The Part in Which a Warning is Provided
and a tree house provides a place of rest and healing
The Briefest of Recaps:
Yllenpo and Dibber eat some jerky and get to know each other while they and Sylvara rest from their battle with the mutant frogs.
Dibber invites Yllenpo and Sylvara to stay in the Warden Tree.
[Cue that catchy intro music]
DM Commentary:
In the last session, Dibber and Yllenpo carried Sylvara as a group, which is incredibly literal, but still makes use of my current Event Meaning: Group | Carry, and so, before we begin, I will be rolling up a new Event Meaning, making use of the MGME2:
Roll 1: 21 Result: Communicate | Roll 2: 23 | Result: Elements
Yeah, I know how I’m going to use that.
Chapter 18: Part 1
Day 5: Morning
Event Meaning: Communicate | Elements
Sylvara dreamed:
She was being dragged through a tunnel of the Underdark. Familiar stone and fungi passed overhead. She saw the twitching end of a Root Tongue poking through the tunnel ceiling and thought “Yllenpo.”
Her hands weren’t bound, but lay heavy and useless by her side. She turned her head to the side, seeing a lattice of interwoven reeds, making up the small boat she lay within. The reeds were unlike any she’d every seen before along the ponds and singular lake outside the walls of Ril’Morath. A thick, black ooze, (zircwood resin?) pulsated in the space between each woven reed.
The boat stopped, and a face, her mother’s, twisted and warped by her Drider transformation, peered down at her.
“Matricide,” she whispered.
Then the face warped into that of the High Priestess who had banished her for killing a creation Lolth. She smiled a cruel smile that dripped with the same black ooze as she said, “You think the Spider Queen has forgotten you?”
Her eye suddenly ruptured as chitinous black spider legs pushed out from the socket. The High Priestess carefully helped the spider from her eye and lowered it onto Sylvara’s upturned face.
”Eat, my queen,” the priestess cooed.
The spider skittered toward Sylvara’s mouth, where it began clawing and biting at her lips, as if trying to get them to open.
Sylvara felt panic and pain. She looked up to the priestess, but again the face had warped, this time into one Sylvara recognized, but couldn’t place.
It was another Drow, but she was giant, nine feet tall or more. Her obsidian skin was clothed only in the long, silver hair, looking like twin beams of liquid moonlight dancing upon her body.
The face of the giantess was both beautiful and terrifying to look at. Her mouth was only half formed, crudely sliced into the blank space of skin beneath her nose. Only one of her eyes, a kind, watchful lunar blue, was visible, the other concealed behind an ‘X’’ of crudely stitched twine.
She reached a hand toward Sylvara and snatched the spider off her face, crunching it in her hand.
The woman’s roughly carved mouth moved, but Sylvara heard the words in her mind.
“Wary of the pitchmen be,
for something found they in a tree.”
“Who are you?” Sylvara asked, but the dream was fading.
The last thing she heard was, “…straee
Chapter 18: Part 2
Day 5: Morning
Event Meaning: Communicate | Elements
Sylvara woke laying in the boat from her dream. Bright morning light made her squint as she sat up.
Yllenpo and the fat man were walking side-by-side, each holding a loop of rope trailing back to the boat. Yllenpo said something Sylvara couldn’t hear and the fat man nodded, setting down his rope as they both stopped.
The fat man breathed heavy. He removed his hat to wiped sweat from his brow, then used it to fan his face.
Yllenpo turned, and seeing Sylvara sitting up, smiled, saying, “Sylvara! You’re awake! How’re you feeling?” He moved to the side of the boat, closer to her. The fat man put the hat back on his head and turned her was as well.
“I am okay,” she answered. Her eyes flicked to Dibber, then she switched to the little bit of goblin Yllenpo had taught her, “Why we with him?”
Yllenpo smiled, answering in goblin, “He’s a friend. He is taking us to a safe place.” Switching back to common, he said, “Can you walk? Me and Dibber are tired of pulling you,” he grinned.
Sylvara nodded. “Where my axe?”
“I, uh, lashed it to the side of the boat there, ma’am,” Dibber said, pointing to the leeward side of the boat, “Would you like me to get it for you?”
Sylvara shook her head as she climbed out of the boat. Her satchel had been tucked in beside her and she jostled it as she climbed out, spilling the few contents. “Iblith,” she muttered, the Drow word for shit. She leaned over the boat wall, wincing as her partially healed wounds stretched, and gathered up the small health potion and the statuette she had found in the Cruelty Caverns. She picked this up and looked at it. The ebony-skinned woman in the statuette had changed. Where there had been no mouth there was now a thin line of a smile. Gone too were the cross-stitched eyes; in their place were small moonstones, the same blue as the singular kind eye of the woman from her dream.
“Straee?” Sylvara whispered to the statue.
“What’s that?” Yllenpo asked.
“Nothing,” Sylvara said, tucking the statuette back inside her satchel. She removed her axe from the boat wall and asked Yllenpo for some water.
“Would you like something to eat, Ms. Sylvara?” Dibber asked. “I have some dried meat.”
