By: Stan Lingle,
By the time the group made it back to town after the
adventure in the mine, much had changed. When they grabbed a table at the
Defeated Pillows, the bartender couldn’t wait to tell them that Tormund Gliviv had
sold his mine rights to Sir Klavin, the lord of the Norrington, and promptly hightailed
it out of town. The dwarf had bought out our contracts for 30 gold pieces each
(25 for Tomeck, plus an oathstone). Furthermore, his lordship asked us to
remain and paid for our stay at the tavern. Sir Klavin had already left town
again, either out hunting or helping to prepare the town for Guldize, the
harvest festival.
Lord Tordek also left abruptly with his retinue, without so
much as a word to his new companions. His debt to Tormund’s family was
obviously paid. Varus wasn’t surprised that a nobleman had left without saying au revoir to the common folk, but he
would have liked the opportunity to toast their exploits. He was an interesting
fellow.
We had some time on their hands until Lord Norrington was
expected back. Varus was fascinated by the gem, and felt that it played a role
in the strange events. He enlisted Basel’s help to investigate, and they
discovered that the gem emanated planar magic. Varus also performed 5 nights at
the tavern, earning a respectable amount in tips for a small town. He followed
up his performances with several hours at the gaming tables, so Basel ended up
doing much of the research. The goddess of luck was with Varus at the tables,
and he won 5 gp. He also noticed a newcomer. An attractive, well-dressed
wood-elf. She was also doing well at the tables. Tomeck spent his time in
research and discovered the formula to a ring of protection. Flidais went out hunting
and sold the pelts and meat to the local markets, making a sizable return. Nagi
honed his level of perception, but he knew that it would be some time before he
mastered that skill. He also went to the smithy and had his rapier coated with
silver to assist in his fight against the evil lycanthropes.
During that time, several buyers showed up to inquire about
the gem. Varus found this surprising, as he wasn’t aware that anyone in the
group had shared that information. Perhaps Tormund had contacted them, but none
of the buyers seemed trustworthy or of noble birth. Basel and Varus turned them
all away and would not discuss the matter with them.
Performing and hanging out in the tavern, Varus was also
aware of the changing mood of the townsfolk as the festival of Guldize
approached. Most of the autumn festivals he had performed at were joyous
village celebrations with a bounty of food. Here, some spoke of Guldize as if
it was the End Times. He spoke with people that had awoken with screaming
nightmares, either visions of their death or destruction of the town. Even
worse, there were rumors that several caravans on the King's Road had spotted a
large green dragon above the tree line over the Forest of Woe, also known as Where
Widows Are Made.
After the time apart, our group gathered at the tavern one
evening to catch up over dinner. Flidais brought a friend. While the ranger had
been on the hunt, she ran into her longtime family friend, Valentia. Valentia
was a gnome druid. Varus had known several elf druids growing up that lived in
the forests surrounding his elven hometown. He respected them and knew that
they wielded the magical power of nature. He had never met a gnome druid
before. She spoke little, and wore the skin of a panda bear. As we ate, drank,
and discussed recent events, a disturbing pattern emerged. Nagi was afflicted
with screaming nightmares of choking on the breath of a green dragon. Tomeck,
Flidais, and Basel all found dragon teeth in their bed, an obvious threat from
someone. Some thought it supernatural, but Flidais and Valentia investigated
and found it was the sign of someone putting out a hit.
Tyala was hanging out at the bar and listening to the
conversations around her, especially the table with the group she had heard so
much about. Everyone was talking about the strange events.
“Hey there, bartender, another drink. Why all the whinging?”
The bartender, Alvin Simon-Theodore, poured her a cider and
served it.
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Oh please. I’ll roll you for it.” Alvin agreed, they rolled
the dice, and Tyala rolled higher.
“Well, the owner, Dave, wouldn’t want me to be spilling me
nuts, but what are we going to do? It happens every year. The village is
cursed, I tell ya, cursed.” She listened to the bartender, then realized our
group was talking of the same thing. She walked over to the table.
“I had the same nightmare last night,” she told Nagi. “This
is more than mere coincidence. Hello. My name is Tyala.”
The bard spoke up. “Indeed. My name is Varus. These are my
companions. It seems that we have a common purpose.” He introduced his
companions in turn. They had barely begun drinking and talking when they heard a
rider yelling and approaching at full gallop. He fell off his mount and
staggered into the tavern.
“I’m losing my head, and I’m worried I may be dead. Sir Klavin,
that I read it said, hurry, for I may be dead,” he babbled and keeled over on
the companions table…to reveal a dagger in his back. The hilt was the symbol of
The Five. Varus immediately cast a healing spell to stabilize him.
“We were out on the plains…when they morphed into
trees…illusions of trees…evil woods. We were…ambushed by…someone. Sir Klavin was
captured. I was stabbed before I could escape on horse. I fear Sir Klavin will
be killed if no one can help him.
