Session Two
The party seeks out an Inn to rest for the night. On the way, a town crier comes through ringing a bell and shouting "Storm coming!". Indeed sky was pitch black in the west so shelter for the party has become essential. Choosing the first Inn they found, the Redleaf Inn, the entered and made arrangements for rooms. The Inn had no other apparent guests, so the crew took supper of stew, wine or ale and relaxed for a bit. Before nodding off for the night, they hopped down the street to the Toughskin Armory, update Tallin of their findings. They met Garth Shinkar, Tallin's father. He seemed bemused with Tallin's new friends but allowed Tallin to speak with them even though it was after hours. Tallin was a bit distraught at hearing his ring had been sold and was likely outside of city limits but the party assured him they would be on the trail first thing in the morning. On the way back to the Inn, they came across Marney again. She confronted the party about a note she found on Gep, which had clued Gep in about Tallin's ring effectively baiting the troublemaker to cause said trouble. Marney thought the party put them up to it for entertainment. At this point the party admitted they too had received notes. This bothered Marney greatly. She made polite apologies and said she would look into the matter.
During the night, the storm blew through with much thunder and even more rain. In the morning, the party headed to the Queen's Highway gate. After a few minutes, a military wagon carrying supplies came through. With some persuasion and well timed winking by Ivy and Marabi, the soldier allowed the party to hop in back for ride out the first guard post. Going was slowed slightly by the muddy road, but still much faster than walking through mud. They reached the guard post about mid-morning. After helping unload the food and supplies from the wagon, the guard informed them that Hilgesta had indeed camped here for the night but headed out down the trail to Fairbane Forest at dawn. The party wasted no time and struck out towards Fairbane.
After about 4 hours, they came to a turn in the road. There they spotted an overturned wagon and a red cloaked figure crawling towards it. They approached cautiously, noticing the figure to be a Dwarven female obviously in pain. They also noticed another red cloaked figure under the wagon but too far away and hidden to be identified. As they moved towards the injured woman, she heard them and turned. Reaching up and moaning she seemed to be saying "he.. he" Help? The party moved in and the woman held up her hands and said "Heat." Before they could think a massive fan of flames burst across them. Ivy fell, Phred, Zoj managed to duck and take less damage, while Marabi and Rico blinked just out of range. The dwarf women's features began to melt or shimmer and it became apparent this dwarf was not or rather was a goblin in magical disguise.
To make matters worse, four goblin javelineers sprang up from the grass fields and attacked. Rico and Marabi leaped into action managing to take out the trickster goblin before he could get off another spell. As they did, a bird popped out of his cloak and began flying away. Phred zapped it with a missile but it still managed to fly away minus a few feathers. The battled continued, Rico managed to drop a couple of the javelin throwers who had pulled out morning stars. The others looked like their confidence was shaking, but continued to attack when prompted by a couple of hobgoblin fighters who stepped out from behind the wagon. SMACK BANG HEAL WOOSH and the remaining goblins and hobgoblin fighters were taken out. The party then found the real Hilgesta, she was unconscious under the wagon.
At first she thought they were the ambushers, and readied a potion quickly, but the party made it plain that they were there to help. Grateful and after hearing their story, Hilgesta offered to return the ring to them but after a quick search through her wagon she found it was missing. Hilgesta also found much of her inventory missing as well. Upset but quick begin again, she offered several items to the party, a few masterwork weapons, some vials of acid and a few healing potions, if they would escort her back to the guard house. She planned to enlist their help in getting back to town so she could begin rebuilding her merchant trade. Meanwhile, she performed a minor divination with an unusual jewel bag, giving the party the general direction to head to find the ring. Coincidentally, it was the same direction that the bird had flown towards during the battle.
The party also managed to keep one prisoner from the battle, one of the hobgoblins named Caazzk. They attempted to force the Caazzk to lead them to his base camp. Caazzk was unshaken even by the many threats on his life. He demanded payment if he was going to help. The party agreed, figuring they would pay him with the money they had taken from him and likely get it back anyway.
They reached the guardhouse by nightfall and made camp. In the morning, they said farewell to Hilgesta and made their way back towards Fairbane. Caazzk didn't offer much help and kept quiet. On route, they heard something moving about in the grass. Zoj threatened Caazzk, telling him to tell his buddies to come out in the open, but that was made moot when dirty Krenshar leaped into view with a horrifying screech! As it did so, the skin of its head pulled back revealing the creatures muscle and skull. The shocking sight caused Marabi to flee and magically forced Ivy to ride away on her horse at top speed. The remainder of the group took up the battle and made quick work of the beast and regrouped.
By nightfall, the party reached the entrance of Fairbane Forest. Camping just off the road, their night's sleep was disturbed by a strange bloopering sound. All awaked to investigate, out from the forest came a quivering mass of molten flesh, known to many as a Lemur, a mindless devil. The Lemur made a beeline towards Zoj and attacked but he managed to dodge the attacks. Everyone focused on the creature and attacked but they found many of their attempts to become absorbed. The creature while unintelligent and weakish attack happened to have a number of magical defenses. After some experimental attacks, they managed to simply beat the thing into a useless but much safer pulp. The one wrinkle was Caazzk took the attack as an opportunity to escape. He managed to run a good ways but the manacles slowed him down and Zoj caught up to him. Caazzk refused to submit and after a fight Caazzk was soon no more.
In the morning, the party continued along the edge of the forest. After a couple of hours, they came across an encampment guarded by at least one hobgoblin. Rash action ruled this battle as they took aim with ranged weapons and attacked. The hobgoblin guard was hurt but survived to duck away and run back to the camp to warn the others. The party rushed forward through a flurry of coming bolts. In the camp, they found a few hobgoblins and many goblins. Aside from the hobgoblins, they seemed mostly untrained and charged in with daggers and attitude only. The first hobgoblin guard abandoned his crossbow and managed to drop Zoj with a mighty blow. Ivy took him out with a missile before he laid sword to anyone else, while the others dispatched the goblins without too much trouble. The only difficulties were with the final hobgoblin and another goblin who had been shooting from hiding in the forest. They cut deeply into Marabi but fell soon after.
