Game Commencement/Narration

[Amanda Rose]

Mid-Spring in Dryad Wood was generally a busy time. There was farming to be done. Sheep to be sheared. Herds to be culled. Not much had changed in the last couple hundreds of years from the perspective of humans. Of course, the resident elves would say that a lot had changed in a very short period of time. A couple hundred years ago, this town did not exist. And, according to legend, it had expanded from a mere human and elf to now encompass a few hundred people.

The town had two main roads. One roughly running North-South and the other East-West. Where the two met was where the most important buildings were located: the Town Hall, a small temple to Corellon, and two inns/taverns, which were rarely full with travelers but often had locals sharing their daily burdens in the evening, thus keeping the inns in business.

However, this Spring had been subtly different. It was a trickle at first: people, refuges of sorts, coming from afar claiming their city or town had become overrun by foreign invaders that had appeared from nowhere, some of which looked like no other humans. The residents of Dryad Wood, at first, regarded many of these visitors as eccentric, odd, or insane but were more than happy to accept their coin. Yet, people started to come in from other directions and the stories were the same.

The normally simple and reclusive folks of Dryad Wood became somewhat concerned and the Town Council convened, deciding that they would seek adventures and volunteers from Dryad Wood to seek answers to these perplexing problems, as well as to determine whether Dryad Wood was at any risk. A sign was placed on the cross in the roads so that all could see the proclamation. The council wants to see a party assembled in no less than two days.

Naturally, this being unusual in the sleepy town of Dryad Wood, the notice has caused quite a stir. All of you, who are in in the campaign, are currently located within the Charming Dryad, one of the two taverns/inns at this crossroad. Those of you who are locals believe that the food and ale here is of a finer quality than the other inn, called the Thirsty Dragon. Locals and travelers alike, are openly and animatedly discussing the proclamation and speculating wildly about the nature of these alleged strangers.

[Amanda Rose]

The party all met at the Charming Dryad in Dryad Wood. The head of the council, a male half-elf, Davros retained the services of the party at a rate of 50gp each, should they return alive, to come back with accurate information regarding what is going on outside Dryad Wood and the true reason for the incursion of all the outsiders. Lead by the Paladin, Keth Soban, the party bravely approached a couple of folks who said they came from the North and informed them of shadow goblins. The party bravely spent the night in the Charming Dryad and then headed North towards Melford to look into the shadow goblins. After breakfast, our intrepid party left and after traveling for nearly 8 hours realized that they had brought no rations or food with them on the journey. Consequently, the party had to hunt for their supper. The paladin stripped down to his clothing to be more stealthy and less clanky in their hunt. Despite having no bows (Isolde wandered off in another direction), Keth Soban and Lia found themselves in a place budding with wildlife. Keth spied a deer munching grass and Lia found a couple of squirrels. Lia pounced on the squirrel with her rapier only to have managed to sunder the squirrel's acorn. Having bravely maimed the squirrel and the squirrel being a coward-like being, it quickly scampered up the tree. In the meantime, in a rare display of catlike reflexes, Keth flashed his sword before Bambi noticed and spliced it open like Han cut open the Ton Ton. Making their way back to camp, the party cooked their hard earned meal and Isolde came back with a much more neatly killed deer. After filling themselves, the party went to sleep and Keth took the first watch. During his watch he (and the sleeping party) failed to notice a black bear had crept into camp and started to munch on Isolde's deer. He figured that the Dragonborn was snoring. Upon realizing that it was the sound of rendering flesh, Keth bravely set upon the bear, trying to defend the dead deer. He took a mighty blow but the bear was up to the task and clawed and bit him in a bear hug. This woke up Lia and Isolde who tried to come to his aid but it was too late. Keth was unconscious. The bear, not taking kindly to having someone aid someone that hurt it, took its fury on Lia and was even harsher on her, cutting her neck wide open with its claws. Isolde, calmly put two bolts into the bear, felling it. She then stabilized Lia and Keth's God (whomever it might be) apparently felt that he needed to stay in this world as he stabilized himself. The party then skinned the bear and took it along with the venison to Melford. They arrived just before dusk and the village looks like it is preparing for war. Rather than assist the citizens, the party has lodged itself in the King's Head Inn and has taken some hot baths. The proprietor, Lena (co-owner with her brother, Garrit), has flirted with Keth and after awhile has made the assumption that Keth and Lia are married. The party is all staying in one room and Keth has paid the 19sp fee for hot baths and a night in the Inn.

