17 - The Grove of Spring
Previous session: 16 - Farewell Saltspocket...
Rachel finishes her transformation into the Mackarow and flies away, starting to attack us.
After the last attack from Mackarow, the whole village is destroyed.
Persy casts [Cure Wounds] on Reylynn and Nesvalyn uses a Potion of Healing on Willum.
We take an hour to stop the fire and gather the survivors. Once the smoke dies down, we're looking for Moondrop, and we're hearing her sobbing over the corpse of Grasp.
18 of the druids died during the attack, including Grasp and Starsoul.
We try to rest after this eventful evening.
After a hard night, we go to see Moondrop, who has issues to understand why Rachel did that.
She wants to find the Grove of Spring to fix this, as she thinks they have to find it now.
Willum mentions that it's no use to bring back the dead and let them rest in peace.
She disagrees, and asks us for help to find it.
[History check] Nesvalyn remembers the energy of the Grove of Summer shifted, and there are four groves, the only thing coming to his mind is that the Grove of Spring having a cure that can heals any ailment. (but doesn't share this information, as he's lost in his thoughts)
We have the choice to help them to find the Grove of Spring (as the druids don't seem to be good fighters), or keep going as nothing happen.
Party decision:
We decide to help them to search the Grove of Spring. We'll go the next day after some preparation to bring them along.
At the research of the Grove of Spring...
We have 8 druids with us, where one shapeshifted into a horse to pull the corpses of their fallen friends.
We're reaching the unexplored quadrant of the forest, and arriving to the bramble patch. According to Moondrop, it's the only place they haven't checked.
The bramble wall is 12ft tall, and we're thinking how to pass through.
Nesvalyn asks if the Druids can do specific stuff.
Moondrop casts [Speak with Plants], and she doesn't get an answer (either they're magical or they can't communicate).
[Nature - Fail ❌] They look like regular brambles.
Nothing happens when Persy touches the brambles.
↪ [Identify] They're not magic.
↪ [Divine Sense] Nothing is sensed.
Persy uses the Pirate Hookshot to have a better view from the air, and notices that the bramble patch goes for a while.
↪ [Perception - Pass ✔ with [Flash of Genius] Persy sees a column of stone with a corner and a roof.
Willum takes a swing in the brambles and cuts off a good chunk. Nothing happens after that.
Persy tries to speak to the brambles and asks them to let us pass.
↪ [Persuasion - Fail ❌] Nothing happens
Nesvalyn jokes about the fact he wasn't polite and may be the solution. From that, Loyal pressures Nesvalyn to try by being polite, and Moondrop adds another layer by saying that being kind is always a good thing. After sighing and feeling the pressure from his peers, he pulls out a tirade complimenting the benevolent spirits of the forest and asking them to let them pass to fix their mistakes.
↪[Persuasion - Pass ✔] After a while, the brambles are shaking and humanoid figures appear, and ask us "What are you seeking?"
We're letting Moondrop reply, who answers "Rebirth". After a while, we think it was the wrong answer, however an arche forms and let us pass.
Persy is perplex about why it worked for Nesvalyn, which he thinks that kindness and hope is always a good thing (even if he doesn't seem to believe that himself).
We're going through the bramble arche.
↪ [Perception - Pass ✔] We see the bramble creatures moves fluidly within the brambles. They whisper "Join us in the grove".
After a walk of 20 minutes, we reach the tall white building, similar to the Grove of Summer, which seems to be the Grove of Spring.
The entrance of the Grove of Spring...
The party is not inclined to enter the grove, Persy proposes to send Ozzy in it. Willum summons his familiar Ebrietas to let him explore instead.
Persy and Willum starts to ask about Ebrietas, and "start" a contest of who's better between Ebrietas and Ozzy. During that time, the druids are entering on their own.
After their contest is over, we decide to send Ebrietas in.
↪ [WIS Save - Pass ✔] The magic of this place is powerful and utterly divine, and a fiend as Ebrietas would explode, which prevents Ebrietas to enter.
The druids are already in.
Willum wants to go in and let Ebrietas outside to communicate.
[Detect Magic] The grove is radiating of Wild/Primal natural magic, the whole forest is filled with it, aside the brambles.
Willum casts [Heroism] on himself.
The party discuss about getting in, and Nesvalyn snaps saying he doesn't want to be rebirthed again. The group asks "What do you mean again?", where Nesvalyn is not even sure if he said again, which the party confirms. He explains about his theory as he's been changing, and doesn't understand much what's happening to him, where Persy and Willum thinks he could be a celestial due to his wings and his ability to speak Celestial. With everybody wanting to go in, Nesvalyn agrees to follow the party, but is not enthusiastic about this idea.
The party decides to get in and passes through the dark doors of the Grove.
The Grove of Spring...
We're in a narrow path with grass above our heads, with a bunch of tall flowers (about 15ft tall).
It really smells like Spring, and we all feel relaxed, with all our worries away.
We don't see the druids anywhere.
[Investigation] Nesvalyn and Reylynn take the lead while searching, and after a while we see several corpses from the deceased druids from the Mackarow. But no signs of the alive druids who were following us. Eventually, we make our way to what we think the center is, while hearing water sounds.
We're entering a room with a water pool, containing a crystal and the only tree of the grove.
[Detect Magic] This whole area is radiating with Wild/Primal magic, making it hard to pinpoint the source.
[Divine Sense] Fey Presence is sensed.
[Perception - Pass ✔] We notice an echo on some words regardless of who says it, and it's not the voice of the character saying it, more a thin androgynous voice. We notice it echoes on "pool" and "terrible".
We're starting to say a bunch of key words, where it echoes on these ones:
die - bad - rebirth - voices - help - word - druids - get out - consequences - dead - leave
After a while, we decide not to check the pool and the words we hear incline us to leave the grove.
[Investigation - Pass ✔] We swore there was corpses behind us, and we see the corpses sinking in the ground, and plants are starting to grow on them.
Willum is checking the situation outside through Ebrietas, and he notices it's night outside.
After confirming our thoughts, we're trying to leave, and we have a sense of sadness while getting our way out of the grove, and notice that the night has fallen.
It's much colder as usual, and we're leaving the brambles before resting. Upon leaving we see two bramble creatures blocking us, with the size of the two halflings. They hug each other and wave at us, then disappear, allowing us to leave. We think it was Moondrop and Grasp, being one with the nature now. We're leaving the bramble area and set camp for the night.
Upon waking up, we notice that some trees are naked, and the ones still having leaves are yellowish. It looks like several weeks have passed, as it seems that we're in Autumn now.
Next session: 18 - On the road to New Gnomoria