Session 2

Into The Blinds

The party picks up from last session and makes their way into the blinds, walking past a four eyed goat. As the group continues the state of the houses visible diminishes, this is clearly the poor neighborhood and Cassian warns the party of pickpockets. Felix is holding a bit back, still weary of his new companions, Paeris looking around at the nature.

The road narrows, from one wide enough to fit two carts side by side, to a narrow alley, barely large enough for a single cart. The buildings leaning over the streets, casting the street a gentle shade, lines of laundry swaying above the street in the wind. This place smells like smoke, fish sweat and shit. There are children running around yelling and playing.

There is a boy crying on the stoop of his house, a jade lizard on his shoulder, sleeping. The party looks at the boy as they walk past, not thinking much of it. As the party continues they walk past a house covered in vines, upon brushing the vines all the leaves tuck away, revealing more detail on the building. Sarick notices that it used to be a shop, a flyer nailed to the door;

Funeral with the Faith of the Luminary

The fading ink and torn paper, revealing that it has been there for years. The party continues on their way, looking back they see the vine letting out it leaves again, slowly embracing the building again, obscuring it from view once again.

The party reaches the center of the blinds, the road opening up into a small square. In front of them is a somewhat larger building, Cassian informs the others that this is the building they are looking for, the bottom half is a fish monger and the top half is apartments. There is a small staircase on the side of the building that leads upwards into a narrow long hallway, doors on either side.

Cassian walks up to the third door on the left and knocks. A half-elven woman opens the door, her hair tied back and her hands worn. In the corn er of the room is a fish stew boiling. She acts a bit surprised at the visitors in front of her, especially when they start mentioning her sun, but she lets up and is relieved at the mention of Borric. She invites the party into the apartment, offering them some stew. Everyone politely refuses, except for Plaman, who eagerly accepts the stew and eats is, despite it containing more vegetables than actual fish.

Before long the conversation turns to the child and how he went missing. Lisa informs the party that Thomas was last seen in the salt marshes, where he went fishing. She continues by telling that he knew the channels through the marshes, his dad had thought him while working as a guide through the marshes. Thomas would join his father whenever he could, but the father had been gone for 5 years now. Thomas has been a lot more quiet since his father left. Lisa says she tried her best to keep Thomas home, especially since multiple kids started disappearing.

Plaman asks if he can take anything for the boy, finally taking a small wooden horse. Cassian leans in close, asking in a whispered tone, if it is syndicate work. After some hesitation Lisa denies this, implying silently that it is more sinister in nature. Paeris notices a tin vase with wilted flowers on the cabinet, some crumpled papers beneath it. Upon closer inspection he sees that they are loan papers, signed by “R.V.”

Felix speaks up, asking if Lisa has more information on where the boy was last seen; she says it was the second channel at the third bend. Cassian asks if Lisa has a map, she remembers and pulls out a map the father had made. She says the party can make a copy. As the party heads out of the apartment, Plaman hits his head on the beam above the door, slightly bruising his forehead. Lisa muttering “I hope he is the lucky one”.

The salt marshes

The party makes their way to the low wall separating the marshes from the city. The ground around the wall dried and cracked, littered with track marks, evidence of the guards patrolling along the wall. The question remains patrolling to keep the people in or to keep something out…

Our adventures step through the gate and into the salt marshes. A white land that seemingly goes on forever, interspersed with little tufts of though grass and the occasional weathered bush or small tree. Streams running every which way through the land. A strong wind blowing across the dunes, picking up sand and salt. The air smells like wet stone. A flock of birds flies overhead as a bell from the city rings out across the marshes, for a brief moment there is a hint of incense in the air.

Felix looks around, uneasy, his gaze lingering just a moment longer on the city behind them. Cassian looks down at the map he copied earlier and plots out a route for the party, using his navigator’s tools while muttering to himself. After a moment he looks up and points in a seemingly random direction and says “this way!”. The rest of the party follow his finger, looking over the marshes and back at him dumbfounded. Cassian gets up from the shield and starts walking into the marshes, leading the way.

