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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7523528" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 29: NYMPHOMANIA</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Daleth Stormsea, elf wizard 8</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Galen Thorne, human paladin 10</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 10</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 9</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Syngaard, human fighter 10</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 14 November 2018</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>This session began with everyone receiving a handout describing a dream they had, or in the case of the elves the vision they received while in reverie.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Galen awoke from his dream and looked about the room. In the dark, there wasn't much to see - the sun had yet to rise, and his human vision wasn't adjusted to the darkness. But he could smell the scent of roses as he fumbled for a tindertwig at his bedside. Striking it, he set it to the wick of the candle on his nightstand and stood amazed at what he saw. For there, leaning against the wall, was the <em>sword of Zehkar</em>, where he had left it the night before - only now it was buried amid the tangled mass of a rose bush.</p><p></p><p>Orion woke, startled, in her own bed, not sure of what had caused her to awaken. But as she struggled to recall the dream she'd just been having, she noticed a pricking sensation in her right hand. By the feel of the thorns and the scent of the floral aroma, she deduced she was holding a single rose on a long stem. <em>How did that get here?</em> she wondered, creeping out at the thought that someone had been in her locked room as she slept. But Carl - or at least his ghost - habitually stayed with her in her room and he had raised no alarm all during the night. Surely he'd have reacted if there had been an intruder in her bedroom?</p><p></p><p>Galen knocked upon the halfling's door and she answered, still holding the flower - and by the light of the paladin's candle she could see it was indeed a dark-petaled rose. Galen looked down at her rose with a frown and asked her to accompany him back to his room. "I want you to look at something for me and make sure I'm not crazy," he explained. Orion followed him back across the hall and sure enough, there was an entire rose bush in his room, pierced in the middle by the still-sheathed <em>sword of Zehkar</em>.</p><p></p><p>"Did you dream about this?" the halfling asked.</p><p></p><p>"Something like it," Galen admitted.</p><p></p><p>Kaspar and Daleth opened the doors to their own rooms, joining the pair. They were able to confirm that the rose bush wasn't imaginary - or if it was, they too were caught up in the illusion. "Let's gear up and meet downstairs," Kaspar suggested.</p><p></p><p>Syngaard arrived at the front door of the <em>Enchanted Flagon</em> just as the two elves were turning the corner around the building. "Odd dreams?" asked Daleth.</p><p></p><p>"Yep," Syngaard answered. "Figured they must mean somethin', and figured you'll all want to gather together and discuss 'em."</p><p></p><p>Galen went first, describing the events of his dream while Kaspar went to the back of the room to wake Skevros - only to find him leaving the door to the extradimensional rooms he had hidden away in the wine storage area behind the bar. Orion added hers and then, after some prompting, Syngaard gave the gist of his as well.</p><p></p><p>"Oddly enough, I have had a dream of my own," said Skevros. "I--"</p><p></p><p>He was cut off by a knock at the door. Carl, sitting nearby, popped his ghostly head through the solid door and started wagging his tail. "I got it," announced Syngaard, walking over to open the door. The ghost dog's wagging tail likely meant there was no danger posed by the visitor, but the scarred fighter kept his hand on the grip of his morningstar just in case as he opened the door.</p><p></p><p>Standing in the doorway was an astonishingly beautiful woman - one who, in Syngaard's mind, put even his deceased wife Messalina to shame. This woman was unearthly beautiful and even seemed to shine - a gentle glow suffused her body, giving it a quiet radiance. Her face bore nearly elven features; her skin was the pale color of a full moon, with traces of bluish veins visible throughout, as if she had been carved from some exotic marble. She wore a cloak of autumn leaves wrapped around her shoulders.</p><p></p><p>"May I come in?" she asked in a husky voice.</p><p></p><p>Syngaard stepped back and allowed her to enter the tavern. Staring at her body as she crossed the threshold, he muttered to himself, "May I?"