- Aram Raethran – Elf Warrior
- Azula – Tabaxi Bard
- Trinket – Harengon Rogue
- Bronk Thunderaxe – Bugbear Paladin
- Flint – Human Ranger
- Aelith – Triton Druid
- Bergeoff Raethran – Elf Rogue
- Sage – Half-Elf Bard
- Lani – Aasamir Paladin – Not Present
- Silas Heron – Aarakocra Monk – Not Present
The party reunites and explains the events of their previous adventure, in which Aram, Azula, Trinket, and Bronk had ventured into the woods – and met a goblin named Zorrin. He’d been in a graveyard, trying to follow a map he could barely understand looking for some kind of buried treasure. Trinket, familiar with Thieves Cant, realized that the markings on the map Zorin had were not intended for the common eye – the markings, which appeared to be random dashes and slashes – were actually Thieves Cant explaining where the “treasure” was – at a tomb. Once they’d made their way into the tomb, everything had gone terribly wrong and Azula now found herself cursed. They explained that they spoke to a cleric by the name of Annabell, and that she would look into it.
The following morning, the company returns to the Church of Florsena, only to discover another Cleric explains that Annabell discovered something so horrible that within the chambers of the Church, she ripped out her own eyes, grabbed the book she’d been reading and ran out of the city, screaming. Aelith tells everyone that they should prepare – Trinket goes to the weapon merchant (a dwarf named Boris Bellstone) and purchases two more daggers. Azula pays for Aelith’s short bow and trident, speaking with the shop vendor to purchase both for 20 gold. Bronk speaks to Zorin, who explains he has no weapon – all he ever had was his shovel and Bronk broke it. Bronk looks to Trinket – and Trinket offers to purchase a dagger from the weapon vendor, who dismisses them each time.
Lani and Silas offer to remain behind and try to research Azula’s curse further, using their religion connections.
As they exit the Ivory Coast, their gaze goes north – and see a massive forest – where one tree stands miles taller, wider, and shattered –
Aelith quickly picks up on what appears to be Annabell’s trail leading into the forest to the north – shattered branches and trampled bushes of someone running frantically is very clear to Aelith’s druidic senses (Natural 20). It’s then that they hear an all too familiar voice coming from the trees say, “Well, well, well, it would seem destiny has brought us together again.” Gazing up into the trees, they see Burlap.
Trinket immediately draws her daggers, ready to finish the fight that they’d had before. Aram places his hand on her furry shoulder and says, “Wait a minute. He can probably help. He knows things.”
Bergeoff nods in agreement. “I agree. He was trying to help us get off the island in exchange for recovering his amulet,” his eyes drifted to Trinket who had taken the amulet and tried to keep it – until Burlap used magic to eventually trick them into recovering it.
Burlap smiled then looked to Azula. “Indeed, I know things. I am old, and my master, an elderly wizard who lives way beyond on his years – much have learned from him, much have I learned from fetching things for my master. On you,” his bony finger pointed to Azula, “do I sense a dark shadow… a being… who sits, for now, patiently within you – but he is an infestation… he spreads his shadow inside of you… in time, he will soon command your soul and your body, and who you are, will be nothing but a mere spark…”
Aelith looked up at Burlap. “Would you know how to remove this curse from her?”
Burlap turned his head, “I can not remove the curse… the being who now haunts her is old and ancient… a time… long forgotten… when history was not yet recorded by the hands of mortals… so it would require someone… ancient… someone who would know of such curses…”
Sage asked, “You said your master is old. Would he know?”
Burlap paused. “Perhaps he would. But he is not who we should ask. The answer may yet be closer.” His eyes drifted to the splintered tree deep in the woods. “Our answer lies there at the base of the ancient tree… But, before I help you… you must swear to help Burlap…”
“Or,” Azula sneered, “you help us and we don’t kill you.”
Burlap smirked. “I can fly. Your flyer isn’t with you, I see.”
