Loose ends: strange entity that contacted Gallias; tree with vibrant sap; giant toothy flower is still infesting the Fey Arena
Participants: Gallias, Cleric of Gorum, Disciple of Azathoth; Evelyn Karr, Paladin of Abadar; Gul the Bard; Nez the Witch, Ayara the Witch, Okar the Ranger
Locations: Millennium Forest, Elemental Portal Shrine, Fey Arena
Short summary:
A group ventured out to explore the southern coast of the Millennium Forest. They never actually reached the coast, but they did encounter a strange tree with vibrant, necromantic sap, and the Fey Arena, where they explored around before they fought a giant flower with teeth. They had to retreat after sustaining grievous wounds. They also discovered the location of the Skeleton Bard - he is in the the Great Library in Desert of Rydess.
Gallias was plagued by a dream or a vision of a mysterious entity.
Full report: Gallias
Along the Southern Forest Coast
Written this Millenia by Cleric of Gorum, Disciple of Azathoth
Hail and well met reader. I am Gallias, Cleric of Gorum who tries to pierce the veil of knowing and unknowing. Knowledge is power those who read this and by reading this First Landing shall become stronger knowing what information below is contained.
As a precursor I found it essential that I wrote this report because I was in contact with an extremely dangerous entity that tried to warp my mind to its liking and enslave me. However such an entity was no match for MY CONVICTION TO THE GLORY OF GORUM IN ALL HIS ARMOR AND MIGHT. His armor stands proud and true in my mind, gleaming in dull grey under the skies of Elysium, battered in golden light in countless thousands of battles he has fought and will fight.
Conflict of my decade in war and fighting has made my mind as solid as the gripped gauntlet. A lesser mind might have fallen trap to such an invasion and who knows what the extent of its powers is or if it holds power over others.
Beyond this entity a greater physical foe lies in the Fey Arena which we had discovered: a monsterous flower the size of the arena that doubtless grows larger everyday. We also know the location of the Fey Arena.
We also discovered the the vague location of the Bone Bard or NecroDancer.
We also discovered a Tree with Nercomatic Vibrant Green Sap.
But let me begin at the start of the report properly.
My report begins with us meeting in my War Room in the The Blinking Pug. This journey included myself, Evelyn Paladin of Abadar (she was very cool), Gul the Bard (an Unknown that saved my life thrice over), Nez the Witch (and his raven... sorry, I don’t remember the raven's name), Ayara the Witch (and her cat, an adorable cutiepie named Lucky) and Okar the Ranger (a brave soul).
The Guild of First Landing had tasked us with several things: finding information about the location of the meddlesome foe known as the Bone Bard and delving deeper into the Millennium Woods into unknown places for information, mapping, and potential loot. Scouting the unknown, essentially.
Moral started out good upon our talks and drinking of beer in the war room. Upon hearing the potential of devious creatures impersonating others in reports I suggested I mark everyone with a Sigil spell of the initial of their name. This time it proved a worthless effort as there were no such creatures of trickery in our explorations, but I found it to be a good cautionary effort.
We set off with good weather and made it to our first destination, the Elemental Shrine, without effort. Since it was near dusk, we decided to make camp before exploring the well known Elemental Shrine. However as we took watch, reptiles, giant stupid creature ambushed in the middle of the night.
| NOTE: This happened twice during our travels in these woods and I need to develop a method to properly warn others about these nighttime raids of the creatures. Perhaps nocturnal? |
The battle with these lizards was perilous, to say the least, but they were defeated with some force, and blade-swinging of my own. Decapitating them and cutting them in two. Though heavily weakened by the magics that the part blasted on these low evolutionary beasts.
However, upon investigation, it seemed odd. These creatures are not normally aggressive. It is hard to say what exactly sent them or what drove them to us.
After some rounds of healing we continued watches and went to bed. The rest of the night was peaceful, as was our breakfast. It was beans and hardtack. Yum.
However…
However…
Upon my daily morning prayers, my mind was invaded. I am uncertain what happened in the physical world during this time, but I think it was moving and fighting in tandem with my mental movements. In my mind... I found myself in a once-conquered city, however, without its people, before a Temple of Gorum.
