Previously: Chapter 18: The Festival of the Sun
The Voice in the Woods
Hearing the unexpected response from the voice behind her, Willowbark calmly, but determined, turns around to see who is speaking. Between her and the town, she can see the outline of a tall dark figure, but she doesn’t recognize it at first. Getting a closer look, it appears to be a firbolg, like her. Willowbark asks the figure what they mean, and what they want from her. The figure, who has a female voice, tells her they want many things from her, but most of all, they tell her to stay away. They don’t want her there. She was cast out of her family and her tribe, and so she does not belong anymore.
The voice… It seems familiar somehow. Willowbark moves to the side, so that the lights of the town can illuminate the figure, and as she does, she suddenly recognizes it as her deceased leader Clementine, one of those taken by the sickness. Shocked by the reveal, she locks eyes with Clementine, and tries to move towards the town, but she can suddenly feel the presence of two more figures, cutting off her escape. She looks at them, and sees that one of them is Galen, the other one close to her taken by the sickness, and… Aster, her bloodmother, who as far as Willowbark knows, is still alive. Or so she thought.
Willlowbark, feeling that she is in the presence of something she doesn’t fully understand yet, tells the beings that she will leave, but the voices of Galen, Aster and Clementine tell her that it will not be enough. She tries to explain that she didn’t mean to intrude or disturb them. The voices hint towards them wanting to kill her, without using the words outright. They demand that she leaves and never returns, as the forest now belongs to them, and will never be hers again. Willowbark feels that their influence is strong, and they are using dark magic against her, saying that they will kill both her and her friends if she ever returns to the woods.
“You cannot save your tribe. They are not yours anymore. They are OURS!”
Hearing the words, Willowbark senses a single tear run down her chin, as she feels helpless. The beings smile at her with a disturbingly wide grin, and come between her and the forest, giving her the chance to escape. She takes it, and runs out of the forest. Exiting the woods, she sees Corn who was smart enough to escape when the beings appeared. She grabs him, and runs towards the town center, heading straight for the tent.
As she enters, the party has begun to die down a bit, but Kal and Penny are both still very intoxicated, and dances on the tables to the cheering and laughter of the townsfolk. Willowbark runs over to Granny, who appears to be sober, needing someone to talk to. She rambles a bit, but manages to convey what she has experienced and seen, almost telling Corn to corroborate her story before realizing Granny doesn’t understand him.
Granny calms her down, telling her that there is nothing they can do tonight as the group is too inebriated to be of any use in a fight tonight. The most important thing is that she is safe now, and among friends, nothing can hurt her. Willowbark wants to find a library in order to research more about the sickness, and also speak of exploring other forests, to see if she can get answers there. Considering her experience, Willowbark decides that she wants to sleep inside with the rest of the party for the night. Granny thinks that’s a good idea, and decides to sleep outside of the inn, to look out for anything out of the ordinary.
Theological Discussions
The next morning, as Theren wakes up, he looks down at his hands and realizes that he can see his veins, muscles and tendons. Checking the mirror confirms his suspicions that his skin has turned transparent. It’s still there, just not visible. Not wanting to freak anyone out, he spends some time applying make-up to appear normal, realizing that it’s time to draw another card from the Deck of Certain Things.
Demetrius can hear whispering, laughter and some light footsteps as his companions for the night decides to take their leave. Waking up with a huge grin on his face, he gets dressed, gathers his stuff and checks his coin purse, realizing that they took around 20 gp from him. He smiles, thinking there are worse things to spend money on, and heads downstairs to join up with his companions, and get some food to counteract the hangover. Maybe even some hair of the dog that bit him.
Penny and Kal both wake up, extremely poorly, splitting headache and dry mouths. Surprising them both however is Willowbark lying on the floor between them, looking up at them and saying good morning. They ask if she’s okay, and she responds that she is fine, she just needed to feel safe for the night. The trio gets up, with Penny checking herself in the mirror, finding herself looking a little bit better today, as the dark rings around her eyes are not as prominent.
