Session 3.15

## The Creep Really Was the Friends We Made Along the Way

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

Continuing from Session 3.14, we had set out to search for a way to eliminate the Creep and save the Last Tree, as well as explore further east through the mountain pass. The last session ended with us arriving at the Last Tree just in time to rescue Sparky from being killed by highly-mutated creatures that were once Canar, though there is absolutely no longer any resemblance. The group faced off against 40 exploding creatures and barely survived the encounter. We were able to succeed, however we lost Sadie, the Canar Good Girl who accompanied us from Hardholme.

After the battle, we camped for the night at the Last Tree. Sparky thanked us for rescuing him, and told us that in order to rid the forest of Creep, we would need to destroy the mutated Canar Hivemind, known as the "Bone" (though "Bone" is simply the closest Common translation to their name for this hivemind). He reveals that the Bone's lair is located at the far southeast end of the forest, in a cave on the mountainside. Although we almost lost our lives in the previous fight, we know we must continue our mission in spite of our fears. Onward!

### **Day 1**

Upon waking in the morning, Rael feels much more energized than usual -- perhaps he's reached a higher level of aptitude? He tries a new spell he's been studying on the Last Tree -- Greater Restoration. The magic invigorates the tree, but does nothing to hinder the Creep infection that's been slowly taking it over. Indigo performs an experiment on the Creep surrounding them; by casting Blight on the Creep, he's able to determine that it's some kind of plant-related lifeform. Today, Indy can only speak in screams audible to 300 ft (disadvantage on Stealth, but gain Thunderwave).

Before we leave the Last Tree, Sparky spends a moment saying Goodbye to it. He acknowledges that's he's done all can for it, but there's nothing more he can do. This is a big step for him, since he refused to abandon the tree to the Creep since last year and has spent all his time working to stave off the infection. Sparky is a Druid/Alchemist and gives us each 5 vials of Kibble potion; he says that we may need these when confronting the Bone.

Carric entertains the idea of collecting some Creep to dry, grind, and smoke, but Root calmly advises him against such a course of action. Sparky has concerns about our plan to confront the Bone. He says that the former Hivemind used to be one of the Canar, but it's transformed into something much more formidable. On our journey southeast, we take the time to search for more Kibble underneath the Creep. Perception, Survival, and Nature skills are used. Carric uses Acrobatics... I guess to flip backward and catch Kibble with his hand as he somersaults? haha We're able to find a reasonable amount, once again.

As we get closer to the Bone's cave, the "forest" becomes more dense. The purple Creep is darker and a little more goopy, and the fleshy tree stalks are denser and swaying (randomly, not with the wind!) a little more. Very unsettling to everyone. During the day's journey, we see a herd of 30 - 50 Creepers moving as a group westward, but they don't seem to notice us. We make a tactical decision to NOT engage them in combat! Instead we remain quite; during the discussion on what to do, Indy has to be careful to NOT SPEAK so that his screaming won't draw their attention! Ulrich spends time examining them to glean information; they definitely have lower HP than him, and their AC is also lower than his. They don't seem to notice us, and we can continue unhindered.

At the end of the day we set up camp, but decide to not light a fire, so as to avoid detection. Just like the previous two nights, we open up our ship atop the Creep and pile inside so we don't have to lie in the goop. During the night, we can hear chittering all around the boat. Those of us with night vision are able to discern that packs of Creepers are moving dangerously close all around us, but they don't seem to have noticed us at all. Rael threatens that if any of us make a noise, he'll kill us himself. Though, it's odd that they haven't noticed us at all; we begin wondering if they indeed know about us, but don't care...

### **Day 2**

As we're packing up the camp site and putting away the boat, Carric tells us about his new mansion! Construction is almost finished, and he has a pool. We just need to make sure to check in with Security when we pay him a visit. =D We talk about just jumping the fence, but he's insistent that we follow protocol! Today Indigo no longer speaks in screams, but instead he's filled with an insatiable bloodlust (disadvantage against incoming attacks, but advantage on outgoing attacks). He wants this Bone to be DEAD, and he can't wait to kill it!

We continue making our way toward the Bone's cave. As we travel, the forest continues to become denser and darker. There's an unpleasant smell to the air, and the fleshy tree stalks are becoming more numerous and more difficult to navigate around; there are more types of "trees" around here too. We continue to avoid the giant ulcers that contain gargantuan snake abominations. The Creep looks more disgusting, the air feels heavy, and the sky seems to have a gray-ish tinge to it, maybe? It's like an alien nightmare hellscape.

During the late afternoon, we come face-to-face with another herd of 30 - 50 Creepers! Battle Time!!! Wait... no... They're not attacking! They're actually trotting right past us without paying us any mind at all!!! A few of them even mistakenly bump into our stryders as they pass by, continuing on to wherever... We stop to discuss the implications of this unexpected event. Our previous suspicions are confirmed! But why aren't they attacking us now? We think that perhaps the juices from the exploding Creepers from a couple days ago infected all of us, therefore making the other Creepers see us as one of their own. \*shudder\* We discuss drinking some Kibble potion to try to halt the infection, but we decide it'd be best to just continue, because our infections would likely help us get closer to the Bone unharmed. Ulrich ponders that perhaps instead, we're not infected, the Bone knows of our presence, and it wants to meet us. This is a worrisome prospect on its own, but there's nothing else we can do, so let's keep going!

At the end of the day, we finally arrive at the entrance to the cave. There's a fleshy sphincter that's opening and closing as herds of Creepers run into and out of the cave; their chittering is loud now, and Creep seems to be actively growing out of the cave. Indeed, this is the source of the Creep! In his bloodlust, Indy wants to march into the cave NOW and kill the Bone, and the others have to talk him down, reminding him that it'd be too dangerous to go in there exhausted; he reluctantly agrees. We set up the boat again and climb in for the night, sleeping amidst the constant chittering of the abominations below.

### **Day 3**

Indigo no longer has bloodlust, but once again he can only speak in screams. After breaking camp, we enter the Bone's cave. The fleshy sphincter opens for us, and it closes again after we're all inside. It's dark within, but we all have night vision except for Root; Ulrich unbandages part of his hand to create a bit of light by which for Root to see. The cave has a long pathway going straight forward, with 50-ft. chambers branching off in either direction every so often. The floors, ceilings, and walls are covered in dense, stinking, squicky purple Creep. There's a taste coming into our mouths from the air here, and there are *things* crawling all over the place. Like giant millipedes or something that are a foot long and half as thick (Picture the bug scene from Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom). They cover the floor, and venturing through the cave we have no choice but to step on them, making crackly crunching sounds as we walk. There are also Creepers running about through the halls, going into and out of chambers, running past us this way and that.

Ulrich believes the Bone would likely be straight ahead, at the end of the long pathway, but we decide to check out all the side chambers, to make sure we know the layout of this place, just to be safe. The first two side chambers are full of eggs; many many many eggs! The ranged-type "hydralisk" Creepers are bringing the eggs into this room and leaving them to incubate. The eggs are hatching into those innumerable millipede-like things; it appears they're Creeper larvae.

Continuing down the main pathway, we enter the next two side-chambers, which contain big bulbs all over the floors and walls. Each room has a giant heart-like organ beating at the back of the chamber. In each of these rooms, the larvae are entering and pupating; other more mature pupae are hatching, and the melee-type "zerglings" are emerging and rushing out of the rooms and outside the cave into the forest.

