Aspiring Heroes of Faerûn

"I don't need ta stop just yet, but I ain't in no hurry either," Chrys says.  "But I don't think we should be venturin' into a swamp without being ready for anythin'," she adds.  "So rest up if ya need it. I'll stand guard."

"I'm pretty beat up from that swarm, so a short rest would be good," Lumen says, sitting down with his back to the tree, facing out into the forest. His lute is in his hands and he begins to play quietly again, a bolstering rhythm that helps anyone who's feeling under the weather.

Song of rest:

1 HD plus d6 song of rest: 1 + 6 

Krackle would mold the earth to create a small chair and sit on it like a tiny throne as he listens to Lumen's song.

Rest hp 7 +2 plus 7

After clearing away some of the discarded bones and other waste and using Prestidigitation to dispense with the foul odor that reeks in this area, four of you sit down and rest, taking an hour to relax, regain your strength and listen to Lumen's gentle, healing melodies while Chrys stands guard. Nothing bothers you during this time, and she doesn't see or hear any other possible threats around you. However, none of you see any other forest creatures either, save for one small gray squirrel that emerges from around the back side of a nearby tree trunk and pauses to look directly at Chrys for about ten long seconds, before quickly skirting away and disappearing back around the tree. 

As Chrys stands watch, she gazes off into the distance, and can see that the forest looks even darker and thicker in the northeasterly direction where you are supposedly headed next, based on Phealnnie's directions. As the hour draws to a close, the air begins to take on a chill, and a drizzle begins spattering down from the sky, filtering through the canopy and hitting you with a steady stream of cold drops. 

Kess's Short Rest recovery: 9 + 6 (She's back up to full strength.)

"I don't like the looks o' this rain," Chrys says.  "Let's get movin' for it gets uglier," she tells the others.

She tries to keep her senses sharp as she leads the group into the darkness that awaits them.
Perception: 12 

Krackle would give Chrys a small nod and scooch close to her as, preparing to follow her in the rain.

Lumen moves forward with Chrys, trying to help her spot things she might miss.

Helped Perception: 8

d'aaawwww  XD

Pushing forward, you continue heading northeast through the dim forest, stepping over rotting logs and weaving through the dense undergrowth, all the while, being pattered by the wind and steady rain that's coming down from the gray sky. After a few hundred yards, the ground starts to get a little spongier, and at one point, Chrys finds that her boot punches through the soft, undulating ground, right into a mucky puddle, deep enough that the water spills right over the cuff. Within seconds, she feels the clammy coldness on her foot. 

Soon, the terrain flattens out, and you begin to see more puddles, shallow and filled with brackish water, no longer hidden beneath the leafy ground, but scattered about the landscape all around you. They're easy to avoid at first, but as you keep walking, the frequency and size of the puddles increases, to the point where there is perhaps an equal amount of dry-ish ground, and open pools, some of which are unfortunately unavoidable, if you are to keep pressing on. Soon, all of your feet are wet and cold, but then again, as the rain seeps beneath your cloaks and armor, so is the rest of you. 

You also detect a slightly foul odor in the air, no doubt coming from the stagnant and decaying nature of the swamp you now find yourselves in, that only grows stronger as you proceed. You also begin to see signs of wildlife again, but not in the form of inquisitive, carefree chipmunks, squirrels and singing birds. You being to see toads that hop around the points, snakes the slighter along the wet ground, and you even see some rats that scurry around the patches of dry ground. And the air begins to fill with more insects, mostly mosquitos and other biting flies that do no real damage, but that become an incessant annoyance the further you walk.

Chrys stops and holds out her hand.   "Wait a second," she grumbles.  Digging out yet another torch, she lights it up and waits until the fire burns steadily.  Then, searching around the ground, she begins to pluck the drier pieces of rotting wood, plant life, and peat that she can find from the ground.  Wrapping them in a bit of cloth torn off from her cloak, she winds the bundle around the flaming end of the torch, going slowly to make sure the cloth lights up rather than smother the flames.  She holds the torch up.

