Bats!

Year, Season, Month, Days: 5990 F.Y. Frinle, Yria 4-8

The party slept while Han kept watch, and the evening was uneventful. Ruth made the party a hearty breakfast stew while Olman and Tektun prepared their spells for the day, working collaboratively. Molly woke up on the wrong side of the bed and bickered with Ruth about coffee before simmering down from a rolling boil. Olman asked about priorities if things were to go wrong, and the group settled on saving the lives of the party as the first priority.

Meanwhile, the drivers, Forrest and Oliver, slept in until they were woken up by Olman joking that “Gnomes don’t know how to dance”. The drivers had a conversation about arcane magics and control over the elements. Discussing if the drivers ever left home and if they were to have trouble due to helping the party, they were offered a place on the pirate ship. The party shocked the drivers with the sheer amount of gold at their disposal. After a touch more relationship-building, the crew set out towards Porun, the last village before Spot, The Second Cataclysm.

After three days, the party passed into disputed territory between The Northern Coalition of Cities and Lavea, which wasn’t terribly evident until the party entered Porun the next day. The temples to the evil pantheon were repaired and seemingly unwelcome, likely due to the opinions of The Northern Coalition of Cities. This is the point that Molly believed she should mention she’s beholden to an evil god. The carriage drivers noted that the right person could cause her trouble. The group settled on “toucan” as the word of warning.

Deciding to be totally prepared, the party purchased additional rations and, of course, a trough to hold Molly’s Create Ice spell. Overhearing the party’s unfamiliarity with the area, Olman told them to prepare for a truly unsettling place, death on a scale larger and to an unnatural degree than they’ve ever seen; a place where air feels dead, nothing moves, water doesn’t flow, and remains a wound of the world.

The party passed through the clear line of life and death that marked the border of Spot, and the air grew stale and hazy, almost tasting and feeling dusty with every breath. The trees in the haze appeared as broken lines into the black hard ground. Nothing in the space appeared to rot but remained in the same condition it fell millennia ago. The ground was marked with tracks upon tracks seemingly unmarred by time.

Bleached bones and desiccated corpses littered the ground, and the air was eerily quiet, like the silence of a heavy snow. Molly took note of the true absence of life in this space, as even Novulu had life in their work. As the cart moved and the party stepped on the ground, it would collapse slightly, as if there was a slight gap of air between the outer and inner forms.

Unable to use the tracks as a guide, Molly ventured a guess that Duke Overn Adsin was searching for ruins of the Kordova Monarchy, also known as The Fervent Imperium, the empire of The Mad King. Felicity was able to gauge their direction off the faint outline of the sun in the haze and set them west into Dead Forest where Olman and Ruth surmised would hold the most ruins, but it would be difficult to determine if the ruins were Kordovan or from the old Elven Kingdom. Ruth posited the ruins may even precede her, although, at best, it would be 5 lifetimes ago.

The drivers advised the party that Lavea’s borders ended at The Second Cataclysm; the country viewed the land as unholy, believing the place was entirely abandoned by the gods across the pantheon. Molly stepped away to seek guidance from Novulu, searching for the most gnarled tree. Touching it, she felt an immediate soul-touching fear so brief it was questionable if it even appeared, but Molly ignored the feeling to ask Novulu for any aid they may have. Although the connection was made, it felt difficult and distant, but a faint cat-like coalescence of the fog walked to the west, leaving 4 paw prints in its wake.

Felicity was able to align the direction with north and pursue a heading westward. The party’s carriage maneuvered around the trees, but Felicity was able to keep the party headed on their desired course. Continuing onward until the light started to fade, several hours passed before Felicity heard a noise to the east of their position. After asking the drivers to keep the cart animals calm, Felicity set her bullseye lantern on the wagon to guide her, Tektun, and Molly back before sneaking in the direction of the noise.

Unable to see anything, the party continued to search before the fluttering of wings was heard while Molly was lifted into the air by something grabbing her between the shoulder blades. Unable to get a good view, Molly was only able to see the creature’s 20-foot wingspan. Breaking free of the grapple, Molly landed on her feet and moved behind Felicity. Ruth was unable to see the creatures in the darkness, but drafted Forrest to use the lantern as a spotlight to try to illuminate the creature.

The creature failed to grasp Felicity and hissed. Tektun cast Daylight and illuminated the creatures in a burst of light. The party was able to see the creature with its 8 eyes and 4-digit foot on batlike wings and its large gaping maw with a second goblin-shark-like jaw.

One of the creatures swooped down to grab Tektun and lift him into the air. Felicity intimidated the creature carrying Tektun while Molly threw a contagion bomb at the other, causing the creature to be blinded and weakened by blinding sickness. With Tektun’s Daylight illuminating him and the creatures, Ruth was able to shoot at the creature, embedding two arrows in its body.

The blinded creature, using echolocation, flew down and grabbed Molly, again lifting her off the ground. Tektun fought his grappling creature as it lifted him higher off the ground. Felicity leapt upward and grabbed onto Molly, climbing up her and gasping onto the tail of the creature. Olman’s spellbook flew next to Felicity and fluttered through pages before casting Mythic Flight upon her.

Molly pulled out her dagger of venom and applied a poison to it, stabbing the creature’s tail. The poison took effect and the creature became paralyzed, plummeting into the ground on top of Molly. Tektun took time to cast a flight hex upon himself, sprouting wings of blood and light, slowing the creature’s ascent.

Felicity, empowered with mythic flight, flew onto the creature bearing Tektun and stabbed into the creature’s neck, killing it and sending it crashing into the ground below.

Molly managed to crawl out from under the creature and announced its paralyzation. Ruth shot two more shots into the creature and Tektun shot it with a javelin of lightning. Felicity killed the creature in a coup de grâce, sending the second jaw flying outward at Molly’s feet.

Olman flew himself and Ruth over on a disc, evaluating the fight and the creatures. Molly hugged Tektun and asked him to draw a rendition of the creature. He chose the moment of its death. Molly looted the bodies, luckily detecting a flask of curses, and a candle she wasn’t able to identify within a pellet of leather and bones. She spoke to Forrest and Oliver to ensure they felt safe; they actually felt more secure seeing how the party handled the fight.

Meanwhile, Felicity flew into the sky as high until she could see landmarks, and possibly through Tektun’s use of Owl’s Wisdom, she was able to discover her map was inverted. Felicity was also able to find two lights within Spot that could be camps to the west of their current position. Descending to the ground, Felicity shared her findings and the party decided to wait until morning before setting off.

Ruth advised Felicity to consider a composite longbow to use her strength and allow her to provide more aid at range. Molly spent her part of the watch creating Felicity a true miracle of luck: a fragile bone composite longbow +3. Although intimidating and notably powerful, one wrong move could cause it to shatter. Molly gifted it to Felicity when changing shifts keeping watch.