The Lost Heart

General Summary

14 Mids

A group of mercenaries are hired by Martin Hatherol to locate an artifact - The Heart of Tulivor. The group consists of:

• Wisica Shadowquick - A halfling monk who has worked for Martin before.
• Scar - A feline shifter who enjoys travelling through the wilderness and has developed and affinity for nature
• Li - A human druid who has spent his life travelling from strange and distant lands.
• The Legendary Heartpiercer - A half-drow former gladiator turned adventurer.

Martin' scribes have pulled together a list of possible locations in the region around lake Mirwas. The only settlement in the area is the village of Reismill, so it is suggested that they start their search in that area. The 4 possible locations are:

• Hythea Tower.
• Peia-Bor Temple.
• Library of Zertin.
• Fallen leaf monastary.

The region is densely forested with all manner of creatures living in the area, largely undisturbed by humanoids.
Several clues were found by Martin's scholars indicating that the best place to start may be the tower.

On the 5th day of the 19th week in the fourth year of the rule of Governor Foamin a unit of stalkers was dispatched to transport an object of great value to the watchtower in Luchim Glade. The unit reported a successful delivery on the 3rd day of the 23rd week.

Stebthin has agreed that we should begin the investigation with a spiritual approach before approaching the scholars. It should be easy enough to persuade Sergio to relinquish the item once he has finished.

The group agree to search for the Heart in exchange for 800 gold pieces.

22 Mids

The group arrivenear the village and Li notices that the fields have been abandoned for about 5 weeks. Scar climbs a tree and takes a look at the village. He sees no one moving around and some damage to the houses. The group sneak closer and find the place deserted with the rotting remains of animals in the streets. Up close it is clear some of the buildings have suffered damage from more than the elements with several bunred and some doors kicked in. Wisica hunts around but doesn't find anything valuable. He does come across a few rotting humanoid corpses. A detailed search by Scar reveals the faint tracks of barefoot humanoids heading North.
The group choose one of the more intact houses to spend the night in.

23 Mids

9:00 in the morning. Scar follows the tracks he found the previous way a short way into the forest but loses them within about 60ft of the forest edge, though the last trace indicate sthey were headed North. Rather than charge of blindliy the group head towards Hylea Tower.
12:00 in the afternnon. The group are ambushed by some blights and a shamnling mound. They carve through the dangerous plants with little difficulty before resuming their journey towards the tower.
6:30 in the evening. The group stop for the night, protecting their camp with spells by Li and Scar.

24 Mids

5:30 in the morning. The group break camp.
4:30 in the afternoon. The group arrive at the tower. They found it has collapsed at some point in the last couple of centuries. Only a few walls remain intact. A heavy wooden trapdoor is still intact. Unable to open it himself, Scar ties a rope between it and his horse (called Horse) in order to open it. While he is doing this the group are attacked by displacer beasts.
When the beasts are dealt with, Scar sets about skinning one of them so he has the material to make a cloak. Heartpiercer begins patching himself up and Li and Wisica head down into the chamber beneath the trapdoor. They find a stone cellar with some shelves with papers on them and a chest. Wisica makes straight for the chest, and checks it for traps. Opening it he triggers a fireball trap that he manages to avoid though it catches Li, and destroys most of the papers. Three pouches are found in the chest, one wothe gold, one with silver and the third with gemstones. Li and Wisica share most of the loot with the others when they return to the surface (they both take a gemstone before sharing the rest).
Finished with his skinning and remembering why they are there Scar goes down to he cellar and checks the papers. He finds a few pages which are retrievable though there is clearly more that was destroyed by the fire.

I was confronted with a most challenging problem. A true test of my theories. The heart of a celestial, devoid of power and able to contain unfinished spells. Could i return it to it's former state. After 3 weeks study i determined that i could. Celestials after all are driven by the noble ideals of the upper planes. When i worked out the spell used to supposedly drain it of power, that provided me with a key to how to unlock it. This raised the question of should i do this. The one who set me this problem is no worse than many others, and restoring this heart would have greatly enhanced my own reputation. But given the uses the heart has been put to in the past on both sides of the moral divide i couldn't go through with it.

A further search also reveals a scroll with arcane symbols on it in a hidden cubby behind a stone.
6:00 in the evening. With their searching done the group set up camp for the night. Scar and Wisica try Displacer beast steaks for dinner.

25 Mids

6:00 in the morning. The group leave the tower and head in the direction of the bridge.

2 Armin

4:00 in the afternoon. The group arrive at the bridge and find it collapsed. Li casts waterwalking on the party and their horses and they begin to cross. Part way over they are attacked by crocodiles, but these are swiftly defeated. The group travel a bit further away from the river before making camp for the night.