“We have arrows,” Azula countered.
“And I have magic,” Burlap smirked, revealing his pendant he’d retrieved.
Azula’s fur hackled. “Fine. How can we help you?”
“Because you fetched the egg before I could,” Burlap explained (see Session 03), “my master was not pleased with me.” He reveals his hand where he goes on to explain, “He cut one of my fingers off for my failure. He said that next time it will be worse. My master promised my freedom long ago, but keeps me bound to him. When the time is right, and I feel you are ready, I will call on you to confront my Master and force him to free me from the bond he has created. In exchange, I will now take you to someone who can explain how to break the curse that threatens to devour your being,” he said, his eyes focused on Azula. “But before I do so – we must blood bound.”
“What does that mean?” Azula asked.
“I means we bind our blood,” Burlap explained. “I have great reason to mistrust you. You have already betrayed me once, when I promised to help. The blood bound ensures, should you break your promise to me, I will be able to snap my finger and undo the curse’s removal from you, binding the shadow back to you.”
“Fine,” Azula growled. A brief spell was cast by Burlap that completed the blood binding. “Now tell us how to remove the curse,” she demanded, impatiently.
“That giant tree in the woods – The Mother Tree – Sometimes called The Ancient Tree or The Great Sky Spear. That is no ordinary tree in the center of the Jade Forest – as you can see, it stands taller than any other! The Mother Tree is a sacred tree to the Druids. They believe that her roots reach out and touch every plant, no matter what continent – and that it is able to feel the destruction of any tree. Legend even states that when a forest is burned down, the Mother Tree’s leaves turn brown and fall, in mourning. The origin of the Mother Tree, according to the legend, varies but the most common is that it is that the arrow that Nifika, the Elven goddess of Magic, fired her bow to stop a fallen angel by the name of Verastin, who had once been the most loyal angel of the gods, sent to the world to smite great evils – but he’d fallen into a frenzy – the line between what was good and evil blurred – those who committed the most trivial of things found themselves slain on the angel’s bloody sword. Nifika had shot the arrow from the heavens that imprisoned him there and assigned an ancient Dryad named Danela to guard the Mother Tree. The Mother Tree was also protected by Nifika’s most sacred – a Unicorn by the name of Starhorn. According to the stories, about twenty five years ago, a Cult who had hoped to release Verastin in hopes of gaining his favor had uncovered a dark ritual to release him – it required killing Danela. There were adventurers who were assigned to stop this cult from committing this vile act, but they succumbed to greed!” (He’s not lying – all of this lore developed from another campaign – see their Session Notes: Session 04 when they were given the quest to save the Dryad and decided to fight bandits and Session 05, where they see their delay caused them to fail in their mission and the Dryad is slain! Fun note, in yet another campaign that group traveled back in time to stop another Paladin who traveled back in time to prevent that from happening! See their Session 62 notes for that! More to that – that same group was tricked by a Hag at the Ancient Tree – their Session 7 and Session 8! The slain hag would rise again as a spirit and torment yet another campaign – see their Session 12 and Session 13! All this to say, the actions of a party matter in my campaign! Now where was I? Oh, yes Burlap telling the story of the Ancient Tree…) Burlap’s eyes narrowed, “Because of their foolish actions and succumbing to their greed – the cultists were able to complete their ritual and release the fallen angel back into the world… and not only that, with Danela slain, the Unicorn Starhorn had tried to come to her aid – and the fallen angel, Verastin – broke off the Unicorn’s horn and plunged it into the Unicorn’s Heart – changing it from a beautiful, majestic beast, to a literal Nightmare!” (You can see the transformation in those Session 62 notes!) He continued, “And now, where Verastin flies, he brings pestilence and disease… but,” Burlap smiles, “He’s not your problem. That’s just some history. Who we need is Danela.”
“But you said she’s dead,” Sage replied.
