Session 4.5a Report - Adventures on the Road

General Summary

The Gnomenado party prepares to leave Saltmarsh but needs to find a suitable caretaker for Tinsel before they can leave. Julio remembers that she knows a guy named Fenris who has a soft spot for dangerous animals and plants. They find him at his house in the western part of town and leave Tinsel under his care.
The party then departs, traveling up the Northern Road to the Trading Post where they plan to spend the night. Before they turn in for the night, the trio bustles about, running errands at the trading post. The ever pragmatic Julio buys sausages and jerky at the butchers in preparation for the road ahead while Wayde seeks out Bobbo the bookseller to see if he has any materials that speak of ancient Shimarchua. Bobbo, still drunk, gives Wayde a book of short stories meant for children; however, they have an old, dark tone that speaks of mythical creatures and catastrophic events. Thorongil heads off to talk to the blacksmith, Soot, about the status of the order that he had placed previously. Although the suit of armor isn't yet ready, Soot presents Thorongil with his new dagger crafted from the tooth of the giant crocodile the party slew in the Drowned Forest. Wayde ambles over to Soot's after visiting Bobbo and is able to purchase a set of finely crafted crossbow bolts.
While preparing to go to sleep, the trio receive a call from Pavel and Seneschal via the talking stones. Although the connection is poor, they hear that Seneschal and Pavel, despite nearly dying upon their arrival in Port Verlin, have come across news that Anders Solmor, the young man on the Saltmarsh town council, is likely "the golden man" that their magically induced travels into the past warned about.
The next morning the adventurers continue on their journey to Gnomenado. They travel along the road, camping rough that night before continuing on to the next town - Burle - in the morning. Due to the early hour, Mirko, the Kingfisher mercenary guarding the town gate, directs the party to the only open tavern in town, The Spotted Dog. There they chat with the bartender Astar Avesta and some early rising Northern Road traders to find information about the status of the road ahead. After hearing that the traders and their Kingfishers escort traveled the route untroubled (and that Burnside's Fyre Festival is set to start later in the week), they trade in their hard-ridden horses at the Kingfishers stable and head off to Burnside.
At the end of their first day out from Burle, the trio set up camp in the flats, a short ways away from the Road and the Dreadwood Forest. Wayde and Thorongil are awakened by strange laughter in the middle of the night but decide not to investigate until morning, at which point they find a single set of dog-like footprints. On guard, the party decides to push on but around midday they eventually come to a section of road that has been overgrown by a tendril of the Dreadwood Forest. They decide to press through rather than skirting around the woods, but after advancing out of sight of the edge of the woods, they are suddenly ambushed by a pack of Gnolls! After a chaotic fight with the humanoid dogs sees the party's horses spooked and gnolls attempt to capture the trio, they are able to kill the packleader and most of its followers. In the aftermath, discarded trapper's nets and other weapons litter the road and the party finds a large amount of gold on the gnolls' bodies - more than any good bandit should have...

Rewards Granted

• +1 Dagger of Thousand Tooth
• Vicious Glaive
• Boots of Elvenkind
• Gold Pieces

Character(s) interacted with

• Soot
• Bobbo
• Astar Avesta

Campaign

Aarda Dungeons & Dragons 5e Campaign

Protagonists

Wayde Les Stoodius

Julio Bengala

Pavel Birchwood

Neutral Good Ghostwise Halfling (Hermit)
Druid 7

45 / 45 HP

STR
12

DEX
16

CON
16

INT
10

WIS
18

CHA
13

Thorongil

Seneschal

Report Date

06 Mar 2021

Primary Location

Burle

Secondary Location

Saltmarsh