Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9442408" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 79: VENGEANCE OF THE FORESTPC Roster: Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 16             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 10             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 8/paladin 8             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 10             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 16NPC Roster:Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 5             Robin the Balladeer, human bard 5Game Session Date: 17 August 2024 - - -It had been a pleasant few days, with the drow city of Du'dorach far behind them - and several other smaller cities and towns as well, as the group and their mounts ate up the miles traveling west on their quest to find the Forbidden Lands, where Thurloe Pulver would hopefully find the body of his deceased arcane mentor, Andrea Jandoval, a pre-condition of inheriting her manor and everything within it.  They'd been riding all day with nary a mishap, and had just passed by another small drow city; the sun was close to the horizon and before too long, they'd no doubt find an out-of-the-way spot along the side of the road and call it a night, Beetle tending to the riding dinosaurs while the others spent the night inside the extradimensional confines of Hesperna's lamp.But as they continued their travels, the beginnings of the Brandobero Forest off to their right, they heard the sounds of confrontation ahead.  Beetle sighed, knowing full well if there was one thing these strangers from Armaturia had yet to learn it was how to stay out of business that didn't involve them - and sure enough, as they rounded the corner in the road and saw a half-dozen drow men wielding axes confronting a young woman who seemed to be unarmed, the little halfling scout was not the least bit surprised when Thurloe called out "Hey!" - in his own language, almost guaranteed not to be understood by the woman or the drow - and kicked his pachycephalosaurus mount Boney forward to intercept them.  "Everybody settle down and put down your weapons!" he commanded, only to be ignored by all parties, as none of them spoke his language.  When he saw they were continuing on with their verbal arguments (in what was presumably the Drow tongue, one he himself did not speak or understand), he cast a shield spell upon himself, confident that combat would be breaking out soon and he'd be on the side of the good-looking woman in the revealing outfit.The woman took a step back away from the axe-wielding drow men and called out a single word - "Aluatta!"  Wakuren, who had cast the tongues spell on himself that morning so that he would be able to converse with strangers they met up with on the road, was surprised when the spell didn't translate her word at all - but then he realized that the tongues spell wouldn't translate "Wakuren" as having any special meaning, either; Aluatta was, therefore, likely a name.  When a giant eagle suddenly manifested in the air above the young woman and flapped down protectively between her and the axemen, he assumed that was the name of the summoned avian.  Then the eagle snapped its beak at the closest of the axemen, who had swung his weapon backwards as if ready to swing it forward at the woman, but the quick-witted drow ducked under the eagle's snapping beak.Then, just as suddenly, there were two more flying creatures about, each the general size and shape of Petey, Zander Quilson's pseudodragon familiar, but seemingly made entirely of plants, with leaflike wings and rows of crisscrossing vines in place of scales.  One went diving for the drow nearest the young woman, the large thorn at the tip of its tail striking him at the base of the neck and dropping him to the ground, while the second one went flapping away off to the northwest, on a bee-line to somewhere important.But the lumberjack leader had had enough and swung his axe at the young woman, cutting a line across her midsection that caused her to cry out in pain.  The other four flanked their leader, not wanting to attack the woman directly but ready to protect him from the giant eagle and the weird plant-dragon flying around.Wakuren had seen enough.  Sending his air element warhorse Nimbus flying forward, he called out for a ceasefire, the tongues spell translating his words into the Drow language.  Nimbus dropped between the wounded woman and the drow leader, putting himself and his mount in the direct line of attack to show he meant business.  "Whatever's going on here, let's talk it out like adults!" he admonished.  To further prevent any ongoing violence, Zander rode up on his mount Pachy and cast an invisible wall of force between Wakuren, the woman, and the giant eagle (and the unconscious axeman on the ground by their feet) on one side and the other five drow on the opposite side, being harried by the plant-dragon.  But Petey saw no reason why he shouldn't fly forward and stab one of the drow in the neck with his own envenomed tail-stinger; he hit his target but failed to drop him, like his leafy counterpart had done.Xandro rode Ceph forward, casting a tongues spell on himself so he could understand what all was being said.  