Alkali's D&D Experience

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===== Session 3: 2024-05-13 =====

  - The morning finds the party drowsily stirring, many hungover from the festivities of the previous night.
  - The gnolls of [[Clan Blighteye]] are long gone, but have left a stack of rations for the party.
  - Our mysterious patient still lies unconscious, but seems to be doing a little better as a few tend to him.
  - The party tries to gain their bearings, but the strong winds of the [[The Kessel Hills|Kessel Hills]] dilute any scent, dulling the usually sharp olfactory senses of the animalkin members of the party.
  - Turning to the nearby animal population, they learn from the beasts of the land that they have been overhunted. Not by the gnolls: the gnolls are understand and work with the land, something else is here.
  - The birds tell different: they tell of a feast to the west, carrion piled high around a humanoid dwelling.
  - Chat decides to go northeast, following the guidance of [[chat_party_members#taki_asherdragoone|Taki]] the necromancer's dropped shovel.
  - A body of fresh water is sensed to be ahead, neither flowing nor stagnant. The [[The Kessel Hills|Kessel Hills]] are a fairly dry area, waters do run through the valleys but don't form bodies of water, any standing water would quickly stagnate.
  - Traveling for another half hour, our adventurers come upon roughly four acres of crystal clear blue water, with a sandy bottom.
  - Plants foreign to the area surround the pond, with many of them the sort you might see planted at the entrance to a city's water supply to help filter it.
  - There are no signs of anything else in the area save for wildlife.
  - [[chat_party_members#wysteria_suedeer|Wysteria]] casts Purify Water on the pond, a green-tinted hand immediately appearing on her shoulder. The voice of a previously unseen figure speaks behind her, "That was very kind of you"
  - The [[Haldi|figure]] was hidden by no trick of magic but rather one of the land. They are a 5 foot tall humanoid, with twigs and vines tied into their glowing green hair like a hair net, keeping the shimmering green in place, wrapped only in the largest leaves of trees not native to this area. A dryad.
  - Introducing themself as [[Haldi]], they tell the party they may drink freely of the pure water of the oasis, and that they are free to stay the night on the outskirts.
  - Several help the mysterious patient drink. The strange, mad mutterings that had crept into their mutterings calms down, now sounding more like someone in a dream rather than a nightmare. They appear more comfortable, but not much else has changed.
  - [[Haldi]] tells the party that they and the other druids have been trying their best to save the land from the spreading corruption. The [[Kessel Gnolls]] have always been one with the land, but not too many moons ago a blight has moved in, one that also plagued the [[The Lenten Woods|Blood Forest]].
  - Many of the dryad's kind have returned to the blood forest, as someone has found a way to use the [[blood vines]] to negate the blight.
  - New creatures have moved into the [[The Kessel Hills|Kessel Hills]], taking more than they need. They take gems that have been buried, long forgotten underground, nurtured by the planet itself since time began. They also take energy from it, emerging with [[Glowing Green Urn|urns]] glowing a ghastly green color.
  - The Lord of Worms has tried to attack their grove, but has failed previously.
  - They also tell of the cabin to the west, where many go to die.
  - Despite all this, the influence and size of their grove still grow day by day. The gnolls help by sowing soil and planting seed, and working with the land rather than against it. It makes those that spread the blight weaker.
  - Many have not come back from the cabin to the west. [[Haldi]] tells the party that our patient comes from there. 
  - "She" does experiments there. A seemingly normal woman of elvish descent.
  - [[Haldi]] fears that the gnolls may have been taken to mines to the east, where many of the captured are taken to slave away underground. While most slavers rule through fear or power, these creatures do it differently somehow: their slaves seem to have been brought into their fold, each one of them working willingly, determinedly. The amounts emerging from the mines are far too much for forced labor, could only be done by those with a purpose.
  - They assert that the gnolls could also have been taken to the cabin.
  - In describing it, they tell of what their god spoke of it: usually, they speak to [[Haldi]] in riddles to be deciphered, but this time they were told plainly: "I will not approach that cabin."
  - Finally, [[Haldi]] wishes the party farewell, disappearing into the pond without a drop.
  - The party, settling in, begins to scavenge for food, an aura of safety in the air. The meal is filling and needed, all sharing in the camaraderie to deal with the events that have happened.
  - The party shares a dream, described below, but one where they find themselves witnessing the [[Lord of Worms]], and the urn that ties them all together.
  - Awakening to the morning breeze, the party gathers themselves and strike out east, towards the slaver mines.

==== Lore Dumps and Extra Info ====
[[Haldi's Oasis]] is a hill, inverted in on itself. [[Haldi]], born under the waning moon to the tribe of water, needed someplace to reside. This hill seemed right, and it is simply upside down now.

[[Haldi]] blessed [[chat_party_members#taki_asherdragoone|Taki]]'s shovel, thrusting it deep into the ground as the earth was butter, pulling it back up just before the handle sunk in. Only once may they thrust it into reality and open a gate to [[Haldi's Oasis]]. The door will not stay open for long.

[[Haldi]] also blessed [[chat_party_members#wysteria_suedeer|Wysteria]]. For a moment, she was one with the land around her, sensing nature the same way the dryad does: as part of it. The dryad appears to the party in their physical manifestation, but they are much more: they are the land, and the land is the dryad. She focuses [[chat_party_members#wysteria_suedeer|Wysteria]]'s attention underground, where the roots criss-cross through the soil. She is granted a targeted entangle spell.

[[chat_party_members#quack_qqh_designs|Quack]] performs a stunning acrobatics show for the party, granting advantage to the next dexterity saving throw each of them makes.

The party's dream is of a green glowing aura that touches all, all being connected by it. This is the key, that which is bringing them all together, what kept them inside of the ethereal realm, their connection. The source  is unknown, its function totally alien, but soon they see something else. In the distance, the adventurers can see an urn sitting on a shelf, each knowing that it is the one connected to each of them, one connected to an entire mass of people. It is not one that is charging, but rather one that is now fading. This urn was collecting energy for a different purpose, now lying vacant, dormant, and useless, but still existing. It is what is causing the party to feel what the senses they shouldn't be able to sense. A new view appears in this dream realm, the cabin, so many green tentacles leading to it cabin, so many trapped there, like they were. They are still there. Above the urn, a humanoid form hovers, wrapped in bandage, a hood over head slowly dragged back as it begins to cast its nightly spells, defensive, warding, scrying spells: the [[Lord Of Worms]], not seeing them in the slightest, the party granted a window into his world: not enough to know what he’s doing, but can sense that this creature is the origin of the [[Glowing Green Urn|urns]], one who has plans for them. He likely had a hand in their design.

Upon further insight from the party's resident necromancer, [[chat_party_members#taki_asherdragoone|Taki]], the party gleans further information: the [[Glowing Green Urn|urns]] are definitely necromantic in origin. There is also inconsistency in their design. The design, the idea, whatever created these things, was not started by the Lord of Worms. They have obviously taken someone else’s magic, their idea, and modified it. Glimpsing the weave around the urn, they see what looks like a child’s drawing forced to work this way. It is clear that this is not the urns’ original purpose, their purpose tainted by the [[Lord of Worms]].