Waterbrick Down

The body is old, Matthias estimates nearly 200 years, and at this point beyond his Druidic powers of revival.

"How do you carry all of your equipment with you without looking like a hedgehog covered in swords?" The witch pauses a beat, "I'll take it back to the Ozmath Marshlands with me for further study." Torald and Ezeran work together to uncover the plant. As Ezeran scorches the surrounding earth, Torald begins his excavation, both expending 5 Ether. At long last the roots of the plant begin to emerge, their white flesh blackening as a viscous dark sap is released with an acrid smell squelching Ezeran's flames. Intertwined around the roots of the plant sits a black leather bound book sealed with iron clasps.

After a lot of tinkering, the experienced Dyric finally cracks the code and rearrange the tiles. An audible click resounds throughout the cavern and a previously unexposed seal above the lid is revealed. The party gingerly pushes back the lid and note glowing trap runes covering the original seal that Atramor had tried to force open. Inside the casket the corpse of a woman dressed in scarlet garb lies in repose.

Which element does Ezeran use?

As Germ removes the weapons from the sap, he notes that they now seem wrapped in an unearthly shadow. Both weapons seem to exude elemental darkness if but for a brief time. "My powers are more clerical in nature than arcane, are you able to remove the earth from around this plant?"

"A what? Do they come from the Lost Woods?" The tracks all seem to belong to humanoids. Upon further investigation, Ezeran pulls up a cloak similar to the one the dark druid from the shrine had worn. "Something was brought forth here, these corpses are missing all of their flesh and recently. This doesn't look to be the work of any beast, my best guess is some sort of ritual." "The Lost Woods lie right on the border between Dastan and Babeleth, it's anyone's guess as to which you're in at any given time." At the mention of Rosier's name, the witch stiffens. "There were tales of a great witch of our coven having dealings with a demon of that name. However most of those records were lost when the Tower of Babeleth was destroyed, only a handful of other libraries in the world would know any more." The plant, being already open is easily hacked to pieces, the insides a strange amalgamation of sap, honey, and some almost demonic looking fluid.

QM Note: Still waiting for some replies. I'll give it another 24hrs.

"Good men die on all sides. They were right in doin' their duty, you were right in seekin' after the truth, it's not an either or it's a both, ya got to learn to see the gray. Hopefully the bloodshed will be limited, but Tarok knows it won't be. Do we have a headin' yet, who's leading this bunch, Karie?"

Atramor's attempt to open the sarcophagus are met with some resistance. Upon closer inspection, the rogue notices an intricate jade pattern of tiles seemingly jumbled on the tomb's lid. Two of the tiles seem already fitted in place. He could try to force the grave open or look for a simpler way. QM Note: Send me a PM within the next 24hrs with the unscrambled order of the above tiles for experience. The tiles are in the correct orientation and do not need to be rotated, only their position needs to be changed.The bolded tiles are already in the correct position.The tiles are currently lain out in the following format: ABCD EFGH IJKL MNOP Matthias finds a few other crypts in the side walls of the cavern belonging to other members of the Tiamateus family. The exit tunnel leads further down and in the distance Matthias can see a fiery glow and the glitter of gleaming metal.

"It was a joke dearie and a poor one at that. I haven't seen any traces of your Oracle. Are you so sure she came here, or did something..." Germ counts nearly two dozen dead faeries, stripped to the bone and lying about the grove. Men, women, children, there seemed to be no commonality other than their race. While poking through the corpses, Germ finds a small mound of Faerie Dust. Faerie Dust (Allows the user to change their age, size, and gender for a short period of time. +1 Stealth, Consumable.) "This thing," Elphaba indicates the giant flower remains, "Isn't natural. I was running errands in Fellcrest when a patron mentioned odd goings on in the Lost Woods, Beelzebub my cat, ran off into the woods and I tracked him here, to this..." "He probably got eaten! Good riddance." "There's been rumors of the Faerie being involved in some sort of war, but with whom or what I'm not sure. This plant however... it's more like an egg. Something was born here or summoned and not too long ago. Are any of you trained in the arcane?"

