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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6190629" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 73: NATURAL DISASTER, PART 1</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Feron Dru, half-elf druid</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thunderwolf, human fighter</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Coventry, awakened oak tree/temporary druid of Ehlonna</p><p></p><p>Feron awoke with a start in the pre-dawn silence of her room. She felt a sudden compulsion to go outside to the small grove she maintained behind the Greyhawk City Adventurers Guild. She was not troubled; rather, she seemed immersed in a complete feeling of peace and tranquility. As such, she didn't don her armor or grab up her weapons, opting to simply slip on a robe over her sleepwear and head out back.</p><p></p><p>At the grove, just as the sun's rays first touched the city, a wind picked up and blew the branches of the small trees into a different configuration. Feron felt no surprise to see that they had formed a face, that of her patron Goddess, Ehlonna of the Forests.</p><p></p><p>"It is time," intoned Ehlonna directly into Feron's mind. "Gather up a group of your adventuring companions, and ensure Delphyne is among their number. Travel with her to the Stick Palace of her childhood. Have your friends prepare for combat as normal, but prepare no spells of your own, for I will provide them when the time is at hand.</p><p></p><p>"Make your best time to the Stick Palace, Feron, for speed is of the essence. Coventry has slept for too long; it is time he was awakened."</p><p></p><p>Feron bowed her head before the image of her Goddess and returned to the Wing of her Guild, rousing the others.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>"Ready?" asked Delphyne, seeing that the rest of the group that had opted to go on this quest of Ehlonna had gathered up their gear and were ready to depart. Ehlonna had said that time was of the essence, and short of actual time travel, nothing could get them to where they needed to be faster than a <em>greater teleport</em> spell. She vocalized the arcane syllables, and the group popped out of existence from their living room and back into existence in a shady woods.</p><p></p><p>"Greeting, Miss Delphyne!" welcomed Percival, the animated skull embedded in the old oak tree which supported the Stick Palace of Delphyne's childhood, just to the left of the door. "And you have brought visitors!"</p><p></p><p>"Hello, Percival," the young witch responded, then turned to her companions. "Go on in and make yourselves at home. Is there anything I can do to help, Feron?"</p><p></p><p>"No, thank you," answered the half-elf druid. "I'll just get everything ready, and then I can begin." She took a few items out of her <em>Heward's handy haversack</em> and then passed it over to Thunderwolf, who took it inside the Stick Palace. The young fighter had never seen such a dwelling before and stared up at it in awe. In the meantime, Feron, clad in her druid robes and sandals, stared off into the distance, her eyes glazed and unfocused; she was receiving a spell unbidden directly from her Goddess. Once it had established a firm residence in her mind, she snapped out of her semi-trance and began painting glyphs and symbols on the rough, worn bark of the oak upon which the Stick Palace rested.</p><p></p><p>"How long is this going to take?" asked Delphyne.</p><p></p><p>"A full 24 hours," replied Feron, dipping her fingers into a bowl of paint and inscribing mystical figures onto the tree's bark.</p><p></p><p>Ever mindful of danger, Cal insisted on a rotating guard to protect Feron during the time she spent preparing her spell. Chalkan and his timber wolf, Toronaus, did an exploratory excursion in the forest all around the Stick Palace, looking for traces of any dangerous creatures. They found nothing, but that didn't dissuade Cal from wanting a guard up at all times. Infernia was actually glad of the guard duty when Telgrane's turn came up, as her master had insisted she stay inside her tinderbox rather than roam freely throughout a treehouse dwelling made of wood. She had been practicing <em>not</em> setting things ablaze when she touched them, but Delphyne still didn't want to take any chances and Telgrane couldn't really argue against her logic.</p><p></p><p>Feron continued her spell preparations all through the afternoon and evening, and then all through the night. Besides the glyph-painting, she burned incenses around the tree and chanted in a hauntingly beautiful tongue, a language that predated many entire civilizations. The next morning, as the rest of the adventuring group exited the Stick Palace after a good night's sleep to watch the end of the festivities, Feron's song of awakening came to a final, determined shout, and then the last vestige of strength seemed to drain out of her body. She crumpled to the ground in a dead faint.</p><p></p><p>Cal was the first to her side, feeling a strong pulse in her neck and determining that she didn't seem to be in any immediate danger. "She looks to be in a healing sleep," he told the others. "Let's get her inside, and let her recuperate." The cleric of Kord lifted the unconscious half-elf and carried her up to Delphyne's bedroom, to place her delicately upon the witch's bed.</p><p></p><p>"What about the spell?" asked Thunderwolf. "Did Feron finish it? Did it work?"</p><p></p><p>As if in response, the tree opened a pair of eyes from deep inside twin knotholes, a mouth cracked open through a sudden seam in its rough bark, and it spoke for the first time in its lengthy life.</p><p></p><p>"I am <strong>Coventry</strong>," he boomed, "Witch-Friend, Shelter-Giver to Esmerelda Blinx and Delphyne Babelberi. I have been given sentience and new purpose by Ehlonna of the Forests, through her mortal vessel Feron Dru. Enter at once into the Stick Place, for we must go." And with that, the door to the Stick Palace opened on its own.</p><p></p><p>The heroes piled through the door and up the stairs. Delphyne was the last to enter, rubbing her hands lovingly on the rough bark of the awakened tree. She noted that the <em>awaken</em> spell, now complete, had erased all of the magical glyphs Feron had painted upon the tree's surface.