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Dunmari Frontier - Kenzo Solo Session 3

Healing Motua: in which Kenzo frees the jungle guardian

Featuring: Kenzo, Izzarak
In Taelgar: Nov 06, 1748 DR to Nov 13, 1748 DR
On Earth: Wednesday Nov 09, 2022
Azta Lekua

Kenzo aids in healing Motua, freeing the jungle’s spirit guardian and restoring harmony.

Session Info

Summary

  • Kenzo and his companions cross a lava river and commune with an ancient tree to learn about the jungle’s afflictions.
  • The party discovers the troubles stem from Motua’s ailment
  • Kenzo heals Motua by entering their spiritual wounds and addressing the sorrows of trapped souls within.
  • Victory over the wounds releases Motua from necrotic chains, and Lengau returns to restore the jungle.
  • Izzarak chooses to stay in the jungle, and Kenzo departs to the Feywild to reunite with friends.

Timeline

  • Nov 06, 1748 DR: Speak with Somi-nai. Cross the lava river, and proceed to the flooded jungle. Commune with an ancient tree; find the dryad Eleuha; avoid a maelstrom whirlpool dragging everything it touches into an endless watery void; confront Motua and heal their wounds, freeing them of the bindings that weakened and sickened them; meet Lengau, the jaguar spirit guardian of the jungle.
  • Nov 07, 1748 DR - Nov 12, 1748 DR: Spend time in the jungle with Motua and Lengau
  • Nov 13, 1748 DR: Izzarak decides to remain and care for the babies, whatever they will become; Kenzo plane-shifted to the Feywild, to Lastlight Falls, by the magic of Lengau

Narrative

We begin at the edge of a river of lava in the jungle, the party considering how to cross. Kenzo easily jumps the distance, while Izzarak polymorphs into a pterodactyl to fly across with Enari. Proceeding into the jungle from the other side after a brief rest, Kenzo, Enari, and Izzarak find themselves heading towards a large expanse of flooded jungle. 

Venturing into the flooded area, with the two lizardfolk swimming comfortably and Kenzo running across the water, Kenzo looks for a tree to speak with, to understand more about what is happening here. Communing with one of the biggest and older trees he can find, Kenzo speaks with Tree. Tree complains that everything has fled the jungle, the birds no longer sing in his hair and his roots are wet, and it is caused by Motua. Tree then tells Kenzo, who is hoping for more information about Motua and the jungle, to speak with his children, specifically his daughter-tree who is inhabited by a spirit of the jungle. Kenzo listens to Tree’s story, collecting it for the Order of the Awakened Soul, and then reverently ends his communion with Tree. 

The party heads into the water in search of Tree’s daughter, noticing as they do that there is a current that is getting stronger and stronger as they head into the center of the jungle, following Kenzo’s intuition and sense of the jungle to find the right way to reach Tree’s daughter. After finding the tree-spirit, Eleuha, Kenzo speaks with her. She knows the babies that Izzarak defends, saying they are the children of Lengau, the spirit of the jungle, and giving Kenzo a hard time for a mediocre babysitting skills (Izzarak and Enari are scouting underwater). Eleuha tells them that Lengau has fallen silent, been lost, an thinks it has something to do with Motua’s arrival. The babies are the newest children of Lengau: shapeshifters, children unfixed in form, typically cared for by the jungle, taking on the form of those they love. Every once and while, when Lengau grows old and tired, one of his children will become him reborn, become the new guardian of this land. Eleuha, the dryad, also tells them that if Motua would go away, somehow, it feels to her like Lengau would return and all of the troubles of the jungle could be fixed.

The party follows the current, pulling them closer to the maelstrom of water that forms a vortex to the Elemental Plane of Water. Despite a few tense moments, as Kenzo falls and is forced to swim before being dragged to safety by Enari, and Izzarak needs to turn into a fish to make his way past the strong currents, the party manages to navigate around the whirlpool vortex and finds themselves in a densely overgrown, misty island of dry land at the center of the Footprint of the Gods.

The party cautiously moves through the understory, the occasional glimpse of a serpent-like creature moving in the corner of their eyes, until Kenzo stops and yells “Motua! We are here to end your pain, we are here to help!” Suddenly, appearing in front of the party, is Motua, a thirty foot long serpentine creature, feathered, with an almost cat-like head, and with three wounds cut through its body, from each wound three writhing black chains of dark, necortic energy binding Motua. 

Screaming in pain, Motua attacks, swinging their tail at Kenzo, who dodges at first, but then is struck, seeing in the moment of contact that the wounds are not physical wounds, or not just physical wounds, they (and the chains) extent to the spiritual realm as well, fragments of dreams buried in the wounds. Kenzo reaches out and becomes part of the wound.

Kenzo sees a lonely warrior, nondescript, at the end of their life, forgotten, afraid of dying alone and nobody caring, their sword hanging uselessly at their side. They look up, saying “I am forgotten, aren’t I. No one remembers me.” His dejected, lonely face turns to surprise when Kenzo offers to tell his story, collecting it for the Order of the Awakened Soul, despite the warrior’s insistence that his life had little meaning, his captain the one who won glory in battle, his brother who achieved wealth in life, with a beautiful family and accomplished children. As he tells his story, the image of the warrior fades, and the face of Motua appears.

