10/13/24

Session 4: 

After destroying the Silver golem, the party realized that with both Flossie and Sif out of commision again, they were not going to be able to continue exploring the dungeons under the old Castle in safety. They retreated above ground, and took stock. Deciding that they could alert Greenvale by telling Lady Fridelle about the bugbears, they departed. It took two days to rejoin the Expedition, which was camping at the fork where the Tallow River joined the Westfar. The only incident on the journey was when Dyani went to dispose of the party's luncheon waste in the woods - when she set the bag down for a few minutes to dig a hole to bury the scraps in, the bag vanished. She heard suspicious rustling in the nearby underbrush, and by looking at the tracks left behind, was able to determine that a smallish drake of some sort, probably a spitting felldrake, had snatched the bag to eat the trash. She decided that they could have it, and retreated to the party. They went on their way, and in another day rejoined the Expedition. 

Once there, they spent a half-day telling first Lady Fridelle and then Bard Garrick about the Castle and what they found there. They turned the telescope over to Hrowald, the Expedition's lead wizard. They then replenished their CLW potions, rations, arrows and other mundane supplies. Sif bought a pearl for Identify from Hrowald, and Pithané bought an extra potion. They divided up the other magic items, and Sif spent a day copying scrolls while the rest of the group relaxed. 

That evening, as the PCs relaxed after supper, one of the workmen of the Expedition came running out of the woods - shouting about a "bear-owl" that had attacked his companion. The party were the closest armed folk to the incident so they ran into the woods following his path. This led them to first a single owlbear in a clearing, which Mica shot and critted, then Dyani and Pithane also badly wounded. Sif used her entangle to prevent it from reaching anyone, and in the next round Pithané's magic missile took the creature down. They followed its backtrack, and found a large fallen tree whose roots had created a hollow cavelike area. Within they could see the foot of the Expedition laborer. Pulling at it was another owlbear, and behind were two cubs. They again shot arrows at it, and it charged out, spotting Dyani and swiping hard at her. Mica's arrows, Sif's pyrotechnics, a summoned Scorpion from Pithané and then another magic missile finished off the adult. They dragged the poor Expedition man clear, but he was dead and not revivable. Mica and Dyani finished off the baby owlbears so they would not starve - they were certain it would be impossible to try to tame them while traveling. They then skinned the 'bears and took the feathered hides back to camp, along with their deceased companion. Lady Fridelle assured them that he would be sent back to Greenvale "using one of the monthly teleports". 

The next day they were told by Lady Fridelle they could rest and relax and do as they pleased for a day. They decided to take their boat and go a half-day's travel up the Tallow River. When they had traveled a few hours, they stopped for lunch - and while they were eating, Dyane heard something in the woods. When she went to investigate, she saw that only a few hundred yards from where they were sitting, in a clearing in the forest, a pair of wolves had trapped a trio of hybsil - forest deer/sprite tauric creatures. One of the hybsil was down, and the other two were attempting to defend it with tiny bows. The wolves were clearly winning. Dyane and Mica both shot at the wolves and fairly quickly brought them down. Sif and Flossie rescued the injured hybsil, and they invited the PCs to return with them to their village to meet Muru, their village grandmother.

The hybsil had a charming little village with a great Heart Oak, under which the party dined. Muru thanked them for saving her grandchildren, and let the PCs linger. Dyane explored the Heart Oak, which she recognized as having some sort of connection to the Feyshadow. She coaxed a tressym, a winged cat, down out of the tree and fed it. It curled into her lap and went to sleep. She has her new companion! 

While that was happening, Muru told the party of a threat to her people - the wolves were becoming more and more aggressive and common in the forest. She feared they had some connection to a druid named Voreld - a man who had a strange and unhealthy interest in the Heart Oak. She asked the PCs if they would be interested in investigating Voreld's current activities. A quick message to the Expedition garnered them Lady Fridelle's permission to stay the night, and they agreed to see if they could find out what's going on. 

