PinMar, the 7th of Nardur'Kiev 14063

PinMar, the 7th of Nardur'Kiev 14063

The group finally gets back onto the trail out of town, having made their good-bye's the night before. Before they can get to the crossroads the party is joined by their old friends with the Halfling caravan. Rorleerorlkin offers to let the group travel all he way to Twin Forks with his group, all for a first-hand account of what has transpired in the last week. The trip North/Northwest up the old Sageem Road goes buy rather uneventfully, which is the norm for everyone but the adventuring party.
The caravan reaches the city just before nightfall and they don't have much time to get through the city and out the side gate to the "8th Ward" before everything shuts up for the night. The caravan generally keeps a cold camp at Twin Forks, so Rorleerorlkin suggests that the group may prefer and inn. He points out a well-known establishment near the city's North Gate. He also makes a point to stop and introduce the trio to the gate guard, explaining they are friends of the caravan, before dropping them off on the inside of the city gate.

The group follows Rorleerorlkin's advice and seeks out a rather old-looking, but quaint inn. The proprietor, an elderly woman by the name of Rowera Silverslinger, informs them that there isn't any room. Well there is a room, but only one. If they don't mind sharing they can have the room. At least it does have a rather large bed. Dinner is a simple fare of stew, which after a long day on the trail is rather well received. Rowera has her husband Yarcane fix up a bath for the girls and they manage to get cleaned up.

The next morning the group eats a simple breakfast of gruel and heads over to the city side gate to check-in with Rorleerorlkin. The caravan is all packed up and about to get underway. Vrykor needs a new shield, having lost his during the battle with the Orcs, and wants to know where he can get one. Rorleerorlkin navigates the caravan through the city to stop at his "cousin's" shop, pointing out some of the wards and establishments of Twin Forks. After setting up another introduction with the Mercer Galaneepeddal, Rorleerorlkin and the caravan head out of town. Since Twin Forks is at the end of their route, it'll be another week or so before they will be back this way.

After making arrangements to obtain a new shield, the party heads around town seeking work. The best they can manage is to fill in for a the city's missing rat-catchers, brothers by the name of Alvir and Lamar. The Vegetable Seller Rowan expected them to make their usual rounds the day before. The party is quick to take any work and Rowan points them in the direction of his warehouse where a man of his will let them in. The party spends the rest of the day trying to figure out how to track and then catch/kill rats, with meager success. They don't even make enough money to pay for dinner. The only bright spot is that when they get back to the inn, Rowera has a nice, albeit small, room for each of them, provided they bath immediately.

Rats are commonly used in video RPGs as a low level monster that is plentiful and easy to kill. In the real world, rats aren't so easily kept under control. The fact that the party hasn't gone looking for the far easier prey, the rat-catchers, eludes me.

Another bath, simple bowl of good stew, and a clean bed is a welcome respite from poking around dark and dirty buildings looking for rats. In the morning the trio decides maybe they should take a different tact. They are running low on coin and can't keep spending more than they earn. They decide to go and report to the local leader to see if he has any work. To this end they walk over to the older part of town, the Military District, and try to visit with the garrison commander. Although the clerk doesn't seem to be that helpful, the Commander agrees to an audience. He doesn't have any immediate work for them on the spot, but he does note that he's heard word of several people missing from the town, including the rat-catchers. Almost all the missing are vagrants and paupers, so he suspects they found some recently abandoned house to hole up in. Eventually their whereabouts will be ascertained and any problems dealt with. If the group can give him a few days he might have something appropriate for their particular skill-set.

The party decides to look into the rat-catcher's disappearance on their own and seeks out their abode. The brother live in a tiny shanty at the edge of the North Gate District. The shack is barely big enough to house a pair of beds, but the beds are elevated (like two sets of bunkbeds missing the bottom bunk) and filled with assorted traps and implements. There are also several piles of rats skins in various stages of the skinning/tanning process. Although it smells, the shack is relatively clean.
It is nearing dinner time and the party decides to finally look up the "family friend" of Myka's. The walk almost halfway back through town to find the Bierhaus operated by Dvalinn. Originally an old guard tower, the Bierhaus has been expanded from a simple brewery to a full-fledged drinking establishment. The expansion isn't completely finished yet, but it is close. The group enters the large drinking hall and surprised by the sheer scope and scale compared to the Dark Titan Taproom. A server tells them to sit anywhere that is open and when the do she asks what they would like to drink. Vrykor asks for food and is laughed off. The Bierhaus does not serve food, but most of the patrons are eating. The server gives a wave and a small boy seems to come out of nowhere. A small troupe of urchins is allowed to work the Bierhaus, fetching food from area establishments. They work for tips and when not serving as gophers, they stay away from patrons and staff, tucked in the shadows behind the fireplaces. This urchin calls himself Jimmy and will get whatever the group wants. Since they are unfamiliar with the city they send Jimmy, with a few coins, back to their Inn for some stew. While they wait they flag down the server, order beer, and ask about Dvalinn. The server gets their names and delivers the Letter of Introduction.

Jimmy comes back rather swiftly with their stew, and some rolls he picked up on the way, along with their change. They tip Jimmy rather generously and the kid is ecstatic. After their meals and beer they get a private audience with Dvalinn, who clearly remembers Myka even if she doesn't quite remember him. Evidently Dvalinn isn't just a big customer, but an old adventuring partner of Myka's parents. He is more than happy to help the group look for work, but it might take some time. He is in the middle of inventory and suspects he might have some work for them tomorrow. Since it is getting late the group bids the Dwarf farewell and goes back to the inn. They suspect that they are being followed and discover that Jimmy is trailing them. When confronted, Jimmy offers to be a travel guide, porter, or really anything the group needs. Even though they don't need anything he walks with them anyway and points out the various homes and businesses along the way.