</p><p></p><p>Galen swallowed in disbelief at the sight of the woman; instinctively, he checked her aura for the tell-tale signs of evil, recalling how astonishingly beautiful the succubus Serenity appeared. But the woman's aura bore not the slightest stain of evil, leaving the paladin to wonder if this were some angel come down from the celestial realms.</p><p></p><p><strong>Autumn Rose</strong> stepped up to the rest of the group and introduced herself. "I have come for your assistance," she said, looking at each of the heroes in turn. "My home - the Viridian Grove - has been corrupted, as have my sisters. I need you to purge it, and them."</p><p></p><p>"I know the place!" said Skevros. "I have been there!" He looked knowingly at Autumn Rose, the reason for her unearthly beauty now made apparent - she was a nymph!</p><p></p><p>"The Viridian Grove is called such due to the predominant greenery of the plant life," he explained, "a quite distinguishable feature in the Azure Glade, where the vegetation skews much more heavily to the bluish end of the spectrum." But nobody seemed to be paying the king's adviser the least bit of attention, as all eyes were upon the nymph.</p><p></p><p>"May I borrow your sword?" Autumn Rose asked Orion, holding out her now-empty hand. The halfling hesitated at first, not one to willingly give over her most powerful weapon to <em>anyone</em> - but then recalled her dream of that early morning. She pulled the short sword from its scabbard, causing the flames to ignite along its blade, and passed it over to the nymph, hilt first - the flames having no impact on the halfling due to the magical amulet she wore.</p><p></p><p>"Thank you," smiled Autumn Rose, as she took the sword by its hilt. "Grant my sisters mercy..." she began, staring into the blade's flames. "The only mercy is a swift death," she continued - and then swiftly slit her own throat.</p><p></p><p>Pandemonium ensued. Gasps and cries erupted from the heroes' throats; Orion involuntarily stepped back in horror, as Kaspar stepped forward to try to grab the nymph's body as it fell. But there was nothing to grab; her body vaporized instantly to ashes, and Orion's <em>flaming short sword</em> fell to the floor with a clatter. Skevros leaped up from his seat at the table, while Carl leaped to all fours and started barking at the pile of ashes. Sitting in the middle of the ash pile was a long-stemmed, blue-black rose carved from crystal.</p><p></p><p>Orion was the first to understand what she was meant to do next. Kneeling by the pile of ashes, she put two fingers into the dust and rubbed them on her closed eyelids. Her eyes appeared smudged for a moment before the ashes absorbed into her skin. She then blinked her eyes several times and looked around at the adventurers beside her as if seeing them for the first time.</p><p></p><p>"Miss Nightsky - are you all right?" Skevros asked in concern.</p><p></p><p>"Yes, fine," Orion answered, absently reaching down for her sword. She could see streams of light branching throughout the bodies of her adventuring partners, a fine pattern of electrical fire with the occasional accumulation into a larger mass; the halfling realized these were the locations of the areas on a humanoid body where the most damage could be dealt, as she had been trained by her weapons instructor. Then she looked over to Skevros. His body had no such lightning; instead, there were a series of black lines tracing throughout his body like a series of veins, with throbbing organs beating like miniature hearts that traveled here and there. With dawning comprehension, the halfling realized she was looking at the negative energy that gave undead beings their semblances of life. Furthermore, she surmised, if she were to strike an undead creature into one of those "mini-hearts" she was fairly certain it would affect them the same way it affected a living being when she struck it at a critical point of its body.</p><p></p><p>"Would you like me to teleport you all to the Viridian Grove?" offered Skevros.</p><p></p><p>"Not quite yet," answered Daleth. "I need time to prepare my spells for the day."</p><p></p><p>"As do I," replied Galen. While they went back upstairs to do that, the others gathered around the table for a quick breakfast. Karen was put to work cleaning up the rest of the ashes while Carl looked on in interest. Skevros examined the crystal rose the nymph had left behind - or possibly even transformed into. "This is a <em>channeling wand</em>," he announced. "It allows low-level divine spells to be converted to arcane spells, and vice versa. Fire-based spells, as a matter of fact. <em>Produce flame</em>, <em>flame blade</em>, <em>burnings hands</em>, and <em>scorching ray</em>, to be specific."</p><p></p><p>"That right?" grunted Syngaard, returning his attention to his morning's first tankard of ale.