A Planar Lord with a Granny Issue [Session 55]

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Current Situation

• (This session takes place 1 Hammer) 
  
• The Trollmates, having rested in Waterdeep for a tenday, are finally on their way to The Feywild Their instructions: Find Skabatha Nightshade, determine if she has a map of the Feywild that can lead them to the edge of the world, and implore help. What could possibly go wrong?

Session Summary

• What everyone did during the Tenday at Helm's Hall;
  • Z:
    • He spends most of the time (after showing off all the intricacies of his new loom) crafting and creating, or entertaining the children. In the sewing room of the Hall, he spends time with an elderly human woman named Momma Thatch, who spends her time equally being delighted by Z and helping him with making his boots and chaps, and scolding the more rowdy of the children within her reach.
  • Barrett:
    • Some requests for items were made, but time will determine if they are made available.
    • He and Elminster Aumar went back to Dath Tirith:
      • Elminster, after looking Barrett up and down, decides to escort him back to the sunken tower to explore. After consulting with Ely, the two teleport back to the tower. The two spend most of the day clearing up the nest and decide to spend the night in the tower and proceed with searching the next day.
        On the next day, they spend most of the day exploring the rooms and searching chests and desks. A number of the rooms are trapped or contain puzzles that allow movement through them. Barrett quickly discovers that Elminster, powerful though he may be, has neither the patience nor the requisite ability to deal with clever puzzles and traps. In some cases, Barrett figures out the puzzles and in others, Elminster simply blasts his way through or uses some other form of magic to remove spells and open locked doors.
      • The Custodial Spheres:
        By far, the most important item uncovered in the tower is the set of spheres in one of the lower rooms that is set to swirl and turn. Elminster recognizes these as the custodial spheres. They act as a tool to measure and track the passage of time and the heavenly bodies but with their control device found in another room, they can also be used to make predictions about those same bodies. Elminster is, unfortunately, not immediately aware of HOW to use them to make predictions.
      • The Harper Network:
        The network was believed to have been destroyed by one of the sisters before the tower was abandoned. Elminster begins clearing the debris and realizes that several of the circles are missing important pieces and are, therefore, disabled. However, he believes he can restore them given a few days. His memory is rusty on where they all go but he’s pretty confident he can get it back up and running which may be very helpful to you all.
        
      • Bag of Gems:
        While searching a roll top desk for any notes or descriptions of items of interest, Barrett comes across a velvet bag. The bag contains eleven very sizable rubies. Each appears to be worth about 1000GP. Barrett gives each of the group two.
        
      • Other Magic items discovered:
        Scroll of Earthquake (given to Dhann)
        Potion of Supreme Healing (Held by Barrett)
        Potion of Flying (stored in the Bag of Holding)
        Rope of Climbing (Held by Barrett)
        Robe of Eyes (stored in Z's Pack of Holding - this item gives Darkvision out to 120', lets the wearer see all invisible things, provides 360* vision around the wearer, as well as advantage on perception checks. It does require attunement.)
        
      • Elminster opts to stay behind and sort out the Teleportation Network and the Custodial Spheres. He sends Barrett back with the remaining treasures. And, Barrett checked for the horses and they seemed to have left on their own. No signs of a struggle or carnage.
  • Elyana:
    • Sold a few unused items from the group's stash to provide them a bit more components money if needed.
    • She gave the Wand of Enemy Detection to The Urchins.
    • She has spent some time copying specific teleportation circles from the Harper Network book lent by Renaer Neverember.
    • Five days of the Tenday were spent at Trollskull Tavern brewing moonshine for the reopening, which is going to be handled and managed by Erky in the absence of the Trollmates.
      • During the second day Ely and Dhann are at the tavern, Blackstaff stops by to talk to them. She's very excited about Trollskull opening again, professionally enjoying that it can be a way to taunt Silverhand, and she says with a mischievous smirk, "This is going to piss her off."
        
    • A constitution boosting, non-alcoholic moonshine was also able to be brewed.
    • Speaking with Fala Lefaliir about the Feywild, Ely was told about a type of wood called Livewood that's basically a wood that never dies, even if cut and built with.
    • She asks Erky if he's using Donqui at all:
      • "Ah, yes, actually, he has come in very handy for some of our heavier loads as we've added and changed things a bit. Personally, I prefer him to a hired horse and cart because he has much more personality. I've actually grown quite fond of him!"
    • Knowing this, she pays for a stable to be built for the donkey, either by Chips or Talisonvar "Tally" Fellbranch.
      
