Changes and A Near TPK

Over the past week I had unexpected major issues with the changes to my character. He became a Blood Wizard during the last session and a change which I thought initially would be only challenging because I don’t usually play wizards became something that I couldn’t continue playing. As I explored the character more and came to grips with how I would need to play him – needing to cut himself to draw blood to activate many of his powers or spells.

The more I thought about it, I realized that playing this character was bringing back some pretty nasty stuff that I had buried deep into the recesses of my mind. Incidents that occurred when I worked with some very troubled youths. I had to approach the DM and discuss that playing a Blood Wizard wasn’t something that I could do and explained my reasons. He said that he understood and we negotiated a character that still fit with the campaign. 

So, it came to pass that the Raven Queen wasn’t happy that I had let Kanchelsis change me and made changes to meet her approval. I remained a Dhampir, but became a 5th Level Warlock and 6 Level Psi Warrior. It seems that multiclassing is necessary, for someone who stated that he wasn’t going to multiclass anymore ;-)

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The Black Beating Heart
Image by Google Genesis - 2024

I have a couple of minutes before we move on to chase after the Black Knight, so I thought I’d jot down a few things while they are fresh in my mind.

We started out by letting Normundy and Bluebelle finish their negotiations for her to take his place as one of Natasha’s Chosen. She agreed to his terms and they do a quick ceremony, whereby he transfers being one of the Chosen to her. It will be interesting to see how that works out. Especially since the Witching Hour starts at dawn tomorrow and we have a couple of hours of travel to get to the Black Heart. 

Normundy prepared a concoction as he said he would. The party members can use this potion and any wounds we have are healed and spell slots recovered. We have 24 hours from when we take it and then we will take a level of exhaustion. Being down on HP and spell slots, I took mine immediately. Knowing that we had this potion allowed us to be ready to go after the beating heart and deal with the Black Knight in the twisted forest. He gave us the lantern to let us move through the forest without getting lost like the Black Knight is or having the ghouls bother us.

Normundy went on to tell us that if Chosen #11 does sacrifice herself in an appropriate ceremony, then the Horned King could be released. Even if he were somehow put back in by the Gods, Crannog would become a land of the survival of the fittest for far too long, so it was imperative that we defeat her and her minions.

Normundy gave Bluebelle more information on the Ultros that she had acquired and I listened in. The Ultros is an entity born of the stars and is a child of the void, it seeks to effectively acquire knowledge and reproduce more of itself. Being inside of her is a symbiotic parasite and then will find a way out, but keep the host alive and the host will keep the powers gained while hosting the Ultros. The longer or more you use it, the more powerful you become.

Based on what Bluebelle learned, she offered the rest of us to host one of Ultros symbiotes as well. While the offer is something that was intriguing, it wasn’t something that I was willing to do after so many recent changes to who I am. Yeekiees does accept the offer and a tentacle reaches out from Bluebelle. Suddenly there is a wound on his stomach and the tentacle comes toward Yeekiees and jabs him in the same spot. Then a large ball of sunlight goes from the tentacle into Yeekiees. He is changed from Blood Cleric…to something else – an Anomales Aspect of the Ultros. I wonder how Kanchelsis will react to him giving up his gift so quickly and easily?

An Unhappy Raven Queen

Though while waiting, I found out that the Raven Queen was unhappy that Kanchelsis had usurped one of her subjects and tricked me into taking part in the blood ritual. She did not approve of this transformation in me and explained that he had manipulated the bones to show what he wanted, not the truth of the matter. I was told that Normundy had his own agenda, but that he was more trustworthy than Kanchelsis. One who had similar, but different goals than she did for Crannog, Natasha, but did not want the Horned King to be released either.

Though as a punishment for allowing myself to be deceived I must keep my Dhampir form to remind me and others not to let even the Gods to usurp her minions. If I am successful in her eyes, I might someday return to my Shadar-Kai heritage and become myself once more. As a result I found myself tied to her even more closely than I had been before, and am now a Hexblade Warlock sworn to her by pact that I readily agreed to and a warrior’s psychic abilities to enhance my battle prowess.

The Twisted Forest

We head towards the west and Donkey takes the magic lantern and Bluebelle helps him put it on his horns to still be able to wield his battle ax. The ghouls are leaving us alone within the light’s circle, though they attempt to get closer to the ones at the back who aren’t in the shining brightness.

Time seemed to act differently in the forest and before we knew it, we came to a large door. We deduced that it was probably that new dungeon that the adventurers had talked about back in Paddlestone. We could tell from the footprints that the adventuring party went in, but that they were running when they came to it. It appeared that something had followed them in. Something very heavy with four legs had chased them into the dungeon. It was a mystery to be solved later, we had to get to the beating heart and stop whatever creature Chosen #11 has created as an ally to aid her in bringing back the Horned King.

The Black Beating Heart

Suddenly the forest was covered in fog except the area of the lantern…a fog spell was cast. We moved away from the door and quickly came to a clearing, where the fog thins. Strangely the ghouls back off completely and we could hear the heartbeat, a tell tale heart beating much louder. 

