Aporeu chronicles Issue 3: Lost in the woods

Jade on the Mountaintop

Stories from the adventurers

This week

Saving some children and helping the guild by meeting a potion brewer. Well I do think these two can tell it better:

Lost in the woods 1

The Adventures of The Catlady
For my loving brother Spark

Lost in the woods
I don’t know if you are familiar with being nervous, and also being excited, but I can tell you that it makes all your hairs stand up and dance to everyone’s words. As a Tabaxi that felt really funny, so I was quite distracted when I first met my party members.

Spark, you have no idea how small Halflings can be! But this one, Lindal Tealeaf, is a teacher and he is brilliant! I don’t know how that much brilliancy can fit in such a tiny body! He is also brilliant with smashing his quarterstaff in goblins faces, come to think of it. I called him The Teacher mostly. Then we had this huge fellow, whose name was Craven but I called him Mr. Goatman. Apparently there is a rumour that Firbolgs eat children, but he claims he doesn’t eat kids. I believe him.

We also had the amazing Doctor Vasilievski with us, who has some fascinating elixirs with him. Last but not least, we were protected by the strong Hallrûn, who I called Mr. Hunter.

We talked to the lovely lady Kathnis Hammerstone, the Guildmaster, to do a mission so we can become guildmembers. I really wanted to pass, because that means I can do more adventures and collect epic stories for you to read!

It seemed an easy task, but Kathnis warned us that we should be wary of everything that could happen. Luckily the Doctor promised to heal me when something would go wrong and I would get hurt.

By the way, Mr. Goatman told me he can talk to plants! They will talk back to him, or anyone, in a sort of dance, and the type of dance could be a yes or a no to a question. It’s all depending on the stance of the moon and plants and circumstances! Don’t you think that is fascinating?! Apparently the plants can also be asleep, and you can’t wake them up. So you have to be very patient. Mr. Goatman is such a gifted man!

Oh right, the mission. Poor lady Inge the Farmer, was concerned something happened to three of her children, because they went missing. When we were walking towards the farm, I hoped that Mr. Goatman could ask the plants if they had seen anyone, but apparently they were asleep.

Karla, the smallest daughter who had been helping outside, told us she had seen her twin brothers Aldo and Karl playing together with Linda at the edge of the forest. Then when she looked awhile later, she didn’t see them anymore. So as promised, we went on our way to find them!

The doctor told me something very interesting too! He explained to me that all twins can communicate by telepathy. It doesn’t reach far though, he guessed it would only go for about 50 feet. I really want to know if that is true. But I believe him though, he is a doctor, he would know.

With some cool teamwork of Mr. Goatman and me, we found footprints quite fast and noticed the track went into the forest. I was pretty sure that the kids just went into the forest to play hide and seek, but we weren’t sure. The tracks didn’t show us anything of a fight, so we had good hope they were alright.

Then we found this massive tree, with an X marked on it, and I just felt it in my fur you know? This was their hide and seek tree! Just like we have in my town! Luckily the Doctor also likes children a lot, and knows how they think so he can find them. With all of us looking for tracks, we quickly found three different paths leading away from the tree. I forgot which direction we went in first, but I am pretty sure the Teacher will remember. We followed a path and when I was trying to climb a tree to spot where the road was taking us, I was almost attacked by super deadly wasps! But luckily the Teacher spotted the hive, and I avoided it on time.

Next we found some very very sticky webs, apparently from spiders. Unfortunately the Teacher and Doctor couldn’t tell me what type of spiders, but they warned me that spiders come in a lot of sizes so I shouldn’t think it was going to be a piece of – well, spider.

We found a cave, and Mr. Hunter and I sneaked in while the others lit a torch and waited for a signal. We had seen some webbing across one side of the cave, and behind there was a spider-man-figure and a child wrapped up in webbing. I’m pretty sure I successfully hid behind the pillar, but all the webbing on the floor alarmed the spider-man figure in the cave. So I tried to signal to the Doctor to come help, and he immediately ran over! The hero that man is, you have no idea!

