4.1.5 DO YOU LIKE THE DISSONANCE

SESSION DATE: Date
PRESENT: Maltrixxian, Mazira, Varkos, Friar Karl

Deep Dive

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Adventure Photos

World Anvil Journal

We've heard some rumors about an odd feeling in the air around Whitesparrow, more specifically in the Whistling Woods. This little makeshift band of misfits is going to go check into it, but not before Mazira gets some food at the nearby Evershady Tavern. This place is great. Where else can you find a tavern built around the wrist of a giant hand that has sprout from the ground beneath? I shudder to think what could've caused that.

Mazira, the always hungry one, downs her two meals. While doing so, our waiter Wes confirms the rumors. He suggests we pay a visit to Sheriff Willowmane, whose office is just two doors down from the tavern. Easy enough to find.

Ms. Willowmane cares for her town, but doesn't much care for adventurers like ourselves. We make it known that we're here to research and potentially help them rid their area of this odd feeling that has been plaguing them. She relents and admits that sometimes they do need the assistance of outside groups. She tells us she was a soldier for a number of years prior to becoming a sheriff, so I'm sure she can understand the necessity of getting the help of someone outside the area to solve certain problems. She elaborates a bit on the issue they're facing. It seems that for some time, the air has felt a bit ill, but not in the sense of rot and decay. More of an uneasy mind-clouding kind of way. I ask if it seems to come from a certain area, to which she affirms it does. We'll have to use our senses to narrow down the area. She tells us it seems to emanate from the east-northeast, but that she's unsure past that bit of information.

Mazira asks about pay for the job. I'm honestly surprised she didn't turn down the 200g she offered us for food instead. We accept the offer of 200g. We thank her for her time and we get on with our investigation.

The drow ranger Varkos and his hawk companion Swoop take the lead. Swoop can scout the area ahead and alert us of any dangers unseen from the ground. We didn't receive any warning signals from the bird, so we continued on the old trail we found.

Soon after, we began hearing a voice amongst the whistling wind telling us to climb over the nearby log. Mazira zips right on over the log and discovers a tiny sprite lying injured on the ground. He claims he has been attacked by some nearby trees. Now I might not be the sharpest tool shed, but I've never heard of a tree attacking anyone. I ask if perhaps he is mistaken. Maybe he accidentally ran into a tree branch as he flew in the wind. He assured me that was not the case, and that when he got close to a nearby tree, it lashed out at him. Weirdly enough, I don't quite believe it, but I humor him. I ask Karl if he can heal our little friend. Karl asks us to confirm our desire to use his limited powers to heal the little guy, to which we say yes. Karl heals him, and the sprite perks up a bit.

He introduces himself as Zephyr, and tells us this area is his home. It's a special place to him because it has a special connection to the Feywild. Most of that connection comes from the great willow, which they call Old Man Willow, a bit further to the east. It's the largest tree in the area by far, and unmissable because of that.

Mazira crafts a crude fire weapon and threatens to light such moving trees on fire. At first Zephyr is uncomfortable about the idea, but warms up to it as he would like to see his home returned to its once-glorious and harmonious form. And because "these trees are mean!". Zephyr points to one of the offending trees, and Mazira chucks the fiery javelin at its base. To my utter surprise, the tree responds by uprooting itself and moving towards us! Zephyr wasn't kidding! I've never seen such a thing before. Time to fight.

I reach into my Bag of Tricks and pull out a fuzzy thing and throw it at the base of the tree. This time it's a black bear, which I named Baloo. Sounds like a fitting name to me. Taking Mazira's cue, I try to light a javelin and throw it at the tree. However, I am unable to successfully light it, so I just throw the unlit javelin at the tree. Because these trees are infinitely more mobile and dextrous than I thought, I missed. I guess it's time to get up close and personal with these mean trees! Varkos, on the other hand, struggles throughout the encounter to light up an arrow to fire at the other tree. At least he has Swoop to help him out with attacking the tree. Mazira and Karl land some blows on their tree, and Baloo and I do what we can to chop down our tree. Unfortunately, Baloo perishes to a couple hits from the tree, but not before getting a good hit or two in before hand. I hardly knew him. With time, the trees are felled and all is well in the area again. But still there's the deafening dissonance.

