15th Gozran
Reislin had cast a spell upon the boggard, Garum, so that he could converse with us. Afterward he told us that he had come from a tribe in the Hooktongue Slough. He had attempted to challenge the chieftain of his tribe but had failed to win the challenge and had been beaten badly and held prisoner. He escaped during a drunken revel and now only wanted to be left alone in his exile. Though he was not truly friendly to us, he did tell us where to find the boar Tuskgutter, and also mentioned a statue of a horned man in the forest, some creatures that may be either kobolds or tatzlewurms, and a broken bridge.
We decided that we would take on the boar Tuskgutter first now that we knew where to find it. Several hours after we parted from Garum we found signs of a boar's presence in the vicinity. The indications were that although the boar was large, it was not as large as we had been led to believe.
By following the signs we soon found its lair within a massive fallen tree that had been hollowed out. Tuskgutter was not present, and we determined to wait for him. I sat upon the wagon seat with my boar spear at the ready for its arrival. Simon sat on the log, Zander hid in the brush, Maria stood watch by the horses, and Reislin waitied within the wagon. Chahana climbed up a tree from which she could easily fire her bow. By the time the beast did return to its lair we were beginning to think of dinner.
When Tuskgutter arrived he seemed startled by our presence. He charged forward and Maria and I came out to meet him and I set my spear. But he stopped and stood looking at us furiously with his tail twitching and his hackles standing on end. This was not an ordinary boar, but was covered in bony spines. Simon later told us this was a bristleboar. Chahana fired on him and struck him with an arrow. Reislin had raised the cover of the wagon bed and now cast a spell, but it didn't have the effect she desired. The boar snorted loudly. Simon spoke to him, trying to calm him as he does with the beasts he brings for our meals, but that had no success either. Tuskgutter rushed me and the spear sank into his flesh. His barbs just missed drawing my blood.
Another of Chahana's arrows struck the boar as Maria moved in with her sword and was caught by one of the beast's spines. Xander appeared from hiding and stabbed the boar as well, and three tiny missiles flew from Reislin to hit it. That was too much for the beast. Still foaming at the mouth, it slumped to the ground and its heaving sides ceased to move.
I extended the Dawnflower's healing mercy to Maria's wound, and Maria cast a healing spell on Xander, who had also been gashed by a barb. We all wondered if the barbs and spikes were normal, and Simon assured us that they are for the kind of boar Tuskgutter was. He also told us the beast was old for its kind, and we could see that its coarse hair was shot through with gray. Zander went to work removing its head for the old fellow back in Restov and skinning it. Simon advised that its meat is edible though likely a bit tough due to its advanced age.
On the following day we spent time in camp while the boar's meat cooked. Afterward we set off again to the north. Eventually Chahana and Reislin noticed something odd. There was a small tree that appeared to be glowing. When we approached it we realized that it was not glowing, but there seemed to be a light shining on it coming from nowhere. It stood in the shade of other taller trees and there was no beam of sunlight shining upon it. Reislin and Maria determined that there was an aura of magic emanating from it. Rieslin also noticed that its shadow was moving slowly but noticeably as though the light on it was shifting. Chahana then plucked a leaf from it to see if the light remained with the leaf, which it did not.
Suddenly Zander realized that a peculiar bush had appeared by the wagon that had not been present when we all climbed down to examine the tree. Then the 'bush' abruptly transformed into a tiny thorny creature. Chahana spoke to it, trying to befriend it, but it did not react to that. Zander then attempted to intimidate it. It reacted to that by exploding in a mass of splinters that struck almost everyone other than msyelf. Reislin spoke to it in the fey tongue, but that had no more effect than the words Chahana had spoken. Maria and Simon had realized that it was a fey creature called a twigjack, which was of an evil nature.
The twigjack leaped away, vanishing into the nearby foliage, but a moment later it reappeared in a different spot and attacked Chahana. She heard it hiss "I will feed on your blood" in the common tongue and fired an arrow at it. Simon also fired on it and then set out the sapling rod. Zander ran behind the twigjack to take up a flanking position with Chahana. Despite it attacking us, Reislin kept asking it questions about the peculiar tree, which it did not answer. Maria and I both attacked it and it moved nearer to Chahana, sending out another blast of splinters that left me feeling quite painful and weak. Reislin was so badly hurt that she fainted. Maria slashed it again and the twigjack collapsed.
Zander then ran to administer a healing potion to Reislin, and I called on Sarenrae's mercy to treat my own wounds a little. Chahana wondered if perhaps the twigjack had been protecting the tree for some reason. We decided to move away from the area as soon as we had recovered enough, as Simon warned that twigjacks sometimes appeared in groups.
We decided that we should return to the temple of Erastil, where Jhod would give us more healing. We made our way there by passing the river ford where the bandits had made their camp and found no indication that anyone else had visited there. Jhod was quite happy to see us again and grant Erastil's healing mercy to us. We shared some of the boar meat with him and he prepared us a much finer meal than any of us are capable of producing. The rest of the boar meat went into his smokehouse.
Once we were all healthy again we spent a part of the next day helping clear away rubble around the temple and then rested for the afternoon.
On the next day we traveled to another ford over the river and then made our way out of the forest as we headed back to the trading post. It required two days of travel to reach the post from the temple. When we arrived we found that the stack of lumber we had taken from the deadfall trap had grown. Xander asked Oleg if he would send Tuskgutter's head to Restove, and Oleg told us that after he had exchanged letters with our benefactore, the reward for slaying Tuskgutter had already been sent to him. We agreed that Chahana was best suited to take the bow and arrows, as she prefers archery to wielding a blade.
We decided that we would leave again the next day and explore more of the plains. Oleg told us that to the east of the trading post we might find an alchemist named Bokken. We did not specifically plan on visiting him, but we thought if we found his abode we might make his acquaintance. Before we departed Reislin wrote a letter to be sent to Varnhold in response to the missive Maegar Varn had sent us.
By mid-afternoon of the next day, we spied a column of smoke that resembled the smoke of a campfire. We decided to investigate to assure ourselves it was not another group of bandits. We quickly realized that the smoke issued not from a campfire but from four clay chimneys protruding from what at first appeared to be a hillock. But as we drew closer we realized that the hillock was a log cabin covered in soil. It was surrounded by gardens, with one garden even growing on the roof. Atop the house a human man was working among the plants.
Maria called out to him in greeting, which startled him. At first he seemed disinterested in conversing with us, but gradually as Maria did not give up he became more interested, particularly when we mentioned Oleg and asked about potions. It was quite obvious this must be the alchemist, Bokken. He is an older man with unkempt hair and a rather eccentric personality.
Bokken brought out some potions after Zander asked. Zander has an interest in alchemy and this seemed to attract Bokken. Oleg had mentioned that Bokken's healing potions taste quite pleasant, and Bokken soon revealed that this is because he adds fangberries to them. When we asked if we could do anything for him he told us he needs his supply of fangberries replenished. He also presented us with an assortment of squashes and a very large pumpkin after we told him we had dispatched the bandits. All of the foods I have eaten since I left my homeland are strange to me, but somehow more flavorful amid the natural suroundings. I look forward to enjoying Bokken's squash.
We questioned Bokken about dangers in the area, and he was impressed that we had disposed of Tuskgutter. He warned us of a very large spider we might find. We set up camp that night near his house. In the morning when we rose he was nowhere to be found.
After we left' Bokken's house we soon enough came across scattered bones that told us the spider had been there. We spread out a bit to search. Just after some of us heard a rustling sound, a black spider with limbs that could have encompassed our wagon burst out of the ground from beneath a trapdoor and bit Simon, then retreated beneath the ground.
As we all moved toward the trapdoor, the spider lunged out again to strike at Maria. I was able to strike it with my sword. It withdrew again, this time disappearing entirely from sight. Zander raised the trapdoor and looked down into the tunnel that led down beneath it, observing that it was quite deep. Chahana lit a torch and was prepared to climb down a rope after the spider, but we dissuaded her because no one would be able to join her once she climbed down into its lair. Then Maria cast a light spell on one of the scattered bones and dropped it into the tunnel.
The spider did not emerge again after I hit it, so we devised a plan to smoke it out. We gathered some grasses and brush and set them afire, then Maria kicked them down the shaft. The spider was soon driven out by the smoke and flames and Zander and I stabbed it to death. It fell back down the shaft as it died and we shut the trapdoor and let it burn.
While we waited, Zander examined a large birdlike skull he found nearby, which Simon told us was that of a young owlbear. Then Maria cast spells to summon water out of magic and put out the fire, and when the smoke cleared Chahana climbed down into the lair to see if there was any evidence of victims who were not animals. She found the remains of a man, a bandit by the silver Stag Lord token he bore. She brought his leather armor, his sword, his coin purse, and the token up out of the spider's lair after confirming that there were no eggs within waiting to hatch out more huge spiders.
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