Session 4: Welcome to the Jungle

'''Session 4 of the Campaign. '''[Played on 11/29/16]
 * Taman - Kyle Heisler - Human Ranger
 * Renaia - Leah - Gnome Rogue
 * Slaplen - Kyle H-S - Tiefling Warlock
 * Krusk - Eddie - Half-Orc Paladin
 * Oras - Brian - Human Monk

Scene 1
Having escaped the Broken Shield camp and evaded any initial pursuit, the party finds a secluded, defensible clearing and takes a much needed short rest.

[For successfully escaping the encampment—saving other captives and slaying a considerable number of goblinoids and their monstrous allies, all with very limited resources—the party earns 690 XP each: 300 previously awarded for the initial jailbreak and ensuing melee, plus 390 for surviving the goblinoids’ counterstroke and the harrowing flight across the trench to the jungle.]

During this time, the party learns a little bit more about those they rescued from the Broken Shield Band:

The Halfling is Jovi. She is taciturn and doesn’t offer much in the way of details about her life. Over the course of several conversations, Renaia does develop something of a rapport with her, and the Halfling explains that she was originally from the Western Vale in the Eternium and recently emigrated to the Free States—a decision she thoroughly regrets.

The three commoners (aka mooks) that survived the escape are hired hands, laborers who were part of a Prospectors Guild expedition seeking mithril in the Cloudwood (along with Dagren, Caspen and others who were captured but subsequently killed). They are nervous and weary, but also grateful to the party for everything they’ve done. They are particularly unnerved by Slaplen’s appearance but voice no prejudice. Of the three, Zor complains the most, about being exhausted and his feet hurting. Seemingly by reflex, Captain Sarosa takes charge of these newcomers, giving them directions and keeping them motivated as the party moves on through the jungle. At one point, Renaia overhears the trio discussing stories of werewolves living in the Cloudwood (as if they didn’t have enough to worry about).
 * Bailey
 * Barnham
 * Zor

Caspen Daseris – the scholar, who explains that he was a consultant on the Prospectors Guild expedition, which set out from Silver Crossing, a Guild settlement situated on one of the forks of the Misting River that is sponsored by the Telunian crown. He thinks that if the group can continue westward, without veering south and downriver (he explains that the River Folk are savage and make a point to butcher those who trespass on their lands). He converses most with Slaplen, not seeming to mind the warlock’s fiendish countenance. He explains that he is a student of the arcane, an initiate of the Learned Circle. He has not yet earned his stole or mark from the sages of Yan’s Landing, and he confesses to being a rather poor arcanist whose abilities are scholarly in nature (detect magic, identify, a handful of others).

Worried about her wayward familiar, Renaia continues dabbling with her own arcane abilities. She starts with her natural affinity for illusions, weaving small phantasms into being, and slowly determines how to add substance, working out the basics of prestidigitation.

Taman and Oras divide the responsibility of navigating the treacherous jungle, with Oras taking point and keeping the party on course. The forest’s fecund canopy hides the sky, making it difficult to determine directions. Taman spends his time trailing behind the party in an effort to mask the group’s trail and minimize signs of their passing. He detects no signs of pursuit from the Broken Shield camp. It is true that the party did appreciable damage and killed the camp’s ostensible leader, but hobgoblins are disciplined, militaristic creatures and more than capable of maintaining order and dispatching a squad to hunt down the escaped prisoners.

The party presses on as the sun rises, seemingly blessed to find a navigable trail through the wilderness. Taman finds signs of predators in the area—large cats, giant spiders—but there are no immediate threats. The group makes the best speed they can, avoiding the natural hazards of the jungle. Several hours later, exhaustion creeps back in as the sun’s rays pierce the canopy. It is midday and the adventurers stop for another short rest near a collection of small watering holes.

Oras goes looking for edible and medicinal flora in the area, and he finds a viable sprig of belladonna, which he harvests with help from the cook. The prospectors Barnham, Bailey, and Zor make themselves useful by climbing trees and collecting plantains for the group. A massive wolverine wanders into the area, taking advantage of one of the watering holes and seemingly unaware (or unconcerned) of the party’s presence. Taking advantage of the cover of foliage, Taman and Slaplen position themselves to bring down the animal, motivated by thoughts of roasting meat over a campfire. They take their shots, releasing arrow and eldritch power, respectively, but neither projectile strikes the wolverine. In fact, even as they might have made contact, something explodes from the water, swift and powerful, and in one terrible flurry of motion, it pulls in the wolverine. Completely submersed, the creature is not seen again, nor heard after the one panicked howl it managed before going under. The party rethinks taking advantage of the local water.

The party marches until dusk, managing a few more miles relatively unhindered. As the sun goes down, the forest grows thick with shadow, and before the party can entertain thoughts of making camp, it becomes apparent they are not alone. Drawn perhaps by the group’s miscellany of wounds or the weakness of their fatigue, two displacer beasts emerge from the brush, one on either side of the group. Taman is dropped, briefly losing consciousness in the exchange, but Nyran manages to rouse him even as the adventurers succeed in deterring the predators, who retreat into the jungle to lick their wounds and seek out easier prey.

