Beaten to a Pulp

Finally, I was able to pull those suckling hobbits of Staddle from my teat and move on. In need of training as both a Warden and a Woodworker so I headed to the large village of Bree. S o many townsfolk in one place, I feared the worst.

I was shocked to discover that while many of the residents of Bree needed assistance, for the most part their needs were genuine. Most notably were the foul undead creatures in an area called the Barrows. I attempted a quick run at this evil place and barely escaped with my life. I needed more practice with my newly learned skills.

I stumbled upon Adso's camp on the road back to Bree. Adso was an interesting character. Seems he was trying to build a road side inn at that location. I had just started to respect him when he asked me to find a clean source of water the project. How does someone start the construction of an inn without first finding critical resources, like water?

I was once again tasked with thinning wild beast populations, dealing with those ubiquitous Blackbold Bandits, and gathering all sorts of things along the way. It was perfect practice for my newly trained skills.

My trip into the eerie Old Forest to find fresh water for Adso the hindsighted was unnerving. The place had a sense of dread to it that chilled your bones. Discovering the living and violent trees was particularly disturbing (and strangely alluring) to the woodworker in me. Though I suspected it would be a mistake, I decided I'd explore the forest at length after I'd headed to Buckland to repair my gear and lighten my bags.

Sadly, the people of Buckland had many of the same petty needs as Adso, not to mention all the other small communities I've visited. It seems Bree may be the one beacon of reason in this sea of sloth and ignorance. At least most of their needs were in the Old Forest while were in line with my own plans.

While I'd been growing more and more powerful, there were threats in this wood that brought me to the brink several times. I was getting confident, cocky really, taking greater and greater risks for martial and the financial gains. I finally took it to far when I discovered the evil tree guarded by spiders. It seemed to be the root of the the problem in the Old Forest. using stealth and ambush I took down the spiders and the vile roots that surrounded it, leaving me with only the tree itself to deal with.

I stealthed in, hit it with an ambush and tried to stun the thing. In retrospect it makes sense that kicking a tree would have had little effect. We traded blow for blow, it's branches slashing at me from every direction. I was sure I had it, but a mis-step on the final lunge left an opening that the topiary menace exploited expertly.

The wound was devastating, the wicked branch not only slashed open my face, to destroyed my eye. The pain was unimaginable, I went down and the thing pounced, tearing me apart. I fell unconscious in a sea of red. When I awoke I was back in Buckland, a friendly minstrel was tending to me as best he could. Apparently he and a hunter had come upon my plight and rescued me for a future as fertilizer. After several hours he informed me that though he'd staunched my wounds, my eye was a lost cause.

I took a horse back to the Prancing Pony in Bree. I was going to need time to recover and consider my options.