Tesswyn takes down the last enemy!
Charles knew he could not have dodged such an attack on his own, but the armor he had won from the previous nights gambling protected him from the wolf man's bite. He threw back the Fomor and lunged forward, thrusting his icy blade with two hands.
"Goodbye, Fomor. You'll never again threaten our communities."
As the last beast falls, Drot looks around. His eyes still burn with war as he scans the area for his next target. As he looks from the Dwarf to Tesswyn and Charles he slumps his shoulders, gives his head a shake and sits straight down on the ground.
"I think those traps worked pretty well, that was clever thinking Barlog. I've got a pretty bad wound, nothing I can't handle but we need to be careful the rest of the way. Tess, we need to wash these bites as quickly as we can. The breath alone on these dogs could kill a man, I don't even want to imagine the infection we might get!"
Drot chuckles to himself as he wipes his fresh wound with a cloth to inspect the severity of it as he waits for the others to ready themselves.
Tesswyn nods to Drot. "Aye, time to put our crash-course in medicine to the test." She shakes the excess blood off of her staff and sees to binding her own injuries.
Barlog will assist those who are most in need of healing. He approaches Drot. As he casts Light Healing he says:
"A hint learned from a lifetime: when something means to kill you, get out of the g!$%#$n way."
He next approaches Tesswyn and does the same.
"A good idea, Flamebeard. We'll have to be better prepared in the future. Taking care of our wounds in a more mundane fashion may have to wait. I don't like the idea of being out in these woods too long now. If anyone's still hurt, see me." he looked around at the rest of the area.
"We should probably take their heads for the fort when we return later. The locales may also like to know we are on their side too." he said, opening a sack and proceeding to perform the gruesome work.
Tesswyn nods her thanks to Barlog. "Let's press on, then." She grimaces and looks away as Charles decapitates the enemies.
You finish off the wolf-men and lick your wounds. The bloodied heads make for a damp environment inside Charles backpack.
It's another day and a half before you reach the commune.
From a distance, you can see an 8-foot-high circular stone wall surrounding a yard with a red stone tower standing at the center. The wall has been patched with rocks and clay where it had crumbled from age and disuse. Strange-looking brambles grow out of what look to be three freshly dug graves nearby, and in various places they climb up the outer wall of the compound. No sounds emanate from within and no one answers calls.
"I'll scout ahead," Tesswyn says. She wards herself with oak skin and enchants her staff into a shillelagh, then looks for an opening in the wall to slip through and see what's on the other side.
Barlog will approach the graves and start digging. He wants to know who has been buried here, and in what condition. It may give us clues as to who or what caused the deaths.
Drot watches the Dwarf head straight for the graves, not able to imagine what the wild-man is planning. When the digging starts he hesitates for a moment, not having thought that would be his course of action, but soon takes a few large steps toward him.
"Uh, Friend, perhaps we wait on desecrating graves until we speak to the living first? Digging up the dead is usually placed right up there with the murdering that put the poor soul in the ground in the first place. I'm sure you'll agree that becoming the enemy to and entire community before we meet them is not a great strategy, hm?"
He softly laughs to himself but is still clearly puzzled by what's going on in front of him.
Charles didn't like the stillness in the air as they had arrived. He had planned to announce their presence and had hoped to be welcomed but nothing. He had meant to protest when Tesswyn went to scout ahead but he couldn't think of a good reason not to let her go. As the Dwarf examined the grave and Drot'ook went to speak with him, Charles walked up behind the other two.
"You may have the right notion, Drot. But I think it's better to let Flamebeard examine what's happened here.
This place is too quiet. Even for a group of people that supposedly have had their tongues removed. It makes me think of what one of the fort's soldiers said over cards, about this place being haunted. It wasn't exactly what I had planned to do but let's give Tesswyn some time to check the place out. If there's trouble she'll come back to warn us and if she isn't back by the time we're done then we'll go find her."
"Nature doesn't respect the dead. It takes them back into itself. I have no respect for mulch."
The most obvious way in is the large front door, which feels barred on the other side. It will take a but of strength to break it down.
Next is climbing the walls, but those brambles on the wall look like they have thorns.
As you search around the circular compound, you discover a hidden trap door on the back side. It's fairly well camoflauged, covered in netting and branches.
It looks not like the bramble grew in reaching towards the bodies, but rather grew out. Perhaps they were buried with the seeds? If so, these would be some fast growing plants.
These brambles intertwine, connecting with the brambles vining up the wall. They're covered in thorns.
Digging up the Graves will mean getting up close with those thorns.
Tesswyn clears away the camouflage on the trap door and opens it up before slipping into the commune.
Barlog approaches the brambles cautiously, having never seen them before. He's not sure if they are the effect of magic or perverted nature. He'll take his staff and poke at the roots of the brambles rising from the three graves.
Inspecting it further, you find that the plant has no fruits or flowers, no seeds or spores. It is not apparent how the plant reproduces. It just seems to be a single 1 inch thick green branch/vine that comes out of the graves, then rapidly splits into smaller branches. Thorns are everywhere along it. It does have leaves to absorb sunlight; a geenish color leaf with a purple hint to them.
The thorns look sharp.
Barlog will dig at one of the ends of the grave, avoiding the center and the thickest part of the plant. When he come across a foot or leg he'll start pulling. Hopefully the body will stay in one piece....
