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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Damon Griffin" data-source="post: 2645696" data-attributes="member: 3568">Paladin's Journal - entry 3Around three hours after midnight we finally roused ourselves and left the cave, feeling a good deal better.  There was two doors out of the large room.  We heard snoring behind one of them and decided to try the other.  It lead into a crevice which run off in a couple of directions, one of them looking like it might be a back way in to where we figured Belak was.  We followed it, moving pretty quick because Wulfgrim said these little tunnels in the side walls showed that a thockwa worm lived hereabouts, and we didn't want to run into it if we didn't have to.  I guess these thockwas burn their way through rock the way regular worms dig through the soil.We come out into a small room and just beyond that heard snoring again.  We found maybe a dozen goblins asleep in side rooms, plus a distillery and an armory and a big rat being tortured.  We wedged the goblins up inside their rooms, still sleeping, and went on through the armory.  We soon got to a door where Gerik heard humming, and he peeked in and saw another bugbear, this one doing gardening chores.  He had grass growing underground!  I guess Gerik had picked up one of those saps from the goblins, and he decided he'd try sneaking up and knocking this bugbear out rather than kill it.  The bugbear heard him coming, but I guess didn't notice the sap, and the two of them talked for a bit.  The bugbear told Gerik where to find Belak, and then the rest of us just marched on through.  In the next room past the garderer we saw a bunch of them little thockwa tunnels in the walls, and a door across the room.  I thought I would run across and open the other door, and if we all hurried maybe we could get through before the thockwa worm showed up.  Well, fools rush in, as they say.  I got maybe halfway across the room when that thing come up out of the floor, slammed me in the back and burned me something fierce.  I got through the other door okay, but had to use up my holy healing power for the day to take the smart out of that burn.  Winter and Creaky were right behind me and got across okay.  Then Wulfgrim got some iron spikes from Lance, and told people to be ready to run when he said.  He heaved one spike up against a side wall, and when the thockwa worm went for it, two more people ran over.  Then he threw another spike at the other wall and the last couple made it across safe.  Wulfgrim told me later that thockwa worms can hear vibrations in the rock and that's what they attack, so he was using the spikes as decoys.  Pretty smart, and if I hadn't been in such a blamed hurry to get across, I'd have saved myself some damage.Outside that room was a hallway and across the hall some goblins peeked out a door to see what the noise was.  Winter told them we was here to see Belak and they said okay and let us in.  Once we got inside we saw a big open space with a lot of them evil trees and heavy brush and grass.  Burning it seemed like a good idea but we figured the goblins wouldn't like that, so half of us set ourselves to defend the rest if the goblins attacked.  But Lance and Wulfgrim decided they didn't need to wait, and threw the first punch, so to speak.  Winter put most of the goblins to sleep and we tied them up.  Boo went running around in the rat holes and found an interesting room behind a locked door, so Gerik set himself to open the lock before we started anything on fire.  It was maybe Belak's study, and we found some books and things.After that we got a good grass fire started, and also made some fire arrows for Gerik and me.  I think this turned out to be a pretty good tactic for us.  We killed maybe five of the trees with the fire arrows, and the burning grass and brush kept the rest from charging at us.  Plus, I was told later, it got rid of a bunch of plants that Belak could have used to tangle us up with a spell.  Belak showed up pretty quick, though, and created some water to douse the worst of the grass fire, then he and a bunch more trees came for us.  Sir Braford and Sharwyn Hucrele were with him, but they were changed.  Their skin looked like tree bark and although they knew who we were -- me and Gerik, anyway -- they attacked us and talked like we were enemies.  A minute or so later we also caught sight of a giant toad that was some kind of pet of Belak's.Winter and Wulfgrim tried to restart the brush fire, but only Wulfgrim got his side going again.  Winter got hit with some kind of spell and was dazed for a second or two, then he got up a magic shield and retreated behind it.  He didn't do any damage to any of the trees, but he kept five of them at one time occupied trying to get past his shield while the rest of us mixed it up.  Sir Braford made straight for me and kept saying how I should give up and couldn't win this fight, and he had his magic sword Shatterspike trying to break my weapon.  I just kept my mouth shut and my mind on the job, and I admit I was pleased to see him look so confused when he dropped unconscious, and me still with a whole weapon.  I know I should not be thinking such things about a fellow paladin who has got changed to evil, it's a terrible thing I should ought to take any kind of pleasure in.  When I get back to the monastery I will ask if I should do a penance.  Belak threw some kind of spell at Lance that made his armor heat up and burn him a little at a time.  He was hurt awful bad but he still used up his last bit of strength killing Belak.  Wulfgrim saved his life by throwing water on him so the hot armor didn't hurt him as much, and then healing him with his last spell.  The effort of doing that almost dropped Wulfgrim.  When Belak died, the trees ran off past us, just wanting to get away, and Sharwyn surrendered to me and I tied her hands behind her so she couldn't cast no more spells.  By now Lance, Wulfgrim and Creaky could just barely stand, and Winter, Gerik and me was injured as well.  Belak had some healing potions.  Wulfgrim drank one and we had to pour another down Lance's throat. That second grass fire didn't really help us much.  Lance had charged one tree and pushed it back into the fire, but pretty much all of them had got past the places where Winter and Wulfgrim were trying to set fires before the grass caught.  We ended up having to stamp it all out after the fight.  Gerik looted Belak's body, ran off the toad and recovered Shatterspike.Sharwyn told us about a vampire tree that was down here.  Years ago a vampire was staked to death at a crossroads and the stake grew into this tree.  The fruit it bears is what the goblins would sell twice a year, and the seeds from that fruit is what makes the evil saplings, which she said were called twigblights.  She and Sir Braford had been tied to the tree and it changed them like this.  I don't know if they can be changed back, but we will ask the priests back at the monastery.  Whatever caused it can't be a disease, because as a paladin Sir Braford would not have been affected by it.  It might be a curse.  We burned up the vampire tree and sat down to figure out what to do next.  I spent a little time looking at a book we found in Belak's room.  I can't read any of it, nor tell what language it's writ in, but it has lots of good drawings of plants and such.  I didn't see anything that looked like a vampire tree, though, so I guess there is nothing in that book that will help Sharwyn or Sir Braford.  Winter found Sharwyn's spell book with her other gear.  She says he can't have it, but it seems like a bad idea to give it back just yet, so we'll just hold it for a while and see how things turn out.Sharwyn knows where that ranger's body is, back upstairs, and we might be able to get Talgen's body back too.  We still got to get back up the vine shaft with two people who should have been rescued but are now captured instead, and maybe a corpse, and then get them all plus the ranger's body up the cliff we came down at the start, plus get them back to Oakhurst.  By my reckoning we killed just about ten or maybe twelve of the twigblights, and about that many more again ran off when Belak died, plus however many are already out and about roaming the countryside.</blockquote>

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