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Dunmari Frontier - Session 34

The Essence of Arborea: in which the party tames extraplanar chaos

Featuring: Kenzo, Wellby, Delwath, Seeker
In Taelgar: Jun 30, 1748 DR to Jul 01, 1748 DR
On Earth: Sunday Nov 07, 2021
Lakan Monastery and Elven Arborea Workshop

The Dunmar Fellowship collects extraplanar energy from a connection to Arborea beneath the Lakan Monastery while contending with dangerous creatures.

Session Info

Character advancement: the party reaches level 7 as they reach Tokra and begin the next stage of the campaign

Summary

Timeline

  • Jun 30, 1748 DR, evening: Speak with Rishi at theLakan Monastery. Meet Basu at dinner, who gripes about the overflowing energy of Arborea in the elven ruins below the Lakan monastery. Meet Kassi, the head librarian at the monastery. Dinner discuss events in Tokra with Johar, Kenzo’s old friend. Spend the night at the monastery.
  • Jul 01, 1748 DR, morning: Enter ancient elven ruins. Defeat slimes and oozes and confront massive velvet worm near the Extraplanar Weak Point, which is tamed by Seeker’s magic. Return to surface with three vials filled with the essence of Arborea’s extraplanar energy.

Narrative

The session starts as the party (excepting Wellby, who is taking Garret Tealeaf to The Red Lily Inn) stands in the entrance to the Lakan Monastery, in front of the Lakan monk Rishi, Kenzo’s friend and master. After introductions, the party learns from Rishi that the Lakan Mystai have had omens and dreams, and many of the monks, including Speaker Lara, are currently traveling to hopefully learn more of these omens. For the past three weeks, many of the mystai have had premonitions that the cycle of history was out of sync with itself, that the branching paths of the past, once pruned and gone into history, are now renewed. Speaker Lara had a dream of a watchtower to the east, one of the many guard towers built before the Great War to protect the northern reaches of Dunmar, and left with many companions to visit this place a few days ago. 

While the party gets settled into the monastery, unloading the cart and finding secure places to store extra stuff, Wellby arrives, and the party decides to stay at the monastery for dinner. During dinner, they meet Basu, the eccentric artisan who runs the workshop of the Lakan monks and is an expert in crafting magic items with extradimensional spaces. He is grumpy and upset, because no one will pay attention to his problems, everyone being too concerned with the strange omens. He explains that, beneath this monastery, there is an old elven ruin with a weak point between the planes. He uses the energy that spills out in the construction of magic items, but if it is not harvested it is likely to accumulate in strange ways. No one has bothered to go down in weeks, given the distraction of the omens. They also are introduced to Kassi, the head librarian, and Johar, Kenzo’s friend. There are a few other grumbles around the table, mostly about food and how it is scarce now, with the army camp and the refugees. 

After dinner, they discuss the Tokra Archives with Johar; the clues and information he imparts are in Seeker’s Journal. They also briefly discuss the Chardonian presence, which seems to Johar to be just a small contingent of mages, and Saka, who Johar has not heard of. 

The next morning, after breakfast, the party meets Basu at his workshop and are led to the entrance to the Elven Arborea Workshop beneath the monastery, with three vials of prepared oil that must be placed near the leakage from Arborea to charge, before they can be used to construct magic items with extradimensional spaces. 

Proceeding down the pitch black corridor, the party emerges in a room lit by the dim glow of bioluminescent fungi, with pillars decorated in Elvish script running down both sides of the cavern. What was once an entrance is blocked by a cave in at the far end. After dealing with some poisonous mold that launches a cloud of toxic spores, and an ooze that looks like wet stone, they read enough of the script on the pillars to learn one side of the room discusses Arborea, of nature untamed and wild, and the other Pandemonium, the plane of madness, said to be the home of the Mad One, the embodied avatar of Jinnik.

Continuing through the doors, the party comes to an open room with three passages, one straight ahead, one to the left, and one to the right. The right hand side of the chamber is filled with slightly pulsating red fungal-looking protrusions. As the party enters, the protrusions seem to be safe and friendly, until they attack Seeker and Wellby, stealing memories from each of them. Wellby stays to fight while Kenzo and Delwath, still under its charm, continue, prompting Seeker to try to use Suggestion on Wellby to get him to leave well enough alone. 

Eventually Wellby relents, and the party moves down the corridor to the weak point, when they are attacked by oozing slime molds that drop from the ceiling. The acidic slimes corrode their weapons as they attack, leaving Seeker’s armor damaged and Kenzo’s staff nearly destroyed. 

Finally, the party reaches the room where the energy of Arborea is strongest, a point surrounded by pillars of stone. Seeker uses Clairvoyance to see a giant worm-like creature with antenna and many little legs (a giant velvet worm) curled up around the weak point, waiting in ambush. Approaching cautiously, Wellby manages to catch a glimpse of it through the cracks and reach into its mind, sensing its desperate hunger for a giant cricket. In a moment of brilliance, he tosses the Obsidian Fly from Agata’s lair out, speaking the command word as he does. The velvet worm attacks the fly, encasing it in some glue-like substance and moving in to feed. While it is distracted, Seeker turns it into a regular earthworm, giving the party time to charge the vials and run before it shifts back. As the vials charge, the moisture and oppressive, heavy air of the place seem to lift, and the party returns to the surface, although without investigating the rest of the chambers. 

We end as the party emerges, successful, with the vials of extraplanar energy, into the morning sun in the Lakan Monastery.