Lessons in Enlightenment and Respect

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Summary

Adventure: Lessons in Enlightenment and Respect
GM: Miles
Session: Winter 808 wk
Night: Thursday night
Level: Low

Party:

1. Sooty, Male Elf, Fire mage, played by Bernard Mil Sci
2. Brother Bodacious Rhythm, Male Human, Namer, played by Ian H.
3. Tanis Kerelon, Female Human, Air mage, played by Emily
4. Elena, Female Human, E&E, played by Julie
5. Pierre, Male Halfling, Illusionist, played by Ian A. Scribe
6. Aaron Ferret, Male human, E&E and Sword Swinger played by Helen Saggers.

Employer:
elven master (Ghul-than)

Mission:
A you female elven trainee earth mage( Katrina) has been sent to the guild by elven master (Ghul-than) to recruit a group of resourceful adventures to help protect a forest damage and enlighten those responsible about the virtues of respecting nature.

Pay:

Scribe Notes

==1st Frost==
Went to the guild meeting today and a lovely young lady elf called Katrina was requesting some help. How could one refuse such a request. After a quick snack off to one the meeting rooms I went. In the room was Tanis, a biggun girl who is an air mage. Elana another biggun girl, this time an enchanter. Aaron, a biggun boy with a big sword who is also an enchanter. There was my old friend Brother Bo, He names things and preaches the way of non violence and Jive. There was a strange looking biggun with pointy ears and many scars. He is called Sooty, a fire mage. The others say he is an elf but I am not fooled. Elves are much taller and prettier. He is to tell us what to do when the fights start, I hope he does not have much work.
Katrina gives us some uncut jewels so we do some shopping before we leave getting 10 healing potions and 6 restoritives. We also are given Purple and Brown potions. The purple ones give plant magic the brown give Bark skin.
We are going to a jungle east of KInlu. The nearest large city is Ker aderus. Common is only spoken by the traders and the guards. The rest speak Mayan. Troll and Elvish are also spoken.
Katrina made us a portal and we went off. Brother Bo said we were still on Alusia. We saw a low stone wall surrounding a 700ft tree. The tree is a long lived sentient. This is an earth place of power. There were Elvin guards in light chain and Elvish gardeners. Beautiful young elvish woman everywhere. In the middle there is a portly elderly elf, he is Ghul-than.
We are told someone is stealing rare and precious herbs. The most precious are around Mi Vale. He offers a map and guide for the two day walk. Some want to fly, they be mad. An older elvish woman offers herbalist training and Strength of stone of a week.
Our Guide is a 5ft tall human called Karnac. He wants to know if we bring evil in our hearts. He begins a ritual and asks for a sacrifice. Says a bird would be good. Tanis summons some and one makes it past the zappy wall. The parrot is being sacrificed by a pacted entity and we are now one with the forest spirit. (magic - forest spirit attuning, Durration Depends, Under control or influence of outside influence-yes) Karnac tells us we must embrace life (before battle). There is to be a party. An evening of debauchery with food, young maidens, food, drink, food, drugs and food ensues. Most of us are not rude and participate. Aaron is most enthusiastic to join in.

==2nd of Frost==
Around first breakfast I wake with a hangover- must have been a goodnight. Sooty offers to cure hangovers. Aaron takes him up catches on fire and starts to scream for ages. Keeping the hangover seems like a good idea right now.
Off into the jungle we go and we would be quickly lost were it not for Karnac. He brings down a spider monkey for first lunch and cooks it. It is not pacted. After much walking and not many meals we have another monkey for dinner. I can hear forest whispering. There is a lot of animal noises that keep the others awake.
Somewhere between Hot Toddy and Reflection Sooty lets off a lightning bolt at a spider.
==3rd of Frost==
Sooty sights a goblin and we hear a cry of pain. We find a cave with gold coins scattered in the entrance looks like a trap. Apparently there are carnivorous plants out here. After being chased away by an illusionary Bear/nightmare we have Gibbon for lunch. The Trees are not happy.
We neared the Glade between dinnertime and afternoon tea. Karnac asks if we want to go in now or wait till tomorrow. It is dangerous in there - undead, no big lizards, we must talk nicely to trees. We decide to go in now.
Into the hole we go. There are odd looking stones and trees. It is dark down here at least 500ft below the general ground level. There is a request for me to provide a light source. Unfortunately I am an Illusionist we don't do light sources. There are odd looking stones and trees. Baby big lizard claw marks on the trees.
We try to help the trees feel better. A bird is sacrificed on the 6' by 6' slab in the circle of stones. The stones are in a circle 50' across with about 30' beyond that . The stones look like canines(could be a big mouth).
Drumming sounds start up. Goblins start to come down after us. They can't see us and think we are invisible. Elena starts to cast and a glass globe is thrown at her. A tree is covered in ice where it breaks. A Trolkin with two large lizards, (could have made marks on trees) on leads, starts to come down. She let them off the lead and Sooty ask if we want to fight them. The rest of us being smart runaway in the cave at the bottom and hide.
A very bright light come out. It hurts me and Sooty and kills lizards and goblins start falling to the ground making splat sounds. All this makes the drums go further away.
Brother Bo says that they are formally living Three Toed Lizard. They are not natural to this forest.
Goblin Loot
A small pouch
An unusual looking dagger
A crystal sphere
A small bag of coins
2 Steel collars - low level animal control

