15th Fire (9/16/16)

Hathun, First-Week, Fourth-day, the Now-Year

Save for Flumi, Barnowl, and the colossal frog-thing, all villagers of the Nest have been rallied into the Wasp Rider's Roost caverns, where they are presumed to have the best defense about whatever strange force might be compromising the settlement. Waxmeister Sprue beseeches the PCs to send some deeper into the Roost to make sure it's free of harmful wasplings or other threats to the gnomes, so Un'Krug, Slakethirst, Nahar, Klovak and Borracho head down to clear out any problems. Cynjak summons a spirit that turns into a mangy dire wolf steed. The rest of the party decides to go check on Tanziver's tree to make sure there aren't any stragglers there. Slagmoor and Kaarl ascend the tree and find that a maid and cook are still there, who are then convinced to flee. The cook offers all the food he has prepared in the kitchen. They descend the tree and are harried off to safety.

While in the gnome leader's tree, Kaarl spied a figure on top of one of the mushrooms further north in the village, so the party goes to investigate. En route, they uncover an entire stealth force of goblin archers, witches, brutes, trained raptors and a warchief riding a weird looking triceratops. All the goblins wear strange wooden faceplates over their noses, but are well armored and well trained. The archers fire poisoned arrows that can slow their targets, while the three witches fire off all manner of troublesome spells. However, their challenge is met with some craft conjuring of beasts as Kaarl sets a cloud of pteranodons to harass the archers, and an allosaurus to take the brunt of deadly blows from the warchief and his mount. A little deeper into the battle, Lord Barnowl appears from behind, helping take out an archer on a mushroom before he proceeds into the melee fray.

Numerous PCs are brought down and revived, but midway through the battle Prince Slagmoor is laid out for good when he bleeds out onto the Verdant after a brief bout of unconsciousness... With renewed fury, and just a hint of luck, the PCs manage to slay the enemy forces down to the last goblin, and then rummage through their bodies to take off their equipment. Now they prepare to sweep the area and discover just what this entire attack might have been about...

PCs: Barnowl, Cynjak, Kaarl, Nexa, Slagmoor, Yor, Yukkbutt
XP rewarded: 2000
Inspiration rewarded: 1 (all PCs)
Renown: +1 Ten-Tribes

14th Fire (8/19/2016)

Hathun, First-Week, Third-day, the Now-Year

After the battle against the unusual bounty hunter, the PCs are rejoined by Yor and Slagmoor who were off hunting. They go over the items that they've looted from the hunter's corpse, and then decide to proceed onwards to The Nest as quickly as possible, resting on the way to heal wounds.

Hathun, First-Week, Fourth-day, the Now-Year



The PCs arrive at the outskirts of The Nest, and find a strange, small village of overgrown mushrooms and a few trees surrounding small bodies of water. They meet a strange, skipping, possibly insane young gnome and reaffirm that the male Wasp Riders and the village chief Tanziver are still gone and missing. She says she hasn't seen any strange creatures or characters arriving lately, but sends them off to the droopy Barnowl, a human guard who was hired on to watch over the village in the wake of the Wasps' departure. Yor recognizing Barnowl as a narcoleptic mercenary who was kicked out of the Spent Men. The party divides into a few smaller groups to explore the village, inquiring with the locals, most of which turn out to be quite strange.

They discover a giant frog is taking up the local fishery, and the place's proprietor Flumi beseeches them for help. Borracho unsuccessfully attempts to cast spells on both the frog and fisherman, but Un'Krug manages to speak with the frog, who claims it is simply here to eat everything and will eventually get around to them. The local wisewoman Gnoreen is visited, and she seems to be having strange visions. Yukkbutt scopes out the Wasp Riders' cave, but it does appear empty. Kaarl and SlakeThirst find evidence that some creature dragged a body into one of the ponds, and the entire group dregs it out to find a severed dwarf leg. The PCs surmise that Gnoreen's maid Bellende might know something, but when they arrive she's gone, and they find a face that's been removed!


Gnoreen tells the group that the maid went off to the Waxworks for some supplies, so they head their and meet up with the eclectic Waxmeister Sprue. Yor convinces Sprue to loan him some bees, which might be useful at stinging and driving off the colossal frog from the pond nearby. Kaarl and Slakethirst find goblin tracks hidden under leaves near the village, and the dwarves in the party think they hear some drumming in the near distance. A frightened young gnome rushes into the village, also thinking he heard the drums. Worried about a possible raid while the Wasp Riders' away, the PCs convince almost all the locals to all gather up at the Waxworks, and then they move them over to the Wasp Riders' cavern, which they think is the most defendable structure. Once they tell Barnowl, he stalks off alone to deal with the potential threat! The PCs await the next move of their hidden enemy.


