Wednesday(continued)
(In relations to the map we found off a gnoll) The map leads directly to the dead forest in the north. About the same distance to the dead forest is Dragonview, in nearly the opposite direction.
The sun starts to set, and we take watches for camp. Rar takes first watch, with Shnarkle as second watch.
Thursday
We wake, and unanimously agree to leave to the north, following the map.
Lilith wants to look in the room that the gnolls came out of. She finds some bones with teeth marks with the bed covers shredded.
Shnarkle investigates the house. He finds evidence of it being very obvious that Aldritch was a farmer, with a small wine cellar of homemade wine.
Traveling North
The first x is the location marked on the map we found.
The second x located in peppercorn wood, and is Aldritch’s farm
As we are traveling, we notice faint markings that something had come here before us. We see very old and massive trees, that look somewhat strange. The further we move along, the more the fog grows. We make it about halfway between Aldritch’s farm and the dead forest.
Shnarkle finds a terrible place for a camping place, and we sleep very uncomfortably.
I take first watch, and find nothing out of place. Some creatures trying to take rest and some starting to wake. The wind is picking up(owls, deer) and some fog that comes more common as we get closer to the Dead Forest.
As Shnarkle takes second watch, he notices much more fog, as well as a bit of fog that seems more coalesced than usual, shaped in human form. He realizes it is a ghost
Shnarkle wakes us up with
Hey Guys, look there’s a ghost.
It starts to fly over the river to attack us. We battle it out, and I strike the final blow with my guiding bolt.
Friday
We travel further, and make our way to the dead forest. We have heard tales of the dead forest, but this doesn’t seem to give it justice, it is very eery and dark.
The trees look horrible. They look like they have been cursed into existence, with odd protrusions that look like dead faces sticking out
We start to see a strange mirror like images in the trees, and we hear nothing. We start to feel nothing. As we look around, everything feels off. It is a dead decaying forest. It has animals, but they seem to be cursed somehow with strange protrusions.
we begin to see odd things in the distance
We start to hear a scratching noise like a tree being thrown around, or dragged against stone. Not just one but many. We go up to a thin stone pillar of stacked stone boxes. We find that it is in the center of a stone village/city, or what used to be one. It is overgrown by disgusting ick, and the scratching is from the trees around the city. All dead wood(roofs, doors etc) seems to be missing.
There is a massive trench that goes on for miles. Looking into the ravine, there is nothing alive, but there is a hole moving off to the side. It seems like something or someone has dug it much like a mining shaft.
Lilith finds some tracks of roughly seven to eight gnolls leading directly into the cave.
We walk through the tunnel, with shnarkle leading and me at the rear
We go into a room, and discover several symbols along the walls. Directly across us, is a stone alter, with some sort of writing on it(too far away to know what it is). there are 10 identical statues of a paladin style statue. He holds a large broadsword.
To our left and right are two passageways.
Lilith reads strange runes off of the alter, that she identifies as deep speech. It says:
One who wises to enter here, press the correct hexagons and you shall enter
Albeit much more poetic in its deep speech origin, the common translation doesn’t do it justice.
I walk over to the hexagons and investigate, finding a hex for each of: Air, Water, Fire, Earth, Bone, Light, and Dragon
I vote to click the water hexagon, but Lilith wants to investigate the hallways first. The first and middle room was very well designed, looked to be carved by a master mason, but this tunnel is hacked open and is very uneven. Around the corner is a campfire, with three sleeping gnolls. Lilith proposes to silently behead them to avoid a struggle.
We don’t quite succeed, but manage to kill all of them in battle. There are two tables, a fireplace, and some barrels. On one of the tables, there is a treasure chest. It was recently made, and has 10 silver contained, which goes to Lilith.
We split the copper from each gnoll between ourselves,(shnarkle to Lilith and murbrek to rar) and end the session there