The Cast:

• Kaliset - ASN 3.
• Fulmok - MV 12“, AC 4/8, dual-wielding a one-handed shortsword and a dagger.
• Klort - Human Magic-User 1, AC 9/10, MV 12”, Doors 1-2, Listen 1-4, 12,17,16,15,11,11, hp 4, CN, No Deity, Age 31, bright red beard.
• Eriyas
• Iona - MNK 5.
• Autumn Leafwalker - DRD 1.

Kaliset is now a level 2 Assassin but is now Lawful Evil again but cannot regain his Assassin abilities until he does atonement. He had the exorcism performed and the nether layers of Acheron were contacted and spoken with through a communion spell. Kaliset was tasked with freeing the soul of the ancient Neferian warrior named Esta the Nightingale. To perform this, he must have a single mind of devotion to Nefer. The Druid grove that is nearby has earned the wrathful eye of Nefer as a result of their actions.

The Tree of Elis'tun is where Esta the Nightingale's soul is said to be trapped. Her soul empowers the site.

The tree is located on the far side of the Red Sun Valley, The Tree of Elis'tun. Nobody in the area seems to remember Esta the Nightingale except for the Temple and Nefer.

Our quest is that we must free Esta by traveling to the The Tree of Elis'tun and kill it. However, it is said that the tree is heavily warded by magic and thus unkillable. The Assassin's Guild has Sages that believe that it could be done if a special poison is finished off with the pollen gathered from the flowers gathered from around the tree. Fulmok is a representative of the Assassin's guild and was provided the base poison. To complete the poison recipe, it will only take a matter of minutes. Then an injector will be used to infuse the tree with the poison. The injector is made of mithral alloy and the guild wants it back. Doing this quest will atone Kaliset and this will also serve as a class quest for Fulmok.

It is a DL 3 quest.

For our Druid companion, Autumn, she knows that a clipping of the tree and powerful magic could be used to splice into a new tree. It is also known to her that this tree has the special flowers growing around it. A question of balance and allowing nature to allow the tree to succumb is the motivation for the involvement of the Druid.

The area of the tree is known to be an old grove of the Wood Elves which extends beyond the Valley of the Red Sun. The forest is not dense but the area of the Druids' Grove is dense with an increased thickness because the trees here will be grown together, like a wall. This thicker area of the forest is only a few miles in diameter. The Druids likely made some entrances but they will expect people coming from that direction it is assumed.

We will head to the small community of Elir first. There are only 38 people that live there and there are few resources, but we can camp in relative safety.

The available Mercenaries in Mombafra were:

• Heavy Hobillars x5 15 gp/day.
• Shortbow Archers x8 16 gp/day.

All can of these Mercs can be hired for 31 gp per day. Fulmok pays for 4 days and Fulmok is now their commanding officer.

Kaliset buys a bolt of cloth to use, a bolt of silk. He takes some strips of the cloth and hands it out to us to use as a bandana.

Once the men are hired, we are headed to Starling.

We leave from Mombafra and the journey is uneventful on the way.

On the way, Fulmok experiments with his magic cloak (id 163). He finds no additional protection from it under the bright sun but in an alleyway or forest, he gets 90% Invisibility and +2 AC.

In Starling, we check to see which Mercenaries are available:

• Heavy Footmen x6 12 gp/day. They are hired for 4 days by Fulmok for 48 gp total.

There is only a 25% encounter roll in Elir. The nearby Castle of Elir is a ruin that is virtually unoccupied except for a great huge beast that rests in the courtyard.

We rest in the scrublands after a full days journey. The night passes without incident and the next morning, we make it to Elir.

In the thorpe of Elir, there are no Mercenaries for hire normally. However, Kaliset tries to draw in some people to come with us by giving a magnificent speech. He rolls a reaction and gets 79+35%. He rallies the people but only 2 foolish individuals agree to come with us.

He dubs them “Billy Bob” and “Thornton” from Elir.

It will take 2 days to get to the area of the Druids Grove and back. The new Mercs will be paid 2 gp per day for a total of 4 gp.

We travel to the north east of Elir and we have no trouble heading north from there into the light woods. We have now UNLOCKED a HEX of a Light Forest. Everntually, we make it to an area where the brambles are thick.

Iona can take to the Canopies to scout, so she does. We briefly discuss using her ability to Speak With Animals to get some idea of what lies before us. There is a decent animal population in this area.

