Session 22 Report

General Summary

Sonden 17 Redfall 834EA

Pōtiki, Suiadan Innion, Harthe and Jodariel Balakin were awoken to the sounds of birdsong and the smell of breakfast cooking. They made their way down to the dining room and were greeted to a veritable feast of all sorts of breakfast options ranging from sweet pastries to a full cooked breakfast. Glynna Willowbank told them she hadn't been sure what they liked so prepared everything. The sun streamed in through the large window and a small duck family bobbed along the lake. Jodi only ate bread while the rest of the party helped themselves to their favoured breakfast foods. Glynna asked the group what was next for them and they told her they were taking Suiadan home. She asked Suiadan where home was. After much confusing miscommunications and misunderstandings, she guessed correctly that his home was the Feywild and understood that the veil was thin to the Feywild in Vanimaldine. She told them that the veil would be thinnest in a little over a tenday, but warned them that time was weird over there due to the influence of the Feywild, so they should time it right by leaving today. She told them to wait a minute and disappeared for a time and returned with a number of pebbles in her hand and gave one to each of them. She explained to them that they were communication pebbles that would allow them to talk to each other easily if they were nearby to each other, but that up to three times a day they should be able to send a message to her and vice versa so she would be able to keep them updated on how much time was passing, and also keep them informed of any information she had been able to gather for them in the meantime on Orther and the Shadow Duke. She warned that there was a small chance of the communication failing if they weren't on the same plane of existence though. She then told them that one of the local villagers, Rowan Martin should be able to get them across the Vanim Channel in a boat. Harthe made a joke about how the name was appropriate, Glynna laughed but warned them not to joke about his name in front of him. They thanked Glynna for her hospitality and information and headed to the docks of Maksary. as they approached, they realised the docks were just a wooden jetty to which 3 boats were tied, one medium sized sailboat and two dinghies. At the jetty, Rowan was busy tying up one of the dinghies. The party introduced themselves and asked for passage across the channel to Vanimaldine immediately. The sailor agreed and named his fee and pointed them to the sailboat, stating that it was the only one that would support the combined weight of everyone. They climbed aboard and he untied the boat and set sail with them. After half an hour of peaceful sailing, they noticed the colour of the water start to change from a muddy green to a crystal clear vibrant aqua colour, fish of every colour of the rainbow and size and shape darted around beneath the surface. Harthe and Jodi made conversation with Rowan while he ferried them across and he told them about how he was saving up to go study in Grechia or Rouvray to become a bard and began to regale them with sea shanties, even though they were nowhere near the open sea. He also was middling average in musical aptitude, but the group tolerated his songs and Harthe complimented him on having ambition. Suiadan began to notice once again, the magical lights of will-o-wisps that he had seen when the party were in Vanimprotret. As soon as they had moored on the shores of Vanimaldine, Rowan began to prepare to leave again. Pō said they were not sure when they would be back but that they would need passage back to Grech when they had finished. They paid Rowan a deposit for a return trip and told them they would send a message to Glynna when they were done and she would send for him to head back to retrieve them. Rowan agreed and bade them farewell. As they began to set off, Pō asked Suiadan if he knew where to go and was horrified to discover he did not seem to know. Cautiously they set off toward the Vanime Forest. As they approached the edges of the forest they were struck by two, not insignificant, details. Firstly the sharpness of the boundary, the field through which they were walking, plain and grassy suddenly gave way to full grown forest within a single stride. There was no gradual change, one second they were in a field, the next they were in deep wood. The second detail is that the trees were very much larger than Jodi, Harthe, or even Pō were used to. The broad wooden trunks rose like pillars holding up a verdant green sky. As they entered, there was a hush as the outside world immediately faded away. Birdsong, insects, all seemed to disappear and they felt as though you have entered a library, or a particularly grand church. They looked back and could no longer see the field they had just left. They were deep in the woods and the only way to travel was forward. As they ventured further, they noticed that the trees seemed particularly alive, birdsong unlike any they had