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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Salmakia" data-source="post: 8896990" data-attributes="member: 7038731">8. The Forest is a Dangerous PlaceAlthea was dizzy and felt like vomiting. A spiderlike creature the size of a small cart had leapt onto her from the canopy above, knocking the wind out of her. She was fairly certain that several of her bones were broken, and it now gripped her in one of its muscular claws, denying her any attempt at a respite and resisting all her urges to break free. This is it, she thought. This is where I die. Then, suddenly, she felt a strange warmth coming from her pocket. She knew, instinctively somehow, that it was the small rock given to her by the Myrastuul clan of Dragonborn many months before, back when she was still working for the Ekrido wilderness patrol. The elder had said it was a gift for her services to the clan, and a memento of the kindness she had shown them. Since that day she had always kept it on her person, its strange interlocking lines helping her to meditate and its unusual internal warmth bringing her comfort. Now, with her very life on the line, it pulsed with a fiery aura that illuminated the gloomy forest and caused all those present to blink and shield their eyes. Whispers in an unknown language filtered through the trees, and, although nearly indecipherable, Althea alone was able to pick out a few words: “Heart,” “Ancient,” “Honor,” “Chosen.” Then, just as quickly as it had flared, the umbra coalesced in, shifting from a formless brilliance to a vaguely recognizable shape. In a matter of only a few heartbeats, the brilliance was gone, replaced by the small, ghostly form of a dragon. “Protector,” breathed the drake, still in a language that only Althea seemed capable of understanding, before bringing its ethereal jaws down upon the form of the massive spider. Metis, awed by the spectacle they had all just witnessed, but realizing quickly that the small dragon wouldn’t be able to take on the spider alone, transformed herself into a lizard almost as large as the spider itself, ran forward and bit down hard on its fungal hide. Both lizard instincts and Triton sensibilities revolted in disgust at the foulness of the creature’s taste, but Metis refused to relinquish her hold on it. Without any warning, the dryad Draxoth slipped from a tree behind where the party was engaged with the beast, and yelled, almost plaintively, “Flee while you still can!” before slipping back into her arboreal shelter. Veu, still shaken from her encounter with Draxoth the previous night, turned and ran. Ewan gripped Althea, attempting to pull his friend from the grip of the spider while simultaneously chanting words of prayer to the forest spirits that caused the ranger’s broken bones to knit back together. Callista took up a position behind a tree and shot arrow after arrow towards the beast, largely ineffectively as the melee was too packed for her to get a clear shot. The Hazrith, still with Althea firmly within its grip, opened wide its maw. However, instead of a mouth, the ranger saw just a swirling blackness that engulfed her as the creature brought its face towards hers. She felt her very life force flow into the Hazrith as it sapped her strength before snapping shut its mandibles once more. Almost as an afterthought, it kicked out with one of its hind legs, sending Metis sprawling across the forest floor. Burny, finally getting over his shock at everything that was rapidly occurring, rubbed his hands together, generated friction, and released it into a spurt of flame. The Hazrith leapt ten feet into the air to avoid the fire, but still screamed in pain as flames raced across its underside, burning away the fungal growth there and charring its skin. However, Burny’s exultation was short-lived. Draxoth stepped from a tree behind him, the leaves of her face pulled back to reveal hideous black veins and glowing vengeful eyes. “Keep your filthy fire out of my forest!” she shouted, spitting a black globule of poison into Burny’s face that caused his knees to tremble and his whole body to feel weak. When he’d managed to hastily wipe away the poison from his eyes the dryad was gone. Metis, still in lizard form, picked herself up and charged back towards the spider. The ghostly drake, whether sensing some kinfolk with the large reptile or seeing a conduit through which it could free its charge from the grip of the spider, channeled its own energy through Metis’s body. Flames sparked as Metis’s teeth ignited, and the spider once more howled in pain. Draxoth, now standing on a rocky ledge twenty feet away, wreathed herself with vile shadows anathema to her natural form. “This is your second warning!” she exclaimed. “Ignite the foul flame once more and I will extinguish you all!” Coming to herself and realizing that the dryad