S2E16 Session Report

General Summary

We rest for about an hour and talk to Saratina, the Dryad of the outpost. She is a humanoid made up of nature. Very rare species. Mostly Celesnian. Celesnian Conclave is made of of communes called Vernati. Many dryads are the leaders of the Vernati. Trastani, guild master of the Celesnian, is a three headed dryad. They're the only one who can talk to Mount Celesnia. This outpost is a Vernati.
Serotina asks if we need steeds into the mountains, and then takes us to the stables. Dream has seen photos of horses, but this is her first time seeing them in person. It's Theo's first time even hearing what a horse is. They haven't been around for a very long time, as they're mostly obsolete in Ravnica. Rumack and Bannell. The duke and Da'Har knwo exactly what they are. With the horses, there are also Krasis that are bred to have longer backs to make them easier to ride. Vegg and Jhanu. Da'Har and Theo are on the krasis and Dream and the Duke hop on the horses. Saratina knows the area a bit.
note: check out the Valtara page for lore. specifically the construction section. The mines that we're going to visit are out of commission rakdos mines, 'cause their mining mizzium out of the mountains.
4 hours to the mine entrances sonce we have mounts. A few more once in the mines.
while we rest. da'har asks the celesnians what the general opinion of the rakdos is. they say that they're seen as just mine workers, typically all business. We add on to the smear campaign about the rakdos by asking if they've seen the rakdos taking any children into the mines. We say that we've heard allegations about child sex trafficking, but ask them not to spread any word.
the dryad leads our way out tonight on her own mount made of plants.
marching order: Saratina Da'Har Dream Theo The Duke we travel without and incidence with the ooze. we've gotten far enough into the mountains that it is pouring out more behind us. Saratina speaks with a bird who updates her: thunder damage, lightning damge (electricity/mizzium), poison damge, etc. Has an immunity to non-magical damage (like slashing, bludgeoning, piercing, etc.).
we wind through the forest and eventually find our way to the entrance of the cave. the duke is tryign to detect magic, and after about an hour starts to detect some necromatic magic. our path is blocked by a cave in, but there's another path to our right. the duke can't see far into the dark, so theo takes a look for him. she sees two undead, and she hears more. we sneak into the room to attack them, and da'har decapitates one. theo finishes off the other. in the next cavern, theo sees five more zombies and hears somethign bigger behind it. Saratina tells us that we're headed to their left, so we could sneak past. theo casts pass without a trace and then get's a nat 20 on stealth (40 total), with the whole group succeeding as well. we roll so well on stealth, and with detect magic and pass without a trace on, we are able to navigate the mines rather quickly. we detect other zombies and kill them as we go, we also see, but avoid, zombie ogres.
we pass through the mines by 6pm. we see some dim light ahead us around a corner. theo thinks she hears people speaking Kraul. she tells the group, and the duke starts to ritually cast detect language. he thinks he hears kids playing around. we reiterate that we're there to stop the source of the ooze but also to rescue anyone in danger from it. saratine says that she doesn't knwo where these people came from, but we still think she should be the ones to talk to them.
there's a whole kraul village set up in the cave system. a kraul recognizes us, and says asks what we're doing there. We say that we're there to help, and he says that the Death Priestess (Krakerlake) is on her way. She looks much more confident and powerful now, much more like a leader. dream flies over to greet her as the rest of us dismount. she doesn't seem to know about the ecological disaster happening on the surface. dream asks for us to talk somewhere more private, and she takes us into another big tavern. It's about 80ft across, with about 150 living inside. It seems to be a Gulgari camp.
Krakerlake says that this is a community of about 75 people who wanted to stay together, so they found this refugee camp and joined it. she says the rot farms are thriving out here. dream and the duke explain what the ooze is like, including its psyonic presence. She says that that does NOT sound like the ooze that comes out of a rot farm. but with the combination of the mizium in the mountains, the rot farm ooze, and a strong necromancer, this possession of the ooze could be possible.
the leader of the refugees is a known necromancer. [Jhalros]. the pristess hasn't spoken to him personally. but he's the one animating the zombies as a defense against intruders. she has no idea how many subcommunities there are in these caves. She knows there's at least 5 close by.
We ask for an audience with Jhalros, as representatives of the people of Mercadia and the Selesnyan outpost.
We'll start next session exploring the cave before our long rest.

Report Date

14 Nov 2023