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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Droid101" data-source="post: 1763088" data-attributes="member: 942">The party gets up in the morning and starts traveling southeast toward this “Forest of Insects” that they’ve been told about.  “The Glow” is supposed to be there, and it’s supposed to make “paradise come true” when they collect all three.“So what do you think will happen?” Damaré asks Ogrim.“I’m hopin’ it brings Moradin back…” Ogrim’s connection to his deity was still cut off.The Heroes travel quickly.  Sparse trees are dotted along the mostly open and rolling hills of the grasslands.  A large form emerges from behind one of the trees and charges at them.  Eltharion notices it coming from behind them, and alerts the others.  The Necromancer casts chill touch, and Eltharion, Damaré and Ogrim get ready to surround the creature when it gets close.It stops about 20 feet away and spits at them.  It looks a lot like the tyrannosaurus rex that they fought the previous day, but only about ten feet tall, and its head it long and tube-like.  The spit hits Ogrim, who watches part of his armor and skin bubble and burn.  The party charges.  The Necromancer curses, and charges in as well, touching the digester, and filling it with cold necromantic energies.  It squalks in pain.The rest of the party makes short work of it.  Less than ten seconds later, it is dead; a multitude of cuts, scrapes, stabs and slashes bring it down fast.  The party continues on.After a day of travel, they camp near a few trees.  Eltharion runs to the top of the highest nearby hill and sees the forest that they are going to.  “We’re on the right track.  We should be there by mid-day tomorrow,” Eltharion explains.The next day, Ogrim prays in the morning, but again gets no response.  This is very disconcerting.The Heroes travel for about two hours, when Eltharion spots a group of creatures heading toward the forest as well, but coming from further east.  Their paths will cross if they keep going.“Everyone, get down,” Eltharion says, and the others comply.  While on the ground, The Necromancer casts invisibility and vanishes.  Ogrim and Damaré try to see what Eltharion sees.  Eltharion lifts his head up a little to see if they have been spotted.  It looks like the creatures have turned their course and are coming at the Heroes.  Eltharion casts barkskin and gets up, sylvan and flaming scimitars drawn.  Damaré and Ogrim likewise get up, spreading out to avoid getting surrounded.  The Necromancer is nowhere to be seen.As the shapes get closer, they see three large snakes with arms.  They are about seven feet tall, walking (slithering) upright, carrying great iron scimitars.  The final shape is huge.  A triceratops with a human riding it, but the human has a snake-like tail, flexible torso, and a longbow at the ready.  He fires, striking Ogrim’s shield.  The Heroes charge.Eltharion closes in on one of the snake-men abominations.  He slices into it with his flaming scimitar, drawing  a streak of blood and burn.  Damaré attacks another abomination, twisting his spiked chain around its blade, pulling it free and flinging it away.  Ogrim, jaw set, charges the triceratops.  As he does, the dinosaur spikes him with its horn, which slices into his flank.  He grits his teeth and slams the side of its head with his Orc-Killer axe.  The last abomination’s skin starts to rot, blister, burn and peel.  The Necromancer appears right next to it, his finger discharging evil and necromantic energies into the thing.  It hisses in pain, slicing its great scimitar down; it passes right through the Necromancer, his cloak of displacement working successfully.  The abomination fighting Eltharion slashes hard with its great scimitar, cutting into Eltharion’s leg.  The one on Damaré closes in to try to claw him, but Damaré quickly spins his chain and tries to trip the thing, but it grabs the chain and pulls Damaré down instead.  It jumps on top of him and claws into his bare back.  The yuan-ti snake man on the back of the triceratops fires another two arrows down at Ogrim, but he deflects them both easily with his shield.  He then stamps his feet down, entering the ancient dwarven defensive stance.  Locked in place, he chops into the triceratops’ head twice, landing two powerful blows.  The triceratops flails its head wildly, the spike on its nose slashing Ogrim across the chest, drawing a painful grunt.The Necromancer casts vampiric touch and drains all the life away from the abomination he is engaging, killing it.  Its skin shrivels and blackens, and its energy invigorates The Necromancer, who then moves over to Eltharion and casts haste on him.  Eltharion uses this to great effect, slicing and cutting through the abomination near him.  Damaré hops to his feet, spinning his chain around and slicing the abomination on him twice.  Ogrim knocks aside two more arrows and a horn slash from the trike, slamming back into it with his axe twice; hearing the bone crack underneath the tough hide.The Necromancer knocks into the abomination with his skull-topped staff.  Eltharion, after another five scimitar strikes, takes the thing down.  Damaré has a back-and-forth with the other one, but Eltharion and The Necromancer get there and help finish it off.  They then surround the triceratops.The archer on top takes aim and fires at Damaré, but he quickly dives out of the way, swinging his chain and striking the rider, enwrapping its leg, and dragging him off the hulking triceratops.  He hits the ground with a thud, where Damaré rakes his chain across him.  Ogrim takes the brunt of the triceratops swinging head, blocking it with his shield.  Damaré finishes the rider, and he and the other Heroes lay into the trike.  With minimal damage, they are able to down it.  It falls in a heap after a final blow from Ogrim’s mighty axe.  They clean their weapons and examine the bodies.“These must be those snake-people the Dizgurd tribe was talking about,” Eltharion reasoned.“Hey, found something,” Damaré stated, lifting a pie-slice shaped green glowing object.  It looked like a large crystal.“I think we just found our first part of ‘The Glow’,” The Necromancer says, examining the crystal.  “Maybe the snake people were coming here to get the other piece.  Maybe they were going to try to activate whatever is on the top of ‘the Peak of the Sky’.”“Good thing we stopped ‘em,” Ogrim nods.“Hey… Necromancer.  Can I ask you a question?” Eltharion asks as they start walking toward the forest.“Go ahead,” The Necromancer seems a little confused.“What kind of creature is that skull on your staff?” Eltharion asks, “It’s not quite big enough to be human, I’m guessing.  It’s not an… elf… is it?”“Ha, actually, it is an elf.  But don’t be alarmed, it’s actually a dark elf skull,” The Necromancer muses.“Really!  Oh wow, that’s awesome.  I think you may be my new best friend,” Eltharion is almost giddy.The party continues southward, the forest quickly coming into view.  After another hour, the trees have grown far more dense, as have the insects in the air.“Repel insects… why didn’t I think of that,” Eltharion shakes his head slowly, slapping away a few mosquitoes.“So… where should we look?” The Necromancer asks.“Good question.  They didn’t really give us any information, did they?” Damaré answers.They continue to walk south; the forest isn’t that dense, but the insects are.  Ants are covering several trees, and many large anthill-type earthen structures are seen.“Eck, I just stepped on a scorpion,” Damaré looks at his foot.“Hey, there sure are a lot of scorpions all of a sudden…” Eltharion looks around, seeing little scorpions all around them, scuttling around.  Some loud thumping can be heard.  Trees can be seen toppling over.  A gargantuan scorpion plows through toward the party.  Two smaller (but still bigger than the Heroes) scorpions flank it, joining the fray.The main one is over 40 feet long, almost 6 foot long pincers.  The two on either side of it are about eight feet long each.  The Heroes take up defensive positions.How much damage can three little (gigantic) scorpions do?  Are the Heroes in serious trouble?  Are Eltharion and The Necromancer friends forever?  This and much more, next update!</blockquote>

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