After resurfacing from the lake after his meeting with “The Deep” and discovering that his swim speed had doubled, Desmond met up with the rest of the Wild Rovers. Urs consulted his hammer and continued to lead the party in the quest to find the arch.
Realizing that there were dangerous things in the woods and half the party incapable of stealth, it was decided to let Desmond and Urs travel a little up ahead to try and not bring unwanted attention.
The pair discovered a lone elf in the middle of the woods reading a book. Naturally, we brought attention to ourselves by approaching the man. Desmond previously instructed Urs to let Desmond do all the talking.
The elf, named Bekay, instantly became interested in Urs and the necklace he was wearing. We told him we were looking for an arch, and Urs drew what he thought the arch looked like in the elf’s book. Desmond didn’t trust the elf and was concerned that Urs was giving up too much information, although he wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. Because of this, he called back towards his friends to bring them over. We tried to get information on the whereabouts of the city, and didn’t get a whole lot of information aside from we were going in the wrong direction (thanks Urs!). When we left Bekay, Desmond noticed the elf take off in the woods but didn’t tell the rest of the party because he didn’t think anything of it.
As we continued to travel in the other direction, Desmond came across a dog who was teleporting all over the place. Casting Speak with Animals, Desmond made friends with Bob and invited him to travel with them on their adventure. Bob seemed to know about Tobias, he said that Tobias spoke to him.
As it grew dark and the party was mostly exhausted from the night before, the Rovers decided to camp for the night. Desmond and Bob took the first watch, which was quite uneventful (aside from Bob peeing on Vara’s armor). Vara took second watch and noticed a dark-elf in the woods watching them. Nothing more came of this and Vara watched and did not interact, and the dark-elf went away. Not wanting to wake up Angus due to his extreme exhaustion, Vara woke up Urs to take the final watch. Not exactly sure how watches are supposed to go, Urs stayed awake for all but 10 minutes and then went back to his beauty sleep.
The Wild Rovers were peacefully awoken by claws and teeth as three fey creatures with the ability to paralyze attempted to feast on them. Bob teleported away after being instructed to do so by Desmond, and the Rovers fought back against the beasts. They were successful in their defense and continued to finish their rest. Desmond harvested 2 of the creatures for his brother, and one of the carcasses seemed to disappear (we suspect Bob had a late-night snack).
I think we encountered another elf in the woods at this point. I don’t remember much of this conversation, but I think it leads into the next point.
Traveling in the woods we discussed the need to conceal the necklace Tobias was stored in, as everyone has been super interested in it. We talked about getting a poncho for Urs, and by sudden luck a random merchant appeared in the forest accompanied by 2 little girls. We purchased 2 ponchos and some rocks from the women, but were a bit creeped out by the situation. Deciding it was best if we hastily left the scene, we discovered a raging river suddenly in our path. We were able to perceive that it was an illusion, so we wearily traveled through it and tried to GTFO.
The two little girls approached us from both sides as we tried to leave and wanted us to play with them. Desmond noticed a foul smell and some sort of slimy substance between the girls, but before he could bring it to the party’s attention they needed to all make a Wisdom check. Both Vara and Desmond then thought that it was a great idea to go off and play with the girls. One girl instructed Vara to follow her while the other told Desmond to stay. Angus and Urs were uncomfortable with this and thought something was up, and Angus instructed Urs to go get Vara and bring her back. Urs ran up to Vara and tried to get her to come back, but Vara fought back by casting Command on Urs… that did not go well for Vara. As this was happening, the other little girl lead Desmond away from the others to go play. Angus didn’t want to leave Desmond alone, fearing his guaranteed death, so went with them.
Pissed off at Vara for casting mind magic on him, Urs took a few massive swings at the paladin. The mighty blows against her plate armor shook her from the spell, and she pleaded with Urs that she herself was being controlled. At that time the little girl transformed into a tentacle creature and attacked the pair. Angus could hear confrontation some 100+ feet off in the woods, but still didn’t want to leave Desmond so decided to let them handle it.
They did not handle it. Both Vara and Urs had their memories wiped during the confrontation, and Urs was dropped in the fight. When this happened, the creature took Tobias from Urs’ neck and disappeared. In this act, the little girl that Desmond was playing with disappeared as well, bringing him back to his own mind. Desmond urged Angus on that they needed to go help their friends, and this was not the time to play!