Campaign 2, Episode 2: Plant Matter

Episode 2: Plant Matter (2x02) is the second episode of the first chapter of the second campaign for the Venture Maidens. Something sinister has begun to turn their friends into plants. A small child has appeared out of nowhere and seems to supply more questions and answers. What is causing these trouble? Why are the pods fleshy? Who dug out this structure? What the feck is going on?

=Synopsis= This week we delve deep underground

Where faerie foes are to be found

Are their captured friends now dead?

Or will it be our heroes instead?

Pulsing Sacks
Having smashed through the branches of the woven branch structure, the group can see a large sinkhole yawning into the earth below. The pathway they stand on spirals down into the darkness and large, fleshy, green masses pulse against the walls.

Lu offers to go first since she has superior darkvision granted to her by her drow nature. Rook makes no effort to stop her, but Aoife suggests that they find some illumination first since she can't see. Toni admits that it may give away their position and says that she will go with Lu to scout ahead. Aoife, accepting the reasoning, scoots closer to Rook.

Lu approaches one of the pulsing flower bud like sacks and her fingers graze along the outside. The sacks are waxy and tough, with a leathery texture. Even though Toni has been out on patrols in the forest, she has never seen nor heard of anything like this before. She suggests that Lu cut a sample.

The drow pulls a fillet knife from her bag and deftly carves a sheet of fibrous plant material from the sack. She peels it back and sees a second layer beneath, like corn. She delicately carves through the layers until a puff of dust hits her in the face.

Looking inside of the cavity she can see that there are bones nestled in dust at the bottom of the sack. She turns to Toni and informs her that the plants are eating people. She suggests that they cut the rest open in case there is anyone that hasn't been fully absorbed but is interrupted by Rook.

The child asks if anyone can identify the remains and Toni gets a closer look. The seasoned fighter determines that the remains once belonged to a deer. She wonders how the patrols missed something like this.

I Know Things
Aoife, distressed and unable to see in the dark, asks why they are touching a dead deer. Lu puts her arm around the satyr and pats her arm comfortingly. Toni grants Aoife permission to find some light now that they have a better idea of what the sacks hold.

The seamstress throws up her hand and casts Dancing Lights as two pink glowing bobbins appear and float around her. Rook congratulates her on not being completely useless and Aoife assures the child that she can do many things and knows a lot of stuff.

The vegetative digestion sacks show little signs of variation to Toni's discerning eyes, but she notices that the one that has been cut open has begun to grey and rapidly decompose.

Lu methodically cuts another one open and sees withered branches, stems, and enormous dried rose petals within. Rook thinks that it is a fey creature called a Magnophyta and Toni has heard of a race of fey that resemble flowers. She has never seen one before, but is confused that a fey is apparently eating other fey.

Rook surmises that whatever fey is causing this isn't aligned with one of the courts, meaning that it is a dangerous free agent. Aoife asks her what the courts are, much to Rook's dismay. She summarizes that there are factions of fey called the Sovereign Courts that hold various alliances and that if this fey is killing its own kind, then it is beholden to none of the courts and has gone rogue.

Rook tells the gang that she is here to hunt the fey and is more than happy to continue to the bottom alone, but Lu assures her that if there is a chance to save Winnie or the other two patrol members that were sucked below ground, they will continue as well.

They continue their descent into the dark, noticing that something has cleaved and dug the tunnel out. The ground below begins to quiver and shake as thick vines erupt from the ground. Most of the group manages to dive out of the way, watching as Toni is sucked beneath the ground. Rook manages to grab onto Toni's hand, getting sucked below before anyone has a chance to react.

Lu lunges forward, checking the area for a hole before grabbing Charlie and Aoife and rushing deeper into the darkness.

Older Than I Look
Toni lands with a heavy thud on jagged rock. Looking around, she sees that she has been dropped into a tight corridor with cilia-like tendril hanging from the roof, forming a curtain. Rook shakes her, asking if she's dead. Toni asks Rook what happened, but the child isn't sure, but guesses that they were pulled magically and phased through the ground.

