Session 6 Report

General Summary

The party exits the crypt, and looks back out at the forest. The party decides to head south, and past the crypt of the fallen. They notice they have left the Gloomhaven Thicket, and notice a large golden-leaved tree. Thoralf determines its a Gingko Tree. They come closer to the the tree, and come upon the beautiful city of Malinoria. Sassafraz makes an eyepatch of leaves, and they stare in awe at the city, and the youthful looking elves. They are approached by a tall, regal elf, who politely intorudces himself as Elan, the Guardian of the Tree. He says that a seer they knew expected them, and he invites them to meet her. 
They enter the bulding, and Sassafrazz and Amara pray to a statue of Veil. The Seer introduces herself as Carileph. She is very crazy, but proves she is in fact a seer. She tells them they're going to go Southwest ion search of a meteorite, with no futher details, and then tells them to go see Malinore. 
They leave, and come upon the merchant Thalion Oronor. Sassafrazz says to keep in touch, and Thoralf asks questions about the Sylvan Shortsword and the Adamantium breastplate. Amara asks where Malinore is, and he points them in the right direction.
 They meet Malinore, he tells them they can stay and eat for free, but they must leave in the morning. They question why he is a drow and none of the other elves are, and he tells the story of his origins. He describes how thousands of years ago, a society of elves existed that contained all elves, from high elves and wood elves, to drow and eladrin. At some point, a switch happened for a seemingly unknown reason, and, led by the high elves, the people started to view drow as lesser, barbaric, and evil. They were described as cursed, as dangerous, and that they must be banished. The elves began creating death camps for the drow, killing them off rapidly. he describes the story of how he escaped, and headed south. Apparently, a group of elves were sent after him to kill him, but when they found him, he had come upon the Tree of Life, where he had built himself a home. He offered them peace, and eternal life, alongside him. They accepted, and now they all live together, and have for thousands of years. He tells them how the field of white flowers around him were a homage to his wife, and he lives here in peace so that she remains with him.
  They decide to go to the lodgings, starting with the tavern. They go to order them drinks, and the bartender tells them they are guests, and do not have to pay. Sassafrazz takes advantage of this, and decides to order five "Dragon Slayer" drinks. Amara and Thoralf order two chickens, and Buzzbee orders a live chicken, which she takes outside and kills herself. For some time, they get drunker and drunker, and eventually Amara gets herself a very old and expensive glass of wine that she enjoys thoroughly. Sassafrazz, being hammered, flirts with an elf, and they hit it off. They go for a walk outside, and Buzzbee remembers her conversation with Jaque, and decides to make a move on an elf of her own. Amara and Thoralf watch this entertainment, and enjoy their food and drinks. Sassafrazz and the elf go sit by a pond drenched in moonlight. Buzzbee and her elf friend decide to take it nextdoor to the inn, while Amara decides to get up and dance with one of the other dancing elves. As the excitement and joy reach their peak, Sassafrazz notices a peculiar bird in the distance. She flies up to get a better look, and calls out to it, hoping to call it over. Meanwhile, Buzzbee lock the door behind them, and he makes a move on her. She notices somethign frighteningly alluring about him, and suddenly realizes she can't resist him at all. Thoralf notices an elf with a red ring around his iris, who frequently looks over at them, seemingly watching them. He gets an unnerving feeling, and decides to check on Buzzbee. Sassafraz flies higher, and attempts to get a closer look at the bird. As she does, she gets the sense that it isn't a bird at all, but instead something reptilian, and that it is approaching rapidly. It increases in size tremendously as it gets closer, and Sassafrazz realizes just what the beast is. 
Buzzbee, enamored with her new friend, kissess the elf as his skin turns a bright red, and longs bony horns sprout from his head. He kisses her back, and the life immediately starts to drain from her body. Thoralf tries to enter their room, but notices its locked. He smashes the doorknob, sees her dying, and launches a crossbow bolt, which the devil deflects. The devil absorbs the rest of Buzzbee's life essence, and drops her lifeless corpse directly on the ground, and she dies instantly. The devil then smiles, and steps into the Ethereal plan, disappearing instantly. Thoralf rushes over, and, using all of his knowledge of magic and devils he learned from Valinor, he cuts open a part of her cheek and the inside of her mouth, which slowly drains some of the necrotic energy that inhibits her soul from remaining in her body. She is stabilized but unconcious. He hides her under the bed, and then runs back towards the bar. Sassafrazz is met with the immensely large Adult Black Dragon, who flies directly towards her with its mouth open. Using Some of the magical vines from the tree of life, she flies right at the dragon. Strapping the vines around the top of its head and the roof of its mouth, she uses every ounce of strength she has to tear the dragon upwards and use the vines as reigns, redirecting it. In a tremendous feat of strength, she succeeds. She asks what he is doing, and he tells her of his plans to destroy the city, and The Tree of Life, as a part of the first attack designed to end the Age of Man. She argues, saying that this town doesn't need to be destroyed, and that they can instead work together to free all of the enslaved dragons and giants without too much bloodshed, especially when the blood to be shed is that of innocents. He slaps her with his tail, and their brawl continues.