PCs: Borracho, Cynjak, Kaarl, Nexa, Slagmoor, Slakethirst, Un'Krug, Yor, Yukkbutt
XP rewarded: 900
Inspiration rewarded: Nexa, Slagmoor
Renown: --

NPCs

Bellende (dwarf female): A fair-faced, pretty young dwarf, her hair is formed into perfect curls and ringlets adorned with golden tassles of corn and horse-hair. She is pleasantly plump, with humble but well-crafted brown robes that show that she takes her profession seriously.

Flumi (gnome male): A decrepit, squat figure, this male gnome wears a stuffed bass as a centerpiece on his straw hat, and his shock white, closely trimmed beard is full of fish hooks adorned with tassles and colored beads. He wears several sashes of bone knives and other sharp implements and leans on a stick that he can fold out into a fishing rod.

Gnoreen (gnome female): Haggard, elderly and bedridden, this creature is a whale of a withered old gnome who also seems to be blind in her left eye. Her long, greasy gray hair is patchy, and she has large hairs hanging between her eyebrows down her nose; and an unsightly mole on her cheek, which is tied off in a ribbon. She stares at you as if she knows every secret you might harbor.

Lord Barnowl (human male): A tall, stoic man with drooping eyes, his elaborate, thick moustaches and beard hang down to his waist, and he wears a bone helmet with horns jutting out. His demeanor goes beyond calm to sluggish, to the point where he doesn’t seem capable of wielding the scythe he has strapped to his back, or the handaxe at his belt. He seems to yawn when addressing you.

Skippitee (gnome female): A jovial young gnome with clumps of warts and freckles over her weather beaten face, she wears a mushroom cap over a straw hat and strawberry hair. She’s also got a pair of dirty overalls made from a leathery hide, into which she stuffs all manner of flowers, bugs and mushrooms. She seems to a lot of spring in her step and not a care in the world.

Waxmeister Sprue (gnome male): Bedecked in a cloak of honeycombs and a drooping hat with a smoking candle, this middled aged gnome cuts a strange figure. His sharp eyebrows have multiple tiers to them and his nose hairs have been waxed into a loop on his septum. He leans on a sturdy staff with a mushroom cap and several dangling lanterns with lit, gently smoking candles.

13th Fire (7/29/16)

Hathun, First-Week, Second-day, the Now-Year

After thoroughly double checking the caverns beneath the Falls, the PCs decide to take their captive and the freed sorceress back to the surface, both hissing and mocking SlakeThirst all the while, although the warlock only shoots one of them with eldritch blast occasionally to remind them what's up. Apparently the dragonborn were attempting to eat her to consume her magic. They all trek back towards the Place-of-Scales, at which point SlakeThirst and a shapeshifted Kaarl break away to bring Pergeron to Mosh, while the rest of the party goes to scout out a column of smoke to the southeast of the village. As Slake and Kaarl enter, they notice its eerily silent, several dragonborn corpses have been destroyed, and they are soon pelted with small missile attacks (slings, etc). After one more verbal exchange, Pergeron manages to snap free almost instantly from his bone manacles, and rushes off to his mate's cottage. She emerges with a longbow, looking as if she too will threaten the PCs! They book it to the south...

Meanwhile, the others have arrived at a makeshift 'refugee' camp where Tyvim Jaava, Yor, and Urst, two men from Court-of-Crows (Klovak and Nahar) and a well-dressed dwarf named Borracho are being guarded by two of Chief Wralasar's dragonborn loyalists. It would seem that much trouble has occurred since the party left to find Pergeron, and now half the village is reverting to its atavistic dragon nature rather than risk the green dragon showing up again. Klovak and Nahar claim they are tracking the murderous entity from the Court and it has killed again twice, when Urnst the halfling pipes up that if it's got tracks to the North it may be after the Nest, which is now relatively defenseless with its Wasp Riders and Chief missing. The dwarf is introduced as Borracho, a wandering lore-seeker, flirt and entertainer who offers drinks to all. Klovak attempts to court Nexa the sorceress, to no avail, while Yukkbutt misuses his tan bag of tricks to summon a baboon and let it run rampant.

The other PCs rejoin them, and there is some bickering over what to do next. SlakeThirst wants to scout the village for Wralasar and help his Chief, but the dragonborn loyalists tell the warlock he should leave, and for good, he's caused enough trouble. They decide to send a stealthy scout party with the two half-orcs, Kaarl, and Slake, but only Kaarl in rat form eludes immediate notice, so the plan is scrapped, and the party decides to head out north to possibly pick up the tracks and help the gnomes if they're in danger. Klovak does find the trail, and then the group sets up watches.

