin and Ubek accompanies her around the ruins as she looks for these secret doors. Meanwhile Margaret goes to talk to Jamal about the full moon tonight. She promises to stay up and support him. He had hoped one of these ruins might have magical protections he could take advantage of to help save him from the ritual. At this point Ana finds a hidden trap door behind the tree. There is a switch under the bench on the other side of the tree. When Ana pushes it, the stone levitates above the floor, revealing stairs that spiral down around the roots of the tree. After a minute, the stone lowers back down to it's rightful place. Ana presses it again and then moves to look down the stairs and sees another switch. She goes down the stairs to wait for the stone to lower. Brin goes to the seat to find the switch there in case Ana gets stuck. Afterwards she continues looking around and finds that there is a secret door behind the bells with the means to open it also behind the door. So there must be another way to get in. While doing this Brin sees that the red fungi around the ruins is dying now. Nyla comes out and Jamal tells the group about the room beyond seems to have been a preparation chamber for rituals. The group takes a short rest that ends at 8:30am.
- Nothing, since the shade has already been summoned.
- Relocation of the shade in current form to the new summon location.
- Relocation of the spite, which might spawn a remnant with Jamal's body here, as he is in a new body at the summon location.
- Injury to Jamal as he resists the call.
With Ana and Arinn now being somewhat alone, he brings up Ana's bird friend. It turns out this bird is not a bird. Instead is a Simulacrum of her father's. She blasts him so his form is broken and is so angry and embarrassed. The elf is confused and Ana properly introduces herself to Arinn with her full name and title. Since Arinn is unsure if he can modify the memories of the magical creation, he decides to keep him. Peter, the Simulacrum, explains the plan was to teleport Ana away if there was enough danger. Ana and Peter have a conversation and a bit of a cute moment. Ana tries to suggest that Arinn and Karl become friends, but Arinn is unsure of this. He doesn't get along with many wizards as they tend to want what he has, and then he has to get rid of them. Very annoying. At the end of this conversation Arinn gives Ana a nice looking salad, and allows her to leave with it so he could deal with the Simulacrum.
The rest of the party exit the tower, but find no one standing guard outside like they hoped. They walk around to see if they can find where lunch is apparently being served. While they're walking, Margaret suddenly remembers the Pseudodragon and that they should message it, to make sure it's okay and to let them know they are okay. They arrive at a mead hall. A half orc has spit roasted a creature and is just tearing meat off to serve to about 30 people that seem to live in this community. While waiting to get served, they discuss the idea of not remembering this and question if it has happened before, but they have forgotten. Margaret assures them it hasn't as she quickly develops a system to help her realise this has happened. She knows there are spells that could likely return their memories to them, but they do not know them currently. They get their food and sit down to eat.
Ana comes outside with her salad to find no one is outside waiting for her. She wanders around and see a lot of people filing out of a hall of sorts. She heads in and finds her group inside. She sits with them and tells them about what happened. Brin brings up a good point that Karl might send someone after Ana when he realises Peter is gone. Ana is convinced it's fine since her dad is busy with void shit. Margaret prestidigitates a small blade and slices her shoulder once. Brin rearranges his items to be a little off so he knows something has happened. After eating they head back to the tower. They are let into the tower. They wait for Arinn who eventually joins them. They get permission to message the Pseudodragon as long as he can listen in whole they do it. Jamal sends the message, letting the little dragon know they will be back tomorrow. It is worried but will wait. Margaret then asks about the Simulacrum. Arinn reassures her it is still functioning but has been detained. It is unavailable for the day as it is drained, but can be made available tomorrow for discussions. He will allow the girls to look over Peter's spellbook, but he will be keeping it in the long run. Arinn moves on to talking with Brin and looking at his void seed. He identifies it and recommends Cora help the group as she would be the best equipped to fix any unwanted outcomes from the removal process. He offers to fix the problem, but is upfront with the fact it will involve killing Brin. The party asks Arinn about what night looks like here and he explains the crystal will change colour to be soft and darker. Margaret requests a signal for when midnight approaches so she and Jamal can be ready for when the ritual might take place. After that Arinn gets the spellbook for the girls and Brin takes a walk around town. Jamal and Ubek goes with Brin.
