This one-shot was played in April 2024. It was played IRL in Bangalore, and focused on a small group of characters trying to prevent corruption from destroying the Olymbian Woodlands near Ruskerton.
The characters were:
Farrah - F Firbolg Swarmkeeper Ranger (Paulomi)
Basad - M Half-Drow Trickery Cleric (Basu)
Kip - NB Floren Battlemaster Fighter (Tara)
As Basad approaches the south gate of Ruskerton, he saw it closed and a few of the gate guards are arguing with a Firbolg, Farrah. Kip was one of the junior guards. They didn’t want to let her in believing that she might be carrying a plague that was rumored to be starting from the forest. She wanted help from some city scholars who could fix what’s happening to the forest.
Kip asked Basad to check her over, since he looked like a cleric. He said that she isn’t diseased, and they were let into the city. Kip asked if they could follow them and make a report on this forest-dying scenario, and the senior guard was fed up enough with Kip to let them go do whatever. Farrah explained to them that the forest had started to die over the past month, and the Elders of her tribe weren’t doing anything about it. Kip ate one of Farrah's dragonflies. Kip led them to the only person they could think of, an alchemist named Verdanto, who happened to be a Warforged. He claimed to not know anything that was going on, but after some intimidation by Farrah he revealed that some poacher contacts of his went into the woods to hunt ‘the Master of the Forest’. Basad realized that this might be a forest spirit, and if it's wounded, that’s why the forest was dying. Verdanto explained that the horn of this spirit could make a potion of immortality. They decided to ask the Elders for information, and headed towards the forest. Near the edge of the woods, Kip heard a scream come from a farm, where a farmer was being attacked by a malnourished wolf pack. They quickly killed the pack leader which caused the remaining wolves to flee, and then rested up. In the forest, a deer mistook Kip for food and almost ate them.
Reaching the tribe, they were stopped by a guard but eventually let in. Everyone stared at the outsiders, and eventually they met Elder Magala, who Basad immediately fell in love with and tried to flirt with despite her age. Magala eventually explained that the great Unicorn Spirit, the Master of the Forest, was likely hurt. The other Elder went to one of the other villages to ask for help, and was essentially useless. They decided to head out and then casted speak with plants to ask an oak tree for information. The tree pointed them to the general direction of the poachers. Kip asked if there are others of their kind, and the tree explained that the forest was Kip’s home. Later, they decided to use Kip as bait to get another deer, and then used the speak with animals spell to ask the deer to lead them to the poachers. At their camp, they saw the four of them- a human, a mutated human brute, and two drow. They lured one of the drow assassins into the woods, where they casted the hold person spell to immediately kill her. Basad disguised as her and went to talk to the others, but the leader caught on and attacked. The three barely managed to take them down, and decided to rest up in their camp. They saw in the leader’s sack was the broken horn of the Unicorn spirit. Basad realized that his family heirloom crystal could be used as an arcane glue.
The next morning, Farah disguised herself while Basad casted Speak with Dead on the leader. Through questioning, they found out that they were hired by the thieves guild to both get the horn to make an immortality potion as well as to kill the spirit so that the forest would die and leave room for industrialization. They had found the heart of the forest once, wounded the unicorn, but then were cast out in an explosion and had been lost since. If the forest dies, its would be land for development. Farrah knew where the heart was, and they headed to it while Basad used the sending spell to ask Magala for advice.
Eventually, they reached the heart of the forest, and saw the spirit in front of them, enraged and corrupted. The spirit tried to kill them, while they tried to hold it down. Kip tripped the spirit and put the crystal on its broken stump, while Farrah used her dragonflies to take the broken horn to the crystal. They needed to hold it in place for just a few seconds, so Basad tried to distract it using Invoke Duplicity. It didn’t work, and they were almost killed. They tried the same tactic again, and it just barely worked this time. In a flash of light, the greenery was restored, and the spirit was cured. It non-vocally thanked them, and blessed them. Kip saw many florens like them looking at them all around after the spirit seems to summon them for Kip. Kip promised to come back to talk all the time after they take the report back to the guards. Farrah had saved her village, and was content in this revelation. Basad gave up his heirloom, but felt happy about saving this village, and wanted to try to ask out Magala again. With this, they started to head back to the city.