Session Date: 5/27/2023
Valentine — Aasimar human swashbuckler
Valentine wakes up and Dr. Ritalson is so surprised that he forgot about Valentine. Valentine has a slender stature and slight greenish tone to his skin, and shorter, messier hair. Valentine realizes that Doc genuinely mistook him for Opal for a second. Doc is nervous because the rest of the team might be dying and so he gives Valentine a horse and sends him back to Sevenarches.
Lemma gives us all horses and we leave to go to the Wildwood. Valentine meets us right as we are leaving Sevenarches, cresting a hill with his sword drawn to be dramatic. He looks messy and unkempt. It will be two days on horseback to get where we are going.
We are in the inner sea region in the “Europe” of this area, in the Sevenarches kingdom.
We find a place to make camp and we all bed down after eating. Killian uses summon instrument to play some music with the green light of Ria and Valen that it should be fine and nothing is close enough to hear it to attack.
Killian’s Dream:
Killian is outside a cottage in a dark, dark forest. There is light inside the cottage, and smoke coming out of the chimney, an herbal smell in the cottage. The forest is filled with thorns and there is something snarling that he cannot see. He hears a tree fall, and then another, seeming to be coming closer. He tries to get into the cottage and the door opens right up. Inside is an old woman sitting next to a fire, knitting. She doesn’t look at Killian, but she welcomes him regardless, then beckons him over. He sees herbs and bottles and a cauldron on the fire. She asks how he is doing and he responds okay, and Killian realizes he is human. He hears another tree fall, and it’s still a ways off. He asks what is going on and she calls him rude, saying that it’s Rend, who is angry most of the time. The woman offers Killian a drink and he asks her what it is, and she throws the cup on the ground. Killian asks what’s up with the dream and the old woman laughs and says that this isn’t a dream as Rend rips the door off of the building and picks Killian up, demanding blood. The woman introduces herself as Grandmother Hemlock. She says that Killian must go on an adventure, and that he is already on the right direction on the way to “this naughty druid”. She asks Killian to break his arms for her.
The next day, we are attacked by two temagyr as we continue through the forest. We dispatch of them without much issue. Ria knows that these things are definitely fey and that they are the embodiment of fear of the dark. They specifically are a fear of nocturnal hunters. Their eyes are hollow pools of magical darkness. They previously served Count Ranalc and is worshipped as a deity by some. Originally from the First World in Nighthold, they do not belong here. They are more intelligent than animals — they could be convinced to be here, and they know Sylvan.
We take some time to rest and heal up.
We head back out and find a clearing ahead, bleached of color as a shadow crosses over it. Ria steps across the threshold into the clearing, with Valen following suit and being fine. Neither of them are desaturated. Opal crosses over with Killian and Opal is fine, but Killian clearly is not okay when they cross over.
The plants around the group are wavering and Opal realizes there are tons of tiny portals opening and closing all over the place. Killian realizes how it is put together and he knows that this is fey and occult magic. It reminds Killian of Grandmother Hemlock and he wills the world back to normal for now.
The group makes it to where the real Seven Arches are, a unicorn sleeping on an alter. Three rebel druids are around it about to perform a ritual of some sort.