Zephyr seems grateful that we've gotten rid of the trees that wronged him. We decide to rest for a little while before continuing toward Old Man Willow. Before heading out, Zephyr thanks us again, placing a Driftglobe into my palm in case it can be of use to us on our mission. He warns us that up ahead is a satyr named Thorner who is more "tricksy" than most. We thank him for his warnings, and continue forth.

As we push toward the great willow tree, the dissonance we hear and feel is somehow growing stronger. What could have almost passed as singing from far away is now an omnipresent discordant cacophony.

Somehow we're able to push forward doing what we can to ignore the noise. Soon we find the aforementioned satyr laughing and having a seemingly one-sided conversation. I chuckle as I approach him, as if I can hear the other side of the conversation. I ask if he's Thorner. He says he is, and after some back and forth, he tells us there are some invisible creatures ahead that would require a certain lantern to reveal. He just so happens to have such a lantern, but he's only willing to part with it if we take part in his little science experiment. Or we each give him 50 gold pieces. Having heard Zephyr's warning, we're none too keen for either, but we give in and inquire more about these experiments. He says he simply needs three test subjects to receive the effects of a magic spell to see what happens. I pull two more fuzzy objects from the Bag of Tricks, and offer up the return of King Louie and another black bear, whom I name Baloo 2: Electric Baloogaloo. Again, it just seemed fitting at the time. He casts his first spell on King Louie. It appears the effect is a beneficial one. Kind Louie receives a shield that randomly changes its properties every few seconds such that it's resilient to a different element. Nifty. He then casts his spell on Baloo 2, who receives yet another beneficial effect such that three times each day, Baloo can summon a random food or drink. Potentially useful. Having seen the beneficial effects of the spell, I tell Thorner I'm willing to be the third, but I instead insist that one of my colleagues be the recipient. Varkos doesn't seem to keen, so Mazira steps up, but on the condition that she'll kill him if it turns out to be a negative effect. The satyr declines her offer of course, but clarifies that he can't control whether the spell results in a positive or negative effect. After hearing him out, Mazira accepts the warning and risk, having seen nothing but good effects thus far. However, as it turns out, the effect she received was indeed negative. Every time she attacks, she has a 50% chance that she will deal some of her weapon's damage to herself. Uh oh. Thorner tries to make a quick escape, but I'm too quick and grapple him before he can make it out. I tell him we had a deal, and to hand over the lantern. He agrees fair's fair, and hands it over without further issue. Before letting him go, I tell him he can go under the condition that he never try such a thing again should our paths cross again. He agrees, and I loosen my grip. He then tells us about some of the things we can expect, and that the entrance is carved out of one side of the tree and can't be missed. He mentions that the pixie in charge of maintaining the proper harmony of the tree has been unable to do so. We've figured that's the case, but at least now we know who to look for.

We continue on, eventually finding Old Man Willow. The entrance is indeed easy enough to find. We pass through a makeshift door and head down a set of stairs. Of course it's dark down here, so we light the lantern to help us see, and potentially reveal any of those invisible creatures along the way. However, once we light it up, we notice a mushroom creature known as a Myconid just ahead, and it seems the light is agitating it. We put the hood back onto the lantern and calmly approach the myconid. Mazira tries talking to it, but it doesn't respond. I continue forward towards it, making a conscious effort to seem as unthreatening as possible. Varkos then says he might be able to speak its language. As Varkos calls out to it, the myconid walks toward us, sprouting a cloud of spores around it. However, the spores don't seem harmful. Instead they seem to impart some kind of telepathic connection to the myconid, allowing us to communicate through our thoughts.

It speaks slowly, calmly and intently. It thanks us for putting the light out, and says it has been a long time since it has seen a light that bright. Mazira asks about the goings on lately, to which it replies telling us that the pixies have lost control and two of its myconid brothers have been affected by the dissonance. We explain we're here to help, but it's not entirely convinced we won't just simply take the powers for ourselves. We persuade it that we're here to fix the problem, not take it, and that we hope to assist them in bringing harmony back to their land. It seems receptive to that, and says it'll help us however it can. It walks down the stairs toward his brothers, and takes them to the side to get our of harm's way.

We delve deeper, lighting the lantern once again after passing by the myconids. Thanks to the lantern, Varkos was able to spot some movement out of the corner of his eye. We were able to pass by some threatening looking creatures that we wouldn't otherwise have noticed.

We come across a large stairway leading even further down. We take the stairs downward under an archway and into a large cavernous chamber with rippling water surrounding a dais. On the dais are four leaves, each emanating their respective color in bright light, and the most awful cacophonous noise imaginable. This is definitely the source of the discordance. It's very difficult to push forward, but somehow we do. As we approach, the caretaker pixie responsible for overseeing the great willow reveals herself. She explains that she has lost control of the harmony, and thanks to the dissonance, is unable to remember the order in which the nearby leaves must be hit to properly retune it. That's where we come in.

Varkos suggests sending Baloo 2 in to take a whack at the blue leaf, to which I agree and send him in. Baloo 2 hits the blue leaf, causing an electrically-charged wisp to spawn. Oops. I guess that was the wrong one. While defending ourselves from the wisps that spawn with each failure, we eventually figure out the correct order: Orange, Green, Blue then Purple. When each is hit in the correct order, they emit a pleasant tone. Swoop swoops down and pecks the final leaf, bringing about the most harmonious sound, and relief, to the cavern and the entire surrounding area once more. The cavern is now filled with a beautiful, colorful light as the leaves hum in harmony with each other again.

The pixie flies over, relieved and grateful for our assistance. She rewards us with some items that will be greatly helpful to us and some coin. We notice a smooth stone section of the wall with what appears to be a keyhole, but we are unequipped to open the lock.

Just before heading back to Whitesparrow, the pixie stops us. She says she has a bit of a warning for the future for us. She says "To the west in Skadriel, the Well of Ascension's time is night." Ominous.

Eventually we make our way back to Whitesparrow, where Sheriff Willowmane pays us for our service, thanks us, and sends us away with the gratefulness of the town and its citizens.

Urithiru, here we come once more.

Private Notes

• We've heard rumors of a forest where the wind sounds weird. There's an eerie tune that blows through the branches. Seems like folks are acting differently, and the reason why is unknown. It guides people to an ancient tree said to contain ancient knowledge. It is said to be near the town of Whitesparrow.
• After a few uneventful days of travel, we make it to Whitesparrow untouched at about 10am.
• Whitesparrow serves as a respite for those who trade along the roads around it. An old keep overlooks the village from an adjacent hill. Past that a great hand rises above. An open air stone temple is nearby, an outfitter's shop and about two dozen other buildings reside here.
• Mazira says she needs food like NOW, so we go to the Evershady Tavern near the large hand rising from the ground. Varkos and I ask about her eating rations recently, but she claims she much prefers bloody mutton to chow on. So we head to the tavern so she can get her fill of whatever she needs.
• As we wait for Mazira to finish her meal, Varkos asks our waiter Wes if he's heard of any rumors in the area. He says it's been a weird month. A couple adventurers came in a week ago and headed north to deal with their supply problem. Seems to have been resolved, but they haven't heard back from them. At least supplies are coming in. He says what really has folks concerned is the weird feel in the air coming from the Whistling Woods. Mal mentions that he has felt a little something, like the leaves weren't blowing correctly, and the wind whistled dissonantly as we travelled here.
• Mazira questions Wes: "What do you mean 'oddities'?" as she reaches out her hand and touches his nose. Unsure of what that's about, he says we should talk to Sherriff Willowmane. Her office is about two buildings down. We'll pay her a visit, but not before Mazira orders another plate of meat.
• Mal questions Mazira on why she touched his nose, jokingly asking whether that's how they greet people where she's from.
• We think Mal is the best to talk to the sherriff, for better or for worse.
• Ruth Willowmane's office is where we now find ourselves. She has served Whitesparrow for about 20 years, being a soldier for a few years before that. She looks up at us "What are you, another group of adventurers?" She says she cares for her town very much, but that she doesn't care for adventurers. However, she understands that there are threats that they can't handle on their own. She knows about the goings on to the east, toward the coast. The wildlife are becoming hostile. The air and trees are unwelcoming. It's almost as if there's a sickness, but not one of rot or decay. It's more of the mind. It seems to get stronger towards a certain point, but they haven't ventured that far.
• Mazira asks about pay before we head out. Willowmane pulls out a pouch of 200g. She tells us to head east and see what's going on. That money is ours if we can bring a resolution to the issue.
• The sherriff says it's about an hour's march east along an old trail. We shouldn't have trouble finding it.
• We head out towards the east to get started on our mission.
• Varkos leads the way as he finds the beaten path. We start feeling oddities in our hearing. And eventually we begin hearing what sounds like a voice calling out to us. Mazira says it sounds male, but she can't quite tell. She says it sounds like someone in distress, asking "Is there anyone out there? Help me!" It tells us to climb over the log, they're just over the clearing.
• Mazira climbs over the log and Mal follows.
• We find ourselves in a small clearing. Ahead about 20 feet or so looks to be the tiniest of characters. Mal thinks we've found the source and can go back. The tiny fairy person on the ground says they've been attacked by trees. Mal doesn't believe that can happen. He asks if the fairy person just ran into a tree branch while he was flying around. He doesn't respond to that.
• Varkos sends his bird Swoop ahead to scout the area to see what might be going on here. Doesn't seem like the bird can spot anything.
• The sprite says he's hurt badly. Mal doesn't have anything to heal him, but asks Karl if he can help. Karl casts a Cure Wounds on the sprite.
• Mazira questions him. We'll need his help to find the source. He thanks us for helping. His name is Zephyr. This area is his home. It's quite a special place to him. It has an interesting connection to the Feywild, and most of that comes through the great willow. It's a special tree, not the one that attacked him. It's a little ways to the east. He stretches and flaps his little wings. He thanks us for our help. He points to two trees that moved when he got close. He says they lashed out at him when he got near.
• As Mazira moves toward the tree, she threatens to light the trees on fire if necessary. Zephyr says he normally wouldn't approve, but can make an exception because "these trees are mean!"
• Mazira constructs a fire javelin by setting some flint on fire and tying it to the javelin. She throws it at the base of one of the trees that Zephyr pointed out. INITIATIVE!!!
  • These trees can dodge, apparently. The sprite guy was right. Whodathunkit?
  • Mal reaches into his Bag of Tricks and pulls out a fuzzy thing which turns into a Black Bear. His name is Baloo.
  • Varkos struggles HARD trying to set his arrow on fire.
  • Mal gets the killing blow on the tree as Mazira mistakenly runs away, nearly taking herself out by way of a provoked attack. Varkos heals her. Combat over.
• Zephyr flies over and says "Wow, you guys did a great job!" Mal says "Yeah, thanks to all your help!" Zephyr reaches out to Mal, touches him, but whatever he does didn't take effect.
• 17c 3p, potion of animal friendship, potion of growth
• We take a short rest before heading forward.
• Mazira steps on a loose rock near where one of the trees uprooted itself. Under the rock is an Elemental Gem (Yellow Diamond).
• Zephyr thanks us again. He insists we get to the willow tree to fix its singing. He says we've been so helpful, and he's too afraid to keep going further. But maybe he can still help us. He places into Mal's hand an item. It's a Driftglobe. He says we should travel east and look for the satyr named Thorner.
• As we push further east, we notice the dissonance gets somehow more dissonant. What could have almost passed as singing before certainly could not now.
• As we get closer to the large tree, eventually we hear the sound of laughing, and what sounds like a one-sided conversation.
