Jorn

“I’m pretty sure this isn’t our job, Jorn. Why isn’t the town’s guard or the rangers investigating the forest?” Randar was not happy about the party’s current circumstances. It was bad enough that the group hadn’t gone on a delve in a in almost a week because of paperwork, but now they were up in the middle of the night. Worst of all, they were awake and sober!

“Somebody has got to do it, Randar. Considering our power level, we are the most qualified people around to investigate it.” Jorn had been dealing with the irritable beastmaster’s complaining since he broke the news to his team that morning. They’d already had a week off work while he dealt with guild bureaucracy and now he was complaining that they had to do something.

“Are you sure we aren’t out here because you want to win favor with the Mayor, hmm? I heard gnomes are freaks in the sack, you’ll spill the details after right?”

Even in the dark it was easy to see the vein throbbing on the dwarf party leader’s forehead.

“Listen here you little shit, because I am not repeating myself. There have been reports of weird monsters appearing in the forest at night, like dungeon weird. The rangers guild can’t investigate it because their only rep here has turned cultmaster. The guard can’t do it because they are spread too thin dealing with the thugs up north. And once again, this sounds like a dungeon spilling out and that makes it our job. You don’t get to cry about it because you are afraid of the dark and terrified of being sober.”

Unfortunately for the aeromancer, his jab went ignored. The complaining stopped but was replaced by a childish tune about Melody and Jorn swapping spit in the treetops. If that wasn’t bad enough, it wasn’t long until Pak joined in with his pan flute and Jameson harmonized with him. By the time the Greensongs passed across the bridge that led into the forest, the three of them had devolved into far raunchier bar songs. Only Liam was on Jorn’s side tonight.

The druid and dwarf led the way into the forest with magelights out and shining. Reports had started to come in a few days back about the forest doing weird things at night, creatures going bump in the dark and disrupting people who were trying to bump in the dark. At least, the first sighting had been between two of the cultists who were… talking alone in the dark outside of their weekly bonfire. The elven female claims to have seen one of the dungeon’s enlarged bats hanging from a tree over her companions shoulder staring at them and baring its fangs.

The report was initially ignored, chocked up to smoking drugs and fanaticism creating paranoia induced hallucinations. It wasn’t until the hanging trees started disappearing from the river bank that anybody took it seriously. Combined with other strange happenings, like a kid catching fire and people getting lost on the well-traveled paths, it painted a picture of strange things happening and somebody had to investigate. Even then however, Randar had to wait for approval from the guild and that took weeks.

Randar wasn’t too far off when he said that Jorn was only having them do this for Melody’s sake. When the half-gnome had asked him out to dinner to personally request his aid, there wasn’t much else to do. He didn’t think this was the dungeon doing anything, but thanks to the cultist’s claims he was able to hoodwink the party into investigating under the guise of official guild work. It was part of the adventurer guild’s AOR to deal with dungeon escapees if they became a nuisance to nearby villages.

The willows that had replaced the hanging-trees didn’t give off the same suffocating aura that their darker cousins had and Liam was able to confirm that they were new trees. The forest itself now gave off a dark vibe upon entry, an ominous feeling that wasn’t present when the daylight broke through the trees. Although his party wasn’t really qualified to investigate changes in the forest without a ranger, Jorn kept reminding himself that they had three nature-attuned adventurers in the party.

With a druid, a beastmaster, and a satyr, the group would be able to traverse the forest without any trouble. Hell, if Jorn craned his neck just the right way he wasn’t even able to tell that this wasn’t a dungeon. So that is how the dwarf choose to look at it, after all what is the difference between a nature dungeon and a gargantuan forest that towers over you, blocks out the sky, and is dark as a cave anyways?

When he looked at it that way, their group was the most qualified and experienced collection of people to investigate the changes. It was just another dungeon evaluation.

One of the first signs that something was wrong was when Jorn noticed the ‘drunken’ babbling behind him had dropped off. Before entering, they had given out strict orders to keep everyone within eyesight, if not reach. Jorn turned around and verified his team was still there. Liam was looking into the treelines around the group with furrowed brows, trying to discern exactly when they would step through into this rumored area within the forest, while the rest of the group had just fallen into a somber mood, the oppression of the dark forest around them finally weighing down on their moods.

