Episode 14: Hanging Out at the Tree

The Heroes react to the death of one of their own, and meet an odd new companion.

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Thanks to Peter Crowley for our theme, and @AlexielApril for our cover art!

Episode Summary
The episode opens with Fillius experiencing a vision in the form of a dream. He is in a tunnel, walking towards a light. The tunnel expands into an open cavern full of Drow, in the middle of some sort of ritual. Fillius sees Rasend Dracon striding through the centre of the crowd, looking larger than before. His scales are cracking, and his eyes are burning silver. Using Thaumaturgy to get his attention, Fillius begins to cause torches to flicker, and the ground to shake. Rasend lights a torch with a small, green flame from his mouth, but it too is affected by the Druid’s cantrip. He turns, and almost sees Fillius for a moment, before Zebinox expels him from the vision. As he is torn away, Fillius sees a gigantic Silver Dragon behind Rasend, its form entombed in crystal. Fillius awakens back in Preston, the scars dealt to him by the Shard of Omalgus burning and steaming. He hears a scream from outside.

The Heroes rush outside to see the remains of Immeral Nial, scattered in a ritualistic way amongst the branches of a recently deceased tree. The leaves of it have wilted and fallen away, and the trees around it seem to have been knocked over. As a panicked crowd gathers, the group begin investigating the area. Belrun notices that the body parts have been laid out in a purposeful way, whilst Fillius identifies that whoever did this also killed all of the trees surrounding area. After speaking to an owl who saw the event, Fillius informs the party that it was likely Ysh’thun who committed this act.

Aratal shares his knowledge of the deal he made with the Child, which explains why he could detect none of its magic in the area. As they turn back to look at the tree, they see a robed figure crouched and inspecting the area. Anmon stands up and is met with aggression initially, but Iskander quickly puts away his swords due to The Dark Pact when he sees that the Tiefling is a Warlock. Anmon tries explaining what he knows about Ysh’thun, but Fillius is distrustful due to his past experiences with Warlocks helping to destroy Myndarrah.

Princess Orianna emerges to investigate the noise, and begins speaking to Anmon about her knowledge of Hadar. When it is mentioned that Myra was resurrected by the Child, Anmon asks to see her. He senses that she has a strong Druidic soul, but that it has the desire to leave her body and is being held in place by dark forces. Expecting the Child to return, Lord Dell invites the Tiefling along on their quest, hoping that his knowledge will help to keep them safe.

After holding a funeral for Immeral, the group make their final preparations. Fillius purchases rare herbs from Glenda which should help to cure his scars. Once all errands have been run, they board the carriage to their next destination, Slithermourn.

Characters (in order of introduction)
Players NPCs Other
 * Fillius Senneck
 * Aratal
 * Anmon
 * Belrun
 * Iskander
 * Immeral Nial (deceased)
 * Rasend Dracon
 * Zebinox
 * Badella
 * Mayor Quibble
 * Myra Senneck
 * Princess Orianna Zera Severen
 * Lord Dell
 * Lo
 * Po
 * Lady Snow
 * Marcus
 * Glenda
 * Aurora
 * Lolth (mentioned)
 * Omalgus
 * Hadar (mentioned)

Key Events

 * Immeral’s body is found by the Heroes and he is mourned.
 * Anmon is introduced to the Heroes and joins the party.
 * Fillius receives rare herbs that may cure him of his scarring.
 * The Heroes leave Preston in the Halfling caravan.

Notable Battles

 * None

Quotes

 * ”Do I have to roll, because I’m dead?” – Cody (Anmon)
 * ”You have to roll yes. You don’t get out of it just cos you’re dead! [Immeral’s] suffering does not end.” – Adam
 * ”Are [Fillius and Belrun] in the same room?” – Adam
 * ”No.” – Michael (Belrun)
 * ”Probably, we usually are.” – David (Fillius)
 * ”Oh, okay, so…” – Michael (Belrun)
 * ”Who would do this to these trees?” – Fillius
 * ”Poor trees…” – Myra (Adam), crying
 * ”…We never got along, Cody, I don’t care about your death!” – David (Fillius)
 * ”It makes sense, in a way, because my orders are to not attack Warlocks on sight. Normally I would be hilt-deep in his fucking gut right now.” – Billy (Iskander)
 * ”If you actually hit…” – Cody (Anmon)
 * ”And you find a note. And the note says ‘Dear Iskander, I always loved you…’- I’m kidding!” – Adam
 * ”We only have these bows, I mean its pretty much identical to the bow you had before.” – Marcus (Adam)
 * ”Nothing, nothing, uh, better than this?” – Belrun
 * ”I’m afraid not, we only have common stock in the, you know, tutorial town made in this campaign, so...” – Marcus

Trivia

 * Cody retells the events of the last episode (Episodes 11 and 12) for the third time.
 * Belrun rolled his seventh Nat20 of the story when waking up to the scream from outside.
 * Aratal rolled his second Nat1 whilst trying to convince Mayor Quibble that he hadn’t stolen the town treasury. From then on, Mayor Quibble lost all respect for Aratal.