Players:
- Nikotine (Imrae Duskryn)
- Carric (Vivi)
- Neuro (Gormin Rockroller)
- tiff_thatsit (Galli)
- Espada (Beralt)
- Nastaris (Bo)
DM: Anca
Session start: Wednesday, 17:00 UTC, 24th of February 2021
This will be the first time I’ll be writing a report, but since I’m getting paid, maybe I’ll put some effort into it.
Well, it all started in the Potted Plant, in Port Mirandia. A halfling woman entered the tavern, she looked desperate and seemed to not sleep for a while. Beralt, a Bugbear approached the woman, and after some questioning we were aware that her son and two of his friends were missing. If I’m not mistaken, his name was Jilka or something like that. It is worth noting that he got a fairy tale book about heroes before going missing.
According to the mother, they liked to play in the bridge southwest of the city, and had just turned into teens. With that information, we left town, venturing into the snow towards the bridge. There we found a small structure, similar to a “fort” built with empty crates, barrels, and a lot of wood and cloth to keep it standing. Outside the fort, numerous sets of small footprints were visible, but the one that caught our attention were three sets of footprints, all leading south, away from Mirandia. Inside of the structure we found the fairy tale book, and some drawings made by the children, it seemed.
We decided to go south following the footprints, in hope of finding the boys. The fairy tale book is a book with a deep green cover with something like gold leaf flourish patterns and butterflies in the edges, its name was “The Princes’s Tales”. It is almost certain that the book has something to do with fey.
On the afternoon of the first day, we found a young human woman wrapped in a bearskin cloack, a dress and a mask on the left side of her face, carrying a sled down the road. We asked some questions to her about the missing kids, and she told us she hadn’t seen them, but gave possible places they might’ve went to, those being the fey forest south, and a ruined fortress, in the south too. I HATE fey, hopefully the group does not decide to go to the forest, I went there on my last mission and hated it. We bought some wares from her after she told us that she needed money to feed her daughter, which was in the cart too. After that, we departed.
We proceeded south, and eventually camped once it got dark. Now I’m sitting at the camp writing everything, hopefully we find the boys soon and get some money as thanks. The group decided to head to the fey forest. Gods, I hate fey so much.
Fuck. During my watch I was reviewing my report, and a big fucking wolf bit me in the shoulder. I proceeded to wake everyone up after escaping with misty step, and a fight begun.
Ten seconds into the fight, it started growing, and assuming a humanoid form. It was a cursed werewolf, those abominations that I hate so much. We destroyed him in less than a minute, with Beralt landing the last hit. After it died, it turned back into a tall human man with a stron g build.
A sharp scream followed by a feminine wail came from the woods, and the dead man bursted into flames, a fire wolf came out of that blast, his demise was swift. Looking around, a familiar figure appeared. A woman wrapped in heavy bearskin cloack. On her back, in a basket there was a child giggling.
The woman tried to run away in fear, but before she could gain distance, Bo sent a crossbow bolt flying her way, dropping her body in the soft white snow, and painting it red over time. That guy is dangerous. I approached the child, which was in the basket, to see if it was still alive, but as I looked into his face, I saw big eyes completely black, and one front sharp tooth sticking out of his mouth. I also think I saw fucking wings folded under his clothing, and then a sudden buzz started coming from him. Before I could do anything, the baby vanished out of thin air, and the buzz noise seemed to be going away with the wind, as if he was flying invisible. That stuff was fucking creepy man, I’m telling you. At least it wasn’t fey.
We decided to investigate the bodies, on the werewolf Gormin found numerous scars, but the ones that caught my attention were the three deep slashes across his chest. Other than that, on his right biceps was a tattoo of a howling wolf with a large paw in the middle, two scars across it.
On the pockets of the woman, I found some coin and a necklace made out of a leather strip and a piece of half burned ash wood. It caught my eye, and as I analysed it further, I found out it was a druidic thing, and the burned marks on the ash wood were in the shape of flames, the symbol of the wildfire druids, if I’m not mistaken.
We went back to camp, which later proved to be a fucking bad idea. On the fourth watch I was awakened by Beralt. The reason, you wonder, would be two weird creatures feasting on the bodies of the guys we killed. After an annoying fight, we killed them, and burned their bodies. As I’m writing this, the others told me the two creatures were zombies, so, there you go.
Now I’m going to sleep, hopefully we’re not surprised by another fucking monster.
We weren’t. We headed out, on our second day looking for the kids. On the way, I spotted some interesting statues that were massive and looked ancient. The first one was a dwarf holding a big axe in one hand, and a mug in another one, classic dwarf. Next to him was a female elf (probably, regular elves all look feminine after all) playing a harp and sitting in a chair, her hair was well made too, I’m quite impressed by the quality of those statues, simply abandoned out here.
