Session 47 - Does It Have Any Udders?
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Uktar 30. End of session: 1489DR "The Feast of the Moon"
Our "Heroes" stand amidst some giant snakes, now dead. Derrick struts around, telling everyone who will listen (which happens to be no one other than himself) of his deeds of derring-do and how he killed three snakes in one go all on his own (stretching the truth a little, but that's not unusual for him!). They are a little nervous about staying near to the swamp, but don’t want to risk getting lost or becoming delayed by heading away from the swamp, so they continue towards the Tangleweed Grove by skirting the edge of the swamp, weapons drawn and looking out for more swamp creatures, especially watching for the fabled rot grubs. Derrick sends Owl Pacino out in front to look out for potential hazards or enemies.
After another hour or so of travelling, Jaxii spots a large tree in the distance, through the mists. Pacino reports back to Derrick that he spots a human, or humanoid, up ahead. Derrick's first instinct is to ask if it is male or female. Owl Pacino doesn't know the difference. He's a bird. Derrick tries to explain the difference between males and females and proceeds to ask if it has any udders. Pacino has no idea what he is going on about.
The group decide to try to sneak up to the grove beneath the tree. Unfortunately Jaxii takes a mis-step and sinks to her waist in swamp water, making a noise extracting herself. Derrick, suddenly discovering a gallant streak, runs over to try to help but only manages to sink in the same waist-deep water and he also makes a racket trying to get himself out again.
Thinking they have probably blown any cover they may have had, Jaxii and Derrick decide to openly walk to the grove, weapons sheathed, whilst Iwee and Karoshi stay, hopefully hidden, a little way behind.
As Derrick and Jaxii approach the grove, they see that the large and ancient tree stands in the centre of a lush grove that seems to contain a mixture of white and yellow flowers in the shade of the tree. The yellow flowers seem at this distance to match the description of the tangleweed plant that they have been given. They also see that the grove seems to be a natural 'container' for marsh gas, and they can spot clouds of yellow-green gas floating around that vicinity.
Taking care not to light any naked flames, Derrick and Jaxii approach further. Karoshi spots a slight movement near the edge of the grove, but is unsure as to what it is - he places a bolt in his crossbow and aims at the area in case it is something to worry about.
Focussing on the grove itself, Derrick and Jaxii don't spot, until it is too late, a massive crocodile lurking in the shallow waters of the swamp near to the entrance of the grove. As they approach, the crocodile launches itself at Derrick but misses badly. Karoshi fires off his crossbow but misses. Derrick recovers from his shock and lands a perfect hit on the beast, Jaxii following up with a lighter hit, scratching through the tough skin.
Iwee focusses on the creature and causes it to hear dissonant whispers in its head, which results in it running away as fast as it can, as well as taking some damage. It slinks back into the swamp waters as Jaxii and Derrick slash at its disappearing body.
As Karoshi surveys the scene, he spots what looks like a flame being lit further in the swamp, and just about makes out a humanoid figure looking like it is lighting a flame arrow. He shouts a warning to the others and Derrick and Jaxii run away from the grove, fearful of the marsh gas being lit and causing them damage.
It seems they were right to do so. As they flee the scene, the humanoid, and a second humanoid doing a similar thing, loose their arrows toward the grove and the whole grove is covered in flame as the marsh gas ignites. Iwee shoots a faerie fire towards where the arrows originated and all of a sudden two human-sized humanoids are outlined in a glowing halo effect.
Thinking quickly on their feet (well, ok, after about 10 minutes of player discussion!), Karoshi and Jaxii, both resistant to fire, rush towards the grove to try to save some tangleweed from the fire before it is all destroyed. Conscious that the giant crocodile may be lurking somewhere, they take a slightly longer route to the grove to avoid the edge of the swamp.
Derrick meanwhile tries to throw a javelin at one of the humanoids, eventually hitting it due to it being outlined in a glowing aura. At this point however, the giant crocodile reappears and runs towards Derrick, though not yet reaching him. Iwee, buoyed by her success previously, causes more whispers to ring out in the crocodile's head, talking of handbags and shoes. It is enough to make him immediately turn and run again, disappearing once again into the swamp waters.
As Derrick suddenly realises that he is actually resistant to fire, he still focuses on the two humanoids, who, having now ignited the grove, seem to be turning and running deeper into the swamp. Karoshi calls over to Sully to stand ready for a quick escape.
