(S105) Destruction of the Heartstone

Reunited with Bastion via a sneeze-fueled planar hop, the party returns from the Feywild and steps through a portal into Kelek's lair. After bribing Nughuk's mercenary forces with a thousand gold pieces, they assault the wizard's ritual chamber. Shadow shatters The Heartstone, Calliope rips the Unicorn Horn from the spectral beast's chest, and Venger helps pull his old friend back from the brink of corruption.

📝 Session Summary

The Wild Cards were called The Menagerie by some until they came up with the name The Wild Cards.

• Barlo: A grizzled tabaxi barbarian who has been doing some work for a network that one should be wary of.
• Bastion: An orphan human who spent his life studying magic and blades, even though his elder pushed him away from the sword. He replaced Reginald.
• Calliope: This bardic faun joined the party late when she needed to find help to save her homeland.
• Reginald: A leonin cleric who was off to show his family's royal background and would later find out there were secrets leading to him becoming a king.
• Sas: A tortle hermit was given an item of power and a quest.
• Shadow in the Snow: This tabaxi got a coin, and her curiosity set her on a path.

🎬 Scenes

• Scene 1: Barlo's Backstory — From The Bronze Canyon in Kampos. Gave up Tabaxi name, "Smiles". Help move people. On way to Eushia to help Black Road with a client. Currently on ship near Carrune.
• Scene 2: Bastion's Backstory — When Bastion Bladesinger was very young he lost both of his parents to a plague. He took care of himself as he taught himself how to use the rapier his father once wore. He lived in Dyrt and watched all of the great knights. He also had an interest in the ways of magic and he wished he could do both – use swords and excel in magic – like many elves he had heard about.
• Scene 3: Calliope's Backstory — Calliope was born into the nestled highlands of the Oraniad Mountains. The Skola Vale, wild and free, blessed by the gods and inhabited by whimsical Satyr and Faun. Deep within it among the lush valley, reside the Dawngreets, a long generational line of storytellers and lore keepers.
• Scene 4: Reginald's Backstory — He was born at home, a modest-sized mansion where his family lived a modest means – even though his father could never stop talking about how they were royalty and yet this was the only lands they currently possess. His childhood was generally a happy one full of several friends. He was an only child.
• Scene 5: Sas' Backstory — Sas was born on the continent of Oth'Mar – a content mostly inhabited by Tortles and is far to the south of the Carrune Isles.
• Scene 6: Shadow's Backstory — Deep in the snowy mountains high in the north, there lived a large group of Tabaxi, The Blinding Wild Clan.

📜 Missions & Quests

• Completed:
  • Established individual party origins and initial connections to the world of Dierde.
• Active / Discovered Threads:
  • Barlo's ties to the smuggling rings and the Black Road.
  • Bastion's mysterious past and fallout with Grognard.
  • Calliope's quest to save the Skola Vale.
  • Reginald's pursuit of his family's royal mint commission and claim in Neyer.
  • Sas's vision of the Cat Goddess Bast and journey to find her lost lands.
  • Shadow's golden coin and mystical calling from her clan shaman.

NPCs

S105: Destruction of the Heartstone

Date: 2026-05-23

Short

The session opened with Ellywick Tumblestrum accidentally dragging Bastion into the Feywild via her uncontrollable Fey virus, depositing him beside the party near the slain Dracohydra. He quickly joined The Last Hunt guild, signed the contract, and received Levitation Boots as his reward before befriending a nearby Blink Dog. Ellywick Tumblestrum then performed her planewalking ritual to return the group home, arriving with minimal time lost, though Bastion's final memories of the Feywild were mysteriously erased. Back in the clearing, they reunited with Venger, Willowbrush, and the automaton Hex Coda. Before the party stepped through the nearby portal, Venger made a heartfelt plea to spare his old friend Kelek and seek his redemption rather than his death — a request the party carried with them as they crossed through.

