The Adventures of The Big HELP, Session 9

General Summary

• The Big HELP awoke the next morning, roughly three hours from Firelda Outpost. Eris Tisani checked in with her familiar, Pistachio, who had dropped of Silin at his hometown and was returning. He would likely return the following night at midnight.
• The HELP arrived at the outpost with no issue. They were greeted by a patrol led by Helena who asked what they were doing in this disputed territory. The party told her that they had been hired by Advisor Lemore to investigate necromantic activity. After some digging, Bigwig pulled out a copy of their contract to confirm.
• On the way indoors, Helena rambled a little about her life having grown up adopted into Popoki Village. Eris picked up on her being nervous, likely due to the imminent possible attacks, being new, and meeting an eladrin from another continent. There seemed to be a bit of shyness, too, but Eris couldn't figure out why she was shy around the party. Helena also mentioned that Kilgrid, the new commander, was rigid and didn't seem to want to be there. The party recognized him as the dwarf from Zinnia's Platoon they rescued and weren't surprised he was upset given the platoon had been disbanded involuntarily.
• The party met Kilgrid, who was at least happy to see them, and asked who had seen the reported necromantic activity. He indicated that the quartemaster was the first to report signs of undead. He told The Big HELP to worry about these and not the attacks from Pascatia. He'd keep them safe for their investigation.
• On the way to visit the quartermaster, Petrichor glanced out a window and happened to see an elderly tabaxi druid praying. The wooden carving of Sindara the druid was using caught her eye so she snuck off to possbily steal it. The druid, smelling the scent of dust after fresh rain as she approached, correctly guessed Petrichor's name. She introduced herself as Ivy, an archdruid worshipping Sindara.
• Ivy realized that Petrichor was a druid of great potential and was surprised she was self taught. When Petrichor said that they were looking for necromantic activity, Ivy suggested she guide Petrichor on a druid spirit vision to see if they could detect the necromancer's location. Petrichor saw visions of nature and spoke with Ivy. Ivy said Petrichor reminded her of a long lost daughter. Ivy believed that her powers should only be used to keep balance whereas her daughter wanted to use druidic powers to defend the Catfolk Freehold as a soldier. Ivy believes her daughter is dead. Ivy's teachings also helped Petrichor open her mind to nature futher and enhance her skills. She gained the Observent feat.
• The druidic vision separated Petrichor and Ivy. Petrichor awakened some time later. She later described this vision as having seen the nature that connects all living things. Two pin-pricks of light stood out, a tall strong figure and a slender lithe figure. They shone bright until a familiar wolf howl began to blot out the light of both these figures and all others connected by Sindara's lifeflow. Perichor warned, if the large figure's light went out that they would rage until all around them was ash. Petrichor wondered if this had been Windtooth while Larka worried it might be her father.
• The rest of the party visited the quartermaster, a tough looking female dwarf. She said that she had seen the undead in the same place twice, both times just after dark. She recommended visiting the mess hall to investigate further rumors. Helena went to check on a sick tabaxi teenager who she had collected herbs for. Larka followed her while Eris and Bigwig went to the mess hall.
• In the infirmary, Larka brewed a potion for the boy but it had no effect. She gave the teenager her bone plushie, but he didn't even acknowledge it. Helena said that the boy had been feverish, but no other signs of disease, since a mark appeared on his collarbone. Larka recognized the mark as the Cult of Arazid's and the one on Bigwig's arm.
• In the mess hall, Eris bought a beer. It wasn't long before a tabaxi man walked up to her and started to flirt. He asked her about being a mercenary and talked about his time as a member of the Black Fang. Eris eventually got him on the subject of the undead. He mentioned seeing them and that they always disappeared into a cave before Pascatia soldiers came back. He thought they may be responsible for the undead. Bigwig decided to wait in the corner like the lazy lion waits for the lioness to come.
• Helena came to Bigwig, asking for help with the boy's sickness. Bigwig reached out to the teenager and felt a heat within both him and herself. A voice spoke to her, saying "Weak child...consume." Bigwig drew the boy's heat into herself. The fever broke and the boy began to rest in is sleep. Bigwig felt no different. Larka gave the boy her bone plushie, which he cuddled this time, though she fully intended to return for it.
• The party reunited and decided to wait until dusk to investigate the clearing where the undead were seen alongside Helena. Petrichor was the first to smell the well-disguised smoke of a camp. The clearing was dominated by a Pascatian war camp. Petrichor's newfound observation skills helped her figure out that the Pascatians were getting ready to march at dawn. The party came up with a plan where Eris would disguise herself as a Pascatia tiefling and infiltrate the camp, looking for information before poisoning the army's alcohol. Helena returned to the Outpost to inform Kilgrid of the oncoming attack
• Larka created a telepathic connection to Eris. She also reached into the mind of a guard to try to learn more. Eris learned about a second, underground, force from a tiefling soldier. Larka reached into the guard's mind for more information and learned that they were prepping explosives underground. The party became afraid that the plan was to blow up the outpost from below.
• Larka suggested Eris create an illusion to sneakily poison the drinks. They chose to make it look like a soldier was preparing a wild magic surge. This sent the camp into red alert as they scattered and spread. The soldier was shot dead by a guard. Eris quickly ended the spell and snuck her poison into the drinks.
• As the rest of the party snuck around to the caves, Eris challenged the army to a drinking contest to get as many people as possible poisoned. The tiefling she'd spoken to earlier wouldn't let her just sneak away so Eris needed to use more illusion magic to avoid drinking it herself. The party reunited and entered the caves, knowing they'd only have about 10 minutes before people started dying. Larka tried to create an additional distraction and scapegoat by whispering into the guard she connected to's mind. Inadvertantly, she triggered a psychotic breakdown.
• In the cave, the party encountered two guards. Bigwig and Eris pretended to be Pascatia soldiers who captured Larka and Petrichor. The guards joked and said that the prisoners should be tied to the explosives when they're detonated. To Larka and Petrichor's concern, Bigwig and Eris agreed and so the prisoners were carried off to the explosive storage while Bigwig and Eris met with the commander, a tiefling woman named Zacharia. She was suspiscious of the two but not enough to bother her. She mentioned that there had already been two near accidents with the explosives.
• In the explosive storage room, Larka attempted to freak out the cave guard who was tying her to the explosive barrel by making him think he should be careful around explosives. This only prompted him to make sure she had no weapons or fire starters. Once he left, Larka and Petrichor realized the explosives were being stored unsafely and way too close to fire. The caretakers were also drinking heavily. Larka convinced them to go for a drink above ground while Petrichor wild shaped into a rat to escape. Larka cut herself free with psychic daggers. Bigwig and Eris returned in time for Petrichor to detect necromantic magic through the cave wall.
• This magic turned out to be an undead rat with a flame in its body that seemed to be making its way to the storeroom. Bigwig dumped some water onto the rat and put the flame out. Whatever animated the rat then faded away. The party decided to escape before they could be detected.
• On the way out, Larka launched herself at the the cave guards, singlehandedly killing both and reclaiming her stuff. The party escaped the cave to find 70% of the above ground force dead from poisoning. The scout that had a psychotic break had killed a couple of the others. Larka felt bad about causing that. Only one Pascatian caught site of the party as they fled. She saw Petrichor and believed her to be the poisoner, loosing an arrow into Petrichor's right leg. Though the arrow hit, the party were able to make it back to Firelda Outpost safely.
<Previous Session  Next Session> 

Report Date

17 Dec 2023