2023-10-14 Return to the Umbral Bayou
Player Characters
- Auri
- Balasar
- Tarhun
- Essa
- Amartherui
Summary
The party made their preparations, stopping by Basaltthrone and Tarvinkor to purchase magic weapons and armor.
They traveled eastward toward The Umbral Bayou.
On the way over, an infernal portal opened, and Chitzifutzl, Erbor, and a handful of vrocks poured out, threatening to attack.
Chitzifutzl asked why the party was in the dreary Haunted Realm. They told him they were paying the witch doctor a visit, which intrigued the demon.
The party conversed with the demon and learned that the witch doctor and his camp could not be destroyed in the Umbral Bayou, as they would dissolve into shadow and materialize elsewhere. He believed that Jha'kri had an origin point somewhere, and that his apparent camp was just an illusion projected from there. Chitzifutzl hated the witch doctor, and found it insulting that he collected souls like a fiend. The party agreed to team up with the demons to confront the shaman.
Along the way, they asked the fiends about the Destroyer. Chitzifutzl didn't know much about it, but supported its vision. He hated the way devils work with it to aid "fleshbags" in their goals.
Essa pointed out that if everything is destroyed, there will be nothing left to destroy. Chitzifutzl pondered this for a moment, but dismissed it, stating that destruction was what he lived for anyway.
When the party camped at night, the vulture-like vrocks glared down at them with malice. Chitzifutzl seemed to keep them in line, however. Erbor frequently vanished into the darkness.
The party approached the Umbral Bayou, and day faded into eternal night. As they wandered in, will-o-wisps appeared to lead them deeper. Chitzifutzl command them to scram, and they did. Then, the lights of the witch doctor's camp appeared ahead.
As they approached, Jha'kri invited them to come closer for tea, but noted his disappointed that Tarhun and Amar came to visit him again. He was also annoyed that they brought demons into his home. They noticed that he was not wearing the necklace which held the final Howlpeak key.
Chitzifutzl was itching to fight. As the party sat down to try the tea, Jha'kri waved his hand, teleporting them somewhere else and leaving the demons behind. He welcomed the new visitors to the bayou, and told them of the games they would have to play in order to leave. He promised a gift if they completed the games and left without causing trouble.
Each character drew two tarot cards, providing a variety of boons and banes to apply during the "games".
Game 1: Collect a small soul cypress log for carving totems.
A trail of fireflies materialized to lead them to the first task. They found a large, pale cypress in the center of a clearing.
Essa climbed up the trunk and began to chop a large branch. Suddenly, treants, flying shamblers, and needle blights sprung from the surrounding foliage to attack.
During the fight, Amar caught a needle in midair, then threw it back to critically strike the blight that threw it. He also grappled a shambling mound, ran 35 ft up the central tree, then suplexed it into the muck.
After the fight, Essa finished cutting the branch, and kept six small branches for herself. Tarhun found a valuable diamond hidden in a tree trunk.
Returning successfully, the party handed over the tree branch. They took a short rest in Jha'kri's camp and conversed with him. He mentioned not having the same freedom they did, that he had to carry some kind of burden with him.
As the witch doctor crafted a cubic rabbit totem, the party moved on to the second challenge.
Game 2: Collect a heavy, medium-sized boulder.
The party found the boulder, which was much too heavy to lift. They realized it was inhabited by an earth spirit. They cast mold earth to shape the ground below it, creating a ramp that dumped it into Essa's portable hole. They carried it back and deposited it in the camp next to Jha'kri's wooden trunk.
Game 3: Appease air spirits with an offering of a metal feather.
The party were given a metal feather. Examining it, Tarhun deduced that it was dwarf-made, likely from a past "guest" of the bayou.
They followed the fireflies to a stone pillar, which looked relatively easy to balance on. The sky began to sprinkle lightly.
Essa held the feather and climbed on top of the pillar. She felt her hairs stand on end.
Balasar took the feather instead and stood on the pillar with it. He braced himself, taking on lightning immunity, and raised the feather to the sky. Lightning struck him from above, but he took no damage, and stood atop the pillar without difficulty.
The party heard vrock screeches from somewhere in the distance.
Air elementals and a behir appeared and attacked the party as the timer ticked down. Each turn, lightning struck the pillar, zapping whomever held the feather atop it. They knew the timer would reset if they couldn't keep the offering in place for a round.
An elemental knocked Balasar from the top of the pillar. Amar took it and stood in place to maintain the offering. The behir grappled with Balasar, preventing him from returning to the pillar.
Auri and Tarhun disabled the enemies with magic, and Amar was able to dodge the remaining lightning strikes, completing the task. The metal feather disappeared.
When the PCs returned to the camp, Jha'kri was not present. They quickly opened the trunk, finding his tea set, their own personal totems (cubic rabbit, waterwalking gecko, owl, and demon butterfly), a variety of jars (froghemoth eye, thiny heart, small heart, large tongue), a burlap sack of personal affects from different people, pinned dolls, and a purple primal crystal. They began to take everything, pushing the entire trunk into the portable hole.
The witch doctor materialized and demanded all his belongings back. The PCs obliged, but asked to keep the totems, which he agreed to. Jha'kri seemeded distracted, and was angered that they had brought demons into his home. He game them the promised magic tome and told them to leave.
As the party walked out of the camp, the witch doctor poofed into shadow again. Just then, Chitzifutzl charged through muck, appearing from the surrounding darkness.
Chitzifutzl told the party how his vrocks were trying to locate the witch doctor's origin location, and may have found a place that seemed important to him, hence his distracted attitude a moment ago.
Chitzifutzl tried to break parts of the camp to lure the shaman back. The party suggested vandalizing (but not destroying) the tea set. The demon began to carve his name into the teapot.
Erbor appeared and led the party away from the firefly trail, taking them deep into the dark swamp. Jha'kri appeared behind them to deal with Chitzifutzl as they slipped away.
Tarhun found a hidden compartment carved into a tree and concealed by bark. Inside was the necklace with the final fragment of the Howlpeak device.
As he picked it up, enraged spirits began to materialize around them to defend it. The PCs fled from the rapidly multiplying treants and elementals.
They rushed back toward the firefly trail, and followed it to exit the bayou. As light began to reappear in the sky, indicating they were nearly out, the witch doctor teleported behind them. As they fled, he rained down a meteor swarm, knocking out Tarhun and Auri while Amar avoided the damage completely.
Amar tossed Essa the cape of the mountebank, and dragged Tarhun away at rapid speed. Essa teleported away with Auri, but not before taunting the witch doctor.
The vrocks flew out of the trees to distract the witch doctor. One successfully stunned him with its screech, and the PCs escaped with a tome of clear thought and the final Howlpeak key in hand.
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