There was a noise from the surrounding forest.
Out of the woods, two fierce monitor lizards appeared, hissing, tongues sampling the air before them. They homed in on the hunting party!
Kronk was quickest, and advanced toward the second reptile. He swung hard with his greatsword. The lizard was severely wounded. Strife took up a position from which he could get a clear shot, then fired an arrow at the first lizard. The arrow pierced the creature’s scaly hide.
Now the lizards bit at the intruders into their forest. The first lizard bit Elwood. Kronk evaded the second. As the first lizard charged Elwood, Arya swung at the creature. Her heavy mace slammed into the flank of the lizard, seriously wounding it. Elwood finished off the creature.
Without further ado, Thurl and Kronk finished off the second lizard.
“Well, that was close,” observed Thurl.
But suddenly, another lizard appeared! It hissed, but then, unlike the other two reptiles, it took a defensive stance and eyed the adventurers.
Elwood didn’t hesitate. He swung at the reptile, but missed. As did Zelda’s arrow. Thurl managed to wound the creature slightly. The lizard bit at Elwood, inflicting a nasty wound, then stepped back.
Suddenly, the party heard rustling noises. Grasses, weeds, bushes, vines, even trees–all were moving, reaching toward the adventurers, and entangling them! For forty feet in any direction from the adventurers, the plants were now animated!
Kronk and Balefire could not break free of the animated vegetation. Strife managed to free himself, but the clinging plant life slowed him down dramatically. He shot at the lizard and wounded it. As did Arya, critically. None of the adventurers had any idea what was happening.
The aroused plants maintained their grip on the party. Only Arya managed to slip free. She made her way about fifteen feet toward the southern perimeter of the area in which the plants were active. She cast detect magic, hoping to determine if magic were at work. Immediately, she perceived a magical aura in the area of active plant life.
As Arya made her way toward the periphery of the plants’ activity, the monitor lizard also broke free. It raced toward the eastern edge of the active area, and again took a defensive stance.
Suddenly, behind the reptile, the area became misty. A cloud, forty feet in diameter, appeared.
With a tremendous effort, Elwood broke free of the entangling plants. He shot a crossbow bolt at the monitor lizard, drawing blood. Zelda also managed to break free, and headed toward the northern perimeter of plant activity, as did Strife. Balefire likewise escaped the plants and headed south, following Arya, who managed to reach the perimeter. Thurl and Kronk remained entangled. The lizard, meanwhile, backed up into the misty area, which, strangely, seemed to move, as if one cloud had been replaced with another.
Kronk and Thurl remained entangled. When Elwood and Zelda attempted to continue their escape from the plants’ grasp, they found themselves re-entangled!
The lizard continued moving back into the misty area, and disappeared to view. The cloud, again, seemed to move, as if a new cloud were replacing the old one. This time, the cloud re-appeared about thirty feet to the south of its earlier location.
Strife moved around to the north of the entangling vines, then tossed a rope to Zelda! “Grab this!” he called out to the young woman. “I’ll pull you out!”
Balefire was almost free of the plants, and had reached the south perimeter of the animated area. Arya, now out of the reach of the plants, headed toward the mist, then tried to identify the mist. She drew her breath in surprise. It was an area of obscuring mist, at the center of which was some kind of humanoid, bearing a magic aura, and accompanied by the fleeing monitor lizard, which also bore a magic aura!
No comments:
Post a Comment