On The Hunt

Location: The Forest North of Fineweald
Time of Day: Late Afternoon (think 3:15pm)
Weather: Starting to become overcast with grey clouds

​

@Milah
From your careful investigation of the wolf, you initially don’t notice anything strange…other than the obvious. However, upon closer inspection, you notice a slight discoloration around the Wolf’s neck. At first, you think it might be mud or maybe even dried blood because of the dark brown coloration. Squinting, you notice something akin to a collar made of briars wrapped around the neck and intertwining with the fur. Perhaps this creature is…owned?

@Destiny Divebird
At first glance, it’s hard to tell if there are any tracks at all leading away from the area. The forest floor is overgrown and unruly but the help of investigation mode plus your Mastery allows the tracks to light up as if they were painted in a neon green color. You can clearly see tracks leading away from where the Wolves ambushed your party. What is interesting, however, is that instead of seeing multiple tracks, you only see one. But…there were four wolves here. It didn’t make sense. ​

Before Morpheus had the chance to reply, you hear a tearing noise that immediately makes your heart drop into your stomach. You watch as the Corrupted Wolf sudden tears free of his binds, snarls, and heads off in the direction that Greyhowl went. This is also the direction that Destiny saw from tracking of their movements. Without preamble, you are spurred into movement and immediately chase after it!

The Wolf leads you deeper into the forest, so far that when you happen to glance down, you can no longer see a worn semi-path leading your way. The trees here are dense, the canopy crowding out any sunlight that might have peeked through. You feel the temperature drop, the coolness of the shadows making the tiny hairs on your arms stand on end. On top of that, you get the sinking feeling that something isn’t quite right.

As your party comes to an abrupt halt, you immediately look around and the feeling increases. Every exhale mists the air a little in front of your face. The shadows seem long and dangerous in this part of the forest and when you spin around to see where you came from, you can’t make out anything.

Did the forest…shift?

You look up and notice dark shapes that seem to be caught in the canopy, but you cannot make out their origin, be they humanoid or otherwise. However, there are many of them.

The grass in this area is stiff, dry and dead. The treebark seems withered and fragile, the leaves nothing more than dry husks of their former luscious selves. The grove appears, for all intents and purposes, dead.

However, standing in the center of this grove, you notice one massive willow tree, the only one in the area that seems to be teeming with life. And there, stepping from the trunk of the tree, two humanoid figures walk forward, one woman and one man.

The man extends a hand and like the wolves before, the one you were chasing explodes into a cloud of black ash. It swirls in place for a minute like a mini tornado before being swept away towards the man who inhales the ash through his nose. On his exhale, he smiles.

“Hello and welcome,” he murmurs, but his voice resounds throughout the entire grove. He steps forward, a smile on his ashen features and as he gets closer, you can tell that he is not truly human. His skin reminds you of the texture of tree bark, his eyes the same yellow coloration of a daffodil, and a massive crown of foliage sits atop his head, shaped into what appear to be horns.

“It seems the scouts have finally captured something of worth. My lady?”

He turns slightly, looking back at the woman whom slowly steps up beside him. Like the male, her skin reminds you of textured tree bark. Her hands are not hands, but vines that have taken on the appearance of human hands. Her hair and clothes are fashioned from the same leaves that droop from the Willow Tree the pair stepped from.

“Yes, I believe these will do lovely,” she purrs, her crimson eyes flickering over your party. They burn with a dark hunger you have never seen or experienced before.

“Quite right,” he replies and turns to your party with a wide, predatory smile. His teeth match the sharp fangs that you saw within the muzzles of the Corrupted Wolves earlier. ​

 

Combat Round 1​

Corrupted Dryad

HP: 300/300

Corrupted Grove Warden

HP: 150/150

Combat Log

The Grove hums with corrupted energy!

Instructions

Max word count of 400.

All rolls should be made within the roll thread.

You have one action per round of combat.

Those with Tames, your pet can attack your target or a different target. That's entirely up to you. They can also receive damage. If your Tame faints, you can revive them outside of combat.

