Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Wild Times

So, there we were, stuck in the Fey Wild. All around us were huge briar patches that matched the size, shape and location of the buildings of Barston.

We met up with Toni's elf ranger then. I think she spotted the portal show up, or just spotted us. I believe she'd been searching for a way out of the Fey Wild ever since she crossed over via a Faerie Circle... but I can't recall exactly. Either way, we were all in the same boat, so she joined our group, and we headed out to find a way back to the "Real World". We journeyed east, though, to get us out of the Eveninglands, so that when we came back into the "Real World", we wouldn't immediately be breaking our vow. I believe that if we did break our vow, we would get sicker and sicker, the longer we defied the vow, until we died.

We figured out how to get out, first. I think it was an arcana check from Timond that did it. Or maybe it was combination of him and I, plus Calatin. I don't remember. In any case, whoever figured it out, we had to find the blood of an "Aberration". The Fey Wild is like taking nature in the real world, from the beauty to the danger, and turning all the dials up to 11. An aberration, an evil creature born from foul magics or even fouler warping of reality, is so alien to the Fey Wild, that the natural tendency of the Fey Wild is to expel such a creature. So, if we sprinkled aberration blood onto a faerie circle, that would act as a portal home.

Using our knowledge of the fact that an aberration would corrupt the Fey Wild around it, we had Calatin ask a passing animal if there was such a corrupted area nearby. However, now that I think about it, all animals could simply talk to us normally. Still, having a druid talk to them made for better conversation. heh. A bird of some kind directed us to a nearby swamp.

I tried to play up how miserable Zorenthiel was here. He's used to dusty libraries, not trudging through swamps. :) We found a carving on a tree of a symbol Craig showed us. A snake with a human-like head.

"A Naga." I said, impulsively. A couple of the others looked at me weird, but I just shrugged. We proceeded in, and partway to the center of the swamp we were attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex!!

The fight with this thing was really tough, and someone, I can't remember who, even got picked up in the thing's mouth! (We made sure to stick the character's miniature in the mouth of the T-Rex miniature, of course. heh). We managed to defeat it, then moved on, and eventually found the apparent location of the aberration. It was a small ruined fort of some kind, like an outpost. We found a spiral staircase descending into the darkness, and made our way down.

At the bottom, we found a large cavern. There was an open area of ground ahead of us, then a bridge crossing a large chasm. We could hear a strange clicking noise everywhere. An alarming fact about the bridge was... it was covered in webs, and there was a large mass of web that extended from the bridge off to the left, where it attached to the cavern wall. We could see something moving in the webs. Keeping an eye on that, and thinking it might even be some unfortunate thing caught in there, we started across...

Suddenly, giant spiders crawled up from under the bridge to surround us, and some humanoid creature that was actually MADE OF WEBS, stepped out of that mass of webs to the left, and moved to attack us!

Pate charged the web creature, and Ehrdren made quick work of the spiders with his bow! The funniest part of the fight was right at the end, it was Timond's turn, and he whipped a dagger at the web creature. He hit and ended up killing it! Big round of congrats for the wizard, and Pate's admiration!

Continuing on, we entered a passageway and came upon two pools and another open area. The first pool was of a green viscous substance that we figured was some kind of acid, so we wanted to avoid that one altogether. Beyond it was a 10' section of ground, then a pool of water, 15' across. Pate went first, of course, jumping across the acid pit, then jumping into the water.

Well, the moment he hit the water, two creatures blinked into existence, one on either side of him. On one side was an Earth Elemental and on the other was a Fire Elemental. The heat from the Fire Elemental immediately started boiling the water, which was damaging Pate every round, and both elementals began attacking him! He was taking a bad beating when suddenly Timond cast a spell that swapped him and Pate, so Pate ended up back on the dry ground and Timond was in the water between the elementals. He then levitated up. Pointing a finger at the Earth Elemental, he spoke words of power (a Dismissal spell, I think), and the Elemental crumbled away. We were all VERY impressed by this.

We finished off the Fire Elemental shortly thereafter, and then hunkered down on the small section of dry ground between the pools to rest. We needed to get spells back and heal some before we faced the Naga.

Our rest was interrupted though, as again on Zorenthiel's watch, he had to rouse the others, as he heard a loud hissing noise come from the area beyond the pools. When he had gotten everyone up, we spotted the Naga. She was fifteen feet long, at least, with a black scaly snake body and an ugly human head. Pate rushed forwards, jumping into the pool to swim across to get her, but he was suddenly surrounded by the elementals again! Apparently it was a magical trap that reset while we were resting! While Pate was busy with the elementals, the Naga unleashed a lightning bolt that hit most of the group as we were bunched together in the corridor. Timond responded with a fireball that engulfed the Naga. Pate made it out of the water and went after the Naga, with the elementals following after him. Calatin and Hornet made it across quickly and engaged the Naga as well. Timond flung his spells, and Ehrdren plucked arrows into everything, and Zorenthiel called up a magical Spiritual Weapon (in the form of a quarterstaff), which he set upon the earth elemental pounding on Pate.

Pate landed the final blow on the Naga, crushing its skull, just as the earth elemental dealt a staggering blow to him, knocking him to the ground. Zorenthiel's staff and Ehrdren's arrows dropped the elemental. We discovered a huge cache of treasure that the Naga had been hording, and collecting it, and the blood of the Naga, we made our way out again, and trecked cross-country to find a faerie circle. We had an uneventful crossover back to the "Real World", and when we arrived, we were greeted by the pixie, Widdershins.

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