</p><p></p><p>"Mistress," Coventry acknowledged to the young witch in greeting as she walked through the doorway to her home. The door closed of its own accord upon her entrance. And then, once the heroes had all made it up the stairs, Coventry pulled his roots from the ground, his lower section splitting into two massive legs. "Prepare yourselves for travel," he boomed in a thunderous voice, and took the first steps of his life. </p><p></p><p>Inside the Stick Palace, Delphyne shrieked in surprise as her childhood home swayed back and forth to the rhythm of Coventry's lumbering gait. She quickly deployed the heroes around the kitchen and library areas, catching glasses, cups, dishes, pots, books, and bric-a-brac before they could fall off of shelves. The heroes spent a good deal of time hurriedly stowing breakables into lower cabinets. Cal ensured that Feron was still doing okay, but she slumbered on in Delphyne's bed, oblivious to the tumult.</p><p></p><p>After a dozen steps or so, Coventry's path twisted in some non-linear way, and the light from the sun above diminished to almost nothingness. Chalkan cast a <em>light</em> spell on his holy symbol, and the crescent moon illuminated the suddenly-dim interior of the Stick Palace.</p><p></p><p>"What happened?" asked Thunderwolf, his hand on the hilt of Xanthros in case this was some form of attack.</p><p></p><p>"It looks like we've entered the Plane of Shadows," said Telgrane.</p><p></p><p>"Indeed," boomed Coventry's voice, seemingly coming from the very floorboards of the Stick Palace, for the main level of Delphyne's dwelling was perched over the animated tree's "head." "Ehlonna has granted me the spells of one of her powerful druids, as well as a few other abilities, for the mission upon which we're being sent. We travel now through the Shadows, that we can make better time."</p><p></p><p>"Where are we going?" asked Delphyne, still getting used to the idea that she could now have a conversation with her house.</p><p></p><p>"We will drop Feron off at Ehlonna's Grove, in the care of the Sisters. Then we must journey toward the Plane of Fairie, to head off a contingent of those who would do our world harm."</p><p></p><p>As they traveled through the Plane of Shadows, Coventry explained their mission, all of which had come directly from Ehlonna herself upon his awakening into sentience. Many of the Gods were in constant combat with each other, although the rules by which they engaged such battles forbade direct confrontation; rather, they strove against each other through the use of mortal proxies. Incabulos, the God of Plagues, Sickness, Famine, Nightmares, Drought, and Disasters, had gathered a team of such proxies and was sending them from the Plane of Faerie directly to Ehlonna’s place of power on Oerth, a grove in the heart of the Vesve Forest. In the very center of Ehlonna's Grove stood an enormous tree, the Great Oak - this functioned as a beacon through which Ehlonna sent spells to her faithful. Were it to be destroyed, it would have everlasting repercussions among not only the druids who worshiped the Lady of the Forests, but also to many sylvan races: nymphs, dryads, centaurs, satyrs, and to some extent even elves.</p><p></p><p>"So we're going to the Land of Fairie?" asked Telgrane.</p><p></p><p>"We probably won't make it there in time," replied Coventry. "But if we hurry, we can meet the enemy in the Untamed Wildlands, a demiplane connecting Oerth to the Land of Fairie, rather than combating them here on Oerth, where they can do great harm to our world." As he spoke, the ambient light brightened around the Stick Palace. "We are here," intoned Coventry. "Bring Feron downstairs, if you will." Cal hurried to comply.</p><p></p><p>Exiting the Stick Palace, the heroes found themselves in a sun-dappled realm, under an enormous grove of trees so old that their branches hung over them like a cathedral. A trio of unicorns grazed over to the left, and a staggeringly beautiful woman with elven features approached from behind a tree. The soothing tones of a brook and rustle of the breeze-blown trees were the only sounds, until the nymph spoke in a voice as dazzling as sun on water.</p><p></p><p>"I am <strong>Callionda</strong>," she said. "I will tend to Ehlonna's Handmaiden. Leave Feron here with me to recuperate, in the Grove of the Lady, while the rest of you go forth and strike down those who would raze this place of beauty. And know this: should you fail in your duty, should you fall in battle, Feron will be here to lead the Sisters in the last line of defense against the Despoilers."</p><p></p><p>Cal passed Feron's unconscious form over to the supple nymph, who lowered her gently to the soft grass of the grove. Thunderwolf passed over Feron's magical haversack, in which her dragonscale armor and her weapons were stored. Then he and Cal nodded their greetings to the nymph and returned to the Stick Palace. Coventry lumbered over to the far side of the grove, stepping into a large ring of toadstoods - a fairy ring, which <em>gated</em> the tree and those within its care into another plane of existence.</p><p></p><p>"We have arrived in time," announced Coventry, looking about their new surroundings. The ancient tree stood in a wild expanse of untamed wilderness, with tall grasses everywhere and several gnarled, twisted trees growing in the distance. A thick, distant fog masked the horizon. Coventry headed directly toward it, guided no doubt by the Goddess Ehlonna. The heroes scampered up through the trap door in the library roof of the Stick Palace, taking positions on the highest platform - the very platform where the greenhag possessing Esmerelda Blinx's body had attempted taking over Delphyne's own form. The structure had been badly burned in the subsequent fire, but months ago Delphyne's adventuring companions had helped her to restore it to its original design. There they cast their preparatory spells: <em>stoneskins</em> upon Delphyne, Cal, and Telgrane, a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell linking the heroes mentally with Coventry, and a <em>flame arrow</em> spell - modified on the fly to cause sonic damage, thanks to Telgrane's experience as an archmage - cast upon the arrows of the group's two primary archers, Chalkan and Thunderwolf. Delphyne also cast a <em>resist fire</em> spell upon Coventry, worried that the mobile tree would still be as vulnerable to fire as any other.</p><p></p><p>As Coventry approached the bank of fog in the near distance, an ambulatory, treelike form of about the same general build stepped out of the clinging mists, its blackened branches devoid of any vegetation. As it approached, waves of grasses withered and died in a 100-foot radius all around it. Upon sighting the dark treant, the heroes felt a distinct fear clutching at their hearts - all but Telgrane, perhaps because he had been concentrating on releasing his fire elemental familiar from her tinderbox, and hadn't got a good initial look at what was apparently Incabulos's mortal proxy.</p><p></p><p>The treant, now completely out of the mist behind it, stopped and glared at Coventry with flaming eyes. "I am <strong>Blackrot</strong>, Plague-Bringer, Pestilent Scourge of Incabulos," thundered the blackened tree-shape. "Stand aside, that I may perform my unholy duties."</p><p></p><p>"I am Coventry, Forest-Guardian, Vigilant Warrior of Ehlonna," responded the great tree holding the Stick Palace in its upper branches. "I will not stand aside, nor will I allow you to enter my birth-world to do your mischief."</p><p></p><p>"A duel of proxies, then, between the two of us?" asked Blackrot, his reddish eyes glowing from within the darkened hollows of his twisted face.</p><p></p><p>"A duel," agreed Coventry. "I will fight you with all of my resources: with the ants that crawl upon my bark, with the squirrels that nest within my branches. I will fight you with every living thing I carry upon my wooden frame. And you will not reach the Oerth without first defeating me and my living army." At his words, the heroes ducked low on their platform, hiding under the cover of Coventry's highest branches, hoping not to be spotted, correctly reasoning that Coventry's words had been carefully chosen to allow the heroes into this "battle by proxies."</p><p></p><p>"Then I will begin with your defeat!" snarled Blackrot, advancing to attack. Behind him, several shambling shapes stumbled along, emerging from the fog to stand at his side.</p><p></p><p>Blackrot's initial act was to summon reinforcements. With the power of his will, he caused two of the twisted, withered trees in the vicinity to pull up their roots and join him in battle against the heroes. At the same time, he cast an <em>insect plague</em> spell at the top of the platform, having apparently spotted the heroes perched there. A massive swarm of locusts appeared, flitting about and clambering all over the adventurers.</p><p></p><p>Chalkan was the first of the group to respond, targeting as best he could through the swarm of flitting insects, sending a <em>fireball</em> from his wand hurling at Blackrot. The already blackened treant was engulfed in flame, but emerged from the inferno apparently none the worse for wear. The two shambling corpses at his sides were visibly singed from the attack, but continued their stumbling gait undeterred.</p><p></p><p>Cal unleashed a spell he had never before tried to cast. A great rumbling shook the ground at Blackrot's feet, and massive cracks split the earth all around him. Two of the shambling undead at Blackrot's side - for two more had emerged from the fog behind him - fell to the ground, as did one of the animated trees. Then both trees, half of the plague blights (for the shambling zombies were filled with a vile pestilence just waiting to be unleashed upon the Oerth), and even Blackrot himself plunged into the ever-widening chasms caused by Cal's <em>earthquake</em> spell. The treant gave a wail of fury as he was engulfed.</p><p></p><p>Cal yelled to the others - spitting out locusts that tried crawling into his mouth as he spoke - that the chasms would soon close back up, crushing anything still within them. Telgrane channeled the natural energy of his half-elemental form and sent a <em>firestorm</em> blanketing the area of combat, engulfing the plague blights in blistering flames. They said not a word as they collapsed to the ground, their feeble movements halted in the cleansing fire.</p><p></p><p>Not wanting to chance Blackrot climbing out of the chasm before it sealed back up, Delphyne cast a <em>chain lightning</em> spell focused primarily on the treant (for she could just make out the withered branches at the top of his head poking out from the ground) and arcing out to two misty forms that had just drifted forward from the fog. Blackrot again screamed in pain as the spell struck; whether the electricity had an effect on the two cloudlike masses of greenish vapors was debatable, for they continued on in their beelines for Coventry.</p><p></p><p>Coventry cast a spell of his own, for Ehlonna had temporarily filled his mind with the knowledge of druidic spellcraft, and an enormous earth elemental appeared by Blackrot's chasm, sinking down into the ground and slamming a massive fist into the fire-hardened treant's side as it did so. But the treant, unable to climb out of the chasm in time and unable to teleport to safety, did the one thing he could do to save himself: he summoned an earth elemental of his own, who grabbed up Blackrot by a twisted branch and hurled him out of the rift mere seconds before it closed up. Cal's <em>earthquake</em> sealed off the two animated trees and two of the plague blights, but Blackrot had escaped his doom.</p><p></p><p>Climbing up from the ground, unharmed by the <em>earthquake</em> spell's aftereffects, the two opposing earth elementals started battering each other. The one summoned by Coventry tried to get to Blackrot, while its opposite number kept the first one at bay.</p><p></p><p>Up on the platform, Infernia's flames kept the swarming locusts at bay long enough for Telgrane to cast a <em>Mordenkainen's sword</em> spell at Blackrot. The energy sword manifested directly before the evil treant and gouged a rent deep into the blackened bark of his deformed body. While the two earth elementals pounded away at each other, the pair of phiuhls, sentient clouds of poison gas, continued in their unerring aerial path toward Coventry.</p><p></p><p>Eager to get away from the swarming locusts, several of the heroes scattered, but not before a spell from Cal released both himself and Delphyne from the fear effect that was keeping them both from functioning at their best. Thunderwolf climbed back down into the Stick Palace and headed for the balcony just off what had been Esmerelda Blinx's bedroom; as he passed the kitchen, he saw Chalkan's timber wolf shaking in fear beneath the dining room table. Cal had jumped upon his drow floatdisk and rode it to another, lower platform: the bathroom, alighting through the open part of the half-wall above the tub. Delphyne had mounted her broom and risen above the main roof of the Stick Palace, while her raven familiar circled the area looking for new threats - and occasionally diving into the cloud of locusts for a quick snack.</p><p></p><p>One of the phiuhls had made a beeline for the balcony where Thunderwolf had been shooting arrows, but the plucky fighter found no need to retreat, for Telgrane summoned a greater air elemental in the vicinity and its whirlwind form sucked the cloud-monster into a vortex from which it couldn't escape. The archmage directed the elemental over to do the same to the other phiuhl, harmlessly ending the threat from both.</p><p></p><p>In the midst of the chaos of all of this combat, there was yet another enemy unseen by any of the heroes. It was Iggy, Delphyne's raven familiar, who first spotted the threat: in addition to the roughly circular area of dead grass in the Untamed Wildlands centered around Blackrot, a thin tendril of dead grass made a wriggling way away from the fight, heading back the way Coventry had come. The raven reported this sighting to his mistress, and the <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell still in effect alerted the entire group of heroes.