Session 7 -- A Hero's Welcome

After the party cleared out the last two buildings of golems, they returned to town and were celebrated by the refugees and rewarded by the mayor.

While most people were happy, there were a few who were still despondent. The parents of the children stolen by the faeries asked the party to try to go into the forest (the Glen of Aherlow) and try to recover them. 

A dangerous forest hexcrawl search ensued. Vedica again disguised herself as a child hoping that would be beneficial when they found the faeries' hideout or the missing children.

In one of the first encounters, the party encountered pixies who attacked them. Vedica succeeded in making one of the pixies believe she was a child, and he began to lead her away from the party during combat. She proceeded as slowly as she could, but when it became evident that the combat would take longer than she could delay, she decided to drop coins to leave a trail for the party.

Tiv made an attempt to hold person on the pixie, but he made the save.

As the sounds of combat receded ever more into the distance, which she could tell when she heard a report from Jack's fancy arquebus, she tried to get the pixie to go back with her. When the pixie refused, and while still pretending to be a child, Vedica refused to go any farther into the woods. The pixie cast charm person on her, and she failed the save. She was now being willingly led and dropping no more coins.

By the time the party finished off the pixies they were fighting (with Jack literally slicing one in half), Vedica was long gone. They followed the coins until they ran out, and then Tiv used speak with animals to get six squirrels to track her and chitter back so they could more easily find her. 

Murchad was able to use his navigation skill (we are using the optional rules for General Skills outlined in the Rules Cyclopedia) to fill in the gaps and not lose Vedica in the forest.

There were several more combat encounters with wolf spiders, some poisonous tarantella, and an owlbear, leaving the party very low on health by the time they found the children (and Vedica) just chillin' in a clearing.  Everybody used up the last of their healing potions, and Tiv exhausted her remaining cure light wounds spells (after using her healing skill) to get the party almost back to full health.

They could see the children, and they knew that pixies and faeries were around (they are mostly or entirely invisible almost all the time), but this was what they came for. Vedica, while owing allegiance to her newfound pixie "friend," had no qualms about trying to help her other friends and tried to keep the children out of harm's way when the party started shooting.

They killed half the pixies and almost all of the faeries. Once the last faerie boss was brought to his last 3 hit points, he escaped using gaseous form and the remaining pixies also fled (presumably to get help...these intelligent creatures are dedicated, not suicidal).

The party got out of the forest without further incident (Dwårfy was able to direct them toward the Galtee dwarves south of the forest, making for the shortest route out), and they returned to Caiseal with the six children they found. Several party members noted that there were twelve that were missing, so this is only half. They resolved (even before being asked) to go back in and look for the other six.

While she was with the children, Vedica (who pulled a Steve Buscemi meme in making them believe she was an older child herself) got them to tell her what happened to the other six. The children said they were taken to the feywild (i.e. "Fairyland") already. Even before the party went into the forest the first time, it was established that they knew through local lore what "fairy rings" are, and that they are thought to be portals to the feywild, so the next phase of the adventure will likely involve another forest hexcrawl in search of a fairy ring.