1: The Watch Tower
Upon entering Underfall valley, the first thing the party saw was an ancient watch tower on the path towards the village. On getting closer, they saw movement - both in the tower itself, and at its base.
Aroldus called out to figures which they saw, saying that they meant to trouble - only wanted to find a friend who had gone missing. The only answer they received was an arrow that landed nearby.
Combat ensued, and the party soon realized that what they were fighting were withered husks, wearing the armor of a militia. When killed, these husks burst forth with spores - similar to a puffball mushroom.
In the tower, the party found a
Logbook , which contained morning and evening shift-change notes from the sentries at the tower. The last several day's notes were of interest.
The party burned the bodies before moving on.
2: Investigation Pit-Stop
After dealing with the sentries, the party decided to move onwards to investigate one of the strange trees mentioned in the sentry logs. On their way to the tree, they saw signs of a recent disturbance:
- A pool of congealed, frozen blood (approximately a week old, at most)
- Arrows embedded in the snowy ground, in a turned-over wagon, and in a nearby fence post (based on the amount of snow covering them, and the fact that they were not frozen, likely less than a week old, at most)
- Scorched ground, which lead back to a nearby field. The field appeared to have been burned.
3: The Strange Tree
After making their way to the base of the strange tree, Ms E decided to take a whack at it with their hammer. When they hit it, it didn't feel quite like they expected - instead of a solid, hard-wood tree, it felt more rubbery and almost flesh-like. After they hit it again, the party was assaulted by three more undead which had lurched up out of the surrounding snow.
Two of the undead were Orcs, and appeared to be more recently-deceased. They had large fungal structures growing out of them. The third was another human, and was more dessicated (like the ones at the watch tower). They were dealt with quite handily, and the bodies were then burned.
The party took a closer look at the tree, and determined (by cutting into it, and discussion amongst Rowena and Ms E) that the "tree" looked to actually be the fruiting body of a very large fungal growth. Rowena confirmed that she had never encountered any sort of fungus quite this large before, and Aroldus commented that some fungi have their main body below ground, and only have the fruiting body above the surface. Aroldus also made mention of the cave system underneath the valley floor - perhaps that is where the fungal body is?
They discussed burning it down, but found signs that someone had tried that previously. They determined that in order to properly-burn it, they would need to build a pyre of sorts around the "tree" and then light the pyre in order to actually burn down the giant fungal spire.
4: The Column of Smoke
The party headed east, past a broken windmill and another one of the strange "trees", in search of the source of a column of smoke they had seen from the mouth of the valley. They found a burned-out house, which was still smoldering, and another, smaller "tree"-like fungus, which was on fire. They fanned the flames and added fuel to it, putting their "pyre" strategy into practice.
Once the flames burned down to the surface of the ground, they confirmed their suspicions that the fungus above ground appeared to be just a part of the main body, as a 3-foot diameter root-like structure continued on into the ground below.
Having seen signs of recent activity (such as the fire), the party made a plan: they would "sweep up" through the valley, starting with the outer-most houses, and make their way back towards the village itself. Hopefully, along the way, they would find some survivors. After this, they plan to head to the Underfall itself, and see if they can find a way down into the caves which run beneath the surface of the valley floor.
5: The Stone Hut
The first outlying home that the party decided to investigate consisted of methodically-laid-out fields surrounding a stone-paved area, with a small stone hut and a large stone barn. They went into the hut, first.
The hut ended up being merely a foyer for a larger subterranean structure. The dimensions of the place (and the size of the cloaks, coats, and boots in the foyer) indicated that the inhabitants were dwarves.
In the main structure below ground, they found signs that one of the inhabitants had been a master stone worker; in his workshop, they found a runestone containing a
Potency Rune which could be affixed to a weapon to make it more powerful. They also found a blank runestone and an Everburning Torch. In the living quarters, they found some personal belongings, and a sack containing some valuable (yet un-worked) gemstones.
6: The Barn
After investigating the underground dwelling, they next checked out the barn. Immediately upon opening the door, they smelled a disgusting odor from inside the barn, and a burst of warm air blew out at them. Inside the barn were the half-eaten remains of three horses, and some strange, bulbous mushrooms were growing in their remains.
Seeing no immediate signs of what had done it, the party quickly decided to close up the barn and retreat back to the underground dwelling.
7: Staying the Night
As the daylight was waning, and their previous battles had sapped their resources, the party decided to bunker down for the night in the stone hut. They set up a rotating watch in the foyer, and slept in the common room at the bottom of the stairs.
