Stop the Poaching - Group 2, Session 4

General Summary

27th day of the Time of V'nbarrgh's Greataxe, 2171CR

After gaining information about potential contacts and allies in Spirit Lake courtesy of Elianna Altuliel of the Traveling Troupe, the party left the town square of Dryad Falls to secure a night's lodging at the Satyr's Glen - an inn on the western edge of town along the road to Spirit Lake. The common room and casino spaces of the Glen were crowded thanks to revelers from the Founders Day festivities, but the evening was far more uneventful than the evening in Feybridge Crossing had been. Zat satisified himself that the gaming tables were being honestly run, and didn't observe any more than the occasional attempts at cheating by patrons that are expected in every casino.

In the meantime, the rest of the party sat quietly, slowly nursing their ales and keeping their ears open. The new addition to the group - Aliya the Halfling - managed to consume most of the platter of hard cheese and crusty bread that the group had ordered as a snack. They did manage to overhear two conversations of note. The first was an onion farmer complaining about being stopped on the road up from Spirit Lake by an Elven Ranger patrol (a complaint the group has already heard several times from several sources). The second was two locals lamenting the lack of a favored treat at this year's Founders Day - apparently a farmer from Spirit Lake who usually brought a load of sweet strawberry tarts to sell in the square had such a bad harvest this spring that there were no tarts to be had. The party decided to look up this farmer and wife before leaving Dryad Falls in the morning.

Speaking with old Norbert and Girritrude, the Spirit Lake farmers, the nest morning, they heard a tale of a weak strawberry crop last year followed by a disastrous one this year. The two had to settle for selling potato and onion pasties this year - which were selling far more poorly than their sweet tarts would have done. Norbert suspected the disappearance of the fey sprites and pixies from his farm area was the cause, but couldn't be sure. The party thanked them for their information, bought a significant number of pasties (partly out of pity for the farmers and partly because Aryk and Aliya were eating them two at a time).

The last leg of their journey to Spirit Lake was as uneventful as the rest had been. On what they expected to be the last night before reaching the village, they arrived at a roadside camping area to find a merchant already set up at one of the campfire rings. A four-wheeled wagon, covered with a tarpaulin, sat near the road; five horses and a pavilion tent - and the merchant and three sellswords traveling with him - were sitting by a campfire as the dusk began to settle. The merchant invited the party over to share their fire and chat, and the party did so.

All, that is, except Aliya, who decided instead to start nosing about in the woods behind the cleared campsite area. Noticed by one of the sellswords, Tanalith tried to explain this away - the halfling always forages for herbs to add to the stewpot when they camped. The mercenary grunted, but continued to keep an eye on the halfling. Tanalith decided to wander that way as well, just in case. After a few moments, the mercenary was getting a bit jittery, as he had lost sight of Aliya when she ducked behind a tree trunk. In the meantime, Tanalith, who had been looking around casually, noticed something odd at the merchant's wagon. After calling to Aliya (who did not respond), he watched as the mercenary on alert started moving into the woods to try and catch sight of the halfling once more.

Aliya, meanwhile, was very quietly making her way toward the back of the pavilion tent - and almost made it there before a twig-snap beneath her feet aleted the nearby horses. The startled whinny of the horses caused the other two mercenaries to leap up - the half orc heading toward the horses quickly spotted Aliya and bellowed to her to get back into the clearing. In the meantime, as all attention was on Aliya, Tanalith quietly worked his way to the back of the wagon to investigate what had caught his eye earlier.

Under a loose corner of the tarpaulin, in addition to the cast iron cauldrons, pots, and pans, and other iron hand tools, the wagon appeared to contain between one and two dozen small wooden cages - each about a foot on each side with thin wooden bars spaced very close together. While there was no sign of anything occupying these, Tanalith decided he wanted a closer look at one. Unfortunately, his skills were not up to the task, and he managed to cause the pile of cages to topple under the tarpaulin - and causing the mercenaries to instantly turn their attention toward him.

Tanalith backed away empty handed, saying something about his pet wolf bumping into the cart. The stink-eyes he got from the mercenaries suggested they weren't completely satisfied - but they made no move to escalate anything. The party gathered at their own campfire ring, and bedded down for the night. The evening was uneventful, with one mercenary on watch keeping an eye on the party, while the party's watch kept an eye on them.

In the morning, as the party broke camp, and Aliya ate a hearty breakfast of reheated potato-and-onion pastie, the merchant and his sellswords also broke camp and started prepping their horses to resume their journey. Just before leaving, the merchant called out to Aryk, reminding him of a desire to purchase a rabbit's foot - which the merchant could part with for a mere 3gp. Whether this was more than Aryk had, or more than he cared to pay, the dwarf reluctantly took a pass.

With that, the merchant and his bodyguards set off down the road as the party finished their packing. Soon they too were on the road, expecting to reach Spirit Lake before nightfall.

The session ends with them walking toward Spirit Lake.

Rewards Granted

There were no material rewards granted during this session.
As they have concluded this Adventure, each party member is awarded 350 experience points.

Missions/Quests Completed

By the start of the next session, the party will have completed the final leg of the journey to Spirit Lake. They have acquired more insight into the potential negative impacts of the disappearing fey, and they have some suspicions about the merchant with whom they shared a campground on the road a day out of the village.

Character(s) interacted with

In Dryad Falls, the party questioned two Spirit Lake farmers, Norbert and Girritrude, about their poor strawberry harvest.

In the campground on the last night on the road between Dryad Falls and Spirit Lake, the party interacted with a merchant and three mercenaries who were also camped at the site.