The Cloakwood Journey and a Shadow Druid Alliance

We continued to march further on into Cloakwood.  The spider hive map was a little tricky, but I felt alright about it by the end.  I had Montaron lead, switching between hiding and detecting traps (after the first one almost causes death and disaster...luckily they were only huge spiders).  When he saw a group of spiders or ettercaps, he'd retreat and I'd have Imoen cast Fireball (or Xzar do something similar) while they were out of sight range.  They Monty comes and gets in a nice backstab, then it's have-at-'em with the tanks.  I know: a simplistic strategy, but it worked.

The hive/lair went generally smoothly, as well.  Another fireball maybe (we have a Wand of Fire now), raise some undead, cast Horror and the battle was over.  Ajantis is using Spider's Bane now.

Moved on to the next map.  We got waylaid by wyverns on the way there.  Not pleasant, at all.  What pained me was the poison-tipped barbs on their tails (or whatever).  The PC Idaen has Slow Poison as a skill, and I have him keep it memorized, too.  I also entered Cloakwood with each tank having two antidotes in their quickslot.  By the time I emerged from the spider map, I think only Idaen had an antidote left.  After we took care of these wyverns, there weren't any.  Oh, great...and I still haven't made it to the wyvern map yet (shhh...I don't know this yet...no metagaming!).

So I really don't know what these Shadow Druids are thinking.  At first, I try to be sly and intercept a message to the Iron Throne (I may be a ranger, but I don't automatically trust that a "protector of the forest"--might have him misquoted--is definitely an enemy of the Iron Throne).  This causes dude to attack my party, so he had to be put to rest.  I meet one or two more, but this time I finally understand they ARE enemies of the Throne, and I'm there to help.  Even met Faldorn, but just like Branwen from a week or two ago, she wouldn't really fit in the group (or would she...?  Stay tuned).

Next is Amarande.  Lecturing me about something or other nature.  As I said, I'm half-ranger, but I don't consider my character a violent environmentalist like this Archdruid here.  With my other half as a cleric, it's quite clear to me (being what I've coined a "superpriest") that nature, divinity, animals and humans, the deities, life, wisdom, the universe...it's all the same thing.  This guy is just acting like a squirrel in a tree...so you know what buddy? "Get out of my way."  Well, of course that was the nudge that pushed him off the deep end, and he forced us to kill him too.

Kept moving.  No return to civilization yet.  Montaron is running out of arrows, but that will probably work itself out at some point.  Got to the wyvern map and cleared out the nest.  Again, with two level 6 mages now, I have enough firepower to be formidable when I need to be...I usually just try not to use up all my spells in one encounter.

About to move on to the mines, the last area...when I start (uh-oh) thinking about the party.  Mostly about how I really don't like Kagain.  Sure he's a great fighter, a high master in axes, regenerates HP, and I should probably even keep him over Ajantis...but I just don't like him.  I figured I'd be stuck with him until I find another fighter...but do I even really need another fighter?  I was just talking about how magic users are making battles much easier these days...possibly add another caster (someone to complement Idaen...so he could tank more), and lose Kagain.  Hmm...it's too tempting an idea to not do it.

So I travel a ways back and invite Faldorn to the group, leaving Kagain in Cloakwood for a while.  He's sticking around, so I guess he's just going to live in the woods now, but who am I to judge?

16 Wis is not bad.  She has terrible fighting stats, but she's never going to really be fighting.  I don't even have a sling she could use as of right now.  Maybe I'm torn on this, I don't know.  I think we'll head into the mines and see what happens...it might turn out I like her less than Kagain, but at least the dwarf will be waiting there to re-invite

I head even closer to the mines.  After finishing up some scouting, I head right into the island encampment.  Drasus and his gang are waiting for us...but they get absolutely destroyed.  Chant and Protection from Evil, another Imoen fireball, some Wand of Fear action, Montaron with a sick backstab on one of the mages to kill him instantly, Faldorn contributing a Lightning, and then some good old fashion sling, bows, swords, and flails.  Overkill maybe, but I'm planning to rest up and re-memorize before we go in.  We barely lost any health, and now we're ready to camp out for the rest of the night, and then see what's lying beneath our feet.

Party:

Idaen, lvl 6 cleric/lvl 6 ranger

Ajantis, lvl 6 paladin

Montaron, lvl 5 fighter/lvl 6 thief

Imoen, lvl 6 thief>lvl 6 mage

Faldorn, lvl 5 druid

Xzar, lvl 6 necromancer