</p><p></p><p>Once the spellcasters had rejoined the group and had a bite to eat, Skevros <em>teleported</em> them to the Viridian Grove. They appeared at the edge of a small grove; three purple-trunked oak trees stood in a triangle around a small pile of ashes in the middle. Orion instantly recognized it from her dream, although in her dream the pile of ashes had been a living rose bush and she thought she remembered the whole area being greener than it currently was.</p><p></p><p>Kaspar took several tentative steps forward, senses alert for danger. But his elven ears picked up nothing unusual and his elven eyes saw nothing out of place - not even any unusual coloration, for the leaves of the oak trees were as blue as any other tree in the Azure Glade. Galen examined the auras of the area, concentrating on the tree farthest from him. Oddly, of the three oaks, only it radiated evil. Galen puzzled how a tree, of all things, could be evil. He strode towards it, sword in hand, casting a <em>protection from evil</em> spell upon himself as he did so.</p><p></p><p>Daleth cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell on himself but opted to stay right where he was until something happened to indicate where any potential enemies might be.</p><p></p><p>Syngaard didn't have that kind of patience. Morningstar in hand - for in his dreams he'd been fighting enemies with that particular weapon - he roared a challenge and rushed at the tree to his right, swinging his arm back to bash the spiked weapon head into the gnarled truck. But with his shield up in a blocking maneuver - although what he was anticipating having to block was anybody's guess, given he was charging an oak tree - he missed spotting a thick root poking up above ground and tripped, falling flat on his face into the dirt by the trunk. It took all of Kaspar's training not to burst out laughing at the bald fighter's pratfall.</p><p></p><p>Orion, mounted upon Carl, reached into her <em>bag of holding</em> and pulled out a tanglefoot bag. Swinging it around her head for added momentum, she hurled it at the tree to her left, where it hit and splattered, oozing goop along its facing side. "Good job," smirked Daleth. "Guaranteed that tree won't be going anywhere soon."</p><p></p><p>But then the enemies made their appearance. Three comely women stepped out of the trio of oak trees, the one at Orion's left doing so from the rear side of the tree to avoid the tanglefoot goo adhered to the other side of her living home. She cast a <em>flame strike</em> spell, causing flames to cascade down from above over Orion and Carl, Galen, and Kaspar. The monk twisted and dodged, avoiding the flames altogether; Galen had no such training and just toughed it out. But the spell was too much for poor Carl, who, overcome by the flames of the spell, gave a whine of frustration as his incorporeal body faded from view. Once again, Orion found herself sitting in a saddle in midair as it plummeted to the ground. She rolled with the impact, landing on her feet, hardly singed at all due to the protections of her magic amulet.</p><p></p><p>But the other dryads were also attacking. The one stepping out from the tree that had just narrowly missed the whupping of a lifetime by Syngaard's clumsy misstep had a sickle in hand and brought it down upon the prone fighter; fortunately for Syngaard, his mithral breastplate deflected most of the damage. The third dryad cast a <em>produce flame</em> spell, tossing a ball of fiery energy at Galen.</p><p></p><p>That turned out to be a mistake. Catching the flaming missile upon his shield, Galen charged forward, stabbing with the <em>sword of Zehkar</em> in a smiting attack at the dryad he could clearly see had an aura tainted with evil.</p><p></p><p>Daleth stood back, out of melee range. But, calculating the distances between him and his allies with a moment's glance, he cast a <em>haste</em> spell encompassing all of the heroes. That would surely provide the heroes an added advantage!</p><p></p><p>Spitting dirt and curses, Syngaard regained his feet and swung his morningstar at the dryad before him. He didn't have the aura-reading abilities of a paladin, but he didn't need them - anyone who took a swing at him was fair game! His spiked weapon hit the dryad in the side, eliciting a cry of pain. Syngaard just smirked in satisfaction.</p><p></p><p>Orion stepped forward and attacked the dryad who had just killed her ghost dog. (Well, Carl would surely remanifest in the days to come, but still, that wasn't the point!) Her <em>flaming short sword</em> cut deep into the dryad's torso and the halfling smiled at seeing that fey creatures bled just as easily as mere mortals.