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Agni the small fire elemental enters the prime material plane, angry and confused. She looks around and sees someone familiar sparring with an ooze.
She ignores the buzzing swarm of fungal spores and heads for the ooze, attacking the beast with her friend from the plane of fire, slamming her fiery fist onto the amorphous creature, venting some of her irritation.
Most of the group readies and waits while allowing Meredith and Laz's fire elementals to do most of the heavy lifting. Meredith's elemental punches the flaming ooze again for great justice but Agni is so incredibly incensed about having her leisure time interrupted that she manages to miss!
The Unseen Servant silently and invisibly walks to its inevitable doom, stopping next to one of the swarms while Lazarus and Jan continue pelting the ooze with magic and arrows!
The plagueborn ooze mindlessly attempts to slam Meredith's elemental with a fiery pseudopod but the elemental has no trouble side-stepping the blow! And, finally reacting to the presence of nearby targets, the swarms begin to move. Purple rolls over the Unseen Servant, completely enveloping it...
...while Blue and Orange slowly approach the two elementals.
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Round 2
Brayden
Yorad
Frankie
Meredith + Elemental/Unseen Servant
Jan
Lazarus + Elemental
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Swarms
Ooze
Active Conditions: Bless
Everyone is UP!
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The elemental sighs and continues its assault.
It punches the red blob again, hoping to burn it to a crisp.
The Unseen Servant holds onto the flask of fire, even as the swarm surrounds it.
Unsure if she can actually hurt anything but unwilling to wait, Meredith enchants her crossbow with some magical energy and fires it at the orange swarm, since she has a clear shot.
"Did that do anything to it?"
She then reloads the crossbow.
Like a living, mobile bonfire, Agni's tongues of flame reach out in search of something to burn. She slams a fist into the ooze.
Meredith's elemental punches the flaming ooze one last time and the mass finally collapses in on itself, burning away until there's little left but a few greasy-looking scorch marks. Hoping to speed the proceedings along, Meredith herself takes aim and fires a bolt into the Orange Swarm...but it doesn't seem like it really did anything except maybe skewer a couple of the tiny blobs.
As the plagueborn ooze burns away, one of the oozing trees begins to pulse and writhe as a bulbous protrusion of off-white mucus begins to form.
The tree is forming another ooze or swarm! You realize that fire is the only way to put a stop to this mess for good - a small amount of fire applied to the tree should delay the process but a larger amount may destroy the tree (and the source of the oozes) for good.
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Round 2
Brayden
Yorad
Frankie
Meredith + Elemental/Unseen Servant
Jan
Lazarus + Agni
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Swarms
Active Conditions: Bless
Jan and Lazarus + Agni are UP!
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Having a basic understand of swarms (the Killer Bees of Irrisen are the worst!), Jan draws his quickdraw shield and a vial of acid.
"Lazarus will acid work on these tiny monsters?"
Assuming acid can damage almost any type of creature... except oozes of course! Jan will ready an action until the swarm is 20 feet away (2nd range increment).
"I only have 2 vials of troll's blood acid... hopefully this will be enough to destroy these creatures."
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Realizing what's about to happen, Lazarus shouts a warning, "The tree's forming another ooze or swarm! Fire is the only way to put a stop to this mess for good - a small amount of fire applied to the tree should delay the process but a larger amount may destroy the tree and the source of the oozes for good."
Unable to speak ignan, Lazarus gets Agni's attention, points at the tree, and makes a punching motion.
Rubbing his bonded holy symbol, the ecclesitheurge starts summoning one of Agni's sisters.
Agni gets the message, and with a shrug, slams into the tree.
Realizing what needs to be done, Lazarus executes a variety of strange gyrations and hand gestures to get a new set of instructions across to Agni. Thankfully, it doesn't take too much effort to get the point across and so the elemental slams a fist into the offending tree! The protrusion sizzles and gives off an eerie whining sound as it - and a good portion of the tree - shrivel up and burn amidst the flames.
