Transgress the Natural Order

Saint Troya in an undisclosed location

The gang set out for the Wild Wood, on the lukewarm trail of Saint Troya. Upon their arrival, they find several unexpected mysteries afoot.

## Story

### Into the Woods

After Demeter and Anahita met in Drakkenhall to discuss matters of the soul and Theralar's dagger, they travelled to Santa Cora, where they met up with Alina, Thamra, and Layla in the Pickled Priest tavern to plan their trip into the Wild Wood. Hearing Demeter's concern about returning to the home she'd left behind after her exile, Alina concocted for the former druid a talisman that would disguise her with a magical glamour for as long as she wore it. Hesitantly, Demeter relented, and agreed to accompany them to her old homeland.

The trip was largely uneventful, broken up by some strange and troubling dreams as the party camped at the Wood's edge. The next day, the party was stopped by a patrol of Grey Ghosts, who recognised Alina and offered to bring them to their camp to meet their leader, Casilda Grey. Casilda, her usual overly boisterous self, was ecstatic to see Alina again, and after some catching up, Alina asked why she was still patrolling the druids' land when her term of service to the High Druid should have ended. Turns out, the High Druid had left about a year ago on some spiritual pilgrimage and never returned, and Casilda had been waiting for her so they could finalise the agreement. Casilda agreed to accompany the party to the Enclave to "vouch" for them as hard as she possibly could, and so they set off again.

On their arrival in the druids' grove, the party was greeted by a black dragonic, who, recognising Casilda, took them to see Elithir Cloudthunder on their request. Strangely, Elithir didn't seem to recognise Alina, instead addressing her as Lady Goldenray. After some confused questioning, the party requested an audience with the Enclave's inner circle, which, luck have it, was meeting the next day. Elithir arranged for accommodations for them in the meantime. At some point, Casilda returned to her camp.

### A Joyful Reunion

The party was to be hosted for the night by a downcast druid named Cronus. Demeter seemed especially uncomfortable around him, and Thamra quickly put together that Cronus was her father. After an awkward dinner, Demeter retired to her old room, and Alina spent the rest of the night on the town, where she found a drinking hole full of disaffected druids desperately drinking distractions, from whom she discovered that the spirit in the Enclave was soured by the High Druid's disappearance, and that no one had seen any trace of anyone who looked like Troya.

The next morning, Anahita rose from her trance and left the house before dawn to visit an ancient tree acquaintance who used to be part of the Inner Circle a long time ago. Meanwhile, Demeter awoke to find Cronus had fallen asleep while drinking in the kitchen. She cleaned up around him and moved him to his bed. With their host still out of commission, Demeter, Thamra, and Alina prepared breakfast.

Later, when Cronus finally emerged, he bid everyone goodbye but asked Demeter to help him tidy up, to which she reluctantly agreed. After the others left, Cronus revealed that, even through her disguise, he'd figured out that Demeter was his daughter. Amidst some tense and emotional exchanges, he told Demeter that her mother, Rhea, had supposedly become a dire beast and vanished into the woods. After a teary farewell, Demeter joined the others to meet with the Inner Circle.

### The Inner Circle

The party was brought to the centre of the grove, where the several dozen druids of the Inner Circle had assembled. An old goblin directed them to step forward and address the Circle. The party brought before them the first of their concerns: the alleged presence of a particular person of a particular appearance. After some initial confusion over the vagueness of the descriptions, and a series of (mostly bad) sketches, someone eventually recognised that they were talking about the Dragon Empire's crown princess. The Circle reacted with broad alarm at this revelation, but the party was told that she hadn't been seen in these woods, nor anyone who looked like her.

When the party asked the Circle about the High Druid's disappearance, they were flatly told that this was not a matter for outsiders to concern themselves with. Anahita offered her services to help find and return the High Druid, and the assembled druids eventually accepted her assistance. Next, a still disguised Demeter asked about the possibility of an exiled druid being granted forgiveness. After some brief, disorderly discussion between the Circle, the goblin announced on their behalf that, though such an occurrence would not be expected, there was enough support in the community to grant this particular druid a second chance.

Finally, Alina asked them if they knew who she was, and was predictably told Tarielye Goldenray. After an unsatisfying series of inquiries, she revealed her actual identity, and a shocked and exasperated Elithir announced an end to the meeting and dragged the party off to question Alina in private. Alina caught him up (as well as the rest of the party) on the situation with Tarielye's spectre. To Elithir's mind, the only option was to satisfy the spirit's regrets by bringing her murderer to justice -- which Alina clarified would mean bringing down the Elf Queen herself, a nigh impossible task -- or summoning and then destroying her spectral form to allow her soul to move on to the Astral Plane. Gadai's ritual altar, being tied so closely to her death, would provide a good basis for summoning Tarielye's spectre. Though Alina still wanted to return Tarielye to life and return her stolen body to her, Elithir advised against it -- the cycle of life and death should be respected.

