Fergal perks up. "A former grove, you say? I'd like to see that, to be sure!"
The Half-Elf ranger gathers his things quickly and leads you out of the smithy. He point to a well worn path. "We start there. We will hit the grove first. It is the closest. You get your wish, druid." The trip takes about three hours (shortened significantly by the Ranger's knowledge of the woods). You come to an area with some of the largest trees you have ever seen. You enter a bit of an open area and he points out the largest of all the trees. "There. I will track ahead a bit and look for a place to camp tonight." He heads off to the Northeast.
The dense trees and thick brush of the forest
give way, parting seemingly in respect for
the titanic darkwood tree that dominates this
clearing. Several times taller than a temple
minaret, in one direction the obviously ancient
tree reaches into the sky with branches like a
giant’s arms, while in the other it plumbs the
earth with roots thicker than a man’s waist.
Its limbs broad and strong, its bark thick and
so richly colored as to almost be black, and
its leaves the size of bucklers, the giant thing
is less a tree and more a cathedral of boughs
and branches.
As you enter the opening, you all use your senses to check for danger.
Suddenly, two creatures burst forth from the trees to the north and south.
They attack the party. Fergal is the only one who senses their presence. The first one attacks Sariel, but misses. The other attacks Avogrado. Its attack hits the sorcerer (7 damage) and he is able to wrap his body around him (grappled).
"Worry not, little wizard; this one will save you."
Drawing his weapon in one swift action as he moves, Jean-Pierre steps up , rages, and attempts to chop the 'dragon' in two.
Suis' sword connects with the dragon's long snake-like torso, opening a huge gash in its flesh. It lets out a cry, still grasping the eccentric arcanist in its maw.
Fergal Suprise
Arun
Avogrado
Fergal
Jean-Pierre <
Khaz
Sariel
Dragon 1
Dragon 2
Once Khaz overcomes his surprise, he responds by raising his hammer and chanting out a canticle of praise to Torag. A small glow begins in his hammer, and spreads to the weapons of his comrades.
The distant sound of a hammer striking an anvil is heard as divine energy engulfs the party.
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Startled, the big man acts with alacrity. Stepping back he draws and casts a fine mist of coloured powder at the drake attacking Sariel. One arcane word, and the sand bursts into a startling kalidoscope of mesmeric colour targeted at the beast's eyes.
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The dragon fights off the mist, closing its eyes just in time. It turns toward the caster intent on making him pay.
These creatures likes to pounce on their prey. Once they have an enemy in their grasps, they can either rake with hind claws or release a poisonous gas. The have no specific weakness (just that sad will save). They are dragons (tatzylworms).
Fergal shouts out, "Attackers, make ready!"
He rushes up to the closer beast, seeing it near Rusco, and swings his staff, putting his hips into the blow to drive it home.
Fergal Suprise <
Arun <
Avogrado
Fergal <
Jean-Pierre <
Khaz <
Sariel
Dragon 1
Dragon 2
Fergal cracks the dragon near Rusco on its head, causing significant damage.
'is that a dragon? that looks like a dragon!' Dodging the attack of the creature that had sprung at him from the woods. Hearing Khaz's chant, Sariel lifts his shield and breaths a thank you. "Thank you for your blessing Torag friend of Erastil whom I serve." He then trusts his bastard sword around the shield at the large reptile north of him.
Sariel' s sword slices a chunk out of the dragon's side. It cries out in pain.
"Aaaaaaaaaaagh! Get it off me! Get it off me! Eeeeeeeeeeeeiii!"
A white blur swirls around the monster's head, the white raven pecking mercilessly achieving little but distracting it.
Avogadro squeals like a pig and begins flailing his limbs wildly. Managing admirably to hold his hat on with one steady hand.
The bird pecks on the monster's head to help his master escape. Unfortunately, it keeps its hold on Avogadro. The dragon releases a green, sickly mist from its maw. The gas engulfs Avogrado's head. It then drops the magician and attempts to run.
The attacks on the other dragon takes its attention from Arun.
It strikes at Fergal, but missed. It tries to escape.
Jean-Pierre attempts to finish the fleeing dragon off.
He then attempts to chase after the other one .
Jean-Pierre attempts to finish the fleeing dragon off.
He then attempts to chase after the other one .
Jean-Pierre's attack severs the dragon's head from its torso.
'We cannot leave these beasts to chase the innocent.' Sariel shifts forward and slashes at the fleeing 'dragon' with his sword.
Sariel splits the final dragon open, causing its intestines to spill out.
