The Price of Heroics 30-06-2024 [[Website/DND/Curse of the Crones/Sessions/Main/Session 15|<- Previous Session]] ### Recap Rejoining with Majibili, the party continues onwards on their journey. However they are soon distracted by the fact that they can reconnect with their old party member Isembard through FInley's Telefon. Communicating all that the crazed wizard had learned over his disappearance disturbed the party deeply and was the cause of a lot of discussion. Meanwhile, Allen tries to discern what undead powers have a hold on Nibiru and performs a ceremony with the help of Flynn. Isembard and Bradley have a private conversation that gets eaves dropped by Majibili and Blue. The party tries to confront Bradley but it turns sour and the mood in the party darkens. Journeying further, the party comes face to face with a giant ambush spider called Braxian and gets ambushed by the Iron Wolves. Their fight gets interrupted once more by a giant Bulette. Majibili befriends Braxian. Bradley saves Drildos life. Allen uses Drildo's fire for an epic attack. Nibiru loses her arm, but gets a spider leg instead through Arrania. After the ambush is dealt with, the party tries to interrogate the squire of the Iron Wolves, but find the dogma of the church too strong to break. Before continuing their journey, the party confronts the fact that the professor didn't fight and seemingly knew about the ambush. The confrontation spirals out to encompass the whole party. The matter reaches a breaking point and finally gets settled, when the party realizes the stakes of their situation and start to rebuild their trust in each other. Not having made too much progress on their journey, the party sets up camp once more... ### Summary Though the party might have wanted one, the night isn't ready to be quiet just yet. Sitting around the campfire, the party is suddenly hit by a wave of arcane energy. As the party members reel back from their experience they all seem to have been left with a name. All except for Majibili, who heard a fuller story. Not only that, he could identify the arcane blast as a scrying connection gone wrong. Trying to piece together which names the party had heard and who they know they collate their knowledge. With no further information, the party settles down again and hopes for an easy nights rest. In the early mornings the party sets out to ambush the returning Iron Wolves assassins. They agree that the best bait would be a knocked out professor with a note, while the rest of the party would hide in the hole of Braxian, ready to strike. Though the wait is long, eventually they see the note move by means of invisible hand. On the party's sign, they strike. The battle went swift, though Braxian took quite the beating. The party finds little problems dealing with the surprised assassins. Taking their coin and leaving the bodies for their giant spider friend, the party bids farewell to Braxian and continue on their journey southwards. While traveling along, the fields around them turn more and more into a wasteland of barren and dead grass. Majibili tries to speak with some insects, but the only insects he could find are dead ones, or those begging for death. In the distance the party spots smoke billowing from a small fortification. Using Blue to sneak inside and peak at the camp, the party finds out the camp is a pillager camp who seem to be smelting and collecting a certain mineral. The party decides to rush in into the camp and take them by surprise. Summoning a storm of goats, Majibili breaks open the gate. As the battle ensues, the party soon realises that they aren't facing their standard pillager raiders. Among their ranks is the Martial Captain Dwight himself, the brute of the pillagers. Wielding glowing gloves, he pummels into Allen, Majibili, and Flynn from a distance. The fight was fierce, as many of the pillagers took on the party and the goats. However, there weren't enough members on the frontline, leading the raging Dwight to focus in on Flynn. After taking hit after hit, he fell to the ground. Leaving no time for healing, the berserker broke Flynn's neck, killing him. Allen breaks down mid fight, as he laments the death of his one true friend. All the while the battle rages around him. The party finally fells Dwight, but the victory is bitter sweet. Swiftly sifting through the camp, the professor finds the camp was used to collect a mineral called Tymirite for Arcane Captain Gaith. Before leaving the party decides to hold a burial ritual for their fallen friend. Though a small dispute between it being religious or not, neither the professor nor Allen have the energy left to truly fight over it. The party journeys further from the camp, but the trek is grim. The loss of Flynn lies heavy on the minds of the others. After a short trip the party decides to set up camp once again. As the party slowly falls asleep, the first guards keep a vigilant watch. Both the professor and Majibili are surprised by a weird frog spirit called Ribbin. Wanting to just have some fun, Ribbin tries to curse the sleeping party members. The professor and Majibili shoo him away, but not before getting cursed themselves with a running nose and a knitted beard. During the next guard, Nibiru and Drildo keep watch and are also visited by Ribbin. Drildo questions the motives of Ribbin and asks if it is in any way dangerous, to which the fae answers that is just some good fun. Allowing Ribbin to go ahead, the creature floats towards a barely sleeping Allen. Nibiru steps in the way of Ribbin. "Anyone but him, not tonight." Ribbin complies and curses Nibiru instead with an ungodly amount of fingers. In the world of dreams, while the rest of the party slumberes, the professor talks to the gray lady. He asks her if he could visit Flynn if possible. Being guided through the necropolis, the professor finds himself at a decorated door. Pushing through, he appears in a field with a quant cottage. In it Flynn and his husband Allen are living and