The game thus far:

Meanwhile, Snf'L looks around and finds he is near the site where the dead land shark is. A sort of rustling/crunching noise comes from the direction of where Snf'L figures the party left the body.

Snf'l heads away from the crunching noises. He asks Mack to help him find a small cave or something. The plan being that Snf'l will bury himself in the cave so that the party's stuff will be safe if and when he croaks. Then if Mack can locate the party he can lead them back to the cave.

Mac seems less than enthusiastic about flying around and looking for a cave. "Not too many caves in the forest," he replies lamely, then lies his head back down for another nap.

Snf'l will head toward high ground. He figures he has about 2hrs in which to find someplace that he can barricade himself into.

There is higher ground to the west, so Snf'L heads that way. After about a half an hour he comes to a slight dip-like valley with a somewhat rocky surface overlaid by some soil and much vegetation. It contains a stream at the bottom, but was likely at one time a river. In this place there is almost definitely some wildlife, possibly some monsters, and a vague possibility of a cave. Going around would mean losing quite some time before getting to the higher ground which now is within a mile.

Snf'L continues through the valley, explaining as he goes to Mack that in about an hour and a half that Snf'l will very likely die and it is imperative that he find someplace that he can deposit himself so that all the party stuff (most importantly the chess piece) be safe. So he asks Mack to fly and make sure anything of danger or delay be avoided while we're looking. Snf'l makes full use of all his wilderness lore, moving silently and keeping to the shadows.

Mac perks up at this - who will feed him if Snf'L dies? He stretches and flaps his wings, then sets off down into the valley. He sends back the message that there are lots of rabbits (you detect a hint of desire there) and a big stag and a wild boar. There don't seem to be any monsters or caves here.

Then Snf'l heads into the valley and head up stream looking for any cave that were eroded by the old river. His ears are alert for the slightest noise.

As Snf'L heads down the valley he sees plenty of game about: porcupines, squirrels, chipmunks, all busily preparing for winter. After a little while ahead, upstream to the north, a swatch of bright color is visible through the trees.

He approaches quietly and cautiously. He asks Mac what he can see ahead.

Mac replies, "Hey, its that wrinkled human lady again, I think".

"The gypsy woman we did not end up dealing with?" asks Snf'L.

"Yes, that one," replies Mac.

Snf'L recalls the gypsy human wanted to exchange a boon for a favor. She acted concerned about the elves, but the party doubted her sincerity. When the party went around her and said no thanks, she said, she would give them a piece of free advice, which was, "Beware of places you once thought safe - they are no more!"

Snf'l approaches her and says hello.

"Ah, 'tis the young, white elf again. Greetings to you sir. But where are your suspicious friends?"

"Well the last I saw they were stuck in a pit trying to get the bodies of two of our fallen comrades out of a rather dangerous spider lair about two days south of here. I, accidentally, got teleported here where I expect to die."

"You are but two days away from Unicks and civilization. The only dangerous creature around here has been dead for a week or so, and no other creature has moved in to take its place as of yet. This valley is peaceful and perfectly safe. Why do you expect to die here?"

"I have been poisoned by spider bites. Bites which I have seen kill my friends. It is only through magic that I am standing. I must try to protect that which I hold for my group, so if your offer from before is still open and you have the ability to restore me to full health I will undertake to do your service. I cannot commit friends, although I will endeavor to convince them to help, but if they refuse I will do what I can on my own, as long as I can give the party property back to them before I go."

"How horrid! Fortunately, I can help you with your poison problem. There may be more trouble with the death of your friends. Tell me, how many are dead and is the same one dead that was dead last time we met?"

"No, this time it is one of our clerics and our bard. I am heartened knowing that assistance may be available regarding the poison. Is there by chance anything that can be done about life I lost battling some sort of undead?"

"I have a potion I can sell to you that will cure you of all manner of poisons. The life that has been taken from you by creatures of darkness could only be restored by a priest of a God of Light or Healing. If you hurry, you could be in Unicks by early tomorrow morning. There you would find a cleric of Sehanine who might be able to help you."

What is the price of your potion?

She replies, "In my culture, the price of a thing is not set as much upon what the what the seller wishes to sell it for, but what the buyer is willing to pay. What do you offer for this potion?"

Snf'l responds: "Madame, I am hesitant to make an offer. I have no experience in buying potions and have no idea of what is a fair cost. On the other hand, however, my life may be in the balance and I must do whatever I can to preserve the group's belongings that I carry. How does one address such a problem with out looking like a fool. I am willing to pay, assuming I have the fee, any fair price, I just have no idea what it would be."

"What would you consider fair price for your life? If you die so far from your friends, will you not lose all? Seek deep inside yourself for the answer as to what price you will pay for this potion, and be not concerned with whether or not you seem the fool. There is none here but I, and I will make no such judgement upon you."

