Session 12: Breaking & Entering the Everwood Report

General Summary

The party spoke with Zeke Snowmelt for sometime after the infected satyrs had attacked, all the while Eva the dryad paced nervously around the cottage. Zeke was his normal inscrutable self and seemed to, at turns, enjoy speaking with the group, and be bored by them. Parlying with the other wood elf (Mi'tsuru'gi) mostly, Zeke mentioned the very high quality of Duergeddin steel (see Session 8: a dwarven mine, or... Report), and that he suspects the Margrave fears for his life (thus calling in Barony forces). Zeke, however, seem positively excited about engaging in some sort of trickery around the annual Steigs Turnip Pie contest to take place next week.

And he also noted that Mitsu has a less than savoury history concerning the war.   By this point, Eva was begging the party to travel to the Everwood to investigate the killing mould and Druid Argus and the party agreed that the time for talk was over. They set out north on the road to Thornward and within a couple of hours they met a contingent of Gran March soldiers heading south to Hookhill, with a rest at the Knights of the Watch Keep Maintenance. Daktarin Stren, a Gran March man himself, spoke with the commander. The troops were investigating reasons for the slowing of caravan traffic south from Thornward. It seems many more caravans than usual were instead moving east along the Fals once they had made it through the numerous tarriffs and checks of the divided city (this and more current rumours can be found in Latest Rumours & Information in Steigs).   An elf, Qira, was also with the soldiers. She had recently returned to the area after learning of the death of her son Falkas . She was looking for his companions, Brimble Knackles and Mitsu, as she very much wished to speak to them. The three gathered together quickly and the late Falkas’s party members described his heroics and noted his final moments were spent in courageous battle (Session 9: Duergar Standoff! Report). Qira agreed to join the others to learn more about Falkas’s time and his companions.   Eva now led the party into the Everwood, a ancient relic forest of that which once joined the Dim forest to the Vesve, eons ago. With Eva the party entered a clearing dominated by a large sweeping cedar tree. Immediately a number of pixies descended from the tree’s height demanding to know what these demihumans, and human no less, were doing in the forest. The party explained their concern with the killing mould (Session 4: the killing madness Report) and Argus. The pixies knew of the terrors mentioned by the party, but seemed preoccupied with their own problems, fey or otherwise, and were preparing to be attacked. They sent the party off down a game trail towards Argus.   The trail led not to Argus, but to a band of five hungry wolves. With Qira now joining the fight, the wolves were soon dispatched, but Eva the dryad was now nowhere to be seen. Two visible deer trails led away from the wolf fight.   Taking the trail believed to lead to the centre of the forest, the party soon could make out a tall tree festooned with, it seemed, streamers and perhaps festive bunting. Walking closer the party could see these were webs! Too late, as two giant spiders descended from the tree and scuttled to the attack. Spider fangs (and pedipalps!) were joined by swords, spells and arrows. Before the two fell, a third hiding in the trees came upon Qira. The party prevailed, however, and Dak set about investigating the tree. The bunting was instead cocooned bodies of forest animals, satyrs, and a human -- a not-long dead adventurer with a mithril chain shirt and gold in his pouch. Also, a rolled up paper was found on the poor adventurer, addressed to “Big Feet”, from the constable of the Gran March contingent and mentioned Kenrdren of Hookhill, but other words were illegible.   No clear trails left from the area, but Brimble determined the way with his keen Forest Gnome sense and led the party again towards the wood’s centre. Not long after following the gnome, the smell of burned wood came to the party and they emerged into a small clearing with three bedraggled tents, and a long-dormant fire with a large pile of charcoal next to it. As they carefully approached, the tents began to sway and two ravenous ghouls emerged and stumbled towards the interlopers. Brimble quickly cast firebolt and caught the third tent on fire just before its resident ghoul emerged. The battle with the ghouls was well-fought, Dak reprising his cat-naps during an earlier battle was paralyzed by a ghoul’s claw, but again, the party prevailed. A quick check of the tents revealed old, rotten rations, broken crates and other destroyed camp supplies. It seems these charcoal burners had been turned into ghouls, perhaps by the mould…   Three game tracks lead from the camp.

Rewards Granted

5 x wolves: 250 xp
3 x giant spiders: 600 xp
3 x ghouls: 600 xp
  362 xp per PC