When they all get downstairs into the dining area, they can see that the inn is filled to the brim with people who are eating breakfast before setting out on their respective journey’s home. Kal decides to make food outside again for the party to have some privacy. When they get out, Willowbark acts erratic, telling the others to not get too close to the forest, as she is worried about it.
When the rest of the party makes their way to the campfire, Willowbark starts telling the hungover group about her meeting with the beings the night before. As she recites the encounter, she realizes that the woman who posed as Clementine didn’t have her voice, but she did recognize it somehow, but can’t place it no matter how hard she tries.
Several party members finally ask Willowbark about what’s up with her name. She has given a different name to some other people, and so she goes on to explain that she changes her name when she reaches a new chapter in her life. When she was in the tribe she was known as Pine, and then when she was exiled they gave her the name Thana, representing her association with death, and then she chose the name Willowbark as a way of setting out on a quest to heal her home. And that is what she is trying to do now.
Theren tries to imply that they could burn down the forest, but this seems like a nuclear option that Willowbark is not prepared to take unless she has attempted every other avenue first. Theren fears that if this disease is caused by the gods themselves, they are not strong enough to fight it. But if they are spirits or similar, then they have a better chance.
Willowbark tells the party that she has a total of 12 gods, and goes through who they all are and what they represent. They notice similarities with some of the gods of the main pantheon, but they don’t think any of them would cause corruption in the forest, apart from maybe Mara, but they aren’t an evil god per se. Theren suggests that they ask Kal’s god, the one of storm and lightning, but she is not on the best terms with him at the moment. In either case, he hypothesizes that the beings she met might be using simple illusion spells to disguise themselves, but Willowbark feels it went beyond that. Suddenly they all notice a voice saying “This is very interesting…” as a still drunk man has sat down next to them, eating a bowl of their stew and listening in. Willowbark politely asks him to leave, and he moves on.
They go through the timeline, with Willowbark telling the party that she first started to have dreams about the disease when she was about 10 years old. She is now 58, which Penny is surprised by, considering how good she looks. She has dreamed about a green eye staring at her for a long time, but hasn’t encountered anyone else with similar dreams. She has also dreamed about people of her tribe dying, before they died, and has now begun to dream about her entire dream dying.
They all realize that the corruption in Thundertree happened about 30 years ago, which would suggest that it is somehow all connected. They decide that the next step should definitely be to head to a bigger library to find a library, either Tempervale, Elvenroth or Ravenforge. They want to know how long they have, but Willowbark fears they don’t have long. If the encounter truly meant her mother has died, then it is spreading. She describes the sickness as just manifesting as a flu-like disease, and then they got worse and worse until their bodies couldn’t handle it any more. Galen held out much longer than Clementine though.
Penny tells the party that she might have someone in her community that knows something or can help, but then suddenly remembers that she doesn’t know where it is or how to get back. The party asks her why she left in the first place, and she tells them that when Morgan came to visit, she snuck into his carriage and came with him. When he discovered her they had already traveled for a while, so he allowed her to stay, and taught her in the bardic arts. Until he disappeared.
Willowbark decides to cast some divination spells to figure out where it would be prudent to go. While waiting for this, Granny introduces Penny to Stone, Scroll, Knife, but the others know it as Boulder, Parchment, Sheers. Granny then asks Theren about his god and if he can help, to which he replies yet again that he isn’t a god, just a powerful entity that grants him powers. He can tell that Ranesh appreciates being called a god though.
Willowbark asks if they should travel towards Ravenforge, and gets a feeling that it could lead to good results, but it might just mean that it would be good to get away from the forest. When asked about the treasure map that they found in Wave Echo Cave, the results are murky, unsure. They decide to first of all head towards Rivergrounds, and then make up their mind about which direction to travel when they get closer. After buying some rations and supplies, they pick up their horses from the stables, and head north.
