Healing the Haunted Forests (session 11)

<pub door slams open, admitting Red Scarlotte, who enters with great excitement>

Hello Everyone!

Thanks to the help of Martin and Artemesia, we have defeated a vile flesh golem and healed the rot that was setting into the forest to the west. I shot him straight through the skull! Sadly, we lost Alain and Raya, two allies and protectors of the forests, but we now know how to heal the rot at the heart of the haunted forest. Would anyone like to join me in this quest? 

Also, if you see Artemesia, please let her know that I have the Ice Staff from the dead Ice Wizard for her to wield, although I worry about its evil aftereffects, given its associations with the Temple of Bhaal, foul god of murder. There are some rotten and grim things about in these haunted forests, and I may need to go underground to get to the root of the issue!

Three adventurers went into the haunted forest and three adventurers came out. Praise be to Thruun. But we encountered more death and devastation along the way than I'm particularly comfortable with. I suffered greatly: I lost an eye but gained a badass eye-patch.

Red Scarlotte led us to the forest having heard rumours of rot and decay infesting the place. Red, Artemesia, and myself being the most nature-focused adventurers in the Guild, we thought we were best placed to handle whatever foul infestation was there on our own. We were wrong and I almost paid for the mistake with my life.

Our Dwarven merchant friend, Dolan, directed us to the hermit of the forest, a wood-elf named Alain, and his assistant Freya. Dolan told us that Alain had the key to the temple at the heart of the forest and, as we later discovered, this temple held the source of the rot. We discovered Alain's cabin in the dead woods and Artemesia - ahem - availed herself of Alain's private diary (for my sins, I'll confess to eating some of his food too). The diary confirmed for us that where there is rot, there are Necromancers. They had travelled to the forest with a foul flesh golem and some kind of flaming skull.

After dispatching some ghouls, Red Scarlotte pulling a knife from a tree, and Artemesia deciding she preferred to live as a bear, we stumbled upon a dying Necromancer and an extremely dead Alain. His amulet was the key! Using his amulet, we were able to remove the enchantment protecting the temple and we headed inside (pursued by a bear (Artemesia)).

The gloom inside was impenetrable. The floor was littered with shattered glass and, at one end of the room, stood a basin full of blood. Boom! A knock at the door. Scarlotte tried to open the door to no avail and we directed the person knocking on the door to one of the broken windows. It was Freya! Pursued by... the flesh golem.

It was a hard fight. Even my powerful Divine Smite was not enough to kill the creature. It knocked me out with a single blow. When I came to, my mouth was full of berries, Artemesia-the-bear was swiping her mighty paws at the creature, and it looked like it's head had exploded. I don't know what Red and Artemesia did to it while I was out cold but it must have been incredible. Mustering my strength, I threw my trident into the creature and took a swing with my greataxe at the stitches holding its rotting flesh together. As it loomed over me to strike the killing blow... its stitching came loose and the creature fell apart like a bag of soup with a leak.

The flesh golem was vanguished. We restored the forest with a blessing to the ancient roots under the temple and picked up the Ice Scepter of Lord Aster Quilo.

But my concern is a pendant that we found on the dying Necromancer in the woods. A Holy Pendant of my god Thruun. How did the Necromancers come by this? How they can wear it in good conscience? Do they not care about their sacrilege?

I can vouch for the bravery and keeness of my colleagues, and say 'twas exactly what happened.  I must confess while taking on the stance of a bear (yeah!) I did not take too much notice of assorted humans that we crushed, smashed and generally sorted out, but it was goodly work