Session 45: Natural Enemies


 * LAST TIME: We met the current leader of the Gatekeepers, a lizardfolk named Kashani. She explained that months ago, she had led Stargazers into their camp as they were pretending to be pilgrims. The Stargazers stole the heart of Lucien Greatoak and used some magical ritual to create a manifest zone and bring the plane of Mabar the Endless Night in contract with this world. We killed Castor and Yuriy; Konstadin the mindflayer paralyzed us and gave us visions of what he said was the future and that we were essentially screwed. Cornerio broke free and punched him in the tentacles. Konstadin and Burhan teleported away using an object. We got sucked into the singularity and found ourselves in Mabar, the Endless Night. Mogen dismantled everything she could while the rest of the party did the tasks they needed to see "the boss", eventually facing That-Which-Feasts. Vikrit threw Kashani's magic acorn into it and we were sent back to the material plane.
 * We find ourselves on the ground in the Stargazer campsite, next to Lucien Greatoak's heart.
 * Vikrit sniffs the air and notices it smells like a few weeks have passed. Mogen checks to see that her plastic, rubber, etc. is still in her pockets--it is.
 * We notice a white wild dog nearby pawing at the ground. Sarienne and Vikrit head over to it (Sarienne notices supplies left around here; nothing of value). Vikrit rolls a 25 to handle the animal and pets the dog, then sniffs around to see if the corpses of the 2 Stargazers are there.
 * There are 2 shallowly dug graves; one of the dogs is pulling on a piece of rotting tail. Vikrit tries to scare the dog away and flails at it, eventually scaring it away. Vikrit asks the others to dig up the corpse to give it the proper "burial" by giving it to the animals. There's a wide leather belt around his body--much fancier than the rest of his stuff. Mogen spots his necklace matching the others': black obsidian with gold and dots at the top. She uses her Geiger counter on the belt: it's a Belt of Giant Strength +4 (Vikrit takes it since apparently no one else wants it). There's a small baby lizard pointy tooth on an anklet; he takes it and asks Sarienne to help him drag the corpse out for the animals to eat as is their custom. Cornerio follows them and argues with Vikrit about this being pointless. They put it in the grass to the side and call the dogs over.
 * Mogen, Tork and Vesun start digging up Yuriy. The hobgoblin is eyeless and emaciated: it's actually a dolgaunt (what the daelkyr did to hobgoblins; these creatures are slaves of the daelkyr). He has a circlet dug into his skull and the same kind of necklace. Vesun detects magic; the belt and necklace are magic, Castor's corpse is not; Yuriy's corpse is residually magical and the Circlet of Intellect +2 is as well. On the body, they find 25 gold and a diamond worth 1000 g.
 * After putting on the circlet, Mogen makes an incredible sled out of tent materials for the heart and we head out.
 * We make it back to the Gatekeeper camp. An elf spots us and is overjoyed; he goes to tell Kashani. A cheering crowd of Gatekeepers await us.
 * As we walk along, a human woman runs out and hugs Tork in a flying tackle--it's Esther. A panther (Bagheera) bowls Vikrit over. We introduce the rest of the party and Esther leads us to Kashani's hut.
 * She greets us with surprise and is relieved to hear we brought the heart home. She says we disappeared and everything went back to normal suddenly. We tell her what happened; she's concerned that Mogen took some things from Mabar and is shocked that we were able to return. She thinks the bull was a guardian.
 * Esther takes out a scroll with the list of gates on it. Kashani thinks we've closed the gates in Sharn and the Gloaming; the one in the Starpeaks is open. The one in Goradra Gap is guarded by the last fire giant king, which is concerning. She starts mentioning Haka'torvak and Vikrit suddenly remembers what Konstadin showed them. Kashani is horrified to hear that Konstadin was not human as he appeared, but a mindflayer accompanied by a dolgaunt, which means the daelkyr aren't all gone. Vikrit tells her about Konstadin's vision of the future in Haka'torvak.
 * She says she found our crew… and knows we have the crystal ball. She wants us to use it to find out where the Stargazers went. Vikrit mentions we found their teleportation pendants: fairly powerful artifacts of conjuration. She says they moved the airship to somewhere safe and it's still under repairs; we'll need to do a few more things before it's airworthy.
 * She says she wants to talk with Vikrit alone. Vesun tries to stay and she says it's sensitive Gatekeeper info; he says, "wow, you are pretty good at gatekeeping" and leaves.
 * Cornerio rolls a natural 20 on his listening-in check.
