The Thrappled Lemmings and the Decanter of St Emilia: The Herb Store (Rangers of Shadow Deep)

 Ash found Doggo a place to hide while they entered the next building they planned to investigate. Doggo whimpered pitifully and limped on three legs into the cavity in the fallen wall. He would be safe there but was not happy about Ash leaving him.

The building they were entering looked like an apothecary's or herbalist's store room. It was a mess though with bits of the roof having fallen in. Moreover, visibility was low due to mist and dust in the air. On top of that, it also looked like some of the contents had taken root and were out of control. A huge Darkroot plant had grown in the corner of the storage room and its offshoot vines were waving around dangerously all over the place. They would have to destroy the plant quickly so that they could check the room out safely.

I'm using foliage from my terrain set as the Darkroot plant and its vines. Shocking breach of standards, I know!

The Lemmings advanced into the room and were immediately assailed by flailing vines. As with the skeletons, these were not a huge threat, but a misstep could lead to pain and death just the same. Incunabulum blasted them with fireballs and magic bolts. Aelfwyn shot arrows at vulnerable areas. The others waded in with axe and sword and cut the vines down but more kept sprouting out of the ground.

It's like wading through an ambulatory jungle!

Ash raced for the various cupboards around the store but was delayed by vines attacking him. He eventually reached them and started searching, only to be poisoned by mushroom spores. Onundr and Kalfr fought their way across the room. Incunabulum made his way to the centre of the room where he found a small pile of treasure that he quickly stuffed into his backpack.

"I found someth... ack ack ack!"

Weakened by the poisonous spores, Ash was slower to search, but he did find some useful herbs in the next cupboard. Incunabulum had moved on by now and was searching the cupboards on the other wall, and Kalfr and Onundr had made it to the Darkroot plant. They cut it down and the vines died back. The room was quiet apart from the buzzing of two giant flies near the entrance.

The dust settles

Assessing the information available, Aethelwyrd announced that she thought she knew where the Decanter was. The party disposed of the giant flies easily and set to searching where Aethelwyrd told them to search. Very soon they had the Decanter in their hands. At that point, they heard a commotion nearby. Ash, who had been on watch paled.

"Umm, bad guys approaching. Fahsands of 'em! And they look annoyed!"

I realise now that I missed an opportunity to use some cool figures for this scenario. The various Sprout figures from Super Dungeon Explore would be a fun way to represent the Darkroot plant and the Darkroot vines. Never mind. Next time. I can console myself with the fact that I played the game using what I had instead of worrying about having the "right" figures.

My plan was to have Onund and Kalfr race to the Darkroot plant and kill it, while Ash and Incunabulum searched, and Aethelwyrd and Aelfwyn guarded their backs. With the Darkroot dead, no more vines could spawn and the scenario would be easier. Unfortunately, they got held up along the way and it was only killed late in the scenario. The Darkroot vines were not really a threat to the Lemmings, but they slowed the whole group down, meaning that the party did not get to investigate all the clues either.

Regarding the clues, the mission has various paragraph numbers for you to check, like a choose-your-own-path adventure, when you investigate them. Sometimes you have to roll a skill test and are then directed to a paragraph based on your roll. Some of the results are negative, some are positive and some give you hints where to find the Decanger. When you think you know where it is, you have to pick a room in the Convent to investigate. You then go to that paragraph to see if you deduced its location correctly. You only get one chance at this, because the forces of the Shadow Deep are massing and the Boss Monster arrives immediately after you check. By this point, I was fairly certain that I knew where the decanter was, so I chose to check at the end of this scenario. I was correct. That means the next scenario is the boss monster and his minions. The goal will be to escape with the Decanter via one of the exits. This could get messy very quickly.