In the morning the group heads out of the Inn, bright and early, and they find Jimmy crawling out from underneath the Inn. He had slept there all night, waiting for the group to need him again. He introduces himself this morning as "James" and is put to work getting the group breakfast. They all head back over to the Bierhaus to meet with Dvalinn...well the party meets with Dvalinn. James heads off for something else since he isn't allowed in to the Bierhaus when there aren't patrons. Dvalinn makes some small-talk as the group eats breakfast and he tells them that he doesn't have any "real" work for them, but they are more than welcome to stay in his cellar for as long as they like. He has had a couple of kegs go missing. While it isn't a huge loss, he is more concerned that they have been managing to get in and out without him knowing. Dvalinn suspects the problem lies with the fact that the outer hall isn't finished yet and he might have to make some changes to the Bierhaus he doesn't want to in order to secure things. The group, too low on coinage anyway, quickly agrees and heads back to the Inn to get their belongings.

Tu'Mar, the 2nd of Nardur'Kiev 14063

Tu'Mar, the 2nd of Nardur'Kiev 14063
The girls wake up rather late in the day, having spent the previous night on a forced march back to town. After informing Elder Foxhorn of their discovery they crashed at their flophouse, the Dark Titan Taproom. When the do manage to rouse themselves, get cleaned up, and down to the main floor, Kaplea has a quick meal ready for them. The Dark Titan Taproom is a bit crowded for this time of day and the clientele contains a few more of the militia members than would normally be present. The party is informed that Elder Foxhorn has mobilized the militia in order to guard the town from a possible Orc attack. Normally the militia trains and stands guard later in the summer when Orc incursions are more the norm.

Kaplea Staffbane additionally informs Myka that her father took a small contingent of guards to directly confront the Orcs. With this new information the group decides they best get back out to the crossroads and see if they can help. Kaplea has anticipated this and already packed dinner for the trail. He doesn't charge them anything stating that everything has already been taken care of.
Rushing back to the crossroads on the second forced march in as many days, the party makes it back to the Halfling encampment not too long before dark, a bit quicker than expected. The group makes its way to the Orc campsite, thinking they might be able to follow Orc tracks back to their lair. Fortunately they really don't have to work very hard at it since the militia squad had the same idea. It is relatively easy, and much faster, to simply follow the path beaten down by their comrades. This is quite fortunate because the party eventually comes across the sound of battle. Near the top of a hill there is a generous level clearing and a small cave. In the clearing is a decent-sized clash between the militia and the Orcs and at this point there is no obvious side gaining the upper hand.

The group wades into battle, with Gala hanging back to tend to the wounded. Myka and Vrykor do a great job in turning the tide in battle and Anise manages to save one of the militia from certain death. Their help frees up Relemir Cinder to go after what appears to be the Lead Orc. Although badly wounded Relemir has no problem slipping past the last few Orcs of the main fray to approach their leader. The two exchange blows with neither gaining any purchase until the Orc reaches out, not with his weapon, but with an open hand. Although a slap is no match for his shield, Relemir instinctively brings it up anyway only to be met with a surge of energy travels through the shield and into his body, knocking him lifeless.

The players think this is divine, not arcane magic, which might be a bit of meta-gaming, but since they do have a Mage and a Cleric in the group, it isn't too much to have them come to that conclusion. They do find some out-of-game humor with the Orc giving the Knight a "bad touch" and decided to call this foe Pedo-Orc. Some days I think it isn't a good idea to drink at the game, but who am I kidding....I couldn't come up with all these gems by myself.

Although the battle is nearly won, this spurs on the party to attack their enemies with abandon and after the last Orc is downed, they rush to Relemir. While he already appears dead, Gala is able to ascertain he is dying and that she might be able to save him with a small measure of divine power. She casts a healing spell quickly, and more importantly, openly and does manage to bring Relemir back from the very brink of death. Once he isn't in danger of dying she begins to tend his wounds, which helps to reduce their severity. Since she has so many wounds to attend to, the rest of the group looks for the lead Orc, who disappeared in the confusion of the final moments of battle. The check out the cave which is little more than a few feet of rocky beach and a pool of water. There is a small alcove that has some Orc provisions, but nothing worth poking through.

Outside the cave is a small tent with a cot, table, and a few books. There looks to have been a horse, but the Orcs must have butchered it recently. While Gala tends to the other wounded, Relemir thanks the group and informs them that this is most likely the remaining possessions of the Knight that Annair Foamclaw was looking for. Even though it is getting dark, everyone decided it would be a good idea to at least get down the hill and back to the Halfling campsite at the crossroads. Once down the hill and relatively safe, the party takes watch and lets the wounded rest. In the morning Gala casts another healing spell, much to the amazement of Relemir. The group slowly makes its way back to town.

Once back in town Relemir has a private meeting with Elder Foxhorn and he brings Gala with him. Her ability to channel divine power means that the Gawds of old have returned and this knowledge drives Relemir to action. He understands, or at least he thinks he understands the implications and implores Gala to use her power to help the people of Badger Falls. With Elder Foxhorn's blessing the now-empty home of Ansen Redblack is given over to Gala to transform into a clinic of sorts.

The Cleric's player was only with us for a short time, pretty much to kill some time on Sundays. She lived within walking distance and was getting set to move to the next town, so this was her last game anyway. Made sense to keep the PC as an active NPC, especially based on what has happened. 

Over the next few days the party rests and recuperates from their minor wounds. Relemir spends every free moment with Gala, helping her with converting the home to suit her needs. Myka goes to speak to her mother about this turn of events and finds that she is not overly concerned because Relemir's drive has been rekindled to that of their younger days as Knights. She also lets on that isn't his only drive that has been rekindled, which is a bit much for Myka. The group, now back down to three, decides that they should reconsider their plan to leave Badger Falls and decides they should go to Twin Forks. Melena informs the group that an old friend of hers lives in Twin Forks and prepares a letter of introduction to one of the Farm's biggest customers, a Dwarven Brewer by the name of Dvalinn.

Halfling Ambush (28th of Jevar'Kiev)

Pin'Mar, the 28th of Jevar'Kiev in the year 14063.

