Poison and Pain

With pockets full of gold, the party set off to find a tavern and rent rooms for the night. They all had a lavish meal and many drinks. Aleera took the opportunity to sing, for some quick money, about the victory of Bigs and Smalls in the arena. After a night of fun and laughter, the party set off for the boat only to find a pleasant surprise. Captain Sheila Coppertree had won a game with another captain and had won a bigger ship in the exchange. The new vessel was the Annabelle Lee Mark 2. 

Aleera went exploring on the new ship and found a hidden compartment that stored more goods. She correctly guessed that the hidden goods were being smuggled either to or from the mainland. The party was having a great time playing pirate aboard the ship. Aleera would entertain the crew at times and Kaladrax liked to talk to the navigator about where they were and where they were heading. 

As the ship made its way down the coast they spotted their next destination. A small, deserted beach waited as the ship anchored a little ways off. The party took a skiff out to the beach and made their way into the forest. Their next quest was about a strange attack of snakes or snake people in the area of the wood elves. The dark forest was cold and uninviting as they made their way in. After traveling for a few minutes, they began to notice more wild growth than normal in a forest. The air was more humid and the plants were waxy and heavy, more jungle than forest. They saw small pockets of a green bubbling liquid here and there. The forest/jungle was quiet. Not even the sounds of insects or small animals could be heard. 

After an hour more of travel they came across a strange group of people. Aleera recognized them as the same people as Kariss, Yuan-ti. They were dressed in iridescent green garments that blended with the jungle. They prepared to attack and summoned a scary looking abomination to fight with them. It had five heads, each with its own razor sharp teeth dropping with poison. The party had to fend off the effects of the Yuan-ti poison while fighting the various attackers. After a long time of fighting these creatures, they managed to kill them all. Kariss used her cleric powers to purify the temple they had begun to set up. They had defaced a temple of the wood elves and erected an effigy to Ssseth, their deity, in place of the altar. Pools of bubbling poison receded with the purification until they disappeared. 

With the threat to the wood elves in the area taken care of, the party set off. They noticed the foliage starting to revert back from the jungle plants that had started to encroach into the area and the humidity beginning to dissipate. They trekked back towards the deserted beach where they had landed. Before they could go far, the forest became eerily quiet once more. The undergrowth up ahead rustled and split to reveal a few members of the Cult of Tiamat. Behind them was the shadowy bulk of a dragon. It blended into the greenery around it marking it as a green dragon. 

The haughty creature yelled out to them. It taunted them and then attacked. This was just a young Green dragon. He was brash and filled with the need for vengeance. The party had no choice but to defend themselves. They made quick work of the cult members and focused on the dragon. With a little more effort they also killed the green dragon. Karris and Kaladrax spent some time dissecting it and taking various parts for ingredients or sellable parts. The party didn’t notice that in their victory over the dragon, one of the cult members had slunk off into the darkness of the underbrush and survived. 

As they finished their harvesting of green dragon parts a roar ripped through the forest and smoke began to rise up in the distance. The party ran towards the smoke and they were met with a wall of flames. The forest was on fire. There were wood elves running everywhere, trying to put out the flames. The party worked frantically to put out the fire. After it was put out, the party helped heal the more pressing wounds and brought the surviving elves with them out of the burnt forest. As they worked, the party heard that it might have been a red dragon that attacked the elven settlement. 

They helped the wood elves board the Annabelle Lee Mark 2, and brought them to Deep Harbor where they could begin to make their way to another group of wood elves. Once there they would be able to regroup and recover. The party was exhausted after this latest adventure. Many of them were still recovering from the effects of the poison and the smoke that had permeated the area. They went to sleep that night with no trouble and slumbered deeply and dreamlessly.