Since sessions 7-10 are part of the same journey, the reports for these sessions will be summarized under Sessions 7-10: Journey to Magecliff.
Since sessions 7-10 are part of the same journey, the reports for these sessions will be summarized under Sessions 7-10: Journey to Magecliff.
Since sessions 7-10 are part of the same journey, the reports for these sessions are summarized under Sessions 7-10: Journey to Magecliff.
Having learned the truth about the amulet, the party decide to travel to Magecliff, where they hope to enlist the help of the wizards at Magecliff University. They plan to turn the hag eye against its coven and use its power to find a way to defeat them. However, the journey to Magecliff is long and arduous - even more so now that orc warbands are raiding the settlements along the road.
A wyvern, scavenging the bodies of two farmhands in the attic, attacks the party at the mill. Although the party send the beast screeching back to its lair, the mill is set aflame during the battle, forcing them to escape on horseback and ride through the night to Twenton. There, they meet with Thelonious, who tells them what he knows based on the amulet's appearance: the party face a coven of hags.
The party discover that a hunting party of orcs was dispatched shortly after they found the amulet. Urging the inhabitants of Sullet to seek refuge in Brimholt, they prepare to take on the outriders. Although they manage to make short work of them, the tactics the orcs employ seem unusual. Rather than fight to the death, the riders seem intent on retrieving the amulet, a few of them managing to escape with a decoy. Leaving Sullet behind, the party come across an abandoned windmill on their way to Twenton. It seems like perfect shelter for the night, but nothing could be further from the truth.
After discovering the likely source of Horlan's corruption in the forest and surviving a gruesome fight with a tree animated by a mysterious and malevolent power, the party find an emerald pendant in the tree's hollow core. Suspicious as they are, they hide the amulet and devise a plan to discover more about it while attempting to mislead their as of yet unseen enemy.
On their way to aid in the defense of Twenton against Orcish aggression, the party return to Sullet and meet with Horlan Greenthumb. The halfling herbalist, who had been under the influence of a strange dominion spell weeks earlier, now recalls some of the circumstances of his sudden disappearance.
Returning to Brimholt, the adventuring party find their home in a tumultuous state. Refugees from the northern villages flock towards the city gates telling tales of Orcish raids, as batallions of the Imperial Legion gather from the South. One victim of an Orcish attack, a young woman named Oriana, is taken under the party's wing. The Gilded Banner and its leader Megara, already under mounting pressure from the city guard and the governor of Brimholt, are cornered into providing mercenaries to the war effort.
An adventuring party from Brimholt's famed mercenary guild, the Gilded Banner, leave behind the ashes of the village of Dregmoor to to return to their home base. Although the order to return was urgent, a sinister discovery made in Dregmoor seems just as great a cause for concern.