Having decided to get up as early possible to get started on what should be a long day of hiking, the party wakes from their flop-room at the Dark Titan Taproom to find a great breakfast waiting for them. After downing their meal of Smoked sausages, curds, goose eggs, raisins, and corn pone (just what the normal clientele needs for their hangover), the party goes to pay but finds out that the barkeep/owner won't take their money. Kaplea Staffbane informs them that Elder Foxhorn had taken care of things already.

This bit of good fortune bodes well for the group and they make arrangements for sack lunches. Some substitutions need to be made since the lentils weren't cooked up yet, but everyone gets a good sack lunch of a chicken half, chicken eggs, corn pone, and some blueberries. The group grabs their gear, sack lunches, and their newly acquired "suicide daggers" and gets a good start West out of town.

The rest of the morning goes by quickly and uneventfully. They stop for lunch on the side of the road and as they finish one of them notices a fair amount of dust being kicked up down the road back toward Badger Falls. The move off into the brush back from the road until they can determine that it is just their Halfling Caravan heading their way. They flag the caravan down and it does stop. The caravan master, Rorleerorlkin recognizes Anise and Myka. Vrykor asks if they can get a ride to the crossroads and while he mulls it over Anise asks the same question, but eloquently in Halfling. Rorleerorlkin gracefully accepts, eager to chat with Anise. Anise and Vrykor join him in the lead wagon while Myka and Gala get a ride in the last wagon.

The caravan is moving at a good pace as they have twice the number of ponies needed. Rorleerorlkin enjoys being able to engage "outsiders" comfortably in his native tongue and is quite surprised by the wonderous tales of spooks and spirits. He doesn't believe her at first, but when she mentions the newly banished Ansen, he believes everything. Ansen was spotted headed East towards Lake Hazard and while Rorleerorlkin knew he had been banished, he didn't know why. During the journey Rorleerorlkin is a bit amazed at Vrykor's rather cavalier attitude towards her two brother's demise.

The caravan makes it to their normal camping spot near the Sageem Road. The party asks if they can camp with them for the night and the Halflings readily agree, provided that Anise re-tells her wondrous tales of the party's exploits. Vrykor tries to help chop wood, but it really isn't necessary.  Rorleerorlkin explains that his group travels a set route and they deliberately take an extra day to move through that route. This extra day is rotated through all of their normal out-of-town stops and they do all of their extra prep work on those days. Firewood is already cut, stacked, and being aged.

Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org

Over a dinner campfire Anise tells the assembled group the tales of how they fought the kobolds and
encountered the skeletons. She has to explain what a ghost is, but otherwise everyone enjoys the story. The Halfling's wagons are circled with the ponies held within the circle for the night. The party sets their own watch and it works out that they have one person on watch while the Halflings have two.

Around midnight one of the Halflings on watch notices that a group of goblins has managed to get right up to the camp. He sounds the alarm, waking Vrykor and Mykal. Anise was on watch and Gala is still sound asleep. Six goblins pour into camp. Right off the bat they knock Anise down and back, as well as one of the Halfling guards. That Halfling at least got in a really good blow, knocking back one of the two goblins attacking him.

Vrykor is up first and she rushes into the fray. She manages to keep two of the goblins engaged while protecting Anise and the Halfling. Soon enough Myka has her shield readied and is able to engage some of the goblins trying to make their way in. She kills the first goblin she comes to with a mighty blow, sending its halves flying apart in two directions. She then moves on towards the last two goblins that have managed to gang up on the other Halfling, who is finally aware of what is happening.

Vrykor is trading blows back and forth concentrating all her efforts on one of her attackers. Myka and the Halfling have one goblin stuck between them and the "free" goblin is concentrating on the Halfling. He goes down, but not without getting in one good final jab. Fortunately Myka isn't double-teamed for long because she lands another solid blow which guts one goblin.

Gala is still unable to wake up and Anise is rolling on the ground in pain, as are the two Halflings. Vrykor and Myka are exchanging blows with a goblin, but both of them have the upper hand and are able to dispatch their foes. Once the battle is over they rouse Gala and start patching up their wounds. Vrykor starts on her own wounds and Gala rushes over to help Anise.

A few strange arcane words are spoken and Gala's touch starts to knit Anise's wounds.

I try to stress the enormity of this revelation that they've just witnessed the first open expression of divine power the wurld has seen in millenia, but between meta-gaming and the fact most of my players were "buzzed" this just elicited more of a " meh". I'm not going to let this bother me.

Now the players know that the Gawds have returned to the Wurld, but they are more concerned with immediately pressing matters. The goblins have their ears removed and the bodies are stripped of possessions (some copper pieces and their short swords) before being drug out of camp. This battle lasted less than a minute and none of the other Halflings came out to engage the intruders.  They did come out when it was deemed safe and all able-bodied men took over the watch for the rest of the night.

Sa'Mar, the 1st of Nardur'Kiev in the year 14063.
In the morning Vrykor sees if Rorleerorlkin wants to purchase the goblin ears and she is told no. She then inquires about the crappy goblin short swords and is offered 50 sp for the lot. Since that is way too good of a price she assumes that this is compensation for their efforts last night. The Halflings don't want the ears because they don't want to undercut any bounty the party might get.

Good catch!

The caravan moves on and the party tracks the goblins trails to an area relatively close to the camp. There they find the ground has been well trampled, not just by goblins, but by something "bigger", human sized (or so). It takes some effort but Vrykor manages to follow the tracks along a game trail. As the party heads into the deeper woods, Vrykor and Anise scout out ahead a little bit. Eventually they come upon a small campsite made up of nine rough bedrolls. Six are smaller and empty while there are three larger ones tucked up under the lowest hanging branches. While it is relatively dark in the woods, it is even darker where these three bedding areas are. Shoddily clothed feet can be seen sticking out from two of the bedding areas.

