Dark Threads

and

Justin as the DM

"**Dark Threads**" is the eighteenth episode of Rise of the Arcane, the third season of Tales From Del'nasra

Filling their bellies with some honey infused bog butter spread over some toasted hardtack, the Fonkey Casuals prepare for more travel in the strange, swamp-like jungles of the Emberfall Wildlands.

## Episode Synopsis

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

*"Last we left off, the Fonkey Casuals looted what remained of the ruined fort that had been converted into an illegal toll road. You found not much of import, and decided to burn the bodies while Vonkar left a message on the remaining door of the fort that mentioned the toll was no longer in operation and left an ominous warning to any future bandits seeking to utilize the fort as an illegal toll road/ambush spot.*

*The day continued with you all leaving the tropical, rainforest region of the Cathatuun Empire and arriving in the dark, gloomy, swamp-like jungles of the Emberfall Wildlands where you were plagued by flies and strange mosquitoes. You spent another night in the back of the wagon while Antyr felt a strange presence in the vicinity, noticing footprints standing behind theirs which promptly caused Antyr to close their eyes and attempt to “sleep” in the wagon.*

*The next day was met with more travel leading you to a skeleton graveyard full of the remains of large, dead animals. As you passed through this graveyard you encountered, and failed to hide from a massive bipedal creature resembling a hybridization between a t-rex and a toad. It was eventually slain by Torger and its body sunk beneath the strange, deep mud just off the road. Its eye had been removed and as Antyr tried harvesting the eye they noticed it was filled with strange parasites and instead removed a few of them from the eye to keep.*

*Unfortunately, during the fight, Lionel’s wild magic manifested a fireball in the wagon which blew it to pieces and seriously wounded himself and Antyr. Annoyed by the careless use of abilities Lionel doesn’t understand, Aunty rendered the creepy teddy bear unconscious with a dart from their Motes of Eclipse. People were healed, wounds were tended and Doe and Hopper did their best to mend the absolutely destroyed wagon turning it into a more rickety, bumpy and uneven wagon that was mostly made of near charcoal.*

*Words were had on the road about Antyr’s attack on Lionel and as the sun began to set you all decided to rest for the night in an abandoned town you were passing. Most of the town had sunken beneath the mud, yet you all found slightly comfortable lodging in an abandoned inn where Grin made a rather disgusting meal from bog butter they found in the pantry in an attempt to soften up some jerky. Vonkar and Doe seemed to enjoy the meal while everyone else either spit the food up or vomited. Everyone eventually went to sleep with this “warm meal” and rum in their bellies, while Antyr and Hopper during their separate watches felt a strange presence, Antyr recognizing it from the night before, while Hopper saw a pair of white eyes staring from the darkness a good couple hundred feet away, perched on the roof of the stable.*

*Morning came, with everyone waking to the smell of Grin cooking a breakfast of toasted hardtack covered in honey-infused bog butter. This food was much better than the day before, but still difficult to eat due to the toasting of hardtack, but the honey-infused, funky, meat-tasting butter helped. However, Hopper opted to only have some rum for breakfast.*

*The warm meal is had by some, and the day is yours."*

#### The Episode

The Fonkey Casuals finished up their breakfast and set out back onto the road towards their destination of Drowned Maiden Reef. Not too long into the day, the cart began to round a bend in the road where the party were called out to by a group of a familiar knights adorned in black, antlered armour. Realizing who the party was, the knights attacked, screaming Sylvan and mentioning they knew the party were working with Guardian Peshan and that they were to be killed.

The fight with the knights were tough with the knights being resistant to some of the damage that had killed them during a previous encounter that Vonkar and Grin had with them. The party ran about the muddy road doing their best to take down the knights. The knights immediately fired crossbow bolts at Cornelius, which rendered the mule unconscious and dying. Vonkar while sat at the front of the wagon was struck by two crossbow bolts, while one of these knights seemed to turn into smoke and re-appear in the back of the wagon where they attacked Hopper and Antyr, damaging Antyr with a slash to the chest.