Hathun, First-Week, Third-day, the Now-Year

The following morning, Yor, Nahar and Prince Slagmoor are all mysteriously missing from the camp, but the rest of the party presses on with Klovak. As they are back on the Whipwater Plain and crossing it, they are approached by a black, spiked figure riding an unusual elk, and followed by a gaggle of slavering ghouls! SlakeThirst immediately fires at them, and they rush to engage. It appears the mounted figure is Diedeath the Mad, who they've met before outside Dregroot, but has now been charged by Zlazash with a bounty on Cynjak. He has used these ghoulish minions to track her via an old...soiled...garment in the possession of Dregroot's chief! The battle is rather one-sided, the ghouls not able to cross distance and effect the PCs with paralysis, but they find a far more dangerous foe in Diedeath, who is notoriously difficult to hit, attacks with two medium weapons at once, and seems to HEAL when spells are used against him...after he brings down Cynjak a few times, and the PCs eventually destroy him, they remove the helmet and armor to reveal a strange, elfin humanoid with a twisted face, mismatched eyes, and a lamprey-like mouth. They loot his armor and weapons, all of which radiate magic, and continue to The Nest.

PCs: Borracho, Cynjak, Kaarl, Nexa, Slakethirst, Un'Krug, Yukkbutt
XP rewarded: 1050
Inspiration rewarded:
Renown: --

NPCs

Urnst Gourdbelly (halfling male): A pompous and overstuffed Halfling, he gets his name from his constant reeking of pumpkin-seeds and the tan, mildly orange tone to his skin. His hair and beard, however, and quite blonde, treated with some sweet smelling oils, and his dun colored clothes are also quite well kept, except for a few greasy hand prints. He is generally seen walking with a hoe or pitchfork, and several hounds tend to him.

12th Fire (7/1/16)

Hathun, First-Week, First-day, the Now-Year

The PCs finally bring low the aberration that was attempting to devour them, and then search the chamber in which it was making its lair. They don't find much, so they explore down a side cavern, where they discover a large statue of a dragon with four unfinished protrusions sticking from its neck. SlakeThirst unsuccessfully tries to blast it to pieces, and Nobro attempts to chip away at its face with a dagger, but attempts to deface it are unsuccessful, so strong is the material from which it's made. Slagmoor claims the abandoned sculpting tools that were left in the area, while they do find one fancy tool which might have some value.

They proceed to the next area, from where they had heard sounds earlier after Nobro's chiseling, and encounter a trio of dragonborn with two small green dragons that are being trained in a central cave. SlakeThirst identifies one of the dragonborn as Pergeron, but they are waiting for our heroes, and a deadly battle begins. Between the dragon breath and the savage attacks of the dragonborn berserker tribesemen, the PCs are beaten to within an inch of their death, several of them multiple times over. But the only actual fatality is Nobro who bleeds out after being struck by the rebel Pergeron himself. Although grueling and close, our heroes eventually win the fight, but leave Pergeron alive and unconscious for questioning. Most of the unconscious PCs have been bandaged, and then Kaarl and SlakeThirst, both still standing, decide to rest for a twelve hour period to recuperate spent magic and let their companions heal.

Hathun, First-Week, Second-day, the Now-Year

After making sure everyone has healed up, the PCs question Pergeron, and quite brutally, responding to any of his backtalk with punches and kicks. Pergeron informs SlakeThirst that his father AcidTongue was his own predecessor, and that he has 'transmigrated' towards the Ayrie of the Ancients, where he is undergoing a transformation to a higher form to better serve Saurvax. They shut the dragonborn prisoner up again and then explore the remainder of the cavern network. First they find and search a room in which a pool of water has formed around a strangely smooth, giant metal spike made of a material similar to the device they found below Dogrush Mire, and also like the altar they found near the lair of the Demon of the Ditch. They also find a valuable piece of jewelry amongst some skulls floating in the pool which had been used as goblets by the dragonborn.

They question Pergeron about the strange silver spike through the roof of the cavern, and he claims it was there long before they turned the place into a hatchery for green dragon wyrmlings. The PCs scope out the final area, where they find some gem fragments, a bound human teenager who was taken as a prisoner by the dragonborn and then 'chewed' on by the wyrms, and lastly, a well threaded bag containing a quivering furball which turns out to be a tan bag of tricks. 

PCs: Cynjak, Kaarl, Nobro, Slagmoor, Slakethirst, Un'Krug, Yukkbutt
XP rewarded: 1100 each
Inspiration rewarded: 1 (Cynjak, SlakeThirst, Yukkbutt)
Renown: --

NPCs

Pergeron (dragonborn male): Tall even for his kind, Pergeron is a strong physical specimen of the dragonborn race with scarred and cracked scales coating his neck and face. He wields a bone longsword of master craftsmanship that shimmers when fights, and custom fit splint mail with 'wings' fashioned onto the back.