Chapter 11, Session 8: Trouble in the Mountains
General Summary
They told us they know, they know we must go south but not to the oceans...The party knew they had one more day in Aria as part of their extended downtime before returning to their quests and missions and so took some time for themselves: Thordak trained in the woods whilst Olympia and Fen relaxed in The Monkey's Paw and Kodo took the time to catch up with Aeleith. Mimsi and Ez decided to chase up the location of Inquisitor Daigrom/Bizzle, leading to them asking an elderly Gnome in the Monkey's Paw where they learned that Daigrom recently took several prepared meals from the restaurant a couple of days ago and remarking that he was searching for 'water' before leaving, the gnome also revealed that Daigrom had a relatively small scuffle with Lord Alastair as he moved into Daigrom's house while he was away and used Aria law to keep that way. The pair had a relatively awkward conversation with Lord Alastair who was clearly expecting Ez to come alone for a moment of romance, the party head to the house opposite (with Ez promising to see Alastair that evening; leaving Alastair scrambling to find candles). They then visited the house that Daigrom moved to and saw it was mostly unremarkable barring a military precision and neatness barring some worn and patched over inquisitor coats and uniforms. One object that drew their eye, however, was a lockbox at the foot of his bed and, after searching for traps and punching the lock off of the door, the party found within a pile of leather bound books and a pouch filled with citrine gems tinted with green skin and blood. The books each recorded dates of 'leaving' following the day counts since that event, the most recent entry recorded '538 days since leaving, a river has moved location, constantly moving south- something in the water- requisition a boat to investigate. This led Ez and Mimsi to agree that they needed to gather the party and track down this water source before it was too late. The pair managed to gather the whole party (barring Thordak who was in the forest training), Ez cast locate creature on Daigrom and the group began circling around Aria to search for the site of newfound water. As Thordak was training he began to tire and heard the sound of running water, something entirely unexpected to himthat he chose to investigate... The party heard the same sound as they wandered through the forests North-East of Aria and Ez (wildshaped as a wolf) was picking the more and more potent smell of blood and felt it convalesce in the centre of a forest glade where he warned the party of potential danger ahead and proceeded to fall into a pit trap where a waiting goblin (Daigrom) immediately pounced and stabbed him; Ez called for support and Mimsi and Kodo jumped into the hole using their Slow Fall ability where they intercepted the fight and tried to calm the violence which caused Daigrom to stop and hesitate, helped by the fact he recognised Kodo. The trio were joined by Fen and Olympia as Ez also changed back to his Genasi form as they appealed to Daigrom, Mimsi confronted him about the citrine gems and left Daigrom ashamed and embarrassed before she revealed her own gems which seemed to reassure him: the party told him of The Talented and explained Daigrom's origin as a member of The Hook and Knife Foundation and his backstory as an experiment. Calmed and comfortable, Daigrom told the party about the Water Meister that was running southwards and carrying a river with him that would plough through Aria if it wasn't stopped and he immediately tried to carry himself out of the pit and back towards the river, conscious he was badly injured but stating he did not wish to endanger the party who decide to ignore him and join his journey to stop the Meister, citing that they weren't exactly inexperienced when it came to killing monsters. Meanwhile Thordak made it to the top of a random river that seemed to flowing from the air itself, a strange, uncanny and difficult to grasp sight. Around the river he also sees a broken and shattered boat with bloodied planks, a series of drowned insects and, when he stirred the water with the plank, crumbled citrine gems and blood... confused by this and keen to know more, Thordak began to wander down the 'river'. As the main group travelled, Ez patched up Daigrom slightly and saw that the goblins left hand and arm were strapped within a heavy and tight gauntlet that seemed to act as a metallic splint to hold the arm. Daigrom took the time to apologise for stabbing Ez whilst smoking and Ez magnaminously accepted the apology as a misunderstanding. Daigrom then apologised to Kodo for the way he acted in the past in his interviews, expressing that he was suspicious of the pair of them and was desperate to impress The Inquisitors, Kodo accepted this apology and Daigrom then asked if he could interview Kodo one last time, the firbolg agreed as they walked and Daigrom asked what he had done with Lyren Killian as, a mere two days after they both left Aria, the first of the monsters attacked the town and had streadily increased in numbers, strength or size ever since. The party considered staying to investigate this event before realising they would be pausing their search for the Knowing or their assault on Squall's End if they did. Thordak travelled down river and reached the end bank of the water source at the same time as the party, seeing eachother across the river, Thordak was assaulted by a tentacle within the deeper recesses of the water source and thrust into the air and, as he did so, combat started with initiative! The party flew into combat with the Water Meister but soon realised the main body of the creature was hidden in the water whilst it was sending out it's resilient and tough tentacles to fight at a distance and, upon the party getting closer to find an opening, it also revealed several water elementals hiding in it's fast flowing lake. The party attempted to get a foothold in the fight by utilising lightning magic to create area of effect spell impacts whilst the martial characters used the terrain to try and get close. The party also saw Daigrom's psionic talent during this fight as the goblin revealed his gauntleted left arm was entirely coated in citrine to the point he could not move it and instead seemed to use it as an arcane focus and teleporter that allowed him to swap the positions of individual allies in combat. The fight raged on for several rounds until Kodo tried speaking to the elementals and realised they had sentience and so the party paused their combat and appealed to the water meister, convincing it to leave and move on which they managed to do after a time, even convincing the creature that was revealed to be enormous in size to move it's water source out of the way of the towns as it travelled. When the party sought more information, the Water Meister revealed it had lived in the Mammoth Peaks and was warned by a creature up there that a catastrophe was approaching and the only way to survive would be to go south but to not go as far as the ocean as that would lead to their deaths. Watching the water meister leave, Kodo and Thordak decided to stay together in the forest to both patrol and keep eachother company where Thordak expressed his fears around Temptation and the direction the world is going in. With that, Fen returned the party to Aria and they split up for the night... but not before mercilessly teasing Ez who was set for a night time redezvous with Lord Alastair. ;)
- The Water Meister warns Persicorum of the message they were given in The Mammoth Peaks.
Report Date
26 Sep 2024
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