ever heard, lights flitting about in the dimness, bright colors revealed where beams of light broke through the canopy. Further on, they spotted large trees with leaves of varying hues of blue, purple and pink, and large toadstools of red and white spots. Suiadan was disconcerted as he saw more will-o-wisps that seemed to softly line up to guide the path and kept calling his name and his lady's. He pointed them out but at first no one else could see or hear them. Eventually they could all hear giggles from all sorts of directions and the familiar lights of the will-o-wisps, though only Suiadan could her his name and his lady's name being whispered. He was unsure whether to trust the path being indicated by them as it was unsettling for them to know his true name, but he was vaguely assured by the fact they also knew the name of his lady, so he cautiously lead the party along the direction being indicated. At one point Pō and Harthe spotted a collection of red mushrooms with white spots growing in a perfect circle. They pointed it out and Pō felt compelled to go towards it, various sprites started dancing around it. Suiadan looked back and saw the faerie circle and panicked and told them to leave it alone and that they must get away from there but Pō ignored him, determined to go into the circle. Suiadan rushed up to the curious firbolg and grabbed them and pulled them away. Pō agreed to leave but said that they wanted to go back and look after they'd got Suiadan home again. After a time of more journeying through the forest, the pixies, sprites and will-o-wisps that gathered to form a procession and guide for the party started to look panicked and hid suddenly. The Venturers then started to hear voices carried on the wind. They couldn't make out what was being said but they could tell where it was coming from and pixies were also pointing the direction of where the voices were coming from. The party decided to sneak up toward the voices to investigate but Jodi's armour clanged as she moved and broke their stealthy approach. She drew the fire of an archer whose arrow narrowly missed her and shot past her head. The party moved ahead and began a skirmish with the bandit party which was made up of two elven archers, a spellcaster who caused them problems with the ability to reflect spells cast at them and in the distance was a half orc frantically digging in various spots and seemed to ignore the whole fight. A few of the pixies and will-o-wisps assisted the Venturers and eventually they were able to take down the archers and spellcaster. They went up to the digging half-orc who had stopped digging and looked extremely lost and confused after being hit with a spell by a will-o-wisp. They proceeded to ask him questions about who he was, what he was doing there, and why he was digging. Slowly his senses came to him and he introduced himself as Huszar Chynweth. He explained that he had been captured by bandits that worked for the Shadow Duke and mind-controlled. He'd then been sent in with a scouting party to Vanimaldine to search for an artifact to help the Shadow Duke to ascend. They asked him what the artifact was and he described a hand sized glass ball. Pō asked Harthe if he knew anything about such an artifact and Harthe could only think of marbles that he used to play with as a child. Huszar told them that eight artifacts were needed but there were many scattered throughout Iklarel including the Lyushin Wilds, the Sondheim Mountains, Agren, Hvammstanya and scouting parties had been sent to all these locations with others throughout other possible but unverified locations he didn't know about. Harthe told the group it was very high level magic to do mind control that powerful and that it's unusual to get to that level because of how controlled magic is. Huszar asked if he could go with the Venturers to get out of Vanimaldine and that he could help protect them with his sorcerer abilities. They told him they were going to go further into Vanimaldine first to get Suiadan home, Huszar said he would be happy to accompany them and they agreed. They looted the bandits bodies and found 20 gold pieces and a letter. They then headed off once again following the path of the will-o-wisps, sprites, and pixies who had come out of hiding and were once again calling Suiadan's name. After a while, there was a large glowing light off in the distance as bright as sunlight and warm. A warm voice emanated from the light "Hello Suiadan".

Rewards Granted

Communication pebbles 20GP

Character(s) interacted with

Glynna Willowbank

Notes

Letter found on one of the bandits in the Vanim Forest:

I am sending some of our conditioned mages to help with the search, I have trained them in the way of spell reflection which should keep them safe. Avoid will-o-wisps and fey creatures, who may possess the power to break the conditioning if the bond is already weak. Be wary, time is of the essence, time is fluid there. We need at least six artifacts. Be swift. -Shadow Duke

Campaign

Venturers of Iklarel

Protagonists