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"Avogadro ! Khaz, we need your healing skills here..." Arun rushes over to the fallen mage, concerned for his health...
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Fergal rushes over to Avogadro and Arun, Rusco close at his heels. "I've used up me healin' boons for now, but I've some skill at carin' for wounds the old fashioned way. Let's see now..."
"Bah, I'm about as useful as a chocolate teapot... if there's somethin' wrong, it's beyond me, for sure. Mayhap Khaz can help more." he says, stepping back.
"I'm goin' to poke about. Mayhap those dragon things attacked us here because they made their home nearabouts. Could be more of 'em."
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Avogadro pauses his incessant screaming just for a moment to draw breath but rather than air he gets a lungful of dragon gas.
Coughing, half by necessity, he swoons to one side and folds up, collapsing into a pile on the floor.
"Philistines! Heathens! Animals! They could without a doubt sense the real danger and went straight for my most humble self, thank the gods I was able to scare them away afore they could cause you real damage."
Rising unsteadily to his feet his dusts off his suit with his hands, the blood stains appearing to be brushed off as well
"Bards will tell tails to kings of this day you know? The day the Astounding Avogadro bested the malificent, trepidatious Dragon Twins of The Hollow Wood!
Rushing over to Avogadro, Khaz muscles his way past Fergal, mumbling an apology as he does so. Then, holding his hammer, he goes to work, praying earnestly to Torag for aid.
'The street clown has been injured, but Khaz has see to his wounds.' Sariel looks to his comrades, "Is everyone else ok?" Then briefly looking at the dragon like creatures,he and asks "Are these really dragons or are they something else?"
Fergal searches around the elder darkwood's trunk and easily finds the elderwood moss that Laurel described. He also notices bodies up in the tree. Taking his time, he is able to climb to them. The bodies are gruesome (half eaten), but they still have gear on them.
"Holy sparks, do ye see those bodies?! Poor buggers. What a way to go."
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"Fergal I see you have located the creatures' larder. Is the tree also their nest; can we be sure there were but the two of them?"
Arun gathers the equipment and sifts through it, appraising it carefully. He picks up the wand, thoughtfully. "Hmm. Interesting..." Arun would like to identify it, but lacking a prepared 'detect magic' shrugs, and simply points and fires the wand in a safe direction...
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'It's not right to leave them like this.' Looking at the two corpses Sariel asks, "Should we bury them under shallow cairns or should we build a small pyre and burn them?" He looks to the team, "Which would be faster? We should give them a proper burial, but we are still in a hurry."
Looking at the signet ring, "We may be able to find this ones family and let them know what happened."
"Well Sir Shining Armour it's funny you should mention that actually, I have spent time with the feral tribes of deepest and darkest Mwangi, not a place for the feint hearted by any stretch, but I digress, a most terrible sin of which I could never be accused. These savages place their dead in trees to prevent predation most foul. These men are clearly of that filthy ilk and we should honour them by leaving them here and getting away from the giant snake dragons as fast as your tiny legs can carry us..."
Bending down as he speaks Avogadro picks up one off the crossbows that has been retrieved
'Sir shinihg armour? Ferel? Savages? Filthy ilk?' Sariel looks at his dull scalemail, and smiles, nodding toward the bodies. "Master Avogadro, you have an amazing sense of humor, you had me going for a second or two. Can you start a fire with that bag of tricks of yours? We will build a pyre." Sariel then begins to gather wood for the fire.
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Not really understanding what was going on between the mage and paladin, Khaz dutifully began the process of attempting to dig graves for the bodies. Though without the proper tools, he found that digging with a short sword was not the easiest of tasks...
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Arun turns to Avogadro, keen to distract him from his tall tales of gruesome lands. "Hey Av - I didn't prepare myself this morning for the identification of magical items. Have you any powers in this regard today? I have tried to activate the wand as a test but without success. Perhaps you might have more luck?" Arun is not above asking for help when necessary, and he is keen to save his 'arcane bond' spell for more urgent future needs.
To everyone "Even to my unpracticed eye, this shortbow is of high quality. Does no-one wish to take it?
Arun strokes his chin as an unpleasant thought occurs to him. "Sariel, I hold you a good judge of a man's character. I hate to doubt my fellow travellers, but...Rhoddam the ranger lead us straight to this tree as if familiar with the location, yet left us to be ambushed under the cover of 'scouting ahead'. Am I perhaps being too suspicious, or...? Looking at Avogadro, and recalling the near-deadly grasp of the dragon "That could easily have been any one of us."
