BLOOD AND SOULS FOR MY LORD ARIOCH : ELRIC OF MELNIBONE

WAYNE'S WORLD

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The Forest of Doom

Where evil lurks and plots and an incredible fortress is destroyed

Winter 2,302 Meldigian Reckoning

The party prepares to travel south via Irilian and the Blue Hills on route to the evil forest known as the Tunwood. Here it is claimed lies the fortress of the wicked Drow Elves responsible for the decimation of the village of Dungalean and other hamlets and with purported designs over the whole of the southern lands. Also the drow leaders steed, the mighty Green Dragon, may also lair within the Tunwood. Surely such an ancient and powerful beast would have gathered a treasure hoard that would match a king's ransom.

It is now the 3 Vahna (9th month) Stonefist Reckoning. Winter has set in and snow lies upon the ground. The bitter winds of Needfest (Winter) howl across the land and few travel the open roads without reason. This is the time of year when sensible folk relax by open fires burning the timber stack carefully prepared during the warmer months and enjoy fine spirits and ales laid down in cellars months or years ago. It is also the time of year when hungry beasts and monsters are known to prowl across otherwise civilised lands looking for warm human flesh to sustain them against the ravages of the season. Travelers on the roads thus rarely will travel unescorted and few would risk camping out when Inns offer warmth, food and sanctuary. Despite the discomfort and danger the valiant party prepares to set forth knowing that as they travel south the weather will be less harsh and treasure awaits. What better than to return to Little Boy Mountain with the breaking of Growfest (Spring) as wealthy adventurers, loaded down with magic, gold and gems.

The journey south is fraught with peril. Whist traversing the Silver Hills the party is set upon by a pack of Shadow Mistiffs which wreak havoc before been destroyed. Later a band of Jermlaine attack whist the party camps by the roadside. Approaching the Blue Hills an even stranger encounter occurs with a group of Lammasu who warn of evil in the Tunwood. The party reaches Dungealen to see that order is restored and that the villages have resumed their lives of toil. The party learns what they can of the Tunwood which is that the forest has always been home to all manner of viscous animals and evil minded denizens. The Tunwood fills a peninsula and borders inland with the long thorn thickets, an area of long thorned woody shrubs. Because the lands about the Tunwood have so long been overrun by humanoids very few have ever seen the Tunwood let alone ventured beneath it’s shadowy canopy.

The party moves on passing the valley of the earth mother. Here the land is recovering from it’s decade old blight at an extraordinary rate which brings great joy to the heart of Pharin. The part continues on and reaches the wrecked ferry crossing of the River Gimm. Once this river crossing is made the party will be into lands long overrun with humanoids. The very road they along leads to the ruined city of Shallow Bay which is no believed to be taken over by humanoids. The party starts the crossing only to be attacked by giant water beetles looking for prey in their most successful hunting spot. The party survives the wicked mandibles of these carnivorous insects and continues onwards. The party breaks from the road to travel north to the Tunwood. Upon reaching the borders of the forest the party pickets their mounts realising that the forest undergrowth is too heavy to allow the passage of mounts.

The Tunwood springs up abruptly at the edge of the Long Thorn Thickets. It is thick and dark, with no patch of land within it that could be called a clearing. There are no paths, and the forest floor is covered with thorny underbrush that inhibits movement and is noisy to negotiate. The thick overhead growth starts almost as soon as one sets foot inside the forest. At a point only a few hundred feet within the forest the light conditions are similar to twilight on a cloudy day. The darkness gradually deepens as the forest is penetrated deeper and the party uses this as their guide to reach the center of the forest for surely this is where the forest would be darkest and indeed the most likely place for dark elves to inhabit. Movement through the forest soon frays at the nerves of the hardy adventures as shadows seem to move and the noise of small animals seems unduly loud. It takes many days to march to the center of the forest and the party soon realises why the Tunwood has such an evil reputation as they encounter some of it’s denizens. Along the route ogres are battles as are foul spider loving ettercaps. Worst of all an ancient quickwood is encountered which the party finally flees realising that its ancient trunk is near impervious to physical assault.

