Session 48 - Jaxii Discovers Her Mortality

13th May 2022 - 19:45 - 11:30

In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR "The Feast of the Moon". End of session: 1489DR "The Feast of the Moon"

Our "Heroes"  awake to a hearty breakfast in Moonfall - Karoshi rates it as "acceptable", which is a little harsh given the entire town is upset and distracted by their missing children.

Iwee apologises to her parents for her teenage strop the previous evening. They are understanding and explain that they are only worried for her safety, given that they have only just been reunited. They also question Karoshi's motives towards Iwee/Lily, given that he arrived on the scene just after she had been attacked by a noble. Iwee convinces them that the Tiefling is trustworthy and honourable.

They head out towards the King's Wood with the intent to find The Hunter in order to get directions to the ruins of An-Sen in the marshes.

After a couple of hours travelling in the woods, they spot a small clearing in the trees, and Owl Pacino reports that there is a building in that clearing. Jaxii is nervous and suspicious and suggests they look for traps around the clearing, The rest of the group ignore her, and press forward, not wishing to surprise The Hunter so Iwee announces their presence.

Jaxii takes it upon herself to have a careful look for traps as they advance. Which is a good thing, as she spots a pit trap in the gap in the bushes and she quickly stops the others from falling into it. Despite there being no movement in the clearing, Iwee continues to declare their good intentions and explain that they have come from Moonfall looking for help.

The bard's persuasive nature elicits a response - a voice calls out and tells them a safe way to approach - initially asking that only Iwee enter. The party complies and Iwee enters the clearing and meets The Hunter - a female Tabaxi who has an arrow trained on Iwee, and who seems to blend in with the background very well.

After some discussion, and an explanation from Iwee about why they are here, as well as the offering of the letter written by Eldred, The Hunter lowers her bow and invites the rest of them to join her, and to explain what has been going on. She also tells her very well hidden sabre-toothed tiger, Pax, to stand down.

The Hunter is very concerned about what has happened to the villagers in Moonfall, and does offer to give the group her store of tangleweed, which should be enough to cover the next month's full moon, and will tide the villagers over until they are able to send for more tangleweed from elsewhere, and to re-plant the grove. She also promises to give them some silvered weapons to help in their recovery of the children, and to tell them how to get to the ruins. However, she does seem a little distracted.

She asks if the party would help her in a problem - she has been separated from her love, a dryad named Calista, who lives in her great oak tree on the edge of the Glade of Dreams, deeper in the King's Wood. Some fey creatures disapprove of their relationship and have stopped Calista from leaving her tree, and also have prevented The Hunter from approaching that area. Whilst The Hunter and Pax have a great air of competence and experience about them, Karoshi also detects that they are probably older than they first appear, and maybe their skills and strength are diminishing with age, hence her asking for help in this. Our "Heroes", after hearing her story, kindly agree to help her.

They head out quickly to the Glade, which takes them a couple of hours to reach. They can spot the Glade as they approach - the sunlight illuminating the bright yellow flowers within it. As they skirt the glade they also spot a large oak tree on the edge and presume that is Calista's tree. Knowing that there are likely to be unfriendly fey creatures around, the group tread carefully as they approach.

The group do catch sight of some creatures to the north of them, close to the Glade itself. Iwee manages to Slow two of these, something that ultimately proves to be useful in the fight (and almost certainly saves Derrick's life), though its effects are not immediately appreciated. Before any of the others can act, the entire group are suddenly enveloped by complete darkness and none of them are able to see their adversaries, or even each other. They struggle to escape the darkness without tripping over the myriad of tree roots and ground cover beneath their feet.

What is worse, Jaxii feels a dagger stabbing her between her scales in the darkness from an unknown assailant. Karoshi runs out of the darkness, making it out without falling over, and calls to the others to help guide them. Jaxii manages to rush out of the darkness too, but Derrick and Iwee both trip up trying to find their way out, both falling prone.

Jaxii and Karoshi hold their actions to attack anything hostile coming out of the darkness, but are instead a little surprised to be attacked themselves by small creatures that seem to appear from nowhere in the woods, flitting from tree to bush, before rushing in and stabbing them with small, very sharp knives with deadly precision. These little buggers seemed cute at first, but once both Karoshi and Jaxii take damage from their quick, piercing blades - dispelling Karoshi's bless spell and eating through Jaxii's raging damage resistance, they quickly lose their cute moniker.

As the paladin and barbarian are being kept busy outside the darkness, the bard and the fighter are meanwhile struggling to stand up and get out of the dark. Derrick once again fails to escape, and gets a blade in his side.

Karoshi manages to take two of the small sprites out with his Smite's Thunderwave ability, but there are still three of them on Jaxii. She goes into a frenzy to try to hit them and manages to take down two of the ones attacking her. Unfortunately, as Derrick is falling over again in the darkness, the remaining sprite-like creature attacking Jaxii scores another hit and manages to take the dragonborn barbarian down! She falls unconscious - something she had never before experienced.

Luckily Iwee manages to escape the darkness and brings Jaxii back from the brink of death with a Healing Word spell. The dragonborn is conscious, but with two levels of exhaustion (one from her Frenzy, and one from falling unconscious). Our "Heroes" decide to take a time out to recover, with Karoshi using some of his healing pool on himself, and Jaxii taking a healing potion. Derrick meanwhile continues to struggle to get up.

Karoshi's Sanctuary spell on Jaxii forces the creature attacking her to attack someone else, but as it rushes towards Iwee, the barbarian lashes out with her greatsword using her opportunity attack and manages to kill the creature before it reaches the poorly armoured bard. Iwee, relieved at her good fortune, mocks the final creature still attacking Karoshi and manages to shame it to death!

With the small, quick sprites all now taken care of, hopefully, the group look around and wonder where Derrick could be. They all prepare actions to hit anything (presumably other than Derrick) coming out of the darkness, but can do little more. Meanwhile, Derrick is only just surviving all the hits in the darkness and takes another healing potion, but at last he does manage to escape the darkness.

With all the group now out of the darkness, at the edge, they take the unusual decision to stay where they are. This proves to be an unwise choice, as two creatures pop out of the darkness, take a stab at Derrick (luckily for him missing, as the fighter responds with another Shield spell) and then at Jaxii, damaging her again, but she retaliates by taking down one of the darklings, skewering it on the end of her javelin. With the party standing around the darkness, preparing to hit anything they can see and arguing about whether to use Fireball in a forest or not, two daggers fly out of the darkness and manage to take down the dragonborn for a second time - Jaxii is once again unconscious!

Karoshi gives the remaining health from his pool to revive Jaxii (who is now at level 3 exhaustion) and they all finally move away from the darkness. Nothing more appears from the darkness… for now.

And so we leave our "Heroes" standing watching an area of blackness, still arguing with each other about whether to cast fireball or not, with Jaxii looking REALLY knackered and the other three eyeing the patch of darkness, suspiciously…