A Tabaxi Shaped Snow Angel [Session 45]

Current Situation

(This session takes place 15-17 Nightal)
After resupplying at Mirt’s hunting lodge near Nightstone, the Trollmates decide to head out for Amphail to see if they can resolve a problem with food supplies for Helm’s Hall. With help from their new allies, the elves of Ardeep, they manage to navigate north through the forest safely. Crossing the River Desarin and continuing to Amphail may hold unexpected surprises.

Session Summary

First thing in the morning, breakfast! "Oh good morning, Trollmates!" Z is very chipper, up in the pantry, scouting for meats and cheeses and perhaps some powdered milk. Ely helps him scrounge about in the kitchen. Barrett comes in from feeding the horses. Dhann finds an extra traveler's pack, solving his basic gear needs. Seeing this, Barrett reminds the group he left a note for Mirt and so it's good to outfit as best as possible before heading out.
Dhann mentions that he sent Father Evencrest earlier that morning, to use some farmland, and Blackwood Manor (both now in the Cleric's name) for the Hall and for the children. He also lets them know the Father has stated money is no longer useful - they need supplies and resources. He also let Dhann know the City Watch is actively looking for them, but Dhann doesn't know if this extends to outside of the city limits. Better to assume yes, and be careful.
Discussion over breakfast is what route the group plans to take to Amphail. Elyana mentions The Elves of Ardeep as potential escort through the forest north, and Z agrees. Dhann says that he did some thinking on what Ruvaen recounted with seeing Drezlin Nandar in the forest, and the Cleric is concerned that perhaps the forest houses a phylactery. By his calculations, the Druid would have seen Drezlin on the material plane roughly around when the Trollmates first vanquished that iteration of the lich. Considering The Green Glade has a Mythal, perhaps the Mythallar on The Roaming Isle was used by Drezlin to channel himself back to the material plane and the Mythal in the Glade was the closest "door." The elves can be warned of this potential threat at the same time as traveling with the Trollmates.
If they're going through the forest, it's probably best to go on foot, leaving behind the horses and carriage. The plan is decided to call upon the elves, and if they'll help the group through the forest north, to then continue alongside the Dessarin River while looking for a good place to ford it. Z has his carpet, and Dhann has prepared Water Walk.
Goldenfields is a huge farming community, walled off into a town of farms. The walls are 60' and the city itself is build upon a large hillside. It's the primary source of the high quality foods that come into Waterdeep. It's essentially a religious farming community around the deity, Chauntea. There are rumors of magically tended fields and it's all high quality, plentiful, and well known. It's also a well protected town, with a fairly sizeable population. They decide to head out after breakfast and double checking their packs. The chocolate covered goodberries from Erky are also still in the Bag of Holding.
Dhann then tells the group he prayed to Helm the night before and after a visionary experience, was gifted the hilt of a Sun Blade, and he shows it to the group. He admits he's not sure why he was given a sword, as he doesn't prefer them as his weapon of choice, and Z casts Identify on it to see if there are any unknown properties on the hilt, but nothing lights up for the Bard. Dhann examines the hilt a bit more closely and is able to discern that the bone is from a wyvern.
Elyana goes to Mirt's cellar and snags three bottles of spirits for the road. Before they go, Elyana attunes to the Wand of Detect Enemies and Dhann attunes to the Sun Blade. As he does, the hilt changes size and weight, and while it was balanced before, shrinks to the perfect size and weight for Dhann. Towards the end of the attunement process, the radiant blade springs forth from the hilt for the first time. It takes Dhann a few minutes of consideration on how to get the blade to retract, and as it's when he moves to return the hilt to his belt that a matching, beautiful sheath generates out of the air, and the blade fits perfectly within. After a bit longer, experimenting, Dhann is able to learn the mental process for summoning, and then dismissing, the light blade. With the attunement process coming to a close, the sword begins to feel as though it has always been Dhann's, as if it was forged and created solely and exclusively for him. It's not a concerning feeling so much as it is a "right" one, like the blade has always been meant to be on his person.