Changing tack as well, Jan drops his bow and readies his shield and a vial of acid, ready to let the first swarm that approaches have it! And Lazarus busies himself summoning another fiery playmate for the swarms and the trees.
The swarms continue to, well, swarm. Purple continues to roll over the Unseen Servant while Orange and Blue move towards Meredith's elemental, with Blue rolling forward to engulf it completely!
And though Meredith's elemental does suffer some damage, it seems that its fiery presence comes back to bite the swarm in the...something...as numerous tiny oozes shrivel up under the intense flames!
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Round 3
Brayden
Yorad
Frankie
Meredith + Elemental/Unseen Servant
Jan
Lazarus + Agni
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Purple Swarm
Orange Swarm
Blue Swarm
Red Tree
Active Conditions: Bless
Everyone is UP!
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The elemental sighs and continues its assault.
As the swarm approaches the fire elemental, it provokes an attack of opportunity. The elemental tries to hit it, because why not?
The Small Earth Elemental is soon overrun. Yuck!
If it isn't nauseated, the fire elemental leaves the swarm and tries to punch it again.
The Unseen Servant holds steady.
Meredith realizes her crossbow isn't going to do much, so she stows it away and pulls out her heavy mace. "I hope it doesn't get too close, but I'll smash it if it does."
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Completing his summons, Lazarus places it inside the pink swarm, and it slams the nearest of the infected trees.
Then Lazarus casts burning sands, blowing a handful of sand toward the blue and orange swarms and the rest of the infected trees.
Sheets of hot sand spread over the ground. constantly shifting and churning. The sand itself burns, and periodic flames rise from the grit.
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Agni discovers she quite enjoys smashing and burning malformed trees.
She races over to another tree and swings at it, giggling at the sound of the sizzling oozelets bursting around her.
The churning, burning sands beneath her feet are a welcome relief to her plantar fasciitis.
Meredith's elemental, unaware of the futility of it all, tries swinging at the swarm as it approaches and as the swarm rolls over it - though its arms pass through the mass it seems like the fiery aura it gives off is much more effective than the actual power of its arms. With the elemental's second swing, the Blue Swarm dissolves and disperses as thousands of tiny oozes burn and shrivel with a shrill, but satisfying, sound.
And as the Blue Swarm disperses, another tree begins to pulsate and writhe, oozing an off-white mucus!
Meredith, unsure of what else to do, stows her crossbow and draws her mace - ready to smash the oozes a few at a time if it comes to it. Meanwhile Lazarus finishes his summons and yet another fire elemental joins the party, popping up in the middle of the Purple Swarm and slamming a fiery fist into the nearby tree! Flame begins to race along the diseased trunk, popping and crackling and turning the wood underneath it black...but the tree remains standing - for now.
Lazarus then conjures burning, swirling sands that turn much of the bog into a desert, at least for a short time. The sand burns hot to the touch underneath the swarms and against the trunks of some of the diseased trees...and finally, one of them succumbs to the heat and slowly begins to collapse and crumble in on itself, leaving charred and smoking bits of wood behind!
With the tree she was originally going to punch already destroyed, Agni simply shrugs and whips around to punch the one behind her. To her surprise and/or delight, her fiery fist punches completely through the diseased tree and leaves a gaping, smoldering hole behind!
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Round 3
Brayden
Yorad
Frankie
Meredith + Elemental/Unseen Servant
Jan
Lazarus + Agni + Second Elemental
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Purple Swarm
Orange Swarm
Red Tree
Black Tree
Purple Tree
Active Conditions: Bless
Brayden, Yorad, Frankie and Jan are UP!
Wanting no part of the fiery carnage within the bog, Yorad maintains his position and waits to see if any of the swarms actually approach the group. Frankie also waits, though the mess and the sheer strangeness of the spectacle have him off-kilter and he can't help but edge up closer to the bog just a bit. Also getting tired of waiting around, Brayden enchants his katana to be just a bit sharper and heavier and moves right up to the edge of the bog, wondering what might happen as he does.
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Round 3
Brayden
Yorad
Frankie
Meredith + Elemental/Unseen Servant
Jan
Lazarus + Agni + Second Elemental
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Purple Swarm
Orange Swarm
Red Tree
Black Tree
Purple Tree
Active Conditions: Bless
Jan is UP!
Jan moves up and even with the distance and the trees in the way and the Unseen Servant in the way he gracefully lobs the acid in a majestic arc into the Purple Swarm! The vial shatters amid the oozes...but it doesn't seem like the acid had any noticeable effect on the mass.
Purple Swarm continues oozing and climbing all over the Unseen Servant and now Laz's fire elemental...
...and the Unseen Servant finally poofs out of existence, dropping its vial of alchemist's fire right into the swarm as it does!
The combination of alchemist's fire and the fiery aura of the elemental is too much and the Purple Swarm disperses as well, thousands of tiny oozes popping under the intense heat!
The Orange Swarm also continues swarming over Agni...
...but ultimately suffers the same fate as the other swarms, Agni's fiery aura and the burning sands underneath it proving too much! This last swarm disperses and the eerie, disease-ridden bog grows quiet...except for the pulsing and writhing of the trees as they begin to ooze more off-white mucus. But now that you know what needs to be done, it doesn't take long for the Fiery Trio to burn the remaining diseased trees down to nothing but blackened cinders.
Denair looks among the charred remains. While she's pleased to avoid the poison, she wished she could have helped.
"You've burned the trees." She sounds disappointed for a moment. "But they were diseased. The land is now rich with bare soil, and it can now heal." She sounds a bit happier. "Thank you all."
"Dolok will be thankful, as well. Let's return and deliver the good news."
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Frankie watches on in awe, vials gripped tightly in his little hands as the oozes, the little baby oozes, and the diseased trees are burned up by the fire elementals and whatever that popping sound was to the south of him. "That was AWESOME!" He races over to high five (low five) Laz and Meredith, then Jan.
"You guys are amazing! Where'd those fire guys come from? What were they saying? How come they didn't get hurt from the oozes? Where did they go? What do we do now?" He rattles off question after question, pausing only to put away his vials and drink some cocoa.
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"They came from the Plane of Fire. I don't know what they said, they probably spoke Fire Language. They probably did get hurt, but the fire hurt them back. They can't stay here forever, they returned to the Plane of Fire." Meredith answers as many questions as she can.
"I think we should return to the Dolok and the Skolovs. Tell them the plague has been removed."
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Relieved that the crisis has been averted, Lazarus offers Agni and Vibhooti a slight bow, hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to his chest. "I apologize for interrupting your day. Please return to the Plane of Fire, with our thanks for your aid."
Dismissing the pair of fire elementals, Lazarus turns to his companions, returning Frankie's high-five. "I'm afraid the burning sands will linger a few seconds more, but I assure the land will return to normal shortly."
The samsaran nods in agreement with Yorad and Frankie. "It does seem we've eliminated the terrible blight here, but we're no closer to identifying its cause or its source."
Further probing around the general vicinity and the bog in particular thankfully fail to turn up any additional oozes or swarms or diseased plant life. Although the land in this place is still blighted, the atmosphere is less oppressive now and the ugly yellow puffs of mist have ceased erupting from the ground. It will take time, years probably, for the damage caused by the oozes and the infected trees to heal...but anyone with a connection to nature feels certain that it will heal.
As to how the trees became infected in the first place...that remains a mystery, for there are no signs of tampering, fell rituals, or anything else that you can think of.
You recall that the lands of Iobaria have, oddly enough, suffered numerous plagues over the years which have played a large part in keeping the country's population low. Several of the plagues apparently originated from the forests but their origins are otherwise unknown.