“She is, but her spirit remains, ever trying to fulfill Nifika’s request of keeping the tree safe,” Burlap smiled. “Her spirit still haunts those woods. So we just need to summon her and she should have the knowledge to break the Curse that lingers over her,” again his bony finger pointing to Azula. Burlap looked at the forest. “We must go to that splintered center tree. That’s where her spirit resides. Once, long ago, fair creatures once lived in these woods… Centaurs… Sprites… Pixies… even Faerie Dragons.”
Azula’s eyes widened. In her homeland, and the dense jungles of Feylinar, Faerie Dragons were known to dwell – it was an aspect of her home she greatly missed.
Flint spoke up. “Since you’ve been perched in the tree – we’re tracking a woman.”
Burlap nodded, “The sightless woman with the book?”
“Sightless?” Azula asked.
“She had no eyes,” Burlap confirmed. “She seems to be running for the center of the woods too. My guess, that book she’s clutching might be cursed as well… did she try to look up how to break your curse?”
Azula nodded.
“The tome probably describes how to do it, but all knowledge of that fallen king that now resides within you, is all probably cursed, his name stricken from history after his fall,” Burlap nodded. “It’s funny what greed can do.” His eyes focused on Trinket as he fondled his pendant. “Curses are all too common for the foolish.”
Trinket gripped her dagger, and felt Aram’s hand on her shoulder again.
Burlap looked at Azula. “I am to guess, you must have been of some kind of royalty where ever you come from?”
Azula nodded. “My father was a king on Feylinar.”
“A princess, then,” Burlap nodded. “That’s what the king in the tomb waited for… his treasure was always a lure… a trap… those who were not royalty met their death… for his curse was that when someone of royal blood came to him… he would be free to walk the world again… so now, he resides within you… slowly corrupting you… until he can gain complete control over you… and seek revenge on the descendants who imprisoned him within his tomb… that is why you were selected… and why all of you were allowed to escape from his tomb alive… just as he had desired…”
Aram grimaced, “We were played.”
Burlap squinted his eyes as he looked at Azula, “Tell me, does greed fester in your heart? Because that spirit inside of you… he is an ancient Aasimar… if you know anything about Aasimar… they’re blessed with angelic blood… but like Verastin… does not meet that they can not fall… that Aasimar King… his name was King Lux Cecidit.” (Fun Note – the word “Cecidit” loosely translates to “he fell” in Latin). Burlap continued, “He was a kind and generous king – at first. He put the people first, giving to them, protecting them. The people adored him. But the world was still young then. He grew to thrive on the people’s attention, and soon that thriving became greed – when the people did not praise him as often as he wanted, he began to punish them. From punishing, he began to beat them. From beatings, he would imprison them. Then… the torture began. His greed overtook him and he demanded his wizard to make him a magic weapon that he could use to conquer the lands… and so his mage made him a magic sword… which he then used to wage war in neighboring lands… slaying any and all, even those who freely surrendered, for in his greed he became paranoid… he trusted no one… and so his own mage, devised a trap to imprison him… luring him down below where he’d stored dwarven gold… and imprisoned him there and made it his tomb… the wizard, using magic ensured the only way he would ever escape his tomb is if a person of royal came to him… the wizard assumed that all would remember the vile acts of King Lux… but time has a funny way of making people forget… things get lost… distorted… forgotten… and now here we are.”
Burlap looked at Azula. “You are exactly what he needed. Royalty. And,” he looked between Azula and Trinket, “the symbol of greed. You made an easy vessel from him to enter and escape his tomb.”
Azula shook her head. “Fine, fine, let’s get this over with. Let’s either find Danela or Annabell, or maybe both of them…”
Following Annabell’s frantic entrance into the Jade Forest is all too easy – he non stop pace left behind broken branches and brush snapped and broken – one could surmise, that not having eyes – she couldn’t see what she was running into – only sensing where she needed to run.