The battle was chaos, I was trying to cut open the webbing to get to the little kid, when more giant spiders appeared! I panicked, got stuck in the webs which made it very easy for one of those stupid spiders to bite me. It gave me a gigantic swelling on my paw and it hurts like hell.

Luckily The Hunter was keeping the big spider guy, so The Teacher could get over there to flank him. You will never believe that within 6 seconds The Teacher managed to smack two of those little spiders to pulp. It was crazy. Then The Doctor started helping to kill the big spider man as well, with his rain of arrows and something he called tolling the dead.

Oh and Mr. Goatman saved me from another spider that was behind me. I do believe that a quarterstaff is way more effective then me with my daggers. The thing I was good for was cutting open the web and saving the kid though!

Then after the fight we got some lovely berries from Mr. Goatman, and The Hunter helped me tie the boy to my back. The Doctor had found out that he was paralyzed and I was very worried and thought we should heal him. But the Doctor then explained that we didn’t know if the other kids were alright, so if we would wake him up and he would see his wounded or even worse, dead brother or sister, he would be mentally scared forever. So we decided to keep him paralyzed, tied to my back, where he was safe.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you, because Mr. Goatman had explained that he can talk to plants, I was curious if he could talk to the berries he had for us. Or if it’s then actually bad to eat plants or berries. But apparently berries are baby plants who aren’t conscious, and therefor also can’t talk back. He said that if we take care of nature, then nature will take care of us in return by giving us berries for example. This man is so clever!

We quickly went back and decided to go for the second trail we had found earlier that day. I carefully scouted the area with Mr. Goatman and we found a blood trail that brought us to a stone ledge. Because I am a very good climber, we decided that I would go down first while they would look after the boy.

So I climbed down, found more of the blood trail and then we decided it was good that everyone would come down. With the harness The Hunter made for Karl, the young boy, they carefully lifted him down the ledge while I was climbing next to him so he didn’t hit his head anywhere. When he was down, the others quickly followed. They were investigating the blood while I kept an eye out for danger, and I immediately spotted something back up on the ledge! I pointed it out to Mr. Goatman, but he didn’t see what I meant. He thought that I was making it up, and while saying that he called me Catlady. At first I wasn’t too happy about it, but then he explained he only gives close friends an unique name of their own! So then I thanked him, and asked him if it was okay to call him Mr. Goatman. He agreed and became close friends! Isn’t that amazing?!

Oh right, the mission. I was super sure that I had seen something, so I quickly climbed back up to see where it went, or to see if I could find some tracks. I managed to find some tracks, and I decided to follow it. At that point I don’t know what the others were doing, but I trusted them that they would keep Karl safe.

I silently followed the trails of this creature, and soon found out that it was a goblin, who was talking to 3 other goblins. As quiet as my paws can carry me I hid in the bushes to see what they were up to, and unfortunately I couldn’t understand what they were saying. When they moved further away from where the group was, I continued to follow them all the way to their camp. They had all these tents and a metal cage with a wolf in there. I saw them go into a bigger tent and a bigger tougher goblin came out, who immediately started yelling at them while waving his hands. It seemed like he was giving orders, but I wasn’t sure. He then gave the wolf some meat, and got him out of the cage, to then climb on his back! That is crazy and cool don’t you think? I have seen a wolf riding goblin!

Obviously at that point I thought that I should report back to the group, because I knew how many of them were there and where their camp was. So I turned around, only to accidentally kick of a rock from a pile. The sound alerted everyone and my cover was blown. I had to sprint away, but the wolf and the goblins were fast! I knew I could’ve tried to shake them off, but then risk that they would catch me, so I decided to sprint as long as I could, even though that made me super tired. Luckily after a while, I managed to slide down a slippery hill, and they didn’t follow me down. As tired as I was, I then searched the area to find back the path to my group. It took me a while but I managed to find them.

I found The Hunter and Mr. Goatman outside a cabin, which I assumed was from the lady Matilda. Inge the Farmer had told us about a witch, that she didn’t trust, who lived in the forest. I immediately told Hunter and Goatman that I had seen 5 goblins, that one of them was riding a wolf, and that they had found me so chased me a long way through the forest. I wasn’t sure if they were still tracking me or that I actually had lost them. So The Hunter immediately screamed “GOBLINS” and falsely alarmed the group inside. After calming everyone down, they then told me the good news that they had found Linda inside the hut, and she was being taken care of by Matilda.

