Investigating the Orc Threat

Tasked with investigating, the party sets out north into the Greater Faydark to discover why and how the Orcs are venturing near Kelethin.

September 2nd

The party takes a look at a map of the Greater Faydark to formulate a plan. They notice an area north of Kelethin that is vaguely marked as Goldtooth Camp. It is a region about two days north of the city that is known to have roving bandits in it. They rarely setup permanent settlements as to avoid the ire of the patrolling elven guards. Yarver suggests that these bandits may benefit from the orc raids and could possibly be working together with them. The party decides to start their investigation here and head out into the Greater Faydark.  

September 3rd

An uneventful day of travel on the Caravan Road north ends with the party entering the forest around Goldtooth Camp, a nice meal prepared by Yarver, and some bonding among the party members through stories and conversation. Ellie shares her love of exploration and new lands. Her connection with Tunare led her to choose Faydwer as her first adventure. Yarver shares his desire to discover the importance of his odd connection to the stars. He believes the Wood Elves, being the oldest druids, may have answers. Roswyn shares that she is the oldest of 5 siblings, and her life of guarding came from her mother being a guard. She felt a yearning to do more and protect people outside of Rivervale. Arya shares that her desire to adventure comes from her sheltered and posh upbringing. She always wanted to get out and experience the world instead of being catered to all the time. Carlos shares that there are a handful of people who want him dead for conning them back in Antonica.  

September 4th

The next morning, Yarver suggests that he use his ability to commune with animals to coax a bird to scout for them. Ellie agrees to help with her abilities as well. Yarver casts Animal Friendship to enthrall a hawk into scouting for them. He sees large plumes of smoke deeper in the northern part of the forest. They spend the day journeying towards the smoke as best they can.  

September 5th

The majority of the next day is spent traveling as well before they come across a small bandit encampment. It has been completely destroyed and shows all the telltale signs of an Orc raiding party. Several corpses of various races are strewn about, but after some careful investigation the parties concludes that some were captured and dragged off toward the north. The party had been warned by Kelolan to not venture beyond the Echo Canyon, which they are only a day's journey from. So, they decide to push on quickly through the night, to catch the Orcs before they can sneak into the canyon.  

September 6th

The party marches on quickly through the night without sleep. Exhausted, they come to a small clearing in the early morning and decide to settle down for a camp. Unfortunately, their campsite is home to several giant spiders. Tired, the battle drains them of a few resources but is ultimately no challenge for them. Worried that they may lose the trail of the Orcs, or fall too far behind, they rethink their decision to camp and only take a brief rest before picking up the trail again.   They push themselves to the limit, rushing to follow the Orcs for nearly the entire day. Late in the afternoon, they hear the distant sound of trees being chopped. They carefully make their way toward the sound to see a dozen Orcs resting in a clearing with a chain-gang of slaves in tow. The party knows they have the element of surprise, and with some extra magic, manage to spring a devastating ambush on the Orcs. A well-placed fog cloud by Yarver creates chaos as the party dispatches the Orcs as they leave it. Ellie, who is not adversely affected by the lack of vision in the cloud, darts around inside it wreaking havoc. Arya is not so lucky, as the one closest to the cloud she quickly becomes the main target of the Orcs' ire. The party struggles a bit to kill all the Orcs before they kill Arya. Worried, Roswyn crushes the yellow diamond given to them by the wood elves and summons a massive earth elemental, who she nicknames Moss. Moss proves to be far too much for the Orcs to handle and they are quickly dispatched, sparing the group and further injury.   During the fight, the former-bandits-turned-slaves tried to spring away, but did not make it far given their bindings. Especially after Moss caught up to them and dangled most of them above the forest floor. Seeing the leverage they hold, Carlos decides to exploit their position and squeeze some information out of them upon threat of taking them to Kelethin for execution. Fearing for their lives, the bandit leader, Sarowyn, offers up the general location of a much larger bandit community plaguing Greater Faydark: the Greenleaves and their leader Davin the Dark. It turns out these bandits have been avoiding the Elves by hiding inside a living tree somehow. Surely thes would be much more grateful if the Greenleaves were stopped over these lowly bandits they currently have chained.   Sarowyntells the party how they can get a bead on the Greenleaves' hideout: the smell of rotten sap and tree pulp will permeate the air near the tree. He tells the party the general location: west of Kelethin about three quarters of the way to Fayadaroth. Roswyn encourages the bandits to walk a straighter path, but they confess they are run out of all the cities on Faydwer. They do mention a desire to get to Antonica, but the journey is expensive and they can't hold enough coin to get everyone. Ellie suggests that Sarowyn and his group could work off their debt, so Sarowyn and the party concoct a plot for him to infiltrate the Greenleaves.   The plan is for Sarowyn to convince Davin there's a large score coming along the road and Sarowyn has the details. It will take time, though, so Sarowyn tells the party to meet him at the crossroads in at least two weeks' time. As part of his cover, the party gives him some coin, a healing potion, and some finer clothes. He is hoping that he can convince Davin there's a potion shipment coming.   The party discusses their next move; they are worried that the Emerald Outpost, the fort responsible for protecting the entrance to the Greater Faydark, has been compromised. Some fear it's corruption or betrayal, while others think it could have been attacked. The party takes a well-earned rest for the rest of the evening before heading to the Emerald Outpost.