Episode Ninety-two - The Grove Below

General Summary

Part One

Healed, rejuvenated, and prepared the party rushed in and assaulted the goblin stronghold in the two doors beyond the dungeon hall they found themselves in. Tirith and Varian fought hobgoblins, the leaders, as Thwip and Calcryx assaulted the main goblin force. As Bree watched the party's backs, Calcryx became overwhelmed and was forced to fall back. Eventually, Tirith and Varian pushed the hobgoblins into a deep hole leading to a lower level. It was then that they aided Thwip and surrounded the goblins. After the battle, with thirteen goblins and twenty of their young captured, the group put Bree and Calcryx to guarding them as they devised a further strategy. First and foremost, Tirith healed their white dragon servant. "Accept this blessing from Heironious." "Thank you," Calcryx responded genuinely. "It is not I but Heironeous" Tirith then helped the goblins get food and drink before the group decided to head down into the depths below. As the group set down, and as Bree was climbing down, twig blights and several skeletons attacked. After they were defeated, and Bree joined the group, she healed Calcryx further. Exploring, the party found a fire serpent and killed it, they also found another shrine to Ashardalon. Upon its sight, Calcryx remarked that his mother told him that Ashardalon lived somewhere in the mountains nearby and that he wasn't with his mother for long. The group continued to explore. They found a library that held several scrolls and books and a lab with one book of interest.

