Session 02

Date range of Session 02

## 33rd of Duoary

### The Banquet - Early Evening

Our session began on the 33rd of Duoary, in the great hall of Morozova Manor, where a number of tables were arranged for a banquet. Honoured guests, among them Deitrick of the Court of Fire, Electra Shimbleshanks, and Amanita of the Celial Sisterhood, sat at the head of a large banqueting table. Around them, smaller tables were arranged, with figures such as Alina and Ulla Morozova, Vanz Kan Danz, Captain Lysandra Clawthrone, and an unusual dwarf and an ornately dressed albino raven in attendance.

Soon Balthazar, running late due to heavy winds outside, burst into the hall and quickly took to entertaining Alexander Morozova’s guests, joining a smaller table and delighting them with dancing glasses and mice. Gus Shimbleshanks seemed particularly enthralled by the performance, interrogating the mouseling with a barrage of questions about magic.

Meanwhile, at the banqueting table, Baghra Morozova approached the family’s old friend, Deitrick, and asked about sharing “notes” on the subject of alchemy. She revealed she was trying to create a new potion to “help people” and asked him to accompany her to her workshop later that evening.

Amanita and Electra were seated next to each other at the table; however, few words were exchanged between the two. Amanita, sensing the living nature of the manor itself, rested her hands on the table and let her spores become one with the wood. While she expected to commune with the living wood of the house, she was met with silence and the overwhelming sensation that the house was filled with tension, struggling to hold itself together. She dug deeper into the house’s “mind” and discovered another force: it seemed the manor was fighting against another consciousness.

Amanita’s strange magic unnerved Electra, who dusted away the Sister’s spores and rolled her eyes. But, doing her best to immerse herself in what she perceived as local customs, she tried to mimic the Sister, placing her hands on the table and rolling her eyes back. Balthazar soon joined the table and asked Electra about her own magical abilities.

As the banquet continued, the group mingled with the manor’s guests. Deitrick spoke with Alexander and reinforced a mutual desire to strengthen connections between their houses. Alexander, pondering his glowing orb, told Deitrick that strange things were wandering the surrounding forests and noted a blight afflicting the land, causing villagers in Pinewatch to fall ill. Before he rose to retire for the evening, he revealed to Deitrick that he was “working on something,” some kind of large project.

The tiefling, mouseling, cat, and Sister approached the strange dwarf and the albino raven. The dwarf introduced himself as Archibald Ashworthy, a professor who had travelled widely across stormbound, including to the Ashlands. The raven introduced herself as Lady Genevieve Abernathy. The pair revealed that they were travelling on to the capital of Greensgood.

To entertain the pair and prove his magical prowess, Balthazar cast *Nathair’s mischief*, summoning bouquets of flowers that dazzled and sprayed the guests. Ashworthy was momentarily blinded, but most of the party was unaffected. While Detrick pretended to enjoy the spectacle, he callously crushed some of Balthazar’s flowers under his feet.

During their conversation with the professor, the group learned that the dwarf had recently lost a small brass ring in the nearby Labyrinth of Death, a hedge maze built by a sorcerer in ages past that had become a harmless local attraction. Electra asked about the ring and seemed to take notes. Ashworthy asked her if she was a private investigator, to which she haughtily replied that she was a diplomat of the Arid Frontier. She suggested they would try to look out for the ring if they passed through the area but warned him to be more careful.

They also learned of a new power, a family of Eldari calling themselves “United,” rising in influence in the Ashland Trust. However, their goals remained a mystery to the group. The professor also noted to Deitrick that the Eldari seemed to have less magic than they once had, but the reason similarly remained a mystery.

At this point in the evening, dinner was interrupted by the doors to the hall flying open. A young, blonde woman Balthazar recognised as the mayor of Pinewatch entered the room. Flustered and trailed by five guards, she demanded to speak with Alexander. Making do with Balthazar, however, the mayor revealed that a young dragon had been sighted nearby. She requested aid in dealing with the dragon and asked Ellard Shadowfen to gather a group of soldiers to attack the beast. During the conversation, she also revealed that her ring, a small band of gold inset with diamonds, had gone missing, vanishing from her dressing table in Pinewatch. Electra also noticed that she had lost some of her bangles.