However, at that moment as they ventured into the woods – the ground began to rumble – and bursting forth from the soil drawn by the sounds of movement – a massive ankheg, which stretched over twenty feet in length!
Sage, however is ready (Natural 20 on Initiative!) – and rather than casting a spell, she drew her blade and cut deep into the beast! And with her adrenaline running, she tried to draw her blade out of the beast – but it was stuck between its exoskeleton caprice and being covered in blood – but Sage is not able to pull her blade free (Natural 1 on her second attack). Bergeoff seeing Sage next to the beast, slid next to her and stabbed the creature and put himself between it and Sage. Bronk rushed in next, striking the beast as well – drawing blood – and Zorrin also managed to hit (for some trivial damage).
Aram tries to hit, but its piercers manage to deflect Aram. The creature looked at Bergeoff and green liquid formed in its mouth as it spat acid from its mouth at Bergeoff, Bronk, Sage and Aram – however, the acid catches them off guard and lands on all four of them (doing significant damage) which knocks Sage unconscious and causes Aram to become extremely bloody. Aelith slides next Sage and places her hand on her, using Cure Wounds to bring Sage back from the brink of death.
Flint, staying back, especially after seeing it could spit acid, fires an arrow and does four damage to the beast. Azula moved behind Bergeoff, placing her hands on his back and using Cure Wounds.
Trinket who had been caught flat footed by the Ankheg (Natural 1 on Initiative) tries to stab the creature, but still too unsteady and misses. Sage, rising from the ground, draws her dagger and plunges into the Ankheg, fearlessly facing the beast, and does some damage. Bergeoff, still shaken by the acid, is unable to connect. Bronk, seeing that this beast is not going down easy and fearful that it could spray acid again – strikes – and uses his Paladin ability to divine smite the beast – which finally manages to bloody the beast! Zorrin is able to make a connect as well, doing some trivial damage to the beast.
Aram, still bloody, looked at Azula, then turned and with all of his might, brought his sword down on the Ankheg – landing a critical hit (Natural 20!) – and cuts deep through its exoskeleton, spraying the beast’s blood everywhere – but still the creature stood. Flint then focused, using Hunter’s Mark – landing a hit and doing additional damage with the Hunter’s Mark, but the arrow is barely able to pierce the creature’s hide, doing minimal damage. Azula heals Aram, while Trinket moves behind Azua, stealthfully approaching the Ankheg, this time focused and ready – piercing the creature’s flesh deep – blood seeped from its wounds. The ankheg’s acidic breath doesn’t recharge, as it focuses on everyone being close to it – except Flint.
The creature focuses on Aelith, having seen how she was able to heal. The creature lands a critical hit on Aelith (Natural 20!) – which does extensive damage to her – but, surprisingly Aelith is still standing – barely! Returning the favor, Sage uses Cure Wounds on Aelith, to give her some health back. Bergeoff tries to keep Sage safe, while she heals, barely swinging at the beast.
Bronk leaps in, with his battle axe, bringing the axe down across its mid-section, which finally slays the beast. Everyone dives out of the way as the massive beast tumbles forward. Bronk helps Sage recover her sword.
Trinket turned to face Burlap, pointing to the Ankheg carcass with her dagger. “Why didn’t you help fight that?”
Burlap shrugged, safely perched on a tree. “I don’t have weapons, as you can see,” he replied standing, revealing only a loin cloth and a rope belt with pouches.
“What about magic?” Azula asked.
“I only have magic to get in and out of things,” he replied. “I recover things… and disappear as quickly as I can. If there’s a fight to be had, I will usually escape.”
Trinket twitched her rabbit nose. Aram placed his hand on her shoulder again.
As they entered deeper into the Jade Forest, Aelith – though her homeland was the depths of the ocean – she could sense there was something unnatural about the forest. The dying trees provided unnatural shadow, where things seem to watch from the lingering, unnatural darkness. She whispered to the others, “The deeper we go, something is very unnatural…”
Trinket’s eyes widened. “Look,” she pointed at Azula’s shadow.