They tracked Vorreld to his lair and tried to speak with him - he suggested to Sif privately that she leave the party and come talk with him; she refused. He grew angry and ordered his wolves to drive them away. A massive battle ensued, with double entangle spells. Eventually, Voreld was slain and the PCs were able to return to the Hybsil and tell them the danger of their rogue druid was over. The Hybsil were very pleased, and rewarded the party with promises of friendship between the hybsil and the humans of Greenvale in future. The PCs returned to the Expedition.

Several days later and further west, the PCs set out to make a sweep south of the river and then west, where the Expedition would set up camp and wait for their return (they have up to two weeks). During their travels on teh river they had a brief runin with some Heron folk, and took one prisoner. They took him to meet Lady Fridelle, who was able to win a promise from him that his folk would leave future human travelers on the river unbothered.

PCs traveled south, stumbled upon more old ruins. They were attacked by a Wyvern, which they killed, and met some mongrelmen who warned them of "evil goblins with two bigger folk". Seems to be an orc and an ogre. PCs follow the mongrelman's map, and find a ruined watchtower with 5 goblins, whom they slay. There is some sort of "castle" carved into the hillside nearby, and the mongrelmen warned that it was called "wyvern mountain" and that the "queen of dragons" used to rule from there. The party promptly decided that the ogre and the goblins must be trying to somehow awaken the evil queen and must be stopped. 

After avoiding a dangerous trap on the hillside doors, the PCs had a fight with goblins in the entry hall; Mica was nearly killed at the end of the fight when an arrow from nowhere critted him. The rest of the group ran to find a way up to a room beyond an arrow slit in the wall, while Flossie remained behind with Mica to heal him. Dyani led the charge, and they were fortunate to find their way without any trouble. The archer was an orc; he was quite tough, but eventually they killed him and gained a magic sword with a magic crystal for their troubles. 

Dyani, Sif and Pithane explored further down the main tunnel, as they could hear faint goblin voices. They found a large round chamber where five goblins were attempting to raise a statue to their bestial god in place of a smashed statue of Anethisba in her role as the "dragon of winter". They took the goblins by surprise, and were able to kill the shaman leading them immediately. The other four fought hard, but three were killed and the fourth (named Bilk) surrendered. He is now claiming to be a faithful follower of the PCs. With the party low on spells and Mica walking wounded, they've decided it is time to rest and recover before advancing further on their quest to find the ogre, which the goblin named Tenozak. A discussion developed, and was not fully settled, as to whether to hide in the "castle" under the stairs, or to go outside, possibly back to the tower, to rest and recover.

Oops, missed a session or two - they eventually camped outside, recovered, came back inside and began to hunt goblins. They eventually found a chamber with 4 dead goblins, and what they assume was a flesh golem. They saw there was a staff in the chamber as well, but the four dead goblin corpses with tons of blood convinced them to hold off exploring there. Further down the hall, past the room where they picked up their goblin "friend" Bilk, they discovered a room with a huge amount of broken siege equipment, and a hole in the ceiling. There was a cage, and imprisoned in it were baby wyverns. Hovering nearby were the two parent wyverns. Dyane took offence at this blatant cruelty, and was able to approach the wyverns using animal empathy. She freed the babies, and the parents departed with them. They hope this will not mean trouble later!

Continued exploration led to several other rooms, and eventually to Tenozak. When they disturbed him, they ran, and he and his minions followed. This led to a running fight down a long hallway. Tenozak the ogre was unable to get into melee with the PCs until the very end, but his tough warrior goblin minions inflicted a bit of harm. Tenozak himself smashed several summoned creatures. Once Tenozak and 3 of his 4 minions were slain, the PCs found themselves with a second goblin prisoner, named Grig. He and Bilk seem to hate each other, being from different goblin clans. At this point, they decided to rest for the night, and camped in the front hall. 

