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)

Cleaning Up at the Kobold Lair (28th of Haar'Kiev)

Courtesy of ROFL Initiative

Pin'Mar, the 28th of Haar'Kiev in the year 14063.
The party took a few days to rest and recuperate before going back to the Kobold Cavern to finish cleaning it out. They follow their old pathway to the cave and once more Lucky cuts down a sapling to serve as an improvised 10’ pole. He takes the lead and heads straight into the cave, bypassing the more difficult but cleaner route to the right and instead heads straight in to the cesspool.

A moment later he feels the sharp sting of pain as he steps on some sharpened sticks that have been pushed into the muck and mire. They give some under his weight due to the “mud” and thanks to his boots he isn't hurt too badly. He knows he’ll have to be careful about cleaning out that wound. The rest of the party decides to take their time and work their way through the side passage.

While they are climbing up in order to transverse the passage, Lucky scouts forwards, probing ahead with the stick. He gets to the end of the main entrance cavern as the rest of the party clears the passage. The probe catches on something and two distinct clicks are heard just before two small crossbow bolts launch out to strike Lucky. Evidently he had tripped a line fastened to the triggers of some fixed kobold crossbows. Both bolts hit, but the damage is minimal.

The group reassembles and pushes forward into the next cavern, which is the one where they fought last time. While the pools of blood have been dried, there are no other signs of their earlier combat. The field of battle has been picked clean. The party cautiously moves forward. They toss lit torches ahead of them to illuminate two of the exits they haven’t checked out yet and Anise keeps watch to the side exit behind them, which is the same exit where some kobolds tried to get in behind them last time. Lucky sets up a crude alarms system to help Anise watch that rear tunnel. The party is split up somewhat in this cavern covering both exits when the kobolds attack on both fronts. The battle rages for a bit with the party getting the upper hand.

As the battle comes to the inevitable conclusion, Anise spots two kobolds making a break for it. A fatter kobold practically waddles ahead of a huge brute of a kobold. The come up the back tunnel setting off the alarm before making a bee-line for the forest. Rythax and Myka finish the last kobolds engaged in combat and chase after the pair of fleeing kobolds. Rythax is closer and is able to engage in the large kobold who has taken a defensive position at the natural choke point where Lucky had earlier set off the crossbows. The two trade some terrible blows. Rythax nearly fells the beast with a vicious swing of his longsword. The kobold is knocked back, but he doesn’t go down. It comes back in swinging aggressively and slays Rythax with an equally vicious counter-attack. As his body goes limp Myka is able to move in and finish the brutish kobold.

Most of the group is stunned at this point, but Lucky doesn’t hesitate. Just because the Ranger is down it doesn’t mean he’s out. The fat kobold is moving too slowly and even with the battle buying her some time, she hasn’t made it out of the cave entrance. Lucky sprints after her. At one point the floor collapses underneath him, but because of his momentum he is easily able to keep going after the last kobold. A single backstab fells that remaining kobold and the party emerges victorious.

The victory is bitter-sweet though for Rythax is definitely dead. Once that has been definitively determined the party sets out to check out the rest of the cave system. The fat kobold was actually a very pregnant female that was set to deliver at any moment. She had one her some sort of gnomish ointment that she had been nibbling on. The brutish male was probably her mate. He was large enough to wear some smaller human sized armor and wielded a high-quality short sword. That hole in the floor went down 15’-20’ and ended in some long wooden spikes.

Checking out the rest of the complex the party discovers that the kobolds they had killed earlier were being cannibalized by the survivors, most likely to keep them fed while they shored up the caves defenses. Evidently Lucky had set off every single trap they had made in the two days the party was recovering. There were few kobolds left and half that they just fought were actually females. Down in the back of the cave was a small stream that looked navigable. It wasn’t too deep, but the prospect of slugging up (or down) a small tunnel in a cold underground stream doesn’t seem like much fun. The cavern continues past the stream and curves around to reveal a gold encrusted wall. Small crystals of gold poke out from the wall and a few are scattered about on the ground.

The survivors take a few whacks at the wall collecting some samples which they promptly hide. Everyone is filled with mixed emotions. They’ve just lost a friend, but they’ve found a treasure beyond their dreams. Once they are convinced the cave is free of kobolds they gather up Rythax’s body and take him back to town. They turn in the kobold ears and report their results to the Elder. The Elder sees to Rythax’s body and informs his family. That night is spent drowning their sorrows in Rythax’s favorite watering hole: the Dark Titan Taproom.