I stayed on watch, and after some talks between The Doctor, The Teacher and Matilda they decided to leave Karl there so Matilda could cure his paralyzed state, and they would be safe while we went out looking for the last boy, Aldo. We took a short break there, to tend to our wounds and eat something. I also gave some food to Matilda for the children, because she didn’t have enough for both of them.

After our short break we went back up the ledge, and went to the 3rd trail we had discovered that morning. Both me and Mr. Goatman had been doing very successful tracking that day, and now Mr. Goatman asked me to look out for traps while he tracked the trail. I was fine with that, and was super sure that there were no traps. But as soon as I said “All clear”, I stepped on a rope that launched Mr. Goatman and me high up in the air with a net. I felt so stupid! I should’ve seen that one..

A second later the five goblins and wolf appeared out of no where and we had to fight them. I was desperately trying to cut Mr. Goatman and me free from this net, but because he is so big, I couldn’t do it fast enough. The goblins managed to throw a jar of oil all over Mr. Goatman and under us a battle started. Mr. Goatman tried to help me cut open the net, but dropped his scimitar and the goblins under us started swarming around The Hunter and The Doctor.

When I finally managed to cut a big enough hole, the wolf riding goblin was right under us, so I dropped myself down behind the goblin, on top of the wolf! I hoped to get the goblin from behind, but he was strong and quick and together with the weird movements of the wolf, they launched me off. Luckily Mr. Goatman was free, but The Hunter was getting very beaten up, so he ran away so he could do ranged attacks without getting hurt more. I was in big trouble though, I had fallen of the wolf, flat on the ground and was surrounded by the wolf, and three goblins. They all rained their attacks down on me and then the world turned black while I saw The Doctor rush to me.

I don’t know what happened next, but all of a sudden I came back to consciousness and I heard The Doctor scream “It’s not your time yet!”. I grasped for air, but then realised that I probably should pretend that I was still knocked out. There was a stupid goblin next to me though, who had heard me and hit me again. Everything hurt and I was not happy at all.

When I finally managed to get back up again, I saw The Hunter throw a big javelin into the ribs of the wolf, so I decided to attack him as well and managed to kill him. At least that was one threat out of the way.

In all the chaos that followed The Hunter was being very deadly from a far distance, The Teacher was smacking the goblins faces in left and right and the Doctor was killing them with magic bells and ice knifes. Mr. Goatman had been set on fire, and was about to hit the big goblin, when the goblin quickly swapped places with one of his friends. Then the small goblin got crushed and the big goblin started to bolt into the bushes. Everyone was trying to chase him or hit him, so I quickly ran away from the group to get a clear shot, and drove an arrow straight through his skull. After this horrible and painful fight, I trusted everyone even more and we all agreed to take a short break to heal. I was in a lot of pain, but luckily that break got me back up my feet.

We also had a short chat while having that break, and apparently those Javelins that The Hunter had been throwing, are also famous with another name. They are also called “Elven flimsy sticks”. I don’t really understand why, because I am pretty sure that he hurt the wolf a lot, and a flimsy stick wouldn’t do that. Strange how other races see these things.

Following the track was then easy and boring, until we got to a beautiful lake! We found two shoes of a tiny kid, so I decided to take them with me in the hope to give them back to Aldo. The water of the lake was super nice, so we all refilled our waterskins with this fresh lovely water. Then on the other side of the lake, we found muddy small footsteps, as if the kid had come out on this side. We followed these tracks to a gigantic rose bush, or more like a rose wall, through which the trail continued. I plucked a rose because it smelled really nice, and then got into a discussion with The Doctor and Mr. Goatman if that hurt the bush or not. I am pretty sure The Hunter got impatient and that’s why he decided to see if he could push himself through the bushes to get to the other side.

Then the funniest thing happened. He pricked himself, but not just a little, no. He had been hurt so much by the battle with the goblins, that the pricks from the rose bush knocked him unconscious. While The Doctor was cutting away the thorns next to his neck, I remembered that The Hunter had healing potions on him. So I went for his pouch, and gave him his own potion. That got him back up, but he was mad and wanted to light the rose bush on fire.

