2024/04/10: Defending Zyth Part 6 Report
General Summary
Buzz, Knight, Kal'vus, Terana, Zaran
The party considered the loot they'd uncovered in the remains of the minotaur camp. Since they were busy with their current mission, the party chose to hand off the map to the Nemesis Device to Gary and returned to the convoy.
As the convoy got going again, Jvalos asked if any of the party members would be interested in doing some martial training. Knight and Kal'vus eagerly agreed. Zaran considered joining in, but eventually thought better of it. Vincent Bailey, one of the UWG soldiers, did join. He revealed that he was equipped with a pair of snap-out vibroswords.
Kal'vus and Vincent turned out to be pretty even sparring partners. Vincent could throw out more attacks, but Kal'vus was faster and more accurate. Jvalos was stronger than Knight, but with the ridiculous mobility on both sides they still had a fun (if very chaotic) fight of it.
Buzz and Terana kibitzed in the meantime. They also noted that the gang of young demons had gotten much more meek and careful after the fight with the minotaurs, and were now armed with guns and following the UWG soldiers around. Apparently the gang usually relied on ganging up on opponents with a lot of weak attacks, and that doesn't work in the slightest when the targets can completely ignore all damage below a certain threshold.
Later that day, the caravan came across at least a mile of jungle in the middle of nowhere. It extended well to the south, while to the north it was cut off by a chasm and then very hilly terrain. Jvalos cut a path through the dense jungle while Terana rememorized to get a bridge spell in case they needed to cross the cavern to the north. The group found that the jungle was still growing rapidly, enough so that the caravan vehicle needed to stay close behind Jvalos to avoid getting caught up in newly grown vegetation. Despite this, the vehicle made it through without incident.
On the other side of the jungle were a bunch of mages dressed in Midwestern farmer gear, dressed more for cold weather than warm. They were grey and white anthropomorphic bunny people. They were waving for the caravan's attention. Zaran went down to talk to them.
Apparently the jungle had been growing for a week. It had started 40 miles away, around Mel's farm (one of the bunny people being Mel). It apparently started after a freak thunderstorm. The farmland had been overrun, the temperature had warmed, strange creatures had appeared, and now the farmers were hoping to be helped or evacuated.
Taking some time to gather information, most of the player party decided to track down the source and see if this could be reversed. Terana talked to various animals to get information.
Doug: A gigantic toucan. 5' tall.
A swarm of little flying snakes. Asa, Peta, Ava, and Paz. A family. Terana recruited them as followers later. A rainbow of colors, lots of purple and green.
One enormous snake.
Yinga: A normal-sized leopard.
Terana and co. gathered that this was the fault of a mad scientist who had walked out to a spot in the jungle with an armful of glass containers, dropped one (or possibly several), and then chanted something. Things had started to get weird shortly thereafter. Our heroes took this information back to the caravan.
Miles, the caravan master, offered a bounty for the mad scientist who caused this. Having time to spare, Terana, Kal'vus, Knight, and Ngel Sfet took him up on that quest. The rest of the party stayed to protect the caravan.
The hunting party found their way to a bunker near the farm at the center of all this. The bunker wasn't a very impressive setup: It only had three rooms and looked to be some kind of environmental safety bunker. The only notable feature was the triple front door, which was open. The scientist wasn't inside, but there were a lot of containers with various biological specimens. Terana couldn't help but notice that there was nothing magical or supernatural about the location.
At Ngel Sfet's prompting, Knight checked the local surroundings for promising dream-focus items. He chose a lamp towards the back of the room and tapped it with his dream nail, and the party promptly found themselves facing off against a 25-foot-tall plant monster in a monochrome version of the jungle.
After Ngel Sfet's exploding nightmare devastation was done with it, all that was left was a little statue of the five-headed plant monster. When held by Ngel Sfet or Knight, it moves a bit as if it's alive. It freezes as soon as anyone else reaches for it. Ngel was roundly congratulated for her first boss kill and for deciding to get more involved in the adventure despite her fear.
The dream didn't end when the fight was over. Inspecting the room, the party realized that the painted jungle on the walls was surprisingly detailed. Terana, looking closely, realized that it was telling a story panel by panel. Apparently a short man was carrying the plant, then some demonic entity interfered and the plant got big and ate the man, then started rampaging and growing more of itself. The demonic entity's horns were such that they almost looked like the floppy bits of a jester hat.
Knight tapped the demon with the dream nail, to see if there was a path to follow here. The point of their dream nail dipped into the wall, and the nail started glowing. Knight gathered their compatriots and jammed the nail into the painted demon like a key. In an instant, the party found themselves in the sky of another world, where the farmland had been swapped in in place of jungle. Below them, a jester demon was sitting on a throne, watching as his minions built a temple or castle around him.
Making their way to the ground, the party quickly realized that they weren't fully in the shown reality. They were still somewhere inside the veil: They could see out, but the demons couldn't see in.
With three high-level martial characters, the party made no attempt at sublety or misdirection. This was clearly the demon responsible for the crisis, and he wasn't going to be left to continue his devices. Knight cut a path into this new reality and the warriors dogpiled the jester.
Despite having a few seconds of warning, the demon's attempts at defense were initially unsuccessful, and the combined offense hit him hard enough that he exploded into confetti and three of himself. Three independent duels followed. Knight survived their opponent detonating on them when it died, Terana caught the explosion from her own dying opponent in a wall of force, and Kal'vus shrugged off acid rain(tears) and helped his darkness-themed teammates drag the third jester into the Void. The demon lord reappeared after the last partition was down, then exploded into lots of little imp versions of himself that scattered and dug their ways back to the Abyss. Fortunately, they did leave some loot behind.
When the party cut their way back out to the dream where they had fought the plant, the mural had changed. That last panel now showed the demon lord being chased by the vengeful party. Knight patted the wall affectionately before cutting a second path out to reality.
By the next morning, most of the jungle was gone. What remained was withering in the cold. More unfortunately, some of the jungle animals had been left behind as well, including Yinga. Terana took them in until they could be transported to a more comfortable environment.
Rewards Granted
Character(s) interacted with
Ngel Sfet, Jvalos, Vincent Bailey, Miles Gargos, rabbit farmers, various jungle animals, jester demon lord
Kal'vus
Zaran
Buzz Gizmo
Terana DelGarrod
Knight of Darkhome
Report Date
10 Apr 2024
Primary Location
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