The Long Journey
After a few days' travels, they reach the town of Rivergrounds once more, and decide to stay at the inn for the night. Willowbark wants to stay a bit outside of the town, and so heads far enough away that the stench of the streets isn’t too prominent. As Theren keeps being afflicted by the curse, now losing and gaining hair, he decides to bite the arrowhead and pull out another card. He gets a weird looking card, which disappears, and suddenly, an imp manifests next to him, kicks him in the shin, and then disappears. Rubbing his leg, he can feel that the curse wanes once more.
Penny tries to read the minds of the patrons in the inn, and picks up a few references to an earthquake, as well as someone swearing they saw the princess earlier. She asks the innkeeper, Tim (still no relation), about this supposed earthquake, as she cannot remember noticing any recently. He tells her that a large earthquake woke him up early in the morning about three weeks ago. She realizes that this was about the same time that they were in Wave Echo Cave. She returns to her party, asking if they know if why the princess would be her, and who it is, but they say that she would definitely not be in a place like this.
After they head out from Rivergrounds, they travel for another five days before they reach the crossing between Elvenroth and Tempervale. There seems to be a lot more people passing on this route than they have ever seen on the road south of them. Willowbark sits down and tries to ask her gods once more to give a sign of which way they should go, but once again gets only cryptic responses, telling her that it might be dangerous. Willowbark doesn’t understand why they should go after the treasure, and gets a feeling that her gods feel it is more prudent that they head towards Ravenforge. The party feels that the treasure might come in handy in their travels and quest, and since they are going to be looking for it at some point anyway, they might as well get it out of the way now, so they decide to go against the will of the gods and head east.
During the journey, Willowbark, desperate for information, approaches a couple of rangers heading the opposite way, asking them about the forest and if they’ve seen anything strange within. The ranger seems to be unsure as to what she means, but when she mentions Thundertree, he tells her he knows about that and that they never go near it. He has seen some areas that are more dangerous than others, and met some interesting creatures while doing so. Apparently things have changed, and before his time it wasn’t as dangerous as it has become in recent times. She asks how so, and he tells her that when people venture into certain areas, they change, and don’t come back as themselves, or even at all. He has seen close friends turn to husks that tried to attack him, and points to the Shimmering Hills, saying one of the areas to avoid is at the foot of the mountain.
She returns to the group, and tells them about what the ranger told her, saying that it has grown worse, corrupting wildlife and people, making the area extremely dangerous. She worries that it will spread further than it already has. Theren questions why her people don't keep records of their history, calling them uncivilized because of it. She tells him coldly that she is civilized, her history is just oral, not written. But he does mention that the ranger she met probably belongs to The Rangers of The Wild, who follow the nature goddess Phymera. Seeking out one of their temples or maybe the group themselves might yield some information.
After a few more days, they can see Tempervale on the horizon. Theren can feel that the curse is creeping up on him again, and so decides to draw another card, which causes all his weapons and magical items to vanish in a magnificent display of fireworks. The rest of the party asks what the hell just happened, and Theren replies bluntly that he has a deck of cards, and it’s weird. Penny says that she would love to try to draw a card, and Theren reluctantly allows it.
She draws a card, and sees the symbol of a pot of honey on it. It vanishes. There is a large pop as a bear appears. Standing on two legs, wearing a satchel, and looks extremely confused. In common, he asks the party where he is and what just happened. They introduce themselves, and ask him who he is. He replies that his name is Sigmund and that he’s a potion seller. Not being entirely sure what is happening, he offers the party to buy some potions if they would like, giving them great discounts on his wares. Penny asks where he comes from, and he tells her it’s a small village outside of Arcan City, which Penny has heard of before.
After he has sold his wares to them, they chat a bit about him, asking if this has happened before, and he tells them that a guy called Bob once summoned him, and he too was holding a deck of cards. He laments to himself that he wishes he didn’t steal those berries from that hag that one time. Penny tells him she also got cursed. He gives his condolences, and tells them loads of places are cursed, particularly forests, they tend to get the worst of it. As Willowbark hears this, she perks up, wanting to know more, but the moment he starts talking, he suddenly disappears again. Penny looks extremely happy to have picked that card, and the party asks Theren what is up with them, but he is reluctant to tell them about it yet.
