Adventure 132 – Peeing trees?

Luceaturn – Dragonborn: Paladin (lvl 6)
Joe – Teifling:  Warlock (lvl 6)
Vailrah Standing Bear– Goliath: Fighter (lvl 6)
Varis – Elf: Druid (lvl 6)
Mittens – Tabaxi – Rogue (lvl 1), Ranger (lvl 5)
Bolof Gravelfist – Dwarven: Wizard (lvl 6)

The party try to find anything more of interest at the burial mound.  They end up determining the bodies were elvin or part elvin. From what we know the Elves have not been in this area for thousands of years.   Deciding that there is nothing else to find they determine that they should head to the pile of rocks they saw before going to the woods. Vailrah convences the party to follow her instead of the direction the Tabaxi Rager said was the direction to the rocks.  So they head out and about an hour or so later they come up to was sounds like a stream. When they approach the sound they come upon a tree like creature facing a small pool of water and it appears to be peeing. It hears the party and turns around with it’s branches held wide like it wanted a hug.  Mittens not liking the situation released a volley of arrows into it. 

This of course made it mad and it grabbed Vailrah and flung her into Luceaturn.  But on doing so a few people realized there was something riding on the back of his shoulder.  Joe, Varis, and mittens concentrated on hitting it when they could spot it. While Luceaturn, Vailrah concentrated tree and Bolof supported both.  The small shadowy creature seems to cash a dark glob of sleep. He put the Druid asleep when he was in the form of a giant Elk. It tried to put Mittens asleep but failed.  Along with all the battle sounds there seem to be a high pitched screeching sound that would get admitted from either the tree or the shadowy figure. This soon brought another one of the tree creatures in.  But not before the party took down the first one and had the shadow creature vanish off into the woods. The second creature moved in and grabbed Luceaturn but he was able to hack his way out. The party manages to take this one out as well making it fall toward the small pool and they hear a splash and another creature falls into the pool and end up escaping through the brush.  As part of all the battle Vailrah was put to sleep and then awoken by a mud ball to the face from Bolof. This did bring Vailrah back around but disoriented her for a while. By the time she got her face washed off, Mittens claimed that to get to the rock pile they would have to go this direction and started heading off.  

The party followed and a few hours later they make it out of the woods and see the rock pile off in the distance.   They head over to it and find a large pile of boulders. When approaching it seems there is an opening in the side. That is when the Cat creature with eight legs attacked.  It would change colors to try and match it surroundings and blend in. But the party seems to have a better eye on it this time and was able to attack it. I managed to bring down Vailrah and Luceaturn before the party was able to kill it.  It almost brought down Varis as well. But the druid cast a wind wall between himself and the cat to help persuade it to attack someone else while he healed himself. He let Mittens run in and give Vailrah a potion of healing and Joe did the same for Luceaturn.  This gave the party the extra man power to kill the cat. They take time and cut the head off, skin it and get any other parts that seem useful. The party seems to be on the verge of collapsing as they have used up most of their spells and have been slashed up and beaten up pretty good.  So they tell the druid to setup a signal for the Master Druid with the rocks and the party takes shelter and rest in the dean of what they hope was the cat creature had made in the pile of rocks.

COD = Varis for healing himself while two of his companions lay bleeding to death.