Chapter 5: Reunions and Rebuttals

[mb.]

Bürd tugs at his beard, "if'n we're not needin' too much of it, it's a fact known far 'n' wide that my people's blood is richer 'n' iron 'an you lot. We're half made a metal we are." He flips out a sharp hatchet, "if y'reckon it'd help, we could try smearin' a little a mine on there." He looks to Ebba for confirmation, and glances at Eighter.

[Pulpatoon]

Ebba seems wary of responding in any overt way after Maya's response and Hake's outburst.

Eighter, on the other hand, just shrugs, "If you got the vinegar to spare." He holds the cloth with the remaining filings under the heart, to catch any drips. He looks over to the rest of the group, "Marcus, you downed Helga's draught, yet? Looks like Bürd's gonna want a taste. An' Simon, you've got some practice with healing? How 'bout you open the dwarf's vein before he hacks his fool hand off."

[KingOfCowards]

Simon nods reluctantly and moves towards Burd. "You're sure about this?"
With Burd's agreement, he will begin to bleed him, followed up by incanting a Healing Touch spell.

I don't have anything good to collect the blood in. We could use Marcus' helmet or if we empty his flask of oil, we could use that.

Healing Check (18): [1d20] = 18
Healing Touch: [1d8] = 2

[Pulpatoon]

Maya says, "Are we really acting on Ebba's unfounded speculation? It's unseemly, and very possibly wicked."

Hake clears his throat and spits.

Simon expertly lances a vein and Bürd's blood is collected in Marcus' helmet, enough to make the dwarf's vision dim and his head swim. Simon hands the helmet to Ebba, and then turns back to heal Bürd.

Ebba pours the blood over the heart, while Eighter catches the spill in his cloth and rubs it back into the heart. Soon the heart is red and glistening, and looking more like an enlarged cow heart than ever.



As you watch, the heart begins to beat more strongly and steadier with each contraction. You feel a wave of sensation pass through your gut, and a spiritual weight is lifted from you. You can feel the tree, surrounding you in all directions, reviving and returning to its former health and character.

It is then that you notice that Bürd is rigid in place, his eyes staring blankly into space.

Bürd:

The second your blood touches the oakheart, you are looped into a powerful magical circuit. You are kicked into the wizard-vision state you enter when detecting magic. The tree is returning to life, and releasing magical antibodies that are killing the many varieties of demonic fungus that have infested it.

You learn that this tree has stood since the days when humans were little more than clever animals, and was consecrated to hold the spirits of several dire animals. One of these you banished. Two more still reside in their ceramic forms, in your backpack.

You feel the connections of the tree to the land around you: how far the roots extend down, touching cold water; the branches reaching into the passing winds; and also the standing stones in the Grove. They are works of stone and spell that echo and focus the trees energy. Right now they are humming with power as they restore the natural order in the Grove above.

Traveling along the trees paths, you are taken into its memory, and catch fleeting, largely inscrutable impressions of what happened here: a cave in the southern swamps where a dark thing dwelled; a girl who lost her father and found the cave, now emptied out and ridden by a terrible spirit, shedding hungry spores; the people she gathered about her, fat on infection and decay; their perversion of energy; their foul construction of flesh and magic and dire spirit, an unfinished beast, loose in the world, but now moving away from this place, past the forests, into the mountains of the North.

You come to, surrounded by the members of the party, staring at you.

[KingOfCowards]

Simon smiles after seeing the tree returning to health. He looks back to Bürd to congratulate him on saving the tree through a selfless act. His smile disappears when he sees Bürd's state.
"Bürd? Bürd?!? "

Can Simon understand what has happened to him?
Religious Lore: [1d20] = 7

[Pulpatoon]

Simon:

Bürd appears to be in a trance, and is, most likely, in communion with mystical forces.

[KingOfCowards]

Simon checks on Bürd, but feels confident that the dwarf is not in danger. Most likely he is communing with mystical powers, the tree itself perhaps. If asked how long he will be this way, he shrugs his shoulders.

[mb.]

Bürd, eyes wide and mouth open, plops down to sit on the floor. "In me backpack, all this time. Ah but I'm a damn fool I am."

Bürd blinks quite a few times, and looks around. "That done it friends. Tree's good, grove's good, it'll all be good an' fine with a lil time it will." His jaw tightens, "but we got two things we gotta do. Them figures in me backpack gotta be cleansed, and we gotta go north we do."

He shrugs off his backpack, and starts carefully fishing through it, eventually removing the two simple clay figurines he removed from the altar earlier.

[mb.]

