The woman looks to Saphira her expression still stern. "Those who have entered the forest with the intent to harm the Stag have taken their lives into their own hands. We have no issues with any of the people entering the forest, but those who are too stubborn to be led astray by us and continue on past our illusions and threats, have clearly made their choice and we will do what we must to protect that which is precious to us." She says looking up at another crack of thunder and a nearby flash of lighting. "I have never seen mother so angry..." She says her voice shaken as if even she is scared by the current weather.

"Can you, or your...mother...strike fear into the hearts of the villagers? Enough to send them back to the village, without causing them harm.?

Or could you give us some time to find the villagers and warn them clearly to leave the woods?"

Hope looked at the woman with a frown. She was never one for the magical arts, but even the hardier thief found her unsettling.

Einar frowns but he's not one to start the fight when someone is so nice to warn them that shit is going down. For now he waits seeing what his companions are making of this whole situation.

"We have been trying to drive them away without harm. But some are stubborn and press on." She says watching the sky. "If mother is this mad it means something has happened. If you value your lives you will leave this forest this night... Nothing good is going to come now." She says with a tinge of fear in her voice.

Korym looks pensively at the others. "I think we should take this advice, and leave the forest. And tell any others we meet to leave as well."

Hope looked at Korym and sighed, shrugging. "Ok....but you know how hard it is when i'm told i can't go somewhere?" She sheathed her daggers and crossed her arms. "if we can't have fun in the forest, then maybe the camp?"

Saphira knew she was outmatched and her morals conflicted with this situation. She had to remind herself of her oath to get her feet moving to get out of the forest. "My oath is to exterminate the greater evil, when faced with that choice. It does pain me, but I cannot lose sight of the biggest threat, the cult must pay for their actions in Greenest. Those fools in the forest will have to pay the price for their folly on their own. Very well, Hope, I trust you will be able to hurt the cultist from the shadows."

<ooc> I had to go back and read the Vengeance Paladin tenets again... quite the moral conundrum for a LG paladin! I should have made her LN.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:34, Fri 22 Dec 2023.

As the party turns to leave another crack of thunder can be heard followed by blinding light and a deafening boom. Searing burning pain is the only sensation that any of the group can feel at first, then the realization that they can neither hear nor see. It takes what feels like an eternity for the senses to return to the group revealing everyone had been blasted several feet from where they were and been knocked prone and severely burned by a bolt of lightning that had struck the Fey woman leaving a charred and burnt corpse on the ground several feet from where she had been standing.

O.O.C. I rolled everyone's DEX saving throws and well you all failed, everyone takes 15 points of dmg. And were blind and deaf for a time, but no longer.

Korym lies on the ground for what seems an eternity unable to see of hear. As his senses return, he realises the level of pain he is experiencing. He slowly pushes himself up and then turns in a slow circle to look for his companions.
"A-a-are you all right?" he asks, his voice shaking. Spotting the charred remains of the woman that had spoken to them, his already pale face blanches further. "Gods! Was that bolt aimed at us? Or was she not supposed to be giving us a warning? Or..."
The wizard stumbles as he takes some steps, "I think we need to leave!"

---

Did Shadow get blasted too?

Hope felt a tinge of ozone and watched just a second before the flash And detonation. She lie down, her senses reeling and eyes blinded. She blinked and started to see again. She rolled, and saw the charred corpse of the fey woman. The half elf cursed as she got to her knee and had her hand crossbow in hand.

She heard Korym speak and shook her head. “Whether it was aimed at us or her doesn’t matter. It has taken out an envoy of the nature that has warned us. Maybe it was the cultists, or someone else but whatever…..we survived and she didn’t, so i suggest you get the hell up and get to cover.”

She looked at the corpse. “…then we can find out who did this, and kill them.”

Einar stands singed and burned eventualyl shaking his head a bit as it all comes back, seeing everyone panic and after what they've been told he curses holding his shield up as he glances around at the group. "I'd say it's time to get outta this damn forest and back to the camp at least before this mother of her's gets any more pissed off at us. One lighting strike is enough thank you."

He finds a tree to duck behind in sight of everyone as he takes a few deep breaths to sort himself out, finding everything intact he nods to himself. "Let's get a move on, even if that wasn't the mother and was a cultist attack I'm in no condition to recive another and seems most of you are worse off than me."

Korym nods. He stumbles out of the open into the trees. And looks to follow Einar, hoping the big man knows the way back to the village. The wizard reaches out telepathically to tell Shadow to watch from above...but the familiar connection is gone. "Damn!"

Hope groaned, her armor still smouldering from the attack. “Let’s get back and lick our wounds, then we can see what in the nine hells caused that.” despite her bravado, she moved stiffly with some pain.

The paladin's heavy metallic armor was not designed to protect her against lightning and even with her battle hardened reflexes, she crumbled like all the rest of her group when her flight back was stopped in a loud crash by a small tree. Dazed for a moment, she had to look for her weapon in the blackened field, as she murmured a small prayer for the soul of the Fey that payed the ultimate prize to warn them. Not wanting that sacrifice to go to waste, she nodded her ascent to the group's proposal to flee the forest. Even her devotion to Tyr was no match to face such wrath!

Turning back into the woods in the direction they had come it becomes quickly evident that the group is turned around or that the route they had taken has... changed.