Part Two

When Tirith opened the door to what the party would come to know was the final room of the dungeon, goblins called out in alarm from beyond and a blue and white spider emerged from behind them. Thwip ran from spider and shut herself in the lab nearby. The others fought viciously, though Calcryx fell back after being wounded, and the fight drug them into the room beyond and through a sequence of ambushes. Through brutal fighting they received many wounds: Tirith was stabbed in the right calf by a twig blight, Varian was stabbed in the right shin likewise, and Bree was stabbed in the back of her right thigh and her left knee before taking another stab wound to the left arm. Finally, Bree was gashed open when a blight fired its branched finger through her left calf, slicing open the meat on the outer side of her leg. It was that would that dropped her. Bree collapsed against the wall and shouted in agonizing pain. Varian, acting in the nature of his family, rushed to Bree's aid then and slid up beside her. Using his Divine Healing Word, he healed her enough reduce the overwhelming pain before he rushed off and killed the last goblin assaulting the group. As Bree tried desperately to expend more magic then she had, Tirith pulled the arrow from the face of Calcryx, and Varian kept watch on the keeper of the grove level of the Fallen Citadel. The man called out to them and they spoke with him for a time. His name was Belak the Outcast and they learned that he was a druid, cast from his circle, and that he had been spreading the seed of a Gulthias Tree which was spawning twig blights. The learned that Belak was awakening creatures to roam free and that he was trying to cultivate a world free of the evil of mankind's choices. The group bartered and argued, lead by Tirith, Balek's morality but in the end he only offered peace through supplication to the tree. A reasonable man that concealed their intentions and denied his unreasonable request for a day of thought. As the group left the dungeon they learned, as he mentioned it off-handedly, that Calcryx was given intelligence from a ring which granted such power. They also stopped to usher the goblins out of the hideout and eventually, once out, made their way to their old encampment with the freed prisoner, Erky Timbers. Upon a restful evening, a dream came to Tirith. A gold dragon sat beneath a pine tree before him. As he approached it looked at him intensely and opened its mouth to speak, but the dragon turned to ash and blew away in the wind. He stepped forth then and placed his hand upon the tree and it cracked; much of its bark flaked away and faded to ash upon the breeze. He stepped beyond then and the wind changed to follow him as if they were one. Beyond the pine he see the church of Norden Keep, he approached and opened its doors. As they swung aside he looked around and realized the pews were filled with people wearing crimson robes and jet black masks. He felt intensely that he could not trust those people, whomever they were. At the front of a church there was an open coffin, behind which the priest lead a funeral service. Tirith drew closer to the coffin and inside he saw duality. In the coffin he saw a battlefield. He watched as Elion clashed blades with his brother Varian, and felt he must choose a side and that one must die. Before he could decide his side, he was turned about and the hand that turned him remained upon his shoulder. The man before him was shrouded in golden light that burned his eyes. He was forced to look away to shield his vision and he saw beyond the figure. There rested four souls upon a road leading to the feeling of adventure. As they knelt they lifted their hands high and they faced their palms away from him. Upon each hand a ring was bore. One hand belonged to Varian, one Bree, one Thwip, and the last was unknown to him. The unknown figure was hidden behind a veil of green light and as he gripped his hand tight with uncertainty, he felt a ring upon his own finger before Heironeous spoke to him again. "Tirith, I call unto thee. Heed then and follow thy destiny as was written in Destiny's book. When quested you will travel to the Fell Fins and find the first ring and fourth friend. The second ring you will find was forgotten, it now rests behind the dwarven forge burning anew. The next ring was once worn by a wizard who's home will see you travel north. The next is hidden and coveted by its master in the Caves of Chaos. The fifth and final ring lies in a trap, stolen and collected beneath the White Plume, a fated hand knows the way." Heironeous then continued, "all these rings ye shall need to serve and unseal, all these ye must hold to heed thine word once more for thy holy quest." The dream then faded as Tirith awoke to the world once more and a figure drew ever closer to the camp. A lone ghost approached, a spirit clad in chainmail just like Tirith's. Somber, mournful, and tired as if from many years of battle he remarked. "Thou wearst thine Invulnerable Coat of Arnd. I hath pried mine eye upon thou, Tirith, and mine heart hast deemed thou worthy. I granteth thee enlightenment if thou seeketh such." Tirith then learned that the spirit was Arnd of Tdon, a legendary Oeridian hero whom lived ages past, as the first paladin of Heironeous. Originally he was a humble priest from south of Flanaess; born to a place called Tdon, he was the hero to a people born to a small, ancient nation oppressed and impoverished by the wizard Virtos. In those days, all of the champions sent by the people to free them from Virtos's yoke had failed. With no one else to take up their cause, the priests and great craftsmen combined forces to create a mail coat. That artifact would endow the wearer with the courage and strength to defeat Virtos. When the coat was completed, the priests prayed for a champion. Arnd was that champion. After a week Arnd arrived in their city, they looked to him and believed strongly in him. Aiding impoverished folk at any opportunity, Arnd took up the people's plight and agreed to don the coat of mail and lead the masses into battle. The victory was a sound one and Virtos was overthrown utterly. After the victory, Arnd adventured for all his days, taking the coat as a gift. Tirith learned that the coat was of great might but as he found it, it was in its elder days. Arnd then gave his last effort and passed from the world to the third layer of Mount Celestia in order to grant the coat his spirit one last time. Not possessing it again but restoring some of its magic. He gave it the wind from which he returned and the sky-power from which Arnd had smote many an enemy. Falling to his knees the ghost gave his last and declared, "remember me Tirith, for we shall meet again in Venya, our Pearly Heaven." The ghost then faded and his form rushed into Tirith's armor before disappearing entirely. An explosion of light then healed and reinvigorated the party and with a new step, they set off once more. Bree, Tirith, Varian, Calcryx, and Erky Timbers all prepared to confront Belak as Thwip took up position as rear guard. In the dungeon below, the time for talk had ended. The party constructed a plan to eliminate the tree and its guards all at the same time and the plan was as effective as it was brilliant. Bree shot fire arrows into the tree after Tirith smashed oil vials on it. Varian battered away the guards with Calcryx as Erky Timbers healed anyone who got injured. In the end, the tree was ashes and all were slain. A magic sword, a spellbook, and another signet ring was found. The group then climbed up out of the grove level but something followed them.

Rewards Granted

Part One 344xp Part Two 571xp

Missions/Quests Completed

Quest Dungeons and Dragons Continued, Subquest Fallen Citadel Completed

Character(s) interacted with

The Old Traveler "Old Man" (an amnesia ridden traveler on a boat in an underground river.)

Notes

Notable Party Damage:

Bree willingly allowed her finger to be eaten by the dragon Calcryx.
Noted Effects: Minor Scar (Missing Pinky Finger). The scar doesn’t have any adverse effect. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar.
Thwip is pristine.
Noted Effects: None
Tirith was stabbed in the left thigh by a goblin.
Noted Effects: Minor Scar (Left Thigh). The scar doesn’t have any adverse effect. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar.
Varian is pristine
Noted Effects: None