Soon, after my rest a Ranger had made a call for help, calling all available arms, me and my group in response began to fill boats. Not enough people could fit on the one boat, so we split up into three groups. Eventually we all were there and reported to the ranger calling out. The ranger appeared to be either nervous or scared, from some of the sightings. My question that I was curious was where the sighting were from, curious to know if it was from the same location that my map could lead to, but it was in the trails. I was a bit relieved, but at the same time disappointed. We began to follow the trails, not sure what we were walking into, when a hoard, of maybe 30 or so crows attacked us, only they looked...different... They were a shiny silvery color, almost like a shadow.
We continued down the trail a bit further when beasts that looked like a shadow, but were physical began to attack us. We held up pretty well, considering how many of us there were. But that was no reason to fight lightly, more and more flooding in until there was a pause, for a split moment, I believed that was it, but I was wrong. We found the area they had been coming from. It was a water way, through the trees, into a cave. We entered the cave, slowly and cautiously, but it was pitch black, we couldn't see. Not because the cave was dark because there was these orbs causing the darkness...Kinda like the reverse of the light orbs that spellcasters call upon...
As we fought off the creatures from within the cave we had taken a break, where no other creature attacked us, for we had finished the ones in the cave. While everyone was taking a breather, I began to look around. There were these weird looking, Queer Mushrooms, but they were too big of size for me to take a sample. I, instead observed and saw what reactions occured when I bothered it, nothing really happened, but it was quite interesting. I wish I could have grabbed a sample, especially on the way out. When we all gathered, it was around some kind of stone, the arcanists recognized it as a blood ritual, to open up a portal to another realm. Many people agreed upon the idea to spill Laura's blood upon it, to the point that it actually did, but with her consant. It kept draining her, her life, but while this was happening a green, natury kind of portal vibe began to go off... I wasnt sure what was happening, but since it was nature, I made the decision to stand nearby the people of the woods just in case...
The portal kept reacting, to the point it finally opened. I couldn't see what was through, but after time we all finally walked through it, unaware what may wait upon the other side. Well, we walked through and the most predictable thing occured... Hoards of different types of these shadow creatures attacked us. Hoards of them came, we were getting badly hurt, some of us actually fell unconsious from the battle, but we still prevailed... We stood up and fought, almost fighting and when we had breaks, we tended to the wounded. Breaks surely didn't last long from that area, it was mostly a constant of attacked, until we met their leader.
The leader was another druid, one that was open to the shadows, hence why he had access to this shadow plane. Some went to attack, but were forced back, when the druid shifted. It shifted into the shape of a dragon, one that took much work to kill, but still...It was quite exhilarating. During the fight the dragon druid summoned some difficult things, like elder fire and rock elementals, but we still got through them. And eventually killed him, but with some of our own down. We revived them curious to know if the druid have had anything of interest upon him, but he did not.
While they were searching him, I began to study the shadow plane a bit more, without being attacked. I looked at the different mushrooms, plants, flowers, sap, bark. They all were simular to the ones on my plane, but they were built just a bit different, as if they were completly the opposite. I was going to take some samples to study, perhaps even make concoctions or elixirs of shadow, like what the animals looked like, but Butterfly said to not do so. I respected her wishes, first because she is a druid of nature and may understand it more better than I, but also because it probably would have caused some issues. After that we left, a bit beatup, I departed from the group, before they reported to the ranger, so I do not know what happened then.
Grandmaster Sontr'e, The Monk's Journal