On the other side, the party emerged inside a dome of magical brambles concealing a group of armed bullywugs and a bugbear mercenary named Nughuk. After Barlo burned a path through the vines and Sas communed with the bramble spirit to learn that Kelek was performing a ritual draining a unicorn spirit, the party bypassed the fight entirely by paying Nughuk a thousand gold pieces to stand down — which he accepted without hesitation. Inside the ritual chamber, they found Kelek chanting over four black obelisks and a Heartstone that was slowly tearing apart a spectral unicorn. The battle that followed was swift and decisive: Bastion's simulacrum charmed Kelek, burning through one of his legendary defenses; Calliope turned invisible and pulled the Horn of the Unicorn free from the ghostly creature's form; and Shadow in the Snow shattered The Heart Stone of the Realm with a final arrow, ending the ritual in a violent magical explosion. With the corruption purged, the unicorn began to reform, and Kelek was left hollow and disoriented — redeemed, if broken — while Calliope quietly pocketed the shards of the destroyed stone.

Summary

The chaos began with a sneeze. Ellywick Tumblestrum, the planewalking halfling still battling her uncontrollable Fey virus, accidentally yanked Bastion across planar boundaries mid-search, depositing him directly into the Feywild beside the rest of his companions. The party stood over the freshly slain corpse of the Dracohydra, and Ellywick Tumblestrum, apologizing for the abrupt arrival, wasted no time in offering Bastion a chance to join The Last Hunt — a monster hunting guild — so he could share in the reward for the kill. Bastion signed the contract, slipped it into the magical guild bag, and within moments pulled out a gleaming pair of Levitation Boots as his prize. He then spent a quiet stretch of time attempting to befriend a sentient Blink Dog nearby, speaking to it in Sylvan, and found the creature warming to him after a while.

After a short rest to recover their strength, Ellywick Tumblestrum gathered the group close and performed her planewalking ritual to send them home. The journey back was mostly a success — the party arrived in the clearing near the water at roughly the same time they had left, with no significant time lost. Most of the group returned with their memories and health intact, though Bastion found the last hour of his time in the Feywild growing hazy and indistinct, as though the memory had been gently erased. Waiting for them at the clearing were Venger, Willowbrush, and the automaton Hex Coda, all visibly relieved to see the party return. Ellywick Tumblestrum, still sniffling and exhausted, bid them farewell and vanished to rest and recover.

As the group prepared to move toward the nearby portal, Venger pulled them aside with a quiet but earnest request. He explained that the wizard they were hunting — Kelek — was an old friend, someone who had not always been the man he had become, and he asked the party to try to redeem him rather than simply cut him down. The party listened, and though they made no firm promises, they moved forward with Venger's words weighing on them. The portal loomed ahead, and one by one they stepped through into the unknown.

They emerged into a cramped, suffocating space enclosed entirely by thick, woody vines and brambles that curved upward into a dome far above their heads. The area was dimly lit by scattered orange flowers that pulsed with a soft, eerie glow, and far above, through the tangle of growth, a faint crystalline shimmer hinted at some kind of glass-like barrier beyond the vines. Barlo slashed at the brambles with his claws, and the party quickly realized that something cold had been used on the vines before — making them brittle — though whatever spell had done it was no longer active. Shadow in the Snow listened carefully and detected subtle, muffled movement beyond the thicket, the telltale signs of creatures trying very hard to stay still and quiet.

Barlo solved the problem decisively by unleashing a torrent of fire breath that burned a clear path through the magical undergrowth. The vines writhed and attempted to regrow into the flames, but the fire held the passage open long enough for the party to see through to the other side, where a group of bullywugs stood armed and waiting. Hex Coda's embedded gemstone suddenly flared to life, sending multi-colored light cascading through every joint in his mechanical frame as he prepared to assist. Sas reached out with magic and spoke directly to the sentient bramble dome itself, and the gruff, bitter plant spirit revealed that a wizard had been performing a long and exhausting ritual involving a unicorn spirit — and that bullywugs and a bugbear stood between the party and him.

