3. Spooks in the Woods
General Summary
The party set out on the road north when dawn broke. But the paths were rough, overgrown in places, and by midday the party had passed deep into the mountains, but was unsteady from exhaustion. They decided to rest in Olek's Trading Post, where some advertisements on a bulletin board caught their eye.
A hastily-scrawled poster offered a generous reward for any adventurer who would rescue the proprietors' daughter from a gang of bandits. When the party inquired about this disaster, they learned the girl had been taken under mysterious circumstances. The bandits had apparently broken into her room in the night, and returned in the morning, led by a darkly-hooded figure, to demand ransom.
Nera put her detective skills to use searching for clues, and determined that the bandits had been far more organized and magically-capable than one would usually expect of brigands. The party rested, accepted what supplies Olek and his wife could offer, and set off in the direction the bandits had left.
Caelynn's tracking abilities made finding the hideout simple, and they easily snuck inside the cave where the brigands were entrenched.
As they explored, however, they found signs of a dark cult - worshippers of Shar, a Power presiding over curses and misfortune, who often extorted mortal worship in exchange for being spared from her dark designs. They defeated the evil cleric of Shar who had corrupted the bandits, and upon his defeat, learned that the group was composed of former soldiers, who had deserted rather than follow despicable orders. The outlaws returned Olek's daughter gladly, as they had only been going ahead with the dark cleric's fell ritual out of fear for their own lives.
The party decided to spare them, provided they didn't cause any more trouble, and returned to the trading post to collect their reward.