I’m a STAR, dahling!
The wine festival was… eventful. After making the mistake of helping some drunken dolt I was press-ganged into helping out with a role in the night’s play, which I may have inadvertently over-acted slightly in my nervousness, but all’s well that ends well…
The dancing, however, was enjoyable, it was good to see that most of the dances that are popular out in the villages of the Oldwoods also hold sway here. I certainly enjoyed having the joy of moving that wasn’t either my combat drills or the drive of the fight itself.
In the morning, despite a few sore heads, we made our way out into the Oldwoods, slowed by the need to allow Theo to repeatedly recast his magic detection spells to follow the trail. I offered to help at one point with my own admittedly rudimentary skills, but he fairly brusquely dismissed my aid, reasonably observing that it cost him nothing to do.
The detection of magic didn’t assist with the detection of upcoming surprises, however, as first a young girl and then a mob of goatlings crashed through the woods towards us. To Theo’s credit, he reacted quickly as the goatlings started to hurl insults, casting a spell to magnify me into some sort of giant, albeit with the hopefully unintended side effect of nearly causing me to brain myself on a tree branch as my head shot up towards it…
Calliope was able to escort the girl out of harm’s way, but seemingly needlessly as the goatlings all made a rush for Alke despite the attentions of the rest of our party. Their single-mindedness did help us to take them apart fairly systematically, although unfortunately it did also mean that they managed to get in several hefty strikes against the slight medusa, taking her to ground before we were able to eliminate the last beast and heal her. After some judicious laying on of hands, the party were back together and we were able to head out into the forests after quick discussion with the girl, who turned out to be the very Corinna we had ventured into the forests to find. It seemed her compatriots, however, hadn’t been so lucky as to escape…