Session 26: Return to Bjerglys

General Summary

Shortly after retreating from the Astrapisome with their prize of 4 nodules, the Muk, Soren and Killian meet up with Thordunn, who had defended the caravan from one of the flying Astrapisome parasites.   Collecting themselves they make their way up the valleys, into the sunspine and towards the valley that contains bjerglys. Crossing the skyfall site, they see the section the carved through, has caused the body of the Astrapisome to collapse even further, clearing this valley completely. Hours laters as the go through the pass into Bjerglys, the party notices that the small stream at the bottom of the gorge, has turned into a river with significantly stronger flow, than last they were here.   Noting this, they ride further into Bjerglys, and as the move out of the forrest sorrounding the town they are met with a site to behold, lots of people working in the fields, whose crops seem to have grown particularily well, much to Sorens delight. They also notice that a significant amount of the beasts in the fields seem to be woven of filigree metal, with metal oxen pulling ploughs and felled trees behind them. This would seem to be the work of Ribhus. Thordunn throws out some gold to the flock of children that had assembled around the party and the caravan immediatly starting a brawl. Shortly after, as they approach the center of town they are met by a Man in robes typical of a Mayor who introduces himself as Vaersa, and MukYuk recalls that Vaersa had been at one of Killians original drives to get people to move to Bjerglys.   Vaersa is extremely happy to see the group, and refers to them as the Founders, he shows them around town, which has seen massive growth, the existing houses have been rebuilt, and a significant amount of new houses are being built with the Timber from clearing the sorroundings forests. And that Ribhus has been of great help, and that they have a large part of their population working as miners extracting ore for Ribhus. In the central plaza they see the massive statue built by the Masons they had hired. On top of the place where the large bonfire under Tinning was being kept, there now is an impressionist statue depicting the Group fighting a massive wall of flames, Below it says in bronze engraving "The Liberation of Nadigav 783", Thordunn though is outraged that it does not mention their names, and taking out a Chisel he below forms the names of the Partys members, though it appears as an obvious addition to the original work.   Vaersa also shows them to the towns Inn which is called "Den sprængte Geode" and infront of its entrance it has the two halves of the Geode which Thordunn blew up in the mines nearly half a year before. Sadly most of the rooms are already filled by outside visitors, some birdwatchers and a bard, and the host, a grim man called Drenna, is sorry thate the party has to share 2 rooms between them. It also becomes clear from conversations with Vaersa, that they think that Ribhus is simply and old weird magical smith living up on the mountainside, and they have no idea that he is infact a giant Mandran. The party does not argue to the contrary. They also learn from Vaersa, that a Druid named Hannah is living in the forests, and that she had said she had come because of Soren. The party makes a note to investigate this later.   Walking through town the party notices that a new structure has appeared in the valley, what looks like an identical copy of the top third of the tower of blinking lights sits on the shadowed mountainside, directly opposed the location of Ribhus's forge. From the base of the tower flows a large waterfall into the valley, clearly the source of the new river they had seen before. When Asked Vaersa says that it had appeared about a week prior, but that it didn't seem to do anything bad, so they mostly just ignored, though thought that the blinking lights where a little weird. The party is quite shocked by the apparant disinterest to this massive structure appearing, and a even more suprised when the main interest for Vaersa seems to be to be building a mill on the river, since it now has enough flow to drive it. The party explains that the tower belongs to Gismose, a student and stonemason of Ribhus, this explanation convinces Vaersa, who says that they are mainly focused on surviving and ensuring basic comforts for the people of Bjerglys which now number over 500, significantly more than the original population of the town before the elementals took over. Vaersa promises to arrange a feast for the founders, and says it will take a couple of days to prepare, the party takes the opportunity to go and talk with Ribhus and maybe Gismose.   