Charles grunted in pain as several large thorns pierced into him. Pushing through his pain, he stepped up to strike at it again, only this time he attempted to cut down one of the vine creatures leg like appendages.
The final blows bring the creature down into a sticky green paste on the floor and walls.
Tesswyn glances over her shoulder and gives Barlog a nod. "Good thinking. Keep that torch handy in case we run into more of them."
She notes Charles's and Drot's injuries. "Let's heal up before we proceed down the tunnel. I'll take point."
Drot pulls the magic from the air around him an breaths deep. A few of his most cutting wounds begin mending.
"That was pretty quick but those thorns dug deep..."
Drot tails off, he looks into the void, deep in thought. You see him look at the dead men, sprouting thorns, then back to the freshly pruned demon plant, and back again. His eyes go a little wide then inquisitive.
"You don't... You don't think these corpses, and the ones buried outside, are going to... Grow more of these conscious carnivorous creatures, eh?"
He rubs a sore spot on his side and nods, as if on the fence about something.
"It may be in our interest to burn the lot. Mr. Flamebeard, as you have the means and the disposition, would you mind?"
"Aye, that I can do."
Barlog will cross over to the previously exhumed corpse and hold the torch to the demonic growth. He'll also set his flame to the brambles sprouting from the second grave.
"Now, who needs healing?
You make your way through the tight, short underground tunnel and climb the ladder on the other side to a trap door. Opening the door, you pop out on the other side of the wall. There are no sounds except a few chickens pecking at the ground.
Tesswyn warily leads the way to the nearest building.
Charles adjusted his arms and took care to look at any places he had been pierced.
"Drot, I don't know how this thing spreads but I'm going to make sure we don't succumb to whatever happened to these people.
I think I have enough healing power for the moment, though that thing was deadly."
He then cleared his mind and burned his more offensive magic to channel divine cleansing power into his hand.
Tesswyn enters the women's barracks. I side are two rows of beds with an aisle down the center. There is a small trunk at the foot of each bed.
On the wall, written in calligraphy, are the words:
We shall bring forth the Great One.
The flesh is purified when split and sundered.
Ecstasy awaits us all.
Reserve thy fertile valley for the Great One. Bring him forth, and you shall be saved.
The suffering of the vine is salvation.
In the back are two women in shredded robes. They are huddled against the far wall. Both have thorny vines growing under their skin, poking through in places, and they scratch and pick to no avail. On one woman’s exposed back, a flower blooms from a protruding vine, brownish red and covered in slime.
Tesswyn hangs back when she sees the women's condition. "Charles, can you do anything for them?"
"I'll try." he says quietly back.
"This great one cannot be released. Damnation disguised as salvation, this is torment of the worst kind. I can help you, I can release you from this. But you must fight for your body as well as your soul." Even as he spoke he marched forward steadily. His hand glowing with divine power again.
Unlike the last time, this one seems to work. The plants growing out of her wither and decay within seconds, falling off of her and leaving behind horrific scars.
Despite the removal of the plant, her mimd hasn't come back yet. She is still in a dazed babble.
Barlog has followed the two down the hallway. When he sees the other woman is still afflicted he will approach cautiously and cast a Minor Healing spell. If she has a healing rate she will get back half that.
He's not sure if it will cure the disease but he feels compelled to do something.... His daughter would have been about her age, after all.
Charles has a moment of visible relief as the plants wither and die from the first women.
He then releases a second spell to do the same for the other woman.
As the others enter the room Drot stops in the doorway, not wanting to potentially frighten anyone with his grotesque, imposing figure. He could see the the too women were in a fragile state so he leaned against the door frame and watched as Charles imposed his deity's will upon the poor souls. He raised his eyebrows with an impressed look on his face and, once again, grateful to have this man on his side.
After the cleansing Drot takes to searching the trunks and general area.
Once the women are healed, Tesswyn approaches them on the pretext of befriending them. Unfortunately, Tesswyn has never been the friendliest of people.
"Hey. Suck it up. What happened here?" she rudely asks.
The second woman's disease fades and withers away as well. Once it goes away, she stops scratching at her skin. Barlog's healing helps mend some of the wounds, and it seems as if her scars will be less prominent than her friend's. Within moments, she passes out.
The woman doesn't respond to Tesswyn. She doesn't even seem to notice you. She just keeps babbling to herself in gibberish. Watching her intently, you discover part of the reason why: she has no tongue. Well, she does have one, it's just a few inches shorter than what they should be. It's been cut out. Looks like as least one of the rumors you heard back at the garrison was true.
