Chapter 12: The Joy of Burning Hands
The Loud Boys in the Lost Mine of Phandelver, a D&D report
Kila wasted no time. The tall fighter hoisted the groaning, bloody wizard over his shoulders and strode out of the ruins of the house, with Uayak waving his short swords threateningly at the animated branches swiping at them with vicious, splintery talons. The path in front of the house led south, where they had come from, and north into the deserted town. There was a house right in front of them, with an intact wooden door. Kila hesitated, looking at the house, then turned north.
The path led past several more crumbling cottages before it threaded through a few fields and disappeared into dense forest. They stopped and looked back to the main town.
“I don’t think they followed us,” said Uayak, panting, his swords steadily pointing back down the path.
“Jake is a lot heavier than he looks,” grunted Kila, shifting the wizard’s weight on his shoulders. Jake just groaned, and dribbled more blood.
“Oh, right, I’ve got it here somewhere.” Uayak sheathed his swords, patted his various pockets and pouches and pulled out a little bottle, glinting with green fluid. “Put him down.”
The healing potion seemed to stop the bleeding and bring a bit of colour back to the elf’s admittedly usually pale face, and in a few seconds he was sitting up. “Where did those blighted twigs go? I want to smash them.”
“Jake, we had to run away,” said Uayak, putting the empty bottle back in one of his numerous pouches. The halfling shuffled them around so that they sat neatly. “You almost died back there.”
“You’ve got more of those potions, right?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to waste them. Let’s try and get some rest and then we’ll go back.”
The three adventurers surveyed their surroundings. Only the foundations and a few collapsed walls remained of the cottages to their south. Young trees grew through what had once been flagstone floor, and bushes huddled in the corners, perfect hiding spots for more twig blights. The large building to the north was marked by a weathered signboard with a faded image of a workhorse holding a flagon of ale, and still had its roof, unlike the tiny cottage to their west, which also had a tree shadowing most of it.
“I don’t think we should go in any buildings with trees,” said Jake. “There might be more of those things.”
Uayak crept up to the most intact building and peered through the wooden shutters that shielded the closest window.
“What can you see?” said Jake, looking back down the road for more twig blights. Kila was looking east, towards the main part of the town.
“There’s a lot of, I think barrels, and a bench- oh, that must be a kitchen, and oh no-”
Uayak scrambled away from the window with a finger to his lips. “Zombies!” he hissed.
Kila didn’t seem to notice. “You know, that tower didn’t used to look like that.”
Jake looked between the two of them. “Ok, Kila, you didn’t say you’ve been here before, but I think we have more urgent things to deal with- What do you mean, zombies?”
The halfling had drawn his swords again.
“I mean, zombies. You know, animated dead men. They stirred when I spoke, but I don’t think they woke.”
Jake was nodding. “I think there’s a spell I can learn to animate dead.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t help us with these zombies right now,” said Uayak patiently. “I think we need to clear out one of these more defensible buildings and have a rest. I don’t think we can take zombies right now.”
Jake pointed at the small cottage under the tree. “If I cast a fire spell, I can probably burn any twig blights in there. Wood type is weak to fire, right?”
They all looked at the sky, as if waiting for confirmation from the gods. The sky continued to remain blue and clear.
Jake shrugged. “Anyway, let’s try it.”
With Uayak poised in the shadows beside the open doorway of the tiny cottage, and Kila hovering behind Jake with his sword drawn, Jake began murmuring and weaving his hands in the flowing movements of a basic fire spell. On the last syllable, golden flames coalesced between his palms and shot forward in a cone of burning destruction. Within the building, squeals came from the two twig blights on the other side of the doorway. The wizard kept the flames roaring until the squeals died away and the little plant monsters were mere heaps of ash.
“Anyone else?” said Jake, peering into the shadows.
There was no sound. Uayak pushed past him and grabbed a few pieces of broken furniture still laying inside. “Quick, let’s make a barricade.”
Kila and Uayak finished the makeshift door while Jake sat happily on the ground, snapping his fingers and evoking little flames that gave off tiny wisps of smoke. “Burning hands, oh yeah, go me!”
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They rested. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was sufficient. As they sat around toasting bits of dried meat over the ashes of the twig blights, Kila explained.
“This is my home town,” he said through a mouthful of jerky. “We had to leave when the volcano erupted. But I thought people came back and rebuilt. I didn’t think there would be twig monsters in the fields and zombies in the tavern!”
“You said the tower looks different?” said Uayak, whittling at his nails with a little dagger.
“Yes. The roof looks like it’s gone. I suppose that could have had something to do with the volcano. But… there’s something else not quite right about it…”
There was the sound of chewing for a minute or two.
“I wonder whether that druid Aunty was talking about is here,” said Uayak presently.
“Maybe we need to rescue him!” said Kila.
“Does that mean I can burn more monsters?” said Jake, washing down his meal with gulps of tinny water from a cannister on his belt. “I’m ready to go!”
And indeed, apart from the torn and bloodied robes, the dust and leaves in his hair, and the ashes blackening his face, Jake did look ready to wreak some havoc. The flames were already sparking between his snapping fingers.
“All right,” said Uayak, packing his dagger away. “Zombies or more twig blights first?”
Jake responded by striding out of the doorway to the grove of trees and cottages next to them, burning hands at the ready. The halfling and the human followed behind, but they hardly need have bothered. The wizard was like an elven flamethrower, destroying all the plant matter inside and outside of the cottages. As he left to set the original house they had entered on fire, Uayak stumbled over a loose tile that a tree root had pushed up. The tile flicked over to reveal a little chest of coins, which Uayak swept into a pouch without hesitating. Jake had already destroyed the remainder of the twig blights in the house ahead and was turning to the closed door of the building opposite the ruins where he had been gravely injured.
He snapped his fingers. There was a sizzle, but no flame.
“I think I ran out,” he said.
Kila smiled and broadly shouldered past. “Let me handled it,” said the tall human.
It only took a few kicks for the door to suddenly open. Kila looked puzzled. “But I didn’t kick it that hard-”
Inside, a voice suddenly creaked, “Don’t hurt me!”
They all peered in the doorway. There, a skinny, white-bearded old man had opened the door and was beckoning them in. “Come in,” he quavered, “Quickly, before the monsters hear us!”
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Here is Chapter 13:
You can find Chapter 11 here:
And Chapter 1 is here: