Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6188556" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>This was the outskirts of a small village; well, former village. It had been burned out. We also surprised a Ragesian garrison of a few soldiers but we managed to deal with these very quickly. Once that was finished, it was obvious that the village had been burned out some time ago and that, judging by the garrison, the Ragesians were the most likely party responsible.</p><p> </p><p>As we looked around at the desolate region and the stormy sea crashing against the rocky shore, the remoteness of the place struck us:</p><p> </p><p>“Ye Gods! Who lives in a place like this?” murmured John rhetorically.</p><p> </p><p>Drudge had disappeared, to try to find out if there was anyone nearby and if so, where. He returned fairly quickly though:</p><p> </p><p>“No one here except our dead friends that is; hasn’t been for some time. I took a look around. A large army did march through though; Ragesian I presume. Oh, I found some nice boots, but that’s it. So, now what?”</p><p> </p><p>I said to Longhelim:</p><p> </p><p>“Syana was supposed to have a lair on each of the rivers flowing through the forest; the Ragesians will also need water, as will everyone else. I think the rivers are the most important feature in this place; I suggest we find a river mouth further south and follow it into the wood.”</p><p> </p><p>Drudge nodded approvingly:</p><p> </p><p>“Our dwarven magician is right; I’ll make a ranger out of him yet; should have thought of that myself. Yes, the water is the one constant that will draw animals, people, armies and others. The only thing it won’t draw is phantoms.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim nodded and said:</p><p> </p><p>“Well, let’s turn into mist and fly down; saves time that way.”</p><p> </p><p>We were all able to use the magic and fly down the coast at great speed, until we saw a river mouth. As arranged, we turned back into material form once we reached it.</p><p> </p><p>We were now closer to the forest and I was looking at it dubiously. The trees, dark and with almost nonexistent foliage, were twisted and bent in a very unnatural manner. Some of them looked as if they were trying to avoid some massive blow aimed at them, while others were literally looming menacingly towards strangers and outsiders coming into their realm. The branches were all twisted wood and nightmare shapes. Some of them looked as sharp as spears and the sense of malevolence and gloom they projected was almost physical.</p><p> </p><p>Above all, there was an aura of ancient, bad power surrounding the forest. It was at once magnetic and repellent, which is a contradiction, I realize that; what I meant to say is that it was fascinating but not in a good way and I knew that strange things would happen as soon as we went in there.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim was looking at it with even more distrust than I was and then he turned to Drudge:</p><p> </p><p>“What is that?”</p><p> </p><p>The ranger looked at the wood and replied:</p><p> </p><p>“I have no idea. It shouldn’t be like that. In fact, looking at it, it shouldn’t even be alive; but it is. I don’t know what lives inside there. Listen!”</p><p> </p><p>I didn’t hear anything but that wasn’t particularly unusual.</p><p> </p><p>But Victor, with his hearing augmented by his magical earring said:</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t hear anything.”</p><p> </p><p>“Exactly,” answered Drudge. “There should be birdsong and the rustling of the odd animal here and there; I’ve trained myself to hear these things; but, as you say, there’s nothing.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh good,” interrupted John, “we’ve got a dead forest with trees that look like they want to kill you; and we’re going to walk straight into it, aren’t we, Longhelim?”</p><p> </p><p>“Unless you’ve got any better ideas? Which river is this, by the way?” replied the paladin.</p><p> </p><p>“I think this is the Taryaver River,” said Drudge.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh even better,” said John, “that’s the black one isn’t it? The one that’s supposed to take elven souls to the underworld?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes”, I replied and then added:</p><p> </p><p>“Cheer up, John; you’re not an elf. It probably wouldn’t want you.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim drew himself up:</p><p> </p><p>“Well, we’d better go in.”</p><p> </p><p>Quickly, we formed into our usual marching order, with the two warriors in the front, followed by Felix and I with John and Drudge at the rear but with the proviso that they would move as and when needed. The whole forest became even more oppressive the closer we approached and Victor suddenly put up his hand; we all stopped:</p><p> </p><p>“I hear some sort of metal; like clanking; but I can’t see anything.”</p><p> </p><p>Saying that, he strained to hear further.</p><p> </p><p>Then, as we walked a little closer, Drudge whispered:</p><p> </p><p>“Look, the chains. On the trees; the trunks are wrapped in chains.”