I really didn’t want to fight with this rose bush, purely for the fact that it was so beautiful, and maybe because Mr. Goatman also said we shouldn’t. Mr. Goatman tried to talk to the bush, we noticed that the branches were starting to reach out to him, with prickly thorns and all. Then The Hunter was trying to find his torch to lit the bush up, and then everything happened super-fast. I quickly grabbed my waterskin and said that we should maybe make friends with the bush by giving it water! So I just poured out my lovely lake water, and by surprise the bush actually started to calm down. That seemed to make The Hunter happy, and we all started giving the rose bush water until it made a clear path for us to follow the trail. It took us some time, because we needed to walk back and forth between the lake and the wall of roses, but at least no one else got hurt.

Then when we walked through we arrived at the biggest tree I have ever seen! It made me think back of the tree I used to climb in back home. I thought that one was big, but this one was at least a hundred feet! Oh and I almost forgot to tell you about the grass, I am pretty sure it wasn’t grass, because it was so soft you could just instantly fall asleep on it.

While we were gazing at this big tree, a tree-lady appeared. Apparently they are called Dryads, but I hadn’t seen one before. The Doctor, Mr. Goatman and I talked to the beautiful lady to figure out if she had seen the child, and if she knew where it was so we could take it home. She then pointed out that she had no clue if we could be trusted, despite us giving water to her rose bush, or sentinel as she called it.

So she said we would need to do a test, to see if we could be trusted by taking care of a child who needs protection. She said there was a birds nest with eggs all the way on the top of the tree, and the parent birds had died so she wanted us to bring it down safely. Everyone wanted me to climb, and I was pretty sure I could do it, but I still felt tired from the chase. So I apologised and said I couldn’t do it right now, because I was still so tired, but if I hadn’t been tired I would do it.

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Strangely enough, that made her smile. She said to lay down on the field and she would take care of it. I closed my eyes and just dropped down, in this bouncy fresh smelling grass carpet. I don’t know what the others were doing, but I was just reminded of home. It was so nice to lay down there, I swear I could’ve slept all day long. But then it became even better! She started to sing and hum this beautiful song, and within seconds I was dreaming.

Suddenly I woke up, the tickly grass had touched my nose and I opened my eyes. I saw everyone else around me on the grass, slowly waking up too. I had to stretch, like all cats do, and I am pretty sure I will never sleep as well as that time. She kept her promise of taking away my tired feeling, so now it was my turn to bring those eggs down. Mr. Goatman gave me his bedroll and more rope so I could wrap it in there safely and lower it down as soon as I got there.

I planted my claws firmly in the tree, and I felt the thrill of climbing this gigantic tree. I thought back of you Spark, and how you had fallen down out of the tree. I don’t want to let you down, and I know how much you would have loved to do this, so I did this for you. I climbed and climbed, until I was almost at the top. I started shaking, I was scared, and yet happy too. After a couple of deep breaths I got to the top and saw the nest on a far branch. I steadied myself, and started slowly climbing towards it, and reached for the nest. The branch wasn’t strong, and started to lean more and more downwards, and just when the nest was going to slip off I managed to grab it. But I wasn’t stable at all, so I slipped down instead. Having the nest in one hand and my other claws digging in the branch, I was dangling that scary hundred feet above the ground. I promised you to not be scared, and I promised her to bring the eggs back safe.

I tried to place the nest back on the branch, so in the case I would fall, it would only be me, and not those eggs. But I couldn’t, my claws were slipping away.

So.. I just let go. I pulled both my claws and the nest close to my chest, hoping that I would break the fall for the eggs and they were safe. All so we could save Aldo too.

The branches scratched my face and back, and the wind was howling in my ears when I was tumbling down to the ground. As I saw the ground come closer and closer in increasing speed, I closed my eyes. Then a miracle happened, branches with soft leaves wrapped themselves around me and caught me out of the air, only a few feet above the ground. Instead of falling to my death, this magic gigantic tree had saved me.

