- Napoleon Twig (elf druid) - Ian
- Joe Manco (human fighter) - Shane
- Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
- Kosha Pickles (human rogue) - Darryl
- Phoebe Lacrosse (human barbarian) - Andrew
- Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris
- Grizo Muso (human thief) - Jeff
- Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin
"Leader Joe" confirmed that the party would be delighted to investigate the noted disturbance in the forest, some days klibward from Constance's hut, and that they would set off immediately. Well, after the party had recovered their depleted health and arcane power obviously.
Constance the Druid thoughtfully cast a series of Healing spells, including a Cure Major Wound on Red's injured hand. This sequence of healing and recovery used a significant portion of the day, and the party planned for an early start the next morning, after a good night's rest and power recovery.
"But note that if you use any magical fire in my forest, I will kill you!" Constance clarified, just before she again transformed into a large swan and flew off over the trees.
"The hut's empty" noted Phoebe presently.
"Nope, not going in there again" stated Gandhi.
The party set up their camp in the clearing in front of Constance's hut, set watches, and prepared for the night.
Just before dark, the huge brown bear reappeared, took a dump, and settled just in front of the hut door.
"See!" exclaimed Gandhi, quietly.
During the first watch that night, a young woman danced into the clearing, humming quietly to herself. She sprung lightly over the bear and disappeared into the hut.
"Um" commented Napoleon retrospectively, "Go on in ..."
In the morning, Constance emerged from the hut carrying another large tray of scrumptious food, in which we all participated with much gratitude.
"The bear will guide you across my territories, maybe a half a day, and a quarter of your expected journey to the troubles sensed yonder" Constance stated.
And after breakfast we all set off, the bear in the lead.
At midday, the bear growled and grunted, then turned back and left us.
Rupert the Elf took the lead, and we continued on klibwards, deeper into the mysterious Aleph Forest.
Pretty quickly the going got very difficult. The undergrowth became thick with brambles and thorny scrub, and we had to to resort to chopping our way onward.
"What about a wee blaze?" queried Red.
"Fook off ya noody" yelled Balder, "you 'eard the Druid. She vill kill ya!"
"What's that over there?" questioned Napoleon, "Looks like a stag trotting along an open trail".
Sure enough, we chopped through about twenty meters to the side, and there was a relatively open trail leading on in the direction we were heading. Stag spoor lead on klibward.
"I was about to locate this trail" noted Rupert.
"Oh Rupert, Rupert the elf, everyone sing his name" scoffed Napoleon with a chuckle.
 |
| The old gnarly Ash |
Approaching the Ash, Napoleon stepped forward and ran his hands across the bark.
"There is a large hollow in the side of the tree here" he noted, then disappeared inside.
"Oh" he yelled from within the tree, "A steep tunnel leads down into the ground".
"Thats lucky" replied Balder from the clearing, "The trail we arrived on has closed up and there is no way on from the clearing out here."
A Detect Evil spell didn't indicate any problems, although a Detect Magic did reveal that pretty much the whole forest was imbued with a magical aura of some kind, and the old Ash in particular.
Napoleon popped out from the opening, lit up his lantern, and went to head back inside. The branches of the Ash began to wave about, despite there being no wind, and a creaking rumble sounded loudly from above.
"Perhaps a light spell instead!" suggested Kosher, who was scouting around for tracks at the opening into the tree's interior. "No tracks except ours" Kosher reported.
Casting a Light spell, Napoleon tied himself to one end of a climbing rope and passed the other end to Red and Joe. "Keep a hold of this end" he stated and slid down into the steep shaft inside the tree.
After about fifty feet, when the end of the rope arrived in Joe's fist, he yelled down the shaft.
"Are you down yet?" Joe yelled.
"Nope" drifted up faintly from below.
"More rope required then" yelled Joe and hitched on another fifty-foot length.
"Wait" came Napoleon's faint voice, "Some large tracks in the shaft from here".
Napoleon was dragged back to the surface, covered in dusty dirt, and Joe tied to the rope instead. Joe was more than happy to take on any creature at the bottom of the shaft, even if they did have six-inch long clawed feet with three toes and a heel-spike.
"Wait" yelled Red, "Balder has turned blue. There must be danger".
"Those creatures must be tougher than their tracks suggest" scoffed Joe.
But after a heated discussion, it was decided that no one should descend the shaft to the bottom after all, and that we would have to look harder for a path onward through the forest.
