Investigating Emyr--Barovia
General Summary
You fled from Emyr and the wall of thorns and tried to figure out what was happening. Rose had been too distraught to really get a read on Emyr--the desperate man in the forest wasn't the formal, dignified man she knew--but Vanya had gotten a good look at his face, and in addition to horror and shame, he'd seen hunger there.
While you were discussing what might be going on (which included Rose telling Vanya he could leave if he wanted to, and Vanya giving her a big "yeah, right"), an owl came with a piece of parchment tied to his leg. We can just move all the discussion to after that moment because that was when you had all the information you were going to get.
Rose was even more upset after seeing the message, and between the reference to him being hungry and the hunger Vanya had seen on his face, it seemed like Emyr was somehow feeding off the animals or being used as a conduit for something else that was feeding off them. Rose was sure from the references to "the fox" that the fey on the other side of the river was somehow responsible for this, but she didn't know why or how it had changed him. You weren't sure what the reference to "feeling them dying" was about, or why Emyr said that Rose would feel them, too--maybe he felt the pain of the animals he infected, or maybe he felt the blight on the trees, and maybe Rose would also begin to feel them because of her own connection to this forest. You considered figuring out a ritual that would increase Rose's connection to the land so she could get a better sense of what was going on (Vanya was not a fan of this idea) but decided it was too dangerous. Vanya made a knowledge arcana and was able to figure out that whatever was happening to the animals involved Charisma drain; their personality and sense of self had been sucked away. He didn't know of any specific spell or creature that could do that, although he'd heard rumors about ghosts or strange vampire variants that fed on souls and life force rather than blood. He suggested that he could act as bait for Emyr--humans have more personality than animals, and on a metagame level he's got charisma for days, so he'd look like a banquet if that's what Emyr was craving--and Rose predictably shot that down as fast as he'd shot down the idea of leaving her behind. He also pointed out that it seemed like whatever was going on with Emyr, he still wanted to keep Rose safe and was still lucid enough to write, as incoherent as his words may have been, so there was still something left in there even at night. Between the reference to "daylight" in the letter, the badger saying he was different at night, and the fact that during the day he'd just hidden from you instead of trying to stop himself from attacking you, you theorized that maybe he was like some kind of werewolf.
While you were talking, some wolves prowled by to check you out; they seemed normal.
You decided that if the fey across the river was responsible for this, your best bet was to find other fey to talk to. There were a few winged, pixie-like creatures that Rose had seen on occasion tending to some of the flowers, which Emyr had always greeted with the frostiest possible version of his usual hospitality. You decided to track them down and see what they knew.
You found a cluster of flowers that the faeries frequented; most of them were lush and well-tended, but a few had been blighted. Three butterflies were fluttering around the flowers, and Rose knew they weren't nocturnal species. The two of you figured out how to sing an ode to the beautiful flowers in Sylvan (which may or may not have included a digression about toads?) and a butterfly flitted over to each of you and lighted on your arms. (The third butterfly was engrossed in tending to the blighted flowers.) The butterfly on Rose's arm looked up at her, and suddenly its face was the face of a little person with red hair and antennae, and a pixie with the same wings as the butterfly was standing on her forearm.
The faerie thanked you for the beautiful song and remarked that she remembered Rose. Rose asked what had happened to the forest, and the faerie hissed and said Madadh-Ruadh cared more about his little jokes than the trees, just she'd expect from an unseelie fey. Rose asked her about Emyr, and the faerie said that Madadh-Ruadh thought it was funny to see him stripped of all his manners and courtesies; the faeries didn't care for him at night, because this strange in-between thing that feels remorse for killing isn't honest and natural in the way a true predator is. A true predator would be something they could understand. Rose said she wanted to help; the faerie lit up, giving Rose an assessing and proprietary look as if she were something in a store she might or might not want to buy, and said that if Rose could bring back the dead flowers she would be worthy of the greatest reward the fey could give. She put a drop of honey on Rose's lips, which functioned as a potion of bless [GM sidebar: this is going to last until sunset, not 1 min/level, because what good is being blessed for five minutes in this situation?] and you were off.
Rose told Vanya that Emyr had always valued his dignity tremendously, and that she thought he'd rather die than be stripped of it like this, so it would make sense that it's where this Madadh-Ruadh would go if he wanted to hurt Emyr for some reason. She didn't know what would have precipitated it, though; they clearly didn't like each other but weren't openly at war. Vanya pointed out that in the letter, Emyr had seemed horrified by the thought that maybe "the fox" knew that he was something else underneath, and that maybe he was appalled by the thought that his true self was so uncivilized. Rose said that maybe the key to curing whatever had happened to Emyr would be to bring him back to himself at night, or to show him that his true self wasn't an animal--something that would get him back in touch with the sense of order and logic he'd lost. If she couldn't bring him back to himself, she was open to the idea of mercy killing him, but that obviously wasn't her first choice.
After daybreak, Rose wild shaped into an eagle and took off to look for Emyr. She found more evidence of blighted trees in the areas he frequented--even the sacred grove had a few dead trees. Taking a closer look at them for patterns, she could see that in most, the blight seemed to have started in the higher branches. There was one decaying tree next to where they'd seen Emyr that hadn't been there before, and that was one of the ones where the rot seemed to have started from the inside and devoured the tree from its heart. The trees like that seemed to be scattered widely all over the forest, with none of them close to each other. She also found a clearing that Emyr had liked to use when he wanted a good view of the sky; the underbrush there was in a bad way, but most of the trees seemed all right. Something about it was off, but she couldn't put her finger on what. As she checked out the clearing, she caught sight of a squirrel watching her with a definite intelligence in its eyes; she was sure it was Emyr. He didn't look like he was about to run, so she landed, shifting into her normal form as she did. A moment later, Emyr shifted also, turning his scarred face away from her and covering it with a hood.
To be continued!
Created Content
Related Reports
Previous session: Entering the forest--Barovia
Report Date
20 Jan 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Characters
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments