Enola Yarn – blogpost 15

Shocked, I look at Farryn. He LEFT them?! We need to get to them! Poor Valentine, poor Peythur! As I stand up, I realize I still don’t feel good enough: my energy to cast spells is still drained. Farryn makes the decision to do a long rest before we try to rescue them. He tells me I need to stay alive to get to Valentine and revive her if necessary, and I will likely die trying if we go now. Hesitantly, I agree. I feel very stressed out, so Farryn whips up a potion to put me to sleep.

The next morning, I prepare some spells so I can adequately attack our enemies and get Valentine and Peythur out of there. We walk back to the place Farryn left them, past the Nagas we killed yesterday – that are still dead. “Oh, by the way, the Hydra ascends from the pool in front of the shore we need to get to, so we need to stay silent.” Farryn informs me casually.

After a while, we suddenly see a blue ghost wandering around. It sees us, then disappears. I know that image… It is almost like deja vu; I recognize that creature: it is Peythur! Oh no… That must mean he is dead and became a ghost to find us. Now that he has found us, he can rest: that’s why he disappeared. As I am almost crying for Peythur and getting immensely stressed about finding Valentine, I see a small creature flying around, covered in tattoos and with very bright fuchsia-colored wings. He is also looking for the ghost because he seems confused as ghost-Peythur vanishes. I gesture the creature to come closer with a mage hand. He was chasing the ghost – wondering what it was, and asks us whether we know the Firbolg. We quickly explain that he was our party member and that we are now trying to find Valentine. The fairy offers his help, and together we wade through the swamp.

On a shore, I see a half-eaten body lying on a table. I recognize the clothes that are ripped from its body and realize that the remains must be of Peythurs body. I am horrorstruck. I cannot find my sister! What if the Bullywug has eaten Valentine too?! Where is she?! The swamp is very deep at this point, so I cannot get to shore, and the Hydra is sleeping at the moment at the bottom of this pool. The fairy lights up the place with a spell from his flute. I cast Tensers’ floating disk to get Farryn, Grond, and myself to the shore with help of the immovable rod where we drag ourselves forward with. When we get to land, the fairy sees a secret door and opens it.

In the room, someone hangs chained to the wall: it’s Valentine! 

“O my God, sis! I’m so happy you’re here! The Bullywug ransacked me!” Valentine yells. 

“Why are you in your normal form?!” I ask her, running towards her to unchain her. 

“I tried! But the Bullywug took my arcane focus.” 

Hugging her and crying, I ask her: “What happened?”

Valentine quickly tells us the Bullywug was very disgusting – he fondled her whole body to get all items from her. 

“When did you see him last?” Farryn asks. I am asking myself that too because I constantly feel my mind is probed by something else around. 

“Last night, before I went to sleep. I was chained and had to watch him eat Peythur.”

Disgusted, I help her up. “Are you feeling well? Can you walk?”

“Yes, I think that should be okay.”

The fairy starts playing on his flute again, and we slowly move out of the cave. I am just crying out of pure relief Valentine is still alive. 

Farryn gives Valentine a light crossbow so she can defend herself. As she walks on the shore, I hear her mumble: “Ew, ew, ew. Bones and flesh… EW!”

With a firebolt, I set Peythurs’ remains on fire and say my goodbyes to him. As I’m standing near the fire, my mind is probed again. What the hell is going on here? I walk up to Valentine and Farryn to ask her to detect the magic here to find the source of the mind probes. However, she does not have her arcane focus, so she is not able to do that. Hmmm. Wait. I sense something is wrong. She can alter herself at will, it is only verbal and physical – she doesn’t need her arcane focus for that. I hug her one more time and hold her tight. I whisper in her ear: “Where is my sister? Do disguise self! You don’t need your arcane focus to do that.”

She is struggling a bit but turns into me. I am relieved. However, Farryn is not convinced yet: “How come you don’t change your clothes as you normally do?” 

She doesn’t have an answer to that question, and I see her eyes panicking. I KNOW something is NOT right. I push her against the wall, Farryn puts his trident on her throat. “WHO ARE YOU?!” I yell. 

“YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!”

A loud BANG follows, and I see my own face disappear. I, my sister, transforms into a Death Slaad. A shapechanger. Of course. The bang was a fireball that hurt Farryn and the fairy a lot but missed me almost completely. Then, I see a dimension door open, and I am stepping through it: Valentine. “What did I miss?!”

Before I use misty step to get to Valentine, I attack the Slaad with my hellish rebuke. “Do you really think that hurts me? Do you really think you can defeat me?! RISE MY MINION!” As I hug Valentine, I see bubbles rise up from the pool. We’re screwed. The seven Hydra heads pop up from the water one by one. One head reduces Grond to scrap metal, and the others attack Farryn and the fairy. From his belt, Farryn takes the rod of rulership and commands the Hydra to attack OUR enemy, instead of us. The Hydra reacts to it and prepares to attack his former master. “How dare you take my minion!” the Slaad yells to Farryn. I attack the Slaad with five magic missiles from a distance. The Hydra starts his attacks too. When we almost kill the Slaad, he tries to do something – probably teleport – but Valentine counterspells it. The Slaad realizes it doesn’t work and makes a run for it by diving into the water. I want to hug Valentine again, but she runs off to the shore to kill the Slaad. I cannot see, but hear her triumphant voice indicating that she’s succeeded.

The Hydra climbs the shore and lets Farryn pet one of its heads. Valentine walks up to the fairy to check if it is also an enemy. I hold her off just in time before she does something rash and explain everything. After, Valentine performs detect magic to find all her stuff and instead finds a false wall with her items – and more treasure behind it. Peythurs’ stuff is there too. Near the treasure, we take a short rest. While everyone is resting, the fairy introduces himself: he is called Zeph Glitterflitter, and the faerie dragon next to him Brightwing. Zeph comes from the Feywild and his queen wanted to know what was to be found in Undermountain, so he came here. During our short rest, the Hydra stands guard, ruled by Farryn.