First Day of Adventuring

The Road West
Fleeing the aftermath of the Tsunami that destroyed the famous harbor of Safeton, Janisthere, Tompkins and Marlinspike meet outside of a refugee camp, each with their own motives to head west on the high road:

·      Marlinspike has a sealed scroll to deliver to the archbishop of Hommlet.

·      Tompkins is fleeing the thieves guild that he ripped off; this is as good a destination as any. The guild had gotten into slaving, which didn’t sit well with his conscience. In the loot was a strange ivory coin with black spider inlay.

·      Janisthere is shadowing a hunchbacked wizard (with an obnoxious toy-poodle familiar) named Elbareth whom he overheard telling someone in a bar that his cousin had work available in the Hommlet area. He’s traveling with a man-at-arms named Garland.

A Strange Crow

The three meet a kenku (raven man) on the road who communicates by perfectly mimicking real conversations that he’s overheard. The Kenku has a young, strange looking lion cub in his robe. The party pays him 2g, and he communicates that there is an ambush ahead on the road.

Tompkins shows the Kenku the Ivory coin from the Thieve’s guild. The kenku mimicks someone saying: “Take this to the Young Master and you shall have your reward”. The mimicked voice is familiar to Tompkins – someone who has had dealings with the Thieves guild but he can’t quite place it.

Heeding the kenku’s words, the three identify and sneak up on a small Kobold raiding party led by a Gnoll with a pair of Hyenas. The Kobold’s are massacred before they can run. One of the Hyenas is incinerated, before the Gnoll runs away towards a distant camp fire to the South East. The party feels sheepish and attempts to hide the corpses.

Fellow Travelers Meet a Grisly Fate

A wagon catches up to them on the road, guarded by drafted militia-man Eidan who wears a lavender sachet around his neck. There’s a little girl riding in the wagon, and someone sleeping under a blanket in the back. Tompkins attempts to borrow something from the wagon while Janisthere keeps them distracted with bizarre but somehow charming inquiries into the girl’s health and well being.

Chalia, an elf ranger, joins the party. She is investigating reports of slavers preying on Tsunami refugees in the area. She is aware of an inn 4 hours ahead that might shelter the group for the night.

The party encounters 4 Furyondy militia on horseback, annoyed as they wait for a party of elf cavalry from Celene. The elves are late. Probably sniffing flowers and singing tra-la-la instead of appreciating the seriousness of the situation: there’s a party of Gnolls raiding in the area. The militia warns the party to be careful. 

The party stumbles across the wagon they encountered earlier, overturned by a creek. Eidin is dead. The wagon passenger is missing. Chalia uses tracking to detect the footprints from about 15 gnolls and a pack of hyenas that participated in the raid.

A badly wounded gnoll hides under the dead little girl, but Tompkins miraculously sees through the trap and attempts to subdue the gnoll hand-to-hand for interrogation. Despite severe injury, the gnoll turns the tables on him, and almost drowns him before being put down by uncannily accurate bow fire from the party. The Gnoll has a necklace on which are strung three human right feet, possibly as trophies for ransom.

The party discovers a vial of Gnoll Smelling Salt, and Eidin’s lavender sachet. Discovering the wagon horse still alive, they right the wagon and continue on their way, leaving the bodies to rot in the sun.

Inn of the Lonely Star

The party arrives at the Inn of the Lonely Star. A magical hedge surrounds the Inn. Next to a lavender field, is a grazing area with a rotting abandoned barn.

There is some tension with the portly Inn-Keeper Gareth: Eidin was his son, drafted into the milita. Gareth recognizes the wagon. Marlinspike wins him over by presenting the lavender sachet, and speaking well of the deceased. The party sees Petra, the innkeepers daughter sneaking around the back of the inn with an empty food tray.

Renting a room for the night, the party discovers two fresh graves in the Inn courtyard. Gareth says they are the remains of Hendi, their field hand, and an unknown inn guest from two days prior. Hendi was ripped to shreds in the Inn’s lavender field while tending to the bee hives. Pieces of the guest’s bloody robe were found after he left to go fishing in “The Pond”. The Innkeeper asks the party for help to figure out what happened.

An oddly large house spider observes the conversation from a thread before being incinerated mid-conversation by Janisthere.

