***Note 1 - these characters have fairly intricate backgrounds, which I wont fully detail unless my free time drastically increases. Their players could jump in themselves to do this for me, but I am leaving that up to them. For a quick summary, you can read the timeline behind the spoiler tag***
•Syrdu and Vunelda (Calum's parents) elope to Falcon's Hollow
•Syrdu becomes sergeant of the watch
•Stella is born to her elven mother Liandri, and human father,Kallan; The Elder Darkwood is struck by lightning
•Shara's brother Ronald is born.
4686
•Calum conceived
•Syrdu dies at the hands of an ogre
•Syrdu raised from the dead
4687
•Shara is born; Ronald almost drowns in a rain barrel but s saved by Harq Tinderforge; the full moon is obscured by a cloud of bats.
•Calum is born; his mother sees a crow watching her through the window; Syrdu accidentally kills another member of the guard while fighting a mysterious wizard adversary.
•Syrdu and Vunelda separate
•Liandri and Kallan separate; Stella goes to live with her father
4688
•Crissie is born; her mother's lucky rock splits in half
4689
•Syrdu dies; his body goes missing
•Kiran is born to Kallan and ?
4690
•Wheezing death outbreak in Falcon's Hollow; 43 people die before the disease appears to have run its course.
•Crissie's parents a are carried off by taint; she goes to live with the Coopers after spending several days at Elara's Halfway House.
•last sighting of the Witch of the Woods in Falcon's Hollow. She is sighted bathing naked in Brookman's Well; use of the spring is banned for a year and a day.
•A flash flood from an underground channel fills the root cellars of several farms with murky water. Shara's parents disappear, and are found floating in the cellar doorway several days later. Shara and Ronald go to live with their aunt and uncle, Errorld and Dess.
4691
•Dosa is conceived and born sickly
4695
•Shara falls off a shallow cliff while playing with some friends and breaks several bones. She is dragged back to town, and takes weeks to recover.
4701
•Shara is crushed by a falling tree during a thunderstorm while playing near Kiran's house
•Lumberjack Deldrin Balesdon refuses to pay an ax tax and smashes in Payday Payden's nose. He is elected sheriff with massive public support.
4702
•Shara is kicked by an angry mule and falls into a coma for a week
4704
•Calum is found half-dead in the forest by a a group of surveyors
•Shara is caught in a cave-in while exploring a small ocean cave. She is severely scarred.
4705
•Calum's uncle Galcian shows up; Vunelda becomes a phantasm
4706
•Shara leaves for the capital to learn a gainful trade
4707
•Shara's uncle Errold dies after falling from his horse
4708
•Potters Dove and Quinney Haglow are killed by a marauding wolf pack; Magistrate Harn institutes a bounty on fresh wolf pelts.
•Thuldrin Kreed begins construction of a new cutyard two miles into the Darkmoon Wood under the supervision of Mutters Kondlan
•Dosa's fiance turns out to be a doppleganger and flees town, Calum pursues but loses him in the forest
•Elara's Halfway House burns down - a tragic disaster.
•Shara returns from the capital with a patch over her right eye
•The wheezing death returns to Falcon's Hollow
•Present day
***Note 2 - Given the above, my players may read this thread, so please hide any comment regarding possible future events behind spoiler tags***
Calum's birthday had never been a cause for celebration. Years of experience had taught him that if anyone close to him was to die a horrible death, be tricked into killing a friend, or get turned into a silent, frozen spectre damned to an existence of eternal pain and misery, it was going to happen on his birthday and he was going to get blamed. He was, after all, born under a bad sign.
Today, however, started without incident. On his sister Dosa's request Calum set out to Jabbs' Meats to deliver some freshly killed chicken-lizards for preparation and sale. After having a short conversation with Jabbs, he ran into his friends Chrissie and Stella, who began acting suspicious, and invited themselves back to his house.
Like Calum, both Chrissie and Stella had been born under ill omens, and all three had grown up familiar with sharp looks and suspicious musings from their more superstitious neighbours. Recently, they had fallen under suspicion as vectors for the wheezing death, an often-fatal respiratory plague that had recently besieged Falcon's Hollow.
Upon arrival at Calum's farm, Chrissie and Stella revealed their true motives for following him. Dosa kicked off a surprise birthday party as they entered, and the four of them feasted on chicken-lizard, while catching up on current events. Dosa gave her brother a sword from the local blacksmith that had been enchanted to look magic, while Chrissie gave him a fancy cummerbund. Although Stella didn't have a gift, she was happy to have several shoes returned to her, which she had left at Calum and Dosa's over the prior weeks.
