As soon Darian sees the temple, and the bear standing at the mouth of the cave, he readies his bow. ”Bows and spells, everyone. Let’s try and drop this bear before it can get to us.”
Once the others are ready, he uses his magic to bolster everyone’s attacks and then begins to slowly advance. Once the bear comes into range, he fires.
Lisl reins in her horse and looks up at the great elk carving.
"Magnificent. A fascinating piece of work; normally Erastil's worship does not incline toward such significant pieces. Clearly a message that this is a sacred place."
She dismounts carefully and says, "I'm sure the bear will be about. If it is connected somehow to this site, it will likely be along to see what we are doing here."
She turns to Freya and says, "Do you think you might be able to speak to this bear and discern some matter of what has happened here?"
Rok stays on Kasper and circles around the party and trots a little ways into the temple, keeping her bow up and ready to fire.
"Keep an ear out, eh boy?"
She whispers to the horse.
Freya smirks, "Had I the forethought to prepare such a spell today, yes, I could. As I did not..." she says, leaving the remainder unsaid.
"Muninn, you keep out of claw's reach, alright? Fenrir, you're with me." she adds while casting a defensive spell.
The large bear howls in rage as it hears your voices, froth dripping from it's jaws as it lumbers frighteningly fast towards you.
Darian's arrow sinks into one shoulder, but the bear shows no reaction as it continues to charge.
Jory adds another bolt to pepper the beast.
What are you doing now?
Seeing the bear charge, Darian fires another arrow as he focuses on maintaining his own aura to enhance his allies' attacks. He looks over to Isabel as his arrow goes wide, "Don't stay up front, hun. He doesn't look like he's interested in talking," he says half joking, trying to cover his own concern.
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Isabel takes Darian's hand for a moment. "Be safe!" She looks into his eyes as she imprints his mind with a fraction of her own psychic power.
Why is it always the magical animals? A small part of Isabel's mind thinks in despair. With little else to do Isabel draws on the foliage around them ready to hurl a cone of light at the animal - hoping to distract the creature.
Freya moves to the edge of the pool with Fenrir, preparing to try and put the enraged bear to sleep once it is within range of her gaze.
Rok looses an arrow at the bear but doesn't direct Kasper to move.
"Stay close so we can assist each other. It's fast, we won't be able to rely on just bows for much longer."
Lisl waves her silver key in the air and chants a simple paean to Abadar.
"Lord of the Vault, secrets have been lost here; turn your favor to us so that we might recover them from the encroaching wild."
The Bear howls in rage and pain as more missiles sink into it's hide, charging at the party in it's mindless fury.
The flash of magic is ignored as it rears up to smash Rok from her saddle.
It's claws tear the air in front of her face, but miss her flesh.
The party can now act. Big bear in your face.
Seeing the bear engage, Darian tosses down his bow and readies his sword and shield as he charges the bear. He channels more of his own magic into his blade, and attempts to thrust it deep into the bear's shoulder.
__________
Freya casts a spell on Fenrir before bidding him to attack.
(magic fang, bless, inspire, flank)
(magic fang, inspire)
(magic fang, bless, inspire, flank)
Lisl moves closer to Rory and says, "Do kindly take care of this bear, please."
Darian buries his sword deep into the mad bear, it rears back and howls in pain, Fenrir takes his chance and tears through it's hind leg, sending it crashing to the ground.
The bear makes an almost human-sounding sigh of relief, then collapses in on itself, transforming first into an incredibly old human man with a look of peace in his eyes, and then a moment later crumbling into a skeleton and thence to dust.
At this moment, the entire shrine seems to grow more vibrant and colorful. The water in the pool becomes crystal clear and a weight seems to lift from the whole area.
Among the scattered bones of the unfortunates who have stumbled across this temple you find little remains but rusted armor and weapons, except for one suit of chainmail still in good condition
What are you doing now?
Darian looks around, shocked by the magic and power on display around him. As the miracle continues to form around him, he stammers ”Ummm...guys? What’s going on?”
"Well, that's unexpected...." Rok says looking at where the bear-turned-man had been. "Is there some sort of religious context I'm missing here?"
She moves to inspect the temple, taking care to make sure there aren't any more weird werebears around.
When she's satisfied the temple is clear she looks to the others.
"These woods get weirder every day, ready to see more?"
Freya slowly walks around the rejuvenated temple grounds, simply looking around. "Marvelous...It would appear that Erastil has chosen to grace this shrine once again, now that the bear...um old man is more." she says in response to Rok's question.
"Yes, I suppose we should move on, although I can hardly wait until we can tell Jhod about this place."
”Alright,” Darian says as he sheathes his blade, ”but we should return here for camp. Seems quite defensible now.”
Before they leave, Darian makes sure to give the area a good walk through, using his ability to see magic auras to take in the effects of whatever divine power is working here.
__________
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"Maybe the bear, man, thing had offended Erastil somehow?" Isabel speculates. "I've heard of the gods cursing ungrateful people sometimes so perhaps that was what happened here? I'm afraid I'm guessing though..."
She examines the clearing with wonder, delighting in the newly budding trees and the clean water of the fountain. "This place is lovely. We should definitely come back here again with Jhod."
Lisl nods; since people seem to have the matter figured out, no need to interject.
On to Hex14
After another quiet days travel through the ancient forest your noses lead you in the direction of the promised hots springs.
