The mist was interspersed with trees and shrubs, rather than the other way around. The ground was muddy from snow, and the air was just above freezing. It was not going to be a good day. As if to accentuate his thoughts, the man ran right into a bush – a sharp, prickly bush that got tangled in his midnight blue robes.
“Better watch where you’re going mage – wouldn’t want you to get your dress all tangled.”
“… thanks for the warning, Geyer.”
“Hey, don’t mention it.”
Sonadora, the Halfling leading the group through the woods, grinned as she rolled her eyes at the two men. She knelt beside Vida, her lupine companion, to look at something on the ground. To her trained eye, it looked like someone had dragged a tree along the ground – maybe dusting out their tracks? She looked around suddenly, trying to see something hidden in the mists. “Guys, does anything seem weird to you?”
Arphaxad turned his head towards her, one eyebrow cocked, “Why? Something out of place? Some greater mystery to solve? Dare I hope, an arcane mystery perhaps?”
“It looks like someone dragged a tree behind them to cover their tracks.”
Arphax looked disappointed. “Geyer – we’ve got something in the mud. Sounds like your area of expertise – why don’t you get off your horse, hit whatever it is with your sword, and see what happens?”
“Dora, I’m goin’ ta ignore the guy in the dress. Can you keep us updated on anything else you find?” She nodded and began to move forward again, Vida by her side. Somehow Sonadora managed to travel stealthily despite the bright flowers woven into her auburn hair and the bright green, fur-trimmed cape she wore over her leathers. Even in the middle of a rather bleak winter she somehow managed to look like spring. With her diminutive stature and grey wolf companion, she definitely stood out among the rest of the group.
Arphaxad, the next in line, was dressed in a thick, dark blue robe that covered him from head to toe. The hood, for now, was pulled back revealing a man with harsh features and short black hair. Despite his furrowed brow, his face didn’t look accustomed to a scowl. Instead he looked like a man searching for purpose, his expression uncertain as he looked forward through the fog. The cloying smell of eldritch ingredients followed Arphax as he walked, and along with his staff and the tome at his belt they ensured that few mistook him for anything other than what he was - a wizard.
Behind him rode Geyer, Knight of the Sword. Initiate of the Sword, really, having only recently been inducted into the mercenary order of knights. He was a handsome man, despite several scars on his face, and his short-cropped dark hair gave him a definite military air, as did his longsword and scale mail. Emblazoned on the shield he wore on his back was a black gauntlet over a bronze coin, denoting his rank within the Order as well as his membership. His horse, Golem also revealed his rank to anyone canny enough to notice. He was a well-kept gray horse with a black mane, but even now he whinnied nervously and balked at the slightest sound. Despite the heavy lance strapped to his side, Golem was not a warhorse by any stretch of the imagination.
The fourth member of the troupe, Ranja, took up the rear guard position, though it could be safely assumed that she was not taking her guarding duty seriously. Her nose was currently buried in a book she’d “rescued” from a haunted estate, just before the rats got to it. She was not terribly brave, having spent most of her life in a library or a temple, but she also loved books. She was a cleric of Oghma the Binder, Exarch to Ioun Patron of all knowledge. Of course she loved books. The other three didn’t understand, but they tolerated her reading habits and even helped guide her away from any roots that might cause her to trip and lose her page. Her attire comprised of a simple white robe with a light-blue cloak for warmth. She kept the hood away from her face, despite the cold, because it interfered with the lighting. Her few nods to practicality were her longsword and buckler, both strapped to her belt, and a suit of leather she wore underneath the clerical vestments. She wasn’t particularly adept with her weaponry, but combined with the divine aid of her patron she was a formidable addition to the group.
As they walked, she looked up from her reading with a look of excitement, “Arphaxad! It says here that these woods used to contain all sorts of animals! Even dragons! I wonder if it says more about what happened to them! I’d better keep reading….” She looked down again and was saved from an exposed rock by a gentle nudge from the mage. A frown crossed his face as he considered the words further.
