Forest of Wyrd Session # 39 - Eya and the Cookie Wookie

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Ranza (Changeling 4)

Gnarl (Wood Gnome 5)
Hobbs (Hedgefey 5) 

Thrax (Fighter 4)

Rising in the late morning the next day, the party headed out into the heavy rain and wind, climbing up to the tree line to make their way north to the tower where they suspected the Synarian Beast had laired. Thy arrived in late afternoon, looking down on the tower from the hill above. The tower itself was partially built into the rock of the hillside, and there were signs of a faint trail leading onto it from above. Thrax scouted ahead, finding nothing on the top of the tower except a locked wooden door leading into the side of the hill. Looking down over the crenellations, he could also see a trail leading up the hillside to the base of the tower. 

The rest of the party joined the fighter; on close examination the door proved to be locked. But not too securely, as Hobbs managed to spring the mechanism with ease. The party debated a few moments whether they should enter, all getting a bad feeling about the situation. But finally, tired of the wind and rain, they boldly barged forward and stepped inside. A short passage led to a room of sorts. While there was the sense of it being a room, it was actually the scene of an infinite brooding dark forest under strange stars in a deep twilight sky. A stone door stood free in the midst of the forest, and to one side was a throne carved of stone. On it sat a short, squat figure with purple skin, hair of wildflowers and legs that ended in cloven hooves. The figure greeted the party, introducing himself as Eya. But that was about all they were able to get out of him (it?) Eya proved evasive, yet probed them with questions about their purpose here and what they feared. The party avoided answering the questions, especially the second as they suspected a trap. But Thrax did let it slip he feared empty cookie jars and teddy bears more than anything in the world. Eya also proved a master of illusion ,shifting form as he talked to disorient and confuse the party. When asked about the Book of Seven Souls that the witch told them was in this tower, he pulled the book out from the throne flipped through it then flippantly tore it into shreds and tossed it to the floor. 

Feeling they were seeing nothing but illusion and simultaneously irritated by, and fearful of, Eya, Gnarl led the party to the stone door and pulled it open. It led into a natural cavern and the party crowded in and closed the door behind them. This they suspected was the lair of the Synarian Beast, and here they hoped to find it's treasure. The first room they encountered however was filled with offal and bit of rotting flesh, fur and bone. They smell was atrocious and Thrax lost his supper. Ranza, however, did not a glint of treasure and carefully fished a gold ring out of one of the piles. But the party opted to not disturb the rest for now, instead moving on. 

In the next cavern they found a strange crystal 'cyst' on the wall, along with scattered remains of  crystal shards from broken cysts on the floor. Inside the cyst swirled a multi-coloured mist. The party tried a number of tricks to remove the cyst from the wall. But in the end, all they did was break and release the mist. This temporarily filled most of the cavern, and when it cleared it left behind a giant ceramic cookie jar. Out of which erupted a huge furry humanoid, almost 10' tall and equip with a deadly array of claws and teeth. It charged forward, and Thrax struck it with his sword; said sword unfortunately stuck in the creature and was yanked from the fighters hand. Ranza responded with hypnotism,  and was successful in calming the strange brute by suggesting that it do no harm to them. That left the problem of the magic sword still struck in it's side, but Ranza once more was able to convince the beast to let them remove it and they would heal him. Which they did.  Ranza then had the creature sit and rest, while the party headed out to explore more of the caverns, confident the had placated the savage beast. 

They discovered an opening that led out onto the hillside and overlooked the valley below. Ignoring that, they continued through the caverns down a series of twisting passages. At one interaction, the floor collapsed under Thrax and dumped him into a sinkhole. One, he noted, with no other entrance or exit. In another cavern they found stalactites and stalagmites; though on closer inspection the stalagmites were found to be piles of excrement. 

Finding nothing else of interest, the party returned to the offal cavern. This time in was Ranza who started upchucking while the rest of the party turned to sift through the rotting and festering material. They did recover a number of items: gold rings; a locket; several hundred mixed coins; a rusty dagger inscribed with devotionals to St Bilian, patron saint of lost causes; a silver seal in the shape of a rose; and a large green gem. On close examination, this gem proved to be magical; Gnarl learned this Greenstone of Earthseeing  allowed him to see through solid rock for a short time, though the process did temporarily blind him each time. But of more immediate interest was a roaring sound from the next cavern; it seemed their furry foe/friend had shaken off the effects of Ranza's spell. The monster burst in and started to slash and bite. The party responded with their swords, while Ranza blinded the creature. In short order and with surprisingly little damage to themselves, the party felled the fearsome teddy bear.  

Leaving the dead beast and offal smell behind, the party headed back through the caverns so Gnarl could use the greenstone of earthseeing to search for any hidden rooms or treasure. Alas, it was to no avail as nothing was found. The party now returned through the door to Eya's lair, but were not overly surprised to find him gone. There was nothing left but an empty room and a pile of moldering books (which did not contain the Book of Seven Souls). Gnarl used the greenstone again to look for hidden things but again found nothing.  Still convinced there was more to be found, they party moved into the tower itself to search. The tower was simply an empty shell, and around the inside wall a stone stair looped down towards the bottom. The other notable point was the vicious wind; much greater than expected event given the outside gale and the poor condition of the tower. And then, as the party got halfway down the stairs, they were struck by some sort of invisible creatures. Tottering on the narrow perch, Thrax used his sword's gust of wind to push them back, while Gnarl tossed a leftover flour bombs to make their foes visible. The wood gnome was successful, and a pair of humanoid figures were outlined for them. Once was fairly quickly slain, and the other fled through an opening in the side of the tower. 

It now getting late, and with everyone more than a little tied, the party opted to retreat to the room above and rest for the night before proceeding. 

TOTAL XP 

3359

GAINS

136sp & 113cp

4 golden rings [25sp each]

Silver chain with golden locket and blue gem [600sp]

Curved dagger etched with devotionals to St. Bilian, the patron saint of lost causes [0sp]

Silver Rose Seal [20sp] 

Greenstone of Earthseeing [800xp] 

KILLS/VICTORIES
The Cookie Wookie

1 Windwalker

LOSSES

none