The humanoids manage to escape into the mists of the swamp, injured but alive, as Jaxii and Karoshi run into the burning grove to gather as much unburnt tangleweed as they can. They both take fire damage while doing this, but their fire resistance reduces the amount of damage they suffer. Meanwhile the crocodile reappears from the swamp. Iwee tries her whispering again but this time the crocodile, realising that the whispers are not as damaging as it first thought, does not run away this time and, despite being hit again by Derrick, manages to smack him with its tail, causing a decent amount of damage, which Iwee reduces with her cutting words, but derrick manages to stay on his feet.
As Jaxii and Karoshi between them manage to grab three small bunches of smouldering tangleweed before running out of the burning grove, Derrick and Iwee between them finish off the giant crocodile - Derrick slicing its upper jaw in two as its body slumps into the soft mud at his feet.
The group are glad to have survived the crocodile attack, and pleased to have managed to gather three bunches of tangleweed, but they stare at the flaming grove, as the remaining tangleweed burns, and the ancient tree is slowly eaten away by fire. It's a moving moment that seems not to affect the party in any way, and they just decide to head back to the village as quickly as they can, sticking to the swamp edge. Just before they leave, Derrick digs out an impressive giant crocodile tooth from the split open skull of the creature.
The next few hours are cautiously uneventful, but then as the sun dips below the horizon and the light begins to fade, Pacino, as usual scouting ahead, indicates to Derrick that he has seen some lights in the swamp, fairly close to the swamp edge, with one breaking off and coming in their general direction. The group decide to stick with their current path for now.
Not long after, Derrick spots the light again, moving towards them erratically through the swamp, before suddenly going out. Karoshi decides to "do his thing" and, without expecting any result due to "his thing" never having worked before, is very surprised when he actually detects an undead presence in the vicinity!
Reeling at the success, the group are somewhat surprised when the light suddenly reappears before Derrick - an unsupported, floating, glowing light - and slams into him, but luckily Derrick manages to dodge the attack. Jaxii manages to swipe at it with her sword and makes contact with the glowing light, which dims a little, but then glows again as brightly as it was previously, before it slams again into Derrick, this time making contact, and Derrick feels a jolt of lightning energy blating through him.
Karoshi tries to turn the undead creature, but it seems to resist the turning. Sully tries to bite at it, but misses. The others decide to try to get away, and run further down the path. Unfortunately the flying creature moves faster than them, and attacks Sully, hitting the giant salamander but luckily not killing their mount. The group sensibly decide (after A LOT of player discussion) to keep running, but this time away from the swamp rather than running along the edge. This proves to be a sensible decision, as the ball of light does not follow them, and instead heads back into the swamp, before blinking out once more.
The group, hoping that the light isn't following again, continue to head back to the village by a slightly longer route, avoiding the edge of the swamp. They manage to get back to the village of Moonfall as the villagers are running around in a slight panic, as they have no more tangleweed and are concerned that they may turn that night.
The party are thanked profusely for the small amount of tangleweed that they have recovered, and Eldred tells them that the amount of tangleweed they have recovered should be enough to last them the next few days, which should ensure the villagers are ok until the moon has waned enough for The Curse to not affect them until the next month, though they are very concerned to hear about the destruction of the Grove - he doesn't know what they can do for future months, as it will take many months to regrow tangleweed. Everyone is shocked when Derrick makes the great suggestion that they contact another Moonfall village to get some tangleweed before the next full moon.
Eldred informs the group that unfortunately Suriel's parents, Horgarth and Starwyn, have disappeared, and they suspect that they have gone in search of their daughter, despite Eldred telling the villagers to hold off, and wait for the party to help them recover their children.
The party rest for the night. Iwee heads to hear parents and spends the night with them, though she manages to upset them both by throwing a strop and threatening to run away again when they are too scared to tell her something. They agree to tell her everything after all this is over, but are really worried that they will not see Poppy again, and, having just found their other daughter after 5 years, may well lose her again.
And so we leave our "Heroes" once again, back in Moonfall village and resting up for the night - though Iwee once again has a fitful and unrestful night. They intend to head out in the morning to visit The Hunter before progressing into the swamp to rescue the Moonfall children.