Rather than fight their way through, the party chose a more pragmatic approach. Barlo leapt forward to confront the bullywug swarm, and their general emerged alongside a large, self-assured bugbear named Nughuk, who made clear that he and his forces had been hired by Kelek for five hundred gold pieces and had no particular loyalty beyond that. The party quickly determined that gold would be faster than steel, and after some negotiation, they handed over a thousand gold pieces. Nughuk accepted without hesitation, offered the party a sending stone in case they ever needed mercenaries in the future, and led the bullywugs cheerfully out through the portal without a single blow exchanged.

What lay beyond was something far more unsettling. The party crept into a chamber filled with an elaborate magical arrangement of glowing lights and four black obelisks, at the center of which hovered the ghostly, translucent image of a unicorn being slowly pulled apart into four pulsing orange lights. Atop a pillar of white stone carved with skulls floated a small, palm-sized red gemstone — The Heart Stone of the Realm — leaking tendrils of corrupting energy into the ritual. Standing beside it was Kelek himself: a bald, elderly wizard in a gaudy black and red cloak, chanting steadily with the focused intensity of a man who had been at this for a very long time. Before moving in, Hex Coda cast a protective effect over the entire group, ensuring that any healing they received would be maximized and that their resolve would hold firm under pressure.

Shadow in the Snow struck first, firing a lightning-charged arrow at The Heart Stone of the Realm from above and chipping it with a crack of electricity that jolted Kelek and rattled the chamber. The wizard barely flinched and signaled his final guards — four goblins mounted on massive, dull-eyed worgs — to engage. Bastion's simulacrum then did something remarkable: it reached into Kelek's mind and charmed him, burning through one of the wizard's legendary defenses and leaving him standing slack-jawed and motionless mid-ritual. Chillingly, even with Kelek incapacitated, The Heart Stone of the Realm continued to drain the unicorn on its own, as though the corruption had taken on a life independent of its master. Sas and Barlo tore through the worg-riding goblins with brutal efficiency while Venger stepped forward and pleaded with his old friend, urging him to come back to himself.

Calliope, invisible and airborne, seized the moment. She maneuvered through the swirling magical energies of the ritual and plunged her hand directly into the ghostly form of the spectral unicorn, closing her fingers around the Horn of the Unicorn at the center of its ethereal body and pulling it free. Meanwhile, Shadow in the Snow kept her focus on The Heart Stone of the Realm, firing arrow after arrow into its cracked surface as Kelek recovered from his stupor and began retaliating with bursts of psychic energy and fire. Finally, Shadow's last shot struck true — The Heart Stone of the Realm shattered in a violent explosion of magical force that threw Barlo, Sas, and Calliope back and scorched the chamber. The four orange ritual lights blinked out, and the spectral unicorn, no longer being torn apart, slowly began to reform and drift down toward the ground. Kelek stood in the aftermath looking lost and hollow, like a man waking from a long and terrible dream, the corruption washing out of him as the stone's shards scattered across the floor — where Calliope quietly began picking them up and tucking them into her pocket.

Scenes

A Sudden Reunion in the Feywild

Bastion is unexpectedly teleported to the Feywild to join the rest of the party after they defeat a Dracohydra.

• Ellywick Tumblestrum, the planewalker halfling, accidentally teleports Bastion to the Feywild while sneezing due to a Fey virus.
• The party stands over the corpse of a recently slain Dracohydra.
• Ellywick Tumblestrum invites Bastion to join 'The Last Hunt' monster hunting guild so he can share in the rewards for the kill.
• Bastion signs a contract and receives a magical bag used for guild communications and rewards.
• Bastion uses a guild ticket to acquire a pair of Levitation Boots from the magical bag.
• Bastion attempts to communicate with a sentient Blink Dog in Sylvan to build a rapport.

The Return to the Realm of Dungeons and Dragons

Ellywick Tumblestrum uses her magic to transport the party back to their original location without losing significant time.

