Session notes 1-8-2020

6th day in the feywild - continued
 
The temple-like structure was an interesting puzzle for us. On the body of the Dryad, Ferrum had found a set of rocks, some full glass, others full stone, and two semi glass, semi stone. The different stones seemed to represent the phases of the moon, which were also depicted on the four pillars keeping up this structure. Next to this, four pedestals stood between the central pillar and each of the outer supporting ones, which had a dent in which the orbs fitted perfectly. Inspecting the central pillar, Thalmiir and Ferrum found a set of small tubes in which they could see small lights, aimed at the pedestals with the stones. We thought we had figured it out: projecting the light through the stones upon the pillars, hopefully, to open some door? So that we tried. With light, torches, candles, magic. Until eventually, a combination of the drift globe, sacred flame, and two torches and some thaumaturgy, we made it! A red moon appeared above us, on a roof that seemed to be glittering with stars, and with that, a door revealed itself. Liya picks up everything, and onward we go.
 
 
 
It has been some time since there was a moment to write. A lot has happened. Please bear with me through the following pages. I am actually not sure who I am addressing these journals to... I guess the following parts of this journey must be told and remembered.
Let us start where we left off, as the four of us entered the next room, we were greeted by a lady with dark hair, flowing down in braids over a long green dress. She sat seated on her throne of vines, crystals and plants. The whole room looked like the inside of some giant tree, with immensely high roofs and roots and vines throughout the space. The Queen spoke to us first, about something along the lines of 'have you all come to kill me?' but more dramatic. Being somewhat done already as we were, Ferrum shouted something along the lines of 'the opposite!' and I just continued on that line. However, soon as it was clear we were not threatening her, there seemed to be little to no interest left in us from that point forward. It was only when the staff was fully revealed that she paid us any mind once again. Still, it was only to tell us we could go. A bit of talking later we were told that we could get the iron flask by going up. It was that simple. Well, so it seemed.
And thus four sets of us their way up to long stairs, climbing and jumping the last bits over and through vines to get to the first platform.
 
On this platform, we were greeted by a group of creatures, some looked like mushrooms that had come alive, others like monkeys made of plants of some sort. There was a nice flower circle in the middle, and we were ushered and encouraged to step in. That when they attacked us. We were surrounded and outnumbered. But that had never stopped us before. And thus we fought. Swings were given and taken, strange spores flew though the air stunning us, in return they got blasted and hindered by the elegant spirits floating over the battlefield who guided and help Ferrum. It was not until it was too late that both Liya and I found ourselves stunned, and that we heard a horrible dud of someone collapsing unto the round behind us. Mere seconds later, I heard what sounded like something striking a boxing sack, and then nothing for a short second. As the strange hazing effect wore off, I turned around, were a few feet behind me lay Thalmiir, on the ground, seemingly bleeding out. Quickly I tried to stabilise, while Ferrum and Liya fought off the last two standing enemies. The spell took no effect. One of the monkey-like creatures then stepped unto the body of the now fully still Thalmiir, as we stood behind it. A painful scream in his mind was enough to scare him off, but not enough to wake Thalmiir back up. After the last two creatures fell, so did we fall down next to Thalmiir, and so did the tears streaming down my face. Nothing worked. Strange vines started growing over his body before we could fully understand and had processed what had just happened. We tried pulling them off but shocked as we were we could not work up the strength to stop the vines from pulling Thalmiir into the vines and ground that formed this platform. Ferrum started hacking while Liya and I just sat there, staring at the now empty floor. Moments later we could see through the ground before us, and the floor almost 200ft further down, as Ferrum had hacked through the foliage that formed this level of the tree.
 
After what felt like an eternity, we moved on. Now only three pairs of feet walked over the strange vine-y floors of this place. Part of us, well, part of me at least, wanted to turn back, but the other part knew that if we did that, this would have all been for nothing. In this next room, we were presented with another puzzle. For which, I must say, I had little motivation. Ferrum and Liya kept quite sharp and did their best to decipher what the goal was of the small animal statues that stood on the pedestals and were engraved above the two different doors to the sides. There seemed to be walls of force in front of the two doors that we could see, as we were unable to go through, and the statues that Ferrum threw to these doors also simply bounced off. It was as I was watching this trying and testing of the doors and the statues unfold with a certain amount of aggression that I suddenly heard soft bells behind me. Faint, but very very familiar. I must have looked like a madwoman as I turned around looking for the source and just saw some of the vines burning on the floor. Out of instinct, or simply because of the desire to burn this whole place down, I used magic to brighten the flames, not sure what it would accomplish. Through the now soft crackle of the vines, we could see the plants starting to shape and move into a shape that we recognised immediately: Thalmiir. Now with markings on both his shoulders, he stood there, created of vines and fire. One side of him showed the symbol of Morradin, the deity he devoted his life to. The other side showed the source of the bells: the Bard, who he had spotted in the forest, and had received a small blessing from after playing the flute. A strange collaboration but one appreciated more than can be put down in words. Even though we were very happy to see him, it was clear that this form would not last, which gave this a bittersweet taste. The reason for him returning was, according to him, to aid us in the following steps of this quest. I can only be thankful to the Bard, Morradin and naturally Thalmiir himself for that.
 
