4.1.5 DO YOU LIKE THE DISSONANCE?

We've heard some rumors about an odd feeling in the air around Whitesparrow, more specifically in the Whistling Woods. This little makeshift band of misfits is going to go check into it, but not before Mazira gets some food at the nearby Evershady Tavern. This place is great. Where else can you find a tavern built around the wrist of a giant hand that has sprout from the ground beneath? I shudder to think what could've caused that.
 
Mazira, the always hungry one, downs her two meals. While doing so, our waiter Wes confirms the rumors. He suggests we pay a visit to Sheriff Willowmane, whose office is just two doors down from the tavern. Easy enough to find.
 
Ms. Willowmane cares for her town, but doesn't much care for adventurers like ourselves. We make it known that we're here to research and potentially help them rid their area of this odd feeling that has been plaguing them. She relents and admits that sometimes they do need the assistance of outside groups. She tells us she was a soldier for a number of years prior to becoming a sheriff, so I'm sure she can understand the necessity of getting the help of someone outside the area to solve certain problems. She elaborates a bit on the issue they're facing. It seems that for some time, the air has felt a bit ill, but not in the sense of rot and decay. More of an uneasy mind-clouding kind of way. I ask if it seems to come from a certain area, to which she affirms it does. We'll have to use our senses to narrow down the area. She tells us it seems to emanate from the east-northeast, but that she's unsure past that bit of information.
 
Mazira asks about pay for the job. I'm honestly surprised she didn't turn down the 200g she offered us for food instead. We accept the offer of 200g. We thank her for her time and we get on with our investigation.
 
The drow ranger Varkos and his hawk companion Swoop take the lead. Swoop can scout the area ahead and alert us of any dangers unseen from the ground. We didn't receive any warning signals from the bird, so we continued on the old trail we found.
 
Soon after, we began hearing a voice amongst the whistling wind telling us to climb over the nearby log. Mazira zips right on over the log and discovers a tiny sprite lying injured on the ground. He claims he has been attacked by some nearby trees. Now I might not be the sharpest tool shed, but I've never heard of a tree attacking anyone. I ask if perhaps he is mistaken. Maybe he accidentally ran into a tree branch as he flew in the wind. He assured me that was not the case, and that when he got close to a nearby tree, it lashed out at him. Weirdly enough, I don't quite believe it, but I humor him. I ask Karl if he can heal our little friend. Karl asks us to confirm our desire to use his limited powers to heal the little guy, to which we say yes. Karl heals him, and the sprite perks up a bit.
 
He introduces himself as Zephyr, and tells us this area is his home. It's a special place to him because it has a special connection to the Feywild. Most of that connection comes from the great willow, which they call Old Man Willow, a bit further to the east. It's the largest tree in the area by far, and unmissable because of that.
 
Mazira crafts a crude fire weapon and threatens to light such moving trees on fire. At first Zephyr is uncomfortable about the idea, but warms up to it as he would like to see his home returned to its once-glorious and harmonious form. And because "these trees are mean!". Zephyr points to one of the offending trees, and Mazira chucks the fiery javelin at its base. To my utter surprise, the tree responds by uprooting itself and moving towards us! Zephyr wasn't kidding! I've never seen such a thing before. Time to fight.
 
I reach into my Bag of Tricks and pull out a fuzzy thing and throw it at the base of the tree. This time it's a black bear, which I named Baloo. Sounds like a fitting name to me. Taking Mazira's cue, I try to light a javelin and throw it at the tree. However, I am unable to successfully light it, so I just throw the unlit javelin at the tree. Because these trees are infinitely more mobile and dextrous than I thought, I missed. I guess it's time to get up close and personal with these mean trees! Varkos, on the other hand, struggles throughout the encounter to light up an arrow to fire at the other tree. At least he has Swoop to help him out with attacking the tree. Mazira and Karl land some blows on their tree, and Baloo and I do what we can to chop down our tree. Unfortunately, Baloo perishes to a couple hits from the tree, but not before getting a good hit or two in before hand. I hardly knew him. With time, the trees are felled and all is well in the area again. But still there's the deafening dissonance.
 
Zephyr seems grateful that we've gotten rid of the trees that wronged him. We decide to rest for a little while before continuing toward Old Man Willow. Before heading out, Zephyr thanks us again, placing a Driftglobe into my palm in case it can be of use to us on our mission. He warns us that up ahead is a satyr named Thorner who is more "tricksy" than most. We thank him for his warnings, and continue forth.
 
As we push toward the great willow tree, the dissonance we hear and feel is somehow growing stronger. What could have almost passed as singing from far away is now an omnipresent discordant cacophony.
 
