Book 4: Tales of the Grandfather Tree

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Book 4 Summary

* They meet Lord Faldrick in his mercenary camp and learn that he's looking for Tifflich, his and Arix's friend. They had a fight over a Book and Tifflich ran off into the woods with it. He's been cutting down the forest trying to find Tifflich. He says they should use the power of the Book to help advance humanity/civilized people. They're newer creations, surely they'll be able to take control of these dusty things. The party vehemently disagrees.
* They venture into the woods for the first time and discover that the water is polluted and is nothing but sludge now. It's poisoning the wildlife in the forest, and any water brought into the forest is immediately corrupted.
* They find a tunnel in the trees, where Morgana hears a voice telling her to come get them, and when the party entered the tunnel, three of them were struck with horrible nightmares; Jin, Morgana, and Enilasor. When they woke, they were in Faldrick's tent, having been carried back there by the others when their unconscious bodies were found at the edge of the forest. All three were about six feet into the forest's tree line, but they later learn that Enilasor was a full six miles into the forest but carried back to the others by the Traveler.
* Again, Faldrick tries to convince them that they should take the power of the Book and once again, the party argues against it.
* Orestes uses his magic to create wards on everyone's bracelets and Enilasor's hair pin to protect them from the nightmares they were trapped in. They rush into the forest and through the tunnel, coming into a small clearing where they see two ethereal, hooded fey-like elves watering the trees. Morgana and Arix approach them and learn that they care for the forest. Their language was an ancient, elven dialect, and the party tried their best to communicate with them who they were and why they were there. They give Morgana a small vial of holy water, hinting to her that they'd need it later, and then pointed them to another tunnel. This one was better lit and safer to travel through.
* The party heads off and inside the tunnel, they see more of the elves, all of them working as gardeners in this part of the forest. They wore masks that mirrored that of Enilasor's. They run into an invisible barrier, and a gate reveals itself to them. It tells them who it is and their purpose. The party asks them for information about the Grandfather Tree and Tifflich, hoping the Gate knew more about both and the situation. After asking for information on how to reach the Grandfather Tree, Jin asked if Grandfather knew how to get rid of the Oni trapped in his sword, to which the Gate replied that he'd have to ask Grandfather, that he'd know what to tell him. Enilasor thanked the Gate, who responded that she was the servant of four gods, not three. She argued against it, that she only followed the Horae, but the Gate insisted that she served four. When she asked who it was and why they would be interested in her, the Gate said he didn't know his name, but that he was an old god, younger than most, but still very old, and that he was interested in her and followed her closely. Unnerved, the party went inside the Grove, finding natural vestibules.
* They explore the winding paths and meet more of the elves, who still can't speak with them but can communicate through gestures. The party learns that they really are ghosts, and they find graves as they go, dodging traps that dot the landscape here and there. It's around this time that Enilasor starts hearing and speaking with a voice in her head, unnerving the rest of the party. It warns her of what waits for them in the next room.
* The party finds themselves in a large room where there are no Caretakers to be found. Inside, they see roots that look corrupted. They decide not to mess with it, but then Morgana changes her mind and tosses a stone into the middle of them, prompting a fight against the blighted roots. Once the roots are gone, the Caretakers return to the room and continue their duties.
* They branch off in one direction and see daisy-like flowers that look off and Orestes declares that they're proof that Shub-Niggurath was free and to not touch them. Enilasor mumbles a warning that there's something else waiting for them in the next room, a trap. Orestes and Arix vault over it, Arix finds a circlet in a tree and trades the Caretakers something for it so they won't kill him for messing with the trees, and then the party leaves.
* They reach a gate with two guards. Orestes gives Morgana a paper with words scrawled on it and tells her to say them to the guards and present the vial of holy water. The guards let them in and the party progresses into the room where the Grandfather Tree waits for them.
* He tells them what he can of the situation, that the one with the "fire stick" (gun) left with the Book and the other one was inside the Tree Home, a plane created for the Caretakers. Morgana pours the water into a basin at the foot of the Tree and it creates a portal inside. They all walk into it and find themselves on some stairs, overlooking a half-destroyed village. The voice tells Enilasor to stop Orestes from going any further and that they needed to be quiet. Unfortunately, Orestes accidentally kicked a stone and Artemis tripped and fell down the stairs, alerting Dark Spawn creatures of their presence. The party fights them off and studies the corpses and the eggs they find, more evidence of Shub's freedom.
* Enilasor chats with the voice again, it telling her to check her pocket to find a diamond after she'd asked Arix for one for a reviving spell for later, and then the party moves on after an uncomfortable discussion between her, Arix, and Orestes. They eventually come into a room where there are signs of a fight. It's here that Enilasor tells them the voice told her there's something waiting for them up the stairs and around the corner, and that the voice wanted Arix to leave the circlet behind for the moment. The voice tells her to check Orestes' pocket and she finds a rose, which she gives back to him.
