Session 8: Moonlight secrets and a sunlit gate

General Summary

2 points rewarded for summary
The group finishes the long rest and recovers, mulling over this new information. Leucis Darkstar casts Gentle Repose(as a ritual) on the gastrolith to keep it from rotting. It's not clear to the party whether the basilisk eggs are fertilized or viable; they're intact and slightly warmer than the surrounding air, but the party lacks the skill to determine their status. As a preventive measure, Leucis casts Gentle Repose on the basilisk eggs.
In the Woodmaster's room, there's another strange wall clock but the main point of interest is a Moonlit Lens. After determining the lens's properties, they decide it could be removed with some difficulty and moved elsewhere but elect to return for it at a later point.
Proceeding down the halls to the door labeled "Growing Room" in Druidic and picking the lock, the group considers the possibility of carnivorous plants for a few moments before entering.
The Growing Room has some odd implements and disturbing equipment that appears to have been used to make warforged musculature. Nock in particular seems put off by this room; while he doesn't have a memory of it, there's the equivalent of his viscera all over this place.
Sunny Brilliant Sun opens the crate in the northeast corner, discovering 4 torso musculature sets, packed in sawdust and fragrant wolfsbane. The party theorizes that perhaps the warforged were being created to fight lycanthropes, but Nock doesn't have a memory of this as a task. Leucis suggests that perhaps Nock was a prototype; Sunny suggests that perhaps the wolfsbane is to keep lycanthropes from investigating the shipping box.
Jasperia is moderately horrified by the unnatural idea of creating people in large groups for a purpose. The group has a quick discussion on the morality of creating a sentient army and sending it off to war, likely using magic to control the soldiers.
The northern corridor off the Growing Room has another of the rolling carts that the crate was sitting on.
The southern corridor leads to another small room with a Sun Carving and a file cabinet. The files are mostly shipping manifests that use an unfamiliar numbering system, but seem to indicate that tens of thousands of units across a handful of different models were shipped to a place called Sunhaven; Nock is shocked into unresponsiveness. No one recognizes the name of the destination.
The party suspects that the Sun Carving may be a portal, and attempts to use a sunrod as a means of activating the portal. The carving warms, but is otherwise unaffected. The party reasons that portals in general (if that's what they're looking at) usually require activation from both sides, so the carving may not be reacting due to circumstances at the destination.
Sunny decides to try the Identify spell on the carving. There is some unexpected feedback from the spell and it doesn't seem to work as planned: Sunny is seized by a headache and feels very thirsty, but gets some garbled information from the spell:

#$%#%%#Sunlight!$%%!$^^%%#%$Sunhaven!#$%***(&!$##transport!%%$inactive%%%!%%$#%warm)(&#$//sensation of desert//

Sunny recalls that this kind of weird spell feedback can occur when some ancient items are interacted with; Old Lady Rustling Trees who taught him the spell said she'd had a similar experience.
Stymied, they proceed to the locked room down the hall. Jasperia jimmies the lock, and reveals a room packed with storage containers. The group spreads out to open the various boxes with crowbars, and stumble across a giant mimic disguised among the crates. It grapples with Sunny a bit, but Jasperia is able to help her escape and the group is able to put it down.
After the fight and a short rest, they are able to determine that the boxes contain an array of musculature pieces:
A. Upper Arm (1 complete set)
B. Lower Arm (2 complete sets)
C. Mimic (disguised as a pile of crates)
D. Upper Leg (2 complete sets)
E. Lower Leg (1 complete set)
F. Face (3 complete sets)
G. Abdomen (3 complete sets)
H. Torso (4 complete sets)

There are a few further attempts made to activate the sun carving:

• Nock considers whether these parts would allow creation of a warforged, but upon closer inspection it's clear that these parts are the equivalent of connective tissue but the analogues of bones/organs/outer shell pieces to make a full creature. Given that it would be incomplete, he puts a "full set" of parts on a cart and tries to push it through the sun carving as a means of opening it.
• Leucis tries throwing water from the Moonlight Fountain onto the carving, but the water seems to basically disappear without affecting the sun.
• Leucis suggests using the Wind Fan, but it doesn't have any discernible effect other than kicking up a lot of the nearby sawdust.