</p><p> </p><p>Straining my eyes, I could see what Drudge was talking about. The tree trunks were indeed wrapped in chains; some of these were also wrapped around the branches and hung, swinging in the wind; if there had been a wind. As it was, they were just swinging; like gibbets.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim whispered:</p><p> </p><p>“What’s the point of doing that? Someone went to a lot of trouble doing all this.”</p><p> </p><p>I had been trying to work it out and said to the paladin:</p><p> </p><p>“Normally, metal does not affect this, but if those chains have a high lead content and if they are wrapped around a lot of the trees then that is what could be affecting the ability to use divination spells in here. These are not normally affected by metal but they are affected by lead.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim nodded and we marched on. Soon we broached the edge of the tree line and as soon as that happened, Felix seemed to stagger and then he stopped:</p><p> </p><p>“Whatever has power in this place, it has just affected many of my spells. I feel as if my connection to my magic has just gone; well not quite but it’s almost gone. I have a horrible feeling that I’m going to find it difficult to cast a lot of my spells here.”</p><p> </p><p>That was very bad news; if something was blocking our priest, then it was very likely that healing magic was going to be affected. I just hoped he hadn’t lost it completely.</p><p> </p><p>Then we were beyond the tree line, following the river. There was a game trail, but the path was slippery, the rocks muddy and it was barely discernible. It was only due to the uncanny eyes of Drudge that we were able to follow it; otherwise, we would have strayed off it immediately. There were other disturbing effects as well. The trees swayed in the wind…..but in the wrong direction or when we could not feel any breeze. Some of the trees looked as if they had a visage and we had to avoid several branches swinging into our faces. The place was also dank and dark; if we had been able to feel the cold, we would have been even more miserable; as it was, we were just generally irritable. There was some weak sunlight filtering through the canopy, but it was barely there and did not appear frequently. Then, as we moved, Drudge suddenly stopped us. Then he bound forward but returned quite quickly:</p><p> </p><p>“I found a fairy ring,” he explained. We looked at him blankly.</p><p> </p><p>He went on:</p><p> </p><p>“It’s a ring of mushrooms. It is said that either it is an entrance to the fairy realm or that fairies dance around it. Its presence suggests that fey live in this forest.”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, I suppose someone has to,” muttered John as he looked around the trees with distaste.</p><p> </p><p>“We’d better be on the lookout for them; they can be unpredictable,” said Longhelim.</p><p> </p><p>We had already met several fey, including a whole tribe of them in the Fire Forest, namely the Seelah and also the group in the forest near Gallo’s Fend. Thankfully, several members of the group spoke Sylvan so at least we could communicate with them; theoretically.</p><p> </p><p>Then, just as we were about to set off again, there was a soft curse from Victor. I looked at the warrior and saw him looking at his falchion, which was bleeding copiously. Yes, large amounts of blood were flowing out of the blade and dripping onto the forest floor. Strangely, there, the blood was being absorbed immediately. Everyone stared at this in fascination for some moments and then the bleeding began to abate.</p><p> </p><p>The warrior was shaking his head and we carried on.</p><p> </p><p>I debated whether it was worthwhile putting up some more defensive spells but none of those which I had learned lasted sufficiently long to warrant casting while we were tromping through the forest. Then, as I was thinking how to counteract this tomorrow, Drudge called out softly again. This time, he sped forward and returned almost immediately:</p><p> </p><p>“There’s a body ahead; half buried in the ground.”</p><p> </p><p>Felix also whispered at this point:</p><p> </p><p>“We should take care. The feeling in this place…..it is somewhere where undead would thrive. This corpse could be a trap.”</p><p> </p><p>So, with weapons drawn and spells ready to cast, we moved to the spot where Drudge led. Indeed, there was a corpse half buried in the ground. Carefully, the warriors uncovered the debris from the top; quickly, it became apparent that it was a dwarven corpse; it had been stabbed in the back repeatedly. It was dressed in a robe; the biggest surprise came when we turned it over and it bore my face! We all stared at it in stupefaction until the whole body shuddered, split and turned into a nest of snakes. These hissed and writhed and then disappeared and turned into leaves.</p><p> </p><p>Turning to the others, wide eyed, pale and shaken, I said:</p><p> </p><p>“I tell you, divination may not work here and there may be problems with healing but illusions? Those work really, really well!”</p><p> </p><p>Quietly, we all began to move back to the river. This forest was a truly unsavory place. I suppose if it was the site of a genocide then there were bound to be consequences.