Treelady then said that I had passed the test by putting the lives of the eggs over my own, and therefore I was allowed to take the kid home too. I couldn’t really understand yet what she had said, and when I was put to the ground I cried and asked for The Doctor. I needed to know if my legs were fine. He did a full examination, and said that I was perfectly fine. I never have been so scared in my life. As a gift for helping the treelady out, I got this feathery medallion that I can show to all protectors of nature, to show that I am a true friend. Isn’t that super cool?!

Then I turned around to see a huge flower bud appear out of the ground, and when the petals opened up, we saw Aldo sleeping safe and sound in there. With a kiss of the treelady he was woken up, and when I gave him his shoes back, I explained what had happened and that we would bring him home.

I held the kids hand and talked to him all the way to the hut of Matilda, where we got the other two children too. As promised, Matilda had actually cured Karl from his paralyzed state, and we then started the walk back to the farm. I am pretty sure we saw some big shadow in the forest, with beady glowing eyes, but I just decided to distract the kids and walk a bit faster while the others kept an eye out for danger. Luckily there was no danger anymore on the way back, and we brought the kids home safely.

The Doctor and Inge talked about somethings like money, and apparently Linda, the daughter that we had found at Matilda’s, wanted to work for Matilda. So they were talking about an arrangement that would make everyone happy. I just really wanted to go to the guildhall, so we could tell this to the guildmaster and get our Bronze Badge, and of course write this story down for you Spark.

After the talk with Inge and The Doctor, we made a quick stop at Matilda’s to explain the deal to her, and we even went to the goblin camp to see if there was any interesting things there. We did find some stuff, but no treasure unfortunately.

And of course every story has to have a good ending. In this case the good ending is that we all got our Bronze Badge. Oh and afterwards, as The Doctor explained, “Close friends should talk, get drunk and get naked”. So we did.

Lost in the woods 2

Doctors Log Entry 1

The Fate of Three

I am Doctor Vasilievski. What is the nature of your emergency… I am Doctor Vasilievski. What is the nature of your emergency… I repeat this to myself as a mantra. Although I would never admit it, I am a little nervous today. You see, this day marks something important. A new road to travel, a new path to take. You see, today marks the very first day that I am not just a doctor. After today, I shall be an adventurer. I have applied to the adventurers guild, and I have been accepted as a new recruit. Together with the other new recruits I shall embark upon a quest to see if we are worthy.

As luck would have it, by chance I find myself in the company of one of these new recruits, a Firbolg named Craven. His name means Brave bold voice in his native tongue. The moment we start talking we realize we lived very close to each other as our native tongue is remarkably similar. We talk a bit and find out more similarities. We are both members of the clergy and both of us serve uncommon gods. I serve a god of death, and he serves a god of decay. We discuss and find our viewpoints similar. Without death and decay, life and fertility cannot exist, and like a two-sided coin, both sides are of same worth.

When we arrive we are greeted by the other recruits, who were already on site. A quick introduction gets me introduced to a Tabaxi named Jade on the mountain. She seems very eager to listen to our tales and writes down vigorously anything we tell her. Something to enjoy, and be wary of for later. We also find an elf, or Half-elf from the far far north. He calls himself Halrŭn the hunter. His domain is one where people like me apparently die. A little ominous, but he seems okay otherwise. Last, but certainly not least, a teacher halfling by the name of Lindal Tealeaf introduces himself. 5 of us in total.

As we exchange our introductions, a larger than life dwarf lady enters the room followed by another man, not as imposing, but certainly impressive as well. The red headed dwarf lady quickly establishes her dominance with her booming voice and natural charisma. She explains to us that we will be tested and that her associate will explain the details. With a booming laugh she puts us all at ease before leaving us to her heavily coughing companion.

I offer my medical assistance to the poor man named Lornan, but he believes he will endure the pain. I am content with this, as he will seek my aid if the situation worsens, of this I am sure. After all, I am a doctor. Lornan explains to us that a local farm woman has called upon the adventurers guild. Her children have gone missing, and she requires immediate aid. Lornan gives us directions, and the name of the lady we are looking for. Since haste is of the essence, we instantly set out to find the farmhouse. There, we encounter the woman, who’s name is Inge. She is working the lands, and I make sure I quench her thirst as well as that of her children. After all, working the fields in the heat and sun will cause dehydration, and that can lead to all sorts of medical afflictions. I need her lucid and aware to become an adventurer.

