Session 1 - The Wild Wolves

General Summary

In the foothills outside of the city of Burmery a group of adventurers, swords for hire, traveled the road to Meadeham. They were tasked with discovering the source of a series of attacks on traders and travelers through the area and had been on their journey for several days, heading toward the site of the most recent attack.
As they neared their target, perhaps only a few hours away from the caravan's wreckage, a noise from the underbrush startled the party, and they readied themselves for a fight. No sooner had they prepared their weapons than a small pack of wolves darted out from the treeline, leaping at the nearest group member, a sword-wielding drow named Prince. Prince fended off the initial attack and his companion, a sturdy dwarf called Olut Hadreanssen, cast an enchanted sleep onto half of the wolf pack, eliminating them from the fight. With the wolves' numbers drastically reduced, the fight swung in the adventurers' favor, and the remaining wolves were dispatched quickly, but not before breaking through the magical defenses prepared by Liber Brethorne, piercing the tiefling's armor and knocking him to the ground several times.
After the battle, the party collected themselves and took stock of the situation. Haeni, the aasimar storyteller spent a few moments healing Liber, while Prince terminated the sleeping wolves, and Olut and Lerissa examined the wolves' corpses. At first glance, the creatures seemed to be of purely natural origin, until closer inspection revealed a distinct blue tint to an apple-sized patch of fur on the backs of each of their necks. Olut scalped this portion of fur off of one wolf and tucked it into his pack for later reference as the group picked up their gear and headed on toward their destination.
A few hours later as the sun was beginning to set, the party approached the wreckage of a cart on the path ahead. Casting their various spells to allow them to see in the dark, the group began to investigate the site. Lerissa unfurled a pair of leathery black wings and took position in the sky above the site, simultaneously looking for evidence of its attackers and for possible threats to the party. Prince, Olut, and Liber scanned the area immediately surrounding the cart, taking stock of the missing and damaged inventory (primarily barrels of mead), and looking for signs of the cart's operators. Haeni had by far the most success in his search for clues, having wandered into the brush just off the path, discovering there a collection of tracks, primarily from wolves, but with a single set of bare humanoid prints mixed in. Though the prints were old and overlapping, Haeni spotted a rough trail through the trees to the north where these tracks seemed to lead. As the sun set further and the night dimmed, the party decided to make camp and follow this path in the morning, when the light was on their side.
The night passed without incident (save for a moment when Lerissa spotted a flittering blue light in the forest to the south just before dawn). In the morning there was a brief debate about following the source of the light, but a consensus was reached to instead proceed with the mission as planned, keeping an eye on their backs for any possible followers. The trek through the forest was a simple one, following a trail of broken branches, paw prints, and tracks from something being dragged through the dirt. After only a few hours the party found themselves at a clearing and a pond, across which was the mouth of a cave, and two wolves laying in the sun. A sneak attack was launched to quickly eliminate the wolves, but the pair survived the initial attack and launched themselves toward the party, followed shortly after by three more wolves from within the cave mouth. After dispatching the wolves with only minimal damage to the adventurers, they patched their wounds and headed into the cave.
Inside the cave echoes of a language that none of the party could understand alerted the group to the presence of a creature just around the bend. Before they could reach the source a dire wolf, twice the size of any wolves they'd fought so far, stepped into their path and attacked. The battle was hard-fought, threatening Prince's life more than any thus far, but the wolf was killed and as the group ran deeper into the cave, they met the source of the gibberish language, a goblin wearing a skull, casting spells at them from a corner of the cavern. The goblin fought hard to the death but was overwhelmed by sheer number as the adventurers descended upon him.
As the goblin fell and noises of battle faded away, the group was able to take stock of their surroundings, finding themselves in a cave containing many of the goods taken from the cart they had investigated, and seemingly from other caravans before that. The goblin's coin purse was divided equally among the party, and the wizard Liber summoned a disc to transport the trade goods back to the road. An issue arose, however, at the discovery of a locked trunk among the hoard. While Lerissa and Olut wanted to open the chest, claiming rights as the victorious adventurers, Haeni stood firm in his convictions that the trunk's owners should be given back their property untouched. After a heated argument, Olut stepped to the side and inconspicuously cast an enchantment of sleep on Haeni, knocking the aasimar out for a minute while he and Lerissa tried to pick the lock. Before they could open it, however, Haeni regained consciousness. Through quick wit and trickery, Olut managed to convince his fellow bard that the sleep was a natural effect, but had to resign himself to not opening the chest, loading it onto the wizard's disc with the rest of the goods, and the body of the dead goblin.

Rewards Granted

• 6 GP
• 15 SP
• 26 CP
• 2 dozen barrels of Schramm’s Mead (Meadeham)
• 1 locked chest
• 28 crates of unknown origin, containing primarily foodstuffs

Missions/Quests Completed

The Wild Wolves - Discovered the source of the attacks on the caravans, tracked down the raiders to a wolf den, and found a goblin shaman living with the wolves

Jandret, 12 Middag, Year 8235 -> Kirsan, 13 Middag, Year 8235

Campaign

Ratcatchers

Protagonists

Report Date

21 Dec 2020

Primary Location

Etonford

Secondary Location

Burmery