Seemingly taken back by the woman's sudden hardness Vlad gives a half smile.. "Im sorry if I offended you Miss. Sometimes I speak without thinking. I have ample material I think so I thank you and yours for having me here." Standing he gives a slight formal bow. "Thank you for your time and good day." He pulls out 50 gold pieces and sets them on the bench before turning and walking to the exit.
On his way out he tries to get a idea of what kind of numbers there are here and the general layout of the place..
After a day of exploring the place, the villains gather at the manor to share information and make plans.
Vlad was not able to discern exactly how many nuns living in the abbey, but based on the place’s size, it could be more than hundreds!
Argan shows the group the map found at the Elf room, and everyone agrees it’ll make a lot easier to find the horn.
After a bit of time, Seth returns after clearing the confusion at the church. However, his words faltered and the one that could have been a contact is now just someone hostile to him.
@All
After all you preparation, purchases, magic items creation, information gathering, you decide it's time to explore the Briar.
When the when you are about to leave, you receive message from Elise, informing that she is ready and all is set up.
“When you do find the Horn of Abaddon, contact me.” her note says finally.
==//==
It is perhaps startling how little exploration has been done of the Caer Bryr by the inhabitants of Farholde. There is a simple reason for this -- the Caer Bryr is phenomenally dangerous. When Farholde was conquered almost three centuries ago, a number of expeditions set out to explore the jungle. None of them ever came back.
Every few decades a new generation gets the brilliant idea -- let’s explore the Briar! The results are usually much the same -- few survivors. What survivors do come back relate tales of an endless wilderness of monsters and barbarians. And so the people of Farholde keep to their hills.
==//==
The northern Caer Bryr is a temperate rain forest richly blessed with rain fall and broadleaf trees. The trees here are tall and broad. The thick-trunked baobab tree, unusual in such a wet clime, is common here and grows to enormous size. It is not uncommon to see trees hundreds of feet tall with trunks twenty feet across. To walk into the deep Briar is to enter the domain of giants.
Every flat surface is covered with brilliant green moss and lichens in every hue. Mushrooms of a million sorts proliferate and crowd every fallen log. Small animal life is dense -- squirrels, voles, mice and white-faced ghost monkeys. Birds dwell here in endless variety and dazzling panoramas of plumage are everywhere on display. It is a bountiful place rich and thriving with nature’s splendor.
Perhaps the single most famous feature of the northern Briar are the great stone spires. They proliferate everywhere in this jungle rising hundreds of feet above the forest floor. Often covered in foliage, they are the home to countless small animals. These are natural spires though the Iraen are full of stories about how they were carved by ancient giants.
This is how the entire region looks like.
This is how the Horn looks like.
After all of your preparation, and with Kael’s map, finding the Horn is an easy thing.
Lil observes the forest happily from her perch. "Ooh, those trees are even bigger than big trees! I wonder if we could set up some little people to make cookies in them..."
Out of town Vlad has no reason to don a disguise.. He looks drained during the day hours and tries to keep to the shadows.. The huge trees and their canopy are a welcome sight for him..
Kharn travels with Lilpenny on his shoulders, and he chuckles at her words.
"They'ed have to be really little to have a cookie making shop in the trees, but we should keep that in mind."
Seth chuckles along with Kharn, although his mood is somewhat soured by the possible upset at the church. I must be more careful. Silly little details almost exposed us. He looks up at the Horn with curiosity. "So this is it. I suppose my thought of a literal horn was off." He looks at the more...martially inclined people. "Shall we?"
As you approach the Horn, the trees seems to come to life, moaning and contorting themselves, their branches moving in your direction, but it does not gives a feeling it will attack immediately.
All the trees seems to have moved, however only one of them seems to be ‘alive’, and that’s the one that came to speak with you, however, two more nearby trees uprooted themselves.
A huge tree, uproots itself and walks in your direction, it stops some feet’s from you and from it, you hear an old, ancient voice. “You have happened upon the Horn of Abaddon,” it lectures, “a cursed place once of great corruption. It is my sacred charge to see that evil never again takes root here,” he points in the contrary direction you were heading ”go back, there’s nothing for you in those ruins.”
"Ooh, a talking tree!"
Seth tenses up. We must not reveal we are Asmodean followers. In his Aasimar disguise, Seth hopes the treant is not suspicious of him.
This is a big, bad ass tree. But unlike the treants you’ve heard about, this one seems to be a different sort.
He is not vulnerable to fire, on contrary, he is resistant to it. Lightning does nothing against it.
Slashing weapons are the only ones capable of bypassing its hardness.
It has lightning related magicks, and looks really strong.
These monsters are rumored to be evil, but this one seems to be out of that norm. It can command nearby trees, but they are a poor copy of this stronger treant.
Lil sits back, eyes wide. Oh, we might be in biiiig trouble.
