Previously: Chapter 61: Harmony
The Yearning Waters
The party flies down the path towards the yearning waters, cutting down the travel time from days to mere hours. As they fly, they encounter a few elves heading to and from the waters, heading along the warded path. In the forest they can see playful fairy-dragons flying among the trees, as well as some spirits that they were told about. After a few hours, the large lake appears in front of them, and so they make their way to the shore to land.
The party were told to find the “stream that feeds the Yearning Waters”, and are a bit distraught to find that there are hundreds of small creeks and streams that come from within the forest. They decide to take some different approaches, with Kal and Penny approaching an elf sitting outside of a tent looking out towards the waters. He introduces himself as Thalinar, and when asked about a grave he does not know where it lies or even that the tomb of Maravin was in the forest. Kal thanks him for the talk, and leaves him be. Penny decides to use her Monocular to see if any of the nearby streams stick out from the rest, but she finds nothing of interest.
Relic and Elmroot decide to go back to cloud form and survey the shoreline to see if they find anything that sticks out, and agree to meet in a certain spot on the western coast before the spell runs out. They have a hard time finding anything that sticks out, other than shrines that have been placed to ward the area from the creatures of the forest. Dandelion decides to sit down where they agreed to meet and do a commune with nature, and to her surprise finds herself within range of a creek that seems to have the influence of Udall lingering within, as well as the presence of a powerful undead.
As the rest of the party joins her towards the end of the day, she tells them what she has learned, and so Kal does a divination, asking for guidance to find the correct stream. She gets a response that Udall cannot help her on her path, but that Ilene will guide her on her way. Knowing that Ilene is the goddess of the sun and moon, they first theorize that they have to see where the sun sets. Penny summons her familiar as a hawk, and tells it to fly up to see where the sun sets and find the right stream, but it comes back down saying it didn’t have a point of reference, so it doesn’t know which stream is correct, but as soon as the moon begins to light up the area, Kal can see that one of the streams seems to be glowing blue. She points it out to the others, and so they move towards it. Penny also claims that she can see it glowing, but that to her it's pink. The others don’t believe her, but Relic worries that she is hallucinating. They decide to set up camp near the stream so that they are ready to move out first thing in the morning.
Under the Pale Moonlight
During the night, the party rests beneath the stars and the moon, with Penny and Relic taking first watch, where nothing in particular happens, other than the occasional spirit peeking out from within the forest. On Dandelion’s watch she can see a large figure peering out from the trees, looking out towards the lake. She recognizes it as a treant, more commonly known as an ent. A large imposing figure with green eyes and reddish bark. She carefully approaches it, and greets it in sylvan, and it gives her a short nod in return.
The ent introduces himself as Thalorn, the Guardian of Ages. He apparently watches over the Bloodwoods in some capacity. Dandelion tells him why they have come to the woods, and is surprised to find that Thalorn actually knows about and has met Maravin, describing her as interesting, but kind. Apparently she was very unwilling to be Udall’s cleric at first, but came about when she saw the importance of her mission. This did however lead to her demise. Dandelion says this reminds her a lot of Kal, her companion.
Thalorn says that if the new cleric of Udall is after Stormseeker, it can only mean that The Forgotten One is about to make a return, and so approves of the quest. He does however tell Dandelion that he hopes that the cleric is the right person to take the spear, as it requires a worthy hand to wield it. Dandelion hopes that Kal can be up to the task. Dandelion asks if he has heard about the Silent Guardian, and Thalorn shudders, saying that he has come face to face with the creature several times, but luckily managed to escape each time. He advises them to not even breathe if he is around, as he can find them and slay them quickly if they do.
The old ent looks back towards the forest, and tells Dandelion that he has to return, his flock calling to him. As a parting word, he hopes that Kal is worthy, because even Maravin wasn’t worthy at first. He then retreats into the darkness, disappearing among the trees, with Dandelion staying by the shore, looking into the treeline, before returning back to the tiny hut to continue with her rest.
