A Gloomlit Walk

and

Justin as the DM

"**A Gloomlit Walk**" is the second episode of Rise of the Arcane, the third season of Tales From Del'nasra.

As the only remaining people in the scavenger hunt trial, the three groups of adventurers have fallen through the canopy of a gloomy, dark jungle made entirely of mushrooms which serves as the destination for their trial investigation for Sir Arthur Wordweave.

## Episode Synopsis

#### **Previously on Tales from Del'nasra**

*On the continent of Cathatuuin, hundreds of adventurers flocked towards the City of Embers to take part in a trial to become the chosen group to accompany renowned author, Sir Arthur Wordweave on an investigation spanning Del’nasra to uncover the mystery surrounding strange arcane phenomena that have occurring around the world for the last six years.* *Three small groups of companions came together as one to take part in a grand scavenger hunt, which proved quite chaotic and troublesome, with this single group coming out on top after the other groups were either arrested or in one case, perished. This final grouping was taken by Sir Arthur towards a large hot-air balloon at the back of his property and explained how this would be their mode of transport to the trial investigation which would take place in a jungle that had appeared overnight about a month ago to the north-west, a jungle of gloomy mushrooms that Sir Arthur has called ‘The Jungle of Spores’. The group took off in their hot-air balloon at blinding speeds towards the mushroom jungle, and as it arrived above the canopy of the jungle, the magic powering the balloon ceased and the basket and the people inside plummeted towards the canopy of the jungle and became ensnared in the branches.*

#### The Episode

Immediately, the group became getting out of the wicker basket by their own means with Grin leading the charge by flying down to the jungle floor and tugging on The Creep's leash causing him to plummet sixty-feet to the jungle floor. As for everyone else, they simply leapt out of the basket while Hopper cast *Feather Fall* allowing the remaining members of the group to safely reach the jungle floor as Torger moon walked down one of the trees using his *Winged Boots*.

The group immediately noticed that this jungle of gloomy mushrooms had a road leading directly west and that the jungle hadn't fallen out of the sky, but had seemingly appeared out of thin air and displaced the existing environment. Antyr noticed a sign lying down in the grass nearby and after casting *Magus Reach (Mage Hand)* lifted the sign up for all to read which was written in Sylvan. The sign mentioned that it was "8 miles to Rotwallow Tower" down the road, and so the group set off down the road while talking among themselves, mostly focusing on Torger eating sand with his oatmeal, and pondering if he was in fact a bird. As this conversation came to a close, Torger slipped a strange bird-like mask over his face which seemed to cause hundreds of corvids (crows, ravens, jackdaws) to flock to the canopy above the group and silently watch Torger as he walked along.

After about an hour, the group came upon a fifty-foot tall jade statue in the middle of the road with the road curving around it. The statue was covered in mushroomy-vines and depicted a sinewy, serpentine dragon with a frog-like head which was discovered to depict a Jabberwock, a strange dragon native to the Feywild. A plaque on the statue of the Jabberwock was written in Sylvan and read, "Vorpalon, Predator of the Seelie Court". While investigating the statue, Grin discovered a head resting in an offering bowl, and it was discovered that the head belonged to King Oberon. Oberon served as King of the Seelie Court and it was discovered that Hopper served Oberon as a knight. This head was taken for safe-keeping and placed inside of Antyr's *Hideaway Sack* in the hope they could discover what happened.

Continuing onward, the group discovered that the Jabberwock was familiar to a few members. It had attacked Vonkar, The Creep and Grin while they were onboard airship known as The Whisper, and the jabberwock was the source of the crash in the Drakeward Desert that killed everyone onboard. Vonkar explained that they somehow survived the crash and as the Jabberwock was closing in on them, there was a strange flash of light from a crystal they found in the wreckage and they were teleported to the City of Embers. Doe and Torger also mentioned they too encountered the Jabberwock in the Godbringer's Ravine where they helped someone called Grundle steal one of these Jabberwock's eggs, which seemed strange since anyone with knowledge of the Jabberwock and the history around the creature would know that an immature one or eggs have never been found or seen.

During these conversations, Torger challenged Antyr to an arm wrestling match. To make it easier on the pair of them, Doe transformed into a table and the match ensued with Antyr pulling out a victory. Since Torger deemed this as losing a battle he had Antyr pick an animal, which Antyr mentioned "Blink Dog", and Torger tattooed the likeness of a blink dog on his forearm.

An hour later the group came upon a rundown abandoned shack about fifty feet off the road that was overgrown with mushrooms, mould and moss. Grin mentioning that they were here to investigate became invisible and went to check the shack out and surprisingly caused the door to fall off of its hinges due to the immense wood rot. The shack was an absolute nightmare inside with everyone covered in a strange grey mould. While investigating the shack Torger discovered a crusty purse where inside were two potions of healing. He also discovered a crumpled up note next to the bed which explained that an elderly woman had magically appeared near this shack five years ago and that she was unnerved by a tower down the road.

> ***7th of Xiln, 70 AT***
>
>
> ***It’s hard to believe I’ve been stuck in this damned jungle for over a year already. I was minding my own business in Anundiel City when I was pulled through a weird portal and ended up in this shack. I swear I died here too, but that must’ve been a weird dream. All I recall from the dream is praying I went to where my dear Harold ended up, but all I saw was a dark void filled with eyes.***
>
>
> ***I’ve done my best to make this place my home, and I’ve tried foraging within the area, but I do my best to avoid the tower in the bog. The isolation is getting to me. I miss my grand kids. All I have for company is my thoughts and the weird creatures I’ve seen roaming about, especially that crawling, greyish-blue one covered in holes.***
>
>
>
> ***The isolation is so bad I even went to see if anyone lived in that tower. I couldn’t see anyone, or hear anyone so I rushed straight home. It’s strange, I feel like I’m being watched now, even inside my home. I think I’m gonna have a nap.***
>
>

Antyr ritually cast *Veiled Steward (Unseen Servant)* and sent them into the shack where they pulled back the covers on the bed and discovered the heavily emaciated and mouldy corpse of an elderly woman, clearly the one who had written the note. As they were investigating the shack and corpse, the group could hear a strange lullaby coming towards the shack with Hopper, Antyr, Leek and Grin able to understand the lullaby.

Everyone quickly prepared for a possible hostile confrontation, with Torger hiding under the bed. Grin went invisible and perched on the roof of the shack while everyone else got into position inside and outside the shack. As the lullaby grew stronger a horrific looking creature crawled into view of the rear windows of the shack. It slightly resembled Grin but was the size of a black bear with gray-blue skin, bulging black eyes and a wide mouth of crooked, sharp teeth. It also had two large, fuzzy pink butterfly wings and the body was covered in holes filled with a black fluid where more sprites, similar in appearance to Grin were nursing.

#### After the Break

The fight quickly ensued with Hopper running outside and taking cover behind one of the massive trees that resembled an inkcap mushroom and successfully hiding. Torger was next, where he crawled out from under the bed and leapt through the window, cutting himself on the broken glass and sprinted towards the creature and began pummelling at it with his shortsword and fists, successfully killing one of the sprites flying around the creature's head with a well placed punch.

Vonkar crawled through the window that Torger leapt through and ran up to the creature and the remaining sprite and cast *Enlarge/Reduce* on himself increasing in size, and then doubling his size again through his *Giant's Might* feature and growing to a massive 20-feet tall. Slowly being surrounded, the creature flapped its wings causing a cloud of pink dust to fall in a thirty-foot radius which caused Vonkar and Hopper to fall asleep, causing Vonkar to lose concentration of his *Enlarge/Reduce* spell, while Torger resisted the effects and remained wide awake. Antyr cast *Motes of Eclipse* *(Magic Missile)* and sent two flying towards the creature, and killed one of the sprites with the final one.

Grin, silently puppeteering The Creep from the roof of the shack made him waddle towards the unbroken rear window and telekinetically pull the sleeping Hopper towards the window in the hopes it would wake Hopper up, which unfortunately failed. The Creep was then pulled through the window of the shack by his leash causing him to take 1 piercing damage from the glass in which he fell prone outside the window, but not before Grin flew over to Hopper and tried shaking them awake to no avail.

Leek, hearing the commotion ran inside the shack, grabbed his teddy bear Cabbage and expended two uses of his Wild Shape feature to summon his Wildfire Spirit which took on the form of the teddy bear, but with a mouth glowing with purple flames and with two heavily burned human arms pushing out of the bear's back and wriggling the fingers like tiny wings. The bear manifested around the creature, burning it slightly but when Cabbage attempted to use its *Flame Seed* attack, it missed.

The creature spawned three more sprites, two of which began attacking Torger and Vonkar by going for the eyes with skewer sized swords. The one attacking Torger missed, where-as the one going for Vonkar succeeded by plunging its sword into Vonkar's tear-duct for 2 piercing damage and causing him to wake up from his slumber. Antyr fired more of their motes of eclipse killing two more sprites, damaging the creature and also hitting Hopper with one of these motes causing Hopper to also wake up. The Creep crawled to the side and used another telekinetic shove to prop Hopper upright from prone. Hopper then raced towards the creature, and leapt off of the prone Vonkar's chest and plunged their shortsword into the creature and hanging onto it after they used an *Action Surge*, but the blade got snagged on one of the wing joint's causing their second attack to miss.

While hiding behind one of the broken windows in the shack, Leek cast *Scorching Ray* towards the creature with all three rays of fire slamming into the creature and dealing a total of 26 fire damage, and then Cabbage used another *Flame Seed* attack which hit the creature and dealt 5 fire damage, causing the creature to finally show that it was looking significantly hurt.

Torger finished the creature off with a flurry of blows where he tore the shortsword down its body, while Hopper cast Sword Burst causing nine, magical swords to appear and impale the creature and kill it.

With the strange creature now dead the group began investigating more of the shack. Leek began gathering mushrooms growing all over the shack while Antyr collected remains from the creature and the dead sprites. Vonkar attempted to drink the black milk seeping from the creature's wounds and decided to spit the "milk" out after succeeding on his Constitution Save. As the group began to take a quick break, Leek prepared a meal from the mushrooms gathered around the shack and they all began to discuss how they learned how to do what they showcased in the fight against the creature.

Hopper went into more detail about their service to King Oberon, detailing that he was a guard for Oberon with Grin remarking that it might be difficult trying to protect someone so powerful and important. Vonkar mentioned he didn't remember much due to a mixture of excessive drinking and taking hits to the head, but that he uncovered some runes in a set of ruins and gained the ability to call upon the power of giants after that. Torger once again explained how he was brought into fights before he came to the surface world and started fighting back because he was tired of being punched in the mouth. Antyr explained more about their origins and some form of "ascension ceremony" where-as Doe was silent and Leek explained that his 'momma' found him as a newborn gecko and took care of him after his clutch mates were all eaten. Over this time his 'momma' made him "bigger" and taught him to speak with magic as well as gave him all of his abilities. It was during this time that they captured a "fey spirit" which became Captain and that his momma made him Cabbage as a way to hone his abilities and in the hopes he would stop burning things down.

The group finished their conversation and their meal and stepped outside the shack and began walking down the road in the direction of the so-called, Rotwallow Tower.

## Featured Characters

### Player Characters

* Antyr Xiloscient
	+ Endylus
* Doe
* Hopper Thimblefoot
* Leek
	+ Cabbage
	+ Captain
* The Creep
	+ Grin
* Torger Otrson
* Vonkar Eldsaga

### Mentioned

* The Archmaw
* Auntie Gothel
* Grundle
* King Oberon (after discovering his severed head)
* Queen of Air & Darkness
* Titania
* Vorpalon, Predator of the Seelie Court

## Quotations

* **Endylus** (after being summoned) I can speak now!
* **Grin**: *(upon finding and lifting up the head of King Oberon)* So, is this guy important or something?
	+ **Antyr**: *(approaching Grin)* May I see the head, Grin?
	+ **Grin** (tossing the head to Antyr) Yeah, sure.
	+ **Hopper:** *(drawing their sword on Grin after they toss the head of King Oberon to Antyr)* Do not touch it! Put that down!
	+ **Grin**: *(in response to Hopper drawing their sword at them)* Hey! What's going on?
	+ **Antyr** *(in response to the sudden hostilities)*: I have it, I have it.
	+ **Grin**: Yeah! I just tossed it to Antyr! What's going on?
	+ **Antyr**: I'm going to do something.
	+ **Hopper**: You will do nothing. Return it to its place.
	+ **Antyr**: Hopper, this is not the place that it belongs.
	+ **Hopper**: I know it is not the place it belongs, it belongs at the fey courts.
	+ **Antyr**: Then we will hold it and let me examine it.
	+ **Grin**: We were sent here to investigate, right? So like if this is important, we might need to take it with us.
	+ **Antyr**: I have the pouch, the sack, I could keep it in there. Just let me look.
	+ **Grin** *(while Antyr is checking the head to determine cause of death, rate of decay, etc)* So, who's this guy?
	+ **Antyr**: Hopper, do you wish to?
	+ **Hopper:** *(when answering who this head belongs to)* This is King Oberon. Lord of the Seelie Court, the Green Lord. He goes by many names.
	+ **Grin**: Well, that sounds important.
	+ **Hopper**: He is...oh...was.
	+ **Grin**: I mean, I've heard about that guy. This is, this is them? This is Oberon?
	+ **Antyr**: Yes.
	+ **Grin**: Are you sure?
	+ **Antyr**: Quite. It's been some time.
	+ **Grin**: Aren't they supposed to be really powerful or something?
	+ **Hopper**: Yes.
	+ **Antyr**: I assume all archfey are super powerful.
	+ **Hopper**: He is among the most.
* **Torger**: You can only get punched in the face so much before you punch back.
* **The Hivemother** (*the lullaby in Sylvan*) Hush, my darlings, deep in the night, Within my flesh, your home so tight. Drink of my milk, imbibe my love, Feast on my essence, below, above. I sense the scent of meat so near, Morsels of prey, trembling in fear. You'll gorge and devour till satisfied, In your little bellies, sustenance inside.
* **Leek**: (*in regards to his teddy bear/Wildfire Spirit, Cabbage*) Momma made Cabbage so I could channel my powers through him and stop burning things down and accidentally killing people.

## Trivia

* Justin explained at the end of the session that he forgot that Hopper had a connection with Oberon, so the reaction upon finding his head was unexpected.