- What One Hand Gives
- Poetry pets trees as they walk into the forest.
- Stardust the owl flies above the canopy to keep an eye on the rising smoke
- Eventually the sky gets hazy with incoming rain, and Stardust can't see the smoke any more.
SKILLZ CHALLENGE
- Caleb parkours up a tree and determines they have walked in a bit of a circle, and finds a new bearing for them to follow (Acrobatics of 22 - SUCCESS)
- Niniel find a nearby stream and sticks her head into the water and ask for directions (Persuasion 23 - SUCCESS) A crawfish tells her that sometimes kids tramp over the log over the creek and occasionally splash in the water in exchange for a shell from her hair, but they usually head that way. Niniel's vision goes dark while her head is in the stream, and she sees a big bulbous shape in the darkness (like a pufferfish? but not a water creature, she feels like she's been buried alive) it has eyes, but looks like it is sleeping and having a bad dream. She grabs a smooth river rock on her way back up.
- The forest becomes denser and darker as they continue. Niniel summons some Dancing anglerfish Lights.
- They find some animal tracks, some deer, and some of the trees have antler marks.
- After another little while they approach a clearing, but the clearing is eerily silent. In the trees around the clearing there are birds and squirrels and other critters, but they are all just sitting there staring vacantly.
- Zemma examines the clearing and the animals (Survival 19 - SUCCESS) and she manages to make her way across the clearing by carefully following the deer tracks. As she is crossing the clearing, a squirrel makes eye contact with Zemma and makes a chittering noise, but the sounds is more a child giggling than a normal squirrel chitter.
- Soliana notices that the squirrel that laughed at Zemma is following them. She has Stardust the owl capture the squirrel alive and bring it to Poetry so she can ask it questions. (Arcana 21 - SUCCESS) When Stardust drops the giggler into her hands, Soliana can see through the small non-fatal wounds from the owl's talons that instead of blood and muscle, the little creature's body looks like it is stuffed with black, skinny, stringy
- Poetry casts Speak with Animals and asks it who it is, why it's following us, and if we can help it. (Animal Handling 20 - SUCCESS) She then casts Cure Wounds on it, and the wounds close up. It giggles again.
- The squirrel makes another sounds like children laugh, and it says, "We all see you." Niniel casts Detect Magic and sees that there are magical shenanigans that is a mix of transmutation and necromancy and a sprinkle of enchantment.
- Poetry dumps her coin pouch into her backpack and hands it to Soliana who stuffs the squirrel tail first into the bag and then tightens the drawstring so that only it's little head is sticking out.
- The eventually reach a part of the forest that looks like it is dead or dying. There's no underbrush, and most of the trees are leaf-less. There are some mushrooms growing around, but that's about it. Some of the tree have red string tied around them. The sound of a child's scream floats with the breeze.
- Caleb tells everyone else to wait here and he does a quiet, stealthy circuit of the clearing (Stealth 29 - SUCCESS) finding a good path, and then comes back and leads everyone across to a larger opening surrounded by a ring of dead trees, and there is a homey little cottage in the clearing.
SUCCESS NAVIGATION
- Niniel casts Invisibility on herself and stealths (badly) up to the cottage and uses her Ghostly Gaze to look through the wall. She sees that inside the room is like a cottage kitchen with a hearth and a stove. There's a woman tending the fire and the stove, and there's another woman sitting at the table on the opposite side. There are herbs and roots and things hung from the rafters.
- The woman at the stone suddenly looks up and says "Who is spying on me?" and whips around to look directly at Niniel, who is invisible and on the other side of a solid wall. Niniel waves, and then walks around a little bit. The woman waves back. Niniel Misty Steps out of there. The door opens and the woman looks around outside. Niniel freezes still invisible.
- The woman says from the doorway back into the house, "I think we have visitors." The second woman also appears at the door.
- The first woman says, "Come out, come out wherever you are."
- Soliana steps out from the tree line and says she's looking for Timothy who got lost in the woods.
- They invite Soliana in for tea, and Soliana asks about the squirrel in the pouch at her belt. They say to invite her sneaky friend in too, and Soliana says that her friend snuck off and Soliana doesn't know where she went as she walks closer towards the doorway to the cottage.