We see a horrific sight, the entire area is open, with a small stream flowing through but it is fouled with blood, well over a dozen bodies are on the ground. Looks of horror on their faces and different body parts missing and bite shaped chunks missing from them. Up ahead a singular black sphere with black veins, pulsating. It is eating the bodies by dragging them in with dark tendrils and bringing the body up to its mouth. We only see one, but hear two heartbeats and a very large hand slowly pressing against the inside of the sphere trying to get out. 

Donkey wants to blow his horn, but doesn’t because he sees Bluebelle running at the egg-shaped thing. She yells these are a Chimera, and she is using the Horned King’s blood to create it. Whatever it was, I've never seen anything like it before and it certainly didn't match the legends that I had been told of a Chimera. Bluebelle bites a vein using her new Dhampir abilities and later tells us in vivid detail about the vision she had when she did. 

The bodies were created when the ceremony started and the acolytes suddenly realized they were not simply part of the ceremony but they were the main course for the beasts being created. They attempted to escape, but Hassan was there and stopped any from leaving.

A second heart had hatched earlier and that is probably what had chased the adventurers into the doorway. Though it seems that now that Gantz is dead, Hassan's allegiance has switched to #11.

We attack the egg-shaped thing and Donkey does significant damage to it. Causing the shell around it to fail and the creature come out at us. It's a four-legged creature, but not like anything I've ever seen, perhaps it is because we interrupted its growth and it was not completely formed as yet -- probably a good thing.

We attempt to attack again, but in the next round it attacks first and uses what Bluebelle later tells us was a legendary action called pain packer and all the damage that Donkey had done to it in the first round, is done to each of us. Bluebelle and Yeekies both fall to the ground unconscious. That attack by the Chimera takes almost 90% of my health, but I remain standing and quickly down a potion of healing, while Donkey continued to attack the beast. 

The next time it attacks Yeekiees who was lying unconscious and never had an opportunity to do more than rush towards the creature. The Chimera crushes Yeekiees' head with his hoofs and then attacks Donkey with the extra attacks. Donkey and I continue to attack after it kills Yeekiees. The next round the Chimera attacks me and I take more damage and barely remain standing and it uses its extra attacks to attack Donkey. The Chimera then gives us an evil glare and looks down at Bluebelle. She's next, if we don't kill it. Thankfully, we hit it with everything we have left and Donkey avenges Yeekiees' death by slicing the creature in half with his great ax - killing it.

Donkey dumps a potion of healing down Bluebelle’s throat to get her back up to being conscious, while I look closer at Yeekiees - no doubt - he is dead, beyond anything I have available to help. That was very close to a total party kill and without the massive damage that Donkey was able to do to it throughout the battle, all of us would have been dead. Meaning our chances of stopping the release of the Horned King would have ended. Fate would have needed someone else to do the deed or else Crannog would have devolved into a killing ground for his minions.

These Critters are Not Pushovers

This Chimera was a legendary creature that had powers well beyond those of normal creatures, even though it hadn't fully developed as yet. When we destroyed the black egg, it had one purpose in mind – to kill us all and feed upon us to make it stronger and more complete. We are no longer fighting low-level critters who are unintelligent or have limited magic. We are fighting legendary level creatures and will need the entire party working together to defeat these things if we are to have a chance of achieving our objective of stopping the release of the Horned King.

Looking back, if this one creature just about wiped our party within 3-4 rounds of combat before it was completely formed, how will we fare against those who are ready for us or if there are multiple creatures to fight. It isn’t always going to be a one versus the entire party battle. When that happens, we really need to have our strategies figured out, otherwise we will not survive.

At that point a tiny creature comes out of Yeekiees and Donkey goes to attack it. Bluebelle yells a Command for him to stop and she grabs the symbiote, before he can hit it. It is the one that she had given to Yeekiees, it had survived within him, but needs a new host. We talked for a minute about what to do next. Bluebelle takes Normundy’s potion and I take the one from Yeekiees, so I will be doubly exhausted when the 24 hours are up. However, right now survival is more important than being exhausted.

We get a vision of the guy with the Changeling’s mask’s on his belt and he didn’t look happy that we had killed the Chimera. 

Baldur Appears

Suddenly the one they call Baldur comes out of the mist, Donkey recognized him immediately and goes to attack him. He throws a seed pod into our midst and we find ourselves entangled by a much stronger entangle spell. Baldur continues to talk and I attempt to attack him with disadvantage with my Eldritch Blasts. One got through, but the rest were spoiled by the disadvantage of the vines growing around us.

Baldur attempts to weave his words of deceit around us. He tells enough of the truth for it to be reasonable, but slants it to make him sound sympathetic to our cause – or a reluctant ally of #11, now that Gantz is out of the picture. He acts as if he would love to join us, if only we have enough coin for him to join us. We see through the lies and continue to attempt to attack him, knowing his words aren’t what they seem, that they are poison to our souls. Bluebelle asks the symbiote to go after the center vine and disable it, so we are free to go after Baldur.