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Lazarus ponders the situation while he searches the area with his companions. "I recall that the lands of Iobaria have, oddly enough, suffered numerous plagues over the years which have played a large part in keeping the country's population low. Several of the plagues apparently originated from the forests but their origins are otherwise unknown."
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Frankie wanders around, listening to the wisdom of Lazarus as he chews a random piece of taffy. "Wow, sounds like a bad place to live. I wonder where they come from?" He rushes up and knocks over another standing dead tree, checking it over for oozes and yellow mist.
"Maybe its time to go back, give everyone the good news!" Frankie races ahead... amazingly in the right direction.
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"Lazarus, you say that plagues are common in this region? Why would anyone live here if that is the case? Perhaps the high priests of Gozreh and the druids could cleanse these lands once and for all. Would the Society help with organizing that?"
This must be some form of curse...tainting the very land itself.
Jan appears somewhat troubled by Brayden's pronouncement, "Brayden, I fear all we have done is avert one small outbreak and have done little to heal the land against future outbreaks. Something evil has entered the ground here and twisted it...", Jan's voice trails off as he contemplates the ramifications of the regions history.
More people will come here... and they too will become sick and die. Men, women and children.
Jan withdraws into an emotionally dark place and begins walking back to the ruined village.
Though your investigations don't yield any further clues as to what infected the trees in this part of the forest or why, you do happen to find an old iron chest secreted away underneath a tree root that's pushed its way out of the soil. It's rather rusted and takes some work to break open but inside you discover a small fortune in items:
+1 Battle Aspergillum
Catching Cape
Key of Lock Jamming
Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
Potion of Remove Disease
Potion of Undetectable Alignment
450 gold pieces
Emerald x5 (worth 300gp each)
And a brief note detailing some sort of illicit exchange of goods and coin - probably the work of smugglers long ago. With little else to be done here at the grove you all turn your gaze back towards the Farheaven village, hoping that your efforts will be enough to give Dolok some measure of peace.
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After spending another night out in the woods (for it was late afternoon when you had your encounter in the plagued grove) it takes most of the next day to make the trek back to the Farheaven village. Everything is just as you left it and as you come striding back into the old village center you see Kenner Skorlov outside doing some preventative maintenance on the roof of his home. He sees you as well and stops his work to watch your approach.
"All back an' in one piece, I see," Kenner calls down to you. "What happened out there?"
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Frankie races back into town. The dust, leaves and a blur is all to be seen. He slams on the breaks at the foot of the man's house and breathes heavily, shouting to the world
After a few seconds of heavy breathing and puffing his chest out like he's about to be crowned King, Frankie answers with as much excited gusto as a 9 year old can muster "Ohitwassogreat! MeredithandLazcalledsomefireyfriendswhocameandburnedupalltheoozythings!" He blathers incoherently before finally slowing down. "And Jan shot arrows! And I just stood there and watched with Yorad and Brayden. It was great."
"There was this bunch of trees and it was all mookie and muddy and smelled bad... there were a bunch of goopy glops that caught on fire! Then their firey friends burned up the sick trees and we found a cool chest!" He announces proudly.
Denair enjoys the evening, despite the fire and burnt trees. She's willing to ramble on about the local plant life here. Meredith manages to enhance her intelligence, briefly so she can ramble on some more about the effects of forest fires.
The next day, Denair is quick to shake Kenner's hand (as she scrambles up his roof). "Oh, there were trees, but they were infected. And all of this fungus. I didn't see it, but the Boss summoned some fire elementals! FWOOSH! They burned them all. Now the forest can heal. For now, anyway. There are deep secrets out there."
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Yorad's eyes light up as the contents of the chest are revealed, and he spends a couple of moments wiping the drool from his lips.
Worth it...this godsbedamned trip was...
As the party returns to the village Yorad nods grimly, "Yeah I would steer clear of that place for a while. No telling what other nasties lurk there. Mebbe check it out in a month or two," stroking his jowl thoughtfully.