"Good!" Seth shouts out to the tree. Only have one chance at this. He steps forward in his Aasimar guide, hands held out. "We are aware of the Horn of Abaddon and what its accursed purposes are for. That is the reason we are here. I recruited these adventurers to help fortify and seal away the evil locked within." He bows his head respectfully to the huge beacon of power. "We want to permanently rid the roots of evil from within the ruins, but failing that we would set up a much stronger defense of it to ward it from any other nefarious purposes. Please, allow us to do this act to avoid the suffering of others."
"Wait a second trees can't talk!"
Kharn suspiciously looks around at his fellows.
"Is this some kind of joke? Did you use magic to make it look like a tree can talk and move?"
Lil leans down and flicks at Kharn's ear. "Silly Kharn, it's a treant! It's maaagical."
Kharn seems a bit confused.
"Wait, it's a tree that can talk and move? Who wanted to make a tree that could talk?"
"I dunno." Lil calls out to the treant. "Hellooo! You up there barking at us, what's your name?"
”There’s evil within this place.” it states ”Those that came before you, are now nothing more than past memories.”
”They call me Jurak, the Eldest.” the tree answer Lil question.
"If evil still resides, it is our wish to purge it. We shall not cross you wise creature, but we only seek to help."
"Indeed great one, we come with the backing of the Abbey of Saint Cynthia-Celeste and the Church of Mitra. Surely you would not bar such a righteous quest.."
”You have been warned. There’s evil inside, but no evil stir in that place.” says the tree walking away from you path.
With nothing to stop you anymore, you take a time to look around the horn, and search for any clear entrance.
There are two stairways leading to some entrance 100ft and 150ft high.
There’s a cave entrance leading beneath the stone spire.
Lil waves at Jurak as he leaves. "Keep in touch! Branch out to us!" She giggles, looking up at the horn. "Ooh, lots of ways to get in."
"Perhaps start at the bottom?" Seth suggests.
From behind, answering Seth question, a loud voice. "You un's keep forgetting about Grumblejack." says the ogre, panting as if he had been running for a time.
Argan was busy scanning the surroundings for enemies, and he did not realize there was actually a tree there, until it was talking to them. "I did not forget about you, big guy, we were just letting you have some fun before getting here." He turns to the group. "Any of them is fine by me. Maybe we should look for signs of the entrance the guys that the tree was talking about went, cause we definitely have no clue who they are, but maybe that's not a safe entrance. We should look closer."
"If we're to clean this place up we should start at the bottom and work out way up, leaving no loose ends. Thats just my opinion.."
There is sign of native life, animals and something you judge to be a walking tree. Near the stairs, there is no sign of passage or anyone going up. The caverns however have sign of constant usage, by something that appear to be a big biped frog, only it is more than one. The treant, is still about in the forrest, looking like nothing more than a big tree.
"You know at some point we're gonna have to deal with that tree.."
"I see no reason why we need to." Seth chuckles. "Look at the size of that creature. Even if for some reason it manages to figure out what we're really up to, it cannot fit inside the Horn." He nods to Vlad. "I agree, bottoms up, as they say." Seth helps get Lil down off of Kharn's shoulder. "Do lead on."
The great stone spire, rises some hundreds in the dim light of the forrest, the trees surrounding it, gigantic in stature, seems to be nothing in comparison. Walking around it, you find ruins of what once appear to be the entrance to it. A boulder rests in the smashed top floor of a three‐storey stout, stone watchtower. A nearby rotting catapult appears to be the culprit.
The remains of a thick, reinforced wooden door lie scattered on the wide, stone steps leading up to the entrance. Bits of broken weapons and armour litter the otherwise intact interior.
Past the tower, scattered blocks of obsidian, inscribed with the iconography of an evil deity, surround the foundations of a once proud archway. A few outlying buildings remain relatively intact. The entrance seems to have crumbled in most of the parts, and it leads down to a series of dark caverns.
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"Well its obvious the place in still inhabited.. Be on your guard.." He says as he pulls his blade from the scabbard.. He heads off towards the dark caverns..
Argan picks his Ioun Torch from a pocket and let it spins over his head. "I can't see in the dark, by the way. If tomorrow you prepare a spell to help me an Kharn with that it would be awesome. Let me take the lead, Vlad. You're too clumsy in that plate of yours."
He will check the terrain until the entrance to the tunnels, hoping it does not have traps on their path.
Vlad sneers at Argan's comment.. "By all means.."
Finally, you can contemplate the place.
The great stone spire, rises some hundreds of feet high , the trees surrounding it, gigantic in stature, seems to be nothing in comparison.
Walking around it, you find ruins of what once appear to be the entrance to it.
A boulder rests in the smashed top floor of a three‐storey stout, stone watchtower. A nearby rotting catapult appears to be the culprit. The remains of a thick, reinforced wooden door lie scattered on the wide, stone steps leading up to the entrance. Bits of broken weapons and armour litter the otherwise intact interior.