- They call out so that everyone can hear, "Sneaky friend, you should come in for tea too."
- Niniel starts walking up, but casts Detect Magic causing Invisibility to drop and she can see that the two women radiate Illusion magic. An examination of what she can see of the house shows no sort of tethers or other magic besides their illusion spells.
- Soliana and Niniel walk into the house.
- The front room and kitchen looks like the inside of a nice country cottage. They chat about Timothy and other people from the village while tea is steeped, and then an earthy, spicy smelling tea is handed around in thick earthenware mugs. Soliana pretends to drink the tea. Niniel actually drinks the tea.
- Niniel asks how the one woman saw her when Niniel waved. She says she just heard Niniel.
- Soliana then asks if they trade for the things they forage in the woods why there isn't a path to their house. No answer is given that is satisfactory.
- Soliana meets Niniel's eyes and tries to look at the women and then back and Niniel and then back at the women and then back and Niniel.
- Soliana casts Dispel Magic on the woman doing most of the talking. The Illusion disappears from her and in front of them is a bulbous, squat, fat, creature wearing only a loincloth made of stringy bits, with a long pointy nose sticking out from stringy hair curtaining the rest of the face. She sighs and asks why Soliana would ruin a perfectly good evening?
- Niniel then casts Hold Monster on the hag.
- The other woman who still looks like a woman in her early 60s stands at the ready for further action.
- Soliana holds up her hands and says, "We just want to know what's happening to the children."
- The hag says it's time to put all the cards out on the table, so Soliana puts the bag with the squirrel on the table. The hag declares that a weird card, but does admit they created the creatures like that. They would love to get rid of the giggling.
- The hags say they are helping the village by keeping the thing beneath the village asleep or it would wake up and kill everyone.
- Soliana asks the hags what they would do if they could get rid of the thing sleeping beneath the village so that they don't have to "help" any more, but they just never answer.
- The hags say that the creature consumes dreams and that children's dreams are special, more vivid, more magical because they have such big imaginations. The hags take their dreams and use them to hold the creature at bay.
- Soliana goes quiet while Niniel is still asking questions and then she just goes over to the door and opens it to find Caleb listening at the door. She then gestures for the rest of their friends to come inside as well.
- There is some more chat with roundabout answers to things, and Soliana tries to ask where Timothy is, but can't get an answer other than that he will be returned in a few days.
- Niniel just gets up and goes over to one of the other doors and opens it to find a small boy who seems to be asleep on a small straw mattress. There's a crystal suspended from the ceiling pointed over his forehead. There are runes carved into the floor around the bed. He is tied to the bed loosely The hags say not to disturb him while he's in the ritual. They don't know what will happen as the ritual has never been interrupted before.
- Niniel casts Detect Magic and gets the same transmutation and necromantic vibes as the Restless Devon. The crystal is collecting magic up from his head and that's the necromantic element, while there's a transmutation sort of magic tether forming and going down into the earth.
- Niniel calls for help freeing the kid despite what the hags have said.
- Niniel pushes the crystal aside and starts sawing at the bonds holding him to the bed. Timothy immediately wakes up, his eyes are solid black orbs and he starts screaming and thrashing and Soliana put him (ironically) to Sleep with a spell.
- Niniel takes the crystal while Zemma carries Timothy outside.
- About halfway across the clearing while heading back to town, Timothy wakes back up from Soliana's spell and she casts Dispel Magic on him, and while he is no longer screaming and thrashing, his eyes are still black and he's muttering things like "He can see me. He's going to get me." amongst other gibberish.
- Soliana looks back to the hags, but then she sees that the trees are full of squirrels just staring at them. As they keep walking there's the sound of an animal immediately followed by the sound of a child screaming.
- Niniel immediately turns and takes a few steps in the direction of the scream.
- Out of the forest gloom a large stag jumps out and gives Niniel a toss of it's antlers, but it misses. Then it blink teleports a few feet away and turns to face the rest of the group. It's eyes are solid black like Timothy's and it's antlers look strangely overgrown and not right.
- Initiatives are rolled.
- Boofing comes up due to a mishearing. Several definitions are laughed at.
- 3,000 XP ea for 79,200 XP total each
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