He had his rapier Deathwhisper out in case it was needed, but hoped it would not be.  Behind him, Beetle and Yellow-Belly took their positions at the rear of the formation by Robin, who started playing the song of inspirational courage on her lute.  Alewyth rode forward on Lapis and cast a calm emotions spell at the top of the wall of force, so its effects would hit those on both sides of the unseen barrier.  However, out of everyone within range, the only one it seemed to affect was Nimbus - not at all her intentions when casting the spell!Thurloe decided to break up the group of axemen by running them down with his pachycephalosaurus mount, and had three of the drow attack Boney as a result.  The thick-headed dinosaur managed to dodge out of the way, but their attacks got the spellsword furious, and he leapt off of his mount, Spellslicer in hand and ready to dish out some damage.  "Just what the Hell's your problem, anyway?" he roared, not caring that none of them could understand his words - he was pretty sure they understood his actions.  Boney, in the meantime, backed up a few steps to get out of the range of the drow axes.The young woman, safe for now from further attack, took a moment to cast a cure light wounds spell on herself, an action that did not go unnoticed by Alewyth and Wakuren, who believed her to be some sort of nature cleric, given her lack of armor and ability to channel healing energy.  The giant eagle was still in attack mode and made a stab at one of the drow with his beak, but when he struck the invisible wall of force he backed off in puzzlement.  The drow he'd tried to attack had flinched when the beak struck the invisible barrier, and he reached out and touched it, as amazed as the avian had been.  But then he looked over at his leader to see what he had to say about all of this; taking orders from an orc naturally rankled, but he'd had plenty of opportunity to attack the lumberjacks and had failed to do so, so it was entirely possible he wasn't as feral as he seemed.  As if to prove his case, Wakuren cast a greater command spell, calling out "Halt!" to everyone within earshot.  Two of the drow were instantly affected by the spell, lowering their axeheads to the ground and leaning on the shafts, standing motionless as commanded.  And Majuera the nymph needed no further proof of Wakuren's intentions; despite having been able to shrug off the effects of the greater command, she decided to continue to try talking these lumberjacks out of despoiling her forest grove instead of resorting to violence.  She signaled to her summoned giant eagle, and he landed nearby on the grass.Zander cast a bear's endurance spell on himself, only afterwards noticing that everyone was pretty much calming down.  Were they not all about to leap into combat, then?  That wouldn't have been his guess.  But Petey saw the way of things and flew back to the elf's shoulder, observing the proceedings from there.  Xandro held his rapier at the ready but made no offensive actions, while Robin, unsure of whether she should continue playing her song, opted to do so, just in case.Then another person entered the scene.  The nymph Aluatta, alerted to the axemen's presence by the plant-infused pseudodragon who had flown off at Majuera's command, used a dimension door to cross the distance from her grove to see what all was going on.  Spotting the five drow wielding axes, she demanded to know what was going on."We're just here trying to do the job we were hired to do," offered the lumberjack leader.  "We're to chop down ten trees for lumber from this forest here.""Are you from the city?" demanded Aluatta.  When the drow admitted they were, she pressed, "The city elders are well aware that this forest is off limits for lumber.  Who specifically hired you?"  She turned to face Wakuren.  "And who are you, and what is your business in this affair?""We were just passing by and heard the altercation," Wakuren offered, while the lumberjack leader gave the name of the person who had hired them - a name neither the nymph nor the dryad had ever heard before.  But then sudden realization lit up Aluatta's eyes.  "This is a mere distraction!" she exclaimed, running over the giant eagle and leaping upon its broad back.  Then, with pressure from her knees, she coaxed it into flight, spinning around and heading to the northwest, the same direction the plant-dragon had been sent to go fetch her in the first place.A quick discussion among the heroes came to the conclusion that Robin and Beetle would stay with the drow and ensure nobody cut down any trees until they could get this all sorted out.  After the drow agreed, Thurloe activated the fly power of his celestial armor and took off in pursuit of the eagle-riding nymph, the other plant-dragon following at a slower speed.  Majuera used her tree stride ability to step into the nearest decent-sized tree, teleporting from there to a similar-sized tree by the nymph's special grove.  Alewyth and the others, however, started entering Hesperna's lamp for rapid travel, but as Wakuren held it out for them to use, he heard an anguished cry from the northwest.  