</p><p></p><p>Kaspar raced forward into a flanking position with Syngaard, striking at the dryad with his <em>tenryutsume</em>. His striking fist brought with it a burst of electricity and the searing pain of fire. But she was facing Syngaard and was already striking at him with her sickle, which the bald fighter easily deflected off his shield.</p><p></p><p>Orion's dryad opponent took a step back from the halfling and cast another <em>flame strike</em>, this one encompassing Syngaard, Kaspar, and Daleth - it also caught the dryad attacking Syngaard, but that was apparently not a concern for the spellcasting fey, assured of her sister's ability to resist the fire damage of her spell. Syngaard and Daleth cried out in pain, while Kaspar once again avoided all damage by rapid-fire maneuvering around the spell's effects.</p><p></p><p>Galen took another ball of fire from his foe's <em>produce flame</em> spell but instantly retaliated with another smite attack, nearly dropping the dryad where she stood. Orion, seeing an opening, raced around the grove to attack Galen's opponent from behind, using her increased speed from Daleth's <em>haste</em> spell to get into position and strike silently with a sneak attack before the hapless dryad even saw her coming. Orion's blade sunk deep and when she pulled it out, the dryad fell to the ground, dead.</p><p></p><p>Daleth cast a <em>scorching ray</em> at the foe Orion had originally been fighting, causing her to hiss in pain and retreat temporarily back into her tree. Syngaard brought his morningstar crashing down upon his own designated foe, dropping her to one knee from the power of his blows. Kaspar attacked her with a flurry of blows, taking her out instantly.</p><p></p><p>For a moment, there were no enemies on the field of battle. That changed once the sole remaining dryad had caught her breath (and possibly engaged in some healing magic while inside her tree), springing back into the grove to fight her foes. (Of course, the fact that Galen had poured a flask of oil onto the trunk of her tree and stepped back to allow Daleth to cast an <em>empowered fireball</em> spell upon it might have had something to do with the matter - as a dryad, the death of her tree meant the end of her own life, so she had nothing to lose at that point.) She targeted Daleth upon exiting the tree - likely in retaliation for the <em>fireball</em> spell that currently had her home blazing in a full conflagration - casting a <em>contagion</em> spell on the elf that robbed him of his vision. "I can't see!" he called out to his friends.</p><p></p><p>Unseen by the elf, Galen stepped up to the dryad and swung his longsword at her. But then Daleth retaliated with a <em>color spray</em> spell that caught the dryad within its arc of effect - and, unfortunately, Galen as well. But both dryad and paladin were able to shrug off the worst of the spell's effects, leaving both locked in combat with each other.</p><p></p><p>But there were other combatants at hand, and the dryad didn't have much of a chance for victory at this point. Syngaard ran over and sent his morningstar crashing down upon one shapely shoulder; Orion raced up from the other direction and stabbed out with her <em>flaming short sword</em> in a flanking maneuver the dryad didn't see coming. For the second time that morning, Orion's fiery blade caused the death of one of their enemies - and, quite fittingly, this was the dryad who had slain her dog!</p><p></p><p>The dryads slain, the heroes set about setting fire to the other two trees, heeding the voice from Syngaard's dream that "rebirth can only arise after death." They also examined the slain dryads for anything of value, stripping from them several useful magical items: a pair of gloves made of hardened bark that were nonetheless as supple as leather, and which increased the wearer's strength; a cloak that increased the force of the wearer's personality, and a small pearl on a golden chain that Kaspar claimed for himself, stating it would help him achieve the clarity of mind to better anticipate the incoming attacks of enemies.</p><p></p><p>Then the heroes dragged each of the dryads over to their individual trees, allowing them to lean against the trunks and have their bodies burned to ashes along with their homes. They kept watch as the grove burned but no one intervened - the Viridian Grove was apparently too far away from the beaten track for there to be any wanderers nearby.</p><p></p><p>After the flames had died down, leaving skeletal remains against blackened trunks, the heroes returned to Durnhill via their <em>ring of returning</em>, which Orion fished out of her <em>bag of holding</em>.