Barrett offers to practice with him if he'd like, and Ely, having a great idea, suggests that the Monk give the lessons in Elvish, to help Dhann begin to learn that tongue.
As the Trollmates exit the Lodge, it locks itself magically behind them, and maintains its dilapidated, barely standing image to any onlookers. The remains of the guard dog statues are basically dust.
Elyana takes the horn from the Elves out of the Bag, hands it to Z, and the Bard flies up in the air with his carpet to artfully trumpet a summons to the Ardeep inhabitants. The horn emits an absolutely beautiful melody from Z's talent, and within a few minutes, there's a gentle rustle in the bushes, and eight elves, on horseback, appear just on the cusp of the woods. If Barrett hadn't been looking for them, they'd have been barely noticeable. Both Rond Arrowhome and his daughter, Anoin Vellana, are among those present.
"Hello! It's so good to see you again," Anoin greets the Trollmates, "Do you require assistance?" It's clear that she and her people are ready to assist with anything the group may need. "We find ourselves in need of guides, to pass through the Ardeep Forest." Barrett begins the conversation. "We're headed north towards Goldenfields and we would love to have your company and your escort." The Elves agree readily to assist, and will take the Trollmates north to the border of the forest. Barrett mentions they have need of not total stealth, but are working to avoid encounters with any guard potentially sent from Waterdeep, so they plan to avoid main roads.
"Speaking of things to look out for," Chimes in Z, "There's been a very tricky character who may have traveled through your wood very recently." Z goes on to give the Elves a description of Rimpkin, with the unfortunate information that he - or she - can take on whatever form they wish, "And do a whole lot of nasty trickery." None of the Elves seem to have seen or heard of anyone that would meet that description.
And then on the matter of Drezlin: Z lets the Elves know there may be a possibility of an object connected to the evil wizard hidden within their forest. They describe the one found in the library, and explain that each one may look different but they would all most likely emanate evil. Anoin turns to one male elf, middle aged and tattooed like all the rest, and dismounting, he passes a few trees before going up to one, placing a hand on the bark, and then the side of his face. He's listening to it, it seems, although he doesn't seem to cast any spells. He nods in answer to something, though, and is somehow, clearly, communicating with the tree. Returning to the group, he says, "No. Nothing." And so the Elves don't believe such a thing like a phylactery is present in their forest.
The Trollmates are each taken up by a rider to double on four of the horses, and the trek begins. There are no obvious roads, but a few game trails are apparent, with the woods becoming very thick and without guides, it's obvious this would be a much more arduous walk. It's a comfortable ride; the Elves have a presence about them that lets the Trollmates know that nothing in this forest is going to attempt to interact with them. After a time, four of the riders melt into the underbrush to escort from a distance.
Barrett asks Anoin if she received the gift he sent from Waterdeep, and she replies that she did, "Yes! They're still here."
The ride to the edge of the forest takes the full day, and it's decided to strike camp within the shelter of the trees on the edge of the wood. Dhann goes about setting the Sands of Sanctum up, and the Elves express quite a bit of interest in the item. The one from earlier, however, before Dhann can set it up completely, asks what the item does. The Cleric explains, and then the Elf declines the camp actual, to move out of the area of effect, so that he can bed down within the forest and not near any magical emanations. Anoin explains that he works to always be in contact with the forest and avoid things that may break the connection.
For the night of the 15th, these effects are put in place:
- Sensors created by divination spells are blocked
- Divination spells targeting those in the area are blocked
- Teleportation is blocked
- Planar travel is blocked
As he finishes setting the item up, Dhann explains to the Elves who are interested in the Sands, just what it's doing and how it works.
The Elves seem to understand that the Trollmates may be concerned about the visibility of the campsite, with the fires, and reassure the group that the fires are only visible to those with in the camp, and as they're all still within the territory of the tribe, they are very safe. The fires are comfortable and warm against the frigid chill of the night.
Z takes some time to make a protection bracelet to gift to the Elves.
