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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 3338526" data-attributes="member: 1210">“That poor man,” sighs Kifla, staring at the half-eaten corpse of the wagon driver that the creature that Allyendra slew had been munching on.  “We have to bury him.  Hey, will you guys help me dig a hole to bury him?” Barouk stops looting long enough to give Kifla a look.  “What?  Bury him?”“We can’t just leave him out here,” Kifla insists. “I’m not helping,” snorts Allyendra.  Barouk looks at Kifla.  The little gnome’s arms are not exactly bulging with muscles.  Heaving a sigh, Barouk digs out a copper piece and flips it.  “Fine,” he says, after taking in the answer to the coin toss.  “I’ll help.”  Ally snorts again.  “Otherwise, this will take forever.”Even with the two of them working together, the grave digging is slow going.  After watching for a few minutes, Ally gets bored and wanders off, returning a few moments later with a small collection of huge leaves gathered from the nearby banana trees.  “Why don’t we just cover him up with these?” she suggests.  “That’s a great idea!” Barouk replies enthusiastically, glaring at Kifla.  “Good compromise!”Kifla looks downcast, but does not object.  However, when Barouk grabs the body by the hair- below which its face is mostly eaten- the scalp tears free of the body, grossing everyone out.  “That’s it, I’m done,” Barouk groans, stomping off.“Here, why don’t you have a banana?” offers Ally. Kifla is left to dig the grave by herself while the other two sit and chat and snack, trying to forget the sick sound the scalp made when it peeled off of the skull.  Ick.  After about an hour, they return to Kifla, who has excavated about 6” of dirt. “Well, if one of you big strong people would help,” she chides them, “it would probably go faster!”Barouk, who was earlier digging with his hands, kicks a plank loose from the wagon, and using this as an aide, sets in to help Kifla dig without a word. “What a waste of time,” Ally scoffs.Finally, after another hour, the body is buried.  Off our heroes go.  Ally is so fed up that she walks along quickly, rapidly outdistancing her dwarf and gnome companions.  When she realizes it, she slows just enough to keep them within about a mile, muttering to herself the whole time about short-legged, time-wasting fools.  ***8/6/372 O.L.G.,  7:30 a.m., on the side of the trailBarouk greets the day, as he always has, with meditation, following the excellent example of Saint Spadron, one of Dexter’s Twelve Companions*, who it is said spent the first hour of every day in communion with the Light.  Barouk might regret that he cannot spend an hour of every morning in meditation; but if so, he does it later.  Now, his mind is empty, and he allows the world to flow in and through him, over him and around him without affecting him.  The breeze washes over him, but there is no breeze.  A drop of water falls from the canopy of the jungle overhead, splashing against his forehead, but there is no water.  The song of the birds leaps from branch to branch, passing around him in the trees, but there is no song.  There is only Light.Ally shakes her head, eating a banana.  “Stupid,” she mutters to herself.  “A good sword and a good pair of boots- that’s what you need.  Not all this thinking about stuff and looking within crap.”Meanwhile, Kifla, hoping to emulate Ally’s ability to find food in the wild, wanders away from the path and into the woods.  She quickly spots a banana tree, and easily cuts down a huge bunch of bananas.  Cheerfully, she peels off about four and begins walking back towards camp.  She is rather startled when, suddenly, the plants begin to twine and grasp at her.  She’s entangled! “Help!” she cries.Something emerges from the foliage.  Kifla squeaks in terror.  It’s a plant, but it is shaped like- it moves like- some kind of four-legged predator.  It has an obvious head (that she thinks looks like that of a cat) with a snapping mouth.  It seems to be composed of branches as a ‘skeleton’ and leaves to fill out the spaces- and it moves purposefully forward towards Kifla.“HELP!!!” she screams again.***“Did you hear something?” Ally asks. “Yeah, I think I did...” Barouk trails off as he tilts his head, listening intently.“It’s the gnome!” Ally exclaims. The two adventurers dart into the woods- into a most confusing scene. The plants are waving about, wrapping around Kifla, who is conjuring. Worse, some kind of bizarre plant-monster thing is stalking her. Ally grins, pulls out her axe, and rushes forward- but the plant thing is fast. It lashes out and bites her in the throat! Grabbing hold, it shakes her with brutal strength, then drops her limp body to the ground. Kifla screams again, as her spell goes off.  A magical beetle appears from some far plane, and it holds the beast off for a moment.  Barouk cries, “Allyendra!”  He grits his teeth and springs forward to stand over the body of his companion.  Is she dead, or just unconscious?  He cannot know- but he will not leave her for this monster to dine on!  