The party follows one of the streams, Felix jumping around from bank to bank, as to avoid having to walk in the channels or the mud. Yet in this foreign land he sometimes misjudges a jump or a bank and he lands in the mud anyway, soon being covered completely in mud. Seeing Felix jump around, Sarick wants to show off and goes for a jump as well. However he fails spectacularly, landing face down in the mud. Sarick struggles to get up, but finally manages to do so. Plaman pats him on the back while laughing. Plaman underestimating his own strength, Sarick stumbles forward, chunks of mud falling of from the impact.

The makeshift shelter

The party comes to a split in the stream, taking a moment to catch their breath. Plaman takes some water to clean his shield and looks around for stones. Most of the stones are smooth, worn down my decades of water washing over them. One of the rocks is broken, revealing a small fossil inside. Plaman picks up this stone and puts it in his backpack. Paeris looks around, studying the plants around them. He sees a bit of driftwood, clearly the same plant as the vines covering the shop earlier. The driftwood is covered in some glowing lichen, thriving in areas that have caves below them. Cassian looks over at Sarick, covered in mud, and asks if he can cast a spell to help clean him. Before Sarick can answer or react, Cassian casts the spells. Cassian turns around and walks a bit further away, before it suddenly starts smelling like skunk…

Cassian tells the party that it is another thirty minutes to the bend where the kid was last seen and we should start keeping an eye out for any clues or hints. Plaman yells out for the kid, his voice echoing over the dunes, finally fading away. Finally arriving at the location, there is a natural shelter, clearly built from improvised materials. Plaman yells again for the kid, but doesn’t get a response this time as well. As Plaman yells, Paeris spots something darting away from the corner of his eye. A creature with six legs and an exoskeleton, brown, about the size of a small cat, with 10 golden eyes.

Sarick tries to convince Plaman to look inside the shelter, see if the kid is in there. Being unable to convince him, he turns to Cassian asking him. Cassian enters the makeshift shelter to look inside, when all of a sudden a scream comes from inside. Plaman quickly looks inside to see what is going on, when Cassian yells “boo”.

Felix and Paeris look around outside the shelter to see of they are able to find any other clues or signs as to where they boy went. Felix spots some tracks as Paeris is able to determine that these tracks are made by a similar creature that he saw dart away when they first came to the shelter. From the tracks they are able to determine there must have been between six and eight creatures. The tracks lead north, and the tracks are suspiciously slimy.

After Plaman has been able to return to his senses, Sarick informs the party that he sees a large white tree in the distance, peeking the interest of Paeris. Felix tells the party about the tracks he and Paeris found, heading the direction of the large white tree.

As the party sets out for the tree, Sarick tries to convince the party that he has learned from his earlier mistakes and that he is able to navigate the terrain now. Sarick walks up to the stream, prepares himself and leaps across to the other bank. But alas, he east dirt again… Plaman picks him up and shakes him, throwing mud everywhere.

The white mangrove

The party follows the tracks towards the tree. About thirty feet from the tree, the tracks scatter away, but the footsteps continue straight to the tree. Felix runs up to the tree and starts climbing straight to the top. Felix walks up to the tree, putting his hand on the roots, feeling the tree’s essence. The tree is old and ancient, it was here long before the colony was established, it was even here before the salt marshes formed. The tree has a definite aura coming from it, not quite a spirit but definitely something magical.

Plaman decides to climb the tree as well, finding a piece of fruit about halfway up, eating it. Felix, having reached the top, decides in a move reminiscent of Icarus, to leap from the tree’s canopy. His hand stretched out towards the sky, he does a forward flip and some acrobatic moves. But the spot he leaped from was too high, around forty feet, and he lands with a loud wet slap in the mud, his feet buckling under him, collapsing his lungs and knocking him unconscious. Plaman lays a hand on him, waking up again.

There are noises coming from underneath the tree, from in between the roots. Cassian looks under the roots and finds the boy, yelling to the rest of the party. The boy stands there completely frozen, wearing his father’s cloak, Cassian goes to stand with him. He is holding on to something, a jagged tooth, clean pearly white and oiled, giving it a pearlescent shine. There is an energy coming from this tooth, emanating warmth, shielding the kid from hypothermia.

Cassian puts the child on Plaman’s shield, to take him home. Plaman gives him a blanket. As the party starts moving a pulse shoots out from the tooth, the water goes still as all the sounds go quiet. After a few moments a rhythmic clicking sounds can be heard from all around the party. To the right, the water breaks, amber eyes looking up at the party. Five more creatures appear from all around the party. Finally a significantly larger creatures climbs a hill behind us. The clicking we hear is the breathing of these creatures, but it seems these creatures also use the clicking for communication.

Creepy-crawly combat

The creatures walk up to the party, one of them biting at Paeris’ leg, but he is able to pull his leg away in time, another creature attacks Plaman. Cassian shoots out another ice knife. Hitting the creature he was aiming at, shards of ice shooting out, hitting multiple creatures as well as Plaman. After that he turns to Thomas and tries to take the tooth from him, but the child is able to hold on to the tooth.

Sarick attacks with his sword, hitting a critical success, managing to hit a soft spot between the plates of the exoskeleton, barely leaving the creature standing. Following it up with a second strike from his short sword he kills the creature and throws the corpse in the direction of Plaman, who manages to stop the corpse by bouncing it off his shield. Plaman is left wondering if the creatures can fly.

Felix takes his spear and stabs at the creature in front of him, but the creature manages to jump out of the way as the spear strikes the mud. In frustration, Felix strikes the creature with his bare fist.

Paeris still has his hand on the roots of the tree and in a reaction to the creature biting at his leg he turns around and uses thunderwave, attempting to push the creatures away, but he fails to do so. He does deal some damage to the creatures as well as crack some of the roots.

Plaman takes out his longsword, striking one of the creatures and killing it in one fell swoop. Piercing the creature with his sword he throws the corpse at another creature making it stumble.

The larger creature cries out, a deep guttural sound, rumbling out like a deep bass. The remaining creatures rallying and healing themselves. The larger creature dashes forward, unbothered by the mud, attacking Sarick, biting a large chunk of flesh from his side, leaving him downed. One creature bites at Paeris’ leg as another bites at Thomas and the tooth. A third creature attacks Plaman, leaving him unconscious as well.

Cassian manages to finally pry the tooth from Thomas’ hands, his hands blistering from the heat radiating from the tooth. The throws it at the larger creature, who immediately jumps to the tooth, trying to dig it out of the mud.

Felix throws a dagger at one of the smaller creatures, behind him, hitting the creature between the eyes. He, once again, punches the creature in front of him with his bare fist, breaking the exoskeleton around its leg. Paeris raises his staff and hits one of the creatures with it, cracking the exoskeleton open, like a boiled egg. At this moment Plaman regains consciousness and stands his ground.

As the larger creature is still distracted by the tooth and trying to dig it out of the mud, Thomas dashes towards it, trying to take it back. In doing so one of the creatures manages to bite Thomas in the leg.

The creature closest to Felix, bites him viciously, causing him to pass out immediately. Plaman blocks another attack wit his shield. Cassian stabs at a creature, but misses completely, in his confusion he stabs Felix instead. Paeris hits the second creature that was near him, again with his staff, splitting the exoskeleton open like a boiled egg.

Plaman turns around surprised at the state of the party, moving around to heal Thomas. The large creature continues biting the mud in an attempt to get the tooth. Despite being a small child, Thomas manages to push the creature away and grab hold of the tooth again. This causes the creature to start running away.

The last remaining small creature is biting at Plaman’s leg, but got stuck in the chainmail, Cassian throws a firebolt at the creature, roasting it into a perfect plate of crab meat!

The alpha creature stops and turns around, in a reaction Paeris throws an ice knife at it, missing, but the shards still hit the creature. Plaman moves up to the larger creature, swinging his great sword at it and dealing a lot of damage to it. In a reaction the alpha dashes at Plaman, who manages to put his shield down and brace against the charging creature, holding of the attack. Cassian throws another fire bolt at the alpha, but misses spectacularly, burning the plate of crab meat instead and ruining dinner…

Paeris walks up to the creature and tries hitting it again with his staff, but the creatures moves out of the way. Plaman again raises his longsword and swings down at the alpha, cleaving the creature clean in half. Finally ending the fight.

Cassian walks over to Felix, who is still unconscious and stabilizes him, as Sarick unfortunately lets out his last breath as he was already beyond saving.