Betrayal in the Blight

General Summary

May 5-15 - Faraday, Cherubix, Dezy, Jane
Party set off for the Heartmother’s Temple, aiming to ask for information on Devil’s Fall and then attempt to either scout the area out or (if possible) deal with whatever lived there.
The party was almost at the warded magetower when they were set upon by a dire bear, which had been goaded into a rage by two Haniver gremlins. They dealt with the gremlins and scared the bear away.
Party continued on, camping near the mage tower (with accompanying explosions from testing the wards again). They reached the Temple the next day, and learned from the Heartmother that they could ask either Sen’do or Eliadri for information on what lies in Devil’s Fall - she only knew what they had sent to her in messages, that there was some sort of acidic imp-spawning hives and something large flying around.
After a brief fortune-telling, the party decided to go with the higher risk/reward option and speak with Sen’do at his camp near the blighted zone.
After reaching the camp (and beginning to recruit a number of Brownies living there for Cherubix’ Brownie-finder service), the party met with Sen’do, learned what he knew of the dangers inside Devil’s Fall, and agreed to head out in the morning with him as their guide.
On their way out of the camp, Dezy noticed a strange byplay between Sen’do and one of his lieutenants, a sasquatch.
The party entered Devil’s Fall proper, immediately feeling either ill (Cherubix), off-balance (Dezy), deprived of power (Faraday), or slightly homesick (Jane). The forest was only slightly less healthy, on immediate inspection, but they could tell that there was an invisible line where it stopped being the Heartmother’s territory and became something else’s.
Venturing further in, the party eventually encountered one of the boil hives that Sen’do had told them of, and decided to assault it to learn how easily the imps it spawned could be dealt with. They made preparations outside of the imps’ ability to detect them, then started things off by creating a field of flames underneath the tree where the hive rested.
Imps began spilling out, and the party seemed to have the situation well in hand, but then Sen’do betrayed them, calling in and infusing with demonic power a sasquatch ally who had been lurking in the forest. Dezy was caught off-guard by the sudden attack, but managed to dodge most of the first strike thanks to a shouted warning from Jane & Cherubix.
After a few scary moments, the tide turned in the party’s favor, and they managed to kill the sasquatch, destroy the hive, and capture Sen’do. After dragging him out of the blighted area, they woke him up and interrogated him, using Mind Dredge to ensure that he told the truth and couldn’t withhold anything.
Sen’do had been forcibly recruited by the thing controlling Devil’s Fall after the failed attempt to retake the area by the Green Man’s acolytes. He’d been running interference for the evil thing ever since, keeping the Heartmother from attempting another invasion while his master built… something… in the depths of the corrupted forest.
The party had Sen’do write his confession down and sign it, but before he could complete a significant run-down of his information on Devil’s Fall they noticed some approaching dragons swooping in to investigate the burning tree they’d left behind. They executed Sen’do, transmogrified his body to fit into their bag of colding, and skedaddled, hiding under a bush when the dragons flew overhead.
Eventually they reached the camp, and spoke with the lieutenant who they knew to be unaffected by Sen’do’s corruption, in an attempt to capture the gathlain who they knew Sen’do had turned. After a successful ambush, they interrogated him, found that he had been tainting the camp’s food supply with demon-bile, and that he had assisted in moving another blight monster out of Devil’s Fall, through the forest, and into the nearby desert.
The traitor was tried and executed, and the party stayed for two days, helping to cleanse the camp. They headed back to the Temple, spoke with the Heartmother, and then returned to the camp, intent on eliminating whatever thing was out in the desert.

Report Date

31 Jan 2018