You arose and continued to Jorr’s cabin, encountering a 15 ft. tall plant monster, a Tendriculous as Luna told you all later.
The party dispatched it with relative ease and searched its flaming remains to find 90 gp [15 each, not currently added to your totals]. You approached Jorr’s cabin about 10 in the morning:
The trail leads past a small cabin in a deep forest glade. A ramshackle front porch is littered with fishing baskets and skinning frames. The cabin overlooks a dark bayou or lake, with old gray cedar-trees draped in
moss rising out of the water. An old skiff is tied up on the shore nearby, and a little smoke curls from the fieldstone chimney.
The party had Mora and Luna approach and everyone else stay back. Three hounds came running towards them baying from under the woodsman’s deck. Mora growled back and them and ran off and hid. The woodman came out and asked:
The cabin’s door opens, and a lean woodsman of indeterminate age steps onto the porch. He has a seamed, leathery look to his face and arms, and a big curved knife sits in a sheath strapped to one thigh. “Don’t get many visitors out here,” he rasps. “Who’re you, and what d’ya want with me and why’d you scare my dogs?”
Mora said, “We’re the dragon scouts, want to buy any cookies?”
The rest of the party approached and dialogued.
“We want to stop the goblin raids, and Soranna said you know the forest. Where can we find the goblins?”
“Goblins! I just can’t stand ’em! Wood’s rotten with ’em right now. I seen worg riders and troublemakers all over, especially along Dawn Way.”
“Where’s the goblins’ lair or stronghold?”
“They live up yonder in the Wyrmsmokes, but seems like we got a big war party in the forest. Maybe they come down the Old Forest Road, or might be they came by the Skull Gorge. My money’s on the Skull Gorge.”
“Do you know where Vraath Keep is?”
“Hey, I ain’t stupid. Go west on out to the big road; keep’s maybe eight miles north of there. Wouldn’t surprise me if some of the goblins are holed up there. Just the sort of thing damn goblins would do.”
You got back on the trail and headed toward Vraath Keep. At the Blackwater Causeway (about a 5 mile walk from the cabin but took about the time of 8 miles due to conditions, so about 1:00 PM) you saw:
A wide expanse of dark water has flooded the woodland in this low valley. Trees still protrude from the calm, dark waters here and there, but many large reaches seem to be little more than open pools of algae choked water. The trill of frogs and the whine of insects fills the air. The forest road leads right down to the edge of the flooded section, up to a rickety-looking causeway made of thick planks of wood lashed together with mossy rope. The wooden causeway runs for several hundred feet through the boggy patch, only a foot or so above the water. Up ahead, you can make out the wreckage of a wagon, lying on its side and half-sunk in the flooded forest, about thirty feet from the causeway.
You decided to have Ashimei use her “enbiggen” to safely wander out to the cart to investigate, only to come snout to snout with an 8-headed hydra.
You devastated it with ranged attacks, ultimately slaying it due to overwhelming damage, but not before 6 of the 8 heads bit Ashimei making her feel a bit poor [Technically, she would have been at 0 hp if not for the bonus hp’s from the rage]. Shade bravely tried to jump to her to help but landed in the water [NOTE for Brandon, buy Acrobat boots when you can, it lets you use your DEX mod for Jump checks instead of your STR]. Ashimei climbed back onto the bridge just before her power ended lifting Shade out of the muck and a skeleton wearing a suit of magical full plate made of mithral. This slows her movement down by ⅓ but it boosts her AC by 4. After Luna healed her up, you journeyed onward to the keep at a slower pace due Ashimei’s new armor starting at about 1:15. 4 more miles of trekking brought you to the edge of the forest within 1 mile of Vraath Keep. You will get there about 3:15.
[NOTES:
So, you have time to push on if you desire. The downside this is the same day as the previous 2 fights. Pharaxes has used 2 level 2 spells and 3 level 1’s. Luna has used 4 of her level 1’s, 1 level 2 and 2 level 4s. Ashimei has used 2 of 3 rage uses and 1 of up to 5 enbiggens. Everybody is at full health, except for the falcon [6/15].
END EPISODE 2 [+575 xp for the day]
Recent Comments