Celebrations were cut short as both Dosa and Stella were reduced to fits of hacking and sputtering indicative of the wheezing death. While Chrissie suggested consulting Laurel, the local herbalist, Dosa expressed concern that Laurel might, in fact, be a doppleganger, and therefore untrustworthy--Dosa's own fiancee having turned out to be a doppleganger only months before. She revealed that Laurel had in fact, come looking for Calum while he was out, but that she had rebuffed her for not knowing an up-to-date doppleganger password.
Putting aside fears of rampant shapechangers, Stella, Calum and Chrissie set off to discover what Laurel had wanted, only to find her shop closed, and surrounded by a crowd of desperate plague victims. Wading through the crowd and telling those gathered that they were there to help cure the plague, Calum knocked on Laurel's door and and announced their presence. Laurel let them in, amid a coughing fit of her own, and sat them down in the parlour. Stella used her magics to shield herself and her friends from the horrid smell that permeated the house as they listened intently to Laurel's explanation of the plague.
As it turned out, Laurel revealed, the outbreak of plague had been caused by a fungal infestation of one of the local springs. While she believed that she had most of the makings for a cure, she found herself lacking some ingredients that she had hoped Stella, Chrissie and Calum could retrieve from the Darkmoon Wood. Specifically, she needed elderwood moss, ironbloom mushrooms and a substance called rats' tail, which she believed to be in the pantry of the Witch of the woods. The group agreed to help, and set about gathering supplies for a trip to the woods.
This done, the three proceeded to their first stop: imposing themselves on Thuldrin Kreed's easternmost cutyard, they bribed the thugs at the gate and pulled woodsman Milon Rhoddham away from a meeting to mine him for information. Upon hearing the gravity of their situation, he pledged to help them, and mapped out the locations of their targets: the Forest's Elder Tree, the Witch of the Woods, and an old dwarven monastery.
Leaving the camp behind them, the group headed into Darkmon forest, where they were quickly halted for lack of daylight, and forced to set up camp. Their first night in the woods was uneventful but for some drunken carousers, who invaded their campsite in hopes of swapping stories, and reveling amongst company. Chrissie, who was not keen on reveling, sent the inebriated loggers on their way.
Rising late the next day Stella set about guiding her friends towards the Darkmoon's Elder Tree. The tree, said to have spawned the Darkwwod itself, was struck by lightning on the day od Stella's birth, and while some of its boughs had been partially immolated, the fire had not been able to fell the heart of the ancient darkwood. Stella, feeling a kinship with the tree, had camped under its branches in the past, and knew the secrets of its location. En route, however, the group heard the crying of an animal from over a bank to the west.
Climbing down the embankment, the Calum spotted a small firefoot caught in a cruel, hunter's trap. As he and his friends ran to free the animal, Stella saw a flash of metal in the foliage behind them, which was promptly followed by an arrow. This flew from the trees, accompanied by two large, nasty-looking crows. While Calum suffered the sting of arrows, Chrissie bid Nethys carry her mace to mash the head of their hidden source. Meanwhile, Stella showed her ancient dragon ancestry by downing a crow with a set of hidden claws. Even as their assailant fled, Chrissie took down the second crow with her levitating weapon, and thus ended the battle.
While Calum destroyed the trap, Chrissie and Stella bound the fox's leg, and began nursing him back to health. They left him with a delicious razorcrow lunch, and continued their trip towards the Elder Tree.
Here, despite encroaching darkness, Stella was able to spot what must be the blue, elderwood moss. As Calum climbed to collect some, however, he was attacked by a large lizard, which swung from a branch on its prehensile tail propelling itself towards him at a high speed. Fortunately, the lizard was not able to gain purchase as it tried to grab him, and fell prone to the ground, even as Calum jumped from the tree in an attempt at a leaping, overhand chop--which might have severed the beast's head, had it connected. Stella and Chrissie unleashed their powerful magics, and before long the lizard was felled.
More careuful scrutiny revealed that the creature was a type of dragon called a tatzylwyrm, and that it was edible if prepared correctly. As such, the group dined well that evening under the Elder Tree, and was able to pack some meat for the next day's lunch. Chrissie used her holy energies to heal her friends, who were happy for some relief after a long and arduous day. While the night passed quietly, Stella awoke to discover strange, cloven hoofprints around their campsite.
As the sun began its ascent, Calum climbed the elder tree in hopes of spotting a clearing that would indicate the cabin of the Witch of the Woods. Sure enough, about half a day away, he was able to spot a small hut right around where Milon said it should be. Thus, they packed up their things, and soon found themselves staring head-on at the very same domicile, which looked wild and partially taken by the woods.
It was my best birthday ever! I mean, sure, my little sister and one of my best friends came down with the plague, and a bunch of people are blaming us for its spread through the town, and a bunch of other people are holding us responsible for curing it, and we got a lumber guy mad at us for interrupting his meeting, but compared to my usual birthdays this one was great!