Our group, including Valentia and Tyala, discussed the
matter and quickly agreed to find and help Sir Klavin before it was too late.
Given the distance, we needed transportation. When we got to the stables, Varus
was ready to negotiate. Tyala stepped up and got an excellent price on two
horses and a carriage that had seen better days. We split the cost for the rig…and
regarded our new mounts. Basel was quite taken with them. He decided that we
needed to name them, and dubbed one of them Rao. The same name as his patron,
the god of peace and reason. Nagi thought this was a great idea and decided to
name the other horse Bert, after his patron St. Cuthbert. Varus was amused that
the two would name mounts after their deities. He could have sworn he heard
thunder in the distance.
We gathered our gear and boarded our new ride…and quickly
came to the realization that Tomeck was the only one that knew how to handle our
new horses (other than Valentia, who declined to drive animals attached to a
carriage). Tomeck graciously accepted the reins, and headed out of town. Valentia
accompanied the carriage…riding an impressive bull mastiff.
As we traveled in the carriage, Varus told Tyala the tale of
the group’s adventure in the mine. Flidais told us about encountering much
larger wolves and warned Tomeck to watch for them. She also informed us that Valentia
has seen giant spiders, some bigger than her mastiff. She also had heard of the
howling terror. The wolf with red eyes.
The woods were getting deeper and Tomek and Valentia,
outside of the carriage, were getting concerned. They could see webs in the
trees, webs that were getting thicker as they progressed. Tomeck drove the team
faster and Valentia urged her animal companion to keep up the pace. Tomeck saw
a tree that something had ripped apart. Valentia saw things caught in the webbing; one looked like a large bird. Soon, we
got to a point where the forest seemed like a living thing. Tomek stopped the
carriage and we got out. The brambles crept closer.
Basel used his dragon claw and cut through a bramble. It
promptly started growing back. We looked at each other and then started hacking
our way through the brambles. After an hour, we finally emerged from the woods
and moved well away from them. We made camp, gathered firewood, lit a fire and
cooked dinner. Nightfall came early, and Valentia warned us that daybreak might
come late due to the deep forest.
Basel cast a spell to speak with animals, but the only
animals around were the carriage horses.
“So, uh, Rao, how are you?”
“Fine, I guess. These woods are freaking me out, man.”
“It will be all right. Have you seen anything?”
“Neigh. Just eating some hay. That was a long carriage ride,
man.”
“What about you, Bert?”
“That’s Cuthbert the 3rd, Esquire to you. Well, I
miss my friend Ernie.” His voice dropped to a low whinny, “and I hate this
fellow.” He resumed his normal horsey volume. “I have not seen anything
either.”
Flidais walked up with some carrots and gave them to Basel
to feed the horses. Tomeck took the first watch as we settled in for the night.
Everyone else was in the carriage except for Varus, who was sleeping on top so
he could see the stars.
Tomek heard the sound of flapping wings up at the tree line,
and large dragon, with a wingspan of 100 feet, flew into the clearing! Tomek
and Varus froze. The dragon landed near the camp and looked around. It sniffed
the air, as if sensing for something. Its green scales shimmered in the
firelight. It charged the carriage and bowled into it. The carriage tipped, but
did not fall over, and slammed down still upright. Tomeck and Varus hid on the
other side. The dragon leapt up on the wagon, and then into the air as the
carriage tipped over. The dragon flew off into the night. Tomeck and Varus
remembered to breath. Everyone got out, and we pushed the wagon back over. The
dragon was obviously looking for something, but why it did not attack, they
could only wonder and give thanks. Basel comforted Rao and told him that he
loved him. Everyone tried to get back to sleep, but with little success. What
if the dragon came back?
Basel took second watch and some time later heard the howling
of wolves. We had not re-lit the campfires after the dragon incident, so he had
only a torch. Someone yelled for help. Basel woke up the Flidais.
“Dangers afoot. Just follow me!” Then we all heard sound of
screaming and wolves growling. We scrambled and grabbed gear as we spread out to
search. Another howl pierced the night.
Tomek shouted “Over here!” and shot sparklers towards the
sound. We spotted a very large dire wolf and a regular-sized wolf. Tomek cast firebolts
at the dire wolf, but before anyone could react, the other wolf charged and bit
Tyala! Valentia slashed it with her thorn whip, but it seemed to have little
effect. Varus cast a spell on it, and it fell down, laughing hysterically.
Flidais cast a hail of thorns and then pegged the huge wolf with an arrow. Tyala,
understandably shaken, missed the large wolf. Basel cast Hunter’s Mark on the dire
wolf, but could not hit with his javelin.
“Attack the other one, I will focus on this wretched
creature,” Nagi said as he struck with a flurry of blows on the man-wolf. Only
his sword seemed to hurt it. The dire wolf ran up and snapped in Basel’s face
but missed. Tomek walked up and fire shot forth from his fingertips, burning
both of them. Varus sang a spell of sleep on the wolves and they slept. Flidais
coup de graced the big wolf. Nagi turned to finish the werewolf when Basel came
up and planted his shield to protect him.