After the funeral, and a couple weeks off to train, the party gathers back up at the Taproom to discuss their future plans. Rythax's brother Voskkal, who Anise can vouch for, decides to join them....despite the fact his brother just died with this group. They decide it might be best to see about how to legitimately acquire their new mine. Anise looks into whatever records the town might hold and discovers that there was once a mine claim there and it was called Shane’s Delve. For a paltry sum of 10 Gold (100sp) they can pretty much purchase the cave rights outright. While it is a bit much, if the party sells everything they can and use Rythax’s shares they can scrape up enough to purchase mining rights. They head out the next day to their new mine and toil away to extract some of its riches.

They take a small sample back to town with them after the first day of hard labor and have the town’s only jeweler take a look at it. He immediately dismisses it as pyrite, or Fool’s Gold. He explains the crystalline structure of this sample to be the dead giveaway that it isn't real gold.

The party is understandably upset and makes plans to leave town to find some “proper” adventuring.

Moons:

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




"Loot":
Healing Salve
Studded Leather
Short Sword +1
OOC: My notes are incomplete for this session

Initial Assault on the Kobold Lair (22nd of Haar'Kiev)

Box o Kobolds by HackPrincess

Sa'Mar, the 22nd of Haar'Kiev in the year 14063.
The party meets up at their usual meeting place of the Dark Titan Taproom. Rythax has breakfast since he is the only one who doesn't reside in town. They decide to go out and see if Lucky's snares managed to catch anything. Finding the minor side trail from the day before isn't a problem because they had marked it well. Rythax takes the lead and manages to avoid falling back into the pit trap they reset the day before. One of Lucky's snares had been set off, but the free end is swaying in the wind because the noose had been crudely hacked off. Rythax notices two pairs of kobold tracks leading away from the snare. The prints seem to be a bit closer to each other and more obvious than expected and he surmises that they belong to a pair of kobolds carrying a heavy load.

The party follows the tracks Northwest into the heavily wooded foothills. Up ahead is a cave. Lucky decides to scout out ahead and as he approaches the cave he notices a rather foul odor emanating from within. He scouts out the entrance and it looks like two tunnels merge together to form the entrance. The wider tunnel is between five and ten foot wide while the smaller one is, at best, three feet wide. He motions the rest of the group up to the entrance. Lucky goes and cuts down a small sapling to create a small (4') poking stick and prods the foul-smelling "mud". Half of the party, Lucky and Mykal, skirts the cesspool and the other two try the smaller path. By climbing up and traversing the small path from a higher elevation (exerting pressure against both sides) they can easily move along and join the others. Anise makes a fair amount of noise making the climb, but Rythax accomplishes it easily. The side path really isn't another tunnel, just part of the same cave separated by a small stone outcropping.

The next room is a large trash room. Bits and pieces of wood, skins, glass, etc. litter this large 20' across cavern. Most of the litter is pushed up against the sides of the room, forming a path down the middle. Lucky pokes and prods with his stick before tossing it aside. Since the group is venturing into a dark cave they wisely light a torch, which Anise carries from the middle of the party. Lucky decides to sneak ahead into the next room.

The next room is more a wide corridor with a rock outcropping off to one side in the back. There is a small tunnel leading down and back just inside the room on the left, but Lucky hugs the right wall. Unbeknownst to him, a trio of kobolds was on guard duty towards the back of the room, which drops down into darkness. Although he was being sneaky, the foul stench from the cesspool at the entrance gave his presence away. Two of the kobolds waited for him with crude crossbows, while the third scurried away. When he got close enough both kobolds hit him, with one being a crit! The first shot did a single point of damage and the crit only did seven. Lucky called out to his fellows who were now at the front of that room. Lucky immediately engages the nearest kobold while Rythax and Mykal move up to assist. Anise guards the rear, taking care to watch that back side tunnel. For nearly half a minute the trio trades blows with the kobolds before managing to ToP the pair. Just as the last one goes down wimpering Anise notices kobolds coming out of the side tunnel.