</p><p></p><p>However, by this time Blackrot had decided to concentrate on ridding himself of one enemy at a time. High above the others, perched on a flying broom, Delphyne made an excellent first target. The twisted treant cast a <em>finger of death</em> at the young witch, stopping her heart in an instant. No noise passed Delphyne's lips as she plummeted to the roof of the Stick Palace, but the assembled group of heroes could hear her silent death scream over the mental link they shared. Coventry grabbed up the limp form of the witch, gently placing her inside the bathtub on the raised platform where Cal had moved to, where her body would likely come to no further harm, then devoted his attention back to the battle. Cal took a moment to close Delphyne's eyes and cross her hands over her chest, before he too focused on the battle they dared not lose.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne's death at Blackrot's spell was avenged by the earth elemental that Coventry had summoned; the treant, having been gashed in several places by Telgrane's sword-shaped field of energy, was punched to splinters by a pair of fists the size of boulders. The fire-hardened treant crashed to the ground in a blast of splintering limbs. As the fiery glow in his eyes started to diminish for good, Blackrot let out a final, deep cackle of glee. "Congratulations," he croaked. "You have defeated me – but in doing so, you have won the battle, only to have lost the war!"</p><p></p><p>Coventry spun around behind him, tracking the waving tendril of blackened grass leading back the way he had come - just in time to see an enormous, serpentine body pop up from below the ground, where it had been burrowing. Its head arced into the center of the fairy ring that had transported the heroes to the Untamed Wildlands, its lengthy, sinuous body following until its tail vanished into the ground at the center of the ring of toadstools. As Coventry raced at best speed back to the fairy ring, the heroes frantically talked amongst themselves over the mental link they shared.</p><p></p><p>"It's gotten to Oerth!" cried Telgrane. "We've got to follow it!"</p><p></p><p>"There's no telling how much damage it can do to Ehlonna's Grove before we get there!" responded Chalkan.</p><p></p><p>"It's worse than that," replied Cal sternly. "Did you see the blackened grasses it left it its wake above it as it burrowed? It's got the same sort of rotting effect as Blackrot himself. And what do you think its first action will be when it arrives through the fairy ring by the Grove of Ehlonna?"</p><p></p><p>"It...will rot the toadstools there," reasoned Telgrane. "Shutting down the gate between Oerth and the Untamed Wildlands!"</p><p></p><p>"How could it get through?" asked Thunderwolf. "Why wouldn't the fairy ring mushrooms on this side of the gate not shrivel up?"</p><p></p><p>"It could be a delayed effect," reasoned Cal. "Or the creature may be able to activate and deactivate its aura of rot at will."</p><p></p><p>"We have arrived," intoned Coventry's booming voice. "The gate no longer works. We are stranded here."</p><p></p><p>"Cal, can you <em>plane shift</em> us back home?" demanded Chalkan. "Or <em>gate</em> us, Telgrane?" Both spellcasters sadly shook their heads; neither had prepared the appropriate spell that morning.</p><p></p><p>"We're stuck here for the better part of a day, until we can prepare the spells we need in the morning," replied the cleric of Kord.</p><p></p><p>"Then Feron's on her own back there," Thunderwolf sighed, worry in his voice.</p><p></p><p>"We have failed," replied Coventry, already regretting his sudden sentience, which had thus far led only to the death of his mistress and perhaps the death of druidic magic upon his homeworld.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>This was Delphyne's first death experience, and it was fortunate that I had already had Vicki playing Coventry as well as her witch PC, so she had a character to run after Delphyne died. (She was also running Iggy the raven familiar, but that wouldn't have been a whole lot of fun for her had that been her only character.)</p><p></p><p>There were a couple of funny comments during this adventure. After Feron completed the <em>awaken</em> spell and collapsed into unconsciousness, Dan piped up with a wry observation: "It's a good thing Rale isn't here!" - hinting that Rale shouldn't be trusted in the vicinity of an unconscious woman he'd been hitting on for the majority of his adventuring career. Then, when Delphyne fell victim to Blackrot's <em>finger of death</em> spell and crashed onto the roof of the Stick Palace, Logan got even more laughter out of the group by repeating Dan's earlier observation, this time implying that Rale shouldn't even be trusted with the dead body of a woman in his group. Even Dan, who plays Rale, couldn't help but laugh at that.</p><p></p><p>Also, since this adventure took place on the same day as the Player Challenges, I got a good laugh from the group by telling Logan to "keep his pants on" when he was rushing me for an answer to something or other.</p><p></p><p>I printed out a character sheet for Coventry for this adventure (he had Feron's spellcasting ability, so Vicki could just reference her Feron folder when deciding on his spells). I didn't bother with a "miniature" of Coventry, instead moving around the full-page (of the back of a sheet from a desk calendar) map of the Stick Palace to denote his location compared with the other combatants (the battle area was a blank sheet of desk calendar paper, filled with 1-inch squares marked off with a yardstick). However, for Blackrot, I tried again to create a treant figure out of a cardboard tube from a paper towel roll. This time I kept it simple; I cut small notches along the bottom and folded them out as "roots," and did the same along the top (with much longer, and more gnarled notches) for "tree limbs." I drew on a pair of eyes and a mouth on the front, drew on his "arm-branches" on the sides, and drew (and colored in with a black Sharpie) the space between his legs on the front and back. The end result was a fairly stable treant mini, much better than the utterly craptastic version I had tried back in adventure 7.</p><p></p><p>The animated trees were represented by two pairs of "tree trunk and branches" Duplo blocks, stacked two high. (Stuart and Logan had a bunch of these when they were little, and Joey and Harry still play with them from time to time when Joey's over at our house.)