Iona climbs up to the tallest tree she can find and sees an area of tree cover over a mile in diameter. The trees are thicker than everywhere else around here. She also sees two things: there is a visible break in the trees in an area to the north west. 2nd, she can also see a ring where the green trees are notably absent over near the center of this part of the woods. It appears that the cause of this ringed area is that the trees are distinctly more brown in color, with many brambles climbing up the sides of the trees. As she examines this further, she can also tell that there are few pine needles growing on the trees and the forest undergrowth has arisen over the tree.

She surmises that Esta's soul could be corrupting that area. Eventually Iona climbs back down to join with the party after not finding any birds to speak to in the area.

Flowers are said to grow around the tree, these are the ones needed for the Fulmok's poison. We eventually find more “absences” of trees except for a clearing. Would this be the Druid Grove? We also know that the tree is where the druids are, the Tree of Elis'tun.

Kaliset disguises himself as we pass through the wood. Fulmok can be invisible with his magic cloak. Iona will move through the tree tops without her horse, using her Monk climbing skills and Slippers of Spider Climbing. She is moving and jumping from tree to tree.

The two Mercs, Billybob and Thornton, tells us that they normally do their best to leave this area alone to avoid the Druids.

On the east side of the woods, Iona has gotten several visual angles on the central growth coming from the trees in that area and she feels that it has a malicious quality. The trees appear brown and gray in a ring formation. When we get to the entrance, we can see a 8' wide stream flowing toward the south. The stream looks like it is about 6-8' deep with no visible way to take our horses in.

Iona manages to find a bird. She entices the bird with a bit of rations and it comes over to eat. Iona then asks it about the Druids in the area but it only looks briefly at her and then goes back to eating, without acknowledging her question.

We tie up all the horses and leave the Hobillars behind to watch after them. The heavy footmen have ringmail, heavy crossbows and shortswords. Once we are ready, we travel south along the river…

The Heavy Footmen are complaining as we pass south along the stream. About 80 yards away, we suddenly spot a Giant Lynx drinking water. Iona motions to people to hide and she also hides in the shadows. Some of the Footmen curse aloud.

The Lynx briefly looks around and then slowly moves away. The Lynx is gone.

After the encounter, Fulmok poisons his blades.

About 130 yards away we see more animals drinking from the stream. There are 5 Badgers.

• Fulmok stays invisible.
• Klort stays out of the way.
• Kaliset hides.
• Eriyas hides.
• Autumn hides.
• Iona is hiding in the tree tops.

The 5 Badgers start bounding toward us and most of us jump into the trees. The Footmen have their swords out and are not sure what to do while one of the Crossbowmen hits for 3 points of damage. The Shortbowmen hit 3 times for 2, 1 and 3 damage each.

We kill one badger! Our other troops from Elir are just Light Footmen and they can't shoot.

• Fulmok tells them to fire at the Badgers.
• Klort will throw a dagger.
• Kaliset will fire a heavy crossbow.
• Eriyas will fire his shortbow at 5“ range.
• Autumn casts Entangle.
• Iona fires her crossbow from above.

The badgers will attack and they are 3.4” away. Iona hits one for 3 damage. The Archers hit for 4, 6 and 5 which kills another one!

The Footmen still have their swords out. The Entangle spell goes off when they are .7“ away and the three Badgers must save versus spells. 2 of them succeed but they are still slowed to 50% for 1 turn. We can now hit them at +4 while the other one is still held. The Footmen kill one of them after hitting for 5 and 3 damage. One Badger gets a claw attack, does 1 damage to a Footman who only has 1d4+3 hp each.

Iona is shooting the one that is entangled. Melee attacks are made at +4. Iona kills the trapped Badger!

The Heavy Footmen kill the last one. We tell them that they can keep the badger pelts. They strap the badgers to their backs and carry them.

We come to…something.

The map squares are 20' x 20'. Eventually, we find a place where the brambles break open. The stream cuts through a disused path in the forest. It is quite dark in here as the sky is totally blocked out by the canopy of trees.

Iona has a stone of Continual Light but she is up in the trees. The stream cuts through the path and there is a disused appearance of the path. It looks like the path goes in 2 different directions. It branches off in one spot. We can see several colors through the trees which look like big mushrooms growing down that way.

Iona tries to Move Silently through the trees and she manages to get a birds eye view. The trees are so thick that she can't see her allies but Iona is right next to the ring of brambles that we saw from far away. She can see an opening leading into the area. There are many colorful mushrooms which can be poisonous. Iona tries to remain hidden and is not moving in the open.

There is a large opening down in the south end with big stones that rise off the forest floor. However, Iona can't see into that area but it looks like the area is just missing trees and there is a large open area down in the southwest.

We spread out our troops and try move silently. Fulmok and Iona are in front. The trees are very thick in this part of the woods and there are several standing stones in the thick part of the forest.