Toni investigates where the vines grabbed her but doesn't see any scratches or evidence of bruising. Rook takes a tin cup, stick, and marble from her bag and sets them on the ground. After a moment the marble begins to roll to the left slightly and Rook tells the half-orc that if they wish to find what is causing this, they should head that way as it leads down.

Toni takes the stick and writes, "We're okay, keep heading down" in the dirt in case the rest of the group comes this way. As they travel, she takes stock of the strange child, noting that the armor she wears is much larger than her and is held together with rope and straps. She asks Rook how old she is, revealing that she is 19 herself. The child deflects the question stating that she is older than she looks before walking further into the darkness.

Look Out Below
Aoife, Lu, and Charlie have run down the strange spiraling path, finally arriving at the bottom. There are tunnels stretching in all directions and they can see grey fleshy mushrooms blanketing the floor below them.

Lu immediately holds out her arm, recognizing the mushrooms below as Shriekers. Underdark creatures use them as natural alarm systems, so to get to the tunnels on the other side of the chamber they are going to need to find a way around or through them. Aoife has climbed some walls in her young life, but doesn't have any magic to subvert the obstacle. She pulls a felted red heart from her bag and hands it to Lu as a good luck charm, granting the drow Bardic Inspiration.

Lu pulls some rope and a piton from her bag and begins to climb the roots sticking out of the wall, painstakingly making her way for the center of the room to drive her piton into the ceiling. As she hangs from the rough cave ceiling, she hears the crack of the branch she is hanging from and plummets to the ground, greeted by the deafening screams of familiar fungus.

Feeding Time
In their shadowed travel through the tunnels, Toni and Rook can hear the distant echo of the fungal screams fading. Toni thinks there may be ghosts and Rook admits she wouldn't be surprised with how strange the place was.

Toni stops to listen for more screams, but is distracted by a sickly sweet smell coming from the passageway ahead of her. The half orc asks the child if they should turn back to try and find the others, but Rook convinces her that the plan is a bad idea since they don't know where they are.

Rook crouches low and heads forward, followed closely by the large fighter. The child quickly becomes annoyed by the noise her companion emits with every step. The hallway eventually opens into a large subterranean chamber that contains several vegetative absorption pods. The pods are larger than what they had already encountered and have an internal glow.

Rook holds up a hand and points out a humanoid shaped figure made of sinuous vines. The creature's head lulls amid a leafy collar as it sways in front of one of the pods. A long proboscis protrudes from its mouth and they can hear it feeding on whatever is housed inside the pod.

The two explorers exchange disgusted looks before Rook fires a silver tipped bolt into the creature's back. The spiny vines blacken and wither as it turns on them with confusion in its eyes.

Toni draws her greatsword and rushes the fey, dragging the blade through the creature's mouth to lop off the top of its head. Rook nods in approval as the creature collapses on itself.

What The Feck Is That?
The screaming echoes off of the wall as Lu stomps on the mushrooms in anger and embarrassment. Aoife, knowing their cover is blown, rushes for the tunnels, determining that the left tunnels heads slightly downward. She motions for Charlie and Lu to follow her and they run away from the deafening cry of the mushrooms.

Now that they have regained a sense of quiet, Lu can hear the skittering sound of something sharp against rock heading directly towards them. She motions to the others as she ducks towards the closest wall and draws a knife. Aoife pulls her rapier as a large, chitinous, six legged creature, with a long neck, needle sharp teeth, and bruised purple skin comes around the corner, hanging from the ceiling.

It spots them below and backs away before running in the opposite direction. Lu assumes that it is going to get reinforcements or warn someone so she throws her knife, slashing its neck as it retreats with another hiss.

Aoife asks why Lu threw the knife knowing that the creature was running away. Lu argues that she doesn't know what it was running towards and doesn't want anything that means to harm them to get away. Charlie says that they should run after it if they don't want it getting friends and they take off again.

Fey or Nah?
Toni and Rook stand over the corpse of the creature. Rook suggests they open the pod that the creature was feeding on and helps Toni to peel the top off of it. Reddish sap bleeds out of the pod, and Toni sees an eldrin collapsed within. He is covered in tattered, almost disintegrated clothing and ichor.