</p><p> </p><p>Just as we turned a bend, Drudge yet again stopped us and pointed at something in the distance; the ranger’s sight was almost miraculous. If we had not had him with us, we would have been oblivious to nearly everything that we were moving towards or that was coming towards us. This time, after he pointed it out, we could just see a small figure in the distance, standing there, watching us.</p><p> </p><p>Again, we approached and as we came closer, we could see that the figure was an elven child, wearing tattered clothing. It turned around and began walking into the deeper forest; its feet did not touch the ground. We hurried and tried to catch the figure but it always remained tantalizingly ahead.</p><p> </p><p>After a short distance, we came to a clearing. The child had disappeared but as soon as we saw our destination, we realised that it was nothing but a lure. The clearing contained a large pool which had several massive trees around it. This would be nothing unusual except that they looked distinctly humanoid, with branches that looked like hands and roots like feet; they also moved. As did several other trees behind us as soon as we appeared. I managed to see that one of these trees had the corpse of an elven child chained to its trunk and suddenly I knew where the small figure with the tattered clothes had originated. After that, we had to look after ourselves as branches, trunks and roots flew at us from all directions.</p><p> </p><p>Drudge had stepped into the water which was quite shallow if black and nasty looking. As I looked around me quickly, I could see that what I had thought were normal trees were also coming alive. These were different than those which looked like humanoids; they acted the same though, swaying and swinging their branches at us. Due to their size, they were able to reach us almost everywhere we moved; and moving was actually very dangerous as so many of their branches swung around that there was already a good chance of being hit by this arboreal web. Poor Drudge; every time he tried to load his bow and fire it, a branch swung into his face, spoiling his aim. In the end, he drew his sword.</p><p> </p><p>The humanoids seemed to be staying back, letting the trees do all the fighting. In fact it was almost as if they were directing them.</p><p> </p><p>I cast my spell of speed at everyone, managing to avoid swinging branches and then I shouted:</p><p> </p><p>“It’s the ones that are standing back; they’re controlling the others. We have to……urgh!”</p><p> </p><p>The last exclamation happened as two branches hit me squarely in the belly and head. I knew fairly quickly that I would not able to stand another pair of strikes like that so I also made myself invisible. Then there was a shout of Longhelim:</p><p> </p><p>“I can’t do healing magic!”</p><p> </p><p>That was very bad. I could see that the trees had struck Felix several times and he attempted to cast his spell but for some reason his complicated hand movements could not manifest the spell. He must have done something wrong somewhere. This made everything more desperate. Felix was badly hurt and although both Longhelim and Victor stepped in front of him, those trees could reach so far that it was impossible for them to defend the priest. I moved to Drudge and cast a spell. Then I whispered in his ear:</p><p> </p><p>“You can fly!”</p><p> </p><p>He took off immediately and began to rain arrows down on the trees. He concentrated his fire on the humanoids that were standing back and he managed to turn one into deadwood. This in turn stopped several of the attacking trees; they just stopped moving, becoming normal trees again. Thankfully, several of those were those closest to Felix, who managed to scramble away again, limping badly. He was very badly hurt.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim and Victor concentrated on keeping a barrier of steel between the other trees and Felix and John but the main person who was able to hurt the enemy was Drudge, as he flew out of their reach and produced an archery master class. He was able to slay them all that way, shooting arrow after arrow after arrow; I did cast several spells, amongst them my fog cloud, but it was fairly ineffectual; my bolt of lightning hit one of the tree humanoid as well as most of its cohorts; that helped to weaken them which was fortunate as Victor then hit two of the trees in quick succession, managing to split them down the middle.</p><p> </p><p>Two things were gleaned from this: trees really did not like lightning bolts and Victor was relishing that new falchion of his. However, as I mentioned previously, there was no doubt that the most effective person against these creatures was the flying archer. His volleys were unerringly aimed at the humanoids and every time one of them slumped, several of the trees stopped moving.</p><p> </p><p>Once we were able to re-group, a search of the area revealed nothing; the child corpse chained to the tree trunk was long desiccated and there was little else of note in the clearing. One thing we did find though was that although healing wands needed the same sort of complicated procedure to make them work here, John was very good at discovering the method of doing so.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s like having to learn the spell over again; it is complicated but it works. You have to break it down, memorise different parts of it and then you can cast it again. I am not sure if Felix can do that as well as I; his disciplines lie in different directions.”</p><p> </p><p>So, John was able to heal the wounds of everyone else. We did make one final gesture in this clearing. Slowly and carefully, we unwound the chains from the corpse of the elven child and dug a shallow grave, putting the remains to rest. I am not sure if this gesture would make any difference to anyone else but it made us feel better.</p><p> </p><p>Then we moved on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6188556, member: 6692807"] This was the outskirts of a small village; well, former village. It had been burned out. We also surprised a Ragesian garrison of a few soldiers but we managed to deal with these very quickly. Once that was finished, it was obvious that the village had been burned out some time ago and that, judging by the garrison, the Ragesians were the most likely party responsible. As we looked around at the desolate region and the stormy sea crashing against the rocky shore, the remoteness of the place struck us: “Ye Gods! Who lives in a place like this?” murmured John rhetorically. Drudge had disappeared, to try to find out if there was anyone nearby and if so, where. He returned fairly quickly though: “No one here except our dead friends that is; hasn’t been for some time. I took a look around. A large army did march through though; Ragesian I presume. Oh, I found some nice boots, but that’s it. So, now what?” I said to Longhelim: “Syana was supposed to have a lair on each of the rivers flowing through the forest; the Ragesians will also need water, as will everyone else. I think the rivers are the most important feature in this place; I suggest we find a river mouth further south and follow it into the wood.” Drudge nodded approvingly: “Our dwarven magician is right; I’ll make a ranger out of him yet; should have thought of that myself. Yes, the water is the one constant that will draw animals, people, armies and others. The only thing it won’t draw is phantoms.” Longhelim nodded and said: “Well, let’s turn into mist and fly down; saves time that way.” We were all able to use the magic and fly down the coast at great speed, until we saw a river mouth. As arranged, we turned back into material form once we reached it. We were now closer to the forest and I was looking at it dubiously. The trees, dark and with almost nonexistent foliage, were twisted and bent in a very unnatural manner. Some of them looked as if they were trying to avoid some massive blow aimed at them, while others were literally looming menacingly towards strangers and outsiders coming into their realm. The branches were all twisted wood and nightmare shapes. Some of them looked as sharp as spears and the sense of malevolence and gloom they projected was almost physical. Above all, there was an aura of ancient, bad power surrounding the forest. It was at once magnetic and repellent, which is a contradiction, I realize that; what I meant to say is that it was fascinating but not in a good way and I knew that strange things would happen as soon as we went in there. Longhelim was looking at it with even more distrust than I was and then he turned to Drudge: “What is that?” The ranger looked at the wood and replied: “I have no idea. It shouldn’t be like that. In fact, looking at it, it shouldn’t even be alive; but it is. I don’t know what lives inside there. Listen!” I didn’t hear anything but that wasn’t particularly unusual. But Victor, with his hearing augmented by his magical earring said: “I don’t hear anything.” “Exactly,” answered Drudge. “There should be birdsong and the rustling of the odd animal here and there; I’ve trained myself to hear these things; but, as you say, there’s nothing.” “Oh good,” interrupted John, “we’ve got a dead forest with trees that look like they want to kill you; and we’re going to walk straight into it, aren’t we, Longhelim?” “Unless you’ve got any better ideas? Which river is this, by the way?” replied the paladin. “I think this is the Taryaver River,” said Drudge. “Oh even better,” said John, “that’s the black one isn’t it? The one that’s supposed to take elven souls to the underworld?” “Yes”, I replied and then added: “Cheer up, John; you’re not an elf. It probably wouldn’t want you.” Longhelim drew himself up: “Well, we’d better go in.” Quickly, we formed into our usual marching order, with the two warriors in the front, followed by Felix and I with John and Drudge at the rear but with the proviso that they would move as and when needed. The whole forest became even more oppressive the closer we approached and Victor suddenly put up his hand; we all stopped: “I hear some sort of metal; like clanking; but I can’t see anything.” Saying that, he strained to hear further. Then, as we walked a little closer, Drudge whispered: “Look, the chains. On the trees; the trunks are wrapped in chains.” Straining my eyes, I could see what Drudge was talking about. The tree trunks were indeed