But no one could find any way forward.
Napoleon even used his Animal Form spell to transform briefly into a Hawk and fly about above the clearing to see if there were any paths or tracks beyond the thick brambles and bush that now fully enclosed the clearing.
Balder cast a Glyph of Warding over the opening of the tree, we set up watches for the night, and settled down, hoping that a new day would present us with some way of moving forward on our quest.
Just before dawn, during the last watch, a piercing scream rang out.
Everyone leapt to their feet, weapons drawn, to see Gandhi dangling from the tree, branched wrapped around his chest and throat, and jerking him up and down.
As Red leapt forward and grabbed Gandhi by the ankle, an ominous voice echoed from the darkness of the tree's opening.
"Who are you?" it asked.
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| Ashlyn of the Ash |
"What do you have for me?" she asked threateningly.
"We just wish to halt the troubles that are occurring kilbward of here." offered Red from his precarious elevated position, clutching Gandhi's ankle extremely tightly and swaying above the ground.
[A successful Persuade roll by Chris convinced the Dryad that we were just there to help the forest.]
"My cousin" the Dryad hissed, "Help her. Quickly"
"There will be no problems for you my friend" she stated.
"I am Ashlyn of the Ash. Wait here and I will return shortly with a boon".
She drifted back into the tree and disappeared.
The branches of the Ash gently lowered Red to the ground, and then dropped Gandhi down with a crash.
"Hey. Vot about me?" muttered Gandhi, "I'm friendy too."
Just after dawn, Ashlyn again appeared out of the tree. A giant chicken strutted out beside her.
Approaching Red, Ashlyn passed him a short stick, slightly twisted, with a few Ash leaves attached.
She also grasped Red's four fingered hand between hers and offered up a prayer in an unknown language. A green glow slowly built up around their joined hands, and with an intense flash of green light Ashlyn stepped back to reveal Red's hand, five fingered and whole once more.
"Thank you, thank you" stammered Red.
As Red looked down at the twisty stick in his hand, the forest swayed and shifted with a drawn-out rustle, a nice wide path opening up on the klib edge of the clearing.
"Go" Ashlyn instructed, "And Balder, be very careful with what you carry. Death follows you and will only bring misfortune and misery."
Everyone turned towards Balder, who stood nervously in front of us, his right hand clenched around something in his pocket.
"Um, yes, let's go then" Balder nodded, and struck off towards the new path. We all followed.
Our journey had become much more straightforward. A direct path opened through the forest in front of us, and partially closed in behind us leaving a navigable trail to return along. We saw nothing of note for the whole day, until around two hours before dark when the path began to thin down and we heard some unusual noises from ahead of us.
"This twisty stick is vibrating" noted Red quietly, "And that sounds like dogs up ahead there".
Kosha slipped off into the forest ahead to reconnoitre and was soon back.
"A few huge four-legged monsters in a clearing, pulling a tree over with ropes" he reported, "Some giant dogs, a human man, and some green midgets with small axes chopping into the roots. The tree looks like a bit like that other one in the last clearing, but smaller".
Deciding to wait until dark, we heard the noises ahead quieten down. The chopping stopped, and the barking died down to the occasional grunt.
Napoleon used his Animal Form and transformed into an Owl for a more detailed reconnoitre.
He flapped off towards the clearing ahead and was back within his ten-minute deadline.
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| A Mighty Clydesdale |
"What I said" mumbled Kosher.
A hasty attack plan was thrown together which involved the use of Invisibility, vials of Poison, missile weapons, and brute force. It was executed immediately.
We all moved up closer to their camp, but not too close.
Gandhi was made Invisible and snuck forward with our six vials of poison. He dumped them carefully into the large barrel of ale that was sitting beside their cooking facility and retreated.
After about fifteen minutes, all hell broke loose in their camp.
There was yelling, moaning, squealing, and other noises reflecting distress and discomfort.
Gandhi was again made Invisible and snuck forward to release their horses.
Everyone else moved closed under cover of their distress and formed an attack arc facing the camp.
Kosher moved around the right flank to attack from a different direction.
The "signal" was to be a Magic Missile strike at the smaller human spell caster.
Bows and crossbows were drawn and sighted onto selected targets.
Balder loosed his Magic Missile into the smaller human. Four points of damage.
Grizo dropped into the bush and disappeared.
Kosher fired his bow into the smaller human. A critical hit, and the poor guy crumpled to the ground.
Simultaneously, Red and Joe fired their crossbows at the smaller human.
As he collapsed from Kosher's critical arrow strike, two crossbow quarrels thumped into his body.
Seriously dead and mangled!
The six Kobalds leapt up and were heading to the horses, and Gandhi.
Gandhi had already cut the horses loose, so he gave them a slap and faded back into the bush.
The four Gnolls leapt up and drew their mighty bows, peering around for targets.
The other human fighter, six foot seven of muscle, drew his one-handed sword and charged Kosher.
Kosher had re-targeted his bow to this fighter and got off another few arrows before dropping the bow and whipping out his own two-handed sword. He stared up at the charging enemy, sword to the fore, his spent arrows sprouting from the fighter like a pincushion, but hardly impeding the brutes impending strike. Kosher sucked in a deep breath and prepared for mele.
Red fired off another crossbow quarrel at one of the Gnolls, which pierced its bristly hide.
Balder cast a Protection from Normal Missiles in front of Red, as they all swivelled towards him and loosed their super-sized arrows.
The six Kobolds, having seen the horses all run off, revised their direction and headed straight towards Red, Phoebe, and Joe, waving their axes in front of them. Joe, Red, and Phoebe bravely stood fast, ready to battle all comers. Phoebe readied for the Kobold hoard, while Red fired on the Gnolls.
Joe targeted the human fighter, who was bearing down on Kosher. Then ducked into cover to reload.
Balder also targeted the human fighter with his Magic Missile. A decent four points of damage inflicted.
Two Gnoll arrows bounced off the magical protection in front of Red, the third sailed past Joe's ear.
Koshers wild two-handed swing at the fighter slipped under his chin and ripped his throat open.
[Another critical hit by Darryl, with near maximum damage, easily finished the fighter off]
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| A Gnoll Archer |
The Gnolls, seeing their human allies down, cut and ran off into the forest.
The Kobalds, recognising superior foes, also retreated and disappeared into the bush.
"Off with ya" yelled Phoebe triumphantly.
Making sure that they had actually left the area, we surveyed the loot left behand and set up camp for the night. Gold, gems, and a few weapons. Napolean and Balder both cast Detect Magic and discovered the human fighters one-handed sword, and the human spell casters spiral bladed knife were both magic, and also something located below the roots of the Oak tree. We did not investigate further.
"That looks like an evil knife" noted Napoleon.
A Detect Evil quickly confirmed that the knife was not evil, but that Balder himself was gently glowing with a sickly black evil aura.
The next morning, the ropes that were holding the tree over at an angle were cut and removed, a Growth spell and a Bless were cast, and we left to return to Constance's hut. Red's twist stick guided us back, and we encountered no problems for the two days of travel. The Bear met us some hours out from Constane's hut and escorted us for the final stretch. We arrived just before dark.
Constance met us at the door to her hut and thanked us profusely. She explained that the old Oaks of the forest often have magical "bulbs" that grow below the roots. These bulbs have special and magical properties and are widely sought after by the good, and not so good, inhabitants of the wider area.
"But" she concluded, "You will be wanting your reward for helping me out."
"You may have six of my special mushrooms" she stated.
"Who would like to come down to my basement to collect them?"
Only Napoleon, Phoebe, and Balder were game.
They entered the hut while the rest of us stayed outside with the bear and hoped they returned!
They were back in about fifteen minutes, Balder looking pale and flushed, Phoebe with a small mushroom sprouting off the back of her hand, and what we assume was Napoleon, transformed into a Gnome, grinning like a pig in shit, with five different mushrooms growing on him. One on the back of each hand, one on his right cheek, one on his left thigh, and one on his right shin.
[The mushrooms only thrive on humanoid flesh, living, or less than three days dead. Each one imbued a different random effect on the recipient. Obviously, Ian's character Napoleon had been subject to some form of transformation. He still sounded like his original Elven character, but his appearance had transformed into a Gnome, male, and short and stout.
Andrew rolled an 8 for his random effect, nothing apparent yet.
Ian rolled 6, 6, 8, 4, and 3. He luckily made his save vs. poison!]
"I declined!" squeaked Balder.
It was a five- or so-day trip back to Oswald, the gnome sage in Hackerton, and we set out immediately the following morning. The sun was shining, the birds chirping, the bear grunting, and Napoleon's mushrooms waving in the morning breeze.
"Cool" he said, entranced.
Well done!
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