Session028

Session Twenty Eight - 1st November 2024

Entering the trapdoor, the group started to descend the spiral staircase. Glancing behind him, Mogadon realised that the trap door had vanished, leaving nothing but solid stone above him. Downwards was the only option it seemed.

After descending some two hundred feet or so down the tight spiral stair, Morthos at the front finally came to the final step, the stairs opening out into a dark forest of twisted leafless trees, their branches interweaved tightly all around, but leaving a path of black sand flecked with glowing specks of light. The body of a cultist lay some fifteen feet from the bottom of the steps. Several shoes lay discarded on or near the bottom step and Mogadon noticed that the body lying on the sand was however still wearing shoes. The words of the song they had heard the cultists sing in the temple above came back to him, clear as a bell.

“Feet unshod, and spirits light,
On sands of stars you tread the night.
A shadow’s breath, a thorn’s sharp tear,
Beware the song that fills the air.
With whispers soft and steps as still,
Your voice is safe, but speak and chill.
A flower blooms, of brightest hue,
Its nectar calls—but death waits, too.
Through twisted root and tangled vine,
One with the trees, their will divine.
The mirrored pool shows what you dread,
Do not dive deep, or you are dead.
Bare your heart, let go your steel,
The path will turn, the dark reveal.”

Realising these words might be important, the group removed their shoes and stepped out onto the sand - that almost seemed alive, feeling warm and yielding beneath their bare feet. Following the path, after some ten minutes walking, the terrain slowly changed around them - the sand no longer feeling warm, the trees becoming more and more wrapped in thorny vines, many of which would trail across the path. Shadows of horrors unseen flickered between the boughs of the trees, and a discordant humming could be heard, echoing the melody from the song, but an order of magnitude more disturbing. Morthos and Cormir both succumbed to the fear inducing environment, and started to race ahead, Morthos's natural dexterity ensuring that despite the panicked race, he still avoided the thorny vines lying in his path. Cormir was not so lucky, and when the panic subsided, he found himself no longer in area of the vines, but his feet torn and bloody instead. As Morthos helped Cormir patch up his feet, and put his boots back on, the others moving more cautiously, caught up, and once everyone was reshod, the group moved on.

The air grew colder, and it started to snow. Despite the heaviness of the flakes, the path only seemed to have a few inches of snow on it, but the trees to the side quickly became engulfed in snow, that then turned to ice, until the party effectively found themselves walking through an icy crevass. Remebering the words of the song, they made every effort to reduce their sound, working their way through what had become a maze of passages through the ice walls. At one point, the passage narrowed, requiring those passing to remove their packs and squeeze through - Cormir, perhaps due to his metal armour, found himself suffering particularly from the cold. Mogadon spoke up, suggesting that Drex get Spank, who had been riding on his shoulder in monkey form, to turn into a fire elemental, and melt the walls back a little to make the passage less narrow. In response to his voice, and perhaps the noise of his armour, a tendril of ice wrapped around Mogadon's ankle, freeze burning his leg before he could pull himself free.

Pushing on, the group finally made their way out of the icey maze, the path widening out until it exited the half-frozen trees to reveal a flower meadow, the path meandering through tall flowers of the brightest and most unnatural hews, the air heavy with the sickly sweet smell. Cormir failed to resist the call, and sniffed one of the flowers as he passed it, but it actually made him feel better rather than harm him. The others resisted the temptation to sniff any flowers, being wary of the lines in the poem that implies death also awaithed them if they did.

Eventually, the meadow ended and the path lead back into the twisted forest. This time however the vines, no longer thorny, lay thick around and across the path. Mogadon, now leading, found himself unable to move without stepping on the vines, and after a moment, found himself falling through the vines. Deciding not to struggle or fight it - i.e. be "one with the trees", he relaxed and found himself swallowed by the vines and roots, exiting after a few moments into a cave below the ground, falling the short distance from the ceiling to the floor. A few moments later, Morthos did the same, landing with more grace than the dwarf. Moving away from the same spot, not wanting to have Drex and Cormir fall on top of them, Mogadon and Morthos stepped towards the other end of the cave, which was dominated by a still pool of water, the surface mirroring the ceiling of the cave and the glowing phosporesent spots scattered all around it. With the group reunited, they discussed what they could remember of the lines of the poem, and each of them peered into the mirrored surface, seeing things that each of them feared. Mogadon saw his connection to his god severed. Morthos saw giant spiders coming for him. Drex saw his patron as Xancrown. Cormir saw his family, and then his baby sister hanging from a tree having committed suicide.

Concluding that there had to be an exit under the water line, yet unable to see below the surface, Cormir decided to strip off his heavy armour and slip into the cool water to see if he could see anything. Using his Gem of Brightness, he aims the beam of light downwards, dispelling the magical darkness that seemed to be in place under the water - and disturbing a nest of snake/eel like things at the bottom of the pool. As he scrambled out of the water, grabbing his shield and sword, the rest of the group backed away from the edge as something rose up out of the depths and multiple conger eel like heads rose up out of the water. Drex let fly with an eldritch blast, and Mogadon cast a 3rd level Guiding Bolt - causing two of the eels to collapse back - but then the creature, of which the two "defeated" eels were two of its eight heads, clambered out of the pool and charged towards them - snapping at Mogadon and Morthos and biting both. Cormir and Drex managed to avoid the attacks aimed at them.

Session ended as Round 3 is about to start.

On to Session 029

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