Stilgame: Origins

One's a Tiefling druid who spent their life isolated at the edge of the wastes. The other is a low-class girl from a distant land fighting to become a knight. Together, they fight monsters.

Dollinov

But it wasn't always so. All great friends begin as strangers, and we never know which new faces will stay with us over the years. There wasn't any grand destiny or fanfare when Iski and Fayna first met - it was an ordinary coincidence on a sunny day in the Deverkel Wastes. They had both arrived in the village of Dollinov to work as adventurers clearing out a possible threat. The village had been dealing with some sort of invisible presence, which was tearing up their fields and then vanishing - the farmers were afraid to work, and the food stores were being hurt. Iski's perceptive and animal-facing nature led to him quickly picking up that something else was at play, as the village livestock was fat and happy despite them being kept from going to pasture. While Fayna talked with the town leadership, Iski investigated the goat pens for something out of the ordinary. Using Speak with Animals to interview the goats, Iski stumbled upon a creature the goats called "Feedfriend" - a neon blue moth-butterfly-thing with a child's face hidden under its carapace. Fayna's divine sense drew her to this creature as well, and the two adventurers met for the first time. 
The creature revealed that it was magically stealing various crops to feed the local animals and didn't understand why that was a problem. Iski and Fayna agreed that Feedfriend was both non-dangerous and a person, and so had it adopted by a pair in the village (Felkin and Kellin) who had lost a child recently to flying snake. The two adventurers then parted ways, job completed.

Finhov

Iski and Fayna ran into each other a second time at a neighboring village a week later. This new town, Finhov, was dealing with its own crisis: a creature had possessed an town elder, Nilabel, and a child was missing. The local priest, Redra, feared that this was a powerful monster and asked the two adventurers to try and save whoever they could. Iski and Fayna approached the possessed woman, and Fayna used her sense to detect that an undead presence was in her body. The woman was more running about and screaming than attacking people, and Fayna tried to restrain her - but the spirit overpowered her. Iski had to resort to thorn whip to drag the woman back into the house, but the damage of the spell left the woman's body mangled and broken. Upon closer inspection, Iski noticed that the body was around 2 days deceased - whatever was piloting it as of that morning hadn't killed her, but had just picked up her corpse. With the body broken and pinned, the spirit inside came out - a mutated, non-sentient ghostling from the Haunted Shore of Raynok, a normal occurrence in winter but highly unusual at this time of year. Iski scythed the ghostling apart, ending its confused rampage. 
There was no sign of the missing child, Klain, in Nilabel's home. Iski was able to track the ghostling's travel through the town to the child's room, though, and Fayna was able to spot the missing boy hiding nearby. While Iski distracted the town, Fayna talked with the child. Apparently, he had been trapping ghostlings in pots during the winter and feeding them honey water, so that they could teach him the magical ways of the Exorcist's Guild, but the biggest and strongest of them had been able to smash the jar is was trapped in that morning and escape into Nilabel's body. Klain, old enough to understand he was in trouble but too young to know what to realistically do, was getting ready to run away for "the big city". Iski and Fayna removed the other ghost jars, covered for Klain to the town, and asked priestess Redra to train him in the arts of magic. Crisis averted, ghosts contained, all was well. The town gifted Iski with a healer's kit, and Fayna got to purchase a mule and saddlebags for extremely cheap. The two adventurers went their separate ways yet again.

Hallindof Introduction

Third time's the charm with these things. Dollinov and Finhov were introductions, but the crisis of Hallindof is what made a team out of them. The village is nearby Tidewatch Grove, Iski's childhood home - he knew this village fairly well as the one with the bee farms, and it regularly gave his family free mead. While Iski was drinking at the Hallindof tavern, Fayna stumbled into town. Both of them knew that if they were both here, than this town was out of luck. 
Scanning the tavern for possible problems, the adventurers eavesdropped on a young huntress drinking alone. The innkeep seemed worried for her, and told her to talk to a priest; she was unwilling. Fayna decided to out herself as an eavesdropper and confront the woman directly. The huntress's introduced herself as Nessa and shared that her close friends and fellow hunters had died two months ago, but that things looking like them were appearing in her home when she was alone and sleeping next to her at night on occasion. She also said that weird things were happening around the village and she was worried about burdening the priest: animal bits were being thrown at people's houses, and a farmer had been attacked two days ago in the fields. 
Iski asked around the bar for any farmers, and found one by the name of Gudrek. Gudrek was drinking because he was friends with the injured man and was being harassed at his house. The adventurers escorted him home and saw that his house had recently been vandalized. The group decided to investigate further the next day after Gudrek's morning work was done, and left back to the inn to sleep. The next day, Gudrek was found dead in his fields - cut apart and mangled by something that was clearly angry. Iski and Fayna gathered together the surviving farmers: the injured Sarlin, the scared Andrin, and the timid Vollin (who was only just starting to be harassed). Vollin talked about how he saw a strange figure dragging fish along the beach, and the others mentioned seeing a strange figure in the forest. Fayna headed to the beach first, and detected a presence further South - but there were many strange creatures crawling out of the sea down there, blocking the way and poisoning the air. 

