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Sic Pixie's Carrion Crown Adventure Path
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<blockquote data-quote="Sic_Pixie" data-source="post: 5888283" data-attributes="member: 52403"><p><strong>Spiders everywhere</strong></p><p></p><p>Come morning the waitresses come back in and find Jah still sleeping; the chef quickly throws together some spiced potatoes; bacon and other pleasantries and a generous bowl of the substance is placed before the slumbering ½ Orc with a large mug of frothy beer to wash it down with. Jah upon waking to the sounds of work around him is initially annoyed till his nose tells him about the food and with a grin he starts eating. Over the next hour or so the rest of the party wander downstairs while Jah is consuming his second bowl and 3rd Mug of beer. The rest of the party all order the same and Jah joins them for breakfast … </p><p></p><p>Heading out the party pass through the northern gate and follow the trail northwards till they meet the Shudderwood. Standing at the edge of the Shudderwood is almost like staring into another world. Ominous, towering pine trees blot out the sunlight, allowing only occasional splinters of light to pierce through. Within this dimness, broken branches and occasional shrubs growing up through fallen trees create shadowy illusions both wondrous and haunting. Apart from pallid lichens, colourful fungi, feathermoss, and wintergreen, little else grows in the forest. The Shudderwood possesses an eerie stillness only occasionally lifted by the sounds of passing birds and small animals scurrying across the dry pine needles littering the forest floor. </p><p></p><p>The party were advised by the Count to follow a trail called the Silent Path; an ancient and rarely used winding trail marked by bone and feather fetishes which travels for several hundred miles through the forest from it’s edge to Ascanor Lodge and beyond to the city of Chastel. </p><p></p><p>The trail is easy enough to follow as long as you have some knowledge of woodcraft which this group has in spades. The bright sun barely able to penetrate to the forest floor as they pick their cautious route; the trail has been used and the odd passing wagon wheel ruts in the path attest to its functionality and width. However when it was last used is difficult to say; rain would have to fall pretty hard to work its way between the thickly laced branches above; the wind and other environmental effects that would erode the trail are muted by the choking trees.</p><p></p><p>Footsteps and hooves are muted by the thick carpet of needles which choke the efforts of smaller fauna; the most common plant life (if you can call it that) are ferns and fungi; fungi which seems to shed an eerie glow when it get darker and tightly curled ferns which host all manner of ticks and other disagreeable grubs. The high acid content in the needles makes for a harsh environment for any other plant life.</p><p></p><p>The first day passes uneventfully as they travel through the dimly shadowed eaves of the forest. Each of the scouts of the partying alternating between taking point and bringing up the rear; the gloom and oppressiveness of the forest soon works its magic upon the party; the muted sounds of the living forest causing them to talk in piercing whispers. The party are regularly startled by the clash of colour and sound from various distressed birds with the clap of pinions as they burst from the surrounding trees. Setting up camp they soon drift off to sleep leaving a guard to monitor the surrounds; the guards change every 2 hours and it’s upon Grembors watch that he hears sounds which were not there before. There is the sound of tree’s snapping and heavy footfalls; he quickly moves to wake up Jah who with his size and large axe makes for a good thing to hide behind as he shoots his bow. </p><p></p><p>Jah is woken from his dreams of large breasted women bearing tankards of foaming beer; as his hand reaches for his axe the worried face of Grembor comes into view and the urgent whispers pierce the clouds of sleep and forestall the initial angry response. Jah is suddenly awake and alert and he too hears the sound of the approaching creature as it makes no efforts to hide its progress. Grembor disappears from Jah’s tent and heads to wake Sayuri who with the faintest touch on her arm is awake; she swiftly kicks Zordlan who grunts and instinctively reaches for his sword before sitting up and looking around.