All eyes turned to Azula’s shadow – and not only was her own shadow darker than any other shadow – the shadowy wings appeared more like shredded bat like wings and seemed to flap excitedly… appealing to the darkness and corruption within the Jade Forest…
The company presses on for several more hours before exhaustion begins to grip them. They make camp and Azula informs the others that she doesn’t have any camping equipment – Aram offers his space, since he plans to take first watch.
As everyone lays down to sleep – Aram is plagued by the sounds of the dead and dying plants constantly making rustling sounds – but as he investigates, he finds no signs of rabbits or any other animals – nor does he hear the song of birds – not even owls, which he realizes might make sense – if there’s no small animals such as rabbits and rodents – there’d be no nocturnal predators such as owls to hunt. But then – what was making the sounds? The very plants themselves?
(DM Note – At this point I had the party all roll 1d20. The person who rolled the lowest would have a special note given to them – Azula had rolled a Natural 1)
After Aram’s watch, Bergeoff is awakened and Aram explains what he’d heard. Bergeoff nods and as Aram goes to sleep, Bergeoff begins speaking with Burlap to understand what had happened to him after they’d parted ways on the island, apologizing for the actions of his party members and the treatment Burlap was given. A short while later, Bergeoff heard a sound like a cat gurgling – as he listened – his elven ears sharpened to hone for the sound – however, he does not do anything about it – believing it’s the forest trying to lure him away from the camp.
The following morning as everyone awakens – it becomes very clear something is amiss. Azula is nowhere to be seen. Aelith checks where Azula had been sleeping in Aram’s tent – but it’s as if nature itself were hiding her tracks (Aelith rolled a Natural 1).
Despite that Aelith had contaminated the scene – Flint’s ranger skills reveal something. Bergeoff nods, “That makes sense. I heard something last night.” Everyone turned to face Bergeoff asking if he’d heard something why hadn’t he awakened the others – and he explained he assumed it was the forest trying to lure him out of the camp. As they begin to track – it clearly appears Azula is being dragged across the forest floor – but what is dragging her is unclear – there are no footprints – neither man or animal. Is it the forest? Signs indicate she was dragged without care, as some stones show signs of blood that she may have been dragged across – before the party finds her – with vines wrapped around her and pinned to a tree – the vines… the thorns… were they drinking her blood?
Aram tries to cut her free – but the tree reacts – a vine snagging him and holding him upside down. As Aram dangles there – he can see that there is a pile of bones, both humanoid and what appears to be animal – this tree – perhaps several of the trees – now feed on blood to survive. After quite a bit of chaos and effort – they’re able to free Azula, Aram, and Trinket who also eventually ended up snagged by the vines. They’re able to revive Azula, who explained that she awoke to a vine around her throat that rapidly pulled her through the forest and prevented her for screaming for help.
The party backtracks to the camp and eventually picks up Anabell’s trail again – the trail leads into a webbed area of the dead forest.
“We could go around,” Azula offered as an idea.
“Annabell’s tracks go right into the webbing area,” Aram countered. “If we go around and she’s actually trapped inside, we’d need to come all the way back around here, to try and track her.”
Bronk rips the top of his backpack and puts Zorrin in there. “Just in case you walk into spider-web. You safer there. You hit what I hit if you can.”
Zorrin replied something in goblin about being thankful – though only Bronk and Bergeoff could understand what he’d said.
Aelith examines the webs – and notices this does not appear to be giant spiders. Most spiders are tactical with their webbing – this, as Aelith explained – looked to be as if it were just… vomited here. There’s no order only chaos to the nature in which these webs were laid out. Aelith finds signs that Annabell has gone deeper into the webbing area.
“I’ll fly above, you all go inside web area,” Burlap offered.
