Whilst this might have been the climatic battle of the dungeon, from a narrative point of view there was still a little more to find and figure out.
This was also the point where Dan revealed to everyone that he didn’t want to play Rake any more; The character choice to not have him be a native speaker was proving hard to RP as he couldn’t openly chat like the rest of the characters, and had as such devolved into a caricature of Manuel in Fawlty Towers. At the end of the session he turned to Michele (Fi) and said “You killed my new character!”
Chapter 8
Faced with the choices of retreating or pushing on, when all the evidence indicates that we are on the right track, we agreed to push onwards. Returning to the doors where we saw the Bug Bear, we hesitantly advanced, but found neither sight nor sound of it. Continuing north we found some doors blocked by vines, and backtracking we found another “gardening” room with the Bug Bear cowering at the back – getting a clearer look, this one could possibly have been described as female?
We tried to get Erki to talk to the Bug Bear in goblin, but she was too scared to reply. Losing patience I moved towards the cowering form and watched her flinch back. Glaring at her and growling about the fate that had befallen her mate, I impressed upon her the need to assist us in finding the Goliath (Arnfinn), her current predicament, and the tenuous link to her continued living.
She broke, and quickly led us to one of the doors blocked with vines. Zani was very accommodating with her magic and attempted to burn it off – it succeeded, in a way, though I do not like the way that the vines seemed to slither and move instead of shrivelling and turning to ash… Following the corridor behind the door, the vines get thicker, and the monster stops at another door, indicating us to go forwards, but she, herself, does not advance any more.
Rake cautiously takes the lead into this room – looks like an office? – followed by Zani who picks up a book that lay amongst the rotting mess, it explodes cold in her face and she hastily retreats, but as a snow elf, Rake takes little heed of this. It is a short moment before he calls us through, and I could have sworn that I heard the slight clink of coins and gems, but it stopped before I could be sure.
As we entered the office, Rake was already moving through into the next room, but before we knew it, he was rat-formed once more and running back to the sounds of crossbows “twanging”. Making a beeline for Zani, who panics and freezes in place, Fi confirms that the rat is indeed our Druid, before Zani grabs at the rat. In his panic, the Rake-Rat tries to bite Zani, who quickly produces a wicked looking dagger and stabs back in retaliation, but before it can go any further Bejard interjects and pulls them apart – one in each massive bear paw. If these two don’t kill each other in their squabbles, they will be the end of us, I am sure!
Once calmed, Rake conveys a large cavern with plenty of vines and brambles, and goblins with bows covering the way forward. Hearing this, Smoke pulls up her hood and slinks out of the door into the cavern. The silence was palpable and lengthy, until we heard a shout and twang of the crossbow before a gurgling death rattle. I looked around at the rest of the party, unknowing if we had just heard Smokes’ demise, but before I could open my mouth she emerged back, slightly wounded, but otherwise intact. I touched her with my light to ease her pain and we moved on.
The scene we found as we moved through the cavern told a story! There were 3 goblins, all either stabbed in the back or with their throats slit, the third had a goblin crossbow bolt in his chest that protruded through his back and a fourth goblin who was slashed from nose to groin with crossbow and bolt in his hands as he seemingly was reloading?! It is apparent that Smoke is certainly more capable than she likes to let on! Having seen the evidence, her only wound was the crossbow bolt that had been shot *through* the dead goblin, piercing her too!
My compatriots really are talented! Bejard, Fi, Zani and now Smoke – all are more than meets the eye. Maybe I should re-evaluate their usefulness? I will keep an eye on Rake to see if he continues this trend…
Advancing onwards, I collected the ears as we go, through ever thickening brambles. When we can advance no further, Rake, empowered and taking his lead from Zani earlier with the fire, uses his abilities to freeze the vines and brambles in our path and we watch them shatter to dust as we brush through them.
Reaching the back of the cavern, a huge tree appears in the gloom, lit by more of the violet fungal growths. Rake points out a single apple high in the branches! Our eyes adjusting to the dimness, we can make out three kneeling figures in front of a red Dragonborn in robes at the foot of the tree.
Smoke creeps ahead, but is startled by the croak of an unseen toad. Hearing this noise, the Dragonborn calls out and challenges our presence, but he mistakenly assumes that we are acting on behalf of Egil, the mage that the Jarl burned at the stake at the beginning of this journey. Feeling the path laid out before me by my Celestial heritage and patron, I respond, and state that we are only here for the Jarls’ son – we have no quarrel with him directly.
