What Hides In The Forest

"**What Hides In The Forest**" (1x38) is the 38th episode of Dun-Johns and Dragons.

## **Synopsis**

### **Previously on *Dun-Johns and Dragons***

After meeting a satyr named Tuli Springfoot, who has joined them in hopes of eradicating the hybrid monsters plaguing the forest, the party was reunited with Dugluss, who told them of Yoolna’s demise. In the town of Steepoint, they finally confronted and defeated their old enemy, the black dragon they first met in Westerhaven, after which Dugluss departed for home to return to his family and give Yoolna a proper burial. After a tip from the village elder of Steepoint, they continued in their search for the kidnapped Prince Durrian, striking out into the woods to find the source of the hybrid monsters rumored to have taken him. There, they met Ogbur Bearskin, an orc in search of glorious battle and allies to help him rebuild his clan. As proof of worthiness, he requested a duel with Zander, nominated by the others as the strongest member of the party; after significant injury, Zander seemed to lose control and Stone caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure seeming to control him, but the episode was quickly shaken off and Ogbur, thrilled with the fight, was happy to join the party on their quest.

### **Part I**

As they journey on after the duel, Magpie drops back to walk with Zander and asks if he’s okay. Zander isn’t really sure how to answer; it’s clear that he’s upset, and he mentions that he’s had to make some difficult decisions in the past. Magpie asks if he wants to talk about it. He replies slowly, “I can’t always control myself. You’ve seen me use magic — my power comes from a dark place. I — don’t know if I’m ready to talk about it.”

Magpie comments that Stone seems to be very worried about him. She asks if it’s likely to happen again, and if there’s anything they can do for him should it reoccur, but Zander isn’t sure how they could help. She asks if he’s likely to be a danger to the rest of the party, but he doubts it, as they’re generally not attacking him. He clarifies that logically, he understands the duel with Ogbur was a friendly fight, but being brought that close to death, rational thought sometimes isn’t enough. He talks a bit about his relationship with Carrot: “Usually, I’d like to think me and my sword are pretty good friends, but it’s not a true friendship. I don’t really understand —”

Magpie breaks in, “We need to kill your sword?”

“No no, please don’t try.” He says that probably wouldn’t go well, and further explains, “My power comes from another being. It was my choice to go down that path; not for selfish reasons — I tried to save some people that I loved, and I didn’t really fully understand what I did. But — yeah. Now I have this sword, and I chat to it, and sometimes it makes me steal vegetables. And sometimes —”

“It makes you go crazy?”

“Yeah. But most times I’m pretty happy.” Reassured, Magpie Messages Stone that Zander says he’s fine and all seems okay.

Barakas, meanwhile, has a chat with Ogbur in Orcish. He asks about the Orc’s background, commenting that he’s not familiar with Clan Bearskin. Ogbur says this won’t be the case for long, as it is a clan of the best and strongest orcs. Or at least it was; he’s the last of them. Barakas expresses sympathy, but Ogbur laughs and says, “No matter — I was the one who killed them!” He explains they all challenged him to duels for leadership, and he defeated every last one of them. Barakas says that he respects their courage and ferocity, and Ogbur appreciates the understanding: “Not many outside the Ragelands do.”

Nodding toward Zander, Ogbur asks, “Is the little one okay? I was surprised by his strength — he did well.”

“I’ve known him but a short time,” Barakas replies. “There is a fury within — mostly masked by humor and youth, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t scare me.”

“Marvelous! Then we will get along well.” Ogbur asks about the rest of the party and Barakas gives him a rundown of their various skills and fighting styles; he mentions that while they are each powerful in their own way, they’ve been missing a party member who can stand at the front and take and deal significant damage; Ogbur is thrilled that this will be a perfect match for his skills.

As they stop to make camp for the night, Zander addresses the group and apologizes for what happened, emphasizing that he would never want to hurt any of them. Ogbur replies, “Ogbur surprised. You strong. Duel, orc tradition, determine strength. Good ally. Ogbur respect.” Zander tells Ogbur that he wasn’t raised as a fighter, and he respects the work Ogbur has put into his skills. He says most of his power comes from magic, and he sometimes feels he hasn’t earned it. Ogbur in turn assures him that Zander has great talent and he’s very impressed. Aside, Barakas whispers to Zander that orc duels are often less about winning and more about not yielding. Zander admits he was mostly upset that Ogbur called him a child, “but I think we’re past that now.”

While on watch that night, Magpie asks Barakas how he knows Orcish. He explains that much of the north of Crystaria is inhabited by groups considered dangerous, but many years ago, his father ventured out of Qomedh to forge relationships with them, trying to minimize danger to the city by turning potential foes into allies. When Barakas came of age, he followed in his father’s footsteps, ingratiating himself with several orcish tribes, often through combat, and establishing diplomatic and trade relations with many peoples usually considered “unsafe”.