</p><p></p><p>And the reason this is only "Part 1" of the adventure isn't because we ran out of time in this session, but because I had anticipated the possibility that at least some of Blackrot's forces might make it to the fairy ring and end up right there by Ehlonna's Grove. In Part 2, we'll see how Feron and the Sisters fare against the plague serpent, and whether or not the druids of the Lady of the Forests are going to have to all switch over to venerating Obad-Hai to get any druid spells in the future.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6190629, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 73: NATURAL DISASTER, PART 1[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian/sorcerer/arcane archer Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard) Feron Dru, half-elf druid Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage Thunderwolf, human fighter[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Coventry, awakened oak tree/temporary druid of Ehlonna[/INDENT] Feron awoke with a start in the pre-dawn silence of her room. She felt a sudden compulsion to go outside to the small grove she maintained behind the Greyhawk City Adventurers Guild. She was not troubled; rather, she seemed immersed in a complete feeling of peace and tranquility. As such, she didn't don her armor or grab up her weapons, opting to simply slip on a robe over her sleepwear and head out back. At the grove, just as the sun's rays first touched the city, a wind picked up and blew the branches of the small trees into a different configuration. Feron felt no surprise to see that they had formed a face, that of her patron Goddess, Ehlonna of the Forests. "It is time," intoned Ehlonna directly into Feron's mind. "Gather up a group of your adventuring companions, and ensure Delphyne is among their number. Travel with her to the Stick Palace of her childhood. Have your friends prepare for combat as normal, but prepare no spells of your own, for I will provide them when the time is at hand. "Make your best time to the Stick Palace, Feron, for speed is of the essence. Coventry has slept for too long; it is time he was awakened." Feron bowed her head before the image of her Goddess and returned to the Wing of her Guild, rousing the others. - - - "Ready?" asked Delphyne, seeing that the rest of the group that had opted to go on this quest of Ehlonna had gathered up their gear and were ready to depart. Ehlonna had said that time was of the essence, and short of actual time travel, nothing could get them to where they needed to be faster than a [i]greater teleport[/i] spell. She vocalized the arcane syllables, and the group popped out of existence from their living room and back into existence in a shady woods. "Greeting, Miss Delphyne!" welcomed Percival, the animated skull embedded in the old oak tree which supported the Stick Palace of Delphyne's childhood, just to the left of the door. "And you have brought visitors!" "Hello, Percival," the young witch responded, then turned to her companions. "Go on in and make yourselves at home. Is there anything I can do to help, Feron?" "No, thank you," answered the half-elf druid. "I'll just get everything ready, and then I can begin." She took a few items out of her [i]Heward's handy haversack[/i] and then passed it over to Thunderwolf, who took it inside the Stick Palace. The young fighter had never seen such a dwelling before and stared up at it in awe. In the meantime, Feron, clad in her druid robes and sandals, stared off into the distance, her eyes glazed and unfocused; she was receiving a spell unbidden directly from her Goddess. Once it had established a firm residence in her mind, she snapped out of her semi-trance and began painting glyphs and symbols on the rough, worn bark of the oak upon which the Stick Palace rested. "How long is this going to take?" asked Delphyne. "A full 24 hours," replied Feron, dipping her fingers into a bowl of paint and inscribing mystical figures onto the tree's bark. Ever mindful of danger, Cal insisted on a rotating guard to protect Feron during the time she spent preparing her spell. Chalkan and his timber wolf, Toronaus, did an exploratory excursion in the forest all around the Stick Palace, looking for traces of any dangerous creatures. They found nothing, but that didn't dissuade Cal from wanting a guard up at all times. Infernia was actually glad of the guard duty when Telgrane's turn came up, as her master had insisted she stay inside her tinderbox rather than roam freely throughout a treehouse dwelling made of wood. She had been practicing [i]not[/i] setting things ablaze when she touched them, but Delphyne still didn't want to take any chances and Telgrane couldn't really argue against her logic. Feron continued her spell preparations all through the afternoon and evening, and then all through the night. Besides the glyph-painting, she burned incenses around the tree and chanted in a hauntingly beautiful tongue, a language that predated many entire civilizations. The next morning, as the rest of the adventuring group exited the Stick Palace after a good night's sleep to watch the end of the festivities, Feron's song of awakening came to a final, determined shout, and then the last vestige of strength seemed to drain out of her body. She crumpled to the ground in a dead faint. Cal was the first to her side, feeling a strong pulse in her neck and determining that she didn't seem to be in any immediate danger. "She looks to be in a healing sleep," he told the others. "Let's get her inside, and let her recuperate." The cleric of Kord lifted the unconscious half-elf and carried her up to Delphyne's bedroom, to place her delicately upon the witch's bed. "What about the spell?" asked Thunderwolf. "Did Feron finish it? Did it work?" As if in response, the tree opened a pair of eyes from deep inside twin knotholes, a mouth cracked open through a sudden seam in its rough bark, and it spoke for the first time in its lengthy life. "I am [b]Coventry[/b]," he boomed, "Witch-Friend, Shelter-Giver to Esmerelda Blinx and Delphyne Babelberi. I have been given sentience and new purpose by Ehlonna of the Forests, through her mortal vessel Feron Dru. Enter at once into the Stick Place, for we must go." And with that, the door to the Stick Palace opened on its own. The heroes piled through the door and up the stairs. Delphyne was the last to enter, rubbing her hands lovingly on the rough bark of the awakened tree. She noted that the [i]awaken[/i] spell, now complete, had erased all of the magical glyphs Feron had painted upon the tree's surface. "Mistress," Coventry acknowledged to the young witch in greeting as she walked through the doorway to her home. The door closed of its own accord upon her entrance. And then, once the heroes had all made it up the stairs, Coventry