  • Dhann:
    • Unattuning from the Guardian Emblem, he spends time to reattune to the Sun Blade.
    • He is able to pick up his mithril plate armor from the Steam and Steel as well as a training longsword. He leaves his old armor with Erky so the Gnome can enchant it for tavern security, if he likes.
    • All of the necessary paperwork needed to allow the Hall to access his funds is filed.
    • Dhann gives Vajra Safhar a description of "shadow infection" and signs of it to keep an eye out for with Laeral Silverhand should the worst happen, given her experimentation with Shadow magic.
    • He spends time reading the "shadow theoretics" journals from Drezlin Nandar's library to see if he can glean any further information on Shadow than he already has.
    • Even though he tries to see if there's any pattern to the handwriting in the journals, he notices the most recent entries are all the same hand but notices that there are multiple hands in the books, as well as some notes that are very, very old.
    • He is able to get three applications of the eye ointment required to cast Truesight.
    • He also asks Father Evencrest if there's any sort of item with a triggered Revivify spell he might be able to borrow, or find, should he be struck dead on the battlefield. Evencrest shows him that the Hall is actually working on creating such an item - it resembles a handkerchief-sized sheet of mithril, but upon closer inspection, the fabric is actually incredibly finely woven fabric with mithril throughout.
    • Lastly, Dhann gets the location of the family crypt for the Unknown property within the City of the Dead.
• Dhann provides Sending services to the group while at the Hall:
  • The Ogolelo family is informed that children can be sent to the farm. The family also lets the Trollmates know that the three members of the Woodpath family made it safely to the farm.
  • Gen Cresstalker is a few days late, but only because he heard of the success of Chauntea's Bounty and also stopped to pick up more foodstuffs. All is well with him.
  • Master Buttons on The Roaming Isle is messaged for Z, asking what two of the powders Z bought from him do, as he can't remember. Master Buttons says he'll check his stores and get back to the bard.
  • There is also discussion to potentially sending to those they may not want to, but will eventually confront, like Drezlin or Silverhand (this conversation is had in the Sanctum)
  • Yarnic Blodhlar received his Bag of Colding with Kruthik bits and is very pleased with what the group sent him. They seem, now, to have another ally in Amphail.
  • Amelia is doing well and Z will be by to purchase more tarts.
  • Vincent Trench is Sent to, but there is no reply.
• On another night, the conversation about the Feywild is continued with Ander and Elminster:
  • Even though he's been spending time in the Fey, Ander's not chatted with locals so much as summoned creatures to do battle with during his training. But he explains that the Feywild is a lot like the material plane, just with a little bit of nothing and everything expected. There's normal terrain, things like fire still work, but sometimes there are fields of singing grasses, or happenings that are more whimsical than on the material.
  • Time is the same as on the material plane; time has a normalcy to it - until, in some places, it might not.
  • Just go ahead and assume everything wants to trick you. (There's more mischief than evil, but better to err on the side of caution!)
  • There are still evil creatures, just like on any plane, but trickery is extremely commonplace.
    
  • Money is still usable, but the unusual and curious may hold more value to someone than gold. Depends on who you're talking to. The more unusual something is, the more value it may hold, though, to anyone.
    
  • Ander plans to bring the group to meet a toymaker named Skabatha Nightshade who - after a deal, most likely - will provide the group with directions to the "end of the Feywild." She is a hunched over, extremely old woman with a massive winding key between her shoulders, like a windup toy. The happier she is, the faster it's known to spin. She has a tiny little hut.
    