The standing stones are big flat stones that are 40' to 50' tall. They are covered in moss and dirt and have some jagged edges. We do not see any flowers around the area yet.

Fulmok is hidden (invisible) and he gets to the clearing entrance and hears voices at a volume that sounds like they are only 10's of feet away. There is another path going south from there but he cannot see into the clearing proper.

There are 3 voices speaking a language that we dont understand (Druidic?).

We head back to the brambles and go to the north east. We find another grove area and it terminates in a slab of bark that grows high up. The bark forms an impenetrable wall that is crisscrossed with vines and a thick amount of unnatural bark. Inside the clearing is a stump and a forlorn clay bowl sits on top of it alongside a green pouch about the size of a wine skin. The floor is covered in foliage and branches.

Autumn, our Druid, casts Detect Snares and Pits. The range is 0 and nothing is found.

At the same time, Iona uses Detect Magic on the items. The bowl detects as strong magic and Autumn goes to the bowl and puts her mistletoe inside. There are also dried mushrooms of grays and pinks inside the pouch.

There are 3 hours left before nightfall.

Eriyas decides to eat a mushroom and nothing happens. We can see that the bramble wall goes all the way up to the tree tops. Eriyas then pours water into it. Are there any changes to the roots or anything? Nothing looks different and everything looks dry in here.

When we put the water in the bowl with the mushrooms and water, it fizzles and starts dissolving into the bowl, sparkles come off.

Eriyas drinks the mixture and finds that it tastes gross and bitter. They drip some of the bowl water onto the bramble wall. It begins to emit a creaking noise. With a cracking and snapping, the bark wood splits open into an ovular shaped opening that is wide enough for one person at a time to go through.

We stagger our hirelings, with an Archer, A Heavy or Light Footman and a PC then repeat this line up for our 5' marching order. Nobody stays behind.

We move through and find more thick forest and it opens up 120'.

We are surprised.

The forward party can see a large clearing with an unusual stone in the center, it is 10' in width and 3' off the ground. The stone is covered in unusual glyphs. Over the stone is another stone of equal width that is hovering over the other one and slowly rotating in mid air. The clearing appears empty when we suddenly hear a small voice. It sounds like rain landing on a rooftop.

The voice seems to come from somewhere below the headline. It asks, “Who are you?” It sounds like it comes from the feet of our forward marching party. We say that we are lost.

“Lost are you?” the voices ask. We say that we are looking for a way out. “You have left it behind, how do you expect to get out?”

“To whom do you owe your allegiance?” Fulmok says that he owes allegiance to no man. “Neither do we”, says the voice. Then we hear a little giggling from behind us.

The voice continues, “Maybe you could do something for us, then we can help you leave.” We respond, “What would you like us to do?” The voice says “Why dont you tell us what we are really hear for.”

“We are here to pay homage to a great tree that we have heard about.” “We might be able to take you to that tree if there is an exchange? We would like to be rid of the bramble wall.”

“Are you trapped here by the Druids?” The invisible creatures respond, “You are aware of them.” The group says “We are hiding from a group of Druids. We have not met these Druids, we don't trust them.”

“The brambles are maintained by the tree.” We ask them, “What if we are to destroy the tree?”

Kaliset then shows them the tap and the poison. “We will get rid of the tree.”

A small voice yells out “Let them speak to the beast, perhaps He can judge them!” “That is a good idea!”

We ask them, “Do you have any name that you would like to go by?” “No names will be exchanged at this time.”

“Have the Druids wronged you?” “The druids have trapped us for ages. It is a deep seated wrong.”

“Perhaps you seek revenge?” “We can do business.” “Great, take us to the bramble beast.”

We can see that some things are moving along the floor with a sort of hop then something alights on the ground…then lifts off. There are several of these things, 5 of them. They cross the clearing past the spinning rocks and we follow. The hoppers take the left way and the forest begins to descend at an angle. We must adjust our balance along this path because it is so sharp. The light becomes darker as though our torches fight against the darkness of the forest. The only light here is from our torches and the eyes of a creature that rests on a great stone in the clearing.

It looks like a lion wearing vines and thorns as a cloak. Its fur is dark gray and it has glowing purple eyes that pierce the darkness of the glade.

We all feel a slight jarring of our mind as we catch its glare. It lifts off the ground eventually as the little creatures speak in a language we do not know. The lion creature lifts up its head further as it listens to us.

A voice says “So you seek to pay homage to the tree and then destroy the tree. How do you plan to destroy the tree?”

Kaliset says, “A purpose built poison of the tree.” We tell them why we want to destroy the tree. “We want to release our friend. They were trapped within it before our own birth.”

