8th Nymm, 999 YK
- First session in over 2 months!
- Bhaltair's moth familiar should arrive in Vaanka Dar today, to warn them of the growing influence of The Wild Heart in the Eldeen Reaches.
- They remind themselves of the plan they made, to find an animal that is preferably willing to be used as bait for the Vrykudlak. Hopefully, Bangle finds a druid who can remove curse, but if not, the animal will have to die to kill the vrykudlad.
- They proceed deeper into the Wood, and it seems to be getting darker than usual for the time of day (even to Bhaltair, who is used to the Towering Wood.) As they travel, they spot more bone effigies, which Warren points out to the group. They treat them the same way as the first, they break them.
- Runmae uses her crossbow to shoot some of them down, to make it easier to destroy them.
- The density of the effigies begins to increase, and breaking them all becomes less practical.
- Bhaltair continues to use Root Reading, to get an idea of footfall in the area. They identify that animals have passed through the area recently, and they need an animal, so they inform the others and ask if they should track one of them.
- They track one of them animals, leading them to an even larger effigy, composed of the bones of several animals, as well as scraps of skin and fur. They immediately resolve to take it down and destroy it.
- Runmae and Valaari gets their axes and begin to take the effigy down. Bhaltair keeps watch. Warren leans on a stack of stones and gets told off by Bhaltair.
- When the effigy collapses, a bear nearby lets out a roar and charges, running down Warren who was closest. It grabs him and begins mauling, but then vomits a caustic black sludge all over him, that clouds his mind with rage and the desire to hunt.
- Warren tries to escape, but the bear doesn't let him go.
- Naze moves up, but is conflicted about how to deal with this. Warren is screaming and making weird angry noises.
- Runmae comments "wow that's a big boar" (which is the term for a male bear, apparently).
- They all hear the screeches of terror birds arriving from the east, and what sounds like wild boar from the south, further confusing the others after Runmae's comment.
- Terror birds arrive shortly after, sprinting towards the group. Shortly after, two daeodon also charge into the fray.
- Runmae begins fighting with one of the terror birds, and gets a chunk ripped out of her. Bhaltair's magic prevents her from getting damaged by the bleeding.
- Those in melee with the bear keep backing up and trying to get away from it, but it's persistent.
- Naze gets bitten by the bear and it vomits on him, causing him to be blinded by rage as well.
- Runmae knocks out the terror shrike, ensuring they have a suitable animal for dealing with the vrykudlak.
- Naze empowers Zaphkiel and they grow to large size, and down the bear. They then charge over the remaining animals (a daeodon and a terror bird) but Runmae defeats them both.
- Stormclaw wordlessly begins to smash the effigy. Bhaltair and Valaari help. They also discovered another effigy during the fight.
- All of the animals were incapacitated non-lethally, so they have multiple animals to try and convince to help them with the vrykudlak once they remove the influence of the effigies.
- Runmae restrains the animals so they can't hurt anyone while the group decides what to do next.
- Bhaltair kneels in front of the shrike and thinks.