Continuing down the main hallway, we enter another side chamber that contains no heart, but instead lots of large pools of purple liquid. Larvae are entering the pools and remaining inside. From other pools, the larvae have transformed into "hydralisks" and are emerging and exiting the chamber. The fast pace at which all these Creepers are being produced is extremely alarming!!! Rael decides to take an empty vial and collect a sample of the purple liquid. Surprise! He doesn't roll very well and gets some of the liquid on his hand! He instantly mutates, and all his body hair is now replaced with cilia!!! He has a look of shock on his face for a moment as he processes all the new information being sent to his brain, as the cilia smells and tastes (with great intensity!) everything it touches. The fetid air -- such a flavor! He can even taste his crotch, as well as Jespora's hand as she begins to stroke his arm. This will take a LOT of getting used to! But hey! He got the sample! He hands the vial of purple mutagen to Indigo for safekeeping. Carric gives Rael a great big hug, and Rael's eyes dilate from the menga contact.

We head back to the main hallway and enter the final branch-off chamber. This room has lots of pillars of translucent phlegm-like goo stretching between the ceiling and floor. A few of them are empty. Within some, larvae are crawling to the centers, about halfway between floor and ceiling, and pupating. Many of them however, contain... giant humanoid Creepers of a type that we haven't seen before. We can't really get a good look at them in their pupal stage, but they're much larger than the other types; is this a NEW strain of Creeper that's about to be introduced to the Forest?! We head back to the main pathway.

### **-----THE INFECTED HEART-----**

At the end of the main pathway is another door-like sphincter. Assuming this is the Bone's chamber, Ulrich uses his bag of tricks to throw three fuzzy balls to the ground. One turns into an elk, the second turns into a direwolf, and the third turns into a badger! As we approach, the sphincter opens for us, then closes behind as we all pass through.

The chamber beyond is indeed the end of the cavern. The room is circular with a domed ceiling, about 30 feet across. It's of course covered in Creep, and the ceiling has tons of fleshy orifices all over it. There's a big pool of purple liquid in the center that's about 20 feet wide, with a 10-foot pathway encircling it. The air is heaviest, and the stench is greatest in here.

As we enter, a giant creature rises out of the pool in the center of the room and unfurls itself before us and almost fills the entire room. It used to be the Canar Hivemind, but it has mutated greatly. It has a massive chest and giant, muscular arms that tower over us. But it has no head; instead there's a giant yellow blister-like pustule atop its neck. The creature's torso descends into a horrific twist of muscle and sinew, and its lower body is a bulbous mass with eight long spider-like legs protruding from it concentrically around the center. After it reaches full height, the pustule atop the neck pops, and a long, very long flesh-colored tentacle snakes out of it and points toward us.

"Welcome, thank you for travelling to my home" the creature says in deep Abyssal.

The creature initiates a jovial and matter-of-fact conversation with us. With the Bone as its host, it's stationary and must remain here, and it's grown bored of staying in this cave all the time. It wants to go out, see the world, and propagate. To do this, it needs a stronger Host. Much stronger. And it's happy that we came to visit. It doesn't have eyes, but it still seems to be leering at us expectantly. When Rael speaks to it, it says that the Bone has "strange memories" of him. *(Session 1.5 - The Canar were following and mimicking everyone, and Rael cast Fairy Fire, eliciting laughter from them all.)* It also knows about Hardholme, since we brought a piece of it there before. *(The infected cutting we took from the Last Tree.)*

The thing from the Creep that possessed the Bone obviously wants to attach to one of us and leave the forest, but we avoid leading the conversation in that direction, until it comes out and states that it wishes to attach to one of us. We politely decline its invitation, but it doesn't seem bothered at all. It offers to let us discuss this among ourselves, and the tentacle retracts back into the torso. The gang discusses the path forward. If one of us agrees to become Host for this creature, then the Creep will disappear from the forest, and the host will need to struggle with staving off the parasite. We do have the Kibble potions to help with this. However, we could also fight this creature and destroy all the Creep. But this chamber is definitely not suited to our favor. The floor is mostly mutagen, this creature has full reach of the chamber with those arms and tentacle, there are innumerable Creepers just outside the door, and who knows what might come out of those countless orifices all over the domed ceiling.

