As I recovered from my death, near death, our barbarian friend from before wandered back into town. He apologized for wandering off, and we wound up grouping back up. Following him was another tiefling rogue, he asked to tag along as well, to which we agreed with some trepidation. It hadn't gone so well last time. After collecting ourselves we headed back to the Fey Woods to finish our business with Wandering Winds. We manged to make our way there with no real trouble. Winds asked if we would follow him to his druid circle, the Verdant Enclave. Of course we agree.
Eventually we came to a stream blocking our way, Winds called upon some giant frogs to help us across. Myself and Godfree, the Cleric, made it across with no problem, but when the tiefling tried about halfway across he did something to piss off the frog, which bit him and sent him into the water. Much to Winds dismay, the other frogs joined in on the assault. Our barbarian tried swimming around the problem, and did so, our monk did the same. I attempted to help pull the tiefling ashore with a thorn whip, but I missed. One of the frogs entangled him, trying to drag him under with him. He swiftly managed to kill it and started swimming towards us. As he reached the edge the frogs continued to assault him, we hit them a few times, but they both left as he got to shore. Winds called out to us that he needed their help to cross, but when we tried asking for their help with speak to animals we both failed. Zarko, the barbarian, wound up having to swim him across.
Before we made it to the enclave a loud crashing sound could be heard, it didn't take long to discover that an ettin, essentially a two headed giant, was smashing a deer against a tree seemingly for fun. The fey woods are a strange place, where the realm of the fey sometimes bends and warps into our world, he must have come through during such a time. Offended by his both his trespass and his brutal disregard for life we decided to slay the beast, Winds mentioned the Enclave being willing to reward us as well. The tiefling attempted to sneak around the side of the clearing the ettin was standing in, but he did something to grab it's attention. Our stealth had failed, but a brutal frontal assault felled the beast quickly enough. After transforming into a bear I tore into him, as our monk hit him so hard he fell to the ground and our barbarian cleaved him, well, barbarically. The other two members peppered him with arrows, and wind assailed him with magic. Soon, he had fallen. As my companions searched his body I chewed through his necks to bring evidence of the kill to the Enclave. It tasted foul, and I grew slightly sick from consuming it. Disappointing.
Finally, we came upon the Enclave's home, hidden away in a tower deep in the woods. There Winds explained what we had gone through, and we were brought to the man who would reward us. Upon showing him our trophies he gave us some magical rings, I took neither though. Soon after we were introduced to the Arch Druid, who asked after the dark stone we had found. Upon handing it too him he went into detail about how when brought together and charged these stones would unleash Orcus into the world, something we could not allow to happen. He explained, to me, that the Verdant Enclave would go to any lengths to help protect this world from evil and outside influence, then asked if I'd like to join their cause. After questioning him about the circle (I have never practiced with other druids much, and did not have any interest in restricting my freedoms) I felt as if their cause were just and their intentions true. I agreed. My companions were less enthused, but agreed to help in this endeavor. I gave him my word my companions were trustworthy, despite his obvious trepidation. He asked if we knew of anything else, but all we really knew of was that orc riding a warg we'd seen so many days ago. Apparently this orc was a member of the Stormwargs, a group of orcs who ride wargs. Pointing us in the direction of Loda's Rest he informed us that we would find out more there.
Our journey to Loda's Rest was mostly pleasant, however a group of bandits attempted to stall us at a bridge. They demanded a paltry toll of all of our belongings. We scoffed as we drew our weapons and began to slay them all. One had a wand of magic missiles, but didn't manage to do much with it. The battle went well, without much complication, however. The tiefling did manage to completely obliterate one of the bandits who tried to escape. My opinion towards him began to shift. Afterwards I found myself feeding on one of the bandits as a bear, before turning back. I found an exquisite painting in their stash and decided to bring it along.
When we finally reached Loda's Rest some of my fellow traveler's went to various stores, I didn't have much need though. Loda's Rest turned out to be a bit of a fortress city, with high walls, and mostly utilitarian kinds of stores, none of which would be interested in the painting I had found. Apparently Zarko had caused a bit of trouble, as when I came across him again some tiefling women was telling him to leave his frog outside of town. When we had battled those frogs he had randomly picked up the one that died and had been carrying it around with him sense. I just watched as they argued back and forth, and at some point it was if he had defied nature himself as his simple logic persuaded her to allow him to stay, frog and all. We discovered she was the captain's guard here and upon asking about the Stormwargs she told us they were a real problem. Stopping them would be a nigh impossible task as their numbers were many, and their resolve sound however. She offered to help in some way, and that about half the population of this town were some war hungry leftovers from the great war years prior, perhaps we could rally them to join our cause?
It had begun to rain however, so we retired to the inn to rest and discuss our plans. Sometime into our rest a loud war horn blaring awoke us, well save for our monk who was in dire need of some sleep apparently. Our tiefling rogue leaped out the window and dashed up the city walls to discover a small band of Stormwargs were attacking, two goblins riding wargs, two orcs and, worst of all, two giant ogres slamming their fists into the ever weakening wooden gate. The two guards keeping watch fell to arrows almost immediately. The rest of our group also jumped out the inn windows heading into action, depressingly, I tripped and fell prone on my way out. Four more guards, and the captain, came rushing out to the gate to help. Our tiefling friend was doing quite well sniping with his bow from atop the ramparts. I managed to cast entangle on the ground near the gate, to help slow the intruder's down as the gate was clearly not going to hold. It smashed into splinters afterwards, the ogre marched in towards us.
Immediately Zarko unleashed two incredibly slashes into the first ogre, already you could tell it was in immense pain. I transformed into a bear and went to bite and claw at the beast, but... again failed and fell prone. My confidence, dwindling. Still, everyone else performed admirably, hurting or outright killing our opponents with finesse. Even the replacement guards were more than pulling their weight. By the time I managed to scamper back up to my feet the first ogre had fallen, and the second was too far away, so I went instead after an orc riding an warg. At some point the goblin rider had died and these orc had taken command. Once more, I failed. As if some kind of polyhedron god was punishing me for some unforeseen reason.
After that I managed to get my bearings and actually assist with the fighting. Not much of it was needed, however, as the rest were ended soon after. As celebrations were had, and the tiefling guard captain demanded we join her for a drink I tried some of the ogre flesh, vomiting I found it to be almost as foul as the ettin. Goblin, however, was quite the treat. I became man once more, and joined my friends at the tavern. The tiefling captain kept making moves on Godfree, who accepted them and they went off together. It wasn't long before I too retired to my chambers, it had been a long day.
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