4 Armin

12:00 in the afternoon. The group arrive at Fallen Leaf Monastary having decided it was most efficient to go there first. They find a paved compound surrounded by a low (5ft) stone wall and a set of gates leading in. Inside there are six small buildings and 1 large one. There are raised coloured flagstones in front of 4 of the smaller buildings in blue, yellow, green, and red. When Wisica is tossed over the wall by Heartpiercer fire, earth, air, and water elementals appear on the coloured flagstones.
Li summons some satyrs to help with the elementals, and Heartpiercer rushes in to help Wisica. With Li joining them and Scar providing fire from outside the compound they are able to destroy the earth and water elementals. Unfortunately the elementals reform on the coloured flagstones within moments and the group retreat beyond the compund walls.
A check around the perimeter reveals a sword sitting by a henhouse. This seems unusual enough that Heartpiercer jumps over the wall to grab it and back out again before the elementals can respond. The sword is made of iron and is plain and quite blunt, not by age or use, but by design. The group deduce it must be a symbolic or ceeremonial weapon. Further searching reveals a book by a well. This contains notes about a shield and clue that points to water.

I take the warmth from your veins, and seek to crush you into nothingness. Found in book with a symbol of a shield on it.

The group work out that there are probably 4 books and 4 items. With Wisica acting as a decoy (bolstered with magic from Scar) Heartpiercer and Scar are able to retrieve more books and items from around the compound.

I prepare your food and consume it. Where I rage, town's and fields are detroyed. Found in a book with a symbol of a sword on it

Steadfast and defiant I may seem unchanging but the other three are ever seeking to reduce me. Found in a book with a symbol of an axe on it

You cannot see me, but I am there. The fires of life are nothing without me. Found in a book with a symbol of a staff on it

2:30 in the afternoon. By placing the items on the corresponding elementals coloured flagstones the group are able to dismiss the elementals. This allows them to search the monastary without interuption, though they do not find anything useful. They therefore decide to head for the Library of Zertin.

6 Armin

Midday. Arriving at the site of the library the group find it to be a ruin sitting by the side of the lake, with trees growing between the broken remains of the walls. The group advance stealthily, checking the area but see no sign of any movement. While examining an old fountain 3 enormous crustacean like creatures, with 4 legs, two massive claws, and a hard outer shell emerge from the water. Scar recognises them as an aberrant form life known as chuul. The party quickly discover that they have more than the creatures' claws to fear as the things' tentacles also prove to be poisonous and within moments half the party are paralyzed.
While Scar attacks one of the chuul, Li races over to Wisica and calls upon his powers to cure the halfling's paralysis. Wisica then stuns the chuul, that had attacked him, buying himself and Li a brief respite. Heartpiercer ends up trying to fight off the paralysing poison so he can escape the claws trying to crush the life out of him.
Scar throws caution to the wind and unleashes the full force of both his own powers and the magic of the gauntlets he is wearing. His swords burst into flames adding extra potency to his attacks. Wisica draws out a whistle from around his neck and on blowing it is able to fly up into the air. After making the mistake of getting within range of the chuul while trying to help Li, Wisica decides to stay high up in the air and hurl darts down at their foes.
With his magically enhanced blades more easily slicing through the shell of the chuul, Scar manages to kill one of them. He then joins Heartpiercer, who is now free of the paralysing poison, in attacking the second of the creatures, the pair make short of this chuul, before turning their attention to the third. This last chuul has managed to get a grip on Li with both claws and nearly manages to crush him to death before the rest of the group can intervene. With the last of the chuul eliminated the group move back from the water's edge and take some time to patch up their wounds and catch their breath. During their break they notice a strange grey shape moving in the water but it disappears before they can think of challenging it.
1:30 in the afternoon. After finishing their rest the group explore the ruins more fully. Finding a set of heavy timbers covering the entrance to an underground area the group turn to Li to move them aside. Transforming into a brown bear, Li is easily able to move the timbers out of the way and the group are able to head down underground. There they find a network of room filled with shelves and books that have been damaged by hundreds of years of exposure to the elements. Only two books have survived intact. One written in an arcane script, and a catalogue of items. One of the items listed is the heart.

Item 863 - Heart of Tulivor.
2 inches across, ovoid, made of deep red material. Reputed to be the heart of a celestial. Insufficient evidence to confirm that claim, and material is hard and unyielding so unlikely to be of the same composition as when it was in the chest of a celestial. Reports indicate object and stire spells, but used to be more powerful. Study requested by local authorities. Early tests have confirmed magical nature, but efforts to increase it's power or restore reputed abilities have failed. Study on hold following discovery of new tablet at site. Item returned to local authorities for transport to spiritualist centre.

