User blog:PeteGoz/The Chronicles of Tymennoreth Ortholeu'Alinyr: Chapter 3 - Entry 4

I believe that last time I left you as we had dispatched the rest of our travelling companions after they had attacked us. Well as the dust (or should it be snow?) settled we looked around and saw several bodies lying about us, their dark furs and crimson blood contrasting starkly with the endless white of this damned place. Of course, everyone looked infected by the fungus that had been plaguing Dinobryon and it seems that they were beyond help, thank the gods.

Despair started to take hold of me as I considered that I had come here in search of what was rumoured to be a paradise and instead we have been forced into conflict with those that until very recently we had counted as comrades. Our guide appeared to have been the perpetrator of this evil, so I decided to take a closer look. Her true face, now revealed, was made up of fibrous tendrils and she was clearly some sort of sentient plant creature. As I look though they wriggle in discomfort at the sunlight, it seems that whatever it is that she was is not used to the sun. I thought it was important and as such noted this to my companions. Edius decided to liberate the rest of the victims of their supplies but quickly saw that they were blighted with the same infection as their previous owners. I will say that this was just about typical of our luck at this point, and I was starting to feel a great weight on me as the hopelessness of our situation became clearer. Fortunately, Dinobryon once again called on his deity and purified the supplies rendering them edible. They did however lose any colour or taste and I wondered to myself whether death would have been preferable to this monotony and life devoid of colour or inspiration?

We pressed on with Edius and Dinobryon looking for a path that would take us towards the desired destination and despite the vanishingly small chance that we would accurately find a path to a place that none of us had ever been before, I decided to sing an old traveling song to focus their minds. I am not sure what pushed me to do it as beyond the thought of ‘Let’s head for the huge mountain range and hope’ I wasn’t sure what else we could do. Days passed and our lives were filled with little more than trudging forward, eating, digging a hole, resting, and repeating the whole soul-destroying routine. As I had feared after a few days of it my Fey nature succumbed to this and I moved into a winter season that has left me feeling a sense of melancholy that will be hard to shake. This time my hair has even shortened leaving my neck and ears more exposed to the cold, almost as if my body is making a jest of me. My companions noticed and I explained the situation to them, much to their disbelief. They did at least seem concerned about me which whilst being appreciated was scant comfort given everything else.

More days passed and we grew closer and closer to the cyclopean mountains that had ever been on the horizon. Something different happened then though, a patch of darkness became evident in the distance. Easily spotted as it stood out clearly against the white that coloured everything else. This was interesting to us as it appeared to be some sort of cave and possibly represents a path through or an entrance. Either way it was to be an opportunity for us to leave the snow and unrelenting bright sunlight behind. One of my companions also confirmed that there are tracks that seem to head towards the cave so it must be inhabited. I will confess that I forget which of them spotted this as I was deep in a self-reflective state of misery as is common when in my winter season, not that anyone noticed or cared mind you.

As we entered the cave the light level dropped but to my surprise didn’t disappear as a green glow was emanating from deeper in. As we looked, this glow was clearly being generated by some vegetation further into the cave. This reminded me of some of the deeper forests and grottos of the Feywild where this bioluminescence is not so uncommon. I did notice as we looked about that Edius had been carving some sort of rudimentary rune into the handle of his maul. This made me think two things, firstly I must ask about the runes and their significance to him. Secondly that it is indeed possible to notice something important that is going on with your companions and that my companions must just not care so much about me! In fairness, as I write this, I am not in the most positive of places so I may be taking things a touch more personally. Alternatively, they could all just be ignorant and selfish, only time will tell.

The fungal growths were everywhere around the cavern as we started to look around to a point where they really could be considered a forest. It was indeed very striking and momentarily lifted my spirits, this could have made a beautiful sketch for my chronicles but because clearly the world hates me at the moment, I never got the chance. Dinobryon held up a hand to signal that we halt and informs us that we are being watched. Calling out for whoever he had spotted to show themselves. Emerging out of the fungal clusters came several small plant creatures, had they not moved I would not have spotted them, so closely did they resemble the surrounding vegetation. It quickly became evident that they were not friendly and battle was joined, as seems a habit with our little group.

The following combat blurred past, and I cannot tell you what happened blow by blow as I have done in previous entries. To be completely frank I was only partially there mentally speaking due to the malaise that had settled upon me. There were however some key factors that I would bring to your attention. Initially the fight went in our favour with a few of them being put down by Edius and that huge maul of his. The next thing that happened was enough to shake me to my core, the dead creatures stirred and rose to fight once more. This was a shock to say the least, luckily some of our companions seemed to recognise what was happening and called for fire to be used on them. Typically, I had no fire to use either in my supplies of my magics, so I did the next best thing. Finding a flask of oil in my pack, I emptied the contents of it over the nearest of these creatures. Then lit up a torch and soon the creature soaked in oil was burning away. Somehow Thean was knocked out so I picked up the torch and healed him using some magic, something that is becoming quite common now and I must confess developing new abilities and magics is remarkably interesting. Anyway, back to the fight. As Edius fells them, I press the torch onto their plant like form and they burn away, not to rise anymore. Frankly, we only survived this encounter due to the intervention of Dinobryon and his deity, we spent the entire encounter bathed in the twilight that he can conjure and this seemed to provide all of us with a level of vitality and vigour that allowed us to shake off some of the wounds inflicted upon us.

As the twilight disappeared and we took stock of our situation, another figure emerged from deeper in the cavern. It was strange looking creature, humanoid and clearly plant related, it resembled nothing more than a large mushroom with legs and arms. Quite the most curious thing I had seen in a long while. Perhaps this would help me to emerge from my wintery state of mind, but that dear reader will be a story for another time. I trust that his entry has given you some level of empathy and understanding for that portion of our journey.