The Screaming Forest: Journal of Golin Strongbeard

''Expedition with, Golin Strongbeard, cleric and saviour of this expedition. Bartholomew, the wizard. Phalanx, the fighter. Murdock, another fighter, learn to say thanks laddie! Roy, another fighter, stop picking things up lad! And finally Opha, the barbarian.''

''Aye lads, this island is cursed I tell ya! Just after our landfall there was this raving lunatic called Filas, digging graves, seven of them! For no good reason at all. He was going on and on about screaming woods and companions gone missing, so we gathered up a group of 6 and went with him to see what he was on about.''

''We walked north for a couple of hours, straight into the woods we did. I didn't pay much attention to our surroundings, I kept an eye on Filas, he didn't seem to be doing well. Anywho all of a sudden someone called out about the trees being wierd. Bartholomew I think it was, could have been someone else, as I said. Did not pay attention!''

''They were all white and marbley, when he put his axe into them he said they felt alive. Trees being alive, magical, normally I'd call nonsense, but this forest... Wierd it is, cursed it is..''

''When the lads couldn't figure out what magic it was made on we pressed on, now I paid more attention to our surroundings and let me tell ya, that forest aint normal. There was just more and more of those trees until we were surrounded by them!  ''

''Eventually we made it to their camp and there was definatly signs of a battle of some kind. However, the odd thing was that the clothes of Filas companions, were laid out normally on the ground, as if the bodies had just disappeared. The drow, I don't think he had introduced himself at that point eventually called our attention to the canopy above us, I think the lads name was Ophe, he saw a body up there! At that point Filas the old man ran of, not even back towards the beach, noo, the lad just ran of into the woods! I wasn't gonna chase him but luckily the others were not of the same idea and Phalanx, the half orc chased him down and brought him back to us. Just as soon as they did and before there was time for any questions we were ambushed. Pha! Can you believe that, me ambushed... Not my proudest moment but I blame the look on Filas, hilarious! He distracted me.''

'' Anyhow, ambushed we were. From these white trees treemen walked out, only they weren't like anything I''ve ever heard of. They had human parts of it, BAHAHA, I made the joke to Filas that we found his friends, not sure he appreciated my humor though. Right, the ambush! They were easily cut down and we figured this was going great until the forest had another nasty surprise for us. A bunch of shamblers as I like to call them, I might have stolen that name from someone also came out of the trees, at this point we were surrounded and I'll not lie, my dwarven heart was worried. Not for me, not at all. But some of my compatriots didn't seem that tough and up for it. Anyhow, the ambush! It had evolved into a complete fight at this point, the treemen were flammable and even the radiant damage from the noble Moradin channeled through me did well. The shamblers carried a nasty bite though, or not technically a bite, it was more like a venomous hug. Atleast, murdock looked like he had a hard time. So I gave him a slap on the back and cured his wounds, and can ya believe it! Not a thank in return, that lad needs some discipline I tell ya ''.  

''The fight was eventually over and Filas was remarkebly calm. Murdock, the dwarf, wanted to tie him up as we went about making camp for the night. I told him off that he had done nothing wrong and shouldn't be treated like it either. I think the other lads slept under an open sky, not me though. Golin is always prepaired, never surprised! Ears like a fox I have. I slept in a tent I'd brought along. One in the groups looted the place, he found 35 gold that they would divvy up later, me being the honest man I am took no part of the money. The note however said, "Dont let the others bury the chest by themselves... Hold onto the key". Wierd note aint it? We had no idea about a key and Filas, I think he was a trusty lad didn't say anything about it.''

''We held guard in shifts, two people on each of them. I pulled the morning shift and when the rest of them woke up, Filas was missing! Now with ears like mine, there is no way that happend during my shift, I bet one of the other lads fell asleep during their shift. Now they got in a hurry, didn't even have time for breakfast they wanted to follow him, I had to eat while we were walking, can ya believe it? Barbarians and savages, the bunch of them! The odd thing about it though, I don't think it was human tracks leading away, it was like something had slithered along to the east, also to the east were the blood of the treefolk, it looked like slime and I aint touching it. Golin hasn't lived long like this by touching the blood of monsters. Someone else hasn't learnt that lesson though. It was clear and odd and was moving towards the east aswell.''

