#going on mushrooms searching walks is a top tier activity

[c-kiddo]

theres cool looking edible one too, if you know what youre doing!! parasols are edible too, even :- ) things like milkcaps (saffron + indigo etc, i found saffron milkcaps at my grandparents house), chanterelles, lions mane, enoki, types of boletes, wood-ears and even young inkcaps or stinkhorns are all edible . theres so many !! also so many wood-ears around here at th moment, all fat and bright and sorta squishy-velvety from the rain :-3 

[draegonkin]

Beneath Shadowed Wings: Chapter 9 – Cliffkeep

(Alternate Title: The Session in which we owe victory to half a dozen screaming mushrooms)

There were a few preparations that took place the night before the group left for Cliffkeep: supplies were purchased, axe beak mounts were rented (or bought, depending on if they survive the trip), and the group convinced Thog (with a bit of gold) to come with them rather than stay at the stronghold and try to kill an orc he’d set his eyes on.  Thyme spent the evening performing in the Common grounds, and in the morning, they set out for the abandoned city of Cliffkeep.

Making it across the anvil of the sun was as much of an ordeal as ever.  Taking the axe beaks with them sped the journey along and kept the party from becoming too exhausted, though it did cause a drain on Kizzy and Bitsy providing water for their mounts.  Along the way their only encounter was with a passing Gabran patrol that, once they had confirmed the group’s Writ of Permission from the Ember Chief, let them go on their way.

Midmorning of the fourth day they came to end of the broken rocks of the Anvil, and to the open sands surrounding Cliffkeep.  It immediately became clear to them that they would need to be careful.  They could see before them dozens of pits dotted across the desert; pits that they learned were the dens of antlions.  Absinthe and Bitsy’s sharp eyes noticed forms swooping in and out of the openings high in the façade of the cliff face the city was built into.  They weren’t sure what they were yet, but they knew the needed to be careful and they approached the city cautiously.

The city was a series of tiers, built into the red stone of the half mile high cliff face that marked the border between the Akken Desert and the Highlands.  As the group probed the passages and rooms there they found a city thoroughly empty and abandoned.  Five thousand years had given ample time for any trace of life here, beyond the rooms and artwork carved into the living rock, to have been destroyed or taken.

Delving only far enough into the cliff to determine if each path provided a way up they slowly made their way to a terrace of the city where they found the monolith that Rufus had told them they would find.  Being wary of the flying creatures, identified as harpies as they’d neared the city, Absinthe and Thyme moved with as much stealth as they could to try and translate the words on the monolith’s face.  Absinthe was able to cast comprehend language as Thyme took a rubbing of the language that he was quickly becoming familiar with.

“The Sanctum Lies Beneath the Sands/Where the antlions make their nests/Hidden there in plainest sight/There our oldest fallen kings do rest”

As they each finished and Absinthe had jotted down the words into her notebook they all heard a high, tempting song.  The ladies looked up to see harpies descending on them, on singing the eerie song, while the men went glassy eyed and started to walk mindlessly towards the winged beasts.

What followed was a short, ugly encounter for both sides.  Seeing that she had charmed half of the party the first harpy flew out the edge of the terrace and lured those caught in her charm closer. Thyme, unable to fight the impulse, walked right off the edge and fell fifty feet below, injuring himself greatly.  Kizzy, having to choose where to cast her spell chose to help the larger number of her allies and cast calm emotions, freeing Olek and Thorn from the grasp of the charm, while Absinthe cast sleep into Thyme far below, hoping to keep him from repeating the leap to a lower level with even worse consequences.

By the time everyone had reached the fight Absinthe had fallen to another harpy’s song.  The charm was short lived as Bitsy, in her Giant Spider form, shot a web that encased the offending creature and dropped it 150 feet to its death, freeing the endangered bard.  The last harpy tried the same trick as her fellows, disengaging from combat with Absinthe, only to find her song fell on deaf ears and an illusionary creature distracting her enough to be easily killed by Thorn and Kizzy. The last harpy, ready to flee, was brought to the ground with an earthbind by Bitsy, and hacked to bits by Olek. Any others that may have been watching quickly fled back into their den above.

After helping Thyme they searched a part of the city that appeared to be a temple.  It was of no gods they had ever seen before, and Bitsy and Kizzy began to wonder if they were gods at all.  While they pondered that they found an amulet discarded amongst some broken rocks in the corner of the room that matched the style of the one they’d found outside of Svanith’s tomb, though with a different symbol.

Meanwhile Spider-Bitsy scaled the cliffs to take a look in the harpy nest, finding nearly a dozen more harpies gathered, speaking to their matriarch.  Very quietly she made her way back, suggesting they just avoid raiding the nest as Thorn was contemplating.  The spent the rest of their night pondering the meaning of the monolith’s riddle, keeping watch and recovering from the day.  They came to the conclusion that one of the antlion pits was likely fake and hiding the real entrance.

When they looked at them in the morning they noticed they had moved.