• The party takes a short rest in the Feywild to recover their strength.
• Ellywick Tumblestrum gathers the group and performs a planewalking ritual to return them to the Realm of Dungeons and Dragons.
• The party successfully arrives back in the clearing near the portal, with most members retaining their memories and health.
• Bastion alone struggles with some memory loss regarding their time in the Feywild due to an unfavorable dice outcome.

Reuniting at the Clearing

The party reunites with their waiting allies at the clearing by the water and prepares for their next move.

• The party returns from the Feywild to the clearing by the water, finding Venger, Willowbrush, and Hex Coda waiting for them.
• Ellywick Tumblestrum departs to rest and recover from her Fey virus.
• Venger asks the party for a favor: to try and redeem his old friend Kelek rather than simply killing him, noting that Kelek was not always evil.
• The party discusses the mission to retrieve the Horn of the Unicorn from Kelek, who is believed to be inside a nearby portal.

The Bramble Dome

The party enters a mysterious portal and finds themselves trapped within a cramped, dark thicket of magical vines.

• Barlo enters the portal first, followed by the rest of the party, arriving in a cramped area enclosed by thick, woody vines and brambles.
• The party observes a crystalline or glass-like barrier high above the bramble dome, with the area dimly lit by glowing orange plants.
• Barlo uses his claws to slash through the thick brambles, attempting to clear a path toward a perceived opening.
• Shadow in the Snow uses bardic inspiration and a high perception roll to detect muffled sounds and subtle movement beyond the vines, suspecting that Bullywugs are hiding and watching them.
• The party debates how to bypass the heavy cover provided by the magical thicket to reach the enemies on the other side.

Burning a Path Through the Brambles

The party uses fire and magic to clear a path through the magical undergrowth and gather intelligence on what lies ahead.

• Barlo uses his fire breath to incinerate a path through the magical brambles, revealing a clearing and illuminating the area.
• The party notices the vines attempting to regrow and repair themselves even as they burn, though the fire keeps the path open.
• Hex Coda activates a prismatic gemstone, causing his mechanical joints to glow with multi-colored light as he prepares to assist the party.
• Sas casts a spell to communicate with the sentient plants, learning that a wizard has been performing a long ritual involving a unicorn spirit and that bullywugs and a bugbear stand in the way.
• The party spots a group of bullywugs at the far end of the cleared path, armed and waiting.

Bribing the Guards

The party confronts a group of Bullywugs and a Bugbear mercenary named Nughuk who are guarding the path to Kelek.

• Barlo jumps in front of a swarm of bullywugs to intimidate them, causing them to hesitate.
• A bullywug general and a large bugbear named Nughuk emerge to confront the party, claiming they were hired by Kelek to ensure his ritual is not interrupted.
• The party learns the mercenaries are motivated purely by gold and that even the bullywugs are growing tired of the wizard's endless chanting.
• The party pays Nughuk one thousand gold pieces to stand down and allow them to pass without a fight.
• Nughuk provides the party with a sending stone to contact him for future mercenary work before he and the bullywugs depart through the portal.

The Ritual of The Heart Stone of the Realm

The party discovers Kelek performing a corrupting ritual on a spectral unicorn and initiates a surprise attack.

