pneumatik's WotBS 2 - The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar

Liiros Tivaniel

Liiros plants his feet firmly and draws strength from the earth, before hefting the greatsword high and bringing it down like a big, bladed hammer onto the rast....... He tries to channel a bit of healing energy into Shaylir from the impact, but his strike isn't quite as swift this time.

[sblock=ooc, Pneumatik, Shaylir]Attacking the rast with my Mountain Hammer strike, and healing Shaylir for 2 HP with Martial Spirit if I hit the rast successfully. Got a 15 to-hit, for 22 damage, factoring in the +1 that you mentioned. Not sure if that mediocre roll hits, though, dangit.
1d20+6=15, 2d6+4+2d6=22

Rolled a 1 for granted maneuver, receiving Charging Minotaur.
1d5=1, 1d5=1, 1d5=5, 1d5=3, 1d5=3

Liiros' Status:
HP 25 / 25
AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 16 (shield is not equipped, so his AC is 2 lower than usual)
Active Stance: Martial Spirit
Granted Maneuvers: Charging Minotaur, Crusader's Strike*EXPENDED, Stone Bones, Mountain Hammer*EXPENDED
Ready Maneuvers: Crusader's Strike (2), Vanguard Strike (5), Charging Minotaur (1), Stone Bones (4), Mountain Hammer (3)
* Maneuvers are numbered alphabetically for rolling granted inspiration
Other Class Features: Furious Counterstrike (1-9: +1), Steely Resolve 5, Indomitable Soul, Zealous Surge 1/day[/sblock]

Liiros embeds his sword in the rast's head with a wet *crunch*. Its many limbs go limp and its half-severed head lolls to the side, pulling it off the party members grappling with it. It lands in a jumbled heap of head, legs, and monster fluids. The fight over, Liiros' primitive sword once again feels heavy and uncomfortable in his hands.

"At least that was quick," Torrent says. "You okay, Hollister?" She begins healing the party with spells and her wand of cure light wounds.

When the everyone is ready you continue up the White River. Unlike when you were on the Elfroad, where the flames on the edge of the road were calm, the flames bordering the riverbed are wild and aggressive. Despite your protections and time in the fire forest its obvious destructive power is intimidating. Careful travel and the White River keep you from catching fire as you walk.

After several more hours of travel, you reach where the White River feeds from the mountains into the valley of Innenotdar. Here a beautiful waterfall cascades over the sheer side of a tall cliff face, its waters pouring off the roof of a small shrine that sits on a island in a lake at the base of the waterfall. The area around the pool, the cliff face, and the pool itself all have burning vegetation on them, but it is thinly spread, and strong winds from the confluence of cold mountain air and fiery drafts creates a constant haze of steam and fog.

As you approach the lake a unicorn emerges from the shrine on the lake. He moves with obvious exhaustion, his steps slow and his head dipping low with each step. His white coat is gray from ash, his horn chipped and burnt. He raises his head and looks at you expectantly.

[sblock=OOC][/sblock]

Hollister was glad for his wine red robes, noting that they hid the stains from his blood fairly well. The encounter with the Rast was one that he wouldn't want to repeat. That thought was not far from his mind as the group moved further along the river, and the mage's eyes continued to dart back and forth looking for danger.

Upon seeing the shrine and the unicorn, Hollister scratches at his goatee, thinking. "Clearly, the unicorn is expecting us. Intriguing. But before we can find out what it wants, we must reach the shrine..."


OOC: I'll make sure to get that feat chosen this time around, pneumatic! Not sure why I keep forgetting.

Liiros Tivaniel

Liiros feels the old sword sag in his grip once more, and hefts it up and back into its crude sheathe at his back. "Well, if nothing else, that old blade is good for a swift chop or two........but it's such a heavy, inelegant weapon, not at all proper for an elf. I am glad it did not escape with you for its meal, Hollister. Praise Corellon! Now we can resume our journey.....and hopefully find shelter from this awful heat again."

Once the group reaches the lake, Liiros admires the shrine-site for a moment, before seeing the unicorn emerge......then he gapes in awe.

"To think such a creature survives here......" the elf mutters.

Glancing back at Hollister, he says "I have very little experience swimming, and it is impossible in my armor. And I have no rope nor are there materials here for a raft.......I'm sure any wood we tried to use for such would just keep burning, anyway, with those unnatural flames."

Then Liiros steps up to the edge of the lake, looking out at the unicorn, pulling off his helm to reveal his pointed ears and the Corellonite tattoo upon his brow, and calls out in the Sylvan tongue "Hail and well met, fair unicorn! I am Liiros Tivaniel, devotee of Corellon Larethian, hailing from the lands of Shahalesti. These are my traveling companions from the human settlement of Gate Pass. We would very much like to meet with you upon yonder isle, but are not certain we could swim across. Do you know any other way for us to cross?"

"Oh, the poor thing looks hurt." Shaylir says with an anxious voice. "We need to do something it is one of The Green Man's creatures."

"I don't swim much but I can probably make it across." she says eyeing the water.

Lytha

“Seems like the fire that is slowly consuming this place is making it sick, for the lack of a better word. At least, that is what I would guess, having little explicit knowledge about these mystical creatures.”

"I concur, Lytha," says Hollister. "I believe that, traditionally, unicorns were the guardians of the forest."

The unicorn walks into the lake and begins swimming towards the party. The ripples from his swimming disrupt the smooth reflection of flames and cliff in the smooth lake surface away from the waterfall. Despite appearing tired he swims strongly and reaches the far shore relatively quickly.

He exits the water a few feet away from the party and shakes himself dry. Even a swim in clear water doesn't wash the ash from him. "There. Now we can talk without shouting." His voice is mature and measured like a classically trained actor off the stage. "Well met, Liiros and companions. My name is Nelle. I thank you for your concern about me, but of greater concern is the creature harming this forest. I do not understand the whole of it, but some creature has taken this forest as its body. I feel it sometimes in my dreams, calling itself a 'child of Trilla.' Other times I hear the word 'trillith' rumbling through the forest like a giant's whisper.

"Have you too felt this trillith creature? Wha- Good gracious!" Nelle cuts himself off as Shaylir swoons and almost collapses to the ground. Fritz yips at her ankles anxiously.


Nelle, Art by Todd Schumacher

[sblock=Shaylir]When Nelle begins talking about his dreams you remember having had the same dreams yourself for as long as you've been living near the fire forest. As he was speaking you were brought back to them and lost in the reverie. When he finished talking about his dreams the return to here and now is jarring.[/sblock] [sblock=ooc]A knowledge: arcana check of at least 30 means you recognize something Nelle's talking about.

Also, please ignore the people in the background of Nelle's picture for now.[/sblock]

"I don't feel so g..." Shaylir starts to say but falls to the ground semi-consious.

Lytha

“We have spoken to some powerful fire-creature earlier. He told us he is captured in here. Maybe it is the same 'being' that is holding him here...”

“To recap, what he told us...”

"Know this: I am the flame; I am a prisoner here. Save me, free me from the prison of this enforced flesh, and you may continue to your destination. Refuse, and never shall you leave this wood. You shall be a prisoner for as long as I. You shall burn forever, and never die."

"To free me, end the song of the deep, the song of agony and eternal vigil. Silence the forty tongues who hold me here, who doom themselves with my relentless flame."

"Go to the river behind me. Follow it. Free me. I care for nothing but freedom. If you do not release me you shall suffer my wrath."

"I am Indomitability. No wound shall ever defeat me. No fire shall ever destroy me. My power can be yours if you release me."


OOC: In case knowledge psi-stuff is also good... well, close... 29