pulled his roots from the ground, his lower section splitting into two massive legs. "Prepare yourselves for travel," he boomed in a thunderous voice, and took the first steps of his life. Inside the Stick Palace, Delphyne shrieked in surprise as her childhood home swayed back and forth to the rhythm of Coventry's lumbering gait. She quickly deployed the heroes around the kitchen and library areas, catching glasses, cups, dishes, pots, books, and bric-a-brac before they could fall off of shelves. The heroes spent a good deal of time hurriedly stowing breakables into lower cabinets. Cal ensured that Feron was still doing okay, but she slumbered on in Delphyne's bed, oblivious to the tumult. After a dozen steps or so, Coventry's path twisted in some non-linear way, and the light from the sun above diminished to almost nothingness. Chalkan cast a [i]light[/i] spell on his holy symbol, and the crescent moon illuminated the suddenly-dim interior of the Stick Palace. "What happened?" asked Thunderwolf, his hand on the hilt of Xanthros in case this was some form of attack. "It looks like we've entered the Plane of Shadows," said Telgrane. "Indeed," boomed Coventry's voice, seemingly coming from the very floorboards of the Stick Palace, for the main level of Delphyne's dwelling was perched over the animated tree's "head." "Ehlonna has granted me the spells of one of her powerful druids, as well as a few other abilities, for the mission upon which we're being sent. We travel now through the Shadows, that we can make better time." "Where are we going?" asked Delphyne, still getting used to the idea that she could now have a conversation with her house. "We will drop Feron off at Ehlonna's Grove, in the care of the Sisters. Then we must journey toward the Plane of Fairie, to head off a contingent of those who would do our world harm." As they traveled through the Plane of Shadows, Coventry explained their mission, all of which had come directly from Ehlonna herself upon his awakening into sentience. Many of the Gods were in constant combat with each other, although the rules by which they engaged such battles forbade direct confrontation; rather, they strove against each other through the use of mortal proxies. Incabulos, the God of Plagues, Sickness, Famine, Nightmares, Drought, and Disasters, had gathered a team of such proxies and was sending them from the Plane of Faerie directly to Ehlonna’s place of power on Oerth, a grove in the heart of the Vesve Forest. In the very center of Ehlonna's Grove stood an enormous tree, the Great Oak - this functioned as a beacon through which Ehlonna sent spells to her faithful. Were it to be destroyed, it would have everlasting repercussions among not only the druids who worshiped the Lady of the Forests, but also to many sylvan races: nymphs, dryads, centaurs, satyrs, and to some extent even elves. "So we're going to the Land of Fairie?" asked Telgrane. "We probably won't make it there in time," replied Coventry. "But if we hurry, we can meet the enemy in the Untamed Wildlands, a demiplane connecting Oerth to the Land of Fairie, rather than combating them here on Oerth, where they can do great harm to our world." As he spoke, the ambient light brightened around the Stick Palace. "We are here," intoned Coventry. "Bring Feron downstairs, if you will." Cal hurried to comply. Exiting the Stick Palace, the heroes found themselves in a sun-dappled realm, under an enormous grove of trees so old that their branches hung over them like a cathedral. A trio of unicorns grazed over to the left, and a staggeringly beautiful woman with elven features approached from behind a tree. The soothing tones of a brook and rustle of the breeze-blown trees were the only sounds, until the nymph spoke in a voice as dazzling as sun on water. "I am [b]Callionda[/b]," she said. "I will tend to Ehlonna's Handmaiden. Leave Feron here with me to recuperate, in the Grove of the Lady, while the rest of you go forth and strike down those who would raze this place of beauty. And know this: should you fail in your duty, should you fall in battle, Feron will be here to lead the Sisters in the last line of defense against the Despoilers." Cal passed Feron's unconscious form over to the supple nymph, who lowered her gently to the soft grass of the grove. Thunderwolf passed over Feron's magical haversack, in which her dragonscale armor and her weapons were stored. Then he and Cal nodded their greetings to the nymph and returned to the Stick Palace. Coventry lumbered over to the far side of the grove, stepping into a large ring of toadstoods - a fairy ring, which [i]gated[/i] the tree and those within its care into another plane of existence. "We have arrived in time," announced Coventry, looking about their new surroundings. The ancient tree stood in a wild expanse of untamed wilderness, with tall grasses everywhere and several gnarled, twisted trees growing in the distance. A thick, distant fog masked the horizon. Coventry headed directly toward it, guided no doubt by the Goddess Ehlonna. The heroes scampered up through the trap door in the library roof of the Stick Palace, taking positions on the highest platform - the very platform where the greenhag possessing Esmerelda Blinx's body had attempted taking over Delphyne's own form. The structure had been badly burned in the subsequent fire, but months ago Delphyne's adventuring companions had helped her to restore it to its original design. There they cast their preparatory spells: [i]stoneskins[/i] upon Delphyne, Cal, and Telgrane, a [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell linking the heroes mentally with Coventry, and a [i]flame arrow[/i] spell - modified on the fly to cause sonic damage, thanks to Telgrane's experience as an archmage - cast upon the arrows of the group's two primary archers, Chalkan and Thunderwolf. Delphyne also cast a [i]resist fire[/i] spell upon Coventry, worried that the mobile tree would still be as vulnerable to fire as any other. As Coventry approached the bank of fog in the near distance, an ambulatory, treelike form of about the same general build stepped out of the clinging mists, its blackened branches devoid of any vegetation. As it approached, waves of grasses withered and died in a 100-foot radius all around it. Upon sighting the dark treant, the heroes felt a distinct fear clutching at their hearts - all but Telgrane, perhaps because he had been concentrating on releasing his fire elemental familiar from her tinderbox, and hadn't got a good initial look at what was apparently Incabulos's mortal proxy. The treant, now completely out of the mist behind it, stopped and glared at Coventry with flaming eyes. "I am [b]Blackrot[/b], Plague-Bringer, Pestilent Scourge of Incabulos," thundered the blackened tree-shape. "Stand