Timber!

11 June 2008-

When last we left, the PCs were investigating a large, dome-like structure which appeared to be constructed of living, hedge-like vines, fronted by a moat and a lovely bridge made out of various types of bones (including children, etc.). On the inside, it appeared to be some sort of large livestock pen, with a dividing wall and a smaller pen for what turned out to be dire wolves. They charged, and we all opened up with missile weapons and spells. Jeff's half-giant and eBill's elven archer ("Has it got eyes?") took one down with axe and arrow, respectively, while eMike's pixie mage blasted one with a cannon-like stone missile. The last one we cleaned up in a bit of a piece-meal fashion, but we got it done.

On the other side of the dividing wall was a large area filled with sheep, and several child shepherds. Suspecting that the fen-witch we were looking for was masquerading as either a child or a sheep (a little paranoid, yes- thanks for asking), we approached them in a cautious but friendly fashion, only to get jumped from behind. The thing which came at us through the hedge was an evil-looking ent-like creature, and only Jeff's blessed ring saved him from an unpleasant fate. He and the ent (posthumously identified as a fen witch) went a couple of rounds, until it scampered off through the hedge after getting set alight by eMike. Jeff pursued as best he could through an opening, only to find the witch's hut, while the rest of us either covered him or tried to get the children to safety. The witch came back for more once she had extinguished herself, but we took her down fairly quickly, then beheaded her corpse to be sure. Once done with her, we liberated the children and the livestock, and returned both to their rightful owners, the other humans living in the fens. Our hope is that they will help us, in return, to get through the rest of the fens without further incident.

I would say to tune in next week, but we will be on another gallivanting hiatus, as Craig and I take students to Italy. Ciao!

Making a Horse's Ass of Oneself is Easier than it Should Be

4 June 2008-

We continued downriver this week after making nice with the local ogre shaman, and getting both his advice and his blessing. Things were, as they say, "going swimmingly" until we came to a lake, when things got a little hairy. Once we got into the lake, the water itself seemed to grab us and start moving us toward the center of the lake. Having been warned of the upcoming fens and the evil, nasty, and overtly hostile "fen witches," I (as the centaur) jumped to the conclusion that we were being taken out to the center of the lake by one of the denizens of the fens so that it could attack us far from the safety of the shore, and responded accordingly. Our experienced gamer crew, most of whom are ancient veterans of things like the Ravenloft campaign (the cuter and more innocent the encounter, the more likely it is that it heralds your impending doom) and the Arduin Grimoire ("you walk through a field... it attacks you!") immediately saw the logic of this approach, even while joking about how we would feel stupid if it were a "friendly water elemental". Of course, it was- courtesy of the benign river goddess, and it sunk one of our boats as retaliation for our attacks.

Once off the lake, we headed into the fens on the river, this time condensed onto one large boat. The loss of some of our supplies necessitated more foraging stops, and on one of these, two of our men disappeared. We tracked them through the fens to a large plant dome, which appears to be some sort of giant livestock pen, but with an attractive bridge made out of bones leading to it. Poking our heads in hasn't revealed anything yet, but we fear the worst for the NPCs, who were probably wearing red shirts when they stepped off-screen.