Session+99

** Session 99 ** **2-4-2017** **Corellion's Realm Part 2: A Secret Tunnel and The Corrupt Root Spirits!**

The several gathered groups of elven heroes took off in different directions, scattering into the woods after the horn of the hunt had been blown. Thorn turned to Erevin for a decision on direction, "Do you think we should go up to get a perspective?" Erevin turned his nose to the wind, picking up the faint scent of orc. He gestured toward it, "This way!" He took off at full speed, easily moving through the woods. The others blinked and ran to try to keep up. Thorn used his eagle cloak to transform and took to the wind... using the item for the first time, flying wasn't as easy as he anticipated, but he avoided the trees as he sped through the forest. A mile in, Erevin looked around to realize he was alone... a few second later, he seen Wren flying around a tree coming in to sight and a few seconds later she was followed by a slightly drunk looking eagle... and then the others trailed in right behind them.

Erevin moved through the forest, taking it slightly slower to at least stay in sight of his companions. As he leapt over a log, he seen where dirt had recently been disturbed. Some sort of orc trap... He picked up the log and tossed it into the dirt to see a hole down into a pit where sharpened sticks awaited someone to fall... he carefully marked it to keep everyone aware.

Two hours of searching through the woods... spells were beginning to fall off. Thorn rested on the back of Melleron as the mighty lion continued to keep up. Mali and Ursus zipped beside them as a hummingbird s. Wren remained in the air, but stayed close to Kale taking the right flank behind Erevin as Uther and Posy moved along the left. Erevin continued to lead them through at a quick pace, tracking the hoof prints of orc riding boars.

Using stealth, they crept through the woods as they got closer. Wren flew along in the trees, ducking out into a meadow to miss a trunk and then quickly dipping back into the woods... Just long enough to be noticed! The tentacled-mask wearing orcs sent a barrage of arrows toward the witch! Two of them impaled into her body, dripping a poison that weakened her. The orcs quickly took off on their boars in the other direction. Tumbling to the ground, Wren shook her head and warned the others, "They use poison..."

"Of course they do," Erevin replied as he shot one of the orcs with an arrow, making him easier to track. The poison continued to make Wren weaker until Mali fluttered beside her, removing the poison. As they moved through the woods, Wren moved slower as she used her healing wand to restore some of her health. The group continued to move through the woods, tracking the orcs and trying to be stealthy.

A couple of yards away, Erevin noticed the orcs lying in wait... as he turned to point them out to the group, he seen Posy step high up onto a log, shielding her eyes as she strained to look, "Do you see them?" Before he had a chance to tell her to get down, the orcs noticed her... sending another barrage of arrows! 4 of them barely managed to nick her, but she shrugged off the poison easily. The orcs took off again. Wren and Mali looked into the poison, noting that it was highly toxic to elves with a lesser effect to the other races.

"Do you think they're leading us away from Grumish? Or toward him?" Wren questioned as she peered in the direction of the orcs running. Erevin frowned, taking a moment to look around... certainly it felt like these were a distraction. Thorn shook his head, "They're not going to lead us to Grumish..." Erevin nodded his agreement, and sniffed the wind to pick up a strange smell of wood rot... stronger than any should be in Arvandor... "This way." He led them toward the wood rot scent, making no effort to cover their tracks for a mile before setting up a camp as though someone was injured. Mali set up a magic camp next to it where they could lie in wait, fully hidden.

Eight orcs rode up to the camp on boars, one of them slid off to pull the arrow Erevin had left in him and dropped it to the ground. "Everyone pick a target," Erevin whispered to them, and they leapt out together in a surprise attack! Thorn jumped onto one of their backs, completely invisiblem and dug his daggers in repeatedly until the orc stopped moving. Mali and Melleron leapt out together with claws to slaughter another! Uther decapitated one with his sunblade as Posy smashed in the skull of a second with her hearth hammer! Wren caught three in a line with a lightning bolt, charring them with the blast before Kale finished off two of them and Erevin hung upside down finishing off the third before taking down the last remaining orc with a quick barrage of arrows.

The woods were quiet as the companions wiped off the green blood spattered over them before they continued toward the smell of wood rot. Erevin and Mali pointed out the faintest traces of other elves crossing paths and leaving arrows in the bodies of orcs. Falling to a slower pace, they made their way up to a large tree emitting the smell.

