Session 54: A Rotten City in a Land Decayed

General Summary

Through the Endless Swamp

The session started off with DAN beginning the lengthy process of crafting several spears from a rotting, dying tree. As they were surveying this tree for spear potential, Kaswink was looking for animals that might have adapted to this realm in a different way than just being undeaded. Bobcat, Hysteria and Frode were still interrogating Her’aen, The First Zombie, and Aeryn was keeping an eye on everyone throughout this.
DAN's tree thoughts were interrupted as concerns over whether or not the tree should be harmed or if it was important for some reason were raised. Aeryn investigated the tree to make sure it didn't have an aura, and she confirmed it was aura-less like most plants, but it did have a heartbeat which was rather concerning. Bobcat was concerned about harming spirits, and Aeryn assured him that, "There are no spirits, just life. A corrupted version of life, anyways."
The tree was still stripped of its branches, and DAN started to whittle them down to spears. They did notice, as they did this, that the branches had a strange, green, slimey tecture beneath the bark. A zombie barbarian approached DAN as well, but he didn't provide a lot of helpful information. He mostly was just entertained by DAN's work and accepted a spear as a gift.
Bobcat ended his interrogation by telling Her'aen that he was going to keep an eye on her. She agreed that this would be ideal since she was guiding you all, and watching what your guide is doing is kinda important.
Kaswink, meanwhile, found several of the smaller animals that she was looking for. Amongst them were creatures that were once of Taranel but no longer were. Ancient creatures like fish that were starting to crawl onto land and were beginning to grow fur and squirrels with large, sabertooth aesthetics. These ancient creatures were all undead, but Kaswink did also find creatures that had adapted for the environment. She did find some rodents and amphibians that had grown strange gill-like holes or lines that they seemed to use to filter the toxins from the air. She caught one of the ancient fish/land creatures as well as a more adapted, living ferrot in order to disect its tiny, perferation-like gills. She also killed a few more rotten and adapted critters to get as many samples as possible.

---

Her'aen insisted on traveling through the swamp quickly as it can "close in on you if you're still for too long", and the journey continued further northwest. Skeletal sharks were swimming through the air before diving back into ponds, lakes and puddles of filth and a nearby body of water was bubbling away like some wretched cauldron. A collection of body parts, bones, flesh, viscera and nastiness surfaced on the water, and several of you were covered in its foul essence. Those of you that were struck saw your flesh calcifying, but it flaked off as it was no match for your mighty ability to not have that happen to you. However, the spots that calcified and broke free left behind welts that needed to be covered.
Kaswink approached a nearby skeletal shark with hopes of communing with it. The creature continued snapping and acting aggressively, but her efforts at least kept it from attacking you all outright. Bobcat helped with this attempt at communication by using his magic to calm the creature. Kaswink continued to meditate next to this shark, and the rest of you saw a shadow begin to move along the ground.
Looking up, you saw that this shadow seemed to belong to a dragon. Its wings flapped a few times as it flew through the air with great speed. It paid you no interest but landed somewhere nearby with an impressive crash. Where its shadow was first seen before you looked up to the skies, something still seemed to be there. A shadow was left behind, and it was trying to whisper something into your minds.

---

Ortyl'en and More Swamp

This shadow didn't seem to have any source, nothing was above it to cause it to exist and it was detached from any trees or mushrooms. It was blurry too, and its shape was a bit stressful to look at. Most of you resisted whatever it was trying to do, but Frode and Hysteria heard something in their minds.
"Vel’aše tel’ázo m’rú a vel’aše tel’ázo dú’ni, al nez om’rú a nez odú’ni.”
Frode had no idea what this meant, and neither did Hysteria at first. They continued to listen, continued to understand more and more of the words while Frode covered his ears and started to drown the noise out. Frode's efforts paid off, but Hysteria continued to listen. The words started to make more sense as they recognized bits and pieces of words that were almost Elvish.
“Your bodies will die and your bodies will rot, but you will not die and you will not rot.”
These words just kept repeating, over and over and over again, and Hysteria began to feel their body rotting away beneath their clothing. The rest of you just heard a strange, almost imperceptible droning sound coming from somewhere nearby. Hysteria signed what the thing was repeating, and Kaswink suggested they get out of here.

