Growing Pains

Youtube video thumbnail for Chapter 4 Episode 4

**Growing Pains** is the 55th episode in series.

Previously, the group had fought some phase spiders. One of the last things that won the group this fight was Dagon trying to heal Jillian using the blue serum they had found earlier in the greenhouse.

## **Plot Synopsis**

With the battle concluded, the group notices one of the chests from the Game House has somehow been teleported to their location. More alarming, while Jillian has returned to her human form, she's still growing larger. Hoping to stop this, Eloy gives her a potion of diminution, but this only stops her growing for a moment. The group helplessly watches as Jillian continues to grow, appears to age rapidly, and is enveloped by bark. Finally, celestial symbols appear all over her body and a flower sprouts out of the resulting creature, opening up to reveal an eye.

Dagon is able to get a response from the creature when speaking celestial: "In defense of the seraphim." Based on this response he concludes that Jillian is no longer alive, or at least no longer the person she used to be. The group is shocked at this turn of events when Dagon climbs down and tells them. With no immediate way to change her back, the group pays their respect to their fallen crew member and continues on their journey through the Darkwood.

Ezra and Dagon manage to scavenge parts from the phase spiders and bring them to Mother Gigglesplinters of the Game House. The forest hag is pleased with the parts and in return gives the group a chest that contains the upper torso of a luxadon and 2000 rubies. She also mentions a chest that was stolen from her and offers the group a reward for its return.

Having already found the chest, they decide to open the chest after leaving the Game House, instead of returning it to Mother Gigglesplinters. Inside it are more vials of the green and blue serums they found in the greenhouse, several vials containing an unidentified red serum and a jar containing an abyssal tumor. Explaining their experience with the tumor to Dagon and Keldamov, Ezra argues that it is not a good idea to return these items to Mother Gigglesplinters. Hearing about the tumor, Charlotte asks Dagon about the response he got from the creature Jillian turned into. Charlotte speculates that the mist that is currently covering the Darkwood is some defense response to non-celestial invaders.

After a short walk, the group arrives at a celestial outpost. They find the door locked but looking in through a window, Ezra notices the interior is covered in spider silk. Keldamov uses his war hammer to bash in the door and the group hears a voice coming from the basement, calling for help in Sylvan. Entering the tower the group finds the bodies of soldiers from the Sun Guard and the voice tells them he was being brought in for having the 'red drink'. The door to the basement is also locked, but Charlotte manages to unlock it with the help of Dagon after speaking to the spirits of the dead soldiers. These soldiers also tell her the person in the basement was caught trying to steal vials from some boxes in their lockup. These boxes were confiscated from someone with a gray complexion who was pouring the contents of these vials over the plants in the Darkwood.

Ezra looks for the person trapped there, following the voice who asks if Ezra is fomorian. Ezra doesn't know what this is, but Charlotte manages to figure out that this is some sort of fae giant. Ezra manages to free the person trapped in the web, who turns out to be Gorrin, a gnomish bartender down on his luck after some fomorians thrashed his business. Ezra convinces him to take them to and open up the stash he was trying to steal.

This stash contains more of the vials of red, green, and blue serums, and a recipe for making the red serum. Charlotte reads the recipe and learns that the red serum has something to do with the abyssal tumor in the jar. Gorrin tells the group he saw several people in gray cloaks pouring the read vials in the woods and that these people were talking to the fomorians to see if they could buy some of the fomorians' slaves for use as test subjects. He also tells them these cloaked people convinced the fomorians to destroy some of the portals in the Darkwood leading to the palace.

The group loots the outpost, grabbing some lances and finding a manifest of the prisoners that were being kept there. On this list is a draugr who has a red Mohawk and beard and who called himself 'Skrung'. This draugr was in the possession of vials with the green serum and was transferred to a hospital in the town because he was violently sick. Having finished their business there, they stand well back and set it on fire to eradicate the spiders. This fire sets off some of the mortar shells and destroys the entire building.

The explosion of the mortar shells pushes back the mist to the point where the group can see the ceiling of this floor of Darkwood. At the same time, Charlotte hears a voice in her head that is screaming at her. Gorrin offers them some help if they manage to get rid of the fomorians that hang around his bar, the Ground Jug. He himself is going to take a detour getting back there, as the bridge leading to his bar was also taken out by the fomorians. Gorrin then departs with a last warning to the group to not enter the water because of something called the 'clump', a giant salamander that eats anything it encounters.

The group sets out east in search of the broken gate and finds their way is blocked by a giant tree oozing red sap. Trying to get past this tree, Dagon gets stuck in this sap. Ezra uses some of the green serum on the tree to try to free Dagon, but only manages to remove the sap from the tree. He then applies some directly to Dagon, which manages to free Dagon enough to for him to fire two Eldritch Blasts at the tree. An eye appears in the tree and Dagon throws a vial of green serum in it. This frees Dagon and the group hear the tree voice its anger about an infernal being carried with them. Dagon remarks that he indeed carries it, Gryorrxyk, with him, and asks the tree if he would like to taste another potion. In response, the tree starts shedding leaves, trapping Charlotte. Dagon then casts blight on the tree, killing it, and leaving a crater behind.