“Can’t you fly to the other side – see if you see her tracks?” Sage asked.
“I am not a good tracker,” Burlap said, “unless there’s magic involved. I can try to track her tome she has.”
“Do that,” Sage snapped.
“Please,” Bergeoff added.
Burlap closed his eyes – recalling the arcane energy he sensed when Annabell had blindly run beneath him at the entrance of the Jade Forest – then took off ahead, flying high above the webbing. Forty minutes later her returned, “She’s somewhere in there,” he pointed to the webbing. “She never came out the other side.”
“Something in there has her,” Bronk pointed out.
“Giant spiders by the look of things,” Flint offered.
“It’s not giant spiders,” Burlap pointed out. “Creatures that stand on two feet. Tall about six feet… look like one of you mating with a spider… they’re creatures known as Ettercaps… despoiler of woods… and beauty… probably drawn here after the Dryad’s demise… sensing great corruption and evil here.”
Since Aram (Natural 20) was familiar with Ettercaps – an idea came about that Azula could use the magical ability of Disguise Self to impersonate a female Ettercap and get closer to them and attempt to free Annabell, while the others provided a distraction. Using Disguise Self – Azula emerged based on the description given to her by Aram, what a female Ettercap might look like…
The company was amazed… and horrified all at once.
Azula as the female Ettercap begins to move into the webbing first – the rest of the company following a short, few moments later – however, both Bronk and Aram find themselves caught in the webs – and the more they struggle the tighter the webs seem to become. “Stay with Azula, trail her,” Aram said. “We will get out of this and join you in a moment.”
Azula, disguised as the Ettercap enters the small Ettercap hive, where she sees a single person entangled in a web – that appears to be female.
The Ettercaps seem genuinely confused by the presence of another Ettercap. She, as an Ettercap, is able to silently convey pleasurable tones as she makes her way to the webbed figure. Trinket who had moved through the trees, avoiding most of the webs took notice that the four Ettercaps seemed to be chattering, their mandibles clanking excitedly – trained to observe the unusual – Trinket’s rabbit like eyes – honed in on what they appeared to be staring at – and then she realized – Azula had disguised herself with magic – but her shadow was still projecting those dark wings and the Ettercaps had taken notice to it.
Trinket tried to think of a way to warn Azula – to somehow signal Flint, Aelith, Bergeoff and Sage who had been hanging back – that’s when Trinket noticed that Aram and Bronk hadn’t joined them yet!
Elsewhere, Zorrin was able to cut away at the webbing which helped Bronk slowly pry himself free of the webs.
Bronk looked to Aram, “I can help free you.”
“No,” Aram said, still struggling. “I have an idea.” Closing his eyes, he called on his innate magical ability to create a bonfire… however, the dense, thick webs were moist and resisted the flames. He looked up at Bronk. “Fine, cut me free.”
Back at the Ettercap Hive, the Ettercaps approached Azula, still disguised and clacked their mandibles loudly at her – she listened for a moment, and calling on her instinctive ability as a bard to mimic sounds, she successfully copied their sound – unaware of what – if anything – she was saying in their language – the result, however – seemed to work – as the Ettercaps looked at one another – further confused.
One – hearing the webbing pull violently knows that something big is in its web and may have pulled itself free (Bronk) – and quickly disappears to investigate.
Back to Trinket she climbs down to the others, “I don’t know where Bronk and Aram are, but those creatures are getting suspicious of Azula. They can see her damn shadow with the wings. We need to do something to distract them.”
Sage, as an Elf was all too familiar with Ettercaps and their disgust of all things beauty. She removed her flute from her bag and began to play Nae’rin Anar – what humans translated to The Rising Sun – an ancient song of love between two elves, separated by an ocean. (Natural 20 rolled on Performance) Immediately as the sound of the flute drifts through the dying wood and webs, the Ettercaps hiss and forget that Azula’s shadow was casting the unusual wings and skittered away to find the source of the “foul” music that filled these dark woods.