Mali shook her head, "This tree is sick... unnaturally sick." "What's wrong with it?" Erevin asked. The young red-haired halfling looked it over carefully, peeling back some of the bark to expose an eyeball. "I'm not a child of the forest... but... that's not natural, right?" Thorn grimaced at the eyeball. "When the elves refer to the trees as being alive... this is not what we mean," Erevin assured him, pulling his moonblade to bury it deeply into the infected tree, spreading ice through the bark. The blade went in easy... like the tree had been hallowed out, and a strong smell of earth and rot seeped out.

Orc tracks went in and out of the tree ranging from a few hours old to a few days... coming from a large hole that went into the earth beneath the tree. Leaving an arrow flagged with a ribbon to mark the entrance, Erevin climbed down the hole first, easily using the roots that stuck out all over. He found a tunnel leading down underground beneath it. Roots continued to stray out through the walls of the tunnel that appeared to be dug out by some sort of gigantic worm. The others followed him down, pushing roots aside as they made their way down the tunnel.

Strange root creatures, feral spirits of the woods, were moving about with the scent of rotting wood. They sprang with a snarl toward the companions! There was an enormous tree like spirit behind them. Posy stepped forward to meet one of the root spirits with her hammer, but the blunt weapon seemed to bounce off of its bark. Uther moved up beside her, but the difficult terrain of roots slowed his progress.

One of the root spirits slashed sharp branch like limbs across Thorn! Another two surrounded Wren and Inali while one charged at Kale. The large tree emitted several scurrying beetles!

Erevin stepped through the brambles to slash his moonblade at the root spirit attacking Kale, Thorn slashed his daggers into one of the root spirits, barely scratching through the bark. Wren released a bolt of lightning from Cirdan into the tree spirit behind her before turning back to spew a swarm of army ants to engage the beetles. The spirit behind her carried a scythe that suddenly glowed a brilliant blue from her lightning energy!

Uther moved around the tree spirit, flanking with Posy as they teamed up. Posy put away her hammer, using her claws to tear and shred the bark of the spirit, but it melded with the roots to appear next to the tree in the back. The army ants caught one of the swarms of beetles, but others scurried toward the group. The spirit behind Wren slashed at her with it's magic scythe, sending lightning back at her to char her flesh! The root spirit on Thorn slashed and pierced into him with it's sharp branches! The enormous tree healed the wounds on the spirit that arrived next to him.

Erevin and Kale teamed up to chop a spirit into kindling! Thorn just barely managed to carve a thick groove into the one attacking him as Wren healed some of her wounds. Kale moved back to defend the witch from the second spirit surrounding her. Posy and Uther attacked the new spirit that advanced toward them, hacking into it with heavy slashes! Barely holding itself together, the root spirit escaped through the roots of the room to dash back to the big healing tree spirit.

Beetles swarmed over Posy, Erevin, and Inali devouring them slowly! Thorn's blood was making the dirt under his feet turn red as he took yet another strike from a spirit! The spirit with the scythe missed Wren as she turned to see Inali screaming from the beetles.  Erevin swung his moonblade, spraying a cone of cold over the beetles attacking him as they dropped frozen to the ground. Thorn sliced again and again with his daggers, finally shredding one of the spirits into kindling pieces! "Inali!" Wren patted herself as she began speaking words of magic. The small black fox leapt onto Wren, shaking her fur as she went to scatter the beetles off of her. Wren turned to Kale as she raised her hands, "Move back!" The elven warrior just had enough time to step back from the scythe carrying branch wraith before a spray of cold froze the beetles and covered the spirit. Frostbitten and shivering, the branch wraith remained standing, his scythe now glowing with her cold magic.

Posy struck with fire and acid off of her claws as she shredded one of the corrupt feral spirits as Uther slashed into the returning one who was covered in sap that seemed to protect it. The one Posy struck scrambled back through the roots to the tree spirit as the other, freshly healed, took it's place, covered in a thick second layer of hardened sap. The newly arrived root struck into Posy as the other fought back with Uther, piercing him with it's sharp limbs. The army ants and beetles fighting each other slowly killed each other off. The branch wraith moved up, swinging its scythe, but Wren barely dodged out of the way. The scythe continued to glow with charged cold energy.