Meanwhile, Anahita, with the help of several of the more spiritually inclined druids of the Inner Circle, performed a ritual to reach out through the Astral Plane. Despite some difficulties, Anahita and Viert, the old Goblin, found themselves in the Astral Plane, where they searched for and eventually found the faint, distant presence of Ionadai Airde, the missing High Druid. She hadn't returned from last year's pilgrimage because she'd apparently found a dangerous taint within the Worldsoul, and told Anahita that if she were to come retrieve her, she should bring everything she could to help expel this taint.

As Anahita recovered from such a taxing ritual, she discussed her findings with the rest of the party. She talked Viert into sharing her concerns with the Inner Circle and recruiting the aid of as many as they could to combat the threat within the Worldsoul -- the presence of the Lich King. Viert promised to do as much as he could, but was wary of some of Anahita's requests.

As the party was departing the grove, they were met by a druidic ranger named Aren, who said he'd been sent by the Inner Circle to assist them on their task.

### Alina's Haunting

On their way to the altar, Alina took to the sky in her dragon form, carrying Thamra and Layla, while Demeter, Anahita, and Aren travelled by foot. While Alina and Thamra discussed the ethical ramifications of what to do about Tarielye, the ground party found themselves stalked by a giant beast, and a still disguised Demeter in particular found herself trapped in an awkward conversation with Aren.

The sky party found the altar first. While they waited for the ground party to arrive, Thamra made preparations for a summoning and binding ritual, and Alina cast a spell to inform Elithir of their arrival. Once the ground party arrived, Anahita performed a reading on the altar, but was unable to learn anything particularly useful. By the time she was done, Elithir had stepped out of a tree, and began helping with the ritual, which Thamra surreptitiously adapted to Alina's plan to return Tarielye's soul to her body. Meanwhile, Aren went back into the woods to chase away the giant beast that was apparently still stalking them, and Demeter and Layla went after him.

Once the ritual began, Tarielye's spectre was forced to manifest within the binding circle, but quickly seized a fragment of Alina's spirit. The spectre swelled into the form of a shadowy dragon and broke through the binding circle. After a fierce battle, the spectre was forced back into its original form. Elithir commanded the party to destroy it, but Thamra commenced the alternate plan instead. As the spectre began draining Alina's vitality, Alina threw her soul into the Astral Plane while she and Thamra bound Tarielye's soul to her body.

When it became clear what had just happened, Elithir became enraged, promising to hold Thamra accountable if anything had happened to Alina. After ensuring Tarielye was awake and well, he returned to the druid grove to discuss the happenings with the Inner Circle. Tarielye, now in Alina's body, expressed confusion about, well, everything. After the party caught her up a bit on her disappearance and current events, they too returned to the grove to regroup.

Anahita secured the assistance of four druid ritualists to help follow the trail of the High Druid, and the party ventured forth once more.

Several hours of somewhat strange travel later, Demeter went ahead to scout, saying she'd heard a strange voice. Thamra and Tarielye went with her, but couldn't quite keep pace, what with her turning into a bird. In the treetops, Demeter spotted a strange cloaked drow, and caught up to talk. The drow called herself Sleet, and seemed pretty cagey until Demeter agreed to help her out. She was part of a crew who was looking for Elspeth Malatyne, who, by Demeter's reckoning, seemed to have more than a little in common with Magnolia Moonwax. Sleet continued on her way, and Demeter returned to ground level, where Thamra and Tarielye had been waiting for her. After Demeter caught them up, they returned to the rest of the group.

Night fell, and the party stopped to camp. Anahita maintained a trance through the night to maintain the ritual, while the rest were haunted by strange shared nightmares featuring images of Alina.

