Characters: Gibbie, Aine, Fenia, Melvin, and Buddrick-Day 29 Continued-
After the challenging encounter with the ogres and kobolds, the party decided to investigate what the strange partnership of large and small had been up to. They discovered that posts were being driven into the ground. Very large wooden mallets were laying on the ground next to a pile of lumber.
They also discovered a strange chest of some sort. Leafy shapes were carved into the box along with a strange, fiendish looking face. There was no lock, and the chest seemingly could not be opened. Gibbie identified the material it was made out of as darkwood.
Fenia coaxed Buddrick into trying to break the chest open with his mace. Grumbling to himself, wondering how it always fell to him to risk the unknown, he reluctantly tried to crush the strange box. It proved to be very well made (and enchanted, according to a detect magic spell). Her mischievous side taking over, Fenia cast an illusion spell on the chest that caused tentacles to grow out of the box and reach for Buddrick. Not recognizing the illusion for what it was, he fought back the writhing appendages with zeal. Small mouths appeared at the ends and snapped at the dwarf. Gibbie ran forward and sliced one of the tentacles in half, realizing it was an illusion after striking it. He informed the still swinging dwarf, who was pounding his mace into and above the box. Buddrick stepped back and stared at the flailing mouths. They sure seemed real to him.
A few paces away, Fenia snickered. She changed the illusion to make it look like a powerful demon. Buddrick began fighting it again in earnest, much to Fenia's delight.
Before long, everyone except Aine could hear a commotion in the woods. Looking toward the south, they could see a horde of kobolds scrambling through the trees and closing on them fast! The kobold that had escaped the previous battle must have found reinforcements! The demon illusion turned tail and ran at Fenia's command and winked out of existence before getting far. Fenia then summoned a wall of gloom between the kobolds and her allies. Everyone fell back to the cart, except Buddrick, who prepared to drag the chest at Fenia's beckoning. Kobolds surged forward and a hail of arrows damage those near the cart and killed the magically summoned donkey.
The horde was upon them and they couldn't run. Buddrick abandoned the chest as kobolds poured around the end of the dark wall. He charged to meet them head on, plugging the gap between the wall of gloom to his left and the wall of wood to his right. The group battling Buddrick split in half and the new, smaller force circled around the wooden wall. Gibbie changed into a bear and ran foward with his wolf to hold this group at bay. Her spells largely exhausted, Fenia took up a crossbow she had acquired from the last battle and began shooting at her enemies. Melvin took up his bow beside her.
Aine moved away from the cart and cast a magic missile spell. It split into three missiles and each took out a kobold. Next to Buddrick, the strange box suddenly began to shake and hop on the ground. The dwarf glanced at it but was too tied up with kobolds to do anything about it. Before long, the box shattered, splinters flying in all directions. A tome soared through the air toward Aine. When it reached her it hovered next to her. Aine could feel a compelling force beckoning her to take it. The conflict around her seemed to melt away and the book was the only thing that existed.
She reached out and touched it, taking it up in her hands. Invisible power pulsed out from her, making friend and foe alike flinch under its weight. She began to sink lower into the earth as a crater began to form beneath her. In a dramatic display of eldritch power, the book transformed Aine into something else.
Aine rose into the air and energy wafted off of her like smoke. A jagged ray of purple magic shot from her hands, tearing through earth and kobold alike. Aine's companions could only look on in bewilderment and concern between attacks made and attacks dodged. Dark secrets were being whispered into her ear along with instructions on how to use them.
As quickly as it had begun, the display stopped. Aine was fully aware that the power she once possessed was gone, and this new power had taken its place. She wielded it as if she had been all of her life. The fight raged on and the party emerged victorious. Aine's allies questioned her with suspicion but decided that she was still the same person.
At that point a debate was waged where the party discussed their best course of action. Proceed down a woodland trail in pursuit of kobolds or continue on to Sundabar. Fenia expressed her need to reach Sundabar so she could scribe spells into her spellbook. Gibbie and Aine wanted to pursue the kobolds. Melvin didn't have an opinion and Buddrick saw the benefit of each course of action and thus didn't care which way they went. Fenia was out voted. They found an out of the way place to set up camp for the night.
The next day when they returned to the spot of the battle, all of the kobold bodies were gone. They didn't give it too much though and proceeded down the woodland trail. After a few miles they encountered a large mass of vegetation blocking the trail.
The mass turned out to be a Tendriculous, a monstrous plant creature. It was a long battle but the party prevailed. Gibbie and Buddrick were swallowed during the encounter but managed to escape from the hideous plant.