The next morning, they began to explore again, seeking Tenozak's "HQ". They found maps of the surrounding area, which seemed focused on Tallowsland to the northwest. Possibly the goblins and their new leader were planning a raid in that direction. There was also speculation by the PCs (Micah, mostly, with Dyane in agreement) that goblins and ogres were not intelligent and organized enough to have been the sole motivating power of the group. After searching this area, they backtracked to the golem room. With considerable thought, they were able to get the golem to respond to their presence, and chase them out of the room. He followed them out the front doors, where Dyane used her brand-new entangle spell to restrain him. Micah ran back inside and swiped the moonstaff from the golem chamber, and the others fled back inside, slamming the doors shut as the golem ripped free of the entangle and chased them again. Finally, they figured out that the command phrase to stop the golem from continuing his pursuit was to pledge support of the Queen of Wyvern Mountain.

Once "safely" inside, they continued to explore the last room - the crystal shard room with a moon series drawn on one wall, and a dais with hole. They planted the staff in the hole and followed the directions engraved on the wall, shining the light across the series. Dyane was the only one on the platform as it began to slowly sink. No one else joined her, so she was alone 100' below when a barghest with four goblins in tow attacked her. It lept on the platform, which she was able to trigger to go back up. She was nearly killed by the barghest, but with the aid of Sif's pyrotechnics, and Pithane's magic missile, it was slain. Flossy healed her, and they all descended to the lower level. The goblins were taken out very easily, weakened by starvation as they were. Not long after, exploring the cavernous tunnels, they found the pool room and the oubliettes Skelya had placed there. They found the skeletal remains therein, and they decided to leave Grig behind, in one of the oubliettes, although they were nice enough to leave the top open, and to promise him (and the rather nervous Bilk) that they would come back. They found a cave with double doors that led into a torture chamber, and slammed the door in the face of giant skeletal beetles that roused up after Dyane walked in. Beyond that, they discovered a vastly large cavern with blue moss on the walls. Pithane's weasel scouted ahead around the bend at the far end of the cavern, and came back in great distress, warning of "huge" flying bone creatures (but that they were not flying now). They interpreted this to mean undead wyverns, and wisely retreated. They decided to explore another passage in the cave tunnels first, to see if they could find Skelya's treasury (which Tenozak had noted down was his goal here).. 

Again - missed a number of sessions here - they fought a couple of skeletal wyverns in this cavern and then in a further cavern the zombified remains of a white dragon. This was a truly epic battle that tested them to the utmost. They got a  couple of really choice magic items, including a longsword that Dyane claimed. Also a lot of coinage. They were disturbed by the idea that a white dragon made her home here once, so close to Greenvale, and were quite concerned about the orcs and goblins that seemed to be inundating the region.

They returned to the Expedition and warned Lady Fridelle about the orcs and goblins; she promised to be sure Greenvale and the Greenwardens kept an eye on the situation. Later, the PCs were resting in camp when it was attacked. Creatures they later learned were some sort of plant constructs raided; the PCs were able to destroy two of them with considerable effort - the creatures have such a sturdy, flexible construction that very little damage penetrates them, and lightning heals them. As the PCs fought, they received help from several small batlike humanoids, who introduced themselves after the combat as "Nycter". They say they live in caves near here, and that these creatures have raided them, capturing several of their clan members. Long to short, Fridelle assigned the PCs to assist the Nycter in recovering their lost fellows, and investigating the Blackroot Marauders. 