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Logan had anticipated everyone liking the treasure gained in this combat, but he miscalculated slightly: the gloves, which granted a +4 Strength bonus and had been intended for Syngaard, were useless to him as he already has a +4 Strength bonus granted by his <em>belt of giant strength</em> and the two don't stack. So Galen gained a +4 Strength bonus from the gloves and a +4 bonus to Charisma from the cloak, while Kaspar gained a +4 to Wisdom from the periapt. Daleth gained the <em>indigo rose channeling wand</em> and Orion gained the ability to sneak attack undead creatures.</p><p></p><p>And Syngaard? He got nothing - not even a copper piece. But at least he wasn't turned into a damned halfling, so I guess that's something.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7523528, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 29: NYMPHOMANIA[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Daleth Stormsea, elf wizard 8 Galen Thorne, human paladin 10 Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 10 Orion Nightsky, halfling rogue 9 Syngaard, human fighter 10[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 14 November 2018 - - - This session began with everyone receiving a handout describing a dream they had, or in the case of the elves the vision they received while in reverie. - - - Galen awoke from his dream and looked about the room. In the dark, there wasn't much to see - the sun had yet to rise, and his human vision wasn't adjusted to the darkness. But he could smell the scent of roses as he fumbled for a tindertwig at his bedside. Striking it, he set it to the wick of the candle on his nightstand and stood amazed at what he saw. For there, leaning against the wall, was the [i]sword of Zehkar[/i], where he had left it the night before - only now it was buried amid the tangled mass of a rose bush. Orion woke, startled, in her own bed, not sure of what had caused her to awaken. But as she struggled to recall the dream she'd just been having, she noticed a pricking sensation in her right hand. By the feel of the thorns and the scent of the floral aroma, she deduced she was holding a single rose on a long stem. [i]How did that get here?[/i] she wondered, creeping out at the thought that someone had been in her locked room as she slept. But Carl - or at least his ghost - habitually stayed with her in her room and he had raised no alarm all during the night. Surely he'd have reacted if there had been an intruder in her bedroom? Galen knocked upon the halfling's door and she answered, still holding the flower - and by the light of the paladin's candle she could see it was indeed a dark-petaled rose. Galen looked down at her rose with a frown and asked her to accompany him back to his room. "I want you to look at something for me and make sure I'm not crazy," he explained. Orion followed him back across the hall and sure enough, there was an entire rose bush in his room, pierced in the middle by the still-sheathed [i]sword of Zehkar[/i]. "Did you dream about this?" the halfling asked. "Something like it," Galen admitted. Kaspar and Daleth opened the doors to their own rooms, joining the pair. They were able to confirm that the rose bush wasn't imaginary - or if it was, they too were caught up in the illusion. "Let's gear up and meet downstairs," Kaspar suggested. Syngaard arrived at the front door of the [i]Enchanted Flagon[/i] just as the two elves were turning the corner around the building. "Odd dreams?" asked Daleth. "Yep," Syngaard answered. "Figured they must mean somethin', and figured you'll all want to gather together and discuss 'em." Galen went first, describing the events of his dream while Kaspar went to the back of the room to wake Skevros - only to find him leaving the door to the extradimensional rooms he had hidden away in the wine storage area behind the bar. Orion added hers and then, after some prompting, Syngaard gave the gist of his as well. "Oddly enough, I have had a dream of my own," said Skevros. "I--" He was cut off by a knock at the door. Carl, sitting nearby, popped his ghostly head through the solid door and started wagging his tail. "I got it," announced Syngaard, walking over to open the door. The ghost dog's wagging tail likely meant there was no danger posed by the visitor, but the scarred fighter kept his hand on the grip of his morningstar just in case as he opened the door. Standing in the doorway was an astonishingly beautiful woman - one who, in Syngaard's mind, put even his deceased wife Messalina to shame. This woman was unearthly beautiful and even seemed to shine - a gentle glow suffused her body, giving it a quiet radiance. Her face bore nearly elven features; her skin was the pale color of a full moon, with traces of bluish veins visible throughout, as if she had been carved from some exotic marble. She wore a cloak of autumn leaves wrapped around her shoulders. "May I come in?" she asked in a husky voice. Syngaard stepped back and allowed her to enter the tavern. Staring at her body as she crossed the threshold, he muttered to