“No. That is not my story. I am eternal. I protected souls like him. Until a year ago, a creature came to the River of the Dead, a shadowy, skeletal figure, where a long black cloak, carrying a wicked glaive, and wearing a burning ring of dark fire on his hand.” 

Meanwhile, in the jungle, as the first wound closes the chains slither forward, attacking Izzarak, as shadows begin to emerge from the ground, bearing down on Enari. As Izzarak animates the forest to fight back against the chains, Kenzo merges with the second wound.

Kenzo sees a nondescript traveler in a vast, empty desert, lost, dying of thirst, seeming to be trying to scratch out a letter or a note on a stone. She looks up as you appear, croaking, “I am dying. I have no paper to write with.” Kenzo offers to tell her story, asking her what must be written, that they can do this together, but she says she just needs to write a letter to her family, one more time, tell them they are loved, tell them that she lived a good life, that she knew the risks, that they should not refuse to live their lives because she is gone. 

As Kenzo asks her name, she begins to fade, and emerging from her mouth is a miniature version of Motua, who begins to grow. “They do not have names anymore,” Motua says, and continues telling their story. “The creature, the skeleton, he carried with him a scroll, an ancient thing of power. As he spoke the words on the scroll, it burst into dark fire and turned to ash, and the ring grew brighter, wrapping around his glaive, encasing it flames of shadow. As he walked, he burned marks with his glaive in the very fabric of the land, marks that pulsed with a heartbeat, with life in this lifeless place. And I could not let that stand.”

In the jungle, although Izzarak has destroyed some of the first set of chains, three more chains burst forth as the second wound begins to close. With the necrotic shadows clawing at him, Kenzo enters the third and final wound. 

Kenzo sees a holy warrior, a paladin, fighting a hopeless battle against dozens of monsters, their forms constantly shifting. Behind them is a door, and people fleeing, trying to get out, trying to escape, while the paladin stands holding back the horde. The warrior, seeing Kenzo, speaks: “I don’t know how long I can last. I am afraid of dying, afraid it will hurt. My spirit may not be strong enough to hold on, for everyone to flee.” Kenzo offers to tell his story, ensure it lives forever, but the warrior does not seem to care. “I do not fear the death of my story,” he says, “I fear that I will not have the strength to do the right thing, that even with my sacrifice it will not be enough, and I will be damned, my soul consumed by the Nine Hells.” Kenzo moves to join the warrior in the fight, but it does not seem to be enough, or what is needed, to heal this wound.

Meanwhile, in the jungle, Izzarak continues his battle against these chains. The wrath of the jungle manages to destroy some of them, but the rest swarm around Izzarak, battering him. 

In the wound, Kenzo sees the warrior looking around in a panic. “I don’t think it matters what I do, I can feel the cage closing in on me. I’m just going to run, there is no redemption for me.” As Kenzo throws all his strength at the warrior, draining his own energy, he experiences the sweep of the warrior’s life. Growing up on the streets, no parents, never finding anyone to give him a helping hand. Turning to thievery, banditry, eventually robbing caravans. In middle age, a price on his head, finding his way to a Temple of the Wilding (one of the Eight Divines), saying to the priest that he cannot go on like this. Rumors of monster attacks, trolls raiding villages, asking the priest if it would be enough, if he repaid what was taken from them. The priest assuring him that the Wilding will look after him. Kenzo, then, turning to him, telling him, “I know your story. I know your journey. I’ve walked the path myself. I grew up with no parents, I grew up alone, poisoned, abused. It was only by sheer luck I was taken in by someone who could teach me. Redemption is before you.” As Kenzo finishes speaking, the warrior runs into battle, and the wound closes. 

And Kenzo sees now that it is not the warrior fighting, it is Motua. They are in a battle with the skeletal creature – Grash – and with each swing of the glaive, each strike, a gaping wound opens, and from each wound necrotic chains emerge, binding Motua. Motua becomes weaker and weaker, moving slower and then not at all, tumbling from the Land of the Dead. As they do, Grash staggers back, exhausted but triumphant, the ring on his hand glowing, tendrils of energy reaching out from it, grasping souls from the Land of the Dead, pulling them through the marks that Grash carved with his glaive and the magic of an ancient scroll. 

As Kenzo emerges again, battling the last of these necrotic chains with Izzarak, one manages to penetrate his soul, wrapping around him, but the rest are defeated, and Motua goes calm. They bow their head in gratitude, and Motua and Kenzo commune together, experiencing a vision of the thousands of souls Motua has sheparded to their fates. In their communion, Kenzo senses the rush of ki, the richness of the symphony of ki here in the jungle, which flows into his staff. 

Meanwhile, the party hears the low growl of a jaguar pacing through the jungle – Lengau. He approaches, greeting the babies, thanking Izzarak for keeping open the door through which Lengau could travel, clearly implying that it was only the presence of the babies Izzarak guarded and guided to this place that allows Lengau to appear here. Lengau says he will restore the jungle, with Motua’s help; Izzarak also volunteers to remain and raise the babies here, and see how he can help bring the jungle back into balance. 

We end as Kenzo prepares to depart to the Feywild, after spending some time learning from Motua and Lengau, to be plane-shifted to Lastlight Falls, where he will meet his friends in the Feywild.