• The party stealthily enters a room filled with glowing lights, four black obelisks, and an elaborate magical setup on the floor.
• They find Kelek — a bald, elderly wizard in a gaudy black and red cloak — chanting near a floating red gemstone atop a skull-adorned pillar, with the spectral image of a unicorn being drawn into four orange lights.
• Willowbrush scouts ahead invisibly, revealing four goblins riding worgs positioned as final guards.
• Venger explains that The Heart Stone of the Realm has been corrupting Kelek for a long time and suggests destroying it to break the wizard's hold.
• Hex Coda casts a protective effect on the party, granting them advantage on wisdom and death saving throws and maximizing any healing received.
• Shadow in the Snow initiates combat with a lightning-infused arrow strike against the floating Heartstone, chipping it and releasing a burst of electricity that strikes Kelek and nearby enemies.
• Kelek continues his chanting despite the initial strike, signaling his worg-riding goblin guards to prepare for battle.
• Bastion's simulacrum successfully charms Kelek, forcing the wizard into a stupor and momentarily halting his chanting, though the ritual's energy continues on its own.
• Sas and Barlo engage the worg-riding goblin guards, swiftly cutting through their ranks.
• Calliope, utilizing greater invisibility, maneuvers through the magical energies and leaps toward the spectral unicorn.
• Shadow in the Snow continues to target the floating Heartstone, further cracking it with successive shots.
• Kelek recovers from his stupor and retaliates with a burst of psychic energy and a fiery explosion that catches several party members in its wake.
• Calliope reaches into the spectral form of the unicorn and successfully retrieves the Horn of the Unicorn from the center of the ghostly image.
• Shadow in the Snow fires a final, precise shot that shatters The Heart Stone of the Realm, causing a massive release of energy that damages Barlo, Sas, and Calliope nearby but fully disrupts the ritual.
• The ritual circles blink out, and the spectral unicorn begins to slowly reform and sink to the ground.
• Kelek, shaken from his corruptive haze by the stone's destruction, ceases his hostility and appears lost and uncertain, as though waking from a long stupor.

Memorable Moments

Bastion is mid-search for the rest of the party when Ellywick Tumblestrum sneezes and accidentally teleports him directly to the Feywild, reuniting him with everyone in the most chaotic way possible.

The party had just slain a Dracohydra when Ellywick Tumblestrum's uncontrollable Fey virus sneeze yanked Bastion across planes without warning.

"I've known you for so long. I know this right here."
— Venger

Venger steps forward during the battle to plead with his corrupted old friend Kelek, hoping to reach the man beneath The Heart Stone of the Realm's influence.

Calliope, invisible and defying gravity with a running leap, plunges her hand into the ghostly form of a spectral unicorn and pulls the Horn of the Unicorn free from the center of its ethereal body.

With the ritual still active and Kelek retaliating, Calliope seized the moment to snatch the artifact directly from the unicorn's spectral form mid-combat.

Shadow in the Snow fires a final precise arrow that shatters The Heart Stone of the Realm, triggering a violent magical explosion that damages the nearby party members but ends Kelek's dark ritual and frees the spectral unicorn.

After chipping away at the stone across multiple shots, Shadow's killing blow on the gem brought the entire ritual crashing down in a burst of energy.

Sas speaks with the magical bramble dome itself, and the gruff plant spirit reveals it was born from evil intent and describes the wizard's long ritual and the unicorn spirit being torn apart inside.

The party expected vines — instead they got a bitter, sentient plant with insider knowledge of Kelek's operation.

The party bypasses an entire encounter by simply paying the mercenary Nughuk one thousand gold pieces, with the bullywugs and their bugbear boss cheerfully departing through the portal without a single swing.

Nughuk made clear he had no personal loyalty to Kelek — just a contract — and the party realized gold was faster than swords.

Bastion's simulacrum charms Kelek mid-ritual, burning through one of the wizard's legendary resistances and leaving him standing slack-jawed and motionless while the corrupting Heartstone continues to drain the unicorn on its own.

Even with the wizard incapacitated, the ritual kept going — a chilling reminder that Kelek was no longer fully in control of what he had started.

Calliope continues to try and grab the unicorn ghost

She tries to make an impossible leap not once, but twice.

NPCs

Ellywick Tumblestrum

A halfling planewalker suffering from a Fey virus that causes her to teleport uncontrollably when she sneezes. She is a member of 'The Last Hunt' guild and assisted the party by helping Bastion join the guild and then transporting the entire group back to the Realm of Dungeons and Dragons before departing to rest.

Blink Dog

A sentient canine capable of teleportation that Bastion attempted to befriend using the Sylvan language. The dog appeared somewhat friendly after about an hour of interaction.