* They're quick to move passed their embarrassment and the awkward tension to continue their journey and they are stopped by a group of Caretakers who have set up a defensive position at the entrance to the Chantry. They demand to know who they are and why they're there. The party tries to explain and then they're allowed in. As they head inside, Enilasor realizes they look like unaligned Eladrin. She and one of the guards compare themselves, confused, and Enilasor and Arix explain that she looks different from them because she's a "planes walker" rather than her being thousands of years ahead of them in time.
* Inside the Chantry, they enter the catacombs and meet a Caretaker beside four caskets after passing a warded door they can't get through. This is when they meet a young Grung who followed Orestes here, despite Orestes telling them to stay home. They have a new party member, and after talking to the Caretaker, they inform the party that they need the other three to open the door into the tomb where Shub's child and Tifflich are. The party ventures on and find a Caretaker, dead in a puddle of the sentient sludge. It lashes out at them and they quickly kill the sludge. The Caretaker's body disappears and the party head back to the first chamber to find him waiting for them with the other.
* They move on again and meet the Quartermaster, a skittish Caretaker with two Golem bodyguards. They try to convince him that they're there to help and that they don't mean any harm to any of the Tree Home's residents. He refuses to believe them. Arix starts to prepare a small Molotov cocktail beneath his cloak, wanting to scare him into submission, but Orestes calls him out for it. Enilasor stops them from arguing, and then they all realize the Quartermaster disappeared into a side room and left the two golems to guard the door to keep them out.
* They realize that her mask might help her get passed them and Enilasor slips it back on. Tihn, the grung, doubles back to grab one of the other Caretakers in the hopes of convincing the golems or the Quartermaster that they're friendly, and he freezes when he sees Enilasor, now masked like them. She and the Caretaker manage to convince the golems that she's one of them, and Arix changes his appearance to look like one so he can follow her inside.
* They find the Quartermaster, cornered behind iron bars to try and keep them away, and he tries to shout for the golems to come help him. The pair manage to calm him down enough to stop shouting and try to reason with him about the situation. He won't listen, and then he calls out Enilasor for stealing one of their masks, for stealing "Her" mask. Enilasor tells him it was her ancestor's, Ysiad's, and tells him that it's been passed down through her family for the last three thousand years. He calls her a liar, telling her that Ysiad would have told him if she had a kid, if she had a family. Enilasor, hoping to placate him, removes the mask and reluctantly offers it to him as a peace offering in the hopes of him cooperating. He shuts down because she looks almost exactly like Ysiad, and tells them a brief history of Ysiad's role among the Caretakers, and why she asked Grandfather Tree to make the Tree Home for them. She wanted them to guard her brother's body in the tomb, the one who became the Traveler. He finally relents and agrees to help them, though devastated, and they all return to the first room. The fourth Caretaker had found their way there on their own and the four open the door for the party to go into the Traveler's tomb.
* There are murals depicting the first Day of Black Sun, when the Wayfarers met the Cursed One and the Traveler sacrificed himself to stop the elder gods from taking over and destroying creation. When they enter the room, they find a blue Eladrin sitting on a tomb with Shub's child knocked out behind him.
* The Traveler introduces himself to them and it's confirmed that he's the voice Enilasor has been talking to, and he's the "Blueberry Fairy" who left her tarts and toys and other things when she was growing up in Knashthra. He kills Shub's child and answers a few questions, then shows them Tifflich so they can tend to his injuries. Tifflich is able to tell them a little of what happened, but he's still too injured and sick to tell them much.
* They leave Tifflich with the Caretakers to care for his injuries and head back to the mercenary camp outside of the forest. They battle Faldrick in his massive, steam powered mech, kill him, and destroy the Book.
* They spend the night after taking a second cart to carry their things and the stuff they raided from the tents and while making dinner, Arix left the group briefly to wander back into the woods. He met the Traveler, who offered to let Arix become his "champion". Arix accepts, and after the Traveler asks him for a few personal favors, he heads back to the group and shows them what he's able to do now.
* The next morning, Jin leaves the group to head back East, and the party goes back to the Tree Home to get more information from Grandfather Tree, the Caretakers, and check on Tifflich. The Grandfather Tree tells Enilasor he can't remove Malyn's magic from her, tells Morgana that she needs to head to Silverymoon to assist her mother with something, and then the party goes below. Enilasor and Orestes go to see the Quartermaster after an awkward exchange between them, and Arix and the others go to visit Tifflich. Tifflich tells them more about what happened and they catch him up on what happened in Elturgard and what all they've been up to up to that point in time. Orestes rejoins them on his own, and Tifflich swears he's seen Orestes before, who denies it. Enilasor then returns, looking sullen and her mask packed away, avoiding questions about what's wrong, and then the party leaves to head for Silverymoon.

