12 Eleint 2993

Callum, Fenpenny, Axle, The Marqck II, Mr. Beaks, Vogelvina, Huzzah!, and Grexes continue on the Old Forest path to the druid circle.

Along the way, they cross paths with a gnome running from what appears to be an elf. The group quickly learns that the gnome, named Tallin, has ties to the Summer Court of the fey realm’s Seelie Court and that the elvish person was a warden of the Winter Court, part of the Unseelie Court. Upon further investigation, the group discovers that the Winter Court Warden killed the Summer Court Gnome.

Feeling bad for Tallin, who insisted that he was immortal, the group brings his corpse with them and continues towards the druid circle.

Soon the party falls into a not-leprechaun’s hairy trap and has to fulfill three wishes before the being would free them. After much consternation, the figure makes its three wishes:

1. Wishing to know what happened to Tallin
2. Wishing Fenpenny well
3. Wishing for Axle to craft a toy boat

Upon granting all three wishes, the group is released and promptly pisses off the not-leprechaun when Grexes tries to grapple him, hoping he might grant the group three wishes. The idea quickly turns sour as the not-leprechaun hypnotizes Grexes and Huzzah! and then promptly flees, but not before Volgevina could sock him right in the kisser with a near fatal blow.

Once the group arrives at the druid circle, they meet with Bryara, reluctant leader of the Higher Committee for Natural Equity and the Protection of Greenspaces. The party members share the information they have gathered regarding the missing orphans and the connections to last year’s Mabon day killings, and Bryara imparts that a pregnant woman has reportedly gone missing from the town of Beretun.

Troubled by what she is told, Bryara calls a meeting with the other heads of the druid circle. Unwilling to wait on the outcome of the druid circle’s deliberations, Vogelvina–accompanied by Fenpenny and Callum–heads back to Gosterwick to begin training for 2nd level.

Axle, The Marqck II, Mr. Beaks, Huzzah!, Grexes, and a freshly arrived Fernweh Fareburrow are left to idle away a few hours while the druids debate. The group peruses the wares at Luzhana’s Emporium, run by the altogether lovely Luhzana and her three-eyed, softly burping lizard. Luzhana sells a wide variety of magic items, and the group purchases a pair of restorative potions.

After an at times heated discussion with her counterparts, Bryara returns with a hot tip. The druids of the Higher Committee for Natural Equity and the Protection of Greenspaces believe the missing orphans and pregnant woman have been kidnapped by Gerrilad the Grey a former member of the druid circle said to have lost his faith in finding the balance of all things. Gerrilad left the circle maybe a year or two ago, and at the time he was seen with a carving of a red baboon.

Hearing tale of such a druid jogs the group’s memory to Nubbins’ exploration down the Well of Light on the 4th of Eleint. Gerrilad the Grey—a.k.a. “Big Bad Gerrilad,” as noted on a scrap of map originally found by Tippletoe Tarkelby—seems to fit the description of the Druid on the Ruby Throne to a T.

Bryara thinks the kidnappings being related to the fey may be a possible connection, but she couldn’t be certain as the ritual killings’ true purpose also eludes her. Additionally, she warns against believing that the killings must happen at the ruined temple to Jael this Mabon, surmising that may just have been a convenient location for Gerrilad last year.

Equipped with new knowledge, the group takes Bryara up on her offer of a Transport via Plants spell, which allows them to travel from the Old Forest all the way to the city of Arden Vul in the span of six seconds. Traversing the magic portal between two trees, the party steps out onto the Forum and—consulting their maps—devises a plan to navigate toward Gerrilad.

The group first enters the well-explored Basement of the Plaza of the Priests of Thoth, reunites with Marqck, and takes the stairs down to the 3rd Level of the Halls of Arden Vul. Passing through the door covered with trash to mask the party’s traversal, the party comes to a large, domed room with its ceiling held up by four statues of ancient Archontean deities: Thoth, Wadjet, Osiris, and Maat.

