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dungeonqueering · 7 years

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Shardmind

The story so far: Alegra, a Tiefling Bard, arrives in Neverwinter for the first time. She has been traveling for years since leaving her bardic college after the tragic death of her lover, Melody. (THE REASON FOR THAT DEATH IS REAL SAD YALL). Alegra goes to a tavern to earn some coin, gets recognized as a magic user, and gets asked to look for a missing person: former cop Anita Bettername. Anita went missing investigating an abandoned home in the rich district, where a few teenagers have gone missing over the last 30 years, since it was abandoned by owner Nokun Silverbane.

Alegra goes, winds up in a massive greenhouse full of exotic plants, and is attacked by a plant, slays it, and is nearly attacked by what appears to be a Venus humantrap, when a person sized marionette talks to and sooths this plant. Antics ensue, and it's confirmed that this plant (named Kregery) ate the missing teenagers. The marionette, named Flora, is the caretaker of the entire exotic greenhouse, and also assumed the bones came from large animals. It turns out she is not permitted to leave the greenhouse and a subterranean laboratory that connects to it. She believed they lived in the middle of nowhere, not in the largest city in all of Faerûn.

Flora shows Alegra her Creator's office, and subsequently a video (stored on crystals) that reveals his infection by the entity from the plane of Psionic energy that I've mentioned previously. Flora acquired a new body, a slender Half-Elf rogue with bright purple eyes and unnaturally pale skin.

The two set out to the nearest of Nokun's facilities. After two weeks of travel, They arrive in Everlund just north of High Forest and, after Alegra seduces the Barkeep Gavin, they go to Moongleam tower, controlled by the Harpers.

There they learn that Nokun did pass through, and left record of his desire to go see an old friend in Shining Falls, Isaris Therfira. Alegra agrees to search for a Paladin from a wealthy family named Wilian Songsteel (not a typo, intentionally Wilian and not William) in exchange for being granted a guide, a dwarven druid named Leonan Stoneheart. Leonan gives Flora a wicked sick potion, and she sees colors differently for several hours.

After 2 days of forested travel and a brief fight with a fire beetle and two weasels, they arrive in Shining Falls, a city of mostly Halflings. It's built into a vertical cliff face next to a waterfall. They ask around for Isaris, and find that she left just two days prior to look for the Paladin, Wilian Songsteel. She went to a place called The Nameless Dungeon. They are told that control of said dungeon is maintained by The Great Wolf Sif (yes the name comes from Dark Souls, bite me), who is a guardian spirit of the forest. There is a ritual you can perform which basically entails setting a specific set of spices on fire to get Sif's attention. They travel about a day towards The Nameless Dungeon, and perform the ritual in moonlight. They bungle their perception checks, and Sif is suddenly present in their campaign. She is about 15 feet tall but speaks delicately via telepathy. They plead their case, and Alegra is magically given a hand tattoo of a wolf's head. Sif leaves them, but not before bidding them to go deeper once they find their goal.

Another day of travel, and they arrive at the Nameless Dungeon, guarded by elves. Upon being shown the tattoo, the elves remove it magically, and grant access to the dungeon, which supposedly alters it's shape and contents based on what you need to find or see.

They enter, and solve a few puzzles. One of these involves a trickster spirit which, when defeated, must answer one question truthfully. Alegra asks it to mark on a map where Nokun actually built his facilities, since he was only able to reveal the general area. The spirit complies and vanishes.

In the next room, a Halfling woman, aged maybe in her late 50s to early 60s, is exchanging spells against three men in robes. Alegra uses Thaumaturgy to distract them and the Halfing consumes the three of them in a fireball.

She reveals herself to be Isaris Therfira. She agrees to answer questions if the adventurers can go on and find Wilian, as Isaris is injured. Isaris and Alegra flirt.

A few rooms further, three giant rats and a strange screaming gray-skinnes goblinoid are standing over a warrior in gilded armor. Presumably Wil. After defeating the threat, it is indeed Wil. The 4 go into a healing chamber that heals them all to full plus 10 temporary HP.