</p><p></p><p>Bursting from the surrounding trees with the sharp retort of snapping trunks and branches is a huge spider; a tarantula fully 15ft across; it’s massive venom dripping jaws lash out at the nearest prey and Sayuri’s horse is practically cut in half by the gargantuan amounts of damage combined with the horrendous amounts of poison pumped into it’s body. Sayuri screams in anguish ‘Why is it always my horse” before getting to her feet and watching the bright light of life quickly fade from her trusted companions eyes as her horse staggers and collapse to the ground in a pool of blood which is being greedily absorbed by the hungry earth.</p><p></p><p>Sayuri takes one look at the huge spider and the damage it caused to the horse and beats a hasty retreat; casting her favourite spell for making a swift escape; her rope levitates into the air fixing to a point in another dimension. Zordlan follows her, his armour laying forgotten and useless on the ground by his sleeping blanket as he scoops up his bow and fires an arrow at the monster which buries itself into an innocent tree. Grembor hurries onto Pringles tent and shakes him awake; startled Pringle grabs his staff and emerges into the dim light of the fire wearing nothing but his underclothes; the moonlight as poor at breaking through the branches as the sun was. However it takes no elf to see the huge spider menacing Jah and Pringle points a finger at the monstrosity and fires off his most powerful spell; a spell that previous to a day ago was beyond his talents. He had been waiting for just the right opportunity to use this spell and with a shouted string of nonsense; some complicated gestures and the producing of some simple bat guano rolled into a ball with some sulphur a tiny red ball streaked from his hand and exploded next to the huge spider. The spider staggered back a step from the bright flash of fire, however this was a new spell for Pringle and as such he did not appreciate just how big an area it affected. Jah sizing up his opponent notices a small red pea streak past him and alight upon the floor not 5 paces from him; he just shrugs his shoulders until the pea explodes into a ball of fire engulfing him in it’s flames. The after images of the blast almost blind him and he feels his anger threatening to overwhelm him. With a guttural roar which makes Pringle very nervous he leaps at the spider who was waiting for just such an opportunity before it was rudely interrupted by the fire; as he closes he finds some large sharp fangs which score lines on his shoulder but thankfully for Jah the poison missed and only impacted on the surface. His axe swings in a wide arc and connects with a meaty thunk and a squeal from the spider; it rears back spraying ichor from it’s severed leg all over Jah and it’s remaining eyes peer down at him with a terrible malice which if he was not in the midst of a rage may have caused him to pause.</p><p></p><p>The Spider does not seem overly impressed with its breakfast fighting back and lunging forward impales Jah on its fangs; pumping in a large dose of poison it sits back and waits for the morsel to fall over dead. Jah thinks about this for a second before deciding he would rather not as he shakes off the effects of the poison and grins at the spider before him. Sayuri noticing that not everyone else is beating a retreat like she did and somewhat sheepishly moves forward and unleashes some balls of force at the spider; they impact with the meaty crunch of marshmallow wrapped in caramel causing the spider to scan around for the source of its pain. Zrolden fires off an arrow which misses while Grembor nocks an arrow and fires off a few shafts at the monster and predictably most of them miss also. (Could not hit the side of a barn comes to mind) Pringle casts and fires off a pair of flames which impact on the creature causing a couple of its eyes to pop with the heat. There is the distinctive aroma of scorched spider in the air; faintly mixed with burnt Jah … Jah flinches as the twin bars of flame streak past him possibly in remembered pain and growls at Pringle before unleashing a pair of solid hits on the spider who was surprised as nothing so far has resisted its potent poison; the spider who is not used to its breakfast struggling so much beats a hasty retreat leaving the party slightly singed and a whole lot beaten up and minus a horse.</p><p></p><p>Grembor with the assistance of Jah butchers the remains of the horse; leaving the obviously poisoned parts alone and drags the remains a short distance away. The rest of the party are soon asleep again with Zordlan taking the next watch. He hears some slight sounds in the night but nothing to be concerned about; Last watch is Jah who grumbles about getting up in the middle of the night. Wandering round camp he hears a few low sounds including a thump of something heavy hitting the floor but can’t make it out. Listening he hears no more so dismisses it as some random tree falling over.