The Six Mighty Adventures Miserable Adventure
Chapter 2
The six adventurers awoke to the sound and feel of rain falling upon them. Their eyes opened then slowly focus upon a strange giant forest of colossal trees and giant plants and they realized that they are lying naked in the mud. They could hear the sound of the others awakening nearby as they scavenged plant material to make clothing and used a large leaf for an umbrella. No rocks were found that could be used for weapons and only poor quality sticks for use as staffs and thicker but bendy sticks to use as a rough club.
Ransarn and Ghengis looking around for any signs revealing a trail left behind by Bob if he was here. They found that Bob had broken or bent branches at an angle showing his direction of movement along his recently created trail. They followed the trail for several hours in the rain becoming covered in the fresh mud before they heard the sound of rushing water over the sound of the rainfalls steady noise.
Upon the crest of a small ridge they saw some clear pools of water just below them and Bobs trail kept going down towards the pools. Looking around they saw a spring bubbling up from the ground that fed into a series of larger clear pools before disappearing off into the giant forest.
They quickly discovered on the way down the slope that it was an extremely slippery slope to the pools. The party tried to get down safely but eventually the muddy ground gave way causing someone towards the back to begin sliding down towards the others below. Well the first person they encountered was taken unaware sending them both sliding down to where the next person was downhill who almost managed to dodge to the side but an errant leg knocked them loose to join the growing avalanche of adventurers.
Except for Loro the whole party had now lost their footing and slid the rest of the way down the slope before falling into a pool. The thief looked at the clear and muddy track they had made and decided it looked like fun then took a running start before diving down the slope. As he slid down he barely heard an unfamiliar voice scream in anger and begin shouting about the mud in her pool. The voice got louder just before Loro shot over the edge (now minus his plant thong) along with a good stream of mud. Loro helplessly sailed through the air straight into a very feminine body belonging to the local fairy of the water spring. After the two tumbled to a stop at the ponds edge they both ended up pressed against each other in a rather (ahem) personal way.
Loro being the honest and polite thief he was tried to explain the situation but he was pushed away as the fairy swam away calling out in a strange sound before diving down below the surface.
Giant frogs began jumping into the pool and attacked the adventures as a brawl broke out with the giant frogs trying to bull over and flatten the adventures while one tried to swallow Xena whole. The adventures were eventually reduced to punching, kicking and wrestling the frogs as the furious fairy slipped away. Eventually the last frog was driven off or lay beaten unconscious and the gobbled princess was tended to.
The battered group found Bobs marked trail following the stream and his foot prints had been joined by a pair of large boot prints. They followed Bobs trail from the now muddy spring, scrounging as they went for new clubs or staffs and plants for garment weaving. They continued downstream until they came to a small game trail. There they saw the remains of recent giant lizard's tracks in a sheltered site. Both sets of foot prints disappeared there and the lizards like tracks as well as Bobs trail marks went down the trail from where the lizards track had originally come from.
They proceeded along the trail and encountered giant ants and termites waging a battle. They soon broke their make shift clubs and staffs upon the bugs as they fought their way around the battles edge.
They had just fought their way around to the far side where the trail resumed when Xena commented that one of Ani's fire ball spell would have helped.
That poked a rarely used memory in Ani's noggin and he whipped about to point at the nearest giant bug and said "ZAP". The poor bug collapsed and its legs curled inwards in a classic "me is dead" pose.
With a disturbing cackle Ani proceeded to cast the cantrip spell Exterminate over and over slaying the bugs from both species as he made his way back through the battle. His companions let him have his fun as they started salvaging the creature's jaws, limbs and body parts for use as food, make shift weapons and armour.
It was when Ani started chasing after the few remaining bugs that fled this specter of death that Xena decided that play time was over. Grasping Ani by his pointy ear she dragged him back like a naughty child to the others.
Before they continued on their way they each now had a mandible to use as a dagger or short sword and long legs repurposed into clubs. They quickly gave up trying to turn a bug's carapace into a shield or chest plate when they realized they had no tools to work on it. They did manage to turn several hollowed out giant bug skulls into loose fitting helms that they padded with grasses.
They next came upon a giant praying mantis that struck from ambush wounding Ransarn the ranger. They tackled it and soon pinned it down then being angered at Ransarn's injuries killed it by driving a mandible deep into its eye rather than let Ani use his exterminate spell. They ended up tearing off its limbs that they used for make shift long swords and legs for staffs as making a new helmet that fit a bit better.
They passed the night safe and dry in an enchanted glade that smelled faintly of incense while the rain fell outside. Although they did not get much sleep as they would like as they would sometimes faintly hear a faint mirth filled chuckle coming from somewhere nearby.
The next morning they continued on through the rain and came upon a cliff split in two by a wide crevasse that the lizards trail went through. Not even the rain could obscure signs of very large clawed paw prints that were as big as they were. The adventurers found a spot in the crevasse just before a bend where the lizards had paused for a while. Both Bobs bare foot prints and the other large boot tracks reappeared there and moved into cover near the turn.
Past the turn the party saw the mouth of a big cave in the side of the crevasse. Quietly sneaking up to the cave the party saw a gigantic badger over forty foot long asleep inside with its pups. They quietly snuck past when they heard it stir but manage to get around the next bend and out of sight before it exited the cave.
Unfortunately the badgers had smelt them as they passed by and stirred to seek out the intruders. They were however fortunate that the badger had gone the wrong way and did not start to chase after the adventurers until they were almost out of the crevasse. The giant badger only gave up when the party re-entered the woods and had left the area.