Adventure 12

Party Members:
Hammar – 4th Level Cleric
Cloverdung – 4th Level Ranger
Othello – 4th Level Thief
Gubikla – 4th Level Magic User

We meet up with the party right after they finished killing off two manticores in the woods. Kavis is no where to be seen. Must have slipped off with his latest copy of “dwarves on dwarves”. So, wihtout curing or resting, the group begins to search for treasure. Nothing is found in the tree where the manticores were found.

Cloverdung decides to look for tracks and sure enough, he finds a manticore trail leading off into the woods. The group follow along until a fork in the path. Hammar smells urine down the right-handed path, so the group goes that way. The path ends in a large pile of sand. The urine smell is strong here. Cloverdung pokes the sand with his pole to discover chunks of poo. Apparently, this was the manticore’s litter box.

The group decides to head back to the fork in the trail and go the other way. A short while later, another fork is discovered. The group heads to the right and finds various carcasus lying up in a tree. Othello climbs and searches the body of an elf. Cloverdung does the same and searches a huntsman. Hammar goes up and searches the body of a cleric. Gubikla decides to shake the bodies out of the tree and casts thunderclap. While no one in the group fell fromt he tree, all the bodies did, with their loot. Gubikla grabs treasure he finds on the ground. Others do as well. The going is slow because the grass in this location is tall. Cloverdung decides to light the grass on fire in an effort to clear out the foliage. After the fire burns around the bodies, and continues into the woods, Clvoerdung looks for shiny and finds some treasure. The others follow suit, while the fire burns southward, toward the stream.

With no more treasure being found, the group decides to head back to the fork. Fire still burns southward. Cloverdung follows the trail to its end, a large tree trunk. There is a hole in the side of the 30ft trunk so Cloverdung tries to push Gubikla in. Gubikla ducks and Cloverdung falls in the hole. Luckily there is nothing there to eat him. Cloverdung lights a torch and begins searching. Othello sees a light so he climbs down to begin searching as well. Hammar is right behind him. Finally, Gubikla decides to search as well. More items are found, but soon the searching reveals no more treasure. So, the group climbs out.

In discussing what to do next, Gubikla activates his treasue wand and has a lead back towards the tree where the bodies lay. So, Gubikla, Hammar, and Othello head back to the bodies. Cloverdung, however, decides to try and run up to the front of the fire to see what is flushed out.

Gubikla, Hammar, and Othello arrive at the bodies and find more gold and precious stones. Cloverdung reaches the front of the fire and sees squirrels and flying monkeys trying to stay ahead of the fire. Not seeing a flying monkey before, Cloverdung decides to shoot one with his bow. Twang, two arrows loose. One connects and kills a flying monkey. That is 1 XP for Cloverdung.

Before the party can regroup, suddenly, there is a dark cloud forming over the woods. Othello notices that the cloud is not a cloud but rather several hundred birds. Before the group can react, splat. All of the birds fly straight down, silver beak first, into the ground, or whatever else they hit along the way. After damage is taken by all, the group look up to see all these birds stuck in the ground, trees, flesh, like lawn darts. Apparently, the nasty wizard in the globe has his eyes on us and is still trying to kill us. Also, the fire has finally died out at the stream. Kavis would be proud.

After plucking out the birds, Cloverdung decides to lead the group to the source of the small stream. After a couple of hours climbing through heavy undergrowth, there is a small cropping on stones where the spring is feeding the stream. About the time everyone is ready to move on, Hammar has a brilliant idea. He invokes the power of his god (divinge intervention) and successfully converts the water flowing from the stream into beer. Yes, it is now a beer flowing stream. Created by Hammar (and his god). Everyone drinks and is happy. Hammar is so happy, he bathes in the stream.

With a major, life-altering event occurring, Hammar is finally ready to continue on our journey. Othello remembers the hunter, Tom, telling us of an unusual pool in hte woods. So, Cloverdung leads the group back to the Steeth and continue upstream. Another small creek is found, so Cloverdung follows it upstream, with the others following.

The group finds a large rock outcropping where the stream seems to feed from. The party moves a little closer to see a pool amongst the rocks as well. For a few seconds, Hammar sees a naked lady in the pool motioning her arm to keep away. While staying away is probably a good thing the group moves in closer.

From out of nowhere, glowing lights appear in front of each of the characters. Will-O-Wisps have appeared. Sending electrical charges through their bodies, each of the characters take damage from the magical creatures. Cloverdung drops his sword, Hammar misses and hits, Othello conencts, and Gubikla uses his spells. The Will-O-Wisps are quit hard to hit and damage. The group is taking a beating. At one point all characters are dwon to 10 or less hits. Hamamr starts making rounds to keep Othello and Gubikla alive. Gubikla breaks out his magic missle spell and finally is doing real damage to our guests. Cloverdung still hasn’t connected. Othello is making his presence known as he finally brings down a Will-O-Wisps. Then, Gubikla brings one down and Hammar. While Cloverdung is misses often and poorly, the others rally to kill off the last one.

Othello decides to getting a closer look at the pool, and the naked lady. As he approaches, he is suddenly snared by a thorny bush. The vines wrap around him and stun him briefly. Cloverdung approches to assist but he is also getting ensnared. Gubikla breaks out his fire grenade, pulls the pin, and launches it at the bush in hopes of freeing the trapped party members. But oopppsss. Gubikla threw the pin, not the grenade. Bam! Gubikla is consumed in flame, as well as Cloverdung, from the grenade blowing up in Gubikla’s face. A lot of damage is taken by those two but the thorny bush does let go of Cloverdung. Hammar laughs, then steps in to sacred flame the bush. He starts a small fire, but nothing threating to the bush. Othello frees an arm and tosses an oil flask onto the small fire started by Hammar. The fire bursts into bigger flames and releases Othello. The characters characters throw various weapons trying to kill the bush when Gubikla breaks out his ultimate grenade. It is a flask of universal acid. This time, Gubikla hits his target. As the flask breaks, the goo inside starts to do 20d6 worth of damage. So much damage is donwe that the magic staff, in the middle of the bush, melts away with the creature.

The party does some quick heals to get ready for what lie ahead. Othello sees the naked lady in the pool motion for us to come closer. Because she is so beautiful, the group cannot resist. She wishes to thank us for freeing her from the evil creatures that had invaded her home. She offers each of us to drink from the pool. Othello goes first and notices his dexterity has increased by one, permanently. Hammar follows and also gains a dexitrity point. Cloverdung drinks an he too gains a dexterity bonus. Then, Gubikla drinks and nothing happens. Another low roll for Gubikla. Each of us do receive a pearl that will protect our souls. So we have that going for us, which is nice. Othello asks the naked lady if we may camp near her pool before heading on, and she says yes.