Enter Jonihr. A strange construct. A displacer beast, a land manta ray, and vegepygmies.
Goodmonth 5, 591 CY
Unknown Location
A young elven boy came running around a corner, screaming.
The boy, whom Sarros noticed couldn't be more than 60 years old--about 10 for a human--was running as fast as he could down the northern corridor.
Seconds later, the reason became obvious.
A large sleek cat covered in blue-black fur came sliding around the corner, its claws digging into the metal floor to keep it from slamming into a nearby wall. All but Sarros didn't recognize the monstrosity they were seeing.
The cat had six legs and the two tentacles sprouting from its shoulders, both ending in pads tipped with spiky protrusions. "It's a Displacer Beast!" Sarros announced loudly as he ran to reach the young boy. "It's a creature that roams the twilight lands of the Feywild but sometimes makes its way into the Prime Material Plane."
The displacer beast’s eyes glowed with an awful malevolence. It roared in anger at seeing its prey, the elven boy, getting away from it.
The boy who was shaking and terrified ran behind Sarros who cast a spell he hoped would work.
I don't know if there's enough vegetation here to make this work. Sarros thought. There was one way to find out.
The druid uttered a short phrase and pointed to a spot in front of the displacer beast. Nothing happened at first, but after a few seconds, grasping weeds sprouted from the ground under the displacer beast. The weeds grew quickly wrapping the creature's front paws.
The displacer beast roared and moved back, pulling itself free from the entangling weeds.
A burst of magic missiles suddenly came careening down the corridor toward the large cat. The magic missiles struck the cat, each missile sounding like a solid hammer strike to its fur upon impact. The displacer beast howled.
Severely injured, the displacer beast turned and ran to disappear around the corner. Everyone continued to hear it howling until it was too far to be heard.
"So what's your name, young one?" Sarros asked in Elvish. He crouched down to talk to the young elf. "Do you speak Common?"
The boy nodded and responded in Common, albeit with a slight accent to it. "My name is Jonihr Ortauré."
"What are you doing here? Are there others with you? Your parents?"
The boy's eyes started to tear up. "My father told me not to follow him and the others...but I didn't listen...I, I.."
Sarros placed a comforting hand on Jonihr's shoulder. "It's alright. You're safe with us. But tell us what happened and how you came to be in this strange place, alone."
Sarros introduced Jonihr to the others as Jonihr explained how he came to be lost inside the strange dungeon.
Jonihr said he was from a city called Seréne, an elven city in the Feywild. His father was Prince Arikkor of the royal house Ortauré, the presiding ruling house of Seréne. Jonihr said a strange storm struck the city several days ago. When the storm broke, everyone found that the city had somehow been transported in an unknown mountain valley. For days, the people of Seréne waited, hoping the storm would return and take the city back to the Feywild. When nothing was happening, Jonihr's father chose to lead a group of soldiers on an expedition into the mountains to find out where they were. Despite his mother's pleas, his father wanted to know where they were and what dangers faced them beyond the city's boundaries. With permission from Queen Noranna, Jonihr's grandmother, Prince Arikkor left with four of their finest soldiers.
"But that still doesn't explain why you're here," Brimsdall said. He noticed that Jonihir was eyeing him strangely. "What's the matter? Have you never seen my kind before?"
Jonihr shook his head. "No. Only in storybooks my mother read to me at night. It was said that Dragonfolks used to live in our world eons ago."
Brimsdall laughed. "Dragonfolks?" I rather like the sound of that. But where we're from, I'm referred to as a Dragonborn."
"Go on, Jonihr," Sarros said encouraging the boy. "Tell us how you got here."
Jonihr admitted that his curiosity always seemed to get him into trouble. So despite his father insisting that Jonihr not try to follow him into the mountains, Jonihr did. He stayed back far enough so as not to be spotted. Fortunately, it wasn't too many hours later in the day that they came into this part of the mountain range. Jonihr saw his father and the soldiers enter the strange metal cave. Jonihr waited for about an hour then entered the strange cave. However, once inside, Jonihr quickly lost track of where the others had gone. The place was a maze and Jonihr soon found himself lost.
"How long have you been here?" Sarros asked.
Jonihr said he thinks a two days at most. He grew tired and hungry after wandering around. In a hurry to follow his father, he forgot to grab enough rations. He ran out of food. Eventually he found a room with a strange bed in it. He soon fell asleep. When he awoke some time later, he found a rat as big as a tressym--a winged cat--next to his leg. He said he carefully reached into his component pouch and cast an illusionary sound of a cat growling in the room. Luckily it worked and scared the giant rat away!
Jonihr left the room minutes later. He wandered down a corridor when he heard voices. He followed the voices but ran into the displacer beast which chased him. Jonihr ran towards where he heard the voices and that's when he ran into the adventurers.
"Well, you are very lucky to be alive," Brimsdall said. "You mentioned casting a spell. Are you a spellcaster?"
"I'm a wizard," Jonihr said. "Although my tutor, Roohanarith says I'm still learning how to be good at being one. She can be pretty strict sometimes."
"What spells have you learned so far?" Brimsdall inquired.
