"I have already taken care of Shaizan's and my wounds," says Kendervon. "Kiranyan and Farlont, you still need some healing. Come over here and I will take care of you."
Kiranyan walks over and gets his painful burns removed, but Farlont does not.
"I will attend to my own wounds...," says the ugly half-zun. Then in almost a whisper, ".. in my own time." His wounds are not severe, yet you notice that he does not attend to his wounds at all, almost as if to make sure they scar his shoulders and arm.
The party generally agrees that they will further investigate the grassy areas surrounding the large freak of nature tree, but not until tomorrow during daylight hours. It is late and everyone's resources are pretty well tapped out, so the group settles in for the night... again. The watches remain the same with Kendervon and Shaizan on the first two hour shift, Kiranyan and Farlont, Shameron and Caledon, and lastly Pheylan and Varlus. The remainder of the night is uneventful.
The morning comes all too quickly. The sun is barely noticable through the trees, as everyone wakes and begin to pack away what belongings that need to be stored. One person is still sleeping. Shaizan is curled up under his blanket and hugging his backpack. He looks like he couldn't be more comfortable if he tried. Farlont goes over and picks him up and shakes him. "Come on!! Wake up!! We gotta find stuff to fight."
"Hey! Be careful!! Haven't you heard of Shaken Savoryan Syndrome? You mine mix up all that data in his brain." Kendervon laughs alone. "Oh well. When Shaizan awakes, he can confirm what I am about to tell you. We got bored last night on our watch and decided to check the tree area for emanations. I checked for essence and channeling auras and Shaizan checked for continuing mental auras. We have isolated three locations under the tree that had radiations. All three were either essence or channeling auras. There were overlapping auras in each area, so it was difficult to tell from this distance."
With a loud, long yawn, Shaizan adds, "Yeah, but when I tried to mentally check for magic I got the same readings. And further, we both can still mentally feel the tree waiting. It somehow still senses us and is hoping for another chance. I examined myself, Kendervon, and Farlont. I noticed that the acorns seem to have some kind of flesh-dissolving acid. The only wounds we sustained were exposed flesh or light clothing. It would appear that it cannot eat through harder materials, like bones or metals. We should be able to use this to our advantage."
"Let me guess, those three lush overgrown areas are the spots," Shameron observes.
"You got it. Any volunteers or ideas?" Varlus looks at the party. "I think our sturdier spell casters should go in, namely Farlont, Caledon, and Shameron. They will stand the best chance of survival."
Farlont
I roughly drop Shaizan as if he suddenly is of no concern
to me. "I think you forgot Kiranyan, Varlus. He is probably just as tough
as the rest of us."
I reach into my sack and search for my Zunnish Invocations to the Master of the Four Horsemen, to see if there are any prayers that might be applicable to this situation. "Murl de talgur zet wkas..," I mumble in my preferred language, zun. "I believe that we Agrikhan have an incantation that might prove handy. Our Mask of Zlegeom chant is very similar to you city-dwellers' Sanctuary prayer. Assuming it works, will only give us roughly three minutes a casting to be effectively ignored by the tree. I feel the prayer applies, because we ain't gonna fight the freak of nature, we just wanna see what it has got stashed in its weeds."
One, two, three, four, um...six. "I figure that with so many clerical types, we should have several of these prayers handy. I know I am good for a few, myself. I think we should have those not planning to go under cast the first round of spells on us.. namely Pheylan, Kendervon, and Shaizan. Then once we get to the crap we will renew the prayer ourselves, as we need 'em."
Since my plan is obviously the best way to proceed, I assume everyone will be in agreement. I hand my great, spiked, blood-stained, oaken war club to Kiranyan. "Hold this while I am gone. Let's get the first of the prayers going!" I stand with my back to the insignificant Laranian, and crack my neck casually to the left, then the right. "Pheylan, do me so we can get the boring stuff done. The faster I find something to kill the happier I will be."
