(written by Phil, player of Bartholomew, concerning a recent delve and earning the magic-user 100 xp per level)
From the Journals of Bartholomew Pettibone, of the House Pettibone
A Purveyor of Enchanting Sorcery
18 February 2021 – An electric tree?
While taking some libations at the inn recently, I met the captain (Ilasha by name) of a newly berthed cargo ship. Interested in their travels, I offered to purchase a drink and she accepted. From our discussionsI ended up purchasing an old, dusty scroll case she had come upon during her lengthy travels. It was definitely of high quality, and intricate in it's working and artistic design. The languages tooled upon it and that were apparent to my eyes were unlike any I had ever seen – which leads me to believe it is magical in nature, or at least protected by the same.
My old chum Hey-Jo and I joined with a new group of adventurers whom I have recently clanked tankards with. They call themselves the Survivors, and I have pledged, for the time, to join and assist their merry band!
Hey-Jo and Torkul both took a few moments to run their trained eyes and hands over the scroll I had purchased, and it was determined that indeed it was magical in nature, and contained the powerful inscriptions of at least three arcane rituals. One provides sight into other dimensions. A second allows the caster to easily locate precious metals and gems. And a third holds powerfully strong magic that instantly draws the water from a being – some form of withering. I feel relieved that my purchase has been fruitful, and beyond my wildest imaginings! This new knowledge was tucked safely away, with my belongings, and I will attempt later to copy these formulae into my own library without triggering their effects.
So, with hirelings and general goods procured, we trundled off to further explore the Weirding caves – searching to learn more about what others have called an 'electric tree'. We shall refer to it as the ET. Sesel, Hey-Jo, Ravna, Avin, and myself (accompanied by Barabajagel, Ix, Vlana, and the ever-dependable Gan!) departed the city via the Pallbearer's Way, heading north into the unknown. Again.
We attained the cavern entrance without encounter and delved quietly into the dark maw, with Sesel, Gan and myself leading the way, lanterns lit. Deep we marched, through known passages. As we neared the chamber where the ape-men had been seen previously, participating in some base ritual, angry howls and hooted challenges met us – we had been spotted! The play was afoot!
The hairy, musty beasts hooted and howled and stomped and screamed! I could swear that not a few of them catapulted feces in our direction! We did the same, all the time slowly advancing. But I must insist – we did NOT fling poo! It appeared to us that the creatures were delaying us as they were slowly fleeing through the back passage. Clearly they did not want to interact with us.
On their alter, within this ritual room, sat a pink crystal about the size of a large person's upper leg. Hey-Jo casually approached and dropped a sack over the crystal. As the crystalline structure was affixed to the base stone of the altar, and impossible to budge, the sack was removed, and we all stood back. We discussed at length among ourselves, and finally decided to leave the crystal be. Except – as we chatted Hey-Jo calmly approached, hammer in hand, and attempted to chip a small sliver off of the crystal, saying it would be good to have for identification later. The hammer struck ...
Time stood still. (The DM consulted his notes)
Barabajagel and Sesel both immediately sensed a new intellect touching their minds, but no physical entity could be noted. The rest of us continued oogling the pretty bauble, totally unaware.
We followed the passage the ape-men had escaped through, heading toward the northwest. Another vein of crystal was noted in this passage, and at a juncture with a short, southerly passage, we observed what appeared to be a tap-root growing into that vein. When we first observed this new crystal veil, Hey-Jo collected a few samples by chipping them off with a hammer. It was definitely of a different crystal type than what was on the altar, and also unidentifiable. It held no color and was about an arm's length above our heads. Sesel and his companions noted that a chamber, down this southerly passage, held the ET, and that we must advance with care.
As mentioned, a large root of this plant-ish thing appeared to grow out of the chamber, up the southerly passage, across the main passage, and into, or out of, the vein of crystalline material. Through experimentation, Hey-Jo noted that the fronds of the ET tended to be attracted to heat. I inspected the tap-root by placing my hand as close to the root as possible, without touching it, and sensed a slight warmth. Tempted, I tapped it lightly with my naked finger. Small buds immediately sprouted from the tuber and snaked toward me! I backed away quickly, staying out of it's reach. Fascinating!