Together we took another look at the puzzle before us. The small statues and the pictures above the doorposts. It was by divine guidance, guesswork or luck that Thalmiir figured out how the figures 'worked'. By holding one of them, one could walk through the door which showed a frosty forest on the other side. While passing through, you would turn into the creature of which you held the statue. The four that we present were: bear, penguin, ferret and hawk. We went in the following order: Thalmiir with the bear, Ferrum with the penguin, Liya with the ferret, which left me with the hawk. Somewhat unhandy we manoeuvred our now animal bodies to figure out what the goal was of this task. The surroundings were marvellous, a small glacier showed the way down to a very clear pool of water on a lower plateau, whereas the other sides of this mountain were covered with forests. The skies were clear, and already being used to looking through this perspective with Mina, I simply circled the surroundings. We figured out that we could still communicate, albeit telepathically. Actually nice to have that on constantly I must say!
 
The puzzle consisted of us finding a set of the same statues, but smaller and carved of gems. Ferret found a set of tunnels, which -through pictures- communicated tasks that had to be done, after which we would often find a small statue. The tasks varied from, catching fish, to actually bombing fish, and making a fox fall asleep. We had quickly figured out that the forest was mostly off-limits for both the penguin and the weasel, because of the many thorny bushes and vines that covered the forest floor. Bear and I, however, could traverse there a little easier. After everyone had been sliding down the glacier (which was perfect for that if I can believe penguin), Ferretfound these tunnels and we started on the first task, catching fish. Using Bear and Penguins fishing skills, two fish were quickly caught and brought to the tube that Ferret was in by me. The last one was more persistent however, the fish stayed deep in the water, in a thin slit to avoid being caught. Bear and I had, in the meantime, found a large rock in a muddy pool not too deep into the forest, and from that, we realised that bait was probably a good idea to get this last pesky fish to come out of hiding. Some pushing and worm-catching later, I returned with the catch to Penguin, who after that quickly took hold of the last fish! A first task was completed, and another tunnel opened up for Ferret to make her way in. This provided us with a small statue of a penguin, very similar to the one Ferrum used to enter this 'dimension'. I flew up to bring it back to the room we had found the statues in the first place to secure it, while Ferret inspected the next room in the tunnels.
 
Flying through the door went as fluent as one would expect, once I went through the door I turned back into myself, my half-elf self who cannot fly without magic. Thanks to this, my landing was, fabulous as one would say. No stumbling, rolling or falling at all, just pure grace. But let us put that aside.
 
When I reentered the mountainous space behind the door in Hawk-form again, the following images were described: They showed a fish with large eyes looking angry, exploding. In the tunnel lay a small stack of tiny bombs with large fuses. Next to this, there was some kind of air pressure system I presume, as I was quickly warned that a small bomb would fly up any moment and that I should catch it. The bear was looking for a way to light the fuse and gathered up a bunch of small actual fireflies he had spotted while walking through the forest as we looked for the worms. He had a fire going quite quickly, and before I knew it, I was flying with an actual bomb in my claws. Dropping the bomb back to our Ferret friend, she transferred it using another tube to the penguin who would have to throw it to the angry looking fish. Which, by the way, had emerged from an underground reservoir kind of structure, it had iron bars for it at first, but I picked up something about a button being pressed which feed the fish into the larger lake in which we had previously fished. The first bomb was not successful, but the next one was up, with the fire going, Bear made his way down the slide glacier to help Penguin. With some distraction and with a large bear hovering over the mean fish, another bomb was delivered and forced into the fishes mouth.
 
With that, yet another small door opened, this time, a bear statue, and a new task. Ferret went through and that brought us the price and told us the task: making a fox sleep. This time, a small stack of bottles with 'dreams' on the label lay beside her in the tunnel. Just like the small bombs, these could be sent up and down via the air-powered tunnels. A first test was, accidentally done on Bear, who noticed the effects of the bottle but due to the low dosage, it had little effect. But we had to devise a plan to get the fox. It was too quick for Bear to catch and too large for the others, who most probably would be eaten by set fox. After Bear had hunted after the fox and scared it into its lair, Penguin had found a set of metal pipes, through some of which flowed water. This sparked an idea, perhaps we could send water up into the hole the fox was hiding in. The water would force him out and allow us to drop the bottle on him. However, this plan met some resistance as the tunnels Ferret was in also slowly flooded. Another plan included using Ferret as bait. She did not like that, but it was the eventual plan we went for. With Ferret quick on her feet, Bear hiding behind the tree, Penguin ready to build up some water pressure and I circling the tree while holding one of the bottles, we readied ourselves. It was one quick and swift action, but the fox slept afterwards. Whether that is of the impact the bottle had or the contents that hit the fox's face, we will never know. But as Ferret quickly made her way back down, she found the final door, hiding the hawk statue was open. With the ferret statue from the fox's necklace, we made our way up together. Bear slightly ruining the nice slide the glacier was, but that did not bother us too much.
 