Stone #2 Major magical ability - Valour

Karnac - There should be 'Dark Trees'. They move and protect the forest from axe people and those evil fire mages. He tells us the sacrifice to get the spirits to talk must be mammal not bird or insect. Gorilla be good sacrifice.

Elena - " will you be our Gorilla? - to Brother Bo

Troll good sacrifice, Dragon good sacrifice, Undead good sacrifice.
About Supper time the DA of the glowing Alter - Very long lived sentient - Forest Mana Major Magical ability - Unity of the forest

After supper ,the alter begin to glow as shambling figure 8' tall tries to hit Stone One. Someone is giving it instructions in Elvish. Brother Bo and Aaron rush to attack the figure and are pacified. I am orders to attack the zombie from behind with my dagger rather than actively resisting the necromancer. Elenor is hit by some personal agony. I am hit by nasty magic then Skeletal rats then the Agony. Sooty turns all flamey and runs up to the necromancer and gives her a hug. Then he lets her go. Why?? The he refuses to allow us to sacrifice the zombie Why?? Is he in league with them?? To hurt to care right now.

==4th of Frost==
Later in the night there are lots of goblins. We are surrounded and they are pacted to the goblin god of war. They tell us that they are here to heal the circle and plants. They want to take us back to the Goblin Queen. The Goblins want to go to war against the elves because they blame the elves for the damage to the forest.

The Goblin Sharman(Tarnac) has a staff with shrunken heads on it. He gets one of the heads to open it's mouth and I am healed. The other heads do Life Drain, Frozen Doom, Hellfire.

There are three pyramids buried within the circle. We must destroy all three at the same time. Digging commences and around early morning tea we can see the three 1 foot high pyramids. Their greatest weakness is 1: To Crystals 2: to Sap of an Iron wood tree 3: Blood of a great Ape
The ancient Div: for number 3 we need something made from the bones of a gorilla, head bound with sinews of an orangutan and the blood of a great ape. The great apes live in Torah 80-100 miles from here. They are semi sentient very large ape creatures
We must go see the Troll Queen in the Great Hole to explain what is happening. We have one week. The goblins also explain that the dart that was in Elena is not made by goblins.

At second breakfast time another ancient div is started. Around morning tea Elves come down the path. There have been complaints from the mayor of Fillath(sp?) That is a trading Village 150 miles away. They are Calardorf, Corinth. They have heard of the Seagate adventures guild and are surprised that we are attuned to the forest. They tell us there is an ironwood tree in Cair Adris 450 miles from here.
Around Elevensies we discover that for the crystal one we need the heart of a Drako, a 12' long lizard. We need to squeeze the heart over a crystal then something explodes. They have no magical abilities but there are rumors that they are semi sentient.

For the other one we need bone from 5 sentient races glued together.
The Elves leave and goblins come and ask why we haven't dealt with the necromancer lich thing. So we race off to the barrow. It is disturbed, pits are opened. Some of us are invisible but they can still see us. Karnac's hands start to glow. Sooty's blazing horse thing bashes its way in followed by salamanders. There is an explosion followed by a bigger explosion. I am nearly killed and the so are some of the others. The lich and the elf are ejected and die in a fiery spectacular. There is silver impaled in the trees

The necro was making a super skeleton in it alchemists laboratory. We now have all the sentient bones we need. There is a bronze tablet - Nature of magic preservation. It is an old elvish pictographic language, not erilehe(SP?) - Instructions. Five black marble amphora are broken, they were spirit holding. Mmmm what have we let out.