Zander touched the lamp and said the command word that shunted Petey and him inside the extradimensional space, casting a stoneskin spell on himself after he'd done so, because now it seemed like combat was imminent and he doubted he'd be wrong about such matters twice in a row.  Once Xandro followed them into the lamp, Wakuren urged Nimbus to the northwest at his top speed."You travel with adventurers?" the drow lumberjack leader asked Beetle as they stood around, watching Nimbus fly away through the sky."Not normally.  Special hiring," Beetle replied in his broken Drow.  "Take them where going, then we part ways.""Do you have much farther to go, to take them where they're going?" pressed a drow, while another tried waking up the one who'd been drugged into unconsciousness from the plant-dragon's envenomed thorn-stinger."Done with them soon," replied Beetle, thinking to himself, but not soon enough.Thurloe and Wakuren arrived at the nymph's grove to see her on her knees before a pile of recently-unearthed dirt, her shoulders slumped in defeat.  Then she reared back and released a primal scream of fury.  Thurloe actually took an involuntary step back, startled by the sudden outburst, but of the two of them only Wakuren could hear her words, although they didn't make a whole lot of sense to him just yet: "That's it - that's the last straw!" Aluatta screamed.  "Those bulbs were irreplaceable, and now they're all gone - plundered by greedy mortals without an ounce of foresight!  This affront will not go unpunished!  I call upon the vengeance of the forest!"Wakuren had no idea what bulbs she was talking about, but the turned-up dirt before her had apparently been where some rare bulbs had been planted and just now recently stolen, by someone with enough foresight, he reasoned, to hire a half-dozen lumberjacks to create a disturbance guaranteed to lure the nymph away long enough to dig the bulbs up - and, if the two piles of rotting vegetation nearby were what he thought they were, defeat the two shambling mound guardians she'd left in place to keep the bulbs safe."What's she on about?" demanded Thurloe, dropping to the ground and holding his bastard sword in a defensive stance while looking all about him.  There was another of those plant-dragon things on the ground by the nymph, and three rather large dragonflies were coming in over the trees from the northeast - more summoned allies?  Wakuren filled him in as best he could.Alewyth, in the meantime, had been watching from inside the extradimensional space, scrying through the gem Wakuren wore on his forehead, and saw Nimbus had come to a halt 10 feet or so in the air.  Activating her butterfly brooch, she said the command word that shunted her back outside and fluttered in place, Sjondra in hand in case fighting became necessary.  She looked warily over at the incoming giant dragonflies, then up at the sky.  As the nymph had invoked her curse - Alewyth had missed that part - dark clouds filled the skies, flashes of electricity appearing here and there as the very heavens reacted to her outburst.There was a sudden crashing noise coming from the west, as if trees were being uprooted and knocked over.  Something was making its way to the nymph's despoiled grove - something very big, by the sounds of things.  Thurloe responded by casting a greater invisibility spell upon himself and raising himself up a few inches from the ground.  Now, with any luck, he couldn't be detected by visual means or by those employing tremorsense, like that employed by dragons - the very first thought he'd had about what could be approaching from the west.  In the light from a sudden flash of lightning, he saw in the despoiled dirt what he guessed to be the footprints of a drow - they were smaller than those of a human, in any case - wearing some sort of soft-heeled boot or moccasin.  "Jungle drow dug up the garden!" he called over to Wakuren in the tongue common to Armaturia, at least.Majuera stepped out of a nearby tree and saw the dug-up dirt before Aluatta.  She too cried out in horror at the apparent theft, then looked up at the darkened skies and looked back at the nymph.  "You didn't--" she began, Wakuren understanding her words, as well as those of Aluatta's reply: "I had no choice.  The very last bulb has been taken - the link has been severed, forever!"The giant eagle, unnerved by the sudden change in the weather, took to the skies and flew off a short distance away, circling above the tree line in case it was needed and given specific instructions.  The two plant-dragons also took wing, but they stayed close to the grieving dryad and nymph.  Wakuren spotted the footprints Thurloe had seen and saw they were headed in a northwesterly direction; urging Nimbus forward, he gained enough altitude to see a lone figure fleeing on foot - what looked like a male drow wearing soft-heeled boots.  The half-orc cast a blindness/deafness spell at the fleeing figure, hoping to deprive him of his sight, but the drow was able to shrug off the intended effect.  