On The Search For Quercus

Much to our surprise and somewhat to our worry, Kyla excused herself the next morning. She explained that after what had happened in the ravine, she needed to iron out some kinks she had felt between herself and the Raven Queen. Still somewhat uneasy with leaving her all to herself, we agreed to head out with Grum to hopefully deliver a cure to Quercus as soon as possible. Collecting our mounts once again, we left the city, this time through the southern gate, and followed the road upriver towards the Lurkwood.
 
As one of the pamphlets on the notice board I came upon yesterday was looking for bundles of palmath, lunort and milort, Teynos was keeping an eye out for those, stating that he knew exactly what they looked like. He truly must have read a lot in his time in the monastery, given his extensive herbal knowledge! Quickly enough, he collected the first three handful of palmath as we took our first steps into the forest.
In contrast to the woods around Neverwinter, the Lurkwood was more dominated by evergreen trees and hearty bushes and shrubs. It also was a lot quieter than what we were used to, to the point where Grum had to admit that it was reaching a point that was concerning. According to him there were a good number of strange beasts in these lands, giant spiders and occasional more demonic incursions, so it was well possible that something was amiss. The worry on my old friend’s face felt like a dagger in my chest, I knew all to well how he must have been feeling with regards to these discoveries and Quercus being somewhere around all this. The path became less and less well kept until before long we had to descent from our horses and mule and lead them along the way. Thick, thorny brown vines and bits of bushes tore at our clothes as we walked by in silence.
Eventually, we came upon a spot Grum recognised. But where he knew once a clear pond was overlooked by an old willow tree with branches lightly brushing the shimmering surface and stretches of lush green grass filling the spaces between healthy plants and trees, we now found the tree broken, half toppled over, the pond covered in thick green algae. The grass was missing in many spots and what bits were left looked dry or rotten. Large bright red mushrooms stood in patches around the clearing. The water of the small stream that flew into and out of the pond now looked brackish-brown, matching the remaining picture. And no trace of the treant.
We spread out to search for any hints that might tell us of the whereabouts of Quercus. The softer mud surrounding the banks of the stream had no traces whatsoever, not even of the expected critters and animals of the woods. Nysqwen and Teynos at some stage even took a step into the water but quickly withdrew as their feet and lower legs immediately were filled with a stinging sensation. With nothing to go off of around us and the stream being the clearest path through the thick underbrush, we decided to split up. Teynos and Nysqwen would be looking downstream for anything of note whilst Grum and I would track upstream.
 
We had hardly ventured for half an hour when from the thicket in front of us, Grum and I heard a very strange noise, almost like the laughing of a hyena just slightly darker. We quickly hobbled the horses and sneaked forwards to catch a glimpse of what might be lurking there. Focussed on the presumed creature in front of us, we unfortunately missed a bear trap that Grum stepped into, letting out a painful grunt as the iron dug into his shin. I hurried to help him pry it off as we heard the laughing sound coming closer. We managed to get him free and rushed into the surrounding trees as the creature came into view. It indeed closely resembled a hyena, if a hyena could walk on two legs, was as tall as a man and carried a large, rusted spear and armour. Grum later would tell me that this in fact was a gnoll, a strange humanoid race that was known for its innate propensity to violence. The gnoll began searching around, sniffing the air like a hunter’s dog might for frightened game. I managed to distract it by mimicking the sound of departing footsteps a little further into the forest, upon which it immediately snapped towards that direction and set off through the trees.
We met up again and silently agreed to follow the gnoll to hopefully find out more about what was going on here. Grum informed me that they rarely were abouts alone and we should therefore expect to run into more of them. We tried following the hunter as stealthily as possible but unfortunately with his injured leg, Grum was unable to avoid many of the smaller twigs on our path, resulting in a constant low snapping and crunching sound. Just a few paces later we found the gnoll again, unfortunately for us though, there were five more that immediately pulled their weapons on us.
Glad to no longer have to uphold the masquerade of silence, Grum quickly commanded a large piece of forest floor to erupt around the gnolls whilst I conjured up the tantalising image of some of the intricate patterns that I had seen in the Harpers’ hideout in Neverwinter and managed to hypnotise four of them before escaping from the immediate scuffle. The remaining two lashed out with their spears against Grum but he veered into the shape of a giant snake. Without much issue, we quickly dispatched first of the two attackers who still were awake and then of the remaining dazed gnolls.
Once the last foe fell and silence returned around us, Grum changed back into his dwarven form and we went to investigate the fallen. Whilst they did not have much on them outside a few coin that they must have taken from some unlucky traveller, their dark, thickly flowing blood seemed to almost soak into the forest floor like a pint of ale down the gullet of an old drunkard. As it seeped into the ground, all the plants in the immediate vicinity seemed to wither and took a slight shade of grey. Clearly, somehow the corruption around the stream and the pond must be connected to this but neither Grum nor I knew how this would have come about. Especially given the humongous spread of this foulness, I do not really dare to think what must be necessary to cause such an effect. Ungodly images of rancid sewers and masses of rats that almost moved like liquid through narrow streets involuntarily flooded my mind, causing me to slump to the ground. Grum’s reassuring hand fell on my shoulder and calmly he suggested that it might be time to head back and meet with the others to judge how we would go about this. After all, chances were that if we encountered gnolls, they likely would not have fared much better.
 
As we arrived back at the pond, Nysqwen and Teynos were already there. My stomach dropped once more upon seeing that they looked a lot rougher than us. They explained that indeed they also had run into a group of these gnolls, including one that was a good bit broader than the rest that seemed to have some sort of commanding rank and one that almost was albino white. They had definitely fared worse with Teynos being struck down at one point only to be saved by a timely healing potion from Nysqwen. Aside the lack of her companionship, this once again hammered home the essential part Kyla played in our travels and having her not with us could already have cost us dearly.
With the encroaching woods around us and the sun almost setting, it is probably not a good idea to attempt to travel back to Mirabar this evening and draw more attention our way. But we definitely need to rest up before we can do anything more. And Grum might give himself calm and reasoned for the moment, but I have been around him long enough to feel the anxiety he holds with regards to Quercus. There has to be something we can do about this!