Past the tower, scattered blocks of obsidian, inscribed with the iconography of an evil deity, surround the foundations of a once proud archway. A few outlying buildings remain relatively intact.
The entrance seems to have crumbled in most of the parts, and it leads down to a series of dark caverns.
The party searches the ruined tower, the nearby ruins for anything useful or interesting. Whatever secret it may had, it was long found and don’t offer anything of value.
From the ruins tho, you are able to gather that the first attack on the horn was swift and brutal, almost no damage was done to nearby structures, and from that you concluded that the defenders did not had time to mount any resistance.
As you explore the ruins, a fog begins to form in the place, it feels malevolent and evil, as if someone or something trying to reach from a faraway place.
With nothing left to explore on the outside ruins, the party moves into the cave mouth.
This broad open cave is the only visible entrance to the lower caverns. The many stalactites, stalagmites, and columns of wet living stone resemble nothing so much as fangs contained inside a large loathsome grin. The cave is covered by countless pools of standing fetid water and ubiquitous slicks of mud that make the entire surface of the maw count as difficult terrain from the entrance to more than forty feet in.
The darkness engulfs Argan, as he moves now, clearly more comfortable with the ioun stone hovering around his head, as he goes inside, the odor becomes stronger and stronger.
Up ahead, the large curve continues with a slight curve to the left, to his right, the cave walls breaks in several natural passages.
Seeing well in the darkness Vlad watches Argan move forward and light up the whole place.. Dam Humans and their non-seeing asses..
He creeps forwards slowly as to not slip until he catches up with the rogue.. Whispering "Lets stay to the more open path on the left.."
Seth and Lil follow 20 feet behind the front liners. "Let's go left."
The passage to the left opens to a big cave and several other natural passages.
An empty nondescript wet cavern. This crossroads with the hard rock floor is path for three other passages.
From Behind, Kharn hears sound of metal clanking, while Seth, Grumble and Lil are able to see frog man trying to sneak on then.
"Eeek, frog people!" Lil runs next to Vlad and grabs onto the antipaladin's leg.
Seth takes a careful step away from the frog people, getting behind Grumblejack. "What is your business here?"
Round 1-
Ordered Initiative-
Party initiative
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Action-
Enemy
Party
The frogs, noticing the surprise was no longer an option, start to croak as the biggest of the lot run and attack the biggest enemy, Grumblejack.
The frog holding a greatsword, his eyes bulging with a bestial fury, almost cut in half the ogre, with one powerful attack.
The other three, just walks closer while croaking.
Enemy
Party
Bellowing in pain, the ogre try too late to warn the others. ”Un’s! Frogs! Frogs!” as he get a grip on his weapon and attack the barbarian frog near him.
The ogre attack hit it's target, but it was nowhere near as vicious as the frog sword.
Kharn roars with rage and moves forward to attack the frog man. He takes his greatsword out as he moves forward and brings it down towards the frog man's head with all his might.
Lil looks back in shock then anger as the frogs start attacking. "Plythu dirise!" A dark whip-shaped field of energy wraps around the greatsword-wielding frog's neck.
"Malsvir deyhurr!" Seth raises his hands and a floating chain of force with hooks at each end appears next to the greatsword-frog, then they try to sweep his legs out.
Vlad moves up and takes a swing at the raging frog..
With Grumblejack, Vlad, Kharn between him and the frog, Argan only moves closer, preparing to strike at the next opportunity.
Meanwhile, Seth tries to trip the frog, but the creature is able to avoid his chain, but that made it vulnerable to Lil’s lash, as the spells saps the frog strength.
Without losing any time, Grumbleajack, Kharn and Vlad, each at his own specialty, hit the raging savage, breaking bones, exposing frog flesh, and putrid blood, but in madness and rage, the sword wielding frog notices nothing besides more enemies.
Round 2-
Ordered Initiative-
Frogs: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20
Argan: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
Kharn: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4
Lil: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
Seth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
Vlad: 1d20 ⇒ 3
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Action-
Enemy
Party
In a fit of madness fury, the frog attack swing his sword in a wide arc, from left to right, trying to hit Vlad...
...but the attack dies at the warrior shield, and whatever the wild frog was planning, never came to life.
==//==
The other tree frogs start to emit a loud and horrifying croak, attempting to fright the enemies.
Enemy
Party
Lil squeals in terror. "Eww, make the ugly frog people go away!" She raises her hands. "Xtirl di plythu!" A coruscating ray springs from her hand and darts at the raging frog.
Meanwhile her whip continues to strangle him.
Seth whips his hand and tries to trip the raging frog again!
Grumblejack challenge bellows changes from anger to rage, as he continue yelling now in trying to frighten his enemies!
”Un’s! The frogs! Don't let them get away!”