“Yes, everything we’ve found so far suggests that this land was not always as tame as it currently is. Whatever dwelled here may have been responsible for the fall of Sundown that we’ve heard mentioned. I wonder what sort of darkness was ultimately responsible…”
As he finished talking, the sound of flapping wings caused Sonadora to stop and look upwards. Vida, too, lifted his raccoon-masked face to the trees. Sonadora spotted the raven atop a bare, leafless tree, its black eyes reflecting red even through the cold mists. An involuntary shudder ran down her spine. Geyer rode up next to her as she began forward once again, “I think we’re coming up to the clearing where the lightning struck. It’s just through that brush.” He nudged Golem further ahead. Golem responded with a reluctant shake of his head but trotted forward anyways. He pushed through the brush hesitantly, expecting something to jump out at him. The rest of the group followed with just as much care, for though the horse’s skin was thick enough to protect him, the others did not care to let anything in this cursed clearing scratch them in the slightest. Even Ranja stopped reading. Briefly.
Geyer was the first to speak once they had crossed the brush, “Well, it looks just like we left it. Gray. Burnt. Smells like the cooking pots they fed us from back when I was a gladiator.”
“Not quite, Geyer… something seems out of place here. I didn’t recognize that species of brush we just crossed… Ranja? You know what it was?” Sonadora looked back at Ranja while speaking, but was met by a shrug.
The clearing had not been formed naturally. Lightning had struck it three days ago, rending the large tree in the center and creating enough fire to savage the nearby foliage. Normally the snow would have kept the ground damp enough that the fire would be unable to spread, but an unnatural event so unnatural that Arphaxad deemed it preternatural (Only Ranja knew what he meant) aided the fire in the clearing’s destruction. Elementals composed of lightning had blazed trails among the trees that night, and only the group’s timely intervention kept the fire from spreading even further. The events that followed suggested that they apparently had not done enough. Beginning that night, any beast that entered the clearing appeared to become cursed. Everything from horses to birds became filled with an unnatural bloodlust, until finally even a human succumbed to the fel rage. The group’s investigation had led them back here.
“Become twisted by evil and not nature’s strike. Blood of blood trapped in ashes must find freedom tonight.” Arphax’s recitation of the Oracle’s riddle was measured and precise. He walked over the lifeless, ashen ground and up to the tree in the center. “I believe this tree was indeed twisted by evil, though lightning appeared to be the culprit at first. Those elementals were no natural beings. Lightning is far too unstable to spontaneously form elementals under normal conditions.”
Sonadora leapt into the air and grabbed one of the tree’s low-hanging branches to swing herself up by. She wiped her hands on her cloak as she stood atop the tree branch. “This bark is clammy as a corpse! It’s even the same color! Blech.” She nimbly walked across the branch to the splintered trunk of the tree. “Hey, looks like there’s something in here!” She reached into the tree without a second thought and started tugging, but to no avail. After a few frustrated moments she let out a huff.
Arphax walked nearer and waved his hand over the tip of his staff. With a few whispered words, the end began to glow. “Perhaps if you could see inside you could better approach the problem?” He held the staff up so that it was illuminating the inside of the trunk.
Sonadora stuck her tongue out at Arphaxad, “I could’ve done that, too, y’know,” but looked inside the trunk quickly to see what it was. “Heeeey. A skull! It looks like that horned goat-man. You think this could be his son?”
Geyer and Arphaxad both began to speak at the same time. Geyer won this time by scowling at Arphaxad and continued to speak, “Blood of blood trapped in ashes. I think we’ve solved the riddle.”
Arphaxad smiled smugly and spoke after Geyer, “Obviously, Sir Knight, obviously. I think we can also deduce that this is the reason for the chimeric condition of the afflicted animals. All of them bore horns and cloven feet. I presupposed that it may have been due to a demonic influence, but I believe we have found the apodictic culprit. Or, at least, the inaugural victim.” Sonadora and Geyer both looked at him with their heads leaned to one side. Ranja nodded absently as she searched the book for any mention of chimeras. “This explains the horns and hooves,” Arphaxad said with a fairly unsubtle hint of exasperation at his companions’ rather shallow fund of knowledge.
Ranja ascertained that there was no mention of chimeras in her book and then spoke up next, “…must find freedom tonight.” She looked up to the sky before adding, “It’s night right now. I guess we’d better free the satyr’s son soon.” She looked around for support and found everyone scanning the tree-line. Her ears soon picked up the reason; it sounded like something big was coming towards the clearing. The sound of trees being torn from the soil reverberated eerily in the cloudy mists, and they could be seen shaking as though in a torrential wind.
