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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1469732" data-attributes="member: 9626">Surf and TurfThe party quickly took up a defensive position, while privately worrying about the fight ahead.  What was that thing?  Could it be a dragon?  Could they possibly fight a dragon that size?  A moment later, the creature’s head popped out of the water again, right next to the raft, followed by another three heads.  The party sighed in relief.  It was a hydra, and a four-headed one by the look of it.  Certainly a powerful threat, but it was not a dragon by any means.  The creature nonetheless began the fight ferociously, as it bit repeatedly into Quercus and Flix.  Quercus countered with a swing of his greatsword, severing one of the beast’s heads instantly.  Tsine followed with another arrow of acid, which managed to melt another head away.  Tal fired a series of magical orbs, while Raz and Rudyard fired arrows.  Tal and Raz’ attacks connected, but Rudyard’s bounced off the creature’s thick hide, as did Flix’s sword thrust, since he was unable to move to a position that took advantage of his subtle technique.  The creature bit again with its two remaining heads, focusing entirely on Flix.  He narrowly dodged the first bite, but the second bit deep into his chest.  Enraged after seeing his compatriot injured, Quercus swung again with his blade, severing a third head, and a rain of arrows from Tsine, Raz, and Rudyard finished the last head.  It sank back into the sea with a defeated roar, as Quercus and Tal went to heal their halfling friend.The party briefly discussed taking a return trip up the river to gather the equipment and treasure their enemies might have had, but a very panicked Paul pointed out that if the undead knew they were there, reinforcements would arrive, and they’d probably be far more powerful than a few skeletons with bows.  The rest of the party grudgingly realizes that prisoner or no, he does have a point, so they tied the boat ashore, and began the next stage of their trek on land.  The first day, the trip was mostly uneventful, but the same can’t be said about the night.  While Rudyard was on watch, the sounds of some large charging toward the camp at high speed could be heard.  The party woke with a start, and prepared for battle.  However, when the apparent foe, a wounded dire wolf, burst into the camp, Rudyard help up a hand to restrain his party.  He used his training to study the animal’s emotions.  It wasn’t angry or hungry; it was scared.  He slowly began to whisper to the creature, “It’s okay, boy.  Settle down.  We’re here to help,” while offering his hand.  The creature, while still scared, stopped growling for a moment to sniff his hand.  However, a moment later, he began growling again, but this time it was directed at the path he just came from.  He stumbled to get behind the party as a small team of undead burst into the clearing!  There was a gaunt, pale humanoid corpse, a skeleton made from an ogre or a similarly sized, creature, and a skeleton that could only have come from a giant, judging by its size.  Quercus had had enough of the undead at this point!  He shouted to them, “by the power of Bha-Ael, I order you to no longer defile us with your presence!”  The smaller of the two skeletons suddenly cowered at his form, and tore like heck down the forest pathways the first chance he got.  But Quercus already noticed they had other problems.  He recognized the pale undead as a wight, and that it can steal a creature’s life force just by the slightest touch.  “Focus your attacks on this one!” he yelled, and the others quickly responded.  Rudyard charged the creature, eager to protect his new friend, and slashed it with his magic sword.  The creature stumbled back, but gave a roar and lurched forward while slashing.  Rudyard narrowly evaded the slash, and then watched as a volley of magic missiles from Tsine wounded it further, and Raz’s arrow dropped the creature.  That left only the huge skeleton, and Flix and Tal were already circling it, looking for an opening.  The skeleton pummeled Tal with its fists, but left a weak spot for Flix to strike.  He only could chip the bone, and Tal’s attack wasn’t any more effective, but Quercus’ slash did a little more to the beast.  Tsine’s acidic arrow and Rudyard’s blade also cut into the creature, but it still had enough strength to attack Rudyard, by grabbing his arm and slowly crushing it into powder.  Raz tried to save his friend with another arrow, but it had little effect, as did Tal’s magic orb.  However, the wolf finally developed the courage to enter the fight again, and it leapt on the skeleton, biting its spinal cord in half, and causing the entire thing to crumble into a mess of bones.  The party slowly got back up, and did some healing of themselves and the wounded wolf.  Rudyard asked the party, “Would it be okay if we brought the wolf with us for now?  I don’t know if he’s safe around here by himself until he can recover his health.”  The others shrugged their approval, and the happy animal began to follow Rudyard.  Though Tal silently wondered why he was so willing to forgive and understand a common animal, and not other intelligent beings.The next night, the party was under attack again, but from an entirely different source.  Tal was on watch this time, when he heard a strange noise out into the woods.  It seemed peaceful somehow, and as Tal strained to listen, he heard a voice whisper, “Tal….”  Was someone calling him?  He quietly went off to investigate.  He found himself in another clearing.  Above him, a small dragon was flying, but it was obviously covered in ruby scales.  “Tal, I have heard about your new quest, but before you can proceed, you must be judged worthy of your ancestors.   I will look deep into your soul, and see if you are worthy of becoming one of us.”  Tal gulped nervously, but replied, “I accept your challenge.”  He felt the dragon’s eyes looking him over, peering deep into his soul.  Finally, after a few moments, the dragon spoke.“You have failed, Tal Moinen.  One as pathetic as you deserves to never be part of our species.  In fact, you don’t even deserve the power your blood gives you right now!”  With that, a ruby ray flew at Tal, and Tal, stunned into shock at his failure, sank to his knees. The rest of the party woke to the sounds of strange, evil laughter.  Raz woke up first, and dashed over to see Tal still being “drained” by the dragon.  Seeing the threat to his friend, he fired an arrow into the creature, and it suddenly turned shadowy and transparent.  An illusion!  Tal noticed it, too, and quickly got to his feet.  After checking to make sure he still had all of his sorcerer powers, he and Tal rejoined the party at the campsite.When they returned, they saw something else was going wrong.   Surrounding the campfire, a trio of ghostly children had linked hands and was dancing around it.  As they danced, they began singing a ghastly song.  The first two lines changed each but always revolved around someone doing various nasty things to the listener, and the last two lines were always, “And no matter what you do/ The nightmare prince will torture you!”  As the children sang, they slowly looked like they were being attacked.  Their skin would be flayed of at places, limbs would be removed, and deep stab wounds would pierce to their internal organs.  The party could only look on in horror as the song continued, and the children finally vanished in one long, last, mocking laugh.  What was that, and who was the Nightmare Prince, they wondered?OOC Notes:  Thus a major villain was introduced to the plot, and one of my favorites.  He doesn’t come up as a regular for a while, but he is eventually responsible for one of my favorite adventures.</blockquote>

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