wrapped in chains; some of these were also wrapped around the branches and hung, swinging in the wind; if there had been a wind. As it was, they were just swinging; like gibbets. Longhelim whispered: “What’s the point of doing that? Someone went to a lot of trouble doing all this.” I had been trying to work it out and said to the paladin: “Normally, metal does not affect this, but if those chains have a high lead content and if they are wrapped around a lot of the trees then that is what could be affecting the ability to use divination spells in here. These are not normally affected by metal but they are affected by lead.” Longhelim nodded and we marched on. Soon we broached the edge of the tree line and as soon as that happened, Felix seemed to stagger and then he stopped: “Whatever has power in this place, it has just affected many of my spells. I feel as if my connection to my magic has just gone; well not quite but it’s almost gone. I have a horrible feeling that I’m going to find it difficult to cast a lot of my spells here.” That was very bad news; if something was blocking our priest, then it was very likely that healing magic was going to be affected. I just hoped he hadn’t lost it completely. Then we were beyond the tree line, following the river. There was a game trail, but the path was slippery, the rocks muddy and it was barely discernible. It was only due to the uncanny eyes of Drudge that we were able to follow it; otherwise, we would have strayed off it immediately. There were other disturbing effects as well. The trees swayed in the wind…..but in the wrong direction or when we could not feel any breeze. Some of the trees looked as if they had a visage and we had to avoid several branches swinging into our faces. The place was also dank and dark; if we had been able to feel the cold, we would have been even more miserable; as it was, we were just generally irritable. There was some weak sunlight filtering through the canopy, but it was barely there and did not appear frequently. Then, as we moved, Drudge suddenly stopped us. Then he bound forward but returned quite quickly: “I found a fairy ring,” he explained. We looked at him blankly. He went on: “It’s a ring of mushrooms. It is said that either it is an entrance to the fairy realm or that fairies dance around it. Its presence suggests that fey live in this forest.” “Well, I suppose someone has to,” muttered John as he looked around the trees with distaste. “We’d better be on the lookout for them; they can be unpredictable,” said Longhelim. We had already met several fey, including a whole tribe of them in the Fire Forest, namely the Seelah and also the group in the forest near Gallo’s Fend. Thankfully, several members of the group spoke Sylvan so at least we could communicate with them; theoretically. Then, just as we were about to set off again, there was a soft curse from Victor. I looked at the warrior and saw him looking at his falchion, which was bleeding copiously. Yes, large amounts of blood were flowing out of the blade and dripping onto the forest floor. Strangely, there, the blood was being absorbed immediately. Everyone stared at this in fascination for some moments and then the bleeding began to abate. The warrior was shaking his head and we carried on. I debated whether it was worthwhile putting up some more defensive spells but none of those which I had learned lasted sufficiently long to warrant casting while we were tromping through the forest. Then, as I was thinking how to counteract this tomorrow, Drudge called out softly again. This time, he sped forward and returned almost immediately: “There’s a body ahead; half buried in the ground.” Felix also whispered at this point: “We should take care. The feeling in this place…..it is somewhere where undead would thrive. This corpse could be a trap.” So, with weapons drawn and spells ready to cast, we moved to the spot where Drudge led. Indeed, there was a corpse half buried in the ground. Carefully, the warriors uncovered the debris from the top; quickly, it became apparent that it was a dwarven corpse; it had been stabbed in the back repeatedly. It was dressed in a robe; the biggest surprise came when we turned it over and it bore my face! We all stared at it in stupefaction until the whole body shuddered, split and turned into a nest of snakes. These hissed and writhed and then disappeared and turned into leaves. Turning to the others, wide eyed, pale and shaken, I said: “I tell you, divination may not work here and there may be problems with healing but illusions? Those work really, really well!” Quietly, we all began to move back to the river. This forest was a truly unsavory place. I suppose if it was the site of a genocide then there were bound to be consequences. Just as we turned a bend, Drudge yet again stopped us and pointed at something in the distance; the ranger’s sight was almost miraculous. If we had not had him with us, we would have been oblivious to nearly everything that we were moving towards or that was coming towards us. This time, after he pointed it out, we could just see a small figure in the distance, standing there, watching us. Again, we approached and as we came closer, we could see that the