Well, close to it. Wild magic wreaks havoc as we face off doppelgängers, get turned into sprites, and lose a member to the Astral sea! This adventure is surprisingly long, so the rest is under the cut.
When last we left our adventures, they had been instructed to go talk to the still alive head of the headless black dragon they slayed last session. Seagrim, they were told, will have the information you seek.
So off we go, through the swamp. A cabin with treasure is cautiously discovered, while an orb-like figure floats through the forest outside. A couple investigation checks reveal it is a BEHOLDER… but it’s acting weird… and is covered in mushrooms? Stealth checks get us safely around the monster, but it doesn’t seem to have any interest or will, so the question remains if it was ever a threat.
Seagrim is found in some very old, vine-covered ruins. And he only speaks in repetitive riddles. “Give me the secret and darkest desire of you. Only then will you be allowed to pass through.” Each member tells a secret from their past:
- Yevin: I let my friend die so I could escape.
- Nahtan: I wanted to kill my dad when we last fought him.
- Wander: I could have saved people from the orcs at the fissure, but I was afraid and I ran.
- Arunak: I’m glad I don’t know who my parents are.
Now the whole party knows a little more about each other, and we’re collectively teleported to an underground cave system. The only way out is forward, over that lava river…
Arunak: I’m glad I don’t know who my parents are.vitate spell, we all make it to the other side. On to the next cave with peaks around the corner a sleeping owlbear. More stealth checks. Yevin and Arunak make it through, but Nahtan fails. Combat ensues, which is surprisingly short, mostly due to Arunak’s stun ability.a
We continue on across a pit of bones that probably would have tried to pull us in if we didn’t roll so well. On the other side is a set of 5 levers and 3 doors. Yevin casts detect magic and senses something 10 feet down next to the levers. He starts obsessively digging, intent on finding the source. Various discussions happen about what to do. Wander, unable to keep her hands to herself any longer, flips the rightmost lever. A trap immediately grabs her hand, but Nahtan assists in prying it off. Let the lever throwing commence! Between Arunak and Wander, the rest of the levers are flipped, resulting in two open doors, one burst of flame from the third trap door, and Yevin pushed back by a treasure chest rising out of the ground.
The right hand door leads to a circular maze that is quickly realized and neutralized. The left hand door opens into a sand-covered room with an empty fountain, two doors, and a massive bas-relief of a man with a spear-sized paintbrush, taking aim at a large bird. Draconic script below reads “use your head to paint me red, inside of thee is your key.”
Wander jokingly asks Nahtan to come over, as he is the most literal and would follow the instructions because it might be funny. Rather than bash his head, he cuts his thumb and smears it on the painting. Suddenly a flood of blood cascades down and out of it steps Bloody Nahtan. Roll initiative.
The bloody doppelgänger puts up a fight, but Nathan’s divine smite and Wander’s cast of Harm for 61 points, the creature’s healing can’t keep up. Arunak’s delivers the killing blow. The bloody flood subsides as the bas-relief splits apart. A quick search of the room and doors before we leave reveals a key, a chest, and art supplies.
The next room is full of growing flowers and grass. In the middle of the room on a three-stepped dais, is a ring of flattened grass. There is a golden metal door, a door with a massive keyhole, and a wooden door. Wander immediately goes up on the dais, hoping this is where she’ll find the seed of the feywild to protect her clan. A failed wisdom save and I get this text from the DM:
You’ve just turned into a magical sprite. However, you cannot speak, except in high pitched squeaks, and you cannot leave the ring, and must avoid telling the others that you cannot leave the ring. Your objective is to convince the others to join you in the middle of the ring.
Text to Wander from the DM
(Which is hilarious, because I have laryngitis. Pained squeaking begins)
Wander is gone, there’s a two inch high squeaking sprite. The party panics. Nahtan attempts to communicate with sprite-Wander and determines that the best course of action is to join her. And then there were two. Yevin and Arunak continue to explore, finding:
- Behind the gold door, a platform before a broken off pit. It smells ominously of oil.
- Behind the wood door, a room with scattered bones of what they assume is another adventuring party.
- Beyond that is hallways and doors that seem to go on forever. After discovering a treasure room with colossally giant-sized items, they close the door and turn back.
Meanwhile, bored and confused sprites discover that there is water in the flowers, and it does magic stuff. After a second drink, Nahtan bursts in a blinding flash of light. Yevin, now blinded stumbles into the ring. And then there were 3.
Alone and recovered from the blindness, Arunak debates what to do. His friends are sprites and seemingly want him to join. Yevin takes a drink and disappears with a pop. The oil smell is getting worse. Arunak frantically pulls the golden door closed, then turns to the circle. After a few minutes of debate, he reluctantly steps into the circle just as Nahtan takes another drink…
Cut to Yevin, floating in space, back in his normal form. There are broken floating cities, a mountain sized hand, and odd skyships. He’s spotted, brought aboard, and briefly interrogated by tall yellow creatures with flat noses and very pointed ears. Yevin has made contact with the Gith. “I was looking for the feywild, or in the feywild. I’m from Zandoria, on the material plane” he explains. Unsatisfied, they gag him and tie him to the mast. After a few minutes, there is another pop and Yevin is pulled back, but not before glimpsing a massive far off humanoid creature with an elongated head and a face that morphs into tentacles.
Back with the rest of the party, Arunak steps in to the circle and rolls a nat 20 save, breaking the effect. At the same time, Nahtan takes a drink and is given the ability to possess Arunak. Still a sprite, but now able to communicate, Nahtan explains what happened. Wander flies up and through the keyhole, putting her in a dark room, but suddenly back to her normal self. With a pop, Yevin, gagged and tied up, is dropped back into the material plane.
And that is where we were left, Wander turning back to the door with her party on the other side. Yevin reeling from his excursion to the Astral plane. Nahtan still a sprite, and Arunak possessed. Until next week…