Two hot springs bubble at the source of the Skunk River, filling the surrounding area with the distinctive odor of rotten eggs. Despite the smell, the hot springs are really rather pleasant to relax in.
Creatures: A 150-foot-diameter pond at the river’s source is home to a trio of giant frogs—these creatures are aggressive and attack anyone who approaches the pond.
What are you doing now?
Darian eyes the frogs from a distance. They were the largest frogs he had ever seen! And their posture was clearly not cordial. ”Not a bad idea, Is, we surely seem to be in no required need to dispatch them. But,” he looks to Freya, ”what do you think? Do these pose a serious enough of a risk to hunters or travelers that removing them is justified? We just cleansed a temple of Erastil, would eliminating three...toads upset the balance of the woods in this region so greatly as to offend him again? I’d rather not be turned into a bear...or frog...for simply trying to protect others...”
"Serious enough of risk? I suppose that depends on how one defines that." Freya says. "Their inherent size makes them a bit of a danger, as they can not live on flies and other bugs like their smaller kin...that being said, I do not see any harm in letting them be."
”Well then, let us leave them be. But, we may need to return and deal with them later if the prove to be a problem,” Darian says as he reigns his horse away from the frogs and out to continue their explorations.
By passing the aggressively croaking frogs you leave the steaming ponds behind. The next few days are peaceful and you ride through open country enjoying the quiet.
As the second day of your travel draws to a close. Isabel, Freya, Jory & Rok all notice amid an overgrown section of blackberries lies a hidden cairn of stones marking the grave of a long forgotten barbarian.
What are you doing now?
"Keeping note of this location to harvest the blackberries later in the year would be good, but otherwise we would be wise to leave the grave alone." Freya says.
Turning to the other she adds, "We are explorers, not grave robbers, right?"
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"I can't help but be curious." Isabel admits, "But you make a good point Freya - I'll record it on our maps and then we can move on. As you said we're explorers, not grave robbers. Let's get back to Oleg's and resupply so that we can head out again, we've covered the western part of our charter quite well now - we should start looking south and trying to track down the bandit's central camp. I'll work up a route when we get back to the Trading Post."
Darian nods from atop his horse. ”Agreed. I’d like to think that my own grave would go undisturbed by anyone. As to the Stag Lord’s camp...perhaps one of the reformed folk back at Oleg’s could tell us about where it is. That way we know in advance where to go when the time comes. Until then, exploring and tending to extraneous threats will be of most help until we are ready to move directly against him.”
You travel east, back towards the now almost familiar trading post, the next few days are peaceful, a day out from Olegs, as you navigate a marshy area you are all taken by surprise as a mound of vegetation next to a fallen tree suddenly animates and lunges for you.
Shambling Mound
Immune to mental effects and electricity. Resist fire 10.
The mound reaches out with a long, heavy vine and hammers Rok. The vine wrapping around her and attempting to drag her from the saddle.
Rok You are now grappled.
The party may now act
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Isabel retains enough presence of mind to grasp Darian's hand and implant a little of her own speed into him. As she lets go she sags in the saddle, suddenly much slower as her body tries to make up for the lost speed. She retains enough presence of mind to focus her will on the creature, however.
First Person to hit this thing does +2 damage this round!
”ROKSANA!” Darian calls out as he sees her get snared by this thing. Seeing her in immediate distress, he instantly begins to push the magic out from himself and to the others, bolstering their courage against this thing and making their weapons glow with white energy. He then spurs his horse forward towards the beast as he readies his own sword and shield.
__________
"What in the hell is that?" Freya mutters before bidding Fenrir to "Attack!"
(inspire)
(inspire)
Once Fenrir is away, Freya moves to the side and hurls a ball of conjured ice at the creature.
(inspire vs. grappled touch AC into melee)
(inspire)
"Now the forest itself is trying to kill us!"
Jory moves rapidly to assist Roksana, snapping off a crossbow shot en route.
_________
Rok wrenches an arm free and hammers at the creature.
Kasper rears up and lashes out with his hooves.
Freya's ball of frigid snow hits the thing. While Fenrir dashes forward and tries to rip it apart with his fangs.
The creature keeps grappling Rok.
Lashing out with another vine to stop Kasper interferring in it's gathering food.
The party may now act again.
Darian wills a bit of extra magic into his own sword before thrusting it into the plant creature.
__________
Lisl dismounts and weaves a short blessing to help in fighting off this manifestation of rotting vegetable matter.
Then she moves quickly to a position next to Roks and touches the cavalier with a defensive spell.
Freya steps up behind Fenrir and casts a spell to aid his attacks on the creature before the wolf bites again.
(inspire, bless, magic fang, flank)
(inspire, magic fang)
(inspire, bless, flank)
Rok continues to hammer at the creature.
Kasper.
Darian sinks his blade in deeply from the flanks.
Jory takes careful aim and shoots accurately.
The creature lurches off balance as Fenrir's magically enhanced fangs tear away at a supporting limb, causing it to fall, dragging Rok to the ground with it.
Releasing Rok the creature rights its self.
AOO from Fenrir & Darian.
(inspire, bless, magic fang, flank)
(inspire, magic fang)
Lisl bolsters Roks by casting magic weapon on the cavalier to aid her attacks against the monstrosity.