Everyone is pensive about the decision, but no one offers to become a Host. Ulrich becomes tired of discussing ramifications and readies his weapon to fight. He's interrupted by Indigo, who suddenly offers to become host to the creature. Indy wants to avoid combat at all costs, he's curious about the parasitic Creepture, and he thinks he will be able to contain it effectively within himself. Rael likewise offers to become the Host; he feels partially responsible for the way the Creep took over the forest, and this would be a way to bring back some semblance of karmic balance. Root as well offers to become the Host; he's made it his mission to cleanse the forest, he sees the immense danger in trying to fight the Bone, but he also believes that he would be a stronger candidate to contain the creature within himself. His constitution is greater than Indigo's and Rael's, and he says that they have important things to offer Hardholme, so their potential loss would be harder felt in the community. We argue over who should become the host, and eventually decide that Root would be the best candidate. "We won't all make it out of here if we fight. I'll take control of it, and you'll all help me," he states. Ulrich tells Root that if he takes this creature into his body, then he'll have no choice but to fire him from the Academy, because Ulrich doesn't want the children exposed to this potential danger. "Also, you are the BEST teacher we have, Root," Ulrich tries to reason with him. But Root's already made up his mind; he will carry this burden for the sake of everyone else.

We reengage the Bone, and Root offers to become its host. The Bone is very pleased; the tentacle snakes back out of its torso and extends toward Root. "Before you do this," Root states, "Just know that this is temporary. And you will be beaten..." The Bone laughs and seems completely unworried by Root's warning. The end of the tentacle opens into a large vertical mouth-like orifice, and it descends down over Root, encasing his entire body within the tentacle. The tentacle lifts Root into the air and retracts back into the torso, and the entire body descends back inside the purple mutagen. The liquid begins to bubble and steam, and the Creep covering the chamber seems to melt away. The mutagen all melts away as well, and Root is left lying unconscious at the bottom of the empty pool.

Sparky rushes to Root and immediately pours Kibble potion into his mouth. Root chokes a bit, but he swallows and regains his composure. He feels bad, but he thinks he'll be okay. His left arm is now highly mutated; it's purple and sick-looking with dark veins running all over it. He stares at his new arm for a moment and says absent-mindedly to Ulrich that he thinks he will, in fact, quit his teaching position, so there's no need for firing; he doesn't want the children to see this kind of thing. We all give him the Kibble potions we've been carrying; he'll definitely need them to hold the Parasite at bay for the foreseeable future. The Creep is melting away from the cave, and all the Creepers are now dead and melting away as well. We exit the cave into the now-barren valley and decide to make camp for the night before continuing onward. Since we've grown accustomed to sleeping in the unfoldable boat and feel safe in there, we take it out and sleep in it, even though it's no longer really necessary. haha

### **Days 4 and 5**

The Creep Forest is indeed gone! The little Creep that remains is rapidly melting away, leaving the valley a mostly-barren wasteland that will need to grow again over time. In accordance with our previous plans, we'll continue moving eastward through the mountain pass that we saw from Ragrizzor's back, into the Great Unknown... Sparky decides to return by himself to the Last Tree to check on it, so we part ways with him. We promise that we'll stop by the Tree on our way back.

We spend two days traveling northeast to the mountain pass. All that's left in this valley is some particularly hardy grasses that remained under the Creep, and the Kibble that was completely unaffected. At least the Kibble is plainly visible now! No need to dig under Creep to find it! Upon reaching the mountain pass in the evening of Day 5, we make camp and rest before venturing through.

### **Days 6 & Onward**

We enter the mountain pass, now dubbed "Indigo Pass" and follow it to the other side. The width of the pass varies greatly as we travel, and there's a hazy fog that sort of refracts the light and messes with our vision. Colors change; everyone's skin and clothes look different.

