Portal to D&D IC - Spider Smashers

[Thokk_Smash]

Spoiler: OOC

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Is the Core the only thing I was able to harvest from the creature?

Struck by a sudden inspiration, Iriander takes out the giant acorn and pops open the lid. He carefully pours a small amount of the liquid within onto the Core he had just retrieved. For good measure, he gives a brief prayer to The Mother for luck that this works to purify the Core.

[Rizban]

The rest of the corrupted spider seems to rapidly decay and putrefy as you butcher it, leaving nothing salvageable... unless you want to collect the slime and have something with which to carry it.

The drop of liquid from the acorn seems to war with the corruption inside the core. A fetid and black, tarry substance leaks from the core and oozes slowly down the crystalline structure onto your hand, staining your skin. The smell and sensation of the substance makes you think fondly of raw sewage by comparison.

Alas, a single drop proves insufficient to fully purify the core, a green malevolence still lurking within.


On a related note, Iriander needs to make a Fort save.

[Thokk_Smash]

Fort save: (1d20+2)[8]

((Is the acorn big enough to fit the Core?))

[Rizban]

You feel fire course through your veins as Corruption infects you.


The acorn is not large enough to fit the core inside.

[Thokk_Smash]

“Dammit.” Iriander waves his hand in pain as he ponders the Core. Carefully, he puts the core on the ground. He tilts a little more of the acorn liquid on his hand, where the tarry blackness touched his skin. Then, keeping his body parts away from the core, he dumps half of the acorn’s liquid onto the putrid core.

[Rizban]

The magic acorn juice clears up the stain on your hand instantly but does nothing for the corruption infesting your internal system.

You also manage to completely purify the core and have a bit over 1/3 of the potion remaining. The putrescence exuding from the core seeps into the ground and sinks out of sight.

What remains is a many faceted sphere about 3 inches in diameter that looks like a mostly clear gemstone. Faint swirls of brown and dark green seem to slowly flow through it in a lazy maelstrom.

Spoiler: Image

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[Thokk_Smash]

“Okay, lesson learned: Core Putrescence does not like being purified, keep away from self. Now, lessee here...”

Iriander Inspects the newly-purified Core. He also takes a sniff of the liquid within the acorn. “I mean, it smells like Lysol, so I probably shouldn’t drink it...” he mutters to himself, wondering how to get rid of Corruption damage. Navi probably wouldn’t give a straight answer, so best to ask Faelyn at his next chance.

[Rizban]

You feel like you almost earned a point of Wisdom for the insightful conclusion, but "Don't drink the industrial grade cleaning chemical" should be common sense enough that the System just shakes its head and suppresses a sigh... especially after having been told by Faelyn, explicitly, that it's not for consumption.

Inspect
Beast Core (spider) [6,000 Experience]

[Thokk_Smash]

“Love you too, game,” he says to the world at large.

“Hmm, it didn’t specify whether it was purified or not, so there may still be pitfalls to just using it myself,” he mumbles to himself. Ultimately, he pockets the Core for now, intending to ask Faelyn how to best use it later. So many questions, but perhaps having an acolyte is still a novel enough feeling that she won’t be too bothered.

Iriander also notes with amusement that he can guess that the spider had at least three hit die, judging by the experience in the new Core.

While Ssrask works on leveling up, Iriander approaches the tree to find the spot where the corrupted spider had been biting into the tree. After finding it, he tilts a few drops of Acorn Juice (patent pending) onto the puncture wounds.

[Rizban]

You quickly find the spot, but you also discover that the tree has died and briefly reconsider whether or not to use the gift of the Mother on it.

[Thokk_Smash]

“Dammit all,” Iriander mutters mournfully, placing a hand over the tree’s bark. One tree in a forest is probably not going to be much missed. But The Mother is responsible for all the natural flora and fauna in her forest, and so even one tree’s unneeded death is probably a blight. And as a faithful of the Mother, he feels he is tasked with doing whatever he can to protect—and heal—the forest.