Sylvara nodded, and as she ate and drank, she asked, “Where we going?”
Dibber told her of the Warden Tree and his newfound position as Swamp Warden. “There are three Warden Trees, and we, well, I am supposed to stay at each for three days, wandering the land surrounding it.”
“What are you look for?” Sylvara asked.
Dibber shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess anything that could harm Swamp’s Haven, or the trappers or pitchmen.”
Sylvara jerked, dropping her last bite of jerky in the mud. “What is pitchmen?”
“Huh? Oh, those’re the folks who tap the trees. We use the resin for lots of things.”
“Wary of the pitchmen be,” echoed in Sylvara’s mind. She frowned.
“You okay?” Yllenpo asked.
“Yes. Bite hurts,” Sylvara lied, standing up from the boat wall and picking up one of the looped tow ropes. “We go now.”
Dibber had squatted down to grab Sylvara’s dropped bite of jerky and was picking off a few last bits of mud. He popped the piece into his mouth and picked up the other rope. “Right,” he said in a muffled voice. “We should be there soon.”
Chapter 18: Part 3
Day 5: Morning
Event Meaning: Communicate | Elements
They were crammed into the small tule boat as they approached the Warden Tree. The land had slowly melted, first muck, and then into a wide, slowly moving river, its black water looking like spilled ink, which carved a narrow path through the thickly vegetated swamp banks and shaggy black willow trees.
Standing in the middle of the river path, taller than nearly all of the surrounding forest, was the Warden Tree.
It was simple in its construction. Covered roof, with walls open to the breeze, roughly 12 feet by 12 feet.
Pounded into the 50 feet of trunk supporting the house, spaced at 3 foot intervals, were step-planks of hardwood leading up to the floor of the structure.
As Yllenpo tied the boat to a gnarled knob of root rising out from the water, Dibber craned his neck to look up the length of the tree.
“That’s an awful long ways up,” he looks back at Sylvara and Yllenpo, a blush rising to his stubbled cheeks, “I’ve got a wee fear of heights.”
“Coward,” Sylvara grunted, shoving past him. She quickly scaled the tree, lifting the trapdoor cut into the flooring, becoming the first to enter.
Yllenpo patted Dibber on the side, “You, uh, want me to stay down here in case you fall?”
Dibber shook his head and laughed. Then he blew out a breath and began the climb. It was slow and shaky, but he made it, and Yllenpo quickly followed him up.
DM Commentary:
So, the recently deceased Warden Kael had only just returned to Swamp’s Haven when he unexpectedly met his demise, which means this tower has been unattended for 8 or 9 days. I’m wondering if the tower is still stocked with food and other possible essentials. Let’s ask the Oracle: Does the Warden Tree have a decent stock of food and supplies? I’m going to set this at a 50/50 probable, so this is a flat d20 roll.
Roll: 19 | Result: Yes, and…
Huh, well, I think I’m going to take that to mean that along with a decent stock pile of provisions and water, there is a well-stocked medical kit, and after spending the remainder of Day 5 in the tower, all characters will be back to full health.
Chapter 18: Part 4
Day 5: Evening
Event Meaning: Communicate | Elements
They’d spent much of what remained of the day inventorying the contents of the Warden Tower. It was remarkably well stocked with food and water, but the true treasure was the medic’s chest that took up most of one wall. It was filled with salves and clean linen bandages, as well as gut and needle for stitching. They’d worked together to patch each other up, then simply lay out on their bedrolls and listened to the sounds of the swamp around them.
“Will you guys come with me on my rounds tomorrow?” Dibber had asked as sky began to darken.
Yllenpo arched an eyebrow at Sylvara, who nodded.
“Sure thing, Dibs,” Yllenpo said. “Where all do we need to go?”
“Well,” Dibber began, reaching into his pack to pull out a leather map tube. He removed the map and rolled it out on the floor. “We’re here,” he said, pointing to a spot near the southeast corner of the map. “And these are the other two Warden Trees,” he continued, touching one in the north and one at the southwest corner, “and these are the three areas I’m s’posed to patrol. I also need to inspect the traplines and check in on the pitchmen—
Sylvara stiffened at the mention of the pitchmen, but turned to scratch a nonexistent itch when Yllenpo looked over at her.
“—but we can do that the day after tomorrow,” Dibber finished with a yawn, which spread to the others, and seemed to signal the end to the day.
Dibber blew out the lantern and they each settled in for the night. Both he and Yllenpo were soon fast asleep, but Sylvara stared up at the dark ceiling of the treehouse for a long time before falling asleep.
“…Something found they in a tree”
And that is where we will have to stop for the night:
The story will continue in the next session. If you want to follow along, feel free to click the orange rectangle below. And, seriously, thank you for reading.
Right, Selune is the regular Elf Goddess of the Moon, and Eilistrae is Lloth's Chaotic Good daughter who also has moon aspects. Whoops. Got them mixed together. Stil glad our girl has someone looking out for her.
Another excellent session! Keep them coming!