Session 3.14

## Dealing with the Creep in Your Life: Chapter 1

Players: Chris (DM), Eric (Ulrich), Becky (Jespora), Rick (Rael), Shane (Indigo), Casey (Root), Ryan (Carric)

With the infiltration of Zalatar coming soon and all the preparation involved, a large portion of our time will be dedicated to planning for that mission. Before all our attention is aimed toward the sky, Indigo wants to return to the Creep Forest now to try to help Sparky and the Last Tree before they become a footnote in KV's history. We also want to explore beyond the eastern mountains to discover what's there. It's the direction the Illithid airship was heading before we took it down, after all.

Since our last visit to the Creep Forest, we brought back a ton of Kibble, the herb that's used to stave off the creep infection, to try to grow it here. We also brought back an infected cutting from the Last Tree to try cleansing it. Root and Indigo were able to cleanse the cutting after considerable effort, but Root was unable to get the Kibble to grow well here -- not for a lack of skill or effort, but the Kibble simply refuses to take.

#### **Day 1**

After the gang meets up, Rael presents to Indigo the obsidian Illithid mask he ~~stole~~ found in Shar'Zatan's manor in Zatzan last year. We had forgotten about these, didn't we?! He asks Indy to study the mask for magical properties; it turns out the mask is, indeed, enchanted! As a matter of fact, Carric's and Indy's own masks are also enchanted! But do we really want to risk putting them on right now to discover what they do, just before our big journey....? Fuck Yes. After putting his mask on, Rael discovers that it can cast Lightning Bolt! Carric's mask causes a localized 60-foot rain cloud to follow him around. Indigo's mask causes his skin to turn to bark and leaves to grow out of his body, like a dryad!

The April weather outside is great! The landscape is beautiful, and colorful flowers are everywhere. We decide to visit the Canar encampment to ask for assistance with our endeavor; we'd like to locate more Kibble in the forest to bring to Sparky, and the Canar are great at scouting for it. Upon reaching their encampment, we meet with VALOFAX, who's been living here contentedly with the Canar; he's even adopted the new Canar name "Spike!" In addition to guarding the town, the Canar have lately been assisting the Hunters' Guild with thinning out the dangerous batdusas, octobirds, and quakesnakes in the wild, allowing us to one day travel through the wilds with ease. For our journey to the Creep Forest, the Canar Sadie joins us. She looks like an American Eskimo dog, and she's sporting some leather armor and a big glaive.

Before we leave town, Carric demands a public apology from Jespora, in the Council Chambers. Not paying attention to who was asking for an apology from whom, Rael begins NOT apologizing to the general audience, saying he has done nothing wrong, and therefore owes no one an apology. Afterward, Jespora agrees to Carric's demand, and apologizes in front of everyone for not believing him about Des. Carric responds for all to hear, that it's okay... that he forgave her for this a LONG time ago. How magnanimous! While this takes place, Rael and Ulrich are passing between each other a book filled with furry porn procured from the markets of Nyantis. "A Swan? Really?!" Ulrich blurts out while Jespora is talking.

#### **-----NEW MOIRA-----**

After business in town is finished, we make our way to the docks and take the portal to New Moira. This place is really growing a lot. They've done so much work! Vash is now living here; he's laid down his sword and taken up the pick axe; it's believed that his demeanor and attitude are one of the biggest driving forces behind the mining community's great progress.

There's a new passageway leading from the portal chamber that wasn't here before. "YCC" is hewn into the stone above the doorway. "Let me introduce you to 'Yellow Cap Construction!'" Ulrich proclaims with pride. This is Nihilus' and his new business venture! They brought spores back from the giant mushroom forest south of the Hole and planted them here, just outside the New Moira cave entrance. And they, uh... turn out to grow MUCH faster than anyone anticipated. heh heh They're actually taking over the grassy plains outside below the cliff face, and the forest is spreading quickly westward toward Hardholme. This will provide YCC with plenty of lumber to sell to anyone looking for a strong material with which to construct ships and buildings. Also, the mycelium growth underground is actually prohibiting the dreaded quakesnakes from moving about!

