Tylerion told the party that the Forest was in charge of starting Silvana's next incarnation, just as soon as they got the body. (Tylerion, alas, is forbidden from transporting mortals, alive or dead -- though a few months earlier he seemed willing to take Ganeth astral to chat with the shator.) He also unloaded his healing, dispelled the enervation on both Beeel and Thorongil (which was a very lucky break, since the deva only dispels as a 7th-level caster and the enervate was cast somewhere around 14th), and (along with Cambra) put a cure disease on everyone the spider monkeys had bitten for good measure. And then he used his anti-magic shell on the black web the spider came from (which he detected as evil) so Cambra could hack it to bits; the odd thing here was that in the shell, the web material looked grey-green and downright plantlike. (Once the anti-magic aura was gone, the web remnants crackled and crumbled into grey-green dust.)
Tylerion went home, and Stealth failed his wisdom check trying to use Silvana's mirror to contact Plant Dude. The party then headed deeper into the forest to look for a second suitable campsite. Stealth heard a noise ahead of the party and went to investigate; the cause was a giant beetle chewing on a tree, and the party avoided it.
- Frankel: [to Cambra]
- "Didn't your boa say something about beetles?"
- Cambra:
- "Yes. West is that way."
The party eventually crossed a stream and found a clearing near an expanse of thorny growth that Ganeth figured was somebody's wall. Stealth didn't hear anything in the area, and Thorongil and Frankel found no signs of recent activity, but Cambra reported that they'd gotten closer to the source of the heartbeat she's been sensing. Stealth climbed a tree and began casting the shelter while the party stood guard; Frankel heard someone coming, but before he could alert anyone, Beeel was shot in the back and poisoned (probably a paralytic neurotoxin if the Lifeblood elves stuck to their traditional M.O.; they prefer to leave humans alive long enough to feed their souls to the trees) while another arrow bounced off Cambra's armor. Pepper and Ganeth headed off the two hunters (named Bloodsap and Soulstealer) and convinced them that the party were Thornwind's friends, that the humans didn't need to be fed to any of the local flora, and that they could part with a dose of the bark that counters the poison. (Actually, the bark stings, does a point of damage, and allows a second save, but close enough.)
- Frankel: [in W.C., which the hunters don't speak]
- "I thought you said this would kill him! You lied!"
- Beeel smiles.
The hunters didn't know much about the beetles, but they suspected that mages were controlling them. (The Lifeblood folks don't much like mages.) They also mentioned that the bank of thorns the party was camping by was one of the Barriers for keeping out things like skeletons and zombies that the trees can't sense and attack. The party asked them for directions to some oak trees (since oak trees are the cheapest for Plant Dude to transport things through); Soulstealer mentioned an Elder BloodOak in the area, but eventually added that there were a bunch of normal oak trees downstream. And then the hunters headed off to tell the others not to attack the party and to spread the word of Thornwind's return.
- Bloodsap: [about the oaks]
- "If you kill any humans, just drag them there, okay?"
During the night, several wood elves came by to see Pepper and leave red flowers (carrion flowers, based on the smell Pepper sensed) for him and Thornwind, but there were no further attacks. In the morning, Stealth recharged the invisibility in Beeel's ring (just in case) and the party headed downstream to the southwest.
The party located the grove of oaks without much trouble, along with a human corpse that had been left for them. (The body even had a bit of money on it.) Stealth made contact with Plant Dude, who asked him if the party had lots of yum-yums for him; Stealth didn't remember any, which made PD especially unhappy about the energy expenditure (as if the Whitemoon representatives showing up, bugging him, and telling him that he can't drain any stats...er, make any improvements wasn't annoying him enough -- he's decided this is all their fault), so Plant Dude seems likely to take his sweet time in getting around to it. Stealth also got the impression that PD also hadn't gotten around to sending those promised grey elves out to clean up Lifeblood. But luckily, the party did in fact have some blue gems from the Cloudlands that Plant Dude might like.
- Ganeth:
- "Well, if we want to be mean, we can take the gems off Silvana's body before Plant Dude sucks it up, then call him back tomorrow and tell him we've got some yumyums if he speeds things up."
- Stealth:
- "How high elven...but a good plan."
