Session 2.5

It’s About Time We Build a Road to the East
In attendance: Aequitus, Aurelae, Indigo, Rael and Root

Day 1-5:
Immediately at the onset of their journey, the group walks into Francis-John Archibald IV d'Ordeau who is building a huge mansion and a colosseum-esque arena just outside of Hardholme’s palisades. Upon hearing of the planned adventure, he basically invites himself. Somehow he has not considered the walking involved, though. This does not deter him one bit, as he decides to tell Root he’ll ride him like a steed. Root is not particularly amused, especially as Archie now dubs him “Steed” as a nickname. No amount of money Archie offers can quell Steed’s dignity, and finally the infuriating little Goblin relents. Archie opts out of joining them for the journey at this point, blissfully unaware that he was less wanted than a nest of enraged hornets. Once the group is out of earshot, Rael whispers to Indigo “I hope you’re the one to live”.

The group makes its way along the edge between the hills and the plains, in order to avoid any further suprise Quakesnake attacks. Indigo gets caught up on all the companions know and have personally experienced concerning Quakesnakes, which quickly divulges into a recounting of how Aurelae and Ulrich both ended up inside one. Then the time came to reveal that Rael dove in after Aurelae and Ulrich, only to grab the Bag of Holding and leave them both to the Quakesnake’s stomach acid. There might have been a flash of shame or guilt across the Tiefling’s face, but it’s hard to tell with that one. Aurelae was not amused reliving that memory.

They find their way to the goldmine that is being constructed about one day’s travel to the northeast of Hardholme. Root gives Burt a stern talking to, making sure that all the workers there are treated properly and not like slaves. Burt is taken aback, assuring the intimidating Goliath that the treatment of the workers is on the level. Some ale is shared, and the party moves onward.

Root and Indigo chat it up, getting to know one another. Aequitus complains about Rael’s excessive use of perfume, making the group a prime target for any predator with a keen sense of smell. Further on in the day, Aequitus shows the group how to use excessive noise to trigger the Quakesnakes’ instincts to immediately surface. Rael is not impressed, reminding Aequitus that he figured that out ages ago.

Day 6:
The team arrives at the intersection of the hills, plains and mountain range. Aequitus requests the Bag of Holding from Aurelae for a second. He grabs a magical bean, and plants it. A full-sized oak grows out of it, tall, wide and strong, branches leaning out into the soil. This oak, however, is no regular oak. It is alive! A Tree Ent! And a pissed off one too…

Combat summary:
 * Aequitus chucks a Fireball at it for 18 damage.
 * Root runs up and strikes the tree for 7.
 * The Ent ignores them and turns to the forest behind them, raising its “arms”; two trees uproot, stand up and roar!
 * Rael casts a ring of illusionary fire around himself, Indigo and Aurelae.
 * Rael casts Mantle of Inspiration, granting 8 temporary HP to everyone surrounding him. They also gain the ability to Dash as a reaction.
 * Indigo buffs himself through appealing to his patrons, shifting his powers and causing him to be unable to lie.
 * Root pulls out a Bead of Force and throws it. Unfortunately the Tree Ent can easily soak up the force, and only 10 damage is done.
 * Aequitus blasts another Fireball, dealing 37 damage.
 * Aurelae is not sure about how effective this illusionary ring circle really is, but decides to trust in Rael.
 * The group decides to call the Ent Beyoncé, and the two trees it summoned Michelle and Kelly.
 * Beyoncé grabs a giant rock of earth and plops it right into the middle of Rael’s ring of illusionary fire like it’s a target at the arcade. 30 Damage to Rael, Indigo and Aurelae each.
 * Rael casts Hellish Rebuke as a reaction, causing 13 damage to Beyoncé. Aurelae gives him flak for making her trust in a pointless fire ring.
 * Aurelae decides to run towards Aequitus, who is making sure to stay far out of  Beyoncé’s reach. She gives Aequitus a Potion of Invulnerability, wanting to make sure that a fire sorcerer does not die in a fight against highly flammable trees.
 * Rael heals Indigo for 11 HP. He then takes out the immovable rod, using it as a trapezium to gain height, in the hope it makes him a harder target.
 * Indigo engages Beyoncé with his Book of Devouring. Unfortunately, his eyes were bigger than his mouth, and Beyoncé was not consumed
 * Aequitus fires a Twinned Scorching Ray at Michelle and Beyoncé, causing 55 damage to Beyoncé and 25 damage to Michelle. Beyoncé succumbs to the flames, and with that Michelle and Kelly turn back into trees. This feat of magical prowess unleashed a surge of Wild Magic though, instantly making Aequitus 40 lbs heavier.
 * Beyoncé leaves a lasting impression on Root by crashing down on him. The group has to dig him out. Luckily he didn’t become a casualty of the encounter.
 * Aurelae and Root check out the Tree Ent, and each take a bag of acorns. It’s a unique tree they’ve never seem before. Aequitus takes a large piece of bark. Rael inquires about Ent slave- uh gardeners… He makes an elitist joke. Aurelae starts walking, and Aequitus makes a thinly veiled threat involving some flames. They walk the rest of the day and camp outside the Canar Forest.

Day 7:
For the entire day, they march through the forest towards the pyramid residing at the base of the mountain directly below the Eastern Temple on the Mount. The whole forest is eerily quiet.

Day 8:
They come up on the edge of the area where the creep had enveloped the forest on their last journey east. The creep has receded here, quelled by the flames. The forest is little more than burnt, dead trees. There are no Canar to be found. A little further down the road, they find the pyramid. It is entirely covered in Creep. In solid, pulsating, breathing, tentacled Creep. Aurelae immediately inquires whether or not Aequitus can burn it. Rael seconds this. The group decides to wait before burning anything, however, as this might cause trouble if they decide to try and reach the Temple. Root wonders whether or not the Creep would recede if hit with radiant force. Unfortunately, this does exactly the same thing as setting it on fire does: it starts burning, and the fire spreads steadily and very slowly.

Aequitus immediately makes the prediction that fire is the only way to cleanse the world of this Creep. Not all would be so hasty to conclude this, but then again, not all are as fiery. After some dissenting voices come from the group concerning the immediacy of this solution, he instead tries to determine whether or not some magical power from inside the pyramid is animating the Creep. Nothing seems to come forward.

The fellowship puts it to a vote: deal with the pyramid, or go up to the Temple? The Temple wins out, and the ascent begins. Aurelae and Root engage in a race; Spider Slippers vs. mountaineering Goliath. Suddenly, some of the group feel their minds being prodded at. Aequitus tries to stave off this invasion with a Wild Magic surge, unfortunately resulting in him permanently losing knowledge of the Mage Hand cantrip. Rael and Aurelae do not manage to block this mental invasion, and start chanting “WE SHOULD GO BACK DOWN”.

The team spots a group of Canar standing at the base of the mountain, looking up at them. Unlike the deformed monstrosities of last time, these seem like the regularly creepy, never-sleeping, stalkerish Canars. Team Hardholme goes through the regular motions of gesturing and talking at the Canar, seeing if they’ll imitate it. They do, confirming the observation that they’re unaffected by the Creep. Their message is still disturbing, though. Indigo summons his awesome dragon familiar to go down and feel out the Canars’ emotions. The dragon senses no malicious intent, only concern. With this information, the group puts their further ascent to a vote. A unanimous yes concludes from this, and up the mountain they go.

Finally, they reach the entrance of the Temple at the top of the mountain. Or at least what used to be the entrance to the temple, or the top of the mountain. Now it’s simply a world of Creep. Unfortunately, living beings tend to need sleep. Nobody’s warming up to sleeping directly on the Creep though, remembering what happened to those messed up Canar. Most of the group settles for sleeping on cloth or bedrolls, but Rael handily puts together a hammock to sleep on, assisted by his Immovable Rod. Aurelae is distraught enough by the Creep to climb into a hammock with Rael, despite their enduring animosity.

Day 9:
Finally the morning arrives that they make their way into the Temple. Due to the incredibly dense Creep that has enveloped nearly everything, this venture is not so much a matter of walking into a building as it is experiencing what it would be like for quintuplets to be born; single-file through a tight, fleshy, breathing, narrow alleyway, expecting to come out bloody and crying. Somehow, they make their way to the Slurm pool; the fun basin of yellow liquid that gave Fitz giant ears, brought Carric’s phallus to life and shortened his legs.

This wouldn’t be a true quest, of course, if it didn’t involve once again trying to obtain the dangerous liquid without touching it. Rael, Aequitus and Root are all lucky enough to succeed in this attempt. After this pointlessly dangerous exercise, they continue worming their way through the narrow, black hallways. The group finally makes its way close to the center of the Temple, where back in the day the Creep was confined to. Root decides to sniff out signs of desecration, and turns out to be spot-on; a ritual of desecration was definitely engaged in this room at some point.

Struggling on, our brave adventurers get to the spot where once there was a stairwell leading down into the Creep. Now, it is more like a tarry slip-n-slide. Rael comes up with the brilliant idea of using the Immovable Rod as a beam to throw a rope over, so someone can descend into this nightmare with the relative safety of possibly being pulled back up alive. Of course, some debate ensues over who should go in there. Always impatient, Aequitus decides to dive in, head-first. What he finds after a slow descent of a few feet is a cavern which can only be described as clearly the inside of a living thing. He checks out the spongy ground, then makes his way back up the rope to let everyone know they’ll not die instantly if they descend with him.

