Of killer trees and deadly daggers

 "What are we waiting for, there's bound to be treasure down there!"

Bastonn and Krisanna set to clearing the boards that were blocking the entrance when a strange twisted tree near the opening sprang into life. The tree lashed out with two branches at Bastonn, trying to pick him up but he managed to evade. It then jumped and crashed back to earth sending shockwaves at everyone else but Krisanna who jumped at the right moment. She threw a dagger but to her horror it went wide, hitting Aodhan by mistake nearly killing him.

Orla and Bastonn made solid hits against the arboreal monster but it retaliated with a series of rapid punches at Makander. Krisanna backstabbed but failed to do any substantial damage. Bastonn managed to drag Aodhan back from the brink of death, before being severely pummelled and finally Orla managed to finish the tree off with one final arrow.

After a rest, we set off down the stairs again and Krisanna spotted that there were shards of pottery scattered on the stairs as a makeshift alarm. She cleared them and headed on down into the darkness. We rounded the corner to find three orcs waiting to ambush us. One was so eager to attack Krisanna he dropped his scimitar. The rest quickly fell to a combination of arrows and sword blows.

There were three doors to choose from and Krisanna was convinced that one with a grinning face was the best route to any treasure. The door opened on to a cell block with barred cells. One contained a skeleton with 27 scratches on the wall. There was no obvious treasure so Krisanna kicked a rotten wooden bench in disappointment. However, a closer search of the walls revealed a loose stone concealing an oilskin package which contained a solid gold ring with the inscription "Namara Always". Krisanna threw it up into the air and caught it on her finger. It didn’t make her vanish though.

We backtracked and followed the path through the scowling door to the west, along a corridor that turned to the south.

We spotted a figure in the distance that started shooting arrows at us - it was the woodsman, his eyes still glazed. We all tried various attempts to disarm the enchanted man without hurting him. Makander knocked his bow from his hand, then Bastonn bonked him on the head knocking him out. We’d noticed another figure that had retreated to the next room, so followed only to find a door labelled with different symbols and the instruction to speak the missing one. Krisanna said confidently said "Lead" and was rewarded with a lightning bolt for her trouble.

Before we could try again we were ambushed by several orcs and an ogre, who was quickly dispatched by Orla's twin arrows. Krisanna also stabbed an orc so hard her dagger stuck in him. The fight didn’t last much longer after that.

There was some more head scratching and translation from Aodhan before we finally realised the missing clue was quicksilver. However, by this stage we were all in a sorry state so retreated to the cells to try and get some rest before continuing.