Amrynn and PB noted that the sense of something they were missing being near faded as they entered Thither but Barnabus started to feel that same feeling in Thither
The party was in Nib’s Cave and Nib spun some items from his gold for them. He told them the following:
- Loomlurch is a giant felled tree where Skabatha lives
- Skabatha has key that protrudes from her back that spins quickly when she’s happy and slows to a stop based on how angry she is
- Enslaves children in her workshop to making creepy toys and flies them all over the kingdom on her rocking horse
- Will of the Feywild is a boy who helped several kids escape from her factory, he is protected by a treeant named Little Oak who lives in the north east of the forest
Nib directed them toward where Will is and said we may run into the Wayward Pool but that most people keep wandering on without noticing it
They made a detour to stop by the balloon to check in and let Mugwort and Clapperclaw know they were heading off to find Will
Clapperclaw confirmed that it was the Jabberwock that attacked the balloon and that he may attack the balloon again because he is a hunter
They continued on for a few hours and heard the bleating of goats in the distance and a giant oak. The oak, covered in brown leaves, stood in stark contrast to the rest of the forest’s luscious green leaves. There are three rusty sickles at the base of the tree and three goats.
PB noticed that there were some squirrels in the tree as well as some small bird-house sized things but there was movement around the tree that couldn’t quite be attributed to the squirrels
As Amrynn approached, three pixies appeared named Amerilus, Kaluna, Zenia and greeted them. They asked the party not to kill the goats as they would turn back into red caps. The pixies had polymorphed the red caps because they kept throwing rocks at their houses.
PB picked up the sickles and the goats immediately charged him, the party quickly hit the goats until they transformed back into red caps. They demanded their sickles back from PB to murder them and then started running off but Melina chopped at the one nearest to her with her sword but they ran off.
The sprites told them:
- Skabatha grows red caps in her garden and that she is making their tree sick
- They tried to give them directions to Loomlurch but couldn’t agree on the directions
- Little Oak used to come by when he was a sapling but he stays away now
- Skabatha has mechanical soldiers that steal the children
They gave them a vial of pixie dust that Barnabus quickly took (grants temporary flight), Melina gave them one of her lollipops and they gave her another vial of pixie dust
They continued onward until they got to a fork in the path, in one direction is a section where several trees had been clear cut, the other direction lead towards the edge of the forest but would likely be a more circuitous route
They started heading down the non-cut route and noticed some large tracks with talon-like imprints near the toes so they doubled back and headed down the other path
They reached the clearing with several stumps like someone was logging but then left all the logs on the ground
Amrynn noticed movement out of the corner of his eye but when he mentioned it to the party, several shrubs, tress, and a dryad stepped into the clearing and said “Show these villains the meaning of revenge”
PB talked her down by saying the party was there to get rid of Skabatha, she introduced herself as Metalyff and said that Skabatha chopped down her tree (the large stump in the middle of the clearing) and that she will die soon because her tree is dead, she said that they should head to Little Oak if they were serious about taking down Skabatha
She left them with three sycamore tree seeds which impart the effects of pass without trace for a single person