figure was an elven child, wearing tattered clothing. It turned around and began walking into the deeper forest; its feet did not touch the ground. We hurried and tried to catch the figure but it always remained tantalizingly ahead. After a short distance, we came to a clearing. The child had disappeared but as soon as we saw our destination, we realised that it was nothing but a lure. The clearing contained a large pool which had several massive trees around it. This would be nothing unusual except that they looked distinctly humanoid, with branches that looked like hands and roots like feet; they also moved. As did several other trees behind us as soon as we appeared. I managed to see that one of these trees had the corpse of an elven child chained to its trunk and suddenly I knew where the small figure with the tattered clothes had originated. After that, we had to look after ourselves as branches, trunks and roots flew at us from all directions. Drudge had stepped into the water which was quite shallow if black and nasty looking. As I looked around me quickly, I could see that what I had thought were normal trees were also coming alive. These were different than those which looked like humanoids; they acted the same though, swaying and swinging their branches at us. Due to their size, they were able to reach us almost everywhere we moved; and moving was actually very dangerous as so many of their branches swung around that there was already a good chance of being hit by this arboreal web. Poor Drudge; every time he tried to load his bow and fire it, a branch swung into his face, spoiling his aim. In the end, he drew his sword. The humanoids seemed to be staying back, letting the trees do all the fighting. In fact it was almost as if they were directing them. I cast my spell of speed at everyone, managing to avoid swinging branches and then I shouted: “It’s the ones that are standing back; they’re controlling the others. We have to……urgh!” The last exclamation happened as two branches hit me squarely in the belly and head. I knew fairly quickly that I would not able to stand another pair of strikes like that so I also made myself invisible. Then there was a shout of Longhelim: “I can’t do healing magic!” That was very bad. I could see that the trees had struck Felix several times and he attempted to cast his spell but for some reason his complicated hand movements could not manifest the spell. He must have done something wrong somewhere. This made everything more desperate. Felix was badly hurt and although both Longhelim and Victor stepped in front of him, those trees could reach so far that it was impossible for them to defend the priest. I moved to Drudge and cast a spell. Then I whispered in his ear: “You can fly!” He took off immediately and began to rain arrows down on the trees. He concentrated his fire on the humanoids that were standing back and he managed to turn one into deadwood. This in turn stopped several of the attacking trees; they just stopped moving, becoming normal trees again. Thankfully, several of those were those closest to Felix, who managed to scramble away again, limping badly. He was very badly hurt. Longhelim and Victor concentrated on keeping a barrier of steel between the other trees and Felix and John but the main person who was able to hurt the enemy was Drudge, as he flew out of their reach and produced an archery master class. He was able to slay them all that way, shooting arrow after arrow after arrow; I did cast several spells, amongst them my fog cloud, but it was fairly ineffectual; my bolt of lightning hit one of the tree humanoid as well as most of its cohorts; that helped to weaken them which was fortunate as Victor then hit two of the trees in quick succession, managing to split them down the middle. Two things were gleaned from this: trees really did not like lightning bolts and Victor was relishing that new falchion of his. However, as I mentioned previously, there was no doubt that the most effective person against these creatures was the flying archer. His volleys were unerringly aimed at the humanoids and every time one of them slumped, several of the trees stopped moving. Once we were able to re-group, a search of the area revealed nothing; the child corpse chained to the tree trunk was long desiccated and there was little else of note in the clearing. One thing we did find though was that although healing wands needed the same sort of complicated procedure to make them work here, John was very good at discovering the method of doing so. “It’s like having to learn the spell over again; it is complicated but it works. You have to break it down, memorise different parts of it and then you can cast it again. I am not sure if Felix can do that as well as I; his disciplines lie in different directions.” So, John was able to heal the wounds of everyone else. We did make one final gesture in this clearing. Slowly and carefully, we unwound the chains from the corpse of the elven child and dug a shallow grave, putting the remains to rest. I am not sure if this gesture would make any difference to anyone else but it made us feel better. Then we moved on. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
Top