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“The Sun Tree”

The party recently had an encounter with the Briarwoods. Two individuals that were responsible for a lot of strife in the background of Percival’s history. Seemingly responsible for the destruction of his entire family, and have for the past five years been essentially ruling his home city and castle. They were out for a political banquet with Sovereign Uriel in Emon and the party members of Vox Machina, they were all invited to be part of this. It didn’t quite go as planned. There was a scuffle and the Briarwoods absconded back to Whitestone. They send a couple assassins out to attempt to take out their driver, who was spilling information and essentially was going to be Vox Machina’s way of being free of any sort of political issues (based on their actions that evening) and after much discussion and preparation and purchasing a lot of mirrors, the party took their transit over to the east-northeast towards Whitestone, where they began to traverse the Alabaster Sierras to the north (using the mountain range as opposed to going directly through the forest).
There they managed to avoid encountering a bunch of harpies that were distracted by eating the horses they left behind. They camped for the evening and began to make their way through some sort of a mountainous valley that led in towards the forest surrounding Whitestone. While they were traveling down this pass, there was a rumbling, and some sort of really fast, rapid-moving large blue creature that leaped down in front, catching them off-guard.
As this huge, blue-scaled reptilian-like creature (with multiple arms and legs) comes skittering down the side of the cliffs, blocking off the entirety of this passage, snarling at you with sharp teeth and this sparking-blue electrical energy jutting out of the corners of its mouth. I want you all to roll initiative.

  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    ♪Episode Song References♪

    ᕕ( ᐛ)ᕗ

    Highlights

    • 00:11:34 Matt:“I can only assume it’s tawdry.”
      Sam:“The director told me something about you and I just assume we’re probably going to have sex in the game.”
    • 00:16:16 Roll Inish Bish
    • 00:18:27 Scanlan:“What if you could reason with him?”
      Percival:“Why doesn’t it reason with me?”
    • 00:21:36 Sam has to celebrate Trinket being attacked
    • 00:22:27 Laura:“Trinket’s fucking dead, yo.”
    • 00:24:41 Travis and Matt have a brief posh dialogue
    • 00:28:14 Scanlan:"Oh. Trinket’s not worth second level (Cure Wounds)?
      Keyleth:“Shutup, Scanlan. I instantly felt guilty, dick.”
      Scanlan:“I would’ve done a cantrip.”
    • 00:30:00 Keyleth goes Minxie, “Hell yeah, I look like an Ed Hardy tattoo.”
      Matt:“I regret everything.”
    • 00:33:29 High Fidelity Flatulence SFX
    • 00:34:18 When in doubt, punch the face
    • 00:36:18 Percy breaks his gun on a misfire
    • 00:43:50 Laura:“Just keep rolling.”
    • 00:44:04 Grog teaches the creature about consent
    • 00:44:32 Cocked = halfway between two
    • 00:46:30 Tiberius’ Glaive “The Granny Grinder”
    • 00:48:09 Vax:“Vex, look at me! Oh, shit.”
    • 00:48:33 Stooge Distraction
    • 00:51:10 Taliesin:“Oh, this’ll be fun.” misfire again, gun broken again
    • 00:53:00 Matt takes a moment to process the enemy turn
    • 00:53:50 The creature is called a behir.
    • 00:56:03 Laura:“Is there an outcropping where we are? I can’t see.”
      Sam:(saying ‘no’ to the camera)
    • 00:57:11 HDYWTDT for Grog
    • 00:58:18 Lullaby Hulk?
    • 01:00:08 Oh no! The Behir was an endangered species hunted for it’s lightning-resistant hide.
    • 01:02:33 Vax and Vex suck at climbing
    • 01:02:58 Marisha mimes carving up the beast for a while
    • 01:04:59 Scanlan:“Let’s get out of this little taco in case that was the daughter of something else.”
    • 01:06:24 Brumestone: a very rare quartz-like rock mined in the Alabaster Sierras around the city of Whitestone.
    • 01:08:10 Liam nearly guilting Matt into playing Tiberius to make the game easier on the present party.
    • 01:08:43 Tiberius teleports away
    • 01:10:49 Scanlan:“Listen, when I poo somewhere, I can see everything.”
    • 01:11:47 Vax tells Scanlan that his sister takes massive poops.
    • 01:12:55 Matt winks at Travis
    • 01:14:14 Travis rolls the heavy metal d20 and hits a nat 20 on an Intelligence check for Grog
      As you guys are walking forward, Grog you instinctively look over and go, “Oh, that’s a stone giant fortress.” With your bloodline and knowing where ou come from (and you’ve had a few close encounters in the Cliffkeep Mountains with a few of these kind) you’ve seen a few fortresses, and from the details of it (the roof and scope of its design) and the way the mountain range lends itself to that type of topography. This is obviously a stone giant fortress.
    • 01:16:16 Harpy SFX
    • 01:21:07 Can Trinket use my climbing gear?
    • 01:22:22 One of the large stone doors to the fortress has been broken in half and left open.
    • 01:23:17 Bats have “very reasonable eyesight”
    • 01:24:12 A battle occurred and it’s only casualties visible for now.
    • 01:24:42 Sam tempts fate mocking Matt’s pronunciation of ‘sigil’
    • 01:27:38 Clues reveal that the door was broken open from the inside
    • 01:29:15 Large smear of blood (2-3 months old) from what seems to be a large, singular creature that shows it was dragged briefly before the body was removed or lifted away
    • 01:30:17 Searching through the rubble they find 120g, a vial of some liquid, and a well-made longbow. Vex gasps.
    • 01:33:54 Centurion birds = sentry birds
    • 01:34:27 Scanlan:
      • (•_•) “It looks like these giants had…”
      • ( •_•)>⌐■-■
      • (⌐■_■) “big trouble.”
    • 01:36:44 Grog stares at Vex while biting off a crow’s head. Lots of shout-outs to Ozzy Ozbourne in the chat.

