Session 3: The Path to Greenwall
Pages 468 through 482 of core rulebook: Information for exploration, encounter, and downtime.Plants we need to get:
Willow Sapling
Camphor Sapling
Mint Sprig
Aloe Plant
Poppy Seeds
Gnome merchant in town, Annie, who has developed a reputation for experimenting with magically-inclined things. People warn against buying her custom works; you get a bottle with no instructions.
The party bundles up into the Boofin Burgers cart and sets off to Greenwall!
Barely any time in the ride at all, Sartorii and Bingus notice a bunch of dudes in trees along the road. Sartorii shouts, "Heads up, seven-up!" despite there only being five men in the trees, then fires an arrow at the nearest dude, alerting the rest of the party.
One of the men leaps from his perch and slings a rock at Bingus, but is met by a flame to the face launched by the cheering Sprite.
Another man ran up and swung his machete at Bingus, but instead embedded his blade in the cart's wooden frame and broke his weapon.
More men slinging rocks at Bingus, more misses, until one strikes home right on Bingus's temple. Rutana even gets a face-rock of her own!
Sartorii continues her archery onslaught and snipes one bandit out of his tree. One man down.
Seeing his cart desecrated so sends Bingus into a frothing rage. He grabs the bandit that hurt his precious cart and bites the bastard's face off! "Oh, I am boofer's burger."
One of the remaining bandits, terrified, swings his machete at Bingus, getting two more hits in.
The Sprite continues cheering and flings more fire around, missing. The bandit he aimed at climbs up the cart to swat at the Sprite, though Rutana's amulet negates some of the damage.
Rutana tries to flank that bandit, but the dice gods decided to bully her instead.
The bandit still in a tree starts flinging rocks again, smacking both Rutana and his ally. By this point, Rutana is a bloody mess.
Sartorii pulls out her rapier and slices the roof bandit's throat, his dead body toppling off the cart.
Bingus turns to the bandit left standing near him and growls, "I didn't know I was making fucking bitch burgers today!" The bandit is utterly terrified, for the rest of his short life.
With only one bandit left alive, the Sprite flits over to the ox's head to get closer and nails the bandit in the chest with a flame. Meanwhile, Rutana takes her chance to hide in the cart.
Unfortunately, the remaining bandit also takes his chance to leap from his tree and fucking bolt. Sartorii and the Sprite each try to catch the fleeing bandit, each failing.
Loot time loot time!
5 Silver
4 Slings
4 bags of rocks
3 Hatchets
And one funny feeling for the Sprite! His head feels a little funny, but nothing otherwise happens.
To be sure they didn't miss anything, the Sprite casts Detect Magic, to no avail. Bingus's curiosity is piqued, however, and he goes sniffing at the bodies. He gets that same light-headed feeling, and notices a pollen dusted on the back of the bandits' capes.
Rutana emerges from the cart, sees Sartorii talking about hallucinogenic pollen, and immediately tells everyone to step back from the corpse. A strange crunching noise can be heard beneath the corpse...
It's a yellow-musk creeper, which blooms in moist, dead bodies. Rutana advises burning the corpse, and the Sprite is happy to oblige.
Party healed fully during the two days of rest traveling to destination.
Greenwall:
Two days pass, and by evening the party arrives at a wall of dark green vines. The vines wrap around everything. Sartorii tries to climb the vines blocking the path, but a vine falls away to reveal the face of a dessicated corpse, roots and vines growing from his body. The corpse's swollen tongue burts like a seed pod, coating Sartorii in pollen.
Rutana points out how this is very abnormal for the yellow-musk creeper, which normally stays localized to one graveyard. She makes masks to protect everyone from the plant-y plague.
Mask bonus:
+1 to saves against the pollen, DC -1.
The party takes the hatches looted from the bandits and spends 15 minutes chopping down the vine wall, which was supported by four whole corpses.
Several houses have vines growing out of the windows.
The party approaches the nearest house that's not covered in vines and knocks on the door. Sartorii hears the cracking of a seed pod popping behind the door. An elf opens the door, dressed in velvet.
Bingus calls him a baby. The Sprite questions him about if he has a willow sapling, and he reveals he's part of the Apothecary's Guild.
Sartorii questions him further. He continues to be a vague ass, saying he'd been in that house for two days.
Bingus growls at the elf, who just stands there and smiles. Sartorii uses that distraction to sneak around the elf and inspect the house. She finds a bedridden woman, feverish, her breathing labored.
The elf promises to give at least one straight answer. He had been born in this village. He introduces himself as Sylphium Willum Amanai.
He does state the Apothecary's Guild on the north edge of the village, covered in vines, then walks into the house approaches Sartorii.
Bingus decides he's sick of this shit and smashes the back of Willum's head in with his ladel. No bones, only aloe goop. Still Willum speaks, expressing his disappointment. He melds into the wall, blooming like a flower.
The party takes an intermission so the Sprite can sanitize Bingus's ladle with fire, and so half the players can eat some Subway.
The party briefly debates what to do about the flower and the feverish woman inside the building. In the end they agree to search for a safe refuge. If so, they would bring the stricken to the safe space to try and heal them, and burn down the afflicted building.
They cross a bridge to check another building. Bingus doesn't smell any plants inside, but the party is still concerned. The Sprite peeks in a window and sees a bunch of shapes milling about a dark room. Sartorii clarifies that it's full of skill children with one teacher herding them about.
The party knocks on the door, and a scared voice answers, saying she'd told Willum she wouldn't let the spore near the children. The Sprite informs her that Willum had turned into a flower and they're here looking for a willow sapling!
The door bursts open and a shaking teacher greets them, and gestures everyone inside.
Bingus, who had been waiting in the road, spots a mass of walking, vine-encrusted corpses moving their way.
The party quickly enters the school. The children lock the school down in well-practiced efficiency.
The teacher's husband had gone down with a party, but got caught by the vines in the entrance.
Discussion grinds to a halt as the mass of corpses walks past the school. It takes five minutes for it to get past.
The apothecary's assistant, Sadie, might still be alive in the Merchant Quarter.
Bertrandd might also be alive in the Merchant Quarter.
The Sylphyium had received a gift from someone on an extended expedition, and started becoming reclusive. Some days later viny growths started showing up in crops and wells and homes. Shortly after, the disease began to spread.
Party ends at 800 total XP.