RETHIA-RECAP2
Keywords:
RETHIA-RECAP2, RETHIA_RECAP2, RETHIA-GLOBAL2, RETHIA_GLOBAL2
When we last left our heroes, they had established a camp in the Western Wood of the Rethian continent. They had spoken at length with a group of outlaws on the run from the village of Axminster, and learned that the town was under the firm control of the Jade Druids.
The group has a few new additions, notably Sariel, One, Veronyka and Seneca. Sern made a brief appearance, but quickly curled up at the base of a comfortable-looking tree and fell asleep. Don't judge him, it's an illness. The group came across a path through the woods that looked as if a twister had raged through. Small plants uprooted and torn apart, trees gouged, that sort of thing. To the nature-oriented of the group, it was upsetting. To Sinsalee, seeing her home abused in such a way was infuriating. To One, the only thing that mattered was figuring out why his cheese had so many holes.
Several of our heroes tried to discern what had happened and where the person that did such a thing had gone. Sinsalee's presence, while welcomed by the Nature spirits that still inhabited the land, was rather unwelcome by one of the land's tiny denizens. She must have invaded the personal space of a sneaky bumblebee, and the little bugger, no pun intended, stung her nose!
The group followed the path of destruction, only to find the area scattered with strange, bright green spores amidst a slimy substance of the same color. Seneca braved touching it, and even smelling. Determining that the spores had a tendency to drive anyone that inhaled them mad, the group was much more cautious after that. Eventually, they came upon a strange young man covered in the spores, his eyes glowing a bright, jade green color.
The strange fellow was chewing on a tree branch, with another large club-like branch beside him. He greeted the party happily, even offering them a bite of the branch he was chewing on. This endeared him to One, of course, who is always eager for a snack. He offered One a handful of spore-covered grass and dirt, but the starving lizard was stopped by Sinsalee and others before he could accept the gift.
Upon hearing One call him 'warmie', the strange young man assumed his newfound friends were cold. He attempted to summon a fireball to warm their bones, but succeeded only in setting his hair on fire. Thana was kind enough to dump a waterskin of water over his head to douse the flames, but was rewarded with accusations of peeing on him. Nevermind that the maddened man is taller than our considerate drowess.
Somehow, One was convinced that this was an elaborate surprise hatchday party planned by his companions, but was quickly dissauded of the notion. Our new friend was overwhelmed by all the questions and inane chatter coming from the group and as a result, he lunged at Thana with his giant stick, striking her hard in the stomach.
This caused the group to retaliate, but before much could be done, the noble ursa Boldark managed to hypnotize their attacker, ordering him to cease his assault. Before this however, Sern took a great big swing at our strange new friend. Within minutes after this, he found his tree once more, and was fast asleep.
Boldark the noble bear managed to hypnotize the strange new arrival, putting an end to combat right there. Once calmed, the group determined his name was Xeli, and that he was a pawn of the Jade Druids, used as an experiment. After One threw him over his shoulder, injuring his naughty bits in the process, the group returned with Xeli to their camp near Rethia's shore. There, they questioned him long into the night, gleaning any and all information they could about what awaits them in Axminster.
Here our story ends, for now. Stay tuned for the further misadventures of our merry band of wannabe outlaws, coming soon! Will they succeed in rescuing the nearby village from the clutches of evil, or will they get distracted trying to prevent giant toddler lizards from eating everything in sight? Not even the gods know, because even they get headaches watching our heroes stumble through the woods and over one another.
Tune in soon for the next exciting installment of the Return to Rethia!