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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 5570856" data-attributes="member: 9546">SPRING’S BLOOMTwo weeks after the appearance of the first fey bloom, Mox was still receiving reports from across the land of First World incursions. The latest news came from the mountains of the Tors of Levy. Despite the increasingly warming weather of Spring, mountaineers in the area told of freak blizzards occurring out of nowhere. In addition, new growths of vegetation had sprouted seemingly overnight. The companions had all remained at the keep in Veritas since the onset of the blooms, and it didn’t take Mox long to assemble them for a journey to the alpine country.The trip was surprisingly swift, thanks to Velox transforming the team to cloud-like mist, and then sweeping them along on the wind across the plains to the Tors. It wasn’t long after they reached the foothills of the mountains until they saw the unnatural terrain of the bloom below them. Tangles of alpine shrubbery, twisted pine trees, and sheets of thick, slippery lichen covered the terrain. It was only when Velox dismissed his spell, and the companions returned to their solid forms, that the extreme cold bit into their flesh. Tungdill quickly wove an enchantment about them, protecting them from the worst of the elements. The group set about exploring the area, looking for the source of the bloom. It took over two hours before they stumbled across it. It rose over thirty-feet into the air, an immense gravestone carved from ice, upon which were inscribed tens of thousands of names. Cautiously, the companions approached. The names were written in Common, and as each of the heroes gazed upon them, their own name was the first one they saw. Suddenly, large shapes began to loom out of the falling snow, emerging in a circle surrounding the companions. Six giants, nearly fifteen-feet in height, with skin as clear as ice, and eyes that glowed with blue light, stepped forward, each clutching axes that looked to be made of thick ice as well.As the giants moved in, Selena waved her hand before her, and the nearest collapsed into a deep slumber. Velox, his eyes glazed over, spun in a circle, conjuring a ringed wall of flashing blades as he did so. Three of the oncoming giants were trapped within the churning metal. They roared in pain and struggled to break free, but Stevhan and Davrim barred their path. Together, they cut down one of the brutes, sending him falling back into the blade barrier. At Mox’s command, Reggie leaped to the side of the warriors, and clamped his teeth down on the upraised arm of another giant. Snarling, he ripped his weapon arm free, and hacked at the zombie, sending bits of rotten flesh flying in all directions. Davrim quickly moved to the dragon’s aid, running his blade through the giant’s chest and sending it crashing into the blade wall. Tungdill foiled the escape of third giant by immolating it where it stood with a column of white fire. Only two of the frost giants remained, but Mox quickly reduced that number to one by creating a pit of boiling acid beneath the feet of the nearest. Davrim met the last head-on, and in a brief but violent exchange of blows, brought the creature to its knees. As the final giant fell, the great tombstone cracked and shattered into a thousand shards. In an instant, Spring returned to the Tors.____________________________________________________________Over the next week, two more blooms appeared in the kingdom. The first was in the Kamelands, where a tangled mass of briars and brambles rapidly grew to a height of fifteen feet, and began to spread like wildfire. When the heroes arrived to investigate, they found a trio of huge, three-armed giants who were apparently acting as “gardeners” for the bloom. The creatures were dealt with, only to dissolve into large seed pods which began to grow into new giants. It took white-hot, arcane fire to finally put an end to the threat, and destroy the bloom.The second bloom opened in Hooktongue Slough as a hideous mockery of the swamp, filled with thousands of wriggling, red worms. Upon arriving, the companions were immediately set upon by three of the vermin grown to immense size, with hook-shaped jaws that extended from their rubbery maws, as well as jagged, poisonous stinger-tipped tongues. Once more, the heroes dealt with the threat, but not before Stevhan inadvertently dropped Briar down the gullet of one of the beasts. To the ranger’s credit, rather than lose the powerful blade, he dove down the worm’s mouth after it, and subsequently cut his way out of its gut, Briar glowing with power as he did so.___________________________________________________________Near the end of the month, strange news reached Mox, which was saying something, considering the events of the previous weeks.  The original trading post owned by Oleg, the place where it had all began, so to speak, had been abandoned years ago. Oleg had built a new, much larger establishment, and a town had grown up around it. The old post still sat alone on the prairie, neglected and ever more decrepit over time. The word that Mox received, however, was that not only had a new, rampant bloom appeared, but it seemed as if it was center upon Oleg’s old outpost. Not only that, but there were rumors that the post was inhabited again, and since the bloom had appeared, a young woman had gone missing, the daughter of a wealthy merchant friend of Oleg’s. As Mox made preparations to depart, Tungdill stomped into her chamber.“Ya ain’t gonna believe what just happened!” he snapped.“Don’t you knock?” Mox replied irritably. Tungdill shrugged. “Ain’t no doors out in the woods. Anyway, I was just takin’ a walk in the park…,”“The park?” Mox asked. “How urbane of you.”“It’s my park, ain’t it?” the dwarf barked. “Got my name on it! Can I finish my story, or not?”“I suppose you will whether I say so or not,” Mox said.Tungdill glared, and then cleared his throat.“So like I said, I was walkin’ along, mindin’ my own business, all of a sudden this little pixie appears outta nowhere?”Mox raised one eyebrow, but said nothing. Tungdill’s face turned red.