Session 38: Seeing the corrupted wood through the trees
General Summary
2nd Horisal 836PD Breaking camp from the Wild Hunt's location at dawn, Enessa navigated the group on the Lord of the Hunt’s guidance towards Duskwood, where the Hunt were going to search for their quarry. The Unbroken decide to travel at a reasonable pace as there is a time limit on this quest, particularly for Enessa, as she details the deal, she struck separately with the Lord to acquire a special bow if the killing blow on the druid is hers. Before setting off, Simeon uses a caltrop adorned with a little of his blood to use as a beacon for when they need to head back to the Hunt. The caltrop was dropped just outside the camp. As the group are moving through the Feywild, Simeon, Orlando and Raphael (going by Kyros currently) spotted a golden tower in the distance. After a short discussion, and much to the disappointment to the two tieflings in the group (Wind and Zenirith), the tower is ignored, particular as the primary concern was how to cross fast-flowing river in their path. A river, that was curiously flowing uphill. Ceridwen easily swam across (being the strongest member of the party), taking a rope to allow other members to cross more easily. Most of the group managed to use the rope without much of an issue to wade through the river except for Wind and Simeon. As Wind was wading through, a large surge of water smashed her off her feet, causing her to begin to loosen her grip. Zenirith controlled the flow of the water and pushed her towards the waiting bank and Ceridwen held firm with the rope, Wind managed to catch her grip again and scrambled onto the bank. Simeon had a slightly more challenging time of it. He lost his grip on the rope so Zenirith and Ceridwen aided again with strength and spell but this didn’t seem to be enough in this case as Ceridwen stumbled and lost her footing. Seeing this, Enessa and Raphael joined the effort and with this, and a little bit of luck from a well-placed stone under the water that Simeon could push off, he collapsed onto the side of the bank. The Unbroken kept moving and came across a stone bridge which straddled another river. The trees in this area were unlike others they had seen, seeming to have a corruption afflicting them. As Enessa and Wind crossed the river, two of the corrupted trees, one on either side suddenly sprang to life and battle commenced. The fight was over almost as quickly as it had started but did have its difficulties including Wind being knocked unconscious to be brought back round by Ceridwen and Sabali managing to dodge one of the swinging boughs of the tree, sticking his tongue out and making fun of it but in the process dodging into a trailing branch which hit him hard. Undaunted, the party moved onward, and eventually heard a growling noise in the distance. They began to slow down and place their feet more carefully and as they got closer to the source of the noise, they see a large wolf like creature and some elven-looking archers. Sadly, their ability to sneak forward was not enough, and battle was joined. Moments after the fight began, the sound of large feet crashing against the floor shook the ground beneath them as an enormous giant charged forward into the fray. Cachalain, their target, was here! Linked Journals