Vrykor and Anise sneak back to the rest of the group and report that they've found the orc warparty of nine. The group backtracks down the trail and does their best to mark on the map where they think that warband is at. Because of their relatively late start they do not get back into town until the early hours of the next morning. Before heading off to their flophouse room, the wake up Elder Foxhorn and give him the complete report.

NPCs introduced:
Kaplea Staffbane (Human Male: Proprietor Dark Titan Taproom)

Moons:

Arlora is half moon waning
Bardra'Kar 2nd Quarter Waning
Shadara is Full Moon
Light level: Dim

Strangers Come to Town (27th of Jevar'Kiev)

Gart'Mar, the 27th of Jevar'Kiev in the year 14063.

The party is having breakfast at the Dark Titan Taproom, having finished several weeks of training and a few odds & ends keeping them occupied. Now that all these tasks are done the usual boredom slips back in and the topic of leaving Badger Falls comes back up.

Unbeknownst to the group, Badger Falls has a couple of unlikely visitors. One is an Elven Maiden outfitted in simple blue robes. She has causally traipsed into town from one of the logging roads. There are few Elves in town, so the sudden appearance of one is noted, but doesn't garner too much immediate attention.

The other visitor, however, draws a lot of attention to himself. A horse comes barreling through town with a rider barely hanging on. The horse is on a dead run, foaming and frothing as it races through town. The road has a few gentle curves, but splits off into almost a T intersection close to the town center. The horse makes a sharp break right, but the rider doesn't manage to hold on, instead landing like a sack of potatoes in the middle of the road. The horse, freed from it's burden, slows down and eventually stops along the river bank.

Pretty much anyone who saw the rider come into town gathers around to investigate. Nobody actually checks on the rider or the horse, they just stand around like idiots gawking. The Elf weaves through the crowd and makes her way over to the other stranger and begins administering First Aid. The rider is unconscious and appears to have been on the losing end of a fight. He has a wicked deep wound across his chest.

As she is administering aid one of the Village Elders comes forward, having been alerted to this recent commotion. Elder Foxhorn takes charge, directing some villagers to take the wounded man to the Barber. He also inquires as to the Elf's name and she stammers, "I'm Gala Nudirstotoun."* The Elder asks her what happened, assuming (naturally) that the two strangers came in to town together. He asks that she stays with the rider as he tries to figure out what is going on.

To that end he sends a runner to the Dark Titan Taproom to see if the party can get over to meet him at the Barbers.

Once the party arrives they look over the man with the Barber, an older Gnome Titan named Flanl Steelfoot. Together they surmise that the man had probably been sliced open with a scimitar, most likely an orc attack. orcs have been known to get this far South on occasion, but not usually so early in the spring. They ask Ms. Nudirstotoun about her companion and only then find out that she doesn't know him, that she only stepped in because she has some healing skill and the man was wounded. They've done all they can for the man which doesn't seem to be enough for the Elder. He really wants to know if there are orcs poised to attack the village.

Someone from the party goes to retrieve their small measure of healing salve that they had taken from the kobolds. Flanl recognizes it as an old Gnome-Titan herbal concoction that is "pretty good stuff". He's convinced that with a good application of salve this man should be awake before the end of the day. He won't be much good aside from a few words, but he'll probably live.

The group, with the Elf in tow, goes to see about the horse, who by now has laid down next to the river. It is obviously in pain with two arrows embedded in it's flank. This town doesn't have a stable or really many folks familiar with horses, so Myka decides to run home and get her father, a retired Knight, to come and see what he can do.

While she is away Vrykor decides to try and help the horse herself. She manages to get up to the horse and somehow manages to get the arrows out without any extra damage. Once the arrows are removed the horse tries to get up, but she cannot do so without help. It takes some effort, but the horse eventually rights herself and allows Vrykor to lead her around. They take the horse over to one of the few houses with a sufficient barn and convince the owner to allow the horse to be temporarily stabled there.

Relemir Cinder shows up and immediately goes to check on the horse. One wound needs to be cleaned out some and both need to be stitched up, but he is able to take care of the animal's needs easily enough. When he is finished he meets with Flanl and discusses the man's wounds as well. Between the wounds and one of the arrows, Relemir is certain that orcs are to blame. The other arrows gives him pause because it is a fine target arrow that probably belongs to a fellow Knight. He is unsure who the markings belong to, but he is certain that he has seen them before.

When the stranger seems to be getting close to wakening, Flanl has the Elder brought in and a brief interrogation is held. This man is Annair Foamclaw and he is a tracker that was hired to hunt down a orc war party that murdered a prominent member of the family who hired him. For some reason he will not reveal the name of his employers, but he thinks he was ambushed maybe 20 miles from town, not far East of the trail head to the Sageem Road.

The Ranger lapses back into unconsciousness and the Elder asks the party to go investigate this matter. Relemir takes some offense to this and asks for a private conference with the Elder. Anise goes to her employer to see if he has any information regarding Knights from the surrounding areas and the rest of the group goes to the Elder's house to wait for further guidance.

Things quickly become pretty awkward for Myka because she can her her father getting rather vocal inside with the Elder. As he emerges from the residence he asks Myka to come home with him just about the same time as the Elder asks everyone to step inside. Myka leads the group inside and the Elder has a serious conversation with them, but not before asking if they have accepted Ms. Nudirstotoun into their group. Gala explains that her name is not Nudirstotoun*. The Elder doesn't quite apologize, but notes her name for future use.

The issue at hand with Relemir is that orcs are a rather dangerous lot. While the Elder wants to know where this group is, which Relemir agrees is important, they differ on sending the group. Before the Elder activates the militia and effectively boards up the town in anticipation of an attack, he needs to know if that action is warranted. Relemir's main concern is sending a group of women, including his daughter, to that task. Orcs are known for being kind of "rapey" and there is a genuine concern that the orcs might try to capture the party specifically for a fate worse than death.