The group turns to engage three new kobolds and quickly discovers another three coming up from the darkness behind them. These final three kobolds emerge just as Lucky walks off with the corpse of one of the earlier kobolds, having just delivered killing blows to both ToP'd beasts. These new kobolds jog up behind the Mykal, Anise, and Rythax. Anise manages to kill one outright just before getting knocked out herself. At this point Mykal is engaged with three kobolds and Rythax with two. Lucky tries to use the body of the one kobold as an improvised weapon to no good effect on one of the kobolds engaged with Rythax. Both Rythax and Mykal are getting pretty chewed up by the kobolds to their rear. Mykal shift position to make the two kobolds behind her in front of her instead, which helps a lot. Lucky tosses his corpse at a kobold and then draws two daggers to fight offensively with both. The battle is dragging on with the kobolds getting the upper hand.

Anise comes out of her pain and from a prone position reaches out to touch one of the kobolds attacking Mykal. A jolt of electricity shoots from her hand, but has no initial effect on the creature. Three of the kobolds panic at the sight of this miniature lightning and immediately flee. Rythax cuts one down mid-stride and the other two escape, one to the side tunnel and the other out the back. The remaining two kobolds, now outnumbered, decide to go down swinging, but they do go down.

Anise quickly liberates the kobolds supply of left ears and trade coins while the rest of the group pepper her with questions as to what just happened. She convinces them they need to leave the cave and she will explain. Everyone but Anise trudges through the cesspool. Outside the cave, Rythax bandages everyone's wounds while everyone inquires about just exactly just happened. Anise explains that she can do this one thing where she can send a jolt of electricity at a target. Someone says it's just like "magic" and Rythax is convinced it is some fancy Elven ability. While Anise is close to the point of embarrassment, everyone else thinks this is the coolest thing in the world. Anise makes everyone promise to not tell anyone about her ability.

All the way back to town the group is elated having (barely) survived the encounter with the kobolds. They gush on about Anise and Lucky in particular cannot seem to stop asking inane questions like, "Can you make thing blow up?....can you make food spicy?.....can you..."

The group gets back into town early afternoon and after a quick trip to the barber to have their wounds looked at again they go to the furrier for their bounty and then the bathhouse to have themselves cleaned up. Anise needs some alone time and runs off to get her clothes sewn back up at the tailors while everyone bathes. They all meet up that night at the Dark Titan Taproom for some drinks and celebration. Rythax rents a room for "private reflection". The Gnome Titans try to get the location of the kobold cave out of the group, but nobody is professing to know exactly where it is, except Rythax...who isn't telling.

"Loot":
6sp, 98tc

Moon:

Arlora is Full Moon
Bardra'Kar is2nd Quarter Waxing
Shadara is Half Moon Waxing
Light Level: Bright




NPCs Introduced:
Carna Foxhigh (Human Female: Bathhouse Attendant)
Werter Blasfist (Human Male: Tailor)

Kobold Hunting (19th of Haar'Kiev)

Greater Kobold by Mike Simon

Ara'Mar, the 19th of Haar'Kiev in the year 14063.
This morning finds Rythax waking up in a rented room on the second floor of the Dark Titan Taproom. One of the Gnome Titans staying there let him crash on the floor because he was in no shape for waking home.

Anise and Mykal find him later in the morning nursing his hangover. He doesn't look all that well, between the drinking, sleeping in his clothes, and the damage to his pants from the day before (both the Kobolds and the Barber sewing up his wounds). The trio tries to figure out what to do that day while Lucky (the Human Thief) inquires with Elder Foxhorn about work.

Lucky knocks on the Elder's door only to find he's not in the best of moods. The Elder asks Lucky if he'd bother to look at the bulletin board for postings. Lucky admits he cannot read and they both wander over to the board for a look. There isn't anything posted, which didn't require any reading to begin with. Elder Foxhorn isn't too thrilled being bothered, but Lucky soothes him by offering to fetch the day's water from the well.

Not having anything better to do, Lucky catches up with the group and they decide to walk the mile or so out of town to the Cinder farm. One the way there they see a couple of rabbits sprint past the road, quickly followed by some juvenile wolves. The wolves circle back, surprising half the group. The resulting combat is quick, with two wolves being ToP'd and the other two run off. The party decides to head back to town with the wolf carcasses and managed to get 1 silver a piece for the pelts. The furs were rather nice, if a little small.