Into the Unknown
The party wakes up to a delicious smell of Kal’s cooking, and quickly devours it before preparing to set out to follow the creek. The weather is grim, with a light drizzle of rain and the glow has disappeared with the moonlight, but as long as the party doesn’t veer too far from the path, they will find their way. Not long after entering the forest however, Dandelion can hear a voice calling from somewhere to the left of them. None of the others hear it, and Relic figures it is probably a trap, so they should tread carefully.
Penny sends her hawk towards the sound to see what it sees, and finds a large hole, where a woman can be seen lying at the bottom, surrounded by vines and fungus, seemingly tapping her for strength. She decides to check it out closer, to see if it is an actual person, and so sends the hawk in to get a closer look. The woman appears to be a splitting image of the Leafwarden, Lady Nyreen, but a younger version. Penny figures it must be her daughter. The woman looks towards the hawk, begging for help, and so the party decides to approach carefully.
When they reach the hole, they find the woman entwined in various growths coming from the walls of the hole, with several glowing funguses lining the walls. The woman warns them not to get close, as they might react violently. Kal has a quick fix for this, and takes out the coin of darkness they got from Fie, and says the command word, after Penny has cast levitate on the woman. Everything goes dark, and they can hear the snapping and cracking of plants being pulled apart, and then hear the voice of the woman above them saying “Thank you” quite meekly. They pull her to the side, and help her get on her feet, as Kal puts away the coin.
The lady introduces herself as Liara, and confirms that the Leafwarden is her mother. They ask how she ended up in that hole, to which she replies that she was given a vision in the Bloodwoods of a terrible entity that seemed to be a threat to the woods and the city of Eilian. They ask her to describe it, and she tells them of a horrible pale figure, half man, half spider. The party sighs, recognizing the description as a drider, figuring that Nezznar must be looking for the tomb of Maravin as well. They help Liara back to the shoreline, where she takes a breather, thanking them once again for the help. Kal casts sending to tell Thalinar that the daughter of the Leafwarden has been found, and that she needs help getting back to the city. She gets a reply that he will begin to travel towards her, and help her return. The party then heads back towards the woods, to follow the stream.
The Pull of the Wild
After a few hours of walking, having followed the stream and luckily not encountered any silence or guardians, Kal and Dandelion both spot a peculiar sight among the trees. A serene looking grove hidden off the path, and points it out to the others. Sunlight seems to be illuminating it from among the treetops, and they can see that the color is in stark contrast to the eternal red surrounding them. Relic, still cautious, suspects another trap, but they decide to check it out in case it might be something useful.
When they get closer they see that the grove is filled with green grass, and flowers of several different colors, yellow, blue, green, purple and so on, as well as red. It seems to be open and inviting, and a small stream fills a little pond in the center of the grove. Relic is hesitant to enter, noticing that something is off, as his detect magic gives off the influence of abjuration but also distortion of time, much like the wizards tower in Equinfjord. Penny decides to send in her familiar, having decided to call him Riff. The hawk obliges, and the party sees him enter harmlessly, but then moves around inside at an incredible pace. When it finally walks out after about a minute, Dandelion can tell that he is asking what is taking them so long, and that it seems like hours for him since he entered.
Penny decides to step inside, followed by the rest of the party, and it does not appear to be a trap, as they can move around freely, but everything outside seems to move in slow motion. Dandelion picks a few flowers from the grove, giving her what she needs to make at least 5 health potions, as long as she finds the rest of the supplies she needs in a shop. They decide to take the time they are given to take a short rest, before moving on, with almost no time having passed on the outside.
After a few more hours of walking, they notice that the colors of the surrounding areas seem to be more saturated, and the sound becomes more intense than before. Even a leaf falling on the ground becomes almost painful to listen to. Across the stream, they see several beautiful flowers that are just waiting to be picked. Penny is about to cross the stream, but is stopped by Relic, who recognizes this as the telltale signs of a feywild crossing, suspecting that crossing the stream will bring them to the feywild. The party decides to move on from the area, and their suspicions are confirmed when the flowers have disappeared when they get a bit further up the stream.
