^

Our group assembled in White Moon Cove to protect Yarsby and his workers while they extended the road near the swamp to the south. The group included Xell, Freyja, Sammal, Tehran, Theris, and myself. This was my second time working with Xell and Theris, the others were new to me. Tehran led the group, with Xell and Freyja taking the roles of scout and trailblazer respectively.

We traveled south by road, and eventually spotted an altar in the treeline off the road. My compatriots moved forward while I watched over the workers, bow at the ready. A short scuffle with a pair of cultists ensued, they were dispatched easily and we rescued a local farmer woman by the name of Halydove. The woman stayed with the caravan for the time being, unwilling to travel back to her farm alone after her harrowing experience. We made it to the end of the road that evening and camped uneventfully, the workers ready to being building the next day.

The night passed uneventfully, and in the morning, work began. Sometime in the midmorning or early afternoon, the workers came upon a tree with leaves ranging from red to orange to yellow, and as one worker drew close, the tree slammed him into the ground, breaking several of his bones. His fellow workers carted him off as our party engaged the thing, which we later learned was a “Dragonleaf Tree.”

I don’t remember much of this fight, as I spent much of it unconscious due to the tree having some sort of flame breath attack. I remember it also being able to direct its leaves to attack with the wind, but again, I missed most of the fight. Eventually my allies felled the tree and brought me back to consciousness. The rest of the day and that night passed uneventfully, and work began again the next morning.

The next day, Xell spotted a huge troll leaking nasty purple fluids from pustules covering its body, and it was being followed by a woman with a torch. I placed myself between the troll and the workers, as my companions rushed the thing. It tried to skirt around them, but I stepped in the way, just as Freyja and Tehran caught it. Simultaneously Xell and Theris were dealing with the woman chasing the troll, but I didn’t have time to pay attention to them. As we struck the creature, its pustules exploded dousing us all with painful posion. Eventually I succumbed to this poison and a strike from the things club, but Tehran pulled me clear, and Sammal healed me. Xell had apparently dealt with the woman, and he and Freyja felled the troll, to the sounds of much rejoicing from our workers and Halydove.

The work crew finished the stretch of road we’d been sent to finish, and we returned to White Moon Cove. Along the way, Halydove left us, shouting some rather suggestive things to Xell (mayhaps he’ll hear my goddess’s call and take her up on the offer?), and we pressed on. The only other thing of note was that we spotted a well on our way back, and my party members recalled times they’d interacted with these wells, and that their effects could be good or ill. However, we left the well be and made it safely back to town, pushing a short way into the night to make it.

None were lost on this journey, no new names added to the wall, not even the injured worker. May the light of Sune shine upon you all, and may you find love.

-Taishina Anderfall