We take the case that Elena finds back to the circle. A pro gobbo thief opens the case and a dart shoots out but he is not hit. There are seven intact potions. 1 Identify weakness, 3damage reflection, 4 mindreading, 5 Improved troll skin. We are told that if we remove the curse we will get a warrant to go into the Goblin kingdom unmolested. Tanis tries to use the magic stick but cannot find an Ironwood tree. So we decide to go to the Village. It is after dark however and everyone but Sooty thinks that Flying at night would be a bad idea.

==5th of Frost==
Sometime after midnight we wake upside down being interrogated by 4 elves. They are sisters of the forest. Two of them are male sisters of the forest. One is in well made chain the others are in leather. They ask us about useless bastard. It would appear that that is our employer. He is meant to be protecting the forest. That's our job now. They take sooty away none too gently. He could be in trouble some elves don't like orcs particularly orcish fire mages. He talks to them and comes back. They give us some information - Lady Althesia may have some great ape blood. There are Drakas in a swampy area. Tree is 40-50 miles away. IT is difficult to get to. There are web spitting spiders that don't talk. Safest tree is near Troll Bones. Goblin Sharman can make spirit warrior.
Malador -
Peande- Water
Haldor- Namer
Chain- Earth
They disappeared quietly into the forest and we had gibbon for breakfast. Then we fly to the village our guide says it fun to see people try to land. There was not a lot of landing space so I land nicely in the shallows. Elena does a spectacular splash/Crash to entertain the crowd on the bank of the river. There are birds in cages and goblins about.

We are given strong beer and asked if anyone is a mind mage. Mind mages go in the cage. We are told that bards sing better with bits removed. We meet Gilath the Great Hunter of Apes. He is an old Goblin.

Maldor is the best black smith, there is a 40ish elf called Grethe, A frost giant to get gems from, he has human slaves. I go to get beer and food. The trollkin behind the bar doesn't know that I am all grown up and seems to want to charge a lot for the drinks and food. When she hands it over all is explained. The beer comes in a gallon pot. Pints are big but this is enormous. I have to come back for the food. It is a whole leg of something huge.

Sooty tries to drink Gilath under the table. Alarath is a good person Beast master and healer. Goblins are troublesome buggers. Hunting dogs (three toed lizards) can smell invisible. Drasalisk are like basalick except that they turn things to ice. Great Snaggle tooth is 80 ft long and likes sweet stuff. Gilath is tossing gold coins about. Aaron seems to be in a trance. Tanis and Elena are invited back to Gilath's for the evening but they seem reluctant to go. Sooty offer to instead but Gilath doesn't fancy him.

We stagger down to the blacksmith. We buy a silvered axe head for 500 sp. Elena wants to trade silver and to buy a boomerang but they do not have one. I will have get some true silver before she make me a true silver dagger. We meet the Frost Giant. He wants performers for the whole winter. Sooty offer a gift. A gift?? We buy some true silver. He has black metal, glow in the dark stones, a very heavy anti-mind-mage stone(maybe you hit them with it. They also dislike our employer. After Elana starts talking I realize that she is drunk.

In the evening in the big common room we talk to the Frost Giants slave( Kree al). He is now free. He was partly sacrificed to the bound fire that sooty gave the Frost Giant. There is talk of war. Something has stirred up the forest. We need an anthill for proper questioning. We listen to tales of the Forest and Vale.

Two elves scowling in the corner Bernice is a Necromancer, the other is not pacted. Later we find out he is an Earth mage. They ask Sooty if we are going to cause trouble. Sooty lies to them and says no. Sooty then tells the barman that one of the elves is a necromancer and advises them to just keep an eye on them rather than deal with them right now...
==6th of Frost==
In the night we wake up with the Hut down a thirty foot hole, An elemental throwing rocks down on us and general confusion about. As I am about to firerun out some evil mage freezes me. The hole is filling up with water and the others are struggling to swim. Aaron hauls me out as the Frost Giant hit the elemental and Brother Bo banished it. I struggled to point out where the invisible mages are. The Zombies are duly wacked with a flaming sword of our fighting E&E. Tanis Froze the river to show everyone where the mages where. The frost giant was powered up as the whole village began to fall down a hole. The unbelievers souls are being sacrificed to Kryon. The Frost Giant spattered the evil mages and one of their masters reclaimed their souls. While we stand on the edge of the ruined village our goblin hunter friend offers to lead us for free.The rest of the villagers would really just like us to leave. They think that we are attracting the death and destruction. Also turns out that Elena is our interrogation specialist.