One hallway from this chamber leads to a room covered in frescoes that depict Maat, protector of the dead as they begin their journey to the afterlife, handing humans each a feather before they enter their burial chambers. In the center of the room is a long, black table, hovering above which is a single feather. Hypothesizing that his patron deity Rowan Fairbrow, also a goddess of protection, would be cool with what Maat was laying down, Fernweh musters the bravery to take the floating feather. He is instantly smote down with a great strike of divine lightning perfectly fine and can add one feather to his inventory, and another feather magically appears above the table. Axle, The Marqck II, Mr. Beaks, Grexes, and Huzzah! all follow suit, with a new feather materializing each time the last is taken.

The party continues through a different corridor from the statue hall, coming to a room with a number of columns and a humanoid corpse slouched against a wall. In searching the corpse of this ill-fated adventurer, her throat torn out by a sizable, clawed creature, Grexes finds a pouch full of coins and two potions. He sips from each of the potions to determine their properties and hands both to the sneaky halfling Fernweh, thinking he could make great use of a Potion of Invisibility and a Potion of Diminution. Axle takes the adventurer’s weapons and armor, and Grexes leaves his feather with the body.

This hallway ends in a room with three portcullises controlled by three levers. Looking through the portcullises, the party sees dozens upon dozens of burial niches, finding themselves in an ancient catacomb. After 80 minutes of searching through niches for valuables, the party comes out empty handed.

Barely able to pull themselves away from pilfering niches forever and ever and ever, the group climbs a staircase to the Halls’ 1st Level and determines they are in a known area notated on Tippletoe’s map. The first hallway Fernweh scouts seems too treacherous as the hooting and howling of baboons grow louder the farther he goes, and baboon urine and feces is splattered against the walls, so the group diverts into a well-furnished dormitory. Searching, the party finds a verrry lifelike statue of a priest, a 10-gp candle holder, a 25-gp dice set, some still usable sealing wax, and a red glass activation square for the Thothian Telportation Rings, matching the blue one Axle found in the concealed guard room on the 3rd level which contained two zombies.

From here the party reaches another intersection. The calls of more baboons can be heard down one hall, the second path leads past a portcullis with a nearby rusty lever and is obscured by magical darkness, and the third ends at a door. Ever excited to open new doors, Grexes’ hopes are dashed—but Fernweh’s stoked—when the door is found to be locked. Fernweh picks his first ever lock while adventuring with the R3C and opens the door, revealing a brimming but long idle arcane laboratory. The laboratory’s most distinctive feature is massive baboon head carved into one of the walls. An empty flask sits on the baboon’s long outstretched tongue, the channels of its nostrils extend above the flask, and its empty eyes beckon for something to be placed into them.

While the party tries to suss out the head’s functionality, a statue in the room animates and grabs a black iron spear from one of the nearby tables, intent on dispatching the intruders. The party leaps into action. Grexes grabs a hold of the statue, refusing to let it come closer to his allies; Axle unfurls the Cloak of Squirrels, commanding the rabid rodents and The Marqck II to harry the construct; Huzzah! calls forth a cloud of swirling daggers to chip away at the statue’s form; and Fernweh looses his potent arrow strikes from advantageous positions throughout the laboratory.

With the statue crumbled, the party is free to fully inspect the laboratory and finds the following interesting items: the statue’s spear, two oversized keys, two wands, two scrolls, a periapt, and a 1-foot silver ankh that Fernweh believes could fit into a depression in the Obelisk of the Sun. Also while investigating, Axle discovers a secret door opposite the laboratory’s entryway and sends Mr. Beaks to scout the passage beyond. Upon returning, the homunculus reports of an ascending tunnel long enough to reach the surface of Arden Vul but that there are other creatures about and likely danger.

Not wanting to explore further, the party retraces their steps all the way back to the basement, going into the hidden rooms off the stirge chamber to take a full rest and study the items from the laboratory.