After several days of marching the darkness in the forest is as night and it is then that the party suddenly finds itself under attack. Small crossbow bolts streak through the air causing those struck to fall into a deep slumber. Those still standing find themselves enveloped in pitch blackness surrounded by the sounds of stealthy movement through the underbrush and the whispering of swords been unsheathed. Melee is entered into and the party finds themselves pitted against the deadly speed of drow elf fighters wielding two blades with cat light agility. A desperate battle unfolds however the party through its adventuring trials have become very experienced swordsmen themselves and the battle is won without any drow escaping alive. The party realises that this band is a patrol and therefore they must no be far from where the drow are based. To forestall an assault on the drow base would invite deadly peril for surely this patrol will be missed and then the party would be hunted through the dangerous forest.

The party moves on and soon finds a trail, the first they have seen in their days in the Tunwood. As the trail is followed it is noted that the trees are of increasing statue until their girth and height is of gargantuan proportions. The higher reaches of the trees are not visible through a combination of darkness and foliage so the height of these incredible specimens is hard to determine. Eventually the part finds a large clearing in the forest, however, it is as dark as the rest of the forest for it is canopied by an phenomenally massive tree some 180’ in diameter at the base. The party circumnavigates the tree remaining undercover and discover that there are many paths radiating from the clearing out into the forest. On the north side of the tree are two 15’ wide semi-circular trenches from which there are paths around the tree leading to a clearing before the north side of the tree and to another clearing on the eastern side of the tree. Two double doors are grafted into the trunk of the tree which presumable open onto this later clearing. Another cave like opening in the tree also opens onto this eastern clearing. Paths also lead to the south of the tree where there is a swift flowing river.. Some slaves guarded by huge white shaggy bipedal creatures, are seen entering the clearing from one of these paths bearing forest litter which is dumped into one of the trenches. Slaves are also seen hauling water from the river and similarly dumping it into the trench. Every turn or so the northern of the two sets of doors in the eastern side of the tree trunk open from which come slaves bearing laden buckets which are then dumped into one of the trenches. The slaves then return back into the tree again to reemerge another turn later to do the same. The party realises that this is some strange fertiliser system which is used to keep the tree alive. It is decided that an invisible scouting expedition is required before an assault occurs for who knows what dangers may lie inside this tree. Swiftsword and Thoros Quickfist enter through a set of double doors discovering that rooms and corridors are carved within the living tree. A well leading to a sludge pit is discovered and from this are the slaves collecting sludge to dump into one of the trenches outside. More of the shaggy quoggoths are discovered and a group of drow also pass by the invisible scouts. In the tree cave are found slaves and more of the quoggoths.

The party attempts to sneak in whilst invisible however the keen noses of the guards detect their presence and soon a fight is entered into. The quoggoths are killed however in their death throws much injury is inflicted on the party as the enter into a battle rage. Bugbears appear from quarters inside the tree however Caldo deals with this threat using a well placed lightning bolt down the corridor that they are assembling in. Some drow enter the fight using both sword and spells against the party before fleeing behind a globe of darkness. The party gives pursuit rushing through a room in which they are attacked by blood sucking stirges. Ankara pushes the chase and this leads to a running battle with the drow who use their power to cause darkness along with other spells and sleep poisoned hand crossbow bolts to ward off the party. The battle is intense and continues until the drow survivors suddenly disappear down a curving corridor. The party advance further along the corridor and are suddenly attacked by a tentacled monster, a tentamorph, which is in a hidden room beside the corridor and lashes at them with it’s tentacles from under a slot at floor level connecting the room to the corridor. The party slays it before it’s insidious paralysation and life sucking attack can prevail and continue up the corridor to find a wizard locked door through which the drow have retreated. The party decides to cure it’s wound and to search the area it has passed through to ensure that it is secure and that no drow lurk behind them to cause mischief.