We fly off to the great ape elf lady. We find a 50ft clearing near where we want to be and start to float down. Coconuts start to hit Sooty. They only hit Sooty so that's ok. There is a 20 foot tall ape with four arms and thick snowy white fur. Alongside him is the lady elf in blue.

In exchange for some blood the great ape wants us to free his son. His son only has two hands so is called Two Hands. He is also an Albino. Two Hands has been taken by the Renegade Goblin clan. There are 100 to 150 of these goblins and they are rank 13th out of 13 clans.

The elf lady turns us into goblins so we can sneak in.Aaron tells me that I must be pleased that I am bigger now. I tell her That

"Bigger is not Better"

After a while waking in we hear hunting "dogs" after us so we fly in. The guards are sleepy when approach so we feather fall in. but our feather falling falls off before we land so most of us land heavily. Sooty swings about on some over hanging chains which ends up causing all sorts of trouble. The guards are drunk and the hunting dogs are large and scraggly. Sooty talks loudly and quickly so they send us in to shut him up. They also give us directions to the shaman called Stonehand. They have a plan to destroy the humans. Along the way we get some beer from the kitchen from some half gobos in chains.

We go straight past the pit. Left, right and into the banana shaped cavern. Something is trying trying to make Sooty loyal to the gobbos and to tell the truth. Sooty convinces them we are here to inspect the prize they have captured so the recognition present will be suitable. We are shown to Two Hands past the wolves and bears. The gobos are bored and scared of Two Hands so they leave us alone.

Sooty tries to convince Two Hands that we have been sent to help by his father. The gauntlet that we got earlier helps a lot. He is here to fight in a tournament.

To free Two Hands Aaron uses an essence of Grizelda potion. She is a double biggun witch. Arron and Two Hands break the chain while Elana and I make everyone invisible. We get past the pit when the shaman spots us and all hell breaks loose. Elana is turned to stone and a wall is put up in our way before we get out. I put up a wall and then a stone gollum runs through it. Aaron hits it brother Bo gets the wall down and we get out of there only to get stuck on an extremely powerful sticky floor. It is almost enough to make you want to use those abominations called boots. We blow a horn and Two Hands' Dad comes charging up the path and into the goblins. He comes out, most of them don't.He brought out bear skins wolf skins a sack with rough cut stones, a silvery Raw metal ore. We forgot to get the treasury.

After turning back from being goblins we still have some parasites. Sooty offers to use the cleaning flame but this time no one is that silly. After Sooty gets all clean our guide leads us in a ceremonial mud throwing so Sooty can blend in with the forest.

We get skin changes to deal with the Dracalisc and some honey to help attract it.
Potion 2 is Second Life (action replay)
Improved trollskin - regenerate by absorbing life from those around you.
Mind linking - 30 hours /number involved
Damage reflection- 20 pulses
Identify weakness - 1 hour identify weakness of one entity
Animate plants - 10 hexs of plants.
Potion of skill swap
We discuss putting honey on a goblin as bait and fly back to the trading village. There Elena crashes again and we are told we should not stay the night. We take off along with our Goblin hunter to Gatorville. Gatorville is 200 miles away in the south east corner of the swamp. Tanis keeps running out of fatigue. She should learn cloud.

We arrive after dark. The armed response is tempered once someone yells out" he's covered in honey." Sooty gains a friend. Big Ben is a gnome like creature very colourful and very interested in Sooty. There are only 30 or 40 people here, mostly male. Others there include Glenda the trollkin. Karina the human hunter. Gnasher the one eared goblin. Garlic the half goblin. Justa the Human and Alagon the Human Ranger.

We are fed saltwater croc, which tastes better after a few rough ales(which tastes better after a few rough ales).Turns out that Karina is not impressed very much by our great goblin hunter. After a few ales Glenda takes Bo aside suggestively. We don't see him again until morning. Tanis and Elena again refuse Gilath's hospitality.

==7th Frost==
Gator and lizard eggs are for breakfast. This place could use a better cook but no time to stop. I can see two blue spheres by Gilath. They are his pay per view audience. If we can still move after getting the drakalisc we will be rich.