Scene 2
Finding a suitable spot for camp, the group commits to a much-needed long rest. Keeping vigilant watches, they manage to endure the night unmolested [party celebrates]. Having treated their wounds and refreshed their reservoirs of magical strength, the party starts the next day in much better shape. They cannot help but reflect, though: the storm that sank the Soggy Soufflé was only three days ago, and the events in Port Prosper not even two weeks… it seems a lifetime to the beleaguered adventurers.

Kindo finally returns, though he is waylaid by a jungle cat as he draws close to the party. As protective as a mother raccoon, Renaia draws her shortbow and looses a string of arrows to scare the beast off. Reunited with her furred companion, Renaia feels whole again. In light of the recent perils they’ve suffered, Renaia has developed a deeper understanding of her connection to Kindo. Though she has long suspected, she is now certain that he is no mere animal, but a fey spirit in the form of a wild creature, and that they have a bond much akin to that of master and familiar, though it formed without the typical ritual.

Speaking of ritual… Slaplen searches the area for herbs that he might be able to substitute for incense in the summoning of his own bonded spirit. He finds some potentially usable herbs and asks Caspen what he thinks. The scholar says he thinks that the herbs might work, but that improvising rituals is not without risk—he himself would not try it. Slaplen dismisses the apprentice mage’s warning and proceeds to set up the spell, beseeching Zazobal to commit to his service a fiendish spirit—the Tiefling shapes the ritual in such a way that he intends for the fiend to take the form of an owl.

At the end of an hour of burning and chanting, there is a swelling of eldritch power, and an owl does indeed appear, though it is not exactly what the warlock had in mind. The familiar’s body is partially decomposed, feathers missing, soft tissue and even bones in some spots exposed. And though it does regard Slaplen with a semblance of understanding—awe and respect, even—it can barely fly, able to ascend to a tree branch only after being pitched aloft by Slaplen. He is nonetheless pleased and names the familiar Horrace. Witnessing the exchange, Oras objects to the creature’s presence—its very existence—calling it a mockery and an abomination, utterly against the natural order established by Feliel and Nuata. Slaplen makes an impassioned argument in defense of Horrace and his right to exist, and the matter is dropped for now.

After another half-day of travel, the party finally encounters civilization. They are greeted by a squad of green-cloaked soldiers who seem quite at home in the Cloudwood. They explain that they are members of the 8th Squad of the Greenback Company—part of the Telunian Army, specifically the group that’s stationed at Silver Crossing and responsible for patrolling the wilderness. The soldiers’ leader identifies himself as Sergeant Dennett Dempsey, and though he is a little wary of the group at first, he recognizes Caspen and quickly softens to congeniality, offering the fellowship the hospitality of Silver Crossing.

[Each party member awarded 500 XP for surviving the veritable gauntlet of tribulations that began with a freak sea storm and persisted through capture and desperate escape into the jungle, divested of resources and denied rest for days… and now finally finding a degree of respite and some semblance of civilization.]

Silver Crossing
A military and mining fort at least as large as the Broken Shield’s forward camp, Silver Crossing is maintained by the Prospectors Guild but guarded by the Telunian Army, who receive proper compensation in iron and silver for their services. True to his word, Sergeant Dempsey and his fellow Greenbacks are welcoming and hospitable to the adventurers and their charges—charges no longer as the prospectors are welcomed by the Guild and given work.

The fort has no formal shrine to the Troika or priest, but the Greenbacks do count a druid of the Old Faith amongst their number, a half-elf named Lymia. Slaplen, Renaia, and Oras visit her in turn.

The druid is sympathetic to the party and their individual needs and uncommonly generous in offering them aid:

For Slaplen (with some encouragement from Renaia), she ministers to Horrace, calling upon the ancient spirits of the wild to restore the afflicted creature’s health, to knit flesh and feather and make strong its wings. The ritual is not unsuccessful; Horrace does appear much more hale when Slaplen returns—still disheveled, even mangy, but not unnatural. And what’s more, the owl can fly, if a bit more awkwardly than most of its kind. Even so, Slaplen is pleased and grateful, and the familiar seems so as well.

After leaving the owl in Lymia’s care, the warlock also inquires as to whether or not she might have anything or know of any natural reagent that could serve as a focus for his spellcasting. She offers him a recently harvested feybranch root—generally a druidic focus but sensitive enough to the Surreal that it may just work. The Tiefling successfully attunes the mystical root to his own sinister power, though the bond is not perfect; the wand may react unpredictably with some castings.

Hoping to replace his spear, Oras asks Lymia if she knows of or has any wood that would make for a superior stave. In the course of her regular foraging and tending of the wilds around Silver Crossing, she returns with a length of ironwood and gives it to the monk. Oras spends some time with the staff; attempting to carve it, he blunts and ruins a knife, though he does find that the preternaturally strong wood reacts to his channeled ki.

