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These notes are for The Arrival characters/game.

The party is currently:

• Calliope Laurelleaf – Halfling Bard
• Ellyjobell – Gnome Ranger
• Phalen – High Elf Cleric
• Talerien – Wood Elf Ranger
• Trogdorr – Dragonborn Barbarian
• Twirpo – Hill Dwarf Wizard

With the events of The Hollowing having come to an end, the people of the Ivory Coast are thankful that you were able to help and all greet and thank you fondly.

New to this continent, you are unsure of where this “Ancient Tree” Phalen saw in her vision might be located (see the end of Adventure Notes 02). Perhaps asking or checking with the locals might provide some insight.

• Talerien gets news of a war-band of orcs making landfall south of the Ivory Coast and ventures south, on his own to investigate, wondering if it might be the same tribe of orcs who assaulted his home when he was young and stole the spear called “The Shella-Ra” (The Giver of Life)
• Twirpo hears news about a magical sword called “The Giant Slayer” among other wizards in the Ivory Coast and decides to pursue that to find out more. Not only are giants typically enemies to her people, but if the sword is as powerful as it sounds, it would be something her mentor, Evalys would be interested in, back on the continent of Tawaim.
• The rest of the party seeks to find information about the “Ancient Tree” asking patrons at the Inn, the local Cathedrals, and people of the Ivory Coast.
• Not finding much information, the party does some shopping to prepare for the adventure ahead.
• When exiting one of the shops, a druid approaches them.

A sickly Druid approaches you, his face worn thin, as if he’s not eaten for days. “You,” he reaches out to Phalen, “you have been given the sight… I have heard you making inquiries… you know what’s coming… “

The Druid collapses to one knee, before steadying himself to stand again. “Cultists seek to free Verastin from his prison by freeing him of the Spear of Lynzee that imprisons him.” The Druid coughs, and for a moment, you think those might have been his final words. But he finally explains, “Go to the Jade Forest. You will see the tallest tree there – that is, in fact, the Ancient Tree – or, according to legend, the Spear of Lynzee, which imprisons the demon, Verastin.”

Both Phalen and Ellyjobell recognize the lore behind Lynzee and Versatin:

According to the Legend, Lynzee, known as the Goddess of the Hunt, had a twin sister named Kariayn, who was a goddess of the forests and fae. Kariayn had sought to be like her mother, Florsena, the Goddess of Life, and wanted to create life. Verastin, the demon caught wind of this, and tempted the goddess to disobey her mother’s commands – and tricked Kariayn into creating life, so that Verastin could warp some of the life she created. Her efforts in the end, depleted her of her life and magic, resulting in Kariayn’s death. Lynzee learned of Verastin’s trickery, and hunted him down – and with her spear, plunged it through his black heart, with so much force, that he fell from the heavens and landed on the world. The spear remained plunged through him; and it then grew as a tree and a prison to Versatin. So long as nature remained stronger than the darkness, Verastin would never walk the planes again.

• Discovering that the location of the Ancient Tree is in the Jade Forest, to the north of the Ivory Coast, the party also learns that it’s two weeks away on foot
• The party debates on whether or not to purchase horses, to quicken the travel down to roughly three or four days
• The party eventually agrees to do the adventure on foot, due to the total cost would wipe them out financially
• Heading out on foot, the first night, on the third watch, the party is attacked by brigands
• The five brigands are eventually defeated
• Trogdor notes that they must have come from somewhere
• Searching the body, they find a parchment that seems to indicate where the brigand hideout might be
• Because the brigand hideout is closer than the Jade Forest, the party decides to go investigate
• This leads the party a day’s travel north where they come across a stony hill
• Trogdor spots several human sized footprints that indicate a lot of traffic
• Elly climbs the stone hill and investigates
  • Finding a lever hidden as a stone, she discovers a pulley system
  • She shouts down to the rest of the party that she’s found something
• This alerts the brigands inside the hill hideout and a hobgoblin rides the pulley system up
• By this time, the party has climbed up
• Cal manages to use her music to charm the hobgoblin, to which Trogdor kicks him off the hill, sending him falling down the jagged stones
  • Cal’s sword once again begins to vibrate
• He survives the fall (taking considerable damage) and becomes enraged and begins climbing up the hill
  • Cal severs the hobgoblin’s hand just as he reaches the top, sending him falling back again, this time to his death
• Elly climbs on Trogdor’s back and goes down the one person pulley-system into the hill (after Trogdor grab’s the severed hobgoblin hand)
• Once inside, they see four other hobgoblins and two humans; one of which seems to be sitting on a make shift throne made of stone
• Trogdor attempts to intimidate them, but the one on the throne shouts to kill them; Trogdor and Elly quickly press the button for the elevator to go back up
• The other human throws a few daggers, which miss; but as they go by, Trogdor can smell that they’re coated in something – undoubtedly poison
• Once back at the top, Trogdor uses his javelin to jam the pulley system from being used
• However, a moment later, four arrows and a few daggers go flying by them
• The party looks over the side of the hill and directly behind where the throne would have been, it appears is a passage that has allowed them to leave the hill and fire upon the heroes
• Trogdor removes his javelin and Elly and Cal ride the pulley-system back down, while Trogdor and Phalen attack from the top of the hill
• Inside the hill hide out again, Elly spots an unusual monster that neither she nor Trogdor saw in the original descent
  • The strange creature appears humanoid, but has only one large green eye
  • The creature doesn’t attack, but observes Elly and Cal, keeping its distance
• Elly throws a dagger targeting the bandit leader but misses; making them aware that someone is in their hideout
• The leader draws his longsword, and runs it across his gauntlet which immediately bursts into flame, then charges into the hall
• Elly drops several ball-bearings which causes the leader to fall and be prone
• The other human seeing the leader fall, stops short of also falling for it
• Elly attempts to stab the leader while prone, but misses
• Realizing that the leader is inside the hill hideout, Trogdor rides the pulley-system down and immediately engages in combat
• The leader, wearing half plate-mail proves difficult to inflict damage upon; but every so often when struck, Trogdor notices that the human’s eyes light up with crimson fire
• The leader hits Trogdor enough times to reduce him below his health and Trogdor collapses
  • Cal jumps into a treasure chest and hides
  • Phalen begins riding the elevator down since the hobgoblin archers are dead, and she has no targets since the humans have moved inside the hill hideout
  • The assassin human manages to stealth past Elly and invokes a backstab, reducing her below her health
  • Phalen does a divine healing, distributing health, which raises Trogdor and Elly again
• Together, they’re finally able to defeat the brigand leader, and eventually the assassin as well
• The party takes a look at the room and collects almost 1,600 in gold. There are two chests that are protected by magic that the party is unable to open
• Phalen puts on the brigand leader’s gauntlet and feels evil seeping into her veins and her soul
  • She discovers that she can’t remove the cursed gauntlet
  • She touches the two chests to see if that would unlock them, and it doesn’t
  • Cal uses her music and the notes vibrate against the chest, confirming that they’re magically protected
  • Trogdor takes the brigand leader’s longsword, but it does not burst into flames
• Badly hurt, the party decides to rest
• During their rest, Phalen heals them further
  • Each of them has a vision of Phalen holding the longsword over her head, and the flames from the sun are pulled into the blade and the world is covered in darkness
• When Phalen finally rests, when she awakens, the longsword is inexplicably in her hands…