Grin called out that the knights disappear when they die and come back resilient to the type of damage that killed them, and they said they should go for non-lethal attacks on the knights, before they struck out at the knight in the back of the wagon and dealt a severe and deadly smite that had become a critical hit. Soon after Hopper killed one of the knights, as did Doe with a *Vicious Mockery* spell on an already severely wounded knight. Torger also happened to take out one of these knights with their "glovels", much to the disdain of Grin who wished to see the knights knocked out instead to prevent them from dying and coming back stronger.

One of the surviving knights plunged their sword into Cornelius, killing him but the mule was instantly restored to life and transformed into a displacer beast which immediately began attacking the knight that had just killed him. The knight seemed incredibly confused, but was then knocked out by Grin while they flew about concealed in their darkness spell. Eventually, out of the seven knights that had attacked, three had been rendered unconscious, while Antyr carved out a five-foot deep hole in the mud with *Mold Earth* and they pushed the first unconscious knight into the muddy hole.

#### After the Break

The group continued to push the remaining unconscious knights into the hole, which Antyr made another five-feet deeper. Before they buried the knights in the hole, Antyr took off one of their helmets with Magus Reach only to discover that the creatures in the armour appeared to be wispy and shadow-like and seemed to remind Antyr of the spirits that appear in the Astral Plane when people cast *Astral Projection*, but shadowy and darker. They even noticed small, shadowy cords connected to the creatures that also seemed like smaller versions of astral cords.

Antyr theorized that these creatures were meditating elsewhere, most likely the Feywild and were projecting these "versions" of themselves into the Material Plane. While this was ongoing, Grin attempted to grab one of their swords only to feel a painful spike of pain in their hand which reduced their maximum hit-points by 4 permanently. Realizing that the swords were useless, they too were tossed into the hole with Antyr's *Magus Reach* and they covered the muddy grave with dirt and hardened it*.* The party clambered back into the wagon, which Cornelius seemed like they had an easier time pulling it along in their new form. While back on the road, the party eventually stumbled across the Oir Crossroad where they made a brief stop where Antyr purchased ten pounds of dried catfish to feed Cornelius, while Torger wandered up into makeshift bar where a gnoll was eating and decided to pick a fight with the gnoll, who Torger promptly knocked unconscious and paid two larger individuals to haul the gnoll into the nearby hostel.

Torger then spent some time arm wrestling some of the 'swamp people' and won a total of 200 gp. While this was going on the remaining members of the group began to theorize as to how the knights knew they were working with Guardian Peshan and how they knew where the party was today. Doe mentioned the only person they told of their destination was Thrammarn, who mentioned they'd relay the message to Guardian Peshan. Realizing they may have been sold out, and fearing they were being tracked somehow. Antyr suggested they all search themselves in which Doe and Hopper found small poppet dolls on their person that had been made to resemble them. Not knowing when these dolls were put on their person, Hopper cast *Detect Magic* revealing an aura of divination magic on the dolls, while a quick *Identify* revealed the dolls were enchanted with a persistent *Scrying* spell. They also discovered that anyone other than who the doll was based on could manipulate the doll and in turn manipulate the person it was based upon.

Not knowing how long whomever was on the other side had been listening and looking through these dolls, the group decided to try and get rid of the dolls. Antyr failed to cast Dispel Magic on the Hopper doll, while Hopper attempted to burn the doll with a Green Flame Blade but only ended up hurting themselves in the process instead of the doll and briefly Hopper burst into green flames.

As Torger finished up their arm wrestling matches they were approached by a mysterious hooded figure who applauded their attack on the gnoll and their victory in the arm wrestling. They handed Torger a mysterious black envelope and said to only read it while alone, and that it could only be read under the cover of darkness. This mysterious man introduced himself as Jerry and slunk back into the shadows.

## Featured Characters

### Player Characters

* Antyr Xiloscient
* Doe
* Grin
* Hopper Thimblefoot
* Lionel
* Torger Otrson
* Vonkar Eldsaga

### Mentioned

* Fontaine
* Kena Peshan (unnamed)
* Thrammarn