Then he tripped. Jorn stumbled and rolled a few feet after something had jutted onto the path and caught his foot, temporarily costing him his footing. The party sped up to keep Jorn in sight, and surrounded him while Liam helped him back to his feet.

“Shit.” Pak had said it, but they’d all been thinking it. The few seconds that the party’s attention was on Jorn instead of the forest coupled with the few feet they’d all run had somehow brought them into the dark forest. As it were, not even the group’s magelights could push back the foreboding darkness and smothering gloom. All around them were twisted, black trees that sparkled dimly in the light being cast from the spells. The gnarled appearance stretched back as far as the party could see, the path of regular oaks now absent.

“Well, I guess we found the area the reports were about. I guess now we assess whether or not it is dungeon activity, or just enchanted forest activity.”

“Because we would know the difference?”

“Shut up, Randar. Just keep your eyes opened for those nasty inbred goblin creatures. If we can find something that is obviously a dungeon creature loose on the surface, we will know it has gone rogue. Otherwise we will chalk it up to the forest not liking the moonlit strolls.”

The group slowly and professionally made their way through the dimly lit and poorly maintained-looking forest. The only sounds to be heard was the low whirring created by Liam’s sling, slight rustling that was too faint to associate in any specific direction, and a very light melody coming from Pak’s pipes. Jorn wasn’t sure if the song was applied any specific buffs or perks, or if it was just there to lighten the tension. Nobody in the group had any illusions about going unnoticed through the forest, even the trees felt like they were staring down the party with ill-intent.

Several times throughout the journey Jorn would have sworn he saw a sapling sprinting through the trees, or a dried up corn husk doll moving just out of the corner of his vision. Finally, after about an hour of walking, the group made their first contact.

“Bats!” The timely call out from Jameson alerted the dwarf of the descent of 3 creatures that looked, at first glance, a lot like the dungeon’s dropper bats. The black furred creatures had appeared to the dwarf to be shadows cast on the blackened oak trees, and without the shout from his paladin, it would have been far too late to dodge them by the time he noticed otherwise.

Jorn dropped to the groud and felt the hairs on the back of his neck get pushed flat as the air from the close encounter brushed against against his skin. A grunt from Jameson let Jorn know that he’d been hit, inspiring the dwarf to roll over and get back to his feet, ready to meet the goblinoid ambush.

The group dispatched the 3 ambushers with little problem, apart from a piercing wound on the paladin’s right shoulder, and no goblinoids appeared to challenge them. It was hard to tell at night, but Jorn was of the mind that the bats were not from the dungeon based on the their general shape and attacking tactics. The corpses were collected to be inspected later and the group moved on.

Finally the group stumbled into a clearing after hours of walking in crowded and imposing trees. The moon was visible overhead and its light reflected off a stagnant pond in the center of the clearing. Around the pond were several ominous feeling willow trees, branches swaying without a wind blowing. Littered on the ground around a few of the trees were corpses of the bat creatures that had attacked the party, confirming their suspicion that these were the previous border guard trees.

The group slowly made their away around the trees, avoiding rousing anything that might be slumbering in the clearing unseen, aiming for the continued path on the other side. As the group entered the path that would hopefully let them out of this forest, they finally saw movement.

Behind them, atop the largest willow tree, stood a horned owl larger than any Jorn had seen. The plumage was darker than would be expected and its eyes betrayed an intelligence far greater than any animal had a right to have. Most importantly, however, was what was upon its back. A disgusting looking twig monster, the shape in a mockery of a man, was staring out at the party from its owl mount’s back. No eyes or mouth, just a blank canvas in the dead of the night, backlit by the moon. Staring.

Jorn shiverened involuntarily but when it made no move toward the party apart from staring, he turned and rushed the group out. Apart from a few of the normal forest creatures, albeit a bit darker and larger than usual, and a strange ambushing spider that wasn’t really strong enough to take down a fully grown adult, the Greensong party ran into no further issue until the forest dropped them out on the riverbank a fair distance from the town.