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sic_Pixie, post: 5888283, member: 52403"] [b]Spiders everywhere[/b] Come morning the waitresses come back in and find Jah still sleeping; the chef quickly throws together some spiced potatoes; bacon and other pleasantries and a generous bowl of the substance is placed before the slumbering ½ Orc with a large mug of frothy beer to wash it down with. Jah upon waking to the sounds of work around him is initially annoyed till his nose tells him about the food and with a grin he starts eating. Over the next hour or so the rest of the party wander downstairs while Jah is consuming his second bowl and 3rd Mug of beer. The rest of the party all order the same and Jah joins them for breakfast … Heading out the party pass through the northern gate and follow the trail northwards till they meet the Shudderwood. Standing at the edge of the Shudderwood is almost like staring into another world. Ominous, towering pine trees blot out the sunlight, allowing only occasional splinters of light to pierce through. Within this dimness, broken branches and occasional shrubs growing up through fallen trees create shadowy illusions both wondrous and haunting. Apart from pallid lichens, colourful fungi, feathermoss, and wintergreen, little else grows in the forest. The Shudderwood possesses an eerie stillness only occasionally lifted by the sounds of passing birds and small animals scurrying across the dry pine needles littering the forest floor. The party were advised by the Count to follow a trail called the Silent Path; an ancient and rarely used winding trail marked by bone and feather fetishes which travels for several hundred miles through the forest from it’s edge to Ascanor Lodge and beyond to the city of Chastel. The trail is easy enough to follow as long as you have some knowledge of woodcraft which this group has in spades. The bright sun barely able to penetrate to the forest floor as they pick their cautious route; the trail has been used and the odd passing wagon wheel ruts in the path attest to its functionality and width. However when it was last used is difficult to say; rain would have to fall pretty hard to work its way between the thickly laced branches above; the wind and other environmental effects that would erode the trail are muted by the choking trees. Footsteps and hooves are muted by the thick carpet of needles which choke the efforts of smaller fauna; the most common plant life (if you can call it that) are ferns and fungi; fungi which seems to shed an eerie glow when it get darker and tightly curled ferns which host all manner of ticks and other disagreeable grubs. The high acid content in the needles makes for a harsh environment for any other plant life. The first day passes uneventfully as they travel through the dimly shadowed eaves of the forest. Each of the scouts of the partying alternating between taking point and bringing up the rear; the gloom and oppressiveness of the forest soon works its magic upon the party; the muted sounds of the living forest causing them to talk in piercing whispers. The party are regularly startled by the clash of colour and sound from various distressed birds with the clap of pinions as they burst from the surrounding trees. Setting up camp they soon drift off to sleep leaving a guard to monitor the surrounds; the guards change every 2 hours and it’s upon Grembors watch that he hears sounds which were not there before. There is the sound of tree’s snapping and heavy footfalls; he quickly moves to wake up Jah who with his size and large axe makes for a good thing to hide behind as he shoots his bow. Jah is woken from his dreams of large breasted women bearing tankards of foaming beer; as his hand reaches for his axe the worried face of Grembor comes into view and the urgent whispers pierce the clouds of sleep and forestall the initial angry response. Jah is suddenly awake and alert and he too hears the sound of the approaching creature as it makes no efforts to hide its progress. Grembor disappears from Jah’s tent and heads to wake Sayuri who with the faintest touch on her arm is awake; she swiftly kicks Zordlan who grunts and instinctively reaches for his sword before sitting up and looking around. Bursting from the surrounding trees with the sharp retort of snapping trunks and branches is a huge spider; a tarantula fully 15ft across; it’s massive venom dripping jaws lash out at the nearest prey and Sayuri’s horse is practically cut in half by the gargantuan amounts of damage combined with the horrendous amounts