Into the Gray

Session Summary

We take a rest for the night in a small cave, but during the fourth hour, we hear a loud, inhuman shrieking. Star sends his bird out to investigate, but it suddenly collapses as soon as it gets up, and so does Star. Arachne uses her medical skills to check on Star and finds nothing physically wrong with him. Arachne investigates the area but falls to her knees as soon as she turns the corner. She later explains that there was something bad and unnatural outside that hurts her head to look at. I decide to blindfold myself just in case it comes back, and for the rest of the night, it's calm. During my watch I hear what sounds like gentle footsteps leaving the area. Arachne finds a clear crystal that is freezing cold, and she wonders if it is a tear of some kind.

Log

Wash looks for a spot to rest and finds a small cave.

I look around for evidence of owl bear tracks or anything that might have been living here. I can't find anything.

Star and myself take watches to cover the night. The bird is there.

No one else wants to take a watch.

During the fourth hour of the long rest, there is almost what sounds like Shrieking. It is inhumanly loud. #encounters/unknown

I wake up and look around. Mostly Elzara and Twinkletoes are asleep. We can’t see anything to indicate what’s happening.

Star sends his bird out to investigate.

The bird makes a WIS saving throw and then so does he, both roll 16 WIS.

As everyone else watches the owl fly up above the rocks, the second it gets up, the owl collapses. At the same time, so does Star.

Arachne gives herself Guidance and does a Medicine check on Star. (24+3 MED check.)

When she is checking out the vibes, she can tell his body is fine, he is definitely breathing. As she closely checks, he does have a soft pulse. As far as she can tell, nothing seems to be physically wrong with him except that he just completely dropped unconscious.

The Shrieking is still happening.

Arachne tries to commune with her deity but gets nothing.

She starts walking towards the cave entrance. The Shrieking suddenly comes to a stop. She tries to stealthily look around the corner of the alcove. She isn’t so stealthy but makes a great WIS saving roll (23 WIS).

Arachne turns around the corner. When she does, the air almost feels… (private message)

Arachne falls on her knees. Before she does, she looks around to see if she can see any living creatures/entities. She crawls backwards into the cove area. As soon as she’s out of sight, everything starts to feel like it’s back to normal.

As she reenters. “Guys don’t go out there. My head feels horrible.”

“What did you see? What’s out there?”

She shakes Star to see if he’ll wake up to compare notes on what he saw. He doesn’t wake up.

“There’s a thing… out… there…”

“A thing??”

“I don’t know… it hurts my head to look at it. It doesn’t look right. It looks bad.”

“Were there creatures?”

Arachne wiggles her hands in front of her face, “The air looks like this, some sort of thing” and as she thinks about it she’s getting a headache. She is adamant there’s nothing we can do about it.

1:30am

I decide to blindfold myself just in case it comes around, so I don’t accidentally look at it.

After my half hour of rest, finishing my long rest, I sit blindfolded and listen carefully to see if I can hear the Thing out there and whether it’s still here.

At the beginning of my shift, I hear almost the sound of shifting sand softly. I can kind of hear, it almost sounds like footsteps. It sounds like it’s receding. Eventually, I can’t hear it. I can’t tell which direction it went due to the acoustics of the alcove. #clues

For the rest of the night, it’s calm.

Arachne needs 3.5 hours to finish her long rest. We decide to let her do so because we think we can still get back before night, though after sunset.

I prepare breakfast for everyone with rations. I give special care to Arachne and Star’s rations. Everyone who eats it gets a temporary 2 HP. #tempboons #cooking

I make extra rations for Arachne. I feed it to her as soon as she wakes up.

I explain that I think it left last night because I could no longer hear it.

Arachne immediately goes to investigate. She sees something glinting.

I begin to follow Arachne out.  The glinting item looks like a perfectly clear crystal. Arachne casts Detect Magic.

She checks for malicious energies but doesn’t see any.

Looking at the crystal, she doesn’t see any magic coming from it. She grabs it. As she does, even though it’s already late in the morning, it feels like she’s picking up ice. She uses her clothes as a glove. #clues

“Do you think we’re distortion creatures? Do you think it was crying? Is this a tear? Why is it cold?”

I touch it. It is freezing cold.

“Do any of you have expertise with cold rocks?” Arachne asks the group.

“I can tell you if it’s evil, that’s about it,” says Wash. He can tell it’s like a master jeweler worked on it.

It’s a fairly large crystal, wider than Arachne’s hand by a few inches. It has six sides. Each side is perfectly flat. #items

We head out and Arachne sticks it in her bag.

The first part of the day is uneventful. Wash finds water on our midday rest!

Later on, Wash pings and notices an owl bear. Star shoots it. It was sniffing around and I investigate and don’t see anything interesting.

It’s late, the stars come out, and we’re getting quite close to town. We make it back to the treeline!

We get back into town and we’re able to get our rooms back in the inn.

It's Monday the 15th of Twot 5372 in the game. (Saturday, no?)