Chop Down the Tree, Strip Off and Scatter All the Fruit

Nobo'ru wriggled out from under the roots that had erupted from the earth and pinned him down. Hopping to his feet, he cast his intense gaze to the massive creature before him. Keydar, the living tree and Lord of the Zentilig was before him. With a look devoid of anything recognizeable, Nobo're whipped a dagger at its baleful green eyes. The massive fireball Abel had rolled into Keydar's branches was suddenly extinguished, and with it the light by which Nobo'ru could see his target. The dully shining dagger flew wide and dissapeared into the never-ending gloom. Several arrows joined it, whisking harmlessly through Keydar's branches as Azariah danced around the ice-blue webs spread by the spiders crawling in Keydar's limbs, firing arrows as fast as his screaming muscles would allow. Though as many hit as missed, Azariah could tell that Keydar would fall if they redoubled their efforts. To his left, the soldiers were already withdrawing to regroup and counterattack, carrying an unconscious Andreas from the battle. Azariah did not have time to wonder at the wide grin frozen on his unconscious face.

Suddenly, Abel fell to the earth under the crushing force of Keydar's roots, his staff tumbling from his hand. Gnarled roots burst forth and seized it, and Keydar, declaring that it was enough, disappeared in a baleful green whirlwind. Azariah leapt from the wall he had climbed on to and pounded his fist against it with an unbridled curse. Nobo'ru stood stock still at the edge of the churned up crater where Keydar once was, and Abel fell to his knees in the midst of it, clenching the dead rocky soil in his hands, which now had arcane flames licking across them, a sign of his fury at the loss of both his staff and his satisfaction of bringing the creature down. They had been so close to ending this, and now Keydar was not only alive, but had stolen Abel's unique staff. Everyone knew that Abel would never part with the thing for long. Rising to his feet, Abel said through gritted teeth, "I am going to get my staff back." Azariah and Nobo'ru nodded with determined assent, and Andreas, now back on his feet, added, "We will bivouac one more time, then find him again. We will end this, and next time we will be better prepared." Looking to his battered soldiers, Andreas said, "We will press in and fight until he is destroyed." They assented grimly, knowing that few men could possibly last long in both the cold of the webs of the spiders and the potent life draining force that surrounded Keydar.

"He will be in his lair," Azariah added, "He will have nowhere to run."

After a long rest, they moved out to finish this, once and for all.

Keydar waited for them in his place, and forced them to come to him. The twleve soldiers Andreas had gotten from the King charged foreward under a shower of needles, getting ready to position themselves to strike the tree-king, with Nobo'ru stalking quietly among their ranks. Abel shifted behind a wall, and once again an orb of fire rolled up Keydar's trunk and into his crown of branches, from which deadly showers of piercing needles showered unending. The spiders again fell from the branches and left blankets of freezing webs in their wake, making the ground near Keydar a fatal blend of icy cold and life-draining necrosis. As the soldiers approached, roots burst forth, pinning them to the ground. With a shout, Andreas charged over a wall Azariah was shooting behind and leapt over the constraining webs, his Sunblade flashing forth and washing the evil creature with golden sunlight. The soldiers who had been pinned and frozen to the earth were invigorated as Andreas lead them again into the fold. Nobo'ru swept in to flank the monster, but was harried by the spiders, who dropped from the branches to strike with venomous fangs. A soldier, Verchan, was seized by a vine and strangled before his unconscious form was comtemptuously tossed among the freezing webs and necrotic, life draining aura of Keydar's presence.

Finally, the soldiers rushed in en masse, prepared to sell their lives to bring this monster to justice. Freezing webs and pain of death did not stay their swords, and Keydar began to buckle under their mass of strikes, while Abel's rageful fires burned relentlessly in his branches. Azariah sensed Keydar's weakening condition, and charged into Keydar's deadly presence, striking once and preparing to sweep his blades in a mighty hewing stroke that would be the end of the monster. Andreas fell in the cold and deadly darkness at the base of Keydar's trunk, finally exhausted, while Nobo'ru desperately tumbled away from the spiders to lash out again. As Azariah wound his scimitars up for the killing blow, a vine lashed out from the branches, its rough form cutting his neck. and picking him up off the ground. Nobo'ru was knocked unconscious by a lashing root as Keydar, in a sudden rush of movement, grasped Azariah and Andreas' unconscious forms and slid backward, churning up the earth. "Relent, give me the Bow, and I will let you live, never to return."

Only Abel and the eleven soldiers stood. Their battlecry and the roar of Abel's fire was their response, as eleven soldiers hacked ferociously into the monster, felling it in a merciless flurry of razor-edged steel. The raw cries of triumph from the soldiers reverberated in the darkness with the crunch of the falling tree-king as the spiders and plant-beings infesting Keydar's now-dead branches fled skittering into the night. The soldiers revived their leader Andeas and the other heroes.

....

Andreas, battered and nursing a dozen new piercings from the thorn shooting plants, watched with grim satisfaction as Abel coaxed his flames along Keydar's corpse with no small measure of fervor, his hands shifting in angry gestures that belied his frustration with the monster that lingered after its death. Nobo'ru looked on, the implications of their act of regicide not troubling his expression, which would have been cold as the stars hidden in the darkness were it not for the blaze before him. Many feet away, from the atop the wall he had been shooting behind moments ago, Azariah took in the moment, every ache and pain, every flame-lit form and burning feeling in his heart. In the heart of the Zentilig Kingdom, with no words and tongues of flame dancing in his eyes, Azariah watched a king burn.

Return to the Forest

Quick Summary 11.3.08

-Andreas drill soldiers for a week, while Nobo'ru and Azariah help to train the soldiers in fieldcraft and fighting techniques. Meanwhile, Abel researches the old ruins and hears of a region where the Zamunson and Hazaelites fought a huge last stand battle.

-It seems King Malevus has all of the key tomes that would convey the most useful information. He guards them jealously to keep people from venturing into the ruins and discovering items of power there.

-Andreas manages to curb the drinking of the soldiers, and Nobo'ru encourages them and vouches for Andreas' character, improving morale.

-The party plans to first go out into the ruins to find magic items in order to finance a stronger force to attack the Ruk-Shol encampments.

-The group reaches some ruins and Abel detects a magical aura. After a two-pronged attack, they successfully recover a +2 Flameburst Longbow from the ant-hill. They decide to meet with Keydar to negotiate salvage terms.

-They escape and Andreas manages to survive near mortal wounds. His decision to be the first in and the last out resonates with his men strongly.

-Azariah and Nobo'ru hear a spy near the camp but don't catch up to it. Andreas decides to encamp and rest for a day before speaking to Keydar.

-Leaving their magic items behind with the soldiers, they go to speak with keydar who gives them very unfavorable 70/30 terms. They decide to quickly leave, and Andreas makes a parting insult. A chase ensues and Keydar and a few minions catch up with them. Ready for battle, they prepare to face Keydar in battle.