The invisible creatures are hopping around gently and anxiously.

They are silent for a second and then the hopping stops for a few seconds and then continues. The voice then says, “The little ones will give you a sampling of the flowers taken some weeks ago. Then they will show you the way.”

Iona asks what he is called, what manner of creature and it responds, “I am the Bramble Beast in charge of these creatures. They are a sprite of sorts, bound to the forest and to the ancient relics bound to a stone. I have taken them under my wing. They have lived here for a long long time…This used to be our grove.” The Bramble Beast speaks as if it has a sound of vitriol and hatred.

The sprites are moving and they take us down to a corridor and then to another clearing. It has a huge rock that dominates everything. There are squeaks of exclamation and we see some landing points on the grass and then they are on the stone. The invisible Sprites take us to the other side which reveals the opening on the side of the stone. Inside are stairs going down below the ground. Through here, the stairs will take us under the tree and we will have access to the tree where we can do our deed.

The Sprites say there is not much down there but some trash and one door that is locked, never opened. The unlocked door has roots poking through but it has No guards or wards.

They give us some white and red flowers that look only slightly aged. We ask the men-at-arms if they want to go, they say no.

The party heads inside and we see the stone door that was mentioned. We also find some wicker men set upon some pedestals. Their arms are covered in dust and cobwebs.

Iona, Eriyas and Fulmok all search for traps.

We do not find any traps but we also check for traps on the stone door. We do not find any traps there either.

Iona then tries her hand at the door but did not get the door picking the lock.

The pedestals are made like a tee-pee of wicker that support each of the wicker men.

We decide to open the wooden door. Fulmok, Iona and Eriyas are in the front and opening doors.

We open the wooden door and find a corridor that opens into a chamber. This room has a low ceiling. Through the ceiling come several thick roots and they have a stone color with purple tint. There are 9 stone benches around a large stone table. Scattered about the room are various bits of leather, stone and wood which conceals the floor everywhere. It looks like a supply closet gone wrong. We can see that beneath the stone table is a chest.

We search for traps in front of the traps and the refuse could be pushed aside. The Thieves go into the room and check the chest specifically. Eriyas notices that there are very thin cracks in the wood that are lined with metal that looks like some kind wide slit for gas or blades to come up. The crack goes further inside the hole but there is not a visible blade.

Autumn does not find any secret doors in this chamber.

We leave the chest for now. It is common for Druids to have stone tables like this.

Autumn will collect a cutting of the tree and then Fulmok will try to poison the roots. With the poison prepared and mixed with the flowers, which smells of burnt rubber, Fulmok injects it into the root. The injector goes far into the root of the tree but there is no visible reaction once the poison is introduced.

We get the door unstuck pull out the chest with ropes. It is quite heavy and it gets stuck.

Eriyas drives spikes into the chest on his own while we are outside. The driving of the spikes will have a 50% chance to trigger the trap…but the gas is NOT triggered! Eriyas opens the chest.

• 6300 cp.
• 3900 sp.
• 900 ep.
• 600 gp.

Iona searches for hidden doors but finds nothing. There are still no visible changes in the roots. Klort is searching the wicker men while Billy Bob and Thornton start taking the copper coins.

The ceiling here seems as solid as the other dirt ceilings. Iona, searching through the refuse, turns up two things:

• 1 gem.
• 1 rolled up scroll.

Iona hands the scroll to the Klort and searches the wicker men. Klort finds intentional markings on the wicker men, on the arms legs and head. Meaningless damage on them. Some magical relation to them. They look arcane in nature.

He finds an old robe of brown color in the chamber. Klort commits the patterns to memory.

The party goes back up and out of the underground passages. The hoppers are waiting in the grove with the big stone where they wait for us. We tell them, “We believe we have done what was needed”. They say “Very well, we shall see”. We bring up the stone door that we could not open and they confirmed that this is the door that we wanted to get open.

At this moment there is a huge crack that sears across the sky. Suddenly, the Bramble Wall hits all the branches on the way down. There is another crack and then the crackings come in greater succession. The Bramble Beast says to us “What are you fools still doing here?”

We agree with the beast that we should be going so we go back up through the north as quick as we can.

We rush past the floating, spinning stone where we initially encountered the invisible Sprites. There is a slight opening in the Bramble Wall here and it gets slightly wider like the wood is melting away. Suddenly, a huge piece of wall crashes down and we hear a great cacophony of shouting.

We try to Move Silently as we leave. Iona climbs up to the canopy again.

We move out with some that are hiding in shadows or moving silently and some that are not able to.

