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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Softwind" data-source="post: 1370419" data-attributes="member: 13893">Death to the turnipSession 34 (Oct 03) [Part two]“Whoa.” Both Skylar and Brynn look at each other, and laugh at the simultaneous reaction. Remembering their situation, and the first creature, they glance over at where the battle started. Tombit stands in triumph on the corpse of the first plant creature, with a relieved Daladariel catching his breath. Genoa flashes her friends a toothy grin as her form shimmers back to her normal dwarven appearance.“Yer gonna have tae show me how tae do that, someday.” Brynn tells her. A helpless shrug is his only answer. The ranger sheathes his weapons after clearing them of sap, and moves to the side of the first creature. He examines the body, looking for clues to what manner of creature it is. His father never mentioned this type of monster. “Then again, there are a lot of things his son discovered that dad never talked about…” Brynn muses. He is both saddened and filled with pride by that thought. He is jolted from his contemplations by Tombit, bumping against him. “Oop, sorry. Just checking to see if these things have anything on, or in, ‘em. A-ha!” The furry monk holds up a scroll case, pulled from inside the creature’s maw, situated on its “head”.  “It nearly choked on that, I believe. That is to say, it would have, had it the chance…” “Oh, and what’s this? And that? Oooooo. Pretty.” Brynn ruefully shakes his head, and steps away from the distracted Halfling. Thoughts of home pervade his mind, and he wonders if he shall ever see it again. “Bah, look at yerself. Getting all mopey and havin’ yerself a good pity party. Snap to, dwarf!” he says almost angrily to himself. “Ye’ve got friends relying on ya. Focus on them. They all want to go home too.” He looks back to the monk, forces a grin on his face, and asks, “Whatcher got?”, allowing his friend’s exuberance to pull him from his dark mood. ***Night eventually falls as they continue south along the road. They remain cautious, and their rate of travel is slow, as they watch in all directions for potential threats. The only sounds are those they make themselves – no one has sighted any sign of animal life; no birds, squirrels, mice, even lizards. Only the perpetual haze of small insects, harmless, is seen. The Companions decide to halt for the night, as several of them have not slept in some time. Watch is separated between them, with a melee type and a caster on each shift. Genoa stays awake most of the night, the magic of her ring requiring only two hours of sleep, and no need for food or drink. She tends the fire, and takes short circular walks around the camp, while most of her friends slumber. She returns to camp as Daladariel is awoken by Athena to take the next watch. Half an hour later, Genoa is startled out of her contemplations of the fire by Daladariel’s casting of a spell. Fifty feet from the party, hailstones suddenly appear from a cloudless sky and pelt the trees and ground. As the ice steams in the heat, the mage casts again, this time a Fireball lights up the night. “Are you CRAZY?” the druid shouts, as she stands up, races towards the mage, and takes him down with a flying tackle. She struggles with him, trying to pin him down, as he babbles “The trees, the trees! They’re out there… moving…” Genoa remembers the mage’s odd twitch earlier in the day, after the plants attacked. She had dismissed it before, but now it comes rushing back.She sits back on her haunches, still sitting on the mage, and calls to the party sleeping about the fire. “We might have trouble. Everyone up!”Brynn rolls and in a flash is on his feet, weapons bared. “Wha?” comes his sleepy question. Genoa wordlessly points the direction of the mage-induced damage, where embers are dying from the wet and humidity. Brynn nods, and trots that direction, senses straining for anything out of place. Skylar, coming out of reverie quickly, follows a distance behind, bow drawn. As she passes over the roadway, the ground beneath her crumbles, and she disappears into the ground. “No!” Genoa is startled by the shout, and sees Athena running across the road, to the point where the archer disappeared. The gnome goes to her knees, peering over the edge of the hole in the ground. She spots a tunnel leading towards the camp, and hears the sound of the archer cursing coming from it. “Hang on Skylar!” Athena calls. She debates dropping into the hole to follow, when a rumble is felt behind her. Another hole