Illuminating the Path
When the party reaches the end of their first day of travel, they find that the river splits into two, and the party is unsure which path they should follow. As they stand near the creek, Penny, Dandelion and Kal all feel that they are being watched, and take in their surroundings. High up in one of the nearby trees, they see that a branch seems to be disturbed by something they are unable to see. Penny sends Riff to check it out, but he can’t see anything.
Back to the problem at hand, the party sees that the weather doesn’t appear to be letting up, and so they worry that there won’t be any moonlight to light their path tonight. Dandelion decides to test if the spell moonlight actually is moonlight, and to their delight, it works! When she moves the beam to the leftmost stream, Kal can see that it is glowing blue. Penny claims to also see the glow, but on the other stream, and it’s still pink. The jig is up, and Penny laughs at her silly joke.
As the party prepares to rest for the night, Kal decides to cast legend lore on the Heartwood Staff, hoping to learn of its location or origins. Penny supplies most of the material components yet again, so Kal sits down, going into the meditative state that connects her with her patron, telling her what she wants to know.
“A staff birthed in dreams and given form by Faunus, the Heartwood Staff was wielded by Brónach, a firbolg bound by friendship and duty. He fought alongside the Fraternity of Harmony to banish the encroaching evil. But unlike others, his journey ended not in reprieve but in transformation—an unintended merging with the forest he so loved. Though revered as an avatar by his own kin, he is bound in wooden form, denied the release of true death, Heartwood Staff in hand.”
Dandelion tries to discern what this means, and thinks back to the dream she had a few weeks ago, seeing herself being trapped as a tree, and hearing rumors about the “fanatics” that claim to have the avatar of Faunus in their midst. She decides that the best lead they have is to head to this hidden grove and discover the truth.
During the night, Relic can see a disturbance in a nearby bush, so something is definitely still watching over them. Relic waves at whatever it is, nonchalantly, before going to rest for the evening, waking up Penny. She in turn watches over the forest, her eyes following a wandering spirit, spotting a deer that wanders among the red grass nearby. It gets close to the tiny hut, but scuttles away when one of the other party members shifts in their sleep. She smiles to herself at the beauty of nature, before waking up Dandelion for her watch. Dandelion can hear heavy footfalls on her watch, worried that it might be the Silent Guardian, before realizing that doesn’t make sense, so it’s probably something else.
When Kal wakes in the morning, she prepares breakfast as always, finding the mushrooms Raindrop helped her find still hasn’t dried to give the proper effect. The food is still delicious however, and the weather has begun to clear up. After breakfast, the party gathers their belongings, hoping to find the tomb on this day, counting their lucky stars that they haven’t encountered the Silent Guardian yet.
Crossing the Boundary
After a few hours of walking, Dandelion spots a couple of bodies lying in their path ahead of them. She gestures for the party to stop, fearing a trap. Penny sends Riff ahead, looking through his eyes. She examines the bodies as best as she can, and sees that one of the corpses, the elf, has a knife in its side, and the other one, a halfling, doesn’t appear to have any marks. Both are heavily decayed, so they have at least been there a week, maybe more.
Relic, who is immune to the smell, approaches the bodies, and takes a more thorough examination, finding choke marks on the halflings neck, so it seems like the halfling stabbed the elf as the elf was trying to kill him. The knife is a simple one, probably used for preparing food. As the elf seems to be crawling towards something, he examines the area closer, finding another card like the ones they have discovered before. Twelve so far, they wonder how many more they have to find before they have a full deck.
He tells the other that it is safe to approach, and casts a spell to dig a couple of graves for the men, and chisels the date they were found and a short description of the men on it, as a makeshift gravestone. Kal gives them their final rites, hopefully putting their souls to rest, instead of having them wander the forest endlessly. After finishing up, Kal remembers that she has speak with dead, and asks Relic to exhume the bodies again. She casts it on each of the men, and finds that the elf is named Aranis Silvershade. He was sitting in his study on the 6th of february, when he was transported to this forest, saw the halfling and the card, as a disembodied voice said “winner takes all”. He says his next of kin is Velnor Silvershade in Tempervale, and that he hopes someone can feed his goldfish.