I found this very strange, because there are actually very few physical temples of Gorum. For Gorumites, our prayer is the ringing of the swords, our temple is the battlefield. But I was certain that this was indeed a temple of Gorum, his symbology and armors hung from the outer walls. And from the darkness - eyes, images, red and glowering... like a snake.
You may not know me, but I was sent here by prophecisers and loreticians to prevent a great calamity from coming through the Portal and destroying my home empire. Was this it?
Possibly. What came from the darkness were the lizards I had slain the night before. But they were...strange. Grey and black and scattered, former versions of themselves. Now giant beasts, they came for me and I battled them... and the while… a thrumming on my head.
Like something was tapping on my skull. Constantly. Like a giant thumb or a finger. As the lizards died to my triumphant blade, laughing... it sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure, I went forward and found him. Parry Hotter.
The teenage Wizard that I slew in a duel only years back (NOTE: to be clear he was an adult when I killed him but was known as a Teenage Wizard. I dunno why, rebels are stupid like that.) His magic was formidable, but not as formidable as a greatsword cleaving him from hip to shoulder. But he was dead... but here he was here, along with those Halflings and that fallen Paladin. Heroes I once defeated years past. They were all distorted, grey, and behind them an evil red light was commanding them. The entity.
It showed me images as I battled my greatest foes. The destruction of First Landing. The fort city population... dead and dying. Disappeared, ravaged, by its malicious force. It had turned my once defeated foes into thralls, foes that died good death in good fights of combat. And I had to face them all at once.
Live to fight.
Fight to live.
Gorum whispered through my armor. And so the battle commenced, my blade pulsated with the power of Gorum in this mindspace. First a salvo of beams of crimson, shooting around, bouncing off my holy armor. The Paladin rushed me and our blades clashed, but pushing past him I crushed him into the ground, cleaving through his helm with the Might of Gorum himself.
Looking up I saw the Halflings blinked in and out of visibility, one distracting me, whilst I was stabbed in the back. My greatsword felled the Halfling in front with three mighty chops, as a giant Fireball arced towards me. Rolling away, the fire consumed the other Halfing shade, burning it to a crisp, and I rushed the wizard Parry Hotter. He parried my blade with his magic wand, as behind him the red light turned into a giant smooth Unknown, but made of grey and red light.
“Join me!” it cried.
“Never!” I shouted back. I cracked Parry in the face with my elbow, magic burning in his hands. As he reached out towards me, I impaled the shade of the wizard in the chest, straight to the stone floor. The crimson creature then rushed me and we battled. It was so amazing and so crazy that I forgot about large parts of it. Alas, this report is only a tribute to the greatest battle I had. But I remember the ending...
We crossed Dimensions and Planes as the battle waged back and forth, my blade ripping into the core of its energies, while its giant claws destroyed my armor. After countless Planes traveled, we found ourselves upon deserts of Elysium, where it was trapped. There, after what seems like hours of battling, Gorum and Azanoth came themselves and helped me battle this entity. And all three of us were fighting it at the same time and it was super cool, and it was so much fun. But soon it was trapped for real. Gorum and Azanoth grappled it together, as I moved in and ripped out the core of this being: red beating light. I laughed in victory, tossing it into the air, and cleaved it with all the might I could muster. It let out an echoing scream of a thousand souls, likely trapped by this thing. It shivered then retreated, running, hurt into some other place, crying like a big baby. Hahahaha!
And then, just like that, I was back amongst the prime Material Plane.
I did not share this story fully with my compatriots... for it would be too crazy to be believed, and I needed to collect my thoughts about the matter. I do not think I had killed it, only driven it back. And perhaps this is only all a dream, or a holy vision, or madness. I do not know. I will say upon thinking that my location may have played a key, so close to the Elemental Shrine. Also praying was a triggering element. Interesting.
So anyways, that happened. In the Elemental Shrine we explored, we saw the orrery and opened a door to some sort of fire Plane. I was envious of the ever burning braziers in this Plane, alas, did not have the carrying capacity to loot it. After fumbling around for some time, I had the surprising pleasure of playing charades with a bird, I assume the Air Mephit. I have read this in a report and loathed the thought of doing, but it actually was kinda fun. It was very polite and friendly despite the language barrier, and upon offering snacks and gold (it takes snacks), and an expertly done drawings, by yours truly, we discovered the location of the Bone Bard. A little way into the desert, close to the shoreline. Indicated here: (A drawing of the map and its location is copied here.)