aside, that I may perform my unholy duties." "I am Coventry, Forest-Guardian, Vigilant Warrior of Ehlonna," responded the great tree holding the Stick Palace in its upper branches. "I will not stand aside, nor will I allow you to enter my birth-world to do your mischief." "A duel of proxies, then, between the two of us?" asked Blackrot, his reddish eyes glowing from within the darkened hollows of his twisted face. "A duel," agreed Coventry. "I will fight you with all of my resources: with the ants that crawl upon my bark, with the squirrels that nest within my branches. I will fight you with every living thing I carry upon my wooden frame. And you will not reach the Oerth without first defeating me and my living army." At his words, the heroes ducked low on their platform, hiding under the cover of Coventry's highest branches, hoping not to be spotted, correctly reasoning that Coventry's words had been carefully chosen to allow the heroes into this "battle by proxies." "Then I will begin with your defeat!" snarled Blackrot, advancing to attack. Behind him, several shambling shapes stumbled along, emerging from the fog to stand at his side. Blackrot's initial act was to summon reinforcements. With the power of his will, he caused two of the twisted, withered trees in the vicinity to pull up their roots and join him in battle against the heroes. At the same time, he cast an [i]insect plague[/i] spell at the top of the platform, having apparently spotted the heroes perched there. A massive swarm of locusts appeared, flitting about and clambering all over the adventurers. Chalkan was the first of the group to respond, targeting as best he could through the swarm of flitting insects, sending a [i]fireball[/i] from his wand hurling at Blackrot. The already blackened treant was engulfed in flame, but emerged from the inferno apparently none the worse for wear. The two shambling corpses at his sides were visibly singed from the attack, but continued their stumbling gait undeterred. Cal unleashed a spell he had never before tried to cast. A great rumbling shook the ground at Blackrot's feet, and massive cracks split the earth all around him. Two of the shambling undead at Blackrot's side - for two more had emerged from the fog behind him - fell to the ground, as did one of the animated trees. Then both trees, half of the plague blights (for the shambling zombies were filled with a vile pestilence just waiting to be unleashed upon the Oerth), and even Blackrot himself plunged into the ever-widening chasms caused by Cal's [i]earthquake[/i] spell. The treant gave a wail of fury as he was engulfed. Cal yelled to the others - spitting out locusts that tried crawling into his mouth as he spoke - that the chasms would soon close back up, crushing anything still within them. Telgrane channeled the natural energy of his half-elemental form and sent a [i]firestorm[/i] blanketing the area of combat, engulfing the plague blights in blistering flames. They said not a word as they collapsed to the ground, their feeble movements halted in the cleansing fire. Not wanting to chance Blackrot climbing out of the chasm before it sealed back up, Delphyne cast a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell focused primarily on the treant (for she could just make out the withered branches at the top of his head poking out from the ground) and arcing out to two misty forms that had just drifted forward from the fog. Blackrot again screamed in pain as the spell struck; whether the electricity had an effect on the two cloudlike masses of greenish vapors was debatable, for they continued on in their beelines for Coventry. Coventry cast a spell of his own, for Ehlonna had temporarily filled his mind with the knowledge of druidic spellcraft, and an enormous earth elemental appeared by Blackrot's chasm, sinking down into the ground and slamming a massive fist into the fire-hardened treant's side as it did so. But the treant, unable to climb out of the chasm in time and unable to teleport to safety, did the one thing he could do to save himself: he summoned an earth elemental of his own, who grabbed up Blackrot by a twisted branch and hurled him out of the rift mere seconds before it closed up. Cal's [i]earthquake[/i] sealed off the two animated trees and two of the plague blights, but Blackrot had escaped his doom. Climbing up from the ground, unharmed by the [i]earthquake[/i] spell's aftereffects, the two opposing earth elementals started battering each other. The one summoned by Coventry tried to get to Blackrot, while its opposite number kept the first one at bay. Up on the platform, Infernia's flames kept the swarming locusts at bay long enough for Telgrane to cast a [i]Mordenkainen's sword[/i] spell at Blackrot. The energy sword manifested directly before the evil treant and gouged a rent deep into the blackened bark of his deformed body. While the two earth elementals pounded away at each other, the pair of phiuhls, sentient clouds of poison gas, continued in their unerring aerial path toward Coventry. Eager to get away from the swarming locusts, several of the heroes scattered, but not before a spell from Cal released both himself and Delphyne from the fear effect that was keeping them both from functioning at their best. Thunderwolf climbed back down into the Stick Palace and headed for the balcony just off what had been Esmerelda Blinx's bedroom; as he passed the kitchen, he saw Chalkan's timber wolf shaking in fear beneath the dining room table. Cal had jumped upon his drow floatdisk and rode it to another, lower platform: the bathroom, alighting through the open part of the half-wall above the tub. Delphyne had mounted her broom and risen above the main roof of the Stick Palace, while her raven familiar circled the area looking for new threats - and occasionally diving into the cloud of locusts for a quick snack. One of the phiuhls had made a beeline for the balcony where Thunderwolf had been shooting arrows, but the plucky fighter found no need to retreat, for Telgrane summoned a greater air elemental in the vicinity and its whirlwind form sucked the cloud-monster into a vortex from which it couldn't escape. The archmage directed the elemental over to do the same to the other phiuhl, harmlessly ending the threat from both. In the midst of the chaos of all of this combat, there was yet another enemy unseen by any of the heroes. It was Iggy, Delphyne's raven familiar, who first spotted the threat: in addition to the roughly circular area of dead grass in the Untamed Wildlands centered around Blackrot, a thin tendril of dead grass made a wriggling way away from the fight, heading back the way Coventry had come. The raven reported this sighting to his mistress, and the [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell still in effect alerted the entire group of heroes. However, by this time Blackrot had decided to concentrate on ridding himself of one enemy at a time. High above the others, perched on a flying broom, Delphyne made an excellent first target. The twisted treant cast a [i]finger of death[/i] at the young witch, stopping her heart in an instant. No noise passed Delphyne's lips as she plummeted to the roof of the Stick Palace, but the assembled group of heroes could hear her silent death scream over the mental link they shared. Coventry grabbed up the limp form of the witch, gently placing her inside the bathtub on the raised platform where Cal had moved to, where her body would likely come to no further harm, then devoted his attention back to the battle. Cal took a moment to close Delphyne's eyes and cross her hands over her chest, before he too focused on the battle they dared not lose. Delphyne's death at Blackrot's spell was avenged by the earth elemental that Coventry had summoned; the treant, having been gashed in several places by Telgrane's sword-shaped field of energy, was punched to splinters by a pair of fists the size of boulders. The fire-hardened treant crashed to the ground in a blast of splintering limbs. As the fiery glow in his eyes started to diminish for good, Blackrot let out a final, deep cackle of glee. "Congratulations," he croaked. "You have defeated me – but in doing so, you have won the battle, only to have lost the war!" Coventry spun around behind him, tracking the waving tendril of blackened grass leading back the way he had come - just in time to see an enormous, serpentine body pop up from below the ground, where it had been burrowing. Its head arced into the center of the fairy ring that had transported the heroes to the Untamed Wildlands, its lengthy, sinuous body following until its tail vanished into the ground at the center of the ring of toadstools. As Coventry raced at best speed back to the fairy ring, the heroes frantically talked amongst themselves over the mental link they shared. "It's gotten to Oerth!" cried Telgrane. "We've got to follow it!" "There's no telling how much damage it can do to Ehlonna's Grove before we get there!" responded Chalkan. "It's worse than that," replied Cal sternly. "Did you see the blackened grasses it left it its wake above it as it burrowed? It's got the same sort of rotting effect as Blackrot himself. And what do you think its first action will be when it arrives through the fairy ring by the Grove of Ehlonna?" "It...will rot the toadstools there," reasoned Telgrane. "Shutting down the gate between Oerth and the Untamed Wildlands!" "How could it get through?" asked Thunderwolf. "Why wouldn't the fairy ring mushrooms on this side of the gate not shrivel up?" "It could be a delayed effect," reasoned Cal. "Or the creature may be able to activate and deactivate its aura of rot at will." "We have arrived," intoned Coventry's booming voice. "The gate no longer works. We are stranded here." "Cal, can you [i]plane shift[/i] us back home?" demanded Chalkan. "Or [i]gate[/i] us, Telgrane?" Both spellcasters sadly shook their heads; neither had prepared the appropriate spell that morning. "We're stuck here for the better part of a day, until we can prepare the spells we need in the morning," replied the cleric of Kord. "Then Feron's on her own back there," Thunderwolf sighed, worry in his voice. "We have failed," replied Coventry, already regretting his sudden sentience, which had thus far led only to the death of his mistress and perhaps the death of druidic magic upon his homeworld. - - - This was Delphyne's first death experience, and it was fortunate that I had already had Vicki playing Coventry as well as her witch PC, so she had a character to run after Delphyne died. (She was also running Iggy the raven familiar, but that wouldn't have been a whole lot of fun for her had that been her only character.) There were a couple of funny comments during this adventure. After Feron completed the [i]awaken[/i] spell and collapsed into unconsciousness, Dan piped up with a wry observation: "It's a good thing Rale isn't here!" - hinting that Rale shouldn't be trusted in the vicinity of an unconscious woman he'd been hitting on for the majority of his adventuring career. Then, when Delphyne fell victim to Blackrot's [i]finger of death[/i] spell and crashed onto the roof of the Stick Palace, Logan got even more laughter out of the group by repeating Dan's earlier observation, this time implying that Rale shouldn't even be trusted with the dead body of a woman in his group. Even Dan, who plays Rale, couldn't help but laugh at that. Also, since this adventure took place on the same day as the Player Challenges, I got a good laugh from the group by telling Logan to "keep his pants on" when he was rushing me for an answer to something or other. I printed out a character sheet for Coventry for this adventure (he had Feron's spellcasting ability, so Vicki could just reference her Feron folder when deciding on his spells). I didn't bother with a "miniature" of Coventry, instead moving around the full-page (of the back of a sheet from a desk calendar) map of the Stick Palace to denote his location compared with the other combatants (the battle area was a blank sheet of desk calendar paper, filled with 1-inch squares marked off with a yardstick). However, for Blackrot, I tried again to create a treant figure out of a cardboard tube from a paper towel roll. This time I kept it simple; I cut small notches along the bottom and folded them out as "roots," and did the same along the top (with much longer, and more gnarled notches) for "tree limbs." I drew on a pair of eyes and a mouth on the front, drew on his "arm-branches" on the sides, and drew (and colored in with a black Sharpie) the space between his legs on the front and back. The end result was a fairly stable treant mini, much better than the utterly craptastic version I had tried back in adventure 7. The animated trees were represented by two pairs of "tree trunk and branches" Duplo blocks, stacked two high. (Stuart and Logan had a bunch of these when they were little, and Joey and Harry still play with them from time to time when Joey's over at our house.) And the reason this is only "Part 1" of the adventure isn't because we ran out of time in this session, but because I had anticipated the possibility that at least some of Blackrot's forces might make it to the fairy ring and end up right there by Ehlonna's Grove. In Part 2, we'll see how Feron and the Sisters fare against the plague serpent, and whether or not the druids of the Lady of the Forests are going to have to all switch over to venerating Obad-Hai to get any druid spells in the future. [/QUOTE]
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