During the final night before they reach the city, Penny sits down and can feel that there is someone else inside her mind. Figuring that she might as well, she asks if the being inside her is the Forgotten One. The voice inside her head replies “yes”. Frightened by this, she asks the group if they know of the Forgotten One that Nezznar was talking about, and if they know who it might be. Theren says there are probably loads of forgotten gods, and should ask for its name. When she does, the entity doesn’t want to tell her just yet.
The Twelve Bridges
When the party finally arrives in Tempervale, Willowbark is blown away by the size, and can’t stop staring at the towering buildings that go higher than most trees in her forest. On the way in, they are stopped by one of the guards who singles out Willowbark, telling her that she needs to behave when she’s in the city. The rest of the party gives the guard the stink-eye, as that was totally unnecessary. First point of order should be a place to stay, and so they decide to find an inn, telling Willowbark that she can’t safely sleep outside when she is here, as it is probably frowned upon. She doesn’t understand the problem
Demetrius goes to see if he can find any bounty boards that might give the party something to do for money, ad he looks through a few, seeing that most are talking about missing people, exterminating vermins, but one draws his attention, from a person named Kody, who is asking for a group of adventurers to help out on a mighty quest, that is to be well compensated. It tells whoever wants to help to meet him in Minotaur Park the next day at noon. He runs after the party as they head down a side street, and tells them about it.
The rest of the party has found a fitting inn nearby, called the Narrow Bar. Seems to be rather full, loads of people, and much larger and nicer than the ones in Maplemere, Rivergrounds and Phandalin. Penny manages to convince the innkeeper to give them a group discount on the rooms, as she can perform for the patrons. Kal asks if they need any help in the kitchen, but gets rejected due to health inspectors and stricter rules than smaller towns and villages. When they get to their room, they discover that they actually have working toilets, plumbing and all. Kal has to teach Willowbark how toilets work, and Willowbark in turn feels very uncomfortable about being in the city. Demetrius on the other hand couldn’t be happier about the room and the bed.
The party heads to one of the stables on the outskirts of the city, to leave their horses for the stay. No Tim in sight, which is a good thing. Kal has the foresight to see that the horses’ horseshoes are getting worn, and so asks the stablehand to change them.
Granny asks around if anyone knows where the Rangers of the Wild reside in the city, if they even do, and gets told that they have a small safehouse on the outskirts of the city, outside of the walls to the south. Kal and Theren goes looking for a map of the area and region, and is told to head to the library, but as it’s getting late, it is closed when they reach it. Willowbark is amazed at the size of the library, as its facade is decorated by large marble pillars, in front of vast colorful windows.
On the way back to the inn, they come across the temple district, with a bridge crossing over the river far below the city. They decide to check it out, and can see that there are a total of twelve bridges that cross the river. Kal looks at a plaque on the bridge they are currently on, and sees that it is the bridge of Adea, the Goddess of Knowledge and Magic. Willowbark is in awe, seeing the beautiful architecture and the wide river far below them. Kal explains to her that the city was founded 1300 years before the current calendar began, meaning it is nearly 4000 years old, and was built where Adea came to the plane and gave the gift of magic to mortals. She is the one who maintains the weave, allowing magic, both divine and arcane, to flow and function.
They all wander around, looking at the other bridges, finding the one to Mova, as well as some of the other gods they know of, but one bridge has a name that is unknown to all of them. Roshan, the Goddess of the Sun is written on a bridge further down river. Wondering why they haven’t heard much about this god, they decide they have to check it out, as Ilene is the Goddess of both the sun and moon.