Attacking cost 10 EN.
Recklessly Attacking cost 20 EN.
Supporting cost 10 EN if it's a single buff/heal.
Supporting cost 20 EN if it's an AoE buff/heal.

If you're attacking, use the following code:

Code:

[bg] [HP=100]100[/HP] [EN=100]100[/EN] [/bg]
[hr]x[/hr]
-XX EN for action
-XX HP from source
[hr]x[/hr]
Post here.


[tracker][d]Action here and target[/d]
[score]Your roll + Modifiers = Total[/score]
Tracker / Roll
Target: 000 / 000 HP
[/tracker]

If you're supporting, use the following code:

Code:

[bg] [HP=100]100[/HP] [EN=100]100[/EN] [/bg]
[hr]x[/hr]
-XX EN for action
-XX HP from source
[hr]x[/hr]
Post here.

[tracker][b2]Action here and target[/b2]
[score]Your roll + Modifiers = Total[/score]
Tracker / Roll
Target: 000 / 000 HP
[/tracker]

Navigation

Play Thread (You Are Here) . Status Trackers . Communication . Dice-Rolling

@Milah @Morpheus @Destiny Divebird @Noah Krane

 

Shadow of Corruption

Location: The Forest North of Fineweald
Time of Day: Late Afternoon (think 3:30pm)
Weather: Sunny, sparse clouds

​

You watch as Milah’s arrow sinks into the shoulder of the female, but she seems to pay it no mind. Then, her hand lifts to the protruding arrow and yanks it free. She throws it on the ground, still surveying your group. A snake-like tongue licks at her lips. Her eyes glimmer with a savage hunger that sets you on edge.

You can’t fully make it out, but you feel the ground suddenly shift beneath you. Her lips begin to move quickly, her words lost to the sudden gust of air that picks up within the grove, buffeting your hair, the leaves of the trees, and your clothing. The trees groan and moan in response and you swear you can hear a displaced scream here or there. That feeling of dread remains.

Two more arrows—shink, shink!—embed themselves into her mate’s torso and while he grunts in pain, doubling over because of it, her dangerous crimson eyes snap to Destiny. Her muttering is faster and the wind picks up, the echoing howl of a wolf sounding in your ears. You look around, seeing nothing.

Morpheus’s attack harries for her a moment, her tongue fumbling as his canes knock into her bark-like skin. She feels the pain blossom but ignores it, the grass around her feet losing color, turning from green to yellow and, finally, to black. You can almost see the energy being pulled from the grove, the wisps of green wrapping around her and her mate and then, slowly, sinking into her.

She extends a hand, the vine-like fingers writhing like snakes. Clenching it, she mutters a single word just as Noah’s arrow finds her in the throat.

You and your party are blasted backward by a wave of necrotic energy, the haunting screams and moaned of tortured souls ringing in your ears. You can feel their ghostly fingers clutching at your armor, your hands, your feet, your face. They yell for help, they scream for you to end their suffering, and they die over and over and over within your mind’s eye.

Combat Log

The Grove hums with corrupted energy!

Milah takes 40 damage from the necrotic blast
Destiny takes 80 damage from the necrotic blast
Morpheus takes 80 damage from the necrotic blast
Noah takes 80 damage from the necrotic blast

All pets take half the damage that their owner took.

 

Shadow of Corruption

Location: The Forest North of Fineweald
Time of Day: Late Afternoon (think 3:30pm)
Weather: Sunny, sparse clouds

​

You hear an inhuman howl of agony rip through the grove and when you right yourself, you are dizzy and nauseated and cold. The grove has shifted again. The shadows are longer, the grass is dead or dying, the trees huddle in closer, their leaves a protective ceiling that blocks out 95% of the light.

The skeletons that hang tangled in the long drooping leaves of the Willow Tree are finally visible. Like marionettes with their strings cut, some dangle by wrists, others by arms, some by necks.

All are in various stages of decomposition: varying from a few days to a month or longer. A wood cart suddenly slams down onto the ground, having fallen from its own nest, and explodes into a cloud of sawdust.

Everything had been sucked dry.