himself, "May I?" Galen swallowed in disbelief at the sight of the woman; instinctively, he checked her aura for the tell-tale signs of evil, recalling how astonishingly beautiful the succubus Serenity appeared. But the woman's aura bore not the slightest stain of evil, leaving the paladin to wonder if this were some angel come down from the celestial realms. [b]Autumn Rose[/b] stepped up to the rest of the group and introduced herself. "I have come for your assistance," she said, looking at each of the heroes in turn. "My home - the Viridian Grove - has been corrupted, as have my sisters. I need you to purge it, and them." "I know the place!" said Skevros. "I have been there!" He looked knowingly at Autumn Rose, the reason for her unearthly beauty now made apparent - she was a nymph! "The Viridian Grove is called such due to the predominant greenery of the plant life," he explained, "a quite distinguishable feature in the Azure Glade, where the vegetation skews much more heavily to the bluish end of the spectrum." But nobody seemed to be paying the king's adviser the least bit of attention, as all eyes were upon the nymph. "May I borrow your sword?" Autumn Rose asked Orion, holding out her now-empty hand. The halfling hesitated at first, not one to willingly give over her most powerful weapon to [i]anyone[/i] - but then recalled her dream of that early morning. She pulled the short sword from its scabbard, causing the flames to ignite along its blade, and passed it over to the nymph, hilt first - the flames having no impact on the halfling due to the magical amulet she wore. "Thank you," smiled Autumn Rose, as she took the sword by its hilt. "Grant my sisters mercy..." she began, staring into the blade's flames. "The only mercy is a swift death," she continued - and then swiftly slit her own throat. Pandemonium ensued. Gasps and cries erupted from the heroes' throats; Orion involuntarily stepped back in horror, as Kaspar stepped forward to try to grab the nymph's body as it fell. But there was nothing to grab; her body vaporized instantly to ashes, and Orion's [i]flaming short sword[/i] fell to the floor with a clatter. Skevros leaped up from his seat at the table, while Carl leaped to all fours and started barking at the pile of ashes. Sitting in the middle of the ash pile was a long-stemmed, blue-black rose carved from crystal. Orion was the first to understand what she was meant to do next. Kneeling by the pile of ashes, she put two fingers into the dust and rubbed them on her closed eyelids. Her eyes appeared smudged for a moment before the ashes absorbed into her skin. She then blinked her eyes several times and looked around at the adventurers beside her as if seeing them for the first time. "Miss Nightsky - are you all right?" Skevros asked in concern. "Yes, fine," Orion answered, absently reaching down for her sword. She could see streams of light branching throughout the bodies of her adventuring partners, a fine pattern of electrical fire with the occasional accumulation into a larger mass; the halfling realized these were the locations of the areas on a humanoid body where the most damage could be dealt, as she had been trained by her weapons instructor. Then she looked over to Skevros. His body had no such lightning; instead, there were a series of black lines tracing throughout his body like a series of veins, with throbbing organs beating like miniature hearts that traveled here and there. With dawning comprehension, the halfling realized she was looking at the negative energy that gave undead beings their semblances of life. Furthermore, she surmised, if she were to strike an undead creature into one of those "mini-hearts" she was fairly certain it would affect them the same way it affected a living being when she struck it at a critical point of its body. "Would you like me to teleport you all to the Viridian Grove?" offered Skevros. "Not quite yet," answered Daleth. "I need time to prepare my spells for the day." "As do I," replied Galen. While they went back upstairs to do that, the others gathered around the table for a quick breakfast. Karen was put to work cleaning up the rest of the ashes while Carl looked on in interest. Skevros examined the crystal rose the nymph had left behind - or possibly even transformed into. "This is a [i]channeling wand[/i]," he announced. "It allows low-level divine spells to be converted to arcane spells, and vice versa. Fire-based spells, as a matter of fact. [i]Produce flame[/i], [i]flame blade[/i], [i]burnings hands[/i], and [i]scorching ray[/i], to be specific." "That right?" grunted Syngaard, returning his attention to his morning's first tankard of ale. Once the spellcasters had rejoined the group and had a bite to eat, Skevros [i]teleported[/i] them to the Viridian Grove. They appeared at the edge of a small