Venger

An ally of the party who waited at the clearing with Willowbrush and Hex Coda during the party's excursion to the Feywild. He revealed that Kelek is an old friend and pleaded with the party to try to redeem him rather than kill him, noting that he himself was once evil before finding redemption.

Willowbrush

A companion who waited with Venger and Hex Coda at the clearing. During the confrontation with Kelek, Willowbrush scouted ahead invisibly to reveal the positions of the worg-riding goblin guards.

Hex Coda

An automaton ally who waited at the clearing and joined the party into the portal. He activated a prismatic gemstone embedded in him — causing his joints to glow with multi-colored light — and used it to grant the party tactical advantages including maximized healing and improved saving throws.

The Bramble Spirit

A sentient, gruff-voiced plant entity that Sas communicated with through magic. It described itself as a mixture of evil intent and magical growth, and provided the party with information about Kelek's long ritual and the unicorn spirit being held further ahead.

Nughuk

A large, gruff bugbear mercenary leader hired by Kelek to guard the tunnels. Pragmatic and primarily interested in gold, he accepted a bribe of one thousand gold pieces to stand down and offered the party a sending stone to hire his services in the future.

Bullywug General

A bullywug with a commanding, general-like stature who led a swarm of frog-like humanoids guarding the tunnels for Kelek. He coordinated with Nughuk and ultimately departed peacefully once the party paid the bribe.

Kelek

A bald, elderly wizard with a long white beard wearing a gaudy black and red cloak. He was found performing a dark ritual to siphon energy from a spectral unicorn using a corrupting red Heartstone. He was an old friend of Venger's who had been twisted by the stone's corruption. After The Heart Stone of the Realm was destroyed, he appeared dazed and non-hostile, as though waking from a long stupor.

Spectral Unicorn

A ghostly celestial being whose essence was being drawn into magical circles by Kelek's ritual. After The Heart Stone of the Realm was shattered and the ritual disrupted, its spectral form began to slowly reform and settle on the ground.

Items

The Last Hunt Contract

A formal agreement contained within a magical guild bag that allows adventurers to join 'The Last Hunt' monster hunting guild and earn prizes and rewards for their kills.

Network Satchel

A magical satchel used by members of The Last Hunt to send tagged monster parts to the guild and receive item rewards in return. Bastion used it to claim his Levitation Boots.

Levitation Boots

Magical footwear obtained by Bastion through The Last Hunt guild reward system. They allow the wearer to defy gravity in a manner similar to how a Tabaxi's natural abilities work through any footwear.

Candle of the Deep

A magical candle that appeared inside the guild bag as a reward item, noted for its utility in dark or underwater environments.

Prismatic Gemstone

A magical gem placed inside Hex Coda by Calliope. During this session it activated, causing the automaton's joints to glow with multi-colored light and granting him access to defensive protocols and additional spell options.

Nughuk's Sending Stone

A magical stone given to the party by the bugbear mercenary Nughuk, intended to be used to contact him if they ever need to hire mercenary services in the future.

The Heartstone

A palm-sized red gemstone that floated above a skull-adorned pillar in Kelek's ritual chamber. It pulsed with corruptive energy and served as the focal point of Kelek's ritual to siphon power from a spectral unicorn. It was progressively damaged by Shadow's arrows before finally being shattered, causing a violent magical explosion that damaged nearby party members but ended the ritual.

Horn of the Unicorn

A powerful artifact that the party was tasked by Pradam Estorich to retrieve. It was found floating at the center of a spectral unicorn's ghostly image during Kelek's ritual. Calliope successfully reached into the spectral form and retrieved it during the heat of battle.

Locations

Feywild

A vibrant and unpredictable plane where the party recently hunted a Dracohydra. It is home to Ellywick Tumblestrum and a friendly Blink Dog, and served as the staging ground for the party's reunion with Bastion before their return.

The Clearing by the Water

A serene spot where the party reunites with Venger, Willowbrush, and Hex Coda after returning from the Feywild, and where they prepare to enter the next portal.