had charmed her, Veu halted in her retreat, turned, and flung a dagger at the fungal spider. Her aim was true. Too true, in fact, as her weapon punctured one of the mushrooms on the creature’s hide, releasing a cloud of spores that caused all around it to cough and choke on the poison. Several of the party almost collapsed as a wave of nausea and weakness swept over them. Having already feasted on Althea’s strength, and in search of other targets, the spider leapt into the air, releasing the ranger, and plummeted straight down toward Veu. However, due to a remarkable nimbleness, the rogue managed to dodge out from under the falling beast and it landed in a crouch beside her.Burny, taking Draxoth’s warning to heart, fumbled in his pocket for the gem he always carried and, turning to one of the facets, hurled an Orb of lightning at the spider which ducked out of the way easily. However, now that Althea was free, she pulled her bow from her back, nocked an arrow, and joined Callista in peppering the spider at range. The drake, still seeing the beast as a threat to Althea, charged back towards it along with Metis while Veu pulled out her shortsword and hacked at it. Ewan held forth his holy symbol, and a spiritual shovel (the symbol of the gravedigger), appeared in the air and likewise began pummeling the spider. Sensing the tide turning against it, the Hazrith leapt over the heads of the melee attackers, easily clambered up the rocky ledge from which Draxoth was still watching the battle, and dashed off into the forest. Althea and Callista fired parting shots for good measure, and the entire party breathed a collective sigh of relief that they had escaped with their lives. Ewan quickly ran over to where Eliana had been hurled and thanked the gods that she seemed to have been merely knocked unconscious. Once again channeling the healing power of the forest he eased the swelling from where her head had struck the tree and exhaled slowly as she blearily blinked open her eyes. “Where am—what happened?” she asked.“You’re ok,” Ewan breathed, as much to reassure himself as to comfort his patient.“The Hazrith!” she exclaimed, starting to get up and reaching for her bow.“It’s ok, it’s ok. We beat it. It ran off.”“You called it a Hazrith?” Althea asked, overhearing. Eliana nodded. “Is that related to the ghouls we’ve seen or is it a natural part of the forest?”“No,” Eliana confirmed, “we’ve seen those before. One of the nastier predators that lurk here. We’ve lost two or three good rangers to them over the years. Fortunately, there aren’t many of them. Just our bad luck I suppose to run into one.” Ewan nodded, then glanced back over to the ridge where Draxoth had threatened them only minutes before. The dryad was slumped against a tree. She looked exhausted, and Ewan noticed that some of her natural color had returned. “Excuse me,” he murmured to the ranger, making his way over to where the fey sat. “Draxoth?” he asked tentatively, speaking the language of the forest that she had taught him. The dryad looked down at him and blinked. “Ewan?”“Yes!” Ewan’s voice conveyed his relief that the fey finally seemed to recognize him. “Are you all right? What’s happening?”She shook her head sadly. “The forest is not what it once was.”“Can you tell us what’s causing it?”“There is a shadow,” stammered Draxoth. “A terrible shadow. It is in the water. In the roots. In the very heart of the forest itself. We cannot contain it.” Her voice began to take on a deeper overtone and Ewan saw with alarm a black substance begin pulsing through her veins. “We cannot purge it. It is too late. I cannot hold it off much longer. You should have run when you had the chance.”“No, Draxoth, we can help you, if you’ll just…”But the fey simply shook her head sadly. “You should have run when you had the chance.” And with that she fell backwards into the tree and vanished.Ewan leapt up, trying to grab ahold of her leg to forestall her disappearance, but found himself clutching only air. He let out a strangled yell of frustration and sadness. Meanwhile, Burny was staring slack-jawed at the small drake now coiled protectively around Althea's feet. “Not possible,” he muttered under his breath, “not possible.” Veu, who was also struck by the improbability of a dragon in their midst but who was less prone to short-circuit at such logical loopholes, approached Althea. “Anything you’d like to share?” the rogue asked, gesturing towards the drake. Althea shrugged and shifted weight, causing the dragon to resettle itself. “I really have no idea. I think it has something to do with this.” They held up the stone that the Myrastuul tribe had given them. “I knew I had a strange connection to it as soon as the Dragonborn gave it to me, but I didn’t understand why until now. It’s strange, I know, but somehow it feels… right.” “No, no, no,” Burny insisted, making his way over to them. “Don’t you know anything? Dragons vanished thousands of years ago. Even the oldest elves have only ever heard stories from their grandparents about the sky titans. This has got to be some sort of a trick, or an illusion, or a mutation.” The dragon snorted and Burny leapt back as a spark flashed in his face. Althea laughed. “I think he might take issue with your theories.”