Kay’s Journal, 8/5
There’s a portal to another plane filling the doorway in front of us. It smells like flowers. Pujol sniffs hard, trying to identify them, and it is flower-scents he remembers from his childhood that remind him of home and good times.
We go through the porta and end up in a long, prismatic passageway. We walk what feels like a long way, during which the smells of home and comfort get stronger for us all. Eventually, a godly voice speaks to us, requesting help. Some of its people, a group of pixies, needs help. We agree to help, and the presence says it will send us to ‘Chrysanthemum’.
We appear in front of a very vibrant glade with lots of plants, a flower throne, a plate with coins, a glowing tree stump, and a small winged woman in a cage. This is Chrysanthemum. She asks if we are here to help, and when we say yes, she says ‘Piggy’ will be back soon.
The gold in the tray is a random pile, not neat stacks.
Chrysanthemum thinks using magic to open the cage would be bad. She says her people are in the tree stump; she’s more worried about them than herself. Her suggestion for how to resolve the situation is to kill Piggy or otherwise force her to release the pixies.
We ask about ‘Piggy’. Her full name is Iggly Piggly Wardleglade, and she’s been taking over territory in this realm. She has a lot of magic, and goes away from here every day to do…something, then returns at sunset. She looks like an elf.
CornCob feels confident that Chrysanthemum is telling us the truth. She says all of her people, aside from herself, are in the stump – hundreds of pixies. They’ve all been imprisoned for about a month. She tells us that Piggy talks about an ancient god returned, and she’s on a mission for them. When Piggy returns, she seems to teleport in. When she initially came here, she had creatures with her. They were winged, with red scales and tails, kinda like Gooseneck. Chrysanthemum says that Piggy casts spells very quickly.
We consider plans, and decide to go with ‘ambush’. Abran and Fathom move behind the stump; Pujol is near there as well. I climb up into the ruins. CornCob places a guardian of faith half way between the throne and the stump.
Piggy shows up, appearing on the throne in a sitting pose. She’s a dark-skinned elvish woman. She squeals as she hits the wall of thorns we’d cast upon it. Chrysanthemum says she did it, and laughs. Piggy stares at her. The rest of our group attacks – Fathom casts a spell, CornCob throw his Robe of Entangelment at her, Abran shoots her, and Pujol tries to hedgehog her. The results are, at best, mixed. She takes limited damage from the attacks, but mostly shakes everything off. I aim my bow at her and tell her to free the pixies and leave, or we’ll really start attacking. It’s a bluff, and has no effect. She teleports up to where I am.
Gooseneck goes over to try to free Chrysanthemum from the cage. As soon as he touches the cage, he turns into a pink bunny with a single horn.
Piggy casts a spell at Abran and Fathom. They take some damage and are also stricken with fear. They hit back at her, with Fathom casting a spell and Abran shooting at her. The attacks damage her, but it’s still not slowing her down any.
Piggy casts another spell. A rift opens up under Fathom and Abran; Fathom, Abran, and Pujol fall in. Fathom goes down.
Three winged creatures emerge from the rift and then it closes. Abran, Fathom, and Pujol get spit out. Pujol turns invisible and moves away. CornCob casts a spell at Piggy and then calls up his magic weapon.
I try to knock Piggy off the wall, but fail. Gooseneck tries to use his horn to open the cage, but has no effect. Abran shoots one of the demon insect creatures, then backs away. Fathom regains consciousness, then casts invisibility on herself and moves away.
Piggy casts a spell and CornCob and I. We’re both damaged…and charmed. Pujol does what he can to help everyone resist her spells. One of the demons approaches CornCob, but the guardian intercepts it and hits it.
Bunny Gooseneck tries to stab the demon with his horn, and misses. Abran swings at a demon near him, hits, then runs away and heals himself. Fathom casts a fireball at Piggy, which hurts her some. Then Fathom hides behind Abran. Piggy moves down off the wall and tries to polymorph Fathom, but fails. Pujol moves closer to Abran and cheers him on.
CornCob casts a spell on one of the demons, and does some damage. He moves behind the stump; the two demons that had been attacking Abran move toward him. The demon that Gooseneck attacked comes at me, but attacks Gooseneck – it bites and claws at him, which breaks the spell and turns him back to himself. He swings at it, hits.
Abran shoots Piggy and does a bunch of damage. She’s finally starting to look hurt. Fathom tries to cast a spell at her, but she counters it.
Piggy casts a spell at Abran, banishing him to a plane with lots of hedges. CornCob casts a bolt at her, but misses.
One of the demons hits Fathom; she’s just barely still up. One tries to bite CornCob, but misses. Another attacks Gooseneck, but misses him. Gooseneck hits it with his axe. Abran escapes the hedge maze and returns. Fathom casts Darkness on Piggy’s necklace, then moves into the darkness…but gets clawed on the way. She goes down again, and the darkness disappears.
Piggy casts the charm spell at Abran; he takes some lightning damage and is charmed. She orders him to attack CornCob. Pujol moves toward Fathom. CornCob summons the water elemental and has it attack one of the demons. The demons attack the elemental, Fathom, and Gooseneck. I shoot at one, and it goes down.
Gooseneck attacks Piggy, hits. She’s pretty hurt now. ABran swings at CornCob, misses. Piggy flies back up into the ruins and casts her charm at Gooseneck, tells him to attack me. Pujol heals Fathom. CornCob and the water elemental attack one of the demons.
I fly upwards to avoid Gooseneck, and he climbs the ruins and ends up next to Piggy. Abran shoots her once more, and then she falls down, dead. When she falls, the cage disappears and the stump releases all the pixies. They swarm the demons and shred them.
Chrysanthemum goes over to Piggy’s body, and says she has a couple magic items if we want them: an Amulet of the Planes, and a Robe of the Archmagi. We take them. She offers us each a gift, opening a sack and telling us to reach in.
• I get a paper wasp nest in a jar
• Gooseneck gets a bar of soap that smells like home
• Abran gets a silver fork with the tines bent sideways
• Fathom gets a large iron fingernail
• Pujol gets a pendant showing the phases of the moon
• CornCob gets a tinted glass monocle (Green)
• The water elemental gets a delicate silver cameo with pictures of twin children
Chrysanthemum says we can use the amulet to get back where we came from.
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