We meet with Vash to check in on him. Rael apologizes for how everything went down with his exile from Hardholme. "AH, IT WAS TIME," Vash responds in his gruff voice. To help make amends, Rael produces a stein that he stole from The Reach and gifts it to Vash. "Don't drink from it, though! This is the one you always pissed in. I couldn't quite get the... smell out." Vash laughs and takes the stein from him. Carric begins telling Vash the Prentiss story, but Vash interrupts him!! "I DON'T WANNA HEAR YOUR FUCKIN' STORY!" Carric is taken aback, because no one's ever interrupted his story before. We say our goodbyes and let Vash get back to work. "GET YOUR FACES OUTTA MY FACES!" he offers in farewell.

We leave New Moira and make our way north to the Creep Forest. We make good time and reach the edge of the forest as it's getting dark. The forest is still as depressing as it was last time we visited. The whole place is covered in a gak-like goo that's sort of a purpley color. The fleshy mass has grown up and taken over all the trees. Instead of trees, they've left behind these tall gnarly, fleshy pillars that seem to sway about in the wind, although there's no wind, and they're not all swaying in the same direction at the same time. Carric is confused. "When you said 'Creep Forest,' I thought you meant a forest inhabited by a creepy guy... like my Uncle Jimmy."

We set up camp for the night on the edge of the forest. Wngas are about during the night! They're poking at the Creep on the forest edge curiously. Both Carric AND Rael catch Wngas!!! Carric now has a constant Featherfall ability! Rael now has the Blessing of Valhalla. Once a week, he can call Valhalla warriors into battle, as if he blew the Horn of Valhalla!

#### **Day 2**

We enter the Creep Forest and begin making our way to the Last Tree and Sparky, who's been working tirelessly to stave off the tree's infection. As we travel, we search for additional Kibble under the Creep with Sadie's help. Ulrich and Carric use Sleight of Hand to feel around under the slimy surface, Jespora uses Perception to spot suspicious lumps in the Creep, Root and Rael use Survival, and Indigo uses knowledge of Nature. As a result, we're able to find a modest dozen. Not great, but not bad!

As we travel, we see the now-familiar giant ulcers in the creep that are covered with fleshy tissue; there are tons of them around the forest. We take caution to steer clear of them, remembering the gargantuan worm/snake/abomination that exploded from one and almost killed us during our last visit. Ulrich is especially eager to NOT encounter a giant snake, after being partially digested by a quakesnake a couple years ago. Rael takes this opportunity to psychoanalyze Ulrich and ask him about his relationship with his father. lol Ulrich is actually up for it and explains for 10 minutes his backstory, without taking a pause between sentences. And he actually has great respect for his father and loves him, thank you very much. Carric ponders that Ulrich might instead hate the snakes because he himself can't use his own "snake" anymore. They begin needling Ulrich about his loss of Rosa after she was sent back to Davros (which again, may not exist anymore, so who knows what happened to Rosa when she disappeared, right?).

After a day's travel, Sadie brings us to a halt at a decent spot for rest. To avoid having to sleep on the Creep, or our Stryders having to stand on it all night, Rael has the idea to pull out our pocket boat and enlarge it, so that we can all sleep safely aboard. We all climb aboard, and Root tosses each Stryder up there with us. haha It's quite a sight -- this large boat sitting atop the creep.

Sadie sniffs the air and tells us that she senses Sparky is in danger. She says it's not immediate danger, so we decide to go ahead and stay here for the night, instead of riding another half-day to the tree and exhausting ourselves. Carric wants to test his new Featherfall ability, so Root picks him up and throws him upward into the air as hard as he can! Sure enough, Carric doesn't fall to his death! He floats down gracefully to the entertainment of all! As we sleep during the night, the Creep rocks the boat back and forth gently.

#### **Day 3**

The following day, we make our way to the Last Tree as quickly as we can so that we can help Sparky. Rael casts Mantle of Inspiration on the Stryders to allow them to run as fast as possible. Any creatures that may have come out of the forest at us are definitely not able to keep up.

