Kythorn 23 - 24, 1491 DR
The PCs battled their way out of the castle and made it to the tree line. The goblin inhabitants of the castle did not chase them far before returning to their fortress. There was discussion about going back and trying to clear out the castle, but Gundren begged the PCs to aid him in getting back to civilization and to help him get to Wave Echo Cave to make sure his brothers were okay. He promised them a reward and 10% ownership in the mine.
They decided they would aid their friend Gundren in his plight and walked deeper into the dark forest, heading south. They rested for a bit, but decided they would press on through the night and not stop until they reached the edge of the forest. They followed no path, but made their way slowly south through the thick overgrown forest. After some time had passed they came to an area that had very roughly made dolls sitting up on the limbs of a tree. This was certainly not something they would expect to find in the deep forest.
Carrying on, they soon came to another tree that had dolls in their boughs, five in total. This happened a few more times, each time the dolls appeared to be more refined - better stitching, better clothing, with smoother more defined features. They knocked a few down and destroyed them, but still they encountered them. As they journeyed they also found blood red words carved violently into some trees, blood appearing to run from the wounds - Play….With….Me. They journeyed on, unnerved by this strange area of the forest.
Finally, they came upon the dolls up in the branches and they appeared to be perfect replicas of the adventurers and were arranged in a little scene. 4 of the dolls were positioned around the doll version of Ara, who had a string noose around his neck. The normally un-moving dolls suddenly moved slightly, each reaching forth and pushing the Ara doll off the branch, seeming to snap the dolls neck at an impossible angle.
They knocked one down from the tree and Farooq picked it up to try and interact with it, but was soon swooning from nausea and dropped the doll. He picked up a large rock and smushed the doll under it. They moved on as Ara felt a chill run down his spine and was sure he felt his neck tingling slightly. It wasn't long before they came to a small clearing, the trees ringing it were full of dolls, looking down into the clearing with their beady un-living eyes.
The center of the clearing was occupied by a mound of earth with a broken stone covering. It seemed to be a long forgotten cairn of some kind. Farooq approached the cairn while Nash scouted for any footprints. Everyone else hung back. No trace of any footprint of any kind could be found in the clearing anywhere, as if neither beast nor man had encroached upon this place in centuries.
Farooq stuck his spear point down into a crack in the stone covering, seeing what could be discovered. A bright pale light erupted from the spot, staggering Farooq and blasting him with lightning. Several balls of light began to move rapidly around the clearing, some moving to attack the PCs. These Will-o-Wisps moved as fast as lightning and were hard to battle. They attacked the PCs with little sparks of electricity which seemed to draw out their victims life-force a little at a time.
Unfortunately, after several moments of fighting, Nash collapsed to the ground seemingly dead. Soon, after they had killed or driven off a few of the Wisps, the lights retreated to hover over the cairn once more. Words carved themselves deep into the ground between the PCs and the lights, throwing up leaves and snapping roots. The words said "No…..Fun". The PCs took this as an opportunity to retreat. Assessing Nash, they could determine that he had a very, very weak pulse and could barely feel any breathing. Giving him one of his goodberries did not heal him.
Farooq built a litter and they continued their march south to the edge of the forest. It was a long 10 miles or so, but finally they escaped Neverwinter Wood's dark clutches. They found a safe spot and took their long well deserved rest and were troubled no more by haunted lights or anything more dangerous than a mosquito.
The morning of the 24th was pleasant with a light breeze. Nash had not recovered really at all, in fact he looked slightly worse - his face a pale white and his lips blue. Deep, dark bags were forming under his eyes and his face looked more gaunt than the previous night. He had not stirred in the least since he fell. A Lesser Restoration spell was cast and it perhaps brought a bit of color back to his cheeks, but otherwise had no effect. They needed someone with more power than they possessed if they were to try and save Nash's life. That meant getting back to civilization.
They traveled slowly that day, taking turns carrying Nash in his litter. It wasn't long before they encountered the Triboar trail as they knew they would. They turned west in the hopes of getting to the Phandalin cut-off as soon as they could. It rained a little around mid-morning (Only about 1.5 mm).
It was nearing the end of the day when they saw ahead in the distance a caravan of wagons pulled off to the right of the trail. As the PCs got closer they saw brightly colored wagons and tents set up. Finder suspected but did not confirm until they were much closer. These looked like Tabaxi wagons, and in fact he could see figures moving within the circle that proved him right. What was a group of Tabaxi doing in the North, so far from home?
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