Ghosts of the Elven Wood
General Summary
June 28-29
Kite, Perrin, Sadhu, Amy, & Janelle (NPC) Party headed out, venturing west beyond the ruins of Evamark. They spotted movement in the hills, and investigated, interrupting a group of skeletons who were riding zombie aurochs. The undead seemed to have been keeping watch on the road, and were preparing to ride away after spotting the party. After dispatching the undead, the party set off to investigate the woods that Sadhu could tell were still covered with a haze of ectoplasmic energy. Approaching the woods, they found a worn stone waymarker labeled in elven with “Okahasu” and in Old Skaldic with "Fairfolk Lodge.” An ancient and barely-visible paving stone path led into the woods, and the party followed it. The interior of the woods was… odd. Something was off, and they only really figured it out when they noticed how much leaf litter there was, but how little it smelled of mold and rotting vegetation - something was sapping the life from the woods, barely leaving the trees alive. Though concerned by this, they forged onwards, and after another few minutes of walking reached an abandoned settlement near the center of the woods. The buildings were of elven make, and though they were obviously in disrepair they weren’t as broken and overgrown as other elven structures that had been discovered elsewhere, likely a result of the living wooden parts being sapped of vitality and unable to grow and wreck the surrounding structures. Pausing a moment, they warily scanned the area and, once no obvious threats presented themselves, moved towards the nearest building. However, as they approached Sadhu noticed ectoplasm emanating from one of the walls, and activated his magesight, which detected multiple dim shapes moving through the dilapidated walls of nearby structures. Amy, hearing this, smashed the nearest wall that Sadhu pointed to, revealing a very angry elven spectre, which immediately moved to attack. After a couple of close calls, and one spectacular save when Amy teleported Perrin out of a sticky situation where he was surrounded by ghosts, the party managed to destroy two of them and force the rest to flee. One odd part of the fight was that the ghosts all seemed to be experiencing a force that was pulling them to the west, accelerating or decelerating their movements depending on whether they were moving towards or against the pull. Further, when the two ghosts were destroyed, their scattering ectoplasm was immediately drawn westward as if blown by a strong wind, and the rest of the ghosts seemed particularly afraid of this. After the ghosts were dispersed, the party explored the small village, finding little of value, as most buildings had been looted previously. However, hidden beneath a false floorboard, they uncovered a magical lyre, which would soothe nearby creatures and prevent them from attacking. The ghosts eventually returned, seeming to be thinking of attacking once more, when the party was off-guard, but Sadhu performed a ceremony, offering drink and food, and convinced them to come and speak instead of fighting. The elven spirits revealed that they had died as part of 'the end of the world,' which the party took to mean the Bane, and the elves acknowledged that that was what the humans had taken to calling it. The ghosts said that they had existed relatively undisturbed after their deaths until a decade or so ago, at which point undead began wandering into their glade, which they'd been happy to steal the life force from. However, they had been attacked and dispersed by a group of adventurers some six or seven years ago, at which point the village was looted. (Their spokesman didn't look pleased that the group had recovered the lyre, but didn't demand that they return it.) Soon after that, they had begun to feel a pull upon them, like something was sucking them towards the northwest, inspiring an instinctual fear in them. The party headed out to the northwestern edge of the glade, where they could see a deep purple light beyond the horizon illuminating the clouds in the twilight. Resolving to do something about it, they went back to the village, bargained with the spirits for safe harbor in exchange for repairing the village and providing spiritual sustenance, spent the night, and then headed (cautiously) back to Bridgetown.
Kite, Perrin, Sadhu, Amy, & Janelle (NPC) Party headed out, venturing west beyond the ruins of Evamark. They spotted movement in the hills, and investigated, interrupting a group of skeletons who were riding zombie aurochs. The undead seemed to have been keeping watch on the road, and were preparing to ride away after spotting the party. After dispatching the undead, the party set off to investigate the woods that Sadhu could tell were still covered with a haze of ectoplasmic energy. Approaching the woods, they found a worn stone waymarker labeled in elven with “Okahasu” and in Old Skaldic with "Fairfolk Lodge.” An ancient and barely-visible paving stone path led into the woods, and the party followed it. The interior of the woods was… odd. Something was off, and they only really figured it out when they noticed how much leaf litter there was, but how little it smelled of mold and rotting vegetation - something was sapping the life from the woods, barely leaving the trees alive. Though concerned by this, they forged onwards, and after another few minutes of walking reached an abandoned settlement near the center of the woods. The buildings were of elven make, and though they were obviously in disrepair they weren’t as broken and overgrown as other elven structures that had been discovered elsewhere, likely a result of the living wooden parts being sapped of vitality and unable to grow and wreck the surrounding structures. Pausing a moment, they warily scanned the area and, once no obvious threats presented themselves, moved towards the nearest building. However, as they approached Sadhu noticed ectoplasm emanating from one of the walls, and activated his magesight, which detected multiple dim shapes moving through the dilapidated walls of nearby structures. Amy, hearing this, smashed the nearest wall that Sadhu pointed to, revealing a very angry elven spectre, which immediately moved to attack. After a couple of close calls, and one spectacular save when Amy teleported Perrin out of a sticky situation where he was surrounded by ghosts, the party managed to destroy two of them and force the rest to flee. One odd part of the fight was that the ghosts all seemed to be experiencing a force that was pulling them to the west, accelerating or decelerating their movements depending on whether they were moving towards or against the pull. Further, when the two ghosts were destroyed, their scattering ectoplasm was immediately drawn westward as if blown by a strong wind, and the rest of the ghosts seemed particularly afraid of this. After the ghosts were dispersed, the party explored the small village, finding little of value, as most buildings had been looted previously. However, hidden beneath a false floorboard, they uncovered a magical lyre, which would soothe nearby creatures and prevent them from attacking. The ghosts eventually returned, seeming to be thinking of attacking once more, when the party was off-guard, but Sadhu performed a ceremony, offering drink and food, and convinced them to come and speak instead of fighting. The elven spirits revealed that they had died as part of 'the end of the world,' which the party took to mean the Bane, and the elves acknowledged that that was what the humans had taken to calling it. The ghosts said that they had existed relatively undisturbed after their deaths until a decade or so ago, at which point undead began wandering into their glade, which they'd been happy to steal the life force from. However, they had been attacked and dispersed by a group of adventurers some six or seven years ago, at which point the village was looted. (Their spokesman didn't look pleased that the group had recovered the lyre, but didn't demand that they return it.) Soon after that, they had begun to feel a pull upon them, like something was sucking them towards the northwest, inspiring an instinctual fear in them. The party headed out to the northwestern edge of the glade, where they could see a deep purple light beyond the horizon illuminating the clouds in the twilight. Resolving to do something about it, they went back to the village, bargained with the spirits for safe harbor in exchange for repairing the village and providing spiritual sustenance, spent the night, and then headed (cautiously) back to Bridgetown.
Rewards Granted
Huntsman's Lyre
Report Date
25 Nov 2018
Primary Location
Fairfolk Lodge
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