The next day they take the hike up to the forge , and in the small smithy that hides the Entrance to Ribhus's true home, they see an old man who tells them to come inside, remembering the entrance , the pass through a wall and walk through the Atrium and towards Ribhus's throneroom, they notice along the way, that all the things they had broken have been restored, and on his throne, and with legs they find Ribhus, and infront of him 4 chairs with their names on them, which they sit down upon. What follows is a long back and forth, where Ribhus Scolds them for telling Gismose about him, yet also he seems to be enjoying having acess to the Topaz and a project in the form of cremoni, the party informs him of their ongoing plans, and are happy to continue this commercial cooperation . Ribhus makes mention of his long past, and seems very dismissive about the death of his entire race, blaming them for killing themselves, and saying that Mandrans are deeply irritating blabbermouths. during the entire conversation his head is unmovingly pointed towards MukYuk, though Ribhus never directly blames them for the Aquamarine missing. Talking about the pieces of the Ocean heart, the exchange what they know, and Ribhus admits that he knows they are more than common trinkets he uses to smith, though he earnestly thinks that is the only thing he wants to do with them, everything else is a blathering waste to him. With some carefull prodding, Killian convinces Ribhus, that a reforged Ocean Heart, might allow him to forge even mightier things, as Ribhus does the work to convince himself of the possible power of having the entire thing assembled.   Finally Ribhus says that they will sadly have to meet with Gismose to talk about where to find the Selenite, which Ribhus says was originally taken by Oudak who is dead now. Leading the way to the entrance , Ribhus opens a large portal to neutral grounds. This as a massive platform carved out of the mountainside in the valley, the notch which the group had noticed from below aswell, the platform is filled with various materials, but at the center, close to the edge is on one side a massive throne, similar to the one in Ribhus's forge, on the other side is a giant lounge sofa, similar to the one in Gismoses tower, and to the side are again 4 stone chairs with the names of the party. everyone taking their own seat except thordunn who sits on the lounge chair, and shortly after another portal opens on the wall and through steps the large form of Gismose, his head still an ever changing matrix of blinking lights on the blocky black square rock that forms his head. Ribhus and Gismose look at each other, and the lights on the heads of both start blinking at a massive speed, shortly after they hear a laugh in their heads as Gismose is quite amused by Thordunn sitting in his lounge sofa, and lays down right next to him. Together the two Mandrans are extremely imposing, but also show their contrasting personalities and forms, with Ribhus barely moving ever, while Gismose gesticulates along the conversation, with is onyx clawed hands attached to arms of running water.   The long conversations between the two Mandrans and the 4 party members includes a lot of exasperation on the side of Ribhus, and a lot of remembrance about old history and dates are thrown around, it is clear these beings are very old, much older than the presence of the younger races, and that these two in particular are weird members of their people, since they were already loners by the time of the sundering which according to Gismose happened 1431 Years ago. During the conversation Soren does wonder loudly if the Ocean heart is the reason for shades, and Ribhus dismisses it as out of hand and "having nothing to do with it".    Finally the come to business. Oudak was Similar to Kesrom, as in he took a lot of younger races under his wing, and was trying to create a society in his own image, but unlike Kesrom who was a bit of a primitivist, Oudaks singular focus was on order, and tracking of the world and the universe, Time, Kalenders, Astronomy, these should govern all things in life according to Oudak, And to assist him in this, he took the Selenite. His wheareabouts are unknown, though both Ribhus and Gismose are certain that he is dead, they are sure that his society would have left a mark on the world, just like Kesroms new Mandrans have, and that with appropriate research they should be able to identify it. The Party agrees to do so in exchange of further work from Ribhus. They also try to plead the case that the Mandrans should do more for the people in Bjerglys, though both are dismissive of the thought, Ribhus saying he will continue to work with them on a commercial basis. Thordunn though does not stop and insists that they should do more, Gismose gets up, dissapears through the portal at the back of the cliff they are sitting on, and a few minutes later appears with a large millwheel made out of coral. This wheel, seemingly under its own power rolls aside him, and introduces itself as the millwheel, having been given some animus by Gismose, with this, Gismose impresses(with the help of some magics) on Thordunn, that this is more of enough help and that he should see this very greatfully, and Thordunn to his own surpise seems to agree.    