So Wakuren had Nimbus drop down low enough to allow the other heroes to exit the lamp, then, once they had done so, had his sky-steed fly off after the apparent bulb-thief.Zander and Petey exited the lamp and got a glimpse of the fleeing drow, so the elf sorcerer cast a lightning bolt in his direction, even charging the spell up with his ring of mystic lightning.  But the drow, feeling the blast coming up behind him, tucked and rolled at the last possible second, apparently avoiding the merest bit of damage altogether.  Blasted rogues! thought Zander furiously.  Petey took off from his master's shoulders, apparently thinking he could bring down the fleeing rogue when Zander had been unable to do so.  But while his stinger hit the drow and pierced his skin, the sleep venom failed to knock him unconscious.By then, the vengeance of the forest had arrived - in the form of a zomok, a draconic beast made entirely of plant matter, with tree trunks for limbs, twisted branches for horns, and wings made of overlapping leaves.  Ferns and vines covered its barklike hide, and it pushed several smaller trees aside in an effort to get to Alewyth.  The fluttering dwarf saw the incoming mouth snap at her, with sharpened sticks as long as her arm standing in for teeth, and she was only just barely able to avoid being trapped between its hinging jaws.  But in concentrating on avoiding the zomok's jaws, Alewyth found herself prey to two of the giant dragonflies, who flew in and bit at her with their razor-sharp, serrated jaws. Xandro had exited the magical lamp at a full sprint, and when he caught up with the fleeing drow he swung his rapier at him, slicing him across his back and side.  But Aluatta was no longer distinguishing between friend or foe; after calling forth a call lightning spell, she brought the first bolt crashing out of the darkened skies to hit Wakuren and Nimbus, if only because she could see them the clearest from where she stood.Surrounded on all sides by creatures larger than herself, Alewyth took a chance and started casting a spell.  She paid a big price for having done so, as the zomok and two giant dragonflies all took bites at her, but in the end she managed to get her spell off and the ethereal jaunt spell promised that would be the last bit of damage she ever took from any of those foes - unless they somehow had a way to follow her into the Ethereal Plane, where she was free from virtually all physical attacks coming from the Material Plane.Thurloe, still invisible, took a chance of the zomok being able to track the spell back to its source by casting a ray of exhaustion at the elemental dragon.  It managed to shrug off the worst of the spell's effects, but the spellsword could tell he had weakened it to some small degree - and best of all, it still didn't know his own exact location, so there would be no immediate retaliation.The dryad Majuera cast a call lightning spell of her own, targeting Zander with her first bolt.  The two little plant-dragons opted to hang out near her rather than strike out at any of the heroes; they apparently felt more like bodyguards than retaliators.  (And with a gargantuan zomok on the scene, it was easy to see why they'd shrug off any attempts on their part to bite or stab at nearby foes when the "vengeance of the forest" was so much better equipped for the job!)The drow rogue, Tethrac, swung at Xandro with a rapier of his own, cutting open a wound on his arm.  But then Nimbus dropped down behind him, cornering him between Xandro and the air steed and his rider.  As the rogue faced the greater threat from behind, Xandro managed to stab him solidly through the torso, dropping him instantly.  He pulled a small sack from the slain drow's belt and opened it, seeing nothing but blackness inside.  But sure enough, when he thrust his hand into the opening, he could feel a number of bulbs inside the extradimensional space of the bag of holding - here were the bulbs Majuera and Aluatta had been so upset at having been stolen.Zander Quilson, in the meantime, lined up a sunburst spell and set it off directly above the zomok's head.  The blinding burst of light exploded in all directions, doing much more damage than the sorcerer had anticipated: not only did it damage and blind the zomok (as Zander had hoped it would), it also did likewise to all three giant dragonflies, the giant eagle, Majuera the dryad, Alluata the nymph, and the still-invisible Thurloe Pulver.  It also slew both plant-infused pseudodragons outright, their leafy, green exteriors curling up all brown and dried out like fallen leaves.  Even on the Ethereal Plane, where everything was gray and murky, Alewyth noted the sudden flash of light, although coming from an entire plane of existence away as it did, the spell did her no harm.This, or course, did nothing to abate the zomok's fury.  It thrashed about and roared its anger and frustration at being deprived of its vision, and then took a moment and did something smart: created an ally that would be able to guide its attacks.  Casting a liveoak spell at a tree it recalled standing over to its right, the tree suddenly gave a lurch and uprooted itself, stepping forward as a treant.  