Session 17: Recap and the Take

Session 17: Recap and the Take

After their rest in the hut of the empty witch, the party transported the loot—three buckets of magical liquid, and an eerie mirror depicting the starry void. Malichar informed them that the empty witch was likely a demon of Nulfex, the Archon of negation and absence. He believes the mirror to be a device for contacting and holding congress with such entities. Although such items are official proscribed, and thus delicate to sell, he bought it for 1200gp. When the party was leaving, the rival over-merchant Nekalimon advised them not to cast in their lot with black witch Zalvorex, but to seek instead the invisible palace of the benevolent spirit Bazekop. He also offered them a lavender-colored pearl with two little holes as a token of Bazekop’s friendship. Nekalimon informed them that were they ever in trouble, the party should blow through one of the holes and they would receive aid from Bazekop.

The party was reinforced by Sir Tresken and the green-skinned Altanian ranger, Aisling Blackwood, that he recruited for jungle exploration. They set off to visit the warrens of the mole rats, and the village of the chittering masons. For the first time, they descended into the lush depths of the white jungle. They found that a dim light, strongest in the morning and late afternoon, pervades this level. The silent darkness of the brambles above gives way here to the sounds and sights of a unseemly and verdant life, consisting of strangely mixed of forms, animal, vegetable, and insect, flowing into one another. On two occasions, the party was almost swallowed by a camouflaged vegetal maw, saved only by the perceptive eyes of the ranger Blackwood. At one point they were assaulted by a needle throwing plant, whose rain of sharps seeds slew their longstanding hireling Magdalena, a brassy retired temple prostitute. These needle seeds also gave instant birth in the flesh of Salinger One-eyed to four snapping carnivorous seedlings that the party managed to beat off.

Reaching the root warrens they received a warm welcome from Viscount LeGrande, and received the title of “Friend of the Warren” from Queen Bethany. During their visit, they learned that root warren houses roughly 120 mole rats, and is in the main too small for the party to enter. They also learned that the adjacent hex to the NW is home to the encroaching hybubs, rubbery guls capable of oozing through tiny spaces. The hybubs, ordinarily disorganized, have long been a thorn in the side of the mole rats, conducting troublesome raids and the like, that the mole rats have thus far repulsed. However, recently the party learned that the hybubs have conducted more cunning and organized assaults. Although he put on a brave face, the Viscount was clearly worried by this development. When the party asked if they could seek out the warrens of the hybubs, the Viscount remarked that they were too large to enter into them, but suggested that perhaps the High Vizier of the warrens could shrink them down to mole rat size for these purposes.

The party next travelled to the strange hanging village of the chittering masons. There they bargained for an exchange of information. Salinger here gave the debut performance of his new remarkable acrobatic art, a piece called “Ascent of Memories”. Well-pleased, the old Archivist of the masons gave the party a good deal of information about the Summer Palace. They learned its location on level 3 of the jungle. They learned as well that as of 64 years ago, the palace was still inhabited by some of the servants who remained behind when the nobles stopped coming. They learned something, although not as much as they would have liked, about the Summer Palace’s defenses and layout. And here the session ended.


2x Vegetal Maws 160 XP
Blooming Bore Bush 100 XP
4 Carnivorous Seedlings 40 XP
The Black Mirror 1200GP
XP per player 273
GP per player 218

Eric Boyd Joshua Blackketter Aleksandr Revzin Chris P. Dave Sealy