Level 5 - The Forest

The Kuo-toa let us know that the easiest way to the next level is carrying on down the river, so we retreated to the drow rafts and continued on. As we paddled, we entered an area of what appeared to be a sunlit forest. The cavern roof gave way to sky, or at least what appeared to be sky, Espy says the ceiling was still 100' above us. Illusory or not, it felt like a real forest to me. Wildlife and insects abound and then there was a large green dragon sleeping by a bridge. While I was expecting one, as we were forewarned, but I was still shocked at the sheer size of the thing. We put ashore 200' upstream of that bridge and went into the woods to look at the guard tower.
 
We were stopped by two ... trees. They were quite interested on why we were here until Espy was mistaken for Jessiria again, at which point she played along and they took us to see Wyllow. We were led to Wyllow by an awakened tree carved in Halaster's likeness and were introduced to Wyllow and her displacer beast companion.
 
Wyllow let us know of the next levels. The dwarven temple (level 6) is off to the side while Madgoth's Castle (level 7) is the next level down. After questioning her about the level, we carried on, unsure what to do next but night was falling. We went to check the abandoned Priory for possible shelter (though it was close to the forewarned werebats) and found metal armor and weaponry strewn about it's perimeter. It was part of an old temple complex dedicated to Malar, and the theme of the hunt was strong throughout. Also throughout the surroundings of the complex were werebats, who attacked and we dispatch all but a few but Ussta got bit and cursed with lycanthropy. In the morning, we were preparing to go back up to see Bronzen to get Ussta cured, when we were surprised to find Tearulai waiting outside the door for us. The werebats tattled on us. After an interestingly nice discussion with the green dragon, we headed back up to the surface.