The Dragonborn laughs at us, and instructs the kneeling figures to deal with us. They stand and turn – one is a dwarf, one is a woman – another cleric of Runa that Erki had mentioned was here?, and then last is a towering Goliath – Arnfinn?? Their eyes black, I wonder if we are too late… Bejard is the first to recover from our momentary surprise and tries to appeal to the Dragonborn, but is quickly rebuffed and laughed at.
Out of nowhere a large toad leaps from the darkness and swallows Zani in a single gulp!
Suddenly everything starts happening at once; Fi is shooting arrows at the Dwarf, Smoke charges and slices at the Dragonborn before evading and slinking away again, the Dragonborn is shouting at his minions and casting something that results in a sphere of water manifesting on Rake who sidesteps just before he is sucked in to it, explosive sounds emanate from inside the toad, I begin flinging magic at the Dragonborn, Arnfinn approaches Bejard and knocks him out with a single mighty blow, the woman confirms my suspicions of being a cleric by healing up the Dragonborns wounds, Rake sends a Ray of Frost at the toad whilst continually avoiding the water globe and the Dwarf advances on Smoke and starts swinging!
Pure chaos, I have always heard of the fog of battle, but this made the phrase true to me – my situational awareness was stretched to breaking point with everything going on and the hazards we faced on multiple fronts – I had no option but to trust in my compatriots in this maelstrom of activity and violence. I grinned with delight.
Catching pieces here and there; I see Rake falter his evasion of the water globe, and get trapped inside, Zani pulls herself out of the toad’s mouth and try to set the Dragonborn alight, Smoke is holding fast with a hit and run duel against the Dwarf while Fi peppers him with arrows. Fearing for Bejards’ safety I try to push Arnfinn off with a blast – using the force to knock him back, but the Goliath is like a rock and I achieve nothing. However Arnfinn is no longer interested in Bejard and moves on Rake, trapped and unable to evade, again – a single mighty blow takes him down!
Arising, as if from the dead, Bejard gets a vacant look on his face once more, and with a blinding flurry of blows, lays out the Dragonborn. Rake manages to gather himself somehow and creates a deafening thunderclap in Arnfinn’s face – who just shrugs it off.
As Fi finally drops the Dwarf, Smoke maneuvers alongside the tree, and takes an opportunistic swipe at the bark on a root, the effect is instant – all of our foes immediately stop what they are doing and cower, clutching their heads in pain. It is short lived though, the Dragonborn stands after the cleric tends to him, and in his rage, creates a huge Thunder Wave that pushes Bejard to the brink of life, and knocks away the cleric.
Having seen the effect that Smoke’s attack had on the tree, Zani throws a Firebolt at it, passing so close to me that I can feel the hairs on my head singe as it passes – in another life I am sure I would have been hit by that, and taken significant damage – but his aim is true and the tree hisses in pain as it burns, with with the same effect on the Dragonborn, Arnfinn, and the Cleric too.
I concentrate, and send some healing light towards Bejard whilst trying to blast the Cleric who is intent on healing the Dragonborn, but this divided action causes my blast to miss her. Arnfinn puts Rake down again before turning and stalking towards Fi menacingly. Bejard again knocks the Dragonborn to the floor and runs to the tree, barreling through the cleric on his way, but she still manages to reach the Dragonborn’s body to touch him with a spark of magic.
Seeing the approaching danger, Fi retreats away from Arnfinn while Smoke has clambered the tree and grabs the apple. Part clambering down, and part slashing as she goes, the abomination that looks like a tree is in obvious agony.
As Zani tries setting the Dragonborn on fire again, I curse Celestial at the Tree and blast it with everything I have. The force of the blast splinters the bark and a necrotic rot spreads from the impact. This “tree” is dead! As this happens, I see Arnfinn and the Cleric drop to their knees as the darkness drains from them, their blackened eyes returning to normal.
Looking around, the bodies of the Dragonborn, Dwarf and Rake all lie comatose, but appear to be breathing. I take a huge sigh, whether it was relief, the release of the stress of combat and imminent death, or just weariness, I don’t know. But I feel a little bit more complete – surely that not-tree was the evil that I needed to banish to appease my Celestial master?
Domonet 
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