D&D: The Journey Begins (Session 2)

The heroes awake to find that they are no longer asleep on the forest floor.  It appears that someone found them in their unconscious state and moved them into beds.  They find themselves in a small cabin owned by a wizard named Brazamar.  It appears that during their sleep the wizard and his small group of apprentices took an interest in them.

The heroes learn that the same corruption that was spreading across the castle was also spreading into them.  Brazamar asks them for a sample of this dark corruption for study.  He asks for a sample of their clothes and/or blood and agrees to pay the heroes for it.  The paladin and the barbarian both agree to give away samples of their clothes but the group hesitates to give away samples of their blood.  Brazamar takes the samples to his apprentices and they begin work.



Brazamar then approaches the heroes and asks for another favor.  He claims that an experiment became unstable in the basement and would like the heroes to help clean it up.  He says that there is a chest in the basement that they can take all the treasure from if they can just clean up the mess.  The heroes agree and head quickly to the basement.

In the basement they find a small lab that looks recently abandoned.  There are bookcases, desks, and testing equipment scattered around.  It appears that Brazamar and his assistances were experimenting with different times of slime because there are small blobs around the room.  The heroes do not see anything immedietly threating but they do see the chest.  They proceed to move closer and on their way they notice a brain in a jar of the shelf.  The brain is labeled Abby Normal.  When they walk to close to the brain it awakens and floats off the table.  Soon slime all around the room also springs to life and advances on the heroes.

The heroes soon find themselves in trouble as the brain takes control of the rogue and beings to kill the party.  During the right 2 people are knocked out and everyone is severely hurt.  But in the end the heroes defeat the slime and the brain.  They also bring the rogue back to her senses.  They then decide it is time to get the loot and leave.

They carefully check the chest for traps and then slowly open it.  They soon discover that to be a mistake as another huge slime emerges from the chest.  He has been compressed and stored in the chest and was not very happy about it.  Once again the heroes find themselves in a battle for their life.  But once again they find victory and defeat the slime.  Inside the chest they also find a pair of slime encrusted gauntlets which the barbarian takes to clean up and hopefully sell.

Once the heroes get back upstairs they find everyone in a big hurry.  Apparently the clothes samples are very exciting and they are sending them with a rider to Rosedell.  The heroes walk over to Brazamar just as the rider leaves on his horse wearing a yellow cloak.  Its at this time that the heroes notice a strange symbol on the clock but he rider quickly disappears.  The heroes write down the symbol to research later.

They then walk over to Brazamar to explain about the basement and he is grateful but the heroes notice something is wrong.  The invoker notices that a dark taint has spread around the room and is on the hands of Brazamar and the apprentices. It doesn't appear to be affecting them very much but everyone can tell that the atmosphere in the room has changed.  After speaking with Brazamar they learn that the taint is very evil and that they and their clothes are coated in it.  Brazamar has a solution to remove the taint but it involves heading into the forest and retrieving a flower from a special tree.  They heroes decide they do not trust Brazamar and instead of taking his help they forcefully reject him and tell him that he shouldn't follow them or come near them again.

With their dismissal of Brazamar the party heads out into the forest.  They decide to follow the rough directions Brazamar had given them to head towards the flower.  The had very little resistance on their way to the flower.  It was located high up in a tree and the barbarian was forced to climb the tree to get it.  Once he dropped it to the ground, the paladin placed it into his belt pouch.  Soon the forest itself came alive to protect its sacred flower. The heroes are attacked by vines and plants of all sizes.  But the heroes used their cunning and agility to evade the plants and make it to a safe area in the forest.

They then set up camp next to a large rock for the night.  As they lay, staring up at the stars, the heroes begin to ponder... Why was Brazamar so interested in the energy we have absorbed? What affect will it have on us and the ones around us? And what is the strange noise coming from the slime encrusted gauntlets in the barbarians backpack...