As they head back towards the inn, they visit the temple of Adea in the middle of the city. Theren goes over to pay his respect by lighting a candle with magic, and placing it in an open spot. Willowbark, wanting to be respectful, copies him, but gets confused when Kal also gives a small offering of coins, having been told not to give away money willy nilly. The fact that she is awestruck by the size of the temple isn’t helping either. Kal notices, and helps her. Willowbark then goes to one of the priests, asking if they know about her gods, but he sadly does not. He then suggests to her that they might all be aspects of Adea, without her knowing it, but Willowbark doesn’t like this idea. Kal tries to talk to the priests if they have heard rumors about a sickness spreading, and he indeed has heard the Rangers talking about it, but doesn’t know any details. He suggests heading to the library to research if they wish to learn more.
Kal the Great
Walking back towards the inn, Kal checks out a few more bridges, and finds that one of them is dedicated to Udall. Interested if it might help her connection to him, she stands in the middle of it, and summons a lightning bolt in her hands, scaring a few of the passing citizens. Some city guards quickly show up, holding spears at her, demanding to know what she is doing, casting spells in the middle of a crowded area. Willowbark tries to talk them down, but Demetrius suddenly grows confident, and yells at the guards for their “insolence”. He refers to her as the “Great” Kal, and that captain Mericious has personally given approval for her actions. Demetrius is just bluffing, hoping the name he read on one of the bounty boards will be enough to convince them. To their surprise, it works, and they step down, allowing her to continue, but watching closely.
Kal is quite awkward by the whole encounter, but tries to focus. She tells her god that there is corruption spreading, and asks if he has any help to give in order to get to the bottom of it. It suddenly starts to rain, and as the citizens scatter to get to cover, she returns to the rest of the party, with Willowbark asking what he told her. Kal replies that she doesn’t have a strong enough connection yet to get a clear response, but the rain seems to indicate that he is listening at least. They head back to the inn, to meet up with Penny who stayed behind.
Back in the Tavern
When the party returns to the inn they can see that Penny is in the middle of some pretty heavy gambling with some of the locals, and she’s not doing too well, losing left and right. After she is done and has lost more money than she intended, she thanks for the game, and leaves to join her party at their table.
When the waitress comes over with their drinks, Kal gives her an extra copper piece, which causes Willowbark to be even more confused, as she keeps giving away money when she has told Willlowbark not to do that, but she decides to copy Kal and give a tip as well. Demetrius sees her confusion and explains that money is power and that society is based on a ranking system, and starts rambling on about how the elites versus the common folk. Kal and Willowbark remarks that he seems to be on edge now that they’re in a large city, but he just blows them off.
Penny sits down as Kal, Willowbark and Demetrius are discussing class differences, and attempts to listen in on people’s thoughts from the tavern. She scans the area, and gets a few people complimenting the music being played, another one misses eating dragon meat as it was too tasty to forget, but one elderly fellow seems to stick out, thinking about how his house is haunted. Penny excuses herself and walks over to the old man, asking him if he would like to tell her his story. He looks at her, very confused as to why she suddenly approached him, but she tells him that she’s a bard, and thought he looked interesting so would love to hear his story.
The old man introduces himself as Conrad, and he tells her that he is having a hard time sleeping, as he keeps seeing a man in his room. He guesses that it is a haunting, but tells her that his story isn’t that interesting or unique. Penny offers to help him out, as her party is quite capable. He tells her that he cannot pay her anything, but she doesn’t want payment, she just wants an adventure. She leads the man to her party, and tells them that there is a ghost haunting the man’s house, and that they have to do something about it. They ask him to describe the ghost, but he says that it just looks like a man, and he just stands there, staring at him. Demetrius thinks there might be someone trying to force him to move, to buy the house cheap, but they know more when they get there, so they decide to leave with the man, who takes them to his house.
The Haunting
The party follows the man around the corner from the Narrow Bar, realizing that he literally lives in the same block. His home is an apartment in a tall building, at least 10 stories tall. He leads them inside, and up the stairs, as he lives on the third floor of the building. When they get into his home, they find it to be quite nice, much nicer than most of the inns the party has stayed in during their travels. The party decides to look around to see if they can find any clues, and notices that it is significantly colder in the bedroom than the rest of the apartment.