2/2/25

The PCs explored, eventually discovered that the BRM's were coming from an orc village - the orcs are making them, somehow... AND they discovered that another of the Expedition's scouting groups has been taken prisoner by the orcs. So they had double reason to try to disrupt what's going on. Several spying missions later, the PCs rescued one captive (a ranger named Vessetel from the expedition) and one longer-term slave Evan (a commoner from Tallowsland, who says he was on a trade caravan headed to Greenvale which was attacked by bandits; he was taken prisoner and then sold on to the orcs). Eventually, the PCs killed enough of the orcs via hunting parties and scouting groups to make them truly angry. They then issued an ultimatum threatening to kill all the orcs if they didn't give up all their captives. The orcs tried both to demand single combat with the PCs, and sent an assassin after the PCs. That failed, and the PCs gained a nifty pair of Boots of Tracklessness. Then the PCs spied an orc cleric and at least one other orc slipping out of the village. They followed, and found the orcs entering an old and very strange place that seems to be the demiplane of a minor avatar of the Forest God. There was an EPIC confrontation between the PCs, the guardian of the (apparently) sleeping avatar, and the orc cleric, an orc captain, and FOUR BRMs. Had it not been that the Guardian (a Lion made of living briars) aided them, the PCs would surely have taken losses, perhaps even been defeated. Mica was able to slay the Priest immediately combat began with a critical hit arrowshot (abetted by Sif's use of Mass Snake's Swiftness). Then the four BRMs turned on the party as the Lion Briar took on the Orc Captain. But eventually all four BRMs were killed (Bilk got another critical hit kill!) and the session ended with the foes scattered on the field of battle, and the Lionbriar approaching.

The Lionbriar turned out to be friendly - and grateful that the PCs aided him in slaying the BRMs before they broke into the pavillion and awoke Draecena, who was "not ready to be disturbed" as the Lionbriar announced. He awarded them with several nice tokens of his appreciation - including a flying carpet for Flossie (and Bilk!), a keen bow for Dyane, a Cloak of the Viper for Sif, and a rod of Frost for Pithane. Micah got nothing but a jar of spell-resistance ointment. 

The PCs spent the night there recovering, and then returned to their own world, and trekked back to the orc village. There, they found that the orcs had all retreated intot he cave underground, and that the slaves/prisoners ahd been thrown out. They were able to connect up with them, and then set the orcs' outer village on fire with alchemist fire and arrows. Micah was very pleased. They returned to the Expedition, post-haste, rescuees in tow. Fridelle was also pleased - it was decided that the rescued victims would be escorted back to Greenvale and/or to Tallowsland, given their preference, by two of the scout groups. Vesetel's group headed back to Greenvale, with one set of rescuees, and also to recruit replacement scouts for themselves. The other would leave for Tallowsland. 

However, in the meantime there was a sort of celebratory feast - - except taht Lady Fridelle and several others nearly died after eating poisonous mushrooms in venison stew. An investigation was undertaken by the PCs, at Sir Caedda's request. Eventually it was discovered that Fern, one of the hobbyt cooks, had put the mushrooms in the stew because she was being blackmailed by an elf - one of the scouts - who came originally from Avenvole, and lied about it. The PCs hunted him down after he fled, and brought him back to Lady Fridelle, who sent him with the scout/rescuee party back to Greenvale. He had some sort of obscure political motivation that confused the party - he belongs to an isolationist faction of the elves that wanted to disrupt more "human" contact with them. 

Once the poisoner was caught, Lady Fridelle and others all recovered, and the scout groups departed, the Expedition began traveling again. The PCs had a week of relaxed time off-duty, and then a week of night-guard duty - during which they were assaulted by storm elementals; first little ones that attacked, and then they were caught in the "war zone" of a fight between two huge storm elementals that were battling each other. In the process of fleeing for cover the PCs stumbled into a cave, which led them to another cave that entered into a strange and different realm. They found a backpack with a journal in it left by someone called Sir Godfrey Windfleet - a knight of Greenvale - who apparently was burdened with some evil thing he had found recently, and was seeking a place or way to destroy it. What the thing was, is unclear. However, in the second cave they did find a stone carved warhammer, painted black, and cave paintings that appeared tos how someone carrying said hammer being killed by a strange monstrous creature unlike any the PCs had seen before. 

The PCs debated long and hard before they decided to go exploring in this new land, looking to find out what happened to Sir Godfrey.