Evren and the others arrived at the room with the broken table and chair and began pulling the wagon down the passageway towards the exit. The day was bright and sunny, it was warm, but with a cool breeze. The snow had melted leaving the ground dry, but soggy in some areas. They worked their way down through town and eventually to the base of the hill where the undead are. Evren was following the others, occasionally joining their conversation as they went.
"How far away is the ent from here?" called out Fletcher.
"It took me two days to get from the ent to here with a full wagon. If I consider there's more of us, and a lighter load, then we should probably get there tomorrow afternoon." Evren replied.
"Yay! More camping!" Harley cheered.
Evren and the others laughed at her excitement. "Keep your eyes open though. This forest is filled with monsters."
The party travelled on through the day and set up camp for the night, having only come across a pack of wolves that were driven off and two parties of orcs. The camp was set up in a dry spot, a short distance from the road, and a rotation for night watch was established. Evren volunteered as the middle watch so others could have an uninterrupted sleep.
In the morning a group of goblins had arrived to harass them and were scared off with a few 'fire balls.' The reached the ent, just as Evren had predicted, on the afternoon of the following day. The ent noticed them but did nothing further as they had stopped some distance away and were preparing to fight. Everyone but Harley had an axe, although she wanted to use one, it was a little too heavy and unwieldy for her to use, so she decided to stay in the back and support with magic.
As the party approached, the ent uprooted itself and began to slowly approach them. "I have no clue how this thing fights but watch out for branches and maybe roots. I can't see it reaching out to bite someone, but I could very well be wrong, so don't take the chance. Take out the branches first, then we …"
Everyone stopped to look at Evren. He shrugged and said, "How do you kill a tree?"
The others looked at themselves for a while without saying anything.
"Well, let's just cut the limbs and roots off and see if that works." Evren said.
Twenty minutes later, a slightly battered party were collecting up the branches they had chopped off with the roots in a pile. The main trunk of the ent was lying on the ground, it was still alive and was following the others with its eyes.
"That thing's really creeping me out Evren. Aren't you going to do something about it?" Fletcher asked.
Evren shrugged and reached into his backpack to pull out a towel and laid it over the ent's face. "Is that better?"
Fletcher shook his head, "No, now it's worse."
Evren straddled the trunk above the eyes of the ent and took the axe in both hands. He lifted it up behind his head and using all the strength he could muster; he swung the axe down onto the face of the ent. He pried the axe out, the towel coming with it, and the ent appeared to be dead.
Evren looked to Fletcher, "You ok now?"
Fletcher nodded. Evren looked around at the others and said, "Well, this thing's got to get on the wagon now. Harley and Isobel, you two cast levitate on it, and I'll use my ability. Walter, you get the bottom, and Fletcher you get the top. I'll lift the middle." Everyone nodded and got into position. "You two cast on two, and we'll lift on three."
"Ok Mr. Evren!" Harley replied, Isobel only nodding.
"One…"
"Two…" The girls casted 'levitate' and Evren used his ability.
"Three!" The men lifted their portion of the trunk of the ent, getting it off the ground to their shoulders. The carried it, feet forward to the wagon, which Evren had blocked off all the wheels to. They got the bottom of the trunk onto the wagon and began pushing it onto the wagon, as Walter came around to the back to help. When Evren reached the wagon, he climbed on top of the wagon and towards the base of the trunk, lifted it helping the other two get it onto the now creaking wagon.
They then collected up the branches and roots of the ent, making sure to get everything on the wagon. When they finished, they took a break for a few minutes, and Isobel went out to scout around. A few minutes later, Isobel came running back to the camp. In a calm voice, she said, "Evren, I found something big heading this way."
Evren looked at her and asked, "What do you think it is?"
Isobel looked to the others and then back to Evren, "I think it's an ogre? It's big and fat and looks as smart as Fletcher."
"HEY!" Fletcher yelled.
Evren looked to Fletcher and back to Isobel, "That's a pretty dumb looking ogre."
"HEEEEYYY!!!" Fletcher yelled again.
"How far out is it?" Evren asked.