Amanita had seated herself by Ulla Morozova but quickly decided to get closer to the mayor. Taking out a wand, she began to cast a *detect magic* spell. She found the room steeped in conjuration and abjuration magic and noticed magical items on many guests and staff. As she neared the banqueting table, the mayor’s guards eyed her with distrust. Seeing this, Amanita approached the guards. One guard called the Sister a witch and seemed to connect the Celial Sisterhood to some strange mushroom activity in the area. The mayor scolded her guards for disrespecting the Sister and revealed that the nearby Xeros Mine had become overgrown with malicious mushrooms and spores.

### The Banquet - Later in the Evening

As the evening drew later, Baghra asked Deitrick to accompany her to her workshop. She revealed she was working on a potion to regain mana and showed the tiefling a shimmering blue potion. She was intrigued to see if the potion would work on an arcane caster like himself, and he agreed to test the potion. But rather than regaining mana, he felt himself losing magical power upon drinking the potion. Due to his arcane expertise, however, he realised the flaw in Baghra’s methodology: she was trying to effectively cast a spell backwards, a process that required something of opposite value to be exchanged (e.g. heat must be used to create cold). He agreed to return and assist her in refining the potion further.

Around this time, Electra and Balthazar decided to pay a visit to the mysterious Vanz Kan Danz and his mouse Precious. Balthazar tried to hitch a journey on Electra’s cloak, but she threw the mouseling into her bag, where he came face to face with Colossus, Electra’s fashionable pooch. The pair spoke with Kan Danz, who revealed that he was a travelling illusionist who was no longer welcome in the Arid Frontier, courtesy of a trick in which he lost one of Deuteronomy’s scrolls. Balthazar then challenged Kan Danz to a dice game, though the cat insisted on using a coin. Ultimately, Balthazar convinced him to play dice, and after two identical rolls, Balthazar won the game, seemingly clearing Kan Danz of his meagre wealth. When Electra mentioned the missing rings and objects, Kan Danz seemed uninterested.

After his win, Balthazar announced that he would retire for the evening and left Electra to her devices. She proceeded to wander around the manor looking for anything of note and soon stumbled across a strange door. She noted that the pulsing light within the manor's living wood seemed to coalesce at this point. Recalling the Sister she had seen earlier talking with a table, Electra asked Amanita for her aid. Amanita, intrigued, agreed to help.

Leading Amanita to the site where she had seen the tree, Electra placed her hands on the wood and tried to mimic Amanita’s earlier spell. She cast some kind of magic, but nothing seemed to happen. Amanita then asked Electra to take her hand and offered to share her spores with the cleric. Electra (possibly against her better judgement) welcomed the spores. Then, casting *speak with plants* for the second time that evening, Amanita spoke with the consciousness within the door. She learned that the Morozovas created the door in ages past, but the plant avoided giving any specifics. She pushed for the door to open itself, claiming to be helping the Morozovas and to have been sent by Alexander. Unknown to Amanita, the house possessed some kind of psychic link with its master, and the door spoke to Alexander, who confirmed they were not authorised to access that section of the house. The door refused to budge, declaring, “*You do not work for the Morozovas*”.

In another section of the house, Balthazar happened to cast *detect thoughts* and overheard the conversation between the house and Alexander. Then, taking his *horn of silent alarm*, he blew a warning in Electra’s and Amanita’s minds and made his way towards the vault known as the Greenhold, the heart of Morozova Manor.

After hearing the alarm, Amanita seemed taken aback and asked Electra why she needed to access the vault. When she responded that she just thought it was interesting, Amanita recalled her spores to herself. Leaving Electra, she rushed from the room, but not before running into Balthazar, who simply wished her a good evening.

Soon, all members of the group retired for the night. Balthazar headed to a small, hidden hammock while Amanita returned to her room and immediately used her staff, *Mother’s Heart,* to access memories of the Greenhold. Connecting the staff to the earth, she spread mycelium deep into the earth. She walked in the memories of the old druid who crafted the Greenhold. While many of the details remained unclear, she learned that the vault was created to contain something, with the spell used to create it located in a powerful tome named *Root and Stem*.