“Why are you killing this creature?”
“Why are you defending it? It needs to die. It is evil.” He
dodged around Basel and stabbed the creature, killing it. It turned into a teen
wolf. “Don’t get between me and any werebeasts.”
Flidais healed Tyala’s bite, and we looked at each other
uneasily. Even those who knew little of the werewolf knew that the bite of the
creature could be infectious. We had to find a way to heal her.
Flidais skinned the dire wolf; the hide ending up weighing 23
pounds. To take it with us, she decided to drape it over the carriage. The
resulting ride inside was quite nauseating, between the smell and sight of the
newly-cut hide. Varus elected to sit on top of the carriage. Basel observed
that he thought the rode too well traveled, when four humans came running
across the field towards us. They were carrying something and trying to cut us
off. Bandits. Varus and Tyala shot and killed two. More appeared in front of
us, and Flidais blasted them with a hail of thorns.
The bandits dropped the battering ram and shot at Tomeck
instead. He tried to run down the ones in the road. The carriage horses, having
never tried to intentionally run people over before, got spooked at the charge,
and stopped. The hide started sliding forward off the carriage, but Tomeck
managed to stop it and cast burning
hands on the other attacking force, burning them down. The battle was quickly
over. The stench of burned human flesh hung in the air. Basel got down and
hugged Rao. “I love you, Rao.” We quickly searched the bodies and found 70
arrows, 3 short bows, 35 copper pieces, a mace, and the battering ram. We
pushed forward.
A short time later, we found a stray horse tied to a tree.
It had all of its gear and saddlebags and bore the markings of Sir Klavin. Valentia
asked a woodpecker if it had seen the lord or a dragon. It did see the nobleman
with brown hair. It did not see a dragon. Basel searched the saddlebags and
found four potions of healing, which he distributed. The coin purse was empty. We
continued, but the path quickly narrowed, and we had to park the wagon and tie
up the horses.
We headed down the path, which soon turned to the right. At
the top of a small rise ahead, there was a camp. Varus and Tayla snuck forward.
As they got to the base of the hill and hid, they saw four bandits with marking
of the Hand of the Five. There was another green half dragon man there as well.
He was yelling at the bandits.
“This camp is a disgrace. If Syythren'daal were here, he’d
have your hides!” The dragon man went into a tent and emerged dragging a rope,
with Sir Klavin at the end of it. He pulled him across the camp to a ritual
altar. Varus signaled Tyala to go back and grab the others. He tried to sneak to
a flanking position, but was spotted by one of the guards. Tomek firebolted the
half dragon as Flidais fired arrow, which bounced off the half dragon’s breast
plate. Varus hit it with dissonant whispers in its mind, but it shrugged off
much of the assault.
“Bah, is that all you’ve got?” the dragon man roared. Just
as he did, Tyala’s arrow slammed into his breastplate.
A bandit pegged Varus with a javelin and he reeled backward.
Valentia charged up on her mastiff and healed him, only for Varus to get hit
with an arrow. Nagi moved to the left. Basel cast bless on some of us, then
cast Hunter’s Mark on the dragon man. One bandit missed Varus and one hit
Flidais. Tomek blasted three bandits and they went down, but the chaotic nature
of his magic also caused Varus to be poisoned. Flidais gave Varus her potion and
then she dashed up the hill and hit the creature with an arrow. The dragon man was
hurt but charged up and stopped right in front of the party. He breathed a
cloud of poisonous gas on four of us. Valentia and Tyala collapse. Varus and
Basel were reeling, barely on their feet. Varus cast the dissonant whispers and
fell back, singing to inspire the monk who landed two blows on the creature. Tyala
teetered on the edge of death, while Valentia stabilized. Basel laid hands on
the rogue and druid, saving both their lives and bringing them around. He stood
over them with his shield to protect them while they recovered. Tomek’s magic
missiles and Flidais arrows finished the dragon man. Nagi took down the last
bandit.
We untied Sir Klavin. He had been ambushed on the elk hunt
by a terrible screeching dragon. One bandit was still alive, and we bound him. We
also searched the camp. Then we headed back to Norrington. We had arrived in time
and the battle was won. Varus could scarcely believe they had rescued Sir
Klavin, but knew that this second gem only deepened the mystery.
a) Total Chapter Coinage found: 80GP, 1128SP, 2234CP. 11 GP,
161 SP, 319 CP
b) Gems found: 3 Agates (10g each), 1 Malachite (10g), 3
tiger's eye (10g each). One gem each
c) Three unidentified potions
d) A javelin of embers (1d6+4 fire damage)
e) A suit of half-dragon sized plate mail
f) A silvered rapier
g) A sister green gem that is fist-sized. It radiates Conjuration magic.
h) An incomplete map with four puzzle pieces.
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