The Bramble Dome

A cramped, dimly lit interior reached through a portal, characterized by thick, woody vines and brambles forming a dome. Glowing orange plants provide soft light, and a crystalline or glass-like structure glimmers far above. Bullywug guards were stationed here.

Kelek's Ritual Chamber

A room featuring an elaborate magical setup on the floor with glowing lights and four black obelisks. At its center stood a skull-adorned white stone pillar above which a corrupting red Heartstone floated, drawing energy from a spectral unicorn as part of Kelek's dark ritual.

Spells

Planewalking

A powerful magical ability used by Ellywick Tumblestrum to transport the entire party across planar boundaries back to the Realm of Dungeons and Dragons. Its accuracy was affected by her current Fey virus illness, resulting in Bastion experiencing some memory loss of the past hour in the Feywild, though no significant time was lost for the rest of the party.

Rimefrost

A cold-based magic used earlier to make the thick brambles brittle, which had been allowing them to be broken more easily during the party's initial attempts to clear a path.

Fire Breath

Used by Barlo to incinerate a path through the magical brambles, creating a lit clearing in the dense undergrowth. The vines attempted to regrow into the fire but could not spread the flames through their network.

Speak with Plants

Cast by Sas to communicate with the magical vines forming the bramble dome. The gruff plant spirit provided intelligence about Kelek's long ritual, the unicorn spirit being held ahead, and the bullywug and bugbear guards standing in the way.

Create Bonfire

Used as a visual signifier to mark and help keep a pathway open through the rapidly regrowing magical vines after Barlo's fire breath cleared the initial path.

Prismatic Magnitude

A defensive protocol activated by Hex Coda using his embedded gemstone before the party entered Kelek's ritual chamber. It granted the party advantage on wisdom saving throws and death saving throws, and caused any healing received to restore the maximum possible hit points.

Lightning Arrow

Used by Shadow in the Snow to initiate the surprise assault on Kelek's ritual chamber. The arrow struck the floating Heartstone, chipping it and releasing a burst of lightning that also struck Kelek and nearby enemies.

Hypnotic Pattern

Cast by Bastion's simulacrum against Kelek, successfully charming the wizard and forcing him into a stupor that halted his chanting. Kelek burned a legendary resistance to attempt to resist but failed, and remained incapacitated until he took damage.

Greater Invisibility

Employed by Calliope to move unseen through the ritual chamber, allowing her to maneuver through the magical energies surrounding the spectral unicorn and retrieve the Horn of the Unicorn without being directly targeted.

Ray of Frost

Cast by Bastion's simulacrum during the skirmish against a warg, though the creature managed to avoid the full effect of the chilling beam.

Classic

Last we left off, our intrepid band of adventurers found themselves reunited in the Feywild under rather unusual circumstances — Ellywick Tumblestrum's uncontrollable Fey virus yanking Bastion across planar boundaries and depositing him beside his companions just in time to claim a share of the Dracohydra's bounty. After signing on with The Last Hunt and earning a gleaming pair of Levitation Boots, the group rested, made a new friend in a sentient Blink Dog, and allowed Ellywick Tumblestrum to shepherd them back through the planes to their own world — arriving with time intact, though Bastion found the last hour of his Feywild memories curiously... absent. Waiting for them were Venger, Willowbrush, and the automaton Hex Coda, and before the party could press forward, Venger offered a quiet, heartfelt plea: the wizard Kelek had not always been the man he had become, and he asked them to seek redemption rather than ruin.

Stepping through the portal, the party emerged into a suffocating dome of magical brambles, dimly lit by pulsing orange flowers, with bullywugs lurking just beyond the thorns. Rather than spill blood unnecessarily, the group negotiated with the bullywug general and his confident bugbear commander, Nughuk — and found that a thousand gold pieces purchased their departure far more efficiently than any blade. What lay beyond was far more dire: an elaborate ritual chamber where four black obelisks surrounded the ghostly, translucent form of a unicorn being slowly torn apart, its essence fed into a small, corrupting red gemstone known as The Heart Stone of the Realm. At the center of it all stood Kelek himself, chanting with the hollow focus of a man long consumed by something darker than himself.