After a few moments, the damp pieces of foliage and wood catch, and a thick white smoke begins to emerge from the flame.  Carefully, Chrys walks back and forth, shaking torch to distribute the smoke and drive the insects away.  After a while, she holds it out to Vesper.  "Here... take this thing and have yer magic hand circle us as we walk.  The smoke should keep away them pests at least a lil'.  Real pity we don't have any good smokeweed ta throw in there and give it a nice scent."

Lumen is just staring at Chrys in amazement, almost giddy in the smoke and lack of insects, and gives the dwarf a "where have you been all my life" sort of expression. He presses forward, looking for drier patches of ground but really trying to see where this bit of evil that the dryad must have sensed originated...

Assuming that she complies, Vesper's magic hand takes hold of the torch and carries it in a circle around you as you plod slowly and deliberately through the increasingly wet terrain of the swampy forest. Since the cantrip only lasts one minute, Vesper makes each revolution last just shy of that duration, before finishing next to her. She then quickly takes the torch, casts the spell again, hands it off and repeats the process again and again. 

The smoke does indeed drive away the small clouds of midges, gnats, and small biting flies, at least for the most part. Whenever the torch passes by each party member, enough smoke lingers to hold most of the bugs at bay, but not all of them. A few tenacious insects manage to break through and buzz annoyingly in front of your face and around your heads, occasionally biting you. However, without the torch, you know it would be so much worse. 

As you press on, the land becomes even more boggy, and you begin to notice that some of the rocks and trees, which have thinned out some, are covered with a thin film of slime. At first, it's just the occasional patch, but the further you walk, the more prevalent the slime becomes on most of the surfaces that lie above the wet, spongy ground. 

Lumen grimaces when he sees the slime. b he says to the party. "Yuck. Wonder what makes that. Everyone prepare yourself. The Pie Pals have been through worse..."

"I don't like this," Chrys says, crouching down to have a closer look at the slime.  "Someone should try lightin' some o' it up o'r there on that rock," she says, pointing to a stone some distance away.  "I wanna see if this stuff is flammable.  Don't feel too keen on walkin' through it unprepared if it is," she says uneasily.

She takes a bit of the slime and rubs it between two fingers, trying to see if she can recall anything about creatures that might produce slime.
Nature: 6

Krackle would quickly produce flame and lob it at the slimy substance. "I'll help!"

Chrys finds the slime to be quite slick, and at the same time, it sticks to her fingers as she rubs in her hands, but nothing out of the ordinary happens when she does so. To her, it seems similar to the slime a slug might produce, but obviously in massively larger quantities, as it covers pretty much every rock and tree stump within sight.

As Krackle lobs a ball of flame at a slime covered rocks, nothing happens that's out of the ordinary. It doesn't appear to be especially flammable. 

"... Giant slugs, maybe?  I got nothin'," Chrys grumbles, wiping her fingers off in disgust.  "Well... I hear slug slime's good fer yer complexion.  I ain't about ta try rubbin' my face in this guck, though.  Let's keep goin', we're getting near the heart o' all this rot."

"OK!" Krackle replies as he hops alongside Chrys.

"Kess, do you know what might be likely to hang around a place that a dryad might think was evil, that leaves a massive trail of slime behind it, in a swamp, surrounded by giant spiders and ettercaps? You seem to know these forests well. I'm glad you made it through that last battle, where we fought giant spiders, a bigger than normal ettercap, around a very diseased tree. And I think the spiderwebs are all gone, thanks to you fire hurlers! But now we could use some guidance. What do you think?" Lumen says, oddly summarizing the past few hours for Kess for some reason. 

((LOL! Thank you dude!))

Kess takes a moment to think, feeling oddly... reconnected, after that summation. Weird... it was almost as if she was here and yet... not.

"Give me a just a moment, and I may well have an answer for you, Lumen..."

((DM, would Kess have even the slightest idea???))