The Indoor Forest

As the night began, the party, having completed the west wing last week, entered the Indoor Forest. Shortly after entering, they were attacked by three vine horrors and a shambling mound. Thinking quickly, Ekeraath instructed Mara to switch to regular arrows as he remembered Shambling Mounds regenerated from Lightening. As the battle began, the Vine Horrors used their vicious vines attack to entangle the party and nearly everyone failed their saving throw and became untangled. Fortunately for the party, luck was with them and they managed to escape the vines that time and several more as they defeated the Horrors and Leenia, using one of her abilities, scared the Shambling Mound and it fled into the forest, never to be seen again.

Proceeding down the path, they came upon a young woman and unicorn. Under her arm she carried a chest. Much to Rudy’s disappointment, the party parlayed with her for some time and peacefully departed, leaving her and her treasure alone. Little did the party know she was a gold dragon in disguise who would not have been dealt with easily in combat.

As the party pressed further into the forest, the sound of running water began to increase and eventually they came upon a bridge. As they rounded a corner on the path, they witnessed a Billy Goat trying to cross but a troll had come out from under the bridge and was harassing it. The billy goat convinced the troll his larger, tastier brothers were right behind him and the troll let him pass and returned to hiding under the bridge. When the party approached, the troll came out and demanded to be able to eat one of them, or for them to leave him 500gp. The party had been prepared for this and told the troll the same thing, that someone bigger was supposed to be coming after them. To further that, Kuppies threw his voice to make it sound like someone else was coming. The troll was unconvinced, so Kuppies, using another cantrip, produced a diamond. Leaving it on the ground and running across the bridge, the troll didn’t see it fade away until the party had rounded the bend and was out of site.

The sound of running water continued to increase as they approached the center of the forest. Once there, they saw a large fountain, with 3 gargoyle statues, shooting water from their mouths, standing over a padlocked chest. Little did the party know a giant amoeba hiding in the bottom of the fountain was the true threat here. Fortunately for them, the DMs dice were incapable of rolling anything over a 5 for the duration of combat and the amoeba was quickly dispatched. Rudy easily picked the lock and 3000 gp along with a large silver key were found in the chest.

Heading north, they adventurers entered a copse of oak trees and saw something truly peculiar. A small family of squirrels were collecting acorns. However, every acorn they touched turned to gold. With a little study of the creatures, it was determined they only turned the acorns to gold. So Rudy reached in and removed a few golden acorns from the tree the squirrels were storing them in. With little reaction from the squirrels, he reached in for more. At this point, the squirrels became very agitated. With that agitation, a nearby hill split open and a small army of creatures, led by Andrew David Amber emerged ready for battle. Andrew David, with the head of a goat , a body covered in black shaggy hair, and hooves for feet, explained how he was the creator and maintainer of this forest and that the squirrels were under his protection. Wisely, Rudy returned the acorns and the party continued north.