Electra similarly made use of her staff, casting a *seeming* spell on herself that made her appear as Amanita. With this appearance, she attempted to commune with the living wood of the manor. Once again imitating Amanita, she placed her hands on the wood. The plants, however, recognised her as an imposter, and a vine smacked her hand.

All four would find their sleep restless and disturbed by unsettling dreams.

### Bad Dreams

Deitrick found himself surrounded by a rain of ash and fire. In the distance, he saw a great fire approaching, consuming everything in its wake. Behind him, he saw a sphere of darkness. From this darkness, a voice asked him to reveal a secret about himself. Deitrick revealed that he had killed his former master, the man who had first taught him his magic.

Balthazar, from his hammock, saw a figure of shadow leaning over the sleeping Deitrick, imploring the tiefling to “tell [them his] secrets”. Then, Balthazar felt himself falling through a pitch-black void – his greatest fear – and felt something brush against him in the darkness.

Amanita, meanwhile, saw Balthazar falling as if in a memory. But another memory took hold. She saw a strange type of fungus beginning to spread across stone, with the fungus filling and animating an ancient suit of armour. Then, the armour turned slowly to face her. A voice asked her for something she wanted to know, and Amanita asked about the state of the Bellton Sanctum.

Electra found herself in an infinite desert, without rock or even sky, surrounded by nothing but sand and wind. Above her loomed a shadowy figure holding two feline-shaped dolls in their hands. The figure then began to squeeze the dolls, and they disappeared. A voice asked for a thing she hated about herself, and Electra revealed her hatred for being perceived as a fool.

Finally, all four characters found themselves in a shared dream, in a dark, cave-like space that smelled damp. There appeared to be nothing outside of the cave. Before them, the group saw a pile of objects, some mundane, others magical, among them Deitrick’s staff *Hope’s Abandon*, Electra’s staff *Amnesty*, Balthazar’s wand *Azazel’s Prophecy*, and Amanita’s staff *Mother’s Heart*. Each saw a thin, shadowy figure, and it seemed that no secrets existed between the group: everyone had heard Deitrick’s confession, Balthazar’s fear of the dark, Amanita’s desire to know about the Bellton Sanctum, and Electra’s hatred for being thought a fool.

Then, as quickly as the dream began, it ended.

## 34th of Duoary

In the morning, the characters grappled with their dreams from the night before. While Deitrick felt the dream quickly slip away, the others attempted to come to terms with what had happened to them. Amanita spoke with her companion Savos, and while they were unable to identify the fungus from the dream, Savos revealed that they had seen a shadowy figure over Amanita in the night.

Electra used a sending spell to contact Deuteronomy in the Ethereal Basin, saying: “*Weird ass dreams. What is the Bellton Sanctum? I might need a book. I suppose these people are very strange. Don’t die, please*”. She quickly received a reply: “*Bellton is Celium Sanctum in Ironclad Union. Look to Bellton City. Got taken by constructs. Bad work there. Love you too*”.

Balthazar relayed the information from his dream and the previous night to Alexander, revealing that their guests might have malicious intent. Alexander continued to withhold information on what was stored in the Greenhold, but he assured Balthazar that the time was approaching when he would share the Greenhold’s secrets with the mouseling. Alexander then asked Balthazar to test the trio from his dream and requested their aid in investigating the issues in Pinewatch. Before leaving, Alexander spoke of needing to “check” something and asked Balthazar to “keep [their] guests entertained”. Then, he vanished into his mysterious sphere.

Balthazar, excited that he was being given the opportunity to “go on an adventure,” eagerly woke up every figure he had seen in his dream.

At breakfast, Electra presented a small cheesecloth filled with rocks and mud to the butler Fobb, who seemed slightly bemused by the offering, before she spoke with the Celial Sister. The pair discussed their shared dream, and Electra asked Amanita about the Bellton Sanctum. Amanita revealed that the Sanctum was once her home but remarked that she did not wish to return there. Having overheard mention of the Bellton Sanctum, both Deitrick and Balthazar joined the table; however, Electra, Amanita, and Balthazar seemed wary of the tiefling following the revelation they heard in their dream.

With the group convened, the manservant Fobb approached the table and handed Electra a list of jobs requiring investigation (though not without accidentally handing her the manor’s shopping list, written in Ockran). The list drew attention to the strange growths in the mines, the dragon, the blighted crops and sickness, and the missing rings. Having agreed to assist, the party then left for the nearby town of Pinewatch.

