We travelled for most of the day through the forested mist of the Misty Forest until we came upon an old crone, seemingly trapped under a fallen tree. Tegan knelt beside her and spoke soothing words, while Jorad eyed her with suspicion from a cautious distance. Gunx quickly lifted the tree off the woman, who quickly revealed that her predicament had all been a ruse.
She began to pull garlands of flowers from her hair, and offered one to each member of our Fellowship. She seemed like a harmless old druid to me, so I accepted her gift, as did all the others, save for Jorad, who feared malign enchantment. Insulted, the mysterious lady of the forest turned into an owl and flew off, dropping Jorad’s garland to the ground. As it landed, all our garlands withered and turned to dust.
The forest began to get darker, and denser, as we continued to the southeast. Thick, wet spiderwebs of enormous scale draped the trees around us. Suddenly, from the forest canopy, a pair of giant spiders and a fat, fearsome fanged creature with cruel curved claws clambered into our midst. This creature, an ettercap, tried to strangle me with a sticky silken garrotte, while the spiders blew their proteinaceous loads all over Tegan and Jorad, pinning them both to the ground. Brick and Gunx leapt to my aid and slew the ettercap, while Tolarin quickly smashed the two spiders.
We freed Tegan and Jorad from their sticky bondage, and followed Gunx across a fallen tree that spanned a rushing stream, but the tree was rotten, and broke under the weight of our Fellowship. I Misty Stepped to the far side of the stream to catch up with Gunx, and Tolarin nimbly crossed over too. Suddenly, another ettercap appeared with more spiders. One of the spiders gave me a vicious bite, and I swooned from the pain and poison, nearly passing out. I Misty Stepped away, back across the stream. Through the mist, I saw Gunx defeat the ettercap, kicking its bloated body into the stream, and heard the piercing sound of Tegan’s Shatter spell explode the spiders.
We used potions and spells to regain some strength, and moved on with haste, coming to a dark pool being fed by a waterfall. The monks and I approached the cataract from the north side of the pool, while Brick, Tegan, and Jorad went around to the south. I could sense there was something behind the misty cascade. Sure enough, a green dragon burst through the curtain of falling water, striking fear into my comrades’ hearts. It swooped over to Brick, Tegan, and Jorad, blowing a plume of poison at them. Tegan collapsed, while Brick and Jorad retaliated with a volley of arrows and spells.
I splashed it with a Vitriolic Sphere from the far side of the pool. Gunx raced to assist the others. The dragon wheeled around and blew its poisonous breath at Tolarin and I. Barely clinging to consciousness, I tossed another Sphere of Vitriol, then took cover behind the waterfall and a cloak of infernal Darkness. Gunx revived the wounded Tegan, who cast Shatter at the dragon from one flank, while I blasted it with Magic Missiles from the other. The flying foe blew another blast of baneful breath at Brick and the brother monks, then vanished into the night sky.
Once again, we used potions and spells to regain our strength. Gunx led the way into the dragon’s lair, down into the slippery stone cavern, and came under fire from a group of elven archers. He caught one of the arrows, and hurled it back at the group, killing an elven matron whose name we would later learn was Lyra. Tegan called out to the elves in their tongue, saying that we came from Altand, and mean them no further harm.
We proceeded into a large cavern. At the far southwest end of the cavern, a small island could be seen in the middle of a pool of water. Alerted by the grinding sound of stone on stone, we found ourselves suddenly joined by a trio of bloodthirsty ettins. Tolarin was surrounded, and fell to their combined assault.
Then, a pair of elves came in from the south: Vanya, a wizardess, and Eladrin, a knight; but, these fools were determined to attack us, not the ettins. Vanya shot a Fireball at half of our party, so I fired back with Magic Missles at Eladrin while Gunx ran to confront Vanya. He quickly parleyed with the elves, kindly demanding that they either assist us or stand down.
Tegan killed the younger male ettin with a Shatter spell, and Jorad finished off the female with an Eldritch Blast. Our Fellowship turned our attacks against the last ettin, the elder, with Gunx delivering the final killing blow. An ornate strap of leather worn over the shoulder of the female ettin caught Gunx’s eye. He pulled the belt off of the two headed corpse, and put it around his own waist as the spoils of victory.
We then found the secret stone door the ettins had appeared out of, and traversing through a short tunnel, we came to the filthy reeking cavern that the trio of two-headed giants had been using as their lair. We rested briefly here, despite the smell, and then went back to the larger cavern, with fleet-footed Gunx and Tolarin leading the way.
