A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.3: The Merry Farmer

By late morning Tweena and the two former captives entered the tavern and met with us. The ratling was a thief named Dolus and the she-faun was a necromancer named Nami. We decided to split up as the others decided to get things done in town and I after asking the tavern-keeper for directions wanted to seek out the local alchemist. I picked up some rumors later at the alchemist’s shop whose name was Fek Blue-Leaf about a long dead hedge-wizard and a green tower far to the northeast of town. I met back up with them at the tavern and presented the idea of pursuing this tower thing.

The next day Drogo guided us in the direction of the fabled tower avoiding the road staying within the shelter of the woods. We ran into 3 lions while traveling with Drogo taking 1 down with 3 arrows and me paralyzing the other two. Drogo reluctantly killed the paralyzed animals with his dagger and went to skinning them so that their deaths would ‘mean something’. We set up camp to him to do this but he messed up on two of the beasts ruining the hides. Nami successfully pulled the hide from the last. During camp during third watch Nami and Dolus spotted a pair of trolls sneaking up on the campsite and alerted us. I paralyzed both and we burned them to ashes in the fire before they regained the ability to move a muscle. We set out again on our quest at dawn stopping by a creek by late morning to allow Tweena and Drogo to fill their water-skins. We were ambushed by a Carnivog (a large man-eating walking plant creature) which we dealt with fairly quickly. By evening we came to a large obviously dangerous plant, a Greenvise which I identified, and were stopped for a short while. The ranger took a pot shot at the giant venus-flytrap-like bulb of the creature finding his arrows useless and I knew that my acid bolt was useless against it. We decided to try to find a way around it trying to give it a wide berth. The ranger couldn’t find us a way around it so Tweena took over for a while and lucked onto a game trail around the monster. At dusk we set camp in a clearing.

Later the next day we came to a hemp field, farmlands we expected to find, and talked to the farmers getting better directions to the green tower. We were also told about Farmers’ Keep a nearby village which these farmlands surrounded. We decided to make a bee-line north towards a group of hills where the green tower was supposed to lie. Before we exited the fields a grayling (a light weight dragon) swooped from the sky and snatched up a cow. We huffed it to the tree-line where we ran directly into a Deathpod (another ambulatory killer plant-creature). My acid bolt made quick work of the creature. By evening we wandered into a field of purple lotus with Drogo and Delus falling victim to the paralyzing pollen of the flowers. Those of us who were still able backed off and I killed 3 of the plans with my acid bolt and Tweena lassoed the ratling before killing two more with her crossbow. We put some distance between us and the dangerous purple blossoms finding a campsite where we could wait out the 24 hour duration of the toxin that had affected out companions. During the night a bear had wandered into camp and stole the ranger’s rations before licking Nami’s face before it wandered back off into the forest. The next day we spotted the grayling from the day before circling the camp in the air. Nami panicked and climbed a tree while I and Tweena dragged the paralyzed pair to the cover of some bushes. It eventually flew off and by midday the ranger and thief were again able to move though they were still significantly impaired with very stiff muscles. We decided to make our way to Farmers’ Keep instead to allow our companions to fully recover. We were somewhat lost until we ran into a tree-cutter whom set us back on the right path and warned us about the red-daggers in the area who were rumored to be “planning something big” even though they were pretty much suppressed by the local lord.

Battle-weary we entered town just before nightfall entering under the shadow of a rebuilt keep flying the banners of Lord Black-Eagle (a black eagle against a crimson field). I rented a private room at the inn for myself while the others paid for a common room. We all congregated in the taproom of the Merry Farmer Tavern for the next 5 days while our two stiff companions recuperated. Realizing we needed money Tweena tried to find some craft work but found that most of the farmers and the craftsmen were away in Rockhollow for the summer festival which was taking place for the next fortnight.  I gathered some more info on the green tower which was rumored to have been a hedgemage’s tower and possibly dated back several hundred years to the Era of the Mad Mages and was surrounded by a hedge maze rife with various types of lotus flowers.

On the evening of the fifth day a troop of warriors and knights burst into the taproom bearing the brand of Farmers’ Keep and Lord Black Eagle. They took up board and began toasting their fallen comrade. Of course we conversed with their captain whom introduced himself as Corfen and found that they were hunting a black-skinned “demon” with red eyes and that sucked blood from those it had slain which was prowling the Farmers Wood. There was a 1,000 gold piece bounty for the monster’s head put out by Lord Black Eagle. Corfen promised us that he would by rounds for those of us who returned with the head. So we decided to curtail our quest for the green tower to pursue this lead and get paid.

To Be Continued…

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