Session 13: Warm Chats and Chilly Dreams in the Grove of the Cat

General Summary

We begin this session with some moody dreamscapes, the party tormented by their own hauntings and anxieties. Is it Tervik leaving that puts them in this headspace? The grave ominiousness of their quest? The looming presence of the tall trees ahead? Bad campfire food? Who's to say!
Read the spooky happenings here.

The party awakes from fitful dreams, feeling uneasy at what their brains have decided to stir up in their rest. They rustle up some breakfast and an attempt at cheer with some half-hearted mushroom confetti from L0L4 and get a note from Gleddy Goodvine that their new companion will be awaiting them in The Endeavour before just conceding to get back on the dang road.
Speaking of their new party member...meanwhile in the arboreal inn xie's been staying at for a few months after disbanding from their previous party, Khashayar Entezami is awoken from a similar bad dream by their Guild-loaned Sending Stone chiming. Gleddy has a new party for them and she's got a good feeling about this one. She assures Zami that xe will like this new group and gives the deets on how to meet up later.
--
The party enters the Grove of the Cat more fully and say their fond goodbyes to the horse and cart before returning to wheeling/flying/walking like normal people, carefully picking their way through the underbrush with the help of Amanita Guttata's knowledge of the general area and Num Erik Al's survival skills to avoid tripping on roots or carnivorous plants. Num reminds the group of the warnings he'd heard to not follow creepy children crying in the woods and sure enough some can be heard briefly later. Fortunately no one takes the bait, not even Kitanya Evermoon with a spectacular Zero roll on Nature with her -1.
Along the way, the crew gathers a few samples for cooking or mycellial crimes against biology, including:

• Tree bark varieties for Kitanya to make into flour

• Mushroom and spore samples for Amanita, including: Dragon Egg (as much as they want honestly, given how common it is 11 Greensleep shrooms; 24 Mummerswart; 2 Ormu; and plenty of Refugio Seta samples (too large to take full shrooms).

ALEK51 tries to keep up its cartography skills along the way but too rattled by his dreams finds he draws a big ol' Nat-1 worth that just end up like acceptably good sketches of trees.
A little later, the group is beset upon by several mischevious tree-sprite-like creatures called Snapjacks that look like acorns and insult like 3rd graders. The little dudes are more of a nuisance than a concern, though that doesn't stop Kitanya from speedball yeeting one at a tree and Alek seriously considering kidnapping sapient creatures out of spite. All in all, they mostly just give L0L4 some insight into how to perform Vicious Mockery with more pizazz. Or maybe how not to. Who's to say.
As their first full day in the woods begins to wind to a close, the party comes upon a young elven woman with a damaged cart. She is surrounded by wolf carcasses and covered in a fair amount of blood (plus a few scrapes and cuts of her own), but the real focus is on the dead woman in her lap that she is distraught over, presumed to be her mother or an older family member. She cries to the party, begging for someone who is a necromancer in order to ressurect the woman...or someone who can perform funerary rites to send the woman's soul off safely. The party has neither, but Amanita casts Gentle Repose to preserve the body. They also mend the wagon and locate the escaped horse in the underbrush so the woman can continue on her way. (They offer to let her accompany them but there's a) the issue of carrying the body too and b) the issue of the DM not wanting to roleplay her for several more sessions.)
Once all of this is past, the team finds themselves a suitably safe place to set up tents and camp for the night. Another day or so and they will reach the arboreal Storysprawl, meet their new teammate, and turn to face their destiny headon.

Campaign

Ostelliach Campaign

Protagonists

L0L4

Neutral Good Warforged (Entertainer)
Bard 4

29 / 29 HP

STR
15

DEX
10

CON
13

INT
11

WIS
11

CHA
15

ALEK51

NG/CG Warforged (Cloistered Scholar (Sage))
Artificer 4

36 / 36 HP

STR
7

DEX
18

CON
8

INT
17

WIS
14

CHA
16

OLD, to Remove

Amanita Guttata

True Neutral Owlin (Hermit)
Druid - Circle of Spores 3

25 / 25 HP

STR
8

DEX
16

CON
14

INT
12

WIS
16

CHA
8

Num Erik Al

()

8 / 8 HP

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

Wynnie Bishop

Kitanya Evermoon

Neutral Good Satyr ()
Cleric 1
Stars Druid 1

15 / 15 HP

STR
14

DEX
8

CON
13

INT
8

WIS
18

CHA
11

Player Journals

Reverence in Endeavor-ance by L0L4
A Buffet of Meetings by OLD, to Remove

Report Date

02 Jul 2024

Primary Location

Grove of the Cat

Related Characters

• ALEK51
• Amanita Guttata
• Kitanya Evermoon
• L0L4
• Num Erik Al
• OLD, to Remove
• Wynnie Bishop