At that point he disappears into the mist that seems to be deepening.

The Mist Dragon

From the other direction a man dressed with silver pauldrons like the ones in the visions comes out of the mist. Things are a bit fuzzy for me during this encounter. It seems that we begin to attack him believing he is the one we’ve been seeing in the visions, but for some reason stop. He begins to talk to us and we find out that he is actually the Mist dragon of the Mystwood. We tell him of our visions and he goes so that is part of what is happening. He tells us he isn’t the one killing the Changelings in his wood and we notice that there are no masks on his belt, as there were in the vision. He talks of the Black Knight and how he can’t get close to him and we offer to go after him. He tells us he can get us close to the knight, but that we will have to deal with him. 

Bluebell tells him that she is one of the Chosen for Natasha’s version of the Witching Hour, which will happen at dawn. He seems a bit skeptical, but will think about it and see how we do against the black knight.

The Mist dragon tells us there are two more in his woods that could be helpful that he can lead here. One a Hexblood (we think might be Abigail) and another Aarakocra, who we aren’t sure of. He offers to take us to the Black Knight who is trapped in the mists when we are ready.

Bluebelle takes 2 vials of blood from the chimera. Donkey breaks open a bone and chews on the marrow. He got quite ill and lost 4 points of health permanently. Nasty stuff to say the least and a poison for someone who is knowledgeable in that field.

Once Abigail came in she was holding a broken sword and looks like she has been through quite the ordeal, she had fought against the Black Knight and ran when her sword broke, barely escaping with her life. Bluebelle attempted to persuade Abigail to join the group and save herself from the Hags and Horned King by accepting a symbiote to sever all connection to either. After a bit of talking and thinking about it, she accepts Bluebelle’s offer to accept the symbiote.

A New Party Member?

The Aarokocra introduced himself, but I was watching what the Mist dragon was doing over by the Chimera and missed his name. He looked an awful lot like Yeekiees and he asked to join us in our adventure, being down one for the party, we figured that it would be fine for now or at least until we figure out who he is.

People don't just suddenly appear in strange woods, ask to join a band without some ulterior motives. I plan on keeping an eye on him until he earns our trust by his actions. It’ll take a bit to figure out how he will fit into the party and see what he does. I'm hopeful he will be a good addition. 

Yeekiees Death

I do feel bad that Yeekiees did die in the battle and we didn’t have any way available to resurrect him or keep the body from becoming an undead. With all the ghouls around and the evil of this place, we need to do something to protect him from becoming an undead or resurrected by the evil of this place to become one of our enemies.

Yeekiees died a hero’s death and for that I will honor him and his memory, though we didn’t always see eye-to-eye on things that he did. Though I do have to say that there was quite a change after he went through Kanchelsis’ blood pool. I had thought about putting him in the bag of holding and getting him back to Kanchelsis, but when he accepted Bluebelle’s symbiote, I didn’t know what it did to his connection to his God. Especially, with her saying that it would disconnect Abigail from the Hags and the Horned King. We won’t have time to go back most likely in time for a true resurrection spell to be cast on him in any case with everything going on around us.

After thinking about that, we then had to go over and take care of Yeekiees’ body and his provisions. That is always the hard part when a party member dies and can’t be resurrected. The Mist dragon said he would take care of the body and we distributed his stuff throughout the party to those who needed it. Donkey took the Oathbow, I took the Boots of Speed and we gave a Ring of Water Walking to the new Aarokocra, as a gesture of good will, even though we don't know anything about him.

Time to Get Ready for the Black Knight

I wonder what items this new Aarakocra has and if he will need other items that we might have extras of, that he can use before we go into battle. We’ll talk more before we decide anything and then leave to fight the Black Knight.

Though I was talking with Donkey and he was complaining about how he needed some more protection because he was getting hit too easily by those things we are fighting. I offered up my Cloak of Protection, because he hits hard and came back to fight beside me when we were fighting the Chimera. His ability to hit things hard is the primary reason that any of us survived this last battle. That was as close to a TPK as I want to be involved with and even though we lost Yeekiees which was unfortunate, it is part of being an adventurer and could happen to any of us going forward.

We might be heroes baby, but there is always the chance that we will be dead heroes. It comes with the territory and not too many of us will die of old age.

I have a feeling that this battle against the Black Knight is going to be a nasty one. I am also quite concerned about how many of the other Chosen will come after us because Bluebelle is with us and she might be weaker than others that we know are out there. How will Alterra react now that one of her Knights has forsaken her and become one of her competitors (or has she?). There are so many games within games going on in this Game of Thrones.

While I know that we will do our best to protect her and feel that she will for us, but at the same time, we are up against powerful opponents, many of whom can squash us like ants. I am concerned that our party might not be enough to protect her or survive the encounters that we will have to endure.

I kind of wonder if the one called Baldur is actually the one in the Silver Pauldrons using a spell to disguise himself as the Mist Dragon’s humanoid form and making the Changelings leave the forest and mistrust their guardian. Wherever Baldur is there always seems to be more to the story than him simply talking with honeyed words.