Deciding that the carving can't be activated with what is available, they decide to pack up the Moonlit Lens by removing it from the desk in the Woodmaster room and packing it into a crate with sawdust and wolfsbane (without the Llyrian Charm attached).
In a similar vein, the party packs up several other items they located:

• Any paperwork with dates, to establish a timeline and work out the numbering system
• Leucis hangs onto the three copies of On the Properties of Moonlight and the single copy of Herbalism: A Compendium, as well as the available volumes of The Finest Enquiry of the Wizard: A True Heir (I,II,IV,V,VI,VIII, and X)
• Nock decides that, to honor his agreement with Roger, he will bring along a pair of arm sets and a pair of face sets
• A pint of Scriptsilver cushioned with wolfsbane

Laden with their spoils, they set out back to Stonebridge. There's evidence that orcs and the like are still active in the woods, but it's not clear whether the spider infestation is ongoing.
As the group comes into town, Jasperia indicates that this journey has shaken her up a bit, and that she's reconsidering her future as a scavenger or adventurer. Leucis suggests that she might join the Church of Selune but Jasperia demurs, as she doesn't really like people and people don't really take to folk with her skillset very kindly. Sunny suggests that she come by the Inn of the Spotted Cap later on as he'll be performing a set there later.
Sunny delivers some blue mushrooms to the shroomfolk accompanied by Jasperia. The myconids start the treatment of the blue mushrooms (to be ready in a day or so) and give Sunny some cash. The bartender inquires whether the orcs are still in an uproar, but can't properly interpret Sunny's answer. Jasperia gets a room at the inn.
Meanwhile, Nock and Leucis reason that the Church won't take issue with installing the lens and arm at Roger's Bargain Basement so they travel there first. Nock explains there are thousands more warforged, ostensibly at Sunhaven, but Roger has not heard of that place. Nock shows off the warforged parts to Roger, who immediately geeks out about the pieces and their craftsmanship. While Roger is looking over the pieces, Leucis and Nock mount the Moonlit Lens and arm on the shop counter (assisted in stacking the existing junk by one of the shop's bullywugs.
This takes a solid couple of hours, so Leucis starts making noises about finding a meal and they check in on Roger. They discuss the need to talk over the recent discoveries and elect to have a meal at the inn (in a secluded room) for some conversation. Roger arranges with the shroomfolk for a small separate dining room and they collect Sunny for the conversation.
The party explains what happened at the Llyrian Moon Facility. Roger hasn't heard of anywhere making warforged, or of Sunhaven, and wasn't even aware that a number of warforged that large had ever existed. Nock draws attention to the unusual dating system, which would seem to indicate this all happened before the change of the world (and might even be the part of what caused the change). Roger indicates that the Church should probably be informed, but that Leucis being a priest of that order leaves how it is handled up to him.
Roger asks what the group plans to do next. After some consideration, the path forward agreed upon is to go through the 70-80 research scrolls to determine what information can be gleaned from them. Roger indicates he will spend some time working through the documents using the lens at the shop. The group gives him a set of particular pieces of information to look for:

• Dating system - how does it relate to the current date/time?
• General overview of operation at the Llyrian facility
• Location of Sunhaven and how they were transporting things there
• Reasons for making war forged “army?”
• Involvement of lycanthropes and wolfsbane

Roger will be taking notes to summarize what he finds. The party will have at least a few days of down time to pursue personal interests while Roger is working on that.

Campaign

Moon's Rise

Protagonists

Report Date

04 Dec 2021

Primary Location

Llyrian Moon Facility

Secondary Location

Stonebridge