Thennek entry #7

We’ve returned from the Sunless Citadel, and I think it is telling that I was the only one who couldn’t see in the dark. From my last entry, when we broke camp in a room we’d holed up in, things felt off.

Nothing interrupted our rest. No one waited in ambush. Certain members of the party held general impressions or understandings of the complex layout. With no map, they still knew roughly where to go. Which led us to deserted rooms. One held a red dragon statue standing in front of a black circle rimmed with runes. Vantiss boldly stepped in and said the words. A fiery aura surrounded her, but nothing else happened. In the next room, we found a book, and I cracked the cover so Vantiss and I could check it out. A blast of cold struck us all. The artificer collapsed and we raced to bring her back while our skin blistered from frostbite. Only the dragonborn was spared injury. Despite that, I found another coin with the eye symbol. This one was red. I pocketed it before others noticed. They have their pick of all the useful items. These coins, I think, are dangerous and won’t be of practical use to them.

We finally reached a room where opposition waited. Crixos opened the door after Penelope unlocked it. Arrows pincushioned him, so he slammed it shut. The artificer and I moved back into the hall which connected to the next room as well. We waited a short bit for any enemies to try to come around. Meanwhile, the rest of the party rallied as Vantiss turned into a bear and plowed through the door and killed the goblin standing ready next it. Soon the tied turned as the rogue and bard raced in and disabled more with a sleep spell and judicious stabbing.

The artificer and I advanced from our position and assisted with mop up of sleeping twig blights. What went from an ambush of us turned into a massacre of them. The chamber we found ourselves in began as a room with walls, but quickly devolved into a cavern lit with glowing moss and a hundred feet of briars that wiggled some as twig blights moved amidst. I saw no way we’d want to wade through that and fight so I lit the dry tinder with a minor incantation every quarter of the way. We’d wait for it to burn out, advance, and do it again.

Midway through, twig blights from the periphery attacked, but they died quickly. I couldn’t seem to hit any of the blighters. At the far end of this cavern stood a black tree. This is what those adventurers we’d been sent to find came for. In fact, two of them stood guarding it, facing us with bark-like skin and blackened eyes. Beside them stood a wizard, I could smell his spell components from where I stood.

Vantiss spoke to him, and he rattled off his name, Belloch, and revealed his mad plan to spread tainted seeds that would grow twig blights across the surface world. He offered to change us so we could join his quest. We violently declined.

A giant frog leaped out of the tree and confronted Crixos. Then the corrupted knight, Bradley, ran up as well. Crixos held them off, while the party dealt with the rest. The other turned adventurer was a magic user of some sort. Her Color Spray blinded our rogue. Belloch sent a flaming sphere at the artificer. Amidst all that, I took a chance to shut him down and sent a one-two magic punch his way. My Hex found its mark, but the Hold Person spell failed to take. This drained me of all but the ability to cast cantrips. For naught.

As the battle swirled, the artificer set the giant tree on fire with a Bonfire spell. The others fought off furious blows from Bradley’s magic sword, and twig blights zeroed in on the artificer in a single minded race to halt the burning of the tree. I tried sending a few blasts of eldritch might but missed. In desperation, I pulled the red coin from my pocket with my free hand. My spell actually veered toward Penelope as she fought one of our foes. Only my faulty aim spared her.

The tide turned as foes began to fall. The frog and the caster fell first. Belloch succumbed to a mauling by bear-shaped Vantiss. With Belloch down, and once Bradley fell, all that remained was the tree on fire and a crazed twig blight still trying to kill the artificer. Another miss from me, and the party swarmed the blighter and finished it off before it could do more harm.

The tree screamed in the way that trees don’t. Roots strained in the ground, and a few broke through. I had a feeling that it was trying to pull itself free and perhaps do us greater harm. The artificer’s fire continued to blaze, further spreading flames, but it didn’t seem enough. No one else could make fire as I screamed “more fire”. I yanked a torch from my pack, lit it, and plunged it at an exposed root. The tree gave one more scream before powderizing into ash. We had been moments from it breaking free and either escaping or smashing us with its great roots.

The fight ended. Crixos claimed the magic sword that Bradley the corrupted adventurer, used. We stuff the adventurers' bodies into the bag of holding for transport. The rest was an uneventful return to the upper level and a walk through the forest back to Saltmarsh. The families were sad but satisfied. A funeral and feast followed. And we’re back in our rooms at the inn, resting.

I researched the tree a bit. It bore fruit around the solstices. Summer fruit would heal and cure, winter fruit would poison. It being summer; the adventurers had sought one in order to help the sick. That’s all gone now. Worse, who knows how many seeds made it up to the spread twig blight.

As for the eye coins, I now have two of them. Any day now, I expect the local sage to come asking if I found any. I don’t trust him. I don’t trust the coins. They feel different than when I gazed into the night sky and studied the Eye among the stars. On those nights, symbols filled my mind. These coins, I feel, are something else. The question is whether I can figure it out. After my latest string of failures. I can see I need more power, more skill that I don’t yet have.

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