The Trail of the Hidden Ones

**The Trail of the Hidden Ones** is the second episode of *Relics and Rarities*. After deciphering the first part of the prophecy revealed by Sara Benthem, the adventurers journey to Briarcleft Forest with the assistance of R&R Brigade ally Ionis. Following a lead given to them by Professor Roundland, they seek out the Gem of Fire. Featuring special guest Sam Richardson.

### Synopsis

#### A Quest from the Prophecy

Professor Roundland welcomes the party back to Relics and Rarities. She has done some research on the prophecy they uncovered, and found an item that might fit the bill. The Gem of Fire, which is said to have the power to summon an elemental spirit, but also carries a curse, anyone who possesses it are terribly afraid of it being stolen.

They got a tip that the gem has been recently bought in an auction by an extremely wealthy man called Charles Featherstone. He now lives in Pineswallow valley, near the Briarcleft Forest, a small community that lives off the land.

Unfortunately the path through the Briarcleft forest is very dangerous, so Professor Roundlan has called upon a guide, Ionis Leatherfoot, a gnome ranger, one of the few known to survive many days within the woods.

As last time, Professor Roundland offers the adventurers a choice of an item from the shop to take with them in their journey. Ionis chooses a little book, which will translate what’s written to it. Veros takes a waterskin which will never run out of water. Beryl gets a tankard that will change color to give information about what’s poured in it. Annabella holds a spiky seashell to her ear and hears the crashing of waves, if this is shattered it will amplify the sound. And Rikki takes a pair of tiny shoes, which when worn reduce the user’s size to fit in them.

#### A Peculiar Community

As they hike their way north towards Pineswallow valley, they notice the days get shorter and shorter. The long nights full of moonlight. They enter a dense canopy, and find small tents set up with ropes from the trees.

They reach a campfire, Ionis tries to sneak towards it but the twigs underneath start cracking. The small group of humans sitting by the fire call out to them saying they’re not dangerous. The group is welcomed by the community of Pineswallow valley, and are offered some of their stew. Rikki offers them some of his natural ingredients to spice up their stew in exchange for some coin payment, but discovers that the community does not have money, everyone gives up their earthly possessions  when they join. Rikki is visibly distressed by this.

A large smiling man named Magnus brings them the stew. Annabella wonders if it might be suspicious, but Beryl uses her tankard to confirm there’s nothing sketchy about the stew, just plain good food.

They share the meal and ask Magnus if he has heard of Charles Featherstone, but they haven’t. Rikki explains that they are here to learn of their tribe, and Magnus brings Mina, the story teller to tell them the story of their tribe.

Many years ago, the Pineswallow valley community lived and were friends with the people of the forest. But, through the generations, the people were tempted by the civilized world and left. When the last one had left, and the memories of them faded, they started calling them ‘The Hidden Ones’. The Pineswallow community returned because they believe these past ancestors made a mistake. And by living here once more, they could maybe gain the favor of the hidden ones.

Ionis mentions he has heard of them, that the Hidden Ones are the soul of the forest, they need to be respectful of them as they thread further into the forest. And pay tribute, in the form of a seed, when they plant something in the forest and perform a ritual it counts as a favor to the Hidden ones.

Rikki asks Magnus for some seeds from his cooking. He plants the seed and uses druidcraft to make a plant magically grow out of it immediately. Ionis then proceeds to perform the ritual; a dance that will further the bloom. Accompanied by Annabella on the mandolin and Beryl on the acordeon, Ionis dances a graceful choreography that makes the plant grow taller and taller with petals on the sides.

Back in the line of the forest, little lights blink bright and fade away. Ionis points the way. They decide to take a long rest with the community, to start their journey through the forest in the morning. Ionis whistles and out of the forest comes a large panther, and nuzzles its head against Ionis’s leg, it is Mr. Fluffy, his trusty animal companion.

Rikki proposes to throw a party for the community, to thank them for their hospitality. They spend the next couple of hours dancing with each other and celebrating with the people. Rikki notices Magnus is missing, and goes to look for him in the kitchen area. He find his footprints running into the forest.

A girl sits alone away from the celebration, crying. Beryl approaches her and learns that she feels guilty for keeping a secret. She tells Beryl that she was keeping a secret for Magnus, he keeps a gem in the forest, hidden in a cabin in the woods. Beryl comforts the girl with sweet words, making Veros emotional, and they head into the forest to look for Magnus.

#### Into the Briarcleft Forest

They are led by Ionis who rides Mr. Fluffy and tracks Magnus.  He guides them to an intersection, but doesn’t know which way to go. Beryl tries tracking but it’s difficult to follow. They decide to ask the spirits, Ionis and Rikki dance a fabulous pas de deux to contact the spirits. A flower grows out of the ground, and a light shines towards the path on the right.

They come across a tunnel-like hole on the ground, and to the side of the woods they hear the sound of crunching bones. As they decide to follow the source of the sound, Rikki gives one of his potions to Ionis, a protection from poison spell. With the help of Mr. Fluffy, he climbs a tree to see what’s beyond in the forest.

He sees a large beast with insect-like mandibles, an Umber Hulk, eating a bear carcass. The beast is on their way if they continue the path. Annabella makes a minor illusion of an intimidating lion’s roar to the east of the forest. The Umber Hulk looks around, and burrows into the ground with its prey.