She introduces us to the 4 (non-missing) children. Kirsa, Hugo, Carla, and Saskia. She tells us that her daughter, Linde, and her identical twin brothers, Aldo and Carl, are missing. She describes them for us, and what they were wearing. She also mentions a lady in the woods, a recluse named Mathilda. Then one of her daughters, Saskia, directs us to the area where they last saw the three. I take this moment to look upon the poor child, and see that a poison of insecurity is gripping her intensely, probably caused by the stress and worry she suffers from her missing siblings. This is causing her to perform at a much lower rate than she possibly could. As a reward, I give her one of my elixirs of confidence, created by mixing various herbs and distilling them into a concentrated ichor. It should help her remove her insecurity.

Our hunter friend and our Firbolg use their tracking skills to find a big tree, where the children most likely played hide and seek. Here, I envision myself being one of the children, and manage to find the tracks of three of them. They lead in separate directions. We find one pair of prints to be deeper, this is most likely the oldest. We decide that it is most likely she would survive the longest in the woods, so we follow the tracks of the others. The first tracks we follow go north. After a short while, we find that there is a cave filled with spiderwebs, and a rather unfriendly creature called an ettercap resides here, along with his spider friends. It is here that our Halfling friend goes on a veritable rampage and manages to singlehandedly take out many spiders and damage the Ettercap immensely. My knowledge of life and death allows me to divinate its final moment, and I use my magic to rip the skin from his skull, which causes his brain functions to seize instantly.

Thanks to the aid of my hunter companion, we manage to obtain ingredients. An ettercap brain and some spider fangs that contain their venom sacs. On top of that, we find the paralyzed body of one of the twins, Carl or Hugo. A makeshift harness is created, and my firbolg friend shows me a valuable lesson. Trust in your companions, for it will save your life later. A lesson that eventually proves true.

After we find one twin, I suggest we go after Linde first. After all, when you have a spare, maybe the other child is more important. Although it sounds a bit crude, the party agrees and we quickly go follow her tracks. Again, the work of our trackers is infallible, and we find ourselves at a small cliff. Thanks to some quick thinking we use rope to get down below, with the immense aid of our climbing expert, Jade on the Mountaintop (with a name like that, what else could you expect?). She however has spotted something. I do not know what, and before I get the chance to ask, she has already left.

With nothing else to do, seeing as we already lowered the body (still alive mind you) of the twin, we continue the path, following a small blood trail. Eventually, we find a small cabin in the woods, with some impressive wards surrounding them. I don’t know the exact nature of these wards, but it is better to talk than to use the sword if possible, so we approach the cabin and speak up. An old lady answers.

She introduces herself as Mathilda, and we talk. She is a potion brewer like me, and she creates many wondruous elixirs. After some talking and some buttering up, she opens up to us. Unfortunately, Craven does not succeed in a 5 finger discount on a magical potion, and is quickly kicked out. It takes a little more time to regain her trust, but in the end she tells us Linde is in the back. However, she does not want to go home. Me and the teacher go up to the girl and start asking her why. We find out she desires to learn from Mathilda, to become a healer as well. She knows her mother does not like Mathilda, and fears she will not agree and will not allow this to happen. I propose to be an intermediary for her ,Mathilda and Inge. At this very moment, an alarm is issued. Goblins! I rush outside, to find our Tabaxi, out of breath, and our Elf (Half elf?) both readying their weapons. It soon turns out Jade found some goblins, and their camp, but she managed to shake them off. False alarm.

We warn Mathilda of the threat, and she explains she has protective wards keeping her safe. In the end,Lindal Tealeaf and I manage to trade, talk and exchange goods, getting me an elixir of vim and vigour that will save me when the end is nigh, and a promise of another potion later, provided I get Inge to agree to let Linde be Mathilda’s apprentice. Halrŭn buys the other two potions. Mathilda explains she can cure the paralysis of the young boy, but it will take time. We leave him with her, along with enough food so she does not need to suffer for it. We take a little time to allow our barbarian to haggle as well as recover some of his wounds. The haggling does not help, but he seems a little less worn for wear after this short moment of respite.

