Session 10 - The One Where They Encountered Purple Vomit
In-game timeline: DR1489 Elesias 10 - Eleasias 11
Our "Heroes" are fresh from their level 3 training and keen to get on and find the healing pear. They pay a visit to Kerowyn at the store to ask about Belak the druid, but find out very little. TC does buy a couple of hand axes to throw at anyone he dislikes, and they sell their jewellery and gems in order to buy a couple of healing potions from Corkie at the shrine. They then all traipse along, crocodile fashion, to the mayor in order to hand him a roughly scrawled map of their intended destination, and Mayor Leng agrees to hand this to Felosial when she returns with her Watch members, even if the Watch had managed to find Bella in the meantime.
The group then set out towards Belak's grove, following their map. It takes them just over a day to get there, but the trip is uneventful, and they spend the day practising their newly acquired skills on the various woodland creatures and flora that they encounter on their journey.
On the morning of the second day, in the vicinity of where they suspect the Grove to be, Carro and Kandi spot a cave entrance in the hillside. It is overgrown and covered in vines, so difficult to spot, and it also doesn't look like a "Grove", but it's the most promising thing they've found so far. Kandi, however, is certain that he sees one of the vines move in a "suspicious" manner, and wonders if it is a creature similar to the one they met on the steps leading to the Fallen Fortress.
Mahtis shows off her new skill and turns into a spider. She then puts this skill to good use and spends the next 45 minutes scouting the cave entrance and where it leads. She confirms that there is indeed a vine monster guarding the cave, and some blue fluorescent fungi just inside the entrance, which is later confirmed by Carro to be a specific type of 'shrieking' fungus that could set off an alarm if disturbed. Mahtis-spider however is able to wander amongst the mushrooms with ease, and travels into the hillside to find a large cavern a few hundred yards further in.
The lit fire in the cavern shows that this cave is occupied, and some wandering around later finds its occupant - a large bugbear who is sitting cleaning some weaponry. Mahtis also spots a giant disease-ridden rat skulking in one of the corners, but she decides not to investigate any further, as her wild shape ability was starting to wind down, and she had already been spotted, as a spider, by the bugbear, who just casually threw a rock at her, luckily missing. She returned back to the others to report on what she had found.
The party decide to keep their distance for now, and spend some time skirting around looking for an alternative entrance, but find nothing. It appears to them that this is the only way in.
And so they launch their attack on the vine. A combination of flame attacks, range attacks and hack-and-slash disposes of the vine creature very quickly and quietly, and the group congratulate themselves on a job well done. And so on to the blue, fluorescent mushrooms.
These seem to carpet the floor of the cave entrance, but stop a little way in. Mahtis decides to turn back into a spider, in order to avoid these fungi, but also to potentially get a better jump on the fight that was bound to come in the next cavern. Carro and Tommy manage to leap over the mushrooms without any problems, but Kandi slips and falls into the patch, causing a number of the mushrooms to release a myriad of spored into the air, which then fell back to the ground emitting loud shrieks as they did so. The noise did not last long, but was loud enough that the group knew that their approach was no longer as silent as they would have liked.
Mahtis, meanwhile, had crept ahead, and saw the bugbear, when he heard the noise from the entrance, rise from his seat and move quickly to hide at the side of his cavern's entrance, readying his great morningstar weapon to hit whoever came through first. Unfortunately, being a spider, Mahtis could not warn the others of this, and did not want to reveal her true nature too early and attack.
And so it was that Tom entered the cavern, only dimly lit by the light of the fire, and was surprised to see a morningstar coming in his direction as he made his way in. Luckily, however, the weapon missed and Mahtis was at that point able to change back into her true form and attack the surprised bugbear, hitting him. The battle now began in earnest.
Another miss from the butterfingers bugbear allowed Kandi to mock him in a rather vicious manner, not only doing some slight damage, but also ensuring he was put off on his next attack, which again was yet another miss. Meanwhile Carro piled into the bugbear with Thomas. Mahtis was distracted by the giant rat who entered the fray and managed to score a deep bite that pierced her armour, not only causing damage, but also infecting Mahtis with a horrible wasting disease. Mahtis had to focus her attention on this rat, managing to kill it with one swipe, but it was soon replaced by first one, then another, similarly diseased rat. Meanwhile Kandi, flushed with success of his vicious mocking, tried again to distract the bugbear, but this time the creature ignored his insults. Carro and TC, however, had more luck with their attacks, and with some mighty blows managed to bring down the bugbear. Mahtis was getting more nibbles from the rats, but was managing to ensure they didn't last long, and, with the bugbear no longer a threat, Carro took out the last rat. TC proceeded to use his laying on of hands to cure the disease that had infected Mahtis, ensuring that she was able to heal again.
The fight had not lasted long, and so the group were hopeful that they had not alerted any more creatures who may be residing in the cave system to their presence. Mahtis searched around the weapons rack, finding a nice greatsword that TC was tempted to use, but he decided against, given that he would have to give up using his shield. He did sling the greatsword over his back however - it might fetch a few gp back in town. TC did grab a couple of javelins, as they could prove more useful than his throwing axes. TC is now a walking one-man-armoury. Carro, meanwhile, rummaged around the rank, smelly bed area and managed to find a box of coins for his efforts. He is not sure if it was worth the feeling of dirtiness he felt when he withdrew his arm from the scummy bedclothes, though.
The next cavern was directly south of this one. TC, emboldened by his success in evading all the attacks from the bugbear's weapon in the last fight, pressed ahead, despite his way being only slightly lit by the fire behind, and some fluorescent fungi ahead in the next chamber. His confidence was slightly exaggerated, however, and he was spotted by two more bugbears who seemed to be tending fungi beds in the next cavern, and they rushed him, wielding shovels. One of these creatures seemed to move slower that the other, and the slow one also seemed to have something wrong with him - the veins in the exposed areas of skin seemed to be very prominent, and seemed to glow slightly purple.
With the faster bugbear having dashed over to Tom, it allowed the others to launch their attacks upon it. Carro, with his ranged weapon ready, went for the purple-coloured bugbear, thinking that although that one was further away, it may pose a greater threat. He hit, but the creature kept coming. Mahtis, meanwhile, hit the other bugbear with a frostbite attack, not only causing some damage, but also ensuring it was distracted on its next attack. This proved useful, as TC continued to batter this bugbear, but was then caught in a stream of projectile vomit from the purple-veined-one (as we will never refer to these things again). This vomit caused considerable necrotic damage to Tommy.
A series of abysmal attack attempts from both sides then followed, with pretty much everyone missing except for a useful shatter spell from Kandi, who, after everyone else fluffed their attacks, then followed up with another ranged attack on the same bugbear attacking TC and managed to take the bugbear down, leaving only the 'corrupted' bugbear standing. A hit from Carro whittled away some more of its health, and the bugbear showed no further signs of vomiting on anyone again, instead reverting to using its shovel to attack, and missing. Kandi continued to show everyone else on the battlefield how it should be done, hitting the bugbear with a stream of insults, again managing to distract it on its next attack. Mahtis took note, and managed to score two hits on her next attack, but the bugbear, despite being distracted by the mocking, scored a hit with its shovel on Thomas. It was to be his last attack, however, as Kandi's mocking was incessant, and more insults battered the bugbear, followed by a precisely aimed arrow from Carro, which pierced one of its more prominent veins, ending its life in a pool of purple goo.
And there we leave our "Heroes", after a couple of battles with bugbears, where they met a 'corrupted' creature for the first time, demonstrated their new-found powers to each other, and turned TC into a weapon vending machine. "STORM THE ROOM!"