Story 10/3

The session began with the group investigating a dancing elf on an altar with a human kneeling at her feet. Geistsabel began dragging the man away from the Altar, and suddenly... INITIATIVE!

When pulled away from the altar, the man turned into a large evil looking treant, and the 4 treants around the altar also

started to move and attack (also as treants). The 4 treants around the altar placed a pretty nefarious charm on 4 members of the group. The charm caused them to be pulled adjacent, immobilized, unable to attack the treant, and any damage taken by the treant was split between the treant and the charmed target. Luckily, the group used clever positioning and maneuvering and was able to break the charms, and defeat the treants in the fight.

After the fight, the group found 1200g in the area and a magic item on the corpses that was given to Klon. The group also began investigating the illusion field around the altar. It appeared as though vision outside the field would be effected, but vision inside towards the outside would be unaffected. Almost everyone in the group entered the field, and enacted the following changes:

Giestsabel - appeared as a Deer

Beorn - appeared as a larger Beorn

Klon - appeared as a dwarf

Monashe - first appeared as a raccoon, then as a moose, then as a bear, and continued on changing every few seconds.

Aeowyn - appeared as a tree

Hawkmoon - appeared as a raven

Erevan - appeared as a Tiefling.

Khaelis - appeared as a gnome.

Throughout the fight, the elf was dancing the entire time and seemed completely unaffected by the fight. The altar she was dancing on was basic stone painted purple, that seemed very old. Monashe attempted to throw a pinecone at her, but she just danced around it. After a bit of time, Erevan spoke to her in Elvish and she began looking at him. Taking this cue, Monashe also spoke in Elvish and got a response. Finally, Aeowyn spoke in Elvish and the elf stopped dancing, and turned into a Hamadryad.

She introduced herself as Nala. Aeowyn knew her very casually from Iym Nalore. She explained that a couple months back, Iym Nalore was attacked and a lot of the city was burned. A few weeks after that, black moss began appearing on Hamadryad home trees, causing those Hamadryad to become sick. They were working to remove the moss, but in some cases they were losing ground and the tree would become almost completely enveloped in black moss. In every case, the associated Hamadryad would disappear shortly after. Nala had come to be with her home tree 2 days before, and was surrounded by the 5 evil treants, so she started the defensive ritual to protect herself.

The group began investigating the area and learning about the black moss. Klon learned that the black moss was undead in origin (like the black moss from Thalstead) and was on most of the trees. Monashe ran some experiments with the moss and learned it was coming up from the ground, with Beorn suggested was likely and aquifer. Monashe also used his ability to determine what had walked by Nala's tree in the last 24 hours. He found that Nala, the 5 treants that were slain, and 6 additional treants had walked through the area. Additionally, lots of animals had been in the area (deer, rabbits, ravens, ravbits, bears, squirrels, etc.). Klon brewed some vials of holy water while the group enjoyed a camp and Monashe began to disect a treant. Inside the treant, Monashe found viens of black moss. After the holy water was ready, the group learned that the holy water reversed the effects of the black moss, so they used it on Nala's tree and took an extended rest.

The next morning, they found Nala embracing her tree, and muttering "it's thirsty". They determined that the holy water was working, but now the tree had no source of water since the aquifer underneath was corrupted. Nala told them of a stream that was about a mile and a half away. Monashe was curious about a Hamadryad named Vaya who had disappeared recently, and wanted to go to her tree. Nala and Monashe headed towards Vaya's tree, and the rest of the group went towards the stream.

At Vaya's tree, they found evidence that the tree had completely uprooted and was gone! Monashe and Nala headed back, and Monashe left Nala at her tree and rejoined the group at the stream. Upon reaching the stream, the group found more evidence of black water and black moss in the stream, and decided to head upstream to find the source.

Beorn stealthed ahead, and found a hill near the stream that look a bit out of place. He saw a stone door with a face on the hillside, and saw a cloaked figure come out of the door, poor black sludge in the stream and then return to the door. He and Monashe decided to go up to the door and try and figure out what was going on (Beorn in disguise).

The door was rather, silly, and loved talking to Beorn and Monashe. They learned the door was created by a gnome

named Desmond, and that he had been a door in many different places. It didn't have a good perception of time, and was pretty naive in general. Above the door, the words "The password is friend" was written. The group predictable tried some Lord of the Rings shenanigans, but this didn't work. Monashe even gave the door a name, Dorian the Door. Eventually, the group figured out that the door would respond to commands, and in order to open the door, Dorian had to say the word "friend". Monashe said "say friend", Dorain obliged, and the door opened.

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