“It was a pixie!” he shouted. “Ya think I don’t know a fairy when I see one?”“I’m certain you would,” Mox smiled.“She started yammerin’ at me a mile a minute, like them little folk do,” the druid continued. “Said her name was Limm Ticklewing, and before ya say anything, I ain’t makin’ that up! She said she was worried about her six sisters. Said they was all kidnapped a month ago by a ‘nasty wizard made outta worms.’ She said the wizard and a scary witch put her sisters inta some kind of magic cage, and then gave the cage to a big troll. She seemed to know that we was fixin’ to leave for Oleg’s  old place. Funny coincidence, huh?”“Very funny,” Mox said. “Seems like all roads lead to Oleg’s.”__________________________________________________________Midnight in the Stolen Lands. The place: Oleg’s trading post. Shadowy, hulking shapes prowl through the darkness inside the compound, yellow eyes glinting in the sparse moonlight. Then, a flash of brilliant light. Six figures and a dragon appear out of nowhere, and all Hell breaks loose!Selena whirled as she sensed movement out of the corner of her eye. Two great, black-pelted cats, with upper fangs like sabers, came leaping out of the night. The witch hurled fire at them, and they yowled as the flames exploded between them. Still, it only slowed their momentum for a moment. One leaped for her, bearing her to the ground where its claws began to tear at her flesh as its jaws sought her throat. Suddenly, a flash of electricity from the witch’s flesh sent the tiger flying backwards…straight into Davrim’s blade. Velox caught the second tiger in mid-leap with his own sword. As the cat hissed and rolled with the blow, Tungdill sent a tendril of fire its way. It leaped aside again, landing near Selena, who’d only just regained her feet. The witch simply laid her hand upon the animal’s pelt, and it just…died. Across the courtyard, Stevhan threw open the doors to the stables. As he did, a thousand pounds of tiger flew at him from inside. The Stag Lord fell back under the assault, only to come up against the fetid snout of Reggie. The undead dragon moaned low in its throat as the tiger raised its hackles. Fearless, the great cat leaped, only to die a moment later in Reggie’s jaws. Stevhan heard a small whimper from inside the stable. He turned, Briar raised before him, but lowered the blade quickly when he saw the young girl cowering in the shadows of a stall. A moment later, Mox rushed past him to the girl’s side. “Be still,” his wife whispered, and then she wove a spell of invisibility about the young noblewoman.Suddenly, a furious roar sounded from the main building as the doors were flung wide. Three more black tigers leaped out, followed by a monstrously large troll clad head to toe in plate armor. He carried a vicious-looking ranseur in his hands, and around his neck he wore a strange necklace. It consisted of six, tiny cages, each of which contained a miniaturized pixie. They screamed in abject terror as the troll rushed forward, foam slavering from its jaws.As the troll charged forward, a pair of his tiger pets leaped on Reggie’s back, while another mauled Davrim as the inquisitor tried to meet the giant head-on. The brute raised his pole-arm high above his head and drove it through Velox’s shoulder. As he did, a smaller wound opened in his own, leathery hide, and immediately began to knit shut again. The troll laughed maniacally as he dipped one finger into his own blood and then licked it clean. Davrim broke free from the tiger, flinging it from him. He surged towards the troll and swung with his full might. As his blade struck, however, there was an ear-piercing scream from one of the imprisoned pixies as it exploded in a small fountain of blood, leaving its cage bent and broken. Davrim was dumb-struck, while the troll simply chuckled, and the other pixies wailed in anguish.Selena witnessed what transpired with horror. Then she saw Mox preparing to unleash a spell upon the troll. When she realized the Queen intended to disintegrate the creature, she shouted a warning, and shouldered Mox aside.“What are you doing!?” Mox shouted as her spell went wide and only clipped  the trolls arm.“The pixies!” Selena cried. “He’s using them as some sort of shield!”The troll began to snarl low in his throat as he clutched at the spot on his arm where a sizeable chunk of his flesh had just vanished. When he turned towards Mox and Selena, however, the witch forked her fingers at him, and his eyelids sagged. With a deafening snore, he collapsed to the ground, asleep.Reggie’s neck snaked around and seized one of the tigers on his back in his jaws, snapping its spine in two. Stevhan snapped off a volley of arrows into the other, sending it tumbling to the ground in a heap. Davrim rushed over to the fallen troll and ripped the necklace from around its throat. As he did so, the giant grunted and opened his eyes. With a roar, he surged to his feet. Velox threw himself forward, slashing furiously with his blade. The troll was rocked back on his feet, and then Selena struck with an explosion of electricity, sending him crashing down, smoldering, and killing the last of the tigers in the backlash. Knowing full well that trolls were not so easily slain, Davrim stood over the brute and hacked its head off.Mox took the necklace from Davrim and opened the remaining cages one by one. As she did so, the pixies emerged and grew to their normal size. “I’m sorry for the loss of your sister,” the Queen said, bowing. “We did not know her peril.”“It was not your fault, Lady,” one of the faeries said, tears in her eyes. “We owe you our lives, and we give you and your clansmen our blessing.”Then each of them took flight and disappeared into the night with a twinkle of light. Across the compound, Stevhan’s brow creased in confusion as he felt another pulse of energy from Briar. With it he also felt something else…awareness? When he drew the blade to examine it, he found that it had transformed into cold iron…</blockquote>

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