Shifting back to Aram and Bronk, an Ettercap emerges and sees Bronk has broken free – and turns its attention on Aram, before he can escape, quickly attacking and making Aram bloody! Aram in return, attempts, yet again to cast Bonfire, this time beneath where the Ettercap is – and it quickly leaps out of the way. However, the bonfire does manage to catch the webbing on fire this time.
Switching to Azula, she realizes the Ettercaps have been pulled away – begins to fanatically cut at the webbing holding Annabell.
Switching back to the others, three Ettercaps emerge and Aelith casts Thunderwave, but two of the three of the Ettercaps leap out of the way, while the third is caught full force; though the two that did leap out of the way are damaged. Tricket fires a bow – however her shot misses as the one she aimed at is pushed back by the Thunderwave (she missed, but flavored it to tie it to the Thunderwave). Bergeoff ran up and stabbed one with his blade, piercing its bulbous flesh. Sage focuses on the three Ettercaps as she changes the song, to one that speaks of a curse, and casts Bane on the three Ettercaps who all succumb and fail – their thoughts twisted by the magic!
One of the Ettercaps tries to stop Sage, but the Bane prevents him from landing a hit. However, the one that Bergeoff stabbed – despite being Baned is able to land a hit and deal extensive damage to Bergeoff. The third one hits Trinket, despite Bane, but only doing trivial damage.
The battle between the companions and the Ettercaps rages on, for an unnaturally long time, as it seems the companions are unable to pull themselves together – but it finally ends with Aram slaying the last one with a critical hit. The company reunites with Azula, who has dropped her disguise – and looked to the others as they entered the Ettercap Hive. Annabell was screaming in a language none of them knew – something old and ancient – a tongue long forgotten and stricken from time.
“Could she be speaking in the tongue that King Lux’s people spoke so long ago?” Trinket asked, her rabbit ears twitching nervously.
Azula looked at Burlap. “Do you know what she’s saying?”
Burlap nodded. “She’s saying – Find Denala over and over again.”
Azula, curious to see if she can read what Annabell has discovered – takes the book – and upon reading the first few letters – her mind feels pulled into the book – as the letters on the page swirl and change – she hears the screams of thousands dying at the hands of King Lux – everyone from men, women, and even children – her mind spirals into despair – as the images become too much to bare – she extends her claws and begins to try to gouge her own eyes out…
Bronk quickly leaps on Azula and uses his brute strength to keep her claws away from her eyes – and manages to pull one of her hands away and lands a critical strike on Brunk and bloodies him. Aram resorts to using his frying pan to render her unconscious, which after several hits, she finally succumbs to darkness. She regains consciousness after an hour and is back to herself, with no longer having the desire to claw out her own eyes.
Leaving the Ettercap Hive and moving deeper into the forest, the corruption of the forest seems stronger – weakening the company faster and faster. The company agrees to rest – and Aram takes first watch – and for the first time hears wildlife – jackals. But there’s something unusual – the jackals… seem to be speaking with one another. Aram shares this news with his brother, Bergeoff, when he takes over camp. Burlap and Bergeoff speaking back and forth, having remained on friendly terms – Burlap warns that those aren’t just jackals – they’re gnolls. Bergeoff scouts just ahead and confirms it’s jackals and quietly moves back to the camp and puts out the fire so it doesn’t draw attention. Bergeoff tries to put out the fire – but between glancing at the direction of the gnolls – he fails to put out the fire – and suddenly the gnolls go silent. Bergeoff holds his breath and edges near the brush – only to be ambushed by the gnoll.
After waking the others – the battle forces the gnoll and jackals to flee – and the company presses on, not well rested to the center of the tree.
Burlap looked at Azula. “We will now have to awaken the dead – you’re good with that?”
Azula nodded. “I have to get rid of this curse…”
TO BE CONTINUED.