A Barl of a Time

A Barl of a Time! (T1)
9/4/19 Players:
 * DM: Whitney
 * Orion (War Cleric)
 * Eldeth (Ancestral Guardian Barbarian)
 * Loriean (Elf Cleric)
 * Lilith (Rogue)
 * il Pappagallo (Changeling Lore Bard)

Premise
The demon-fey war has raged in the Feywild for the last few months, and things are not going well for the fey. Demons have invaded the heart of the Feywild, including assaulting the seelie city of Luna Silvia, and they have made themselves stronger by feasting on the hearts of fey (especially dryads). Even worse, they are making more incursion sites in the Feywild via the use of magical batteries, which if implanted in certain nexuses of power - where leylines intersect and such - they can rip new tears in between the Abyss and the Feywild and bring more of their kind to feed and consume....

Now, the nexus of power at the Well of Undying Light is being assaulted by demonic forces. Though a contingent of seelie knights of the Knights of the Black Asphodel, with Knight-Commander Thalidus Lightsong at their head, defends the nexus with everything they have, each member that they lose allows the demons to push further and further towards the nexus. They are in desperate need of supplies, and seelie nobility have asked Vigil to deliver medicines and bandages, weapons, food, and magical defenses to bolster the seelie defense, as they themselves are strapped for manpower. Can the brave adventurers survive the dangers of the Feywild and the demonic invaders long enough to deliver the supplies and escape with their lives intact?

Summary
"tl;dr: Party hired by seelie noble to deliver a mysterious trunk into the Feywild, her instructions are crappy couplets, party uses the Ways (a mazelike labyrinth used by the fey during times of emergency) to enter the Feywild, party saves an eladrin from demons, this eladrin warns them that there are more, party solves a puzzle, party meets with injured seelie knight who is traveling to Luna Silvia for aid (who tells them that her dryad companions were captured by demons), party navigates some tall trees sticky with sap, party overhears some demons ripping out the hearts of dryads and eating them to get tougher, party decides to intervene and despite all odds succeeds, party makes delivery to the Well of Undying Light, and the knight-commander there tells them to bring more help."Adventurers take refuge from the collapsed longhouse in the trees outside the city walls, but they awake to a paper bird tapping them on the forehead. It's a note from Sameriel, Head Librarian, and the note reads "Dear Adventurer! Vigil needs your assistance. Please report to the mayoral office by noon today." The group eats breakfast and heads over. They meet Wendel Delta, the 4th iteration of Wendel's copies, as well as Barry the Hobgoblin, who inform them that there's a client who needs a few brave and competent souls to make a delivery.

A seelie noblewoman named Elistria Dawnsight gives them a heavy trunk and tells them to drop it off in the Feywild at the Well of Undying Light. Further instructions are given in a note in rhyming couplets, which reads: To begin, she says that she is a Keeper of the Ways, which are backdoor labyrinthine paths in and out of the Feywild that are discreet but dangerous. She opens a portal into the Ways and says that they should be greeted at the other side by her colleague, Arithil Starweaver.
 * 1) Follow the shadows and avoid the light. Turn to the left and never the right.
 * 2) When twin silver coins do rise, in the flowers search for eyes.
 * 3) Walk the green to cross the gap, but take caution of the thorns and sap.
 * 4) Use the dancer to cross the falls, but steel your heart against the calls.
 * 5) As the toothy sharp maws gnash, announce yourself to be let past.

1. The Labyrinthine Ways
The party finds themselves in a shadowy area with walls of shimmery light. It's a maze. They quickly figure out via rock-tossing that the walls of shimmery light will horrifically burn anything that touches it. They start taking left turns, but eventually they hit a dead end. The rogue, Lilith, tries to turn right to see what will happen, and suddenly gravity shifts for her and she starts plummeting towards a light wall. She catches herself just in time. The party figures out that in order to turn right, they can make three left turns. They proceed through the maze and have to fight through some guardian spirits (stats of a will o' the wisp but with radiant damage instead of lightning) contained in crystalline beads. They manage to find a bead and trap a spirit, Pokemon style, to escape from the assault and exit the maze. Emerging in the Feywild, they admire the luscious foliage around them but realize there is nobody there to greet them.

From the distance, they hear sounds of combat. They help Arithil, another Keeper of the Ways (stats of druid NPC from MM), defeat some quasits trying to eat him. He says that there are more, so the group should proceed with caution. He has to protect the other side of the portal in order to let the adventurers back out, so he points out the direction the group should go and stays to defend.

2. The Flowered Wall
The group walks the path but are stopped by a thick, high wall of poisonous flowers. They decide to camp out while figuring out the second part of the poem. One moon rises as night falls, but nothing happens. Then, twin moons rise, and in their light, the color of certain flowers change. The group walks the walls, searching for the images of eyes. They find a few, and behind them are wooden rods that slot together. Using the finished staff, the group create a tunnel through the poisonous flowers.