We emerge from the pass into a dreamy forest that looks similar to the one surrounding Etherwood. There's a sparkling waterfall nearby cascading down the mountainside into a river. We open our boat and board it to follow this new river. Before proceeding, we want to test the waterfall for a potential cave behind it. Ulrich whips out his Rod of Lordly Might! He caresses (and presses!) one of its many buttons, causing it to transform into a (long!) measuring stick! He extends it outward beyond the boat and into the blue waterfall; he verifies that there is, indeed, NO secret cave behind it.

We use the boat to follow the river; it forks eastward and southward. We guess that the southward branch leads toward the other side of the Mushroom Forest (maybe!!), so we choose to follow the eastward branch. The river runs through the forest and eventually discharges into a giant, open ocean!!

Far, far to the east, we see a giant island/mountain jutting vertically out of the water. We set sail and spend a couple days travelling toward it. It's windy out here, the water is choppy, but nothing horrible happens during the journey; the mountain slowly fills our field of view as we approach it. We can now see that its top is covered with trees, and we can vaguely see creatures flying above the treetops...

When we get close to the mountain/island, we notice a smaller island to the north. That one's not mountainous; it just appears to be a regular small island near the giant one. Being the leader of the exploratory expedition, Indigo decides to visit the smaller island instead of spending several days trying to climb the vertical mountainside of the big island.

The smaller island looks very inviting; it's covered with lush trees, and there are sandy beaches all around it. As we approach, Jespora notices something odd... It appears the island is *slightly* moving...? She also sees an ENORMOUS flipper moving far underwater! It turns out that this island is actually the back of a massive, gargantuan sea turtle!!! Land and trees have formed on top of it, nevertheless!

We land the ship on the "island." Turtle Island?? Is that a good name for it? We're standing atop its shell that's been covered with dirt and given root to all these trees over who knows how long? The turtle seems to be slowly swimming northwest. Looking at our map, we conclude that this ocean must be the same body of water that connects to Etherwood, meaning the Zoraphim and their world must be within the deep waters beneath us.

The island itself appears to be deserted, although we do find a makeshift campsite. We find some wooden bowls, a (recent) campfire, and gnome-sized lean-to's that appear crudely made. It's all poorly-crafted, and it looks like whoever was here recently wasn't very accustomed to living in the wild.

It's time to head back to Hardholme, and we discuss making our way northwest through the ocean toward Etherwood, or going back through the forest and mountain pass. The journey to Etherwood would definitely take much longer, and we promised Sparky we'd return to the Last Tree on our way back, so we head westward for the return journey.

### **-----THE FIRST TREE-----**

Passing back through the barren Canar Valley, we return to the Last Tree and Sparky. He's been happily tending to it since he arrived last week; the tree now looks much healthier, and the Creep infection is completely gone. We spend the night with Sparky at the Tree. During the night, Rael and Root work together to cast Plant Growth in tandem on the tree to make it extra resilient. By morning, the tree has grown HUGE! MASSIVE! GIANT! (Look up the "Mana Tree") This last firebirch, with its snow-white bark and blood-red leaves is now dubbed the "First Tree." We hope that over time it will regenerate the forest and bring back the magical beauty of the mountain valley.

Sparky is exuberant. He is so happy, and he thanks us greatly for all we've done for the tree and the future of the forest. He also says that his job here is done, and it's time to leave. He refuses to return to Hardholme with us, though. He has no place here or in Hardholme, he says. He thinks instead he'll travel the world and explore... maybe go south and see what's down there... Upon beginning the final leg of our return trip to Hardholme, we say our Goodbyes to Sparky and hope that some day we'll meet him again.

* The Creep is now gone, but Root has taken the burden of it upon himself. How will he deal with it, and how can we help him overcome it?
* What other new things might we find on the other side of the mountains beyond the valley?
* Where does the south branch of the river lead?
* What's up on top of that giant mountain/island in the eastern ocean?
* Will Turtle Island still be around during our next visit?
* Who was camping on Turtle Island? The campfire was recent; could they have still been there, hiding from us? Will they still be there during our next visit?
* How many people can Carric's new pool hold?