''We traveled for a couple of hours until something happend, can ya believe it. WE GOT AMBUSHED AGAIN! Ths time I was properly worried, on either side of us there were two huge snakes! Their heads were the size of me. I was sure someone was going to get eaten there, not Golin though. Moradin protects his followers, and he did. I did not get injured throughout the fight, not so lucky were the unbelievers though, Murdock fell unconcious so I had to heal him up, Roy got injured so I had to heal him up, Phalanx got injured so I had to heal him aswell. To be honest, if I wasn't there I am sure some of them wouldn't have made it out of there. They did eventually die though, I took one of their fangs, as long as my arm it is. A bunch of others did aswell, Murdock though, he got the liver... Not sure what he's planning to do with it.''

''Can ya guess what we found inside of these creatures? The surprise is there was a golden key, I guess the one for the chest mentioned in the note. And poor old Filas, men shouldn't die inside of a giant snake, that's not right it is. I gave Murdock a bit of a hard time saying I have to heal him every time we fight, and you know why?! HE DIDN'T THANK ME, AGAIN. I will continue to be hard until he does. Proper appreciation, that he shall show or so help me Muradin!''

''With the mystery of what happend to Filas we pushed on, after all the slime was still moving east. And boy, did we find slime. It looked like a huge hole filled with it, Roy cut of a stick and pushed it down, couldn't find the bottom. I was curious though because in the middle of this pit there was a ruby the size of a head. It glowed with magic, mostly abjuration but some necromancy aswell. I do wonder what made these things. The wizard, Bartholomew was sitting there fiddling with the slime, I was not looking until I heard a giant BOOM! The bastard had put it on fire and instead of just burning like the treemen it exploded! And it turned out, the pit was even deeper than I thought, 10 metres down and in the bottom laid this ruby. Now at this point we were all curious and Bartholomew tied a rope around a tree and then himself and he went down. When he was at the bottom the rope had begun getting a bit slimey, nothing I thought wrong about though. However when we turned around there was gushing of this slime from the tree and down into the pit, it was a race I'll tell ya but he just managed to get out of there in the nick of time, not a beardslength to spare. I could even have sworn the slime tried grabbing him when he was on the way up.''

''We won though, we had this giant magical ruby. Keyword there is had, the slime turned all black and wild, it formed hands and was really nasty. Then he threw the ruby back in and it settled down, good lad that is. Quick thinking I tell ya.''

''At that point we started looking around a bit more and found more of these pools with rubies in them, all varying in size. We walked up to one that was the size of a paper with a ruby the size of the dice.. Should not have done that, really bad idea I tell ya. All around us the pools exploded with anger and these shamblers appeared in them. One mystery solved, another one opened. We now know where they come from, we don't know why or how though. They surrounded us badly, three times in two days we were surprised by combat. We did alright to start with, we cut them down as soon as they appeared, until it went sour atleast... The treemen are not treemen at all, they are also from the slime, the shamblers from the white and treemen from the black it seems. At that point when we were outnumbered three to one or so we decided on a tactical retreat. Not before we took some beating though, I had to use every spell I got to keep the group alive, and in no small part from me we all got out alive. We also eventually got back to the landfall luckily..  ''

''I am not too kean on getting back there but I think we have to. That is after all why we got here, tame this land, make it our own. And let me tell ya, I don't want those black pools in my garden!  ''

''All in all, I think it was a good first expedition. We all made it back, well, except for Filas, I'll make sure to raise a drink in his name later... Maybe I could make a brew in his name, I need to come up with a fun pun about being eaten by snakes.''

''We also found out what happend to his friends, and we now have two new objectives. Where does the key go and what is up with the rubies and pools? Oh right, I almost forgot. The rubies are inside the shamblers so if you see those rubies, expect those. And kill the shamblers first, they seem to be the ones controlling the treemen... slimemen? We need to figure out a terminology for this.''