---

Hysteria looked around as the rest of you were analyzing the situation, and they were able to see that the shadow on the ground had changed. It had a face and a pair of arms but not much more other than a hood and a book. Its eyes were constantly half closed and angled downward towards a book which it was holding and turning the pages of as it chanted. Hysteria stared at the creature and tried to make eye contact, and they attempted to threaten it.

The creature, surprisingly, smiled at this as its eyes that had the appearance of shallow divots shifted on its face. The chanting got louder at this time, and Hysteria continued to decay a little bit at a time. They saw their friends begin to decay as well, but Hysteria looked away from them. The shadow, however, stayed in their line of sight the entire time until it began to fly away to the northwest.
Hysteria shot at it. Their flaming bow heated the arrow as it flew through the air, and it pierced the shadow while loding itself in its side. The rest of you just saw Hysteria turn around and shoot at nothing as the arrow flew through the air uninterrupted. Hysteria, meanwhile, had fallen to their knees without warning. The words continued in their mind, and they were losing any will to remain conscious as their vision began to fade. They were pushing through it, but it was getting bad.

---

Bobcat approached Her'aen and demanded answers about the unusual spirit. Frode called it madness and also wanted to know what was going on.
"Did you hear it? Did you get to hear the prayer? It is not madness. No, it is a holy scripture. The figure that you saw, well, I-I didn't get a chance to see it. That is a piece of her. A-a piece of The Necromancer that we are going to see. Um, we call them the "Ortyl". Th-they are spirits, they break off from her and, well, they weren't always just parts of her. They used to be her closest followers. They...they were corrupted by their own desires.
The one you saw was "Ortyl'en", it is um, it believed in the pursuit of knowledge beyond death. To be undying and to learn everything. In that process it-it became only its knowledge. There are others. There's...there's "Ortyl'boz" that we have not seen. That is the body, it is a-a-uh, pursuit of, um, entropic reversion? By any means necesssary. Uh, they ate people in hopes of-of staving off death and preventing themselves from aging.
The third spirit is "Ortyl'a", it is nothing more than a cloak and a big fancy hat, a mitre. Uh, it has a pair of detached arms, but no body or head or anything just arms and a cloak. It believed in absolute power and domination, authority uh, through the absence of death. They saught higher and higher titles until they were nothing more than, uh, a title itself. They were all corrupted and they all found their own personal eternal life here."

---

Frode claimed that, "It looks like someone found something else here too!" while gesturing to the world around him. Her'aen was confused, but answered to the best of her ability. "This is how it is, this is rot. This land would be like this anyway even if she weren't here casting her spells." Frode disagreed but pretended to agree.
Bobcat wanted to know if there were portals leading from this realm to the material plane or elsewhere.
"Not portals, no, it just kinda sits next to it. They're each their own things. They are corruption, rot, disease, blights. We have material ones, you know, what you would normally have in your world. But then there is also the ones that reside in the spirit. That is what this realm is. It would not exist without the corruption that would exist in your world, and they both need each other to continue...but there is no door. Just existence. That's what we believe anyways."
Frode had more questions. He seemed to believe that these words were metaphorical like "something a cleric would talk about." Kaswink posited that this place is "Where things die and where things rot normally in our world...this place is decay, it's what it is. It's a place that encompasses all the decay that happens in our world naturally. Something else is twisting that decay into whatever they're doing."
Her'aen congratulated Kaswink on understanding and claimed that, "Yes, that is the way of the world. There's death, life, decay which is, y'know, somewhere between the life and the death. There's also money and a bunch of other things, I don't really want to go over everything in life." Kaswink continued the explanation for Her'aen.
"There are many gates. I think we have to preserve these worlds because they're in balance with how our world works. They work because of this...it's kind of, um, we're kind of in a big metaphor right now."