Hallindof Investigation

Before going to investigate this beachfront being, Fayna and Iski interviewed Nessa. She reported that she saw her friends again last night, but they were more agitated and unstable - one was dripping with blood and seemed violent, and the other started dying on her floor and unraveled in front of her. As for how her friends died, Nessa told her tale: that they had found a great beast gleaming with precious metals while out hunting, and they had tried to hunt it to bring the village riches. But the beast had turned out more dangerous and violent than expected. One of the hunters, Olstra, had been speared by its tusks, and it dragged her away into the wastes. Nessa's leg was broken, but the beast lured the third hunter, Adilgar, into the heart of the chaos wasteland. Strangely, Nessa's leg had healed miraculously well and she was able to return. 
Nessa agreed to lead the adventurers down the beach, to the entity Fayna had detected. They found Adilgar there, net fishing and clearly disoriented. He said that he was getting food for his dog, and that he was staying in a cave nearby. The group asked to see his dog, and he led them into the cave. The "dog" turned out to be a horrible beast that was crawling on the ceiling. The group did not attack, but de-escalated the situation and left; Adilgar was not doing any violence, though he did indicate that Olstra could be found around the village. He also said that others would be coming eventually from the wastes - a bad sign for Hallindov.
Leaving back down the beach, Fayna got poisoned and the group decided to take a rest before confronting Olstra's revenant at night. The group confronted Nessa about her leg, and she admitted that she remembers strange figures taking her into the heart of the wasteland and feeding her meat, and her leg showing no signs of ever being injured when she woke up near town. Fayna detected discomfort with Haru about all this, and decided to use the Divine Contact for extra help. They talked with Ishkibal, who told them to rally the town and fight. He also explained that people who went into the chaos waste's heart often came back wrong - and that the further in they went and the more injured they were, the more likely they were to come back worse. The thing that was Olstra was just a puppet of violence, lacking even the limited free will of Adilgar. Afterwards, Fayna cured Nessa of something using Lay on Hands, though neither knew what had actually been healed.

Components

Goals

QUEST GOALS:

• Save the 3 villages
• Forge a Bond
• Win Big

Relations

Protagonists

Fayna the Gennoran: A Half-Dryad in her early twenties, Fayna is a girl with a dream: to become a Spring Knight and hero of Uvara! The only problem is that she was born to a peasant family that ran a small inn at the remote village of Rukadov in the Kingdom of Gennorholn. For a normal person, Fayna's birth would doom her dreams to certain death, but through stubbornness and a can-do attitude, she's going for it anyways. She was able to become a paladin of Haru, and a patron knight within the Order has promised her a chance at knighthood if she can prove herself Questing. 
Iski of Tidewatch: Iski is a Tiefling - a kind of unusual Starspawn, or so everyone believes. He has spent much of his life in the tranquility of Tidewatch Grove, a druid sanctuary run by his family devoted to the study and principles of "homeostasis". He is devoted to his family's beliefs, but has ventured out beyond the traditional world of the Tidewatch Druids to understand Stildane more broadly. He is in his early 30s, is of the Circle of the Coast, and is quite sheltered and academic.

Allies

Nessa of Hallindof: A starspawn in her early 20s, who has pointy ears, red eyes, blonde hair, sharp teeth, and a black forked tongue. Nessa is a hunter of the village of Hallindof who has recently lost everything, and is haunted by a horrible accident two months ago. She blames herself for her town's misfortunes and wants to make things right.

Neutrals/Bystanders

Redra of Finhov: A Kobold priestess of Uvara and elder of Finhov, capable of basic magic. Kindly, but anxious.
Klain of Finhov: A little kobold boy in Finhov with a knack for capturing ghostlings. 
Feedfriend: A moth that is friendly, child-like, and telekinetic. No understanding of agriculture. 
The Rockturner: A powerful monster South of Hallindof that everyone says to avoid. Can shape the earth on a whim and lives underground. Avoids the town, and the town avoids it - a working relationship that keeps the town a little safer in a way.

Adversaries

Adilgar the Lost: A feathered starspawn whose mind has been enthralled by Ederstone. Non-violent unless you touch his animals. Has maintained his chill vibes and love for critters. Very detached from reality, but largely ignored by normally hostile beings. Keeps spontaneously dying and then reappearing. 
Olstra the Revenant: Was once a dryad, but faced the heart of the Cursed Shores and has become something far more. Moves unseen around town, targeting those who spend more time alone. Once apparently very much wanted to leave town and resented it, and those emotions may have been taken and twisted by whatever power puppets her form. 
Adilgar's "Dog": A virus-shaped creature that crawls on walls, that leaves silvery threads wherever it walks. Hungry, dangerous, and can apparently "have power over the land".
Ghostlings: Rapidly reproducing ghostlike beings with the rough intellect of a pigeon, who are a nuisance in the winter but have a great talent for destroying themselves smashing against buildings or objects. Common near the chaos nexus, but only seasonally leave. Could be dangerous if they ever learned what violence is, but better at smashing their way out of containers than targeting moving creatures.

Backdrops

Locations

Dollinov: A small village in the hills South of Hain, well-fortified but quite poor. 
Finhov: A village in the forests Southeast of Dollinov. Less well defended but larger, Finhov is a prosperous village that receives regular merchant caravans across the waste.
Hallindof: The largest and richest of the three villages, Hallindof sits between the beachfront and the forest near the hills. It is known for its large star-touched bee farms, which produce pain-killing honey and some very good mead.

Plot type

QUEST

Subplots

• Saving Hallindof

Related Locations

• The Deverkel Wastes