Within a few moments, she too passes out.
Drot takes a look around the place - there's a trunk at the end of each bed, but all they have in it are simple brown robes (the same as what the two women are wearing) and blankets, all neatly folded.
"They'll be alright. Let's keep moving."
Tesswyn leads the way to the mens' barracks.
Charles looked at the writing on the wall after he'd picked the two women up and placed them on the beds. He'd originally thought this had been some sort of innate corruption. Now he realized he'd been wrong.
"Someone did this to these people and recently. This reminds me of that day where we all first met. Drot, you can search for magic, right? Let's have you do that where we go from now on and maybe we can get a warning or find out what's doing this."
Drot nods in agreement, there could very well be residual energy left around from castings or the innately magical.
"Will do, let me know if there is anything in particular you want me to look at as well."
Drot moves to the writing on the wall, touching it. He thinks about the connotation of the words.
"This might not be inherently magical; it doesn't seem like a spell anyway. Possible it could be a prayer but writing it like this doesn't make sense to me, though you'd know more about the specifics then I do Charles. I've never experienced magic from a written prayer, especially one that seems to praise a devil. They're usually more personal when it comes to things like this, I'd conclude that this is scribbling caused by madness. Let's move on and look for more indication of what, or who, was spreading their influence through this fort."
Drot looks at the women, now resting on the beds. He frowns and shakes his with a knowing look in his eyes.
Truly a terrible fate.
Men's Barracks: Spartan in design, this building contains eight bunk beds with an aisle down the center. At the foot of each bunk rests a storage chest containing simple brown robes and blankets. Neatly written across the walls in a flowery script is the following:
The sons of the vine will change the world.
Plough, sow, reap.
The flesh is purified when split and sundered.
Ecstasy awaits us all.
Waste not thy seed upon mortals.
Make fertile the soil in praise of the Great One.
Walking from the women's barracks to the men's barracks, you pass by a crop garden. It looks like any other crop garden, with several rows laid out and tall plants growing from them in an orderly fashion. The plants have shot up out of the grown much like corn (maize) does, giving the area a thick lush look. The vegetation encompasses the entire area.
The following spoiler is available to druids or anyone with a profession in gardening, farming, plants, or anything of that nature.
Their tall stalks shoot up from the soil, a few of which bear bulbous, veiny leaf pouches.
Charles looked at the garden and cocked his head to one side with a frown. "I'm not sure that's normal. I think we may have to uproot and burn this before we leave."
"Perhaps it is the source of the infection that claimed those women. Let's leave it alone for now."
After searching the men's barracks, Tesswyn leads the group to the silo.
"I agree with Charles insomuch as we should destroy the plants. However, burning them would alert anyone here to our presence and would only put us at a disadvantage."
Barlog begins searching for a spade or a blade he can affix to his staff. If there is a kitchen nearby he could look for salt to ruin the soil instead.
You feel a breeze behind you, as if something whipped by you at an alarming pace.
You whip around to see what was there, but you see nothing but the plants.
Then something hits you. It hurts. You spin around again, and again see nothing. Whatever it was left behind a large cut. You wipe your hand along your back where you were hit, and your hand comes back bloody.
Looking down at your hand, you get hit again, and this time it's obvious what did it. These plants are actively attacking you. And this one not only cut you, but has grabbed you.
Drot grabs for his mace and and begins stepping toward the crops, he mutters to Charles:
"That doesn't look natural"
Just be for he beings a full sprint in Barlog's direction he yells out:
"Tess! More devil plants I think! A lot more!"
"F~##!" Tesswyn curses as she sprints out of the barracks and towards the plants. She swings her staff as she gets close, not sure how effective it will be against them.
Barlog is too surprised to think straight. He frantically pokes at the roots of the vines.
"Flamebeard!" Charles called out as he rushed forward and began cutting the plants down in his way.
Smash, smash!
The seed pod opens up and a barbed tendril fires at you, hooking into your skin. The tendril is attached to a slimy seed, which is pulled into your skin. Where the slim touches any cuts, it is extremely painful. The seed climbs up your body and into your mouth, making it's way down your throat.
The plants, sensing you're close, return the attack.
The plant grabs Charles in a vice-lioe grip, holding him close!
A battle map has been placed in the slides (whenever it decides to upload to the server...)
