Into the Woods

We start with a recap of the state of Affgroth. Half of it is controlled by Asmodeus forces. Skirmishes in mining districts.
Walking into Dorath's chambers. VIbe check from Eles, she's worried about there being demon intervention, her vibe check seems normal for being in a city that's half controlled by evil. Dorath is laying in his "royal best" and is sleeping. Opalbraid is sleeping in a chair, on a couch? nearby.
Only Dara is really being allowed in, and barely. Opalbraid wakes up.
She doesn't know what's wrong with Dorath, only that he's declined in the last 3 days.
Cragcloak and Opalbraid are his right hands (right and left hands?) in the city.
Manny casts zone of truth and walks away, we leave Dara in the chamber with her father. (well, she has Guatir too)
 
Dorath's pulse is strong, he does not have a prosthetic. "Try true love's kiss" says either Matthew or Merrli.
Dara says "I'm sorry" to her dad and starts crying.
Opalbraid says they've tried everything they could think of, Greater Restoration, the whole bit.
(Dara says some other stuff to Dorath that I missed, and I think Kate will revisit/retcon?)
 
Merrli and Eles look more closely at Dorath. 25 medicine check from Eles: Again, his pulse is strong, but it's like something else of his is giving up. W/the Staff of Sylnias (s/o to Matthew for remembering) the staff resonates with the same soul-like thing that was happening to Balokenect (or however you spell it). Like Dorath could be possessed in a similar way. Merrli recognizes the resonance, seeing it really for the first time and grasps the staff by the gem. "This is the gem that killed Malachar" and picture Eles and Merrli standing over Dorath's bed with a weepy Dara, with hands on this staff.
 
We try sending a message to Dorath, and figure out a code just in case "someone else" is listening.
"The abandoned mines are vulnerable, we need your knowledge of fresh axes" Eles gets the equivalent of a "sent" receipt back. His response is mumbled in Dwarvish. Eles tries to recreate what he said, "I feel him, he is coming"
 
Immediate SOS to Hops to rally the troops and move that war council up to an ASAP emergency meeting. Eles Summons Leldentha so that everyone who needs to can come to the war meeting. The emergency procedure is to go to Candlekeep. (I think Eles saw Yanef and said something to her, or some kind of insight check, I don't remember.)
We see Pelk and Mithrau running toward a portal. "He's gone" being Baylokinect (again, however tf you spell it)
 
Merrli just straight up tries to put the crystal in his chest. (TERRIBLE IDEA). We decide that it should eventually be put into an actual weapon, and not just the staff. But for now, Eles figures she's kept it safe so far, and it's a useful staff lol. But maybe we could find a sword to forge it into. Do we think it's a viable idea to put it in Manny's sword? I don't remember.
It's decided that the 4 of us go after the fucking druid. (is this where Eles saw Yanef?)
We'll follow him on foot, while others will try to meet us wherever he's going. Eles tries to take Hops or Yanef with them, but Hops and Manny shouldn't be on the same mission, as Hops is pretty much the head of the resistance.
We make camp, talking to each other about destinies. (I wish I wrote more stuff down in scenes like these)
 
Manny casts speak with animals on a chipmunk, and very quickly made that chipmunk into a paladin of...Manny? or Manny is now his Warlock patron. "You must gather all of the chipmunks, squirrels, moles...You head west"
 
"Sometimes fate is a matter of opportunity" (who tf said THAT? it goes HARD)
 
We continue traveling, with several tumbles and encounters. We see a young boy and his dog fighting wolves, we make quick work of the attacking wolves. The boy and dog smile at us and disappear. We feel the Bless spell on us for 3 days.
We also came across an old woman, won't tell us why but insists she needs to be killed. Merrli absolutely smokes her with an eldritch blast straight to the head, but she was still alive. Manny absolutely doesn't think we should kill this woman! We try to get more information out of her. Somehow we pick up on the weird/bad vibes and Manny is the one to finish her, then HE gets turned into a haggard old woman, while a girl from a local village is freed from the curse. And he would stay that way until someone killed him.
Eles immediately casts Greater Restoration on Manny, this breaks the curse.
 
We find a weapons cache with a +2 crossbow and a +1 longsword, that maybe we'll be able to forge the crystal into it.
The forest gets covered in a "mysteriously cold, sticky rain" (ew). Eles sends Guatir up through the storm to see how far up it goes...and Guatir dies of hypothermia...we take that as a bad sign and make camp for the night.
 
We get "scattered senses" and we have -3 to our proficiency bonus for 2 days (Great.)
And on the next day, we get the word that the druid has been found. "In the city/town where it started" Where Eles, Manny and Richard's adventure started. Except I have no idea what the name of it was.