Continuing on their way, the party comes across a yellow straw hut with a campfire in front of it. They notice a large humanoid in the hut who is huddling in front of the fire, seemingly preparing some meat. Several empty, but bloody cages stand nearby. They speculate that this creature might be one of the fomorians Gorrin was talking about. Keldamov approaches the giant and converses with it, while the rest of the party hides nearby.

Keldamov learns that this is indeed a fomorian and is named Wumpus. The giant is under the impression that Keldamov was sent by his leader, a fomorian named Grumpus, to check wether he does his work right. He also tells Keldamov that this Grumpus is the one who told the fomorians to gather Gnomes for food.

Dagon comes out of hiding, and convinces the fomorian that, like Keldamov, he was sent by Grumpus to oversee his work. Berating Wumpus about not gathering the 'merchandise' alive, Dagon uses his aasimar ability and terrifies the fomorian into revealing several bits of important information. Wumpus tells them about a cave in the north, where the people who hired them are now. He also points them to what remains of the gate, and where he last saw Grumpus.

The party follows these directions, and come across a group of three fomorians who are camped near the broken gate. This group of fomorians is herding a group of elven and gnomish prisoners into cages. As with the last fomorian they encountered, Dagon tries to convince this group that he is an overseer sent by their leader. Unlike Wumpus, this group remains suspicious of Dagon and tell him not to get too close to their captives. They do tell him that Grumpus went with a person called 'Gustav' to the cave in the north.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party has moved in closer and Charlotte casts 'Enhance Ability' on Eloy, giving him the 'Eagle's Splendor' effect. Eloy then uses 'Hypnotic Pattern' on the group of fomorians, and manages to enchant all of them.

With the fomorians temporarily incapacitated, the rest of the party moves quickly moves in to open the cages. After some initial confusion, almost all of the prisoners are happy to go with them. One prisoner, however, is at first too traumatized to understand what is happening, but recognizes Keldamov as being a Sun Guard, and willingly goes with him. As Charlotte leads the prisoners away from the fomorians, the rest of the party prepares to deal with the three giants.

Dagon climbs up one of the giants, intending to balance an uncorked vial of blue serum on its mouth in such a way that it falls in when it wakes up. This does not go according to plan, as the vial falls down his throat when he tries to place it. Climbing down, he picks up a pine cone from the forest floor and then proceeds to climb up a second giant. Up there, he drops the cone down the giant's throat and pours another vial of blue serum on it. Ezra, meanwhile, remembers a previous encounter with an incapacitated enemy, and places a large amount of fireworks underneath the third giant's foot. He also coats the weapon of this fomorian with Acid.

The results are spectacular. As soon as the fomorians wake up, they see the prisoners have escaped and the party, minus Charlotte, at the ready. Confused, they draw their weapons, which does not go well for the third fomorian. The Acid smeared on the weapon burns its hand to the bone and Ezra follows up by shooting an exploding bolt at the fireworks. The resulting explosion takes the leg of the fomorian clean off. It falls down, makes the situation worse by grabbing the amputated foot with the hand drenched in acid and dies from the resulting shock.

The second fomorian isn't feeling well either. For a while, the pine cone drenched in the serum has been growing into a tree inside its stomach. It has grown to the point where celestial speech can be heard inside its torso, as branches and leaves start to protrude from its chest and the top of a pine tree starts coming out its mouth. The giant dies trying to pull the tree out of it's mouth.

The first fomorian starts throwing up blood and simply dies of a heart attack, caused by the blue serum speeding up the giant's heart rate.

## **Appearances**

* Charlotte Jilees
* Dagon Huxley
* Eloy
* Ezra Lockwood
* Gorrin
* Jillian Harvest
* Keldamov
* Mother Gigglesplinters
* Wumpus

## **Notes & Trivia**

* Mother Gigglesplinters asks where that horse-friend (Eloy) has gone off to, and Dagon manages to convince her the phase spiders consumed him, teleporting his remains to their "spider dimension".
* Trying to free the Gorrin from the web, Ezra accidentally hits the gnome with his knife. As a gag, Zito tells Grant to roll for a Sneak Attack.
* The group has been mixing up Jillian and Charlotte a lot, and Grant mentions that now that one of them is dead, they can finally keep them apart.
* The manifest from the outpost mentions that one of these prisoners, called 'Madame Gigglesplinters', managed to escape and was last seen riding into the woods on an undead deer.
* Ben starts singing "O Tannenbaum" when the pine tree bursts from the second fomorian's mouth. Merry Christmas, everybody!