Scooping out some of the acorn potion with his index and middle fingers, he places it over the puncture wounds and gathers his will. ”Bountiful Mother, hear my plea; verdant mother, seize my power, granted by your own beneficent will. I give it back unto you—released it into this tree, this newly-passed vessel of your forest, in hopes that it is not too late. I pray it may be reawakened into the green expanse of your gentle touch.”. As he prays, Iriander wills his magic through the potion and into the tree—envisioning growth and greenness as he invokes one of his spells in an unorthodox way.

((Expending a spell slot of Entangle to try and somehow heal the tree, or at least rid the area of the corruption. Entangle is a spell of wild growth, essentially, so I thought it fit.))

Edit: remembered I cast SNA 1 with Entangle, darnit. So disregard that last bit

[Rizban]

The tree does not respond, but the spiritual weight in the air seems to lift a bit.

[Rizban]

Spoiler: DM

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Wink wink. Nudge nudge.

[Thokk_Smash]

Spoiler: OOC

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I was kinda waiting for Ssrask to finish leveling up before traipsing off elsewhere, so I guess I'll go through CharAdv as well.

“Blast. I guess it was a longshot; or perhaps I’m just not strong enough yet...”

Noticing that Ssrask is still immobile, Iriander pulls up his own menu and opens character advancement.

[Deadguy]

Ssrask returned to the world after his level had been processed. Seeing Iriander immersed in his own process, the dragonkin inspected the dead tree and then his quest tab to see if anything had changed.

[Rizban]

The tree definitely appears dead to you, though appropriate skill application might reveal more.

Quest Update Spider Squishing
High Priestess Faeylin has requested that you do something about the spiders in The Venomous Grove. Objectives: Kill 20 Tiny Monstrous Spiders (22/20) Kill 10 Small Monstrous Spiders (7/10) Kill some Large Monstrous Spiders (1/0) Kill 5 Corrupted Monstrous Spider (2/5) Discover what is causing the spiders to rapidly expand their territory

[Deadguy]

"Still quite a large amount to purge..." Ssrask studies the tree more closely. "It doesn't really make sense that a spider would bite a tree... even if it's trying to kill the tree, why would the population increase from that. It might be trying to spread corruption into the tree, which would seep into the roots and then the ground..."

Seeing as the threats were gone, he focused the elemental energy of his draconic blood outward into the Energy Aura once again.

Spoiler: OOC

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✥ Knowledge (Nature) vs effect of bite on the tree(1d20+8)[26]
✥ Knowledge (Arcana) vs effect of corruption (1d20+6)[18]
✥ Swift Action: Change Auras to Energy

✥ Draconic Aura

Energy - 1d6 cold

[Rizban]

Spoiler: Knowledge Rolls

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The bite appears to have been some sort of poison that drained the vitality from the tree as it died, but it does not appear to be natural in origin, despite coming from the bite of a spider.

Corruption is a natural process of the world. All things begin as pure energy, and corruption causes it to change, first into the 4 primary elements (air, earth, fire, and water) and then further into all aspects of reality. Arcane magic interacts with the ambient pure energy and forcibly introduces irregularities that "corrupt" it into specific spell effects. Your arcane studies do not extend to what effects corruption introduced into a living creature might have beyond knowing that spells can kill people.

Spoiler: OOC

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My understanding is that Deadguy has a busy schedule and has temporarily stepped away from gaming a bit. I'm not sure how we want to proceed from here.

[Thokk_Smash]

Spoiler: OOC

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I think I was in the process of leveling up. After Iriander comes out of his leveling-up trance, maybe we could say that Ssrask has gone into perma-trance, as if leveling up or receiving an update or something? Then Iriander can either choose to carry on (probably foolish, given how much danger this quest is showing), or go to ask Faelyn about Cultivation and whatnot.

[Thokk_Smash]

Coming out of Character Advancement, Iriander sees that Ssrask has frozen as well. Assuming that it's level-up related, he sits down to wait.

After a few minutes become a dozen, and a dozen becomes thirty, Iriander starts getting antsy. Using his crude dagger, he carves Ssralish into the dirt beneath Ssrask: "You were frozen for a long time; going to see Faelyn, meet me there".

With that, he starts to make his way back to Mother's Grove.

[Deadguy]

OOC: I’m traveling atm, but will be back home and settled on Friday.

