DIT 18: "The Trees have... Tentacles?"

Discovery, Exploration

You've located what should be the last Black Gate you will need, but you still have to find someone with a glyph key attuned to the zone it's in. So far all you've found is trees, shallow pools, owlbears, and whatever these creatures are that are attacking you from the trees!

With Malice still feeling the ill effects of disrupting a summoning circle, Brehana begins using Detect Magic in an effort to locate any glyph keys in the area. But she is soon interrupted by a gang of chokers that attack from the trees. They are quickly disposed of and you move on through the other areas of Forest of Weakness.

You later encounter several leucrottas, which try to use their mimicry abilities to pull the owlbears you encountered earlier into the fray to assist them but you finish them off and are able to placate the owlbears with more food.

After finishing off the more aggressive creatures in this zone and giving the owlbears a wide berth you find that the pool nearest the Black Gate radiates with magic. Pubert and Brehana drink from it but Malice is more hesitant. Realizing that the pool’s magic is that of a greater restoration spell, she insists that Malice drink so that he is cured of his temporary curse and so he finally does so.

You soon realize that you have no glyph key for this zone; you only able to enter via the White Gate between it and the Prison of Filth due to having a key for that latter. And none of the creatures here have keys nor were any found hidden away in the foliage.

What you are able to determine though, is that you have enough keys and really on need access to one extra Black Gate in order to disrupt the requisite number to get the Temples of Extraction to fully attune to the Phylactery Vault.

You decide to return the way you came and use a Black Gate to transport to a sector you have already secured so you can make your way to an adjacent sector.