Our adventurers make their way into the northern area of The Forest of Slaughter. The trees are scorched and gouged, the leaves on the edges singed. The turf of the ground is overturned and burned, piles of dirt and grass scattered about. The stone floor underneath the grass is visible.
“This is unlike any dungeon I’ve ever seen,” Cassia, the wood elf sorceress says, pulling the hood of her red and gold cloak over her head.
Terence, the Cleric of War, takes the lead. “The white gate is off to the east. That’s where we need to be. Let’s move quietly and carefully.”
At that, Sully Mistrider, a monk of the shadows, sprints for it. He makes no effort to stay hidden or move quietly. Terence and Cassia are left with no choice but to follow suit. Terence runs after Sully.
“Ugh, fuck it!” Cassia sprints with all her might.
Within seconds, the earth starts to shake as the ground moves, dirt and grass over turning. The sound of many legs scuttling in the distance amplifies as it gets closer and closer. Suddenly, a large serpentine creature scaling the wall lets out a loud screeching sound and shoots lightning from its mouth. Terence and Sully narrowly escape the blast radius. Cassia is trapped within it. She’s instantly sprayed with a storm of lightning bolts, striking her in the heart. She falls to the ground, light drained from her eyes.
“Shit!” Terence sprints back into the line of fire to retrieve Cassia. Picking up her corpse, he casts Revivify, which restarts her heart like a defibrillator. She gasps and coughs as her life force has been taken away and restored in a matter of only 6 seconds. Terence keeps running with her over his shoulder.
“That’s my friend, you fugly fuck!” Sully screams as he punches the serpentine creature into the dirt, stunning it long enough for the three of them to escape through the gate, but not with ease. The gate just narrowly closes before the creature can get through. Terence puts Cassia down as the party attempts to catch their breath.
“What.. the fuck.. was that?” Cassia says through staggered breaths, shocked to be alive. She places a hand on her chest, feeling her heart beating, attempting to process everything that just happened.
Terence places a hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”
Cassia looks up at him, panic consuming her gaze, “I don’t know.”
“Well, you did just die. I’m sure it’s a lot to process.” He says.
Sully, ever the wise guy, chimes in, “How’d it feel sleeping like the dead?”
“I don’t ever want to do that again.” She says.
Terence, in an effort to ease the tension says, “Perhaps we should take a rest.”
“Oh, by the gods, please.” Cassia says, putting herself into her elven rest trance.
Sully takes first watch. This forest is frightening the way it is, but it’s all the more terrifying when there’s no one to talk to. Thankfully, his watch goes by uneventfully. He shakes Terence awake for second watch.
Terence, of the same fortune, has an almost equally uneventful watch. Almost. Rounding out the last hour of his watch, he hears footsteps heading in their direction. He sits still as a statue, when a bulbous, purple creature taps him with a tentacle on his head. “Oh, son of a bitch.” He wakes up Sully and Cassia promptly with a shout. “We have company!” Banging his war hammer against his Shield of Faith, he casts Divine Favor on his weapon and swings his hammer Thor-style at the purple blob monster.
Sully, shocked but awake, sees the purple blob striking at Terence and he immediately springs into action. He scales the wall in an attempt to grapple the monster. He gets a few good swings in before the creature is set on fire and falls off the cave wall. “What the?”
“Oh, sorry, were you trying to kill that?” Cassia says smugly, fire still glowing on her hands. She may be severely weakened after narrowly escaping death, but she does not like her slumber to be disturbed. She’s a feisty one.
“Alright, since you’re awake, Cassia, your turn to watch.” Terence pops a squat against the wall and shuts his eyes, Sully climbs down and lays on the ground next to Terence, and Cassie attentively listens for a disturbance of the silence in the cave.
“Hm, I could’ve died today. I did die today. Wow.” Cassia ponders these thoughts for a while, thanking the gods for keeping her alive and her father for watching over her. Her watch reaches near its end when suddenly she hears the sound of dozens of distressed whispers and moans, growing increasingly louder and more unbearable. “Oh, come on. I just want to heal and rest.” Briefly, the sound stops. “Distressed,” she says to herself. A red form starts creeping around the corner. Cassia throws fire at it. It absorbs the fire. She gets up and heads toward it carefully. This thing is the stuff of nightmares, with dozens of screaming mouths and blinking eyes that look around frantically. The mass attempts to form a humanoid shape and Cassia throws more fire at it before this ooze monster spits on her, knocking her unconscious and swallowing her hole.
The screeching of the mouths wakes Sully and Terence up just in time for them to see Cassia get swallowed. There’s a bright light, like a flash-bang, and suddenly Terence is blinded as though he was sprayed with pepper spray. Sully, with his lightning fast agility, manages to escape being blinded and immediately runs in and kicks the shit out of this monster. He body slams the creature on his last blow, causing it to spit Cassia out.
Terence, blinded, casts Guiding Bolt to aim his war hammer right at the creature and nail it on its “head.” It is not looking well. It spits at Terence, but he puts his shield up in defense now that he’s more awake and prepared. It attempts to bite Sully, but he’s far too quick for this beast.
Sully dodges the bite and counters with a roundhouse kick, dealing the final blow to the monster. “That’s for eating my friend!” He drops an elbow on it. “That’s for blinding my other friend.” He jumps up and kicks it with both legs. “And that’s for looking at me funny!”
With that last statement, the creature flops to the ground, lifeless. The whispers slowly fade out as the creature dies.
Sully checks Cassia’s pulse. She’s alive, just unconscious. They decide to continue with their rest, Sully staying awake for the watch. After an hour, Terence wakes up and Cassia comes back to consciousness, fully rested.
“I want to get the fuck out of the Underdark,” Cassia says, casting Mage Armor on herself, creating glowing armor around herself as an added defense. “I’ve almost died twice in the span of a few hours, there are spiders everywhere, there are giant monsters that can communicate telepathically… it’s just a lot. Let’s finish this mission.”
Sully and Terence let out a cheer of agreement and the party collects themselves.
“I believe the black gate we’re looking for is…” Sully pulls out his direction stone and watches the needle flick back and forth before centering itself to their left. “It’s that way.” He takes point, leading the party toward the trees.
Cassia follows quickly after, green eyes flickering blue as her circlet lights up with magical energy, surging through her to her fingertips which light up with fire. She’s ready for anything that may come her way.
Terence takes the rear. Being the strong arm, and having war hammer in hand, he’s ready to take and give a hit if anything should attempt to surprise them. He’s always ready.
What awaits our adventurers in the Forest of Death? They don’t even have a clue.