The group finally makes it to the farm a little bit before dinner (meals are breakfast, dinner, & supper). Mykal's mom Melena is more than happy to answer what little she knows about wolves while dinner is being made. Afterwards Lucky and Myka help out in the fields, with Lucky asking a lot of questions about farming. Anise heads back to town to put in some transcribing work at her "day job" and Rythak gets to put his feet up....literally. Mrs. Cinder looks at his wounds and makes him change out of his pants so she can have them cleaned and mended.

Gart'Mar, the 20th of Haar'Kiev in the year 14063.
The morning finds the group meeting up once again at the Dark Titan Taproom, even though everyone already ate. They wonder aloud if there was anything to do and as a group they mosey over to the village bulletin board. There is a new notice about a bounty on Kobold ears. A rather generous bounty of 1 silver per left ear, payable at the Furrier's, is now in effect. Lucky wants to see if he can get a small shield before they go out Kobold hunting. He doesn't know how to use a shield, but he wants one anyway. He heads on over to the mercer, who runs a small store. While the bulk of his wares are in textiles, he does have a small stock of other items. If he doesn't have it, he can get it within a couple of weeks. He does happen to have a small shield, but at 15 silver, it is far too expensive for Lucky (who has only a couple of silver).

The group sets off about noon towards the only place they've seen kobolds, the site of the failed ambush. The tree has already been sectioned and hauled away. Rythak searches around for tracks in the vicinity, but cannot find anything useful. The group heads back to Badger Falls empty handed. Once back at the Dark Titan Taproom they hear that most of the kobolds have been spotted to the West and North of town. The hunters aren't going out of their way looking for the kobolds, but do try to harvest them if they happen to cross paths. The group asks for any advice the hunters might have and are told, "Do not follow them into their lairs, but that is generally good advice about any animal." The party agrees to turn in and meet back at sunrise for a day of kobold hunting.

Moons:

Arlora is Full Moon
Bardra'Kar is Half Moon Waxing
Shadara is Half Moon Waxing






Pin'Mar, the 21st of Haar'Kiev in the year 14063.
The party starts off this day by meeting outside of the Dark Titan Taproom.
OOC: One of the players ask about the "dive" bar in town and I have to remind them that they've never bothered to check out the nicer establishment yet!

They decide to head off roughly North/Northwest down one of the logging trails with Rythax checking periodically for tracks. A couple hours later he manages to (luck out and) find some. The group gets in line and follows the small path, seeing where it diverges several times towards some game trails. Rythax is heads-down, only paying attention to the tracks, and manages to fall face-first into a spiked pit trap. It seems easy enough for him to climb out. The trap is along a game trail and there is a piece of rotting meat tossed in among the spikes.

Lucky gets the idea of either filling in or covering up what they assume is the kobold's pit trap and placing their own a few yards away. There is some discussion regarding this effort and when the group is ready to proceed then they discover that nobody has a shovel. The initial plan is changed from a single pit trap to a trio of small leg snares, spread out away from the game trail with the presumption that the kobolds are deliberately keeping off that trail.

By now it is afternoon and the group decides to head back to town. While Rythax is leading them back along the kobold trail that lead them to the pit trap they manage to find a trio of kobolds that was tracking them! The three rush Rythax, getting in two quick hits before he can retaliate. Both wounds are minor, but Rythax still hasn't recovered from his last kobold encounter. Rythax's initial attack was so ferocious it killed the lead kobold on the spot, sending its body flying back 10' and landing with a sickening thud. The corpse is hunched over in an unnatural position. The other two immediately turn and run away at a 90* angle from the path, in opposite directions. Lucky tries to follow one, but it managed to get away. The dead kobold has its ear removed, a handful of trade coins liberated, and it's lifeless body strewn aside. The party makes it back to town and gets its bounty.

"Loot":
3sp, 20tc

NPCs introduced:
Belpas Slayergrey (Human Male: Furrier)
Greneerill (Halfling Male: Mercer)
Melena Cinder (Human Female: Retired Knight) Cinder Farm

The Adventure Begins (16th of Haar'Kiev)

Borrowed from TSR

Tu'Mar, the 16th of Haar'Kiev in the year 14063.
Myka (Human Fighter), Rythak (Human Ranger) and Lucky (Human Thief) are being discharged from their contractual obligations with the town militia, the day after Gronger Fest, as is tradition. They have served their two years well and have discovered their own skills and abilities during their rather boring term of service.