Short time later they find themselves having ridden back to Bjerglys, giant coral millwheel in tow, and present it to Vaersa who directs it to the people working on the mill, Vaersa is thankfull to hear that Ribhus and Gismose seem to be in a cooperative mood, as there still is some of the day left before the feast begins ( the town is in full preparation mode, being decorated, temporary tables and seats being set up), the party decides to check in on that Druid Hannah who was living in the woods. Soren is quite skeptical of this, has he had not left his order on good terms, with them being very much isolationists wanting as little to do with civilization, whereas Soren works with keeping people and nature in harmony. So with some misgivings they navigate through the forest to find Hannah's tree in which she lives.     The forest around Hannahs hut itself seems wrong, the trees seem droopier, the canopy denser, a malodourous miasma hangs in the air, and the ground is soft and swampy, the house itself is within a large gnarled and twisted tree, and no one seems to be home, Soren goes to open the door, when is suddenly opens, a Giant Snake standing erect in the doorway, from behind the cakling Raspy voice of an old orc Lady calls out " Hello Soren" " so this is how we meet again", not interested in talking Søren immediatly casts blight on Hannah and mayhem begins, what Soren had hoped would be one knockout spells, turns out to have little effect, as she seems resistant to necrotic damage, and suddenly all around the party realizes that many of the branches and vines in the trees around them where infact snakes, and to make things worse Hannah conjures up a massive wall of thorns on them, gravely injuring all but MukYuk, who uncannily dodges between the dense network of thistels, from here it all goes very quickly, while everyone slowly crawls out of the thorns, with Soren and Kilian throwing around healing words, Muk runs behind the giant snake and with punches of wind sends it flying prone into the thick wall of thorns. Then Thordunn throws in an incendiary bomb lighting it ablaze and shortly after Hannah is the one sent flying into the burning thicket, some screams are heard briefly, and then it falls silent, except for the swarms of snakes, which the party dispatches quite readily. Killian then uses the spell piercer to dispell the thorny thicket, and finds the still hot woven amulet of a druid in the ashes, one which Soren realizes belongs to his order. Comedically Soren opens the door into the house and is immideatly covered by a bucket of acid and he falls unconscious, needing to be quickly saved by Muk and Killian. Meanwhile Thordunn clears the hut of boobytraps, and once conscious Soren inspects the former home of Hannah. It is filled with different ingredients for druid spells, but most importantly it contains a massive cauldron, which Soren identifies has being an active ritual for blighting the land, all of the land of the valley. This is why the area around the hut is so dark and spooky, Hannah was in essence undoing and reversing Sorens work in the valley.  Working together with Thordunns explosives they destroy the work, and Thordunn only gets slightly melted by the explosion of the cauldrons contents, immediatly the area seems to return to normal forest, and normal birdsong, while the tree in which Hannah had her hut rots and withers at an amazing speed, and soon there is nothing left but a rotten treetrunk.    After this brief violent interlude they leave without many answers, but with many questions as to why Hannah was doing this, as Soren says "they usually just keep away from people" and this seemed very much to be interfering with peoples lives, not leaving them alone. On the way back to Bjerglys they pass the site of the mill where the Millwheel is instructing some workers on how to construct the mill in the best way possible. along with the workers is a very well dressed Halforc Lady who has an impressive feathercap on, taking notes on the speaking Millwheel, when she recognizes the party she comes up and asks for some interviews, as she says she is writing an epic poem of her travels, She presents herself as Bredda of Renadi and she follows the group back to town, talking a lot with them, about their adventures, and especially conversing with Killian about his songs.    Back in Bjerglys the time is nearly ready for a feast,(after warning Vaersa about the danger with druids) and everything has been brought up, the last of the barrels of beer and wine have been opened and are being runn through the Millwheel, and the party are sitting at the high "Founders Table" and alongside songs and music, speeches are held both in Honor of the party, but also in honor of the brave people, all refugees who are building a new home here in Bjerglys. Bredda presents an epic poem, essentially a thirdhand account of the original story told by Killian, lots of people come to talk with the group including  two very fancily clad bird collecters who drunkenly are outraged that they slew and Eaglebear, without collecting its skin. The party goes well past bedtime, and everyone returns to their beds, and wake up next day to nurse their hangovers.    Before leaving Bjerglys the party wraps up some last things, they order stonemasons through the caravan, Soren blesses all of the kitchen gardens, and Bredda joins them for their returntrip to Nadigav.   And with a massive headache, aside from MukYuk who totalled with the Tea, they saddle their horses and head towards Nadigav on the search for the Selenite.