working together. Flynn opens the door wearing a frilly apron and welcomes his old friend. They talk and enjoy each others company for a short time, but knowing Flynn is safe and happy is all the professor needed to really know. Saying goodbye to their friend once and for all, the professor leaves and wakes up again. Before journeying onward, the professor talks with Allen about what he had seen. The party wants to move on, they have already wasted a lot of time before the summer solstice. However, the party was once again intercepted by Nyx. The patron of the squad had some thoughts on his mind which he wanted to share. Being rather disappointed with the party's achievements as of late, losing not only the soul of Flynn, but apparently also the soul of Snigg Snogg and Isembard. Having lost so much, yet gained too little in his opinion, he tasks the party with retrieving a relic kept by a nest of mind goblins. The party, eventually, reluctantly agrees. The party moves along their southern path and encounters the nest of mind goblins. At first unsure how to proceed with the mind goblins, they split up, letting Nibiru stay at a distance to snipe any hostiles. Entering the nest the goblins seem very confused and wary by the sudden visitors. Not only that, but the party soon finds out that they seem to be stuck in a spacial loop, unable to escape the nest. As tensions rise, a fight breaks out and the party is soon subjected to a large psychic force emanating from deeper into the nest. As the party struggles with the psychic forces of the mind goblins, Nibiru adds fire to the fuel by blindly firing towards the nest with an uncanny accuracy...aimed at her own party members. Eventually the party kills the goblins and finds a drained and desiccated being holding the relic, from which the great psychic blasts seem to originate. Blue carefully removes the relic with the help of Drildo, ending the psychic power. Before long, the party comes face to face with Nyx once more. However, the exchange doesn't go over as expected. As Nyx thanks the party and tries to reclaim the relic, Drildo and Blue are having second thoughts helping Nyx out. What does he want this powerful psychic relic for anyways? Testing the borders Drildo tells Blue to hold out on giving the relic in draconic. Nyx seems impressed for a second before quickly turning into annoyance, and perhaps...slight excitement... Eventually, Drildo give in and hands over the relic. Continuing onwards, the party travels past the coastline cliffs to the southern most tip of the Widelands. On their way, they suddenly find themselves facing two stationary figures, seemingly unmoving in the distance. Upon closer inspection, the figures seem like humanoid figures created out of roots and vines. As the party approaches, the creatures stretch out their hands in anticipation. After a short deliberation, the party takes the hands of the creatures and get pulled deep underground. In the deep recesses of the earth, the party finds themselves guests at one of the luscious courts of Turb, herded over by Shrubbert a large talking network of roots and vines. Meeting before the lesser fey, Shrubbert calls upon the party and their good standing with his friend Findall and asks them for their aid. A dark tower has recently reignited from dormancy, poisoning the land around it with its dark rituals and magicks. Many plants and animals have died, and many more have fled deeper underground into the deep dark, where the forces of Chaos reign stronger. Shrubbert beseeches the party to save his groves and fields and stop whatever evil is brewing in the ivory tor. In return for their services, he will grant the party a great and powerful gift. Miles away, about a weeks travel from the border with Al'Rimal, a lone beekeeper is traveling into the brave unknown of the Widelands, searching for a new start. Akhen, the beekeeper is suddenly startled by a small vine creeping out of the ground. Before he can react, the vine starts to twist and turn around him and pull him swiftly underground, moving him a great distance through the bowels of the earth. The party accepts Shrubberts offer, eagerly awaiting their reward, when suddenly the plants reveal...a beekeeper? Shocked and surprised by the sudden appearance of the beekeeper the party asks for clarification on the 'gift'. Shrubbert says: beekeeper. Akhen confused and scared, is slightly bewildered and wholly terrified by his sudden abduction. However, as Shrubbert tells him, he is their beekeeper now. With little to no further explanation, the party and their new found beekeeper get placed in walking distance of the ivory tor, ready to face the evil that stirs inside its keep... ### NPCs * **Al'Mumit.** Old tyrant Pharaoh that ruled Al'Rimal. His iron fist caused a rebellion, which sparked the origin of the pale skins underground. One of the names heard by the broken scry. * **Chervon Gaith.** Arcane Captain of the Pillagers. Wanted a large quantity of Tymirite from Dwight. One of the names heard by the broken scry. * **Boffit Hallagar.** An unknown player in the larger story? One of the names heard by the broken scry. * **Molloch.** An unknown player in the larger story? One of the names heard by the broken scry. * **Adaine Petroshe.** A noble from Svenrok of the house of Petroshe. The party once encountered Sir Peter, a knight of the house of Petroshe. One of the names heard by the broken scry. * **The Iron King.** An unknown player in the larger story? One of the names heard by the broken scry. * **Dwight.** Martial Captain of the Pillagers. Tasked with collecting Tymirite for Gaith. Killed Flynn in battle. * **Ribbin.** Weird frog fairy bestowing funny curses. * **Shrubbert.** A lesser fey keeping watch of the rootlings in the south of the Widelands. Asked the party for help with the ivory tor in exchange for a beekeeper. ### Loot * Letters of Dwight * Tymirite * Gauntlets of Astral Projection * Akhen, their own Beekeeper [[Session 17|Next Session ->]]