This time Asther hits the cauldron with her scimitar, but it just bounces off. Dena tries to dig her talons in again, but misses the cauldron is going after Vartan.
Thimble hits the cauldron with another mightly blow, and it cracks in half and stops moving.
"Wow, that was crazy. Now we should thoroughly search this place, there may be something interesting besides the rats tails."
Asther:
BBCode
Detect magic (1d6=2)
Thimble starts to look around the room having no idea what it looks like.
The three of you search the inside of the hut. There is a lot of stuff, so it takes about 30 minutes to give it a thorough look-over. Besides the rats tails, with the aid of her magic Asther finds an interesting magical item. It is a disgusting shrunken head on a string, like some kind of amulet. You don't find anything else that you think is valuable; it all looks like junk to you.
"What is that?" Vartan says when Asther holds up the shrunken head.
Thimble takes another quick look out the door.
"It's Illusion magic" says Asther as she holds it. "I wonder what it does?"
Dena screeches.
"It's Illusion magic" says Asther as she holds it. "I wonder what it does?"
Asther:
Thimble takes another quick look out the door.
The glade is still empty and silent.
Asther mutters something in Druidic and concentrates on the shrunken head for a few minutes.
Asther:
Vartan sees the head Asther is holding. "What did you find?" he asks.
"Its a magic voice recording head." said Ather excitedly "You say something then it repeats it whenever you want. I think we should keep it, even though it will sell for a lot of money"
"I don't have any use for it. You are welcome to keep it if Thimble doesn't object"
"I don' care"Thimble says worridly "What about that witch, what if she comes back when were here?"
"We need to get moving anyway. I have the rat's tails we need, now we just need to find the ironbloom mushrooms. Let's go find that ruined dwarven monastery. Droskar's Crucible."
You leave the witch's glade and start on your way northwest towards the dwarven monastery. After travelling all afternoon, as the sun begins sinking behind a spur of Droskar's Crag, the trees give way and you look down from a small bluff and see a building a little ways away.
You can see and old path leading up to the monastery that ends about 50 feet from its main gate.
"It is getting late. Although we could try to enter the ruins now, since Asther is still wounded I suggest we camp for the night back aways inside the trees and go in the morining. What do you think?"
"I agree fully"Thimble says yawning and stretching his arms "I'm tired"
You find a spot back in the trees and make camp.
"I don't think we should have a fire tonight. I don't want to attract attention from whatever may be living in those ruins."
"Yeah your right. I'm tired too. Dena volunteers to help with all watches. She'll sit on who ever is watching shoulder."
Dena flies to Vartan's shoulder.
As Asther prepares her bedroll the fox cuddles inside with her.
"I will take the first watch, Thimble. You look weary."
"I dunno about this place" Thimble says "I don' like it. I'll take the second watch"
Asther, Thimble and the firefoot fennec go to sleep without a fire. Vartan's watch passes without incident, and about 2AM he wakes up Thimble for his watch.
Thimble's watch also passes without incident. When it gets light, you see that the sky is filled with dark clouds. Soon you hear the rumbling of thunder.
Vartan provided Asther with long-term care during the night.
Thimble looks up at the storm "What should we do? Go back to town or stay here?"
"We can't go back to town, it is two days away. We could stay here, but it might be wet"
Lightning crackles in the distance and thunder booms.
"...and that may not be safe either. The safest place to shelter from the storm is probably in the monastery down yonder."
Lighning crackles and thunder booms, coming closer. Giant drops of rain start to pelt the leaves of the trees above you, and a wind starts to blow.
Prepares spells Charm animal and cure light wounds
By the time Asther is done preparing her spells the storm is pouring rain and howling wind. Occasionally, lightning strikes too close for comfort and thunder booms. It is raining so hard you can no longer see the monastery from where you are at the edge of the forest.
"We need to get down to the monastery. Let's get moving. The good news is, I do not think anybody in there will be able to see us coming."
Thimble looks down at his axe,"And I'll be ready if they do"
"Its a dwarven monastery so be prepared to swing low Thimble." Asther smiles and laughs. She then looks at Dena. "You too Dena"
You go down the hill towards the monastery. Soon you reach the path that leads to it. As you travel along the path, two dim shapes loom into view through the rain on either side of it, a pair of old stone statues about 5 feet tall. One is basically rubble, but the other is mostly intact; it depicts a dwarf holding aloft a great hammer. Moss and vines cover its surface.
The main entrance to the monastery is barely visible in front of you.
"I hope the lil' dwarves are friendly,"thimble says as he looks at the statue thats intact"there kinda lil'and strong"
"I'm not sure these lil strong dwarfs are very friendly are they?"
"I think there are no dwarves here." Vartan says. "They abandoned this place many years ago. But other, worse things might be living here. Shall we enter? We need to find shelter from this storm, not to mention the mushrooms."
Just then there is a bright flash, and almost immediately afterwards, a loud boom of thunder. The rain continues to pour down, even harder now.
Bess jumps at the loud clap of thunder, becoming ever more nervous and skittish, and the firefoot fennec huddles deeper in one of the saddlebags. Dena sits on the pommel of Bess' saddle and shakes the rain off her feathers.
"Good girl. Easy now."
Vartan calms Bess down.