A Fey’s Journal, 4th entry

After the extreme crunchiness of the last few days, here is some lighter fare. It’s time for another edition of Lillie’s Journal written by Yan! As promised, I’ll follow up tomorrow with my DM Chronicles of the same game but from the DM’s view (with a little extras that covers the things Lillie wasn’t party to in last Friday’s game).

Prior posts of this series can be found here. Enjoy!

As I’m writing this, we are in some kind of funeral mound, sitting on what definitively looks like a sarcophagus. Some nasty plant-like humanoid thing is inside and is violently trying to get out and get to us. (Shivers).

Aravar and “Nogard” (for lack of a better name) are still cursing about having been pacified by the last one we have just slain. Cruguer and Cixi both have a grim look on their faces. Everybody seems nervous and tired; thank Ehlonna we’re sitting tight on the last one.

You might ask yourselves “What HAS happened since her last journal entry?”

After the events in the Warrens, we returned to the Keeper of the Veil leaders to report what had transpired from our investigations. Apparently, things had evolved quite badly around the city and the Keepers where showing signs of panic and seemed in dire need of help.

They had seen as much as seven of the plant-like thingies go into the Necropolis and the last ones seemed to be more focused and more bent on fighting against the Keeper’s Knights, causing heavy casualties. Cixi, political fox that she is, offered to bring in reinforcement from the fighters and mercenaries she had under her command in the Order of the Iron Fist, which was gratefully accepted.

Cruguer then offered to join the Keeper’s ranks and, in our group’s name, offered to go into the Necropolis and investigate the Humanoid’s destination and the source of that Green Stuff that had transformed all these Warren citizens.

Any refined Ptolusite like me knows that nobody in their right minds would dare to enter, or remain in, the Necropolis after Sunset. So we split out for the night and convened to meet the next day before dawn.

On our way back to Iridithil’s House, Aravar asked me for one of the spriggan’s finger. Well, actually, he insisted pretty heavily. I was finally inclined to lend one to him when he promised that he would give it back. I’m telling you, that elf is as impatient as a Human, if not worse! Someone should remind him that like us Pixies, elves don’t actually age. That guy should try to relax.

But still, why did he need the finger so badly? There is something fishy going on around here. Next time, I’ll have a closer look at all these eleven shenanigans. But I was just too tired to be bothered with more secrets and stuff. I’ll have plenty of time to poke into it at a more convenient time…Tee Hee!

As promised, our Stalwart elf brought the finger back on the morning. We went to meet the others at the Ghostly Ministrel, where both Cruguer and Nogard stay. As we came in, I saw Cruguer talking with a big, ugly, dragonny two-legged thing. It claimed to be Nogard, which I seriously doubted at the time. I mean, How can this have happened overnight? It sure beats me!

Supposedly, he transformed during the night. Just like that? I know of no magic short of a Wish that can do this. Are Dragon Shamans supposed to molt into half-dragon barbarians? Arrgh! Will I ever understand humanoids?

Not only did I not particularly like Nogard’s fire breathing tendencies, now he’s some super-scary destructive Brawny monster. That being said, after a few exchanges with “it”, it really seemed to be Nogard (or something that ate him) and he seemed happy of his condition. Whatever suits him. Why someone would want to be that ugly is utterly beyond me.

After gathering everyone, we went to the Necropolis at dawn as planned. The first thing we did was seek out Andach the the Druid, whose groves reside on an island in the middle of the Necropolis (ChattyDM: Ptolus is the coolest setting I have ever played in, period). You know, just in case our explorations took us passed sundown and we needed a safe place to crash.

We also wanted to have first-hand knowledge on what was going within the Graveyard’s boundaries. On our way we managed to see quite a few of the plant-like beasties crushed to bits. Apprenetly this was the work of the very same druid we were seeking.

Really quite a charming chap, he not only gave us the information we needed by pointing us to some decrepit funeral mound, but he also confirmed having killed four of these green things and that he could sense three more of these ‘aberrations of nature’ (his words, not mine) inside the mound. Yippee, finally an underground setting other than a sewer!

He did mention something about some of House Vlaadam’s Lackey’s being in the vicinity (Chatty DM: I had Andach say “Be careful, that Vladdam girl has once again left her broken toys lying all over the place”). However, the only thing we found was some poor deformed Wolf-like monstrosities that attacked us just before arriving at the ancient mound. Well I don’t know if this was their initial form or if the plant-like things were responsible for this, but it did not bode well for what was awaiting us.

Once dispatched, we noticed that these abominations where wearing the Vladdam colors and we found an interesting letter stating the urgency of finding the “Source” before we did. The letter even went as far as calling all of us “Khatru’s minions” Umph! I need to have a talk with Cixi!

Once inside the funeral mound, we met our first plant-man! It had the calming gaze we were told about and a nasty poison that would rip your personality apart. Thank Ehlonna we had a wand of Restoration.

(Player’s note: This is the worst ability damage effect I have ever seen. I mean a grand total of 3d6 Charisma damage? Memo for whoever designed these creatures, please use d4s next time you do a stat damaging effect! I still wonder how we managed to get through this with every one still conscious…)

As we reached another room, our ever greedy Nogard opened up a closed coffin that had some green stuff oozing from it’s sides. I don’t know what he was expecting but another one of these vegetable-beings came out and attacked us. This one was a real pain, but we manage to kill it. However,during the fight another coffin started to move. Having had more than our share of critters for the day, Nogard sat on it to prevent it from opening. Well, at least this new stronger form of his seems quite handy!

This is where we are… Let’s hope that these creatures are the worst things we’ll find in this place, but I have my doubt…