A slippery thorn covered corridor is found that descends to a small chamber whose floor is some strange semi-transparent membrane. On a thorn across the chamber is a pouch hanging on a thorn. Swiftsword descend down the corridor and manages to retrieve the pouch in which is found a magic ring of swimming. Another downward descending corridor is followed which leads to a chamber in which on the opposite side of the chamber is a securely bolted swollen door. The party forces the door open and the room is flooded with sludge, which though not harmful could have proved very dangerous if the party had been fighting the drow when the door was opened. Some drow barracks are also searched and a spell book is recovered.

The party now decides to breach the wizard locked door, beyond which is a curving corridor leading higher into the tree. The party advances cautiously up the curving ramp as it spirals some 200’ up the tree. The corridor ends on a branch with a door facing back into the tree and another corridor entering the tree around a corner. The party attempts to open the door however it is a trap and from the false door springs a magical rope which ensnares some party members and drives them to the edge of the branch and drops them over the side to hang hundreds of feet in the air, only a knife cut from a plummeting death. The party manage to haul those ensnared to safety before moving on into the corridor into the tree. Along this corridor is found a curious chamber which has a small two door trap system behind which is caged many rats. The party moves on and the corridor opens onto another branch on which is a giant nest and a rope bridge connecting this branch to another some 100’ away. The party advances to find itself under attack by a giant owl. Some party members decide to secure the other branch and charge across the bridge to find themselves under attack by drow elves using sleep poisoned hand crossbow bolts and spells. Caldo counterattacks with a fireball which destroys the drow threat but burns the hawsers of the bridge resulting it breaking free from the opposite branch to swing pendulum like from it’s remaining mountings. Luckily those on the bridge hang on for to have lost hold would mean certain death. Swiftsword and Thoris Quickfist climb to the other branch around the trunk of the tree and the other party members fly across using the broom of flying.

The party continues it’s advance within the tree to discover a curving corridor in which are various creatures chained to the wall. The last of these sad prisoners is the parties old friend Stengul the half orc first encountered in the Tor in the Valley of the Earth Mother. Stengal has been brutally tortured repeatedly by the Drow who bring him close to death with their foul amusements then magically heal him so the fun can start again. Beyond this corridor is room guarded by a shadow demon which the party destroys. In here a secret door leads into a chamber containing a strange pool of water. This pool acted like a mirror of opposition causing simulacrums to appear of those who looked into it to see their reflections. These simulacrums fought their original to the death. Adjoining this chamber was also the Barracks of a female Drow cleric that the party slew. From the pool chamber a corridor led into a strange room full of strange gigantic fungus growth and through which was a raised wooden catwalk. On the catwalk the party was attacked by a giant spider. Swiftsword attempted to climb the walls of the chamber to encircle the spider however fell into the fungus growth only to discover to his prickly dismay that the room was actually full of sharpened spikes concealed by an illusion. After slaying the spider the party continued up a long winding corridor higher into the tree to find themselves before a set of double doors. These wizard locked doors were breached to reveal a large chamber occupied by two thrones and the drow leaders of the fortress. A furious battle was entered into with the exchange of powerful magic. Realising their danger the party entered the fray with uncommon cooperation and tactical coordination to neutralize the magical threat against them and to finally overwhelm and slay the Drow. From this chamber were found various bedrooms which were ransacked and the rich treasure of the drow was taken.

[ Introduction ] [ Halls of Tizen Thane ] [ Trouble at Embertrees ] [ The Chagmat Spiderfolk of LBM ] [ Attack of the Fishmen Assassins ] [ The Desert Light ] [ A Dark Rising at Irilian ] [ A Wander in the Forest ] [ The Retaking of Blue Hills Keep ] [ The Valley of the Earth Mother ] [ The Battle of Dungaelen ] [ The Forest of Doom ] [ The Dragon Hunt ] [ The Wandering Trees ] [ The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun ] [ The Quest of the Great Oak ] [ The Sacking of Little Boy Mountain ] [ The Hunt for Zolta the Black ] [ The Abduction of Pharin ] [ Assault on the Githyanki Fortress ] [ The Githyanki Offensive ] [ White Plume Mountain ] [ Tomb of Horrors ] [ Necklace of Brisingamen ]

Credit : This adventure was based on "Forest of Doom" by Scott Butler that appeared in Dragon Magazine #73 1983.