What followed was amusing attempts discover which holes contained antlions in an attempt to find the one that didn’t.  Olek, Thorn and Thyme led the effort by cutting up harpies from the battle the day before and throwing the meat into holes.  Unfortunately, their limited supply of harpy bits wasn’t enough to uncover the real hole.

Kizzy spent the day carefully drawing a map from her vantage in the cliff homes of the city and the relative cool they provided.

When they woke the following morning, with no incursions from their harpy friends, they looked to see that the antlions had indeed moved again.  Using Kizzy’s map, they found a pit that seemed to be a likely candidate, threw in some wolf meat that Bitsy had kept with her, and got no reaction. Excited, but cautious, they decided to scout the path ahead before venturing fully in.  The question was how to do it.

Obviously, the best choice was for Olek and Thog to play stone, parchment, shears to see who got to cannonball in.  The first game Thog one, but Olek claimed it was because he wasn’t sure if they were going on three or go, to which Thog replied, “Everyone knows the civilized rules call for going on go.  Only those that degrade themselves with common go on three.”

Thog won the next game too.

And cannonballed into the pit with a rope tied to him.

Now, to be fair, that part of the plan went fine.  Pulling him out didn’t.  Thyme, Thorn and Olek liked up, in that order, on the rope to pull him out.  The rope went taught, Thorn was lifted off the ground between the other two, and all three were pulled right in.  They found themselves in a dark cave with a smooth floor that seemed to lead towards Cliffkeep.

After some effort, and Bear-Bitsy, they got everyone out of the pit and spent the rest of the day preparing for their trek into the tomb.  There was a lot of question about how to take care of the axe beaks. Ultimately they found the deepest most remote corner of the homes built within the cliffs, left them with food and water, and hoped for the best.  They rested for the night, and Thorn thought he heard the distant sound of harpy song outside the city, but nothing that concerned him.  In the morning they headed into the tomb, taking both Thog and Rufus with them.

After a fair distance down the tunnel they came across an altar with a crystal sphere upon it. Thyme identified it as some kind of magical key.  To what, his magic didn’t say.

But probably the maze that sprung up when they touched it.

They got a look at the room beyond before they picked it up.  More than a hundred feet wide, twenty feet tall, with a smooth stone ceiling, and a perfectly flat sand floor interrupted only by three narrow pillars evenly set around a stone dais at the center.  A sand floor that sprung up into solid stone walls when they picked up the keystone.

Olek, claiming a surprising wisdom, led them through the maze keeping one hand on the wall to keep from losing themselves.  This led to finding one of the stone pillars they’d seen where an inactive stone was set. Touching it with the keystone activated it and caused the maze to shift around them to a different configuration.

Several people cursed. (Some of them were the players.)

(Here is the map.  The point at top is pillar one, the bottom left pillar two, the bottom right pillar three.  The number at the bottom represents which one is on or off.)

 It took several hours to navigate the maze, but eventually they reached the middle and activated the larger glass stone there. It gave off extremely bright light and the maze dropped back into perfectly calm sand once more and silence seemed to fall.

Feeling confident in his performance in the maze Olek took the lead and stepped onto the sand only to have Thorn immediately yell at him to stop.  There had been movement in the sand, moving closer to him with each step, but once he stopped so did the movement.  Quickly he stepped back to the stone dais to contemplate their situation.

There were many contemplative looks, trying to logic a solution out of the situation.

Olek pulled out the bag of beans and planted it in the sand.  He had no idea what would happen, but he was feeling good.  Slowly little mushrooms began to grow.  Bitsy let out a little “Awww” when she saw them.  As they grew larger and sprouted little eyes it was a little squeal of glee.

The mushrooms responded by shrieking back with an unending, gods awful sound.  It made them all grab their ears and cringe.  Fortunately, it drove away whatever was beneath the sand, letting them cross the sand to another entry way.  They searched it quickly finding a hidden room where they found treasure and a series of murals portraying the world ending in fire.  In them they saw columns of light protect groups of people while leaving others to the fire.  Three figures rose up and restored the land, finally holding aloft three gems while surrounded by a field of pillars.

Finally there was only one way to proceed.

Opening the door sent a chill through them as they entered a hall line on both sides by a total of sixty statues, each showing a king with a crown, a bow, and an amulet.  Each slightly different than the next.  Just like Svanith’s tomb.  Down to the trapped floor.  (They discovered this by throwing the shriekers onto the floor to set off a nearby statue. It fired a flaming arrow that nicely roasted the mushroom…which Bitsy stuck in her pack.)

At the end of the hall they were face with another door which led to a chamber nearly identical to the one they had confronted Svanith in.  Olek told Bitsy to hold back on the spirit stuff for now, and for Thyme to stow his book.  This time Gbranth was waiting for them already as they entered.  His red wraith-like form was clad with iron armor and stood waiting for them at the top of the room opposite them.

“Leave this place. You do not belong here.”

Familiar words.  Just as before he was not interested in talking. While saner than his brother king, he had kept his silence for more years than they could contemplate.  He needed no friends. No allies.  He wanted to rest and keep his secrets with him.

Thyme failing miserably didn’t help, and may have contributed to Gbranth drawing his bow and golems dropping from the ceiling.