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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 419404" data-attributes="member: 6294">Amberdale 0 : "An Introduction to Amberdale" by PDabble Games - Part 8The next morning, the group enjoys a leisurely breakfast while attempting to decide what they should do nezt.  Captain Jarrek had been unable to offer them any further employment when they saw him the previous day, and they have no other leads at hand.The Padre is suggesting - with little enthusiasm - that they might look for the missing cat, when Ai Quan and his female student, Ming Li, enter the inn."Excellent!  I am very glad to have found you!" Ai Quan approaches their table immediately, "You said yesterday that you were adventurers.  If so, I have need of you.  Ai Ling went into the caves of challenge yesterday, and has not returned.  I fear he is in danger.  I am barred from entering the caves myself, and Ming Li does not yet have the skills to enter alone.""Sure we can help ..." Mantreus leans forward, "But what's in it for us?"Ai Quan spreads his hands,"We are simple monks, and do not carry many possessions, but whatever I can find, I will give to you.  Plus of course, you would be free to keep anything you find in the caves?""Does that include your student?" Mantreus quips.  He mimes holding something up by the scruff of the neck, "We found him, we keep him?""What, you want another pet?" Elspeth asks, nodding at the halfling.Ai Quan ignores them both, waiting for an answer to his plea."We'll do it." the Padre stands and turns to Elspeth, "We could use your help.  Want to join us?"The Ranger nods, and with that, Ai Quan, Ming Li, and the reinforced group set off into the woods, first heading back to where they met on the path the day before, and then travelling further into the high ground, till at last they pass two boulders and approach a small cliff face."Stop!" Ai Quan calls, pointing at a mass of green vines that cover part of the cliff. "The entrance is just there, but that is fetterweed across it."Fetterweed, the old monk explains, is a carnivorous plant that attacks by striking prey with its vines, which secret a sedative-laced sap.  Only by finding the trunk of the plant and destroying it, will the vines - which can stretch for hundreds of years - be rendered inert.The group wastes no time in tracking the vines back to the trunk of the tree: with two Rangers amongst their number it is no challenge to do so.  The trunk is over 10' thick and covered in a tough membrane, surrounded by a thick matt of vines.  Near the trunk itself, the group can see the remains of a body.The group spends a considerable amount of time discussing strategies for attacking the fetterweed.  They manage to determine that it senses the vibrations of passing creatures, though quite what a spectator would have thought of their experimental method - Stormstrider jumping up and down on the spot - is anyone's guess."Maybe we could set fire to it?" the Padre suggested."The plant's vines run for hundreds of yards." Ai Quan reminds him."Not seeing the problem.  It'll all burn.""The forest would catch fire.""Still not seeing the problem.""You are in the forest.""OK.  Now seeing the problem.""Maybe we could use bows to shoot it?" Elspeth suggests.Ai Quan shakes his head."There are too many vines in the way."This will become a familiar refrain for the old man, as no less than three other party members subsequently make variations on the same suggestion.Slings?  There are too many vines in the way.Crossbows?  There are too many vines in the way.Throwing Axes?  You don't have any, and even if you did, there are too many vines in the way!Eventually, it is Ming Li who suggests that, while they may not want to set the creature alight, they might be able to fend off the tentacles with flaming torches, and thus get close enough to the trunk of the fetterweed to destroy it.Though an hour in the making, the plan takes less than fifteen seconds to succeed.  The group charges in as a tight bunch, waving torches to fend off the vines, then hacking into the trunk with their weapons.  The skin of the plant is no match for the group's steel and Ming Li's fists, and it is soon destroyed.With the fetterweed no longer a threat, the group checks the body they spotted earlier, finding it to be that of a female dressed in leather armour and carrying a scimitar.  The body has a handful of gold coins and a wooden druidic token (carved with the emblem of Obad-Hai) in its pouch.  The group pockets these in short order, then heads back to the entrance of the cave.Arriving there, they find that the vines here have collapsed to the ground with the death of the fetterweed, and they are free to enter.  They decide not to do so immediately, however, spending an hour resting and recuperating from their battle with the fetterweed (which only inflicted some light subdual damage on them).And then, shouldering their packs, they enter ... the caves of challenge.They still haven't asked the halfling her name, though.</blockquote>

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