The Sunless Grove
General Summary
Ironfinger, Ryke, Kingra, Zaketh, Mortimer
A dwarven warrior named Mudrack Ironfinger came to the Bibliopolis on the trail of a pair of missing young adventurers, on behalf of their well-to-do merchant family, the Hucreles. He discovered that they had last been seen passing through the gnome enclave of Scuttleglen. The gnomes confirmed they had seen the Hucrele brother and sister as well as their companion, a paladin of Jaxson, several weeks ago. They had descended beyond Scuttleglen into the caves that lead to the Underdark, looking for a stronghold of goblins. King Gnerkli called for Ryke, Kingra and their friends to assist Ironfinger on the search into such dangerous territory.
According to the gnomes, the goblins were sometimes a threat to wanderers in the area around their stronghold, but they largely kept the peace with Scuttleglen, and sometimes would visit to barter a strange magical fruit. The fruit looked like a large apple, and came in two colours: a vibrant red fruit possessed potent healing properties, while a pallid white one was a deadly poison. The gnomes sometimes kept it for their own uses, and sometimes sold it on to the library or the city above. They hypothesised that the rookie adventurers had heard of the fruit's powers and gone looking for its source. The gnomes had attempted to plant the fruit seeds, to no avail - the gnarled, pale saplings were always dug up and stolen, presumably by goblins wishing to protect their monopoly.
The gnomes led the party to the river descent to point the way to the caves. There, on the river islands that grew the gnomes' mushroom crop, Dabbledob and some of the fungus farmers were concerned about a blight disease afflicting the mushrooms. Ironfinger noted upturned earth and strange tracks by the river - the site of the sapling thefts the gnomes had mentioned.
The party delved into the caverns beneath Mount Cuna. After several hours, a ravine opened up, which bore evidence of a weeks-old campsite nearby, and a new rope tethered to the edge alongside old, goblin-carved handholds. The party descended into the ravine, finding a fort structure, sunken and ruined by time and tectonic activity, and its entrance guarded by goblins and surrounded by pale and sickly bramble bushes.
With Ironfinger's martial discipline - and his ability to fight as twin echoes in two places at once - leading the attack, the party killed several goblins, intimidated the others, and negotiated a surrender with Mortimer's translation. The goblins reported that of the three adventurers, one had been killed in battle, and the other two had been captured and taken to their leader, a human spellcaster they called "the Outcast". This man tended a magical grove deeper in the fortress, the site of a dreadful, blood-drinking tree they spoke of with trepidation. Durnn, the guard captain, wore a signet ring with the Hucrele family crest, taken from the dead adventurer, which Ironfinger reclaimed.
With some coercing, and the promise that Durnn might rule the tribe if the party took down the Outcast and his bugbear lieutenant, the goblins agreed to lead the party into the lair. They climbed down a vine-wreathed well shaft to a fungus garden below. Skeletons with gardening tools spread mulch and tended the mushrooms and saplings, and the walls and ceiling were covered with purple bioluminescent fungus growth. The sound of snoring from a cave entrance marked the bugbear's chamber, and the goblins lead the party away, though a door, to a complex of alchemy and herbalism labs, garden galleries, and arboretums, all lit by the dim violet glow of the luminous fungus. Both Underdark flora and surface plant-life alike was cultivated here, though the surface plants were sickly, pale, and thin due to the poor light.
The group saw wall carvings and friezes glorifying dragons, surmising that the fortress was long ago the lair of a draconic cult. They passed by statue of a rearing red dragon, its eyes aglow, and Ryke and Zaketh solved a draconic inscription, revealing the patron dragon's name - Ashardalon - and securing several spell scrolls and vials of alchemist's fire from a hidden compartment.
Finally, the goblins led the group to a place where the structure opened up into a huge natural cavern, aglow with violet fungus, and bristling with thorny shrubs and briars. The goblins were fearful of the grove, and would lead them no further. The party saw subtle movement: twig blights lurked among the brush, waiting to ambush them. Ironfinger used his echo to lure them out, and the party made kindling of them.
Ahead, a gnarled black tree rose up to the cavern roof, its twisting limbs spreading out like a vast, waiting spider. Beneath the tree three figures awaited their approach: the wizard Sharwyn Hucrele and the paladin Sir Braford were under some charm or curse, their skin grey and rough like bark, their eyes dark with malice; and the Outcast, a fanatical dark druid named Belak. The party called for Belak to let the young adventurers go, but the two were dedicated thralls of the Gulthias Tree, and Belak invited the party to become its next supplicants.
The fight began, and Mortimer crept around unseen and stabbed the druid in the back. But Belak's animal companion, a giant frog, leapt from the branches of the tree and tried to swallow Mortimer. The others fought off twig blights, and contended with the enthralled humans, unsure whether they could listen to reason, be cured, or should be put out of their misery. Sir Braford wielded a magical sword that sundered weapons, and Ironfinger found his warhammer cracked when they clashed. Kingra turned his fiery forge magic to the tree, and the foes leapt to its defense, as Mortimer climbed the tree and found first a red, then a white fruit, protruding through the bark like a tumour instead of growing by a stem. He pried them both loose.
As Ironfinger smashed through Belak's branch armour and then his spine with twin echoes of his warhammer, the others subdued the enthralled long enough to burn down the tree. With its demise, the two adventurers came to their senses, full of guilt and regret at their ill-fated quest and the death of Sharwyn's brother, Talgen. But still their bark-like skin remained, and as the party rested and moved toward the exit, the two began to sicken and weaken. It became clear that with their life essences tied to the tree, and the tree destroyed, they too would soon wither and die.
The party realised that the healing properties of the red fruit might undo the effects of the tree's curse. Braford offered the fruit to Sharwyn, bravely willing to give his life to bring at least one of the Hucreles back whole. Already stricken with survivor's guilt, Sharwyn proposed they share the apple. But no one knew if half the fruit would be enough. Braford made a compromise: he would keep his half uneaten, and if she began to improve, he would eat it and recover too. If she did not improve, she would eat the second half. Reluctantly she agreed, and soon her bark skin began to flake away, her strength slowly restored. Sir Braford took the other dose, and, resting back at Scuttleglen, the two came back to health.
The party realized that the seeds the gnomes had planted near their mushroom garden were not being stolen. In fact the saplings came to life as twig blights and walked away on their own. Their corrupting presence in the soil had caused the mushrooms' health to suffer, and without the blights, the field should return to full strength.
Ironfinger left with Sharwyn and Sir Braford to return to the Hucrele family and claim his reward. Would the gruff warrior return to the Bibliopolis and the allies he had forged?
Rewards Granted
- Spell scroll: Ashardalon's stride
- Spell scroll: Scorching ray
- Wand of Entangle
- A sickly white poison fruit from the Gulthias tree
- 2 x Alchemist's fire
- Spellbook containing: color spray, magic missile, shield, sleep, detect magic and silent image.
- Tome of dragon lore bound in dragon scale and written in Draconic (worth 150 gp).
- 450gp reward from Hucrele family
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