In the noon we reached the forest, and after walking a while, we found some weird stones aroun 1,5 meters each, and while there was snow all around, there was no snow in them or in their center. Gormin, our gnome, said he felt sleepy and his thoughts were blurred as he touched the stone, They decided to ignore it and keep walking.
We went forward, and night fell. Hopefully this time I can meditate in peace and quiet.
My meditation went smoothly, and I got the detect magic spell ready, so I could check the fairy tale book that got us into this whole mess. I got this idea last night, smart, huh? Well, turns out the book was magical all along. It was filled with enchantment magic, and divination magic on some pages, overlaid on the existing script and illustrations. Upon further inspection, I found out all the divination traces in the book, and all of them were laid on the pages where the stories talked about answering the call of duty, journeying through the realm of the fey, or introducing important characters. Have I mentioned that I hate fey?
Well, apparently Beralt found a weird tree while on his watch, with a gemstone doorknob on it, weird. We investigated the tree, and found eight small symbols carved into the trunk. Since my spell was still working, I felt the Conjuration magic. It was so strong to the point that it almost disoriented me as I approached. There was magic inside the trunk, and extending under the ground for as deep as I could see. Took a while for me to get used to it, but as I focused on the doorknob and the symbols, I could see the same conjuration on the doorknob. The western-most symbol glowed in a similar way, while the eastern-most symbol glowed with Transmutation. The other six shined brightly with Evocation.
Galli, the gnomess mage turned the doorknob to match up the evocation symbols with the lights. Leaving out the conjuration and transmutation symbols, she turned until the lights from the knob matched up with the symbols of evocation. A moment later, a large portion of the trunk started glowing, and the wood disappeared, revealing a portal.
After some discussion, we decided to enter the portal. It was a very warm sensation when I crossed, and when I opened my eyes, I was in a small, round room with a wooden floor inside the tree. There was a lot of furniture inside the room, as if somebody lived there a long time ago. The whole place felt alive, moving in a weird rhythm, looking like it was trying to reach us. Everything was covered in dust, like they hadn’t been moved in some time, except the plants. The portal then closed behind us, and now we’re trapped, great.
We investigated around the place, and what caught my attention were the letters that were on a table. They talked about provisions and supplies, weapons, especially bows and arrows and the defenses of a village, about a party of orcs pushing further and further into the forest. All the letters seemed to have the same wax seal, a rose gold butterfly.
After some more investigation, a trap door was found under the rug, opening it a spiral stairway was revealed. We headed down, finding a chamber that looked like a continuation of the trunk upstairs, with thick corridors branching out like roots, some blocked by heavy doors, and other by wooden portcullises. Roots, vines and plants were growing all around the room, creating some areas that looked difficult to walk on. This place seemed like a storage room. As Gormin, the gnome investigated the roots and vines in the room, the wall behind him started moving, and an arm grabbed him. Shorthly after, a creature came out of the wall.
After being attacked by both Rustbucket and Gormin, the creature started shouting something over and over again in a language nobody seemed to understand, and then hit the gnome with its club. During combat I found out it was weak to fire, and used it to our advantage, letting everyone else know too. However, even with the advantage, the creature was still able to knock Gormin out, before I finished it off with my Scorching Rays. After this intense combat, I started questioning if this mission was really worth it, I mean, risking our lives for a kid we don’t even know it’s alive anymore? For fucks sake.
Anyway, the gnome survived, and we took a moment to catch our breaths before moving again, and now I’m writing all this. The vines around the room seem to grow disturbed and agitated after the tree creature died, making their movements more erratic and snappy. While we rested, Galli looked around the room, and found a crystal doorknob just like the one I saw on the outside of the oak. Next to the knob, a set of keys, a small decorated one and another larger and very simple iron one. Looks like we’re not stuck here anymore, nice. After grabbing some coins from a chest that Galli opened with one of the keys, we’re now heading to the northern wooden porticulli to leave this place, hopefully I survive to continue this log.
Well, shit. The first three door did not open, but the fourth one opened, revealing a dark and round corridor. Both the floor and ceiling of that place were slowly sloping as the tunnel appeared to become narrowed and narrower, and it indeed did. Halfway through, the vines on the walls started grabbing and attacking us, forcing us to fall back. Those things’ spikes fucking hurt, I’m glad we left that place.
Using the gemstone doorknob we opened the portal, and since we had almost no supplies left, we were forced to fall back to the city without completing the mission. Well, at least we got some money. During my watch on that night, I spotted a white drake dragging the body of a snow leopard across the snow, it seemed to notice us for a moment, but ignored us and left. Apparently the leopard was enough for it.
We then headed back to town, and I’m finishing writing this log in a warm bed eating a warm meal that I made, and drinking some beer. Ah, how I missed this. Winter sucks, if you ask me. The kids are probably dead or something, but hopefully not.
Well, this was the report of the mission, written by yours truly, Imrae of House Duskryn from Menzoberranzan.