Vajra Safhar, who was expected to reach out to the group, has not done so yet
Dhann Sends to Erky:
- "Just checking in. Hope everything is still as you described, if not calming down. Are there guards searching outside the city limits? Hope you're well."
- Response: "Fine here. Ander has left. Maran has finished the project you asked for. Guards are calm. Please alert us if we can help you in any way."
Dhann Sends to Elminster:
- "Blade was received, thank you. Many questions, but none right now."
- Response: "So sorry, meant to give that to you when we met. Forgot. Hope it wasn’t too important. Found transport from Sunset Mountains. Be sure to-"
Elyana does some research in the Per Historia Arcandor Materia for a specific pair of eyeglasses, but unfortunately her searching, even with assistance and a little prayer from Dhann helps her find other types of eyewear. She's fairly confident what she's looking for isn't in the book. Barrett asks what she's searching for, and she responds that she's looking for a pair of strange glasses that she had a dream about. "I've never seen them before, but, you know - this book has, most of the time it has everything so I figured I'd give it a try."
Barrett makes himself comfortable among his Elven kin and they spend a good part of the evening swapping stories and talking. War stories, funny stories, but overall the evening is calm and pleasant.
They offer a bit more detail on Drezlin being sighted in the forest. He was a solid figure, much more substantial than the figure at the Mythallar. This was a physical person walking through the woods. Leaves even crackled under his feet. The Elves kept their distance, until he left the woods. He was heading northeast, passing well south of Mirt's lodge. They absolutely recognized Drezlin's face. He had no scars on his face they could see. His hood was lowered.
Rising the next morning, the Elves have already prepared breakfast for the Trollmates and it looks to be a clear day, even if a cold one. The Elves take the group down to the edge of the river, and it's notices that near the river edge, in a few spots, a number of trees have been downed in groups of up to eight or nine. Barrett asks Anoin if she knows what this is, and she responds that it's giants, and sometimes they're "a little less careful than they should be, crossing the river." The type of giant is most likely of the Hill variety. If a conversation with them doesn't work, it's best to try running, next.
Dhann asks how Rond and Ruvaen are recovering, and Anoin assures him that both are doing just fine, and nothing odd has seemed to linger, or occur, since the Trollmates intervened in The Green Glade.
Bidding their Elven friends goodbye for now, the Trollmates continue along the riverbank, using game trails and giant-cleared spaces to make a good pace next to the water. While the terrain here is wild and lush without signs of civilization, farmlands are expected to start, at this pace, about halfway through the day.
Elyana Seems the group into four halflings in plain winter traveling gear, with their clothing being of duller greys, dark greens and browns. Z happily takes on the illusion of a lady halfling.
After a bit of walking, and spying a calmer portion of the Dessarin River, Barrett asks, "I hope you all don't mind just waiting about ten minutes while I do a quick experiment?" He then sprints out onto the river about 15', and even though the water here is shallow, he didn't sink at all. Then, he runs upstream for 20' and back down 20', testing the flow of the water and if that makes a difference in his experiment. Ely asks if he can suddenly run or walk on water, and Barrett says, "Yeah! The morning of the Summit, I spent some time at one of the local monasteries at Waterdeep, I needed to do a little bit of meditation and work some things out, and the Abbot there explained to me - I knew that it was something coming in my training, but I seem to have unlocked that ability, I didn't know I had before, so, I can channel my Ki to move on water." He explains he can also do it on vertical and solid surfaces, having run up Trollskull and into his room recently.
Z then lets the group know that he's been intently studying the scroll of Leomund's Tiny Hut, and he can now cast it as a proper spell!
Elyana alerts the group to the fact that her ability to contact Ander Blackwood is blocked while she's within the bounds of the activated Sands of Sanctum.
While they walk, Barrett keeps an eye out for griffin riders while Ely plans to use the enemy detecting wand about halfway through the day, expending a charge. Dhann keeps an eye on the farmland around to see if any of it looks neglected, or if any of the farms are being managed by blue-robed figures. Z makes a tabaxi-sized snow angel in a female halfling's body.
