AAR: [4] Ironbark Grove (2020-03-29@20:00GMT)

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sigfriedmcwild
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Joined:Wed Nov 13, 2019 6:59 am
Re: AAR: [4] Ironbark Grove (2020-03-29@20:00GMT)

Post by sigfriedmcwild » Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:52 pm

Aethryllia Redwing a 5th circle Windling Beastmaster needed help with a mission to determine what's going on in the recently discovered "Ironbark Grove". I joined Jael, Karl, and Zil on this venture.

The trip to the Sevors jungle was uneventful, other than Zil getting Zoak riding lessons from our employer. It's hard to tell with Windlings since they are so tiny, but I think he was flirting.

The grove itself certainly lived up to its names with Jael pointing out all the strange ways metal was infusing the local wildlife. We reached a pool where the water was iridescent from the metal's influence and Aethryllia started examining the animals in the area. Zil looked for the presence of spirits and felt something deep beneath the ground. Aethryllia decided to go scouting around, while Zil tried to listen for elementals speaking.

After a while he determined there were two spirits, one of wood and one of earth. The wood elemental seemed to be angry with some "invaders" while the Earth elemental was crying out for help.

As we waited for lady Redwing to return, we heard some heavy footsteps coming from the jungle, quickly followed by the appearance of three ogres, I think they were just trying to get water from the pool, but before we could come to a mutual understanding, Karl is shooting at them, they have clubs drawn and we're in a fight. The leader of the ogres was showing clear sign of metal infusion, the other two (females?) did not, Zil took a nasty hit and was knocked down, but we took them out without too much trouble and without killing them.

After the fight Zil jumped in the camp fire to heal himself, I'm starting to think matrices may not be as safe as magicians claim...

At this point we started getting worried about Aethrillia, so we set off in the direction she had gone, the jungle got denser and the trees were showing more signs of metal infusion, until we got to an area filled with nigh invisible spiderwebs, to find our employer and her pets stuck in one.
The source of the webs was four large spiders, one of which had weird leafy growths on it. Fighting opponents that can retreat up a tree is quite aggravating, especially when they spit poison. Jael and Fang both succumbed to it around the time the last spider skittered off.

Turns out the leafy growths were the sign of some wood elemental influence according to Zil, which would explain why that spider kept getting back up even after a massive beating. As we rescued lady Redwing from the webs, Karl found the remains of some long dead adventurer in a cocoon, it looks like he was wearing some kind of thread armour.

Zil thought the spirits we'd encountered earlier were closer and we noticed that there's was a hollow under a tree, with a line of ants going in and out. The ants coming out were carrying flecks of metal. We rested for a short while, before descending into the hollow, which led in a large underground chamber.

In the centre of the chamber was a newly exposed vein of metal and small stream slowly eroding it. Also 2 elemental spirits engaged in a struggle, and several giant beetles helping one of them.

Zil stepped up to try and get the spirits to come to some kind of understanding, while I focused on looking threatening and offering unasked for advice. It turns out these were the spirits Zil had felt all along and the earth spirit is part of the defences of a kaer so it would not budge from his position, the wood spirit on the other hand needed it gone to stop the exposed metal vein from tainting the forest. After some tense negotiations, Zil managed to get the wood spirit to hold on for a month, while the kaer is evacuated thus allowing the metal spirit to move. We then got all the important information from the earth spirit on how to reach and contact the kaer.

ottdmk
Posts:462
Joined:Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:25 pm

Re: AAR: [4] Ironbark Grove (2020-03-29@20:00GMT)

Post by ottdmk » Sun Apr 05, 2020 2:54 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Zil, Karl and Norg for their contributions. Please accept 110 Legend Points and 93.8 silver.

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