We wake and Vorest says that she is going to try to help Albert. She casts a spell, and nothing happens. Creeper cries even harder. And then another "Creeper" calls out and then we hear Dread Polly, next to a giant frog, with a mouth like a cauldron. Meeshogunjay is being treated like a frog. She greets us, and thanks Vorest for coming right when she was needed. She says that she came here for an item that we would be able to fetch for her. And mentions that she could free Albert from his cage. She wants us to get 4 things:
- Book to the east in a cave, marked by a symbol, a black book in silver writing, The Book of Keeping.
- The tears of Jazirian to the south, in a hidden glade.
- Sap of the rare creeping vine.
- Hydra blood, in a lake to the north - and mentions that the cask shouldn't melt.
She suggests that we wear branch circlets - but we will be less lucky. If we do, we get some bottles that may be useful against the yuanti.
She hands them out and we put them on. Creeper is shocked that we'd try.
We start to the north. We get to the lake at the base of the cliff. We see footprints that are the size of tree trunks. There is a cave off the side. We can see parts of yuanti, some chewed, some, melted. There are insects by the chewed yuanti, but not the melted ones. There is a hatched soft egg, and hissing in the cave. We see a hydra come out of the cave, and start to kill it - but then, another, bigger one, comes out of the lake. After killing them, we gather the blood in the cask.
We continue to the book. We enter the cave, and enter a portal. We enter some sort of library. We fight three demons, grab the book from the vault and leave quickly.
We continue to Jazirian, to the south for the tears. We enter the glade, and it is peaceful and beautiful. There is a flying snake that approaches and accuses me of stinking of Ariman. He introduces himself, Te'oxacanitzal, and invites us to talk with Ilhicaxahual. We converse and catch up them up on Ariman's doings and why we are here, while they tell us a story.
"Eons ago, before Time ticked and space was, there was only Chaos. Primeval and destructive, it roiled and writhed. The Universe could not abide this and so it birthed 2 siblings to champion Pure Law against the Chaos Primordial. These siblings were great snakes: Jazirian and Ahriman; beings of Pure Law, they worked together to oppose Chaos and set their wills to ordering the Universe.
"Being two mighty serpents, they bit each other's tails and formed a great circle. Together they established the fundamental principles of the panes: the Unity of Rings, the Rule of Threes, and the Center of All. Their work created the Great Ring of the Heavens, what you may know as the Outer Planes.
"Now, these siblings, who working together created the heavens, could not agree on which Plane should be the Center of All. Jazirian wished for Celestia to be the center, while Ahriman wanted it to be Baator. They struggled for millenia, tearing each other's tails, until they forcible tore apart.
"Jazirian, ascended on his mighty wings to Celestia, his holy blood dripping and creating the first of my kind.
"Ahriman, having no wings, fell and crashed to Baator, creating a great rift in the Plane called the Serpent's Trench. His blood created the first of the pit fiends. It is said he still lays there, bleeding and hurt, trying to restore his strength.
"Jazirian commands us to watch for Ahriman's plans, and communicate them to her."
The snakes give us the tears, and welcomes us to bath in them as well, as the benefits are often beneficial. I seem to have grown donkey ears - as has Vorest. I am not sure this is beneficial.
We head to our last job and a thick fog descends. We see ruins carved in the cliffs. There are beautiful waterfalls, and a pool at the bottom. There are gorillons everywhere, and we notice the purple vines right in the middle. The gorillons are avoiding the vines. As we walk around, to the other side, they start getting aggressive. We stop, and decide to go hunting. We catch 6 gazelles and Vorest gifts them to the gorillons. We walk around the cenote to the other side, to the cliff ruins. We fight the vines and harvested it's sap. We head out and one of the gorillons hugs Vorest and leads her to an alcove and gifts her a necklace. She takes it and we head out again.
We get back to the clearing and we find Creeper pacing. She asks to see the book. She wounds weird - so I ask why. Eventuall, she sighs and melts into Dread Polly.
She says that a yuanti group grabbed them, and she was uninterested in helping. So we head out to find them, and run into the tiger. He confirms Dread Polly's story. He leads us to them. Albert seems to have changed into the brood guard. We beat them, and wake up Creeper. She's concerned about Albert, so we return. We greet Dread Polly and get her to "cure" Albert. She does, and says she needs an hour. She preps, and we rest.
Dread Polly hands Creeper a knife and tells her to kill him. Vandederp offers to help Creeper. Dread Polly continues on. Over the next hour, a halfling appears, with brilliant green eyes and a blue rose tattoo. Odd. I thought he was a human.
Creeper greets him and Alberts responds to her. He looks very surprised. Creeper explains what has happened. He thanks us.
Dread Polly gifts us our "crown" rewards and buggers off.
We remove the crowns.
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