Somehow we're able to push forward doing what we can to ignore the noise. Soon we find the aforementioned satyr laughing and having a seemingly one-sided conversation. I chuckle as I approach him, as if I can hear the other side of the conversation. I ask if he's Thorner. He says he is, and after some back and forth, he tells us there are some invisible creatures ahead that would require a certain lantern to reveal. He just so happens to have such a lantern, but he's only willing to part with it if we take part in his little science experiment. Or we each give him 50 gold pieces. Having heard Zephyr's warning, we're none too keen for either, but we give in and inquire more about these experiments. He says he simply needs three test subjects to receive the effects of a magic spell to see what happens. I pull two more fuzzy objects from the Bag of Tricks, and offer up the return of King Louie and another black bear, whom I name Baloo 2: Electric Baloogaloo. Again, it just seemed fitting at the time. He casts his first spell on King Louie. It appears the effect is a beneficial one. Kind Louie receives a shield that randomly changes its properties every few seconds such that it's resilient to a different element. Nifty. He then casts his spell on Baloo 2, who receives yet another beneficial effect such that three times each day, Baloo can summon a random food or drink. Potentially useful. Having seen the beneficial effects of the spell, I tell Thorner I'm willing to be the third, but I instead insist that one of my colleagues be the recipient. Varkos doesn't seem to keen, so Mazira steps up, but on the condition that she'll kill him if it turns out to be a negative effect. The satyr declines her offer of course, but clarifies that he can't control whether the spell results in a positive or negative effect. After hearing him out, Mazira accepts the warning and risk, having seen nothing but good effects thus far. However, as it turns out, the effect she received was indeed negative. Every time she attacks, she has a 50% chance that she will deal some of her weapon's damage to herself. Uh oh. Thorner tries to make a quick escape, but I'm too quick and grapple him before he can make it out. I tell him we had a deal, and to hand over the lantern. He agrees fair's fair, and hands it over without further issue. Before letting him go, I tell him he can go under the condition that he never try such a thing again should our paths cross again. He agrees, and I loosen my grip. He then tells us about some of the things we can expect, and that the entrance is carved out of one side of the tree and can't be missed. He mentions that the pixie in charge of maintaining the proper harmony of the tree has been unable to do so. We've figured that's the case, but at least now we know who to look for.
 
We continue on, eventually finding Old Man Willow. The entrance is indeed easy enough to find. We pass through a makeshift door and head down a set of stairs. Of course it's dark down here, so we light the lantern to help us see, and potentially reveal any of those invisible creatures along the way. However, once we light it up, we notice a mushroom creature known as a Myconid just ahead, and it seems the light is agitating it. We put the hood back onto the lantern and calmly approach the myconid. Mazira tries talking to it, but it doesn't respond. I continue forward towards it, making a conscious effort to seem as unthreatening as possible. Varkos then says he might be able to speak its language. As Varkos calls out to it, the myconid walks toward us, sprouting a cloud of spores around it. However, the spores don't seem harmful. Instead they seem to impart some kind of telepathic connection to the myconid, allowing us to communicate through our thoughts.
 
It speaks slowly, calmly and intently. It thanks us for putting the light out, and says it has been a long time since it has seen a light that bright. Mazira asks about the goings on lately, to which it replies telling us that the pixies have lost control and two of its myconid brothers have been affected by the dissonance. We explain we're here to help, but it's not entirely convinced we won't just simply take the powers for ourselves. We persuade it that we're here to fix the problem, not take it, and that we hope to assist them in bringing harmony back to their land. It seems receptive to that, and says it'll help us however it can. It walks down the stairs toward his brothers, and takes them to the side to get our of harm's way.
 
We delve deeper, lighting the lantern once again after passing by the myconids. Thanks to the lantern, Varkos was able to spot some movement out of the corner of his eye. We were able to pass by some threatening looking creatures that we wouldn't otherwise have noticed.
 
We come across a large stairway leading even further down. We take the stairs downward under an archway and into a large cavernous chamber with rippling water surrounding a dais. On the dais are four leaves, each emanating their respective color in bright light, and the most awful cacophonous noise imaginable. This is definitely the source of the discordance. It's very difficult to push forward, but somehow we do. As we approach, the caretaker pixie responsible for overseeing the great willow reveals herself. She explains that she has lost control of the harmony, and thanks to the dissonance, is unable to remember the order in which the nearby leaves must be hit to properly retune it. That's where we come in.
 
Varkos suggests sending Baloo 2 in to take a whack at the blue leaf, to which I agree and send him in. Baloo 2 hits the blue leaf, causing an electrically-charged wisp to spawn. Oops. I guess that was the wrong one. While defending ourselves from the wisps that spawn with each failure, we eventually figure out the correct order: Orange, Green, Blue then Purple. When each is hit in the correct order, they emit a pleasant tone. Swoop swoops down and pecks the final leaf, bringing about the most harmonious sound, and relief, to the cavern and the entire surrounding area once more. The cavern is now filled with a beautiful, colorful light as the leaves hum in harmony with each other again.
 
The pixie flies over, relieved and grateful for our assistance. She rewards us with some items that will be greatly helpful to us and some coin. We notice a smooth stone section of the wall with what appears to be a keyhole, but we are unequipped to open the lock.
 
Just before heading back to Whitesparrow, he pixie stops us. She says she has a bit of a warning for the future for us. She says "To the west in Skadriel, the Well of Ascension's time is night." Ominous.
 
Eventually we make our way back to Whitesparrow, where Sheriff Willowmane pays us for our service, thanks us, and sends us away with the gratefulness of the town and its citizens.
 
Urithiru, here we come once more.