His training serves him well as he ducks a color spray that Kifla tries, then sprints through the entangle without being grabbed by it. Unfortunately, as he kicks at the thing, he finds himself unable to connect with it!Then the beetle vanishes, returning to the Outer Plane from whence it came. Barouk braces himself for the oncoming attack- but to his surprise, the plant monster ignores him and instead grabs up Ally’s axe in its wooden mouth. The haft begins to quiver. “It’s trying to break the girl’s axe!” Barouk cries.  He unleashes a flurry of blows, but each attack is foiled, either by poor aim or the creature’s surprising dexterity.“Damn it!” curses the dwarf.“The fire!” cries Kifla. “We need to get to the fire!” Barouk doesn’t turn, but he can hear the gnome running towards the fire. Snap! The haft of the axe splinters as the plant monster bites down on it. Then it begins moving through the entangle towards Kifla. Barouk kicks at it again, but he can’t seem to get through its defenses... Still, he decides to look on the bright side: he has a moment to check in on Ally and try to stabilize her.  If she is still alive.Kifla is almost at the fire.  She can hear it bounding towards her- and she realizes she won’t quite make it to the fire in time.  She is still ten feet short when it lands behind her and snatches at her with its maw.  With a shriek, she ducks beneath the mouth, dances two steps left and keeps running. Startled that it missed, the plant monster hesitates just long enough: Kifla reaches the fire and pulls out a brand. Spinning around, she bravely points it at the plant monster. “Go away!” she yells at it.She’s alive! Barouk thinks, and glances towards the creature. It seems hesitant to approach the fire, which is good in that it aids Kifla, but it is bad in that the frustrated creature is likely to turn its attention back to Barouk and the wounded Ally.Ever practical, the dwarf hoists his ally over his shoulders and begins bustling towards the fire. Just in time, he arrives; the creature had just decided to turn on the monk. Barouk dumps Ally on the ground, then hurriedly binds her wounds and stops her bleeding. She’ll live, he tells himself, then pulls out a torch and sticks it into the fire. It sputters into life.The plant thing, though reluctant to approach, is not out of tricks yet. Its eyes flash blue, and suddenly- a squid, of all things, appears!**  It flops around on the ground, asphyxiating. “That’s weird,” comments Kifla.Barouk grunts and hurls his torch at the thing. He misses, but apparently it has had enough of this. It fades back into the jungle. Though our heroes remain on guard for a few moments, it is soon clear that the plant monster is gone- for now, at least. “I think,” Kifla says, “we should rest, at least until the big human is conscious again.  I mean, I sure can’t carry her.”Barouk sighs.  “Damn it,” he grunts.  “All right.”Next Time: Our heroes make some friends, as well as some progress!*A quick lesson on the history and theology of Dexter, Galador, et. al.Galador (also known as the Light, the Lord and the Law; the latter is an archaic term, but one still used by many older dwarven priests) is the god of the Sun, the Light and the Forinthian Empire.  Until about the year 100 O.L.G. Galador’s faith was essentially monotheistic, although there is a devil figure, called Bleak.  Galador is a Lawful Good god, the main deity of the campaign, whose influence is pervasive and spreads over incredibly vast distances. About the year 100 O.L.G., Dexter (the son of Galador) was around.  He caused a major reformation in the church, and so the Church of the Light now encompasses both Dexter and Galador (think of Dexter as kind of a Jesus figure; he even gave himself up for the people of Cydra, not once but twice).St. Spadron was high priest of the Church of the Light during Dexter’s lifetime.  He was a dwarf whose beard was so long that he could wrap it around himself and wear it as a belt.  He was one of Dexter’s stalwart 12 Companions, and his legacy lives on; he is a Saint now.Somewhat later- such as, hmm, current times- one of Dexter’s descendants, Prayzose, took the Imperial Throne of Forinthia in order to stabilize, strengthen and reorganize the Forinthian Empire.  He came to be worshiped as a God-Emperor, and thus there are now three branches of the Church of the Light: the conservatives, who venerate Galador (only) and are often disapproving of the others; the orthodox, who venerate Galador and Dexter; and the Imperial branch (which is an official state institution of the Empire), which venerates Galador, Dexter and Prayzose as divine.All that is the ‘official’ history, which was written by the church.  The truth is vastly more complex; Dexter himself was a pc, and was far from the perfect fellow that the church tries to paint him as. Anyone interested can read about Dexter in <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=58748&page=1&pp=40" target="_blank">Cydra: the Early Years.</a>As to current events with Prayzose, watch current events in my <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=90879&goto=lastpost" target="_blank">Great Conflicts</a> story hour, which takes place at very nearly the same time as this update here...**The plant monster had an int of 4. It had a summoning ability, but it chose the creature it summoned randomly.</blockquote>

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