Leonan offers to go heal Isaris, as it also restored his spell slots. He does. Alegra, Flora, and Wil press on. Wil had been hoping to find information on something yet unsaid and personal, as the dungeon supposedly shows you things related to your life and goals.

The party moves on and encounters a doorway filled with solid light. Upon pressing through, they have a shared vision wherein they saw that the ancient elves who lived in High Forest were also infected with this crystalline entity, and in attempting to destroy it, they also wipes themselves out.

They leave, reunite with Leonan and Isaris, and make camp. Alegra continues flirting with Isaris, who flirts back in kind. They share a tent.

The following morning, Isaris reveals that Nokun went to establish his facility in a cave system called "The Endless Caverns". Isaris plans to go back to Shining Falls. Leonan accompanies her for safety, since Isaris is still somewhat injured. After hearing of Alegra and Flora's quest, Wil opts to go with them since "Attempting to kill everyone is certainly against Pelor's light."

The three make their way to The Endless Caverns. They walk for nearly half an hour before encountering a left and right turn. They go right, and walk for another half an hour. They then enter a circular room with 7 Halls. They choose one. Another half hour, another right turn, another half hour, another circular room with 7 Halls. At this point Alegra suspects something is off. Wil makes a check and identifies this all as an illusion. Upon recognizing the magic, it is dispelled, and they see an 8th hallway with a marking over it. They enter and find themselves in a massive room that is plain except for statues on both sides representing warriors of old. On the wall opposite their entrance is a person sized door, unlike the large passageways in the rest of the cavern.

When they get 30 feet away, the door opens and an elf shaped creature walks out, completely made of crystal.

After they defeat it WAY faster than I intended, The Great Wolf Sif shows up and finishes it off by biting it basically in half. She states she thought she would be dramatically saving them, but that this was a big anticlimactic. She then starts to, slowly and fluidly, turn crystal from the bits she injested. She gets one final word out as the psionic entity invades her mind.

"Run."

And they do. Our heroes make it through the door, which is much too small to accommodate the crystalline wolf's now gnashing maw. They make their way forward, into what is clearly Nokun's laboratory. Inside they find a lot of machinery they don't understand, which is still running. They also find an office, and on it they find one of the semi-circular devices, along with a crystal on a chain. They play the video.

Nokun reveals that it has been 2 years since the last video. He also reveals how Flora works, and why she has her name. She is, effectively, thousands of plant souls. Harvesting the excess plant life from around Neverwinter is what created her soul. He realized something 70 years after her creation when he was trying to solve the issue of the psionic entity. It was blind to her. It only wanted to control conscious souls, and since hers was that of a plant..... It was indifferent to her. That's why they must travel. See, Nokun set up these facilities to collect this plant energy, and if she got enough of it, Flora could destroy the entity. He also revealed that the process he was devising to destroy it would require at least one other thing: an incredibly powerful Psion. He had heard rumors of one taking up residence in Ched'Nassad, a Drow City not far from High Forest. He also revealed he had a teleportation circle installed in his labs, so the party could now travel freely to Neverwinter. He urged them to use that city as a sort of base of operations. They all realize simultaneously they could simply escape the wolf. Flora says "We can't just... Leave her. She could wreak havoc on this forest, and she would not want that."

Nokun then, in the video, explains that by absorbing this ambient plant energy at each of his machines, she will not only become more powerful overall, but he will tailor bodies to her potential needs. On the wall there is a metal tube, and a slot for her current body. It is similar to the one in Neverwinter. She uses it, gaining this plant power (going from level 1 to 3, which I also had everyone else do as well), and swapping into the new body. Still a half Elf, but muscular and tall instead of small and slender.

Flora is a Barbarian now.... Until they tactically decided she'd be better as a Rogue so long as Wil is in the party.

They all turn to go fight Sif, maybe even to save her from the crystal.

And now you are caught up to the present. That's about 3 sessions of material condensed down.

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