Continuing their trip towards Cassomir, the party finds itself skirting the edge of the Verduran forest. As the day began to draw to a close, the Group noticed an area of trees entombed in heavy spider webs. Deciding that they wanted no part of spiders, they put a few miles of grassland between themselves and the forest.
The afternoon waning, Lythar and Tylalaes went out to work on fighting skills, as well as attempt to track some dinner. An hour or so after they left, Tazjh set out on her own hunting trip. A short distance from camp, she spied some deer tracks, and leapt off in pursuit.
Meanwhile, Lythar and Tyl had a rather poor hunt, finding only a few grouse. Lythar brought one down with his bow, while Tyl managed to grab one herself. A few hours after dark, the two returned to camp, handing off their kill to Thistle to cook up. Kyle takes up practicing his harp, and manages to perform a few songs quite skillfully.
As the party turns in for the evening, setting watches, they notice with concern that Tazjh still hasn’t returned. Figuring she may just be running late in returning, the group spends an uneventful night.
As the sun rises the following morning, the group is very concerned that Tazjh is still not back. Breaking camp, Thistle adopts wolf form to aid in the search. Tylalaes decides he’s a rather handsome wolf, and much sniffing (and attempted sniffing) ensues. After sorting out the pair of wolves, Lythar picks up Tazjh’s tracks, which appear to be headed towards the treeline, and the party sets off in pursuit.
Reaching the edge of the trees, the horses are picketed outside the forest, and Lythar instructs Tyl to defend them. While Tyl doesn’t want to be left behind, she finally relents and takes up a watchful position near the animals. The group takes a moment to fortify themselves for a potential fight. Lythar works to make sure any poison will not affect him right away, Thistle casts magic to fortify himself, and Kyle grants Lythar additional strength.
Lythar slowly leads the way into the web-encrusted trees, carefully looking all around for anything out of the ordinary. Thistle moves on ahead, much faster on four legs than the slower humanoids. An odd shape near the top of a tree catches the elf’s eye, and he notices a mechanical trap that is set to entrap passers by. Calling forward to Thistle to hold position, Lythar, Kyle, and Gron carefully trace Thistle’s path across the forest floor, making their way carefully past large patches of sticky strands that crisscross the spaces between the trunks.
While waiting for the rest of the party, Thistle spies a Tazjh-shaped bundle of webs dangling from a very large web that has been constructed between a number of large trees. A quick discussion ensues, and Kyle is volunteered to fly up and free the velociraptor.
Carefully flying up to the top of the web, which is more than 30 feet in the air, Kyle begins to try and cut Tazjh free, only to be set upon by a very large spider. She sinks her fangs into him, sickening him with poison. Movement erupts all over the nearby forest as the commotion draws the attention of a half-dozen more large spiders, joined quickly by four Ettercaps. Two of the new spiders head straight for Kyle, the rest spread out amongst Gron, Lythar, and Thistle.
Lythar takes a moment to shoot a descending spider with his bow, following that up by shooting a thistle arrow into an approaching Ettercap. The nasty creatures close in, and soon Gron, Lythar, and Thistle all have a small collection of enemies surrounding them.
Reeling from the poison, Kyle uses his holy flask, calling on Cayden to cleanse the poison from his system. Instantly, all of the posion affecting him is turned into a very strong liquor, and feeling happier (and far more drunk), Kyle begins fight the creatures surrounding him. Lythar is also bitten by a spider and poisoned, however, his magic prevents it from affecting him.
Gron begins to take apart the ettercaps and spiders that are trying to harm him, and Lythar dispatches one spider with a single swing, carrying his blade through into an Ettercap, severely wounding it. Thistle strikes an Ettercap with lightning, starting a fire in the webbing surrounding them, which begins burning up the webs towards Tazjh and Kyle. Struck repeatedly, Kyle flies clear of the top of the web, taking a moment to catch his breath. The spiders that were attacking Kyle rush down the web towards Thistle.
Finding himself free of enemies for a moment, Lythar notices that a number of the creatures have decided that Thistle’s wolf form looks more tasty, and hustles over to assist. With Gron’s help, Thistle and Lythar kill the remaining spiders, and severely wound the remaining Ettercap, who flees towards the edge of the trees. Refusing to let it escape, Kyle flies over and finishes it off.
The fire has caught well in the webbing, and is rushing towards the incapacitated velociraptor. Lythar yells at Kyle to get up there and free her. Hurrying, Kyle manages to cut Tazjh’s cocooned form free, and brings her back down to the horses, where she’ll be safely guarded by Tyl. The group creates a firebreak and manages to prevent the fire from spreading too much farther past the webs.
Looking around carefully, the party discovers numerous dessicated corpses in the trees. Most are of animals, and a few are Gnolls, but a human form catches Kyle’s eye. Flying up and freeing it from the webs, they are horrified to discover the dead body of the Noblewoman they rescued from the Gnolls a week earlier. Removing her satchel and a pannier containing a fine tea set, Lythar notices an odd leather bound book. Curious about its nature, he foolishly reaches in and carefully nudges it to get a look at the cover. At his touch, energy flows through Lythar, severely weakening and wounding him. A quick glance as he is struck shows a set of scales on the front of the book, and proves to Lythar that they have found another one of the books of power that are being sought by numerous parties. Sealing the book back into its satchel, the party quickly resumes their trip towards Cassomir, there to hopefully find passage to Absolom.
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