---

Frode nodded, but he didn't seem to really get it. He pondered for a moment before asking if this realm could be made a little less sad. Kaswink reminded him that it might be sad because someone is hurting it. "I think either we have to talk to her and tell her that what she's doing isn't working or..." Bobcat interrupted her, finishing her sentence by stating that "we might just have to kill her."
Kaswink's sharkly meditation led to some insight. She understood from this creature that there is something in the water, something more than just sharks that is especially frightening. She understood it to be horrible and that it "exists everywhere in this realm". She also gained the knowledge that you all weren't too far away from your goal. She rode the shark to the other side of the body of water, and the shark provided one little bit of additional thoughts as the connection broke. Kaswink seemed to know, somehow instinctively, that she needed to return to this place after The Necromancer is dealt with.
Bobcat, unlike Agave, paid no attention to the plantlife of this realm. DAN, as they were working on the spears, happened to spot some interesting minerals. They managed to collect a corrupted diamond, two disease-ridden sapphires, a chunk of blighted iron ore, three chunks of blighted silver ore and four chunks of porous rocks that were leaking slime.

---

Along the way, you also encountered something particularly unusual. There was a giant chunk of throat with what Kaswink recognized as an exposed voicebox. Whatever this creature belonged to was likely a giant of some variety, and as the wind blew past you, the voicebox began to speak.
"I can only speak when the wind blows..."
You all started looking around for ways to get more wind or to activate this voicebox another way. The wind blew again.
"Because my lungs are somewhere else I suppose..."
Kaswink tried to communicate with the creature, hoping that it would respond, but its words seemed to be predetermined. It was speaking phrases that were unrelated to the questions asked as the wind started to blow again.
"Tis sad I was once a giant But now I am but a Giant Corpse Voicebox"

---

The journey continued with some agreement about helping find the rest of this giant's body after defeating The Necromancer, but it was interrupted shortly afterwards as some zombie hunter could be seen standing over the corpse of an ogre. This hunter seemed aggressive and started shouting at you to stay away from his kill even as the ogre was standing back up behind him.
Kaswink tried to explain to this hunter that "nothing can really die here" and that he just knocked his friend down for a moment. The hunter seemed offended by this and turned back around to see the ogre standing back up. He shot the ogre a few more times, and you saw it fall over dead yet again. Kaswink brought the hunter's attention back to her to ask if this hunter was an adventurer. He was shocked that she would know such things and demanded an explanation.
The hunter was intrigued by Kaswink's story of a mage looking for his adventuring party, and he was eager to follow her directions towards where the mage could be found. However, he ended up going the wrong way before Kaswink and Bobcat intervened. Kaswink helped the ogre back to its feet and it waddled away.
Bobcat was shocked to see the ogre back on its feet and leaving. An explanation was provided by Kaswink that "Yes, nothing really dies here. It's like what the spirit said, 'your bodies may die and your bodies may rot, but you will not die and you will not rot.' It's kinda referring to the body rotting, but the actual you inside your brain doesn't decay. She's trying to prevent all that decay."