    INTERMISSION

    Percival knows the nearby forested area, the Parchwood Forest (that encompases the entirety of this valley), toward the center-north of it is where Whitestone sits (and for your reference as well, since you’ve been here before) here is a map.
    You are coming in from what would be the northwestern side of the city. The little outcropping to the east was the graveyard to Whitestone. It’s where most of the regular denizens were interred. It’s been expanded over the years as the city itself has been around for quite a few generations. It is a surface graveyard. There is a mausoleum, but that is actually contained beneath the castle. There is a secret passage Percy used to escape on the very western edge of the mountain precipice of the castle. It was built to be specifically an escape in case the plcae was under siege. Unfortunately, the circumstances of the evening happened so rapidly (and with creatures that seemingly were unnatural) the family didn’t have time to make it out. Even you weren’t fully aware of it. Cassandra, however, had overheard discussions about the passage and took that as your escape route. It’s a hidden tunnel at the very base of the mountain.

    • 01:44:32 Scanlan:“Can I ride you into town?”
    • 01:47:12 The pack of dogs is spotted being guided by a humanoid in what appears to be a hunting party.
    • 01:50:15 On a Nat20 Perception check, it is revealed they are just looking for food.
    • 02:03:00 Vex:“Keyleth, question. Can you make it look like we’re not here with your foliage shit?”
    • 02:04:30 Keyleth:“Whoa, Vax. Nice helmet. Don Quixote called.”
    • 02:06:20 The de Rolo family story about the Sun Tree.
    • 02:08:10 Scanlan plays sarcastaball
    • 02:10:29 The Lemon Party is held on the far southern continent of Tubgirl in the region of Goatse.
    • 02:13:13 Keyleth’s plan to enrich the land around the tree.
    • 02:13:38 A witch?!
    • 02:15:40 Scanlan:“I am the antithesis of faith.”
    • 02:17:19 “I like having the people. It feels less like we’re the United States.”
    • 02:18:18 Scanlan:“I need a beret.”
    • 02:20:26 Poo scry on the home base
    • 02:21:21 Matt:“What was once a magical scry poo is literally just Scan scat at the temple.”
    • 02:22:22 Scanlan scat bombing run brainstorming
    • 02:26:34 Grog:“Come on. Drop your pants and get with the plan.”
    • 02:29:27 Matt:“This is a legit use of Seeming, too. Okay.”
      Marisha:“As opposed to the cows? Come on.”
    • 02:30:40 Trinket is an ass
    • 02:32:06 Lookin’ for work
    • 02:36:53 This tree is not native to Whitestone.
    • 02:37:35 A shrubbery?
    • 02:41:05 Epic Lore Moment Vox Machina recognize the hanging bodies as effigies of themselves
    • 02:48:00 A suitable forward base found in an abandoned tavern.
    • 02:53:34 Taliesin:“The only superpower more pathetic than Aquaman’s.”
    • 02:55:14 Examination gloves
    • 02:57:32 Hero’s Feast buff
    • 02:58:17 Keyleth begins her meditation to heal the Sun Tree