1. Journals

38. Soup and Soothe

March 1, 2025

9th Nymm, 999 YK

  • They are still at the Bone Orchard with the Tree of Knowledge.
  • They finish their discussion of sex in the bone orchard.
  • Bhaltair also gathered some of the Brightwort.
  • Zaphkiel is Large now. Interesting.
  • As they linger in the orchard, they begin to hear whispers at the edge of their audible range. Most of them can't understand it, but Valaari Vhesh-Kaan now understands Dhakaani and understands what is being said. It's mostly nonsense, but there is a repeating sequence of words every now and then.
  • "thoughts like roots seeds like corpses flowering growing dying rotting blooming"
  • Valaari's eyes widen and they urge the group to move on. "This place is linked to an ancient power and we shouldn't linger"
  • Bhaltair also identifies this orchard as being haunted, so agrees.
  • Trusting Valaari's intuition, the group move on. Bhaltair shifts their leaves to match the surrounding forest.
  • They travel for another couple of hours, when Runmae just veers off course to look at a tree. It's a really nice tree. The shape of it, the branches, the leaves. The texture of the bark, it's fascinating.
  • Runmae knows nothing about this tree, but Bhaltair has seen them before. It is a Warpwood tree, a species native to the Towering Wood, which can grow prosthetic limbs when the seeds are planted into a wound or stump.
  • Bhaltair explains that the seeds from this tree would be very useful, they can grow prosthetic limbs! They don't think they could grow a tree in the Demon Wastes, but the tree is very useful.
  • Bhaltair didn't mention how. They ask Runmae if she's feeling okay, as they're a bit concerned about the implications of this information and Runmae's mental state after the Tree of Knowledge.
  • Runmae explains that she's never been one for botany but she's seeing trees a bit differently now. They're friend shaped.
  • Bhaltair suspects that Runmae is considering chopping off one of her own limbs to get a plant replacement. Runmae isn't quite there yet, but she's fascinated by the idea of this tree allowing her to become more plantlike.
  • Bhaltair is satisfied that taking some seeds isn't going to cause Runmae to do anything drastic like take her own limb off.
  • Bhaltair gives the group permission to harvest the seeds, and makes the decision to plant one of the seeds in the ground as they go.
  • Bhaltair sets up their climbing ladder and harvests some seeds. They don't trust Zaphkiel (who is tall enough to just reach up now) or Warren to do it.
  • Bhaltair harvests 50 seeds, plus one extra to plant (so 51 total). They kinda look like a wooden strawberry without the seeds in it, so with lots of little craters in its surface.
  • Runmae also gathers 50 seeds for herself.
  • Valaari gathers 50 seeds, intending to take them back to Maruk Dar.
  • They all commend Runmae for spotting that tree! These will be very useful
  • "Thanks I just had like an epiphany?"
  • They decide to rest here, next to the warpwood tree.
  • Shortly after most of them have gone to bed, Warren Kadduhd is on watch. He feels tremors in the ground, with a tempo like footsteps, and the sound of something being dragged. He wakes up the others.
  • Bhaltair and Valaari wrack their brains, aware that there are Lamannia manifest zones here and megafauna is not unheard of. This doesn't seem like an animal, though.
  • They look around, and those with low-light vision spot a tall shadow in the distance, dragging something enormous.
  • They quickly pack up and hide, with Naze unmanifesting Zaphkiel as they are too large to hide, and Bhaltair sends the Mask to scout out this shadow.
  • Bhaltair uses magic to perceive the Mask's senses.
  • The Mask gets closer, and observes a giant, hunched over humanoid that is superficially similar to a dark-blue skinned old woman. Possibly a hag, maybe a large troll.
  • The only hag that Bhaltair is aware of in the Reaches is Sora Maenya, who shouldn't be here.
  • Bhaltair is afraid, for the first time in the Reaches. They observe that the entity seems to be gathering ingredients, and throwing them in their cauldron.
  • Bhaltair explains this and continues to watch it via the Mask. They explain it seems to be looking for ingredients.
  • Shit, the warpwood tree!
  • Valaari says they think they need to move away from the tree, as it'll likely attract the giant.
  • They instruct Warren to lead the way and help them sneak, away from the giant.
  • Warren leads them away expertly, avoiding the notice of the giant as it ambles indirectly in their direction.
  • Bhaltair stumbles along, perceiving through their own senses and the senses of the Mask at the same time, but Warren is able to keep them quiet.
  • The Mask tries to peer into the cauldron to get a better look at what's in there. The giant notices this, and asks in a very deep voice if the moth would like to try some soup.
  • Bhaltair stumbles, and asks the group what they should do. Do they try the soup?
  • The Mask asks what kind of soup it is? The giant responds "holy shit a talking moth!"
  • The giant composes itself, and then answers more seriously. "Dunno, it's got ingredients from all over the planes. The base is Kythri primordial soup."
  • Holy shit
  • The Mask asks the giant's name? "Oh, how rude of me not to introduce myself to the talking moth. I am Sora Ghordra."
  • The Mask introduces themselves as "The Mask"
  • "Do you have taste buds?"
  • "Let's find out"
  • The Mask flies down to the rim of the cauldron and sips up some soup in their proboscis. Bhaltair tastes it.
  • It is a chaos of flavours, not entirely pleasant or unpleasant. The Mask also becomes hella swole, their muscles swelling. They just feel so much healthier all of a sudden.
  • Sora Ghordra gives a low whistle. Damn.
  • They all want to try the soup now. Bhaltair speaks through the Mask: "I have some friends nearby who would probably like to try the soup."
  • Sora Ghordra tells the Mask to bring em over, any who wish to can try the soup.
