DND Quest 4 - Trial of Champions

The Story

We had a full month of recovering in Icehaven.  Spending our loot getting new armour from the blacksmith and horses (since the penny-pinching mayor was unlikely to lend us any again).  As our funds were getting low Petros, another bard, came to the Holy Day Inn where we were staying.  We swapped a few tales and then he told us the Ballard of Black Biana.

"Do not anger the Warlock they call Black Biana,
This poor child who was cursed from birth.  
Her own mother said she was a changeling.
All she did was talk with beasts!
Biana saw this fabled child as her true-sister.
Thus she make pacts to enter Fairyland to seek her.  
The evil fay-lord now holds Biana's soul.
Every time she goes more bargains must be struck.
Biana's rage knows no bound for her sister is still to be found!"

After listening to this story Kara gave him a couple of coins and he rewarded her with a sealed letter which turned out to be from our mysterious benefactor.  It said he needed our help to rescue Tom Tresbon and all we had to do was rip the scroll in half and we would be transported to his location.  Gathering our gear we all held hands and did as instructed.  We then found ourselves on a wide road with walls on three sides of us and a tower ahead.

Moving forward we realised the tower was in fact a bird bath!  It seems we had been reduced to only an inch in height.  Moving east we found some cracks in the wall.  One side was a gigantic lake the other a herb garden.  Not wanting to risk the water with our current size we moved through the herbs where we disturbed some woodlice.  Kara tried to catch one but we quickly realized they were fleeing from wasps who now seemed to be almost five feet in size.  Kara was poisoned by one before we were able to kill them all but her great fortitude allowed her to shake off the worst of the sting.

Moving on through bay leaves and mint a column of worker ants came out from under the stepping stones and were milling around our legs.  Gesh wanted to kill them but Alysaia pointed out there were more still coming and anyway she could talk to animals.  The ants were not very communicative but she was able to direct them to the bay leaves as they were looking for food.

Climbing onto the stones we could survey the entire garden.  Gesh sent his hawk to fly over the wall and we found there was a meadow with a small white building and a vegetable patch over to the west.  Thinking Tom was probably at the island in the lake we decided to check out the other building first.

It took us an hour to travel over to the white structure as we had to hack our way throught the meadow as if it were dense jungle.  Having approached we recognized this was a beehive!  Turning back we were quite lucky to avoid a centipede in the long grass and were tired by the time we reached the path again.

Returning to the herb garden Sparkeye turned herself invisible and distracted the ants allowing the rest of us to carry several bay leafs back to the path.  Once there we constructed a coracle boat that would let us get three people to the island.  A toad attacked us as we carried the boat to the edge of the lake; once again it was no match for our combat prowess.

Magrim, Arden and Alysaia set sail but when they were in the open water two dragonfly's swooped down looking for lunch.  Fortunately we were still close enough for Gesh, Kara and Sparkeye to join in with supporting fire.  Having taken a critical strike from an arrow as well several burns the first one broke off the attack.  Magrim's axe finished the second.  He was just able to pull it out of the creatures head and not fall out of the boat as drifted away.

As we sailed around the island we saw a small jetty and another, slightly better constructed, boat.  Nearby was a hovel constructed from local materials, inside was Tom.  He was very surprised to see us and we discovered our location was Biana's garden!  Tom said if we could get into the witches house then there should be potions we can use to restore ourselves.  Taking both boats we returned to the path and our next obsticle of climbing the stairs to the wood shed.

Sparkeye had learned a spell that allowed flight.  She cast this on Megrim who easily ascended each step with a rope the rest of us used to climb.  On the other side of the patio was the door to the house.  creeping forward we went to enter the building but a snarl distracted us.

Fluffy the witches cat had spotted Gesh and jumped down and taken a swipe at his new play thing!  A shield of magic prevented him from being torn in half as we all focused the full might of our attacks on the towering ball of fur.  We managed to injure the beast and it fled back to the wood shed.  This small reprieve allowed us all to squeeze under the door and enter the cottage.

The Icehaven Outcasts

Arden De Vere, Bard of Apollo ~ Half Elven Noble and story teller
Magrim Axetooth ~ A hulking half Orc Barbarian with a fetish for Axes.
Kara ~ Human Scout and sharpshooter with her longbow.
Ghesh ~ A Dragonborn Battle Wizard with paired swords and heavy armour. Sparkeye ~ Dragonborn Sorcerer who likes illusions.
Alysaia ~ Tiefling wild Sorcerer

Image Credits
Giant Wasp from GameLore Fandom
Tiefling Sorcerer by Fortune
Party with boat by MattPLOG