S14. Skirting the Neverwinter Wood Report

General Summary

The Sword Coast.
Jagged cliffs and rocky shallows send an unfriendly message to ships looking for a safe place to land. And it often follows through on its threat to those that try. Atop the cliff, however, coastal grasses flourish, accustomed to the colder, rainy climate.
Pine trees here pretend to ignore the cold as the temperature continues to slowly fall day after day. A little further inland rolling meadows and hills are browning in the autumnal climate. It is nearing the end of Marpenoth, or Leaffall as many locals to the land of Faerun call it. It is the year 1492 Dalereckoning, the Year of Three Ships Sailing. Just a few runs from today is the Feast of the Moon, the last celebration of the harvest before deep winter sets in. But some places in the area do not feel the chill touch of winter beginning.
Just to the north along the coast, the city of Neverwinter surrounds one of the few safe harbors along the coastline, where the Neverwinter River flows into the chill Sea of Swords, often blanketing large parts of the city in a fog that seems to protect it from ever freezing.
The river, warmed by the hot underbelly of Mount Hotenow, flows through the Wood toward Neverwinter, warming the banks and surrounding land coaxing lush trees and vegitation to grow green and flourish all year round due to the naturally-artificial warmer climate.
It is in this area, where the warm river waters escape the forest that a once proud village of farmers, fisherman, woodcutters and trappers made their home. With the sound of the nearby river like thunder after heavy rains, and lush, tall tree-cover, it is no wonder the town was called Thundertree.
But 30 years ago, when Mount Hotenow erupted, Thundertree was hit hard, covered in ash and then under siege by horrible undead. Those who survived the natural disaster fled to safer part of the land to the south or east.
Today the ruins that remain are foreboding at best. Having left the high road and diverged north to northeast some 15 miles before reaching Neverwinter proper, our as-yet-unnamed adventuring crew met up with the river and followed it east toward the Wood. Before them now is a sad sight. While Conyberry seemed to have begun its return to a peaceful meadow, this village has only darkened and grown more fearsome and wild. What remains of the buildings are overgrown with thorny bushes and small, twisted trees. Few have any leaves left and none of them are green.
A steep hill with what looks like a small ruined tower atop it is surrounded by menacing brambles that make it difficult to tell what are thorns and what are branches.
It is early afternoon, and there is a biting, acrid pallor to the slow wind blowing toward you from ahead. It is clear to you why this town has not been touched for the last 30 years. And you suspect you might find more reasons why soon enough.
The trail you were on has become an old, overgrown lane winding between dilapidated buildings choked in brown, twisted vines and prickly brush. It hugs the base of the hill and wends its way between the crumbling old stone houses, many of which are roofless ruins with interiors open to the weather. Other buildings appear more or less intact. The whole place is eerily silent.
They enter the town and begin exploring the ruins. Kenenas to the north at a building with a ruined sign that read:
Th B     wn H    se
Sir Nesbit to the south, each scanning for signs of undead or strangely intelligent animals (druids?).
The others brough up support positions behind them, and watching in front of them. Ken finds the inside of the building to be some kind of pub, but then 3 ashen zombies shamble to their feet and immediately Ken slams the door. Adrenalin is a thing, so it left Ken holding a door handle, and the door fallen from its hinges and on the ground. And the zombies attack.
Across the road, Sir Nesbit finds himself assailed by tumbleweeds with bad attitudes. Their needly claws do him little to no harm though. On the flip side, Talon strikes true and sunders them with each blow he lands. Kenenas learns the hard way that these zombies puff clouds of ash when damaged the first time, but while he gets a thick coat of ash on him before it's all said and done, he never succombs to the coughing and choking it is likely to have caused him. The drake however does after biting into the leg of one of them.
Jareth, Torgan, Ozus and Kally all join the fray and make fairly quick work of the enemies. One of the final defeating moves is a "Toll of the Dead" by Ozus which rings out loudly through the quiet ruins.
The party moves as quickly as they can, searching the building for treasure, or any sign of a shop that Myrna Dendrar mentioned where her family heriloom was left behind.
In a building further south, in much better shape than the others, they meet Reidoth the Druid. There is some discussion, the local menaces are brought up, and eventually the topic leads to the inhabitant of the tower, a green dragon. Unable to offer much by way of direct help, he eventually leads them through bramble-cursed farm fields at the southern edge of town and helps identify the buildings on that side of the village ruins so that Jareth can run a mission impossible to try to retrieve the necklace from the shop.
He does so, but only after a nearly poor encounter with bigger brothers of the little tumbleweeds that nearly constricted him to death with vines. He broke free soon enough and fled back to his party. While the amulet he found had no overt powers detected, it was clear it could transform into 200 gold at the right merchant such as the Phandalin Miner's Exchange.
After some debate on next steps the group decided to head south to find the Dragon Barrow and hopefully a dragon slaying weapon. Perhaps then they will return and learn more about why cultists are in the village ruins, and help remove the dangers that lurk there.

Rewards Granted

Heirloom Necklace

Missions/Quests Completed

Recover lost heirloom as your reward for freeing Dendrars

Character(s) interacted with

Reidoth

Campaign

Saviors of the Sword Coast

Protagonists

Kanenas

Neutral Good Variant Human (Urban Bounty Hunter)
Fighter 4
Warlock 3

74 / 74 HP

STR
19

DEX
12

CON
16

INT
14

WIS
10

CHA
13

Ozus

Neutral Fierna Tiefling (Acolyte)
Cleric 12

88 / 88 HP

STR
15

DEX
17

CON
15

INT
8

WIS
19

CHA
12

Player Journals

Ch. 4 by Kanenas

Report Date

23 Mar 2022

Related Characters

• Jareth Anshar
• Kanenas
• Ozus
• Ulana