Heading up a northward tunnel, they came to a mess hall and an adjacent barrack in a pair of caverns, but before the rest of our Fellowship could catch up to them, Chuff the green dragon reappeared. Chuff blasted Brick, Tegan, and I with his nasty breath, dropping Tegan and I to the ground. Though I stood at the doorway of Death, my unblinking, unthinking eyes saw Brick still up and fighting.
Evidently, gallant Gunx dragged my unconscious body into the mess hall, and tender Tolarin did the same for Tegan. By the time the monks had revived us, Brick too had fallen to the dragon, and Jorad had wisely summoned a huge glabrezu, a doggish breed of Tanar’ri from The Abyss, to fight for our side.
Gunx ran to Brick’s side to revive him, and joined Jorad and the glabrezu as they attacked Chuff. As he flailed his fists and feet of fury, Gunx realized he had a newfound vigor surging within him, thanks to the Belt of Hill Giant Strength he was wearing. Tegan called out to the elves, but they coldly cowered in their cavern while our Fellowship fought fiercely for their freedom.
Chuff was smart enough to see that the tables had turned, and since I was clearly its greatest threat, it cast a Wall of Thorns to block me, confounding Tegan and Jorad as well. As I blasted a hole in the barricade with my Burning Hands, Chuff tried to flee, but the demon and the cunts were hot on its heels. The glabrezu got a few more good licks in, and Tegan shouted Vicious Mockery indeed at Chuff as the ass-kicked dragon escaped. Moments later, the helpful demon vanished, back to The Abyss from whence it came. Too bad. I’ll miss him. He seemed nice.
After consuming spells and potions for reinvigoration, we went north, and searched the mess hall and barrack caverns. There, we gathered up a fair bit of coinage, and a silver trade bar, before heading into a narrow passage to the east. Gunx triggered a Glyph of Warding inscribed on the floor, setting off an explosion. We retreated back to the mess hall, and waited for attackers to pour out from the east passageway, but none came.
Tolarin shadow stepped down the passage, into the midst of nine dragon cultists, then ran back to the mess hall, egging the cultists on to follow him. Sure enough, three cultists appeared at the passage entrance, but six others somehow circled around, and entered the mess hall from the south. Brick decapitated the first cultist to leave the eastern passage, and Jorad Shattered all six of the cultists who came from the south.
Tolarin spotted an elf in fancy garb with two cultist bodyguards at the end of the passage. The elf made an indecipherable gesture, and created a cloud of poison gas than nearly filled the mess hall. Immune to the poison’s effect, Tolarin smashed his way through the remaining two cultists in the passage, and gave chase to the elf and his brutes, while the rest of our Fellowship held our breath and followed.
We caught up to the two cultists, who stopped to let their master flee, but these brutes weren’t but a minor obstacle. At first they had Tolarin surrounded, but soon they were smothered by cunts. Tolarin crumpled one cultist with Lightbringer, while Gunx slapped the mask off the other, a female green dragonborn. We now surrounded this last brute, and Tegan delivered the killing blow with his rapier.
We now had a moment to take note of our surroundings, our chase having led us to a finely appointed bedchamber, filled with looted elven luxuries. Jorad opened a trunk, letting out a yelp of pain when he pricked his finger on the latch, but didn’t seem to find anything of note. Tegan spotted a secret door to the southeast. Behind this, we found a strange shrine: two eyes peering above a basin on a dark wall. Gunx said it was “a shrine to the elven god of outcasts, Fennel Nectarine,” or some such nonsense. The others seemed to believe him, but I get his sense of humour: he was clearly making that up.
Fortunately, before long, we found another secret door here, and this let us to a huge cavern. There, we found the fancy elf, Neronvain, perched atop Chuff, who had returned. Tegan lashed out at their minds with Synaptic Static, then dashed away from the rest of the group, heroically making himself an easy lone target. While Jorad blasted the dragon from a distance, Gunx charged Chuff, and delivered a devastating punch across the wyrm’s jaw, right on the button, knocking Chuff dead.
Stunned, Neronvain surrendered. We bound him, while Gunx pulled a few teeth out of Chuff’s skull for souvenirs. We collected what other valuables we could: more coins and trade bars, four potions of healing, a pair of scrolls Tegan found interesting, and Neronvain’s journal. Evidently, Neronvain is the wayward son of King Melandrach, and the Green Dragon Mask is already at the Well of Dragons, in Severin’s possession. We must bring our prisoner, and this information, to Waterdeep at once. Tonight we will slumber in Neronvain’s sumptuous room, tomorrow we’ll head for Altand, if it please Lady Doom, klaatu barada nicto amen.