Sense I keep my own campaign journal and send it to my players as a session recap I figured I would also post it here. I hope you like!
My group decided to do a naming scheme this campaign, the scheme this time around: Norse. Not all of them named their characters with it sense some had made them before they decided on it.
The Party, AKA: The Æsir (of Magnificent Glory)
Odin – Hu, Oracle. Retired general of Brevoy now in his late 50s. Sent by his old friend the Lord Mayor of Rostov to help out these young-ins. Used to be an awesome fighter, now is lame in 1 leg and the gods of batter have favored him. Actually has a family *GASP*.
Tane – Hu, Rogue. Bastard of house Rogarvia, spent most of his life on the run. Assumed the last name of his protector after he died. The party doesn't know much about him.
Demelvar Sprigglemort – Gnome, Alchemist. From Numaria, here on his masters request to help old friends. Weird like Gnomes are. Actually older than Odin. Loves long names(See party name).
Tyr – ½ Elf, Ranger. Recently released indentured servant of a minor Brevoyin house. Still has to pay off his Freedom, is kinda looking for his elf mother he has never met. Served as a night watchman for most of his adult life.
Vulpes di Theseus – Hu, Fighter. Born and raised in the Vally of Fire. After his parents death was raised and trained by a former knight of Brevoy. At 18 his master sent him to Rostov to do some good. He is currently having his masters old armor and weapon repaired. Hates Giants.
This represents the first 2 sessions.
30th of Calistril (Last day of winter). The party, sans sick ½ Elf, arrives at Oleg’s trading post, located at the northern edge of the Kamelands in the Greenbelt region of the Stolen Lands. After making introductions Oleg’s wife Svetlana asks the party for help and tells them the story of how they have been victimized by bandits for the last 3 months and how they will be here the next day. The party agrees to help and prepares a trap.
1st of Pharast (1st day of spring). The bandits arrive as scheduled and are promptly ambushed and slaughtered, except one who failed to escape and was captured. The group finds a strange pendent on the leader it has a skull with stag horns on it. Interrogation reveals the hideout they came from and their leader, Kressle. The camp is located where the Thorn River comes out of the forest about a day’s ride south. After giving the bandit to Oleg to pay off his debt through indentured servitude, the party heads east with their new horses to talk to a man named Bokken who is said to be crazy. Confirming that the man is indeed crazy, Tane talks him into making some potions for them at a discount price if they retrieve a bunch of Fangberrys.
2nd of Pharast. The party explores south west of Bokken’s hut and finds a nice 6ft long spider that wants to play, after playing with it a bit too hard they move on to the west.
3rd of Pharast. Entering the foreboding forest called The Narlmarches from the east the party stumbles upon a grove of Moon Radishes occupied by 5 vile and overstuffed Kobolds. Demelvar quickly deduces the nature in which they must be dealt with and tosses a bomb at them. After clearing the Moon Radish grove they quickly bundle up the Radishes that Svetlana just happened to need a bunch of and head back to Oleg’s.
4th of Pharast. The party return to Oleg’s to find a number of new people there. Tyr had recovered from his illness and is waiting with his new horse. A mercenary named Kesten and his 3 warriors who volunteered to guard the trading post and a priest of Erastil named Jhod who seems troubled. During an amazing dinner of Moon Radish soup both ask the party a favor. Kesten wants a man brought in alive who stole from him and Jhod wants an old temple of Erastil that’s somewhere in the forest cleared of some evil. Oleg gives the party 4 bounties that had arrived or been made in the last few days.
5th of Pharast. The party rests the day at Oleg’s.
6th to 10th of Pharast. The party sets out with 6 days of supplies to explore the northern plains. Exploring is slow as the party moves along small streams so they don’t have to carry tons of water for their horses. They learn from a hunter that the northern forest is dangerous because of another hunter named Breeg hiding traps in it. Wild boars and a Worg present a minor problem.
11th and 12th of Pharast. Party rides back to Oleg’s.
13th and 14th of Pharast. Party plans for next excursion, re-supplies and rests while Demelvar makes potions.
15th of Pharast. The party sets out towards the northern part of the Narlmarches for exploration. Darning the night, night-watchman Tyr falls asleep and the party including all the horses is tied up. Most are confused except Demelvar who says that Tyr’s prank is awesome.
16th of Pharast. Early in the morning the party sees a trail side sign boldly proclaiming that Human season starts today. Vulpes moves to change the sign but then sees a Raccoon with a survival knife watching him from the bushes; Odin stops him from tampering with the sign. Later in the day the group discovers an entire glade of hidden bear traps and continues to find them throughout the day. At evening Tyr discovers how wonderful his new super loud alarm backpack is and Demelvar falls for the old gold piece on far edge of disguised pool of water prank. During the night Vulpes and Odin’s armor is painted bright orange.
17th of Pharast. Tired of the pranks Tyr places a gift (read: bribe) for the fey that have been pranking them. Around lunch the 2 fey introduce themselves, a Grig named Tig-Titter-Tut and a Faerie Dragon named Perlivash who is over fond of sitting on people’s heads. They thank the group for being good sports and admit they had a prank bet with each other against the party. They tell the group about some locations in the forest, a hot spring and an abandoned temple to Erastil and tell them to drop by their home some time.
18th of Pharast. Entering the plains west of the northern part of the Narlmarches the group spends most of the day finding nothing of interest until Odin spots an old Cairn. Odin explains that it’s a grave for a chieftain of the Tiger tribe who used to be a real threat until Brevoy drove them into the western Stolen Lands. The group decides to not desecrate the grave and actually clear it of bushes and clean it a bit.
This is session 3.
19th of Pharast. Leaving the Cairn behind and exploring to the west at the very edge of the area they have been tasked with exploring. The group finds a lot of plains and a few trees but nothing much else.
20th of Pharast. Having completed their 180 the group explores in the direction of the forest. Around mid day Tyr spots a Boar limping its way towards the forest, Demelvar rushes to its aid and after having to pin the poor beast to feed it a cure potion it becomes much less scared and friendlier. Demelvar asks what happened and eventually figures out that the Boar had ran afoul of some hidden bear traps it managed to escape form and was trying to find the friendly fey to help it. The group is largely disappointed and confused that Demelvar is helping food. Late in the night during Demelvars watch Perlivash gives the prankster gnome his greatest prank to help the Gnome out before returning home.
21st of Pharast. The party once again enters the Narlmarches still following small rivers and paths as they explore. During the day they find remains of a dead trapper and his dead fall trap along a river bank that failed him while he was building it and crushed him. Tane takes the man’s gear and investigates the cause but determines that it was a bad rope. They come to the conclusion that this is Breeg the man that’s supposedly been trapping the northern parts of the Narlmarches.
22nd of Pharast. After studying and figuring out the best application for the prank Demelvar sets a gift wrapped box next to Vulpes as he sleeps. When Vulpes awakes his opens his new present that’s been disguised as a present to him for helping the Boar from the 2 Fey they met. When Vulpes opens the box he discovers an item that is a paradox on to its self, a rose petal from a compass rose, seeing an impossible object almost drives the man crazy and he is totally obsessed with it for the remainder of the day.
The group decides to rest at the base of the tree that Tig and Perlivash call home and spend a lovely evening with the 2 fey laughing all the while as Vulpes continues to be confused by the rose petal. Tyr steals a glance at the rose petal and spends the remainder of the night also heavily confused. Tane questions the fey about Breeg and confirms that it was indeed him and even gets a confession out of Perlivash that he did it. Tane admits that the man had it coming and relieves the tiny fey of guilt. The 2 fey also inform the party that the bandits are up to something and the group decides that they will deal with them next.
23rd of Pharast. The group heads back to Olegs, arriving late in the evening. Demelvar has another package of potion ingredients waiting.
24th and 25th of Pharast. The party rests and re-supplies as Demelvar makes more potions for the group. They decide on a night time ambush of the Thorn river bandit camp.
26th of Pharast. Having been given good directions to the camp by the captured bandit and the fey the party rides all day to the Thorn River about 2 miles upstream from the camp in the forest. Tyr, Tane and Demelvar scout out the camp after dark. Having gone unnoticed and gathering excellent Intel they meet back up with the rest of the group after a few hours to discuss the plan.
Odin being the x-general comes up with a plan with the help of the others to have Demelvar and Tyr take out the guard platform on the far side of the river. Tane will set the bear traps behind the bandits cover and in the ford of the river directly in-between the camp and the far platform then sneak behind the main camp. Odin and Vulpes will charge in mounted along the path when the bandits get stuck on the traps and kill the main body, while Tane takes some out from behind.
Preparation for the ambush goes well and when they are ready to strike Demelvar and Tyr eliminate the 2 guards with bombs and arrows. The bandits act as planed and Tane moves into position as the 2 mounted warriors start moving up. As the bandits realize that it’s a trap their leader Kressle charges ahead leaving her main group to deal with the 2 mounted people. Tane attacks from behind killing 2 that were injured by bear traps as Vulpes and Odin also kill 2 with a mounted charge. Kressle gets to Tyr and Demelvar and starts chopping up Tyr. Demelvar takes a potion and gets vary beefy almost bestial and starts carving up Kressles legs. Vulpes sees his friends in danger and charges over to Kressle beheading her right after she drops Tyr. Vulpes runs down one of the escaping bandits and the group ends up capturing 2 of them with 2 escaping. Demelvar manages to get Tyr one of his potions, sense he used the one he had during the fight, and get him back on his feet.
The captured Bandits reveal much, they work for a man named the Stag Lord whom Kressle was a lieutenant of and they tell the group where his fortress is and how they might be able to get into it. The group decides that these 2 bandits have been helpful enough to let live and take them back to Oleg’s after they rest at the bandit camp for the night. The group also takes the wagon and the stolen loot. When asked about Svetlana’s ring they are told that some of the loot was stolen last week by Mites and are told where their lair is.
27th of Pharast. The group rides back to Oleg’s with their new wagon. They return much of the supplies to Oleg that has been stolen over the last 3 months. Oleg is delighted upon hearing of Kressle’s demise and almost falls off the roof he was fixing due to dancing. The trading post also receives 2 new indentured servants to help out. Jhod helps out the new arrivals with healing and starts guiding them much like he has been doing for the first bandit they captured a month ago, a long tedious process indeed.
This is session 4's events.
28th of Pharast. Shortly after breakfast at Oleg’s one of Kestens men spots an injured hunter heading towards the trading outpost. Odin heals the man once he’s inside and the group asks him what happened. He explains that as he was setting up camp last night a group of a dozen bandits stumbled upon him, as he fled they shot him a few times but he escaped into the forest. He says they were heading towards Oleg’s. The group along with Kesten's men and Jhod start preparing to defend the outpost again. Tyr and Tane attempt to locate the bandit force but after ½ a day are unable to and head back. Odin informs the group that the bandit’s best bet to attack at night.
29th of Pharast. Middle of the night Demelvar spot the group of bandits approaching the outpost quietly, he alerts Kesten and his friends. Odin starts helping Vulpes put on his armor as the rest get to the wall with longbows. Kesten gives the order to fire and the two groups start showing arrows at each other. Kesten is taken out of the fight early by an arrow that almost prices his heart, the group except Tyr retreats off the wall. Demelvar drinks a potion that makes him look like one of the captured bandits and hops the wall around back.
The bandits split into a group of 6 to scale the wall and a group of 3 to kill Tyr who is now on one of the towers, 3 having died in the arrow exchange. Vulpes gets his armor on just as they climb past the gate and Kesten’s men are waiting, Jhod has stabilized Kesten and Tyr is now protecting them. As the slaughter in the main yard commences Demelvar gets to the group of 3 and they believe that it’s their captured friend. As soon as they turn their back Demelvar turns into a miniature sky blue werewolf and proceeds to eat the bandits, between him and Tyr they are shortly killed. The night ends with several group members hurt but not dead thanks to Odin’s healing and all the bandits dead. The group spends the day resting and disposing of the bandits bodies, they find a letter from Kressle to the Stag Lord requesting more men to take out Oleg’s. Demelvar gets his pet (sky blue) Rat, Mr. Wigglefrump, back seeing as his is no longer needed to protect Oleg’s trading post and takes it with him.
30th of Pharast. The group sets out on what is planned to be a 2 week excursion, riding first east past Bokken’s hit and start exploring once again.
1st to 4th of Gozran. The New month brings with it some light rains as the group explores in a zig-zag along the eastern edge of the area they are tasked with exploring. Upon encountering the almost impassable Shrike River they turn West and plan to explore to the other side of the Greenbelt through the forest.
5th of Gozran. This area of land is proving boring as not much is around, after mid day when the groups horses are done resting they spot a gnarled old tree that looks like a claw grasping for the sky. Digging out the map they found more than a month ago at the Trap-door spiders nest, they conclude that treasure is buried under this tree. Thanks to Tyr they are able to find it without messing the tree up and uncover the belongings of what was probably a mage of some sort. Demelvar gets most of it except the master crafted dagger which Tane takes.
6th of Gozran. Odin spots a small cave as the group explores the area, they decide that sense it’s their job to explore that they need to see what’s in the cave. After clearing the bushes in the way Demelvar ventures in first sense the cave is his height and stops just short of falling down a 20’ deep shaft. After climbing down the shaft the groups finds a vein of Gold that runs through this spot and immediately starts to think of all the stuff they can get now that they are rich, Odin interjects with a bit of reality and asks how they plan to mine this and get it anywhere. They decide to re-camouflage the entrance and come back at a later date.
7th of Gozran. Finally exploring the area around the Thorn River Bandit camp the only thing new the group finds is that a large group came through here about a week ago. The rest of the area is fairly tame.