We get help to find the beastie. Gnasher will drive his boat out into the swamp. After a couple of hours Elena gets sudden onset Emphysema and asthma. Sooty suggests that cleansing flame will help. Elena buys his story. She seems to forget that he is completely insane and probably an orc. Elena promptly starts screaming and writhing in pain. This attracts the attention of the locals. This would not be so bad except the locals are 20 foot long crocodiles. Gnasher calls them Salties.

We are then holed by the big crocodile and taking on water when luckily a piece of land appears. Unfortunately it is only 10 feet across but at least it isn't sinking. As Gnasher starts repairs we manage to drive off the crocodile. At least it seem like it was us right up to the point at which an ice wall appeared around half the island followed by an ice roof. We now realize what it takes to drive off a 20 foot crocodile... a 120 foot long Drakalisc. Ohhh ahhh ummm.

That would Snaggletooth the infamously bad tempered turn you to ice if see looks at you giant thing. We do what any right thinking adventuring party would do. We offer her sugar and honey. She wants more than we have so Tanis and Brother Bo fly to Gatorville to get two more barrels of honey(500sp).

Gnasher seems to hiding behind Gilath who seems to be having a mild stroke. Snaggletooth is willing to show us to an uppity female drakalisc who is giving her trouble. She won't help defeat it but will turn us back from ice if we get the look from it. Gnasher refuses the offer of a ride on Snaggletooth and says he will wait here and fix the boat.
On the way to our prey Brother Bo gives us counters against the ice except for him and Tanis who already have better ones on. He tells about the duration of the counters "it lasts longer than you will live". We also come up with a cunning plan, we use Elena as bait.

I see the underwater entrance through the murk on the way in so we don't get ambushed from there. We are however a bit surprised by something it does that Snaggletooth didn't. This is best summed up by Brother Bo "IT FLIES ?". This was quickly followed by the drakalisc exploding. We find its heart and brain. Sooty consumes confirming his insanity followed by Elena. She is now a creature of Cold and Sooty looks stranger than usual.

Inside the nest we find a short bow and a small quiver of arrows, a small shield and some dragon scales. Sooty then scrapes at the floor with his foot to discover that there is ice magic protecting something down there. I had to go outside to attract Snaggletooth's attention, she then lifted the roof of the nest and defrosted Sooty before he melted. If he had melted he would have died. We find 4 blue eggs which we give to Snaggletooth along with the honey I had left (this provides room in my pot for the heart and brain ). She could make it cold.

Snaggletooth takes us back to the island where we found the remains of the boat and Gnasher. She then took us back to Gatorville and gave us some items including a blue cloak. Karnac tells us that he has a great gift. The people of Gatorville throw us a big party and much is drunk.

==8th Frost==
We get off to the glade and meet the goblin shaman. We show him that we have all the materials for the ritual. He gives us a piece of wood with tassels. It is our pass into the goblin homeland.
While we were away someone has reinforced the protection on the pyramids. He stone separation ritual will open up a portal and summon something. The portal is to Deeping Coom, the entrance from this world to the next. We think that there will be undead and maybe elementals.

All this causes Bo to say "Oh my God". Then she turns up. Jive is beautiful and after a brief chat she takes Bo away for their life making ritual.

Bo communes with the forest and finds that it needs a sacrifice he then debates religion with the goblin shaman. Then evil is detected. It is close and coming our way, so is a storm. After some changes of directions we work out that it is following Sooty. Then it starts to rain and sooty becomes unhappy. I think he has a cold.

As we track the evil we see the Mist Wolves come out of the rain. They are being controlled and have been summoned by the elf like lady Mist Wraith. Aaron tried to charge the Wraith but went straight through. The mist wolves ignored a fake fiery wall but one of them got trapped in a circle of illusionary stone. This caused the mist wraith to curse her stupid minions, made a change from her cursing Sooty for killing her sister.

With the downpour and the lightning things are decidedly dicey. When the wolves bite people start to turn misty. First Sooty, then Tanis but she turns back. I got bit and turned misty for a while. The Mist Wraith tried to suck Sooty in but Bo managed to stop it with namer walls. Aaron nearly suffocated in bound air but we had a spare wolf to bit him with. The Tanis uses her ice blade to finish off the last one.