The group decides, then and there, to a suicide pact for this worst-case scenario and decides their next step is to by a set of daggers just in case. They will head out in the morning to investigate.

*We have a new player to the group and when asked her PC's name (in character) she kind of stammered "I'm Gala New-Here-To-Town" While I knew what she meant, I went with what I heard and she didn't do anything to correct me until the end of the session.

Moons: 

Arlora is half moon waning
Bardra'Kar 2nd Quarter Waning
Shadara is Full Moon
Light level: Dim

The Troublemaker is Banished

Banished

Pin'Mar, the 7th of Jevar'Kiev in the year 14063.
With Ansen sequestered in the ice house since the events of the night before, the party's new objective is to head back to the tomb and retrieve the bodies of the apparition's children. After a quick breakfast they head over to Elder Foxhorn's home to check-in before heading off.

He has arranged for a generous quantity of torches so the group can burn away any more flesh-eating slime they come across. There is an assumption that the sepulcher they saw behind the trapped door contains the body of the cult leader ultimately responsible for the many deaths, both recent and in antiquity. Deliberately desecrating the body of that leader should help ease the apparition's soul back to the ancestors.

The trip to the tomb goes easily enough and the party easily retrieves the small bundles of children's bones. They all light up their torches and venture into the orange room with greenish, fuzzy walls. Ever mindful of the fate that befell Voskkal, the group probes ahead with many torches, burning their way into the room. They take great care to burn everything that might even resemble the flesh-easting slime.

The sepulcher is difficult to open up, but after a couple of attempts they swing the heavy lid off. They aren't surprised much when a zombie springs up and tries to attack. It manages to get in one grab attack before the PCs hack it to little pieces. After it appears dead....again, they scoop up some of the body parts and fling them into the main room's pool. A quick search of the sepulcher reveals some badly tarnished silver plates covered in strange writings and runes. Anise is able to decipher these writing, evidently it is some sort of magical notation for several spells from the days of yore. She is almost giddy at the prospect of finally being able to increase her secret repertoire.

The party trudges back to Badger Falls with the children's skeletons and the village holds a special interment ceremony for the children and their apparition mother. The mace Ansen stole from the tomb is laid to rest with the bones and a brief final visit from the apparition confirms that the spirit is at rest. Now the only thing to do is deal with Ansen himself.

Ansen is brought before the Elder and his punishment is swift and severe. For his actions leading to the deaths of his logging crew and for the untoward desecration of his ancestors he is sentenced to banishment. His palms are branded, hastily bandaged, and he is dragged to the edge of town. If he is spotted in Badger Falls he will be executed.

That should be the last anyone ever sees of him.

The group makes plans for some upgrade training. GM Aside: This journal entry is quite late and some of the timing is a bit off (the party may have trained before the hunt for the apparition).

Moons:

Arlora is a new moon
Bardra'Kar is 1st Quarter Waning
Shadara is 2nd Quarter Waxing
Light level: Dim



"Loot":
Silver Spell Tablets

The Hunt for an Apparition (5th of Jevar'Kiev)

Trademark Sony Pictures Digital Inc.

Ara'Mar, the 5th of Jevar'Kiev in the year 14063.
It's been a couple of days after Voskkal's "funeral" and the small party has retreated to their usual watering hole. Vrykor, Voskkal's sister joins them much like Voskkal did after Rythak's passing. Vrykor thinks her brothers were complete morons and the fact they survived life in general to the extent they did was the a miracle of the Ancestors.

The Dark Titan Taproom isn't frequented by too many of the human inhabitants of Badger Falls, much less the youngsters, so when a new face arrives at the Taproom, he gravitates towards the group as well. His name is Balen and like the rest of the town, he's well aware of the group's recent exploits and he wants in. Balen doesn't fit in with the others due to his Albinism. Working outdoors is bit of a bother as well and he hasn't fared well since his discharge from the militia a month and a half ago.

The townsfolk have been whispering about folks seeing a misty, luminous figure coming out of people's homes. A few have bothered to confront this apparition and most claim to have scared it off. A lot of people have been giving Balen the evil eye for at night his extremely pale skin has an unearthly presence about it. The group decides to question Elder Foxhorn about the sightings and get quite perturbed when he heavily implies that their foray into the tomb, which resulted in Voskkal's death, must have angered the Ancestors somehow. Anise bites here tongue at these accusations since she blames the loggers who violated that temple/tomb. The group offers to look into the problem, even though at best it is just an issue of townsfolk being scared of the unknown.

They agree to meet up at the Taproom a bit before sunset and they decide to scout out one of the cemeteries. They'd like some extra help and decide to see if Lucky is available to assist them. GM Aside: I think the attempt to scope out a cemetery is a bit of a OOC knowledge since ghosts or other undead haven't been seen in centuries, but with the connection to the Ancestors it still makes sense. The re-introduction of Lucky is as a NPC since the player left the group. When they meet up that evening, Balen doesn't show, meaning the group is down to three. Balen's player didn't show. He prefers to player wickedly eeeeeevil mages and this game & setting wasn't his cup of tea.

Nobody remembers what Lucky's father did for a living and they end up stopping by the Town's Carpenter, Hadramar Stormflame, looking for Lucky. Fortunately for them, Badger Falls is not that big of a town and Hadramar knows where the Thatcher is working because he had a job near there recently. It's still not quite sunset when the group heads out to convince Lucky to come along. Lucky is easily persuaded because he doesn't like the grunt-work of being a Thatcher's apprentice. It is late enough that his work is done for the day although his father has a bit more to do while the sun is still up.

The group heads out to the cemetery nearby. When someone dies, their body is held aloft on a platform just into the edge of the woods. After a couple of years left to decay and get picked over by smaller animals, the bones are gathered up and interred in small family crypts. Not everyone gets this treatment though. Most of the demi-humans and a few families still bury their dead. The group pairs off and climbs up to some unused platforms. Even as it gets dark it is easy to tell which platforms are unused because people typically plant and attend to flowers grown at the base of platforms holding the decaying remains of their Ancestors.

