Session 7: Hidden doors and hidden motives

General Summary

3 luck points for session - used II
Continuing down the eastern corridor off the tree room, a room opens up to the first ruined part of this place we’ve seen in the NE corner. There was a lot of spider web in this room at some time, but most of it is now gone (majority towards the ceiling), though it’s thicker than other places. There are bags of soil, a wheelbarrow, and other treekeeper supplies, some sort of storage. Leucis recognizes some sort of scent but can’t place it.
We move further down the long corridor, and a small room off to the east presents a very large, dead spider, whose limbs had been crushed and its body chopped up for food, with entrails all over the room and it was a foul mess. The exoskeleton was removed in chunks and meat scraped from it. The place was set-up for the grimlocks to be able to track anyone who went into this room by getting the stink on them. Nock uses Prestidigitation to clean up himself and Jasperia.
Further south, we come across a room without any noticeable furniture, with small bits of stone and bone. Spider limbs made of stone. Crushed bones, spider mandibles, horns. 5 or 6 spider legs that have been shattered in this room. Can’t place what all animals the bones came from, though some seem rather large (from larger creatures). Remains of items spiders ate as well as petrified spiders. We see the moonglow fountain further to the east, as we are reaching back around a large circle.
A small room off to the south hosts multiple beds and a couple of wardrobes, which appears to be guest quarters for anyone staying there. The room seems to have been tossed before, and the furniture is mostly broken. Nothing of note.
Back into the main room. Leucis tried reflecting the moonglow off his shield onto the wall, but it’s very faint. The water itself is what glows. Traveled back into the tree room. Revived with the gastrolith. Tree has brown bark, grey-green leaves, and the branches start to flex once freed from the petrification. Sunny takes a cutting of a twig with a few leaves from the tree, and recognizes the wood as what the wooden lanterns were made from.
Leucis drinks the Potion of Comprehension to read the writing on the wall in the tree room: “Touch with the strength of the tree.” Had to touch the live tree to the stone. Opens into a corridor.
First room to the south has a chair facing a blank, stone wall, with 2 circles on the wall, one raised and one inset. Leucis pulls the smaller onto the larger one to open a view portal in the wall with an overview of the tree room. Second room, to the north across the hall, has finer tree tools. Third room further down on the left, crates and barrels.

• Two of the crates contain a lot of what appears to be an herb (wolfsbane)
• One crate contains cut branches with (apparently) still living leaves. These look like the Llyrian Tree in the large room.
• One of the barrels contains what appears to be a thick sap.
• One of the barrels contains a weak acid with a strong smell. Identified as a wood stain
• One of the barrels contains a clear viscous liquid, with some powdered silver around the seal (identified as scriptsilver)

Looked at the journal from Alchemy Lab Supervisor's Papers while Potion of Comprehension was still working (since it's in Druidic).
The party scouts the corridors and located a sturdy door with a Druidic sign that reads "Growing Room." But before attempting to open it, we explore the Llyrian Library Archive. Investigation of the aisles ensues:

• Several book appear to have blank sections (even midline or mid-word).
• Nock gives a trio of copies of On the Properties of Moonlight a comparison - sections that are missing appear to differ between copies, so it might be possible to cobble together a full copy given enough time.
• A copy of Herbalism: A Compendium with a sprig of a plant tucked into it catches the eye. The plant marks a page about wolfsbane (which it clearly is), described as being poisonous and repellent to shapeshifters.
• The scrolls in the Research section are neatly organized but appear entirely blank, but it's possible they require a different light source.

After a quick discussion on potential light source changes, the party elects to take the research scrolls back to the room with the tree and look over the scrolls under moonlight during a rest. The moonlight in the room appears to be either focused or intensified, since it's brighter than the moon at the current phase would produce.
Leucis looks over a few books:

• Herbalism: A Compendium does not appear to have any major gaps, and moonlight does not reveal any hidden information.
• The copies of On the Properties of Moonlight do not appear to have hidden sections revealed by moonlight. Missing sections do not always match between copies.

Nock looks into the books, but the moonlight does not appear to reveal any new writing. The research scrolls, however, are densely written under moonlight - notes, schematics, recipes, diagrams, and other text in a variety of languages. The research seems to have missing pieces, even in moonlight - parts of letters, words, lines of texts, bits of diagrams. Nock doesn't understand a lot of the text but finds a few topics of interest across the documents:

• The shaping and magical properties of wood
• The applications of alchemy and moonlight
• Diagrams involving wooden pieces similar to the ones he saw at Roger's Bargain Basement

Nock recalls that the production supervisor's files mention a "new model" that might explain the difference in design. He theorizes that the druids here were making parts of warforged, if not the full warforged. It appears the tree from the main room might be used as a raw material or experimental material.
When Leucis wakes up for his watch, Nock explains his findings in the hopes that the cleric can help clear up some of it. Leucis looks over the documents with an eye towards the involvement of lycanthropes - it looks like the druids were trying to use the power of moonlight to cause shapeshifting to create some sort of new material, involving alchemy. This new material was somehow used to make parts for warforged.

Campaign

Moon's Rise

Protagonists

Report Date

10 Oct 2021