"Ah! So it is as my Uncle Sk'n Fl't always told me. 'When trading always know what you are really buying' . So you are indeed not selling me a potion but rather my life. which makes it very hard for me to set a price, since my life is priceless to me and worthless to you. To set a relative value on my life would require that the cost be less that which I would willingly die for. I can not offer my indenture as I am on a quest that I will die for, but I am willing to do a service for you should you need it. I cannot offer all my worldly possessions as some of them I would fight to the death for due to who gave them to me, but I have some stuff that would be valuable in the human realms. And also I have no idea what you value. We could therefore haggle like human pitch men or you could tell me what you want in return for the potion and if I can pay the cost we can be on our ways or if I can't or won't then I'll have to take my chances. But be aware I refuse to lower myself to the level of my dark brethren and suggest that the fair price for my life is yours. Should we not be able to agree on a price, no harm will befall you by my hand because of it."

"No, my dear elf, I sell you a potion, not your life. The fact that the potion will save your life simply increases its potential value to you. I wanted you to be aware of this as you made your offer. I do not expect a price that you cannot pay.

"Your life is worth more to me than I shall reveal to you at this time. This goes for the entire band of elves you travel with, but especially El'Fross. I have no more to say on that matter, so do not ask.

"The price on the potion does not depend on what I, or other humans, value, nor does it depend on what any given elf values. The price is dependent upon what YOU value. I have no intention of haggling, but if the price you offer is not worthy of you, the consequences will not be as would wish. I would not give you a potion to speed your poison and then take whatever price I like from your dead body as some of my more evil breathren might do, so let us not bring others into this, even to veil threats."

I did not mean anything as a threat, veiled or not. You seem to know alot about me; that I can understand; you should know then that I am afraid to lie and as such I am always concerned that something I say may be misunderstood or misconstrued. I was concerned that you might take my reference to your life as a threat, when I was only trying to point out a flaw in putting the onus on the customer to set the price. But if we are not going to haggle you must tell me what you value.

"Snf'L, I know much about you, but I am not asking you to lie. I am asking you to set your own price upon this potion, and I shall only ask this one last time, then I shall pack up my wagon and move on."

All right, then since you are unwilling to tell me what sort of thing hat you value so I might know what kind of coin would be appropriate, I can only offer ....." Here Snf'L rummages through his belongings to determine what he could part with.

He then says to her, "This is all I own that I can offer as well as that which the group owns that I could replace in time. My life is worth more and a potion is worth far less. But here it is. take any or all and let us be done with this". Snf'L spreads out many of his items but not all of them.

After you finish your arrangement of goods, she smiles what seems a genuine smile. "You have made a wise descision, Snf'L. The fur, the 14 human platinum pieces and the Alchemist's fire I would consider as a good trade for this potion of Neutralize Poison." She holds the vial up for you to see. It contains a brownish-yellow liquid.

After making the exchange Snf'l drinks the potion in front of her

Snf'L thanks her and takes off towards Unicks, flying through the forest.

He figures that since he's got no one slowing him down. and since he can't really afford to sleep anyways that he might be able to crank up and make it to Unicks in a day.

Snf'L is faced with a difficult descision. Should he run all out for as long as possible to reach Unicks sooner, or should he choose a more leisurely pace and be assured of notbecoming exhausted but not reaching Unicks as soon as he would like?

He decides to move at best walking speed. He encourages Mac to get as much sleep as he can so that should they get close to Unicks and Snf'l starts getting punchy mack might be able guide him in.

The afternoon passes uneventfully. During the early evening, just after the sun goes down (remember we are in autumn here) Snf'L hears some stealthy noises to the north as he heads NNE. (Crunching leaves, sticks cracking - but barely audible; not like those noisy humans usually do).

Snf'L stops, hides and listens to see if he can learn which direction the noise is moving.

The noise seems to be moving to the SSW, parallel to Snf'L's path. At this moment an odd nausea comes over Snf'L.

He concentrates on keeping quiet and hiding.

Snf'L manages to avoid whatever was out there in the forest and survives his system trying to regain the life taken by the undead. Snf'L awakens the following morning feeling much like his old self.

From the diary of El'Fross:

After a few minutes the rest of the party managed to join me at the entrance side of the pit. A’ha decided to sneak out of the entrance to the Spider Lair invisible to catch the remaining members of the ambush party. While we waited, I cleaned L’Wehn and myself up, wanting to look fresh for the upcoming battle. I had thought if we walked up to the remaining hobgoblins looking fresh, carrying the head of their leader, they might be less inclined to want to fight. Ah, well… it seemed like a good idea.

We found the four remaining hobgoblins standing around some bushes, not really paying attention. Seemingly more concerned with what was in the bushes than anything else. I strode up to them, rolled the head of their leader to their feet and snarled, hoping to demoralize them. Unfortunately, hobgoblins are nasty and mean, and apparently fearless. They attacked.

