Pharast 20th - Out Baconed by the Bacon

In the morning, leaving the statue behind, the party head further east and continue through large swathes of forest, noting the geography and various wood types, fauna and flora on their comprehensive maps.

 

Mid-morning, the group stumble across an number of ruined buildings in a boggy area deep within the forest.  Whilst debating on the best way to explore the ruins (for charting purposes), Kyrander notices a large humanoid-frog-like creature skulking around the ruins and jumps straight into action, notching an arrow and shooting at the creature (known as a Boggard; primitive muscular toad-men that are taller than humans, usually evil in nature due to their penchant for sacrificing other humanoids to their demon lord deity) only to miss it.  Kyrander then notices that one of the creature's hands appears mangled and deformed and reconsiders his actions, but at that moment Otto joins the fray, casting a Sleep spell which fails to take effect.

Vaneer joins the combat, shooting at the Boggard and wounding it.

Kyrander decides to move around the two ruined buildings in an attempt to flank the Boggard, but spots a larger creature lurking with one of the larger buildings.

The Boggard decides to charge in the direction of Vaneer and Otto, but is luckily still quite far away from the pair that the Boggard's weapon couldn't yet reach them.

The larger creature within the ruins (a Slurk; a large toad-like reptile with sabre-tooth teeth and vast quantities of mucus) shoots a stream of slimy-snot-mucus at Kyrander, which the ranger is fortunate enough to dodge.

Miro attempts to sneak up on the Boggard from behind, but the frogman had already spotted the Halfling.  However, the creature's injuries make it too slow to avoid the halfling's attack which strikes severly and deep (thanks in part to Erastil's magic blessing from the previous day), killing the Boggard.

The Slurk moves into melee range and attacks Kyrander, seriously injuring the ranger with it's two great teeth.

Otto fires off a magic missile spell at the Slurk and Miro moves to stab it, in a successful attempt to distract the creature whilst Vaneer  was able to get close enough to heal the injured Kyrander.

The slightly healed Kyrander pushes himself up and swipes at the Slurk, dealing the killing blow to the large creature.

 

After a quick rest, a bout of healing for Kyrander and a spot of self-congratulations, the group explore the small section of ruins and uncover a small nest of ill-gotten gains and shiny gems which they 'claim'.  They then gather themselves and their gear together before heading further east.

 

It is mid-afternoon, as the party of explorers/adventurers travel through the forest when Kyrander notices large distinct animal tracks.  On closer inspection, both he and Natalia confirm that the tracks are of a large boar.  Remembering that they had a mission to track down and end a mean, cunning veteran boar named Tuskgutter who had killed many a huntsman, the group cautiously follow the tracks.  As the afternoon nears its end the team find that the trails splits off into two different directions and so Natalia and Bob, her Badger, follow one track, whilst Kyrander, Otto, Miro and Vaneer follow the other. 

This eventually leads to a clearing, in which there is a large fallen pine tree and a slightly larger-than-average boar beside it, enjoying a couple of common white-frilled truffles.

Hoping to get the drop on the boar Vaneer shoots from his bow, but misses his target and instead hits the fallen tree, startling the target.  In synchronisation, Miro fires an arrow and manages to hit the boar just as Otto casts another sleep spell, unfortunately the stoic boar managed to resist the enchantment and with it's single injury retreats to a den dug under the fallen tree.

With the boar now out of sight, both Vaneer and Kyrander move closer to the tree so as to get a line of sight on the boar and shoot it. 

Vaneer misses yet again, blaming his lack of skill on sub-standard physical training due to his intensive clerical duties that he had previously carried out back in Restov.  Meanwhile Kyrander is in his element, as the ranger scores a bulls-eye on the hiding beast, dealing a quick, clean kill with an arrow.

 

As the death squeal of the boar echoes out of the den, Miro, who stands at the rear of the attack alongside Otto, drops his guard for less than a second.  This is the moment that a larger, meaner, more cunning boar has been waiting for.  

The scar-adorned boar charges out of hiding from nearby foliage and mows into the Halfling.  Completely impaled upon the boar's tusks, the rogue takes near fatal levels of damage and is then thrown into a tree, unconscious and near death.

 

Tuskgutter shows himself to be a far more deadly opponent than the group had anticipated, with uncanny levels of intelligence, the boar made sure to use another of his kind as a distraction so that he could move behind the group and take out those utilising ranged attacks.  An effective technique, as the surprised group were about to find out!

 

The new fight begins with a standoff between Otto and Tuskgutter....

Otto makes the first move with a Sleep spell, but the aged and battle-ready boar shakes the spell off without effort - Otto lets out a curse; the spell seems very capable at taking out bandits but hasn't served him very well over the last few days against the various denizens of the forest.

Vaneer wastes no time and casts a Stabilise spell in the hopes that it isn't too late to save Miro's life, Kyrander judges the situation and surprises everyone by making a beeline for the nearest tree and climbs it hurriedly!
 

Being smarter than the average boar (and some humans), Tuskgutter ignores Otto and charges at the party's cleric, hitting Vaneer square-on and knocking him into unconsciousness.  Otto takes advantage of the boar's diverted attention by rushing past him to more substantial cover, whilst firing off a Magic Missile. 

Otto then begins a deadly dance with Tuskgutter as he moves around the large tree that Kyrander has climbed up, firing off several Magic Missiles, as the boar gets to make the occasional attack with his dangerous tusks constantly catching the Sorcerer in his side as they circle round nearby foliage and cover.  

Up in the tree Kyrander has been able to stabilise his position and finally starts firing arrow after arrow at Tuskgutter, with various degrees of luck.  As Otto begins to weaken and near his end, Kryander desperately pulls out several magical arrows which contain a flaming ability and starts to use these to much greater effect - his aim and damage output notably increase as he scores hit after hit on the stoic beast below.

Firing off another Magic Missile at the boar, Otto is unable to move out the way in time as Tuskgutter deals a fatal blow to the spellcaster, knocking him to the forest floor and very close to death's domain.  The boar then looks up at the last remaining party member up in the tree, lets out a snort and prepares to charge the tree!  Evaluating the situation, the ranger surmises that this boar is fully capable of felling the tree in one-to-two hits and in his sudden panic misses the boar with his next arrow.  However, as the boar rushes in, Kyrander fires off another flaming arrow and strikes the boar in a critical spot, enflaming the creature and finally killing it.

Although the ranger would prefer to stay in the tree for a minute or two to ensure that the boar is actually dead, his fallen comrades don't have that much time left in them and so Kyrander dismounts from the tree and hurriedly pours a cure potion down the cleric's throat, reviving him, before quickly ushering Vaneer to let out a surge of healing over all of the team which even manages to pull Otto back from the very edge of life-death.  

The team come together and Vaneer exhausts all of his healing magic in order to heal the group back up to full health.  They check and ensure that both boars are dead, take Tuskgutter's head as proof of their deed and meet up with Natalia and Bob before returning to harvest boar meat for their supplies.  

Kyrander and Natalia work together to find a safe and secure location to make camp early that evening and rest up.

The whole group had come very close to death at the tusks of a 'natural' creature, which showed them just how unpredictable and deadly the land that they were exploring could be!