Chapter 3 - Session 7 - Do you wanna build a plantman!? It doesn't have to be a plantman.

We continue on our path following whatever is leaving all this destruction in its wake around the forest. The forest grows denser, light being blot out by the canopy more and more. Bruin leading the way tracking for clues while Klackers detects for any close magic fields. Z'ed and Odra scouting, Amani searching for anything out of the ordinary and I try to cover our tracks as best I can. Amani and Z'ed got a sense of death and a congregation of souls further up ahead of the way were heading and Odra mentioned something about her bones feeling weird. She might need to talk to a doctor about osteoporosis when she gets a chance. Bruin noticed some faint footprints in the underbrush so we stopped to let him investigate and get a clearer picture of what we might be up against next.
The tracks aren't going in one direction he notices they pace back and forth constantly like it is or a was a guard path used fairly heavily but he couldn't tell if it was recent or if its been awhile since they were made. At Odra's suggestion we decide to take the cautious route and keep whatever element of surprise we might still have to us. To the disdain of Amani who seems in a hurry to get where we are going sooner than later. We follow a narrow path through some narrow trees where the sunlight is so scarce that it feels like night almost. We continued slowly through the trees and came upon a quiet glade. Bruin noticed some movement in the underbrush up ahead of us. Whatever it was Bruin started to comically sneak forward like a cartoon and tripped on a root tumbling into a tree trunk. He got to the spot he saw the movement and finds a simple vine swinging between some tree branches rustling. No sooner did Bruin breath a sigh or relief than Odra looks up to see a handful of figures falling upon us. Some crazy stitched together creatures with masks. Based on how they behaved they looked more scared of us than we were of them. Odra trying to figure out what they were couldn't remember ever seeing anything like them before. Z'ed struck out at one of them with some magic lash. Then one of the creatures noticed Bruin and it got a crazed look and its jaw almost unhinged and bolted to Bruin striking at him with fervor. Amani dazed another one with an arcane mental attack. Bruin started fighting back against his attacker with claws of fury. Klackers cast some malediction trying to make them easier to hit. They all ignored Odra entirely and just focused on Bruin. Why him? Odra, Bruin, and Amani tried some crazy technique they been practicing but that didn't go well. They need a little more practice with it. I rushed over to Bruin to mix up a little healing elixir for him as he was looking pretty beat up. I also made a mutagen to help boost his defenses but he said fuck that and just started wailing on the creatures turning them into garden mulch. Z'ed summoned a fire Aiser and I lit more shit on fire. With the whole group working in unison we dispatched them with relative ease. As they died there were no screams of pain or anguish more like sighs. I went over to take a look and they had a weird port or node at the base of their spines. I called Amani over to take a look if maybe they were maybe used for some arcane purpose. Odra looking over our shoulder connected the dots and realized they were the results of a failure of the Lux Arcanum ritual we had read about. She had a visceral reaction to seeing them. Anatomy and magic rituals are outside my area of expertise so all this was so foreign and weird to hear. Amani noted that these were patchwork creations made of several of these failed experiments all bound to one central spine and port. Despite this Amani further noted that there was no remanence of any kind of soul. Like hollow husks of what they used to be. She could feel that whatever spirit congregation she was feeling earlier was getting very strong up ahead. We traveled closer. After about 15 minute we stepped into a clearing that defied every law of logic and nature. It smelled like rot and burning ozone. Pipes protruding from the ground making an industrial web of tubes and pipes. In its center was what used to be some druid being held up by oily tubes and strings. Whatever or whoever this used to be is some syndicate abomination. At the base of the machinery there is some sort of pump. In what's become the typical syndicate style it all looks overly complex and roughly constructed. Amani noted that the pipes pumping into the body seems to not be pumping oil or gas but souls into the body. What the hell did they do to this poor man . . .