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• Arhian Vos – Human Monk
• Hartmut Helmsworth – Elf Monk
• Sindri Waggletop – (Forest) Gnome Wizard
• Rettniss Kulvith – Water Genasi Druid
• Avacyn “Jolyne” Uloth the Merciless – Half-Orc Paladin
• Twilight Skybane – Tiefling Bard

• Sindri, having identified the items they’d acquired from the cave, and given a map by the elf who then escorted him to the treant as Sindri rode on his pony that the party had left for him
• At the treant named Twinoak, Sindri asked about the sickness in the woods – and quickly realized the error of his ways, since the Treant spoke so slowly
• He was pleased that the treant offered to watch over his pony, and the other horses and quickly pursued after his companions, eventually catching up as they were observing the green fog in the woods – most of them noticed that every few minutes, the fog expanded and the land beneath it – the grass wilted and soon became swampy
• Sindri presents what he’s found
  • You find 6 gems (worth 50 gp each)
  • 230 gold (which the party has already dived up)
  • One +1 Short Sword – Hartmut takes the weapon
  • One Potion of Climbing – Sindri hangs onto it
  • Two Potions of Hill Giant Strength – Given to Avacyn
  • One Pipes of Haunting – Given to Twilight
  • One Ring of Water Walking – Given to Rettniss
  • One Staff of the Serpent – Given to Rettniss
  • One Wand of Magic Missiles – Given to Sindri
• Then then look at the green haze and venture into it

• Unfortunately the haze no only causes a Poisoned condition to some but invokes irrational, hallucinatory fears in two of the party members – sending Avacyn running west, deeper into the wounds, while Hartmut runs south
• In their altered state, they see what appears to be a twisted version of the woods – as if living scarecrows were attacking them

• In an attempt to snap their companions out of it – Twilight suggests hitting them, so Sindri fires two Magic Missile at Avacyn and one at Hartmut, knowing the spells will hit and ideally not do much damage – however, to the altered state of Avacyn and Hartmut’s mind, it’s the creepy scarecrow attacking them and doing damage; meanwhile, Rettniss and Twilight are both inflicted from the haze’s poison condition
• Rettniss attempts to use the Entangle spell on Hartmut since he’s closes, but Hartmut breaks the DC required and continues running – shaking off, in his mind, the Scarecrow’s attempt to wrap it’s arms around him
• Twilight uses her Magic Hand to take a rope and wrap it around Avacyn as she swings wildly at an imaginary foe and she’s able to successfully restrain her
• Arhian snarls beneath her breath and chases after her fellow monk, Hartmut and attempts to use Athletics to retrain Hartmut – but Hartmut uses his Acrobatics to escape “the Scarecrow” (rolling a Natural 20 – and thus managing to elbow Arhian in the nose, dealing very minor damage, but enough to shake himself free of her grasp)
• They’re finally able to restrain both party members and bring them back to their senses, but both vividly believe they were being attacked by a Scarecrow creature
• The party listens and to the west – where the ground is most moist they hear the sounds of large frogs; but a few of them know – with the knowledge that has are responsible for the growing mist – that long ago, Hags took frogs and used magic to mutate them and create humanoids that they used as guardians – and know, that Bullywugs are generally evil in nature to do the corruption of hag magic

• They decide rather than going west – they head south a little to see if they can go around the Bullywugs – and end up seeing what they believe to be a Beholder… having experience with not only having heard of one (As’zar’vari’tium) – but they had fought a “false” Beholder created by the fanatical Kuo-Toa. (See Adventure Notes 3).

• After observing it for a moment, however – Sindri is able to determine it’s not a Beholder – because it has no mouth – and deduces, because of the swamp – it’s a Gas Spore since they’re known to be a form of living fungus
• Playing it safe, the party decides to attack from a distance

• Arhian fires first – but due to the haze, can’t see clearly – and hits Rettniss for some trivial damage (Critical Fail)
• Sindri launches a Ray of Frost which hits for 1 damage – and that’s all it takes as the Gas Spore explodes – its fetid, poisonous gas, lingering in the haze; the party decides to move around the 15×15 square of the gas spore’s destruction and spots – through the haze, what appears to be a clearing in the trees
• They discuss the clearing – before finally deciding to go into it – and quickly learn the error of their ways as Violet Fungus lashes out, striking and hitting almost everyone – and dealing damage to the party, who manages to cross the infected field finally
• Upon doing so – they hear the sound of a dog whining and go to investigate and are greeted by a two headed dog – one that Sindri recognizes as a Death Dog – sometimes used by hags as guardian dogs
• Daggerpoint, the Sprite explains that there’d been an elf named Tynor Skyfire who had been trying to discover what the hags had done to the land – and that he’d suffered fatal wounds, when attacked by the Death Dog – Tynor’s dog – a very special dog – had remained behind to try and give its master time to flee, unaware that Tynor’s wounds were already fatal – he’d been found by the others outside of the haze, already dead from the Death Dog’s infected bite
• This angers Hartmut – who gets a Natural 20 on initiative and takes two actions (see House Rules for Natural 20 on Initiative)

• Hartmut fires his bow twice – both times, finding their mark in the Death Dog
• Arhian tries to fire, but misses; her nose still sore and swollen from the elbow to the face she’d gotten from Hartmut
• Avacyn roars a battle cry and she wields her newly acquired battle axe, The Great Axe of Grumthak’s Blessing and brings it down into one of the Death Dog’s heads doing some damage
• The Death Dog goes next, each head biting at Avacyn – one misses, one hits – and Avacyn is forced to do a Constitution Save – which she Critical Fails – but uses Inspiration to re-roll and meets the DC, passing it! (A good thing too)
• Twilight moves over and casts Faerie Fire on it, being careful not to include Avacyn and successfully lands the spell – as the Death Dog begins glowing blue
• Rettniss hits it with Frostbite which it fails to save against, with Sindri following up with another gold based spell – Ray of Frost, which also lands a hit
• Hartmut fires his bow – delivering the killing blow
• He approaches the leashed dog – and sees a normal collar that has the name Kalistia on it – but it also has a green collar with runes, attached to a green leash wrapped around the tree
• Sindri is able to determine that the leash essentially prevents Magic similar to Dispel Magic, preventing the Blink Dog from teleporting; the hags had leashed it, hoping to lure the elf back and finish him off (unaware that the Death Dog’s bite had proven fatal)
• Hartmut breaks off the Arcane leash – dealing 2 points of damage as it explodes, to both him and Kalistia.
• The party looks around and realizes – there’s more danger to be found – all are cut and bruised and they’re not even sure how much further they have to go.