 * Kashani says he's been chosen by Godara and they switch into Draconic (to Cornerio's chagrin). She mentions the Gatekeepers were betrayed by one of their own; Vikrit mentions Mavadtotop and the vision of the betrayal he showed them. She has no idea what Mavadtorop is or why he would know these things. She continues that Godara's soul was poisoned and split: one part that loves all life, and brought the lizardfolk to Khorvaire; and another part that has been corrupted.
 * She says tomorrow he should come with her to restore the heart of Lucien. She says the rest of the party cannot attend because they're not Gatekeepers. Vikrit is confused and asks if he is one and she nods. After some stunned silence, she asks how he got so far from Q'barra. He says he's on his walkabout and may have gotten a little lost. She reassures him that if he makes it home, he will impress everyone (he says, "That'll show my brother!" under his breath). As they leave, Vik suggests she keep an eye on Vesun, Sarienne and Cornerio while they're in camp (without naming them, and being a bit vague about what to look out for--he means sticky fingers) but the other two are okay. This concerns her. Vikrit asks if they have any chance at success; she sighs and opens the door, hitting the eavesdropping Cornerio.
 * Meanwhile, in the search for booze: Mogen finds Gettafix, who is shirtless and otherwise dressed in Gatekeeper garb. Dax is resentfully not participating; Mogen wheels up behind him and bearhugs him.
 * Dax is mad that she disappeared but Mogen shows him the materials she stole and he immediately gets distracted.
 * Tork gets some wine from a cauldron and notices rabbit fur in it. He realizes there are rabbits all over the bottom. This doesn't deter him and he gets drunk. Sarienne checks it out and is deterred. A couple of druids are carrying a barrel; she comes over and they offer her some of their nice mead. They warn her not to have the wine since it's one of the other druid's pranks.
 * Orielle and Vesun are on the sidelines. After a while Orielle asks if she can get a drink, he says sure and she goes over to Tork, coughing when she drinks. Cornerio tells Sarienne that Vikrit is plotting against them; she and Orielle are skeptical.
 * Vikrit goes over to Tork and loves the gross rabbit wine. It is canonized that he produces the equivalent of owl pellets.
 * The party gets going.
 * Esther goes over to Tork and leads him away from the campsite with Bagheera following. She says she's been thinking about their village; Kashani told her what happened. She tells Tork that Godara was an ancient GK; something happened to her and she went evil and set up a bunch of cults to worship her--and that's what their families were.
 * She talks about how the painful memories still bother her. Tork puts an arm around her. She asks if he ever wonders what it would be like to grow up normally. She uses prestidigitation to draw stick figures in the air: being raised normally, playing outside--what books have showed her "normal" childhood is. Tork does his own show for her. He gets the sense that she has a crush on him.
 * She gets up and tells him she is going to have to head off into the Demon Wastes, since Kashani said they need to split their forces. She says if anything happens, she's really happy they got to know each other and Tork pulls her in for a hug. He reassures her that they'll see each other again soon.
 * Vesun turns in early; Mogen gets caught up in conversation with Dax and realizes it's super late. He says while she was gone, he was able to combine the projectiles from the potato gun with her shot; they're now glass ampules with fire inside them.
 * He adds that the crystal holding Brezhnia has cracked and Mogen says they need to go check it out right away. They don't know where the ship is so Mogen gets Vikrit, who has been drinking the rabbit wine and he doesn't know how to track a ship.
 * Meanwhile, Sarienne has been following up on Cornerio's hunch that Vikrit's going to betray them. Vikrit has not been doing anything interesting (just enjoying the nasty rabbit wine) but she notices Kashani and Cicely are keeping an eye on her. Cicely follows her and Sarienne pulls one on her and quickly moves behind her. She taps her on the shoulder and Cicely shrieks. She asks why she's been following her.
 * Vikrit finds Kashani and she says we can go, and leads Vik, Dax, and Mogen to the ship. Vikrit blurts out that they're on a secret mission and tells her about Breland's interest; she says she's not interested in human affairs and doesn't want the army there.
 * Mogen goes ahead and runs to Brezhnia's crystal. She speaks in Ignan; Brezhnia responds that she's tired. Mogen sees the crack in the dilithium crystal; they're an alloy of dragonshards and something else. It's a way to keep an elemental trapped--if Brezhnia were evil, she could escape and burn everything to the ground.
 * Kashani comes over to investigate and says they noticed the crack earlier. There is a cave with dilithium crystals nearby that the Stargazers were hanging around in and it's not quite right. Mogen says she wants to sleep here, Vikrit stays with her and Dax goes back to camp with Kashani.
 * When Vesun falls asleep, he has a vivid dream.
