Session Log 2023-04-04
Ekkels contemplated his name being carved on the tree, hidden within this secret place in the Blight. He recalled seeing it before, in this space, when it was much brighter and more verdant. Klaitos noticed that the letters were about at his shoulder level, far shorter than an adult's hard could carve. Robin climbed the dead tree to look for hidden switches and the like that could lead to Ekkels' origin.
Wondering if he might find other clues to his past in the Venom Drinker's lair, Ekkels wandered further, finding a craggy solid wall. Ignis and Klaitos followed him over and decided to explore the lightless marsh using the right-hand rule. Robin snuck over to the patch of biolumiscent fungus to grab a specimen for use as a lantern, unintentionally spreading some of its glowing spores on her hands, before catching up.
The party followed the wall for some distance and around a turn. They passed the ruins of a clay-and-stone building, now overgrowth with fungus, though Ekkels recalled it had once been someone's home. He heard a faint wet sound, and his recollections confused him into thinking he had found a pond ahead. Recent experience, however, had refreshed his memory of the sound of creeping magebane, and he was able to warn the party back away from the danger.
Back at the dead forest with the marked tree, Robin gathered the driest wood she could find from the other trees, hoping to make a few torches. The Little Dudes were able to contribute some twigs to the effort. Meanwhile, Klaitos elected to deal with the magebane by toppling one of the giant canopic mushrooms and letting the sunlight in. He found the nearest such fungus, but was unable to budge it with mere pushing force.
Ignis wandered over to help, but his swordplay nearly saw the Invernus heraldic blade irrecovably embedded in the mushroom stalk, and his pushing force even less helpful than Klaitos's. Ekkels was summoned, in the hopes that his chaos magic could wreak the damage their muscles had failed to do. Misunderstanding, he flexed his meager strength and pushed vainly against the mushroom's base.
Robin had gathered enough material for two torches when she decided to see how the toppling efforts were going. After giving the fungus a shove (just in case), she decided to work smarter. She fashioned an explosive from her alchemical supplies and shoved it in the crevices left by Ignis's hacking at the stalk. Then, she tied the middle of a rope to a bolt and fired it into the stalk as high as she thought she could. She tossed the ropes to the far side of the mushroom, where she, Klaitos, and Ekkels readied themselves to pull it down.
Ignis was left to trigger Robin's explosive. He summoned his fire with difficulty in the humid air, and flung a stream of it at the crevice she had used. His aim was poor, but after igniting a few folds of tattered fungus, he was rewarded with a successful blast. His sloppy pyromancy, however, resulted in a wave of burning mushroom knocking him back against the wall and catching the EK+ELS tree ablaze.
Robin, Ekkels, and Klaitos, unaware of Ignis's condition, yanked the upper stalk with as much force as they could muster. Klaitos's giant strength finally tore down the sinewy pillar, but his reckless might caused it to crash into and block the tunnel through which they had entered.
With the mushroom down, the afternoon sun streamed in, revealing the fates of Ignis and the marked tree. It also seared away the edges of the now-visible pool of magebane. The anger and shock of the Venom Drinkers was audible from somewhere past the dead wood and ruined houses, and the party readied themselves for their attack.