---

Br’risen’Zl’R’illsn’ný and The City of Rot

As you continued your journey, Bobcat began to feel a strange numbness in his flesh-hand while also feeling weaker. A quick bit o' special healing magic later from Aeryn, and the weakness started to leave his body, but the slow paralysis remained. Aeryn explained she could heal the rest, but that it would require a good night's sleep. This was something that the group was not willing to do initially due to the risk of death or the gate closing, but Aeryn had an offer.
"I could prepare more spells if we actually rested, maybe when we found the city or something. Um, I have a way that we could get out of here if the gate closes. Somebody owes me a favor."
Frode attempted to find out what type of favor, but Aeryn refused to explain the favor further. She only elaborated that it could get you anywhere you wanted to be, but that she would need ten minutes to prepare the ritual. These thoughts were considered, but further discussion was had as you traveled across the swamp yet again. Your journey was at long last rewarded as you arrived a good distance away from a lake of slime, ooze, sludge and so forth. A city was at its center, and the path down to the wretched slime of a lake involved a sheer drop down incredibly tall cliffs. Resting at the edge of these cliffs was a dragon.
It was big, bigger than big, the biggest anything you'd ever seen in your lives. Its body was rotting away with a plethora of holes that dotted its form. Its wings were tattered and stripped with flesh that likely only added to the stench of this realm. Its claws were a dull yellow-green with black mold growing along the base of them. Its teeth, which became exposed as it yawned, were a dark brown almost black color with portions that were chipped and revealing maggots that crawled within their roots. Its size could not be oversold or estimated as its massive head rested on a pair of front claws that were each easily larger than the average house. It opened an eyelid as you all came into view and its black eyes with putrid yellow-green irises were revealed.

---

Bobcat had an idea to hopefully parley with this impressive creature, and Kaswink thought it would be helpful to have it take you to the city. You all observed the area to see that there didn't seem to be a hoard anywhere nearby. It was agreed that sneaking up to it would be sketchy and a straightforward approach would be more wise. Hysteria still snuck behind the group despite this with hopes of having an alternative if the situation changed.
A bear was spotted nearby, and Bobcat snuck towards it with ease while brandishing his sickle. He was able to cut into the beast and was surprised to see it fall with a single blow. He was prepared for this moment and quickly purified the meat of the bear before it had a chance to rise from the ground. It stayed dead, and Bobcat wrapped it up and had Kaswink help move it in position for the dragon to see. The rest of you also started to approach while showing as much deference as possible. DAN juggled six items at once!
The head of this dragon with its impossible to comprehend proportions, lifted up from the ground as the rest of its body strained to stand as well. It rotated, and the true scope of its size became more clear. It lowered itself back to the ground now facing you all. Its long body stretched out from the cliffs which were easily at least a few hundred feet away from you all the way to the bear that Bobcat had presented. Its tail hung over the side of the cliff and it sniffed at the bear in front of it.
"I appreciate the offering, but I honestly don't know what I'd do with it."
You explained that it was intended to be an offering of food, and it graciously accepted though seemed uncertain if it should eat it or not. There was a bit of a back and forth about the preparation of bear meat, but Kaswink eventually asked this dragon its name.
"My long and complicated dragon name is Br’risen’Zl’R’illsn’ný, but you can call me Barry, I guess. This long, complicated name is but a letter in an incantation that goes back to the beginning. If my form is frightening to you, then you will be no match for the one whose magic is fueled by your own plagues and blights."

---

Bobcat referred to this incanter as a wizard, though Barry claimed she was more religious than that. Bobcat also requested more information about how it knew The Necromancer.
"Uhmmm, well, I was one of the first casualties of her grand design. Not really a casualty I guess...it's really the opposite of that, but I uhh, the spell that she weaves day after day, millenium after millenium, it is the same one from the beginning if that makes sense. It channels, it needs pieces, everytime someone succumbs to a plague or anytime a body starts to decay these are all just steps, words in a long, long incantation."
Kaswink compared what the dragon was describing to using runes to cast magic, but instead of runes, this Necromancer seems to prefer entire plagues and so forth. Barry nodded and continued,
"This realm is a beautiful place, depending on how you look at it. I find it to be glorious and have lived here for millenia. Others, of course, find her grand design to be a bit more pungent. Remember, little things, your body might die here, but nobody really dies here. Be careful."
Bobcat soke up and stated that this Necromancer has clearly upset the natural balance of life. Kaswink explained that you all wanted to speak with her and solve this non-violently.
"She is scared more than anything. She is frightened. Do you know how many bodies, how many souls she owes to the dead and the living? When the dead die they don't really die. Someone is missing out. The world is not balancing itself back to zero as it should be. There is not an equal exchange of the dead and the living. The cycle, as some of you call it, is disrupted."