IC: Ssrask had been contemplating the results of his knowledge checks. The game had never given him that much information before.

He tried to make sense of corruption from a video game standpoint. Electricity was similar to pure energy, transformed into data using coding. That might be considered corruption. Then further corruption would be like errors or fragmentation of the data. That would be the breakdown of the established ‘elements’ resulting in death.

Once it kind of made sense to him, he closed the screen to see his partner gone and a note carved.

[Deadguy]

After reading the writing, Ssrask started back toward the glade himself. It’d be rude to press forward and earn xp on his own in a shared quest. Besides that, the nests seemed to be getting more dangerous.

[Rizban]

You both make your way back to Mother's Grove separately but without incident, arriving about 20 minutes apart.

Faelyn is easily found tending the garden.

[Thokk_Smash]

"Teacher," Iriander calls out when he spots Faelyn. Approaching, he gives a short bow of respect. "Ssrask and I killed another corrupted spider. Using the gift from the Mother, I believe I have managed to purify the corruption from it. I was hoping you could guide me through safely processing it through my own core."

[Deadguy]

Ssrask arrived back to the glade just behind his elven companion, the wings allowing him to glide from tree to tree quickly.

Once he’d landed, the wings folded back almost like a cloak. He inclined his head toward the glade priestess upon seeing her.

"The corrupted spider beasts are trying to spread corruption to the trees through their venom. I haven’t discovered a purpose though, other than to spread corruption like a virus. Can it replicate and spread?"

He thought about the corrupted parts of his own sheet with some uneasiness.

[Thokk_Smash]

When Ssrask arrives, Iriander is sitting cross-legged on the ground. He turns to see the lizardfolk and nods. "Sorry for leaving, man. It seemed like you were frozen, and I wanted to ask Faelyn some things."

Tilting his head in remembrance, he turns to Faelyn. He repeats what Ssrask said in Elvish, since the priestess probably only caught every other word of Ssralish.

[Rizban]

Faelyn nods then looks off towards Mother for a moment before suddenly appearing stricken by fear.

"You must do all you can to save the trees that still live. Mother has informed me that the trees being attacked are part of a spiritual formation binding a great evil. Should they all fall, darkness could sweep across this land, wiping away the entire forest and all who live here.

Please, you must help."

Quest Update Spider Squishing

High Priestess Faeylin has requested that you do something about the spiders in The Venomous Grove. Objectives: Kill 20 Tiny Monstrous Spiders (22/20) Kill 10 Small Monstrous Spiders (7/10) [Optional] Kill some Large Monstrous Spiders (1/—) Kill 5 Corrupted Monstrous Spider (2/5) Discover what is causing the spiders to rapidly expand their territory [Timed] Prevent the Sacred Trees from being destroyed (3/5 survive)

[Thokk_Smash]

Iriander freezes when Faelyn drops that bomb. He repeats her words in Ssralish for Ssrask.

"Okay, this sure went from zero to sixty in no time flat. Mother," he says, addressing both Faelyn and the great tree herself, "will the formation hold as long as one tree remains? Can you please point us towards the tree that is most alive, so we have the greatest chance of saving at least one tree? Our track record for actually saving the trees is not the best at the moment."

[Rizban]

Faelyn sadly shakes her head as Mother's branch descends to offer two additional acorns with a familiar appearance, which Faelyn takes and hands to Iriander.

"You will need to find them on your own. Though Mother knows about them, their very nature prevents any from divining their precise locations.

They are set more or less equidistant from one another around the prison. I suggest following the spiders..."

[Thokk_Smash]

Iriander takes the acorns with a bow of the head, though he cannot hide his frustration. If the trees are so important, shouldn't someone know where they all are?

He relays all this back to Ssrask, as he considers what bits and scraps of knowledge he may know from the previous iteration of this game.

Spoiler: OOC

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Bardic Knowledge on this sealing formation and great evil: (1d20+2)[10]

Knowledge (Arcana) on how many trees would need to remain to keep the seal up: (1d20+6)[11]

Edited to add: Taking 10 on Survival for 20 to get a mental map of where the other trees may be, given the locations of the two we've been to so far.