Into the Green, Part 1

The Party: Arcturius-9, Corwen, Farrow, Khonshu

In the interior of a dark sprawling mansion with ominous tones, the explorers found themselves separated.

Farrow walked through a furnace room, seeing a flash of a figure kneeling by the light only for a second. She found a black executioner’s hood where the figure vanished. Farrow then heard a woman’s voice repeating a nursery rhyme in Gnomish. It guided her to a magpie hopping across the hall. More magpies followed and Farrowed tired her best to befriend them as they picked at the offered bread and a dead rat. As she offered them trinkets, more and more swarmed her until a vortex of black feathers and tendrils blocked her vision.

Meanwhile, Khonshu was in a dishevelled study room filled with books and maps he couldn’t read. Windows on different sides of the space displayed vastly different outside scene. One was a giant forest of ancient trees, the other was a red hellscape of barren rocks and swirling sky. Investigating the room, he found a globe that opened, revealing a small mirror that showed a mysteriously aged reflection. Wandering out into the house and down stars into a meeting room with a long table, Khonshu sees a wobbling figure approach drunkenly. The old face under a hood flopped, revealed to be a mask over a black visage underneath. With backwards bending legs, the creature was held at bay by Khonshu’s pike until it withered into black smoke, enveloping the tiefling.

Meanwhile, Corwen found a dining hall with a table set, surrounded by portraits with the faces scratched out. Checking out the portraits, he found something lodged behind one frame, a pearl necklace that he somehow knew turned red under the full moon. The rogue asked himself how he got here but couldn’t remember. A noise rattled behind him. As he hid under table, a faceless figure crawled out of a painting towards him, then another.

Somewhere else, Arcturus-9 was in a dark armoury of the manor. Finding a row of antique, ceremonial suits of plate, he explored the room. There were eight different suits of armor on display in a row on platforms, and an empty platform at the end. On this platform, the cyborg found a small doll made of dark wood and missing a hand and a foot. Looking back, the suits of armor were closer than before. They seemed to edge nearer every time he looked away. Not trusting the doll, he cleaved it with his greatsword, causing a scream to come out. More screams cams from the suits of armor as they animated to pile onto the fighter. One of the suits walked forward with a glowing sword. Seeing it in the light, Arcturius-9 recognized the armor from the vision the fortune-telling machine had granted him previously, and that the sword resembled the broken sunsword the party had recovered during their adventure in the Thundergranite Mountains. A flash woke Arcturius-9 up before he could think more.

In the waking world, the droid shuddered and transformed back into Arcturius-9. The doll was in his hand. The party caught up on things before preparing to travel into the heat and humidity of the Green.

Lanternwurm delivered the party to the entrance to the Green. The trails led to the towering crater walls, and they followed the caverns to reach the interior. A green rainforest opened before them in the distance. But first they stopped at Fort Verdant Hope, the outpost Lanternwurm established in a grove of sprawling oak trees next to the crater wall.

Manned by a dozen Lanternwurm contacts, the party met with Aurum the gold dragonborn and the wood elf twins Dolengil and Annamath who were the more senior staff. They hadn’t explored deeper into the forest yet, focusing on learning about the strange energy of the land and growing food. Aurum explained they ley lines of the land intersected here, providing a natural font of magical energy. It was overflowing at times, causing some magic and planar technology to become unpredictable. Deeper in, they surmise things may intensify.

Entering the rainforest, the party moved and a normal pace, guided by Arcturius-9’s tracking eye. At a clearing filled with large fallen moss-covered logs, Farrow took a sample and narrowly avoided a vine like appendage that retracted into one of the logs. It revealed itself to be a giant stick bug and the party sprang to defend Farrow who got caught by its vine tongue. Khonshu helped her slip the noose and she blasted it with her staff. Corwen picked a weak spot for an arrow shot and Arcturius-9 followed in with his blade to slit the creature open.

The next hour took them into a bamboo grove. The dense foliage concealed potential threats, so they stuck close. Some stalks moved oddly and looking up they spotted a giant long legged spider above them. The creature dipped down to bite Farrow, though she fought off the poisonous effects. The party went into hack and slash mode, with Arcturius-9 cutting down multiple legs and Corwen sneaking under for a finishing upward stab. They quickly tried to exit the bamboo to prevent more surprises.

Throughout the afternoon, the party kept running into signs of a giant stalker. At first, the ground shook with heavy distant footfalls. Farrow’s drone was sent up above the canopy and saw some rustling in the distance. The adventurers stayed to their course, even as Arcturius-9’s tracker cut in and out of service. He eventually got it back online with Farrow’s help. Next time the party heard the footsteps, they saw the silhouette of a massive tyrannosaurid dinosaur in the distance, the head towered stories above them. The party managed to escape again by running into the bush.

The third time the tyrant lizard appeared, it was close enough for its growling to be heard. Thinking they had to fend it off, the party made a stand. As the adrenaline filled their systems, they felt something extra, like the energy of the land flowed up into their chests. This granted them strange random magical abilities that they suddenly intuitively knew but also sapped some of their attributes. In the first seconds of the fight, the party realized they had made an error in judgement. The roar of the beast shocked Corwen and Arcturius-9 while its jaws crushed Khonshu and trapped him. As Mule tried to help, the dinosaur’s tail dealt a crippling blow. Tactically, Khonshu maneuvered out of the teeth with Mule’s help. The artificer then invoked an invisibility spell to retreat.

Corwen focused his strange new ability to conjure a cloud of glittering gold dust that blinded the beast, allowing Mule to hobble away. The crew decided it wiser to run and they managed to escape the monster.

After a moment to patch up their wounds, the group continued on. Their momentary mutations faded, but the dulling of some of their other their senses persisted.

Moving on between treed areas, they followed a river with sandy deposits on both sides. Crocodiles splashed and disappeared into the water. A shadow darkened the ground momentarily, then another. They looked up to see the silhouettes of giant bird like shapes but with more bat-like wings. As a group, they managed to hide themselves, not wanting to attract more giant attention. The creature passed by and later the party saw them resting in the water from a safe distance.

As the sun began to set on their first day in the Green, the group searched for a spot to make camp. They set up next to a large tree and decided on taking rotating watches to prevent more surprises.