Erevin moved up to the other root spirit that had been attacking Wren to slash deeply through its bark. The root looked back toward the tree spirit, preparing to flee, as Kale swept Wren behind him to finish it off. Freed from attacks, Wren created a dimensional pathway with her mythic power, both her and Inali appearing behind the tree spirit. The pathway was visible to her companions, so Posy made her way through the bramble to follow the witch. The remaining beetles fell off of Posy as she vanished. Uther took a stab in the back as he followed Posy through the path to appear behind the tree spirit.

The tree spirit emitted vines that slammed Uther into the wall and raked its large claws over Posy, only her magic scabbard protecting her from continually pouring blood. One of the freshly healed root spirits, covered in sap, slashed into Wren. The scythe wielding branch wraith swung at Erevin, but he moved faster than the witch it had been fighting and the scythe whiffed through the air beside him to slice across Kale, discharging the cold to freeze his wound! The beetles who had fled from Posy, surrounded Thorn and began slowly devouring him!

Erevin slashed his moonblade through the the branch wraith, toppling it to the ground, and he picked up the scythe as he pointed to the pathway, "Go after Wren!" Thorn doused himself in fire from a vial, trying to burn off the scarabs biting away his flesh! Kale nodded to Erevin, stepping through the dimensional tunnel to see lightning flash from Wren's hands just before she formed a hex ward over Posy. The smell of burning rotting wood came from the root spirit as tiny scarabs popped out of it like burnt corn. Posy looked for a way to tumble around the tree, but couldn't find a way through, so she slashed her claws into it's bark!

Uther, grappled by the vines, was unable to move as the tree spirit again raked it's huge claws over Posy! Erevin slashed a newly arriving root spirit through its thick sap with his moonblade as Thorn threw his dagger through Wren's dimensional portal to flee the scarabs by transporting to it. He arrived behind Posy as Wren moved back and used a hex on the tree spirit, Inali following behind her. With Wren back out of the way, Posy engaged her ring of retribution to send out a ring of fire that washed over the tree, root spirit, Uther, and Kale! Thorn managed to dodge out of the way. Kale yelled at the little gnome, "Holy gods that hurts! How about a little warning next time!" Uther tumbled to the ground, charred, but the vines that were grappling him had turned to ash. "Sorry! It just sort of came out," Posy apologized. "Damn leaky ring!" Kale mumbled as he watched the ash of the once root spirit blow away.

The scarabs that fled from Thorn moved to surround Erevin as the root spirit stuck him with it's sharp limbs! The tree spirit was now on fire, but it raked its burning claws across Posy! Erevin set the moonblade down, Shri forming out of it, as he pulled his bow and changed it to use brilliant energy. Shri called down a flamestrike into the scarabs and root spirit to kill them all before standing up behind Erevin. Thorn leapt up to slash into the great tree spirit, the fire blazing along its bark burned his flesh! Wren used a hex to heal away some of Kale's burns. Posy attempted to slash the tree with her claws, but the intense fiery sap made it difficult to strike.

The tree raked its fiery claws across the gnome again! Shri laid her hands on Erevin to heal away his wounds as the ranger launched a barrage of energy arrows into the burning tree spirit. Thorn used his daggers to slash into the burning tree spirit as Wren flew high to send in a bolt of cold, followed by a swift bolt of electricity. The frost put out the flames and froze its bark just before the lightning shattered it into a million flying splinters that the companions barely managed to avoid.

Shri and Wren used healing channels and wand waves to heal everyone's wounds. Exploring the area they found a small shrine to Grumish that they destroyed before following the underground tunnel further into the earth. Tunnels crisscrossed and it became difficult to keep their bearing. They found dead-ends with other rotted trees on the surface, but after a couple of hours of searching they realized they had doubled back to come into a massive underground cavern... the walls were smooth, dug out from the gigantic worms. A giant wheeled wagon pulled by elephant-sized boars rolled through the tunnel. Atop of the chariot sat an enormous orc wearing an eyepatch. Purple worms dug out a path in front of them. It appeared that the tunnel they were coming up would lead right to the palace on the surface! Grumish and the army of orcs were not wearing tentacled masks, but the orcs were warchanting around him as some of them continued to prod the worms forward.

Erevin pulled out the gem of Angharradh and crushed it in his hands. Horns of the elves blared echoes above them as Grumish and the orcs all turned to look at Erevin and his companions...