The halfling was called Fendril Quickfoot, and lived with his wife Bellany outside of Shortlot. He was eating dinner with his wife, cutting up some bread, when he suddenly found himself in the bloodwoods, where a disembodied voice said “winner takes all”. The elf that was there then attacked him, and Fendril tried to defend himself, but everything went dark. He imitates the voice he heard, and the accent doesn’t appear to be a local one. The party then reburies the bodies, taking a note of the men’s last wishes and next of kin, hoping to give them some closure.
As the party continues to follow the river, Dandelion keeps casting commune with nature, hoping to find a sign that they are getting close, but there seems to be a long way away still. There seems to continue to be a powerful undead nearby, which is present every time she has cast the spell since entering the Bloodwoods. She also finds that the area ahead apparently has a powerful feywild presence, and warns the others to be careful.
Walking for another hour after taking the rest, the party finds themself in the middle of a thick fog, which flows over the party, obscuring them completely. When the fog disappears, Penny has disappeared with it. They try to shout for her, but she is nowhere to be found.
Penny, in the meantime, finds herself in a peculiar place with vibrant colors and tall, imposing trees towering above her. She tries to look around, and is surrounded by the fog, and within it she can see her companions, and tries to call for them, but they can’t hear her for some reason. In the distance, she can hear a faint flute being played by someone or something. She looks towards the sound, and then back to her companions, but they have disappeared. She looks around, seeing three sets of footprints that lead away from where they were. Penny tries desperately to follow them, but when she gets too far, the fog surrounds her again, and she finds herself back to where she started.
She decides that the only way out is to head towards the music, hoping that whatever is there can help her. After walking for about 20 minutes, she can see a clearing where a satyr is sitting on a stone playing on a flute. She greets it, and the satyr nods back to her, but continues to play. She pulls out her violin, and joins in on the music, creating a beautiful duet, attracting several other creatures from the fog who listens in on the music.
As the music reaches the crescendo, the satyr claps his hands, applauding Penny on her magnificent performance, and then asking her if she is lost. She confirms that she has lost her way, and the satyr asks her name. She gives it, and the satyr replies that his name is Lyriano, and that he can help her escape, but first, she must answer his riddle. She accepts the challenge, and so the satyr thinks for a second, before coming up with a fitting riddle for her.
"I am not alive, yet I grow; I don't have lungs, yet I need air; I don't have a mouth, yet water kills me. What am I?
Penny think to herself for a few seconds, wondering what the answer is, before carefully replying with “fire”, not seeming overly confident in her answer. Lyriano shouts out a huzzah, and proclaims that she is indeed correct, and so has earned her way back to her friends. Penny takes the opportunity to ask Lyriano about the Edenflower before she leaves, and he says that it is a rare bloom indeed, not growing many places, and those who tend to it would be unwilling to part with it cheaply. He also tells her that the edenflower cannot survive outside of the feywild for long, at most a day. Penny thanks him for the valuable information, and asks him to keep his promise of letting her out. He begins playing his flute, and Penny can feel herself being flung backwards by the music into the fog.
Back in the material plane, the rest of the party continues to shout after Penny, and suddenly a portal opens up, with Penny shooting out of it at full speed, landing in the dirt. Penny thanks the party for waiting for her, and they say that she has only been gone for 5-10 seconds. She tells them that for her it was 30 minutes. Dandelion asks if she was in the feywild, and if she made any deals she shouldn’t make. Penny calms her down by promising that she didn’t do anything stupid. On the contrary, she was given a riddle, managed to solve it, and learned more about the Edenflower as well.
Penny notices suddenly that she has no footprints, jumping up and down in the mud, leaving no trace of her being there. She worries about this for a moment, but as the party continues to walk, the footprints eventually reappear. She figures she saw the future when she was between worlds, and only saw three footprints, so she couldn’t leave any herself until she got far enough away.
The Tomb
After walking for a few more hours, Dandelion sits down to do another commune with nature, and this time to her enjoyment finds that there seems to be a valley ahead of them, like they were told that the tomb would be within. There is still a powerful undead presence, but they have yet to face the Silent Guardian, so they hope that it is not around the next bend in the stream.