During the Age of Magic Gronger Fest was largely a celebration masquerading as a Purity and Cleansing Event. Over the course of the Upheaval it has evolved to a more somber reflection.  Traditionally communities partaking in Gronger Fest fast during the day as they finish up their planting and otherwise recover from the previous winter. Most people refrain from unnecessary commerce and spend their working hours in quiet reflection. In the evenings very poor meals, typically little more than broth and unleavened bread, are shared at ancestral gravesites. Today, the day after Gronger Fest is a busy day of preparation for the day following, which is the real "Fest".

Quay'Mar, the 17th of Haar'Kiev in the year 14063.
The trio is looking forward to the huge party that is, "the first day of the rest of their lives...." following their conscription. Rythak's Half-Elven friend Anise (Thief) joins them in their celebrations.

Run'Mar, the 18th of Haar'Kiev in the year 14063.
The group nurses their hang-overs at the Dark Titan Taproom and try to plan out what they want to do over a meal of Bacon, Chicken Eggs, Soft Cheese, Apple, and Rice (1cp) along with some Cut Beer (5tc/pint). Some discussion is made about looking to hire on with a Halfling Caravan, but the waitress informs them that the caravan left town earlier that morning.

The PCs decide to look for work at the village bulletin board, a de-barked tree outside of one of the village Elders's home. Unfortunately all of the notices have been removed for some reason. The group realizes that their late start on the day probably gave the other guys who were discharged the time to take down the notices. As they discuss the lack of work, they notice a Halfling ride up in a wagon and approach the Elder's door. The Half-elf speaks Halfling and can overhear the conversation. evidently about three miles out of town the Halfling caravan encountered a tree knocked over, blocking the trail out of town. The caravan, assuming it was a trap of some type, simply turned around and returned to Badger Falls. The Halflings consider the safety of the road the responsibility of the village and want them to check it out.

The Elder, seeing the party next to the vacant bulletin board, calls them over and asks them to head out of town and investigate. He will send some lumberjacks out to clear the road, but wants to make sure that they will be safe. The pay is 2sp for this job and the party enthusiastically agrees to the work.

About an hour out of town, in a spot where the trail is bordered by some low hills, the path is blocked by a large tree. The party can clearly see where the caravan made a tight turn well before the treefall. They investigate more closely and they can see what looks like hatchet marks that chopped the tree down. The town isn't harvesting in this area and upon further inspection Rythak easily discovers some odds tracks leading from the tree and up a game trail to the North. Lucky climbs up on one of the hills as the party starts up the trail, with Rythak taking the lead. Just a few feet up the game trail the Ranger trips a spiked branch trap and takes a minor flesh wound to the leg. He notices some movement in the brush ahead and rushes forward. Four small canine-men jump out to ambush the party and two of them get in good blows. The party rushes in to counter-attack and the party quickly prevails, but not without Rythak taking some serious wounds (down to 1/3 of his starting HP).

There is some discussion among the group about what to do with the bodies. They manage to find 61tc among the corpses and some crappy arms and armor. They take the coins, one creature's head head, and all of the ears with them back to town. Just outside town they find the Halfling caravan and the merchant they met earlier waves them over. The merchant identifies the creature as a Kobold and asks if they have any other trophy other than the head. They mention the ears and the merchant offers them 2tc per left ear, explaining that in some areas they offer bounties on Kobold ears. The merchant might be able to re-sell the ears to another merchant who can then turn them in.

After meeting with the Halflings and making a small amount of coin from the ears, the party gets their 2sp from the Elder and heads back to the Dark Titan Taproom to recuperate. They nurse some beers until the evening meal of Beef Steak, Spinach, Leeks, Flatbread, and Rhubarb Pie (3cp) comes around. A small group of Gnome Titans comes in, like they do most evenings, and find out about the Kobold fight. They buy Rythak a Gut-Bruiser, which goes down rather easily, and ask for a telling of the tale. The Gnome-Titans are fascinated by the Ranger's pluck and spend the rest of the night buying him drinks and asking for everyone to tell their parts of the battle.

"Loot":
2sp, 69tc

NPCs introduced:
Fanalum Fairstrong (Human Female: Waitress at the Dark Titan Taproom)
Flana (Gnome-Titan Female: Waitress at the Dark Titan Taproom)
Allan Foxhorn (Human Male: Village Elder)
Rorleerorlkin (Halfling Male: Merchant)

Moons:

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