Upon approaching the Last Tree, we see Sparky with his arms raised toward it, attempting to heal it. Beyond, a horde of mutants are running at him and the Tree!! We need to save him! "Uh, Rael..." Carric whispers, "how about we... you know... get the fuck out of here?" Rael hesitates a moment, "That would be... wrong," he states with some difficulty. These mutants are nothing like the mutant Canar previously encountered. It's like they continued to mutate into something completely different and horrifying. [[Look up Zerglings and Hydralisks from Starcraft.]] There are **40** monsters total! 30 melee "zergling-types" and 10 ranged "hydralisk-types." We need to save Sparky and the Tree!

**Battle: The Gang vs. The Swarm**

The ensuing fight is all-out chaos. Each mutant in itself is not very powerful, but grouped together, they're extremely formidable; also when each one dies, it explodes, causing additional damage to anyone nearby.

Ulrich pulls out his bag of tricks and throws a furry ball to the ground, which transforms into a panther! The panther and Sadie dash toward the tree to engage the horde as the monsters reach Sparky. The mutants begin attacking the tree, Sparky, Sadie, and the panther. We try to use long-ranged area-based magic to deal with as many mutants (Creepers) as possible. Jespora uses Spiritual Weapon, Root uses Compelled Duel, Carric uses Thorn Wall, and Indy uses his staff to cast Ice Wall on a row of Creepers at the back. Rael runs in and uses his mask to cast Lightning beyond the wall. All this magic causes numerous Creepers to explode, and Rael can see them behind the ice wall; he warns the rest of us about the explosions.

The mutants that are on the tree continue to attack, killing the panther and knocking Sadie unconscious, causing her to begin bleeding out on the ground. Root and Ulrich are attacking Creepers as they can, taking the brunt of the explosion damage. Jespora busies herself with healing people as quickly as she can. Ulrich's Stryder is killed, and he's about be killed himself by two groups of Creepers, but Indy casts an ice dome around them, allowing Ulrich time to heal himself. The ranged-type mutants are casting powerful Eldritch Blast spells on everyone as all this is happening. Carric is casting Shatter at the ranged-types, and he runs to hide behind Jespora as she's trying to resuscitate Root, who has also fallen and is bleeding out.

The mutants trapped within the ice dome break out and come at us again, as Jespora is fending a group off with Thunderwave, and as Root uses Searing Smite to burn some away. Indy casts Confusion on a couple groups near the Tree to stop their actions, while the group near Rael attacks him, inciting a Hellish Rebuke from him. Eventually one of the mutants gets a hit in on Rael that... causes him to go Berzerk! His facial expression changes to an evil grimace, and he begins firing his gun like crazy at them; he's lost all sense of reasoning at a time that we're struggling just to stay alive! After a few moments, the Creepers drop Sparky, Rael, and Indy unconscious. Jespora dashes to Indy to revive him so that he can renew his mind control over the groups next to the Tree.

Ulrich, Root, and Carric continue attacking groups of Creepers and bearing the explosions from each one's death. Jespora and Root are desperately trying to revive Rael and Sparky. Jespora is trying to get to Sadie to bring her back up too, but she keeps getting interrupted by other party members going down! Indigo runs to the side and uses the Ars Goetia to absorb several mutants from two of the groups. After Rael is revived by Root, he's regained his composure and has no idea what's happened to him... In a desperate attempt to turn the tide of battle in our favor, Rael uses his Blessing of Valhalla to call down seven Valhalla warriors! With the aid of the additional warriors, we are indeed able to turn the tide for the final time and overcome this deadly battle.

**Battle End**

In the aftermath, we were able to save both Sparky and the Last Tree. However, we lost Ulrich's Stryder and poor Sadie, the valiant Good Girl who accompanied us to help rescue Sparky and save the forest. We agreed that this was the closest we had ever come to total defeat; six adventurers, two Canar, and a panther versus 40 misshapen exploding Creep mutants. We kept falling unconscious during the fight, and our healers had their hands full just keeping us alive. We also know now that Rael has some sort of blood-thirsty curse upon his gun that will likely cause trouble in the future. Jespora casts Gentle Repose on Sadie's remains so that we can bring her back to Hardholme and bury her in a more gentle and fitting location.

We make camp at the Last Tree, setting our boat nearby for sleeping. Each one of us is sitting near the campfire, each lost in their own thoughts. But each person has two questions in common: What do we do next? And how will we survive it?