As they all watched the action, Sonadora nimbly climbed into the tree and began tugging at the imbedded skull. “It’s…. just not… rrrgh… coming out!” She had to stop and gasp for breath, and as she did the limbs of the tree began to shake as well, tossing her to and fro as she balanced on the limb. “Hey! The tree’s trying to knock me out of the…” As she flew went flying due to a particularly savage shake, she twisted midair to land on her feet and drew her staff. The tree calmed once Sonadora was knocked off, but she approached it cautiously nonetheless and softly prodded it with her staff to see if it reacted. It didn’t. So she hit it with a resounding *thwack!*.
“Dora, lass, I don’t think it’s that tree we have to worry about…” She turned as she heard Geyer’s voice and saw what he meant. Glowing red dots of light were appearing among the foliage, becoming just visible through the mist. As they looked on, the pinpoints of light began to surround the clearing. Sonadora quickly glanced around the borders of the clearing and began to see forms shamble out of the concealing shadows. Small gray trees with gnarled roots and branches were creeping towards the group. Each one looked like the outstretched hand of some large subterranean beast reaching towards the sky from within the ground, and the red pinpoints of light shone with a malicious crimson glow from somewhere within the creatures’ branches.
As they surrounded the clearing, Ranja cleared her throat and began to recite as though reading in front of a class, except with a perhaps more prominent tremor in her voice, “Twig blight… legendary living plants said to come from the Gulthias Tree which sprouted from a wooden stake after it was used to slay a powerful and wholly evil vampire. They draw nutrients much like normal plants… except legends also spoke of their preference for the nourishment provided by blood-soaked ground...”
“That’s great Ranja, but what can we do t’kill them?” Geyer had already unstrapped the lance from Golem’s side and was currently struggling to keep Golem from breaking away into the woods.
“I… don’t think the legends said anything about killing them. I guess… maybe we can just… hit them? Is that okay?”
“That’s just fine, lass. Golem – FORWARD!” The knight rode forward with a kick of his heels and drove the tip of his lance into the nearest twig blight, shattering. “They die just fine! Everyone, to arms!”
Arphaxad sighed loudly at Geyer’s melodramatic gesture, but proceeded to cast a spell anyways. He felt the energy begin to coalesce around his hand, and with a complex gesture released it towards a twig blight in the form of a fiery ray of searing heat. Instantly, the upper half turned to ash, leaving only a small trunk behind. Sonadora also resorted to fire, summoning balls of flame into her hand and throwing them into the crowd of blights with uncanny aim while Ranja chanted prayers to aid her comrades.
For all their efforts, the trees kept coming. For every blight the party took down, another two slipped out of the fog and shambled towards them, dragging their roots along the ground. As he ran towards a thick crowd of living trees, Arphaxad shouted back to the group, “Someone get the center tree! It may be calling to these wicked things!” He stopped in front of the blights and chanted a rapid cadence of seemingly nonsensical syllables while fanning his hands out wide. A gout of flames fanned out from his open palms, engulfing every nearby monster. As the crowd became entirely engulfed in flames, he looked back to see if anyone had listened to him.
Someone apparently had, as Sonadora had begun throwing balls of summoned flame into the branches of the central tree. Soon the upper limbs were ablaze, casting the entire clearing in a dancing red-orange glow. “It’s not working Arphaxad! It’s on fire, but its not burning!” As she spoke, she closed her eyes and drew upon the tide of natural energy beneath her feet, channeling it into her staff until it was cleansed of imperfections and nearly shone in the fiery light. A massive group of twig blights had approached the tree from the other side, threatening Ranja, Sonadora and Vida with their sharpened branches.
Ranja let out a yelp as she noticed what had happened and carefully put away her book before drawing her longsword and shield. She leaped forward at her attackers and began to methodically hack at any limbs that reached out for her. Sonadora took note of Ranja’s swordplay – enthusiastic if nothing else – and whispered a few simple words to Vida, “Protect Ranja, boy! Keep those things away from her!” With a growl, Vida dashed into the fray and suddenly Ranja found herself less outnumbered. Sonadora took another group of blights, deflecting their attacks with one end of her staff and using the enchanted shillelalgh to reduce the blights to nonliving chunks of bark.