The male kneels over the body of the female, his shoulder trembling, black tar seeping from the twin puncture marks left behind by Destiny’s arrows.

“Yo-You killed her,” he cries, his voice quiet but in this space and without the howl of the wind to deafen you, his words are amplified.

He looks up, his eyes having lost the predatory yellow of before. Instead, they are a bright cerulean blue and they are wet with tears.

“It-It wasn’t her fault. They came….they knew the language, they said the words, and…and…now she’s gone. She was the-the-protector and—how DARE YOU come here—wait, no, you must br-bring her back. UNDO WHAT YOU’VE DONE!”

His words dribbled from his lips like water from a rolling brook. Fast and tripping over themselves, much of what is he speaking about is lost to you. Your blank, worried faces seem to infuriate him even more.

“YOU IMMORTALS WHO KNOW NOTHING!”

You watch his eyes flicker from the beautiful ocean blue to the predator yellow, as if he is fighting some internal urge to leap to his feet and charge at you. He grips the ground with both hands before allowing another agony-filled scream to permeate the air.

You are buffeted again, not by voices or screams, but images.

Five people in long flowing robes kneeling at the Willow Tree.

Two beautiful nature spirits stepping forth from the tree-bark, smiling and offering blessings to those whom kneel.

A single man returning in the dead of night, calling the nature spirits back, binding them to a ritual circle.

Black magic swirls around all three until the man is ripped apart, the two nature spirits—one masculine, one feminine—imbibing the essence of him. Unknowingly, they retreat into the Willow Tree.

Four people in long flowing roes kneeling at the Willow Tree.

The slaughter of those four, the squeeze of their essence being devoured by the tree and the nature spirits.

A single black vine wrapping its way around the trunk of the tree, pulsing with a dark heart-beat.

An unending hunger fills your stomach.​

Combat Log

Milah takes 10 damage from the spirit assault
Destiny takes 20 damage from the spirit assault
Morpheus takes 20 damage from the spirit assault
Noah takes 20 damage from the spirit assault

All pets take half the damage that their owner took.

When you come to, you feel batted and bruised. You blink and look around. The grove has shifted.

Sunlight peeks in through the canopy. The grass is once more vibrant green. The long leaves of the willow tree have also returned to vibrancy. There is no sign of the two figures you battled before.

However, there, at the heart of the trunk, you spy something odd. Something different.

Dungeon Unlocked

The Corrupted Grove​

Instructions

No max word count this time around.

You guys completed the challenge! Nice job! Thanks for joining and I hope you guys had fun!

If you wanna venture back to Finweald and do some RPing with Caroline, you're free to do so and I'll reply tomorrow.

Either way, around 7PM CST tomorrow, I should have loot ready for you guys. You'll be able to pick what you want.

 

Epilogue & Loot

Location: The Forest North of Fineweald
Time of Day: Early Evening (think 4:35pm)
Weather: Sunny, warm, calm

​

Everyone

Loot

50g
Caroline and the town of Finweald is happy and thankful for your assistance!

Individuals

Loot

Club of the Grove (1h Club)
A thick, knotted piece of wood with druidic symbols carved into it. The symbols glow a sickening green with every attack.

Loot

Boots of the Forest
(Medium Foot Armor)
Soft leather boots made from animal hide. Raven wings have been inscribed on the sole of each boot. The crafter is unknown.

Loot

Ancient Bracers
(Medium Hand Armor)
The material that these bracers were made from is sturdy…and surprisingly fragrant with the scent of cedarwood. Even in the hottest conditions, these bracers remain cool to the touch.

Loot

Corrupted Grove Wolf Puppy
(Rare - Pet)
This smaller version lacks the ferociousness of its full-grown counterparts. Large droopy ears and a fluffy tail inspire more awwws than screams of fear. It still tries to act tough, growling and nipping at its master. However, it will gladly take all the belly rubs that are offered!

Instructions

Let me know via Discord/PM what you'd like please!​

@Milah @Noah Krane @Morpheus @Destiny Divebird

 

Congratulations!

Challenge Completed

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