Once again I’m writing this from my player perspective, but don’t worry, it’s not because I’ve died again. Yet. There are instead three other reasons for it. First, I haven’t quite found my new character’s voice yet. Second, I kind of enjoyed the approach I took to last week’s episode (despite everything that happened) so I wanted to attempt this week in the same vein. And third, I am, like, ninety-eight percent certain we’re going to have a TPK next week.
We began with a brief, sombre funeral for Aelin (after her body was stripped of all its useful items, of course – adventurers are nothing if not pragmatists first) before Leo, Hector and Gad made camp just within the Redwood for a much-needed rest. During the night, I came upon their camp, totally unseen, since I’m now playing a sneaky human git called Thomas. I spotted that Hector was a Bloodhound, and since I’m one myself and have been told of the Pretenders, I put two and two together. I slipped back to my companion, Kalyteros (aasimar bard, very positive, kinda ditsy) so that we could introduce ourselves in the morning.
We did, identified ourselves as Bloodhounds, explained that we were looking for Rain, and were appraised of the current situation. Gad was getting an uneasy feeling from deeper in the forest, and when I picked up Anghus’ trail heading in that direction, we were on our way.
After some time we came upon a clearing in the forest with four exits (north, east, west, and south, where we entered), in the centre of which stood an enormous tree with a face. It started speaking to us, so ever-bubbly Kaly stepped forward to say hi. It was about this time that the rest of us managed to put together that at some point we had crossed into the Feywild.
Kaly spent a couple of minutes conversing with the tree before it dropped the bomb that its purpose was to distract us. Then it walloped Kaly with its roots.
The ensuing combat was an utter waste of time. Intentionally. Our first huge mistake, we were hitting the tree with everything we had, and what little got through it was healing while spitting little stick things at us. After a couple of rounds of combat I came to the conclusion that we were never going to get through it, so I bailed (the others followed shortly after) and stepped out of the north exit. I went whoomp and a step took me to an entirely different clearing, full of mushrooms.
Further investigation revealed four more clearings, all interconnected by strange pathways: a small farmyard with a scarecrow and Anghus (where I ran into him and exchanged pleasantries before he went to ‘feed the mushrooms’), a series of stones with runes in giant on them, a crossroads with a faun sitting on a rock, drinking wine, and a smaller crossroads with a large gate marked by four locks.
Cue the puzzles.
The first puzzle we attempted was the faun. He asked us three riddles, we answered them correctly, and click, the first lock on the gate was unlocked. The next was the mushrooms. They had to be fed with blood, but some of them were redcaps. Our fifty:fifty guess as to which were which was wrong, but our fight against the three redcaps that popped out of the ground was over quickly. Click two, lock two.
The third puzzle is where we made our second huge mistake. We went to the giant-rune stones and were giving them a look over. There were nine, with six showing the runes for the different types of giants, plus a couple of larger stones that spoke about the giant hierarchy (luckily I speak giant). Just guessing at how to do the puzzle, I climbed up onto one of the stones and whoomp, a flash of light, and we’re all hit with the Confusion spell. Gad and I failed our saves, and I started to wander off. After Gad snapped out of it (but before I did), Kaly decided patience and common sense were no fun, so she threw rocks onto two of the other stones. The first triggered another trap (an explosion of ice and rocks) while the second summoned a rock monster. The others fought it while I continued to repeatedly fail my saving throw against the Confusion (seriously, I failed a DC 15 save where I have a +4 about six or seven times in a row).
Once the rock monster was defeated, but before we decided to continue with the puzzle, we took a short rest, after which everyone moved to the clearing with the gate while I went back to complete the puzzle alone. I was definitely the one who could get out of there easiest should something go wrong. Luckily, nothing did. I activated the stones in ascending order of the giant hierarchy, and click. Lock three.
Buoyed by our success, we moved on to the fourth puzzle clearing, the farm with the scarecrow (and location of our final, biggest mistake). The moment he saw it, Hector attacked the scarecrow, slicing into it. It began bleeding profusely, and my heart suddenly froze in my chest. A group of little pixies and sprites and things appeared all around the clearing and began to attack us. Hector was turned into a bunny while the legs of Kaly and Leo were grasped by vines. My eyes were only for the scarecrow, however. I rushed over to it and pulled off the hood, revealing, as I had feared, Rain. Luckily Hector hadn’t quite killed her, and I managed to stabilise her and keep her from bleeding out.
It was then that Anghus entered the clearing via the entrance opposite ours. He took a look at us and said something ominous along the lines of ‘now it’s time to end this’. That’s where we finished.
To put things into perspective, we have short rested and thus are back to full or almost full health, and Leo has his spell slots available, but otherwise, I (as a Rogue/Ranger) have one spell slot left, Kaly is out and doesn’t have much damage capability otherwise, Gad is almost out (and with him goes any healing we have), Hector is on his second level of exhaustion (and also a bunny), we are in incredibly close quarters with a disgustingly powerful warlock (who will be acting first next week), and Rain is unconscious and vulnerable, tied to a post in the middle of it all. Not to mention all the little pixies and things, or the fact that once (read: if) we get through their stooge, we’re probably about to go up against some hags, if my suspicions about the Mothers are correct.
So you can probably understand my apprehension about a TPK. Tune in next week to find out if I’m right.