Stumbling gracefully back into the room, we were back to being ourselves. Well mostly then. Being back here we realised how that small trip had helped us forget our situation here for a second. It became more clear as we walked through the other door, from which the forcefield had dropped, as Thalmiir walked through and over the bridge of vines he sort of grew stuck to it. Ferrum lifted him up, after which the wood in Ferrum's body responded to Thalmiir's presence. It a little weird for the two of them.
 
With the four of us together again we took our final steps to the third platform. There, we were met with a surprised and instantly nervous satyr. His nervousness became exponentially worse as Ferrum charged at him, dropping Thalmiir from his back and aiming his axe at the head of the small guy. As he pleaded and we tried to calm him a bit, we decided just to shout and scream at him. It was just the build-up pain and anger that spat out, the previous platform on which we had met seemingly 'friendly' creatures we had lost one of our own. After calming down a bit, and hissing semi-apologies from between our teeth he tried to explain to us that people were not supposed to make it here and that we could rest here. He presented us with a fountain from which we could drink and heal up a bit. Naturally, we did not trust that at all. We let him drink first, and when that proved no results Thalmiir drank first, and we followed after that, keeping a close eye on the satyr. The fountain was what he had said it was and indeed healed us up a bit. When our anger had subsided a bit, we took a good look at one another and walked into the final room where the emerald queen would be apathetically waiting for us.
 
The room was beautiful, as well as the throne. Similar to the first room, build mostly of dark woods with embedded gems and blooming flowers. There she sat, with the staff. After stating our business once again, we were given the iron flask, which Thalmiir quickly identified. However, as he stated that something was inside, and promptly opened it, the once so confident look of the emerald queen disappeared like our fondness of the feywild had in the past hour or so. From the now open flask emerged a large figure, wearing green robes. His skin was fair and he had long pointed ears, and there was a friendliness in his eyes which left as soon as his eyes turned towards the now pale emerald queen. Drawing her sword, we were in battle once again. However, with the emerald King on our side, the battle was quickly over. Two spells from this fey's hands were enough to make the queen fall, but not before she could hit Thalmiir and the already shocked satyr. As her body withered and was absorbed and turn into the wood and vines around us, Ferrum quickly cut off her head. It turned to a bust of wood in his hands, and after a quick inspection, this piece was put into the back of holding.
 
The ease with which this lady had been slain was somewhat terrifying and just made me wonder what this man is capable of. After Thalmiir had dropped the wall of fire he had initially placed around the queen and her throne, the emerald King took his place at the throne he altered with a quick gesture. After he had sat down, the archfey addressed us. He thanked us for releasing him and granted us one wish in return. Now, from what I know of fey and granting things, I was not quite sure what to expect, but to learn that this was in fact the actual Wish spell he offered us was kind of mind-boggling. Asking for anything Anything you want in the world, within, well some bounds, but not many. Wishing for Thalmiir back to us seemed a logical choice! We would not have to miss him! He could continue adventuring with us, look for his sister-in-law and niece and help us in our following quests for the ingredients! But Ferrum did not think it would be well. In that moment, I did not understand why the answer seemed so simple! And Thalmiir was right there! As we were talking, the magic from Morradin and the Bard already seemed to be fading, as he stood stiller and did not answer our questions anymore. Somewhat desperate I turned to Liya to see what she thought, but she too was deep in thought. Ferrum proposed to wish for something to help us in our quest, asking for one of the ingredients to be delivered to Roberta or Siadarnivax. It seemed like cheating somehow to do that, especially the price we would be paying would be Thalmiir life. Conflicted, but convinced that Ferrum, who has experience with actually having been truly dead, would know what it would be like to be pulled from the afterlife back to here, to fight, live and most likely die again. Eventually, we chose to wish for ever-ice to be delivered to Siadarnivax lair in the Saphire mountain, giving us one of the ingredients for the concentration crystal without us having to fight our way towards it. It felt good to have this, but looking at the now wooden statue that was Thalmiir, gave it a bitter taste. Standing there with his adamantine armour on, and the staff that we had gifted to the emerald queen, his self-proclaimed magnum opus in his hands, it seemed like a strange but somehow strong ending for our friend.