DivineDetritusTheKrimsonWithin
Contents
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Summary
The party prepared themselves for the journey to the Krimson Forest to deliver the news of Merki’s death to his parents, the father elf Allshai and the mother orc Halgresh. Fi and Hawk gained a letter of acceptance from Jovias. Hawk noted how Jovias seemed to ignore him and focused almost solely on Fi. Norvi and Nidri gained access to his notebook to read his itinerary, and Claire asked someone to keep an eye on the criminal activity in the city, especially Magmere. Vegeta mostly trained for the day.
Fi heard many stories about the Krimson Forest’s Xenophobic nature. He spoke to Jovias Dewleaf about getting entry into the town under pretense of a business trip, and the elf seemed to barely acknowledge Hawk. Still, the party gained an in with Laresella, the head of the Krimson Konsortium.
Two days into the three days’ trip, the party notices some gnolls attacking a group of elves. They also notice an orc smashing the gnolls and protecting the elves. The party protects the elves and the orc thanks them. Her name is Halgresh. The elves begrudgingly thank the party before heading off.
Leading the party back to her home, Halgresh offers the party some stew, ready to hear the bad news. Halgresh was once part of the nearby Redtooth Clan, and fell in love with an elf during a raid. She should have killed her runt son Merki, but his pointy ears reminded her of Allshai. Her midwife, her sister tried to kill the child and they fought. Her sister was killed, and she was the chief’s wife. Realizing the horror of the situation, she took the baby Merki and fled the village. Recognizing his intelligence, Halgresh tried to introduce Merki to his father, but the elf ran away. Eventually she left him with merchants on their way to Harvest Wharf, who promised to help him reach his full potential.
The party approached the Krimson Forest, the guards were surprisingly friendly. Instead of the town of xenophobic elves, the elves were extremely friendly, either celebrating life, love and tolerance or helping the party’s every need. Laresella herself seemed insane, reading notes that don’t exist. The party decided to find Allshai’s home instead, after he saw Nidri.
After scaring off the guards, Nidri realized Allshai was struggling over a powerful enchantment. The news of his son’s death was enough to help him break free. He tells the party of the former villager Audren Goldenrod, who was a powerful man that fell in love with a frail human named Cillis. When he realized the town prevented him from getting the medicine needed to heal her and let her die, he took his daughter Serena and left town. The villagers smashed the town in response. About a month ago, Allshai noticed her return and begin to rally the villagers into dancing and becoming more tolerant. He thinks she is underneath the Goldenrod house remains and leads the party there while distracting the townsfolk.
Underneath, the party finds a humanoid figure modelled after Cillis, wearing the robes of Jubilation, an Azata who spread good cheer through celebration. Cillis / Jubilation believed the party to be enemy agents of its nemesis Strife, and tried to subdue the party. It was defeated, destroying the body but leaving behind its robe.
Krimson Forest had begun to recover overnight. After the party’s explanation that it wasn’t Cillis Goldenrod’s ghost but rather an outsider who took her persona, the town was split on how to interpret the last month. Laresella formally asks the East Ferren Trading Company for assistance, and Allshai does bring with him money from thankful residents. But it’s clear there is still a lot of mistrust of outsiders. After watching prejudice and isolation ruin his life, Allshai is ready to meet Halgresh and ask for forgiveness.
The trip to Halgresh’s hut takes most of the day. Halgresh’s face beams when she sees Allshai and she drags him in. After a quick chat, Halgresh invites the rest of the party in to drink some Fire Breath Soup, a delicacy among the Redtooth Clan. Unsurprisingly, everyone but the Orc, Dwarf and Tiefling are overwhelmed by its spices. It seems like Halgresh is happy Allshai is here, and Allshai is ready for his new phase of life. He’s been ready to open up for years.
Post Mortem
Chat Log(Text Only)
What went well
Halgresh’s story
This is a story of love among racial divides. Sometimes an elf and an orc realize differences run skin deep. Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions. Halgresh and Allshai’s stories were worked out early on, and Fi set up the perfect moment to hear Halgresh’s story. I was holding back tears by the end of it, and I already knew her story.
World Map
People really liked the world map, and I’m glad about that. Usually I have a bunch of disjointed towns, or I build a huge map without really planning anything. But I had enough backstory to make a rudimentary map.
Town Maps
1 Grab a red forest photo off of Google Images 2 Draw some zones to represent major landmarks 3 ??? 4 Krimson Forest!
What didn’t go well
Krimson Forest Mystery
I kinda improvised parts of the mystery and how the party would investigate it. My logic isn’t the same as the party’s logic though, so I had to lead and railroad the party a bit. Especially with Allshai - the news of Merki’s death was key to freeing him from the enchantment.
Easy Final Challenge
Cillis Goldenrod / Jubilation had DR 5/evil, bard song, some holy magic and two guardians buffing her AC the frontliners would have to go through.
Fi shot her twice and then Fleir nibbled on her. And that's all she wrote!
Not aiming for a teamwipe here, but this is why I use large armies of foes for my fights.