Later, Janisthere sees Elbarath, the poodle, and Garland drinking in the common room. Garland offers to help the party investigate the deaths; Elbareth doesn’t think the reward is important enough to waste his time.

Meanwhile, Tompkins manages to pick the lock to the vanished guest’s room. He discovers some sort of traveling alchemy kit, including a fully brewed Potion of Acid Resistance. He decides to borrow it.

Tompkins can’t open Garland’s door, but does break into Elbareth’s room. The chamber is bizarrely tidy, but smells of Poodle urine.

An Investigation

Chalia spends the evening ranging, discovering that a decorative bridge over the nearby creek has been washed away. Scouting upstream, she discovers the cause: a beaver dam has fallen into disrepair and burst. However, there is something unusual about the newly drained pond: dead fish with bloody gills ring the shoreline. There are also unusual flakes of ice and frost in the mud despite the late-summer heat. The beaver nest in the middle of the lake has icicles on it. Continuing her investigation, she discovers a cave entrance before retiring for the night in the abandoned barn – where she discovers Korat Rass.

Korat is an 8’ tall Leonin Paladin who recently escaped the destruction of his village, and the complete genocide of his clan at the hands of that Gnoll raiding party. They were hunting for him, when he collapsed in the barn three nights ago. Petra has nursed him back to health.

Meanwhile, Marlinspike searches the lavender field. He discovers a depression in the earth surrounded by melted stone and dried gore. This is where Hendi met his end.

Reconvening in the morning, the party pools their information. Chalia thinks that the most likely culprit in Hendi’s death is an Ankheg: an acid-spewing giant insect tunneling ambush predator. They don’t usually eat humans.

A Cryptic Clue

While they are discussing plans, the pary sees that Petra has crept out. The ranger tracks her, and the party pursues. They follow her into the forest outside the inn. Garland and Janisthere trip into each other for no particular reason. Something throws acorns at Chalia and she starts losing her composure. The Faerie dragon that had been sitting on Marlinspike’s shoulder expresses disappointment that the party can’t take a joke.

The party discovers that the Faerie dragon has dressed up Petra in illusory princess-attire. She wants the party not to tell her parents. The dragon tells Marlinspike that “If you can see a puppet dancing on a string, best keep an eye out for the puppet master”, before disappearing with a Cheshire-cat-like grin.

Ambush at the Lake

The party heads to the lake, as Petra returns to the inn. Now in daylight, the party sees that the water looks corrupted with some kind of black oily filth. The fish are rotting in the bright morning sun; the stench is almost unbearable.

Filing into the cave entrance, the party is ambushed by an Ice Mephit that set up base in the abandoned beaver nest. Janisthere and Garland are almost killed. The party decides to rest up before going further. Janisthere uses Mage Hand to recover a white gemstone from the nest without daring to wade out to it.

Slaying the Ankheg

Inside the cave, the party discovers a loose dirt slope that descends into some kind of hole. Cobwebs and spider silk cling to a roof of dangling roots. The far wall of the cavern seems to be composed of cobwebs, which the party incinerates via ignited crossbow bolt.

After much discussion, the party gives Korat the potion of acid resistance. He leaps into the hole and roars. The roar reverberates throughout the tunnels of the area, and brings down several feet of dirt onto him. The Ankheg investigates; Korat tries to run down a side tunnel but the beast charges through the intervening solid wall. Korat has just enough time to quaff the potion before the two-ton monstrosity buries its feeding maw into his chest.

Unfortunately the monster’s rash attack has left its hind quarters vulnerable to Tompkins. With a clutch sleep spell, Janisthere secures the kill for the party, with Korat administering the coup-de-grace.

Janisthere is badly burned by the beast’s acid while trying to rip off its mandibles as a trophy. The party bleeds the monster of its acid, but decides to retreat to the inn before investigating further.

A Bad Spot to Camp

Chalia and Korat decide to sleep in the abandoned barn, under the stars. Somewhat unwisely, they light a campfire. Three adolescent giant wolf spiders attack them in the night. Our heroes are both webbed. Chalia breaks free with Korat’s help and decides to fight instead of saving herself. She is dragged away by the spiders to an uncertain fate.

The party, awoken by Korat’s roar for help arrives, in their underwear, too late to help. The adventures gear up and prepare to save their friend. Or die in the attempt.