Tangled Roots

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## Introductions

In the lively trade town of Grimmholm, four strangers emerged from the Dancing Dagger, a large tavern that they stayed at the night before. They are Landar Greatwind, a brave paladin from the town of Copsley; Carric Thompson, a mild-mannered eladrin bard from Dorwin; Jaylee, a kenku cleric of Ioun blessed with the power of speech; and Mirik, an aasimar sorcerer touched by divine power. As the four headed to the job board stood nearby the tavern to have a look at some employment options, they spotted two other figures stood nearby. One of them is Chispa Vel, an artificer from Blackmoor; and Ahsatan, a warlock of some kind who trekked all the way from the northern reaches of Tolmach. The six of them spotted an official job posted by the lord of Grimmholm asking for some aid in putting a stop to the mysterious attacks plaguing the nearby woods. Deciding they could team up for the mission, they decided to head over to the Stoneguard outpost to enquire about more information, when a bloodied man came running into the town square. He was screaming that he had been attacked on the road and his kids were left inside his cart, so the party ran off into the woods.

After 20 minutes they arrived at an upturned cart in the middle of the road. Looking inside, they saw two baby goats wearing little woollen hats. The cart seemed to have been locked from the inside. Chispa failed to pick the lock, and Landar rammed the door in hopes of smashing it open, but it remained firmly shut. Suddenly, some twig blights appeared from the bushes by the side of the track and attacked the party. A young girl with bright red hair and a black suit fell out of a tree, surprising both the party and the blights. A small scuffle broke out, wherein the twig blights were promptly destroyed. The girl, who identified herself as Kiira, approached the cart and picked the lock effortlessly, freeing the goats. An argument then ensued between Landar, Jaylee and Kiira on who got to carry the goats back to town.

## Investigations

The party found the injured man being comforted by Vakon, the barkeep of the Dancing Dagger. He was delighted upon seeing the two goats, but told them that there was meant to be a third. The party promised to go and look for it after dealing with some business, and in an attempt to discover some more information on the mysterious attacks, they split with half of them going to the market square and the other half heading to the Stoneguard outpost. Landar, Mirik and Jaylee arrived at the large brick walls of the outpost to find its large metal gate closed. A lone guard patrolled the grounds. Upon being questioned, he revealed that most of the guards had been recently drafted up to Blackmoor, and the captain was currently busy trying to find out the specifics. He told them that Lord Rayner would be able to provide more information about the attacks.

At the market square, Kiira searched for a gemstone shop and came across The Jewellry, a small purple tent with a magician woman on the inside. She purchased a small onyx gem for 10GP. Ahsatan found a cool loose pebble on the market square floor and pocketed it. Carric and Chispa looked around for merchants that used the Meusewood as a travel route, and were pointed in the direction of a carrot salesman. The other three returned to the market square by this point, and Landar and Carric approached the carrot salesman. He told them that he was getting shipments of carrots from Gravenham, and used to use the roads through Meusewood until one of his carts was yanked off the back of his caravan by an unseen entity into the canopy above. Carric thanked the man and purchased 25 gourmet carrots. The party then departed for the town hall.

Approaching the grandiose building, the party caught some strange looks from the standing guards (possibly due to the excess amount of carrots), but boldly headed inside to the reception desk. The receptionist, a cranky old woman with pointed glasses, told them to take a seat and she summoned the Lord with a little bell. In this moment Chispa and Kiira decided to antagonise the receptionist a bit, who ignored them both with a seething rage. Lord Rayner appeared at this point and happily introduced himself. After some brief questioning and carrot offering, he walked outside with the party in tow to inform them of the situation. He explained that the attacks started off light with minor sustained injuries such as cuts and scrapes, but had been ramping up drastically to more major gashes and strikes. He stated the difficult situation he is in with a large portion of his guard being drafted up to Blackmoor with very little explanation as to why, making it hard for his forces to protect the townspeople from whatever is the cause of the attacks in the woods. Chispa then tried to sell him a Cloak of Billowing, and Kiira enquired about the reward for solving the mystery of the attacks, asking if they could be compensated upfront. He refused, but with more details gathered, the party headed back into the forest to search for the third goat.

