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Summary

Merki

You find the half-orc in Reziel's cage, underneath Norrison. He's well aware of the Lucavan presence and he is aware of the planar influence on the Mel family.

Ventshi

You meet a snake-like humanoid hiding at the edge of the forest. Turns out he knows Darius well, and he joins you on the way back his monastery, the Order of Red Vipers.

Baat Daculon

This Vampire Lord claims dominion over the forest. Any who die in this forest are trapped within his castle, their souls haunting the land for the rest of time.

August 12, 1236 AD (lunchtime)

Merki sleeps in a cage, and quickly wakes up when the party breaks down the entrance. He's glad to see them alive.

• He asked a dying doppleganger to fake his death so he could use the opportunity to escape.
• Reziel was willing to make him a prisoner to grant him the free time he needed to do research. Reziel told Father that Merki was a slave and thus beneath his notice.

Merki spent his time studying the Lucavan, Sendrine, and the Mel family. He knows Melvin is a Demon and Mel'jorie descends from divs, but he believes they oppose the Lucavan. He worries the Lucavan are very quickly trying to resurge.

Merki plans to return to the Port of the Plains and continue his research there. The party decides to sneak out of the cavern- most of the party flies out of the ceiling Reziel left, with some of them climbing a rope through the ceiling. Fi and Fleir sneak through Norrison. Mayor Torrin is trying to calm the townsfolk down and the Fiera Sisters are helping direct people. Some of the crops have already withered. Fi looks for Erlson and sees his tracks disappear- he figures the old man has returned to Deonsy.

The party decides to travel north, through the town towards the Order of the Red Vipers.

August 14, 1236 AD (lunchtime)

After two days of traveling through the desert, the party is at the edge of the forest. Fi has wrapped the egg in various blankets and cloths. They notice a robed man hiding in the trees, so they call him out. He is a bit tense but tensions calm as soon as he recognizes Darius. The serpentfolk's name is Ventshi, and he hails from the Order of the Red Vipers.

He travelled far across the world, picking up some acting lessons along the way when he finally came back. He is heard terrible stories about creatures in the forest attacking traveling merchants. The Order, merchants, and fey have an ecosystem of their own, using the monastery as a trading post to sell goods from the forest. Further north of the monastery, there is an abandoned castle that he and the fey creatures never willingly approached. He is heard stories of that full of undead, and the party is eager to go.

The forest trail is easy to follow. Wooden signposts indicate which way the monastery lies. Ventshi seems to be in relatively good spirits, with a spring in his step. Yet he is alert, keeping an eye out for danger. That night, you find an abandoned campsite. Some of the tents are torn to shreds, and you see bloodied bedrolls, pots and pans. You even see a few discarded weapons- perhaps merchants set up camp here, and something attacked them.

August 15, 1236 AD

Deeper into the forest the trail is less of a dirt road and more like less undergrowth. It hasn't been maintained in maybe the last two weeks, perhaps a month. No problem for Fi and Fleir. Tree leaves cover your view of the sun- it's hard to tell the direction without using other clues. Only the red glow of sunset indicates the passage of time. It's quite easy to get lost at this point without a decent guide.

Ventshi grows increasingly worried as the party travels- the Order of the Red Vipers should have maintained the road to the monastery. With it in this bad shape, he fears the worst.

Baat's voice welcomes the party to his world, and he declares the entire forest under his control. The party presses on toward the monastery. As the sunsets, they realize the undead zombies and skeletons of former travelers, merchants and druids. Ventshi realized this has slowed them down, and asks the party if they want to press on for two more hours or rest.

Ventshi's worst fears are realized: Master Raiden, The Order of the Red Vipers and the Merchants who couldn't escape are all undead. The party engages, trying to put them at rest. The merchants are turned to dust, while the Order retreats to the sacred chamber. Ventshi hands them stakes and puts the Order to rest. The Master's last words ask him to forgive Calofisteri for assaulting the monastery. Ventshi burns the chambers down in rage soon after, and he emerges wearing a sash of the Order. Disgusted, he vows to rebuild the monastery after destroying the fiend who did this: Baat Daculon.

August 16, 1236 AD

Forest trees twist above, putting the area in dim light. Hawk is first to realize the woods don't make sense. The very land itself twists and turns, trying to keep the party lost. Still, they make their way through and stop for lunch. They hear faint music and press on, into a clearing. Despite no trees, the sky is still dimly lit. Leafy humanoids emerge from the ground, and one of them begins a tune taunting the party.

The queen bids you welcome,
though she cannot say goodbye.
By her master's orders,
You all must die.
Those who enter the queen's realm
may never see the sun,

To see the master's castle
you must defeat our queen bee!
Bee...sun...that didn't rhyme.
Nevermind that, it's now clobbering time!

The party is ambushed as the humanoids turn to stony guardians, fire poisoned arrows from up high, and burrow beneath the ground to sneak attack the group. Ventshi is struck down by a stray arrow and is crushed under an air elemental.

After defeating the leafy creatures, the party finds one creature, free from the queen's influence but in very bad health. It suggests that the party defeats the queen if they wish to escape, and offers to lead them to the hill where she resides.

The queen herself is atop a plant, rambling madly and incoherently. Vegeta notices two puncture marks on her neck as he closes in. Despite the many spells she throws, Vegeta is able to defeat her. The rest of the party dispatches the royal guard, although it isn't without cost. One of the guards lunges from below and guts Darius, killing him in an instant. Hawk screams in a mix of sorrow and rage when he learns this.

The withered creature appears again and asks that the party convinces the queen to calm down. In her weakened state, she can relinquish most of her power to someone else. The party manages to convince her to surrender most of her energy to their guide. It burst forth with energy and reverts the forest maze. Promising to preserve Ventshi and Darius's bodies, it suggests they spend the night here before assaulting the vampire's lair. Everyone needs time to grieve.

Handouts

• Chat Logs (Text Only)

• Ventshi's character concept
• Queen Calofisteri's character concept (Yes, her battle sprite is taken from Final Fantasy 5.)

Lessons and Takeaways

Try 2 dimensional maps when height is important

During the final battle on the hill, people got confused about how high they had to climb, or their elevation was. next time, I'll try to include a height map so it's less confusing.

Keep a side tab for spell shape templates

Sometimes, it's hard to count whether or not the spell will hit your photo. To help with this, I've added some spell template figures and put them on the margin of the map. I'll try to copy this to all my maps from here on out.

Add a segment for buffs

Similarly, it is useful to write down all of the buffs so we can keep track. I'll keep that in the lower right corner of each map from here on out.

Text notes for characters

Sometimes the text window gets very cluttered, and it's hard to keep up with what is going on. I'm going to write text extra characters who have pending Fort saves, attacks of opportunity, And anything else that they should do before their turn starts. I will also send email to make sure people have caught up.

RIP my NPCs

I think all of the PC and friendly NPC character deaths have been due to a stray critical hit. I'll have to pay more attention to that.