The fighter attempts to clear the ooze from him and sees that he is breathing, but she cannot wake him even after slapping him. She slings him over her shoulder and asks Rook if there are any more. The child says that there is no way they can help the other eight pods in this room, and that the creature died far too easily for it to be the one that caused all of this.

The implications of what the child said cause Toni to come to the realization of how much trouble they are truly in. Rook is baffled that it took the half-orc this long to understand that and Toni informs the girl that she isn't used to being around the fey. She goes so far as to accuse Rook of being fey and the child balks. Toni references their introduction, when the child told her not to give her name to a fey, but Rook explains that she was giving her advice about introducing yourself to a stranger that close to the Wildes.

Determined to help, Toni opens the remaining pods to find Sandy, a female halfling, and recognizes her and the eldrin (Malachai) as the missing soldiers that had been pulled underground. The other pods contain various animal corpses in varying stages of decay. They place the eldrin and halfling in a safe spot and continue into the depths of the earth.

Fresh Meat
Aoife calls out to the fleeing creature in Sylvan but garners no response as it continues running. Lu sends another knife at it, but it bounces to the ground. As it nears the end of the tunnel, it leaps to the ground and heads inside of a cavern full of root-like tendrils that form a network on the floor.

At the center of the room is a wooden platform with a tall figure standing atop it. The armored creature has jumped down to the floor and makes its way towards the central platform. From across the way, they can see other tunnels coming down into the cavern.

The willowy figure stands nine feet tall, like a humanoid that has been stretched thin. It has green skin and glittering red eyes that appear strange and insectoid. The creature skitters up and sits beside her. In Sylvan she calls out a greeting to the gathered adventurers, saying that it has been a while since they had fresh meat.

This is where our journey comes to an end, until next time! -Venture Away

A Letter From Home
A day before the events of episode 1, Lu received a letter from her family in Chasiana. It reads:

Dear Lupy,

''I know it’s been very long since you left, but things have gotten pretty boring since you and Charlie headed off to the front. Lark has been more moody lately, if you can believe it, and Urbrun hasn’t left the restaurant for a week! Even Larry has started sleeping under your bed every night.''

''We all miss you but we’re proud you’re out there seeing more of the world and trying new things. While I’m perfectly happy here in Chasiana, I can’t help but feel a little jealous of your adventures. You must be meeting so many interesting people. You are trying to make friends, aren’t you? I know that you sometimes get a little.. well, you know, Lupy, but it’s really important that you be patient and try to see the best in people. This old rogue would have been dead long ago without a network of people to watch my back. But I won’t push the point too much more, I just hope that you’re getting out of your shell every once in a while.''

''Anyway, I hope that you’re well and I hope that Charlie isn’t giving you too much trouble. Don’t forget to write and make sure that Charlie takes the time to write back. We can’t wait to hear all that you’ve been up to, kiddo.''

Love, Frida.

Player Characters

 * Aoife Flannery
 * Lluvyras 'Lu' Ssath
 * Fittonia 'Toni' Silvertail

Non-Player Characters

 * Charlie
 * Malachai
 * Rook
 * Sandy

Mentioned

 * Lark
 * Urbrun
 * Larry
 * Frida

Locations

 * Feywalk Jungles
 * Tachinid Den

Inventory
There were no significant changes to inventory.

Quotes
"Why are you touching a dead deer!?" -Aoife

"That...is so wholesome." -Lu

"I'd rather have answers. Let's push on." -Rook

"I'm gonna turn you into bisque!" -Lu

"What if I just stepped into your house, and just started throwing daggers at you? It would be quite rude, wouldn't it?" -Aoife

"Yeah, okay, give me a second! Goddamn! I haven't encountered anything like this you smartass little child...or not child, that you are, okay?" -Toni

"Talk to it if you're gonna, or else its getting another knife." -Lu

Current Party HP
Aoife: 8

Lu: 10

Toni: 12