Where the fated group continue down their star-crossed path, deeper into the Barren Hills...deeper into the unknown.. GORY TROPHIES The group stood at the banks of the Narn, in the quickly diminishing sunlight. Hugo began to bind his wounds, and Drake also cured Red, who quickly ripped the manticore quills from his bleeding shoulder, breathing heavily still. Dronk and Cornelius eyed the manticore, with each exchanging a knowing glance, then Dronk asked if any part of the manticores were valued by mages. Cornelius thought for a moment, then nodded, and the pair began stripping the manticore corpses of anything valuable. The rest of the group bandaged their woulds as best they could while watching the gruesome task of butchering the dead creatures, while Edmee kept a close watch on the forest. Within an hour, Dronk and Corneius, although covered in blood, has successfully retrieved an entire bag of manticore's teeth, their eyes, and a handful of intact quills, all with some arcane or alchemic value. By this point, the sun had set, and the sky was overcast, making it difficult to proceed. They moved on some distance, with Hugo in the lead, map in hand. However, they made little progress through the increasingly thick brambles and thorns. With frustration - and exhaustion from the past day's exertions and battle, they began to set up camp, at the edge of the forest near a small ledge they could shelter behind. No fire was lit, but as they set the camp, all began to feel as though they were being watched, a feeling that some had since earlier in the day. However, the night passed uneventfully, other than Red's deep snoring. In the morning, they found tracks in the mud, showing that a group of humanoids had passed through, but the numbers weren't clear. These were found by Edmee as she searched the nearby area for herbs - in which she was successful, as the Priestess of Manaan found several herbs nearby she recognized as having medical purposes, and pocketed them for later. DEEPER INTO THE HILLS They headed out as dawn appeared, with Hugo again leading, using the map and river as a reference. It was clear out, though clouds had begun to gather. They made good progress following the path of the Narn, where the woods and vegetation was not so thick, but lost the tracks. In the afternoon, it began to rain, and they all became increasingly miserable, though the rain only lasted a few hours, it stayed overcast out. As they marched, they noticed a change come apon the land. What was once rocky scrub land broken up with brambles and withered trees, became larger hills, rocky broken ones, between which were open valleys and gulleys, filled with vegetation. The plants themselves started to change too - subtly at first, and then undeniably. The imperial oaks are twisted and strange, some covered in hairlike growths or multicolored, unhealthy-looking fungi. The air was still, and musty-smelling. Whole groves of dead and drying trees dotted the landscape. The other thing that started to appear were the flies - not ordinary flies - enormous ones, which swarmed and bit at the group as they traveled. They constantly swatted away the unhealthy-looking things, but all of them were bit. SIGNS OF THE HERD That night, they set up camp. No fire was set, but a strict watch was posted. All felt eyes apon them, but could see nothing. Later that night, Edmee heard something moving in the woods, and woke the group quickly with her boot. Dronk, who was a light sleeper, rose immediately and readied his crossbow. Edmee cast light on the crossbow bolt he had fitted and pointed in the direction she heard the noises. Dronk's bolt flew through the shadows, obliterating them as it passed, flying into the foliage - illuminating, for a fleeting moment, a beastman, running away from the group. The group rested uneasily from then on. Hugo, seeing they needed to ford the river in order to save several days journey, asked the party to keep a close eye for opportunities. Within an hour, just as the sun started to return towards the world, Edmee noticed the water had grown shallow, with a sandier bottom, though across a wide space. Had they taken the canoes, they would have had to portage them across this section. The group began to cross the river Narn, slowly, their legs feeling the ice-cold water as they sloshed through, holding themselves firm against the strong current. As they emerged from the water, there was a small clearing; here, the river Narn broke into two estuaries, and they were in the fork now. A light drizzle fell, and some of them shivered in the cold. Looking back, Drake and Dronk could clearly see two beastmen emerge from the dense forest and stop. They seemed to be watching the party. The entire group readied their weapons, but the creatures of Chaos made no moves towards them, simply observing. The group pushed on, quickly, but cautiously, keeping their wits about them. After an hour or so, they stopped for a while, and Drake, Dronk, Hugo and Red shared some pipe-weed. The group talked about their journey, and what the beastmen might be planning. Some hoped it was merely a few scouts, but Hugo von Wolfhardt was adamant - they were part of a larger war-party, and would come apon them. 'These hills are alive with beastmen scum, no doubt.' After a short rest, they carried on, as the ground became more rough. A STRUGGLE IN THE MUD It was then, they came apon a clearing, partially a mud-field. Around it were clumped strange-looking heaps of plants. Even from a distance, they could see it appeared as though a struggle had taken place, with deep imprints in the mud. They could see something gleaming under the mud. Sensing a trap, Cornelius sent Luna, his snake familiar, into the mud. He allowed himself to see through her eyes, but could detect nothing. Slowly, cautiously, the group approached, and then, as they did so, the plants themselves came alive! Two of the massive mounds seemed to spring to life, with living vines writhing from their bulks as they shuffled slowly towards the group, while two smaller things, shaped vaguely like people, advanced. The things were writhing masses of vegetation come alive with some malicious intent. It was then they saw the bones scattered about the ground. Hugo rushed one, Vilkas, his war-maul, flashing in the sunlight