Trees To Meet You

Bliss stays up all night praying to Tymora for forgiveness and reconciling with her jealousy toward Sirrias. Light glints from her shield, reminding her of it's inscription about sharing and openness. In the morning, the group decide to head to the Grove of the Bear, heeding the message from Sirrias' Sister to "return to where you came from". Bliss apologizes to Sirras and passes off her amulet of luck to him. First, they decide to test Sirrias' gauntlet out in an open field. He puts it on and a random magical effect takes hold, shrinking him. He inserts his Shard and activates the gauntlet, and a random magical effect, stronger than from the Wand of Wonder, occurs. Sirrias and K'harth exchange bodies for 18 seconds.

Sirrias uses Transport Via Plants to teleport to a crossroads near the Grove of the Bear and they journey north. This is the farthest north the party has ever been, and the environment is more temperate. Entering the forest attached to the Grove, Brodo hears ethereal laughter in the trees. Phaux hops down and sniffs out a little blue fairy in the bush- a quickling. Kinna follows, and the quickling introduces itself as Pheu. Pheu is acting shy and guilty.

A big red bear, Contradirius, arrives and confronts the party. Sirrias and he go way back, and Contradirius says people at the Grove are scared as one of the elders had been killed during a recent attack over the past year. He works with the fey to guard the Grove of the Bear, and what lies beyond it. As they talk, more fey quicklings arrive, precursing four huge figures silhouetted as solid colors of red, blue, yellow, and green. They address Sirrias directly and introduce themselvesas the Court of All-Seasons: Vitur, the blue Winter Lord; Vitae, the yellow Summer Lord; Host, the red Autumn Lord; and Vore, the green Spring Lord. They demand recompense from Sirrias for the Snackrifice, initially asking for tribute, service, torture, and even his death. Their desires are at odds, and all wish to be appeased.

Sirrias negotiates and they come to an agreement: Sirrias will pay one item of great personal value as tribute upon leaving the Grove, labor for four seasons once his mission is over, submit to five years of fey pranks as torture, and they desire either the death of the Weaver or to be the ones to take Sirrias' life when his time comes, to be settled later. They also request an immortal they may torture forever as they please. As the Court and Sirrias agree, he feels a tickle in his brain and the fey depart as they say his name.

Kinna talks to Pheu about their breakup. Pheu says the Lords will not allow him to return to her, as the Lords know Pheu's true name. A fey knowing the true name of something gives them power over that thing, and unfortunately the Lords forced Pheu to divulge the true names of everyone in the party. The Lords were pulling Pheu's strings when Pheu attacked Kinna and went aggressive on the party.

After the discussion, Pheu departs. Contradirius, shapeshifting into his true form of a red-haired dwarf, takes the party to the central Grove to meet the Elders. Approaching the main hall, they see Delirious, another old friend of Sirrias. He's been promoted to one of the Elders since the invasion. They meet the other Elder, the old Ursinine, who explains how tight security has been lately. Fire people attacked at the border between the Grove and the Feybleed where the Dryads hail, striking down members of both local factions. Those who died included Missterious, another friend of Sirrias', and Sirrias' Sister, whose name was Minuetta. Ursinine says Minuetta arrived at the time as the infant Sirrias and was taken to live with the dryads instead, her requesting that she be separated from her brother.

Sirrias and the party head to the Noble Graveyard, the scorched battlefield where the attack took place and meet Konspirius in front of a wooden statue of Minuetta, sitting in a pious position. Konspirius reports that during the druids seasonal liason with the dryads on this very spot, fire cultists attacked. She describes a tiefling resembling Brisko leading the attack, which specifically targeted Minuetta mid-cast and cut down swaths of grovemembers with a laugh. As she was killed by Brisko with a sword through her chest, the attackers disappeared in a flash of bright light.

Sirrias approaches the statue in his bear form, which has an intricate black sword with a twisted corkscrew blade plunged through its chest, into the ground. He pulls it from the statue, hot to the touch. Upon grasping it, the blade reforms to a twisted obsidian stone staff. The battlefield glows hot, and Boulder Dom, the armored mounted flaming warrior previously killed by Bliss during the Battle of the Red Galleon, appears with an army of flaming skulls, demons and devils, as he and his army have been released from whatever magics they were sealed by.

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