So the party put Silvana's corpse by one of the oak trees, and Frankel heard some noise shortly thereafter. Thorongil investigated and reported an incoming 10' iridescent beetle with staglike horns sniffing its way along (looking for bloodwood?); the creature appeared three rounds later. Aside from a horn/horn/bite routine (not much data here...d8/d8/3d6?), the beetle could create a hypnotic pattern with its wings (with viewers making saves every round), and produce an obscuring acidic cloud (which lasted 3 rounds, did 3d4, 2d4, and 1d4 damage in each round, caused a one-time save vs stunning at +4, and imposed a penalty on ranged attacks into the area [-3, then -2, then -1]; the good news here was the cloud blocked LOS to the hypnotic pattern). It also had an innate acid-based damage shield that returned half the damage it took from slashing weapons and one point per hit from piercing weapons; bludgeoning weapons didn't produce a backlash of spurting acid, but the beetle only took half damage from these attacks. It was AC 1, hittable by normal weapons (including Stealth's little summoned fire beetles), and had 73 hit points (putting it in the neighborhood of 16 HD).
- Ganeth: [after beetle unloaded attacks on him]
- "Guess it doesn't like me, eh?"
- Frankel:
- "It...respects you."
After the beetle was dead, six wood elves (including Bloodsap and Soulstealer) appeared and fired some arrows into its body; then they went off to spread the word and bring a priest for the wounded (though since Rillathorn fed all the priests to the demonic killer tree about two months back, not a whole lot was expected in this department). On further examination, it looked as though a pair of nice body shields could be made from the beetle's iridescent wing covers and the horns could be fashioned into some type of polearm, though none of the party members were skilled enough to do it; Stealth also discovered three blue gems inside the body (which is a nice amount of power for a construct). Seconds after he put one of the gems on Silvana's body, it was sucked into the tree; Plant Dude tried to get one of the wing covers as well, but it wouldn't fit.
A priest arrived and asked Stealth to prove that he was really Thornwind; after Stealth put on his crown of thorns, she was satisfied and bestowed her clw on Ganeth. She then went to inform Rillathorn of Thornwind's return and told Stealth he would be awaited in the Bloodheart (could this be where that beating is emanating from?). Ganeth burned his polymorph spells for additional healing, Cambra laid hands on Beeel, and the party took off west as quickly as possible.
- Priest:
- "Welcome home, Thornwind. May our rivers run red with the blood from your arrows. May our trees feed upon the souls of the humans. May you bring the victory of Rillifain."
[Rillifain the Avenger is a decidedly nastier aspect of the wood elven god than the Rillifane Thorongil prays to for spells.]
The party headed north along the Barrier for a few hours, then northwest as the Barrier began to curve. Along the way, Beeel and Cambra were attacked by creepers (Kij vines?) in the undergrowth. Beeel evaded them, but they managed to trip Cambra; the vines then tried to strangle her and poke her with their thorns, but neither attack form could penetrate her armor. Beeel tried using his fear headband on the plant to no avail. Eventually Cambra rogged her way through, and though Thorongil spotted the main body of the plant a few yards away, the party decided to simply withdraw and avoid pissing off PD's evil Lifeblood cousin. Figuring there might be fewer such plants near the Chthul-Ra/Banzeel road, the party turned north and reached the clearer forest near the road after a few more hours.
Thorongil, Frankel, and Stealth went off to scout; a few rounds later, everyone heard an explosion in the vicinity of the road and Pepper headed out after the other scouts. After various meetings between the main party and various combinations of scouts, everyone got a basic idea of the situation. A gnomish spherical contraption (10' radius, steel plated, with mounted gas jets, claws, and spears) was webbed and netted on the road, a gnome had jumped out and fled northwards into the woods, a flying spellcaster and some walking humans were on the scene poking into the thing and trying to force it open, whoever was inside was poking back, a manticore with rider was flying around overhead, and some dead bodies seemed to have gotten that way in the explosion. While most of the scouts had reported back, Thorongil had remained by the activity in treant form, blending in with the trees; when Frankel went back to check on him, the mage saw him and fired a jet of steam from a wand, and Frankel withdrew.