The morning continues in quiet walking, the snow melting off a good amount of the surrounding snow. While the day isn't too bad, a night out in the elements would most likely be taxing to one's health and so shelter would be a good idea.
The group passes the ancient remains of what looks to have once been a functioning ferry.
Eventually, three barges come into sight, heading south on the water, transporting some sort of product. The first two are piloted by pairs of Dwarves, and from the type of cargo, the barges seem to be traveling together as a duo.
The third one is overloaded, and there are three pilots, using sticks as normal, but they don't seem to know what they're doing. It's obvious to Barrett they are clearly inexperienced and having trouble guiding their barge downriver. One of them has a blue sash of the Cult of Cyric. The other two are wearing normal traveler's clothes, but based on their movements and behavior, are cult-drones as well. The barge seems to have mostly foodstuffs. The two without the sash are clearly looking to the third for directions, but getting nothing from their leader. They are about a half mile off.
Barrett relays all of this to the group. As the first two barges pass, Seemed Barrett waves in passing and the dwarves return the greeting. Dhann asks if Barrett can tell, based on iconography on the cargo, if it's all from one far or multiple, and Barrett sees the crests of what would be multiple sources. Barrett suggests setting the barge on fire, while Ely contemplates using her Mage Hand to shove the cultists into the water. Z and Dhann disagree with both plans.
At this time, the group wonders if they should call each other by different names, and Dhann interjects with the joke of changing their names by one letter, making for the halfling quarter of Garrett, Nelly, B and Rhann.
Garrett is now able to see a fairly large boat, at least 30' wide, and it's seated very low in the water. It's absolutely full of passengers, as full as a boat like this can get. Again, the crew is struggling to pilot the boat down the river, and every single person on board is a cultist. All races, even an orc. All of them have on varying levels of quality cult robes. It's at least fifty people, which is horrible to see.
Seeing this, the group considers crossing the river before Goldenfields, as it seems a lot of folk coming from that city are involved in the cult. It's decided that Rhann will ritually cast Water Walk, and this part of the river looks like it's easily forded across the surface, so the Trollmates wait for all boats and barges to pass before preparing this. Nely uses the wand to see if there are enemies nearby, and thankfully, gets no pings of warning. Rhann double checks with B if he should include the carpet among the targets for Water Walk, but Z says his feline intuition tells him the carpet won't much like that. Just to double check, Garrett sprints a half mile upstream and finds a slightly narrower stretch of river. He lets the group know, and the four of them quickly trek upstream, see no ships or barges, and cross without difficulty.
They now come to the decision of crossing straight west, or heading a bit north before curving the path to the west. They're a little over a day from Amphail at this point. From where they stand, they can see the city of Goldenfields far in the distance. The surrounding land is now farmland as far as they can see. The Trollmates also have about two hours left of Seeming.
Rhann says that he feels cutting due west is the best way of remaining out of sight of Goldenfields, and the road, and then informs the group that due west, about 15 miles away, is land in his name, so that would cut down the amount of trespassing they would be engaging in by cutting across farms. Everyone hones in on this comment, with B asking, "Are youuuuu a Blackwood?" Rhann, exasperated, replies, "I don't know at this point, honestly," and B peers very intently at the Cleric's reaction. It's apparent that Rhann is nothing but confused about what the whole thing means and is truly, honestly somewhat embarrassed to say he even has land nearby.
Due west it is, and as the sun dips below the horizon, the stars slowly come out and darkness falls, with tonight being a new moon. They come upon the road rather suddenly - it's about 30' across with deep ruts, showing much traffic heading south. As far as they can see, the road is empty in both directions of other travelers. Garrett, B, and Nely are relying on their Darkvision, with Rhann, unable to see, holds onto the strap of the Bag of Holding, being guided by the Warlock. Nely refreshes Seeming when it first wears off, and also uses the wand again, detecting no enemies nearby.