The wolves are sacrificed to the forest by Karnac. This makes the stones glows. Then after getting us demisted we have high tea. There are not enough meals around here. Could be worse, I could have eaten the Dracalisc brain and drunk his blood. I think that it has given Sooty "Mad Dragon Disease". He is becoming increasingly insane and probably orcish.
Turns out that there were three sisters. Salis the Necro, Vila the Mist Wraith, and a third unknown. We come up with a plan. We will summon Vila rather than going in after her in the graveyard. The goblin shaman can summon her but it will be costly for him. The goblin guards move to the top of the hole.

Just before midnight snack we gather in a circle and prepare to deal to her when she arrives. When she does she drains those that hit and lasts longer than we like. I made my way around the fight to prepare a potion for the fighters when our employer turns up being carried rather effortlessly by Katrina. Before we can stop her he is sacrificed on the altar. Now that can't be good.

Aaron and Sooty wrestle with her on the altar with probably saved us from her staff but she was much stronger than them combined. Brother Bo, Tanis and Elena wrestled with her for the power of the Master of the Forest. I had to polish off the second sister (Sooty killed the first in the large explosion a couple of days ago) and I got a death curse. She was a greater undead so she does not count as a living soul. She had some nice chain and a magical rapier. About this time the others remember that perhaps the Halfling Illusionist might have some willpower so I try to prevent her from taking all the power. The she leaves, walking backwards right over the top of me. I seem to have an awfully large amount of energy in at the moment. That and I seem to know some Herbal Lore.

The goblin Shaman is so tired that he is going to sleep for a while, weeks maybe. The goblins send a runner to their queen for a new shaman. Now the bodyguard Razorback is our new interface with the goblins.

Tomorrow we break the pyramids, defeat the hoards coming through the portal, and deal with a very angry and powerful super earthmage elf. All before we get a proper lunch. I go and dream with the forest and as I lie against the tree it swallows me up.

==9th Frost==
During the night Katrina tries to take my tree away with me still in it. Bo manages to stop it then I make it walk back to where it was.

We discover that Katrina will be more powerful at noon. The forest is more active now and we are confused as to whether she is undead or not. Elena wants to power up the forest by sacrificing blood, our blood. When we question one pint she suggests two pints. I smack her up the side of the head with a branch and she seems to get a little less blood thirsty. Note: when you are in a tree hitting people with branches hurts them quite a lot.

The new goblin shaman turned up. His name is flex and he is new is more ways than one. I think he graduated goblin shaman school yesterday maybe this morning. He says that we could get Tarrac out of the stone by putting our power into Tarrac. Elena has a little problem. She cannot speak and will not be able to speak for some time. As our greaters are starting to wear off we should do something. Bo offers her a life with Jive, our goblin friends offer her a quick death. Strangely she chooses death over life. Bo even offers access to the wine and cheese evening on Tuesdays.

We see if putting the power that Tanis grabbed into Tarrac to wake him up but it is not enough. Next we try the power Sooty took. Still not enough but at least it is out of the mad orcelf. In the end it takes some of the power I safeguarded to wake him up.

Tarrac is not happy that they sent the junior shaman out to deal with such serious issues. He goes off and has an in depth argument with his bodyguard Razorback. Razorback seems remarkably unconcerned and smiles a lot now.

It is now time to break the evil pyramids and open the portal to the other world. We do this early. Bo, Tanis and Elena break one pyramid each. This opens a portal on one side of the glade. We see a spirit elf, a blue skinned goblin and six liquorish goblins called Ebony Death. Nothing called death could possibly be good. Aaron rushes in to help out Elena, Tanis fires in ice balls, and I take a potion of damage reflection before charging in as well.

The Blue goblin leaps on Sooty's efreeti with great glee and eats it. The Ebony Death get their claws into Elena then me. Elena goes down then the one on me dies from the reflection. Then I did something silly. Now if you ever get a large undead goblin's claws stuck in your back do not try to get them out yourself. I was turned into a Halfling blood fountain before Sooty healed me.

After running out of cold ammo Tanis goes to help Razorback who is defending Tarrac on the altar from the blue goblin. When she went down Aaron stepped in. It was in some sort of battle frenzy. Razorback was moving very fast and Tarrac did not want to get involved.

After Bo banished the Blue Goblin(that was a Barghest) Razorback got hit with a blast from the circle. Turns out that he was the goblin God of Death. He would have taken our souls if we had died. I got that close. One of them has left behind a scary magical scimitar. It has the bones of 50 different species in it and does extra damage against elves and creatures of light. Sooty says it is not a good as a tulwar.

