S1 E53: Into the Tomb of Sylvanwroth
General Summary
A little shopping, a little walking, a little tomb with a little steward.
- Xi Shi rejoined the party at the Marleven Royal Arms Inn, telling a tale of transdimensional exploration not totally unlike their own tales of being trapped in the Far Realm, though her journey at least took actual time, and the details may be saved for when they become useful to her; theirs felt like several days at least while they were there, but they arrived back at the Sun Temple at the exact moment they had left it. A date check pegs today as the end of Ninthmonth (September), and some back-of-the-bar napkin math suggests they have 152 days remaining until the conjunction, though they know their efforts to date have had some effect on things as far as Tergaith's collision with the Far Realm during that celestial event.
- The gang goes shopping to resupply and sell off some unneeded items and gain new ones. They cash out the Kannet strongbox of 14,000 gold and each take their cut. Blizzard attempts to locate a +2 shield, and finds one, but the Smithy tells him it was custom made for a Paladin (he mentions the name, Manduca) who is late picking it up. The Smithy will give Manduca two more weeks, and if he hasn't come to claim it or isn't able to pay for it, then he will sell it to Blizzard for 2200 gold, which is the price minus the 1000gp deposit Manduca already paid on it.
- Zalock opts to give the Book of Vile Darkness to Xi Shi rather than attempting to find a broker to sell it discreetly; its worth is such that it can't be openly sold, and that a buyer who could afford it might be difficult to locate. Xi Shi takes it, but doesn't interact with it particularly, as yet.
- They visit a local tavern, the Broken Wand, run by a doughty half-orc woman named Brugia whose menu seems excessively focused on peas and hard boiled eggs, but is otherwise quite tasty. Here they meet an elven man dressed in the fancy clothing of a magic user, perhaps a wizard or sorcerer, named Pengormin, who shows an interest in what they're getting up to, and spins a story about a Bloodthorn Rose kept in a strange conservatory deep in the Haunted Wood that he is determined to bring back for his wife Morganna.
- This mention makes the party instantly suspicious, since while the Haunted Wood is where they were, and where they plan to head next, it's also well over 200 miles away from Marleven, and way too random a place to be mentioned purely as a coincidence. Seeing their reaction he starts to backpedal his story, Morganna turning to Morwenna, his wife's birthday or their wedding anniversary being the reason he needs to go get the flower. The consistent elements are the Bloodthorn Rose and his commitment given in haste to bring it to her. He regrets it and hopes the Scale Squad will bring it back to him, and he'll pay 50 gold to each of them if they do. The consensus is that if it's handy they might grab it along the way, but he gives only vague directions about living in the hills west of town, so how they might every find him again to give the flower and claim their reward is also unclear.
- Via Mae's spell they take the tree-train back to the area where Aot Solorex fought a horde of undead, a few of which are still clanking around in circles, much more like damaged constructs than unholy undead abominations. Understanding that these skeleton soldiers aren't likely to have traveled any great distance to get to the fight, she leads the party to the tomb by following the tracks back to an ancient and large barrow-mound, a hill rising up in the forest that's easily spotted thanks to half of it having been replaced by glass.
- Light is blazing inside the glass, illuminating the forest in that area, and through the glass they see a nursery of plants, with tomatoes easily identified at the very front under the light. They also see skeletons working on the plants, though details are hard to make out in the gloom further back in the space. As Pengormin told them the glass was unbreakable, and smashing through the glass would certainly incite hostility if it wasn't unbreakable, they opt to continue following the trail, which dead ends into the slope of the hill.
- Blizzard pokes at it with his 10' pole and finds that a narrow door opens inward, a hidden or illusory door where the trail of bony footprints originates. in the darkness beyond they hear a high pitched voice, and Blizzard identifies two undead; a rat-sized one is in fact, an undead rat, while a gnome-sized one is a skeletal gnome with a meat cleaver. The gnome identifies itself as Minchin, and takes one of them by the hand to lead everyone down a long hall that leads to the glassed-in conservatory they saw from the outside; no other obvious doors are in this hall, but it seems unlikely all the skeletons in the fight with Aot came from the garden, so perhaps there are secret ones, or other ways in and out of the tomb.
- They get a better look at the skeletons, finding they've been reinforced with carefully braided leather to reinforce and strengthen their joints, and small metal caps on their bony fingertips give them precise clipping and combing tools. The garden has the strange appearance of being purposely overgrown, where the weeds aren't random and are tended as carefully as the plants in flats and pots. New seedlings are maintained on soil tables, and they get a glimpse of elaborate pipes running along the metal support struts holding up the massive weight of the glass roof.
- Close to the edge of the room they see a tall, lanky, withered being in elaborate Bone armor with long white hair, tinted with purple at the tips, sitting casually against one of the tables and contemplating some of the flowers; his chest armor is the ribcage of some other creature over elegant purple-dyed leather, and various symbols and spider motifs are worked into his custom-made suit of strange bone plates and spikes. His charisma as he turns his attention to them is palpable despite having a skeleton head, though at closer observation it might not be a complete skull and (with a 19 passive perception) Mae wonders if perhaps the skull is a mask, rather than his own actual head. He's seated languidly on a bench, lounging, giving no signs of hostility whatsoever; and while this Sylvanwroth might never be a friend, at least for the moment he doesn't appear to be an enemy, and their interests in saving the world are in complete alignment.
Character(s) interacted with
- Pengormin, a suspicious elf at the Broken Wand Bar
- Minchin, an awakened gnome skeleton, Sylvanwroth's steward.
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