Journal of Rollo Lavius 1

Entry #71 - The Jungle Witch

(G71 06/11/09 OR - Graham GM)

DAY 134 cont..

Also today, Shlump and Nobby went to talk to Darsh Tuskhunter, the hadozee merchant who deals with the villages sea trade. They wisely brought him a bunch of bananas so he was more than happy to trade the Wyverns loot for supplies.

Everything else they wanted that was harder to get he said would take 'a couple of days'.

After this Crispy found a hidden shrine to Umberlee (under the pier) and offered some gold that would be swept away by the next high tide.

He then located an adept called Wayan the Wise, who was as deaf as a post but was willing to help with the haunting of the Wyvern. After some discussion and investigation he said he could not help directly, but that he did remember an old story about a situation similar to this. He also remembered that the people in question got rid of the ghost by a method other than appeasal. 'There is more than one way to skin a cat', he said sagely.

Nobby very kindly cured Wayan of his deafness, which made him very happy.

Crispy. Veddic (the priest of Kossuth who has joined the crew), his side-kick Parrie, and Nobby took another wander up to see Willy Reach and for a while were concerned about the contents of a mystery shed that bore the sign 'Danger - Nuts!'.

Nobby was sent down to fetch me but she was distracted by lunch so everyone else came down. So after lunch I joined them on the hill and offered my tracking skills again.

I pointed out that the animal tracks did not in fact come from the shed. With Mr B's help we found some wolf tracks on the beach that lead to the jungle.

Crispy, Veddic and Nobby then found a man called Made the Hunter and asked him about the tracks. He told them of a 'witch' that lived in the jungle called Mellophane and her wicked familiar, a huge wolf called the 'Child Snatcher'. Apparently these being had been in the

jungle north of the village since his father's time and they were blamed for everything from missing children to crop failures. He also said that she lived in a glade that was once a beautiful place inhabited by friendly jungle spirits but that she had corrupted it with her wickedness.

Today, it was also observed that Eris has been deep in conversation with a cleric called Olander Spume. They have also dragged Lirith, Skald, Meree, Fala and almost everyone else into the conversation and have been sat in the tavern all day. I have surmised that he is planning another expedition to the 'Lost Temple of the Ancient' and is steadily poaching the Wyvern's crew for said purpose!

He had to flee this temple when everyone else in his band were either killed or captured by its denizens. He is now determined to go back, but needs powerful allies to do so.

There was another party in the tavern that night and Crispy walked Made (his girlfriend, not the hunter!) home. He met her parents, her father is a port authority, and her older brother, Wayan, who revealed that he had once seen Mellophane from a distance and that he thought she had been very beautiful in an evil and scary sort of way.

Nobby spent all of the night with her Sea Wyvern friends while Crispy was with Made.

When he returned to the tavern and as Veddic stood holding Parries hair away from her face as she was sick on the quay side (she had drank too much!) they were all treated to a most unusual sight.

There was a ghostly moan from the Wyvern and then from his hiding place a most startled Shifty leapt up and ran down the gang plank. He then ran along the pier onto the quay and then into the town. The ghost was observed to follow the fleeing rogue, but only as far as the quay where she halted, then wailed and cursed for a moment before turning and whisping back into the sea.

'Did I just see a ghost?', groaned Parrie as she looked up from her suffering.

That night Crispy was also pleased to see young Tavey walking around in a very splendid pair of silver buckled shoes, purchased with the money that the pirate captain had given him that morning.

DAY 135

So, the team set off into the jungle, lead by Made the Hunter and consisting of Crispy, Nobby, Veddic, Eris, Skald, Kelech, Meree and Shlump.

It was hot and humid and although they were all soaked in sweat they bore up well under the heat, perhaps sheltered a little by the jungle canopy.

After about three hours, Made stopped and informed the group that he had detected goblins up ahead.

It was agreed that he would go up with Kelech and negotiate their progress forward.

After some time Made and Kelech came back, and some goblins looked carefully out of the undergrowth. The goblins revealed that they were just returning from worshiping their new goddess - none other than Mellophane the Witch.

After some more careful discussion they wondered if the group would be interested in buying some of their wood carvings.

As it turned out, everyone did! The goblins sent back to their village to bring up more of their stock and sold carved charms and statuettes to most of the group.

After that, they continued on their way and Made informed them they were very close to the Witch's territory and that he would go no further. Kelech decided to stay with Made and the others went on ahead.

They then found a fissure in a cliff face which they squeezed through into a vine choked glade. It was very damp and full of sickly looking plants that hung with rubbery looking yellow creepers that wrapped themselves around everything.

As they crossed the glade, suddenly two crocodiles appeared from nowhere and attacked!

Shlump killed one and Eriss incinerate a nearby bush trying to get the other. A rather startled female elf like being leapt away from the flames. Skald got a look at her, but was instantly blinded. A worried Crispy tickled her ribs with his cold iron dagger, but then Nobby let rip with a very powerful Sound Lance spell and rather smugly put a massive whole in the woman.

Crispy looted the body and they sent Skald back to be with Made and Kelech. Nobby identified the creature as a nymph, but once that had been somehow corrupted by whatever evil was now in this area.

There was a passageway hacked out of the undergrowth on the other side of the glade, so with great trepidation they continued forward.