Shaizan
"Huh-huh, huh-huh, Farlont said 'Do me'. Huh-huh,
huh-huh."
I pick myself up off the ground where Fart-lont dropped me and rub my eyes. "Farlont, I'm not a spell caster. I'm a psionicist. I won't be casting any spells on you. I don't know any."
I look over at the three areas.
"I want to go, too. It looks interesting. Dangerous, possibly, but interesting. Can we please hurry?"
I intend to bring only my sword, and to leave my pack with someone staying behind, so I strap on the sword.
"Come ON!"
Varlus
I try not to appear cowardly, I take Shaizan's pack until
he returns.
"I will happily stand guard from here. All I can offer is an Armor incantation to possibly cover Kiranyan if he removes his armor or possibly some protection from evil."
Farlont
"Sionk-pist, sionk-pist. One spell caster is the
same as another. Surely you have a similar 'ability', be it sionk-pist or
priestly in nature." I turn and count the shaman types again.. one,
two, three, five, seven. "We still have more than enough to cover
us."
I slap the little sionk-pist on the back and nearly knock him over, "That's the stuff. Don't be afraid to take that chance. We might make an Agrikhan of you yet." I cluck very loudly.
Pheylan
"I can understand Savorian curiosity, but I'm not
sure why we need to prove that it doesn't just kill cats and innocent
bystanders."
At this Pheylan chuckles briefly...
"Anyway, I will take care of Farlont if the general agreement is that we should investigate the tree. However, I thought we were in a hurry to reach the compass point? Why exactly are we concerned with wasting a day investigating a tree, anyway?"
Pheylan glances at Farlont quickly and then continues...
"Farlont, I know you want to kill something before the day is over, but I'm sure there are probably more interesting things to kill along our path than a tree..."
At each of Farlont's religious exclamations, Pheylan looks over at Caledon for a reaction.
[DM - If the party consensus is to investigate the tree, Pheylan will do
Farlont... (his words, not mine
Caledon
"I say even though the tree does pose some danger to
us, with magical protection we should retrieve our belongings and investigate
what else may lay in the clearing."
"I will use my shield to protect me, that and with my armor I should be well protected. If Farlont thinks that he is brave enough to accompany me, we should get too it. We are wasting too much time talking and not enough on completing our quest"
Kiranyan
Kiranyan clumsily stands up from his sitting position nearby
and maticulously brushes off his clothes. He turns to Varlus and states,
"That would be much appreciated Varlus. Thank you."
"Oh, and Kendervon, many thanks for the healing spells."
He then walks around the party's position and peers into the distance for anything that may be moving nearby. While scanning the area, he mumbles to himself, "Actually, I wouldn't mind getting away from this place. It reeks of death. Why don't we just start a fire, and burn the damn trees down. We might even save someone else's life in the future by doing so."
Farlont
"Typical city-priest... my armor... my shield...,"
I shake my head, still looking in the direction of the tree. "I do not
intend on wasting the whole day with this, Pheylan. But, I hate to leave magical
stuff just lying around in the woods. If we don't take it or destroy it, someone
else might take it. And then it might be used against us."
I crack my neck again, then look over my shoulder at the party. "That is Farlont's Law."
Shaizan
[Hey Farlont! I'm NOT SMALL!!! I'm six foot two! I look
DOWN upon you!]
"Sorry Farlont," I say, smiling about his comment about making me an Aghrikan. "I don't have much in the way of protective 'spells', but I think I'll be pretty useful anyway. Especially when YOU get in trouble because YOU barrel into stuff without thinking! Err, not that you could do it any other way."
"So come on! I'm aching to use some of my psionics already! I'm feeling like deadweight!"
Kendervon
"I agree this needs to be checked out. We don't want to
over look anything that might be helpful in our journey. I will stay here and
wait for you to come back. I'll have some healing spells ready for anyone who
needs it.
Now quit standing around bullshitting and debating we are wasting time get a move on it! I'll keep my eyes and ears open for any trouble that may be waiting for us up ahead."
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