Previously: Chapter 30: We won, but at what cost...
Escape From the Cursed Woods
As the ashes from the cursed heart settles on the ground, the party scurries around to do what they can before they leave. Penny grabs the Hearthstone and a few diamonds from Kal, and sits down to do the ritual that gets them out of the woods. She can feel the presence of her patron, helping her do the necessary incantations the stone needs. In the meantime, Kal summons a lightning storm in order to ignite what she can of the woods, while the rest wait for the ritual to be complete. Willowbark is still in shock, and Granny can see that the orb is still floating around. As the undead horde manages to break through the treeline that is not set on fire, the whole party has their vision turn white, before it slowly goes back to normal. They are back in the outskirts of the Jaded Wilds, where they first began.
The Assassins
The sun is lying below the horizon, so visibility is quite limited, but they can see that the horses are gone. They immediately run over to where they placed them to see what happened. Granny and Willowbark examine the tracks, and it seems like the horses ran away, but they can also see three humanoid footprints among the horse tracks. As Granny tells this to the group, an assassin suddenly appears, throws a spell at Penny, who in a whirlwind of dust and leaves, is teleported away from the group. Another assassin appears behind Theren, armed with a pink crystal knife, and stabs him in the lower back. The wound glows pink as the dust of the knife remains in the cut. She whispers to him, in a familiar voice he has heard before.
“She told me your secret. Your services are no longer required. You have failed.”
As he falls backwards, he gets a quick glimpse of the assassin's face. A face he has seen before, but he has never spoken to her directly. Arara Iathrana. A higher up in his organization. His vision goes dark. She stabs him again, to make sure he doesn’t get back up.
They notice the connection to Theren through the rings disappearing, and run over to him to help him. But what is staring back at them is a white, featureless face. Theren is dead. Kal casts Gentle Repose on him to make sure they can revivify him later.
A third assassin also appears, and attacks Granny, but Willowbark moves close to attack them by erupting the earth around her. This luckily causes both the “lesser” assassins to get knocked down, but they are still a danger. Arara stabs Kal twice with the glowing pink dagger, causing it to apparently expend its charges, and moves towards Penny. Arara can teleport around, causing her to also be resistant to damage, making her the most dangerous foe for the moment.
Penny, as she tries to run towards her friends, hears her patronsay to her “Guard the Key with their lives…”. She activates her form of dread, and moves closer to extract vengeance towards their assailants.
The arcane assassin tries to make Penny give him the Key by charming her, but either her will or her patron is stronger than the magic, so she resists the urge. Willowbark turns into a black bear, and attacks Arara in the neck, wounding her.
Penny focuses her magic and uses Inflict Wounds on one of the assassins, instantly killing him by causing him to shrivel up in necrotic energy. The arcane assassin sees this, sees that they have vastly underestimated the group, and runs away. Arara shouts “COWARD!” after him. She takes out a poison coated knife from her sheath, and stabs Penny with it, hoping to end her. She is still standing.
As the rest of the party now stares down Arara, she turns, and says she will see them again, and that if Theren makes it, recommends he stays away from Tempervale for a while. She then Dimension Doors away.
“Are you… you?”
The party rushes over to where Theren is lying dead on the ground. They can all see the white face staring back at them now. Demetrius immediately recognizes this feature as that of a changeling, and Kal has heard stories about these creatures. Penny doesn’t trust Theren at all, and wants to tie him up, but Willowbark shoos her away.
Pip suddenly appears from a nearby tree, and goes straight to Granny. Penny translates that the horses were “violently attacked” by the scary people and they ran away, and left Pip alone.
Willowbark is sitting on the ground next to Theren, and cleans out his wound with the pink dust in it, managing to get it all out. She also helps Kal, by taking out the dust from her wounds, managing to hurt Kal in the process, as she is distraught. It seems like Willowbark thinks he has been cursed since he isn’t looking like himself, and frantically talks about how to dispel it. Kal calms her down, and just tells her to bring him back.
Theren, floating in a black void, can see a veil around him, with an unknown woman floating towards him, holding her hand out to him, but he can suddenly see that it is Willowbark, looking distraught at him, while holding her hand on his chest. He has been brought back. He looks around, sees everyone staring, and then looks at his white hand. “Ah, shit”, he mutters.
Kal asks him if he is Theren, and the person replies that he is also known as that. They ask if he has always been like this, and the changeling assures them that they haven’t replaced anyone. They have always been the Theren they knew. They ask what their name really is, and the changeling replies “Fie”.
While this is happening, Demetrius is searching the assassin that Penny killed, finding a Cloak of Elvenkind, and a Blinkback Belt, a much better upgrade to his sheath of returning.
Willowbark is having trouble with the whole situation. Distraught about Wren being in danger, she wants to move to help her tribe immediately, but the rest of the party convinces her that she needs rest, they need their horses, and they still have business in Tempervale. She reluctantly agrees to this, and Granny goes to find a safe place to hide for the night. The evening and rest goes without hitch, and Granny can see a huge dragon flying over The Shimmering Hills, heading east.
Making Travel Arrangements
Kal sends a Sending to Thundertree, telling them to return to where they were. Surprisingly, she gets a response, and it seems very eager to please, so they will return to where they were to pick them up. She can really hear the low intelligence emanating through the reply.
As they start walking back towards Tempervale, they discuss how they can reach the forest the quickest way possible. There are several ways, Fie suggests planar travel, but they don’t know anyone that has that spell (that they know of), and they also need a key attuned to the plane they want to travel to. Druids also have the ability to Transport via Plants or Wind Walk, both of which would allow them to travel vast distances in a short time. The only person they can think of that might be able to help them would be Reidoth, the druid from Thundertree. Halfway to the city, they meet the horses that have come to retrieve them, and they continue the path back to tempervale.
Kal decides to send Reidoth a message, asking him if he’s able to help, that they’re in Tempervale, and lives are at stake. She gets a response, telling her that he is in Cinderberry Woods, observing a flock of Owlbears, but he can be in Tempervale in three days or so. Willowbark thinks that is too long to wait, so she will be looking for anyone else that can help them faster. In the meantime, Kal has picked up her Earring of Message that Lone Candle enchanted for her, and the horses have been stabled for the night.
As they enter the city, they can see that Fie has taken the form of an elderly scholar that calls themselves Lander. They can also see that there is a wanted poster for Theren Amblecrown, the charge of Murder, with a 3000 gold reward. Theren recognizes this as a tactic that his organization uses to burn assets.
Penny goes to talk to Trixie, and tells her about what happened in the woods, and that they are going to deal with the hags. Trixie is worried, and hopes that Penny will return safely.
Theren and Kal discuss Raam, and the potential of him returning to seek out vengeance towards them, and it can take days, weeks, months or even years before they see him again. But as he is a devil, he is a strict believer in firm rules, and deathly afraid of being demoted to a lower rank. This might make him more dangerous.
As the party settles in for the night, they all have vivid dreams about their experiences, hopes and fears, and wake up the next day, more powerful than the night before.