With enough time spent, and the evening approaching upon us, we quickly travel to the last location. Up front are Jade and Craven. Without warning, they are suddenly trapped in a net, and all hell breaks loose. Our half-elf takes a grievous wound, and is forced to step away from the front line, while our friends are still kept in the nets. Though survival is always my first priority, letting them perish would decrease my own chances, and sometimes you have to look upon the god of death, and tell him…Not Today my friend.

The goblins crash upon us, and we fight. It is a hectic scrappy fight. I am struck deep and I feel the pain burning in my sides, but the Elixir of Vim restores me enough to keep me fighting. I see a blur of a burning Firbolg turning invisible, a half elf barbarian throwing sticks, a halfling tornado whirling through goblins and a Tabaxi eating a blade to the face and going down. This is the moment. I say:”You shall not take this Tabaxi today my friend. On your feet.” and she manages to regain her footing. In the end, the goblin boss screams at the last goblin to take care of things. I know, that the goddess of Death, Shar, does not give without taking. So I put my hand upon the goblin, and inflict the most hideous of wounds, leaving strips of goblin flesh upon the floor. Take care of this.

The goblin boss is intercepted and slain by the combined efforts of our Half-elf, Firbolg, and just recovered Tabaxi. I harvest some of the ingredients, and manage to obtain a nice scimitar…for goblin standards. I also obtain a flask of oil. Something I could certainly use to create new elixirs, or perhaps even incendiary devices.

After we take some time to recover, we travel onwards, and find ourself next to a pristine lake. The water is fresh, the clouds are clear, and this marks a spot of intense nature. Following the advice of our Firbolg, Craven, we commune with nature. It takes a little bit of trial and error, and Halrŭn almost dies, but a quick intervention by Jade saves him. We satisfy a woodland spirit by feeding it the water of the lake, and find ourselves in a verdant glade. There we meet a fae creature which calls herself a dryad. She does not trust us and believes we should prove ourselves.

Thankfully, this is something I am good at, gaining trust, not necessarily proving myself. I talk and communicate with her, and we are given a task. She assures us that the last child is safe, and trusting my firbolg friends’ judgement I decide to put my faith in her. I tell her we will do as she pleases, but our travels have worn us out immensely. She allows us shelter in her grove, and we fall into a deep slumber.

As we wake, I feel invigourated, and our climber feels the same. She climbs into a massive tree to collect some eggs of birds that have befallen a tragic fate. I refrain from saying you cannot make an omelette without breaking some eggs and let our climber cat do her thing. It seems the tree is however slippery and dangerous, and she nearly tumbles to her death. But the dryad manages to use the trees vines to slow her descent and both the eggs and the Tabaxi are saved. Her confidence did take a hit. I consider offering her an elixir, but I feel that this time maybe it is better to not offer medical aid, instead offering encouragement. After all, I might have to work with her again, and medical dependencies are a bad thing for an adventurer. Good for my wallet, but working together should provide some financial benefit anyways. The last child is returned to us, and Jade receives a feather charm of the dryads. We travel back under the protection of the dryads’ blessing. A dark evil finds us, but cannot pinpoint us thanks to this blessing.

We bring back the children, and explain Lindes’ situation and dreams to Inge. Inge does not seem thrilled, but she agrees to letting her learn from Mathilda.We also find Carl awake and alive. Saskia has vomited up all her insecurities and should now be a confident and reinvigorated lady, though Inge did not see it this way. Such is the way of a healer I suppose. We quickly travel to the goblins camp, and take whatever we can use, after all, they attacked us, so winners’ right.

We finally return to Kathniss. She is already informed about our great success. I offer her the opportunity of health elixirs made by Mathilda, and we inform her of the dark evil. She knew about it, but was unsure if it was true. It was very…very true.

As a reward we receive gold, as well as a bronze badge. I engrave it with “The Doctor”. I am now ready to take on any emergencies…As long as its bronze ranked.

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On the next issue:

Circus in town