Shambling Shenanigans, Petrified Pals and Fighting for Fungus

## Post-trench Trudge

* The journey became a slog when torrential rains soaked everyone to the skin, adding yet more stuffiness to the humid atmosphere
* Leoven began to suffer and flag from deepening exhaustion, simply unable to get cool in his heavy armour
* No ichor fungus was to be found, but when asked Khiaxi mentioned that a creepy set of shadowy ruins the following day might contain some
* At a confluence of several animal tracks, Kunai noted something metallic in the undergrowth
* It was a necklace in the shape of a hammer with vines depicted wrapping around the handle
* Khiaxi recognised this as belonging to Clovis, the village priest whose unique brand of theology blended worship of the dwarven god Moradin with nature-based druidic beliefs
* Nearly everyone managed to acquire leeches that day, but Azurial did the rounds and cured the poison surging into bloodstreams with his angelic touch

## Sweet Slumber...also snek

* In the camp for the night, everyone settled down for a nice restful sleep
* Deep into the night, Tamsin’s arcane alarm set off at the same time that Kunai picked up on movement behind Belgaer and Lysandre’s tent
* Circling around, he noted that the material at the back had been pulled loose and was flapping about
* Belgaer came to consciousness gasping desperately for breath in the crushing coil of a giant constrictor snake
* He managed to break loose and escape the tent and hex the beast, while Kunai’s crossbow bolt flew wide due to his caution in avoiding Lysandre
* At this point the entire camp was awake and Azurial leapt into the now partially collapsed tent and lopped the head from the elongated body
* He calmly began to cut it into fillets and place these over the fire, but upon the tender meaty aroma meeting his nose decided better of the idea
* Belgaer took his watch next and continued to read the marine creature book while Tamsin kicked back and kept an eye out
* Part way through, Belgaer politely asked to borrow Tamsin’s spell book for the purpose of doing some copying and, to his excitement, the wizard cautiously agreed
* On the final watch, Leo and Breena were startled by the snorting of a nearby hog of the feral variety

## **Day 4:**

* Remarkably, everyone felt well rested by the morning and Kunai continued to learn well from Khiaxi’s swampy tutelage as they continued on
* An hour or so in, as abruptly as ever, Khiaxi held up her hand to halt ahead of several shambling mounds
* Azurial petitioned staunchly for getting the jump on them, predicting the inevitable battle, but the group decision was taken to avoid them if possible
* Breena gave Leo a potion of flying, enabling him and Azurial to carry her above the treeline and past the peril
* Bayul and Tamsin attempted to sneak through the brush while the others remained poised, and were almost immediately noticed and set upon by the amorphous plants
* Ever ready for action, Kunai fired a bolt deep into the mass of one of them, while Breena’s fire bomb, Leo’s radiant hammer and Tamsin’s orb of acid all targeted different foes (with varying degrees of success)
* Belgaer took the opportunity to get a spot of light reading done inside his lamp, while Bayul tripped one of the vegetative masses up and plunged his spear deeply into it several times
* One struck the Loxodon back with a limb of densely knotted biomass, while another completely engulfed Lysandre, pulling him inside its tight woven form
* Between them, Kunai and Azurial completely eviscerated one of the other masses
* Breena sought to avoid hurting Lysandre by accident so targeted the third mound, her crossbow bolt carrying enfeebling magic deep into its heart and making the external limbs sag and flop limply
* Leo’s hammer chased the same one in its shambling, battering and singeing its lumpy exterior, before Tamsin burned it to a crisp with a fireball
* Belgaer then popped out from inside the lamp, which was inside the creature, thus prompting physics to step in -- he was shunted to the nearest space outside and immediately blasted hole back through the mound with an eldritch blast
* Inside the clenching mass, Lysandre’s breath was being forced out of him but his mighty dwarven chest held strong nonetheless
* Bayul and Kunai were mutually embarrassed as their two-pronged manoeuvre flopped completely
* The final mound became angry and attempted to leave, but was tripped by Bayul, pulverised by a punch from Bel, hewn in twain by an arced strike from Azurial, and executed by a bolt from Kunai
* The tension finally alleviated on Lysandre, and Kunai began to gather bones from the humanoid skeletons that had previously fallen prey to the things
* #LawyerChat

## Strange Stone Statuage

* After another couple of hours the group came upon the ruined temple that Khiaxi had described as creepy, and it lived up to her claims
* Several life-like statues depicting soldiers in realistic combat or fleeing poses stood in front of a shaded ad deeply ominous hollow in the ruins
* Tamsin realised that these were probably people that had been petrified
* They decided to set up an ambush, and a major image from Lysander walked cautiously forwards to the entrance while he hid behind Bayul
* Nothing happened
* After a closer look, the hollow seemed to bend around to the right, and Breena spotted ichor fungus plants just 25ft inside
* Ellie the crow glid in on dark wings, noticed some interesting serpent-themed drawings on the walls and harvested a single mushroom from the plant successfully
* She rinsed and repeated after this was successful once, but eventually became cocky — she squawked and dashed out of the hollow just as an enormous maw snapped shut in the space she’d just occupied
* Everyone prepared themselves for its emergence and wailed on its horrific form while averting their gaze
* After just the merest glance, Bayul glanced at the creature and his movement became difficult as his lower half turned partially to stone
* He then watched in despair as Azurial struck a blow but then his entire form stiffened and cracked entirely to stone
* The two healed one another with newly acquired ointment from the herbalists shop, while the spell casters lobbed fireballs and eldritch blasts from the sidelines
* Breena prepared herself with a true strike, Leo cast spiritual weapon without looking, Kunai sent bolts into the beast’s flank, Tamsin and Bel scoured it with eldritch blasts and Lysandre smote it dead thusly with a final fireball

## The Basilisk’s Basement

* A healthy 5 doses off fungus was harvested, then the group descended into the depths
* The drawings were investigated, showing:
	+ A skull with a serpent wrapped around the skull, representing the avatar of Set
	+ A scene of some kind of ritual in which a snakey humanoid (Yuan-ti) was slithering through pit of scorpions while many others watched
* In the large cavern below were some small stone sculptures depicting the avatar of Set, which were whacked into the cube of holding
* There was also a stone table in one corner, upon which was a bowl containing a beautiful amulet, identified as a 'Periapt of poison'