Dania's Diary Entry
We arrived in Woodshire without further incident and I got to spend time with Greta, the proprietess of the Wanton Pilgrim, and my grammy. I asked them about what they knew of twig blight and Greta mentioned hearing rumors of talking trees near Bog's Edge. She also mentioned goblins amassing near Dead Bog, which my mom has told me is cursed with undead soldiers.
My friends and I were having breakfast at The Wanton Pilgrim preparing for a journey north to investigate the rumors of talking trees and twig blight when Abel Yarrell burst through the doors in a panic. He's a local farmer who lives in the outskirts of town and he was seeking Greta's help to heal his son, Devick, who had fallen into an unusual comatose state after trekking to uncharted parts of the woods to the north. His sister, Abella, had ventured with Devick but came back home, leaving her brother to explore and look for "the ruins" on his own. Devick came out of the woods, babbling, and collapsed unconscious three days ago. It's only now that Abel sought help.
He asked me to see what I could do and I went to his house to take a look. Devick was pale white and appeared to have a single pinprick on his finger. He seemed to be under a magical spell that my Goodberry could not heal. We decided to see what Beau the Badger knew of this condition.
Beau didn't seem to know what could be done. My friends and I decided to see if the cure could be found by going to the source of Abel's conditions: the ruins.
Three miles away from Abel's farm, we trekked through the narrow creekbed and passed through a thicket where intricate wood ornaments hung ominously from above. We then came upon the ruins that we had heard about.
Above the main door of the two story stone building with a domed roof, we saw a symbol of a sun with an eye. In front of the door was a pool 15 feet in diameter, its walled edge coming up as high as our thights. The building was meant for Kostromo, clearly not a halfling residence.
The sun symbol read in ancient Common: "Danger: Entry forbidden. All hail the New Morning." Just before we approached, Griff happened to pass the pool and dip his hand in the water when a snake struck out at him. Callie quickly defended Griff and sadly killed the serpent. She took his poison glands and smeared it on the tip of her short sword. I prayed for the snake and continued toward the building.
Flynt broke down the door, using his dwarven proficiency with tools, and we saw a chamber 20' square. Overhead a golden chandelier glistened. Griff and I noticed that a thick layer of dust covered everything but a large circle in the room. Callie carefully investigated the anamoly and discovered it was a trap, a five foot pit of spikes. Eeks!
She had also thrown a ball bearing down the hall to a dining room, where a feast was laid out on a sprawling dining table. The food appeared fresh from our distance, which seemed to conflict with all other evidence that the place was deserted.
We carefully treaded around the pit when Flynnt impetuously walked into a study and was pushed back into the pit! He narrowly escaped being impaled and we pulled him out. We observed a phoenix symbol in that study, as well as 8 desks and lots of papers. It was protected by some magical shield. The food on the table appeared to be real but preserved for who knows how many hundreds of years.
One thing we noticed: there are traps all over this place. Callie investigated outside and reported back to us that there were five statues in supplication (Ram, Eagle, Snake, Heron, Beetle) and a carcass of a small bear struck by a scythe coming out from one of the statues.
On the 2nd floor, we found a room covered in vines/greenery with a pink fluid (healing potion for 2) in a delicate bottle in the center of the room. I quickly slammed a vial of Green Fairy and bottled the healing potion and threw it at Flynnt to have for himself. That's when we encountered the undead. I thought I could use thunderwave and knock all five of the undead out but they hit me first and I was knocked unconscious until
Flynnt revived me with the healing potion.
The zombies had been wearing white robes with blackened blood stains on the front. Each of their throats had been slashed and they were wearing amulets of the golden sun symbol. After taking down the undead, we explored the remaining rooms. One room contained a similarly dressed humanoid who appeared to be unconscious. He did not have any physical damage, or blood stains. I tried to wake him up by pouring Green Fairy into his mouth, but he just coughed up. Griff even hit him hard. And nothing. It creeped us out. We took his amulet and went back to the first floor with the amulets we had recovered from the bodies.
The amulets were the key to the study's magical force field. Callie and I tried to read the scrolls on the wall but they crumbled into dust. Then we found a switch and found three ivory scroll cases and a scroll on the wall. The one on the wall proclaimed: "Celebrating the coming of the New Morning when Pelor-Ra will cleanse the world of all evil."
We couldn't read the ancient divine writing on the scrolls, so we tucked them into our packs to take back to Beau for deciphering.
Anyways, that's all for now. We're all taking a short rest before exploring the basement and second floor. I have never gotten myself into so much trouble! It's kind of fun though.
