Addermarch Campaign - Session 21

Timeline

• May 28, 1715 DR, afternoon: The party continues across the Highmoor towards Brantor and Caradoc’s cottage.
• May 29, 1715 DR: The party crosses the Highmoor and arrives at Caradoc’s in the evening, where they discuss the return of the heart to the Singing Tree. After dinner, they head out towards Haldrenn, walking for three hours before camping.
• May 30, 1715 DR, morning: The party walks the rest of the way to Haldrenn, and tells the villagers their plans.
• May 30, 1715 DR, afternoon: The party walks to Nightsong Roots, and uses Caradoc’s fey-crossing potion to enter Thornweald, Morlaith’s domain in the Feywild. They save a weeping willow from deadly butterflies and meet a pair of curious foxes who set them on their way to find a guide.

Cast of Characters

• Yvan Greenrabbit - A halfling wild-magic sorcerer.
• Drou - Elven bard-monk.
• Fazoth de Brune - Human warlock-alchemist.
• Caradoc - Alchemist whose potion provides a way into the Thornweald.
• Kip - A young foxling, Flo’s brother.
• Flo - A young foxling, Kip’s sister.
• Sweetwillow - A dead dryad whose story her former tree recounts.
• Gwydren - A forest guide and friend of Sweetwillow, mentioned but not yet met.

Places

• Haldrenn - The Highmoor village threatened by the Singing Tree’s corruption.
• Thornweald - Morlaith’s forest domain in the Feywild.

Narrative

Friday, May 28th, 2 Robert I

The party continues walking all day in pleasant spring weather, making camp on the Highmoor.

Saturday, May 29th, 2 Robert I

The party crosses the Highmoor and arrives at Caradoc’s cottage outside Brantor. They update Caradoc on the events at Serethwyn Tor, and plan to go back to the Feywild to return the Singing Tree’s heart. They discuss Thornweald and the Briarheart with Caradoc, who gives them several pieces of advice: seek a guide, the fey of the Thornweald may be strange, but they are not inherently evil, and hurry, because in a few days the Singing Tree will regrow and the challenge will be much greater. He also gives the party a small vial of a dense liquid that, when smashed on the ground, connects the Feywild and the Material Plane for a short moment, allowing passage. He also gives them a vine-covered wooden wand that, if broken, will summon Lady Calanthë, Duchess of the Sunset Forest and Guardian of the Gloaming Hills, who will help, but for a price, most likely in service.

After dinner and conversation, the party decides to walk back to Haldrenn to hopefully be closer to their Feywild destination, though Caradoc warns them distant in the Feywild is tricky. After three hours walking under increasingly cloudy skies, they camp for the night on the Highmoor.

Sunday, May 30th, 2 Robert I

The party crosses the Highmoor back to Haldrenn under cloudy skies, arriving around noon and warning the villagers of their plan to return the heart. They then use Caradoc’s vial to enter the Feywild near the currently-closed Nightsong Roots portal, arriving in the Thornweald.

They arrive on a path, at a fork, in the late afternoon. The sun is hidden by clouds and trees, and a light drizzle drips from the leaves of the dense woods. To the left, a path leads into a dark, tangled forest, heading up a short hill; to the right, the path continues into the close forest, but seems to be more open, with patches of sunlight. The party goes up the hill, following the dark path, and come out into a grassy meadow filled with incongruous sunshine. In the meadow, a lone willow tree stands, covered in bright butterflies that, to Yvan, smell slightly of rot and decay. As soon as the party steps into the meadow, the butterflies attack, swarming around Drou with poisonous bites. Both Yvan and Fazoth strike the swarm with Witch Bolts, and it quickly weakens and is temporarily driven off by Drou’s Dissonant Whispers. The willow, confused, strikes out at Yvan, dragging him close in retaliation for his attack on the swarm. But the swarm is soon killed by Yvan’s sorcerous burst, and with the corrupting influence of the butterflies gone, Drou is able to calm the willow, and draw out its story.

After calming the willow, Yvan climbs to its top to scout, seeing a narrow animal track leaving the clearing, descending gradually towards a river, across which a small number of large trees rise above the canopy. With a sense that is the direction of the Singing Tree, the party proceeds down the narrow path, and prompted gets lost in the forest.

Luckily, a pair of young foxlings, Kip and Flo, are following them out of curiosity. Yvan hears them, and Fazoth, with the help of his pseudodragon, is able to spot them: for a few moments, the foxes follow the party, while the pseudodragon follows the foxes. Fazoth stops to speak to them, and quickly charms them, a surprising example in their eyes of a “person who can speak” (meaning, talk in Sylvan). After some playful banter, a discussion of the willow, and a race that Fazoth wins by using Misty Step, the foxlings suggest that Gwydren is a good guide to find; he lives across the river near the big trees. As they are completely lost, the party asks for help to find their way. The foxlings happily oblige, and lead the party towards the river road, a much wider path sloping gently down towards the river basin. Fazoth invites them to join, but they decline, saying they are not allowed to cross the river.

We end as the party turns towards the river on the wide path.