Day 1
I have been in the village of Homlet for a few days, I ventured here due to the news of bandits plaguing the village, maybe they will provide me with the opportunity to find the “Zerk” that should have been my birthright.
I was sat in the inn when I happened upon a group of travellers who seemed to have similar goals to myself, they have been contracted by the local priest Calmar to rid the surrounding lands of bandits and for reasons known only to them are happy to persue this quest.
The travellers are made up of a varied group of races from half-elves to humans even a dwarf, maybe this is why they so readily accepted a half-orc such as myself into their party.
We set out from Homlet at first light with the intention to investigate three locations provided to us by Bern the leader of the local militia.
After a trek of some miles we happened about a thick copse of trees that were dark and brooding, there was a strange low growl comming from within and in search of the local bandits we entered cautiously. After proceeding no more than a few steps into the wood we were attacked from above by giant spiders, they decended rapidly from the trees catching us unawares. Of course I immediatly leaped into battle crushing the massive insects infront of me, others were not so lucky and were barely able to scratch the enemy. In the middle of the fight the ground sprang to life with roots and branches crawling over the spiders and holding them tight. I later found that Kessa maintains a balance with nature and posesses some power over the plants.
It seems that another of our party is not so bright, many times after the ground came to life did Hanson run through the writing mass, finally getting himself so caught up that he could no longer move.
After the spiders were dealt with we continued to carefully investigate the growl that had drawn us to the woods. Ravi jumped from tree to tree far above our heads and eventually led us to one of the spiders prepared feasts that they had not yet devoured. With a little aid we released the wretch that was contained within the cocoon only to discover a gnome who went by the name of Borofin.
As reward for freeing him the gnome offered a scroll of what he claimed were great magics to the party, either that or some gold, regardless of what was chosen by my colleagues and myself he said he would come with us and assist us on our travells if we required.
No matter how much I resisted nor how much I explained that we could simply take this filthy gnomes scroll and gold as “reward” if we so desired the party resisted and eventually, much to my disgust even accepted the offer of assistance from the wretch, at the time I could see no benefit to having him come with us, he cannot even lift a sword he is so weak.
We continued along on our path on our way to the first location that Bern had indicated until shortly before mid morning we were ambushed.
Five beasts came charging from the tree line, red hair blowing in the morning wind. Once again I charged into combat this time Merrick, Gelda and Ravi were at my side. Quarrion, a scholar of some sort muttered some words and one of the number was immediatly removed from the fight as it fell sound asleep. I immediatly drew two of the yellow skinned beasts to me, they towered above my by almost 2 feet however I stood fast and set upon them with my bastard sword. In the melee Gelda was caught off guard with one of the man-beasts striking her almost to the ground in a single hit. Balls of blazing fire flew from the staff the gnome was using as a stick each one homing in on the mountain of muscle infront of Gelda and seemingly knocking the life right out of it. Ravi took a mighty strike to the chest and dropped, it seems his choice not to wear armour may not be the best decision he has made. I managed to slay the foul spawn that I was fighting only to discover that the rest lay dead around me. The gnome claims that he slew the majority of them however this cannot be correct, he is too small.
Hanson treated Ravi’s wounds if you can call it that, the bandages he used were so shoddy I’m surprised they stopped the bleeding at all. However even though barely able to, Ravi climbed to his feet and proceeded on, I fear that without Hansons poor medical abilities Ravi would not be with us now.
Hanson was better at tracking the origin of the ambush party, he led us deep into the woods where we found a clearing with a mighty tree in the center. Initially nothing out of the ordinary could be spotted but on closer inspection there was a most bizzare scene.
There seemed to be four of spiders similar to the ones we had encountered earlier in the day, each of them was alive though frozen in position by some force and from each of them led a tube connecting to high up in the branches of the tree.
The initial reaction was for people to start breaking the connection between spiders and tree as somethign very unnatural was taking place here. Stoella was sneaking about near a hole in the base of the tree when suddenly a hand sprang from the darkness grabbing her and dragging her in. I was one of the few to witness this and ran in with the intention of slaying whatever had grabbed her.
When my eyes had adjusted to the light I saw another of the beasts that had ambushed us, this one was bigger still if you can imagine such a thing and held her tight by the hair whilst placing a sword (although it was the size of a dagger to the monster) to her throat. After cautiously pacing around each other Stoella managed to maneauver into a position where she could thrust her dagger into the monster, I took this opportunity and although I didnt hit him directly with my sword I also surprised him, forcing him further back into the room. Ravi seemed to fall from the sky as he almost flew past me into the maelstrom and with a few well timed attacks from us all the beast was dead.
Kessa was so upset by the blight upon this tree that she immediatly went off insearch of the herbs and plants that could be used to treat it. The others removed the tubes connecting the spiders to the tree, cuts were made deep into the tubes and poisonous liquid sprayed in many directions, Merrick ended up getting covered in the foul smelling liquid which ended up in him being frozen still. I think Gelda probably assumed this was the reason too that the spiders were frozen in place and after tending to Merrick she dispatched each of the spiders, even pushing Quarrion, a scholar asside as he was attempting to finish a spider with his eating knife, odd fellow.
All the while Hanson seemed oblivious to all around him as he slowly removed rocks from a pile that was stacked nearby, I must remember to ask him what he was doing there as there seemed to be no reason to the madness.
Whilst the others were outside of the tree dealing with the spiders and the rocks!!??! Stoella and myself searched the abode of this monster eventually uncovering a small fortune in gold and gems. We briefly dicussed seperating this amongst ourselves but were discovered before we could come to an agreement.
Upon Kessa’s return we left the tree whilst she carried out her healing on it and having more treasure than we could carry we set back to Homlet leaving what we could not carry.
On the trek back we discovered a ruined carridge that appeared to have had the wheels instantly burnt off, all of the passengers on board appeared to have been slaughtered in their seats and simply left, Ravi set them on their way to the afterlife with coppers to pay the ferryman. Upon searching the carridge for any means to identify the unfortunate passengers we discovered a chest that even Stoella’s skills were unable to open, we eventually build a sleigh and pulled the chest back to the village.
Upon our return to Homlet Berne was already outside of the keep dealing with some shady types who had been skulking around town, there appeared to be some confusion as a gang of mounted bandits had stormed through Homlet shortly before our arrival, some explaining from Ravi and Berne was satisfied, he thought it best if he take the chest we had discovered and investigated it as to find the identity of the coach passengers…