The battle that followed was swift and decisive. Shadow in the Snow's lightning-charged arrows cracked The Heart Stone of the Realm while Bastion's simulacrum reached into Kelek's mind and charmed him into stillness — yet even incapacitated, the stone continued its terrible work, as though the corruption had grown a will of its own. Calliope, invisible and airborne, seized the moment and pulled the Horn of the Unicorn free from the spectral form at the ritual's heart. When Shadow's final arrow shattered The Heart Stone of the Realm in a violent eruption of magical force, the ritual collapsed, the unicorn began to slowly reform, and Kelek stood in the wreckage looking lost and hollow — the corruption draining from him like a fever breaking at last. And as the dust settled, Calliope quietly gathered the shards of the shattered stone and slipped them into her pocket. Now, with the ritual broken and Kelek standing on the precipice between who he was and who he might yet become, we find our party in the aftermath of something that may have only just begun...

Snarky

Nothing says "welcome back from the Feywild" like immediately getting shoved through another portal into a dome of sentient, passive-aggressive brambles. The party handled the bullywug army the way any sensible adventurers would — by paying them to leave. One thousand gold pieces, zero bloodshed, and Nughuk the bugbear walked out of there like he'd just closed the best business deal of his mercenary career. Honestly, respect. Meanwhile, Venger asked the group to please not murder his old wizard friend, which is a totally normal thing to have to request before a boss fight.

Inside, they found Kelek doing a very long, very evil ritual to tear apart a unicorn with a corrupted gemstone, because apparently that's just what wizards do when they go off the rails. Shadow in the Snow shot the magic rock until it exploded, Calliope swiped the unicorn's horn while invisible and airborne like some kind of ethereal pickpocket, and Bastion's simulacrum charmed the big bad into standing there slack-jawed mid-chant. The Heartstone shattered, the unicorn started pulling itself back together, and Kelek had the look of a man who just woke up from a years-long fever dream to find his living room destroyed. And Calliope? She pocketed the shards. Quietly. Without comment. Totally fine. Nothing to worry about there.

Middle English

Harke well, ye souls of wandering kind,
Of planewalkers and hunters bold;
A sneeze did tear the veil of worlds,
And Bastion came in from the cold!

He signed his name to guild and hunt,
And boots of light were his reward;
Then through the planes they journeyed home,
By Ellywick Tumblestrum's strange art restored.

Beyond the portal, brambles thick
Did cage the party, dark and drear;
But gold did buy what steel could not —
The bullywugs did disappear!

Within the chamber, black and grim,
A unicorn was torn apart;
The Heartstone bled its wicked light,
And Kelek chanted, cold of heart.

Then Shadow's arrow split the stone,
And Calliope seized the horn with grace;
The ritual broke, the wizard woke,
And light returned to that dark place!

Limerick

A sneeze brought poor Bastion along,
To the Feywild, where he'd not belonged.
He signed up to hunt,
Got boots for the stunt,
Then befriended a dog all day long!

Through the planes Ellywick Tumblestrum led them back,
With memories slightly off track.
Venger made his plea:
"Spare Kelek for me!"
Then they stepped through the portal's dark crack.

In a bramble-dome, bullywugs lurked,
But Nughuk the bugbear just smirked.
For a thousand in gold,
He did as he's told,
And the mercenaries cheerfully shirked!

The Heartstone was draining a ghost,
A unicorn torn coast to coast.
Shadow's arrows flew true,
Calliope swooped through,
And the horn was the prize valued most!

The stone shattered, Kelek stood dazed,
His corruption undone and erased.
The unicorn mended,
The ritual ended —
But Calliope pocketed the shards, unfazed!

Exported from GMAssistant on 2026-08-16