of poison pumped into it’s body. Sayuri screams in anguish ‘Why is it always my horse” before getting to her feet and watching the bright light of life quickly fade from her trusted companions eyes as her horse staggers and collapse to the ground in a pool of blood which is being greedily absorbed by the hungry earth. Sayuri takes one look at the huge spider and the damage it caused to the horse and beats a hasty retreat; casting her favourite spell for making a swift escape; her rope levitates into the air fixing to a point in another dimension. Zordlan follows her, his armour laying forgotten and useless on the ground by his sleeping blanket as he scoops up his bow and fires an arrow at the monster which buries itself into an innocent tree. Grembor hurries onto Pringles tent and shakes him awake; startled Pringle grabs his staff and emerges into the dim light of the fire wearing nothing but his underclothes; the moonlight as poor at breaking through the branches as the sun was. However it takes no elf to see the huge spider menacing Jah and Pringle points a finger at the monstrosity and fires off his most powerful spell; a spell that previous to a day ago was beyond his talents. He had been waiting for just the right opportunity to use this spell and with a shouted string of nonsense; some complicated gestures and the producing of some simple bat guano rolled into a ball with some sulphur a tiny red ball streaked from his hand and exploded next to the huge spider. The spider staggered back a step from the bright flash of fire, however this was a new spell for Pringle and as such he did not appreciate just how big an area it affected. Jah sizing up his opponent notices a small red pea streak past him and alight upon the floor not 5 paces from him; he just shrugs his shoulders until the pea explodes into a ball of fire engulfing him in it’s flames. The after images of the blast almost blind him and he feels his anger threatening to overwhelm him. With a guttural roar which makes Pringle very nervous he leaps at the spider who was waiting for just such an opportunity before it was rudely interrupted by the fire; as he closes he finds some large sharp fangs which score lines on his shoulder but thankfully for Jah the poison missed and only impacted on the surface. His axe swings in a wide arc and connects with a meaty thunk and a squeal from the spider; it rears back spraying ichor from it’s severed leg all over Jah and it’s remaining eyes peer down at him with a terrible malice which if he was not in the midst of a rage may have caused him to pause. The Spider does not seem overly impressed with its breakfast fighting back and lunging forward impales Jah on its fangs; pumping in a large dose of poison it sits back and waits for the morsel to fall over dead. Jah thinks about this for a second before deciding he would rather not as he shakes off the effects of the poison and grins at the spider before him. Sayuri noticing that not everyone else is beating a retreat like she did and somewhat sheepishly moves forward and unleashes some balls of force at the spider; they impact with the meaty crunch of marshmallow wrapped in caramel causing the spider to scan around for the source of its pain. Zrolden fires off an arrow which misses while Grembor nocks an arrow and fires off a few shafts at the monster and predictably most of them miss also. (Could not hit the side of a barn comes to mind) Pringle casts and fires off a pair of flames which impact on the creature causing a couple of its eyes to pop with the heat. There is the distinctive aroma of scorched spider in the air; faintly mixed with burnt Jah … Jah flinches as the twin bars of flame streak past him possibly in remembered pain and growls at Pringle before unleashing a pair of solid hits on the spider who was surprised as nothing so far has resisted its potent poison; the spider who is not used to its breakfast struggling so much beats a hasty retreat leaving the party slightly singed and a whole lot beaten up and minus a horse. Grembor with the assistance of Jah butchers the remains of the horse; leaving the obviously poisoned parts alone and drags the remains a short distance away. The rest of the party are soon asleep again with Zordlan taking the next watch. He hears some slight sounds in the night but nothing to be concerned about; Last watch is Jah who grumbles about getting up in the middle of the night. Wandering round camp he hears a few low sounds including a thump of something heavy hitting the floor but can’t make it out. Listening he hears no more so dismisses it as some random tree falling over. [/QUOTE]
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