### A Dire Encounter

The next day, Aren was mercifully quieter than usual, seemingly lost in thought. After a while, he told Demeter he had something she'd want to see, so she reluctantly followed him into the treetops, where he showed her a dire lion stalking through the woods. This was Demeter's mother, he told her. He began throwing increasingly bold, increasingly unhinged accusations at her, eventually asserting that she was banished because she'd done this to her own mother. Offended, Demeter threw a punch at him, and the conflict quickly escalated into a bloody treetop brawl, which Demeter won. Though she tried to prevent it, Aren fell to his death.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party was growing concerned, and Tarielye decided to go looking for Demeter, only to be ambushed by a huge lion. The party fought fiercely against the dire beast, but knowing what they did about the nature of dire beasts, Anahita and Tarielye were reluctant to slay a lost druid. Eventually, with the help of Tarielye's animal rapport, the lion was subdued. The party then went after and found Demeter, who was distraught over Aren's death, and requested taking his body with them, to which the party reluctantly relented.

Later, Demeter revealed the identity of the dire lion as her mother, Rhea. At the behest of some divine inspiration, Thamra performed a restorative ritual on the dire lion in an attempt to restore Rhea's humanity, during which he sensed the influence of some malevolent alien presence. Though the ritual was a success, it appeared it would take some time for Rhea's form to return to normal, so the party decided to make camp for the night. Demeter endured a disturbing dream about pulling a cursed knot of flesh out of her mother. When she woke the next morning, she found the bloody knot in her hand, and her mother gone.

### Belated Returns

After resuming their travels, the party met a strange old gnome by the name of Flimsy Pete, who'd set up some kind of yard sale in the woods. Though he had little in the way of mercantile skill, some of his wares caught the party's interest: Demeter bought a wrist guard made from a demonic metal called slade, Tarielye bought a fancy cup-and-ball game [was there something special about this?], and Thamra's eye was caught by an old book written in an ancient variant of Nessian with a peculiar symbol scratched into the cover, all purchased for a steal thanks to Pete's incompetent haggling. After an even more bizarre encounter, this time with a sentient collection of dead trees that called itself the King of the Woods, the party made camp for the night, and were haunted by strange dreams, eventually plunged together into an ancient Harasi under siege by a shadowy dragon.

The next day, the party came across an abandoned town that was familiar to both Demeter (because she'd been there a few years prior) and Thamra (because he'd had an ominous dream about it the night before). Anahita sensed an astral presence, and Demeter scouted ahead, only to be attacked by a villager. The party regrouped and was chased by dozens of seemingly mindless villagers until they fled the town. Anahita surmised that the astral entity she'd sensed earlier must be behind this.

Demeter, remembering the path she'd taken to Theralar's lair when she was here last, led the party to a strange, enclosed nest hanging in a tree. The party passed through the tree, leaving the druid ritualists to maintain the tracking ritual on the other side. Here, they found themselves in a faintly luminous, more vibrant and alien reflection of the woods they'd just been travelling through. Nearby, they met a craggy, gnome-like creature, a friend of Demeter named Gepetto. His fey tribe had been slaughtered by dread creatures he dared not name. Demeter mentioned a river that should lead them to Theralar's cave, which Gepetto agreed to guide them to. On the way, the party was ambushed, and Gepetto was brutally killed by a briar elf who stepped out of a tree trunk. The party fought, managing to kill a couple of briar elves before Thamra was nearly killed by an unseen sniper hiding in the treetops. Tarielye used dark magic to steal life essence from one of the assassins and healed Thamra with it, and they all managed to flee to the cover of the cave entrance that the river flowed from.

### Renovator's Nightmare

The river and the cave mouth strongly called Thamra's dream to his mind. He'd followed a path alongside a river just like this one, and met a young woman in a cavern complex that looked spookily like the cave they'd just entered. The party searched through the complex, relying on Demeter's recollection and Thamra's dream to guide them. After a few hours of searching, they eventually found the oubliette Demeter remembered being imprisoned in last time she was here, and then the dungeon where they'd found Laurie's original clone (now Elizabeth).

Demeter sensed a strange presence in one of the cells, and after some persistent searching, a familiar thundercrack heralded an extraplanar ambusher, who the party quickly subdued.

[TO BE CONTINUED]

## Player Characters

* Alina Heartsoul -- played by Theliotrope
* Anahita -- played by Hinchy58
* Demeter -- played by VoidDemeter
* Thamra Lotho -- played by Kiripha
* Tarielye Goldenray -- played by Theliotrope

## Non-player Characters

* Layla Crestfire
* Casilda Grey
* Mitch Elan-Starr
* Elithir Cloudthunder
* Tarielye Goldenray
* Cronus
* Bough
* Rhea
* Viert Zomra
* Edgar Thiele
* Aren
* Ionadai Airde
* Ariel
* Sleet
* Clover
* Flimsy Pete
* King of the Woods
* Gepetto
* Saint Arglos
* Saint Troya
* Firre Edgeland
* Elspeth Malatyne