Session 18

* Falgas is reunited with an old acquaintance--Emma Vane. But she's trapped in a sword and is determined to earn her freedom and carry out her vengeance through Falgas.
* Skarūl finds a beautiful ebony lute with red strings and discovers that it once belonged to an ancient bard and follower of the raven queen--Ophelia Thorn. Stories say that she disappeared on an island in central Beliria many years ago.
* Schmitty picks up some fancy stationary, but a glimpse of a steampunk amulet catches his eye. He picks it up and senses a magical essence emanating from the amulet.
* Kaax finds a really cool rock.

After collecting their payment and leaving the mourning Harold in his shop, they head to Pirask to check out the forest.

When the group gets to the forest, they find it engulfed by a poisonous fog. Unable to breath without having their throats burn, they decide to pay Dilly a visit at the library to learn more.

When they see Dilly, they notice that she's upset more than usual. Ravi is also with Dilly. And he mentions that people in the village have gone missing, including Falgas' parents. Dilly also seems upset when she sees Schmitty, recognizing him from newspaper headlines. Schmitty learns more about the public's opinion of his alternate self and learns about Mr. Sprocket's dealings in drug trade with a presumed "outside entity."

Skarūl eventually checks in with Dilly, and she mentions that lots of things have been worrying her the last couple days. Especially with the news about people going missing. Normally she'd talk to Oleander when Arri and Zol aren't around, but he had to leave on business. And she mentions that she thinks Arri and Zol are in trouble too because they were supposed to be home a day ago, but never showed up.

The group finally check out some books from the library. And Skarul even gets a library card. They learn more about plants that eat corpses and odd weather behaviors around dragon lairs. And they find a note written in a margin of the book explaining that face masks made it easier to travel through the forests. Dilly uses her loom to make the group face masks for their trip.

They travel back to the lake and begin their journey. They come across two large bushes that seem to be packed with corpses and other equipment. They attempt to stealth past them, but only Falgas can move without being seen successfully. They fight the plants, which ends up being a crazy whirlwind of giant frogs and a Kaax as a devil snake with a bone spiked spine. Falgas's eyes turn blue as he becomes one with the sword, climbs on top of the devil snake and slashes away at the attacking plants. With the combined efforts, they manage to rip apart the plants and recover some items that fall out of their bleeding corpses.

* Immovable rod
* Dust of disappearance
* Potion of growth
* Living gloves (your choice of what kind when you attune to it)

Skarūl sees the lake in the distance and the group continues to the lake shore. The fog doesn't dissipate and, if anything, seems concentrated at the lake. In the middle of the lake is a raft with a rope going into the contaminated water. On the raft is Halester, the werewolf halfling they fought back in Oberon's camp, tied up on the raft. Kaax talks to Halester telepathically. Halester tells Kaax that Gardine told him to be quiet before going into the water. But when he pulled on the rope, she didn't come up with it.

The group swims down in the water to find Gardine and notice her engulfed by an dead seaweed mound right next to the Talisman. Skarūl uses mage hand to pick up the talisman, but when Kaax attempts to rescue Gardine from the seaweed, the seemingly "dead" mound attacks. The mound lashes out with its seaweed tentacles at Kaax repeatedly and cause him to drop out of his snake form. Falgas uses the power of Emma's sword to burn away at the undead entity. And Skarūl destroys the mound with a large radiant bell that sends concentrated deadly sound waves straight into the water.

Gardine wakes up after being released by the entity, and Kaax (as a polar bear) grabs up his party and helps them head to the surface.

Upon reaching the shore, they see Halester (still on the raft) nervously looking at the water as bubbles and ripples reach the surface.

*Find out what happens next with Skar-kūl and the Gang.*