If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I caught wind of an expedition to the Servos on behalf of an alchemist who would be willing to part with the knowledge of crafting Kelix's Poultice. Accompanied by 5 other Adepts, no less. And so, in my foolishness I immediately thought "oh good, it'll be a cakewalk, and a great chance to learn". Shows what I know.
The head of the expedition was one Flitwick Farnsworth. He seemed a decent enough fellow... sensible enough to bring along several Adepts, in any case. Patrique Caduceure (who professed to have the most fantastical of cures for everything under the sun, and a few things above it... none of which sounded like they would work), a Human Troubadour, Redroum Caskhead the First, a Dwarf Illusionist (who also professed to have a cure for everything, all different from Patrique, and all sounding about as effective), Skriblz Forfingers, a very young Beastmaster, Youghdel von Smeshfays, a Windling Sky Raider (and the strongest Windling I have ever heard of, much less seen). Also Orfen, who still refuses to learn any attack spells.
Flitwick's first request was that we subdue some large frogs called jub-jubs so that he could harvest their venom. This sounded straightforward enough; he had brought some rotting meat to bait them out of the water, we waited in ambush, and then three quarters of our group promptly were grasped in the mouths of the creatures as soon as we sprung it. Fortunately, I had picked up a few more pointers from Youghdel regarding my Battle Shout technique along the way, and finally saw some success. My Wood Skin and forged armour held the great beasts' fangs away from me (although they didn't keep me from getting grabbed any more than the others), my spells flew true and either harried or harmed my targets, and I was once again reminded that it really does pay to have some sturdy folk who are expert at wielding a blade. Youghdel and Skriblz took the creatures' assault quite poorly. Frankly, for a moment there I was wondering if we were all going to die, chewed to death by giant venomous frogs.
Skriblz made fast friends with one of the surviving jub-jubs (and frankly I think salvaged our relations with our employer, who seemed quite irked when Youghdel slaughtered an unconscious one before it could be harvested... but with a steady source of the venom, he seemed much more pleased). We started towards our next target, a hive of blood bees. It turns out that the soldiers are quite venomous, with a faster-acting poison than the jub-jubs. The group had invested in a few Kelia's Antidotes before leaving, and they had served us well, but we would end up not needing any more for the bees.
Orfen, Youghdel and I had fun making up names that rhymed with blood bees (mud/crud/bud/etc bees) along the way. Also along the way, our employer directed Youghdel to light the contents of one of his bags on fire, but was perhaps not as clear as he thought he was being. Instead of a smoke that was supposed to drive away the swarming mosquitoes that had been troubling us there was a cloud of intoxicating smoke. It is entirely possible that these two events were related to each other. The smoke did seem to have a calming effect on the local wildlife, as a few jungle cats decided to play with us rather than eat us, an unusual sight.
When we arrived at the hive (healed to varying degrees from our first encounter; I was perfectly fine, most of the rest had some wounds that needed treating), Flitwick fired a smoking arrow that was supposed to calm the hive... but unfortunately missed quite badly. Still, the soldiers came out (which was nice, I imagine if we assaulted the hive directly there would have been more bees) and were dealt with in relatively short order. Their attempts to surround us went poorly, and we were able to isolate and defeat them. My recently-acquired ability to distract enemies worked out quite well, and Patrique even finished off a few bees with his belt knife (which Orfen had gotten around to casting Flameweapon on at some point).
We were in much better spirits after that second battle. Flitwick harvested his venom (and a few other odds and ends, I think) and we returned home safely. Still, the frogs nearly did us in. I imagine young Skriblz will find that her new friend is a most deadly creature.Statistics:Posted by Sharkforce — Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:02 am
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