Guardians of the Grove 8/18/22 Guardian Down

 Guardians of the Grove

Darkpoole Arc

Guardian Down

Session 8/18/22 

The Guardians enter the room for what appears to be their last trial. In order to retrieve the last gemstone, they must move past chains that seem to magically wrap around anything it touches and pull it violently towards an unknown direction. After trying many things to avail, the guardians are stumped. For all their power and destructive presence, traps tend to hold them in their place. Wulf decides to attempt the retrieval of the gemstone with his extended reach; he believes himself to be the best option at the moment. Through continued trial and error, Wulf can make his way toward the gemstone. Taking some considerable damage, he is able to throw the gemstone back toward the group. However, despite wrestling with the chains somewhat successfully, his success is short-lived when one chain is unable to be wrestled from his leg, and the leg is torn off almost immediately. After pocketing the gemstone to deactivate its anti-magic field, the group tends to Wulf and effectively wraps his leg. Wulf, visibly upset, endures his pain and uses his hammer to proceed further. The group, battered and beaten, makes their way to the door and opens it. 

Inside the room, they are immediately blinded by the darkness. The group quickly finds themselves stepping on a large amount of webbing coating the entire room. In the distance, Corvus and Diego can make out a halfling and Mattias inside the webbing at the room's far end. At the same time, Nirruk uses a light cantrip to light an area of the room. Diego also notices that there is no actual floor and only webbing. Eventually, the group's initial fear approaches; spiders. After fending off some of the spiders with little difficulty, Fennic appears in a new form from the doorway. Her lower body is a spider, and her upper frame remains the same though altered slightly after the merger. The group engages Fennic and the spiders under her control. Blood immediately antagonizes Fennic about her brother's death. In contrast, Diego remembers his training with Maximus to defeat Fennic. 

Poisoned, webbed, and outnumbered, the Guardians do their best to strike down Fennic. Diego knowing what rides on his shoulders is able to resist several hold-person attempts and evades being disintegrated as well. Dodging every attack from the other spiders, Diego focuses on Fennic with his allies by his side. However, even with support and healing. Diego is unable to finish Fennic off before she ultimately crushes his soul. His last thoughts are of the Guardians, their adventures, and the times they shared, as he would not trade them for all the fate-touched items in the world.  With no time for mourning, the group continues to attack Fennic in hopes of avenging Diego and surviving. With Fennic’s renewed vigor from consuming Diego, she quickly downs two more guardians with maddening darkness. With the situation most dire, the Guardians face their most challenging battle yet, and with no signs of victory in sight, one can only hope that Ios has not heard the last of the Guardians of the Grove.

A special note to those who read this.
Thank you for looking out for Diego/York and keeping him alive the best you could since the beginning.

-Diego B.

Guardians of the Grove 8/11/22

 Guardians of the Grove

Darkpoole Arc

Who knows where in Darkpoole!?

Session 8/11/22 

Weary from the trek down, the Guardian takes a short rest to lick their wounds. They make their way down towards the next room, entering a large area with two pedestals, one with a blue aura and one with a red aura. The brilliant detectives the Guardians are and employing their golden rule “touch everything” split into two groups and touch. Corvus, Wulf, and Blood are transported immediately to a previous room and use the same device to return. However, Atheya, Diego, and Nirruk were transported to the beginning of this dungeon. Putting together the situation the best they can, they hurry back through the lightning tunnel and head downstairs. Rushing toward the others before they make the same mistake. Luckily they are able to arrive in time just before the red aura is touched.

Heading into the next room, the group is surprised to see goliath-sized constructs in a non-receptive state. As well as perceiving the presence of a pool in the center of the room and an egg-shaped object behind. As Atheya and Nirruk approached the egg, the construct would turn their attention to them. Fearing the constructs were meant to either protect the egg or prevent it from leaving, they backed away. However, not before Nirruk would try to enter the egg's mind and suffer from it later. Nirruk falls to the ground from some unknown shock. After moving him away from the egg, he can stumble to his feet but becomes alert to a possibly new and hidden threat. 

