S31. From Falcon's to the Manse Report

General Summary

The team of adventurers woke the next morning at Falcon's, after poor Sefilwyn's horrible nightmare. In a misguided attempt to get Falcon to hand over the Boots of Elven Kind he promised them of they clear the Manse of the spellcasers, Flicker attempted Charm Person on the sly. But that did not go well. Instantly Falcon knew she had tried to use magic on him, and he fairly calmly invited to them leave his compound. Immediately.
They travelled back into the Woods and came up on a 60 foot wide clearing, but it wasn't so clear. In center was a large, burnt-to-black tree trunk, and all around it, the root system writhed and twisted. And within the root system, Wolfaen jumped, dodged, ducked, and avoided the roots that looked to be trying to ensnare him.
Around the tree trunk, Wolfaen had found several stick bundles that were bound together with what looked like long, black hair, fashioned together to like humanoids. The stick figured were then also bound by the same black hair to around the trunk of the tree. Wolfaen had cut them loose from the tree and stuff the 10 dolls into his Bag of Holding.
But he had pulled one back out from the back and destroyed it and it's still beating human-looking heart. That is when the tree roots animated. Woflaen then saw the party at the tree line and greeted them. Eventually he moved through the writhing obstacle course and joined them in the trees. He gave Eethyl 8 of the 10 dolls and kept one for himself. Eethyl put the 8 in his apron's bag of holding as well.
The party eventually decided this dark magic was meant as a trap, and the dolls were meant as bait in that trap. But they then also figured they could use them as bargaining chips with the spellcasters. They left the tree. and traveled around it at a safe distance.
The party stopped to take a long rest shortly after. On first watch, a panther like creature with tenticles and the ability to shift and appear in slightly different places all at once. It was a displacer beast. Keth couldn't land a blow, but the others were doing pretty well even if it was shifting around a lot. When someone hit it, that seemed to disrupt this ability.
A final, massive Guiding Bolt ended the creature and left it burnt to a crisp. Flicker buried it with Mold Earth. There were no other threats the rest of the night, and they extended the rest to be sure everyone was spry and ready for the next day as the Manse was expected to be a tough encounter.
Indeed they approached manse carefully and found several wild boar snacking throughout pumpkin patches that surrounded the manse. The building itself looked to be a pretty large 2-story mansion covered in vines. Wolf sent Algernon to scout out the front porch, and then try to climb to the balcony over the porch. The rat his upon some thorns in the vines and then vanished.
Flicker summoned an owl and scouted further. It flew around the manse, with Flicker watching on, and then she made it invisible and had it scout even more. It found a room with a half-orc chanting and performing a gruesome ritual in the SW Corner of the first floor, and then several orcs jabbering on the second floor at the SE of the building. The center of the building was open with a courtyard, and a dry well in the center of it, vines growing out from the well.
The orc performing the ritual also had several little twig/tumbleweed people dancing around him while he ate some animal entrails and chanted aloud. On the floor were three muddy lightning bolts drawn on the floor, converging on the burning brazier before the caster. Also painted on the orc were similar symbold on his forehead.
The owl flew back out silently and then found a way into the 2nd floor through an opening in the roof where it caved in. It flew in and explored a little more, but after turning a corner was beset upon by a couple of stirges like the ones found at Axeholm, and the owl was slain.
Time to make a plan.

Campaign

Legacy in Leilon! Campaign

Protagonists

Helaena DuFarran

wolfaen the red

Eethyl Benzoin

Amarille Trisquinal

Chaotic Good High Elf (Hermit)
Monk 1

12 / 12 HP

STR
9

DEX
17

CON
11

INT
12

WIS
16

CHA
13

Player Journals

Woodland Walk by Flicker Greenridge

Report Date

31 Jul 2022