Chapter 1: Let's Lose Ourselves Amongst the Ghosties―Trees
TBA

Chapter 2: Even More Ghosties―Both Dead and Deader―With a Few Surprises Sprinkled in for Flavor
At the entrance of the Chantry is a small group of guards. They demand to know who the party is and why they're there, to which they reply that they're looking for Tifflich and that they want to destroy the Black Book once they find it.
When the party is allowed entrance, Enilasor stops when she gets closer to them, realizing that they look like unaligned Eladrin, and that her mask is the same as theirs. The guards were just as confused about her and her orange color. Arix called her a "planes walker" since they weren't quite sure how else to tell the Caretakers who and what and when they were, since the Caretakers were literally removed from the timeline.

They moved on and entered the Chantry, then the catacombs beneath to look for Tifflich and the monster Shub left behind.

At the base of the stairs, there's a door with four seals on it that prevent anyone or anything from entering or exiting the chamber beyond. They didn't know how to get passed it, but they had a feeling that that's where they needed to go to find Shub's "child" and Tifflich.

In a room to their right, they heard two voices arguing. They went to investigate and found one of the Caretakers in an argument with a small Grung. Orestes immediately recognized them and panicked, calling them "Tihn". The argument shifted from between Tihn and the Caretaker to Tihn and Orestes. He'd told Tihn not to follow him, to stay home where it was safer for him, but Tihn wanted to help...especially since they've now read a piece of a Black Book, which only heightens Orestes's fear for Tihn's safety. The argument comes to an end when everyone decides that it would be best to have this discussion later, when they found Tifflich and dealt with Shub.

They ask the Caretaker how to get passed the door; he says they have to find the others and get them to return to the room where they were in now, which had four coffins with braziers at the foot of each. Only one was lit. He said the four of them have to open the door together, or there would be no way to get through. They'd sealed it to keep Shub's spawn inside; regretful that they had to take the action, given that Tifflich was in there, as was their charge.

The party finally moved onward into the next hall and it dead-ended in a room with one of the Caretakers. The Caretaker was sitting slumped against a wall in the corner, and upon further investigation, Enilasor and Arix told the others that they were very dead, and sitting in a puddle of black sludge. The pair ventured a little closer with Orestes close behind, but once they realized what was wrong, he put himself between them and the Caretaker. A tentacle speared through the Caretaker and then lashed out at Orestes, but Arix and Enilasor yanked him out of its reach when he didn't move quickly enough.
Jin used his grappling hook to detach the Caretaker from the wall and puddle, and then slashed at the tentacle with it. Orestes finished it off by purifying the body and the puddle, but now the body was gone. With it having disappeared, the Caretaker dead, they didn't know how they were going to get inside. They doubled back to the first room but found that the Caretaker had reappeared there, "alive" and well. They thanked the party for the rescue, and after a few more questions and a "good luck with that paranoid Quartermaster," the party went the other way to find the other two.