  • Elminster gives more detail on her:
    • "Skabatha Nightshade, better known in the Fey as Granny Nightshade, is the oldest of three sisters of the Hourglass Coven. She and her sisters are constantly battling with each other over who is the most powerful. Each of them carries an hourglass which is a primary source of the powers they inherited from their mother Baba Yaga. The three squabble with each other incessantly. Unfortunately, nobody knows the layout of the fey wild better than Skabatha. She has a number of books in her hut that contain the original maps of the wild. I've never paid much attention to any of the three and I've only met Endelyn. I had to convince her once to release a friend from a deal she made. I was...unsuccessful. Do be very cautious in your dealings with Skabatha. I expect she is just as powerful as her sister."
  • All magical items brought should work normally, as well as any magic provided by deities or patrons not of the Fey variety.
  • The rift between the planes that is leaking Shadow magic does not seem to have reached the Feywilds yet.
  • No mindflayers have ever been spotted in the Fey.
  • Fey creatures will most likely be able to tell if one is not from the Fey, but there won't be any sort of ambient "someone's landed," when the group first enters the Feywild.
  • "Contract magic" in the Feywild is expected to be upheld by both those in the deal, as well as the Feywild itself. The plane expects the deal to be seen through. Deals carry both ways - even if someone from another plane is promised something by someone in the Fey, the Fey creature is expected to finish the dealings as promised.
    
• Regarding Miridia:
  • When the person a familiar is bonded to, dies, or can no longer host the familiar, Miridia is a place the familiar's spirit can choose to be sent to. Not much else is known about the place besides that it is as old, if not older, than Mystryl (Mystra) herself, or the wheels of fate.
  • The only reason the group is being granted access is due to Ander's familiar, Ghost, understanding the implication of what could happen across all planes should Cyric be freed from his prison.
  • Miridia functions more like the material plane than the Feywilds so is expected to be less full of things like tricksy grass or trees that want to steal your soul.
• Because he's going back to Dath Tirith and will not be joining the Trollmates and Ander in the Feywild, Elminster makes sure to spend the night before he heads off, sharing another dinner with the group at the Hall in farewell until they meet again.
• Blackstaff brings some gifts from her Tower for the group:
  • New iBones! (They must be touched in order to be used but otherwise function like the original iBones. They are also much smaller and more easily concealed.
  • A small stone that operates like a smaller version of the Sands of Sanctum (it generates a 10' radius and will move with the target, but only for ten minutes at a time. It will also reveal any spying sensors within the 10' before blocking those signals. 3 charges per day.)
  • An Efficient Quiver for Barret.
  • 4 Potions of Healing
  • 2 Greater Potions of Healing
  • 1 Superior Potion of Healing
    
• Dhann asks Blackstaff if Mirt and Durnan are aware of a Masked Lord having Silverhand's ear, and she responds that she has since let them know. At the time of the Summit, they were unaware but have since been informed.
• Barrett gets 2 additional small game broadhead arrows.
• Dhann is able to barter with Jhauntar Olmhazan for 5 Revivify diamonds, 3 Raise Dead diamonds, and a new goblet for a Heroes' Feast.
• The morning they're preparing to leave, Elyana lets the group know she had a strange dream from Rune Dawnfeather in which the founder of Miridia gave her a cryptic riddle:
  • "You have been granted conditional passage to Miridia. But you will have find your own way there. The boy will help you in the wild but will not cross into my world. His power is too great. To enter Miridia, however, you'll need a key. Never before has the key been used to enter our realm. However, if you are able to acquire and use it, you may come."
    
    "At the edge of the world and the end of time,
    Nestled neatly between reason and rhyme,
    The door to Fornever patiently waits,
    For the Miridian Key to open its gates."
• It sounds like Ander will not be able to accompany the Trollmates into Miridia, but he'll at least be with them in the Fey. In her dream, Ely saw Rune as a massive, sky-filling owl - larger than an ancient dragon.
• Evencrest, seeing them off, thanks them again for all of their help and all of the work they have done for the Hall, and the Hall's function as an orphanage. The group is welcome any time.
• The group, including Ander, has breakfast, and Erky and Blackstaff attend as well as Evencrest. Elminster has already departed for Dath Tirith.
• The Trollmates stand in a circle with Ander to hold hands. At his nod, Ghost winks out of existence, and Ander turns to Rascal, "Rascal, remember the storms. We might not land in our usual spot at Claxton's. Grab onto Ely so that you go wherever we do.
• He then pulls out what looks like a golden pen, and moves it with his thumb to spread it like a fan. Each piece is a small tuning fork, all gold, shiny, but differing shapes. He close all but one, and under his breath, Ander starts, almost, to sing, repeating the same phrase over and over, getting slightly louder with each repetition:
  • "Whose toy is that? I think I know. It's owner is quite unhappy, though. Full of joy he should be, though. I'll give the toy from thee to he."
• As he chants, the surroundings seem to shift as the group stays unmoving. The room starts to slide to the east, like dripping paint. Planes begin to shift past them, faster and faster, as Ander shifts through plane after plane until he slides them to a world he's looking for, and the moving stops, immediately.
• The temperature is dank, cold, like early morning damp. The trees all around are huge in height hundreds and hundreds of feet, while one could easily wrap their arms around an entire trunk. Very tall, quite slim. No underbrush, but thousands of years of leaves. No plants or mosses, nothing. No other plants. There are pockets, though, of fog, drifting through the trees as if the morning mist is still burning off. It's dark, still night. The leaves sound of gently from far, far overhead.
  