The zomok called for the treant to point it towards its enemies, and the living tree did exactly as asked.The giant eagle and the three massive dragonflies had all had enough by this time; tentatively, careful not to fly into any nearby obstacles, they each wandered away over the tree lines.  But Aluatta had a means to undo her blindness; pulling out a gourd from a bag at her hip, she twisted off the top and guzzled down its contents, and just that quickly the elixir of heal restored her normal vision to her.  Alewyth, still on the Ethereal Plane, drank down the contents of a potion of cure serious wounds, healing up the worst of the bite-marks she'd received from the dragonflies and the enraged zomok.  Then she flew over to Thurloe's location, who was hollering for a cleric.  While she still couldn't see him - his greater invisibility spell was still in effect - by the time she got close to him she had figured out he wasn't looking to have wounds healed up, but rather his eyesight restored.  The dwarf priestess had one heal spell prepared, and told the spellsword she'd take care of him as soon as she could get to him.  Thurloe, who had been hovering in place about 10 feet up, lowered himself back down to the ground so the clerics would have a better chance of finding him.  (He wasn't willing to drop his greater invisibility spell, as he was counting on it to keep him safe from the enemies he himself couldn't see.)Majuera, recalling the positions of everyone when her sight was taken from her, brought another bolt of lightning crashing down upon Zander's head.  But then Wakuren, seeing the nymph could apparently see just fine, grabbed the bag of holding from Xandro and tossed it her way.  "Here!" he called to her.  "We didn't take your bulbs, but we're returning them to you!  Now call off your forest-beast!"  The nymph looked up at the towering zomok helplessly; it seemed she did not have the ability to dismiss it as easily as she had brought it forth.Zander took that as his cue to bring forth some extra combatants to slay the zomok where it stood.  Casting a summoning spell across the planes, he brought forth an air elemental five or six times the height of a human or elf.  Huge fists made of solidified air came smashing down upon the zomok's thick neck, causing it to roar out in pain once more.  But now that the zomok knew the direction from which it was being attacked, it swung its neck about and released its powerful breath weapon in a cone centered on the air elemental.  Blasts of living plant matter came spewing forth, entwining and adhering to the ground in a wide arc before it, the constricting vines and other plant matter slaying Majuera instantly.  Thurloe and Alewyth were mere feet away from the edge of the entanglement effect, a situation that would likely have been much different had the zomok been able to see normally.  As for the air elemental, it took some damage from the initial buffeting, but a creature whose body is made of blowing air is particularly difficult to hold in one place.Xandro came running up to Aluatta, who had been transfixed by the zomok's attack and appalled at Majuera's death.  When the human rogue placed a hand on her shoulder to spin her around - hopefully to try to talk some sense into her - she reacted instinctively, dropping the visual shield she normally kept up when interacting with mortals.  Xandro therefore saw the nymph's true form, and the blinding beauty caused his vision to cloud over at once, as if his mind couldn't comprehend the unearthly loveliness to which it had just been suddenly exposed.  Xandro began to swear at his predicament, but the words died in his throat as he marveled at what he had just seen.  Robin was his girlfriend and, in his mind, the loveliest woman he'd ever met, but compared to a nymph in her true form, she couldn't stack up at all!Still, he forced his mind to forget the vision of pure, unadulterated beauty he'd just witnessed, and focus on the fact that Aluatta had just rendered him blind - and therefore all but helpless.  "You had better fix this," he warned the nymph, "or by all that's holy I will burn this forest of yours to the ground!"As if just now noticing the bag of holding Wakuren had thrown her way, she stepped away from Xandro and his threats and pulled out a caesano bulb.  "It's too late," she mourned, looking down at the bulb in her hand and ignoring Xandro's current predicament.  "Once the last of the bulbs was severed from the grove, the link to the Positive Energy Plane was severed for good.  I could replant these bulbs, but without that link in place they'd bever regain their full powers of healing."Wakuren wasn't really concerned about any of that at the moment.  "The tree-dragon!" he reminded her.  "Can you dismiss it?"Looking up at the zomok as if just now recalling its presence, she shook her head at the half-orc.  "No, I'm sorry," she explained.  "Once having been summoned, the only way to be rid of it is to slay it."Looking up at the great, blind beast, the half-orc shook his head in frustration - he'd been trying so hard to deal with this situation without killing!  "Will slaying it have any effect upon your grove?" he hazarded.  When assured it would not, Wakuren let out a sigh and cast a chain lightning spell at the zomok's head, an arc dashing off to strike the animated treant as well."What's going on?" demanded Xandro.  "I can't see anything - I'm blind!"  Alewyth, looking around to try to find Thurloe, heard the rogue's cries and headed his way - Xandro, at least, she could see perfectly well.  Deactivating her ethereal jaunt spell, she cast her one and only prepared heal spell, restoring Xandro's sight to him.  "I'll have to cure your blindness tomorrow," she called out to the still-invisible Thurloe.  "I just had the one heal spell prepared.""So why'd you heal him instead of me?" whined the spellsword.  "I was blind first!""I could see him - I still can't see you!"Thurloe didn't quite like that answer, as it put the fault squarely on himself when he preferred it to belong elsewhere, but while he was considering various arguments, Zander decided to try a more practical answer to their zomok situation.  Concentrating like never before, he cast a greater dispel magic spell on the zomok, and much to his surprise, the tactic worked.  Whatever animating spirit had been infused into the living matter making up the zomok's form, it was released by the spell, leaving the slapped-together tree trunks, limbs, moss, leaves, and vines making up the plant-dragon's body to fall apart into disparate pieces, forming another pile of vegetation like those of the two slain shambling mounds."I will make you this promise," swore Wakuren.  "Tomorrow, I will seek three raise dead spells from All-Father Cal, God of Air and Healing, that we may bring back Majuera and the two little plant pseudodragon things.  They were caught up in the violence caused by the thieving rogue, and do not deserve to have died as a result."  Alewyth overheard the half-orc's promise and said she would assist in the casting of the spells."And in curing my blindness!" insisted Thurloe at high volume."If we ever see you again!" Alewyth yelled back at him.  The sounds of combat now over, Thurloe dismissed his greater invisibility spell and returned to the visual spectrum, grumbling as usual."I am sorry I lashed out against you mortals the way I did," replied Aluatta.  "I should never have invoked the vengeance of the forest."  But then she explained about the caesano bulbs, a source of healing energy that was much more potent when growing in her grove, which had once had a natural link to the Positive Energy Plane.  Someone - Tethrac, apparently - had been stealing the caesano bulbs from her grove over the past few months, and now that the last one had been plucked the link was gone, with no way to re-establish it.  "These last few remaining bulbs can be crafted into potions of cure light wounds," Aluatta sighed, "but at their full potency, a caesano bulb could be used to create an elixir of heal."  She dashed off into a tree for a moment and soon returned, passing out five gourds.  "Here," she said.  "You deserve these elixirs of heal."  She passed one to each of the five heroes, Thurloe gulping his down at once to restore his vision."Let's go talk to the loggers," Wakuren suggested.  "I'll bet we can convince them to cut their trees from elsewhere."  But that wasn't necessary, for after seeing the slain Tethrac their leader was able to identify him as the one who had hired him and his men to cut down trees from this particular grove.  "I guess we weren't anything but a distraction after all," he sighed.  "And no point now in fulfilling an order from a guy who can't pay us for our work."  They departed, dejected at the way things had turned out.Aluatta allowed Beetle to herd the dinosaur mounts into her grove for the evening, and the heroes all returned to Hesperna's lamp for a well-deserved night's rest.  Wakuren and Alewyth intended to return Majuera and the two plant-infused pseudodragons to life the next morning, as promised.  Petey was particularly looking forward to frolicking with the plant-versions of himself before they took back off on their westward journey. - - -This adventure didn't quite turn out the way I had envisioned - for one thing, blindness took on a lot more importance than I had foreseen!  But the players had fun going through it, for the most part.  Harry wasn't particularly pleased when Xandro got blinded by the nymph, and wasn't entirely convinced when we told him getting blinded by a naked nymph is a much better way to lose one's eyesight than having it taken away by a sunburst spell.I saw a "plant dragon" at my local Michael's store that was the right size for a zomok - and had a very nice head structure, with tree branches for horns, but the rest of it was too "cutesy," with little painted stars on its wings that made it look like it had wandered off from a "My Little Pony" cartoon or something.  So I went with my gargantuan green dragon as a stand-in for the zomok.  And the "seeing-eye treant" was a bit of at-the-moment inspiration once I realized the zomok had no way to restore its own vision.  It's little touches like that which can make an adventure turn out to be so memorable. - - -T-shirt worn: My Godzilla T-shirt, as the giant kaiju represents an unstoppable force of nature brought on by the follies of mankind, a nice representation of the zomok as a vengeance of the forest, I thought.</blockquote>

Verification