Magpie asks why she wasn’t taught Orcish, reasoning that if she were to rule, she ought to be able to speak with their allies; Barakas explains that these relationships have thus far been handled secondhand, as it’s never been considered safe to bring such people into the city. Magpie wonders what they must think of her family: “If you’re the ones actually going out there, gaining their respect, and we’re just sitting in our ivory tower, in their eyes, we’re not the ones fit to rule, *you* are!”

She comments the reason she left was because she felt like her family never did anything useful, they just sat around talking. She asks if any of the Dusk Marshalls have ever tried to take power, and Barakas laughs. He says someday he will tell her the story of how the Dusk Marshalls came to be, and she will understand why her question amuses him.

During the second watch shift, Ogbur and Stone likewise have a chat. Ogbur asks, “You fix little one. You gods-speaker?” (meaning “cleric”) Stone confirms this, hesitatingly. Ogbur is surprised to learn that despite their size, most of Stone’s power comes from magic rather than physical strength. He comments on the diversity of sizes in people here, and how someone’s size does not necessarily correlate to their strength, which is contrary to the place he is from. [OOC, Trelawney also notes that Ogbur hadn’t meant to insult Zander; he’d simply never seen a halfling before and had thought he was a literal child.] Stone in turn mentions that they’re interested in languages and asks if Ogbur will teach them some Orcish, and Ogbur obliges, though between their shared low intelligence scores, they only manage a few simple words.

As they talk, they see some tiny, faint glowing lights moving outside, but they can’t tell what they are. One of them creeps up to the very edge of the Tiny Hut, then zooms back to the others and they all scatter away into the forest, and they see them no more.

During the third watch, Tuli and Zander see the same lights approach; Tuli tells Zander they’re sprites and goes to greet them. Zander follows; the sprites are skittish around him, and one tells Tuli in Sylvan,“There’s danger in that one!” But she reassures them that he’s on their side. They chat further and Tuli tells them about their hunt for the source of the hybrid creatures. The sprites suggest they might be coming from a place they refer to as “Big Scary Castle”; they warn her not to go there (on account of the scariness), but she says the only way to get rid of the abominations is to find their source.

Before they part, the sprites say, “Do the thing! Do the thing!” Tuli obliges and pays a jaunty little tune on her pan pipes, and the sprites clap and dance. She asks if Zander wants to join in, and he does a little halfling dance. The sprites are impressed, but still wary of him. They give Tuli a hug by pressing themselves against her face and fly off into the lightening dawn. When the others wake up, Tuli passes along the information about the Big Scary Castle.

### **Part II**

They spend the day traveling and chatting amongst themselves, and by the time they stop to make camp for the night, they are beginning to catch glimpses of far-off castle spires through the trees. Magpie takes first watch with Barakas and asks him to tell her about the beginnings of the Dusk Marshalls as he promised. However, as he begins talking, the ground begins to shake, and something whips out from the underbrush and swipes at Magpie, barely missing her. A huge creature with wide leathery wings, a wicked tail, and long, sharp teeth raises itself up from the underbrush, tumbling them all off its back. The party rolls initiative.

The creature turns out to be a Cloaker, and is joined by a second one early in the fight. They attack with bites and tail-whips, and the first one pulls a trick not unlike the Mirror Image spell, making three identical copies of itself so the players can’t tell until they hit them whether or not they’re attacking the real thing.

The party quickly falls to attacking them, Zander, Barakas, and Magpie with swords, Ogbur with his axe, and Stone with their hammer. Stone also deals some party buffs with Circle of Power, and Tuli does some damage with the Moonbeam spell and Wrath of Nature. One of the Cloakers is dispatched fairly quickly, but the other one attaches itself to Stone, wrapping itself around them and taking only half damage, passing the rest on to Stone. The others don’t realize this right away and continue attacking, including a Chaos Bolt from Magpie and Ogbur’s apparent signature move: he picks up the corpse of the dead Cloaker, whirls it around and shotputs it at the remaining one, doing no small amount of damage.

Stone tries to get away by casting Mislead, a spell which creates a double of the caster that stays put, and turns the real person invisible so they can slip away unseen. However, the Cloaker, which is physically attached to Stone, moves with their invisible self and leaves the double alone, making it look to the others as if the Cloaker has detached itself and moved away. Barakas even attempts to heal the double, to no effect. However, the Cloaker quickly detaches itself anyway to make more duplicates of itself, and the fight continues. Finally, low on health, it tries to flee, but Tuli restrains it with Watery Sphere and Ogbur finishes it off with a javelin.

The creatures dispatched, the party once more turns in, and the rest of the night passes uneventfully.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Player Characters**

* Magpie
* Ogbur Bearskin
* Stone
* Tuli Springfoot
* Zander Brushspark