Once the team has assembled into the not-yet-defined part of the not-yet-defined living entity, they quickly find their way blocked by a rapidly opening and closing sphincter. Indigo’s curiosity is sparked, and he stabs the “wall” to see if it creates a response. Nothing. Aequitus stabs the edge of the sphincter, which doesn’t do anything either. Rael opens his box of trickery and casts Wand of Web, slowing the sphincter to a halt and creating a tiny tunnel to crawl through.

A little further along the way, they find a pool of liquid. Not much experimentation is needed to determine that it resembles stomach acid, just like the horrible corrosive acid Aurelae and Ulrich encountered in the Quakesnake’s stomach. Aequitus tries to get some of it into a vial, but this particular type of acid melts the glass as well. Aurelae uses her Spider Slippers to make it to the other side, where she finds an odd fleshy blob that pulsates like a heart would, but also glows at the core. Upon her return to the other side of the acid pool, they debate how to proceed. As you might have guessed, blowing it up or setting everything on fire are vigorously debated. This debate soon convinces Root, Indigo and Aurelae that Aequitus and Rael were going to get themselves killed in an attempt to destroy this “heart”, and they quickly go back up the rope.

As Aequitus is laser-focused on the amount of fire to use in order to destroy everything but leave time to escape, Rael pulls out a surprise: he owns a pistol! That’ll make things a lot easier. It would’ve been nice to have mentioned that earlier, but what’s the point of revealing it at a less stressful and more convenient time, right?

Rael shoots the “heart” right in the center. In the greatest anti-climax in the history of Hardholme, it pops sadly and deflates like a balloon, with literally nothing else happening to the two brave idiots who are still inside whatever it is they’re in. Aforementioned idiots proceed to climb up the rope and join up with their more sensible (yet not destroying the hearts of unknown gigantic beasts) fellow adventurers.

In the discussion that follows, the group wonders whether or not there was more to explore beyond the “heart”. There were some other, very tight Creep caverns in the “walls” there, after all… Regardless, not even Aequitus or Rael are foolhardy enough to try that out. Finally, Aurelae asks the sensible question: “Can we set it on fire now?”

Aequitus decides to use a methodical approach to burning the Creep while still inside the Temple. Based on what they know, the fire spreads very slowly on the Creep, so they need to only make sure they have about 10-15 feet of distance. Based on this, the group makes its way out with Aequitus in the back burning every piece of Creep as they leave. The burning Creep gives of a scent of burnt hair.

Once outside, the group decides to call it a day and sleep atop the Creep-covered mountain. Fires on burning Creep spread so slowly that whoever is on watch will easily catch it before it endangers anyone.

Day 10:
The time has come for our fellowship to make its way down the mountain. Aequitus is at the back again, shooting fire at any Creep that is 100 or more feet above them. This works out like a charm, until they reach the pyramid…

This pyramid might even be more creepy than the cavern (that totally felt like a giant intestine) with the pulsating “heart”. Aequitus decides that it’s best to blast this pyramid too. A great plan in theory… Once the fire hits the pyramid, the ground starts to shake. An apocalyptic rumbling is heard as the top of the pyramid explodes, unleashing a tsunami of yellow goo. Aequitus sees the goo coming and invokes his Wild Magic to help him dodge it. Root and Indigo are not so lucky, unfortunately. Root finds himself having two mouths, side-by-side, where a single one used to be. For some reason, he has become very buoyant as well. A rare trait for a Goliath, indeed. Indigo gets a blast of pyramid pus as well, and starts writhing and screaming as his eyes merge together into one Cyclops eye. Also, diabetes (type 1 or type 2? Many have asked, no answers were found!)

While the Wild Magic might have saved Aequitus from a yellow goop slushie, it backfires once again. Lightning comes down from the sky striking Aequitus, Rael and Aurelae. All of them get knocked out cold. Luckily, they all survive, although it was a close one for some of them.

Out of the exploded top of the pyramid black tentacles shoot up, slithering around and making everyone uncomfortable. This would normally require further reckless spellcasting and violence, but everyone is tarnished enough as it is. Our noble adventurers decide to call it a day.

On the way back to Hardholme, Aequitus commits 10,000g to Indigo and Root for Greater Restoration to fix their afflictions after hearing their laments. The 5,000g a person only gets them one affliction restored though, and they both choose to fix the physical one. They’re now simply Indigo the Diabetic and Root the Buoyant.