"About a hundred meters up the road." She replied.
Evren turned to Fletcher, "I killed one before it reached me with a bow." He gave a look that said, 'Can you do better?'
Fletcher clicked his tongue and grabbed his bow, heading towards the ogre until it came into view. When he saw the ogre, he was a bit shocked by the size of it, but he set an arrow on the bow, chanted 'discharge' and fired the arrow. He drew another arrow before the first hit the target, and as soon as it hit the target, he released the spell casting 'discharge' on the new arrow. He let it fly, then started using magic arrows on the stunned ogre.
It looked around to the source of its pain and started heading towards Fletcher. Fletcher released the second 'discharge' causing the ogre to scream. He drew out another arrow cast 'charge' on it and aimed it at the ogre's right foot, striking right at the ankle of the ogre. The ogre reached down to pull the painful arrow out and could only scratch at it because its stomach prevented it from fully reaching the arrow.
A shock was heard, and the ogre dropped to one knee. All the while being pelted with magical arrows. The ogre yelled and smashed its fists down on to the ground, causing mud and dirt to be sent flying. While the ogre was screaming, an arrow flew into his mouth and exited out the back of its skull causing it to collapse on the spot.
Evren nodded, "Good job." And handed his dagger to Fletcher.
Fletcher looked at the dagger and asked, "What's this for?"
"Well, when you go retrieve your arrows, you'll want to cut the core out. It's in a sac just below the heart." Evren replied.
Fletcher's eyes went from the dagger to Evren to the ogre then back to Evren. "I've got to cut it open?"
"Yep, you killed it, you get the core." Evren nodded. "Evren looked at Fletcher. Did you want me to get it?"
Fletcher looked down at the dagger and sighed, "No, I'll get it." He turned towards the ogre and approached it
As he walked away Isobel asked, "Would I have to do that too?"
Evren nodded, "Killing in the dungeon is like playing a dangerous game. You win, you get the prize. Out here you have to realize that you're taking a life. Sometimes a little blood on your hand keeps you're head out of the clouds."
"Was Fletcher's head in the clouds?" Isobel asked.
"Nah, just didn't want to get it myself." Evren said with a straight face.
He heard Isobel try to keep her laughter in as he threw the last of the ent onto the wagon. When Fletcher came back, he tossed him a towel, the cleaned his dagger and the mana core off of blood, putting them away when they were cleaned.
Evren grabbed the pull poles and began pulling the wagon. Well, he tried to, he'd forgotten to unblock the wheels. As he was getting the rocks out of the way, Isobel was laughing hard. Shaking his head while smiling, Evren pulled the wagon back down the road they had come. It was still a few hours until sunset and he wanted to get as close as he could.
Along the way, he spoke with Fletcher. That was some good work with the use of those spells. You crippled the staggered it twice then crippled it while you continued to shoot arrows at it. Eventually you killed it. It was cleaner than my kill. I didn't have those spells back then, so I only had arrows to use.
"You were also on the town wall." Fletcher added.
Evren looked at Fletcher, "I told you this story already?"
Fletcher gave a wry smile and nodded.
As they were about to set up camp, a large group of goblins attacked them. They weren't shaken by the 'fire ball' spell, so the group had to work together to kill all the goblins. A few people had been hit by rocks and a couple had been stabbed by the spears. When they finished Evren and Harley healed up the wounds and they set up camp after getting the stones from the goblins and burying them in a hole they had dug.
They camped for the night and set out early in the morning. Along the way back to the fortress, they came across two groups of orcs and another ogre. Evren coaxed Walter into fighting the ogre solo, as he had mentioned that he had killed one solo with a sword as well. Walter did well against the ogre and killed it without getting any bones broken. They arrived at the fortress with plenty of light left to get up the hill and through the teleport glyph before sun set.
They got up to town and let Gallus know that they had gotten the wood for him. Gallus was thrilled and spoke long into the night to nobody in particular about what he would be able to make with the wood. Evren took enough wood to make two dozen adamantium arrows with pegasus feathers. He kept half of the arrows in his quiver, and the other half were kept in his backpack.