You start digging at the grave and find one foot. When you pull on it, the entire bramble falls and you narrowly dodge out of the way. It was close.
But it worked. The body is mostly out of the ground, and you can clearly tell that the plant is growing out of the body. It's hard to tell when this person died, but their body seems to be covered in bramble; roots and stems growing out of several locations on the body.
Tesswyn gives the men a wide berth. She skulks about the compound some more to try to get the lay of the land. If she sees nothing else, she heads back to her companions to report her findings.
The trap door reveals a ladder going down to a narrow tunnel. That tunnel leads under the wall to another ladder which goes up to the inside of the compound.
The two men are in the tunnel, blocking the way.
Tesswyn heads back to her companions. "I found a secret door leading down to a tunnel. There are two men down there, one holding the other. They're covered with sores with vines growing out of them. Balrog, Charles, do you think either of you could do anything to help them?"
"Hey! I could help them too probably... Put them out of their misery at least"
Drot tilts his head toward the body recent pulled out of the ground with a "would you look at this" expression. Though he meant it in jest there is a hint of honesty in his voice, this person must have suffered and he fears the men Tess found will soon meet the same fate.
Tess shrugs. "If necessary."
"So that's what happened to them... some sort of disease involving plants. Take us to them, Tesswyn. I'm almost certain I can help them before that becomes a necessity." he said with a frown.
As they started to move, Charles looked over to the Dwarf. "Flamebeard, have you ever come across anything like this before?"
Tess nods and shows the others the secret door.
Charles didn't wait for an answer from the dwarf. Instead he moved for the trap door Tesswun had found. Having no intention of stealth he opened the door and called out, "Listen, if anyone is alive down there, we're here to help."
He hopped down and went to the two feverish looking men. He had seen the vines coming out of the dead bodies above, but looking at the living men with the vines coming out was hard.
"I bring to you the gift of the divine. For without mortals, there would be no gods. We keep each other in balance, and for that I release you from your affliction."
Charles heads to the trap door and opens in, calling down. He hears a wail in response.
He heads down and prepares to expunged the disease, but it is too late. The man has already died. His chest is ripped open and blood is splattered across the walls. A scraping sound is heard beyond in the darkness.
Regardless of the outcome of the roll, you have a chance to make one action or movement before the monstrosity sees you.
Tesswyn follows Charles down, scowling at the dead man. "Damn," she says softly, but then looks up as something gets her attention.
She forces her mind to resist the terror of the monstrous sight. "Hide!" she hisses to Charles, attempting to do just that.
Charles recoiled momentarily, the words dying on his lips even as he had started to speak them. The bramble creature was... just wrong. Is this another sign of the corruption the Demon lord is trying to breach our world?
He looked back as Tesswyn hid, but he was halted by the memory of Astrid from within the mining tunnel. To leave this thing meant leaving the other man Tesswyn had seen. He just could not do that and leave him to die.
"I don't know if this is Demon Lord's influence or not, but I won't just let this thing continue unchecked. I must stop this evil before it continues to grow."
Barlog follows closely behind Drot, keeping the large half-orc in front of him. He grips his staff until his knuckles are white, remembering the collapsed cave. Dark, small places were his home once but not now. The handkerchief might be useful if they have to proceed further in....
Drot followed the two through the trap door just in time to see a man explode...
Seeing the writhing plant past the men his eyes go wide and all of his muscles tense. Even though he's seen so much already it always puts him on edge. He only knows how to keep himself focused through it, now.
He readies his book and mace. "Agreed." He says to Charles. "Better to strike first!".
He casts Unerring Darts at the thing and moves to the opposite side of the room from Tess, hopefully drawing the plant into a flanked position if it follows.
Charles blesses his allies and himself with the blessing of the Martyr.
Drot casts his magical darts, injuring the strange plant-thing.
Tesswyn hides/readies, while Barlog stands outside the tunnel's trap door looking down and keeping out of sight of the monster.
The barbed vine plant lashes out at Charles, it's vines reaching over the dead body to hit him.
The barbs lash against Charles' armor, leaving behind nothing but scratch marks.
Tesswyn pushes past Charles to get to the monster. She tries to glimpse the portents, but her sight is clouded. Gritting her teeth, she balances on the dead body and swings her staff.
"Tesswyn, attack it from behind me. When there's an opening, take it!"
Drot, just being able to see the monster, lets his darts seek their target!
Barlog is going to try to make or find a torch. Monster or not, plants burn.
PCs:
Drot fires someagical pain. Tesswyn lunges forward, giving it a good whack.
Enemies:
The plant monster shudders and then violently spins about. Thorns from its viens go flying down the hallway. Everyone in the hall make an agility challenge roll with one boon, or take:
Charles makes a guarded attack, while Barlog finds some dried sticks to make a torch.
Tesswyn contorts her body to dodge the burst of thorns, then lunges at the monster again!
Drot sees the dwarfs torch and nods.
Drot expends his last casting of Magic Dart.
Slow Initiative.
Barlog steps around the corner with the torch and pulls out his flask. He pours some of the liquor out to stoke the flame and holds it out to Tesswyn.
"Try this! I've never known a tree, animate or otherwise, to survive flame."