Forest of Andor/Back to Oakenspire
Vege-mitespygmys
More time had passed than they thought and, as they left the 'temple', Grel stayed behind to re-active the defences. Immediately upon clearing the edge of the shaft, several of the party could smell a mouldy, rotten odour to the West.
It didn't take long to track the stench to a pile of bodies that presumably belonged to the rest of Thomas Drinkwaters adventuring party. While the cause of death was clearly the mauling Tommy Dee had described, each of the bodies had a small hole in its chest that looked to have been caused by something bursting out of the chest!
Some discussion reveals the suspicion that the corpses had suffered russet mould/vegepygmy infestations, a condition thought to only exist in legends. Fletcher suspects that the general populations plant familiars provide some sort of immunity a theory backed by the conspicuous absence of the ones belonging to the temple assailants. A faint trail can be seen heading to the North West, however with night drawing in the party decide to camp at the base of the temple.
The night is peaceful until the camp is set upon by a group of vegepygmies, led by a larger, older looking specimen. Running low on spells, Fletcher is the first to fall. With his trusty mount sleeping Cordon is downed not soon after but not before taking one or two with him. With his arrows seemingly ineffectual, Grel is forced to retreat up the temple steps, however Jadrol eventually lays the attackers low with a few well-placed bombs.
Grel swiftly brought the fallen pair back to consciousness, however they were still badly hurt.
It had not been a good night!
Simon the Bastard
Knowing that their route to the temple was slightly meandering, the group was reasonably sure that the path to the West would eventually curve South the firebreak cutting 1/2 a day off their travels! Trudging onward they eventually encountered a traveller heading North.
The man introduces himself as a trader called Simon and tells a sad tale of being robbed by his two adolescent assistants and following them to recover his stolen goods and return them to their parents. He quickly recognised the dashing cloak being worn by Fletcher, and is told of the would-be adventurers fate.
With no reason to continue North, he joins the group as they work their way back towards home.
Night draws in and the party make camp, Fletcher and Cordon opting to keep watch. Dawn breaks and it appears the watchers were doing more talking than watching, since Simon was gone along with a substantial sum of gold!
Its only then, that Fletcher puts two and two together and recalls talk of a Simon the Devious, a rather notorious trader who was not above stealing to make a living.
With no other information, they head on Southwards and soon discover fresh footprints. Had Simon some method of short range teleportation??
They cross the river again, and are approaching the firebreak, when from out of the bushes burst a group of small reptilian creatures.
The attackers crowd the party together, however Cordon and Fletcher are able to break out only to be set upon by a larger version of the beasts.
Cordon draws the larger one off and makes short work of it with his lance, while the rest of the rest of the group kill 3 and drive off the remaining 2.
Catching their breath, they continue into the clearing only to find Simon's body, trampled and mauled. It seems the local wildlife saw right through his bullshit!
Canyon
Travelling on, the party begin to hear the rushing of water. Soon, the forest parts to reveal a 100m deep canyon with the river running through it. The ground slopes away in a gentle incline to the East but remains level to the West. Slender tree branches extend over the 40 ft or so of canyon, towards smaller vegetation on the firebreak side, so it's clear how some of the creatures fleeing southwards have made a crossing.
Rather than attempt a crossing here, they follow a trail to the East that should bring them back to their original crossing point.
As they approach, they spy someone being pursued by a flock of Compies. As the stranger reaches the partially broken crossing, the party jumps into action retraining many of the creatures and attacking any who break free. It seems however that the compies were also being chased, by 2 larger versions??
Strangely despite attacks from the adventurers, all of the Compies ignore them and flee across the river. What is going on??
An explanation is quickly obtained as a group of Vegepymies appear and attack!
Two are quickly dispatched, however a third, a spellcaster turns invisible and appears the flee.
Could it be that the Vegepymies are the reason for all of the animal migrations??
The stranger reveals herself to be Sandra, another one of the rangers dispatched from Oakenspire and that she is on her way back to report...
Back in Oakenspire
Sandra and the group reach Oakenspire without further incident, and once again Fletcher is worn out by the climb up the great Oak staircase. Sandra assures us that you quickly get used to it.
Breathing heavily, the party are once again welcomed by the innkeeper who brings out food and drink for everyone, and summons Gracebloom to discuss what had ben discovered to the North.
Gracebloom is rightly worried by some of the news, and is unsure how to handle the temple however agrees that perhaps helping the inhabitants may gain us access further knowledge.
We were allowed access to some of the books and relics held in Oakenspire, with one book in particular holding some interesting diagrams and symbols that were reminiscent of the interior of the temple. Fletcher believed that further study would be of use, and Gracebloom agreed to lend it to us.
While the book was physically in good repair, however many of the pages only had partial content - it seems that the book had been damaged and magically repaired, however the content of the pages was gone forever.
It would also appear that the required Investiture token had recently been taken to Callas home village of Preens Paddock for a ceremony, and the group decided to travel there after a good nights sleep. Gracebloom kindly gave us a message that would hopefully direct the elders to give us the token.
