Chapter 5, Session 7: Witches, Gnomes and Dust
General Summary
Trick or treat bitch! Now give me some... uhh... nevermind...The party started the session face to face with a witch who belonged to The Unwaking and revealed they knew the party were watching her. Standing up to her full height of 9'2", Cathildra asked the party who they are with a hungry and animalistic desire in her eyes... upon learning the group were Persicorum she quickly changed her tone and offered them accommodation for the night, claiming that she respected them for killing the coven of The Feywild hags they faced in The Mammoth Peaks. The party reluctantly agreed to be escorted to a temporary shelter and to meet Cathildra's 'family', they were led to a cave in a snowy, ice-covered clearing and within the cave they met two other Unwaking witches, one named Daria and another named Mother Mordred who was described as the Matriarch of the clan despite looking significantly younger than the other witches encountered. They greeted Persicorum and told them they were welcome to stay the night and make use of their libraries for their stay... as well as alluding to the fact Cathildra had work she was interested in asking them to do. Thordak, Fen and Mimsi took Mordred up on her offer of accessing her library for research whilst Kodo and Anastasia took part in rest and relaxation and Bazzle and Olympia spoke with the witches as they seemed interested in them, Bazzle expressed his concerns to Kodo after his meeting as the witches asked him to stay with them and they also asked if they could investigate the jewel in his eye more closely. Kodo advised Bazzle to tread carefully but did remind him that he would be protected. The library crew were led by Mordred to her stores of knowledge which were fairly impressive for the party, whilst alone with her, they asked Mordred some questions about the Unwaking coven and they explained what they were researching. With Mimsi explaining that she was searching for something that would interest her, Thordak explained he was searching on information about The True Victory and the true heroes as well as information on The Hunt whilst Fen told Mordred he was searching for more information on The Grimoires and Dashilla the Dark Queen. Upon being told about Dashilla, Mordred revealed that she regarded the fey as a deep enemy and was desperate for her to remain tethered to the Feywild by her own deals... she hated Dashilla after the creature killed one of the Unwaking Coven and claimed their soul so that they could not return to life. As a result, Mordred forever holds a hatred for Dashilla and explains to the party that, if they are right, Dashilla will destroy Alturis if she returns to it... she then promises to give Fen full access to information on Dashilla from her library. With that, left by Mordred for a couple of the hours. The three begin searching the library, with Fen finding books on the Grimoire's by Rowen Ashe, the former Judge of The Dread King and the mage that murdered Fen's father. Fen also finds a weatherbeaten journal by an unwitting MAGUS student who bought a Grimoire and had their life unravelled as a result... a book Fen took a deep interest in for the story it told. He also found a book on Dashilla called 'Dashilla and the Tying' as he read it he found it detailed the life of a Fey Winter Court queen who attempted, through trickery and subterfuge, to rule all other courts and dominate the feywild in their own manner... upon being discovered, this archfey (Dashilla) was punished and became a darkling trapped in the material plane, specifically the land of Alturis during the reign of the Dread King. During this time, Dashilla survived by scheming for power and forming contracts and warlock pacts... eventually this brought her across the True Heroes where she bargained with them, offering assistance in exchange for the Dread King's Crown which the party delivered on. Taking the crown, Dashilla returned to the Feywild and, using an enemy from another plane to distract her guard and chaperone Proto Dashilla used her newfound power to destroy the creatures of the Feywild so completely that their bodies could not recover, becoming the living mist that shrouds the space. Disturbed by what he read, Fen decided to complete the rest of his research in the future. Reading the journal of the mage that night as the party rested. Meanwhile, Thordak found a selection of different books, including the Laws and Treatises of the Lady of Pain and her executioner Drahz Grymhook and The Adventures of Proto and Queen Dashilla. He decided to read the adventures of Proto first and found they were a YA fantasy story about Proto going on adventures and fighting incredibly powerful creatures, saving the world as he does so and building a fun back forth banter relationship with Dashilla throughout... this version of Proto is very different to the version that Thordak met in the Feywild. Thordak also read the Account of Hunters by Cousin Cathildra and discovered a series of 30 names that Cathildra has identified to be individuals following The Hunt. Of those names, Thordak saw Nirya Moonbrook and Temptation, he resolved to speak to Cathildra about this later. Mimsi meanwhile, decided to randomly pick a book from the library, identifying a book called 'Multiversal theory' that had some great pictures but she struggled to understand the information within, asking Bazzle to help her read it and learning that this was the account of an individual who claimed to have travelled the multiversal and seen many different worlds and realities... they warned the reader against trying this as there is no guarantee on the time they will return and they claim they were 'haunted' by homesickness throughout their adventures. The party gathered together to be served a bloody and rather unpleasant meal by their witch hosts, as they did so, the Unwaking witches revealed that they had decided to employ Olympia and take her on as a short term apprentice as they deeply admire her lack of need of sleep as an unwaking witch and they are also intrigued by her on a general level, Olympia agreed to do so so that she may learn how to be a witch and pick up a dope new aesthetic. The party were mostly agreeable to this, though Fen was not comfortable with the idea and forged a pact with Cathildra in which he agreed to not fight Olympia's desire to leave the party for a time but, in return, Cathildra must keep Olympia safe... if she fails to do so then Fen will claim her soul in his grimoire (something Mordred seemed deeply uncomfortable about as she fears a permanent death for any family members). They built the pact with this in mind as Cathildra warned Fen that fate likely wouldn't lead to him finding a future with Olympia... Fen didn't mind and insisted he was going to try anyway which elicited a small grin from Cathildra. With the order of eating (and Olympia) resolved, Cathildra told the party about a task she would like