---

Barry became a bit flustered when Kaswink requested that it take you all to The Necromancer and it explained that you would all likely die if you did such a thing. It was unclear even to Barry whether that meant touching it or going near The Necromancer so Kaswink suggested that you all hang on to it with a rope.
The dragon seemed weary of such things, particularly because today was its "nothing day", but it was eventually convinced to fly you as close as possible to The Necromancer. Ropes were set up, grabbed on to, Bobcat turned into a big ol' bird and carried Aeryn, and you all flew towards the rotten city of Me'kiah'brem'or.
The rope started to fray along the way, and Barry let go of you all about twenty feet of the ground causing you to fall and tumble. You were dropped off outside an important looking building that was likely a palace, and there were several modern, ancient, and confusing forms of architecture around you. The city seemed deliberately arranged in a very specific way which made certain things inconvenient or baffling. The city was also falling apart but being held together by some unknown means, like it was in its own state of suspended decay.
Hysteria could tell where The Necromancer was, somehow, and there was much debating on whether or not to rest. Aeryn reminded you all that she can get you out of this place if the gate closes, and she pulled some incense from her bag as another reminder that Namina prepared things specifically so that you could rest safely. You all eventually chose to go into a bookstore with a built in cafe as a place to rest safely.

---

A Nap in a Bookstore

Rot Realm? Lot Lealm? We'll never know.
The interior of this bookstore had tables with dusty, slimey coffee mugs resting on them. There were bookshelves lining the floor beyond the cafe area, and Kaswink's attention was fixated on a nearby water tap. She tried the handle and a stream of sludge poured free for a moment before clean water followed shortly after. Kaswink took the first watch while the rest of you rested or pretended to not rest.
She spent her time doing some light activity by cleaning up the shop. Sometime into her shift she heard a book fall from a nearby shelf. She turned to look in its direction, and her eye picked up on the resonnance of some humanoid-looking person straining to get out of a pit. Meandering over to that area, she peaked around the shelf while cleaning up a counter and offered her help to the stranger. This person was in the midst of getting out and looked up at Kaswink while holding themselves up with long, thin, skeletal arms. She noticed that he was incredibly tall, likely around 10 feet, and he began to speak.
"A little help would be nice..."
Kaswink confirmed the intentions of this person and pulled him free of the slime-filled pit. Looking at it after he was freed, it didn't seem to be nearly as deep as it would've needed to be to let this person fall in. He bumped into the nearby bookshelf and caused it to almost fall over, and the two of them both reached for the shelf to stable it.

---

The unusual Zombie offered Kaswink a drink, but she refused for the time being while proclaiming an interest in books instead. She didn't give much in terms of what she'd want, so the shopkeep left her to her own searching abilities.
Kaswink began reading a book before her watch was over. As she read she witnessed more of these same tall, undead folks enter the shop. They'd look in the direction of you all as you slept and whisper to each other, sometimes giggling or just ignoring you altogether. As the bell rang above the door with each person, Kaswink noticed that the entrance to this building and the furniture were all rather tall as if designed for these people.
Her watch came to an end, and she fell asleep with the book covering her face.
Contents of The Book

The book was in a language she could not read, yet she was somehow able to understand it completely. It provided a bit more information about the history of this city. It was mostly images of the city in a timeline from start to finish. A different image took up most of each of the pages, and descriptions of events or the progress itself appeared beneath them in small print. Some pages had smaller images with more information about events at the time, and there were sections depicting more detailed histories as well.
How long ago it was built is still hard or impossible to determine, and the dates used in the book are unhelpful at best. Before the city was started, the L'huine lived in smaller communities throughout the Endless Tundra and Frozen Shores. Word was spread under the orders of the L'huine king, Uilan, and they were slowly brought together further north to a location specified by The Psychic. Apparently this religious leader had heard something that the book calls "The Cry of Ulunor"
Jobs were provided upon each person's arrival. Rumors of The Psychic's madness had to be frequently quelled as the designs, steps, construction, nothing really made sense. Faith in The Psychic's abilities and claims were called into question, but the city was quickly built despite this. As it was completed, it glowed with a bright light leading to its name: Osv’žiar’e, The Radiant City.