Upon inspection in octopus form, Atheya discerns a means to travel further into the dungeon by a bright light at the bottom of the pool. The group swims down below and gets transported to another room. In this room, there is a giant humanoid-like skull, and opposite this skull is a door with three slots of different shapes. Seeing two paths at opposite ends of the room, the group searches the left side first. Upon entering a room with two doors, the group comes upon a plethora of skeleton bones. After a quick inspection, the skeletons come to life. The group tactfully deduces that flames and radiant damage permanently destroy the bones. During the battle, Nirruk's head begins to ache, and he is unable to cast higher-leveled spells. A combination of torches, holy magic, and a flapping sphere leave the group victorious. Diego looking tattered is tended to by the majority of the group, for which he is most grateful and, after an awkward moment with Corvus, can stand on his own again. Blood, on the other hand, patches up his scrapes in silence. 

After the encounter, the group enters the first door and quickly finds a gemstone with a familiar shape to the door mentioned earlier. Atheya, with no regard for her safety, grabs the stone and quickly leaves the room, triggering a laser-like beam to pierce out miss her by a hair’s length. Although she left with a haircut, little did she know that it was almost the end of Atheya Willowcrown. The next room left the group nervous and wary. Pressure plates were the new theme as the walls closed once the wrong plate was stepped on. Wulf navigated carefully throughout the room and successfully put the next gemstone in a bag tied to a rope. Once outside, together with the group, they could pull the gemstone out of the room. Being a trendsetter, Corvus decided to catch the stone with his face. Triumphant, the group heads back to the main room and down the next hallway to a door. The Guardians can see the last gemstone required when they look inside, but the room is filled with chains running across in all directions with barbed edges. However, knowing that their goal lies beyond the door, the group readies themselves to solve this problem like any other. 

Bonus Art* Non-Canon Fanfic

Guardians of the Grove 8/04/22

 Guardians of the Grove

Darkpoole Arc

Who knows where in Darkpoole!?

Session 8/04/22 

After infiltrating the Villa and following Fennic downstairs, the group arrives at an engraving of a quarter moon; Corvus quickly deduces that the symbol and its purpose have been desecrated. Along with Diego’s study of celestial language, the duo can deduce that this may be related to Iya and Oya. Inscribed on the floor were the words reaping, sowing, and balance. Taking this too literally, the group wastes some time standing on the platform in a “balanced” formation. Quickly moving forward, Diego, Corvus, and Atheya are struck by a lightning stream that continues to strike throughout the hallway. After deciding on the order, the group decides to rush through the lightning to reach several gem-like devices. Once the group touches the three devices, the path is cleared enough for everyone to quickly rush to a lift that takes them lower into the Villa.

After the shocking experience, the group arrives at another device and four altars.

The warning on the device roughly reads, “all things in balance, equally, if not, you will suffer the wrath of the elements.” The group successfully applies the correct elements and spell levels to the altars and powers up the device. At the same time, four elementals pour out from the altars. Their presence alone is intimidating and concerning for the guardians, but before any aggressive move is made, they acknowledge the four altar's success and leave. At first, the device presents no purpose as Wulf touches it, and nothing happens. Then Blood touches it and is switched with Wulf. After several attempts to reclaim their original bodies, they are able to proceed as themselves. The group can move on. However, the Guardians will always wonder what life would be like with the two permanently switched.  

The group moves to another room where a spherical crystal object stands above a floor that visually shows a constellation. The Guardians being who they are and following the logic of “touch everything” are quickly stunned when Corvus touches the Sphere and disappears. The Guardians follow his example and arrive at a dangerous confrontation with a powerful construct. 

The battle with the Construct drains the Guardians further as it was capable of taking down several members with the assistance of several wraiths/spirits of the dead. While the Guardians strategically take down ghosts and construct alike. The combined efforts of arrows, a hammer, and a thrown sword brought the goliath-like construct down. Severely worn, the group moves forward to the next room. Not expecting much resistance, they have a moment to cool down after stumbling upon documents, books, a mask, and bracers. Again adopting the group motto “touch everything” Wulf touches the bracers and is immediately both charmed and empowered to attack the group. Luckily the encounter was not too severe as the group was able to wrestle him to the ground and dispel the bracers. Resources drained and the group looking worse for wear, continue to push on.

The group stumbles upon a tree in the middle of this unknown location. Blood casts speak with plants, and with Atheya asks the tree several intriguing questions. Though tensions run high, we learn the tree has been down here for a while, there are two caretakers, trees can't see, and it hasn’t been cared for in days. As a kindness, Blood takes a pinecone from the tree to bring to the outside world to grow. Corvus also breaks out a waterskin and pours some water before moving on. Most importantly, the tree reveals that one of the caretakers has passed by recently. The Guardians, beaten, bruised, and drained, move towards the next set of stairs downwards, still on the Fennic’s tail. 

*Throwing a sword works*