The spirit elf is still there. Sooty negotiates with her. She will accept a transfer of the power remaining in me to the Tarrac if we leave for Seagate and don't come back. Tarrac makes her go away so we can talk in private. He is not keen on staying around with her still after the power in the forest.

We discuss going in after her but Sooty has suddenly come over all wussy.He does not want to put barrels of oil down he hole in the ground.Must be the Mad Dragon Disease again or it could that she is cute. Well cute for a megalomaniacal homicidal elf. Some of the others and me are feeling a bit sore still so I think hard and they are all healed. Then we get protected by high ranked amour of earth and Strength of Stone for Elena. I should have done Trollskins or DTJs during the battle. I don't know what they are but they sound good. Tarrac wants to talk to me and sucks out some of the power stored in me.

The Ebony Death starts to disappear so the others tell me to talk to one of the Ancient Dark Oaks to find out where they are going. The semi-sentient tree tells me that it is absorbing them. I feed it the rest of the Drakalisc brain that Sooty ate part of. Turns out that when you feed a dragon's brain to an extremely long lived semi-sentient tree it has the effect of turning the tree into an Extremely Long Lived Sentient. It certainly made it smarter; it now knows an awful lot about cream buns, gourmet cheese and other gastronomic phenomenon.

It asks me to get Tarrac over near us. The tree sucks all the power out of the goblin shaman and then all the life. When we ask if we can have the shaman back the tree resurrects him. Then it asks for the power that I have been holding. I give the power to the tree and it does not drain my life away. I think I will miss the power it made me all warm and fuzzy inside. We now need to ask permission to enter the glade.

The battles have made Katrina weaker. She only has Banshee wolves -extra bound. They have a weakness to fire and cold iron. So does Katrina apparently. Our Tree will stop her summoning elementals. We really need to find a name for our tree. Sooty starts arguing with the tree, he does not want to sacrifice the evil elf to it or give the power of the master of the forest to our newly sentient tree. I think he may be suffering from his mad dragon disease again. The Tree would make a good master of the forest and if not it could kill us all where we stand anyway. We need to get Katrina's knowledge into the tree so we can get home to the guild.

Before we go we get the tree to power up our troop of beserker goblins. Brother Bo is to detect wards and I am to detect traps. The goblin thief we had earlier would be handy but we do not have time to call him back.

We plan for the assault on Katrina's lair. This includes Brother Bo's excellent advice,

"Don't let the fire mage anywhere near the loot. He will blow it up." 

The description of Aaron

"he's like a grenardo".

At the other end of the vale in another sink hole there is a tunnel. The entrance to this tunnel is a forbidding against plants. The inside of the tunnel is covered in formally living oak for 90ft. This oak is covered in Gargoyle friezes . As we go down the tunnel these turn out to be very dangerous. One turns a gobbo to water, another turns Elena's armor to flowers. Brother Bo's cloak is turned into some lovely bead work and mine is turned into some extraordinary feather creation. Sooty's clothes disappear.

At the end of the tunnel is an octagonal room with a door on the other side, two passages and several mirrors. Inside the room are two large wolves and a fire. The room has entrapment magics and the mirrors steal souls. Tanis shoots a mirror and is sucked into the fire in the middle. The wolves turn out to be illusionary but the fire is real. Tanis shoot more mirrors (I think they have offended her). She gets to run before the four flesh golems advance from behind the mirrors. The imps in the tunnel were still attacking and Elana's silvered tulwar is turned into a stick of celery. It is surprisingly ineffective against the imps and shatters. The golems line up nicely and Sooty deals to them. I discover that the magic in the room is down to three rune sticks under the fire.

The door was an illusion and once counterspelled revealed a room with a chase lounge, and the elf upon that was surrounded by the roots of a stone tree. There were also a number of shrunken heads dangling from ropes. As one of the heads opened fire at me some were dealt to with fire and the others were destroyed by berserker goblins. We are starting to run out of berserker goblins.

Tanis uses a potion to gain Katrina's binding with the forest. She then goes completely mad. She runs away up the tunnel. Elena tried to tackle her but got rooted to the ground. The imps all died. Tanis burst through the forbidding and promptly died. Lucky for her the tree spirit resurrected her and gave her some power. Katrina had disappeared and ghastly laughter was heard.

Our last remaining goblin rushed down the passage on the left to deal to the Banshee wolves. I followed to help out but I could not hurt them. When Aaron turned up I withdrew and went to help with the ettin problem after picking up the scimitar from the fallen gobblin.