---

The city's history after this point was rather strange. Paintings of it seemed to contain two different images. One seemed to still be in the far north of the Endless Tundra, while the second showed it still in a cold, tundra-like setting, but it was on the edge of a cliff. An orb was floating in a massive chasm visible both in and above thick clouds that filled the chasm below this cliff.
The city existed in both of these places at once. Walking through it, according to this book, could take the L'huine back to the Endless Tundra and from there back to the Spirit World with ease. Times were prosperous, and the L'huine were enjoying their new city, but The Psychic was still hearing The Cry of Ulunor. She had people working on additions to the city, and she worked with The Harmony to design three glass bells the size of which had never been attempted before.
The book describes this "The Harmony" as the highest priest devoted to Zvuk, the Smrtohnya of Sound. They were apparently three distinct people sharing the same body with complete, simultaneous agency. There wasn't just one personality "fronting" at a time, but they all controlled the body at once, were in constant communication with each other, and had to be in complete Harmony in order to function. Their efforts with the three bells would ensure, according to The Psychic, that Osv’žiar’e would remain stable in the Spirit World.

---

The bells were completed and the next step was to bring them to three specific locations in the Spirit World. During this journey, the followers of The Necromancer built stone structures in Pluarsh ec Relovut while The Necromancer worked tirelessly in her garden to create Her Gate. Images in this section depicted a familiar swamp setting, and there were even drawings of L'huine standing about or working. They had different sizes, though many of them were on the short side compared to the tall Zombies found in this city. These shorter folks were half the size of the taller ones they stood next to, and they almost looked like children.
Despite their apparent age, these "children", if they should be called such, were working just as hard as the others. Their efforts were shown in further timeline images as they dug holes, placed stone bricks, carved strange letters, and attached chains to the walls. The Necromancer's work was shown in another image with a familiar mushroom next to a porcelain mask. This mask had curving, swooping lines along the outside with mushrooms decorating seemingly random points in between. A drawing of the gate as it opened is also visible, and the few images were of a city skyline on the horizon in a realm of rot.
Drawings of the streets, buildings and carvings with more explanations beneath them can be seen. The city looked as if it had been here for thousands of years, rotting away but barely holding on. That being said, it otherwise looked identical to Osv’žiar’e, and these followers knew that they had found a new home. They named it "Me'kiah'brem'or", and the book ended.

---

During DAN's watch, more of these tall folks would come and go, but one in particular seemed keen on approaching you. They had their hood over the head like many of the other guests, but they were also wearing a porcelain mask. They walked up to DAN, being the one that was awake at the time, but Hysteria was rushing forward as well. DAN prepared their crossbows and Hysteria signed at this person to identify themselves while DAN asked the same question. They seemed confused by Hysteria's hand motions as they raised their own hands which seemed to be almost completely skeletal.
Their attention instead turned to DAN, "I was going to ask you the same thing." There was some debate about who should introduce themselves first, but the masked person acquiesced in the end.
"I'm terribly sorry to be so rude. My name is Pivoý Žrávnickt. Who are you? Why are you sleeping in this bookshop?"
DAN explained that you had no where else to go, and the masked person offered to help you to an inn. This was refused, and the masked person seemed fine with you resting since the store owner didn't mind. They genuinely seemed to just want to make sure you're okay, though Hysteria's hostility continued. They warned you as they left to "Be careful where you walk. This city is full of holes. It rots the way flesh does, and you might find yourself falling into a place you cannot escape."
Hysteria thanked the stranger. The masked person got a drink from the counter and departed.

