Bowen scans the forest as they continue their path towards what he believes is their destination.
The terrain begins to rise and through the trees, Bowen sees a truly massive darkwood tree up ahead, its ancient mossy trunk is easily the largest any have seen in these woods.
As Bowen leads the others towards the massive tree, he percieves something reptilian and fairly large in the branches above.
The reptilian creature, seen by Bowen moves, as if tensing, as the party draws nearer.
Bowen seeing the scaled creature lets an arrow fly from his bow as he yells to the other. "More trouble on the way."
Rall follows the path of Bowen's arrow with his eyes.
There is a savage cry as the arrow strikes home. The reptilian thing flows down the trunk towards the party. It is vaguely dragon-like, but has only two arms and no wings.
Initiative for the wyrm:
Bowen's arrow finds its mark and the creature reaches the bottom of the tree. It is in range now for a decent charge, either on its end or your end.
Seeing that Bowen has already wounded the creature, Rall draws his longsword and charges in to attack.
Rall's sword hits. (Sneak Attack? It's flatfooted.)
Bowen can act and then the wyrm gets to finally attack.
Ildri leaps forward and strikes at the wyrm with her nunchaku.
Attack roll
Damage roll
Bowen trys to get another shot in before drawing his scimitar and axe.
The wyrm bites at Rall...
damage:
Grapple:
And attempts to maintain a hold on Rall with its mouth and claws.
It appears gravely injured but is obviously not quite dead.
Despite being grappled, Rall attempts to wield his longsword hoping to finish the creature off.
"Die worm!" Ildri attacks again.
Attack roll
Damage roll
Bowen rushes after the creature trying to see if he can attack without hitting the deputy.
Bowen can attack without hitting Rall. But its not necessary. Rall's sword slices up into the creature, finishing it off.
It falls to the ground, quite unmoving.
Meanwhile, the tree it had been lairing in is easily the most massive tree the group has seen. Old, ancient and covered in moss, it towers above all the other darkwood trees around it.
"Well it is an old tree with moss, but is it the eldest tree with the special moss?"
"Well it is an old tree with moss, but is it the eldest tree with the special moss?"
"Ummm ... a little help here! I'm still bleeding. Don't you want to bind my wounds or something? ... Ahh, never mind. I'll do it myself. ... Guy kills a dragon and doesn't even get a 'well done' from his fellow adventurers. I tell ya."
"No, no, I'm sure that the arrows sticking out of it killed that thing, and I think dragons have wings and are bigger."
"No, no, I'm sure that the arrows sticking out of it killed that thing, and I think dragons have wings and are bigger."
"No, I'm pretty sure it was my sword cutting it in two. Dragons aren't like worms. They can't survive once cut in two."
"Well, I guess I’ll give you this kill, not like you get them often Mister Deputy. Though I thought that dragons were in fact wyrms, also,” Bowen motions towards Rall’s face, “you seem to have a bit of dragon goo dangling from your face.”
“you seem to have a bit of dragon goo dangling from your face.”
"I hate these woods."
"Agreed, these woods are not very inviting. Let's get on with our quest."
Apology:
The moss is safely gathered. Meanwhile, yet more storm clouds are forming over the mountains to the west. Lightning flickers through the canopy of leaves, too far away to hear thunder, but ominous anyway.
"Well Rall, looks like you get another fantastic night of these woods." Bowen says with his friendliest smile.
"Yuck," Rall says before brightening up a bit and looking hopefully at Ildri. "It gets pretty cold at night."
"If you need heating up, I can blast you with fire the way I did that worg. Keep to yourself if you want to make it out of the woods."
"If you need heating up, I can blast you with fire the way I did that worg. Keep to yourself if you want to make it out of the woods."
Unfazed, Rall muses, "Speaking of smoked worg, I'm getting kind of hungry. You don't think ..." he eyes the wyrm thoughtfully.
Well before dark and before the rainhits , Bowen finds a suitable cave along the side of a ravine. He suspects, however, the cave, about four feet in height at the entrance, is not empty, as there is a distinct odor of bear around the opening.
Bowen readies his weapons and goes to try and see if the bear is willing to share.
Ildri prepares to burn the bear out of its cave is necessary.
Bowen enters the cave and indeed there is a bear there. Bowen manages to approach it unmolested and the bear merely stares at him rather huffily. Bowen is not too sure however if it will as gladly accept each of his companions entering the cave with him.
"You know," says Rall trying to sound chipper, "sleeping outside under the night sky might not be so bad after all. I mean, how dangerous can it be? We've probably fought with half of the nasty creatures that live in the vale."
Bowen walks out and pulls his bow, "I'm going to see if I can find the four of us dinner, wish you would have brought your friend Rall." With that Bowen melts into the trees looking for game enough to feed them all.
Bowen stalks through the forest as the storm approaches, menacing the squirrels and the berry bushes. He returns with enough food to satisfy the group for the night, assuming they enjoy spitted squirrel with a herb berry stuffing. ()
Rall looks through his bag of holding and comes up with a shovel. "Will this help?"
"That would be great for a pan but as I have no fat to fry it in the rabbit would burn rather quickly that way. I'm sure it could be used as a plate though."
Rall reluctantly gives up his helmet, enjoys a rabbit, and prepares a bed. "I'll take first watch," he volunteers.
The storm strikes about an hour after dark. Its violent and wet. Water blows sideways into the cave and the sound of lightning striking close can be heard.
The bear grows anxious but is mullified by Bowen with food.
Finally, after about four hours, the storm blows over, heading to the east. When they finally exit the cave, the day is still overcast and there are more heavy storm clouds to the west, over the mountains.
Returning to the logging camp, the party finds the loggers working among the trees outside the camp. The foreman is not around and so the loggers take the time to greet the group, anxious to hear how they fared.
With a small laugh Bowen passes the used helmet to the bear to allow him to clean it a bit more properly.
Bowen once again moves to the back of the group to let someone better suited to talk to the men.
The storm strikes about an hour after dark. Its violent and wet. Water blows sideways into the cave and the sound of lightning striking close can be heard.
The bear grows anxious but is mullified by Bowen with food.
Finally, after about four hours, the storm blows over, heading to the east. When they finally exit the cave, the day is still overcast and there are more heavy storm clouds to the west, over the mountains.
Returning to the logging camp, the party finds the loggers working among the trees outside the camp. The foreman is not around and so the loggers take the time to greet the group, anxious to hear how they fared.
"We have one of the things we went for but we got it not without a battle," says Rall showing off his scars. "Can one of you take this moss into town and give it to the herbalist? We need to head back out as soon as we can."