Traversing a wood at night and keeping one's bearings is difficult enough, but nothing looks even remotely the same, perhaps the illusions the woman had spoken of had driven you to this place or perhaps the forest is actually shifting, a theory that might not be as absurd as one might think given what happens next.

There is another clap of thunder, and the winds begin to pick up and howl through the trees, soon a familiar sound can be heard above; the roar of a mighty reptilian being... A dragon and a big one, followed by screams, thousands of them, and the sounds of shattering masonry and crumpling buildings can be heard from all around. The trees begin to shimmer and fade being replaced by masonry and worked stone, before shimmering back, an illusion perhaps?

O.O.C. I will need a WIZ Nature Check with Disadvantage from whomever is trying to make their way back along the forest. And I will also need an INT Arcana Check from anyone wishing to know what is going on.

"What in the nine hells is going on?" Korym turns circles on the spot, looking for any kind of familiar landmark. The momentary shimmering of the forest and the sound of the dragon, bring back horrible memories from Greenest. "Alathrien! Protect us!"

---

Korym Nightstar rolled 3 using 2d20+1, dropping the highest dice only with rolls of 2,10 for Nature (WIS) - DIS.
Korym Nightstar rolled 23 for Arcana (INT).

Hope looked around as she began to make for the camp, only to realise everything was different. The woman swore in elven as she had her hand crossbow in hand.

She looked at Korym and snorted. "Yeah....like he's helped us so far!" she muttered as she tried to get her Bearings.

She had no clue what was happening but was ready to get out.

---

<OOC: Hope rolled 8 using 1d20+1.  Nature check (Disadvantage)

Hope rolled 16 using 1d20+1.  Nature check.

Hope rolled 4 using 1d20+1.  Arcana check.>

Saphira was a fighter, not an intellectual person, nor was she a woodswoman, and her confusion was evident as she faced the events unfolding before them. Bringing her blade staff in a ready position, she tried to scan the area for threats she could do something about to protect the group. "Whatever is happening, lets stick together, Tyr will guide us to victory!"

Nature (disadvantage) 6
Arcana 10
Perception 15

Today: Saphira Prideflare rolled 15 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 13.  perception. – 15

08:35, Today: Saphira Prideflare rolled 6,8,10 using 1d20-1,1d20-1,1d20-1 with rolls of 7,9,11.  nature (disadvantage), arcana.

"FUCK!" Einar just curses as he attempts to make his way through the forest and keep with the group, why in the fuck did he join them he knew it was a bad idea. He's got nothing going for him all his skills are worthless when the world shifts around him every few seconds it's dreadful.

Einar rolled 4 using 2d20, keeping the lowest dice only.  Nature is wis I rolled wrong the first time.

10:32, Today: Einar rolled 14 using 2d20+2, keeping the lowest dice only.  Trying survial at dis

The forest shimmers out of existence more and more every moment a vision of another place replacing it, an illusion perhaps; but the sights and sounds are all too familiar.

High above in the now daytime sky dozens of chromatic dragons circle belching fire, and their own breath weapons, down on a screaming and paniced citizenry of a sprawling High Elven city with soaring spires. The dragons flight is clumsy and erratic, almost manic, they are not acting as a cohesive group but mearly maurading about.

Many of the buildings are now burned or crumbing down, but at the center of the city is a massive domed structure with the tallest of the spires jutting from it's center stretching into the sky. The building must be a palace, government building, or holy building of some sort due to it's massive size in comparison to the rest of the buildings in the city.

Floating above the city and above the central tower is a massive object obscured by the radiant red light it is emitting. It pulses almost rhythmic growing in intensity as it does.

All around high elves scramble about to escape the onslaught from the dragons in the sky some who look to be city guard or military of some kind are motioning the populace out of the danger zones while others fire bows or magic spells at the soaring reptiles.

If this is an illusion it is a good one you can smell the burning of the city... a now familiar smell.

Korym pales, his eye open wide, his mouth agape. "It cannot be..." his voice comes out as a whisper.
He reaches out to grab Einar, possibly for support. His other hand reaches for the iron symbol hanging around his neck...the same symbol on the armour of the elven guards.
"What we are seeing happened long ago...the weave, the weave of magic is tearing...the past and the present...they are mixing together in this forest...and we are joining the past!"

Einar barely understands what's going on after Korym explains it or at least what he thinks is going on and he shakes his head a bit reaching over to give the man a shake. "Past, Present, or Future that shit doesn't matter right now. We need to keep moving and focus on surviving or it won't matter if this is the past or not!"

Saphira whirled her weapon in a defensive posture, as her dark eyes were scanning the scene in front of her "What do you see? Is it the same as me? Dragons covering the sky, attacking a big city, I am not in the forest anymore! Guard are running around, wearing the symbol Korym found! If we are transported elsewhere, or elsewhen, stick together, we don't want to be separated!" She glanced towards the sky, seeing dragons, and gritted her teeth, before looking around, trying to find a way out.

Korym keeps his grip on Einar, and reaches for Saphira with his other hand; both hands quiver. "Grab Hope," he calls to the paladin, "You are seeing what I see, Saphira. Somehow we are witnessing the past.

Einar, choose a direction and start moving. Gods know if we can escape this!"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:55, Sat 27 Jan.