Session 43 – Don’t Circularize the Pentagon

Written by KoshcheiBessmertnyi

General Summary

Adrie, Balam, and Brandon depart from Toothymaw the following evening, trying to track their way back to their previous camp outside the woods, and to locate Theobald and Glitterstem. While light remains, Adrie gathers herbs that look similar to those used by the Dire Wolves’ old shaman in hopes of brewing a potion with them later. Suddenly, the group finds themselves in a clearing dominated by a pentagonal-shaped faerie ring of toadstools. Adrie inspects it, and, after transforming into a bear, begins to uproot the mushrooms with her claw, and to examine them closely. Somehow, their scent and fibrous structure reminds her of the discolored and ostensibly diseased organs she has been trying to study since arriving in Gethen. She now realizes that she is not the (sole) source that makes these types of structures appear, and that the disease is in fact fungal in nature. Hence, she begins to try to uproot all the mushrooms, and signals to Balam to place them in a sack of some sort. It takes the bear and the cat some time to understand one another, but after the mushrooms are all plucked, they notice that their third companion, Brandon, has vanished. Calling and looking for him yields no result, and there are no tracks leading away from the site. Somehow, the self-proclaimed priest has vanished into thin air.
Adrie changes back into elven form, and explains to her remaining companion why she finds the mushrooms significant. She is familiar with faerie rings in general, but has never seen one of this shape (or with relatively straight edges) – except the five mushrooms that sprung up at the Brotherhood’s forward base.
They press on to find the wood’s edge, with Balam climbing a tree to make sure they are heading in the right direction at one point. Still, the dense woods lead them astray, and they end up to the southeast of where they intended to exit, near an abandoned goblin encampment surrounded by a partly dilapidated palisade fence. There is a pile of rusty nails outside the compound. Inside is a guard platform, a broken-into roundhouse made of bark, with some broken glass, goblin body parts, and an earthen mound. Facing east atop two poles are a pair of heads – one human, and one orc – apparently left as a warning.
The pair enters the earthen mound, and discovers that it is a sweat lodge. There is a tunnel leading deeper underground about 30 feet, but it is blocked by rubble. But there are also more rusty nails here, along with some material that looks like rust-colored steel wool. A couple of objects look vaguely egg-shaped, and Balam and Adrie take these along with them.
Once outside the woods, they resume their search of Theobald and Glitterstem. They proceed northwest along the edge of the woods, until they come to a wide river. To the west, nestled against the woods, is a settlement that looks similar to Toothymaw. To the east is, incongruously, a colonial war vessel. There are lights in the village, but no signs of life aboard the vessel. As there is no obviously easy way to cross over to the other side, and Balam is averse to swimming, the pair turns back toward their old camp. As there is no activity in the area, they return to their old campsite to rest, hoping that the others will return.

* * *

Having taken care of business with burying the treasure, Glitterstem and Theobald re-cross the river, having decided to leave the monkey aboard the Salamander. They proceed back to their old campsite, but do not find traces of their erstwhile companions. Along the way, they collect some owlbear feathers from the beasts they slew the day before, and they nearly run into a band of snarling, yapping humanoids, but moving inside just along the edge of the woods allows them to avoid these. Having returned to the campsite, they find moccasined tracks about, leading back into the forest, and one set of canine tracks that they pick up. The set up camp inside the forest line, though shortly after Theobald settles down, Adrie and Balam come along, deciding to inspect the woods after having risen from their rest.
The two groups exchange tales of their recent (mis)adventures. Theobald explains that he had to deal with a magical emergency, and leaves matters at that, though he reveals the nearly unfortunate encounter with two owlbears in the woods. Adrie and Balam reveal details of their trip to Toothymaw, and their meeting with chief D’kuger. They relate the taking of Aster as a hostage, until such time as they can return with 12 suits of mail they promised the goblins. They also explain that the goblins await the imminent appearance of a new shaman from the dark elves below, which Theobald finds disturbing. It seems, as the party discusses, that the ingoeth are abandoning their role as manipulators behind the scenes, and taking a more active role in the conflict now breaking out upon the surface. Just then, Glitterstem spies a raven, apparently making rounds above their camp…

* * *

In the house above the apothecary’s shop, Miletus rests, being intermittently attended by Lainel. He is also kept busy reproducing multiple copies of the letter Predicant Lorenz requested he send to his companions. From the balcony, he observes that the house is surrounded by the Predicant’s people, and the streets are generally very quiet – a quite different environment than what he remembers. After attempting to engage some passers-by in conversation, the attendants hustle them away. He requests to speak to Glitterstem’s cousin Kasmyr, and the gnome comes along, with his patented pipe hanging out his mouth, within the hour.
Kasmyr expresses surprise at Miletus’ return, and asks about the Company’s activities since their departure. He appears as jovial as ever, but he does quickly indicate that he left his daughter back in his shop, and is in a hurry to get back to her. After hearing of Miletus’ plans, he expresses hope that he will see the rest of the company soon, says that he regards the elf as a family member who can come by at any time, and wishes his speedy recovery.

* * *

The raven, quickly befriended by Adrie, turns out to bear a message from Miletus by way of Balint Vossberg – a member of the Company who is still in Claymore. In Balint’s voice, the raven reveals that Miletus is in Claymore, where Predicant Lorenz desires to speak to the rest of the party. It also notes that Balint, Lainel Coronnim, Kasmyr, and his daughter Nysa are in fine health. The note attached to the bird’s leg is written in Miletus’ hand, and adds more detail to the situation. Miletus writes that he escaped from the Brotherhood’s home base, and was then graciously escorted back to Claymore by the Harpers. He is staying back in the Company’s home base above the apothecary’s shop. And finally, he writes that Predicant Lorenz would like the party to return to Xibalba, to conduct for a mutually profitable venture there.
It is now time to decide where to go next. Theobald wants to finally deliver Nugast’s rattle to Toothymaw, and to find out more about the arrival of the ingoeth at the village. Adrie, however, wants to learn about what is happening in Claymore, and to finally meet with her comrade-at-arms Miletus. Balam wants to return to the Brotherhood’s forward base, in order to deepen commercial and diplomatic relations with the orcs. Ultimately, it is decided that Glitterstem will take the rattle to Toothymaw, and will watch the village in animal form to learn more about the ingoeth, and Aster’s location. The rest of the group will return to the forward base on route to Claymore, and perhaps speak to Humbaba about further the necessary delay in fetching his consort, and take a much-needed rest there.
The guards at the base inform the group that Humbaba, along with most of the rest of the Brotherhood, is off on campaign. Adrie acts surprised that they left so soon. Enmul the shaman was left back at the base with a skeleton crew of guardians, but he is currently asleep, this being daytime. Amando is also present, and he meets with the party, and discusses further plans. Adrie informs him of Miletus’ letter, as well as the ingoeth’s impending arrival in Toothymaw. Amando appears wholly ignorant about the matter, but he does seem to approve of the group’s return to Claymore. The Harpers are acting much more aggressively than colonist have behaved in a long time, and he is interested in the party belatedly going forward with his initial plan to distract Lorenz from the Brotherhood’s campaign. He also suggests that when in town, they should seek out people who are dissatisfied with the current administration, and perhaps seek to undo the coup that has taken place. After this conversation, Theobald, tired and annoyed, decides to turn in for the rest of the day, before proceeding to Claymore.

Report Date

07 Apr 2018