## Into the Woods

Returning back to the upturned cart, Chispa and Landar set about up-righting and fixing it. Jaylee spotted a bloody trail of footprints leading further West. Upon inspecting the blood, she determined it belonged to a goat. The party followed the trail quickly and soon came across a run-down house with the windows boarded up. Landar set off to scan the building in a clockwise motion, whilst the others patrolled anticlockwise. Circling the house, a rustle from the bushes startled them as the third goat dashed out, closely chased by a lone twig blight. It was quickly dispatched before it could do any harm to the goat.

Landar found the front door and entered the building, stumbling across another twig blight lurking inside. He quickly dispatched it with his sword as he heard shuffling inside the room to his left. Mirik managed to smash through the boarded up window to find himself in a large shaded room. Four twig blights advanced towards the door on the right, and a large plant-like growth sat in the centre. It had a bulbous red core that slowly pulsed and was encased in various vines which spread out across the floor. A larger blight stirred in the far corner of the room. Upon seeing the dangers inside, Mirik quickly backed up out of the room.

After taking care of the goat, Kiira, Ahsatan and Carric made their way over to the window. Carric tried to insult the large blight that had made its way over, but was unsuccessful. Kiira and Ahsatan both shot at it with a bow and Eldritch Blast respectively. Landar opened the door to see the four twig blights waiting, and whilst one of them was dispatched quickly, the other three managed to begin walloping into him. Jaylee and Chispa rushed to Landar's aid, slinging bullets and spells at the oncoming blights.

Mirik climbed back into the large room and firebolted the large blight. In response, it advanced over and slapped Mirik with its viney arm, knocking him unconscious instantly. Ahsatan made her way inside after being inspired by Carric’s singing and slashed at it with her katana. Landar backed up out of his doorway to create a bottleneck, but unfortunately the doorway was wide enough to allow all three blights to squeeze out. With Landar on low HP and Jaylee now getting wailed into, Chispa decided the best idea was to go and investigate the other two rooms along the corridor they were fighting in. Thankfully, they were empty.

The large blight slammed its arms into the ground, and the floor of the large room became thick with twisting vines, restraining Ahsatan and Mirik. Kiira jumped through the window and shanked it with her dagger, whilst Carric healed Mirik to consciousness. Chispa came back from his exploration and threw a bottle of acid over two twig blights, unfortunately catching Landar in the firing line. Jaylee managed to clean the acid off of Landar before it could damage him, and he bonked one of them through the wall to the outside of the house. The blight soon rotted away from the acid.

Back in the main room, Ahsatan’s arm cramped up from the vines, causing her to be unable to swing with her sword. Mirik fired off some more spells as Kiira stabbed it with her rapier, but was promptly whacked in return by it and restrained in its arm. As it attempted to drag her towards the large plant in the middle, Ahsatan’s cramp ended and she swung out it, delivering one final blow whilst whispering “get beaned lol”.

## Wrapping Up

The restraining vines eventually withered away, freeing Mirik, Ahsatan and Kiira. The party gathered in the main room, in which Jaylee identified the plant in the middle as a blood root, an aberrant plant that spawns usually due to an increase of pestilence or spilled blood in the area, and is usually associated with vampiric activity. Blood roots can spawn vessels of themselves in the form of blights, which wait for creatures to pass by them before reaching out and stealthily sucking their blood like leeches, however these blights seemed to be uncharacteristically violent. Chispa collected some of the blood sap from the root before Mirik set the plant and the house on fire. They returned back to town, goat in hand, picking up the cart along the way.

Back in town they returned the goat to the man, received a 10GP reward from him and booked some rooms in the Dancing Dagger for the evening. They then set off to Lord Rayner to inform him of their findings, but stated they were unsure if the problem had been fully resolved. They promised to venture out into the woods again tomorrow to see if they would be attacked, and Rayner stated he would send some men down to investigate the area of the blood root. With that, they headed off back to the Dancing Dagger after some more antagonization of Maurice (the receptionist whose name they had just learned). As they settled down for their awaited evening dinner, Landar set off by himself towards the Stoneguard outpost...