Concurrently, Amara's dance is interrupted by the red-eyed elf, who attempts to stab her. She throws a chromatic orb at him, shocking the illusion off his body, revealing a Chardalyn Berserkers. They fight back and forth, and he stabs her several times with his chardalyn blade. The tavern panics, and elves all about scatter in every direction. On his way to the tavern, Thoralf notices that other buildings are under attack, and that enemies of all kinds, from orcs to gnolls, were invading. He breaks his way through one of the windows of the tavern, and launches an arrow into the rib of the berserkers. He then rolls forward and flips a table, which he uses as cover. Simultaneously, the battle between the Sassafrazz and the dragon continue, and she continues to fail persuading him to stop the attack, and instead uses the vines to muzzle the beast. He swipes at her with his claws several times, and she uses her strength to throw the dragon away proving the point that she didn't want to hurt him, but merely convince him. After several scuffles, the dragon learns a respect from Sassafrazz. He tells her theres nothing he can do to stop the city from being destroyed. Sassafrazz looks at the city below her, and realizes that during her battle, and all out genocide was occuring below her, with an army of orcs, gnolls, and more burning buildings down, impaling, decapitating, and mauling people at every opportunity. The dragon flies away, and heads towards the Valley of Dragons.
As the fight between Amara, Thoralf, and the Berserker continues, Buzzbee's Eye of the Void begins to heal her, slowly. She leaves the inn, and goes to join the fight at the Tavern. Once she arrives, Amara is nearly dead, while Thoralf struggles with the Berserker, trading blows. In the middle of the fight, three Beastman Gnolls burst through the windows with spears, and the group finds themselves horrified. They decide to run away, and as they do, the Gnolls throw three spears at them, one of them impaling Amara, and Thoralf catches, shields, and drags her out. Once outside, Sassafraz and the group rejoin, and look about them, as the entire city is being razed, and a squadron of orcs light the tree aflame. The berserker uses a scroll of fireball, and lights the back of the tavern aflame, a death sentence for the final building in the City of Malinore. Using the Herbal Salve purchased by the merchant earlier, they stabilize Amara, who uses her last bit of strength, along with her parties digging, to cast spare the dying on the root of the Tree of Life. The entire party runs out into the woods from which they came, and search for the Elf that Sassafrazz was with. Soon, they find him, with two other dead elves, one burnt to death, the other decapitated, one a man, one a child. The Elf weeps over his fallen companions, and expresses his desire to join them. The party won't let him, and bring him with them for their journey. 
They create a small campfire, and they camp out for a few hours. Eventually, they go back to see the state of the city. Seeing that it has been reduced to nothing but ash. In the place where Amara cast her spell, a single gingko fruit remains, the last peace of tree remaining. They go further into the city, finding the scorched and mutilated remains of all of its inhabitants. Thoralf finds shards of Chardalyn which he picks up for later. Eventually, they look for Malinore's hut, and find it unscathed, but the field has been burnt of all of its beautifully white flowers.
Inside Malinore's hut, a dozen orcs' corpses lie, all killed in different ways during the final struggle. At the back of the room, Malinore lies dead, with three equidistant puncture marks in his chest. A smeering of blood leads into the woods south from the hut. Buzzbee follows it, and it leads them to a dogtag. This dog tag is made of Adamantium, and reads Cagne Ondo, and Amara realizes that this is an assassin who worked as her fathers right hand man. She keeps the dog tag, and Thoralf asks to have it for the metal. Amara says no, and that she has a purpose to keep it, for now. As they discuss, a glint in the sky come barrelign towards earth, and a meteor crashes into the beach  towards the bottom of the island. They walk in the direction until they get to a a cliff looking over the beach. Here, they decide to long rest, before they continue forward.

Campaign

Path of the Fateless

Protagonists

Sassafraz

Thoralf Cinder

Amara Ashbrooke

Jaque Laument

BuzzBee

Report Date

19 May 2024