Session 3 - Mysteries of the Forest

Entering the Forest

The group enters the forest, Eman (SKLE, see: Shalis Kerny Laurence Emanuel) 30 feet ahead of Cadence Loch with a stick that he’s magehanded to sweep out in front of him, and Cadence 30 feet ahead of Kharli (see: Jhertalli) and Azriel Presch. The way they’ve described Eman is as being the “canary in the mines,” and funnily enough, that’s what Eman is doing with the magehanded stick. As soon as they all step through the treeline, the hole where they entered at the start of the path closes off and seals them inside. Kharli, Cadence, and Eman all three recognize this as being relatively normal for the forest.   On a successful survival check, Eman leads the group through the forest. Along the path, the trees appear to be leaning closer together the further they walk into the forest. The trees also appear to be a brighter green here, even in the darkness. Kharli narrowly passes a perception check and is able to hear the trees whispering in common, but is unable to make out exactly what they’re saying. Eman, Cadence, and Azriel are able to make out whispers of the trees clearly, hearing the gossip they pass back and forth about a huntress of the forest.   Kharli and attempts to speak to the trees telepathically. When she does, the trees don’t respond to her directly but instead begin to speak in frantic whispers about how “she’s back” and “she looks different." Azriel, Eman, and Azriel are able to make this out, but Eman is busy transcribing what they’re saying into the air using prestidigitation. Kharli, in shock at hearing them talking about her, shifts to their base changeling form. Eman does not see this happen, being 60 feet ahead and preoccupied, but Cadence and Azriel do notice this happening. Azriel would know that this is a base changeling form and that changelings are generally thought to be extinct in Kauvet. Cadence would simply know that this is a base changeling form. There’s a brief moment where Kharli tries to say that that was a disguise self situation, but it’s very clear that’s not what had happened.  

The Meadow

They continue down the path about 120 more feet and there’s a very large meadow. Eman fails a perception check, but is able to see some very large figures out in the meadow. He can’t make out what they are or what they’re doing at all. Each of them catch up to him at the edge of the meadow where he’s stopped, and they all make perception checks. Kharli and Cadence are able to tell that there’s are a couple of giants sitting at a chessboard ahead. Azriel can see a bit more clearly, and notes that the giants appear to be mid-playing and not moving at all.   Kharli attempts to cast message to the giants but gets no response, and so she instead casts message to the trees behind them, who just say that “The giants are playing chess again,” without any other comment. It’s worth noting that the area of trees that were gossiping are out of the immediate area and the trees around the group have returned to a less vibrant green.   Kharli and Cadence decide to approach the giants while Azriel follows Eman, who is working his way around the circumference of the meadow. Kharli and Cadence inspect the giants and finds that they are actually corpses being held upright by plants that are interweaved throughout them. Their skin is notably mummified. Kharli tries to grab the chess piece that is aloft in one of the giants hands in order to make the next move on the chess board, but when she struggles to grab ahold of it, the giants begin to disintegrate around them. Kharli and Cadence both successfully save on their saving throws. At seeing the giants collapsing, Azriel runs to the group and also succeeds on the saving throw as he enters the cloud of dust. For flavor, notably, Kharli shapeshifted her face so she didn’t have an open nose or mouth in order to save, and she forgot to change back for a moment when she started speaking.   The path continues beyond the giants and they wait for SKLE to finish traversing the outside edge of the meadow to get tehre. They resume position, but this time with Kharli and Cadence 30 feet behind Eman and Azriel as they continue down the path.  

Voices of the Past

The party continues down the path, and the first one to notice something is Cadence, who hears muttering in the edges of the forest that sounds like voices, but she can’t understand any of it although it sounds like the voice of her father. As they continue, soon Kharli and Azriel are able to hear the voices more clearly as well, sounding like their dead parents and dead brother, respectively. A little while after, Eman begins to hear voices that he can’t place, and he begins to sing loudly in order to drown out the murmuring, which annoys Kharli. Azriel picks up the pace about 5 feet in front of Eman and is attacked by something breaking out of the tree line trying to take a bite of him: a kind of gibbering mouther.   As they enter combat, a few pieces of information are gleaned about the mouther. Normally, gibbering mouthers don’t sound like people they haven’t consumed, so the fact that they sound like the people it was mimicking is very, very strange. It’s also smaller than most mouthers would normally be and has only animalistic eyes and mouths, nothing humanoid. Highlights of the fight include the mouther biting at Azriel consistently (as provoked each time right before their turn), Kharli casting telepathic spells and doing psychic damage to the mouther and ruining saving throws for the very not wise mouther, Eman singeing it with a firebolt and sinking a couple of crossbow bolts into it, and Cadence hitting it with poison spray and a crossbow. Azriel makes a critical hit on the mouther towards the end of the fight, slashing into it with their glaive and cutting it very nearly in half, but it was still alive. Cadence makes the final blow, and it slumps to the path.   Once it falls and everyone is out of combat, everyone else walks around it and avoids its path. Eman, however, walks up to it, kicks it, and says in a voice that is not his usual voice, “Failed experiment,” in disdain. He then shakes his head, confused, and continues on without incident.  

Misty Memories

As they continue on their way, a cold mist begins to creep into the surrounding area, stretching as far forward and as far back as they can see. As it settled into everyone’s lungs and onto the bones of the skeleton, everyone made varied rolls.   Cadence passes, felling a hint of a bad memory in The Redwillow Forest with her father, but is able to shake it off.   Eman does not pass, and begins to see illusions of what can be assumed to be his past life: himself as not a skeleton and in a messy lab, looking at a beaker that he can feel he has just made a damning mistake on. He knows something bad is going to happen. As he makes the realization, he comes back to the forest and takes 1 poison damage.   Kharli also doesn’t pass and is thrust back into the chaos of the slaughter of her community. She can hear screaming, can smell the smoke in the air, and she’s being hurried through the forest by the familiar branches of the trees around her. She soon comes back to reality after, taking 2 poison damage.   Azriel passes his check, but is left with a few quick images of a casket, a lot of crying elves, and a deep feeling of grief. The trees above them have offered some slight view of the dark sky, and Azriel suggests that, as the fog is clearing, they take a break and settle down for camp tonight.  

Setting Up Camp

They find a very nice little grove off from the path that’s protected on all three sides thanks to Eman’s very good survival check. Kharli decides to sleep off away from this area, resting on a tree root about 30 feet away. Azriel is leaned up against a tree trancing, and Cadence has set up a hammock between the trees and is camoflaguing herself the best she can that way. Eman is leaned up against a tree as well, in essence trancing but able to be conscious while doing so, and has set up the alert spell before the group sleeps. He also takes a moment to disguise himself as a corpse.   About six hours into watch, each of them have taken a long rest and regained everything they need to regain from their fight with the mouther earlier. Eman rolls a bad perception check for watch, and just as the session ends an arrow flies through the trees, across the path, and catches on Eman’s mask. It scrapes against his skull and rips the mask from his face, revealing the skull behind it.   See Session 4 - Vortex Warp Hell for the next session notes.