performed. She explained that a Gnome by the name of Casamir had recently built a cabin in the mountains for the sole purpose of mocking the Unwaking coven as he hoards his many secrets within and has built the home almost entirely of platinum, a material that is DEEPLY harmful to them. Cathildra wants Casamir, embarrassed, his secrets (especially a golden recipe scroll he possesses) stolen and she also wants his hands (she does not care if this kills him). The party agreed to take on this job once Cathildra explains they can keep any of the loot they find and that she would tell Thordak more about The Hunt if he survives. With this resolved, the party took a long rest for the night and, the next morning, were escorted to the cabin of Casamir, a building plated in platinum with magical locks and effects. The party were then left by Cathildra to deal with the cabin. They approached the building from two sides and knocked on the door only to hear a voice within say 'Nobody's Home' and crash across the room... unconvinced by the lie, the party set about attacking the door, trying to kick it in in an attempt to break it down, they learned the door was magically enchanted and their kicks seemed ineffective. What followed was a period of problem solving for the party where, eventually, Mimsi broke through a window and Fen used a 4th level dispel magic... before they realised that the doors were unlocked all along. The party then found that they were in a room HEAVY with symbols of destructive magic, illusions and walls that led to different sections of the house. Faced with this problem, Kodo and Anastasia climbed onto the ceiling to stay away from ground level whilst Mismi and Thordak used pebbles and stones to attempt to trigger as many traps as possible and determine safe paths throughout the house. As they started this process, the party who were ground level were all struck with a spell that required a Wisdom saving throw, Thordak and Grendel each failed and felt compelled to move in a certain direction, by moving Thordak activated two traps that damaged him heavily. Grendel then activated a trap that led to him being dragged beneath the floorboards and disappearing from sight. With this knowledge in mind, Mimsi collected an armful of pebbles and started moving before she stopped to investigate an illusory wall before she felt something on the other side reach forward and forcefully drag her through. In a panicked response, Anastasia, Thordak and Bazzle all ran through the wall after Mimsi. Leaving Kodo and Fen in the room. As they took a moment of quiet, Kodo heard a footstep in the room he and Fen were inhabiting and instinctively threw a dart at them, revealing Casamir was still in the room with them and had turned himself invisible, forcing the Gnome to reappear, Kodo and Fen made short work of him despite his ability to use legendary actions in the form of strange turrets. Kodo at first knocked the Gnome unconscious before rolling him across the room to clear traps... leading a column of fire to incinerate and kill them... With that job done, Kodo and Fen moved to the wall and joined the rest of the party for their fight. Mimsi, Thordak and Anastasia found themselves in a large and expensive looking library. Though they had very little chance of exploring as an undead beholder was assaulting them upon entry, firing a variety of magical rays at the party and harrassing them along with the library revenants that dwelled in the space. They went into a brutal combat, with Anastasia dealing heavy damage to the creature as it launched several rays of energy at her, badly damaging her with an enervation bolt. Meanwhile, Thordak fought off library revenants alongside Grendel and Bazzle turned himself and Mimsi invisible to give Mimsi a chance of recovering the golden scroll in the library and leaving the combat. Mimsi reached and snatched the scroll from under the nose of a library revenant. Meanwhile, Fen and Kodo arrived to quickly deal damage to the undead beholder, with Fen using his demonic pact to scorch the beholder with black abyssal fire for massive damage. This made the beholder go berserk and fire one of each ray at those that had harmed it, badly injuring Kodo and making Thordak terrified of it. In this final round of attacks, it's disintegration ray struck Grendel and turned the goblin to dust, moments later Anastasia struck the beholder through it's throat with a lethal arrow which, in turn, destroyed the other library revenants. Mimsi broke down upon discovering that Grendel had been killed but, whilst she was being comforted by Kodo and Fen, Anastasia dug through the dust pile that was once Grendel and managed to find a hand and she decided to make one desperate attempt at a revivify spell to force Grendel to return to their body, with Thordak to assist her Anastasia promised Grendel's spirit that she'd punch anyone who insulted them and (with a DC23 Persuasion check passed) managed to reform Grendel's body and bring the goblin back to life with one hit point to the deep, deep relief of Mimsi. With combat over, the party decided to take EVERY GOD DAMN PIECE OF LOOT from Casamir's house whilst Grendel took the Gnomes chargrilled hands. Most of this involved Thordak busily bringing every book to Bazzle to add to their library demiplane according to their specific instructions. During this time, Thordak tried his best to search for any books related to The Hunt but did not manage to find anything as Bazzle kept him very busy indeed. The party pulled an astounding amount of knowledge, found a bag of holding and ripped the platinum out of the house, leaving it a pile of rubble on the ground. Before they torched the library below however, Fen investigated a mysterious tome in the back of the library, discovering it was a grimoire. Fen reluctantly added it to his own collection, learning that it was named the Grimoire of the Mad Mage that gave him constant recurring nightmares that also translated to moments of inspiration. However, in this moment, Fen found a seed of doubt had been sewn within him. Making him more reliant on the Grimoires than ever before to the point it may interrupt his spellcasting if he attempts to cast a spell without his grimoire. With the loot found, the party left the cabin to be greeted by a VERY pleased looking Cathildra.
- Thordak attempts to lay intimidation on Casamir the Gnome but can't commit to the insult.
Rewards Granted
- A locked box from Casamir's library
- 12,000gp worth of platinum raw metal.
- An entire fucking library
- The Grimoire of the Mad Mage
Created Content
Fen has gained a new feat called 'Seed of Doubt' an entirely negative feat reflecting his reliance on the power of the Grimoires.
Taking the library and giving it to Bazzle gives the goblin (and anyone working with him) advantage on intelligence based checks when researching a topic or piece of lore.
Report Date
21 Jan 2022
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