They decide to finish their rest on the other side, but during the night, their watch is interrupted by the sound of abyssal from far away saying "WE FOUNDS THEM MASTER! WE FOUNDS SOME TASTY ONES" and then the arrival of an injured seelie knight named Silarial Moonflower. She says that she is traveling to the seelie city of Luna Silvia to beg for reinforcements, as their outpost's defense is flagging. She was accompanied by a group of dryads, but they were overwhelmed by demons during the night. She presses on but asks the party to look out for her friends if they can.

3. The Sticky Climb
In the morning, the group gets stymied by a deep chasm that is about 40-50 feet wide and has a 150 foot drop. They realize that they have to climb the trees around the chasm and use their interlocking branches to cross. There are patches of thorns and places where the trees exude a sticky sap (DC 11 STR check to escape), but they use their shields and the sap to improvise bridges or take alternate routes and get to the other side without too much trouble.

On the other side, they find a tree-fort that they utilize to try to clean themselves up (the sap got all over the bard and the rogue), but they freeze as they hear abyssal below them. Cries of "MASTER WE WANTS A NIBBLE" come from below. They peek over the side of the tree-fort to see six imp-like creatures (stats of dretches) carrying tied-up dryads and a big, fat imp-creature (stats of barlgura) ordering them around. The big one roars, "NO! THESE ARE FOR KUTZELBRAND". He uses a sharp claw to cut into a dryad's chest and extracts a heart, which he eats with gusto. He visibly grows larger and gains a tougher hide. The war cleric, Orion, decides to intercede. He tries to sneakily make his way down the tree-fort from handholds carved into the tree's trunk, but his armor gives him away, and combat begins."DM Note: uh, this was meant to be a preview of the final encounter. the pcs were supposed to fight them later with fey archer assistance, but oh well. it was fun. was deadlier than usual due to the awkward arena, since they were battling while clinging to the side of a tree, and the barlgura had a climb speed but nobody else did (save the barbarian who had magical slippers)."The fight is viciously hard, and many adventurers are knocked unconscious multiple times. A few were yanked out of the tree and fell to the ground below, where the dretches swarmed them. During the battle, Orion tells the rogue Lilith to free the dryads in case they can help. Lilith sneaks away, but instead of freeing the dryads, she cuts out a dryad heart (I flavored it something like, +4 strength, 1d4 poison damage on all attack rolls, +10 temp HP for a day cuz I was not expecting that!), stuffs it in her pocket, and kills the other dryad to keep him quiet. With the other dryad's dying breath, the rogue is cursed so that every fey will know his crime when they look upon him. Finally, the group defeats Kutzelbrand and his minions and continue down the path.

4. The Siren River
Eventually they hear the sound of water. There are rapids with frothing whitewater in front of them. However, after some searching, they come across a tethered boat called the River Dancer. They load in the trunk and start rowing across the rough waters. However, the roar of the water starts transforming into women's voices, and translucent faces begin to emerge from the water, begging for the adventurers to join them (DC 13 WIS save). They resist and soldier onward, so the river spirits begin attempting to physically drag adventurers off the boat (DC 12 STR save), but they drive the spirits away and get to the other shore.

5. The Fortress of Teeth
Ahead, there are more sounds of conflict and angry shrieks in abyssal. They steel themselves for a fight and creep forward, but small, lamprey-mouthed demons (stats of manes) are tearing at...a wall? But it is no ordinary wall - the wall is formed out of a tangle of thorny brambles with toothy flowers and leaves, which violently bite at anything that comes close. From above on tree branches that go over the wall, seelie archers take potshots at the demons. The party distracts the manes and announce their names to the wall. The wall gives way with a small gap. The adventurers rush through the gap, and it closes behind them right before the manes get there. They meet the defenders of the fortress, the Knights of the Black Asphodel, and their leader, Knight-Commander Thalidus Lightsong. He thanks the group for their delivery and opens the trunk. Inside are multiple bundles of arrows but more curiously satchels of dark-green powder. No time to investigate though, as another wave of demons assault the thorny fortress wall. With the party's assistance, the demons are forced away again but not before ripping a few holes in the wall, Thalidus mixes the dark green powder with the Well's water and scatters it at the rips, which grow new thorny defenses. He tells the party that even with these supplies, this defense force cannot hold out forever. Although fey-human relationships have been testy recently (with all that unseelie acorn drama), he hopes that the party will return to Vigil and get help, because as soon as the demons break through and manage to plant a battery in the Well, there will be yet another entrance they can use to invade, and soon the entire Feywild will be overwhelmed.

Using their experience as a guide, the party returns the way they came through the Feywild. They go through the portal, traverse the Ways, and emerge on the other side to receive their gold and tell the town what happened.

Plothooks

 * Fey hearts eaten by demons make them stronger and tougher
 * The rogue, Lilith, murdered a dryad and has been cursed to have her crime known by every fey in existence
 * The assault on the Well of Undying Light continues, and the defenders beg for aid
 * Demons are using batteries that they sink into nexuses of power to open new places for invasion
 * The seelie city of Luna Silvia is under attack
 * Demons are also close to discovering the "Ways", which are interdimensional passages that fey use to traverse to and from the Feywild.