Participants: Reiko Amiri, Najat Gevesh, Geld, Jean Berée
Locations: Millennium Forest
Loose ends: Stump altar in a clearing; empty tombs seeking occupants; Geld's magical promise; Najat's enlightenment
Short summary:
Reiko employed three other people and they visit the Millennium Forest, in search of hunting trophies, forgotten knowledge, and occult means to remove curses. They find a burnt stump-altar surrounded by five flat tombs, and are attacked by Undead Halflings, whom they defeated, and then they communed with a powerful entity while dreaming.
Full report:
Reiko, needing an escort to the Millennium Forest, proposed to Najat Gevesh that they go on a hunting trip, seeking fabulous trophy animals. She additionally recruited Geld and Jean Berée via promises of curse-removing animals and ancient knowledge lost to time. Sold at the prospect of quick and simple nearby treasure, the party set out into the woods. Soon enough, they were set upon by Twigjacks, minor Fey and self-declared nature guardians.
After defeating them relatively easily, the party was nevertheless left unsettled after having been attacked by the Fey despite Reiko Amiri's assurances that she had contacts within the Court. Deeper into the woods they went, following Reiko to parts unknown. Soon they came upon a strange altar in a clearing, a charred stump surrounded by flat-topped stones arranged in a pentagram.
When night fell a dark ball rose from the stump and called to the group. Reiko assured the party that this was safe, and made preparations to sleep in the clearing. Hesitantly, Jean and Geld joined her, with Najat keeping watch, and soon contact was made in a dream world with 5 strange Halflings, ancient and hostile. After negotiations broke down, Geld and Jean freed themselves from the dream world and engaged the 4 halflings in the material world, who had risen from the flat stones, now revealed as tombs. Reiko slept on and the 5th halfling, the apparent leader of the group, never materialized either.
At the end, when the party was almost successful, the fight began to turn against them and Reiko woke to help finish the fight. Once the party had a chance to catch their breath, Reiko made preparations to sleep in the tombs left empty by the Unknown Halflings, to the shock and dismay of the group. She convinced a few of them that the only point of coming to the clearing was to achieve this task, and so under the watchful eyes of Jean, the others slept. What they encountered beyond was strange and twisted, but Geld achieved his goal of releasing himself from King Aseron's curse, Najat discovered an inkling of worlds beyond imagining, and Reiko, upon waking from the dream, plunged her left hand into the stump altar, transforming it into a fist of black obsidian. With that, she declared success, though the remainder of the group was understandably skeptical. She offered to continue the hunt, but after the events in the clearing, none were enthusiastic and so they returned home, with more questions than answers.