"Druid's Curse" - Seed Quest
General Summary
Black Skull Hunter in Distress & The Purple Windress.
Session 12 - Seed Quest
Samuel Wyrmshadow was at the dock, waiting for them, he had arrived in Boardwalk a few days prior and heard from the innkeeper of The Pearl Jam that you had left. He was not expecting you on such a fine vessel, but then, nothing surprised him about the ways that y’all get around. Something was off though, his usual smile and demeanor was replaced with a grim, penitent stare. A weak greeting from him and the party returns to their place at the inn. As they walk off, Clope Adrth takes this opportunity to travel Northbound, calling in their favor with Captain Remi "The Falcon" Falco. She tells him that after a day's rest they can head North, it gives her crew time to rest, time to find more crew, and do all the other more tedious things required of a captain thanks to the Guild of The Planks. Early in the story, the party had discovered and excavated a Ruin of Knowledge, and in that place they found many treasures, hints at more treasure, and some guild seals - the ranks being the highest anyone in the party had seen. These seals were returned to Samuel before the party ever went to Hanan Ce’Vesh, and in the time since their absence, Samuel had went to those ruins and found the bodies of the guild members, among them, he found proof that his wife was one of the dead - it wasn’t uncommon for her to be gone for months on end, as a rank 4 Guild Member she had held command over a team of other expert guild members, and someone killed all five of them with ease. Samuel believes that person to be the same person who killed Whiteclaw of Tanna, and asked April where Malech The Scorned had run off to. She and Winslow admitted that they half-suspected him dead too, distraught at their friend's demise. Samuel pauses for a moment... taking in another friend's death. Samuel then shares the news with the party and says that he is hunting down this “Specialist” certain that the Dagger of Venom the party had said killed Whiteclaw was also the killing blow to his wife, the necrotic tissue being the biggest giveaway. After some more discussion and catching up, he says that it’s not why he’s there though. He needs April and Squeeks, as one of the Dwarves recently traveled South from Brazenhold fell ill before making it to Haven Cross. In the time since the dwarf had been there, 5 others have gotten sick, that was before he left. The party hurried back north to Haven Cross where the dwarf had already died, more were sick, and more were dying. The situation was dire and growing worse quickly. Squeeks had recognized the onset of the illness as a powerful and ancient Druid curse that had only been heard to exist in legends - how these Druids, certain there was more than one needed for the ritual of this power, got ahold of the magic was beyond her, and she had no idea what the counter toxin might be. After getting more information from others in Haven Cross, the party discovers that the disease is coming from deep within the Murk Mire, but still not how to deal with it, that is until April reads through the book she found in Ruins of Knowledge, this book from an ancient alchemist by the name of Francios talks about a flower that can cure any curse, also said to be found in that same swamp - luckily. Samuel is an expert of those lands, so the party ventured deep, Samuel in to who remarked that in nearly 30 years of travelling around and through the area, he had never seen this flower. The party was disregarding the potential cost to their life or overall health to find these flowers in the heart of where the curse was coming from. Their goal is to look for a flower of legend, only described in ancient text to cure this curse, also of legend. No pressure.
Dire Times in The Mire.