Jonihr went through a short list of spells he knew.
"You know Identify?" Stones asked in an excited voice.
Jonihr seemed a bit frightened by the goblin but considered the goblin friendly if the others were with him. "Yes. It was one of the first spells I had learned."
Stones rubbed his hands together. "Well, well. You just made yourself extremely valuable to this group. Brimsdall here, although good enough at burning everything we run into, doesn't seem to know how to figure out how a magic item works. You, my young friend, can help us with that. In return, I'll make sure you stay alive long enough--"
"What Stones meant," Sarros jumped in. "Was that we will certainly help you find your father. However, if you could help us by identifying some magic items we've recently found, that would help us and will further help us reunite you with your father."
Jonihr said he was happy to help in any way he could.
Brimsdall asked if Jonihr could identify the staff he got from the elven woman. He explained to Jonihr who the elven woman and her mercenary were.
After reaching into his pouch for a pearl and an owl's feather, Jonihr proceeded to cast Identify on Brimsdall's staff. A minute later he handed the staff back to Brimsdall.
"It's a Staff of Thunder and Lightning," Jonihr said. The young wizard told Brimsdall everything he had learned about the staff.
"A staff like this will certainly come in very handy," Brimsdall said thanking Jonihr.
After identifying a few more magic items, the group examined a strange metallic creature they found slumped in the corridor.
It resembled a gnome crossed with some type of insect. It appeared to have been beaten for its metallic skin was covered in dents and gashes. Curious-looking tools lay scattered on the floor beside it.
Toph examined it closely and determined its 'stomach' could be pried open. Inside the thing, they found various colored 'veins' surrounding its metallic innards. Within, they also found small round gems seemingly made out of a thick glass of various colors.
They took the gems and left the metallic creature alone.
The group moved on to explore the strange metallic dungeon and help Jonihr find his father.
Down another corridor, they were surprised--or rather, Stones was--by a strange creature that looked like a large manta ray. But this one stuck to the ceiling and dropped down on its prey to wraps around its prey. While inside the thing, Stones felt like he was being crushed and slowly digested.
After killing it, the group noticed how the thing's thick slimy leathery hide matched the ceiling's texture, therefore allowing it to blend it perfectly.
Keeping a lookout for other creatures like it on the ceiling, the group continued on.
They soon ran into a small group of strange humanoids. A creature, looking like a cross between a frog and some kind of feline, stood next to one of the creatures. It was as large as Wink.
The humanoids stood between 2 to 4 feet tall with muscular frames covered in plant matter skin. Their coloration ranged from brown and gray and black skin. Their eyes were white, lidless, and did not appear to have pupils. They had heavy wrinkles and lacked noses. Lengthy lines of tendrils, similar to hair cover the creatures, ending in a topknot at their head. Their hands ended in thorn-like claws.
The group tried to communicate with the plant-like humanoids but to no avail. Their language, if it could be called that, was made up of a combination of hissing, gestures, and rhythmic slapping of their bodies.
Jonihr cast comprehend languages and was able to understand well enough that the humanoids were trying to warn them to stay out of their territory.
Brimsdall used an ability that allowed him to telepathically speak to the humanoids. Although he couldn't understand their responses, Jonihr's spell, combined with Brimsdall's telepathy, enabled the group to communicate effectively enough with the humanoids.
The humanoids referred to themselves as Vegepygmies, plural for Vegepygmy. They called their pet a Thorny. Sarros said he had read about the strange humanoids in some tomes his druidic order had.
Also referred to as mold folk, the very rare humanoids inhabited dark, damp areas like underground tunnels and especially overgrown rain forests. They possessed a vegetable kinship which leaves them on good terms with creatures such as myconids and violet fungi, often sharing their tribes with them. They are preferential carnivores but can eat just about anything organic. Mold folk cannot speak but can force air through their mouths to make a hissing noise. They communicated through a combination of hissing, gestures, and rhythmic slapping of their bodies. While sapient, vegepygmies are intensely uncreative, with most of their crafts being hand-me-downs or made using practices copied from others. They live in tribal communities
The druid said the origin of vegepygmies was ultimately unknown. As mentioned, vegepygmies are extremely rare and have only been seen on Toril within the last two decades or less. It was speculated that vegepygmies originated outside of Toril, and were brought there by a falling star.
"Stranger still...," Sarros added. "There was a strange passage in the tome from a druid who had traveled through different prime material wolds."
"What did the passage say?" Toph asked.
"The druid wrote that the vegepygmies' presence had been reported by adventurers who claimed vegepygmies escaped from a mountain dungeon containing a strange metal substance."
The group looked to one another and to the vegepygmies in disbelief.
Session played on February 12, 2021
Adventurers:
Jonihr Ortauré (Male Eladrin Wizard)
Sarros Basha (Male Half-elf Druid)
Stones (Male Goblin Fighter-Battle Master)
Toph (Male Human Rogue)
Turnoroth Brimsdall (Male Dragonborn Sorcerer/Warlock)
Sidekick:
Wink (Giant Badger sidekick)
Plot type
Chapter
Parent Plot
Displacer Beast
A Thorny and a Vegepygmy
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