Once this thought has been discussed and a conclusion reached, Arun will seek to carefully gather a good sample of elderwood mold from the tree, and store it for safety in his scroll case.
thank goodness, Arun has distracted the clown.' Seeing Khaz begin to dig, Sariel goes to his new dwarven friend and explains. "Master Khaz, I was thinking we could build a small pyre, or fire, and burn the bodies instead of bury them. This is acceptable with most human communities. It would be a little easier than digging with our weapons. However, if you truly desire to bury them we can do that instead."
Hearing Arun's question, Sariel, looks mildly surprised at the accusation. "He seemed honest to me. I hate accusing a respected expert based on coincidence and our herbalist seemed confident on his skills." Sariel shrugs his shoulders. "He said he would look for a place to camp. If he comes back and has not accomplished that task, then perchance your mistrust is warranted."
Looking toward the dragon Sariel asks, 'Does anyone have any skill at skinning? The hides would make wonder trophies and interesting crafting material. Or will that take longer than the collection of the elderwood mold? Of course, we could take the dragon carcasses to the camp that Rhoddam will find for us and skin them there."
"Burn...the dead? Huh. We always say that we're born from the earth so to the earth we return. But to each their own." He gratefully stopped digging with his improvised shovel.
Khaz nodded at Sariel. The story was somewhat far fetched, but the mage seemed so earnest, and he'd hate to wrongfully accuse anyone.
"Regardless o' who is right or wrong, to jus' leave bodies like this when we don't know if they're properly buried, it sits wrong with me. Let's burn 'em then. At least we'll be able to show our respect."
Avogadro is internally horrified at Sariel's request for fire
Fire!? Never made fire before!?
He wanders about for a bit until he finds some likely looking twigs. As he wanders 5lb clods of earth begin lifting out of the hole Khaz started , and then back in gain as he gives up. Satisfied with his foraging he returns
"Avogadro, being Astounding, has mastery of all fires, their frabjous nature not withstanding. But let it not be said that I am a hogger of the light of the lime. In the presence of Avogadro all men must perchance seize their destiny and shine! My learned companions have spoken widely of their most enviable (to mundane men at least) proclivities when it comes to matters of the forge. Mayhap we shall have a display of efficacy from them them in the lighting of fires. Thus knowledge, understanding and, dare I say it, respect shall be shared by all!"
Khaz found himself completely lost in Avogardo's words, to the point that he misunderstood him. "Alright then! The mage has this. He's the expert on it, so let's let him do his work."
Jean-Pierre frowns.
"Digging graves will take a lot of time, as will making cairns. This one notes that excarnation via sky burials is a common practice in his homeland; is such a style of speeding the dead along on their journey not acceptable in this culture?"
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Arun, feeling bored with the discussion of what to do with the bodies from the tree, drifts away for a while. He stands, hands in his robes. Lost in thought. Suddenly, he turns, and interjects, [b]"Sariel, I appreciate why you feel the need to bury or burn these poor victims of the dragons. Really I do. But we serve a greater purpose here - service to the living, to those afflicted with the dread disease striking down the good townfolk.
We have not the tools to effect a burial. We should not attempt a pyre in this holy glade of all places, lest we offend the fey, a constant danger here in Nirmathis.
We need to leave the cadavers here for now, focusing all on getting back to the town with the cure. After, once we are done, we can inform the townsfolk and the loggers of the sad sight we found here, and they can use their own cultural norms to retrieve and transport their dead as they wish
We need to focus our efforts on the living.
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'Uuuuhhhhhh, sky burial?' Sariel looks from Jean-Pierre to Arun, turns to Khaz and shrugs his shoulders.
Turning to the street clown, "I'm Sorry Avogadro I just thought you were kidding.
Walking over to Jean-Pierre. "Could you show us how to burry the bodies properly using this Sky Burial? I will help you if I can."
Turning to Arun, "and I agree, time is of the essence and it wouldn't be good if the fire gets out of control."
Once the two bodies are properly interred Sariel asks Khaz, "Brother Khaz would you say a prayer for these two as the travel to Pharasma?"
The group sets up a pyre. They burn the bodies as Khaz whispers a prayer to the father of creation, asking him to hand their spirits over to Pharasma.
Near the end of the prayer, Rhoddam shows up. "Wow..looks like I missed some action." He moves over the the group. "Sorry for the length of my absence, but I found something unusual that has me concerned. I discovered a lot of tracks crossing the path to the witch's house. There should not be an army in this area. The tracks are different though. Have you encountered anyone on your journeys thus far?"