Anyway, knowing the Elemental Shrine was very well-looted, we continued our travels and found a weird tree with vibrant green sap dripping on it. It was covered with swarms and swarms of beetles. After some discussions and investigation, learning that the tree was necromantic, we decided to leave the tree alone. There wasn’t really a point in touching that gorgeous drippy tree.
Considering how this report ends, this was an extremely wise move at the time however disappointing. Alas here is a pro tip:
Don’t touch the flora unless you really need to in these Fey woods. |
But here is the location of that Vibrant Green Tree with Beetles: (a drawing of part of the map shows the Vibrant Green Tree Grove)
After some more philosophical and religious chatting as we camped for the night, we were attacked yet again…. this time by spiders. The spiders were vicious, unrelenting and nearly killed us or dragged us away into the darkness. And the spider I faced... was a Gorumite spider. I could see the scars on its body, trained by war, its giant fangs honed like blades.
It was an epic night time battle, though very scary as most of us nearly died. I tried to inspire the troops with tales and philosophy of Gorum, but moral faded somewhat after this dangerous battle.
After a night's rest however, the forest was actually very fine and wonderful. Sure I had battled an extra-planar entity that nearly devoured my mind and enslaved my soul, and was torn to shreds by a Gorumite Spider, but heck! Things were so nice weather-wise! I decided that this “adventuring” was pretty neat. This would prove to be almost fatal and I was a fool.
Towards the end of the lovely day we came across what is known as the Fey Arena located here: (a drawing of the location of the Fey Arena)
The place was covered in flowers and vines. At first I thought these flowers were lovely, but in fact, now thinking about it, they are part of a hellish ultra plant that will nearly kill us later. I was foolish to believe in the beauty of nature, and Gorum punished me for it. Nature is just out to kill you.
But the naive gal I was only two days ago went sniffing the flowers and they were lovely! A bit too sweet, almost like a drug, I could have sworn made me stupider. Maybe it was the flowers at this point? I don’t know.
Nez suggested that indeed this was First World shenanigans at foot and perhaps he was correct. And assumption made is that if the Elemental Shrine contains portals, and the First Landing portal exists, perhaps other undiscovered portals still exist on this world. Potentially active and less manicured than the ones we know.
Gul at this point had restored our morale, and I, amatuer drummer that I am, played alongside him as we entered the Arena.
There is not much to note of the Fey Arena interior. I will say the Fey Arena’s definition of rooms are extremely strange. Our resident Sylvan Translator Ayara guided us expertly to each room which were thoroughly looted by our party. However, it is of note that their Armory contained safes and scales and their Staff room contained a forge and armors and weapons. One would think they would be reversed but for some reason they were not. Curious.
I have developed theories about this, but also I know Fey are strange, strange creatures so it's best not to think about it too much.
Oh Staff room password is “Anvil” I like this word so I have written it down here: (there is a poorly drawn set of runes that barely makes the word ‘Anvil’ in Sylvan)
After much looting and fun, we discovered the Arena proper had been infested with a giant flower the size of Blinking Pug in First Landing.
The six of us after an inspiring speech and vision by yours truly decided to rid this flora once and for all and restore this arena to a place of proper combat. A place Gorum could smile down upon.
Alas, the giant flower had teeth. And giant vines that move and entangle. There was much screaming, much horror as it bit into me and I fell into darkness. Gul luckily saved me, as Ayara called for retreat and so I did. Barely we three survived. Gul, Ayara and me.
I have not seen Nez, Okar or Evelyn since then however. I do not know if they recalled or were eaten by the horrid monstrosity of nature, of this Arena Flower. Alas I shall be taking a vacation after this short trip to heal my wounds and will pray for the three that were lost. I would hope First Landing will issue a mission to destroy this flower for revenge but also it is the Fey’s property so maybe they should deal with it.
That is all. May Gorum find you when you most need him. May your heart be filled with the wonder and glory that is combat.
- Gallias