They can hear how the dirt is upended and the Umber Hulk emerges in the spot where the lion’s roar came from. All of them advance stealthily through the forest to get away from the Umber Hulk, but Rikki stumbles and the ratter or glass calls the attention of the monster.

Rikki runs and tries to climb up a tree but doesn’t make it very far. Beryl takes out Betty, her axe, and everyone else gets on guard. Annabella puts on her beautiful cashmere gloves and climbs a tree, and surprisingly gets up higher than the gnomes.

Rising up out of the ground comes the Umber Hulk, and combat ensues. Veros attacks with all of his warhammer attacks and strikes true, but is affected by the confusing aspect of the Umber Hulk. Beryl approaches as well and cuts into the monster with her axe, but is also affected by the eyes. Rikki uses one of his vials to cast faerie fire on the Umber Hulk.

Annabella tries to cast sleep on it but fails, and the Umber Hulk attacks Beryl with a critical hit. Ionis hits it with his bow but is also confused by its gaze. Mr. Fluffy pounces on the Umber Hulk with its claws and is the only one not affected by the monster’s gaze.

Rikki uses a feature from this druid circle of dreams’s abilities, and heals Beryl. Annabella takes out her bag of tricks and takes out a random object: a giant rat. She commands it to bite the Umber Hulk’s abdomen and try to disembowel it. The rat bites but can’t get through the creature’s exo-skeleton and the Umber Hulk hurls it into the distance.

Veros and Beryl continue attacking the Umber Hulk, Rikki uses his moonbeam, but it still stands. Annabella then creates a hypnotic pattern of oozing caramel and peanuts. The umber hulk then stands there, mesmerized by the vision. It takes damage from Rikki’s moonbeam and Ionis’s arrows, and then Beryl finishes it off with her axe swing.

#### Mysterious Glowing Orbs

They continue down the path and come to an open clearing. There they see five floating glowing lights of different colors: red, yellow, purple, green and blue. There is no other way of leaving the clearing, just the glowing lights.

Ionis has heard these are the "lights of Manurak"; he takes out a seed and does his dance to see if this is a message from the hidden ones. The lights glow brighter for a moment and then come back down to their normal light, they seem to be beckoning, waiting for them. Ionis thinks that the Gem of Fire might be in one of the lights.

Beryl tries to talk to the lights, but they only glow brighter for a moment and then go back to pulsing. Rikki walks up to the red one and touches it with his finger. Both Rikki and the light disappear, leaving only four. Beryl and Veros decide to follow suit, and Beryl disappears with the purple one. Veros then asks Annabella which light she wants, but she doesn’t want to touch them.

Ionis gets a sense that this is not malevolent; he gets on Mr. Fluffy and disappears with the blue one. Annabella reaches out to the yellow light and vanishes; Veros takes the green light.

Each of them then finds themselves standing alone on a pathway, looking down at a cabin. Ionis hears crying, and feels intense sadness that comes from the cabin. He looks through the window and sees a family of bunnies, frail and thin as if they haven’t eaten.

Rikki appears in the same path alone with a cabin. But he hears screams and threats inside the cabin, he feels angry and pounds on the door. A large dark shape is hovering over a family of bunnies shaking in fear.

Annabella feels like something awful is happening inside her cabin, she begins to shake from the fright. She casts a healing word, but the door suddenly opens with a creak. A frightening bunny with long fangs crawls toward a scared Annabella.

Veros enters his cabin and sees a big fat bunny sitting on top of a big pile of money. Beryl opens the door to the cabin and a bunny sitting on a table then walks with a sensual swagger towards her.

Ionis tries to give the bunnies some food, Mr. Fluffy claws at his leg, confused. Rikki feels really angry and stands between the bunnies and the dark shape. Annabella starts shaking more and more and screams as the scary vampire bunny comes closer to her. Beryl succeeds on her wisdom saving throw and sees the sexy bunny suddenly disappear alongside the cabin and everything else.  She stands in a room, all her companions are in a weird state of daze standing around.

She looks into a cot in the room, there’s a family of stuffed bunnies in there. She also sees a chest in the corner with CF initials on it. Her companions are enchanted, acting as if their illusions were there unaware of her or each other.

Beryl walks over to Veros and slaps him on the face, he comes to. They decide to smash the chest thinking that’s the source of the illusion. All kinds of trinkets and treasures spill out from the chest, and a giant gem that’s flickering. Veros yells at the stone but to no effect.

Ionis makes his wisdom saving throw and regains his consciousness, then punches Rikki to make him wake up, but it doesn’t work for a moment, but suddenly he freezes and comes back to reality. Annabella is still at the door screaming and shaking. Rikki runs over to her and slaps her on the knee cap; but the screaming just gets worse. Then she suddenly wakes up.

Veros has the gem, they have what they were looking for. They leave the cabin, horrified at the effect it had on them, but Rikki stays behind and takes all the treasure from the chest before running out with them.

A pure white light shows up and guides them all the way back to Pineswallow valley. Christpher and Helga greet them, and tell them that they found Magnus’s body. Unfortunately he did not make it through the woods.

The light that they were following suddenly spins and in its place appears a short man with a big pot belly with long scraggly hair and long limbs. He smiles and waves before disappearing again into the light and flying away. Christopher and Helga are joyous and say that today is blessed, that was a sign they did well for the forest.

They come back to Relics and Rarities and hand the gem to Professor Roundland. The group bids farewell to Ionis, who jumps up on Mr. Fluffy and they both jump out of a window.