The Troupe have destroyed the Cloakwood Mine once and for all. Upon leaving the mine they found Perwell and agreed to escort him to his mother. But they were quickly assaulted by Shadow Druids, who slayed the young boy during the fight. Now Aegon and the Troupe must confront their failure to protect an innocent life.
1 Eleint 1368
Why? Those damned Shadow Druids. He was just a kid!
They are always looking to kill anyone who crosses them, and blame you when they die in the fights they start. Blinded by rage and revenge they attack on sight with no chance for talk.
And now a young boy is dead. A boy I was charged with protecting.
I sit for a while, staring at the body. A promise broken. A life lost. Branwen utters prayers to Tempus. The boy died in battle, perhaps he will take care of his soul.
I look over at Kivan. We both seek vengeance. Will revenge blind us as it did the druids? Is this the path we are heading down?
Vengeance was never achieved. Instead a boy is dead. And now I have to return his corpse to his mother.
I get onto my feet and open the Bag of Holding. The others look on as I carefully place the body… the boy… Perwell… into the Bag.
Nothing left for it now. Let’s see what these accursed druids were holding. Most of them wore studded leather armour, and carried enchanted slings with enchanted bullets and Fire Bullets. Branwen has been using an unenchanted sling until now, so she replaces it with one of the enchanted slings instead.
Their leader is more heavily equipped, using Stormcloud for protection, armour taken from a powerful warlock. Despite its origin, this armour seems to be suited only for a druid. Perhaps Jaheira might like to try this armour on for size.
His staff is a mystery, though it is likely something of druid design.
He also carried some Potions: one of Mirrored Eyes, one for Regeneration, and one full of Rage. Dynaheir stashes these in her Potion Belt.
There is little else for us to do but leave this damned place. I’d have thought the Shadow Druids would appreciate us shutting the mine down. Now I worry we’ll have to fight our way through their territory.
We are reminded of the perils of the Cloakwood as we travel, when two wyverns swoop down on us as we cross a clearing.
We don’t want to fight them after everything we’ve been through, so we retreat to the trees. They attempt to grab us with their teeth and thrust their barbed tails at us, but we manage to get into a part of the forest to thick for them to follow.
This journey back is going to be difficult. We may not all make it.
After a couple of hours we find the trail of blood leading to the wyvern’s cave. They are still nesting in there, still attacking travellers and animals.
They’ve proven we aren’t strong enough to fight them, but perhaps with the help of one of Davaeorn’s scrolls…
I tell the others we’re going to end the wyverns once and for all. We go inside and I pull out the Scroll of Summon Astral Weasel. Lady Tymora must be smiling upon us, for two of these powerful creatures appear. They immediately rush deeper into the cave.
We follow them and find them fighting a wyvern. They are small but they are running circles around the beast, biting and clawing into it’s limbs and neck.
We support their efforts with our missile weapons, and one of the weasels drops down to Haste us with its innate magic.
The other weasel manages to bite into the wyverns neck and tears out a chunk. Blood pours out of the wound as the wyvern collapses.
I send them deeper into the cave, into the fire drake’s den. We can already hear the fighting as we run after them. I can feel the heat and see the glow of fire, almost white hot. When we get to them, one of the astral weasels is already severely burned and almost dead.
The fire drake slashes at the wounded weasel and cuts it open. I’m surprised to see that even astral beings have entrails. We may yet have to fight the beast ourselves, so I pull out a Protection from Fire Scroll and start reading its words.
Now I am protected I join the others in attacking it with bullets. Arrows and bolts, and even a bullet, embed themselves in the drake’s long neck. It’s struggling to breathe, but it manages to bite the second weasel and breathes fire upon while it is in its jaw. The little rodent is somehow still alive, but barely.
Dynaheir yells and it echoes through the cave. She hurls a bullet from her sling and hits the drake square in the eye. The beast’s mouth opens and the astral weasel drops to the ground. It turns to face the fire drake, but it also falls down and the life disappears from its eyes.
We lower our weapons. The caves are clear. While we may not have killed all the wyverns in the area, this should at least curb their influence on the area. I don’t know how the Shadow Druids would feel about us interfering in the natural order of things, but I don’t care. You don’t get to kill a child and keep the moral high ground.
