Sundays in Stonehell 18/04/21 Hot House Herb Hunt

Our quest began as a tip off that an eccentric alchemist by the name of Velky the Verdant was in need of some rare and special herbal specimens from Stonehell's Hot House - a point far deeper than we had yet dared to venture.

Any who delve these tunnels should keep an eye out for boffluff bush berries, vampiric dandelions, the octoshrub, the ambulatory tryphidd and the eumyfolk, all of which can fetch a fine price with any alchemist. Beware, however, their unexpected hostility.

Our party consisted of Graden Greenlung, Orthax, Grüngebeard the Tall, Trinius Hemloc and Cruxis and his sidekick Nadir. They were accompanied by old Galfred, a young monk by the name of Cleffort and Skiffle, nephew of our beloved ally, the late Skuttleweed.

It didn't take long for trouble to arise, as hobgoblins were guarding their borders in force, hurling insults at us and begging to be thrashed. To his credit, Grüngebeard, our only goblin-speaker, bit his tongue and didn't give in to their terrible slights and led the party safely through to the southern passage without a scratch. He is to be commended for his uncharacteristic restraint.

We managed to pass all the way through several levels to reach the Hot House, but our journey was not without signs of danger. A semi-permanent campsite seems to have been left in something of a hurry. A goblinoid seemed to be tracking us with a huge dog which we managed to distract with some cleverly-placed meat laden with sleeping herbs. The next sign of danger was a room filled with hobgoblins with their faces removed with surgical precision. We were strong of stomach and powered through to our destination.

The water in the Hot House is deep and stiflingly hot, though we did not encounter troubles from beneath the surface. Confronted with a great metal machine, we followed the green glow of life and found ourselves in a veritable Garden of Eden - or was it a Stygian Sod? With eyes on the octoshrub, Graden threw a sack over the great seed, which was three or so feet in diameter.

Upon being touched, the thing came to life, whipping out with its leafy tendrils and opening its seed pod into the shape of a grotesque maw. It grabbed onto Graden's ankle, but was cut loose with a swift blow from Orthax's blade. The party piled on to the plant, chopping and stabbing it into submission and it went limp with a final strike from Grüngebeard's longsword.

There was no time to celebrate the haul, however, as an adjacent trough filled with slick moss began to stir, forming itself into the twisted form of some kind of vegetable troll which shambled towards us with unstoppable determination. We were lucky that it seemed to despise the touch of the hot water, and we were allowed to scramble our way to the suraface with our prize.

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