as he brought it into one of the large masses; it smashed fully into it, but seemed to do nothing to stop the monstrosity's advance. The thing whipped at Hugo with two oversized, thorny vines, and while he avoided one, the other caught him directly in the legs, nearly knocking his feet from underneath him, and causing intense pain. Drake found himself confronting both of the smaller plant creatures, one which sprayed a cloud of pink gas in this face and he found himself coughing and spluttering as some vile poison entered his veins; it didnt stop him from easily deflecting the clumsy attack of the other as a thick tendril lashed out at him. Red rushing the other large creature, and ripped a terrible wound across the thing, from top to bottom - and yet it had seemingly no effect. It whipped at him with oversized tentacle-like vines, and one struck him in the chest, hard - he thought he could hear a rib snap VINES AND TWIGS AND THORNS AND BRAMBLES Meanwhile, Dronk fired a crossbow bolt straight into the creature Hugo was battling, and began to load another before it even hit. Cornelius raised his arms high and chanted the words of power, then conjured up a ball of fire, which he hurled at the creature fighting Red, but missed. Cornelius cursed under his breath. As he did so, Dronk fired again, striking the thing again. Edmee then strode forward, her voice clear and loud over the din of the battle, and raised her flail high in the air - as she did so, an explosion of force erupted near Hugo, tearing the creature he was fighting nearly in half with the wave of power. It also splintered one of the nearby smaller plant-creatures. As she did so, Drake prayed to Sigmar, cleansing himself of the poison and cleaved the injured monstrosity in two, sending bits of leaves and twigs spraying in the air. Hugo was hard pressed, but continued to batter the creature as it sought a way to kill him. He heard a warcry and turned to see Dronk rushing foward, rapier and parrying dagger in hand, towards the remaining smaller thing attacking Drake. Drake easily avoided the thing's clumsy swings, but missed when he tried to slay it. At this point, Cornelius intervened - for he had a vision, where he could see Hugo slain by the demon-plant. His eyes rolled back into his head as he plucked the string of fate, and Hugo easily deflected the attack heading for his face, and in a counter stroke, pulverized one of the thrashing tendrils. Red and the other monstrosity squared off, each looking for an opening. Red had already cut several large wounds in the things ponderous mass, but it seemed unaffected - certainly unlike anything he had fought before. Then, suddenly, it surged forward, and both of the vines struck Red, squeezing his leg and arm tightly, and drawing him forward. Something like a giant mouth appeared to grow in the chest of the thing as Red was drawn slowly, inexorably forward..and at the last moment, he twisted away, throwing himself free from the creature's deadly grasp. He bled heavily into the mud. IMPRESSIVE MAGICS Cornelius recovered Luna, secreting her in his robe as he rushed forward, and then conjured another ball of flame, his hands gesturing wildly. This time, his aim was true, and the orb of flame crashed into the thing fighting Red, setting half of it aflame. Edmee moved forward, flail in hand, and called on Manaan to heal her injured companions. A radiant light flew from her hands, and Hugo and Red felt some strength returning. The tide had turned. Drake channeled the power of Sigmar and brought his mighty greatsword down on the head of the smaller plant-monster, just as Dronk stabbed at it with his rapier. The combined power ripped the thing to shreds of plant matter. Hugo, meanwhile, hard pressed, continued to battle the now much-smaller heap of animated vegetation, and Edmee and Drake moved in to assist. Before long, it was all over, as they hacked at the smouldering remains of the plant things. No longer did they move with an alien intelligence. "This place contains great evil. I sense Chaos." said Drake, sensing an unknown corruption in the region. The others agreed. They could see in the mud here a battle had taken place not long before - since the rain would have wiped up the tracks. Edmee managed to find a trail headed north, with at least 5 sets of footprints - and additionally, several sets of hooves - beastmen. The group bandaged their wounds, with Drake channeling the power of Sigmar to heal his companions through his devotion, then set off, following the trail Edmee had found. A TREE OF MANY FACES The group decided to head up the nearby hill, where they would be able to see more clearly. The hill was very large, and steep in parts, and the sun rose while they climbed. From a flat surface near the top, they could see much of the Barren Hills was laid out like this - large rocky hills, with deep gulleys between them, filled with the strange, luminescent vegetation. Night approached, and they set up camp, secure in the feeling none could surprise them. That night, during Hugo's watch, he could hear horns in the distance, echoing in the hills - answered by still more distant horns. However, nothing came out of the dark and the rest of the watches passed without incident. The group left in the morning, and still felt the distinct sensation of being watched - though they could see no-one. They came down the hill, moving deeper towards the center of the Barren Hills. The plants here were starting to assume shapes that looked vaguely like human faces - and were often crawling with the enormous flies. They pushed down the hill, and into the valley. Some thought they could hear noises behind them. Hugo was leading the way, chopping through the corrupted foliage, when suddenly they emerged into a clearing filled with the luminescent grass. In the center of the clearing stood what appeared to be a monstrous tree, a fusion of flesh and bark and twig. Atop its branches were humanoid heads, dwarves, humans, elves, and other, stranger things. In their minds, they could hear whispering, that of a thousand different voices..
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The WizardIn time, you will come to know the tragic extent of my failings... Past Journals
September 2017
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