opens up, closer to the camp, and Skylar’s voice can be heard, strongly shouting invectives at her captor. Brynn comes up beside her, and calls to the animals to join him. Karazak snarls, obviously displease with Brynn’s command, but leaps to the floor of the hole, and enters the tunnel. Brynn slides in, the moist earth at the bottom cushioning his fall, and follows Karazak. Timber circles the edge, whimpering, glancing back at Genoa, still in camp, and back into the hole. He is torn between joining the ranger and his cat (both of which Timber has a strong connection to) and rejoining Genoa (with whom he has a stronger connection). Athena leaves the dire wolf with that puzzle as she stands up and hurries to the new hole. At the edge, Athena can see Skylar, gripped in the leafy topnotch of… a giant turnip. With a maw filled with wooden teeth; several of which are chewing on Skylar.“Now then, that’s enough of THAT,” she states, and leaps down on top of the creature, mace in hand. “Ungh, glad you could make it,” Skylar states matter-of-factly, pain creasing her brow. “Mind helpin’ me out here?” Skylar pulls back her bowstring; arrow loaded, she fires into the maw engulfing her foot and lower leg. The reaction is immediate, and more painful than the elf expected. The mouth bites down HARD. Trying hard to ignore the screams of her friend, Athena brings her mace down on the turnips top, making a pulpy mess of several of the “leaves”. The next swing misses as the creature twists in the hole, almost unseating her.Emerging from the trees, with rope in hand, Tombit runs towards the hole housing the turnip and his friends. A length of line plays out behind him as he launches himself into the air, dropping in on the creature. The original plan of having Skylar haul herself out via the rope is dashed when the monk notices how little of the archer is still visible. To his consternation, she is rapidly being swallowed by the walking root vegetable.“Mama Pithopper always said, ‘Tombit, eat yer vegetables’, but I don’t *ever* remember her finishing that sentence with, ‘or your vegetables may eat *you*’.” Anything further he might have said is cut short by a nimble leaf/tendril attacking him. As he squirms, further branches are lent to the fray, including the one keeping Skylar in the maw. She takes advantage of this lapse, and calling upon the powers of the Cloak of the Bat, rockets straight up in bat form. With her new senses, she “sees” Genoa altering shape into a dire wolverine and diving into the first hole. Wanting to put some distance between the turnip and herself, Skylar flies straight up into the sky, slowing only to make a quick meal of some of the ever-present flying insects. “Ew, yuch! Did I just do what I think I did? On second thought, I don’t want to think about it…” From the edge of the hole, Daladariel casts Enervation on the creature, the sickly green-black ray emerging from his fingertip and striking the turnip at the base of its topknot. Unable to reach the mage to retaliate, it does the next best thing, and shoves Athena into its maw. The cleric shrieks as the teeth puncture her in several places, reducing her health drastically. She dimly senses another presence nearby as it fills her with healing energy, bringing her back from the brink. She doesn’t have time to ponder this new development as the turnip continues to swallow her.Genoa, her wolverine form adept at digging, widens the tunnel the creature made, emerging underneath the turnip. There, she sinks her razor-sharp teeth into its pulpy flesh. Timber, whimpering the whole way, follows her, and also bites the unnatural vegetable. On the rim of the hole, Daladariel casts an empowered Magic Missile, the arcane bolt tearing great rents in the monster. Brynn, seeing an opportunity to act, dives into the hole, much like Tombit, but with both blades bared in front of him. The impact drives both swords up to the hilt into the creature. With a shudder, the turnip dies, its tendrils relaxing their grip on the monk and cleric.As Brynn sets about pulling Athena from the corpse, with Genoa’s digging claws helping, the three of them sense that a heretofore unnoticed feeling of oppression has lifted. In unison, they sigh in relief. At the odd looks from the mage, monk, and warrior, Brynn, Genoa and a freed Athena just smile at each other. The smile turns into chuckles as Tombit, ever curious, checks the body for loot. At the Halfling’s exclamation, “This stinkin’ critter doesn’t have Anything!” they burst out laughing.</blockquote>

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