Change is coming again, I can feel it now. Before, with my head down and non-caring I didn't notice the signs of the impending troubles, but they're coming again to this depressing little town I call home. This time, I'm ready. I'm going to keep a log of everything that happens in the hope of, potentially, appeasing our glorious masters without the uncomfortable prospect of mind rape and insanity. I'll do my best to save this place, here's to hoping.
After the debacle in the forest pit, it has become clear that simply living around these...people for all these years really did not prepare me for their adventuring deficiencies. If we're going to be fighting together in the defense of this place, we're going to have to learn to work as a team. Nuckin is a bit concerning, I get the impression he isn't as crazy as he lets on, but I have no idea how to mold him into a useful ally. I'm confident in Aron our long standing trading agreements have shown me he is a man of his word, dependable, almost dwarven in nature. Bonk and Robin seem a bit unpredictable, but they have skills of their own that will prove invaluable whatever their eccentricities. Robin noticed that the woodland creatures had returned to the forest upon our exit from the pit and seemed to be giving us the stink eye, a detail completely lost on me. I wonder what it means? Is something controlling them?
After getting back into town, Robin weaves the tale of our discovery of the spider infested forest pit and the curious fog we encountered deep underground. She leaves out a few details concerning our...pitfalls. Our wounds seem convincing enough to the sheriff to earn us a commission to solve the problem before the garrison returns in five days. I know we can manage it, but right now all I can think about is a long, hot, cleansing bath - spider goop and mud makes for nasty chafing in this mail. On my way back to the house I drop an unconscious Nuckin into a refuse pile I've seen him sleep in before, hopefully he won't mind.
Two days of healing rest later, my erstwhile allies and I gather for a bit of short planning before setting out. Nuckin is nowhere to be seen, but daylight is wasting and we set out without him. Our short trip back into the forest is uneventful, though even I can now feel the burning eyes of tiny creatures following me from the shade despite my attempts to stoically ignore them. My intentional obliviousness causes me a moment of panic when I look back and see Nuckin has started marching with the party at some point, just how and why is he doing that? Asking him just makes my head hurt - we press on.
Robin helps me tie off two ropes which lets us carefully descend into the gaping pit. The right tunnel branch we entered last time is again rigged to collapse. After some debate, Nuckin declares the middle tunnel looks good and takes off down it at a dash. No one is surprised when he drops out of sight a few steps later into another shrouded pit, knocking himself unconscious. I debate accidentally losing my grip on the rope we've rigged to drag him out, but decide against it. Maybe the fall knocked some sense into him and I don't want to have to explain the loss of any "able body" to the sheriff. I'd debate whether he qualified for an "able body" anyway, but I digress.
Seemingly unable to control his curiosity, Bonk can't help rifling the pockets of the nasty rag/robe Nuckin wears. We're all startled by a soft "meep" as Bonk uncovers a tiny owlet he has found. I don't even. I guess the owl is some sort of pet? This man is just strange. And light, fortunately, because I'm the only one willing to carry his dead weight deeper into the tunnel.
Turns out he was wrong anyway as our tunnel of choice loops us back to where we came from via the left hand tunnel. Getting frustrated, I vent my anger by hurling rocks and branches at the ceiling fall trap until it collapses. We press on. Robin takes point this time and we catch her in time as she stumbles into the same pit that caused us such issues two days ago. I wish my eyesight was better.
The tunnel walls seem to have repaired themselves after being partially burned away by our fire, a layer of soot still clings on the upper parts of the tunnel, but there is very little sign of any damage otherwise. The fire has, however, highlighted an area of the wall that looks like it could be a door. With some help from Robin and Aron I managed to wedge a crowbar into the joint and break off a small section - enough to crawl through at least. The noise draws the attention of the room's lone inhabitant, (USE YOUR IMAGINATION LANCE, JEEZ!), who demands that we stop breaking into her home. Robin attempts to weave a bullshit story about us returning the crazy guy who tried to burn her house down in an attempt to disarm her, but the lady doesn't buy it. Their exchange begins to sound more like one of my bad sales pitches and I take the initiative to start a hostile takeover by preparing my shields and slamming through the door.
A frantic fight begins against the wild woman and her two animal guardians, a wolf and a large rat similar to the one we found in town. To my dismay, the woman demonstrates her magical abilities by filling the room with a dense fog and I realize she is a druid; a nature mage I haven't heard of since before the invasion. With the aid of my companions we manage to slay both the animals, but are unable to set hands on the swift footed druid as she flees down a tunnel escape route and loses us in the forest. After a few moments, the fog clears enough for us to see that Robin is down and bleeding from a sword cut to the chest. Bonk does his best to patch her up and the bleeding seems to stop, but I know we've got to get her back to town soon. We find a bundle of parchment and three vials in a hollowed out log in the room and Bonk begins to study them as I prepare the unconscious for transportation up the escape tunnel. Never one to waste, Aron guts the wolf and packs it away to be tanned later. Perhaps we'll mount the head on the gate as a warning.
I found it difficult to listen while struggling to carry both of our downed comrades as Bonk informed us of the contents of the scrolls; something about the teacher of the druid disapproving of her choice to try to cull all of the towns in the area by poison in an attempt to cleanse the forests. Sounds important. The forest again watches our exit.
We stumbled into town near dark and went straight to the sheriff's. Bonk and I described the results of the expedition to the sheriff and he was suitably appreciative. Unfortunately, with the druid still at large we're going to have to find some way to locate her. Too tired to plan now, we drop off Nuckin and Robin before heading home. Our orders are to resume our watch schedule at the gates and well tomorrow. Perhaps we can come up with something else after I've had a proper rest.
Party RP/EXP Rewards:
1 Wolf=80 EXP
1 Dire Rat=20 EXP
Surviving the encounter with the Druid=175 EXP
(Dustin gets half EXP through osmosis and excellent story telling)
Individual RP/EXP Rewards:
Chrisy's first foray into hostage negotiation=15 EXP
Dustin=5 EXP for enthusiasm
Nick=20 EXP for actually reading the letters (I was genuinely worried)
Nick=20 EXP for actually reading the letters (I was genuinely worried)
Loot:
Bundle of parchments/letters
2 healing potions
1 antitoxin
Wolf pelt
GP
250 GP from Sheriff for a mission (mostly) accomplished.
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