Week 38
TL;DR - Experiments, arguments, meeting up with an old drug supplier and playing with kittens
The mantis disappears into the forest following the pan flutes, and Shebrum notices that Natalie has disappeared. Iliqua moves to the top of the tower, Jaxzon mounts his lion and readies his lance, Zer0 waits at the tower entrance, looking to where Shebrum went.
A few minutes later Shebrum makes it back to the tower, and a conversation about how Natalie knows when the mantis is approaching. Is she calling it, is the pan flute to blame?
The party all enter the tower and discuss what to do. An hour passes, two hours pass, Natalie has still not returned. Jaxzon reads his book, Zer0 goes to the top layer and watches the road. The maggots continue to squirm, some time later a knock has heard. Shebrum opens the door to a somewhat familiar forest druid satyr, seller of tree drugs.
He introduces himself to Shebrum, who calls Iliqua to the door. The druid talks about being in the Feywild and how much trouble is around with the bugs. Jaxzon invites him in for a meal, but declines the options available.
Iliqua asks about curing the addiction portion of the drugs, the druid claims that it’s not a good business deal, but can do it with the right materials and time. He fends of further enquiries to talk about more serious matters involving the mantis.
Jaxzon demands to fight the mantis, everyone else tries to talk him out of it. The druid continues his story of how much danger there is, a lot of maggots and a big hive, possibly Mournkeld. The maggots are all changing into something bigger and nastier.
He suggests the party burns the hive, offers to supply the materials, and points into the forest saying that it is about a days travel away. Iliqua argues against trekking into the forest and just going straight to the Phoenix Gate.
The druid claims that Natalie is controlling the mantis, and has blocked the road, forcing anyone into the forest anyway. Zer0 asks how far the hive is compared to the Phoenix Gate, finding out that it’s further away.
Shebrum heads outside to stab some maggots, one trying to attach itself to his arm, with another getting a hit. The wound is not stopping bleeding, causing a small amount of damage. Shebrum stops after Jaxzon calls him off, using his cure disease ability to try and stop the bleeding. Shebrum figures out that cauterizing the wound will help.
Iliqua sits down on the road outside and casts identify on the road itself. The cobblestones have a minor warding glyph on the bottom. He picks a stone up and throws it into the maggots, who then get forced away to around a foot radius.
He asks how much rope everyone has, formulating a plan, then asks the tree druid to look after a couple of Fey things - spawning the displacer beast kittens. The druid says he can’t look after them because they’re Unseelie and he’s not. Iliqua hands the kittens to Zer0 instead, and puts the horse into his Pokeball.
Shebrum checks the trunk on the carriage, looking for traps. He can see something moving inside through the keyhole, and can’t be sure if it’s trapped or not. Jaxzon uses Divine Sense to try and figure it out, finds that the trunk is a blind spot to his senses and suggests that the party doesn’t open it.
Iliqua and Jaxzon heads off down the road from where the party came from, picking some stones from the road and loading up the lion and himself. He gives Jaxzon a couple and asks him to walk into the maggot wall - Jaxzon is uncertain, but eventually agrees.
Jaxzon starts walking, but Iliqua figures out that his plan isn’t going to work as well as he thought. The initial steps work, but the limited range becomes obvious even to Jaxzon. Several maggots attack but can’t get through his armour, Jaxzon adjusts the location of the stones and tries again - this time a maggot does hit and he cures himself.
Further changes to the stones amount and placement, and another attempt to walk into the maggot wall but this again shows that the plan isn’t going to work, at least on a personal level.
Shebrum wants to pour something into the chest through the keyhole, whilst Zer0 plays with the kittens. Jaxzon wanders over and convinces Shebrum to open the chest, which he does easily. Shebrum and Jaxzon step away and use the lance to open it - inside it a large ball of rotten and diseased flesh.
Iliqua continues his experiment with the maggots, but is called over to check out the chest. Jaxzon feels a sting under his armour, and some crawling, has an urge to rip off his armour and find out what it is. Shebrum and Iliqua back off while the armour is removed, but only a short time later he falls over, paralyzed. A small black shadowy blob is seen near Jaxzon’s lance.
Iliqua remembers it as a scorpion from the Unseelie court, kills it a firebolt. He commands URA to close the chest, but as it gets closer the flesh ball starts moving and URA can’t make contact.
Jaxzon calls for his lion to protect him, Iliqua asks him to close the chest which he does, then gets the lion to take the chest further down the road. Jaxzon asks his lion to ask Iliqua to ask the druid to cure his paralysis. Iliqua and Shebrum look for more scorpions, but cannot find any.
Shebrum takes some rope and wraps it around the chest and ties a solid knot to keep it closed. Jaxzon gets his lion to try getting the druid to cure his paralysis, but the druid is easily distracted and fails to get anywhere.
Iliqua finally asks the druid, but he can’t do it. Iliqua figures out the paralysis will only last around ten minutes. The chest is placed into the stasis bag, Jaxzon is roughly pushed toward the tower, eventually the paralysis fades.
Jaxzon sleeps while Shebrum takes first watch with the spyglass, noticing more of the brown maggots are around - they’re also not as affected by the warding glyph as the smaller ones. Zer0 takes second watch, but is distracted by kittens and doesn’t see anything else.
Iliqua does more stone experiments, finding out a way to attach them to the carriage and provide enough protection - it will be heavy and reduces the speed.
A plan is formed to put the lion in the Pokeball, use the horse to pull the cart with the party all riding on it, swapping him with the kittens should combat occur.
Jaxzon takes the final watch, noting a humanoid walking among the maggots - he yells out asking who they are, but gets nothing in return. Breakfast is cooked, other preparations made for the day. Jaxzon pulls a pie out of the stasis bag and goes to eat it, but notices that it has become diseased. He takes out the remaining pies, they are also rotten so he throws them all to the maggots.
Everything else in the bag that isn’t organic is covered with a slimy substance, Shebrum and Iliqua discuss why this may be happening. Iliqua figures out that the chest is feeding on magic, and because it’s in the stasis bag, the stasis effect has been disabled.
Iliqua asks the druid to take the chest to the Feywild, but he is shut down quickly - the druid states that the Elders are already sick of him bringing weird stuff in. Shebrum asks him for more drugs to stave off the addiction, the druid offers a possible cure if the party deals with the hive.
Iliqua rummages through the carriage contents - bloodstained clothing and other sundry items, all dumped out of the cart. Cobblestones checked over, everyone piles into the carriage ready for the next set of travel.