The ettin had come from the passage to the right. He had a flaming 2 handed axe and a black anklet. He was huge weighting in at more than a ton and a half. Brother Bo had tried to forbid it but instead rolled around on the floor for a while. On his way up the tunnel he stood on the invisible rooted Elena. This did a little damage but nothing major. She then decided to attack him. This made her visible and a target. After some pounding and with Elena almost dead Sooty leapt into close with it. That was really brave and really stupid. Sooty died while Aaron and I pounded on the Ettin's back. When the Ettin finally went down it ensured that Sooty was dead by falling on him.

After cutting out the Ettin's heart and sacrificing it to the forest my magic knowledge seemed to change. Most disconcerting it was. Tanis used her new power to resurrect the insanely brave Sooty.

We found some gems amongst the bones in the ettin cave. Down the other passage we found three chambers. One had various stores in it. One had the remains of the wolves' handlers and the third had a pond. Hidden in the pond was a nasty little creature who tried to attack us.

With some gills from Tanis implanted in my neck I gave chase with a flaming dagger. Round the U-Bend and up the stairs I went. I nicked the little beasty when we both notices the Greater Undead rising from the one of the Sarcophagi dressed in Eleven Jousting Plate. I ran and swam as fast I could but she was right behind me as I left the water.

After a brief fight with agony thrown in for good measure she was defeated. It was Katrina again. After some cleaver thinking to prevent draining Sooty took the heart out and sacrificed/feed it to the forest. The forest started to feel really bad at this point. I think that this is what is called an Oops moment. We did however get a portal making device from the now super powerful malevolent tree.

In the store room we found some interesting things. Two spheres had some silvery liquid to make leather as strong as steel and two lumps that were the ingredients for grenardos against the undead. There were also two spirit Jars containing the Strength and Virtue of the forest. Two rings were found.

After this we went to loot the sarcophagi. After going round the bend and up the stairs Sooty and I found a figure on a stone chair. The figure said "you disposed of my acolyte". Not being the brave/insane sort I ran as soon as he started to speak. He beat me back to the rest of the party. He tried to seduce us with power and explained that it was going to be difficult to defeat the tree now. Sooty told him

"It was done with the best of intentions".

He would not tell us his name only that he was the Master of Trickery.
As we flew out we saw the Dark Tree Ents spreading out into the forest. The scale was vast 120,000 square miles of forest now uninhabitable. The people in the trading village were forced into the river. The Great apes and the Goblins forced out. Apparently the healing herbs in the glade are gone replaced by the other sort of herbs.
We had been told that it was to the east of Kinlu by Katrina earlier it came as little surprise and much relief that we were not in fact on Alusia at all. Still I think that there is more work for the guild on this plain. With the knowledge of which plain we were on in our possession Brother Bo Banished us back to the guild before we could do anymore damage.

Important Lessons

1.When you have created a Malevonant Super Being it might not be such a good idea to keep sacrificing things to it.
2.When a two ton monster is stomping on you on its way through do not become visible.
3.Always check what plane you on when you go through a portal. Do not trust your employer.
4.Elves are easy but they are also probably insane
5.Don't ask how long conterspells will last as the "longer than you will live" answer may disturb.

Mil Sci Stuffs

Watch Order

3 even length watches.

1. Elena, Tanis.
2. Sooty, Pierre.
3. Aaron, Brother Bodacious.

Jungle Marching Order

1. Native Guide.
2. Aaron.
3. Elena.
4. Pierre
5. Tanis.
6. Brother Bodacious.
7. Sooty.

Cunning Tactics.

1. Charge: Everyone leap on the enemy, we are the Seagate Guild of Adventurers, Dragons fear us when we charge, even if they mistake us for more experienced members, don't give them time to think about it and notice we aren't Sabrina or Gok.
2. Charge the other way: Used in situations where we gave them time to think about it and notice who we actually are.
3. Diversion Tactics: Issue no instructions, let the enemy try to decipher our plan and tremble in fear at how they can percieve no tactics.
4. Overwhelm them with Firepower: Kill them any way possible, including with your bare hands.
5. Prepare the battlefield for days: If the enemy gives you enough time, you can make them kill themselves before they ever get to you on just the terrain, make them give you that time from fear of the Seagate Adventurers Guild name.

And above all. If your party member is fighting, stand beside them and fight as well. It always works.