Previously: Almalexia crafted a simple snare to capture a small squirrel. Propping up the Grimoire of the Ebon Rose with the open pages facing away from her, she then held the frightened squirrel in front of the arcane pages, forcing it to view the contents. The squirrel struggled against her grasp, letting loose a bloodcurdling scream, and then...
Tendrils of inky black necrotic energy flowed out of the Grimoire and into the poor, defenseless squirrel. As the creature screamed in agony, it's eyes began to glow red. Then it's flesh began to swell and it's skin ripped open. Suddenly there were two squirrels in agony, then four, then sixteen, then more. Almalexia slammed the book closed as quickly as she could, but not before she was surrounded by a swarm of demon-possessed squirrels.
The party was able to destroy the demon swarm, but not without injury. Luckily Almalexia was able to close the Grimoire before the number of demon squirrels squared again. That night, Almalexia did not sleep well, and was troubled with unpleasant dreams.
The next day, the party continued to retrace their steps northward along the Cragmaw creek. They soon found something had changed in the few days since their previous passage. What was once a large dead tree in a clearing was now a crudely-carved totem pole. The bottom tier of the totem was comprised of goblins, the next tier orcs, and standing above them was a large bugbear figure. At the very top of the totem was the figure of a hawk or eagle, colored dark yellow by paint or dye.
At the base of the totem they found a large mass of wood chips, and the carvings themselves appeared to be fresh. It was evident that it had been carved in just the last few days since the party passed by. The party took offense at the totem's presence, and defiled the wooden sculpture before setting on fire. They waited hidden nearby to see the fire attracted the artists, but no one appeared. However, that night they did spot humanoid figures moving at the edges of their darkvision on the far side of the stream to the east.
The following day, while crossing a meadow, the party spotted at the last moment griffons diving on them from out of the sun. The party's ranged combat abilities served them well, and they were able to drive off the first griffon before he was able to reach them. However, the next two were able to get close enough to begin clawing and snapping at their intended prey. The party managed to eventually drive both of them off, with one escaping and the other crashing on the far side of the creek.
Almalexia insisted on harvesting the dead griffon, and started to wade across the fast-flowing creek. She held her precious Grimoire above her head using a mage hand spell to keep it dry. However, the swift current was too strong for her, and she lost her footing. As she fell onto the rocky bottom of the creek, she lost her concentration, allowing the magical tome to drop into the stream. Both Almalexia and the book began tumbling downstream. Sauroff and Slivermoon were able to retrieve both their comrade and the book, and everyone crossed to the east side of the creek.
They soon found the battered and burnt corpse of the dead griffon, and were able to salvage enough meat for the their evening meal. Almalexia asked to have the Grimoire returned to her. However, Sauroff and Silvermoon were concerned that Almalexia seemed to be growing obsessed with it, and refused to give it back to her. Almalexia then attempted to retrieve the book by using magic against Silvermoon, but Silvermoon was able to keep control of the book. The struggle did not escalate further, and eventually the party calmed down.
Using ropes to help the less strong party members, they successfully crossed back over to the west bank the following morning. The next couple days of travel passed quietly. However, as they neared the end of their journey, they were assailed by a shambling mound and some particularly aggressive vines. The truculent plants were slow, however, and the party was able to easily kite them and bring them down from a distance.
Finally reaching the ruined village of
Conyberry , the party once again found Agatha sitting on her rocking chair on the porch of her cottage. After a little small talk, they gave he magical hand mirror to Agatha. She seemed pleased to get it, but her interest in the conversation then waned. When Almalexia asked to have one of the rabbits which lived in the village, Agatha's mood began to sour. Based on experience dealing with powerful beings in the Fey realm, Almalexia soon got the feeling that Agatha was growing irritated, and suggested to the party that it was time to leave.
Rather than heading back to Blackrock to deliver the Grimoire of the Ebon Rose to Countess Thorrindal, the party decided to pursue a request from
Mirna Dendrar to retrieve a family heirloom. The necklace is supposed to be in an apothecary shop in the ruined city of Thundertree, far to the west. This city has been abandoned since the Ash Mounts erupted 30 years ago. In exchange for recovering the necklace, Mirna offered the rest of the contents of the shop's strongbox.
The party left Conyberry to the north, the followed the shore of the Red River to the west. Almalexia sulked about not having "her" Grimoire as they traveled. The second night, their camp was visited by a number of angry-looking orcs. The orcs identified themselves as members of the Cragmaw clan, and claimed that the party had burned one of their totems. The party initially denied this, of course, but the orcs said one of their scouts had been trailing them for days. Almalexia was able to calm the orc-leader down (perhaps with the help of a little magic?), and he was satisfied by payment of 100 silver pieces.
The party then asked about the significance of the various symbols on the totem. The leader explained that goblins were under orcs in the clan hierarchy, and the orcs were under the bugbears. The eagle on top of the totem represented the new patron of the clan. When pressed for more information, the leader only added that thanks to their new patron, all the lands now belong to the Cragmaws. The orc warband (including several orcs that the party did not notice had surrounded them) then left.
One of the party noted that this band of orcs had better quality arms and armor than previous Cragmaws they have encountered. When this was pointed out to the rest of the party, Ravinte recognized that the arms and armor looked very much like low-quality
Valaran gear given to army recruits or to trainee gladiators.
The next day the party encountered another new Cragmaw totem. They decided to
not burn this one. That night they made camp in an open area on the banks of the Red River. During the second watch, a dark shadow was seen moving across the starry sky. A pair of glowing green eyes appeared to be at the leading edge of the shadow.
The rest of party was quickly woken up, and then...
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