Bürd stands up and dusts himself off, and holds up the figurines, "ach what a story friends. The tree done give me th'answers. Them three figurines was holdin' nasty great animal spirits, and the heart's 'ere t'watch over 'em. I let one out when I feel on me ass an' broke one of 'em. You that was there felt it I reckon. Me 'n' me stones gotta give it a try an' get these spirits sent off outta these two."

He shakes his head slowly, "Outside a'that, some great bad spirit done rode a girl an' made summat awful outta her. An' she done made outta our neighbours summat awful. An' t'gether, they made some far greater awful thing, some creature that's movin' north as I'm speakin'. There's no knowin' what it'll be up't, and I'm thinkin' we got a respons'bility t'stop it friends. This ain't over 'til we do." He looks around at Marcus, Simon, Gizzy and Jonas.

[KingOfCowards]

"So you were right. The wolf spirit had nothing to do with what was hurting the tree."
Simon looks relieved. "At least it sounds like Herebury is safe for now...and I'm willing to travel north with you and see the job done."

[Pulpatoon]

So, I think we're approaching endgame for this adventure. Let's deal with the figurines however you wish, collect yer loot, and head back to Herebury for XP and wrap-up.

Granted, it's PbP, so this quick wrap-up might take another three months.

Following the creature up North seems like a good hook for some sandbox exploration for the next adventure. Sound good?

[MonkeyWrench]

Marcus hands the dwarf the draught, still full, "Drink up and lets return home to rest for the moment, gather what tools we can and head out North. Whatever this thing is that is infesting some girl... It's going to regret messing with Herebury. Marcus finishes that last bit with a driven fire behind his words.

Sounds good to me Pulp! Let the three month wrap up commence!

[Pulpatoon]

The game has halted at the moment because I'm waiting to see what you guys do with the two spirits in the clay figurines. That is kinda .mb's show, and he's tied up with a move, right now. If there's anything else you'd like to be doing, right now, feel free to continue. We can assume that Bürd is concentrating over his rune stones to figure out what to do with the spirits.

One thing we can do is tally up the loot. You have a couple buckets of bronze and silver trinkets, Marcus acquired Brand (Smokey's sword), and someone has the diseased fighter's sword. Marcus do you have that one, too, or did you give it to Gizzy?

There were some coins from the fighter, and a bag of burnt teeth. Simon, do you have those, or did Jonah take them with him?

Simon has a mandolin from the paralytic ooze cave. Was anything else taken from that cave?

What else?

[MonkeyWrench]

Marcus does indeed have the magical sword Brand, when they got back to the village he laid the diseased fighters sword back down with Gizzy while he was passed out.

Quick questions for you Pulp, does Marcus still have his dragon scale? and is his chest still look like a tree is fusing to him? These questions will ultimately determine his next set of questions...

[KingOfCowards]

Simon has the mandolin and the bag of teeth. Bürd took the coins, magnet, and pretty stone from the treasure cave. The glass rods were broken, and the amphora was left behind.

I think Simon would be willing to head back to town at this point, but I'll wait for the others.

[Pulpatoon]

Quick questions for you Pulp, does Marcus still have his dragon scale? and is his chest still look like a tree is fusing to him? These questions will ultimately determine his next set of questions...

Marcus has his scale, and his wounds have filled in with what looks like spring-growth wood. They retain the pliability and mobility of flesh, however.

[MonkeyWrench]

While Bürd concentrates on the last two ceramic jars he pulls Maya and Ebba aside, speaking in hushed tones, "There is something else... I was... unconscious for a portion of our journey down here, the fault being my own footing and those puff balls above us. When I awoke I had been partially healed from the earlier fights, but... Well, see for yourselves..." Marcus slowly pulls his shirt across to reveal the wooded portion of his chest.

[Pulpatoon]

Maya looks perplexed, and bluntly jabs a finger at a woody spot. She rolls her eyes: "I can't let you out of my sight, can I?"

Maya looks in awe. "What magic is this? You have taken the nature of the tree into yourself? Can you commune with the Great Oak?"

[MonkeyWrench]

Marcus gives Maya a sheepish look before responding to Ebba's comment, "I don't know, I thought it was something these cultists did after the things we saw down here but... I guess I can try?"

Marcus covers up his chest again and walks over to the heart of the tree, for the first time focusing on the part of his chest that almost feels foreign and the great tree itself.

Wisdom roll?
Marcus Wisdom Check(WIS:10): [1d20] = 12
Welp, if you needed wisdom that failed...

[Pulpatoon]

Having stayed up all night, marching back and forth to the Village, Marcus sits down, looks deep within himself, and falls asleep.