The fight was quick and bloody. The biggest problem came about by Coderick falling into a spider trap. Once we finished the hobgoblins we spent a considerable amount of energy and time trying to rescue our halfling companion. After a few attempts, we managed to extricate him and his attacker. I was feeling annoyed as L’Wen seemed anxious to go find SNF’l. Don’t get me wrong, I am in favour of finding my wayward friend also…. its just, well… annoying for some reason.

After brushing the spider off him, we killed it. Our friend was looking rather pale… poisoned by the little beastie. We searched the hobgoblins and found nothing. S’Part managed to bind one of the hobgoblins to prevent him from dying. We left… apparently taking the hobgoblin with us… though I’m a bit fuzzy on that… note to self… check to see if there is a hobgoblin on Codericks horse.

We travelled the rest of the day, in the general direction of Unicks, trying to find the area we camped at after the land shark battle a few days earlier. The general consensus was that SNF’l had managed to teleport himself to this area. Just like SNF’l to leave all the hard work and fighting to me. I will have to have a word with him about shirking his responsibilities to the party. It was, after all, his silly idea to enter the underground spider hole in the first place… and then he leaves. Typical!

My thoughts and prayers were with the two members of our party that we lost… poor X’Ylo… dead (again) and Sh’tep… dead. We must try to find a way to bring them back. Without the pool, this will be a challenge. There is also the matter of the ambush we just escaped. Obviously, we are being followed…. Which makes our main mission (whatever the hell it might be) all the more urgent…

Session Ninety-Eight

Experience: No experience at this time as the party is in mid-adventure.

21st Ready'reat

The party reunites with Snf'L near the Land Shark site. After much debate they decide not to go to Rookroost to have Sfe'Tep and X'Ylo brought back to life. They decide instead to go South through the forest and then have Coderick lead them to the Bright Desert. They head straight east first.

22nd Ready'reat

Uneventful - no encounters.

23rd Ready'reat

Uneventful - no encounters.

24th Ready'reat

Uneventful - no encounters.

25th Ready'reat

Uneventful - no encounters.

26th Ready'reat

Shortly after dawn, the party is walking at a steady pace along a small path covered with fallen needles from the nearby trees, which rustle in the wind. Gradually the sky darkens, and gray mist begins to roll in. The ground begins to slope up the side of a low hill, above the fog, to a barrier of uprooted trees and snapped limbs.

The party examines the fallen trees more closely, and they notice that the trees have fallen northward as if knocked down by a strong wind blowing from the south. The barrier is no more than 20 yards across, and the party has no trouble moving around it. As the elves continue south, the morning sun disappears behind heavy clouds. Thunder echoes in the distance, the wind picks up, and a cold rain begins to fall. Snf'L discerns a barren spire of rock rising from the forest 10 miles ahead, its peak lost amid rolling gray clouds. More felled trees litter the ground between them and the mountain. The nature-attuned elves sense that the storm is unnatural, since the high air pressure would normally indicate good weather. They also notice that a grim silence has fallen over the forest.

As they encounter ever greater numbers of snapped and uprooted trees, the forest's silence is suddenly broken by a weird sobbing. Standing amid a copse of uprooted evergreens is a great pine, its branches holding fast against the blustering winds. A peculiar sob erupts from the tree, which turns suddenly in your direction, addressing you in a deep, throaty voice.

"Youuu over theeeere! Whaaat arrrre yoooou dooiing in myyyy wooods?"

This is a Pine Treant named Humphgrough, who at first seems to think the party is responsible for the storm. He draws out every word long and slow, as his kind are apt to do. Once he sees the party is friendly and are elves to boot, he explains the situation to them.

For almost an entire season, a perpetual storm has ravaged the forest. The storm seems to originate from the mountain that juts above the hills to the south.

Centuries ago, a human wizard built a tower on that very mountainside. The wizard never posed a threat to the forest and has not been seen for many years. Given the short life-span of such cratures, the Treant assumes him to be long dead.

Shorty after the storms began, elemental "spirits" have been coming down the mountain, destroying trees and scaring off the indigenous wildlife. These angry spirits typically manfest as swirling vortices of air and mist.

Humphgrough asks the elves to travel to the mountain and put a stop to whatever is causing these unnatural storms. In exchange, he offers them several items taken from a tribe of orcs that tried to invade this area of the forest a few months ago (yes they carried the insignia of Iuz).

The party accepts this and head south through the high winds to conquer the mountain. They fight some debris and an angry air elemental. The elemental was a lot easier to battle than they had expected. They had always heard that elemental creatures were very difficult to kill, and their experiences in the elven village of ?? earlier that year lead them to expect the sort of whirling death they encountered there with this creature as well.

From the diary of El'Fross:

No entry.

Session Ninety-Nine

Experience: No experience as of yet - adventure underway at this time.