We arrived in Woodshire without further incident and I got to spend time with Greta, the proprietess of the Wanton Pilgrim, and my grammy. I asked them about what they knew of twig blight and Greta mentioned hearing rumors of talking trees near Bog's Edge. She also mentioned goblins amassing near Dead Bog, which my mom has told me is cursed with undead soldiers.
My friends and I were having breakfast at The Wanton Pilgrim preparing for a journey north to investigate the rumors of talking trees and twig blight when Abel Yarrell burst through the doors in a panic. He's a local farmer who lives in the outskirts of town and he was seeking Greta's help to heal his son, Devick, who had fallen into an unusual comatose state after trekking to uncharted parts of the woods to the north. His sister, Abella, had ventured with Devick but came back home, leaving her brother to explore and look for "the ruins" on his own. Devick came out of the woods, babbling, and collapsed unconscious three days ago. It's only now that Abel sought help.
He asked me to see what I could do and I went to his house to take a look. Devick was pale white and appeared to have a single pinprick on his finger. He seemed to be under a magical spell that my Goodberry could not heal. We decided to see what Beau the Badger knew of this condition.
Beau didn't seem to know what could be done. My friends and I decided to see if the cure could be found by going to the source of Abel's conditions: the ruins.
Three miles away from Abel's farm, we trekked through the narrow creekbed and passed through a thicket where intricate wood ornaments hung ominously from above. We then came upon the ruins that we had heard about.
Above the main door of the two story stone building with a domed roof, we saw a symbol of a sun with an eye. In front of the door was a pool 15 feet in diameter, its walled edge coming up as high as our thights. The building was meant for Kostromo, clearly not a halfling residence.
The sun symbol read in ancient Common: "Danger: Entry forbidden. All hail the New Morning." Just before we approached, Griff happened to pass the pool and dip his hand in the water when a snake struck out at him. Callie quickly defended Griff and sadly killed the serpent. She took his poison glands and smeared it on the tip of her short sword. I prayed for the snake and continued toward the building.
Flynt broke down the door, using his dwarven proficiency with tools, and we saw a chamber 20' square. Overhead a golden chandelier glistened. Griff and I noticed that a thick layer of dust covered everything but a large circle in the room. Callie carefully investigated the anamoly and discovered it was a trap, a five foot pit of spikes. Eeks!
She had also thrown a ball bearing down the hall to a dining room, where a feast was laid out on a sprawling dining table. The food appeared fresh from our distance, which seemed to conflict with all other evidence that the place was deserted.
We carefully treaded around the pit when Flynnt impetuously walked into a study and was pushed back into the pit! He narrowly escaped being impaled and we pulled him out. We observed a phoenix symbol in that study, as well as 8 desks and lots of papers. It was protected by some magical shield. The food on the table appeared to be real but preserved for who knows how many hundreds of years.
One thing we noticed: there are traps all over this place. Callie investigated outside and reported back to us that there were five statues in supplication (Ram, Eagle, Snake, Heron, Beetle) and a carcass of a small bear struck by a scythe coming out from one of the statues.
On the 2nd floor, we found a room covered in vines/greenery with a pink fluid (healing potion for 2) in a delicate bottle in the center of the room. I quickly slammed a vial of Green Fairy and bottled the healing potion and threw it at Flynnt to have for himself. That's when we encountered the undead. I thought I could use thunderwave and knock all five of the undead out but they hit me first and I was knocked unconscious until
Flynnt revived me with the healing potion.
The zombies had been wearing white robes with blackened blood stains on the front. Each of their throats had been slashed and they were wearing amulets of the golden sun symbol. After taking down the undead, we explored the remaining rooms. One room contained a similarly dressed humanoid who appeared to be unconscious. He did not have any physical damage, or blood stains. I tried to wake him up by pouring Green Fairy into his mouth, but he just coughed up. Griff even hit him hard. And nothing. It creeped us out. We took his amulet and went back to the first floor with the amulets we had recovered from the bodies.
The amulets were the key to the study's magical force field. Callie and I tried to read the scrolls on the wall but they crumbled into dust. Then we found a switch and found three ivory scroll cases and a scroll on the wall. The one on the wall proclaimed: "Celebrating the coming of the New Morning when Pelor-Ra will cleanse the world of all evil."
We couldn't read the ancient divine writing on the scrolls, so we tucked them into our packs to take back to Beau for deciphering.
Anyways, that's all for now. We're all taking a short rest before exploring the basement and second floor. I have never gotten myself into so much trouble! It's kind of fun though.