• Mal walks up and laughs at him as if he can hear the other side of the conversation and says "Hahaha I've heard that one before. Gets me every time. So uh, you must be Thorner." He says he is. Long story short, there are some folks ahead that we can't see because they're invisible, and he says that he would like to perform some magic to see how it'll affect us.
• Mal pulls out two fuzzy objects for use in this science experiment. King Louie finds his way to us once more, and Thorner's magic happens to apply random shield of resilience on King Louie. Baloo 2: Electric Baloogaloo receives a boon that three times a day, he can summon a random food or drink.
• Thorner says he just needs one more test subject. Mal says he doesn't like being a guinea pig, but he will if necessary. Mal offers the others in the group to step forward instead of him. Mazira says she's willing, but he better not pull any tricks or else she threatens to kill him. The satyr doesn't agree, and clarifies that the effects of the spell are random and that he can't control whether it's good or bad. Mal steps in and tells Mazira that won't be necessary. She calms down and accepts the risk. She receives a debuff that each attack she makes, she has a 50% chance to do one die of the weapon's damage to herself. The satyr then tries to run, but Mal grapples him to stop him. Mal says "Hey, get back here. We kept our side of the bargain. Give us the lantern." Thorner says "Fair's fair." and hands it over. Mal lets him go under the condition that he never tries anything like that again if we should come across him again. And Mal says Zephyr sends his regards. Before going, Thorner warns us about what we might expect, and that the pixie at the core of the willow tree is - or was - unable to properly maintain its power or something.
• We continue east toward Old Man Willow. Eventually we come upon a large tree. The satyr told us about the cave on one side of the tree, which we find easily enough. We enter, and find a nice natural area carved out of it where nature worshippers come to do their rituals and whatnot. On one side, we find a flimsy door of sorts which opens into some kind of hole or tunnel that leads further underground.
• Varkos handles the lantern and takes the lead.
• As we delve deeper, the terrain turns more rocky. Inside, there's a paved and carved landing. We're in a large cavern all of a sudden.
• Just ahead, we see a humanoid mushroom creature called a Myconid. Perhaps this is Old Man Willow?
• Mazira calls out "Hey you, mushroom head!" Well, they know we're here now. But this guy seems chill so Mal walks forth.
• Mal walks forward non-threateningly, without his greatsword in his hands.
• As we walk closer, the light from the lantern seems to agitate the Myconid creature. Varkos says he might be able to speak its language, and tries to call out to it.
• At that time, a bunch of spores poof out, filling the air around it. It moves closer and the spores follow. As it moves closer, we hear his thoughts in our head: "Please put out the light." We do, and it thanks us. "It has been a very long time since I've seen a light that bright."
• Mazira asks about the issues with the tree. It says the pixies have lost control, and two of its Myconid brothers have been affected by the dissonance.
• He's unconvinced that we won't just take the powers for ourselves. Mal tries to persuade him that we are simply here to fix the problem, not take the powers for ourselves. He agrees, and says he'll do what he can to help us.
• We continue forth, and pull the lantern back out once we're safely past the Myconids. Varkos sees some slight movement out of the corner of his eyes. We are able to sneak past some moving twig looking things revealed by the light.
• Further ahead, we come to a small chamber.
• We see a large stairway going down under a rock arch, emptying into a room of shallow water with a large rock dais in the middle. Four glowing objects surround it. The dissonance here is INTENSE. It envelops us in sonic vibrations.
• We continue downward. The water is fresh, but not flowing. It is slightly rippling thanks to the sonic disturbance from the center of the dais.
• As we spread around the room, we hear a whispy female voice. "Have you come to help?" We reply we have. Mazira asks where they are because we can't see them. "Oh I'm here!" she says as she's revealed by the lantern's light. She's surprised that we have the lantern thanks to Thorner. She says that the sounds emanate from the leaves, but their sound is terrible. She says we can retune them by whacking them in the correct order. She normally could do this herself, but she has forgotten the correct order thanks to the cacophony of sound affecting her memory. Varkos suggests sending Baloo 2 up to the blue leaf to give it a good whack, which he does. A small ball of light called a wisp appears. INITIATIVE!!!
  • The wisp disappears as soon as it can.
  • Maltrixxian whacks the green leaf, which spawns another wisp. He then sends King Louie in to the orange leaf. This time the leaf emits a pleasant low bass tone. We now know the first whack should be orange!
  • Baloo 2 then tries to whack the blue one again, spawning yet another wisp. Oops! Time to reset.
  • Mazira rings the orange leaf and it repeats its nice, bassy tone.
  • Mal then tries the green leaf again. This time another pleasant, higher pitched tone emanates from the leaf. Success! Baloo 2 then tries the blue leaf again. Another success as the blue leaf sounds pleasant this time! Probably just one more to go!
  • Swoop hits the final purple leaf. Now all four leaves are resonating pleasantly! The sound ceases for just a moment. The lantern flashes out momentarily. Just then, a most harmonious sound fills the cavern as a glorious, beautiful light shines from the leaves. Once this happens, each of the wisps dive back into their respective leaves! Combat over.
• The little pixie comes back over, thanking us for our help. "Now the Whistling Woods will bear the sounds of nature in peace like it should. I can't thank you enough, but maybe I can help you in some small way." She flies down, pokes the air, revealing an ephemeral chest. She opens it. Inside are five gems worth 25g each, a Figurine of wondrous power (silver raven), a Headband of Intellect, and a Stone of good luck. Coinage wise we get 150g to split.
• A bit further in, there's a strangely smooth section of the wall which contains some kind of lock or keyhole in the center. We are unable to open it however.
• The pixie says "I will help you know what to expect in the future. To the west in Skadriel, the Well of Ascension's time is nigh." Ominous.
• For brevity, we make our way back to Whitesparrow. They are thankful, and they give us the 200g. We make our way back to Urithiru without issue.

That's it for tonight!