Id: 51131890-f9b2-4cf6-a99f-b81cda8695ef
SessionDate: 2024-09-22
GameDate:
{
	Day: 6
	Month: Istenarum
	Year: 3322
}
Author: Logan
Title: Countering Corruption in the Elder Tree Grove
Text: "In the late evening of the 5th of Istenarum, while Aelloria finished his preparations for the ritual, Cassian asked for permission to attempt to view the spirit's grove. With permission given, he stepped out of A Peaceful Rest and summoned forth a Star Spirit in the form of an owl, once solidified it flew off into the grove, but the connection to the spirit was lost almost immediately upon entering it, giving no information for Cassian to prepare spells or give useful info to his allies. He and the rest of the party (consisting of Xedran, Saxon+Kit, and Dheir) slept that night preparing themselves for the fight coming in the morning. 

The morning of the 6th of Istenarum came, everyone gathered themselves, following Aelloria to the path of the grove, then letting Saxon, Kit, and Dheir take the lead as the less martially inclined fell into the back row. As the group reached the edge of the grove, marked by two small animal statues, they saw the great tree in the central area with dark orbs creating an almost oppressive darkness, though thankfully with the Slaugh of the group having darkvision, Cassian channeling the primal powers of the Stars, and Saxon's recently acquired magic sword of fire, seeing in the dark is an issue of the past for this group. They barely crossed the threshold into the grove when two shadowy mastiff-like creatures appeared and went on the attack, making swipes at both Dheir and Kit. Saxon took the attack against Kit personally, as they retaliated against the shadow creature with Xedran's assistance. Cassian aligned his magics to the Archer constellation, starlight began to radiate off him as points of light appeared across his body and bow-like limbs extend out his sky orb. He fired one arrow from the constellation alignment then charged his sky orb with more of the silvery radiance of the Stars, releasing a Guiding Bolt, both shots of starlight went towards the one attacking Dheir, landing direct hits and allowing Dheir to take advantage of the starlight lingering on the creature, striking true! 

The group made swift work of the shadowy creatures and Aelloria made his way to the tree and began the ritual. Minutes slipped by as the party prepared themselves to face further assault. Soon it appeared as the shadows themselves took humanoid form and attacked them! Swipes of blades and bursts of magic flew around Aelloria as they attempted to protect him from the shadowy onslaught. Xedran made one of the creatures retreat as Dheir and Saxon+Kit took care of the others, Cassian began to change his alignment from the Archer to the life giving Chalice constellation, changing his stance holding the sky orb from bow-like to holding a large cup, radiant starlight slowly building up within the vessel for any healing spells released by him. 

The ritual begins to surge in primal power as Aelloria puts his hand on the tree, whispering begins to echo around them all as a spirit, covered in corruption and treebark begins to seep out of the tree. It releases pulses of necrotic energies as the party did their best to defend against it. The whispers continue as Kit seems to fall under the spirit's charm, turning on the party. This would prove a terrible mistake as Saxon became driven to protect their animal companion. More strikes hit the spirit as the ritual reaches a point where Aelloria and the spirit are connected to one another, hits on the spirit caused both it and Aelloria harm while the spells keeping Aelloria alive also healed the spirit. Soon the spirit's desperation caused it to lash out against Xedran, knocking him unconscious, while he was brought back up relatively quickly, another strike sent him down and an unlucky moment in time caused him to fall into the depths of death. 

The party collected themselves and pushed through the onslaught the corrupted spirit threw at them. all while trying to keep Aelloria alive, wanting their ally's death to not be in vain. It felt like too close a call but they managed to survive long enough for Aelloria to finish their ritual, purging the corruption from the tree spirit with a flood of life giving primal magic. The darkness lifted, the visible corruption faded, and the breath of life returned to Xedran. As the group checked on their fallen friend and Aelloria, the sounds of earth churning could be heard behind the tree as a rotted body rose to the surface. With investigation, the group determined the body was infected by the same plague encountered by the Sahabi of Beruha. Since the body was too far gone to get any identification, the decision was made to burn it. Afterwards, the party and Aelloria made their way back to the hamlet to rest after the exhausting battle against the corrupted spirit."