While Dempsey, Lymia and rest of the Greenbacks are welcoming and generous, the Guild members are a little more mercenary in their dealings with the adventurers. Renaia entreats the local guild smith (a thick, heavy-browed man called Bullfinch) to fashion for her a new set of thieves’ tools (as circumspectly as she can be), only to find herself haggling over every hammer blow and tong pull… She is overcharged, though she directs Kindo to filch a dagger and a hooded lantern to balance the exchange. Upon pickup of her tools—having discovered that the brusque smith shorted her by about one-hundred ball bearings—she engaged Slaplen for backup, banking on the Tiefling’s fiendish countenance to encourage the smith to be more evenhanded in his dealings. It works, but the man is hardly reticent about his aggravation, giving the gnome back some of her coin with the rider that she never set foot in his forge again.

Fortunately, most of the party’s dealings are not handled by the smith but by the Guild quartermaster, Tamra Leone. She is shrewder and less obstinate than the smith, willing to negotiate without the loathsome demonstration of avarice.

Taman trades in his shortbow and alchemist fire for a longbow and rapier. Krusk procures for himself a proper shield.

Slaplen and Renaia practice spellcraft together, and Renaia proves a natural, mastering several cantrips. She begins working on more advanced enchantments and illusions. Further, they decide to elicit the assistance of Caspen to identify Renaia’s die and gem. Conveniently, the warlock and rogue possess the respective reagents needed for the scholar to cast his spell and discern the items’ properties. He explains that the die is a device that has been ensorcelled to gather energy from the Surreal, releasing it when rolled in the form of a wild magic surge. A strange and fascinating item; he is able to confidently ascertain the effects produced by five of the cube’s faces and speculates that the sixth is some kind of illusion—or else its nature is masked in illusion and potentially disastrous… Caspen attempts to divine the nature of Renaia’s gem, but it is somehow more inscrutable than the die. His analysis reveals that the strangely glowing stone has a patent and powerful connection to the Surreal, but what that means, he is hard-pressed to say. The gem’s aura fluctuates almost constantly, he explains, much like the Surreal before it is harnessed and shaped by a caster’s will. Only, as an unworked fragment of solid matter, that simply does not make sense. Things on the Material Plane do not naturally mimic the Surreal. For what it’s worth, Caspen suggests that both items are enigmatic and likely very dangerous; he recommends that Renaia turn them both over to the Circle for proper study and safekeeping. Balking at that suggestion, the Gnome and Tiefling nonetheless thank the scholar for his time and insight.

Scene 4
After two days of rest, recovery, and resupply, the party joins Sergeant Dempsey’s squad on the trail to Yan’s Landing. The Greenback officer explains that his squad is being recalled by the Crown for new orders in response to a troubling incident that recently took place in the capital.

Dempsey doesn’t have all the details, but he shares with the party what a messenger conveyed to him: sometime last week, a dark elf appeared by way of magic before the assembled nobility of Telunel, including young Queen Javelline and her regent, Horus Moen. The dark elf evidently denounced the monarch as an imposter, declaring himself a representative of the true heir to the throne. He went on to demand the Queen’s peaceful abdication, warning the nobles to consider their loyalties before the rightful ruler comes to claim his birthright. And as the royal guard moved to arrest the dark doomsayer, the elf vanished—spirited away as precipitously as he had appeared.

After relating the account, the squad sergeant is reluctant to engage in speculation. By no means indifferent to the dark elf’s threat, Dempsey explains that he and his fellows are simply loath to leave the Cloudwood; the Greenbacks belong amongst the fecund perils of the forest, he says; they are wasted in the capital. Regardless, the 8th Squad must first stop at Yan’s Landing, a port city just two days’ travel from Silver Crossing.

The journey from Silver Crossing to Yan’s Landing takes just over two days, the final hours of which are exponentially easier than the first, as the group emerges from the Cloudwood onto a proper thoroughfare that leads directly to the city’s southern gate.

Though Dagren and the miners (Zor, Bailey, Barnham) chose to remain at Silver Crossing, the party arrives at Yan’s Landing in the company of about twenty Greenback soldiers, the scholar Caspen Daseris, as well as fellow shipwreck survivors Samke Sarosa, Falby Tenor, and Nyran Darvos.

The halfling Jovi is gone; she may have followed the party from the fort to the city, but if she did, she was surreptitious about it, keeping out of sight and in the shadows.

After bidding farewell to the 8th Squad soldiers, the sailors, and the priest of Mortalis, the adventurers are left to decide their next steps.

With divergent intentions, the party decides to disperse to their respective pursuits in the city, though for the most part they are aware of one another’s immediate goals and agree to meet at an inn called the Boar’s Yawn after a few days, so as not to lose track of each other completely.