Barlog does his best to focus on his pain and turn it into a kind of penance, like he does with his finger. It doesn't work. It's too much. Barlog screams in pain and panic. As the seed pod makes its way down his throat his voice is cut off and he chokes it down.
Charles struggled against the vines in a suddenly desperate attempt to pull himself loose.
Gritting her teeth in pain, Tesswyn's second sight fails her again. Regardless, she smashes the damaged plant with her shillelagh!
Tess attacks again!
In that case Barlog will attack the vines with his staff.
Drot growls in pain, his eyes flash red but his mind suddenly begins to run in overdrive. This situation might be more dire then any other battle this band of misfits have had so far. He bullet points the next three things he needs to do and wastes no in executing them in descending helpfulness.
He first begins by casting Arcane Armor!.
The next thing is find out where the torch is!
"Barlog! Your torch! Douce the plants and light them!" He shouts, hoping the dwarf can hear his plea.
This is a long shot but he recalls the prayer from the barracks.
Maybe it is a prayer, or a command? Perhaps a chant to keep the plants at bay so the farmers can tend to them...
"The sons of the vine will change the world.
Plough, sow, reap.
The flesh is purified when split and sundered.
Ecstasy awaits us all.
Waste not thy seed upon mortals.
Make fertile the soil in praise of the Great One."
He chants these words in a low tone, he doesn't want to confuse his allies with the scrawlings of mad men.
Fast
Tesswyn takes two attacks to bring down the first of the plants! There's still eleven more!
Charles struggles to escape, but is unable to. These things are strong! As if they've evolved (been designed?) to hold on to prey.
Drot casts arcane armor and chants a prayer. The prayer doesn't seem to have an effect.
Barlog continues his attack, unable to penetrate the thick hide of the plant.
Enemies:
The plant holding Charles spits out some sort of barbed and sticky fluid that quickly solidifies to a string, to which a seed it attached. Like a bungee cord, the seed flies into Charles and starts moving about. The slime burns wherever it touches a cut.
The seed makes its way to Charles' mouth and slips inside his throat, disappearing into him.
The plant near Tesswyn and Drot attacks.
The plant grabs Drot and holds him tight!
Tesswyn's eyes widen in horror as the plants overwhelm her friends. She nimbly backs away, catching her second wind as she does so. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she sobs, tears streaming down her face.
Slow Initiative.
Barlog tries to summon one last burst of strength and break the plants' grasp.
The sudden horror as Charles was forced to intake the large pod seed as it squirmed and burned it's way up his body was enough to make him nearly lose any sense of self. He had no idea what was going to happen next. His life was starting to flash in front of his eyes and a maddening array of things were happening to him now.
Somewhere in the midst of his memories came the shining moment where all of his remaining doubts about the New God came to a sudden halt. Wen he'd met Astrid in a vision and she'd given him a task. His mind cleared. He could not let this fear take him now, he wouldn't die here to these unnatural plants.
Even as Tesswyn withdrew with tears in her eyes, Flamebeard managed to rip himself free, so he struggled.
Astrid, Astrid if you can hear me, I need your help right now!
He twisted and pulled and pushed with all his might against the brambles, swallowing past the seed, he rasped. "Drot, don't let it take you. We can get out of this!"
As the plant grabs a hold of Drot and squeezes, he stops short. Unwilling to allow a mere plant hold him back and empowered by Charles' words he crouches as low as he can and bounds away from his assailant with a quick jump-like movement, breaking free of the plant's grasp and barreling toward safety. He ends up prone; he looks weak and stops moving, save for steady breathing.
Fast
Tesswyn runs away.
The plant holding Drot fires a sticky string of plant resin on him, followed by the seed hitting his chest and climbing up to his mouth. The seed forces it's way down his throat.
Slow
All three manage to break free from the grasp of the plants. Charles and Drot, being on the front lines, both back away as far as they can. Drot collapses from the order and is in Fate's hands now.
Barlog, being more in the middle, also tries to break away. Fortunately, Tesswyn left an opening with one of the plants, giving Barlog a greater chance at escape. Only on plant takes a swipe at him as he runs out of that mess.
Regardless of the outcome, Barlog manages to make it out of the semi-intelligent crop and into relative safety.
Combat over. Make Fate checks if they're needed.
Tesswyn grabs Drot by the shoulders and drags him away from the killer crops, grunting with the exertion. "Charles! He needs healing!" she cries. "I think a seed got into him!"
Charles, Drot, and Barlog, gain your healing rate in HP.