Moons:

Arlora is a new moon
Bardra'Kar is Full Moon
Shadara is 2nd Quarter Waxing
Light level: Dim



Gart'Mar, the 6th of Jevar'Kiev in the year 14063.
Anise and Vrykor don't see anything that night. Myka and Lucky are in the other platform with Lucky taking the second watch. Myka falls asleep on her watch and fails to wake up Lucky. In the morning they are found to be loosely spooning and have to be woken by Vrykor. Lucky says goodbye to the group and heads off to work. he may not like being a Thatcher's apprentice, but if he blows this job he'll be completely out on his own, which he isn't ready for yet. Anise heads off to her day job while Vrykor and Myka head back to the Taproom to get a bunk and try to sleep some more to get onto a night schedule.

After a good nap Vrykor and Mykal make a crude map of the town and start mapping out sightings of this luminous apparition. The sightings map out all over town without any rhyme or reason. The last sighting was close to where they were at the cemetery the night before and the night before closer to the center of town.

As the next evening approaches the girls assemble at the Dark Titan Taproom and then go out to collect Lucky. They decide to set up at one of the crossroads near where Lucky was working, which wasn't far from the cemetery the night before. This time it was Vrykor's turn to fall asleep on watch, but she woke herself up before too long. The night otherwise passed uneventfully.

It occurs to Mykal that maybe they should talk to some of the people who have sighted the figure. They stop at the Dark Titan Taproom and hear that one of the loggers spotted it last night. They got a name this time, Yohan, and after their meal they head over to the building that houses the logging headquarters, hoping to find out which crew Yohan is on and where they are logging today. The Logging Boss informs the trio (Lucky is back to Thatching) that he heard Yohan had seen the apparition the night before too, but he hasn't seen him since he didn't show for his crew assignment. The Boss says he's probably at home, drinking, or doing both. After a quick description of Yohan's shack, the party heads off.

They check in at the Silver Arms Taproom in case Yohan is there, but it isn't. The Silver Arms is definitely a bit nicer that the Dark Titan, but it is also a bit more expensive, which they find out after having breakfast there. After their meal they venture on to Yohan's shack. When they knock on the door they are told to go away. The party keeps knocking, and keep getting rebuffed until finally Yohan opens the top-half of the dutch door, crossbow in one hand and a small jug in the other. He is convinced the group is there just to make fun of him, like his buddies did earlier that morning.

Evidently when Yohan saw the apparition the night before he got so scared he pissed himself. He isn't proud of that fact now and is drinking to forget. He isn't too keen on the party asking about details from last night, but they steer around his embarrassment and get that the figure spoke some "flowery" language and was able to walk through walls. It didn't attack Yohan and when he couldn't talk to it, the thing left, clipping through the corner of his shack as it headed off into the woods.

After talking to Yohan the party seeks out Elder Foxhorn to see who else had seen it. He mentions another logger, who is likely out working, and the Halfling Mercer. The party doesn't want to wait for the logger GM Aside: He hadn't actually seen it, just was claiming to have seen it...it was a red herring and headed off to see Greeneerill instead. The Halfling was open enough about the sighting, stating the thing walked out of a wall of a nearby home and said something in gibberish to him. He apologizes for not being able to say much else because he was so scared he turned and ran as fast as little feet would take him.

The party cannot seem to figure out any pattern to the sightings and decides to simply set up another stake-out of two teams watching a couple of different crossroads on the Southern end of town  GM Aside: They did not know that quite a few sightings were fakes for various reasons (some were actually Balen sightings) and the locations themselves were randomly generated. Mykal and Lucky formed one team and Vrykor & Anise the other.

This time the party was lucky and Vrykor saw the apparition walking into a home not far from their stakeout. They didn't alert the other two and headed off after it. They attempted to be sneaky while approaching the house and managed to get there just as the thing walked through the front wall of the home. It looked at them for a moment and began to speak. GM Aside: Since undead haven't been seen in millennia I had the PCs make a roll akin to Barbarians encountering magical creatures, and they both passed their checks The language it used was a derivation of High Elvish, which Anise was easily able to comprehend. There was a brief discussion which was a bit difficult because the spirit kept circling back to the same basic statements.

Evidently this spirit had been murdered to prevent her from interfering with her children being sacrificed by a cult. All she wanted was to be interred with her children and to exact revenge on the one she held responsible for her situation. She was able to convey that she is somehow drawn to this place and she is looking for her "rod" which will help her in her endeavor. She is tied to this place because of the "rod".

Anise knows that "rod" isn't quite the right word and this is most likely referring to a hand-held weapon of some sort. Anise tells the spirit they will do what they can to help and she leaves.

The party re-groups and heads back to the Dark Titan Taproom. They end up having to wake the owner to get in because of the late hour, and he charges them double for a room, which they gladly accept.

The next morning the three girls get up, have breakfast, and then head over to Elder Foxhorn's home to inform him of what they discovered the night before. The party assumes that the small skeletons they saw at the tomb the week before were these two children and they assume that this missing "rod" is in possession of the only other survivor from that place: Ansen. They didn't take anything from the tomb other than their dead, so it has to be something Ansen did. Nobody has seen Ansen since that night at the Dark Titan Taproom, which cements his guilt in the Elder's mind. They offer to go back to the tomb and get the bodies for a proper burial, but they don't know how to enact revenge for the spirit. They think that they need to burn the temple down and the Elder suggests that they find the priest/cult leader's remains and desecrate them. This is such a taboo thing to do that it seems like the only possible punishment after all this time. Elder Foxhorn tells the trio to go wait at the Taproom and he'll beat the bushes for Ansen.

Anise, who was so upset at the Elder before, wants to hang back and watch him work. The Elder goes over to a nearby home and gives some instructions to a child there that then runs off. They party sees him visit with a few people before they get bored and head off to the Taproom as instructed.