• As Ander looks around, his face isn't confident, and he lets out a forceful swear in Deep Speech, and then realizes that having sworn in front of the group, Dhann probably understood the profanity. The Cleric replies in the ugly tongue, "I've said worse," which seems to help Ander brush off the embarrassment with a laugh.
• The Planeskeeper then asks for a minute, saying they do NOT want to be there, and vanishes from sight in a blink. "Whatever you do, don't go into any of the foggy bits."
• The fog doesn't seem to be moving, even though there's a wind high up in the leaves above them. Dhann turns so that he's facing the rear of the group, just in case. Barrett asks Rascal if he's been here before, and the familiar says no, he's not been here before or ever seen these woods. It occurs to the group that it's just the same type of tree here, endlessly, and even if they wanted to leave the forest, they wouldn't have any idea which direction to start walking in. Elyana checks a nearby trunk to see if it resembles the description of Livewood she received; the trees here don't seem to be that kind of wood at all. Barrett can't see much above them, the canopy being so high, and while Rascal is enjoying the interesting smell of the place, nothing notable jumps out at him in terms of a specific scent.
  
• Ander pops back into existence a couple of feet from where he left, and apologizes for leaving, and then asks if Dhann still has that sword that generates light, and if he's willing to use it, because a bright light is needed. Dhann hesitates for a moment but then says yes, drawing and igniting the blade of the hilt. As soon as the blade is finished manifesting, the fog within 300' of it begins to drift away. Even the trees begin to slightly bend away from the light, forming a path as the light pushes.
• It takes about an hour to walk out of what Ander tells them is The Timeless Forest. As soon as he says the name, the group gets the sense that while they waited for Ander, they had no sense of time passing and they don't even know how long they were within the trees. The mist can actually transport you deeper into the forest, and there have been entire armies lost in the trees. Supposedly, people are still trapped within the trunks, not living or dying, just simply existing in a timeless space.
• Thankfully, with the radiant blade and Ander's lead, the edge of the forest is reached and a large field of grass is before the group. Two moons hang in the sky, one a glowing white, one tinted green half the size of the first. Knee high, swaying grass fills the horizon as the sound of the trees, as soon as they cross from forest to plain, seems to stop almost instantly. Turning to look behind them, somehow, the forest is a thousand feet away in the distance. A sense of time returns, and it seems like an entire two hours of being in the forest has passed.
• Rolling hills and beautiful trees are all around them now, and two of the closest trees, one to the northeast and one to the northwest are emitting faint little lights, as if illuminated for the holidays. As the night wind hits the grass, it emits a sound like "singing," different notes chiming in and blending together.
• Barrett asks Ander how he knows where he's going, and while Ander has been in this area before, so knows the general lay of the land, he explains as best he can to Barret how to use the two moons to find one's sense of direction.
  
• Ander takes the lead with no path, but seems to know where he's going from here. The group crosses onto a small animal trail before landing on a more roadlike path. As they walk, they notice a circle of torches up ahead and Ander can't tell if it's danger or not. He tells the group to act like they belong, and keep walking. He looks prepared more than worried. Ely uses the eyeglass from Erky to see what might be ahead, and sees a group of about twelve Satyrs seeming to be having some sort of party. A few have instruments and the group catches faint snatches of music and song on the wind. They're definitely armed and are roasting something on a spit over their main fire.
  