Granny wants to see if she can detect the presence of the ghost, and so uses her primeval awareness to sense what is nearby. She is suddenly overwhelmed as she can sense a large presence of undead, but also within the city there are fey, dragons, fiend and celestials. She tells the party about this, and they look at each other, quite confused, but Theren seems unfazed, pointing out that this is a large city, and he has heard about dragons having the ability to shapeshift and appear to be humanoids. celestials and fiends are to be expected where people congregate, and fey are just weird, so they would probably stick around as well. Conrad nods in agreement, not being too surprised.
Granny does however get the feeling that there really is a ghost present, but she isn’t entirely sure that she can make it appear. Penny tries to call out for the ghost, trying to convince it to appear. They wait around for a few seconds, before a light suddenly appears in the doorway to the bedroom. It rapidly grows, until it takes the shape of a person, seemingly a man with elven features. It suddenly lurches toward the person who summoned it. Penny tries to resist, but she gets hit with a discombobulating force as the ghost enters her, and takes over her body. The ghost tries to run off with her.
The party, noticing what has just transpired, leaps into action, and attempts to restrain Penny, preventing her from escaping. Granny and Demetrius work together in order to hold her back, while Willowbark runs over to block the door. Kal uses her celestial powers to force the ghost out of her friend, but it does not relent, and tries to attack the party, but it is easily subdued. Theren gets the final blow with his eldritch blast, and in the end the ghost just floats in place, weakened, but not destroyed.
A Final Request
Kal tries to talk to the ghost, and it suddenly seems to start listening, almost as if it was unable to be reasoned with before. It asks them why they are in his house. The party tries to explain to the ghost that he is dead. The ghost at first thinks this cannot be, but the party manages to convince it that it is in fact true. They ask his name, and it has a hard time remembering, but thinks that it may have been Thomas.
Conrad tells the party that he has been living in the house for about 50 years, and has noticed that at times stuff have been moving around, and he has had some sightings of what he now realizes was Thomas, but had just ignored it, thinking he was imagining things. But seeing the ghost in front of him, he realizes that he never truly was alone.
They ask the ghost if he knows what happened to him, and the last thing he remembers is that he was petting his cat, and then heard a noise behind him, and everything changed. He tells them he was a tailor when he died, owning a tailors shop called the Magnificent Needle, located in the square close to here. When asked, he tells the party that he has one final wish of being able to walk in the park, and thinks that is where he was trying to go when he tried to escape with Penny. Penny allows him to possess her once more, giving him the chance to go for the walk.
They all follow Penny/Thomas towards the park, with the ghost remarking that he doesn’t remember any of this, things have changed a lot since he was last around. Looking at a jewelry shop, he says that it seems to be in the same place his shop was, but everything looks different, but similar at the same time. He also mentions that he lived in a house, not a large building with several apartments in it, suggesting a lot has changed for him. They ask him when he was alive, and he tells them he thinks he died in the year 834 in the second age. With them now being in the year 853 of the third age, this means he has been dead for over a thousand years.
As they reach the park, he says that this is different as well, saying that the layout is all wrong, like the city has changed completely. Kal asks if the bridges were there during his time, and he confirms that they were, but that they too are wrong somehow. But the party realizes that the city has probably changed a lot over the last 1000 years, not thinking too much of it. When asked about Roshan, he has heard the name, but is unsure who it is. Kal wonders what happened to her.
After wandering around for a while, looking at the park and the city, Thomas turns Penny around and tells the party that he feels that he is ready to move on now, having gotten his itch scratched so to speak. Penny, who has been a silent passenger for the journey, can hear the ghost saying “thank you” directly to her mind, before she can feel the presence leave her. Finally being laid to rest.
Conrad looks at the party and thanks them all profusely for solving his problem, and they all walk back towards the Narrow Bar, with the old man going home to hopefully get a good night’s sleep.