Cleansing Devil's Fall

General Summary

May 30 - June 4, year 1; Cherubix, Dezy, Faraday, & Jane (plus Gnomie Stark)
The party headed out to deal with the final Blight within Devil's Fall.
Beforehand, they did some research - specifically on the black dragons they’d seen flying around the swamp, blights in general, and the bog mummies that Swamp Blights are rumored to be able to create. Dezy also dug up the name of the warlock responsible for the Devil’s Fall incident: Evan Makklar.
After visiting Velena and the Heartmother, they went to Sen'do's camp. None of the fey seemed willing to give them aid, beyond a few potion-like plant mixtures. Dezy did some Precognition rituals, gaining a vision of the blight, resting on a carpet of blue-black moving corpses, with a dead tree standing tall above it, a glowing pus-yellow thing within its branches, and two flying black shapes circling above.
A mile into Devil’s Fall, they were attacked by the two dragons they’d spotted on their last foray. Though there was a bit of a scary moment when one of them cast a darkness spell, Faraday easily managed to dispel it, and broke the wyrm’s teeth in in exchange. They fell without much issue after that.
After the beasts were butchered and placed in the bag of colding, Dezy used a dismembered finger bone to get a sense of where their lair might be. The party headed deeper, almost running into an ambush by some bog mummies. Those, too, fell with some effort and teamwork.
After the fight, Jane & Faraday heard a faint, disembodied voice warbling from all around them:

“All paths lead to venom and blood, upon the road of writhing flesh. Seek not the stone that vipers guard, lest you answer the question they pose.”

It kept talking for another few minutes, repeating the same few lines with only slight alterations.
In an attempt to get a better view of the surrounding forest, Jane tossed Cherubix up into the air, getting her a considerable distance above the canopy. She spotted a clearing with a single, dead tree in the center off at an angle to the party’s line of travel - the party assumed it was the center of the blight’s territory, the location of the dead tree in Dezy’s vision.
They prepped before reaching the Blight’s lair, putting up Bolster and Resistance to Entropy. Herma Blight put up a nasty fight, assisted by a skull in a treant with hives of Boil Imps. It is a brutal fight, and Faraday falls temporarily. The Blight is defeated, but Evras the Devourer makes an appearance and, with a distraction provided by his wooden-spider minions, snatches the skull from off the treant. He left behind some sort of woody vines in the shape of his hindclaws, embedded in a flash freeze caused by Cherubix, which were collected by the group.
Faraday purified the heart of the Blight, and the group could feel the Blight’s domain dissolve around them, returning the land once more to the control of the Heartmother and Green Man.
Dezy asked the spirits what Evras has planned for the skull, and received a vision:

The skull was being held and used by Evras. It’s pus-yellow magic was being used to direct beams at demi-god-like humanoid figures that seemed as if they were made of solid sunlight. Evras was somehow standing below them, striking up at five (or six, the vision was unclear) figures. The soil around the figures’ feet was exploding with cancerous, tumorous plant life, growing and dying, then growing once more.

Dezy then asked the spirits what the next step in Evras’ plan was, what the next piece of the puzzle was for his long-term goals, and received another vision:

The skull is in motion, being taken swiftly through the air towards a square, golden stone step-pyramid. It will be placed under his right talons, as he sits in a nest of wood and vines atop the pyramid’s peak. As the pyramid is being attacked by many small sun-like beings, it is being defended by small, bipedal, wingless dragons, standing behind walls of briar and stone. Evras is using the skull to burn holes through the lines of the sun-like forces.

The group returns to Sen’do’s camp, staying the night, sending Ko to town to demand that a cleric come out and meet them at the Temple to heal Dezy’s infected wound. The next day, the group returns to a grateful and ecstatic Heartmother, who asks them to return as soon as her husband is fully awake and able to leave his dormant state.
They wait a day at the Heartmother’s temple, and the requested cleric arrives. He breaks the curse on the wound, and Faraday purifies it, healing Dezy. They return to town the next day.
There, they speak with Jiri Al’Badr, and he tells them about a rumor he’d collected, spread by the previous group of adventurers, about lizardfolk and pyramids in a jungle to the northeast of the forest. The Heartmother told them that the skull could potentially be that of the demon that died in Devil’s Fall, if it was as powerful as they said. Jiri explains that, based on their description, it was likely a Hezrou Lord. He uses a vial of the Blight’s ooze to map out the extent of its domain.
Considering how diligent and helpful the adventurers had been, in defending the town and assisting Jiri in mapping the surrounding region, Jiri is convinced to ask Major Tor-Harrek to budget the creation of a Pathfinder’s Map. It should be available by June 10th, unless Jiri gets distracted by something else.

Rewards Granted

2x Large Black Dragon corpses
Bog Mummy pulp
Blight Ichor
Heartseeker
Amulet of Purity
Bramblethorn
Prismatic Hide

Report Date

20 Mar 2018

Primary Location

Devil's Fall