[Amanda Rose]

Upon waking, our intrepid party decided that they were going to acquaint themselves with the village of Melford. First they headed to the general store to try and purchase some supplies. When they got there, a middle aged man named Brad Jennings told the party that the shadow goblins have been regularly attacking the outskirts of town and seem to appear somewhere else every night. He also told the party (Keth and Isolde) that there's a shrine to the north and some say it is the home to a blood cult but he was not sure he believed it. When questioned about who was new in town, he indicated that the cosmeticist and jeweler were. From there, the party went to visit them. The couple appeared to be in the upper 20s and Tom and Felona Verdane were quite eager to make a sale. They assumed that Keth and Isolde were engaged as Isolde showed a lot of interest in rings that were expensive for the village. They told Keth and Isolde that they were trapped in town and have been making the best of it with their store. They indicated a bit of competition from the smith. So, naturally, the pair went to visit the blacksmith, Irena Yar. There was some small talk about weapons and armor until Irena's cat came down and started rubbing against Keth. He tired to pick it up and it rejected his attempt, scratching and biting him in the process. They promptly left and headed back to the King's Head Inn and picked up Lia. From there, they went to the haberdashery and met the owner, Deborah Snaid. She talked a great deal about the Spider Farm who does business with her and gives her the silk to make some rather exquisite dresses and outfits. The owner is Ulayah Reyn. Isolde immediately expressed interest in going there but Keth expressed a fear of the spiders. Deborah also revealed Ulayah is the richest man in the are and that Maenae runs the shrine to the north. She also revealed that there might be a vampire in town as some livestock have had some unique puncture wounds. So, naturally, they went to visit the owner of the livestock seller, a half orc named Reiner. He was quite aggressive with the party and demanded to know why they were interested in his animals. His daughter, Savula came out on crutches and intervened, calming him. He then offered to sell a donkey to the party for 10 gp. The party rejected it for the time being and headed to the Inn and per Garrit and Lena's instructions waited for the constable, Marieka to come to them.

When Marieka arrived, they conversed with her and she was favorably impressed with the offer to help the town. She told the party to watch the North and she would watch the South. The party, again, failed all their perception rolls and they were ambushed by the shadow goblins. They immediately took out Lia and despite a great battle by Isolde and Keth, the 4 shadow goblins overwhelmed the party and knocked them all unconscious. When they woke, they saw an imposing elf with a staff. He claimed to have helped them. All the shadow goblins were dead and the party restored to full hit points. When the party asked why he helped and how he knew all of their names, he told the party that "his lady told him." He would not reveal the identity of his lady but eventually told them that his name was Lithlowen. He claimed to have shortened it so that Keth could get the name right. He was not overly informative and told the party that they were to wait at the Inn until morning. He also named Freya, a ranger who followed them back to the Inn and stayed there with them.

The party did so. When morning came, the party Lithlowen was gone. After breakfast with Marieka and Keth telling how the party killed numerous shadow goblins, a larger young woman who was bedraggled came into the Inn. She identified herself as Heri Reyn, daughter of Ulayah and told everyone that her father and the spider farm were taken by the shadow goblins. She only barely managed to escape. Keth begrudgingly pledged the party to assist Heri and off the party went. The ranger insisted on taking the non-road route and the party found 4 boars. This time, the party succeeded in combat and the party decided that they were going to take some time to cook some of the pork before continuing on to the spider farm.

[Amanda Rose]

Wow! Quite a bit behind on this... Summarizing then....

The party eventually got to the spider farm and went building by building killing shadow goblins. The party were given a reward by Ulyah, the owner of the spider farm and then they headed back to Melford where they found that the male owner of the King's Head Inn was murdered the night before. Our intrepid heroes questioned everyone and eventually figured out that his sister (the female owner) killed him and that the honey seller may have been an accomplice.

Unfortunately by the time that they figured that out, the sister made her break on a horse. Keth tried to get on one of the horses in the stable but the horse did not care for him, throwing him off. He found a much more suitable horse and the party's chase led them to a farmhouse. Once inside, they fought a number of half dismembered skeletons and avoided some weird worms. Making sounds of combat, a slightly deformed man came in and started throwing divine spells at the party. They killed him (learning that he was the mad half brother of the inn owners) and saw that he had a shrine dedicated to a God that nobody could identify. They took their prisoner back to town and were hailed as heroes and permitted to stay in the Inn for the foreseeable future.

Of course, the next morning, the heroes were greeted by Maenae. She introduced herself as a priestess at the shrine up North. Keth believed they were blood cultists but that was quickly disproved. Savula Vogg, the deformed girl, also went along to be trained as a sybil. When the party got to the shrine, they noticed that Lithlowen was there. Maenae informed the party that she was a follower of Tymora, a Goddess previously unknown to this world until she happened upon her near Dryad Wood. She has been here at the shrine ever since.

Maenae asked the party to do her a favor and check in on an adventuring party that was trying to destroy the rest of the shadow goblins but she had not heard from them in a week or so. She wanted the party to come back with news, if possible. She also promised healing and gave the party two healing potions each. The party also noticed that the shrine was missing 2 statutes of 7 at the shrine and that they apparently walked off on their own and disappeared at a cliff. The statues also seemed to have moved a bit in their circle the evening before the party went to chase after the previous adventuring party.

Freya tracked the adventurers to a cave. After being attacked by rats and stirges, the party found the prior adventuring party - all caught in a net trap, dead. They party looted the previous adventurers and returned to Maenae rather than further tracking down the shadow goblins which they saw no sign of in this cavern.

The party is now making plans to return to Dryad Wood with Lithlowen who states that they will meet his lady there. Maenae also informed the party that they would meet again in the future and that they would be needed in Dryad Wood.