grove; three purple-trunked oak trees stood in a triangle around a small pile of ashes in the middle. Orion instantly recognized it from her dream, although in her dream the pile of ashes had been a living rose bush and she thought she remembered the whole area being greener than it currently was. Kaspar took several tentative steps forward, senses alert for danger. But his elven ears picked up nothing unusual and his elven eyes saw nothing out of place - not even any unusual coloration, for the leaves of the oak trees were as blue as any other tree in the Azure Glade. Galen examined the auras of the area, concentrating on the tree farthest from him. Oddly, of the three oaks, only it radiated evil. Galen puzzled how a tree, of all things, could be evil. He strode towards it, sword in hand, casting a [i]protection from evil[/i] spell upon himself as he did so. Daleth cast a [i]magic circle against evil[/i] spell on himself but opted to stay right where he was until something happened to indicate where any potential enemies might be. Syngaard didn't have that kind of patience. Morningstar in hand - for in his dreams he'd been fighting enemies with that particular weapon - he roared a challenge and rushed at the tree to his right, swinging his arm back to bash the spiked weapon head into the gnarled truck. But with his shield up in a blocking maneuver - although what he was anticipating having to block was anybody's guess, given he was charging an oak tree - he missed spotting a thick root poking up above ground and tripped, falling flat on his face into the dirt by the trunk. It took all of Kaspar's training not to burst out laughing at the bald fighter's pratfall. Orion, mounted upon Carl, reached into her [i]bag of holding[/i] and pulled out a tanglefoot bag. Swinging it around her head for added momentum, she hurled it at the tree to her left, where it hit and splattered, oozing goop along its facing side. "Good job," smirked Daleth. "Guaranteed that tree won't be going anywhere soon." But then the enemies made their appearance. Three comely women stepped out of the trio of oak trees, the one at Orion's left doing so from the rear side of the tree to avoid the tanglefoot goo adhered to the other side of her living home. She cast a [i]flame strike[/i] spell, causing flames to cascade down from above over Orion and Carl, Galen, and Kaspar. The monk twisted and dodged, avoiding the flames altogether; Galen had no such training and just toughed it out. But the spell was too much for poor Carl, who, overcome by the flames of the spell, gave a whine of frustration as his incorporeal body faded from view. Once again, Orion found herself sitting in a saddle in midair as it plummeted to the ground. She rolled with the impact, landing on her feet, hardly singed at all due to the protections of her magic amulet. But the other dryads were also attacking. The one stepping out from the tree that had just narrowly missed the whupping of a lifetime by Syngaard's clumsy misstep had a sickle in hand and brought it down upon the prone fighter; fortunately for Syngaard, his mithral breastplate deflected most of the damage. The third dryad cast a [i]produce flame[/i] spell, tossing a ball of fiery energy at Galen. That turned out to be a mistake. Catching the flaming missile upon his shield, Galen charged forward, stabbing with the [i]sword of Zehkar[/i] in a smiting attack at the dryad he could clearly see had an aura tainted with evil. Daleth stood back, out of melee range. But, calculating the distances between him and his allies with a moment's glance, he cast a [i]haste[/i] spell encompassing all of the heroes. That would surely provide the heroes an added advantage! Spitting dirt and curses, Syngaard regained his feet and swung his morningstar at the dryad before him. He didn't have the aura-reading abilities of a paladin, but he didn't need them - anyone who took a swing at him was fair game! His spiked weapon hit the dryad in the side, eliciting a cry of pain. Syngaard just smirked in satisfaction. Orion stepped forward and attacked the dryad who had just killed her ghost dog. (Well, Carl would surely remanifest in the days to come, but still, that wasn't the point!) Her [i]flaming short sword[/i] cut deep into the dryad's torso and the halfling smiled at seeing that fey creatures bled just as easily as mere mortals. Kaspar raced forward into a flanking position with Syngaard, striking at the dryad with his [i]tenryutsume[/i]. His striking fist brought with it a burst of electricity and the searing pain of fire. But she was facing Syngaard and was already striking at him with her sickle, which the bald fighter easily deflected off his shield. Orion's dryad opponent took a step back from the halfling and cast another [i]flame strike[/i], this one encompassing Syngaard, Kaspar, and Daleth - it also caught the dryad attacking Syngaard, but that was apparently not a concern for the spellcasting fey, assured of her sister's ability to resist the fire damage of her spell. Syngaard and Daleth cried out in pain, while Kaspar once again avoided all damage by rapid-fire maneuvering around the spell's effects. Galen took another ball of fire from his foe's [i]produce flame[/i] spell but instantly retaliated with another smite attack, nearly dropping the dryad where she stood. Orion, seeing an opening, raced around the grove to attack Galen's opponent from behind, using her increased speed from Daleth's [i]haste[/i] spell to get into position and strike silently with a sneak attack before the hapless dryad even saw her coming. Orion's blade sunk deep and when she pulled it out, the dryad fell to the ground, dead. Daleth cast a [i]scorching ray[/i] at the foe Orion had originally been fighting, causing her to hiss in pain and retreat temporarily back into her tree. Syngaard brought his morningstar crashing down upon his own designated foe, dropping her to one knee from the power of his blows. Kaspar attacked her with a flurry of blows, taking her out instantly. For a moment, there were no enemies on the field of battle. That changed once the sole remaining dryad had caught her breath (and possibly engaged in some healing magic while inside her tree), springing back into the grove to fight her foes. (Of course, the fact that Galen had poured a flask of oil onto the trunk of her tree and stepped back to allow Daleth to cast an [i]empowered fireball[/i] spell upon it might have had something to do with the matter - as a dryad, the death of her tree meant the end of her own life, so she had nothing to lose at that point.) She targeted Daleth upon exiting the tree - likely in retaliation for the [i]fireball[/i] spell that currently had her home blazing in a full conflagration - casting a [i]contagion[/i] spell on the elf that robbed him of his vision. "I can't see!" he called out to his friends. Unseen by the elf, Galen stepped up to the dryad and swung his longsword at her. But then Daleth retaliated with a [i]color spray[/i] spell that caught the dryad within its arc of effect - and, unfortunately, Galen as well. But both dryad and paladin were able to shrug off the worst of the spell's effects, leaving both locked in combat with each other. But there were other combatants at hand, and the dryad didn't have much of a chance for victory at this point. Syngaard ran over and sent his morningstar crashing down upon one shapely shoulder; Orion raced up from the other direction and stabbed out with her [i]flaming short sword[/i] in a flanking maneuver the dryad didn't see coming. For the second time that morning, Orion's fiery blade caused the death of one of their enemies - and, quite fittingly, this was the dryad who had slain her dog! The dryads slain, the heroes set about setting fire to the other two trees, heeding the voice from Syngaard's dream that "rebirth can only arise after death." They also examined the slain dryads for anything of value, stripping from them several useful magical items: a pair of gloves made of hardened bark that were nonetheless as supple as leather, and which increased the wearer's strength; a cloak that increased the force of the wearer's personality, and a small pearl on a golden chain that Kaspar claimed for himself, stating it would help him achieve the clarity of mind to better anticipate the incoming attacks of enemies. Then the heroes dragged each of the dryads over to their individual trees, allowing them to lean against the trunks and have their bodies burned to ashes along with their homes. They kept watch as the grove burned but no one intervened - the Viridian Grove was apparently too far away from the beaten track for there to be any wanderers nearby. After the flames had died down, leaving skeletal remains against blackened trunks, the heroes returned to Durnhill via their [i]ring of returning[/i], which Orion fished out of her [i]bag of holding[/i]. - - - Logan had anticipated everyone liking the treasure gained in this combat, but he miscalculated slightly: the gloves, which granted a +4 Strength bonus and had been intended for Syngaard, were useless to him as he already has a +4 Strength bonus granted by his [i]belt of giant strength[/i] and the two don't stack. So Galen gained a +4 Strength bonus from the gloves and a +4 bonus to Charisma from the cloak, while Kaspar gained a +4 to Wisdom from the periapt. Daleth gained the [i]indigo rose channeling wand[/i] and Orion gained the ability to sneak attack undead creatures. And Syngaard? He got nothing - not even a copper piece. But at least he wasn't turned into a damned halfling, so I guess that's something. [/QUOTE]
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