• Walking casually so they don't seem like they're absolutely looking to avoid confrontation, the Trollmates continue on their way and an older Satyr in the group glances towards the road, and sees them. In the same instant, all of their fires wink out, only to blink back into existence, surrounding the gang on the road. "Who are you, and where are you going?" His voice is stern.
• Z pipes up that they're just passing through and don't mean to disturb. The Satyr demands to know where they're on their way to, and Z replies "The end of this place," which the Satyr interprets to mean the end of the road, and remarks that that's only a mile off. He also comments the group isn't from this place, and Z readily agrees, and they must look a bit odd, and follows this with a little dance.
•  The Satyr glances at the rest of the group, sizing them up, but as his eyes fall on Ely, he stops abruptly, and he looks almost ashen, dropping to one knee. "My apologies," he says, and the rest of the Satyrs immediately follow. The Pearl in her forehead is absolutely vibrant with light, almost beaming, and no one noticed it until now. It seems to have illuminated with the approach of the Satyrs. It's noticed, too, Barrett's scar is glowing as well. Z glances down at his Mythallar paw, but it is normal and not showing any signs of light.The Satyrs seem totally focused on Elyana.
  
• Ely, confused but taking advantage of the situation, thanks the Satyrs and says they can be on their merry way. The older Satyr lifts his head and says, "Thank you - we would offer help but clearly you won't need it." The lot of them, respectfully keeping their heads ducked, begin to back away, but it's also noticed they're staring at Barrett, too.
• When the Satyrs are gone, Ander remarks that that was certainly interesting. Z asks Ely if she knows what's up, and Dhann asks if they feel any different. No, no difference in feeling, but Ely feels like she may have had dreams at one point in which her Pearl and Barrett's scar emitted light. Barrett thinks his scar is only lighting up due to somehow being connected to Ely's Pearl when she was used as a resurrection conduit for the Mythallar seed. Or, maybe, they think she's whatever creature that took her name the last time she was here. Ander has nothing to offer, as this isn't the kind of magic he deals with.
• After a while of theorizing, the group does reach the end of their current road and a well-traveled crossroad meets them. Ander glances both ways, and says to go left, but there's some hesitation in his voice. Dhann suggests thinking on it for another minute and asks if Ander would like some Guidance to help. Ander admits he's never been to this part of the Fey before, only having been given directions. With the Guidance, he seems much more sure about going left.
• Passing another of the glowing trees, the whole thing erupts with little light dots and the Pearl and Scar glimmer slightly as this happens. Ely looks in the eyeglass and the dots reveal themselves to be minuscule fairies. They settle back onto the tree.
• Dawn is approaching, with the colors of sky being pink, yellow, and green. A bit more walking and Ander turns off of the path at a knee high pile of stones with a red ribbon affixed to the top. There's a small trail to follow that eventually leads to a small patch of trees, perhaps fruit or flower trees in a little glen. Off in the distance from this is a small hut.
• Smoke comes out of the chimney, and the yard is cluttered with small wooden statues. Knights, dragons, creatures, all sorts. They seem mostly hand carved, and have varying size but are mostly toy-sized. Some even are fancily articulated. Z thinks they might look a bit similar to the little toy soldiers he bought from Xoblob all those months ago.
• The whole yard looks like it would be very inviting to children, including jumping ropes, rattles, and an almost playground like quality to the place. It's a sweet little hut with a round window in the door. Ander admits he doesn't think Skabatha knows they're coming and Barrett suggests Z play music to announce their arrival.
  
• With the music playing, a little laugh emits from the house and stops, starts again, with a bit of a hum, and with the door bursting open, a witch looking lazy runs into the yard (hooked nose, layers of petticoats and aprons, the works) with a whirring key in her back. She drags a rocking horse out of her house and hops on, enjoying the music for the ride and she seems to be thoroughly happy with the tune being played in her yard. She doesn't even pause to introduce herself or ask who the group are. Z slows his music and laughs along, and she follows the tempo, and with the finish of the music, she expresses her delight. She's quite proud of the rocking horse as Z compliments it.
• Introductions are made, but as she sees Barrett and Ely, says, "Ah! You've been here before! The rest of you - you're not from here." The two are glowing again, but not as brightly as when the Satyrs approached.
• Elyana explains they're looking for directions to the end of the Fey and Skabatha may be the one to help them. Skabatha says she does indeed have a book of maps, but of course, nothing is for free.
• She then says that she'll give the group the help they need, if they steal an hourglass from one of her two sisters. "I need you to go get one for me!" Elyana, listening, takes a glance around and notices that Skabatha is wearing a big, wooden hourglass on a rope around her waist.

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