Thunder Pig! Report

General Summary

Previously: Finding Steve
When we killed Flenz and Narux, their blood flowed up into the swirling stormy skies. As both anchorites died, the remaining twig blights fled, but the ritual completed, calling lightning down into the middle of the circle, and summoning Talos' divine pet, Gorthok, the Thunder Boar.
In a frantic battle, we managed to do enough damage to Gorthok's material form to send him back to whatever outer plane he usually dwells in.
As we rested and dealt with our wounds, Anathema searched the anchorites and the three caves they were inhabiting. She found a potion that looked like liquid iron, and I found a shiny round shield. We also freed the animal intended to be sacrificed. Xanth took his leave, stating that we could reach him through Shifra if we needed to speak to him again.
We decide to head for Conyberry, where some of our friends had helped establish a guard garrison. At the first evening's camp, we narrowly avoided an encounter with a shambling mound.

Day 27

As we passed the area of the woods where the Woodland Manse was meant to be found, Steve became distracted, indicating that what had drawn him to Neverwinter Wood was nearby.
When we reached Conyberry, we found a good deal of progress had been made on establishing the garrison, with a score of Greycloak guards from Neverwinter now stationed here. We asked whether we could leave Steve here, and were introduced to Grumbold Gabbledook, the young nephew of Gilbert at Crossroad Keep. Grumbold was eager to talk to us, and expressed his wishes to 'follow in our footsteps' in talking to the various magical creatures that live around the Neverwinter area. He told us that the blue feathers Anathema picked up are from an unusually magical owlbear named Geoffrey, who is looked after by his uncle Gilbert. He related that the feathers might be useful to an artificer looking to build flight-related magic items. He also rambled on about different magical beast related materials, mentioning that centaur tail-hair can be woven into a magically empowered bowstring, and that unicorn hair is also very magical. Grumbold was happy to look after Steve while we adventured.
Next: Druids Dreams and Shrines of Seeing