They enter a chamber with a Caretaker doing inventory, guarded by two stone golems--the Quartermaster.

He panicked when they entered and refused to tell them anything, nor help them enter the tomb where that spawn was locked away. The last people to visit said they wanted to help, and look what happened. The party couldn't be trusted either. They tried to convince them that they really did want to help, that Grandfather Tree granted them entrance to do so, but he refused to listen to them.

Arix, hoping to create some kind of distraction or scare the Caretaker into talking, covertly began trying to make what amounted to Molotov cocktails, and then borrowing Enilasor's tinderbox without explaining why he needed it. Orestes pieces together what he was doing and chastised him for it; he tries to convince him, quietly, to knock it off and that this wasn't the place to threaten a man who was already terrified of them. It started an argument, and Enilasor put herself between them to get them to knock it off, inadvertently standing in the puddle of alcohol that Arix was using to make his cocktails. The three catch it just before Arix drops a match onto it and she and Orestes scurry to get her out of it and away.

Unfortunately, when they look up to try and talk to the Quartermaster again, he'd disappeared through a side door, leaving the two golems behind to guard the door.

Hoping they could help, Tihn goes back to the other two to see if they'll help the party get inside the side room so they can talk to him, or convince him to come out. When they come back to the room where the party is discussing ways to get in, they all realize that Enilasor can pass as one of the Caretakers if she puts her mask back on. The golems ask the Caretaker Tihn brought with them if she's one of them, and he confirms, and then Enilasor gives them a half-truth that she was one now. She asks if the golems would let her pass; they will. She asks if she can bring the others with them if she promises to keep them in line as their chaperone; they refuse, and they cannot take any orders from her as she didn't create them. Using illusion magic, Arix makes himself look like one of the Caretakers, albeit a much shorter one.

Before the pair can enter, Tihn tries to silently convince Enilasor to steal a horn from one of the crates for him since the golems wouldn't think twice about her taking something. Appalled, she refuses, and she and Arix enter the side chamber behind the golems.

They find him inside, hiding, and he panics once they enter. They try again to convince him that they weren't here to harm him, the other Caretakers, Grandfather Tree, or the forest. They wanted to help them by getting Tifflich out, and removing Shub's spawn and the Book in the process. Again, he refused to listen, and then pointed at Enilasor's mask, accusing her of stealing it from them. She attempts to explain that it was passed down through her family, starting with Ysiad, but he claims it's impossible. She didn't have a family, and she would have told them if she had. Giving up trying to fight him on it and desperate to get to Tifflich and the Book, she removes the mask and tries to give it back to him in the hopes that it would endear him to her.

He freezes, quietly denying that it shouldn't be possible. Ysiad couldn't have had a family...but that Enilasor looked almost exactly like Ysiad. Finally, he relents and agrees to help them, but he refuses to take the mask. The Quartermaster slowly explains that Ysiad tasked him with guarding her twin's body, who was buried in the room the party was trying to access. That was the charge the first Caretaker had meant. Enilasor asked if he had any books or journals on her or their order or anything, and he said their traditions and history were oral, that they were forbidden to write it down.

Back in the storage room, Tihn attempted to swipe a Horn of Valhalla from the crate on his own since Enilasor wouldn't help him. The golems watched him intently, tensing once he touched it, and he was forced to leave it behind. And then, antsy, he tried to climb one of the golems to see what would happen. It snatched him off of it and threw him away, and Orestes barely managed to catch him before he hit the wall or the floor. It seems that he is genuinely invested in the well-being of the Grung.

Arix, the Quartermaster, and Enilasor finally emerge from the side room and everyone goes back to the room with the coffins. The fourth Caretaker turned up on their own, and the four were able to open the sealed door for the party.

Chapter 3: Let's Meet Mister Chaos so We Can Go Fight God
TBA