Session XXXVI - 08.03.2022

General Summary

• The session starts with the heroes investigating the secret chamber next to the library on the first floor of the strange house apparently belonging to Ruth after they had found a small key in the library itself. In the secret chamber, they find a diary with some more recent notes on the unicorn Estar. 

  "...something is gnawing at the roots of the great tree but the rest of the inhabitants of the grove don't seem to have noticed. Estar feels it, but he says no one else can know."
  "a great tremor and dread woke everyone up. the sky is red and something is very very wrong. I sense one of my sister is near, i'll try to send a message, at least she'll know i'm here. Estar is communing with the great tree in his meditation chamber in the upper branches and does not heed our calls. i hope the forest will protect us."
  "dark figures approach from the edges of the forest. Even though i was forbidden, I must get to the sacred pool down below and find the source of this madness. i've hidden away rose and her pup in their room and disguised the entrance. i hope that it will be enough."

  Furthermore, there is a chest which contains a small pouch with gems (one diamond among them). The chest is protected by a Finger of Death spell which luckily does not kill Darius who had opened the chest. Lastly, the group investigates a bedroom on the first floor where they find the skeleton of a small humanoid in a bed. The humanoid was apparently strangled, his/her neck broken and his/her skull pierced. Besides a symbol of Sylvanus (which goes to Darrak) not much can be found in this room.
• On the second floor, the group first has to defeat a strange animated armor containing trap that shoot kinetic blasts that throw Darrak and Jo through the room. After disabling the trap, however, the group mounts it to the wall so that it protects the stairs leading to the lower levels of the house. The group investigates several rooms and finds a ghostly apparition in the southern room which at first is not hostile but asks the character to stay quiet as "the saplings need to sleep". The saplings, however, are all long dead and the pots in the room only contain earth or long dead plants. The ghost (which looks like an elven woman) then goes to a next room to which to groups follows her. There, a small green house is located which again does not contain any living plants. This intrusion however angers the ghost who then attacks. A fight ensues in which Darius for the first time conjures his angelic companion Azphrael. After the ghost is defeated, the group takes some time to heal. Given that the ghost appeared to have cared for the plants, Darrak waters one of the pots which contains an acorn which seems to be somewhat "alive" still. He can immediately feel that this brings some life to the acorn. The other rooms on this floor do not reveal anything special besides an intricatly crafted necklace with a large topaz and several golden rings that were found in a cabinet in what appears to be a master bedroom. As the stairs do not lead further up to the attic, the group investigates the rooms again only to find a hidden door behind a large mirror located in the southern room where they first met the ghostly apparition. Behind the hidden door, stairs lead to the attic.
• Again several rooms are investigated in the attic including what appears to be some sort of a laboratory with glass containers still holding earth and dead plants but also some intact acorns. In the same room, a skeleton of an elf can be found that still holds an acorn in hands - the skeleton of the ghost the group had fought on the floor beneath this one? Besides yet another bedroom, the group finds a room of a "nanny" holding a crib and toys to entertain a child. On the bed in the room, a long dead humanoid of old age (grey hair) is found who does not bear any resemblance to Ruth. There is another room on the floor which the group can finally enter after piercing an illusion and making use of the key they had found in the library. In this room, the group finds a peculiar small model of the house they are currently in as well as the corpses of a small dryad and a wolf pup - could that be the remains of Rose and her pup Thorn? While the group still discusses, whether the miniature of the house could be used to enter the basement of it, suddenly the afore-mentioned Rose appears behind them, leaving the group in terror ... what has happened here a long time ago?

Report Date

08 Mar 2022