It's at this time Garrett spies a number of empty carts by the side of the road, as if totally emptied and abandoned. A couple have fallen over, wheels snapped off in the ruts, with refuse scattered from broken crates. The wreckage overall stands out as being odd. On one of the flipped carts, he sees a bit of a disturbing sight - the edge of a robe, that may be on a body.
B flies over on the carpet to see just what he can find, and near the robe is evidence of blood from underneath the cart. He sees no evidence of giants. Just carts. It looks like the cart simply broke, fell, and was abandoned. Potentially these carts were also overloaded, like the boats, and were crushed under the weight of their cargo. Whatever they were carrying, though, has been long removed.
B tugs on the robe, and it becomes obvious it's stuck on a body, and B stops trying to remove it before trying to yank it from beneath the cart. As he pulls, the robe absolutely pulls a body from beneath the wreckage. It's a female, human, and the injury that caused her death seems to have been the result of the wagon falling onto her.
The Bard takes the robe, and it has a single bloodstain on it - otherwise, he now has a cultist's robe in his pack.
Rhann says if they're going to head out again, he at least wants to cover the face of the dead girl if they can do nothing else.Garrett checks her remains and notices that she has no personal effects. However, both of her hands seem injured, very blistered, as if she wasn't used to a life of hard labor. B lights a Poi so Rhann can see, and he pulls the swatch of old fabric the Sun Blade used to be wrapped in from the Bag of Holding. As Rhann turns the body over, Nely kindly prestidigitates any dirt or blood off of the girl's face. Laying the fabric over the girl, Rhann prays over the body and everyone spends a quiet moment for the deceased.
B offers for Rhann to ride with him on the carpet, and while nervous at first, Rhann accepts. The carpet vibrates strongly for a moment as a new passenger besides its Tabaxi steps on, but then it smooths out and is amiable - it seems to like Rhann quite a lot. The two take off, with Garrett and Nely continuing on foot.
Getting about 300' from the road, Nely spies what looks to be a perfect spot for camping out in the land; out of sight and, almost a dell, blocked nicely from the winter winds.
B summons the Tiny Hut, prettily purple, with the inside dry and warm. The exterior of the spell blends in with the surrounding land.
Rhann sends to Father Evencrest:
- "Any difficulties accessing properties or goods? We're moving as quickly as we can."
- Response: "Mirt has been helpful, but resources are scarce. We still will look forward to your success."
For the night of the 16th, these effects are put in place:
- Sensors created by divination spells are blocked
- Divination spells targeting those in the area are blocked
- Teleportation is blocked
- Planar travel is blocked
Garrett takes first watch. All is peaceful.
Nely takes second watch. She does see what appears to be a winged creature, about 30' from the hills to the west, come out of the hills, and lands on some sort of animal, that lets out a squeal. Overall, the creature seems to have come from the south. Otherwise, it's a quiet watch.
Everyone wakes up quite well rested, even with the extra traveling done the day prior.
Imprints of what are similar to eagle talons are found in the dirt as well as a feather from whatever winged animal was hunting the night before. It's about 2' long and white and brown. While of similar coloring, it's definitely not a griffin feather.
B checks in with the carpet to see if it's alright, after having ferried a new passenger, and the carpet cuddles B a bit. It even seems to have woken up in a good mood.
Gauging their surroundings, Dhann is able to get a sense of direction as to which way the land he has is, and after about two hours of walking, a small, stone wall, about 3' in height comes into view. There's an old, overgrown gate that clearly hasn't been used in some time, and beyond the wall are rows and rows of dark leafy greens poking strongly through the snow. The Trollmates find themselves on the property line of Blackwood Farm.

Next time on...

Reaching the edge of one of Rhann's recently acquired properties, the Trollmates prepare themselves to lawfully trespass. New faces are on the horizon, and hopefully, some answers on how the rural areas outside of Waterdeep are being impacted by this cult overtaking the land at a frightening rate.

A Tabaxi Shaped Snow Angel [Session 45]

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