2:30 in the afternoon. The group leave the ruins of the library and head for the temple.

8 Armin

Arriving at the temple the group find it is intact and inhabited by hunaoids with varying degrees of snake like qualities. Some look like humans with skin that is slightly the wrong shade and a strange way of walking. Others have thick scales covering their bodies, and snake like heads. The group launch an ambush from the cover of the trees, slaying several of the humanoids before they can mount an effective defence. Wisica stays hidden in cover while Scar and Heartpiercer fire from their hiding places. Li joins in by summoning a group of satyrs who add their bows to shots coming from the forest.
A large snake-like creature, with a an almost humanoid body tapering to a long tail emerges from the upper levels of the temple and uses a thin red rod to send a ball of fire down into the group. The party finish off the creatures on the levels of the temple (or at least those that haven't fled inside) before focusing their fire on the large one at the top of the structure. The creature, which Wisica recognises as a Yuan-ti he has faced before, attempts to flee from the barrage of arrows, but runs into Wisica who was attempting to sneak up on it. He uses his whistle to take to flight and drops a crowbar o it's tail.
Flying evern higher in the air, Wisica angles himself down and drops, fist first onto the fleeing abomination. The blow shatters Wisica's arm and breaks the creature's spine. Wisica's cries of pain draw the rest of the group over, but realising Wisica's own powers of self healing will keep him alive they quickly turntheir attention to the temple.
Li's satyrs are sent in first and find the remaining Yuan-ti kneeling on the ground with their weapons down. The yuan-ti are questioned and reveal they are the villagers of Reismill, transformed by the heart. The leader of the yuan-ti, along with two attendants kidnapped them from the village. The attendants were killed by large crustacean like creatures as they passed the lake. There are about twenty villagers left.
A search of the yuan-ti leader's chambers at the tip of the temple reveals a chest filled with gold and a large emerald. The heart is picked up by one of the satyrs and put in a pouch for safe keeping. The group then offer to escort the villagers back to Reismill.

16 Armin

After seeing their charges safely home the group return to civilisation

25 Armin

The group present Martin with the heart. They also offer him the emerald and he thanks Wisica for remembering about it from the previous expedition he undertook for Martin.

Rewards Granted

Tower

• 40 Silver.
• 30 gold.
• 3x Onyx .
• 2x Citrine (+1 taken by Li).
• 2x Jasper (+1 taken by Wisica).
• Displacer beast pelt.

Library

• Arcane Book.
• Catalogue of items.
• Blank books.

Temple

• 167 Gold pieces.
• Heart of Tulivor - given to Martin in exchange for 800 gold pieces.
• Sis'sath'sis Emerald - given to Martin in exchange for 200 gold pieces.
• Wand of Fireballs (picked up Heartpiercer).

Missions/Quests Completed

• People of Reismill rescued.
• Yuan-ti leader killed.
• Heart of Tulivor recovered.
• Sis'sath'sis Emerald Recovered.

Character(s) interacted with

Martin Hatherol

Created Content

Heart of Tulivor.

Ruins near Reismill

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A map provided by Martin Hatheroll showing the location of various ruins

Notes

Library A reclusive set of scholars once occupied this site. They were researching ancient history and built this library to hold their collection of knowledge on a site known to house ruins of a previous age. No resources could be spared to protect the library at the start of the years of darkness so it was abandoned to slow decay of time.
Tower Once a watchtower for a nation that contested the area, it was taken over by a hermit reputed to have a deep understanding of the outer planes. The hermit was called Sergio Rasmus. After the hermit died of old age, various followers of his teachings made pilgrimages to the tower.
Monastary This was home to an order of mystics who believed that enlightenment could be found through mastering an affinity with one of the elements. The original name came from the teachings of the one of the masters who claimed that only in surrendering and allowing yourself to be carried away like a leaf falling from a tree could one begin to understand the flow of the lements. The members of the order were killed when they refused to pick a side during a conflict in the area. Following their deaths, the monastary was supposedly cursed and the name changed from Falling leaf to Fallen leaf.
Temple This multitiered structure has served as the focal point for various religions over the years, with each claiming the structure while they were in the ascendancy. It has passed through so many hands that the original builders are long since forgotten.b None of the new nations have extended their reach this far into the jungle so it has been unclaimed since the years of darkness.

Report Date

31 Aug 2020

Primary Location

Griboli Forest

While written as a one-off, this adventure followed on from the events in The Serpent Ruins, with one character (Wisica) and the patron (Martin) making return appearances.