The party found a veritable treasure trove including a silver-plated bejeweled longsword, a mighty masterwork shortbow, some magical plate mail, a wand, scroll, potion and a nice cache of 3300 gold among other items. They determined that some of this stuff might belong to Hilgesta but there was no way to tell which items were which until they met with her again. Also inside the main tent they found a bird cage with a ragged looking pigeon. On it's leg was tied a tiny box and inside was a ring fitting the description given to them by Tallin.
They traveled back to Kaledor without incident. However, at the gates while waiting in line to get into the city, they saw a guard chase off a cloaked figure who was yelling for help. The cloak was pulled to reveal a kobold! The party approached and questioned the little fellow. It turned out its name was Akara and he was seeking help to save his people. After some very bemused questioning, the party discovered Akara's people were not a tribe of kobolds, but were a company of dwarves who work a mine six suns away in the Vision Peaks. They had apparently been enslaved by lizards and a mean blue man with 'things'. This being at the very least interesting, the party told the kobold to wait for them outside and tonight they would come find him and discuss how they might help. Akara excitedly agreed but said he would not wait long. His people were in trouble now and need his help quickly.
The party then entered the city and returned the ring to Tallin while he was visiting Eslbeth at Natural Things Alcehmy shop. Tallin, very happy, promised to keep the ring in a save place till his wedding. He also offered to outfit each member of the party with an armor piece of their choice. The party, already satisfied with their gear, chose to take a raincheck on the favor.
- End of Session Two -
Session One
Our adventure begins on May 7th, 200 years after the Great Orc Invasion in the city of Kaledor. Kaledor functions as an independent state and center of trade about mid way between the Kingdom of Eladaire to the north and the Etherean Empire to the south. Kaledor is best known for the Carnival of Lights, a celebration of the coming of Summer, which begins on May 21st.
The story begins in a small tavern named The Lurking Ripple. The adventurers have been drawn here by mysterious means, as each received an intriguing note that suggested they visit the tavern.
Our adventurers:
Zoj (MikeP) - a tiefling rogue that fancy's himself a gambler.
Rico (ChrisM) - a wood elf fighter who wields a massive war maul in battle.
Phred Jonz (MikeN) - a tiefling enchanter with a sharp dagger and free spirit.
Marabi (DaveD) - a female elf fighter who appears to be a fan dancer.
Ivy (StephS) - a female Aasimar wizard who makes hyperactive seem laid-back.In the tavern, they meet Tallin Shinkar, a clumsy young lad with a problem. Engaged to be married to Elsbeth, an apprentice alchemist, he was challenged by her father to stay in town and not get into any fights for a month. The challenge was great as Tallin was known for his tendency to fight often, but his love being greater Tallin accepted and has kept the promise for two weeks so far. Tallin spent his life savings on a wedding ring for Elsbeth. Unfortunately, a few days ago he was cornered by a local street punk named Gep and forced to hand over the ring. Tallin could not fight for it without breaking his promise but he believes he cannot marry her without the ring. Tallin received a note stating that someone would help him if he came to the tavern this night.
The party questions Tallin who was very upset. Tallin thought the party wrote the note. The party was baffled, questioned the tavern owner Harry OShearyn and a local dwarf patron named Murph. Neither knew anything about the notes but Murph thought it was pretty funny and kept drinking. Tallin offered his services as an armorsmith (apprentice to his father Garth) and the party agreed to join and seek out the ring.
As they left the tavern, they came across Marney Lis'Star the city's sheriff. She informed the party of the city's more unusual restrictions, such as no unlicensed use of magic within city limits. She also mentioned a standing offer of 25g for information on nearby bandit activities.
The party made their way to the river docks area, where after a bit of strolling came across Gep Tinkana, who met them with insults obviously trying to pick a fight. He seemed overly confident and after some words his cronies in the alley themselves known. Unfortunately, the party was not your average tourist. Taking nothing more than a quick maneuver from Zoj and Rico brandishing his war maul, Gep turned from tough punk to coward in an instant. Marney strolled in shortly after. Although a bit annoyed that the party was already mixed up in trouble, she commended them for resolving the incident without bloodshed. Gep, when questions, eventually admitted he took the ring and sold it at Delgato's Pawnshop.
The party made a beeline to Delgato's. Outside, they noticed a sign showing a depiction of a large gray wolf and words that read 500 gold reward for the head of Greytooth. Inquire within. Inside, they met Slyth Delgato the shop owner. Slyth, being a twitchy weasely sort didn't take much of a liking to the party. Though polite enough at first when he thought they were interested in purchasing rings, he grew more and more irritated as they questioned him about the missing ring. He admitted to buying the ring for twice the price that Gep had mentioned but had already sold it to a travelling merchant named Hilgesta. He questioned about Greytooth, he assumed they were teasing him, but then made it plain he would pay for Greytooth’s head. According to Slyth, Greytooth is a large gray wolf that attacked his family many years ago in the Fairbane Forest.
The party headed back to the tavern to tell Tallin when they learned so far. There they learned that Slyth's stories about Greytooth are the stuff of legend and ridicule as no one has ever found any evidence of this wolf aside from Slyth. They also learned that Hilgesta Morningstar, the merchant who bought the ring, had headed out of town up the Queen's Highway.
After some discussion, the party decided to wait till morning and catch ride out of town instead of trying to walk through the night.
- End of Session One -