The battle against the plants continued. Elwood, Thurl and Kronk remained entangled. Zelda grabbed for the rope that Strife had thrown her way, but before she could get a good grip on it, the over-eager ranger yanked on it, and she almost dropped it. But now Balefire managed to escape from the entanglement.
Arya ran into the mist, looking to attack with her heavy mace. She swung at what seemed to be a foe before her, partly concealed by the mist. She hit! Arya could hear hissing and screeching coming from the area where she had connected with obscured foe.
At last, Elwood managed to break free of the clinging plants once again. He pushed his way about fifteen feet east, toward the nearest perimeter. Thurl also freed himself, and followed the ship’s captain.
Zelda now tried to pull herself out of the entangling plants, but again lost her grip on the rope. Fortunately, she didn’t drop the rope, so Strife was able to pull her loose. She almost reached the northern perimeter of the plants’ area.
Kronk was still entangled. As Strife had done with Zelda, now Balefire threw a rope to the hapless half-orc.
In the mist, the monitor lizard snapped at Arya. The mist obscured her as well, enough to cause the reptile to miss. Not so the humanoid before her. It struck her, but not with a sword. Rather, Arya felt a vicious claw slash her! She then could tell that her foe moved back further into the mist. Rather than pursue, the cleric withdrew west, to the edge of the mist! She then used her wand of cure light wounds to heal herself.
Elwood tried to continue his escape from the plants, but to his annoyance, they managed to re-entangle him. “Don’t these plants ever give up?” cried the captain in frustration. “I could ask the same thing,” said Thurl, and for the same reason. Zelda’s movement was also stymied, despite her best effort and Strife’s assistance. At the southern edge of the plants’ area, Kronk was also unable to make it the rest of the distance, despite Balefire’s attempt to pull him free.
Suddenly, out of the mist, the monitor lizard assaulted Arya, barely missing her with its snapping jaws. Another blow also came close to the cleric. A scimitar slash! Arya swung back at the reptile, but the mist caused her to miss.
At last, Zelda broke free, and escaped from the reach of the entangling vines. Thurl also managed to reach the northeast perimeter of the plants’ area. Elwood remained stuck. To the south, Kronk also broke loose and neared the southwest edge of the animated plants. Strife circled around the entangling plants, heading southeast, toward Arya’s position. Balefire was ahead of him, and reached the edge of the misty area.
In the mist, the monitor lizard missed Arya again. The hostile humanoid scratched Arya with its scimitar. Arya withdrew west to the edge of the mist, next to Balefire, and cried out, “There are two things trying to get me!”
With a final effort, Elwood broke free of the entangling plants, and escaped toward the east. Zelda circled clockwise around the vines, heading south. But Thurl exlaimed, “Not again!” as more grasses and weeds wrapped themselves around him. Strife, hearing his distress, rushed to him, but couldn’t free him from the entangling vegetation. Kronk likewise was re-entangled.
The humanoid advanced toward Arya. As he did, the mist re-centered itself on him, as if being re-cast somehow. But, instead of attacking Arya, the foe now assaulted Balefire! The mist did not offer sufficient concealment this time. The humanoid’s scimitar delivered a savage blow, and Balefire fell to the ground, dying!
Seeing her companion fall, Arya stepped back toward him, then used her wand to partially heal and stabilize the wounded rogue, though not enough for him to get back on his feet. She turned toward the humanoid, and called out, in common, “Who are you? What do you want from us?”
“You are intruders!” came a hissing, reptilian response. “You will feel nature’s wrath!”
Elwood heard the response, and realized that the party’s enemy might be an angry druid. He advised Thurl and Strife accordingly. Then he yelled out, “We are not intruders! We were just passing by! I am Elwood, captain of the Desperate Venture. We were just looking for food. We will leave it if you wish.”
The humanoid continued to hiss, apparently unmoved.
Arya attempted to sway the humanoid. “We don’t want any trouble, we just want to be on our way,” she assured the druid. His hissing seemed to change somewhat, as if he were calming down somewhat.
Thurl made the same kind of assertion. The humanoid stopped hissing altogether, and seemed to have settled down to a non-hostile state. The other adventurers apparently could not change the druid’s mind any further, despite Strife’s attempt to convince him that he was a servant of Ehlona, the woodland goddess.
Suddenly, the mist disappeared. Before the party there appeared a druid. A lizardman druid. With a monitor lizard by his side. The druid said, “I repeat: you are intruders. Zoltan obviously told truth!”
Arya, Elwood, and even Kronk, recalled hearing the name “Zoltan”. A Ketite name.
“What do you mean about Zoltan telling you the truth?” Arya questioned the druid. “Zoltan my friend,” replied the lizardman. “Humans north of river friendly. Zoltan told me how to deal with intruders.”
Thinking quickly, Thurl tried to bluff the lizardman. “We’re friends of Zoltan too!” he told the druid. Strife showed the druid a Ketite coin (one of the coins recovered from the dead pirates). The druid looked at the coin, then at the adventurers.
“You look like Velunese,” he said warily. “But maybe also friends of Zoltan. You may leave. Warn others to stay away.” The adventurers tried to continue bargaining with the druid, but to no avail. “I say no more. Leave now,” ordered the druid.
“But I’m still stuck!” whined Kronk, who was still entangled by a number of weeds, vines and small tree branches. The druid dismissed the entanglement spell, and instantly, the plants resumed their normal condition. Kronk was finally able to move freely.
Arya took Balefire’s potion of cure light wounds out of his pocket and gave it to him. The potion worked: the rogue was restored to good, if not vigorous, health, and was able to get back on his feet. He shook his head to clear it.
Without saying another word, the druid turned around and left with his lizard. The party had been dismissed. “Let’s get back to the ship,” Thurl urged. The rest of the group needed no further motivation. They returned to the riverbank, boarded ship, and resumed course for Mitrik.
No comments:
Post a Comment