  • Naze isn't so sure about this, what if they get put in the pot?
  • The Mask makes a show of flying away to find the group, and they all see for the first time that they are buff as hell.
  • Oh damn!
  • Runmae asks what the Masks routine is?
  • The Mask leads the group back to the giant.
  • As the group arrive, Sora Ghordra has set out a Medium sized table and is setting out little wooden bowls.
  • She takes her gigantic ladel and then carefully fills each of the bowls.
  • Valaari asks if she just travels around sharing out soup? "Pretty much, been all over the planes and Eberron, sharing my soup."
  • Valaari asks for a story. Sora Ghordra talks about a layer of Fernia that is dedicated to house fires, where a great Balor represents "love lost in flame". A whole layer dedicated to house fires! Makes ya think, did it exist before Houses?
  • Sora Ghordra spends time garnishing the soup and making it look nice, before letting the group eat.
  • Warren eats the soup, and gains a sudden awareness of psychic energies in the area (though he doesn't understand that this is what happened). Valaari appears to glow in his eyes. He's confused and comments on it, which confuses everyone else. Runmae thinks he's trying to flirt. Is this love??
  • Warren just shuts up because the others are making fun of him.
  • Valaari stresses they aren't trying to mock him, what does he mean they're glowing!? "You're literally luminescent! Light is coming off of you!"
  • Weird
  • Anyway
  • Naze tries the soup, and his bones, organs and skin become softer and more pliable. He's stretchy! and squeeze into smaller spaces! He bends over backwards to do The Bridge, and then begins doing other incredibly impressive (seemingly impossible) gymnastic positions. He can't necessarily control the stretching and make it happen without external force, but he's very flexible.
  • He can finally scratch his roots! Metaphorically!
  • Sora Ghordra goes "oooooooh"
  • Valaari tries the soup, and it's spicy! Woah! They look down and find that they've gained an extra thumb on the opposite side of their hands to their normal thumb. Once they notice, they stare at their hands whilst flexing this extra thumb. They are fascinated by it, if disturbed by it being a thumb and not a finger.
  • Bhaltair eats their soup, and becomes Quickened. Their perception of reality speeds up, slowing reality to a crawl for them, as they can move at super speeds faster than the eye can follow. They also scream the entire time.
  • It only lasts a minute, but for Bhaltair it's ages. They sprint around, modulating the sound of the scream and coming back.
  • Naze's change also only lasts a minute, and he returns to normal whilst in an improbably pose that immediately causes him pain as he falls over.
  • When it ends, Bhaltair comments that "that was amazing."
  • Valaari asks if they're okay? They were screaming?
  • "I was screaming?"
  • "Yeah were you in pain?"
  • "No I was having a blast! It was amazing! I went to the mountains and came back!"
  • "You what!? What if something happened to you?"
  • "Well, glad to have you back and not screaming"
  • Runmae eats the soup and regains a bunch of hit points. Hmm, it's pretty good!
  • She takes another sip, and then she turns to stone. She's instantly petrified.
  • It only lasts a minute, and then she turns back and is unaware it happened. 
  • "Mmm! it's good!"
  • Valaari asks if she knows what just happened? "I ate some soup"
  • Warren comments that things got a bit rocky, there.
  • Both Valaari and the Mask are still under their effects.
  • Valaari gulps the rest of their soup in one go, and also turns to stone for a minute. Oops.
  • Warren drinks the rest of their soup, and his muscles get excited as he gains more speed for an hour.
  • Naze then drinks the rest of his, and immediately loses the use of his eyes. He does, however, gain echolocation and tremorsense for the next minute.
  • This is like superhero juice!
  • Runmae then downs the rest of hers and it forms a sticky gum in her mouth. It makes sounds like she's chewing something crunchier, but it's like a chewing gum. She blows a bubble, and when it pops it explodes dealing a bunch of sonic damage to everyone and blowing the bowls in all directions. Naze, who has more sensitive senses right now, is rolling on the floor covering his ears.
  • Whilst Runmae is blowing the bubble, Bhaltair downs the rest of their soup and grows viper fangs, but doesn't immediately notice. They do, however, instinctively bares the fangs in response to the explosion.
  • As a gift to Ghordra, and to recover everyone from the explosion, Bhaltair casts Soothing Spring, summoning a stone hot spring built by spirits for them to relax in. Sora Ghordra would fill the entire pool, so she only puts her feet in.
  • The rest get in the spring, though Naze gets as far away from Sora Ghordra's feet as possible. Then he realises Warren has gotten in the pool, but it's a magical bath! It cleans the rat!
  • Bhaltair, used to this kind of thing, begins to massage the mud from the spring into the others. Warren is very confused. 
  • Bhaltair rolls a massage check and rolls a natural 20, so it's pretty great.
  • They massage all of them, including Sora Ghordra's feet. Naze is a little uncomfortable but once Bhaltair begins he realises it almost alleviates the discomfort in his roots! This confuses Bhaltair.
  • There are glimpses of spirits in the steam from the hot spring.
  • The spring fully heals the damage caused by Runmae's bubble explosion. At the end of the hour, the forest spirits return and take the spring apart, the water fading away the the dip in the earth filling back in.
  • Warren is clean for the first time in a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long time
  • They decide to rest here, with Sora Ghordra.
  • "I'm not telling the giant woman to leave"
  • "I just massaged her feet, I'm not kicking her out"
  • Sora Ghordra tells them to rest, she'll keep watch. Her and her pot (which flexes one of its feet).