26th Ready'reat

The party acends to the top of a rise across from the black spire. As they come to the top, they begin to hear howling noises that are both eerie and harmonic. The narrow footpath rises to the edge of a naturally flat rise some 500 feet above the forest floor. Six monolithic stones, configured to form a crude hexagon, rise 50 feet into the sky. Within the 90-foot diameter enclosure formed by the monoltihs you can see dozens of small, dancing whirlwinds. They seem to be the source of the eerie howling.

The party aproaches, some become mesmerized by the eerie sounds and enter the area of the stones. The others find themsleves battling 8 of the whirlwinds. These are dispatched easily enough but the party enters the area, heading toward the altar. They are attacked by another 8 whirlwinds and then by 8 more. 8 are left as we sign off this diary for now.

From the diary of El'Fross:

No entry.

Session One Hundred

Experience: No experience as of yet - not until this adventure is finished. The math may get weird since two members have died and come back.

A'Ha (6th Level) - ?xp - was at 15,849xp - puts him at ?xp - needs 21,000 for 7th level
Coderick (8th Level) - ?xp - was at 31,044xp - puts him at ?xp - needs 36,000 for 9th level
El'Fross (8th Level) - ?xp - was at 30,621xp - puts him at ?xp - needs 36,000 for 9th level
L'Wehn (6th Level) - DIED - REINCARNATED - was at 25,092xp - puts her at 18,000xp - needs 21,000 for 7th level
Snf'L (9th Level) - ?xp - was at 40,153xp - puts him at ?xp - needs 45,000 for 10th level
S'Part (5th Level) - DIED - REINCARNATED - was at 19,949xp - puts him at 12,500xp - needs 15,000 for 6th level
Sheh'Tep (DEAD 5) - DEAD - 1,098xp coming upon his return to the living - puts him at 13,598xp once brought back - will need 15,000 for 6th level
X'Ylo (DEAD 6) - DEAD - 1,098xp coming upon return to living - puts him at 19,098xp - will need 21,000 for 7th level

27th Ready'reat

Party gets set to investigate the altar, despite the 8 swirly wind-things still dancing about on its far side. Suddenly the swirly-wind things all start to move toward the altar. As each one gets to the altar it joins with a previous one and the whirlwind on the altar grows. El'Fross quickly unlimbers his staff and says in K'Needian elf, "Stay Frosty". Thus a huge 4 whirlwind amalgamation is destroyed by a blast of cold. The other 4 remaining winds form into another large whirlwind, which battles our heroes. A'Ha falls after a particularily hard buffet, but after some urging from L'Wehn, S'Part cures L'Wehn's brother up.

Inside the altar is a sort of prison, and inside is an elven druid. Apparently he was captured by the winds just that day and placed under the altar. He has no spells left but promises the K'Needian elves that he will be able to take animal form and escape the next day.

From the diary of El'Fross:

Death once again touched us today. The lovely L’Wen dropped 500 feet to her death while we were investigating the devastating winds emanating from the spire. We were crossing a glass bridge leading to the main spire when her poor vision (I’m guessing) cost her big time. I grabbed for her as she fell and helplessly watched as her fingers grazed mine before she plunged into the chasm.

A’ha and I raced down the mountain to find her at the bottom, mutilated almost beyond recognition. We searched for the talking tree to beg his help. Finally, our newest companion, a recently freed Druid, offered his help through a reincarnation. A’ha, much to my relief, agreed immediately.

The next day the druid performed the spell and before our eyes L’wen’s body reformed itself and she rose before us. I rushed forward my eyes brimming with tears of relief as she er… towered above me in a form that was altogether far too um… human for my, and especially A’ha’s, liking.

A’ha tried convincing his sister that her best course of action would be to allow him to re-kill her… a prospect no one else agreed with, and that L’Wen quickly dismissed. I stood in shock as my lover and friend stood before me in a human form. The cleric leered even more than usual, apparently intrigued by L”wens newly found voluptuousness…. Sigh… the temptation to throw him from the bridge when we ventured there again was strong.

As we moved back up the mountain towards the bridge, I resolved that whatever form L’Wen took did not matter and that it was her heart that counted. As we crossed the bridge again, I crawled beside her, slowing to her human plodding, in an effort to comfort and protect her. Even as SNF’l battled some winged ice creature on the bridge, I stayed with L’Wen ensuring her safe passage with little regard for my personal safety.

I was determined to continue to stay devoted to my L’Wen, despite her “new” appearance. I earnestly began considering the magical energy necessary to change her back into her original form. I was sure I would be able to do it…. eventually… I only hope she (and I) can stand the wait.

Spart also fell to his death on our second venture across the bridge…. Luckily the druid brought him back… albeit it as a wolverine. Suddenly, I felt a little bad for wanting to throw him off the bridge.

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