As we are coming out into the opening where we originally entered through the Bramble Wall, two Elves come forth. One is wearing plate mail and wielding a longsword and shield. The other one is wearing leather armor and holding a spear. They are accompanied by a Giant Otter and a Dog.

Only Fulmok succeeded in his Move Silently attempt. The group of Elves moves toward us quickly with their weapons out. The Otter and the Dog brandish their teeth aggressively and they close in on our party.

The Elf wearing the robes demands to know what we have done with expressions of sorrow and anger at the same time! They are not happy and they engage us in melee.

• Autumn attacks the Giant Otter.
• Iona punches the robed Elf in the face while activating her Shocking Grasp Ring.
• Fulmok can roll on the Assassination table while making his attack.
• Klort runs back into the brambles.
• Kaliset attacks the Giant Otter.
• Eriyas will Move Silently to move past the group in melee.

The robed Elf begins casting a spell. Fulmok rolls his move silently but fails however, he is still able to Assassinate the guy in the plate mail. With a 55% chance to succeed but “No dice”. Fulmok does 4 damage instead and the Elf must save versus poison at a +1. HE FAILS! The plate wearing Elf immediately keels over and begins seizing! Iona KILLS the Druid Elf with a fist strike and her Shocking Grasp.

The Giant Otter takes 6 damage and then 3 damage. Since the Elf Druid and the Swordsman have both been killed, there is only the Dog and Giant Otter left!

Otter tries to kill Fulmok. Fulmok has AC 4 and it has a very dangerous bite. It hits on an 11. The Otter HITS! The bite causes 9 damage. The Dog tries to kill Fulmok and it Hits! Fulmok takes 3 points of damage.

There are 3 Heavy Footmen that can attack with 2 of them on the Giant Otter and 1 on the Dog. All of their attacks missed and the rest of the troops move forward. We hear shouting in a strange tongue, it is Druidic.

The Otter is considered a large creature.

• Iona attacks the Otter with her spetum.
• Klort is behind the bramble wall.
• Fulmok is withdrawing.
• Kaliset attacks the dog.

The animals are still trying to get vengeance for the death of the Elves. The Dog attacks and does 2 more damage to Fulmok. The Otter also attacks Fulmok, hits on 11 but it MISSES!

We do not hear any footsteps yet but the Giant Otter is screeching. Eriyas gets his Move Silently and can backstab! The Otter has AC 5 and the attack is at +4. Eriyas does 21 damage but it is still alive, not killed yet!

Iona then slays the Giant Otter with her Spetum attack doing 12 damage! Kaliset hits the dog for 7 damage, killing it!

Autumn commands some of the men down toward the south but Eriyas also commands them to help us with the brambles instead. There are many footsteps heard on the forest floor. We quickly get through the opening and head through the stream.

Iona gets up into the canopy and is moving silently. She notices overhead that there are two Giant Owls soaring over the trees. They did not appear to spot her. We finally make it back to the Hobillars and the horses. We jump on our horses and get out.

We head back to Elir and then will continue on to Starling. The two men from Elir we hired, Billy Bob and Thornton, poorly conceal the bulging copper in their pockets. Billy bob and Thornton give us a happy wave as we depart. The rest of the travel back is uneventful.

We are back in Starling.

Read magic is cast on the items and we find that the Scroll is a Treasure Map. It leads to a location about 340 miles to the west branch of Hollow.

The sigils that were seen previously on the Wicker Men beneath the Tree of Elis'tun are conjuration magic.

WE ROLLED FOR THE GEM.

Initially it is a 5000 gp gem but it is upgraded to a 10000 gem! A STARFIRE OPAL!

10245

• 1433 gp
• 150 ep
• 650 sp

1540 treasure xp.

The Treasure Map is considered a party item.

We get 1570 xp each.

Autumn owes 100 gp and she hits level 2! Has enough money to get training to level 2. This is PAID! She plants the tree branch collected from the Tree of Elis'tun in a new location.

The Session End Date is:

Iona pays off 1400 gp of debt, she only owes 2844 gp now.

Level 3 for Iriyas! Pays some of his debt and 500 gp off his debt. Pays for training outright.

Level 4 for Kaliset! 8178.4 in debt.

Kaliset learned from the Assassins Guild that the person has passed through Mombafra recently. Tis'ill is the Female Drow that was referenced. They know the name Zenkar Tenn is an infamous Frost Giant warlord that is not from this area. The Warlord put out a bounty on the Drow but the Assassins Guild do not know about a mithril key. Otherwise, the Assassins Guild have no record on the Drow.

They do say that this bounty is unsanctioned which heavily suggests it was not made with the Assassins Guild. They think the Drow headed southwest toward Macetor.