Down this southerly passage lay a chamber that appeared to be an almost perfect square. It's walls were stone, but hand-worked. What appeared to be a dais was built into a large alcove inserted into the western wall, and a strange metal plinth angled out of the floor near the dias, pointing slightly away from the dias. Upon the dais we could see various items strewn about, and what appeared to be a number of circular patterns engraved(?) into it's floor. The strange plant-like creature was large, and covered the floor, ceiling, and walls all about the southwest corner. There were so many of the fronds and tendrils from this creature that it appeared impossible to approach its central core, or to exit through the opposite passage. However, it just might, with some trouble, be possible to reach the dais, if one is very, very careful. And I am not. In the meantime, as I took stock of the square chamber, our friend Avin, back in the main passage, began alchemical construction of a small magnet.
Hey-Jo, determined to learn more, followed my earlier example and poked the root with a dagger. Bud-fronds wafted about, as before, attempting to reach Hey-Jo, but to no avail. Sesel, emboldened, poked the thing with his gloved finger, and the frond tried to wrap itself around his hand. Sesel withdrew.
Back at the chamber entrance, I pitched a lit flask of oil into the northeastern corner of the room, hoping that it would cause enough heat to tempt the creature, and blind its senses to us. A conflagration was easily started, but it was not enough, apparently, to seduce the beast. Yes its fronds were tempted by the heat of the flames, but it was not enough. Even so, brave (reckless?) Hey-Jo attempted to use the fire as a distraction and crept jauntily along the northwest wall, toward the dais, to see what baubles might be snatched! As Hey-Jo moved along the wall, their hand reached out and grabbed by accident, but securely, onto one of the fronds. It instantly began wrapping around their wrist! But Hey-Jo was able to twist free, and continued moving toward the dais. Seriously?! A rope was passed from Sesel to Bart, and thence on to Hey-Jo, and it was affixed around their waist. Thus tethered to our party, Hey-Jo attended the dais and scooped up what goodies that lay about. A few of the fronds flailed at Hey-Jo, missing, and Hey-Jo was able to remain out of their reach. But only for a while. A frond wrapped around one of Hey-Jo's legs and a scream of serious pain wailed from their mouth! Our stalwart chum was able to fight through the pain, grab more treasure, and struggled painfully back to safety with us. Ravna tended to Hey-Jo, weaving a healing pattern of arcane power in the air over the wounds, while speaking soothing words, and removed the damage done.
Avin abandoned the construction of her magnet, and used a meditative process that reduce her body heat – a trick I must investigate further. Thus altered, she found that the fronds ignored her presence! To the Dais she crept, slowly, and collected numerous items, returning to us unhindered.
As we began to retrace our steps back toward the ape-man ritual chamber, we heard what was certainly a large troupe of the beasts returning down the passage behind us, coming from the northwest. We waited and as they approached the entrance to the ET chamber, I pitched a lit flask of oil at the ET tendril crossing the corridor. At the same moment, Ravna cast a spell of intense darkness! We departed, leaving the ape-men and their odd masters calling and yelling threats in the darkness, at our retreating backs.
Our return to the city, and to our safe quarters at Cothon Under-Star, was without interruption. The scrolls (two of them) and an ornate purse-bag turned out to radiate magic. Through further investigation we learned that one scroll held very complicated magic describing three particularly interesting spells (Levitate, Dispell or Disbelieve, and Transmutation) – all, at this point, beyond my comprehension. The other, well, that was a different case, of sorts. As Torkul ran his eyes over it's glyphs, his countenance twisted into a grimace, and his hair literally stood out straight from his head in all directions, like stalks of dried straw. As this happened, the scroll and its case burst soundlessly into a cloud of vapor and was whisked away from his hands as if on a breeze. In the silence that followed, all that we heard was a single, hoarse, whispered word escaping the lips of good friend Torkul - “shit”.
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