 * It's the same mountaintop in Q'barra from the "final battle" in Konstadin's vision of the future, but Konstadin appears next to him instead of us. He says he saw something in Vesun and asks what he wants. Vesun rolls 1 on his bluff so he's open to Konstadin's mental probing. He says he wants people to choose their own destiny, not be controlled by greater forces.
 * Konstadin says this isn't the only future: the image changes and he's in Sharn, flying into the city. The towers are surrounded by demons and devils flying around. He sees crowds of poor people from the lower class parts of the city assembled together screaming and chanting, and the rich guests from the Gala in Sharn are people in shackles. There's a 10-15 ft. tall guillotine in front of him, and he's on a throne. The lord mayor is pushed forward and Vesun gives him a thumbs down, as he is pushed into the guillotine. He hears Konstadin's voice again that this is a possible outcome; he says "I'm listening" and Konstadin says to wait for his instructions and keep one of the amulets on him.
 * Vesun is masterfully non-committal; when he laughs as Konstadin saying he has the choice between the easy and hard option, Konstadin gets angry and the dream ends. He can't go back to sleep, so he goes off to think by himself.
 * Tork and Orielle are asleep by the fire. Sarienne is still up and catches up with Vesun. She asks if he's seen Vikrit and Mogen, he says no. He sits on his own to contemplate and she goes to bed.
 * The next morning, Kashani meets everyone but Vikrit and Mogen and they go back to the boat.
 * She mentions the crystal has been cracked, and she mentions the cave. She says Vikrit is coming with her and says he's going to be taking part in the ritual to restore Lucien Greatoak's heart with the other Gatekeepers. Cornerio remarks that this is suspicious and everyone else waves them goodbye.
 * Ceciley shows the rest of the party the cave. Sarienne sees a bunch of webs up ahead. Mogen pre-loads a hot potato.
 * As they get close to some mushrooms, they shoot out spores. They seem fine at first, but then Sarienne starts coughing hard (-2 Con). Vesun figures out that she's been poisoned by the spores and Vesun uses a scroll to heal her.
 * Sarienne notices a bit of crystal that looks like the one in the ship, and then they see a tree moving.
 * Vesun thinks it's a treeant and calls out to it; it comes forward a little bit. Cornerio wants to push Vikrit forward as a sacrifice, but unfortunately he isn't there. A couple of others start moving once Sarienne tells it to halt…
 * FIGHT!
 * Cornerio notices a bigger tree moving further away. Vesun starts summoning (Monster IV). Orielle heads toward one of the smaller treeants. Tork casts Force Claw. Sarienne (now played by Monica) slashes the other small one with her sickle but doesn't get through the bark; the treeant swings at her and misses twice. Cornerio gets trampled by the medium treeant then jumps into one of the trees. Mogen shoots the potato gun over Sarienne at the gargantuan treeant; it starts to smolder.
 * Vesun summons 2 small fire elementals and tells them to attack Cornerio's treeant, with Mogen egging them on in Ignan, and he runs forward. Orielle keeps attacking but doesn't do much. The fire elementals start setting the tree on fire. Cornerio nods approvingly. Tork hits the tree Orielle is attacking with scorching ray and does 66 fire damage, ashing it instantly. Sarienne keeps slashing away and it hits her back.
 * The large treeant jumps down from its ledge, taking a bit of damage from Tork's spell. Mogen fires the Mogun at the large tree and it hits the trunk. Cornerio hammers the treeant near him. Orielle goes to help Cornerio and Vesun readies an attack on the tree near Sarienne. Tork uses a fireball from his wand on the big treeant and the one Sarienne is attacking and does 54 damage; it kills the one Sarienne was attacking and she runs back.
 * The one attacking Cornerio misses; the gigantic one charges Vesun and he rolls a natural 20 to get out of the way, so he only takes a small hit. Mogen yells at Vesun to get back (he insists he's fine), drops her gun and shoots a hot potato at the big tree. Cornerio thwacks the treeant with the pointy end of his hammer. Vesun holds the line; Orielle keeps attacking the remaining treeant. Tork scorching rays the large tree again above Vesun and does 64 damage this time, destroying it. Sarienne (returned to Janaka) fires her bow and shoots through the last treeant's leaves. It whacks Cornerio. Mogen moves up easily with her cool spider legs and slashes it with her kukri. Tork kills it.
 * Mogen wonders aloud if the druids could have warned them about the treeants and if they summoned them. Cornerio suggests that it's related to his Vikrit betrayal theory. Vesun says that could be why they kept Vikrit back, if they were trying to get rid of the rest of the party...