Eventually, the party scoured their way past swamplands thick with murky feet swallowing steps. Their progress is halted for a time as they are ambushed by lizardfolk, with thick black scales adorning them, making them disappear in the underbrush all that much easier. Some of these "Black Skull" Lizardfolk which escape from the encounter, deeper into the swamp, so the party continues on, keeping their eyes open a bit more. For naught though, as their attentive eyes don’t detect a handful of traps and distractions. As more than one of these traps spring among the underbrush of the overgrown woods, the lizardfolk have additional time to prepare what lies at the end of the path. Samuel, a stout warrior, but a human nonetheless, and on the older side at that, began to feel the effects of the poison that had gotten the others sick - if a sturdy dwarf was not able to withstand this disease... he asks the party to stop a moment to recuperate. He then stays at the small campsite they make, just before entering the depths of the swamp, and through his labored breathing and shaking hands he gives his journal, worn faded black leather, notes and pages and scribblings about the swamplands within to April. April and Squeeks attend to Samuel and make sure he is comfortable, and the party decides to carry on into the heart of the woods with the utmost caution, vowing to return to him as soon as they can. They quicken their pace, racing through the sticky air and fighting off the clothes that cling to their sweat drenched bodies. The party ventures deeper, long past the road that would lead to Portsmouth and Fort Myrefall. They soon discover the lizardfolks base, trees with structures built along the side of them created excellent viewpoints for the lizardfolk to lie in wait as the party thought they were stealthily approaching the center of the encampment, a large wood platform made in the center of the treehouse homes near ground level that seemed like it was meant for quicker access between the trees, able to be elevated to reduce how high a Black Skull may need to leap up.. Just as the floor falls out from beneath some of the party, a trapped bottom into a walled pit, Squeeks sees them atop the chain of treehouses, talking to who looked to be the leader of the Lizardfolk - her wings suspend her long enough to see the creature's piercing green eyes disappear into a tree. Split from each other now, the lizardfolk pounce, the leader, a shaman, and a few party members are underneath, locked away and… safe? The pit had a purpose, it housed a unique variant of the corpse plant, one that glowed with a faint purplish hue when it began to consume it’s prey. While some of the party fought the lizardfolk above some of the others were trapped below with not one, but three of these ghoulish flower beasts. The battles were both intense in their own ways, the lizardfolk horde raining down upon Squeeks and those aiding her, and the large flowers cornering and nearly devouring those below with April, but in the end, all enemies laid slain or fled through the tree lines in every which way - the lizardfolk would be back, but only in larger numbers next time. The party made their discovery in the conclusion of that harrowing event, housed within the center of the corpse flower it grew in a bushel - was it that the druids had made the flower into the beast or that the beast was always the carrier of this flower the party sought out? This was a question that Squeeks could not hope to answer. There they sat though, Purple Windress' of legend. So, with a handful of flowers to make the treatment, that party returned to Haven Cross, gathering up Samuel - with hope that it would work so that they could coordinate an effort to halt this disease in it’s path. The flowers proved able to provide inoculation for 1 person per flower, so those most crucial to the operation in Haven Cross got their vaccines, but those who had been infected before the party left, would not recover. Samuel, luckily did not take in the posion, staying further out of the swamp, and was able to be inoculated after their return, and though his recovery, and others, took some time, he was back in fighting shape in time for the curse's eventual evolution. But that is a story for another time...
The Spread Slows...?
Session 12.5 - Downtime
Along the coast for the last several months, a massive building had been in construction. It's pillars and beams, foundations and platforms growing in time as if a living entity... it was in the few weeks that the party would aid Haven Cross and the outlying regions that this new establishment known as The Auburn Crustacean was opened. It served as much as an Inn as a collection of many other features that it considered itself an "Adventurer's Compound", a fort sized establishment with several floors, extradimensional spaces aplenty, and much more. It was an endeavor sought out by Lucius Maximus a Tabaxi with all the right connections to get things done serves as a Master Patron. This new compound would serve as a veritable palace for adventurers, has made for a nice refuge at the end of their long days aiding the small city of Haven Cross in it's many plights, and has long since become the parties new home base. The party discovered much in these few weeks reforming Haven Cross into a veritable base of knowledge on this curse and plants needed to hold this surge at bay. After those couple weeks of beating back the tide of the plague that spread from the Northwest, the corpse plants, and the "Purple Windress" flowers were becoming more scarce. The party needed a new solution. The thought came too late though, as the plague... changed. Almost beginning to seep into the earth itself, poisoning those once more that have been vaccinated. Squeeks and her druidic talents only being able to go so far... she says to everyone that it is beyond her as it has turned into a Verdant Corruption, which means that the plague has become infused with a true curse, not just a curse in name, and that usually means that is is bound to a stronger entity nearby, but that's all she knows.
Feat players April Airlez, Winslow "The Wise", Urkall "Goodwill" Neekrath, Hideo - Z000, and Squeeks the Moon Druid
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