"If you say so, I've never met the Metasimian, but Skrall here seemed to think pretty highly of him. Keep your head down out there, travel in the streets will be tricky."

"Honesty... that I can deal with. I've heard of the unrest in Eubric, I clearly had no intention of stepping into the middle of a civil war hence my absence lately, however... You're in the Lost Forest of Babeleth a few leagues west of Fellcrest and these poor souls..." "Faerie Fricassee!"

"I certainly do and he's going with you." Ulric gives a nod to Skrall, "This city has survived more disasters than can be recorded, I'd hate to see it perish to this one. Kayla would be proud of what you're doing. I hope you can make sense of it all."

QM Note: Huh for some reason the picture didn't come through. Hoke inspects the lid of the sarcophagi and notes a scrawling script upon its stone surface. Here lies YULIANA TIAMATEUS aka. the Golden Dragon Veteran of the Orcish Invasion Founder of Heroica Died at the age of 72

"Sure, I'll sell you as many as you need." QM Note: Apologies, I thought I had posted this earlier.

Elphaba rolls her eyes. "Ah, the Nord, how did your dealings with the Eatress turn out? It sounds like you managed to somehow not let Eubric burn to the ground." "You've sided with dubious causes in the past and you're conveniently at the scene of this catastrophe as well..."

The figure turns and the heroes are greeted by the familiar face of Elphaba the Witch. She wears traveling clothes, a shrunken head emitting an eerie glow hanging from the top of her staff. "Ha! Lost? A witch in a spooky forest and he thinks we're the ones who are lost?! That's rich!" "Quite Rodrick." The witch smiles slightly at the heroes. "Figures Heroica would be mixed up in all of this. What role do you play in all of this carnage?" Elphaba indicates all of the bodies surrounding the grove.

Hoke is sure that in order for Torc to fit, she would demolish the first floor of the house and even then wouldn't be able to squeeze through the tunnel itself. A small glow begins to emanate from Althior's scepter, it slowly builds until a scorching ray of flame shoots forth as hot as dragon fire. The inferno begins to blaze through the corridor, smoke billowing out, the shrieking intensifies as the mass of roots are consumed by the ravaging flames. After expending 93 Ether, the way is cleared and the party is able to pass through 100 more feet of tunnel before arriving in a solemn cavern. Situated in the center of the cavern on a raised dais a solitary stone sarcophagi sits, beyond a further tunnel leading downwards.

With a sizzle and pop, the bomb goes off within the stone passage way. A thick black smoke arises from the burning vines and a maddening painful shrieking seems to emanate from the roots as they writhe in the flames. The blaze is soon put out by a greasy black oil that seeps from the innards of the plant that lets off an acrid smell. Glancing back down the tunnel, the group notes that it will take quite a bit more fire to purge the passageway if they wish to continue forward.

Petaldan estimates the object must have been the size of a small boulder or cart. As the party moves forward the tracks wind their way through the silent forest. At last the group comes upon a small clearing of marshy ground. Scattered about the tiny grove is a great number of winged corpses, up ahead a cloaked figure unaware of the heroes stands next to the remnants of a giant budding plant.

Dyric discerns that the roots are indeed plant like and very likely burnable.

The tracks seem to be from multiple creatures and something large seems to have been dragged from the forest through the portal. The tracks lead further into the woods down a path of broken undergrowth and brush.

The smell of rot seems to come from the roots. As Matthias places a hand upon the botanical structures he discerns that they are unnatural to this plane.

The Party heads below, after traveling for a good 200 feet below the group notes an entanglement of white roots blocking the path ahead.

"It's an option. The way I sees it, we're headin' either to the Ziegfrieds to figure out what's goin' on with the Fae, to the tunnels to pin-point out where this bauble from Biblos originated, or the Herald to track down this Filly. Course we could all split up, if'n ya wanted to."