After Thorongil returned to the party, the consensus was that the humans were probably the bad guys, since good guys would have given some sort of warning before firing on Frankel; the most likely scenario was that the gnomes were either with the resistance or with Rogtubbins' forces from the West. So they started debating whether or not to intervene, with Cambra and Frankel in favor of going in, Beeel in favor of getting out before the wood elves, the Ravens, and who knows who else came to investigate the explosion, and Ganeth torn between wanting to help and needing to get away quickly if anything went wrong.
While everyone else was arguing, Thorongil came with a simple plan: Stealth slows the area and harries the mage from range, Thorongil goes in imp invis to engage the humans on the ground, the gnomes escape in the confusion, and then everyone leaves (the rest of the party would use the time to circle around the active area at a safe distance). And so it was (well, except for Cambra coming in shortly afterward to take a crossbow shot at the mage); turned out the job was simplified by the humans having taken lots of damage from the explosion, making them simple to kill, and the manticore having headed off somewhere. The mage wasn't stoneskinned but did have have prot normal missiles running; he used a fire on the sphere to set off some pyrotechnics (the smoke version) and withdraw.
Meanwhile, a pair of wood elves intercepted the rest of the party and took some shots at Beeel. Ganeth was able to talk them into backing off and spreading an alarm regarding the flying mage instead, but more (and higher-level) patrols were probably on the way.
So the coast was clear for the moment, and after Cambra mentioned that she was a Sun paladin and Thorongil (whom the gnomes mistook for an air elemental, since they couldn't see him) demonstrated knowledge of Rogtubbins, the gnomes inside, who were doing recon for the Western army, decided they were saved...except for the main hatch being damaged by the humans' battering ram and having landed on top of the escape hatch. The gnomes tried to take off, which produced a spout of green flame and succeeded in rolling the sphere off the escape hatch. They decided they'd need about fifteen minutes to get ready for flight, which Thorongil assured them they didn't have, so they sent out a distress call to the dikka (whom the gnomes call "rescue birds") and rigged the ship to explode. Everyone (the party plus three live gnomes carrying a dead one) took off west, paralleling the road but staying out of sight from it.
As the party walked on, they learned from the gnomes that they were about eight days from the western end of Lifeblood on foot. (They'd go faster on the road, of course, but using the road would likely invite all sort of encounters with the Eastern factions; trying to use mounts in the lighter fringe near the road could still speed things up.) The gnomes also informed the party that the Western army was somewhat spread out; the vanguard, a group of skirmishers, was patrolling about a day west of Lifeblood, and a larger encampment (the gnomes' destination) was a day west of that.
Night fell, and the gnome's homing device started humming, indicating that the rescue ship was about fifteen minutes from touching down (presumably on the road, since there was no room to land anywhere else nearby). The ship wasn't large enough to carry the gnomes and the entire party, so after some consideration of various plans, the party decided to send the humanoids out with the ship and let the equines travel overland and meet up with them at the Western encampment. (Not much in Lifebood seemed likely to bother a unicorn and a centaur, and on the plains Frankel and Pepper could outrun most potential encounters.)
Frankel and Pepper moved out, and the others moved closer to the road to await the ship's landing. As they waited in the darkness, one of the gnomes cried out and then froze; while the party's first guess was that the Lifeblood elves were acting up again, the problem turned out to be a group of roaming ghouls and zombies. Cambra turned most of the zombies, the party killed the rest of the undead, and then they moved off, carrying the two paralyzed gnomes. (Cambra's holy symbol sheds light in a 60' radius and probably attracted attention when it was drawn).
Stealth set an alarm spell for the next waiting area; it was triggered by some more zombies, who were quickly sliced up. The gnomes unfroze, though one of them was weekly. After yet another move, the dikka ship landed on the road and the party moved in. Ganeth spotted a karfu-style invisible raven on the ship, faerie fired it, and attacked it once. It fled the ship, and Ganeth and Stealth killed it at range; as usual, it burst into some sort of acidic cloud when it died. (The dikka aboard presumably had known it was there all along, but since it didn't know what it was and didn't notice it doing anything, it just left it alone.) Meanwhile, Beeel, Cambra, and Thorongil fended off some more zombies and ghouls. Just before takeoff, another group of undead appeared, headed by a wight; Stealth blocked their approach with an Evard's, and the party successfully departed.