Session 20 Recap
As we sit around the table in the Armored Goat, in walks a dwarf who comes over to our table. He says that ne needs Vistra and that she will be back tomorrow morning. He reaches out to grab her, and just as Vistra is about to punch him, they blink away. Tolvin and Sorcha notice that the dwarf was wearing the colors of Pride Rock.
Jamie seems surprised at what just happened, but the group acts like this is nothing new. Garret explains that from what he has seen, this is likely nothing new to us.
We get back to talking to Jamie about his missing wife. He says that she disappeared during the night. We ask several questions and find out this is not normal behavior for Catie. There was no note left, and there was no reason for her to leave. She does have family in town (her father), but they had visited him yesterday.
Jamie is from Eisgfion, Catie was from Kasimir. Jamie stated that Catie never mentioned any former lovers that could be upset that she ran off with Jamie. Jamie stated that he had no former lovers (insert joke about a past love named Laoghaire here)
Jamie is a trader and printer by trade. He helps local humans in Eisgfion to broker deals with the elves in town. Nothing was missing from their tent (except for his wife). Jamie offers to assist us if needed if we are ever in Eisgfion. Jamie and the remaining 4 of the group head off to look around his tent.
The tent is setup in a field and there is a weird amount of fallen leaves in this field even though there no trees nearby and no obvious source for these leaves Nothing looks out of place in the tent, but we do notice some leaves near Catie’s side of the bed. These leaves are giving off a feint magical energy of mostly transmutation and a hit of necromancy magic and appear to be a cross between a maple and ash leave. No secret doors are found in the tent.
We head off to his father in law’s farm. As we get to the farm, we notice a really well-kept garden with an oak tree. The farm is east of town, and we passed by this on our trip to the keep on our original mission.
Jamie knocks on the door and a man answers the door. The man is in his late 50s/early 60s. He asks were Catie is. Jamie introduces us to the man (Catie’s father) whose name is Miles (last name is possibly O’Brien) and explains what has happened. When the leaves are mentioned something is triggered with Miles. Francis used to ask about Catie as they had been friends when they were kids. Catie has planted the garden that we had seen. Francis kept the garden up after Catie left, but Miles hasn’t seen in about 1.5-2 years. Francis had brough that tree back from the brink of death. Miles is not a gardener and hasn’t done anything to the garden since Francis was last there, but the garden still looks great. Miles gives us some info on Francis. He’s a Human (this was later retconned to half-elf). He may have joined a nature cult. He lives west of town, but Miles is not sure of where exactly.
We head back to town to get more information on Francis. We go to the Armored Goat to see if Amanda knows anything about Francis. Amanda doesn’t know where he lives but suggests that we go see Nalagon to see if she knows.
We visit Nalagon and see says that Francis had been her best customer at one point. She assumed that he was an amateur botanist. She gives us directions to his house; it is about 30-minute walk west of town. She says that Francis supplies the herbalist in the area with many of the special items that they need. Nalagon did not recognize the leaves that we had found in the tent.
We head towards Francis’ house. As we approach the house, we see the forest is on the north side of the house and there is a pond to the east. There are a lot of flowers and bushes around the house. The eastern face of the house if mostly windows. The path we are on comes from the east and wraps around the house to the door on the west side. Archimedes does a fly by of the house and notices that the inside seems to be very open concept.
We go to open the door and find that is already open. We go in and Francis offers us tea. Jamie and Azi both say they would like some. Azi doesn’t actual drink his. We ask him about the garden at Catie’s family farm. He said that he used an experimental fertilizer on it. Tolvin notices that some of the plants around the house are giving off a faint hint of transmutation magic. Francis allows us, to look around his house. We notice a wolf’s head in the bedroom (Sorcha now likes this guy less then she did before) that is showing as a magic door. There is also a tree in the corner of the room that matches the leaves we found earlier. Tolvin looks at the wolf’s head and notices that one of the canines is misaligned. He reaches to fix it and becomes frozen (paralyzed) in place. Azi removed the paralysis with Lesser Restoration. Tolvin pulls his scimitar and lights it. Tolvin reaches for the head again, and this time a fog cloud appears in the corner of that room and Francis disappears. The fog cloud disappears and the tree in the corner turns into a Wood Woad. Jamie runs off to the other side of the room.
Fight ensues against the Wood Woad. As Tolvin deals the final blow to the Wood Woad, a second one comes up from behind and attacks Tolvin. A third one appears from a hidden door (where the wolf’s head is). The group takes out the remaining 2 woads. At this point the door is again closed. Sorcha has wild shaped into Shira. Althena uses Mage Hand to align the tooth and the door opens.
Inside the room we see Francis and 2 Shambling Mounds. A second battle ensues in the room. Archimedes flies down a back hallway in the room and we hear a woman’s voice calling out. Jamie hear the voice and tries to run in to the room. The group tells him to stay back, until the clear the room. He reluctantly agrees.
We take out the 2 Shambling Mounds. As we are putting the hurt on Francis, he surrenders. A still raging Tolvin ties Francis up.
Francis tells us that he was trying to use a love potion on Catie but needed to test it out first. Good thing no one drank the tea. Francis always loved Catie. He learned botany to try and get her back. He had spent times with Druids to try and learn botany, but they were too much about the animals for him, and not enough about the plant that he wanted to know. He made a pack with Nadur to get his powers (Francis is a warlock). There is an atrium in the middle of the house that we notice that the plants that are there are not from Rharne. In the room, Francis tells us that he was also working on a new type of potion and that the notes and the materials are on the table. There is enough material to make 5-6 of the new potions. The new potion is equivalent to a Greater Healing potion but will also give back a spell slot up to level 2. Azi takes the notes and the materials and we take Francis back to town to the Armor Goat to find out what we can do with him.
