With the party back together, the heroes prepared for the
week-long trek north to the Direwoods, to uncover the true story behind the
Harpers and Baba Yaga. The road north was quiet except for a few traders and
farmers heading to the markets of Vos and Arventine. Passing first through the
salt-flats, then across the Merildor Hills, and finally along the coast road,
they arrive in sight of the dark and ominious looking Direwoods.
Suddenly, Eored had a feeling that they were being tracked. Sure
enough, a band of ranger looking types surrounded them, weapons at the ready.
Their leader emerged, a man in rough leathers with a bushy black beard and long
black hair tied back in a topnot, Flatlander-style. He introduced himself as Brynam Riv, and demanded that the party
submit to a search. Recalling her youth in Gallantria, Sarah Lachance
recognised the name Riv as one of the noble houses of her home realm. By
proving his association with Melora, Christophe convinced Brynam a search was
not needed, and Sarah pressed the man on why a Gallantrian noble was so far
from home. Brynam Riv seemed prickly, and avoided the question, simply asking
her what the lost daughter of Duke Trevec Lachance was doing travelling with
mercenaries out east.
After some discussion, Brynam revealed that him and his rangers
were hunting a cabal of infernalist devil-worshippers that has absconded into
the Direwoods. He skillfully avoided the topic of the purpose of this hunt, and
instead recruited the party to aid him. Brynam told them that the Fey of the
Direwoods had gone feral, and killed several of his men, impeding his search.
In the hope of finding either the Harpers or Baba Yaga, the heroes agreed to
search the forest. Brynam told them there was a warlock who dwelled in the
forest called Igris who might be
able to help them. As they departed, Brynam told them to be careful of an
unknown creature who stalks the forest, known only as 'The Wolf Mother of the
Woods'.
The Direwood was an eerie place, utterly devoid of any signs of
wildlife. Fearing the worst, the party search around and find some Hellish
symbols engraved on several trees, which soon turned into a trail deep into the
forest. Soon they came to a wooded canyon where a cave entrance lay beneath.
Clambering down ropes, they investigate the cave, to see it had infernal runes
etched on the entrance. Creeping inside, they came to a large chamber bedecked
with poisonous mushrooms with a battered and bloody door at the far end, and
and a passage leading further into the cave complex. In the passage they found
a moribund wilden lashed to the rocks by his own tendrils, but before they
could investigate further, wild looking eladrin emerged from the ivy covered
walls and attacked.
A furious battle took place, with some opportunistic hags joining
in. After the rabid fey were dispatched the hags fled, and the party gathered
their wits. They returned to the sleeping wilden, but as Balthazar approached
him, vile Hellish runes glowed suddenly all around them, and two chain devils
emerged out of the aether and attacked. With a cry of 'back devils!' the party
slew them, only for a smoky, possessing devil to slip out of the wilden and
take over Sarah. After a battle of wills with the devil, Sarah banished it from
her mind, and the thing was slain. Free of the possession, the wilden thanked
the party and told them of what had happened. He claimed that several
black-cloaked humans had arrived a few days prior and performed an occult
ritual on the fey-oak that lay at the heart of the cave, tearing out its heart.
With the fey-oak dead, the connection to the Feywild was broken and the fey,
now trapped in the Material Plane, were driven mad with rage. He feared for the
fate of Igris, worrying that the eladrin had killed him in their frenzy. When
asked, the wilden knew nothing of Baba Yaga or the Harpers. Gifting Eored with
a fine wilden bow, he thanked the heroes once more and slunk wounded out of the
cave.
Returning to investigate the door in the previous chamber, the
party notice it is covered in scratches and has been busted off its hinges.
Inside they found a rude living quarter with a table of alchemical ingredients
bubbling away, and the savage and broken body of Igris. Upon examination, they
find Igris to be recently dead, and vow to take him to be raised when the
adventure is over, if at least to quiz him on the nature of the witch Baba
Yaga.
Steeling themselves, they leave the body of Igris in his
chambers, and head deeper into the cave to find the desecrated fey-oak. The
party enter a large chamber with crevices in the floor, and strange fungus
growing from the walls. At the back of the chamber they see a sorry looking
oak, with a great rend in its trunk. in the center of the room is a vast
creature, a mixture of a spider and a giant tick, 8 foot tall with beautiful
irredescent chitin tipped with lethal looking barbs. It was an Arachonoptrix,
the fabled 'Wolf Mother of the Woods', a magnificantly dangerous Feywild
predator made up of two creatures: a mindless savage animal, and a psionic
parasite within, working in harmony. As the Arachonoptrix lept at the party
they fought back hard, avoiding it's acidic mandibles. Strange goblin-like
creatures called Nilbogs crawled from the crevices to join the fight, wierd fey
that heal through damage, and suffer through healing. Solving the mystery of
the Nilbogs the party soon dispatched them, and eventually killed the
Arachonoptrix. Landing the final blow, Sarah tore off a fragment of chitin to
fashion into a helmet.
While the others recovered, Eored and Christophe approached the
ruined fey-oak, and found a strange drawing pinned inside the gaping wound.
(see prior post). It was a Tartarigraph,
a cryptic request from infernalists to the Hells themselves, a plea that
accompanies a sacrifice, in this cast the fey-oak itself. Through a commune
with his god, the paladin of Melora understood that he could heal the tree, but
only at great cost to himself. Eored offered to step up, but Christophe felt it
was his holy duty to do this himself. Reaching into the wound, the Paladin's
lifeforce bled slowly into it. As it healed, to everyones horror the wound
began to hungrily close around Christophe's arm. Despite the assistance of
Eored, Christophe was too slow, and his arm just below the elbow was crushed
and torn off. Despite the horror of losing his limb, Christophe knew he had
healed the forest, and his lost arm would become one with it, feeding it.
Wasting no time, the party quickly examine the Tartarigraph. The
collection of images made no immediate sense, but they recognise three symbols:
the rune of the Black Mage of Mampang, the lily of Gallantria, and the grail of
house Lachance. The rest of the image a mystery, they return to gather up Igris'
body and head back to Brynam Riv. The going it hard, with Christophe's ability
to climb reduced by his severed limb, and the burden of carrying Igris. Suddenly
they are confronted by the beginnings of radiant portals all around them, oozing
the same substance they fled from in the journey from Khare. With some arcane
trickery, Alain Fu managed to dismiss the portals for now, and the party
pressed on. With the end of the forest approaching, they deemed their ordeal
nearly over. But in the fading light, Eored noticed torchlight in the distance,
a mass of torches all around them, approaching them slowly...
Tune in next time, for Chapter 3: "A Farewell to Arm".