Still, the twisted shrubbery continued to creep out of the woods in greater and greater numbers. The twig blight’s silence was interspersed with the sounds of the four in fevered battle. Geyer continued to ride Golem, whose eyes were nearly white with panic, but now wielded his longsword and shield, the lance having splintered against one of the many photosynthetic foes who’s splinters littered the ground around him. “Things’re getting bad here! What’s the plan exactly?!”
Arphaxad finished casting his spell, summoning a field of glimmering blue around his form just in time to deflect a twig blight’s strike. “We need to get that tree, I think it’s the only way! Fire hasn’t done the job though! We need something else!”
Ranja spoke up, gasping for air from fighting off the blights, “What about that axe we used to escape from that horde of rats? It’s enchanted to c… EEE!” Distracted by speaking, Ranja let one of the blights rake her back, cutting through the armor to her skin. She dropped to her knees as her vision began to swim and her arms dropped from the weight of her sword and shield.
As Vida jumped forward to intercept as many attacks as he could, Ranja mustered her will and stood back up on shaky legs. “I.. I think these things are poisoned, or cursed! I… my strength felt sapped as soon as its claws connected! Be careful everyone!” She raised her arms and began to swing her sword around in an attempt to help Vida. Vida gratefully retreated a ways, having sustained several wounds while holding the blights off of Ranja.
“Vida! Are you okay? He’s bleeding!” Sonadora’s cries reached Ranja and Vida, but there was nothing either could do. Vida limped quickly back into the crowd to aid Ranja. Sonadora attempted to reach into the ground at her feet to urge the natural plants to hold back these abominations of nature, but she found no nearby plants willing to aid her. “Geyer! My communion with nature’s weakened here! There’s not much else I can do!” She began to whirlwind her staff around her body in an attempt to deflect damage rather than cause it. She maneuvered her way over to Ranja and Vida, holding the blights back. It was a temporary effort, she knew and several times a blight broke through and struck her, but she resisted the effects of the poison with grit teeth in order to grant Ranja some extra time.
Ranja didn’t let the opportunity go to waste. With a cry to Oghma, she summoned forth energy to stitch her own wound and that of Sonadora. She frowned apologetically at Vida, who had helped her so much, and attempted to call forth Oghma’s power again. There was no more time, though, as a veritable forest of blights had already overwhelmed Sonadora’s defenses and forced her further back. Ranja and Vida rushed to fortify that side, but the odds had grown overwhelming; despite the trio’s best efforts, they soon had their backs against the scarred tree in the center.
Arphaxad was doing his best to keep back the blights with spell after spell, but his evocations were draining him of energy and each gout of flame was weaker than the last. Sweat stood on his brow from the effort, but he continued to reduce the malevolous flora to burning effigies. Geyer pushed Golem through a crowd of the trees hoping to break through to his companions. Golem’s knees buckled as the blights’ sharpened limbs rent tears into his skin and drained his strength. Geyer landed running, slashing at trees left and right. He reached the tree just as Arphaxad released another fan of burning energy… this one just causing the blights to glow like cinders rather than become ash. The things kept pushing closer.
“I hope you’re right Ranja! This axe might be our last chance!” He threw his sword into the nearest blight and drew an axe from the scabbard at his back. It was a two-handed battle axe that looked plain to casual inspection. A closer look revealed faint etchings upon a surface of highly-finished wood. It was hardened by magic and blessed by the priests of Melora, goddess of the wilderness, to aid a town she favored. It was a woodcutter’s axe, and the Ruhlins gave it to the group as a gift for saving their youngest son. “It’s too bad I’m not trained with an axe, or I bet this would’ve come in handy against these blights! But it can’t be too hard to hit a tree this big… right?”
Sonadora spoke up, having been the only one to reach the skull, “Actually, I think I can get the skull out if you hit this spot right here,” she reached out with her staff and hit the end against a spot on the tree right in front of where the skull was trapped, “Then I can go up and get it!”
