A Walk in the Park

My companions:

  • Lady C - moon elf fighter/rogue
  • Minym - moon elf fighter
  • Alessandro - human fighter/rogue
  • Jaylas Oakheart - human druid

E ALL HAPPENED to be at the Elk's Roost one morning, when we saw a notice posted by Agranax, a minor functionary in the Spellcasters' Guild: "Agranax, 27 Bella's Walk - Adventurers wanted."

Having nothing more pressing to do we went to his house. We were shown in by a little old lady who bolted the door behind us, then led us into a room where Agranax was asleep in a chair, dressed in food-stained blue robes. When he woke up he explained that he'd lost one of his magical lenses in his garden, and due to the amount of magical residue around his place he hadn't been able to locate it using magical methods. He wanted us to do a search and find it - and he didn't want the Spellcasters' Guild finding out that he'd lost it in the first place.

There was some haggling over the payment, but Minym managed to bump him up to 300gp each. After we'd agreed to take on the job, he then told us he was going to use a mass reduce spell on us to make us 1' high each, to reduce the chance of us stepping on the lens and damaging it by accident. We were unhappy about this, so he promised us each a magic item on top of the money we'd agreed.

Agranax then began casting, but as he did so he was stuttering and something went wrong...so that we ended up only 2" high! We moved over to the dispel circle he'd told us to use to get back to normal size, but he obviously hadn't cast it yet. There seemed nothing to do except begin the search as we were...

We began by going over to the post where Agranax had noticed he'd lost the lens, but there was nothing there. Alessandro climbed up a garden chair to get a better view, and noticed a sandy mound in the centre of the lawn. We went into the grass proper and started criss-crossing methodically - it was hard going. After about half an hour we came to something that looked like a small road to us, heading the way we were going, with some possible tracks.

The ground began to shake as a centipede came up the 'path' behind us. We got out of the way, only to get caught in some spiders' webs. Sensing movement in their webs 4 of them they came to investigate, and we had a difficult combat with most of us either completely or partially stuck. Jaylas and his wolf got completely trussed up, but we freed them before they suffocated.

OVING ON, we came to the end of the 'road' but the start of some drag marks. Despite not being an expert in tracking on this scale, it looked to us that this could easily be where the lens had been dragged by something. I climbed up a nearby stalk to check our position, then we followed that trail for another half an hour.

We stopped when we heard a female crying. Behind a flower a woman-like creature of around our size but with the legs of a cricket, wings & antenna- possibly of the fairy folk? was very upset. We told her that we were looking for a big glass bowl. She said her name was Bluebell, and she knew Agranax. She was upset because she'd lost her mirror. If we got it back for her she'd tell us where the lens was. It had fallen into a carnivorous plant while she was flying. The plant was about our height, with bell-shaped white flowers, about 15 minutes travel away from here. Agranax hadn't actually got any magic stuff as he'd given it all to the Faerie Folk, but if we got her mirror she'd give us some magical healing dew.

Heading off in the direction she'd said, we came to a border and the plant in question. It gave off an enticing smell- so enticing in fact that Jaylas's wolf and I were completely entranced and got wrapped in its leaves until Minym killed it. We got some nasty acid burns off it...

We went back to Bluebell. She gave us some little bags filled with dew that she said would only last about an hour - I drank one straightaway. In addition she gave us some gifts that she said would get bigger when we did. These were some Fairy healing water, an acid globe, a bag of webs, a spyglass of the master, boots of the Fey (that could make you fly) and a Fey Bow. By common consent I got the last one - because my outlook on life is similar to the Fey, so it seems, it not only conjures silver arrows out of nothing when you draw it, they're magical too, which is really useful.

Soon after this we saw a swarm of wasps. Initially they were busy attacking some globe-like things, but then 6 peeled off to attack us instead. I got poisoned, and Jaylas's poor wolf got killed. Lady C gave me a healing potion - I made sure I paid her for it. We rested for about an hour, then went to look at the globe-like things - they were some sort of tiny Beholder-kin we thought.

Eventually we reached the sandy hillock Alessandro had seen. It was an anthill, but there were lots of red and black dead ant bodies lying around: the black ones smelled sweet but the red ones smelled acrid. Suddently the ground dropped away as a gaping maw emerged, mandibles chomping! Everyone except Minym and I fell over. Jaylas webbed the antlion's mouth, and everyone got up and out of the hole.

The drag marks continued to the antihill's entrance, which was guarded by 2 reds. We went back to the dead ants and covered ourselves in some of the dead reds' oily secretions, which did the trick as the guards smelled us and let us pass. The passageway went down a slope. There were lots of ants around, and luminous fungi, with Minym's sword shedding additional light. Ahead we could hear the whirring of winged ants circulating the air, and at one point we spotted what looked like a huge vein of gold in the wall that was actually a coin.

N A HUGE chamber further on the Queen sat, and the lens was there too- it looked like she was using it as a drinking bowl. No soldier ants were visible so we went closer. The smelly coating we'd given ourselves must have worn off, as there was a sudden change in the pervading smell, and suddenly we were surrounded by soldier ants! We got backed into a corner, and then heard a rushing noise followed by warm water that knocked the ants away. The lens started to float as the water level rose: we got to it, dumped our gear in it then climbed in. The torrent of water carried us outside, where we could see Mrs Meepin the housekeeper walking away, kettle in hand.

Jaylas changed himself into a pony to help matters, and Minym used his new fey boots to fly up and scout ahead. It took us about two and a half hours to get back to the house, and to the dispel circle, but there was another problem: a kitten stalking us. When it attacked Minym cut it's nose a bit and it ran away. We got back to the circle, and were returned back to our normal size, much to our relief.

Agranax was asleep in a deckchair outside. He gave us the money he promised, but just as Bluebell said he didn't have any magic items to give us. Minym started to run away with the lens but Agranax held him and we expressed our annoyance that he wasn't fulfilling his end of the bargain. He got a bag full of all sorts of old rubbish, some saleable, which produced another 250gp's worth to share out between us.

I don't think we'll be working for him again ...

1374DR   (Conception 2002)

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