Just as the group was leaving Morozova Manor, the familiar figure of Vanz Kan Danz approached them and begged for help. He claimed to have lost a light blue and purple potion that was essential to his act, allowing him to become invulnerable for a time. He asked only that the group take a similar potion from Baghra’s workshop. Balthazar resolutely refused to steal from Baghra, but the group agreed to possibly help the performer later in the evening.

### Pinewatch

On the road to Pinewatch, Deitrick unburdened himself of his secret, revealing the true reason he killed his master. According to Deitrick, his master began to dabble in dark powers, a corruption that Deitrick put an end to when his master attempted to sacrifice a child in a ritual. Balthazar and Amanita took this account without question, but Electra seemed unconvinced by the tale, recalling stories she had heard about the tiefling. She kept any suspicions to herself.

The party then reached the “town” of Pinewatch – more of a village than an actual town – and they saw the blight infecting the townspeople. Upon arriving, Balthazar boomed his voice and declared their intention to stop the blight. Electra questioned an individual with a visibly blighted patch of skin about the timeline of their symptoms. They revealed they had been infected three weeks prior, and their family had been infected a couple of weeks prior to them. Electra thus concluded there was no rush to cure the blight.

Upon speaking to the mayor, the party learned that the blight began with the town’s crops, specifically the town’s wheat crops. The lack of blight at Morozova Manor led the mayor to believe the blight was not linked to the water. She then took the party to the wheat fields.

On the walk over, Deitrick – having made himself appear considerably more attractive, with shiny hair, shorter horns, and a slightly less emaciated build – asked the mayor about her relationship status and when he learned she was a widow (somehow?) managed to organise a dinner date for the evening.

When the party arrived at the fields, they were met with a barren wasteland, with the once fertile soil filled with ash and some traces of unburned wheat. The mayor revealed that they had attempted to burn the crops to stop the blight from spreading; however, their attempts had proven in vain. Balthazar showed the mayor the “proper” way to dispose of corrupted crops, burning a section of remaining crops with acid while Amanita harnessed some arcane power to see underneath the soil. What she saw horrified her: underneath the soil was a mycelium network, not unlike the Network used by the Sisterhood, which gathered and spread in a line towards the village. The origin of the mycelium network seemed to point towards the Xeros Mine to the north.

### The Xeros Mine

The party unanimously decided to follow the strange mycelium to the mine. On their way, they encountered John Turk outside the Labyrinth of Death, who attempted to coerce the group into visiting the Labyrinth. Balthazar, however, knowing Turk to be a local charlatan, insisted that the party needed to attend to important business, and the group avoided entering the Labyrinth.

When the party arrived at the entrance to the abandoned mines, they found the cavern overgrown with a strange kind of fungus that was unknown even to the Celial Sister. When Amanita attempted to speak with the fungus, her mind rang with a thousand screams. Deciding that the fungus was evil in nature, Electra created water, Balthazar and Amanita shaped the water to cover the fungus, and Deitrick fired a *witch bolt* at the fungus. To his surprise, the fungus seemed to absorb the electricity. Deciding to explore further, Deitrick jumped down into the central mineshaft, Balthazar climbed down the walls, and Amanita and Electra slowly lowered themselves into the darkness.

At the bottom of the shaft, Deitrick lit Dawnbringer and filled the caverns with light, revealing even more fungal growths, and he began to explore. Though he quickly fell into a 10ft pit. Balthazar, ever the intrepid adventurer, wanted to test the resonance of the mines and yelled “echo” into the darkness. And the darkness spoke back. The group heard the ominous sound of something large shambling in the depths.

What ensued was the beginning of a fight against the fungus itself. Deitrick fought alongside a summoned gargoyle from the walls of the mines, Electra aided the party with her blessings, and Balthazar managed to ward himself against attacks from any plants. The party fought a hideous shambling mound, which seemed to be a fungal amalgamation with six mouths and nine eyes. Deitrick stopped the mound instantly with a prepared fireball, sending screams echoing throughout the mines.

We end the session with the party venturing deeper into the mines and the source of the mysterious blight.