“Okay, lass, but get up there now! We may not have much time!” The Halfling nodded, tossed her quarterstaff aside, bounced off Arphaxad (who responded with a confused grunt) and landed on the tree. She gripped the tree branch tightly, hoped the coating of slime wouldn’t cause her to lose her grip, and gave Geyer the okay. Vida, Ranja, and Arphax did their best to hold back the tide of blights, and Geyer cocked his arms back and let loose a roar as he swung forth with the enchanted axe.
It cut into the tree, and the impact nearly caused Sonadora to lose her footing. He gave a second roar and pulled back the axe, flinging a strange, thick, reddish-black fluid backwards from the blade. A second swing cut into the tree further and a solid piece of bark fell off in front of the skull. Sonadora saw her moment and acted immediately – she grabbed the skull and tore it from its mooring… and just as suddenly, the tide of twig blights stopped moving.
Ranja stopped to wipe the sweat from her brow with the edge of her cloak as Sonadora raised the skull over her head and let out a resounding, “Yippee!” Ranja looked up at the Halfling and suddenly fell back a step. The skull was reacting… nerves, vessels and muscles were forming around the bleached white skull to fill the spaces that once held the satyr’s flesh. Ranja managed to get out a few words, “Geh… g… the skull…!” and began to pray for a method to identify the thing in Sonadora’s hand.
Arphaxad looked up as a pair of dark, membranous wings unfurled from the skull. A wreath of tentacles grew from around the horns, supplanting the space where a normal being might have hair. As its eyes burst into a fiery red much like that of the blights, Arphaxad suddenly knew what it was, “I know these things… they were mentioned in a tome on the lower planes…” but before he could get further, the floating head opened its ghastly mouth and let loose a piercing scream. To describe the sound it emanated as piercing is to do a disservice to daggers the worldwide. The scream penetrated through the eardrums and psyche of the four listeners and knocked them to their knees.
Only Arphaxad managed to focus his mental faculties into a semblance of rational thought. The others all gripped their heads in their hands after falling to the floor. Blood dripped between Sonadora’s hands as she squeezed her ears shut, the sound having knocked her from the tree and likely perforated her eardrums. As luck would have it, Vida managed to avoid the worst of the sound as well, and while Arphaxad brought himself to his feet, Vida leapt into the air and bit down on the creature’s mass of tentacles, pulling it down. The thing fought to escape, its wings flapping wildly in the air, but Vida only bit down tighter. With a tearing wrench, Vida tore a mouthful of tentacles off and the creature took to the air once again. As it turned to swoop down at the wolf, Arphaxad finished his last spell.
Focusing all his energy into one last scorching ray, he pointed his outstretched hand at the demon, “Vargouille – your time on this earth shall be brief.” The ray melted the face off the extraplanar beast and burned the membranous wings to blackened bone. The skull fell to the floor and the remaining flesh sloughed off like a rotting scab. Arphaxad too fell to his knees and then forward into the ashen mud, his last remaining energy spent. The others got up shakily, and Ranja began to look over everyone’s wounds. Sonadora took a few shaky steps towards Vida, who had collapsed to the ground once the vargouille had perished. She began to look him over, careful to avoid stinging his wounds, and cleaned the remaining gore from inside his mouth.
As Ranja finished healing what wounds she could on her other companions, she came over to Sonadora who was clutching Vida to her tightly. “What’s wrong Dora? We won! … Why’re you crying?”
Sonadora spoke through her tears, taking great gulps of air as she talked, “Ranja? What’s it mean? Is it… is Vida gonna turn like those badgers? Or that beast man?” Sonadora raised Vida’s head up and pushed some fur aside to show Ranja what she was talking about. The priest of Oghma bent closer and moved Sonadora’s hand aside. It looked like tiny horns were beginning to protrude from Vida’s forehead in the initial stages of the curse the group had just fought to stop.
Ranja looked from Sonadora to Vida and found herself at a loss, “I just don’t know Dora. I think… maybe, we’d best just take him back to town, and see what we can do there.” Geyer knelt down, silently picked Vida up and draped him carefully over the back of Golem. Vida gave one soft whine before lying quietly on the horse, and with that the group departed back towards Sundown.