“Does he have a name?” Metis asked, instantly recognizing the sentience of the creature.“Dante,” announced Althea, suddenly certain that the name was correct.“Well, Dante, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” continued the druid.Burny squinted at the drake. “You’d better hope that Dante can remain inconspicuous, or we’re going to have a lot of heads turning in our direction.” The party reconvened to discuss a revised plan for the night, agreed that they were in no shape to press either onwards through the forest or back towards Onoln, and began setting up camp. However, not half an hour had passed by when they began once more to catch the whiff of death on the wind. Quickly opening her senses to their natural surroundings, Althea pinpointed a cluster of undead – a darkness that registered clearly on the backdrop of green – 1,000 feet away and moving in their direction. “It’s the ghouls,” she said. “They’ll be here in under five minutes.” Abandoning their half-assembled camp, the party began wearily trekking down the mountain towards Onoln. After an hour they were fairly certain that the ghouls had given up the pursuit. They continued walking for another hour just for good measure before settling down to rest once more. They had left many of their supplies higher up the mountain, and it was an uncomfortable night. Just after midnight, Burny and Ewan were keeping watch when they heard a rustling from the forest. Approaching cautiously, Burny gasped as he saw two enormous boars – each the size of a small horse – pawing at the dirt and eyeing their camp hungrily. Knowing that he was all but out of spells and desperate to avoid a confrontation, the gnome reached into his pack and tossed some of his rations onto the ground before the beasts. They approached cautiously, sniffing at the food before devouring it. Burny smiled proudly at his resourcefulness and returned to the camp. “You did what?!” Ewan exclaimed as Burny related his actions. “Did no one ever teach you not to feed wild animals?”“I didn’t want them to eat me,” the gnome hissed. Suddenly they heard another rustle, and looked up to see the boars, not more than 20 feet away, eyeing them once more.“See, now they want more,” Ewan said. “Do you have enough rations to feed both of them?”“What do we do?” asked Burny, beginning to panic.“Wake up Metis,” Ewan whispered. Burny quietly shook the druid awake while Ewan cautiously searched around the perimeter of their camp for anything edible. Metis was none too happy about being awoken in the middle of the night, but when Burny explained the situation to her she took control in a heartbeat. Taking some food from her own pouch, Metis approached the boars and began crooning to them in the language of beasts and birds, a tongue that most city-dwellers never bothered even to recognize, much less learn, but that the triton had discovered in her years of isolation following her sister’s departure. She told them of sweet nuts and succulent fruits, causing them to forget their hunger. Ewan, meanwhile, had gathered enough food to keep the boars’ stomachs from revolting against the charm placed upon them by Metis. “There,” the druid said when she was done. “That should keep them satisfied for at least a day.”“Hah!” Burny exclaimed softly, smiling at Ewan. “And you told me not to feed wild animals!”Metis glared at the gnome. “The difference is that Ewan and I actually know what we’re doing. Now I’m going back to sleep.” Burny fumbled for a moment, trying to think of a good comeback, before wisely closing his mouth and settling down to finish the rest of his watch. (This had the potential to be really rough, and the players handled it very well. All of them except for Metis were totally spent from the fight with the fungal spider, and if this encounter had devolved into conflict it could have gone poorly for them very easily. It was perhaps a bit callous of me to have them roll to see if they had a second encounter that night after surviving the spider and running from the ghouls, but it wasn't unreasonable to assume that more predators would come poking around while they were sleeping. And, as the villagers had repeatedly informed them, the forest is a dangerous place. Fortunately, Burny rolled quite well on his initial Animal Handling check, and Metis always keeps Animal Friendship prepared. And besides, the boars provided many fine meals for the people of Onoln the next day.)</blockquote>

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