Close to dusk a messenger-child bursts into the Taproom and informs the girls that Ansen has been spotted sneaking out of his house. A couple of kids gave chase, but he gave them the slip at one of the creeks. Everyone grabs their gear and follows the boy out to Ansen's home. Vrykor does exceptionally well tracking Ansen and they manage to follow his tracks to the creek and again on the other side. They lose the tracks just outside of one of the other cemeteries on the edge of town. The group makes an assumption that Ansen must have a family crypt there and may be hiding out there. They figure out which crypt it would be and start sneaking up to it. Just as they get to the door.....

Two skeletal warriors walk out of the woods. Armed with scimitars and shields, these skeletons take the party by surprise. Vrykor is TOP'd (Threshold of Pain) right off the bat with a nasty wound that sends her reeling. The other skeleton attacks Mykal and the first skeleton ignores the wounded Vrykor and attacks Anise. Both take minor wounds early in the battle, but neither seem to be able to do any damage to these undead GM Aside: Using short swords. I also had Mykal make a fear check and she passed easily. Vrykor comes to soon enough and walks up behind the skeleton that hurt her and just starts going to town with her throwing axe, to little effect. Eventually she realizes her attacks aren't having much effect and simply flips the axe in her hands to bash at them with the back of the throwing axe head.

GM Aside: The skeletons were fixated on the PCs nearest the crypt door and I ruled that Vrykor could attack at half weapon speed because they were doing absolutely nothing to defend themselves against her attacks. Flipping the axe around to bash at the skeletons seemed logical and something somewhat natural to do- I've owned and thrown a few axes in my day and depending on distance you do sometimes flip the head around

A luckly blow by Anise, couple with some minor blows from Mykal and a ton of decent hits from Vrykor finally down the skeletons, but not before Mykal's shield gets destroyed. Ansen is in fact holed up in the crypt and he feebly tries to defend himself with what appears to be a well-built & elaborate mace. When the party disarms him and drags him from the crypt he starts screaming about the party abusing him and desecrating his Ancestors (a serious offense). Those skeletons were cousins of his that had died in year's past and were ready for interment.

The girls (they had left Lucky behind in their haste to follow Ansen) drag their prisoner to Elder Foxhorn's home. With all the fuss that Ansen created with his whooping and hollering, they party had a pretty big entourage by the time he gets there. Ansen is shaking and scared, but has no problems implicating the party in Ancestral desecration. The Elder calls for a couple of the men from the crowd to secure Ansen in the ice house and stand guard and that he will personally investigate Ansen's charges.

The rest of the crowd follows the party to the cemetery and is astounded at the site before them. Surely two Ancestors were pulled from their platforms and dragged out in front of the crypt and had their bones broken into pieces. The fresh blood on their blades and groups wounds, specifically Vrykor's terrible wound, leads credence to the party's version of events, as strange as they sound. The fact that some of the children saw the party heading towards the cemetery after Ansen and Ansen's behavior the last few weeks seems to cement in everyone's minds that the party was in the right on this issue and maybe Ansen is lying. Some seem to think that maybe Ansen did this to his own Ancestors for some sick reason.

NPCs Introduced:
Hadramar Stormflame (Human Male: Carpenter)
Yohan Bloodstorm (Human Male: Logger)

Discovering a "New" Tomb (1st of Jevar'Kiev)

Borrowed from Tomb Raider

OOC: This adventure was based off of the Wayfarer adventure Trouble at Niven's Creek

Sar'Mar, the 1st of Jevar'Kiev in the year 14063.
Lucky has decided that the adventuring life is not for him and decides to learn the family trade as a Thatcher. The party, now down to three, meets up at their usual watering hole for drinks to discuss their future plans. It is a pretty normal night. Some Gnome Titans are in town enjoying a little R&R and a couple of locals are drinking it up. One human, a logger named Ansen, is really going to town on the cheap booze. He drinks all alone and doesn't want any company. The party tries to engage him, but leaves well enough alone. This party plans on making this their last night in town before heading out. They are just about broke and nobody wants to log, hunt, or farm for a meager living. Nobody but Anise who has a good thing going with her transcription work.

Moon:

Arlora is 2nd Quarter Waning
Bardra'Kar is Full Moon
Shadara is 2nd Quarter Waxing
Light level: Bright




Tu'Mar, the 2nd of Jevar'Kiev in the year 14063.
The party meets up at the Dark Titan Taproom for a quick breakfast before heading out looking for adventure from the next town down the road. "Nobody" has ever been there, but it has to be more exciting than Badger Falls. Their meal is interrupted by a young boy who was sent by Elder Foxhorn to fetch them. Everyone finishes up, grabs their gear, and heads on over to the Elder's home.

As they approach the Elder's residence they find him placating a small crowd of folks. The Elder is able to dismiss the assembly once he sees the party so they are unable to discern anything that is going on.....yet. The Elder thanks the group for responding so quickly and being outfitted for travel. They are invited into the Elder's home and he lays out the town's current predicament. Evidently one of the logging teams stumbled upon a structure in the woods and decided to check it out. Of the six man team, only one returned....Ansen, and he didn't check in with anyone. He was spotted getting drunk last night and hasn't been seen since. Elder Foxhorn wants the party to go and see if they can find out what happened to the other men and report back to him. He won't know what this job pays until he knows what is going on, but the party has his assurances they will be taken care of appropriately.

The party takes the Elder at his word and inquires where the logging party was working the day before. The best the Elder can do is give them a general location on a map and tell them which path out of town is best to take.

The party immediately heads out of town on the appropriate trail and starts looking for tracks around the distance they expect the logging group to have headed off. They quickly encounter one of the other work crews and ask for some clarification on where the other missing group was working the day before. With this help they are able to quickly identify where the loggers were working when they disappeared OOC: This may be a nothing thing, but I thought it smart that the party sought out the other logging group for assistance instead of just trying to scout out on their own. The party scans the area and comes across a roughly pyramid shaped dome of rock outcropping that has a big hole smashed into the side.