The party continues onwards, having soon reached the end of the day, and approaches the end of the stream. In a weird and unexplainable way, the river seems to at one point flow up the hill out of the valley, defying physics. They enter the valley, and find a massive red tree with scorch marks all over, surrounded by a large pond. Water flows out of the roots of the tree, feeding the pond, and by extension, the stream.
Penny tests the waters, but Dandelion holds her back, asking Kal to go first, this being her path and all. Kal walks ahead, approaching the tree. The others follow close behind, and observe as Kal makes a gesture of respect to Udall, giving a silent prayer. The roots of the tree suddenly open up to reveal a passage. Kal approaches, with Penny following close behind, but Dandelion and Relic decide to stay back. Kal remarks that Maravin’s companions were with her until the end, and so they should follow her inside.
Kal jumps into the chasm, followed by Penny, Relic, and finally Dandelion. They slide further and further down, not reaching the end, but suddenly just appearing in a large, cold chamber, with no sign of where they entered from. They see each other, and ahead of them a shrine built for the last cleric of Udall. Maravin rests on top, spear in hand, looking just as she died, almost like she is sleeping.
Kal takes a few seconds to take in the view, being in awe of being in the presence of a true legendary figure from history. Remembering partly why they came here, she tries to do a divine intervention to summon a guardian for the Emerald Earth Sanctuary, and finds that she is successful. She smiles to herself, knowing that it is protected until they can cure Gleamshroud. She then carefully approaches the shrine.
She looks upon the corpse of Maravin, finding her armor to be damaged on the side, with a wound on her chest and her neck, seemingly a killing blow, incurable by those she traveled with. Kal puts her hand on Maravin’s, finding her to be uncomfortably cold to the touch. She says that it is time for her to wield the spear, and moves Maravin’s hands carefully away, taking the spear from her. Kal holds it in her hands, focusing on the power she has acquired, but the rest of the party suddenly sees Maravin starting to move. Before Kal has a chance to react, Maravin clutches Kal’s wrist, yelling to her face.
“UNWORTHY!”
Before her eyes, the spear starts to quickly decay, the metal rusting and becoming blunt, with parts of the heel falling apart. The word echoes in the chamber, “Unworthy, unworthy, unworthy…” Kal wonders why she came all this way for nothing. The rest of their party notices a light coming from behind them. They all turn around and see that the roots have parted, revealing a way forward. Kal recognizes the cold snowy area, and warns them of what they will see if they follow, if they even can. She then enters the portal, with it quickly closing behind her, cutting off the rest of the party from her.
The Trial of Kalyssandra Merwen
Kal finds herself alone on a snowy battlefield. She recognizes the area, but it is not the same as when she was here last time. This time, she can see that the battle has turned. Ildrex is in danger, and is being ambushed by a few locals who have decided to fight back. Kal sees her opening, a way to finally strike down her old enemy once and for all, but her focus is drawn towards a family nearby that is close to being attacked by a group of Ildrex’ soldiers. She realizes that she has to make a choice, to either save the innocents, or get her revenge.
She looks over at Ildrex with hate in her eyes, but decides to do the right thing, protecting the innocent family. Something tries to pull her towards Ildrex, but she manages to resist. She moves over towards them, stabbing and slicing the attackers, protecting the family, and driving the soldiers away. The family thanks her for coming to their rescue, and in the distance she can see that Ildrex has managed to escape his attackers and is fleeing on a horse, never to be seen again.
Kal wonders if she did the right thing, but before she gets an answer, her vision becomes blurry and dark. The cold sensation disappears, and when her vision returns, she finds herself in a large dark chamber. Sand and small patches of grass surround her, and she recognizes the pyramid shape like the one where they found the second part of The Key, just much bigger. In front of her, she can see Penny holding the completed Key, with horribly disfigured horns and face, clearly corrupted by the Forgotten One. She is about to ascend, and Kal realizes that she has but moments to spare. She realizes that she has to choose between killing Penny, stopping the threat, or allowing her to live to find another way to save her.
She tells the entity “you are not Penny. Penny would not want to live like this”, and prepares to strike her down with her spear. Something seems to hold her back however, and she hesitates, as if something is telling her to see how it plays out. The moment passes, and Penny, in a triumphant laugh, teleports away, Kal being left behind. She feels she made the wrong choice, but it wasn’t really her choice in the end. Something stopped her from doing the right thing. Before she can think more about it, her vision becomes blurry again.
When her vision returns, she can hear the sound of a large battlefield, and she finds herself in the fields outside of Ravenforge. In front of her is a massive drow army, filled with abominations from the Underdark, attacking the city. Her companions are with her, Penny, Relic, Dandelion, Thervan, Raven, and many others from their travels. The situation seems grim, and they are about to lose, with all of her friends being close to death. Kal sees an opening to retreat back to the city, potentially saving their lives and granting a better fortification, but it leaves them open to being attacked by the drow from behind. Suddenly, among the enemy lines, she spots an opening, a pathway straight towards Malice. She realizes that she would not survive the attack, but it would cut off the snake’s head, allowing them to win the day.
Kal makes a split second decision, and decides to attack. Something tries to pull her back once more, but this time she won’t allow it to influence her. She runs towards the attacking drow army, straight towards her enemy, and drives her spear through her heart. The drow combatants see this, and become distraught but for a moment, giving the defenders an opportunity to strike back. Nezznar turns towards Kal, seeing Malice dead on the ground, and in a rage shouts “NOOOO!” at Kal, before striking her with his greatsword, cutting off Kal’s head. Everything goes dark.
Kal’s vision is blurry. When it returns, she finds herself back in the chamber where the rest of her companions are waiting for her. They are still looking where the portal was created, waiting for her to return. They all jump when they suddenly hear movement from the back of the chamber. They see Kal, who turns around and sees Maravin standing, looking at her. She looks at Kal, and down at Stormseeker.
“Your heart is in the right place, but she is still holding you back. In order to be free, you have to sever yourself from her. You have to destroy the one who turned you, and only then can you return to the light. Be warned, she will try even harder now to stop you from doing the right thing. but the spear will help you on your path.”
As she finishes speaking, Kal looks down at the spear, and sees it regenerate in front of her, the rust disappearing, revealing the beautiful metal beneath. The heel also repairs itself, and she can feel the flow of energy emanating from the spear. Stormseeker is finally hers. She looks up at Maravin, and sees that she is disappearing in front of their eyes, turning to dust, and then into nothingness. Maravin gives a final smile as Kal delivers a salute with the spear, holding it above her head. When Maravin is gone, everyone’s vision turns blurry, and then black, before finding themselves outside of the tomb. Several hours have passed, and night has fallen, but they are not alone.
The Reborn
Waiting for the party in the water beneath the tree, a large drider looks at them with glee. Kal remarks “long time no see”, to which Nezznar replies “likewise”. They ask him why he has been following them, and he proclaims that they have something that belongs to him, and he would very much like it back. Penny asks him to be specific, and he says that he would like his staff to be returned to him, as it is rightfully his.
The party looks at each other, and wonders how he figures that, and he tells them that in their culture, you keep what you kill, and he killed the last owner of the staff, and so it belongs to him. The party almost in sync tells him that they killed him, so it now belongs to them. He then says that he was hoping they would say that, and produces a small recognizable dagger. Demetrius’ daggers, that he got made from the fangs of Venomfang. Penny picks up the dagger from the water, and finds it to be slightly decayed, like something has drained the magic from it.
Nezznar tells them that he found their friend Demetrius, and took revenge on him for striking him down. Although he couldn’t “drain” him, he took great pleasure in gouging out his eyes as he was screaming for his mother. And now, as he has killed the one who killed him, he would like to get back what is rightfully his. Relic tries to say that he knows about Drow culture, and that it doesn’t work like that, but Nezznar replies that he is clearly sitting on outdated information, ignoring their argument that it is no longer the Spider Staff, but something more. Nezznar says that he knows what the staff really is, but it is of no matter, if they are unwilling to give it to him, he will just have to take it, and prepares to attack the party once more.