2023-02-18 Beast Hunt
Player Characters
- Val & Soonie
- Balasar
- Malivette
- Wiznt
- Grey
Summary
The party convened with Metricus in the Feywild. He led them back to Kazzin Forest to begin the search. They found him tired but ready to go.
Met had divined that there were four particular magical loci that affected where the Beast was banished to, arranged in a roughly rhomboid formation. They would have to visit all four sites for him to calculate the center cross point of the X they would form, which should be the location the Beast's two halves were originally banished to.
The party asked Met how long ago the Beast rampaged the Feywild, which he had earlier said was "a very, very long ago". He crunched numbers on his abacus, then answered that it was a whopping 160 days prior.
The party chose the order of sites at random, since they had no information to go on yet.
The first site visited was a small elven village. Recently-slain corpses of its citizens were scattered everywhere; some died fighting and some died cowering, including the children. Clawmarks and blood were everywhere; the village had been attacked recently by a monster. The party investigated the grisly scene amidst clouds of flies and the stench of decay. They spent the remainder of the day digging graves.
Amidst the wooden huts and treehouses of the elf village was a shrine. The shrine had three images, all depicting a wolf spirit that the elves worshipped.
The second site was an old stone stone shrine resembling a tombstone. It had a howling wolf head at its top, and a message scrawled in elvish: "Dedicated in gratitude to our friend, the Beast Warden, protector of the forest's fauna. Your vigil keeps our wild friends safe from the evils that would consume them for greed or power." The wolf head seemed to have a necklace-shaped divet.
The third site was a clearing with a hidden trapdoor. The ladder down led to a stone room with an obvious hidden door and a pedestal with a stone panther sculpture. Balasar knocked the door open, which also activated the hidden switch where the panther's head bent down.
The room beyond was a dark chamber. Melted candles and masses of flesh were distributed around a runic chalk circle, the components of some dark ritual. Images were carved onto the wall of the procedure, indicating that one must behead countless animals, arrange them around the circle with an orange primal crystal in the center, and stand within the ring in order to gain mysterious power.
The party took some remaining gems that were used for the ritual and an immovable rod they found in the room.
The fourth site was a contained rosebush, grown by Granny Myrna Moldypits.
Metricus used his magic abicus to locate the crosspoint. The group followed him to an empty clearing, which Val recognized as the place she had originally woken up as an amnesiac. Were Val & Soonie the divided and banished Beast?
The party deliberated what to do. They could confront Granny in case she was involved, and considered whether Metricus was really on their side. They guessed that the Beast and Beast Warden were two different things; Val & Soonie were the remains of the Beast Warden.
Val talked to some nearby squirrels, who mentioned that the monster shed sometimes. She asked them to lead the way to its latest shedding. The squirrels led them to a silk fragment with traces of fey magic. A blood trail led away from it, which they followed.
While camping for the night, Balasar had a nightmare where he was taunted by voices from his past, especially Falbin Wernethob. He awoke to find the trees on fire. The others informed him that he had launched a fireball in his sleep. The group frantically put out the fire he caused. They bound him for the night to prevent other unwanted evocations.
Upon entering Spring the next morning, the group found that the forest was quiet. It was nighttime everywhere, and most creatures appeared to be asleep. Metricus continually yawned, and the party had to resist some sort of pervasive tranquilizing miasma.
The blood trail transformed into hoofprints. Soonie tracked the scent to Sunbeam River, where it was also nighttime. Met mentioned that it is never nighttime over the river. The party crossed to the other side using ropes and magic.
They found 3 sleeping spring eladrin on the far bank, who were alive but unable to wake.
Continuing through the forest, the party was attacked by fomorians and quicklings. After defeating the assailants, Grey's patron commanded him to collect both eyes from one of the fomorians, which he did.
They lost the trail, and had to deduce where to go with the information they had. Given that silk comes from silkworm moths, and Argessa associates with butterflies and moths, as well as dreams, the party decided to visit her in Summer.
They confronted Argessa in front of her home. She told them all to lay down and rest their heads, but the group insisted on entering her home to investigate. As they pushed forward, she became angry and began to attack with powerful magic.
Metricus began performing the dividing ritual while the party stalled Argessa. Wiznt used haste to speed up the ritual, Balasar trapped the angered Queen of Dreams in walls of force, and Val slipped past into her home. In front of the enormous bed was a ritual circle complete with animal heads, candles, and an orange primal crystal. Val took the crystal, pulling Argessa's attention.
The ritual completed after a few rounds of trapping and evading the fey lordess. Argessa was divided: with a poof, a huge swarm of butterflies scattered into the sky. A confused blue-skinned teen elf girl was left behind. She laid down on the ground to take a nap, as the rest of the Feywild awoke from its slumber.
Metricus commanded an army of ants to destroy the ritual setup. The workers dismembered and removed the gruesome site. He then thanked the PCs for their help, inviting them to visit again later. Met left the party and the elf girl behind to head home.
The party claimed the huge fluffy bedsheets and pillows from Argessa's bed, as well as many shiny and oddly-shaped art objects. Malivette decided to bring the elf girl home to take care of her.
They returned the beartooth spear to Silvereen, who was grateful for their efforts in defeating the monster.
They returned to the ritual chamber in Kazzin Forest and wiped it clean, removing evidence and information about the sinister ritual.
Val placed her dog amulet on the shrine in the woods. It became empowered, transforming into the Amulet of the Beast Warden.
The orange crystal was given to Quasar for research and magic item crafting.
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