Our descent brought us into a cool cavern, lit from a hole above- this looks to be where the light reflected from above filters down to. A ragged tree stump in the centre stood starkly in the ray of light descending from the ceiling.
As soon as we stepped into the cavern, more of the goatlings ran across, chasing a panicking boy. Seeing us, they dropped the pretence of play and hacked down the child in cold blood. We made short work of them in light of that.
Braz tried to use his healing magics, but it seemed he was past our mortal help. Kyrah however, had followed us down from above and she drew a scroll from a pouch at her waist and at our pleas, used her power to bring the young man back to the lands of the living.
Corinna pointed us towards the satyr, Loreus, that helped her escape, along with a dryad hiding to the western end of the cavern. They told us about the dryad that rules this grove. It seems her madness stems from the loss of her sister, who died when one of the dragonlords of old hacked down her tree.
We found some more of Corinna’s friends down here. Several teenagers like herself, half drugged and bewitched. Convincing them they needed to leave was difficult- the magics used to call and convince them have been coupled with drugs to keep them compliant and a lifestyle dedicated to pleasure and hedonism.
This witch has much to answer for. Enslavement has always rankled, but to capture and treat children so? It leaves me with chills.
Through gritted teeth I speak to Theo about this. I know he and Alke need information from the oracle of this grove and I will try not to get in their way. But if it’s a choice between that or leaving this witch to ruin the lives of more children, ripping apart more families, I will leave her blood cooling on the floor, consequences be damned.
We picked our way up towards her chambers, through a corridor better lit than the natural cavern. We kept our eye out for more of the teenagers, but behind a door in the corridor, we found only trouble. Two maenads, hungry for our blood, left as nursemaids for more young goatlings. The fight was difficult and left us bloodied, mostly due to their magics which left some of us bereft of reason and dancing rather than fight head to head.
Loreus told us that these nursemaids were formerly mortals taken by the dryad of this grove. Without our help, all those taken will end up changed or dead. So we continue on into clear danger.
What kind of heroes would we be otherwise?