Murder 26/4/2458

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General Summary

"Can we stop thinking about the turning to stone and start talking about the staff?" - Braa

Tholki is Back

• Tholki returned from a rock
• When Beerum attempted to got through the rock, he was told he was not authorized. 
• Tholki also summoned a goat, which seemed quite proud, declared itself a king, claimed it was there to help it's friends, like Tholki. 

The Staff... oh god the staff

• Braa showed the staff to the party (minus "Penelope", who was tracking the druid)
• The party was concerned for Braa's arm, which was becoming visibly petrified. 
• Braa identified the staff as a "corrupt staff of the wildlands"
• Eliza took the staff for the moment, attuning to it as they travelled, trying to track the elk. 
• Tholki got on all fars and sniffed the ground, helping the tracking effort. 

The wagon

• "Penelope", still an owl, followed the elk into the woods. Eventually, she watched it bring the body of the druid to a wagon home in the middle of the woods, far from the roads. 
• A man and a dwarven woman had a conversation regarding the dead druid, whom they were evidently familiar with. 
• The wizard got tired of the elk, held up a ringed hand and seemed to use it to convince the elk that it was free and to leave. 
• The wizard complained that they should never have gone along with Vossi's idea. 

Confrontation

• "Penelope" turned back and was able to regroup with the party. 
• Together, they hurried to confront the individuals.
• They found that the dwarf woman (Nufubela, the same as they had encountered on the road preivously) was gone. 
• Upon investigating the wagon, they found that there was still someone inside. 
• They met with what appeared to be an old woman, who was quickly unmasked and revealed to be the wizard Denis. 
• His lies falling apart, Denis attempted to fight off the party. However, luck was not with him despite him activating the considerable shield magic of the hands of Zifo. I rolled at least 3 nat 1s. 
• Denis surrendered. The party tried to get the item he had used to summon the crawling undead hands and the ethereal hand but he claimed that he couldn't give it to them as it was cursed. He claimed that transforming people into animals was the dead druid's idea, as the druid did not wish to kill anyone. 
• Denis offered to cast true polymorph from a scroll to transform one of the party's companions back to whatever they had been before, as whatever Vossi had done was no longer dispellable. 
• The party took the scroll, deducing that he was not the strongest wizard anyway and that Braa or Tholki could cast the spell instead. 
• It was revealed that breaking the staff would lift the enchantement, but would corrupt the forest, and cause a 60ft explosion. 
• "Penelope" the owl found a box of jewelery and stashed it on her pony. 

Unplanned Murder

• The party disagreed on how to deal with the staff
• Eliza discovered that it could become a tree
• One option was to purify it, by venturing to the tree of the archdruids and removing whatever was corrupting it 
• Another was to use the scroll to turn "Penelope" back with the scroll, and figure it out later (to Steve and Toremnin's chagrin) but Tholki and Beerum knew how valuable the scroll was and wanted to sell it if possible. 
• Another was to break the staff immediately, but Eliza was worried about the forest. 
• Tholki proposed digging a deep hole and detonating the staff inside it. He dug down 70 ft, and waited for Braa to help go a little farther through the stone using the lute of the Dwarven bards.
• "Penelope" got tired of waiting and tried to snatch the staff from Eliza. Eliza turned into a bird and took it back. A scuffle ensued. 
• Denis fled, his wagon vanishing.
• Eliza tried to fly off with the staff
• Beerum shot her down to stop her. She fell unconcious.
• "Penelope" failed to grab the staff
• Eliza and the staff crashed to the gound from 80 feet in the air. 
• Eliza died on impact. The staff exploded. 
• There was no sign of Eliza's body. 
• There was a sapling surrounded by shadows, sealed in an impenetrable dome. 
• The surviving party, all heavily bloodied except for Tholki who had avoided the explosion by being underground, returned to the caravan. 

Character(s) interacted with

• Denis 
• Nufubela 

Report Date

26 Apr 2024

Primary Location

Northpath Tradeway

Related Plots

• Caravan Escort

Related Characters

• Barivol Shatterdhelm
• Denis
• Nufubela
• Steve
• Toremnin
• Vossitelyn