Chapter 1-8: Reidoth
General Summary
THIS ARTICLE IS A STUB AND REQUIRES EXPANSIONThe party were in Thundertree, licking their wounds after the fight with the lamprey like creatures. They took a short rest, and Clootie played them a soothing ditty on her kazoo while they healed up. They then decided to explore - Ramas and Ryoko (in tiger form) sneaked around the ruined building. Aetilius flew up and perched on the wall. From his vantage point he could tell the majority of the buildings in the village were ruined and the roofs had largely disintegrated. A notable exception was the cottage in the corner, which seemed in a pretty good state.
The group sneaked over towards the building. Ryoko noticed they the vegetation seemed healthier around this structure, and the unnatural atmosphere was less. Ramas searched the empty cottage ruin and found a merchant's stash, which he pocketed. Clootie decided to wander across between all the sneaking people, and alerted another eight of the creatures which the party had fought previously. Miaug managed to snipe one from her tree. As another moved to attack Ryoko, a large silver lion leapt out if the undergrowth, catching it in midair and crushing it in its jaws. The lion then leapt into the rest of the group of creatures and detonated in a blast of sunlight, obliterating the creatures and transforming back into Reidoth the druid.
He invited the party into the cottage and offered them a cup of tea. He then sat there a little confused as the party proceeded to ask odd questions and yell over each other. Unused to spending much time around other people, preferring to spend most of his time in the wild, Reidoth found himself overwhelmed by the raucous group. He agreed to tell the group the location of Cragmaw Castle, having no love for the goblins, and marked it on their map. He also told the group a little of the fate of Thundertree, and how the Shadowfell infection spread around 25 years ago, leading to the village being overrun and abandoned. He explained that periodically he comes up to check the ruin, and to destroy any shadow creatures which may have come through. This time he's noticed that the taint has worsened, and it appears to be spreading. He's also been made aware that a young green dragon has moved into the ruined tower in the centre of town. As a druid, he'd usually leave the creature be, but if it stays here it'll likely become infected by the darkness and become more dangerous. He asked the party to attempt to move the dragon out of the area, while he tried to investigate the source of the taint. Clootie then asked if she could touch his beard, calling him a wizard. Offended by this mischaracterisation, he transformed her into a ferret. The party then jabbered at him again for a while, asking other strange questions and favours. Growing tired of this, he transformed Clootie back and wearily asked them to leave.
On the way out, he asked Ryoko (as a fellow druid) for her staff, which he carved additional runes into and embued with mystical thorns.
The party then investigated the apothecary shop, which had been run by Mira Delmar's family. In it Ramas found the golden emerald necklace Mira had mentioned. The group then made their way to the ruined general store, which was surrounded by a massive spiders web. The group made an unusually tactical plan, and researched giant spiders. They arranged themselves in an ambush, and then Ramas (eventually) managed to torch the web with a firebolt. This drew the spiders out into the trap. The party fought them. At one point, Clootie drank her Invisibility Potion and tried to sneak up behind one, completely ignoring the research the group had done which warned her that spiders don't necessarily need to see their prey up close, being able to sense tiny movement and vibrations. This led to her being savaged and poisoned by the monster. The group managed to bring down the first spider. Clootie climbed up onto the remaining spider's back, riding it like a wild horse. This distracted it, allowing Ryoko to crush it's face with her staff, catching the gnome as she leapt off the crumpled beast.
The group then decided to rest up for a moment before facing the dragon
Next: Chapter 1-9: Venomfang
Previous: Chapter 1-7: Thundertree
