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Chaff

by Rick

We spoke to Greg about the bandit attack. He... unnerved me, so I kept my eyes on him while the rest searched for anything that could help. Lily spotted something in the treeline, bushes pulled together to hide the bandits' tracks.

"Probably a group of three," Lily reported on her return to Greg and the rest of us. He revealed to Curie that he had some arachnoid-tendancies to his heritage, and losing limbs -- like his lost leg -- was no great loss.

Things soured quickly, and we ended up split with the group crawling through Greg's things while Curie and I stayed back with the farmer. I was shocked by Lily and Anko's brazenness, too stumped to react when they darted inside and found some of Greg's misgivings.

Eventually, the group reconvened and decided to go speak to Grimbam, one of the "bandits" -- customers of Greg -- who was involved with the burning of Greg's farmhouse somehow.

"Greg had given them a bad shipment of grain," Venrick explained as we foraged northwards.

A scream broke our otherwise peaceful walk.

Frightened!

Two bears were pawing at a tree in a clearing west of our path. In it huddled an injured red dragonborn.

The two bears charged at us, and as everyone cleared out of the way I stood, ready. Curie managed to pacify one of the ursine, but it picked her up with its mouth and rode off with our sorcerer.

We chased, scared out of our minds.

The bears led us deeper into the woods, to a much, much larger bear -- their mother. It was hurt and stuck in a trap, and after reassurance across our group we tried for almost a half hour to free the bear.

We succeeded! It left us at peace in the woods, with a small chest at the foot of a nearby tree as a reward.

After a time, Curie spoke: "There are people to the north, in the woods like us."

We all agreed, first turning back to find the dragonborn that we first saw with the bears. They were on the ground now, smoking a newly-lit cigar and reading from a tome. "They wanted to grab me, and I don't like being grabbed."

She introduced herself as Hebaz, a councilwoman of Erta and friend to Verdant.

Work Left Finished

After sending Hebaz back to Erta, we finished our trek northwards. There were several clearings past the bears' den, and the second yielded the bears and their now-prey: the trapsetters. All three bears took down at least two trappers each.

We stepped forwards to investigate, and one by one registered the lilting melody of a far off song. Someone was singing, singing something.

"And I think I spotted someone to the west by some water," Venrick chimed in.

"What eventful woods these are," Lily concluded.

Continue reading...

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Chaff

Frightened!

Work Left Finished

Continue reading...

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