Session 11 - The One Where Carro Became A Lumberjack
20th Nov 2020 19:15 - 22:45
In-game timeline: DR1489 Elesias 11 - Eleasias 11
We rejoin our "Heroes" having defeated three bugbears in relatively quick succession, and with little trouble. They enter a mushroom farm and spread out, checking out the various fungi beds. Each group of fungi seems to be growing in its own bed. Sheltered by a bush. Suspicious, Mahtis checks out one of these bushes, and seems convinced that they are very similar to the vicious bushes that they have meet on more than one occasion. Unaware of Mahtis' findings, Carro heads for the mushrooms which were yellow with purple spots - as described by Corkie. Bending over them he was a little surprised when the bush attacked! Regaining his usual poise he easily dispatched his woody foe. TC was less accurate with his attack, however, and got a branch in his face for his trouble, but Mahtis took out two more of the bushes with two swipes of her blades. With Carro, somewhat embarrassed by his scratches, taking out the last of the four animated bushes, Kandi was left with nothing to do. So he cleaned his flute. No, that's not a euphemism.
Sure that there are no further foes in this room, the party discuss how best to bring some of the mushrooms back to Corkie, as she had requested. Carro decided to gather some of the fungi themselves, and then to gather some of the soil they were in, hopefully containing the spores and mycelium of the mushrooms, putting it in the box she found in the bugbear's room. Inspired.
The party decide to have a short rest, to regain some of their abilities and health before moving on. As they do this, Kandi has a listen at the two doors that exit this room, determining that one of the doors leads to a corridor heading south, and the other, well, he has no idea what’s behind the eastern door.
And so the party decide to head east, carefully. What they find on the other side of the eastern door is a group of small rooms, many containing goblins, including a couple of 'zombified' goblins with purple liquid running through their veins. The goblins do not look to be particularly combative, wielding only needles and thread or similar implements, and they seemed to be quite scared of the party - obviously they hadn't heard too much about these particular adventurers.
Our "heroes" take advantage of this, and manage to persuade the goblins that they will do them no harm if they just leave peacefully, and that they had ridded the Fortress of the hobgoblins and Grenl is back in charge. The goblins are happy to leave, taking the 'zombie' goblins with them. They do mention that there are some other goblins in the grove, and that those goblins are more devoted to Belak, so should be treated with caution. They also mention that Belak is in the main grove area, and indicated that north-east is the direction to go in order to get there.
One of these rooms contained a diseased giant rat that seemed to be in the process of being injected with the purple liquid. The group quickly put the rat out of its obvious misery, and left the purple liquid well alone, instead pressing on to the north east.
Heading out of this complex, the group arrive in a corridor. Whilst Carro was listening at a half-open door, it suddenly opened, and the party was faced by another bugbear, wielding a scythe. This particular bugbear looked threatening, but it turned out she couldn't hit a thing. Her aim was further offset by a successful mocking from our sarcastic bard, which enabled Carro, who was blocking the door preventing others from entering the fight, to get out of the way without being hit. Once the way was opened, everybody laid into the poor bugbear, and she didn't last long, with Carro getting the final killing blow.
With a number of possible exits, and the group unsure where to go next, Mahtis offered to use her wild shape to go a-scouting once again. As a spider, Mahtis checked out two garden areas - vegetable patches, mainly, one of which was being tended by four goblins, the other being currently empty. The empty garden also lead into a chamber which seemed to have some sort of religious significance, with a large, impressive wooden carving of a tree, standing before an empty cage which seemed to have been kitted out for somebody, or something, to be held in there - complete with bedroll, chair and table. A further door led to a library, but Mahtis was running short on time and she returned to the group to report her findings.
Avoiding the goblins, the party headed to the empty garden and on to the 'shrine', and quickly into the library. They spend a short amount of time looking around at the books, finding a hand-written tome on low-light vegetable cultivation that may be worth a few gp to the right buyer, and then headed onwards, keen to get their hands on a red pear.
A long corridor followed, lined with pine trees. It turned out, however, that a couple of these 'pine trees' had gone rogue, and started firing sharp and painful needles towards the group. After a couple of easy battles with vicious bugbears, and a bloodless negotiation with a group of goblins, the party were a little unprepared for this fight. TC, Carro and Kandi all took damage from needle blasts, and for once a number of the party's attacks did not land. This wasn't helped when the party decided to attack and run, taking the only torch with them and leaving Tommy standing in the dark, unable to see anything. Carro decided to attack a poor, innocent tree, that was just a tree, and Kandi and Mahtis both resorted to spellcasting to damage the creatures, eventually managing to take both of the tree-imposters down.
With a long corridor ahead of them, around a corner, which was also lined with more trees, and some damage taken by the group, the party decided to spend another short rest in this part of the corridor, regaining some health in the process.
And so we leave our "Heroes" hiding in a corridor having just struggled with a couple of Christmas Trees, after their second short rest of the day, with goblins ahead, and possibly Belak, but hopefully a ripe, red pear ("pair of what?")