10th Nymm, 999 YK

  • In the morning, Sora Ghordra is still keeping watch.
  • Valaari thanks them for sharing their soup, and gives her a gift! Valaari offers Sora Ghordra the demonglass shards they've been carrying since the beginning of the campaign.
  • Valaari asks where Sora Ghordra is going next, and she says she's going to a meeting with her sister. She's got 12 of them!
  • Sora Ghordra then gets a glass vial and tips it in the soup, handing it to Valaari. "One for the road."
  • She says goodbye, then grabs the cauldron and drags it away. In the distance, they see it hit a rock, and the cauldron has to stand up and walk around it, before continuing to be dragged.
  • Valaari, so taken aback by the last 12 hours, asks what they were doing?
  • "Going home"
  • "Right"
  • They continue their journey, and towards the edge of the woodland, they hear what sounds like someone chopping wood.
  • Hmm, they don't trust that.
  • They send The Mask to scout.
  • The Mask sees a large, heavily built human man chopping wood and stacking it into a wheelbarrow. The man is also tattoo'd, with designs depicting stylistic bears and other forest animals.
  • Valaari asks what they wanna do?
  • "Why does someone need a wheelbarrow of firewood?"
  • "It is suspicious, but do we care?"
  • Bhaltair doesn't think the tattoos identify this person as belonging to a specific organisation. They send the Mask off again to see if there's a cabin or something nearby.
  • The Mask finds a log cabin about 10 minutes walk from where the man is chopping wood.
  • The Mask surveys the cabin, and notices it has a large wood storage area that is larger than it needs to be for a cabin of that size, and there are animal tracks going in and out of it. The Mask identifies the tracks as belonging to a family of bears.
  • Bhaltair is concerned that the group has been out of the Wastes for 5 days now, and the protection could wear off any time soon. "What if you guys freak out and start corrupting stuff?"
  • The Mask returns to the group and reports what they saw.
  • "It's just a guy, chopping wood, in the woods. There's a log cabin nearby, with the wood the guy is chopping in the woods."
  • It's strange but they don't think they need to do anything about it. Doesn't seem to be related to demons.
  • They move on.
  • They get out of the woods!


11th Nymm, 999 YK

  • They continue travelling through the mountain pass back to Vaanka Dar


12th Nymm, 999 YK

  • They arrive back at Vaanka Dar.
  • They survived the Eldeen Reaches! Which is much more dangerous than the Demon Wastes. Warren got mauled!
  • They meet with Dalkal Mal'fonn and debrief her on what happened.
  • They explain about the Vrykudlak and the gnolls. They do not mention the Tree of Knowledge or Sora Ghordra, sticking to what is relevant to the mission they were given.
  • The pass should be safe again for the supply convoys.
  • Dalkal rewards the party with a new set of war drums for Bhaltair, which Findon crafted.
  • They now have an opportunity to take some downtime, if they wish, before moving on to Jaasakah Dar.