Aura says she has heard that fire drake scales can be used as a good material for crafting armour, so we harvest some from the dead creature. Perhaps Taerom or another smith might be able to make something out of them.
We also take the wyvern’s head as a trophy. These things can pay a good bounty if you sell them to the right person.
We leave the caves empty except for the dead wyverns and the rotting carcasses of their past meals.
After several hours we reach Kieran’s bridge once more. He still stands at one end of it with his trained wyverns. He asks us again if we want to check out his wares.
Kieran: Greetings, Aegon. I have some supplies for sale if you would like to take a look. Plus I’ll buy some things if I find it of interest.
We take a look through his supplies, but we have little interest in shopping right now. We just want to get back to civilisation.
There are bears on the other side of the bridge. We try to steer clear of them, but unfortunately the bears have other ideas. One stands on its hind legs and roars, then starts bounding toward us.
I rush it with Bashrik’s Hammer while the others pelt it with missiles. Another three bears come launching out of the forest and I find myself overrun with them.
Kivan and Kieria kill one bear each, but I find myself reaching for Potions of Healing as the bears dig their claws into my back.
Branwen kills a third bear, and I find myself working through my Potions just to stay alive.
I use one of my innate abilities to heal myself as the last bear keeps pressing the attack.
After I am back to strength again, I swing my Hammer at the bear and it crushes its jaw. The trauma is too much for the animal and it joins its friends in the afterlife.
Why are the bears acting so strange here? Not only are they overly aggressive, now they attack in groups. Bears are not usually pack animals, they usually hunt on their own.
I decide not to think about it. I just want to get out of this damn forest.
2 Eleint 1368
The rest of the day’s travel is uneventful. Night falls and we continue on in the dark as much as we can muster. The sun rises once more and we find ourselves approaching Shadow Druid territory. From the distance we can hear a man trying to peddle trinkets.
The Peddler: Rags ‘n’ bones, weapons ‘n’ jul’ry!
The Peddler buys ‘n’ sells ’em all.
We follow the voice to investigate, but before we can we hear the growl of a dread wolf that has its sights upon us.
Branwen and I draw our hammers and slay the undead creature quickly.
Branwen says she has learned a lot from fighting in the Cloakwood with us, and feels closer to Tempus as a result.
Gameplay Note
Her Polymorph and Spells Saving Throws are improved by 1. She gets one additional Level 2 Spell and one Level 3 Spell. She gains 8 Hit Points and her Lore is increased by 2.
She says that her god has granted her new powers. Among them is the ability to Animate Dead. Given our experience with necromancers thus far, I’m not sure how I feel about this.
She also gains the ability to summon a Gust of Wind to knock opponents off balance or clear away any dangerous gases.
She also maintains the ability to heal others, though she can do it better than she used to.
We look around for the peddler, but he is nowhere to be found. The undead wolf must have scared him away. Ah well, we weren’t in the mood for shopping anyway.
We decide to go over to the Shadow Druid’s territory, though we keep our hands on our weapons. We find the place deserted. No one in the magic circle, and the tree house is completely empty.
Gameplay Note
Amarande was actually still here, but he just says what he’s said before then disappears. Since it doesn’t make sense narratively, I’ve decided to consider it a bug and cut it from the main journal.
Since there is no one here we decide to look around and see if they have anything useful. In a cupboard we find an enchanted quarterstaff. It’s not useful, but we hold onto it anyway.
We also find another Potion of Toughness which should help us last longer in a fight.
In a chest we find some bullets. One has a basic enchantment but is still useful to us as sling-bearers.
The other ten are Ice Bullets, capable of inflicting freezing damage to anything they strike.
At the foot of the bed we find Nature’s Divine, an armour worn by a sect of druids and rangers known as The Nature Warriors.
In this chest there is also a powerful sword, one that holds the spiritual essence of the dwarven weapon master, Khazid El Dum. While Kivan prefers his Dragon Spear, he says he may find a use for it and straps a scabbard to himself to hold it.
We leave the Shadow Druid’s home behind. I had expected more… well I don’t know what I expected. Rejoicing at the destruction of the mines, or more petty hatred because we aren’t part of the natural order of things. Where ever they are now, I don’t care. We have to press on. They are behind us now.
And ahead of us are spiders.