---

Your overnight, six to eight hour long nap finally came to an end and you had a chance to talk before following Hysteria's strange connection to The Necromancer.
Kaswink asked the bookstore owner about the strange city in the book she read as the name was different than the one you're currently in.
The city in the book was by the name of Osv’žiar’e instead of Me'kiah'brem'or. The helpful L'huine attempted to answer her questions.
"That is where we are, and we are also there. They are both here and there, um, it is tricky. That one is only in one place and so are we, but it is also here and nine other places."
Kaswink seemed to understand and explained to the group that, "They built a city and that city acts as a centralized location. It was built in such a specific way that it wasn't just built into the Spirit World but into the fabric of reality itself. It exists in rot, in madness and in any of the other ones. The city in the material plane is probably the city of stability." The book seller nodded along, but commented that "Stability is something different, but you pretty much got it."

---

Bobcat was still meditating despite everyone being up, and he was forced awake with a gentle shake. When he spoke it was revealed to actually be Agave much to the surprise and delight of you all. He seemed keen on acquiring a book about the rot, and Kaswink assured him that she had acquired a book that was about this city and how it was founded.
You all packed up, left the cafe, and proceeded towards The Necromancer. Clarification on the plan was required: Try to talk with her, and, if she disagrees to a certain degree then she will be stabbed in the dead. Particularly, if she isn't willing to stop, then she has to be stopped.
DAN brought up that
"Something that kinda seems interesting when it comes to rot, at least when I think about rot. It's usually things die after enough exposure to rot, or, at the very least, rot is like a decay and a disappearance of stuff. Nobody dies here, so what exactly is this lady doing with the rot? It seems like she's reaching rot to a certain point but not actually killing."
Agave tried to answer this to the best of his abilities.
"Do you remember the tree before we went to the Spirit Realm? We took an airship to that snowy village, and we found a tree filled with creatures of blight. It's stuff like that. Abominations of nature. Disease and decay. It has been around, well, at least since Bobcat was around, maybe longer."
Kaswink also weighed in.
"I think that basically the rot is supposed to decay everything. You, our bodies, our minds, our spirits, it's supposed to wipe us out completely. What she's essentially doing is, she's afraid of death. So afraid of death and losing the conscioiusness of herself that she's letting her body rot and decay but never letting it just let go and return to the earth. She's preventing everyone else from returning to the earth because they are essentially glyphs in a spell. She's bending the will of this plane."

---

The Necromancer's Garden

The session ended with you all arriving in a Garden.
The rain had started to fall, it smelled as bad as anything else here, and you could see all the hard work that had been put into this place. Mushrooms, vibrant flowers, vines, a variety of plants all arranged and likely meant for some specific purpose. A stream of wretched yellow-green liquid ran through the middle of the garden and a couple of bridges passed over it. Puddles could be seen with large, thorny carnivorous plants rising out of them. A table and chairs were visible with some treats and tea resting on top. Butterflies, dragonflies, moths and other insects were floating about, and a few different entrances to mysterious buildings framed the garden as well. Trees that looked to be dying, trees with strange glowing golden orbs, and healthy looking fruit trees were available as well.
Amongst all these plants one stood out as being the only of its kind. A pear tree with black bark, black leaves and branches and a plethora of vibrant white pears growing healthy and ripe. An amorphous figure, hunched over in a black robe seemed to be tending to the plants around this tree as you entered.

D&D Monday Dec 12, 2022

In-game Date:
Daulok 21-22, 308

Report Date

12 Dec 2022

Primary Location

The Rotting Gate

Secondary Location

Me'kiah'brem'or

Related Plots

• A Broken Cycle

Related Characters

• Božena, The Rotting Heirophant

Encountered... Things
Giant Zombie Voicebox
Something from the Lake
Shark Skeleton
Ortyl'en

Encountered People
Zombie Barbarian
Zombie Hunter
Br’risen’Zl’R’illsn’ný (Elder Rot Wyrm)
L’huine

Discovered Minerals and stuff
Blighted Silver
Blighted Iron
Disease-ridden Sapphire
Corrupted Diamond
Porous, slime-filled rocks