Heading on up to the rock, they see a rough 2' hole that had been bashed in along with a discarded ax. Since it is too dark in the hole they light a torch and drop it inside. The party can make out a small rectangular-shaped pool of water below that seems to have a tiled border surrounding it. The water is brackish and they cannot see the far end of the room. There is some discussion as how to proceed. A closer examination of the area surrounding the hole reveals some bits and pieces of rope. It appears that someone had tied a rope around the ax and used it as an anchor to lower themselves inside.

The party follows suit, lowering themselves into the hole one by one. Once inside they figure the pool is maybe 20'x 30' with a generous 5' walkway. They can see an open door and a close door on either side of the pool. As soon as they start moving a flurry of activity erupts as a couple of Giant Boring Beetles scuttle down the walkways, closely followed by some Giant Centipedes. The fighter-types split up to engage the creatures on two fronts, one on each side of the pool. Voskkal, the Ranger, takes some big hits, but manages to deliver some bigger hits. The centipedes have no qualms about scurrying over the beetles and the party to tray and bite. Voskkal manages to avoid getting bitten, but Myka get bit repeatedly, leaving a series of nice welts, but doing little damage otherwise. Once Voskkal finishes his foes he runs around the far end of the pool and engages the beetle from behind. It goes down in a nasty pile of goo (critical hit) which sends Voskkal flying when he slips in the beast's gooey guts. Luckily he doesn't land in the nasty water. Once the foes are dispatched they are shuffled off into the murky depths of the pool.

The party finds the half-eaten body of one of the missing loggers in the corner of the room. At the far end there are two small alcoves, both of which have rather large and heavy ossuary or small and heavy sarcophagus. One has been pulled away from it's niche and set on the floor. On both sides of the room are some disturbing frescoes showing children with golden eyes and skull caps either being operated on or frolicking about. The party takes the body and places it underneath their exit before moving on into the open room.

That room is somewhat odd. There is an exit on the far wall flanked by two large granite statues. The center of this small (maybe 10' x 20') room is dominated by a stone basin with a drain. Two more half-eaten bodies are located near the statues. These two are dragged over to the growing pile of corpses for extraction. The party checks out the basin and the statues, but doesn't think there is anything particularly special about them. The door on the far wall is ajar. The door itself is fairly thick and appears to be made out of the same heavy stone as the statues. The group tries to see what they can in the next room before moving on.

All they can see is a edge of a large stone structure that fills the center of the small room. They can see a small exit off to the left, but it appears to be submerged as they can make out light dancing upon some water below a first step down. There are frescoes on the walls in here too, but they cannot be made out very well.

They push open the door, which takes a bit of effort, but is easily accomplished. Once the door is open they can make out the frescoes and see that the stone structure is an opened crypt of some type. As the trio approaches, two Massive Centipedes spring out of the crypt's opening, rear up on hundreds of hind legs, and tries to bite at them. A couple more painful welts are delivered before the pair is put down, but the party prevails relatively unscathed. Once that matter is concluded they can take a look at the crypt and the frescoes, but they choose to ignore a brass urn hanging a couple of feet down from the tall sloped ceiling. When they go to look at the crypt a sudden puff of greyish smoke rises from within and continues up, and through, the ceiling. Inside the crypt is a big cocoon filled with some vile looking black sludge. The party doesn't want to search the crypt further and proceeds to examine the walls. Four more frescoes depict some sort of life and times of an insectoid-man hybrid, a human woman, and those same children from the earlier frescoes. The group finds this rather creepy and declines going down into the water.

Back out in the pool room they decide to take a second look at the stone ossuaries. They get the covers off of the one on the ground already and find the preserved skeleton of a child, sans head. The other cover comes off more easily and the contents are similar, but this one has it's head. The skull is wearing a bronze skullcap and had two bronze orbs stuffed into the eye sockets. One orb falls out of the skull and rolls into the pool before anyone can stop it.

The party leaves the skeletons as they found them and tries to open the closed door. There isn't a handle to be found and the door has only a little give when pushed. The party cannot seem to open the door and gets a little frustrated. They really want to find the bodies of the last two loggers and they assume there might be some answers on the other side of this door. They search around the pool for some clues but the best they can do is find some scratches on the bottom of the door. The conclude that maybe the door slides instead of swings and they use one of the logger's axes they found earlier as a pry tool. They manage to get the door to slide up, but they end up setting off some sort of trap. Glass vials fall from above the door somewhere and smash upon the floor. They let out some noxious vapors that cause the Half-Elf Anise to pass out cold. She comes too soon enough, but is very weak and pale.

Voskkal and Myka give the door another go and manage to finally get it open and use the same ax to prop it open. The room beyond the door doesn't look like the other rooms they've encountered so far. It is smaller at maybe 10' by 15' and appears to have been painted a vibrant orange. The air in here is expectantly damp and the walls & ceiling are covered in a thick mucous mold or slime. There is another crypt in the center of the room and a small pile of metal, mostly coins and a belt buckle, in a small pile of sorts on the floor next to the crypt. Voskkal takes the lead to check out the room and almost as soon as he steps in a large glop of the slime falls form the ceiling, landing on his arm. The slime quickly eats into his armor and starts to burn into his arm. Voskkal runs to the pool and sticks his arm under water, to no avail. Discarding the torch he uses his free arm to draw steel and tries scraping the slime off. Anise and Myka try to help, but it is too late as Voskkal succumbs to the combination of the slime and previous wounds.

Anise and Myka do scrape off the remaining slime and fling it into the water. After cleaning their blades they drag Voskkal's body over to the other three and climb out out of the hole. Between the two of them they cannot get Voskkal's corpse back to town, much less the other three. The pair makes a bee-line for the other logging group and enlists their help to recover the bodies and return to town.

The party is now down to two, having lost a pair of Ranger brothers within weeks of each other.

NPCs Introduced:
Ansen Redblack (Human Male: Logger)