8th of Gozran. While exploring the group realizes that they are near the old temple that Jhod wanted them to clear. Having exact directions on how to find the place they stop by. Shortly after entering the rather run down and eerie ruins a loud roar bellows from the cave and a very large angry Grizzly bear stomps out. The group spreads out and takes cover, the bear charges straight for Tane sensing a follower of Erastil, Tane’s tattoo of Erastil that is on his arm starts glowing brightly and he is filled with Erastil’s power. Tane ducks a few of the bears swings and backing into the pool of water, Vulpes tries to interject with swords but is largely ignored, in a swift and decisive action Tane using Vulpes distraction and shoves the masterwork dagger he recently got into the bears mouth killing it. As the bear dies the place is filled with a sense of peace and the bear turns into an old man who looks at peace then he turns into dust. Demelvar looks up ready to fight after applying his poison to his punch dagger and is shocked and saddened that everything is over and he missed it; he asks his Rat what happened. Tane prays to Erastil and is blessed with knowledge of what happened here and that Erastil lead Jhod to him so that Tane could kill the bear, Erastil lets Tane know that the sins of this old priest here and Jhod are forgiven. Tane vows to find out exactly what Jhod’s sins were and names his new dagger Bear Killer.
9th of Gozran. As the group nears the Skunk River they smell something odd, no not the sulfur, but what Vulpes recognizes as Trolls. Vulpes hates Trolls but knows that they could rip the group apart and decides to flee. They evade the Trolls most of the day, even seeing them a few times through the trees; they eventually lose them by ducking into the old temple from the previous day.
10th of Gozran. Exploring this day mostly along the Skunk River so named for its rotten egg smell, they eventually find the large hot spring that spawns the Skunk River and Vulpes decides to check it out being a fan of sulfur and hot springs, being from mountains above the Valley of Fire and all. As soon as his dismounts and goes near the water his is pulled in by a giant frog, the group rushes to help him as another lets it’s self be known. The frogs are quickly killed by the better outfitted group and they decide to have frog leg and soup for dinner. Vulpes decides that one day he is building a winter home here.
11th and 12th of Gozran. Exiting the forest they party explores some more plains for the 2 days but doesn’t find much.
13th and 14th of Gozran. The group rides back to Oleg’s stopping to visit the fey on their way back. Upon arriving at Oleg’s late on the 14th Odin has a missive waiting from his friend the Lord Mayor of Restov. Within is a bounty for the Stag Lord that pays 5,000 GP and a guarantee of a charter allowing colonization of the Green Belt and granting the title of Baron. The group is mostly excited; a small letter to Odin says “This has to do with what we talked about.”
Session 5s events.
15th of Gozran. Demelvar wakes up early and decides to play a prank on Odin, he gets the rest of the party in on it and when Odin wakes up they make him think he has a made up disease. After the commotion Svetlana tells the group that she’s worried about a local resident named Davik Nettles because he hasn’t stopped in for his quarterly shipment. The group decides that they will head that way.
16th of Gozran. Group rides to the area they will be exploring.
17th of Gozran. The group explores until they run into the Shrike River, they can’t find a ford safe enough for the horses and decide to follow the river downstream.
18th of Gozran. The group discovers a broken bridge in the area they were told that Nettle had his bridge. Upon seeing a bell and a sign marked “Ring bell for service. 1 CP per leg to cross.” Demelvar immediately rings it assuming the bridge will re-build its self. As he stares intently at the broken bridge Davik Nettels water logged corpse rises from the river and walks atop the water demanding that the Stag Lord’s body be thrown into the river that he may see his death. Odin wisely stops Vulpes from attacking the walking corpse and tells Davik that they will do so and the group quickly leaves. Without a safe place to cross the river the group decides to head into the area they know the Mite’s lair is in just to the west.
19th of Gozran. Throughout the early parts of the day the group finds several battlefields in miniature with dead Mites and Kobolds, each thoroughly striped of their belongings. At midday they find an enormous Sycamore Tree slowly being killed by something. After finding an entrance Demelvar and Tyr sneak down the shaft to scout and they spot 2 mites playing in one direction and 1 mite feeding several large centipedes. After reporting back to the group Demelvar comes up with a nice plan and uses some animal musk he has to lure the centipedes out, when they do come out a quick fight kills all of them and their Mite feeder.
The group heads down into the Mites lair and meets little resistance until an even larger centipede decides that Odin is lunch as he’s crossing a gorge. Narrowly missing Odin the group then attacks the thing, Tyr scores a nasty hit on the thing but also gains its attention and it almost bites him in half. Vulpes gains the attention of the thing after he buries his bastard sword into its back and it whips around and attacks but is unable to hurt the heavily armored knight, the thing dies shortly.
The group heads further into the Mite’s lair and having heard the fight the remaining Mites and their leader who is riding a Cave Tick are waiting. The gathered mites quickly learn the power of Demelvar’s bombs and they attempt to doom the party but largely fail. Tane and Vulpes flank the Cave Tick and make short work of it and as the leader falls off of the Tick he is shot in the head by Tyr and killed before he hits the ground, the rest run away. As the group searches the room and loots the corpses of the dead Mites, many filled with arrows or burned to death, Demelvar studies a crude map that the Mites had made. Being the group’s cartographer he deduces that this is a map that leads to the Kobolds lair and for the first time sense hearing about the Sootscale Kobold tribe he has a concrete location for their lair. Demelvar convinces the group that the Kobolds must die a most horrible death and after looting the rest of the Mite’s lair they head south to deal with the Kobolds.
Session 6: Happy fun time with Kobolds and Boars.
20th of Gozran: Having camped about 5 miles away from the Kobolds lair the group sets its self for an early morning raid on the Sootscale caverns. As the group nears the cave they spot an old sign proclaiming this as the Oaktop Silver Mine in old faded letters. The group hears a yelp and a Kobold jumps up to say “Wait, Wait I wana talk.” But before the words are barely out of his mouth Demelvar kills the Kobold with a well placed bomb. Looking around the entrance area they find a wooden cage with a Mite in it but decide to leave it in the cage.
As the group enters the old silver mine Demelvar proceeds to warn the group that Kobolds like traps and then falls into a hidden pit trap, after he climbs out he almost instantly falls into another and upon climbing out of that narrowly avoids a 3rd one. The group then defeats a small ambush before making their way further into the caves.
After carefully making their way through what can only be worship room complete with sacrifice altar the group finds the Chiefs room, he and 7 other Kobolds are waiting for them. Chief Sootscale attempts to tell the tall folk that they want no fight but Demelvar hits the Chief with a bomb and they attack. The Kobolds quickly surround Vulpes and the Chief uses the distraction and aid from his clan mates to repeatedly hit Vulpes in all his squishy parts. Demelvar turns into a blue Werewolf again and quickly hops around the pillar the Kobolds are using to keep the group from out maneuvering them and lays into their back ranks. Odin is out of healing spells and Vulpes hurt from repeated sneak attacks when Vulpes scores a nasty hit on the Kobold chief, he hops back from the fight along with his 2 living clan mates and offers a surrender saying “Tartuk made us do it”.
Not wanting to fight the Kobolds in the first place Tane convinces Demelvar to stop his attack to listen to the Kobolds. The Chief tells them that another Kobold came to his clan and placed a curse on them telling them about a mighty demon that they must now worship, the group is actually surprised to learn that they found the “Idol” in the Mite’s cave. After some talking Chief Sootscale says he and the remaining clan members will leave the region forever if the group can lift the curse by killing Tartuk.
The group agrees and heads back into the room the Chief pointed out, upon entering they find nothing but some water and a still boiling cauldron. Laughter taunts Demelvar and he tosses a bomb into the area he heard it from and a bright purple Kobold appears with a wand and a sick looking sickle, after failing to fear the big metal human Tartuk turns his attention to Demelvar and an epic fight of the little guys starts. Tartuk’s raven familiar attacks Tane and seeing it for what it is he captures it in a sack and proceeds to drown it in the water pool. Demelvar finally gets the better of the Kobold sorcerer and claws him to death with a little help from Vulpes and Odin.
Mostly exhausted from the fights the group takes the Kobold’s treasure and leaves, although at almost 200 pounds of treasure they have to load it piece meal onto the pack horse, they also finally find Svetlanas ring.
21st of Gozran: The group returns to their original planed exploration route and continues where they left off. Crossing the Thorn River via a rickety bridge they explore up to the forest.
22nd of Gozran: Exploring the Narlmarches this rainy day the group finds an area of matted under brush and many bones, soon after the largest boar they have ever seen lumbers out of a small hollow in a tree. Seeing that this boar is the one that they have a bounty for Vulpes dismounts his horse and charges it, they meat somewhere in the middle. Demelvar sneaks behind the Boar and uses his ghost sound to make it seem like the Boar says in a deep demonic voice “Hakuna Matata”. This provides enough distraction to Vulpes for the boar to get a tusk in under his defenses and gouge the crap out of his abdomen area almost killing Vulpes in the single hit. Demelvar gasps in terror and decides now is not the time to mess around anymore, Tyr gets in some good arrows and the beast finally drops dead long after it should have reasonably died from wounds. Vulpes limps away bleeding badly from the wound and spends much of the rest of the day healing up.
23rd of Gozran: Exploring the forest this day the group comes across a sunken marsh like area with a pair of ruined buildings in it. Approaching the buildings a Boggard appears at the top edge of one of the buildings saying “Truce, Truce” holding up his hands one of which is badly mauled. Tane decides to attempt to talk to the creature but quickly finds out that it only know a hand full of words in Taldane, after resorting to pantomime Tane eventually finds out that the Boggard just wants to be left alone but wouldn’t mind talking to the group if they could speak his language. Tane does get the Boggard’s name; it’s Garuum.
24th of Gozran: More of the beautiful forest that is the Narlmarches is explored this day, near evening while doing some surveying measurements Demelvar runs into an old statue, looking he sees a statue of “Lord Antler Face” as Demelvar calls him and calls over Tane. Tane who worships Erastil decides to clean up the statue, after he says a short prayer to Erastil. Apparently pleasing the god the group receives a nice blessing to their weapons, they also leave the groups symbol on the base of the statue next to the Taldor symbol that adorns the base.
25th of Gozran: Almost out of food but at the last of their planed exploration route the group finishes mapping this area then starts back to Oleg’s.
26th to 28th of Gozran: the group rides back to Oleg’s arriving late on the 28th.
29th of Gozran: The group rests for the day as Demelvar brews more potions and Tane starts reading the language books he ordered. They plan their next excursion planning to go the reverse direction as to find a ford for the Shrike River, at any rate this area is the last of the area they have been tasked with exploring. Jhod has left Oleg’s for the forest temple and has taken one of the indentured servants; apparently Jhod has helped turn the man towards a better path.
30th of Gozran: The group heads into the forest towards the area they plan to start form, stopping by to visit with the little Fey.
1st of Desnus: The last month of spring brings with it even more rain, the group is glad they are in a forest to have some shelter against it. They arrive at the forest temple mid day to visit with Jhod and find that he is well and along with his new convert they are restoring the temple.
Session 7 events.
2nd of Desnus: Exploring part of the deep forest this day the group comes across the corpse of a Unicorn, after investigating it they find 3 odd things, first there are no visible signs of death, second its horn is gone and third no insects or other carrion eaters are eating it. The group and Demelvar in particular are worried about this and they all decide to go talk to the little fey and Jhod and see what they can find out.
3rd of Desnus: Riding through the forest to see the Little Fey.
4th of Desnus: The group arrives at the little Fey’s tree and tell them about the Unicorn, they tell the group about the Unicorn and are very sad that he was murdered but otherwise know little of what has happened other than they haven’t see the Unicorn in about a month.
5th of Desnus: The Group stops at Jhod’s temple and asks him if he can do anything like speak with the dead but he can’t cast the spell and they move on.
6th of Desnus: Back at the Unicorns corpse they study it with magic, Odin discovers that the Unicorn was likely killed by necromantic magic and is why there are no wounds. The group comes to the conclusion that an evil necromancer poacher is on the loose gathering materials for some dark ritual.
7th of Desnus: The party explores to the East, during the day they run across the Skunk River at a shallow ford and spot a Tatzlwyrm sunning its self. Demelvar jumps off Tane’s horse and greets the Tatzlwyrm only to be ambushed by its mate hiding in the bushes nearby. The Tatzlwyrm quickly coils around Demelvar as the small Gnome attempts to convince the creature to be his stalwart mount as the rest of the group attack the sunning mate that has now crossed the river to attack. After killing its mate and figuring out that Demelvars negotiations are only getting the Gnome eaten Vulpes lops off the creatures head, Demelvar will have to get his mount at a later date.
8th of Desnus: Early morning after an un-successful Mite attack on Vulpes the group encounters a group of proud warrior Grig who were hunting the Mite’s for some transgression. Demelvar tells them about the dead Unicorn and the group of Grig head that way to hunt down the evil Necromancer, Tyr attempts to dissuade the Grig because they are to tiny to do anything but fail. Later in the day in a small clearing they find a deep pit with a trapped Thylacine, after Tane falls in and is attacked by the ever so hungry beast. Tyr jumps down landing gracefully on his back and then calms the animal Demelvar tosses the reminder of the groups Tatzlwyrm steak into the pit for the creature (Which Demelvar refused to eat anyways). They figure a way out for the creature and it flees into the forest.
9th of Desnus: Exiting the forest into the hills of the Kamelands the group stumbles upon a large thicket of thornberrys, Demelvar spots the hordes of chew spiders camping in the thicket and uses some smoke bombs to smoke them out, and as soon as they are out of the thornberrys he destroys them with alchemist’s fire. The group gathers the thronberrys for Bokken and continues exploring.
10th of Desnus: Encountering the Thron River while exploring this day the group follows it while surveying and eventually come across the Shrike River where the two rivers meet there is a nice ford and the group can finally cross the Shrike River and explore on the other side of it.
11th and 12th of Desnus. The group explores east of the Shrike/Thorn River ford, not really encountering anything but finding the other side of Nettles’ crossing, it’s in such a good location that they will have to repair it someday. The group is finally finished with the exploration that they had been tasked and they head back to Oleg’s.
13th to 15th of Desnus: The group rides to Oleg’s stopping by Bokkens hut to give him the thornberrys and order some potions. Upon arriving at Oleg’s they collect the stuff they had ordered.
16th to 18th of Desnus: The group rests, Demelvar makes potions and they discuss how to deal with the Stag Lord. Vulpes gets his masters now repaired full plate and bastard sword.
Session 8, end of book 1.
19th to 21st of Desnus: The Group rides to near the Stag Lords fort, deciding to scout the next day.
22nd of Desnus: The group moves to within visual range of the Stag Lords fort and seeing that there is little to no cover for 300’ before the fort they decide to wait until night to scout. Tyr, Demelvar and Tane decide to loop around south of the fort and approach from the Tuskwater. As the 3 near the fort, as they are using a larger bolder as cover 4 zombies emerge from the ground and attack, the 3 flee back to the rest of the group barely escaping notice from the fort’s defenders, the Zombies sink back into the ground soon after.
Reaching Odin and Vulpes the 3 explain what happened and get healed a bit as they discuss what to do. They eventually decide to sneak over the wall and open the gates then Odin and Vulpes will ride into the fort and kill everything. As the 3 approach the western wall 4 zombies once again rise from the ground to attack but the 3 manage to make it over the wall before the guards on watch notice them, the guards still rise an alarm because the zombies attacked something.
As the 3 scouts near the gate they notice several bandits the main room playing cards, eating or just sharpening knives, which would notice someone tampering with the gate. Demelvar decides to distract them by lighting and throwing some of his new fuse bombs. The bandits spring up and rush the gnome, as Tane and Tyr open the gate. One of the Bandits picks up Demelvar’s bomb just before it explodes him into tiny pieces also collapsing the upper walkway. A particularly well dressed and stylish bandit that was sharpening his knives releases a changed Owlbear as Odin and Vulpes arrive. As the well dressed bandit is bringing the Owlbear to the group another heavily armored bandit flies into a rage and attacks him, calling out to the group that he is here to help them. The well dressed bandit yells at him calling him Akiros.
Odin calls for the group to clear out of the area between the Owlbear and the now open front gate, as the well dressed bandit flees up to the 2nd level followed by Akiros, Vulpes briefly gets chewed upon by the Owlbear along with Demelvar before following after the two. After healing Demelvar, Odin casts Doom on the creature and maneuvers his horse behind the beast.
The fight upstairs ends up being quick and brutal as Akiros tears apart the well dressed bandit as another very stupid looking and ogre-ish man attacks with rocks from across the now collapsed upper walkway. Tane fleeing from the Owlbear climbs the wall and ends up behind the ogre-ish man, as Vulpes jumps on the Owlbear from above to protect his Gnome. Odin casts Doom again and again on the Owlbear and it eventually flees in terror from repeated uses of the spell.
As things look be calming down the Stag Lord appears with two other bandits, the clearly drunk man issues a bold proclamation saying that they are all about to die as he fires an arrow that hits Vulpes in a small chink in his armor doing grievous amounts of damage. Demelvar tosses a smoke bomb as the Stag Lord forcing him to move from his position as Tane maneuvers around behind the man; Tyr takes up a sniper position on the 2nd floor and begins pelting the Stag Lord with arrows. The Stag Lord is quickly surrounded and the powerful man injures many of the combatants around him before being cut down by Vulpes as he tries to dink one of his healing potions.
The group captures Sneeg and the other bandit that came with the Stag Lord and Demelvar finally gets to see someone do a gallows jig. They thank Akiros and ask him why he was here and he tells them that although he has made many mistakes in his life that he had to make up for this one and had been biding his time and took the opportunity when the group arrived. The group clears the remainder of the fort, killing an old crazy man in the basement before taking stock of the fort’s many treasures and supplies.
23rd of Desnus: The group takes the Stag Lords body to Nettles Crossing and tosses it in the river, soon after Davik Nettles claims the body and his spirit is released from Golarion, as he departs he throws his Ranseur high into the air and it lands near the group, they take this as a gift from the grateful spirit and depart for Oleg’s to turn in Sneeg to Kesten.
24th to 27th of Desnus: The group arrives in Oleg’s and turns in Sneeg to Kestin. Oleg, Svetlana and Kestin are overjoyed to hear of the Stag Lords demise. Kestin has a short but harsh talk with the man that betrayed him then he hangs him for theft, murder and banditry, Kestin then accompanies the group to Restov so he can pay them. Once in Restov they make their way to the Lord Mayor’s residence and present the Stag Lords head to collect the bounty, the Lord Mayor pays the group and asks them to return to Oleg’s so that he may prepare the charter and he will send it along with a stipend to help build their fledgling kingdom. Kestin delivers on his bounty paying the group 4 masterwork weapons of their choice.
28th to 30th of Desnus: The group returns to Oleg’s via the south Rostland road and rests and waits for the charter and supplies as they discuss what to call their new kingdom and how to run it.
Session 9, Kingdom building.
1st of Serenith: Upon waking up in the morning the group finds that a large group of settlers along with many supplies from Brevoy has set up temporary camp outside of Oleg’s. The group is asked to meet with Restov’s grand diplomat, entering the tent they only see one man with no sight of the Lord Mayor. The grand diplomat presents them a charter and after reading it he leaves, the Lord Mayor enters from the tents back entrance and greets the group. Long time friend of the retired general Odin the Lord Mayor explains the reason for all the cover up. Brevoy is on the brink of civil war and Rostland is in a bad position, they are attempting to gain allies in any fight by establishing friendly kingdoms to their south. The Lord Mayor is fearful of the response this might elicit from Issa and house Surtova and is keeping this as quiet as possible, the Lord Mayor offers some great advice and then explains to Odin that he took the liberty of bringing Odin’s wife along so his enemies in House Surtova didn’t try anything. After discussing the nature of their Kingdom and who will rule Odin leaves the tent to see a wife he hasn’t seen in 4 months. The group then decides to head to the Stag Lords fort ahead of the group of settlers and supplies.
2nd of Serenith: The Aesir ride to the Stag Lords fort which will shortly become the city of Stag’s Rest.
3rd of Serenith: The group spends a harrowing few minute’s killing off the Zombies that are part of a curse on what appears to be an old graveyard. They spend the rest of the day digging up graves on Odin’s hunch that the curse is based around a gem stone that is favored by Gyronna the Hag Queen, eventually finding it after much digging all day,Odin destroys it ending the curse.
4th of Serenith: The group fully explores the area around the fort so they can better plan a city on the location.
Month of Serenith: The Aesir establish the capital city of Stag’s Rest and construction begins on a city. Oleg, Svetlana, Jhod, Kesten, Akrios and Odin’s Wife Frigga all take up leadership positions for the new kingdom along with the members of the Aesir. They name the new Kingdom Midgard.
Month of Erastus: Construction of the capital continues as the nescient Kingdom starts expanding north towards Oleg’s trading post. In Kingdom events a local citizen saves a noble mans daughter from an Owlbear, the nobleman rewards the man and the kingdom by agreeing to set up trade with his family, the man is rewarded by being allowed to marry the daughter and being set for life. A young energetic man named Loy Rezbin and his wife, a priestess of Erastil, say they want to start a village near the Tatzlwyrm den and ask for funds with the promise that after it’s established they will gladly integrate with Midgard and serve its leaders, they are given a generous stipend.
Month of Arodus: The nation continues to expand claiming the abandoned Oaktop Silver mine. Frigga’s usually accurate predictions predict a calm and bountiful first year for the kingdom, this seems to set the new settlers at ease. Demelvar starts his monthly Tatzlwyrm roundup in an attempt to get one for a mount.
Month of Rova: Demelvar asks Perlivash and Tig-Titter-Tut to speak with the leader of the fey to set up an alliance, the two fey say that they will go ask.
Month of Lamashan: The kingdom is still growing; many new farms are being established as well as a Gold mine. A visiting celebrity by the name of Jarl-ax the Handsome a Half-Orc from the north attracts many visitors and the nation profits greatly.
Month of Neth: Midgard prepares for winter as they are notoriously bad in this region.
Month of Kuthona: The nation integrates Oleg’s trading post into the kingdom, Oleg renames it the city of Olegton (He’s not all that inventive) and building begins immediately. Due to Frigga’s exploits as Grand Diplomat trade with Mivon starts up via the river that flows from the Tuskwater to Mivon and it starts an unusually prosperous winter.
Month of Abadius: New Year 4709: A slow month as the kingdom bears through a fairly calm winter.
Month of Calistril: The two cities continue to grow as the kingdom gets a handle on its economy and starts to turn better profits. Tane and Akrios catch a thief that steels high profile items by using the Stag’s Helm as bait, the thief is later hanged.
Month of Pharast: The pressures on the leaders of the kingdom begin to subside a bit but it still keeps them to busy explore more.
Month of Gozran: Another calm month, the Aesir decide to have the kingdom start saving up gold to start building a castle where the stag lord’s fort is. Demelvar asks Perlivash and Tig-Titter-Tut what the leader of the fey said and the two fey realize that they forgot and rush off to do that.
Month of Desnus: A flash flood nearly destroyers the capital’s mill but quick action from the Aesir saves the structure and people. During planning of founders week a panicked Perlivash enters through a window and starts shouting for Demelvar, after flying around the room 4 times he lands on Demelvar and pleads for his help saying that Tiressia the leader of the local fey needs help immediately. The group’s responsibilities to the Kingdom have lightened enough to leave and help out so they do
5th of Desnus: The Group leaves to help Tiressia following the Skunk River that enters the Tuskwater on the North-West shore. Not five miles up the river they spot a wagon pulled by 2 pony’s in the middle of the River, several Gnomes are around in what looks like the aftermath of a Kobold ambush, their leader is shouting conflicting orders as he becomes more and more frustrated. Vulpes launches into action and swims, in full plate, out to the wagon and with the help of the rest of the group they get the ponies untied and to shore, Vulpes then throws a rope to Tane and Tyr and they haul the wagon to safety.
The group heals the gnomes and starts questioning their leader about what happened. The leader of the Gnomes, one Jubilost Narthropple, explains that they were ambushed by Kobolds; the ponies got scared and ran into the river with the supply wagon. The Gnome is attempting to find an old Dawrven stronghold and is systematically searching the stolen lands (An area about 35,000 square miles) until he finds it, he also has a group of Gnome refugees that he wants to find a home for, the group offers a safe place to stay in their capital city. Jubilost agrees to send the refugees there but says that he will keep searching, the group asks him what he has searched so far and the tells them most of the northern Narlmarches , after more discussion with Jubilost agrees to trade maps of this section of the forest for maps of the Kamelands. The group heads out still in a hurry to help Tiressia.
Session 10: Undead suck!
6th of Desnus: The group stops once during the day to settle a dispute between a local Fey and a logger. The Logger, Corax, and his men had felled severs choice trees near a pond at a bend in the Skunk River, the pond as it turned out belonged to Melianse a local Nixie and she did like her home being despoiled. After some negotiations and hefty uses of intimidation tactics the logger’s agreed to head to another copse of the same trees near the old Tatzlwyrm den. The Nixie only wanted her trees replaced and the group told her that they would get her some feather tokens to grow new ones and the loggers would have to pay whatever it cost them to acquire them.
Later in the day the group arrived at Tiressia’s grove to find the lovely fey woman crying softly by her Oak tree. The group asked her what was wrong and she told them of a Scythe Tree in the forest looking to eat her, apparently Dryads are a delicacy to them. Tiressia’s lover Falchos, a satyr, who was hiding nearby with Tyg-Titter-Tut came out and introduced himself explaining that he was just being careful, he then went on to tell the group where the Tree was and how they had attempted to kill it but it was just too strong. Being evening the group rested in Tiressia’s grove and talked to her about an alliance between Midgard and the local Fey, Tiressia told the group that she was only one of the fey leaders in the Narlmarches and that they would have to talk to the other, Melianse. She told them that there used to be a 3rd guardian and leader of the Fey but that he was murdered last year, the Unicorn that the group had found was that guardian, when asked Tiressia said that she had no idea what had happened to him. That only left Tiressia to take up protecting the forest and Melianse continued to protect the 3 rivers of the forest, but it meant that the group only needed to convince 2 Fey instead of 3 and they were half way there.
7th of Desnus: Demelvar stayed up late making alchemist’s fire for the Scythe Tree. The Tree’s lair was only about 10 miles away and it didn’t take the group long at all to get there. Upon arriving the group saw an eerily dark grove of dead trees littered with bones of all sorts but no Scythe Tree. Cautiously the group entered the grove confident that one of the large trees in it was the Scythe Tree, Vulpes started approaching each tree and hitting it with his sword, Demelvar cast a dancing lights spell to light up the glade. The group entered the grove to figure out which tree it was, Tyr was inspecting the trees one by one when he got too close to one of them and it suddenly lunged at him using it branches to inflict horrible wounds on the Marshal. As the Tree lumbered out of the ground is sheer size fully set in with the group, Vulpes rushed up and Tyr fell back to get healed by Odin, Demelvar had plenty of bombs prepared though and Trees don’t like lots of fire.
After a fairly brutal fight, Odin out of spells, Vulpes and Tane almost killed, the Tree finally caught fully on fire from a combination of the groups fire items and burned up rather quickly leaving a charred husk of a tree. The group took the tree’s corpse with them back to Tiressia, she was overjoyed that she had been saved and gladly thanked the group and gave them a very generous reward and agreed to an alliance. The group also received what remained of her Oak tree feather tokens and took them to Melianse to gain her allegiance.
8th of Desnus: The group woke up to Melianse raining down water on the group and giggling, after the rather wet morning they headed back to Stag’s Rest. Vulpes took the dead Scythe Tree to the mill to have it processed for its heart wood. Oleg brought the group this seasons bounties and the Aesir decided to throw a small party for the Royal Counsel and head guards.
9th of Desnus: After looking over the bounties the group decided to track down a Worg that had been plaguing their farmland to the east and then take a week or two to explore and map some of the southern Kamelands. After heading to the farming community that posted the Worg bounty Tyr started tracking the beast from 3 day old tracks. Late evening Tyr’s tracking finally caught up with the Worg and its small pack of wolves. Using his animal empathy ability to its finest Tyr “convinced” two of the wolves to run off and the group attacked the Worg. Midway through the fight Demelvar was tackled by the Worg and injured greatly just before the beast was slain by Vulpes. Demelvar’s wounds would take some time to recover as magical healing wasn’t enough.
10th of Desnus: After returning to the small farming community to deliver the dead Worg the group decided to explore and map the area around the Worg’s den.
11th of Desnus: Moving south-east the group continued exploring, around evening Tyr noticed stone work jutting out of one of the hills, moving closer to investigate the group found what looked like a tomb of some kind, its main entrance having been cracked open. After clearing away the stone enough to gain entry Demelvar and Tyr noticed many bats just inside, dying to try out his new Electro bomb Demelvar quickly assembled it and tossed it inside electrocuting most of the bats where they hung, the rest flew away. The group entered the crypt to have a look around; the walls were painted with mosaics of hunting and battle and depicted a warriors life. In the second chamber the group spotted the skeletal remains of a human in the middle of the room. Tane went to search the corpse while the rest of the group stayed at the room’s entrance. Upon reaching the corpse Tane triggered a nasty strength sapping trap which only hit him, after grabbing the ring on the ground the staggered back to the group exhausted.
After dealing with 12 skeletons rather quickly thanks to Demelvar’s bombs the group entered the main chamber and saw the husk of a warrior lying on a central sarcophagus. Rising slowly and hefting its broken bastard sword it quietly and eerily asked for the group’s lives as it rushed to attack. Odin identified the undead as a Cairn Wight, the first to be struck by the undead was Demelvar and he instantly recoiled as his life energy was pulled from him. Vulpes attempted to hit the creature with his own bastard sword but the Wight was too skilled and easily deflected his attacks, so the group sounded it as to help Vulpes. Odin moved to flank the undead warrior and cast a healing spell on it, seeing how dangerous Odin was it switched from Demelvar to him. Odin too felt the sting of the Wight’s life draining attacks and ceased to be able to cast his more powerful spells and he called for a withdraw and the group fled the tomb. The Cairn Wight did not follow past the entrance to his tomb and hatefully glared at the Aesir as they retreated to lick their wounds.
Session 11: Werewolves and broken traps.
12th of Desnus: The group returned to their capital of Stag’s Rest to rest, upon returning the townsfolk where in gathered around the guard barracks demanding a resolution to a serial killer case. After talking to Kesten, Tyr and Tane headed to the murder sites and investigated, first inspection suggested that they were dealing with a Worg. After following the tracks to a small copse of trees were they disappeared, Tyr then noticed bare human tracks leading back into town where he lost them. They investigated some more around town looking for anyone new to town before heading to the palace to find Odin.
Hearing the information Odin quickly deduced that this was a Werewolf not a Worg and the group started working with Kesten to set up a trap for it next time it came out. Later that night while waiting at the funnel point Tyr noticed the thing dart off into city, the group pursued it for several minutes eventually corning it near the stable where it seemed to have been hunting an out of town merchant. Once cornered the group noticed that the werewolf was wielding a great axe and sporting armor, Odin had told the group that while transformed it’s a mindless beast of rage and murder so the group decided to attempt to take it alive. The werewolf didn’t take to kindly to Demelvar’s taunting and attacked him first, in its rage it almost exclusively focused on the Gnome for the remainder of the fight, Demelvar eventually tired of being hit with a giant axe and used his new concoction to stick it to the ground with some green goo.
After subduing it the werewolf reverted to his human form and the group dragged him back to the barracks. Upon waking the man, known as Kundal, explained that he had no idea this was happening but did know something was wrong with himself. After waking Jhod to cure the man with a remove disease scroll, the group told Kundal that he had murdered 2 people and killed several sheep but that sense, in a way, he wasn’t responsible for his actions that his punishment was to work for the family of the farmer he killed for 2 months with no pay, Demelvar added in that he would have to do this work while alchemically painted purple.
13th to 20th of Desnus: Tane and Demelvar work on devising a way to immobilize the Cairn Wight so they could cleanse the tomb of its presence.
21st of Desnus: The Aesir return to the Cairn Wight’s tomb to kill the thing. Tane had devised a mechanical device that will hopefully constrict around the Wight and prevent it from moving. They find the undead where they last found it, resting on its sarcophagus, but it quickly springs up to attack eyes burning with hate. Vulpes moves into the confront the thing and attempt to keep its attention, the rest of the group armed with holy water or bombs all toss them at the thing to little effect, except the bombs. Tane manages to get his device on the Wight but it just as quickly breaks out of the contraception, after the second time Tane uses it the Wight uses his sword to sunder it, destroying it. Demelvar decides that he needs more ‘splodie doom against this undead and takes out a fuse bomb and lights it. After two attempts to put the bomb in the undead’s pocket he just drops the bomb next to it and ducks. The bomb blasts the Cairn Wight into pieces and hurts and knocks down everyone in the room but Tyr, after picking themselves up they inspect the tomb and attempt to clean it up. They also take the broken bastard sword that it was using, Odin says he can repair it with a Make Whole spell he can cast.
22nd of Desnus: The group explores the area south east of the crypt before heading back to Stag’s Rest.
23rd to 30th of Desnus: The group goes about their duties to the nation.
Session 11: This session brought to you by the word's "Old (14)" and "Crazy (6)"
1st to 4th of Serenith: The first of summer kicks off with a 3 day “Founders” celebration of food, fun and contest, Odin is mostly tied up with official party host duty and spending time with his family. Tane meets a nice young noble named Lily, beyond her good looks he sees in her the potential for an excellent spy, she is however on the lookout for a nice piece of Elvin art which Tane doesn’t have. Demelvar meets a drunk of a logger who claims that his magic spear was taken by a mythical Hodag and swears he's not crazy, luckily Demelvar knows that they are real and says he will keep an eye out for one. Tyr is approached by an elderly fisherman claiming that his best and most secret fishing spot ever was taken by "Ol Crackjaw" as the man calls it the most fearsome and angry turtle ever. Melianse stops by to see Demelvar after receiving a letter which invited her as well as turned her skin pink temporarily. The 4th day of the festival is used to travel home and rest.
5th of Serenith: During an open court, after discussing planning and growth of the nation for the month and after hearing the people’s grievances, Tiressia walks in with many gasps and stares. She tells the Aesir about a small problem the fey have had over the last several years with an evil fey called the Dancing Lady that has made life problematic for anyone traveling near an old Elvin keep deep in the southern Narlmarches. The Aesir agree to investigate and Tiressia tells them to be careful as they are all men and this particular evil Fay loves to prey on men. First Recon Tyr suggests an exploration plan that takes them east to west so he can also deal with Old Crackjaw, the rest agree. The group uses the remainder of the day to ride and explore the east edge of the greenbelt were the river Gurdin runs into it.
6th of Serenith: The River proves easer to cross then the Shrike especially after the group finds a natural ford.
7th of Serenith: Tyr easily finds the old fisherman’s secret fishing hole and just as easily finds ‘Ol Crackjaw, after a tense diplomatic standoff the turtle attempts to eat Demelvar but is quickly slain, the group then dines on Vulpes’ authentic homemade turtle bisque and it is delicious.
8th of Serenith: After moving around the Tuskwater the group finds a dilapidated shack rumored to have a nasty hag living in it, being thoughtful Odin calls out from the fence and is greeted by an angry old green skined woman. The woman known as the Old Beldame is not very friendly but Odin manages to win her over by offering to repair her house, after a judicious application of the Make Whole spell the old woman emerges from her house. After talking with the woman for a while the group learns that she is friends with the local fey, they apparently come to her for magical potions and divinations. The old Beldame asks the group to deliver a package to Melianse and keep on the lookout for any black rattle cap mushrooms, she also tells the group about some of the areas around her hut, she tells about a murderous crazy old hermit that lives just to the west and about the Candlemere and its supposed treasures, and about the tribe of lizardmen.
The group leaves and makes camp, during Tane’s watch he hears that they are sounded by Boggards, he has learned their language in the year sense he met Garum so he knows that they are planning to attack and are looking for something. Tane convinces the leader to come out and talk and learns that they are looking for Garum, Tane lies and tells them that he is to the south east and as reward the Boggars say they will eat him last then leave.
9th and 10th of Serenith: The group heads north to warn Garum that his tribe is looking for him, Tane tries to convince him to take back his tribe but he doesn’t seem to really care but after agreeing to give the Boggard a Black Rattlecap he can grow he agrees to think on it, they then ride back to continue the exploration. They stop by Melianse’s pond to deliver the package and the small Nixie tells the group that she has known the Old Beldame sense she was a teenager, upon receiving the package Melianse darts off and hides it in her pond before returning.
11th of Serenith: Exploring this day the group spots the 3rd Oak tree they have seen in the forest and move into investigate, an Old disheveled man with a creepy looking Puma starts talking to them from nearby before they can though. The man seems friendly but there is clearly something very crazy about him, Tyr, in the middle of talking to the old man, quickly nocks an arrow and shoots the old man…Twice. Demelvar about falls over laughing at the masterful joke Tyr just pulled as Tane and Tyr’s Wolf Fenris flank the man and start a carvin, Vulpes is utterly confused and protests attacking an innocent old man. The old man however is not quite that helpless however and almost succeeds in gutting Tane after tripping him before Vulpes steps in and kills the man. A long argument later the group is at odds about whether he was the murderous crazy old hermit that the Old Beldame mentioned and agree to come back and speak with the dead once they find a scroll of it just to make sure what they did was right.
12th and 13th of Serenith: The group explores up to the area with the old Elvin keep that Tressia mentioned, early morning as the group nears a pond they surprise a duo of Trolls and Vulpes rushes in and attacks, a fairly brutal fight later the group has 2 dead Trolls and one wounded Vulpes. After calling him crazy and a short rest the group presses on to the Elvin keep.
Session 12: ****ing Quicklings!
14th of Serenith: Approaching the elegant Elvin keep Odin tells the group that judging by its architecture its pre-earthfall, at least 10,000 years old, aside from a large hole in the southern wall it’s in almost perfect condition. Demelvar happily skips inside and promptly discovers the first trap, as he passes through the arch of the main gate the portcullis slams down upon him but the small Gnome deftly avoids it separating him from the rest of the group. As the rest rush around to the hole in the southern wall Demelvar shouts out to the lady of the keep saying that her gate is broken and that they want to talk. He spots a blur out of the corner of his eye and just before being stabbed he recognizes the creature as a Quickling. The rest of the group quickly gets to Demelvar who is attempting to locate the Quickling but the creature is just too fast able to spring out of hiding, stab a group member then disappear around behind the main keep. The group decides to make their way the keep and then head up into it, Demelvar again is first in and find’s the second trap. This time it’s a poison mist trap that fills the ground floor of the central keep; Demelvar is the only one inside and avoids the majority of its affects. As the group makes their way up the tower they are harried by the Quickling as it gets many excellent hits on the group, eventually Vulpes hits the creature with his Fey bane weapon and it decides to retreat for the time being.
Arriving at the top of the tower the group sees a voluptuous golden haired Elf, as the group has prepared for this Fey they spring into action, but her alluring dance is too much for all but Tyr and Demelvar and the rest fall into her captivating dance. A second Fey reveals himself as a Grimstalker ambushes Demelvar, but the Gnome is too protected by magic and skill for the assassin to land any hits, it quickly turns its attention to Tyr. The Dancing Lady uses magic to call over Vulpes and attempts to have him drink a potion but he’s just too stunned by her dance to actually drink it, seeing that he needs to dome something Demelvar transforms into his miniature blue werewolf from and runs up and jumps on the Dancing Lady ending her dance. With the rest of the group back to their senses the fight starts going better, the Dancing Lady uses entangle to ensure that the group will not retreat and calls for Rigg (The Quickling) to come out and help.
Demelvar never intended to actually hurt the Dancing Lady and is quickly chewed and clawed apart by her leaving him a bloody mess on the ground, but that leaves Vulpes the opportunity to gut her with his new Fey bane sword. Rigg appears to and in one quick motion springs up to Odin and shoves his needle like sword into Odin’s eye taking it out in the process. The Grimstalker is overwhelmed by Tyr and Tane and eventually retreats but is later found dead from his multiple bleeding wounds. Rigg sticks around stabbing Vulpes in the back until Vulpes takes down the Dancing Lady, as she is dying she curses the great warrior and he weakens greatly under the heavy strains of a curse, Rigg promptly leaves vowing to hunt the Aesir for taking his home from him.
The group decides to rest in the Dancing Lady’s room, Demelvar is quickly healed but can barely move due to blood loss, same with Vulpes, Odin heals his wound but is still missing an eye, Tyr is having a hard time moving due to the Grimstalkers poison, Tane is the only Aesir that is actually OK. So Tane decides to explore the rest of the keep, alone, but at least leaves Tyr to watch him from the top of the keep. As Tane explores the keep he stumbles upon an Assassin Vine that promptly grabs him and starts constricting, luckily Tyr sees this and alerts the group. As bad of shape that they are in they manage to get the plant off of Tane and chop it into tiny bits, Tane himself has several broken bones and decides to rest with the rest of the group in the tower.
15th and 16th of Serenith: After fully exploring and looting the keep the Aesir take everything that doesn’t weigh over 100 pounds and head back to their capital.
Session 13: Grigori
17th of Serenith: After arriving at the capital of Stag’s Rest the group is greeted by Akrios who tells them of a rabble rouser named Grigori, Akrios tells them that he didn’t just kill him because he was already public when he noticed him. Just before leaving to see for themselves Tyr gets stabbed in the back by Rigg who quickly runs off in to the forest. Upon arriving at the rally the man known as Grigori has the crowd completely enthralled by his every word and is speaking out against the rulers, Demelvar attempts to humiliate the man with his toy dragon and pet rat accusing the man of impregnating 19 chambermaids but the crowd doesn’t pay the gnome any bit of attention. After Odin sends the man a court summons and it is ignored Odin and several guards have him arrested and brought back to the castle.
After talking with the man for more than an hour Tane arrives and questions the man, after Grigori calls him a liar about him being a Rogarvian and accuses Tane of inviting a curse upon this kingdom, Tane hits Grigori and then pulls a dagger and threatens to kill the man if he doesn’t tell them everything. Frightened he tells them that he was paid by an unknown group to incite unrest in Midgard, he says he was hired in Fort Drelev to the west. The group sends him to the dungeon while they discuss what to do with him. After a few hours of discussion they decide on a Trial in an area where a Zone of Truth spell has been cast, luckily Jhod can cast it.
18th of Serenith: Demelvar makes several potions, including a charm potion for Grigori to drink so he is more amenable to questioning at the trial, the quietly slips Grigori the potion in a drink without being noticed. The trial is quick as Grigori tells the court why he is here and that he was paid to cause unrest, Odin issues the punishment of excommunication (Midgard is a theocracy of many gods) and exile from the kingdom and is escorted to the northern border by guards.
19th of Serenith: Melianse visits Demelvar and gives him one of the fish she caught, upon eating it Demelvar turns into a Warefish and proceeds to run around town chasing people before fleeing from the guards into the Tuskwater chasing Melianse.
20th to 30th of Serenith: The group deals with official responsibilities.
Month of Erastus, Kingdom Events: Construction of the castle continues. A rather famous warrior from Mendev visits on his journey south, the Man has become too valuable to risk losing and is being sent to Absalom to train new recruits. His mass following brings in a large amount of trade revenue.
Month of Arodus, Kingdom Events: The Castle is finished and a small ceremony is held for its completion, the kingdom claims parts of the forest up to Tatzlford and Loy happily swears service to the Aesir and the town is incorporated into Midgard. After conducting their official duties for the Kingdom the group decides to explore more of the southern areas. As they are holding their final open court for the month a worried couple comes to them as asks them to find their son, Tig, who has been missing for two days now, the group jumps to action to help out and leaves immediately.
Session 14: Mythical Creatures.
10th of Arodus: The group travels west along the shore of the Tuskwater, eventually arriving at the Old Beldame’s hut where they stop to ask if the old lady had seen the boy. The Old Beldame had not seen the boy so she agrees to cast a divination spell for the Aesir to locate the boy, the spell tells her to the west so she tells the group to head west and that the Lizardfolk village is the most likely place.
Upon arriving at evening time at the small island the Lizardfolk used as a village site Tane strikes up a conversation with the gate guard but when the group hears screams of pain they rush in. After dismantling the front gate they storm the place killing or driving off the guards in the village, many of them remorseful about torturing their food saying how the ancestor spirit made them do it. Then a massive Lizard man emerges from the central hut along with his 2 Tatzlwyrms, he starts by intimidating Tane and the man runs off, he then goes after the groups champion Vulpes. Demelvar decides to wrestle one of the Tatzlwyrms into submistion while the rest of the group deal with the Chief. After a grueling battle in which Vulpes is almost killed many times but isn’t thanks to Odin’s healing the chief goes down. The party heads straight to the screaming sounds while Demelvar deals with the Tatzlwyrm he has pinned, the rest find the boy half buried and being cut by swinging blades as they try the rescue him the Ancestor spirit appears and attacks. Odin identifies the creature as a Will-o-wisp as Vulpes grabs the boy and runs out of the hut. After attacking the Wisp and being electrocuted countless time the creature finally decides to leave the fight and disappears.
The group leaves the village to find a camp site as Demelvar talks with his new Tatzlewyrm to see if he can strike a deal with it so it would be his mount. Vulpes and Odin calm the boy and after healing him he starts running around all excited that Midgard’s leaders had saved him.
11th of Arodus: The group takes the boy back to Stag’s Rest and brings him back to his parents who are vary grateful, word quickly spreads that Midgard’s leaders personally rescued a boy and the general population is impressed.
12th and 13th of Arodus: The Aesir decide to explore more of the land and ride 2 days to the abandoned keep then west to start exploring once again.
14th of Arodus: After exploring the area of the forest west of the keep the group is ambushed by a large spiky dragon looking thing, Demelvar identifies the thing as a mythical Hodag, the rest of the group is stunned that they actually exist. As they are being stunned it comes over and attempts to eat Tane but Vulpes interjects with his sword and the group eventually drives the thing off under Odin’s orders to not kill it. Tyr’s wolf Fenris tracks the Hodag back to its lair and the group enters to find it licking its wounds, Demelvar talks to it and reaches an agreement were it moves out of the region and they don’t kill it. After it leaves the group scours its lair and they find the spear that the logger lost and well as some other bits of treasure. Vulpes aquires sever of the Hodag’s horns to make into sounding horns.
15th to 17th of Arodus: The group explores east of the Hodag’s den into the area with the Lizardfolk village and the foreboding Candlemear, but they don’t actually go to Candlemear tower because the Old Beldame had previously told them that it was infested with Will-o-wisps. They camp on the shores of the Candlemear and watch the light show of the “Haunted” tower at the center of the lake’s island.
Session 15: Trolls on fire.
18th of Arodus: As the Aesir continue to explore east of the Candlemear they run into a low area filled with fungus of all kinds some of it up to 10’ tall surrounding a bubbling mud pit. Tane and Demelvar spot some Black Rattlecaps, the type that the Old Beldame and Gourm had wanted so he heads down to get some. Near the edge of the fungus an overwhelming stench becomes apparent but Demelvar has little time to enjoy it as Tane sees that one of the mounds is instead a very dangerous plant. As the plant stands up to a towering height of 15’ it rushes forward and snatches up Demelvar and promptly swallows the poor Gnome. Vulpes and Tane engage it and flank it while Tyr shoots it with arrows, the thing has much less luck picking up Vulpes or even landing hits that do damage so it instead turns to Tane but is slain before it can swallow him as well. The group quickly cuts Demelvar out of the plants stomach and heal the Gnome, the rest of the group starts gathering the Black Rattlecaps only Vulpes having any real trouble with the stench.
19th of Arodus: Exploration continues east, a run in with a pack of wolves ends disastrously for the wolves.
20th and 21st of Arodus: As the group explores along the Little Sellen River they hear cries for help and rush off to investigate. The cries are coming from a rocky cliff area not far away and as the group starts to make its way into the rocky area Vulpes is pounced upon by a Leucrotta a strange but large Chimera like creature, the creature inflicts terrible wounds on the Knight with its hooves and beaver like jaws. After a brief fight the thing sees that it’s clearly out matched and flees. Tyr starts tracking it but it’s faster than the group’s horses and they soon realize that it’s been leading them around in circles all day. Nearing evening the group settles into camp, after several hours during Tane and Demelvar’s watch Tane hears the things quiet approach and before it can set up any sort of trap he alearts the group and it jumps out of the trees. After receiving a mauling Tane manages to scramble away from it and Demelvar pelts it with electro bombs and it again retreats.
The next morning they begin tracking it again and the tracks are leading straight now instead of in circles, a few hours later they enter a narrow defile in the hills and as they look around they notice it waiting behind some piled up rocks half way up the hill side. The beast tumbles the rocks down upon the group most get out of the way but Odin and his horse are hit by several sizeable stones and knocked down, as the creature starts to move to another group of rocks Tyr shoots it twice in the head killing it instantly. After un-burying Odin and the horses the group scavenges the creature’s lair and then moves on.
22nd of Arodus: Another day of exploring, the group is nearly out of supplies so they decide to head back to Stag’s Rest the next day.
23rd of Arodus: The Aesir head back to the capital and rests for a while.
24th of Arodus to 4th of Rova: The Aesir concentrate on their duties to the nation and plan for the construction of several building in Olegton and the Capital, during this time Tane also delivers the Black Rattlecaps to those who wanted them.
5th of Rova: As Demelvar prepares his next prank for Melianse the little Nixie rushes into his room telling him of at least 10 Trolls that had crossed the river heading north east about 3 hours ago. Demelvar alertes Vulpes to troll presence and the man instantly has his armor and on and gathers the remaining Aesir and Kesten and his 4 officers and after a shot planning session they head off to the forest to attempt to cut the trolls off. Mid day they ran across the troll’s tracks which continue to head north east the only thing in the direction is farmlands and Olegton, they go back to a road and head to Olegton. Upon arriving they inform the town that Trolls are coming and gather everyone in Olegs fortified Stable and Inn, the guards for Olegton have managed to get one of the catapults in working condition and Demelvar quickly whips up something that can burn and hands it to all the archers and catapult crew.
Not soon after they spot a group of 10 trolls making their way to Olegton, The group heads out of Oleg’s to confront the troll, but the trolls split into 2 groups. One group heads to Oleg’s where everyone is the other group heads to the Smith the Aesir stay at Oleg’s to defend the townsfolk. The fight is brutal as not only are the trolls using weapons but they have clearly been taught basic tactics and strategy but in the end the last troll is sent fleeing with many arrows in him. The group is dismayed to see that the 2nd group of trolls has completely destroyed the Smithy and has also run off.
The group rests up and debates why the trolls seemed organized, Demelvar is give a forced bath by Svetlana after the Gnome decided to go troll diving for treasure.
6th and 7th of Rova: Tyr and his faithful hand eating wolf Fenrir track the trolls for 2 days to the narrow gap between the Tuskwater and the Candlemear where the 6 trolls they had been tracking split and go in 6 directions, it being late the group decided that they will probably have to systematically explore the entire south western region that remains unexplored.
Session 16: Hungry giant things.
8th of Rova: Starting from the area just east of the Candlemere the Aesir move west to start their search just south of the Candlemere. They spend most of the day exploring, tracking the trolls and crossing the Shrike River, they notice that something other than trolls is around though; there are many broken rocks and snapped trees. Tyr tracks the destruction back to a low area in the hills near some trees; he also surmises that it’s a Hill Giant. Upon locating the Hill Giant they see a sobbing brute of a Giant licking the remains of his alcohol out of a shattered clay mug, nearby is the giants weapon a bundle of logs neatly cut and packaged that could only have come from loggers. Demelvar calls out to the giant before the rest of the group can attack it and it angrily stands up demanding to know who they are. After explaining who they are and verifying that the logs do indeed belong to the Giant, named Munguk, Demelvar manages to calm Munguk down with promises of booze and after Tane recommends giving him a taste of the Addleberry wine (Demelvar’s Charm potion, also alcohol). Munguk happily accepts even the small amount of liquor and drinks it, soon after he is Demelvar’s best friend and assumes a much less aggressive stance. Munguk tells the group his woes and eventually mentions being rejected by the “Mean ugly troll men” and digs out a crude map of the surrounding area showing were the Troll’s lair is and agrees to lead the group there for some revenge. Demelvar keeps talking to his new Giant buddy and even after the effects of the Charm wear off he is friendly to the group.
The group camps in the forest to the west that night, during the conversation with Munguk, Vulpes decides that he can’t listen to the conversation anymore and goes for a walk. A hungry Manticore happens upon Vulpes during his walk and manages a few solid hits before the Kinght regains his composure and blows his sounding horn, by the time the rest of the group arrives Vulpes is hiding behind a tree from an onslaught of spikes from the flying beast, a quick round of arrows by Tyr sends the beast spiraling to the ground, dead.
9th of Rova (Part 1): Early morning as the group gets moving Tyr notices a Wyvern as it’s diving for him and leaps from his horse as it’s picked up by the Wyvern and tossed into a nearby tree. The Wyvern continues to strafe the group until Munguk catches it by the tail and beats it with his bundle of trees; afterwards the group chops it up for food for Munguk. Munguk leads the group to the troll lair as its entrance is hidden from below and you have to actually move up the large hill to see it. The group leaves their horses at the base of the hill and head to the top along a narrow path with cliff above and below, at the top of the path they spot a clearly Dwarven structure that’s been expertly hidden from below. Pined to the side they approach from the group sees a Gnome stuck to the wall with large nails, as they move closer wary of a trap they realize that the Gnome is Jubilost the obsessed explorer Gnome they rescued earlier in the spring. Not quite dead they pull Jubilost from the wall and Odin heals him, Jubilost simply exclaims “I found it.” The group gives him some water and tells him were their horses are, the Gnome starts crawling down the hill with one arm the other clutching the water he was given. Suitably pissed at the trolls now the Aesir sneak around to the door to set an ambush for the trolls.
Session 17: Trolls of DEATH!
9th of Rova (Part 2): Easily clearing the entry rooms of the 3 Trolls the group heads deeper in to find a Trollhound master feeding a Trollhound, the group engages and manages to kill the pair but only after Tane is bitten, Odin tells of a nasty disease that the Trollhounds carry called Bloodfire Fever. After dispatching 2 more hounds in a make shift kennel they move from precisely crafted Dwarven keep to rough caves and soon come into the den of a two headed troll who is conversing with himself. Demelvar asks if he is a natural creation to make sure that there isn’t some deranged alchemist running around playing fun time with Troll blood. Nagrundi as the Torll/Ettin calls its self is a flailing mass of muscle and teeth, while unable to hit the heavily armored Vulpes it easily manages to hit every one else but it taken down before too much damage in inflicted.
A brief discussion occurs as to whether to retreat to rest or press on; it’s decided to press on deeper into the caves. With just their torch light now to guide them the trolls have the advantage with their dark vision. The next room holds what appears to be the Trolls barracks and a small fight breaks out with 2 more Trolls, after it is finished and the group is poking around the room Demelvar spots a terror from the inky blackness of mythology entering the room, A Rock Troll lumbers into the room and hits Tane with a Gnome sized rock. Demelvar and Tane call for a retreat to lure the thing to the entry chamber where Munguk is waiting. Retreating proves harder than expected with Odin bad leg and when they get to the entrance he and Vulpes have taken some hits. Upon seeing the Rock Troll, Munguk charges blocking it in the hall way and ruining Demelvar’s plan to lure it into sunlight, its one weakness, as fire does nothing. Luckily Munguk makes shot work of the Rock Troll in a brutal fight that leaves scraping wounds on Munguk, the giant eventually destroys the Rock Troll with a shattering hit from his bundle of logs.
After recovering the group moves back into the caves to see if they can find the boss of the Trolls, weary from all the fighting and with Odin running short of healing they decide to bring their Hill Giant ally Munguk with them. In the final chamber they find the Troll leader, a monster of a Troll calling himself Hargulka wielding a large Darkwood morning star in one hand. The boss Troll is even nastier than his subordinates and has skill in combat that can only come from countless battles, during the engagement Hargulka lands a mighty hit on Vulpes and the Kinght goes down his armor crushed in. The Troll leader having been badly injured by Vulpes and Demelvar is then taken down before he can gloat. After Vulpes is stabilized by Odin and his wounds tended to, the group sets to searching the area for what the Trolls considered treasure, Demelvar spots a nice map on the wall that outlines all nearby settlements, including all those of Midgard as well as attack plans, caravan routs, and areas to avoid most notably Fey areas. The group determines that this Troll had help at least in all his information but no clues as to who it could have been remain, the rest of the cavern is filled with stolen and looted goods, enough to ensure the Kingdom will have a good winter.
They exit the stronghold to see that Jubilost is back to his old exuberant self and set up camp telling the Gnome what happened, in thanks the Gnome gives the Aesir his maps of the area and tells them some of the dangers he didn’t take care of.
10th of Rova: Tane having contracted Bloodfire Fever and looking quite sickly asks the group to head back to Stag’s Rest as Odin is unable to cure him. Demelvar tells Munguk to stay here and that they will bring him beer within a week when they return.
11th and 12th of Rova: Group rides back to Stag’s Rest, upon arriving Tane sends a rider ahead to the Temple of the Elk to tell Jhod he is coming and is diseased.
13th to 16th of Rova: Tane along with Vulpes rides to where Jhod is and he gets cured of the Blood Fire Disease and they head back to Stag’s Rest.
17th to 19th of Rova: Vulpes buys a Ton of Beer for Munguk and Demelvar brews up several gallons of some of the good stuff and they, along with one of the Kingdom’s caravan teams, set out to the Troll lair. They arrive a few days later to find that Munguk has made himself at home and they gift the Giant the beer, Vulpes admitting that without the Giant they would not have made it. After assuring the Caravan team that Munguk will not eat them they proceed to spend the rest of the day loading the caravan with the Trolls ill-gotten goods.
20th and 21st of Rova: The Aesir arrive at Stag’s Rest laden with materials for upcoming construction projects as well as great personal wealth with which to commission magical items or use how they please, and they settle into running the Kingdom for another month.
Session 18: Outcasts
Kingdom Month of Rova: Rova saw the claiming the abandoned keep and starting ground work for a city there, with help from the Fey as the town will mostly be for them. Rebuilt the Smithy in Olegton and Odin becomes a Duke.
Kingdom Month of Lamashan: Slow month, saw the construction of a brewery built to the High Alchemasters specifications.
5th of Lamashan: The group is called to a local residence to investigate a crime that Kesten is stumped on. A baby has been replaced with a Changeling; Odin quickly recognizes this as a tactic of Gyrona gone wrong and after questioning the parents Odin orders the young woman from the Midwives guild who watched the baby last brought to the castle for questioning. The young woman gives them some usable information but is not at fault. Tane and Tyr decide to watch the Midwives for suspicious activity, Demelvar walks into the Midwives building and under the pretense of a code inspection searches the place and questions the two women there and comes away with a list of names and addresses of the rest.
6th to 8th of Lamashan: Over the course of 3 days Tane and Tyr follow each member and determine that the one in charge, Niska, is doing something suspicious every other night at a barn just outside of town.
9th of Lamashan: Tane and Tyr wait hidden outside the barn that night and when 7 figures enter they use Demelvar’s Feather Token to send a message to the rest and 30 min later the group is gathered. Tane moves up to the barn door but fails to see the rope tied to the door that will alert those with in. The group enters the barn but don’t see who they are looking for, after searching for a few minutes they find a covered up storm cellar and enter, Vulpes in the lead as they head down the stairs. The chamber is suddenly lit and they see 7 women, 1 of which is Niska and she orders the rest to attack as she casts Prayer. Odin counters with his own Prayer and Vulpes moves up to the woman expecting her followers to pose a threat but soon finds out that they cannot fight so he attacks Niska. General Vulpes takes apart Niska like an experienced warrior and she falls dead at his assault within a few seconds. The rest surrender at Odin’s command, Tane feels bad about the one he killed realizing that these were just duped, angry women and posed no threat. They also find the missing baby and return it to her parents.
10th of Lamashan: The 5 surviving women are sentenced to monitored service and training in the Kingdoms military, not that it really has one yet but the general has been working on one.
11th of Lamashan: The Aesir decide to go hunt down the Forest Drake that has been plaguing the loggers union. They stop off at the Old Beldame’s to ask her what can be done with the Changeling baby without killing it, it should be noted that only Vulpes didn’t want to kill it but understood that they grow up to be quite evil. The old woman recommended a baleful polymorph and turned the baby into a River Otter. They left the Otter with the Old Beldame as they continued to pursue the Forest Drake. That night at camp Tane realized as he turned back to the camp that the fire was now full and a Faerie Dragon was roasting a small bit of meat on a stick. Quite shocked to see someone at his camp the Faerie Dragon asked what Humans where doing here, Tane tells the tiny Dragon that this is the camp of the Aesir. After a short conversation the Dragon is dismayed to find that he is no longer in the first world and wondering what happened. After the rest of the group wakes up the Dragon flees after Vulpes mentions that he wishes he had a Dragon to ride around on.
12th of Lamashan: The group carefully pokes around where Jubilost told them he had seen the Drake, as they move down a small stream towards a small lake the Forest Drake bursts from the water behind them and roars impressively. Odin quick with his words tells the Drake that they have an offer for it and it hesitates just long enough to listen. While Odin explains a proposition to the Drake Tane notices that it has a rope tied to its wrist and follows it with his eyes to a dead fall trap that could hit 3 of the group. Tyr quickly shoots and arrow and severs the rope and they begin intimidating the Dragon into standing down. After a bit more talking to it the group has convinced the Drake that they want to give it the Kingdoms treasure to guard and it agrees, Tane tells the Drake that the treasury is located within the tower on the Candlemear and the Drake flies off, Demelvar almost dies laughing.
13th to 24th of Lamashan: The party explores the southern border with Mivon’s territory but it’s largely empty of anything of interest. After that they head back to Stag’s Rest and run their Kingdom some more.
Kingdom Month of Neth: The Kingdom expands to the remaining south Rostland road areas within the Greenbelt and builds farmland there. No buildings are built as the treasury is low and the Kingdom doesn’t make much either.
7th of Neth: A massive Owl Bear attacks Stag’s Rest and during it’s rampage through the city it damages several buildings, fast response time by the guards and Aesir prevent any buildings from being destroyed but many are damaged and limit the deaths to just a few. Odin spends the rest of the day using Make Whole on damaged buildings as the rest prepare to ride out in the morning to hunt the beast down.
Session 19: The Owl Bear (End of Book 2)
8th of Neth: The beast is easy to track and the group is able to ride at full speed while tracking it. Around mid-day they hear the sounds of fighting and a loud hoot-roar and head to the sound, when they get there the beast is gone but they find a crossbow unit from Mivon with many dead and injured. When questioned they say the beast attacked Mivon and they were hunting it but it surprised them here before they drove it off. The group follows the tracks to a large cave entrance with broken trees; matted ground and Owl Bear feathers everywhere. They come up with a quick plan to lure the beast out to engage it in the open. Demelvar starts the name calling and after a few minutes it comes out to play enraged beyond all reason.
Vulpes attempts to stop it from moving on the group but it just picks the knight up while it gets pelted with arrows from Tane and Tyr who are in strategic positions on the hill. When Demelvar starts tossing bombs at it, it tosses its caned lunch away for later eating and charges after the comparatively tiny Gnome. As it starts ravaging the Gnome its wounds start adding up from all the arrows and summons and before Vulpes can get back to the monster it falls down dead crushing Odin whom it had picked to devour. After removing the Owl Bear form Odin and healing up the group head in to clear the rest of the cave.
A few shot fights and some Shambling Mound sap later they find a baby Owl Bear clinging to its dead mother, Demelvar calms the beast down and feeds it some meat. A search of the cave reveals many dead barbarians who most likely added the barding to the Owl Bear and killed its mate. Odin finds a cursed ring that acts as a Rind of Bestial Friendship but it actually enters the poor beast into a permanent rage after a few minutes with a compulsion to attack cities, the Ring it’s self is made of finely woven green hair around tiny gems. Demelvar takes the ring to send as a gift to Baron Drelev.
9th and 10th of Neth: With their new baby Owl Bear the group explores the 2 nearby areas to where the cave was to complete their map of the Greenbelt region.
11th of Neth: The group rides back to Stags Rest to present the Owl Bears head to the people as proof that it’s dead, the party goes on all night.
12th of Neth: The ruler of the Kingdom to the east visits, Maegar Varn, a minor sword lord who has made a name for himself. The man is friendly and brings the Aesir beer and a dozen Silver Eels, a small thick-bodied silver eel only found in Lake Silverstep that are very difficult to catch, that are always in high demand with chefs. After dinner and drink Maegar proposes a trade agreement and the specifics are worked out, the man leaves the next day.
Session 20: Midgard.
20 Months of Kingdom development: With the Greenbelt cleared and explored, except the Candlemear, the Aesir set to making the best kingdom they can, while it grows little its cities grow immensely. Some of the Highlights are included below.
Demelvar’s jokes are many and awesome, the best of which has unintended consequences ranging over the entire month, Demelvar uses the last of the dust of Illusion on Frigga without her knowing just as she goes to bed, she walks in looking like the Dancing Lady and Odin freaks out and summons a panther and the guards on her. Odin is horrified when the illusion drops and after hearing Demelvar’s laughing has the panther drag the gnome back for Frigga to punish herself. Tyr hears of this but out of context and incompletely, soon Tyr is leading a witch hunt for the Dancing Lady accosting travelers and citizens alike which cause some unrest before he is stopped. A joke so great it lasted a month, fey flock to Demelvar to learn from a master, Perlivash is seen leaving Stag’s Rest with a note pad 3 times his size.
Odin’s new found ability to write history before it happens proves quite useful in preventing disasters and political infighting. It even leads them to a Bulette before it can destroy anything and the Aesir lay it low, mighty Vulpes landing the killing blow. The smith in Olegton is destroyed for a second time in as many years by a natural disaster.
Frigga returns from talking with the Elves of Kyonin, they had sent an envoy but he was killed by the Forest Drake. Frigga manages to establish a trade route with them, the Elves send a Mythril salesman to the small but fey friendly kingdom. Odin is glad to have his monstrously strong son Thor off his hands, 9yr olds can be such a pain.
Rigg is trapped and killed during his weeklong “stabbing and murder extravaganza”, pure luck is all that was required.
1st of Erastus, 4711: The trade shipment of Silver Eels from Varnhold doesn’t arrive causing Vulpes to send 6 of his Valkyries and Tane to send his lieutenant to investigate.
15th of Erastus: Worried that their followers have not yet returned the Aesir prepare to set out to investigate. They receive a letter from Jamandi Aldori that also expresses her worry about Varnhold and her inability to investigate it herself due to the strenuous situation with Issa.
Session 21: Varnhold
16th of Erastus: Demelvar is visited in the middle of the night by one of his master’s apprentices, Jemanda, after waking him up she tells him that Master Torval never came back from Varnhold. Demelvar chastises her for losing their master and she explains that she was sent to get a wand for him and wait in Nivakta’s crossing but he never showed up and the guards at that town would not let her past the bridge to Varnhold. She gives the wand to Demelvar telling him it might be useful and says she will hang around here and watch after his experiments while he is gone.
The Aesir set out along the Shrike River to Varnhold Pass, the same route that their followers took 2 weeks ago. Their first sign of trouble is spotted just a few miles past Nettels crossing as they come across a fresh battle site. 15 goblins lay dead, a horse and 2 hunting dogs are also dead the one survivor is unconscious on the ground with a dog slicer in his leg. After searching his stuff and confirming that the man is a land owner of their nation they heal him. The man, Edrist, thanks them for saving him and tells then that he was out here looking for his brother who never came back from Varnhold. Edrist’s leg is too badly injured to continue so he asks Duke Odin if he can locate his brother for him and heads back to Nettels Crossing. Later that day a Lady Gnome riding a pony with pink ribbons approaches the group, the Gnome is however a Bleachling and Demelvar runs away screaming. The Gnome, Mina, tells the group that her father has not returned from Varnhold and it would be really nice if they would tolerate her while she tags along, Vulpes is dismayed that this Gnome seems to be as annoying as Demelvar.
17th of Erastus: The group makes their way along the Shrike River crossing to a tributary and up to Varnhold Pass where they find an abandoned watchtower. The group camps there for the night, during the rest night watch man Tyr notices that he can see Varnhold from atop the tower but there are no lights from the town.
18th of Erastus (Part 1): The groups makes their way to Varnhold, mid morning they arrive at the north side of the Kiravoy River that the town straddles, the town is eerily empty with Ravens and Crows everywhere. The first house they check is poorly built and a mess inside, out back is what used to be a boar pin but now only has dead boars and a hungry looking dire boar eating them. Demelvar gets its attention and quickly finds out that’s its really hungry as it tries to eat him, the rest of the group quickly comes to the aid of their friend and the dire boar is killed in short order.
The group searches a few homes and they are all empty with uneaten meals on the table, Tyr asks a tree what happened and is told “The kin killers left to the sound of a new bird’s song, they left past my water source.” After translating that they search the brewery and find 18 barrels of dark ale that are ready to be loaded and several tanks of brewing ale. A search of the location reveals the recipe for the ale which Demelvar describes as good but lacking refinement.
Moving on past the river the group stumbles into their first trap, a 10’ deep pit that Vulpes and Demelvar fall into. Tyr managed to see the rest of the town from atop the tree he asked what happened and tells them that there is an Inn, Smith, Grange and Church of Erastil on this side of town. Mina insists they go to the Smith, the building also served as a horse for hire service and many dead horses are inside along with a swarm of Crows. The crows flock out of the building and attack the group but they are quickly dispersed by Demelvar’s bombs and they enter the smithy. Inside they find an ingot of pretty looking blue steal with Mina’s fathers crafting mark on it along with several unfinished small short swords, Mina says she can finish two of them given an hour each but the group tells her there is no time right now.
At the inn and along the way the group starts seeing smashed in doors, the inn door is knocked down but intact and has the word “NOMAN” carved into it. Tane heads inside and in the main room near a desk in the corner is a large grey humanoid with his back to them, standing stock still holding a book with its head crushed in. Tane is briefly freaked out when smoke starts billowing around him but soon realizes it’s just Demelvar messing with him. The groups moves in and searches the inn, Demelvar knows the creature to be a Spriggan in large form, and he takes the book from it and recognizes the insignia on it as Master Torvals. Mina searches up stairs where the rooms are but only one was occupied when what ever happened, a thorough search of it finds a small black obelisk floating above a platinum disk she takes it and discovers that the disk and obelisk are magically connected. Mina shows the thing she found to the rest of the group and Demelvar recognizes it as Master Torvals alchemist stone and heads up stairs to check his room. In his room he finds several books relating to Iobaren myth and after looking through them finds one passage marked several times which he reads out loud to the group, the passage mentions a “Vordakai” but even Odin knows nothing about it.
The church of Erastil is just as ransacked as the rest of this side of the village but Tane knows that priests keep a hidden stash of scrolls in the alter for emergencies and they are indeed still there, Odin takes them for later use. It’s fairly clear to the group that whatever has been looting the town is at the fort atop the hill and they head there.
Session 22: The Varnhold Mystery.
18th of Erastus (Part 2): The group heads to the fort; there they spot a number of helmets sticking up above the rampart at the gate tower. Tane notices that they aren’t moving and knocks them all over with a rock, causing a lot of noise. They move in after that to see a number of Spriggan’s getting ready for them, already in large size and another up on the keeps main tower with big rocks. While their tactics are good the Spriggan are no match for the group’s skill and are easily defeated. Vulpes finds another pit trap with his face as they move up to the keeps door, after being pulled out by Odin’s horse they break down the front door.
Once inside Vulpes finds himself in a hallway with arrow slits and several Spriggan shooting him while he breaks down a second door. After that door is broken down the Spriggan retreat to the second level, the group proceeds to check the ground floor but find little with a quick search. The stair way up proves to be another choke point for the Spriggan to use, Vulpes nearly gets kills his first time attempting to assult and he has to retreat back down for healing. The group’s second attempt goes a bit smoother when Demelvar uses a smoke bomb to obscure the top of the stairs. After killing another Spriggan and wounding the leader the Spriggan retreat again this time to the roof.
The Aesir pursue the Spriggan to the ladder to the roof but they get a flaming cask of oil dropped on them and then the Spriggan light the roof on fire. Odin with his expert knowledge of everything, especially engineering, repeatedly uses create water to put the fire out, this takes him several minutes. Once the fire is put out the group heads out to face the remaining Spriggan who are waiting in the court yard, this turns out to be a bad idea for them. After using obscuring mist so the group can get out without being shot, Vulpes gets into the court yard with the Spriggan along with Demelvar’s Tatzalwyrm mount and they make short work of the spriggan. In the leader’s bag of holding they find a magnificent bow that Odin recognizes as Skybolt a sacred relic of the Noman Centaurs, Odin is fairly certain that the centaurs did not do this to Varnhold, but the Spriggan clearly got here after everyone was gone.
The group takes the time to search the keep, they find and restore a map of the area and find Maegar Varn’s sword which makes them fear the worst for the man’s life. They also find that a well in the keep leads to an underwater tunnel, since it’s stocked with water breathing potions they explore it. It leads out into a pond a bit down the Kriavoy River right into the lair of a freaky looking monster with giant frogs as minions. Peace talks break down when Tane accidently uses the wrong word in its language and it attacks, Demelvar quickly starts killing the frogs as he is certain he doesn’t want to be in another ones stomach. Vulpes has some problems with the monster as it easily picks the knight up but soon receives backup when Odin arrives to heal him and the monster is quickly killed.
The group starts searching the rest of the town, they find a cute but starving cat named Dragon which Demelvar feeds and takes. They find the house of Willas Gundarson and learn from his tattered journal that he was the man that found the bracelet that caused Maegar Varn to call his friend Master Torval to study, sadly the bracelet is not found, and a large part of the journal is unreadable due to it being in Skald. Odin does find a nice Folding Boat among the wreckage which he takes with him. The groups camps in the keep and discus’s their next move.
Session 23: Holy sites, scary sites.
19th of Erastus: The Aesir left Varnhold to speak with the Noman Centaurs; thanks to the map that Odin repaired they knew were their current camp was. The ride that day was uneventful and they settled down to camp and the edge of the Dunsward plains. Late that night during Odin and Vulpes’ watch, Odin felt a strange presence and spotted the glimpse of a shadowy creature just before it dug its incorporeal claws into his back. Feeling the cold sting of death and his soul being pulled at he rose the alarm and quickly identified the creature as a Soul Eater, an assassin of the plain of Abbadon. Vulpes interjected himself in-between Odin and the Soul Eater but the creature moved around him and continued its assault. Demelvar, now awake, also knew what the creature was and tossed Odin a potion of Protection from Evil. As the Gnome had correctly predicted the Soul Eater was a summoned creature and now could no longer touch Odin to deliver its depilating attack. The Soul Eater switched targets and quickly took down Vulpes and snatched his soul, the group knew that Vulpes only had moments to live before it ate his soul. The creature was already heavily injured from Vulpes attacks and Demelvar and Tane managed to take it down and Vulpes survived another night, where the thing came from or who might have summoned it remained a mystery.
20th of Erastus: The group moved through the planes with relative ease and Odin instructed the others on how to deal with the Nomen. When they were spotted 8 Noman warriors galloped out with spears drawn and surrounded the group and demanded to know what they wanted. Odin calmly asked to speak with the war-priestess and they were escorted through the camp to her place. After waiting sometime while she finished a ritual she finally addressed the group. Odin cut to the point and presented Skybolt to her, the priestess was shocked to see humans return the Noman holy relic and immediately became friendlier. After talking to her for a while they had plenty of new destinations to investigate. They asked her about the passage from Master Torval’s book and she recognized the name Vordakai as a warlord from the ancient past but could help them no more as anyone who knew more was long dead and much of the Noman’s history was lost when Taldor killed many of them centuries ago. She told them that her daughter has also disappeared and could be connected with Varnhold, to that end she told the group her daughters path to each holy site and the Aesir set out right away. She suspects that a group of Frost Giants might be the culprit but her tribe is no match for them, it seemed that Vulpes had some history with the Frost Giants and wanted to pay them a visit.
21st of Erastus: Having been given permission to enter Noman holy sites the Aesir went north to the Noman burial grounds but only found a trio of Manticors there. After dispatching them and gathering the quills for a local poet they left.
22nd of Erastus: The groups next stop was an ancestor grave south of the Noman encampment. The grave site was the colossal remains of a Linnorm with a shrine in front of the massive skull. A group of Mastadons was also grazing near the bones with what looked like an aggressive bull leading them, after a few tense moments Demelvar calmed the beast down and they went to graze on the other side of the bones. Next stop on the tour was a place called the Ghost stone, late at night during Tane’s watch he heard a female voice speaking to him in Aklo, the language of evil fey and aberrations. Tane woke the rest of the group and they started talking with the creature, the thing identified it’s self as Zzamas and it wanted the groups help in clearing her home, the Ghost Stone. She told them that a group of Xill took it from her. Before they would agree to help her they told her to show herself and after some debate she did. What the group saw was a large spider with a woman’s head painted white with a red circle on her forehead. Odin told the group that it was a Phase Spider, a resident of the Ethereal plain, and they agreed to help her after she offered them reward of a chest she found lost in the Ether.
23rd of Erastus: The group located the ghost stone, a slate grey pillar about 30’ high, the area around it showing the unusual signs of a coterminous zone. Demelvar started riding around the area with the faint shapes and writhing forms when out of nowhere a Xill appeared and slashed him and his Tatzlwyrm. Before the rest of the group could react more appeared cutting them off from Demelvar. The Xill rushed in and quickly paralyzed Odin and his horse, Vulpes began murdering the ones that were attempting to paralyze him but they were largely unable to hit the knight until they surrounded him. The one Demelvar had to deal with was no match for his Tatzlwyrm of doom and although it took a bit he eventually killed it. Vulpes managed to kill two without being paralyzed; Zzamas phased into the battle and killed one herself as the remaining one ran away. Before they left they had implanted Odin with eggs, quite lethal if left for long. But the group had no magic that could remove the eggs and with Odin paralyzed they couldn’t use his expertise. The group did the only thing they could, dig them out, after a few hours of excruciating pain Odin was saved and the eggs removed. Soon after Odin could move again he healed himself and Zzamas delivered on her end of the deal and gave the group the chest she had found.
Session 24: The bird and the Valley of the Dead.
24th of Erastus: Unable to actually open the chest Zzamas had rewarded the group; they packed it onto a horse and moved on. They set up camp away from the Ghost stone late at night. While Demelvar was on watch and small sparrow came to talk to him, Demelvar quickly realized that this bird was most likely a shape changed person. After messing with the group most of the night the bird revealed it’s self as a Human druid named Alvis, he had been attacked by Frost Giants the day before and fled into the mountains where he found the group. After Vulpes insisted he show them the way back they left for Ironstone Gully.
After much discussion and divination by Odin the group decided to lure the giants out and drop some gear while running away, in the gear would be a map to the Valley of the Dead where the undead Cyclops that killed them were. The plan went well, Vulpes’ horse being the only death and Alvis stayed behind in bird form to listen in on the two Frost Giants. The giants where happy that they now knew were their killers came from but during their conversation with each other they admitted they could not take all the undead giants and decided to head back to the main camp, also they would be in trouble for losing Belinda, their master smith.
Alvis brought this information back to the Aesir and Vulpes was shocked to hear the name of his former friend and they went back to the mine to investigate. Vulpes found evidence to support that Belinda had been there and had been taken by the Undead Cyclopes. The group headed out to the Valley of the Dead and camped in the same place as the previous night.
25th of Erastus: Odin’s divinations showed him that the missing people were all in the Valley of the Dead and that something named Vordakai was behind it all. With this information in hand they decided to go back to the Noman and tell the war priestess Aecora about it so they changed direction to their camp.
26th of Erastus: Vulpes slowing them down with no horse they head towards the Noman encampment.
27th of Erastus: The Nomen greet the Aesir with open arms as they are considered friends of the tribe. Aecora tells them that it is forbidden for her tribe to enter the Valley of the Dead so the Aesir devise a crude plan to lure the Undead Giants out for the Noman to butcher. After some discussion Aecora agrees and tells the Aesir to head up there now as it will take her a few days to gather enough warriors. They also give Vulpes a new horse.
28th of Erastus: The group rides to the Valley of the Dead.
29th of Erastus (Part 1): The group gets to the entrance to the Valley of the Dead, after the Nomen warning totems they see a grave yard that’s strangely quiet, devoid of life and filled with thousands of 10 foot tall grave stones each with a name in the Cyclopes dialect of Giant. Alvis agrees to scout for them and flies off as a little bird again. When he comes back a few hours later he reports that there is a stair case carved into the back of the valley and it leads to a pillar of rock rising out of the middle of the Sullen River. The group surmises that this is Vordakai’s island as mentioned in Master Torval’s book. An undead Cyclopes guards the entrance of the stair so Demelvar, riding his Tatzlwyrm, climbs the 300 foot cliff and drops a rope and the group avoids the guard and eventually makes their way to the Pillar.
They arrive at the pillar around evening, most of the group notices that this area is hunted by Wyverns but no one sees them. The pillar is impressively tall, most likely a remnant of the cliff edge that’s now a few hundred feet back from it. The group can see what appears to be a cave entrance at the base of the pillar across the river. As the group approaches the river edge a pair of Wyverns takes flight from the far cliff wall and Alvis flees in terror.
Session 25: Vordakai's Tomb (Part 1)
29th of Erastus (Part 2): The Aesir easily drive off the two Wyverns and then use their folding boat to cross the river. At the other side there is a cave that leads into a large worked stone tunnel with clear evidence of 3 beings passing, the oldest are Human, then Giant, then Centaur as the most recent, only the Human and Giant leave. The next room has 2 Undead Cyclopes waiting behind false walls and after Demelvar finds them they attack. After discovering another false wall in the tomb they enter a natural cavern with water running into it form the river outside. Demelvar finds that the beat that has made its lair here is quite unfriendly, an Elasmosaurus, Demelvar realizes that the group is invading its territory and drives it off 2with repeated uses of Lightning Bolts and Electro bombs.
After finding some magical treasure on a skeleton at the bottom of the lair, which had a very nice ring, they use the now flooded stair way at its bottom and emerge into a room full of largish pottery. The pottery room proved to be uninteresting and they head down some stair to a nicely etched pair of Bronze doors. The room beyond is filled with stone Cyclopes statues that resemble burial soldiers, Tane also notices that the rooms ceiling is covered with round doors and decides to investigate. He determines that if one door is opened the others will automatically open and carefully disables the connections to one door and opens it. As he does that Bronze portcullises fall down tramping them in the room and water jets from the hole knocking Tane to the ground. Water starts filling the room but not as fast as if all 16 doors had opened, from two areas in wall more Undead Cyclopes emerge but the group deals with them as well, but it’s beginning to hurt. In a feat of strength Vulpes manages to lift the Portcullis leading out and up a flight of stairs.
At the top of the stairs is a very nice bronze door, they enter and are greeted by the disturbing images of a temple dedicated to Charon the Horseman of Death. Odin figures out that the only way to proceed safely is to complete a blood ritual. Despite the loving nature of the room Demelvar grows tired of it and opens one of the exits and the room explodes in unholy Stygian Fires badly burning the group with its somehow cold fire and sapping some of their mental acuity the doors then slam shut and the “trap” instantly resets its self. Demelvar is briefly yelled at for is impulsiveness before he tries plan two, throw a bomb at it! But this bomb is special and its explosion creates a temporary magic dispelling field which deactivates the trap and the group rushes into the safety of a new room before the magic returns to the trap.
Session 26: Vordakai's Tomb (Part 2)
29th of Erastus (Part 3): The next room has two ways out but behind the door is an unfinished room ending in a stairway that goes nowhere. Advancing carefully into the next room Tane leads to spot traps. As soon as he enters the room a whirl of mist stirs up in the room and a monster appears, part Man part Lobster part Squid and all Daemon. The thing asks in a disturbing telepathic way in whose name they dare enter. With no real answer and too beat up to attempt to kill it the group retreats to the dead end while the Daemon insults and taunts them but it does not follow them out of its room.
Their rest is plagued by nightmares most seem to shake it off but Vulpes can’t get the images of tortured Belinda out of his dreams and is un-rested by morning. They advance back into the Daemon’s room and answer its question with “In Odin’s name” It attacks them instantly. Just as quickly the group has it surrounded, any normal opponent would be dead in seconds but this Daemon gets it huge pincers around Vulpes and starts crushing the warrior. Vulpes almost dead, the Daemon vanishes the way it had appeared and the group heals up and moves on. The area it was guarding is a prison but the only occupant of this prison is a paralyzed Centaur. After un-paralyzing her they discover that this centaur is Xamanthe the daughter of Aecora the centaur chief, but she knows nothing about what’s going on.
Xamanthe is eager to get revenge and Tane lends her his Rapier, and there is also no way out at current. They proceed back to the temple and disable the trap once more. After a long hull way they enter a tomb, Tane decides to check the alcoves and biers for traps and as he starts doing so a pair of Soul Eaters show themselves. Knowing the horror that they suffered at the claws of one Odin quickly summons a Hound Archon who wards the group from the Soul Eaters and the group quickly passes through the room. They pass through a few more rooms before Tane finds a secret door, not only is this door locked with one of the finest locks Tane has ever seen but it’s also magically locked and hardened. It takes the group a considerable effort to get through the door and on the other side is room filled with eye motifs all looking at a central eye at the eastern end of the room. Odin decides that now is the time to commune with the gods and ascertains that this room and the central eye motif are directly connected with Vordakai’s power.
Vulpes barely gets two swings off at the eye motif when suddenly an atrophied Cyclopes with a glowing red eye appears, before any of them can really act it dominates Vulpes, Demelvar and Odin realize this and retreat out of the room. Vordakai orders Vulpes to do nothing and follows the group and uses a spell that drains their energy fatiguing them all. Demelvar manages to hit Vordakai with a few bombs but its magical protections are impressive, as the Gnome is preparing a dispel bomb he gets paralyzed by the Lich’s touch. Vulpes is ordered to kill the two Soul Eaters in the adjacent room and bowls over Tane who attempts to get in his way. Luckily Odin was already on his way to that room and when Vulpes gets there he casts a protection spell on the Knight that frees him from the mental control. Odin gives Vulpes his mace and tells him that it’s the only way to hurt Vordakai and Vulpes heads in to slay the lich.
Tane slips the Ring of Freedom on to Vulpes as he passes and they head back in to deal with him. Odin un-paralyzes Demelvar and he disrupts Vordakai’s magic making it much easier to damage him. Vulpes and Tane lay into the Lich forcing him to retreat but Vulpes won’t have any of that and starts beating on the eye motif again, after several large cracks appear in the motif Vordakai teleports back into the room and paralyzes Odin. Vulpes, in a mad frenzy, attacks the Lich and Tane gets behind it but even his expert slices can barely do any damage to him. Demelvar gets paralyzed again in short order and then after Vordakai runs out of spells he paralyzes Tane as well, Vulpes has the fortitude to withstand the negative energy onslaught and the Ring of Freedom and although badly wounded takes Vordakai down.
Vulpes looks around, everyone is paralyzed but him, he gives the ring to Odin and he is free as long as he has the ring on. Odin thinks long and hard and eventually gives the Ring to Demelvar. Demelvar wastes a bit of time running around the room before getting out his alchemy kit to learn the Remove Paralysis scroll that Odin has so he can make some potions of it and free the rest of the group. For Odin, Tane and Xamanthe the day will pass on at what seems like a crawl, paralyzed and trapped by their own bodies.
Session 27: Vordakai's Tomb (Part 3)
29th of Erastus (Part 4): For 12 hours Odin, Tane and Xamanthe were paralyzed while Demelvar prepared potions, As they slept the nightmares came again, the effects where such that no one could rest and Odin received no spells for the day. Free from the paralysis the group gathered what was left by Vordakai and discussed what to do, they still had no exit as the one they came from was flooded now so they decided to avoid using the Oculus to activate the teleport room.
The first area they came across in their exploration was a bubbling sulfur tar pit with Varnholds chief wizard, now a hideous undead creature guarding it, after a brief fight the group retreated due to the toxic environment. Demelvar was quite disappointed as he though the battle was going well.
The group then used the Oculus to activate the teleport and appeared in a room that looked like the inside of an eye, but in stone. They entered into a chamber with a pool of water and the smell of sulfur in the air, this room had a guardian too and it rose out of the water. The huge water elemental not at all pleased to see the group told them it was going to kill them, Odin put the oculus into his own eye but being a good being it rejected him and he could not control the temple’s guardian and they retreated from it as well.
They managed to get into a room with a door and sealed it form the water elemental, but this room had more of the undead zombie Cyclopes in it. They were below the group in a feast hall, seated at the table was Maegar Varn, a Priest of Erastil and a number of Varnhold’s citizens but something had scooped all their brains out and they sat there motionless, dead. The group quickly formulated a plan and killed all the zombies, after words Demelvar set up a small secure shelter and the group rested.
The Nightmares returned but this time Odin and Demelvar were able to rest and got their spells for the next day. All healed up they ventured past the fest hall, after composing the bodies, and entered a tomb. Within was a corpse matching the description of Willas Gundarson, a Specter soon arose from it howling with rage it attacked. Knowing something about specters Odin attempted to reason with it, after some time and promises it stopped attacking the group and sank back into the ground. Odin had deduced what had caused so much rage and promised to amend the situation. They wandered down the hall to a door swelled shut by tar and realized that this was the door to the other side of the Tar pit, the side with the mage. Xamanthe kicked down the door and they rushed the mage and he was quickly destroyed.
Having nowhere else to go but the water guardians room Odin consulted the gods and asked a few questions. It was revealed that the way out was in the tar pit room and that the citizens of Varnhold were being held past the guardian. They went back to fight the guardian but it was too much for them, after it knocked Vulpes unconscious they retreated, barely managing to get Vulpes standing so he could retreat as well. As they fell back to the fest hall they found that the water guardian was quite slow out of water. Vulpes, remembering one of Odin’s great victories, thought of a plan to lure the water elemental to the Specter to have it destroyed. They slowly lead the water elemental back to the specter in a fighting withdraw where Demelvar and his Lightning wand were surprisingly effective. When at last the guardian and specter met it was all but over for the elemental and it went down, the group quickly retreated from the specter’s room to relative safety.
Session 28: The Escape!
29th of Erastus (Part 5): The group explores further into Vordakai’s tomb eventually reaching the throne room after the water guardian’s room. Within they find a grizzly sight, several Varnhold citizens arrayed around a central pool decapitated and eviscerated, their entrails used to make ritual patterns particular to The Horseman of Death’s faith. Vordakai’s large throne made of bones quickly becomes a tool for Demelvar to mock Vordakai, as he is doing that Demelvar notices a large pile of treasure and a lab.
Before Demelvar can really do anything with the treasure Tane calls out that an adjoining room has more of the soul trap jars they had found on Vordakai, much more. The group runs in and arrayed around the room are many jars, 50 or 60, each in their own small nook in the wall lining the cylinder room to the ceiling. After a brief debate the group starts shattering jars to release their prisoners, when Master Torval pops out Demelvar is overjoyed and jumps on the elderly Dwarf giving him a big hug. Vulpes continues to smash jar after jar looking for Belinda, the last jars have Tane’s second and Vulpes’ Valkyrie. The jars are assorted in the order of capture with more recent ones higher in the room, the last one broken containes Belinda. Vulpes seeing the beautiful woman his master had broken his legs to keep him from attempting a rescue can barely speak. Belinda speaks first asking why he is rescuing her now instead of years ago but is none the less happy to see him and gives him a big hug. Belinda is clearly very strong as she hefts Vulpes off the ground; her constant pushes and shoves to Vulpes staggering him back a step or two on average, she reclaims her Earthbreaker with ease the Frost Giant blood in veins clearly serving her well.
After the reunions and explaining to the citizens what has happened the group devises an escape plan, but first Demelvar has to dive into the giant stack of coins. After sorting through Vordakai’s treasure and books, books not seen in ten thousand years, the group uses Gagglefuzz to tunnel through a narrow part of the wall next to the tar pit room to escape. They follow the new passage way to a cliff side entrance some 60’ up and set ropes to lower people down to one the groups feather token boats. The last one down is Demelvar as Gagglefuzz is such a good climber that no rope is needed.
Upon reaching the far shore an interesting site greets Odin, his trusty mount of nearly 50 years has died and in its place stands the majestic youthful steed that Odin remembers form when he first found the horse. The horse appears as a celestial horse but with 8 lags and absolutely magnificent looking, even death can not keep Odin’s horse from his side, and it had in fact only made the beast stronger.
The group of Varnhold citizens, warrior women, Aesir and alchemical masters travel down the steep to where the Centaur are waiting with 30 warriors, Xamanthe is reunited with her mother and tribe. The animals that the group left, like their horses and Dragon the cat, are waiting with the centaur. Dragon’s owner claims him but breaks down sobbing as it becomes clear that the man’s wife and two children have been killed by Vordakai. Aecora and Odin talk for some time that night and forge a peace agreement with promise to talk of further alliance, Aecora is even more convinced that these Aesir are blessed by “Mother Moon” and worthy of friendship.
3rd of Arodus: (Correction: Vordakai’s tomb actually took 3 days due to rests with in, Actual date reflected here.) The Aesir guide the citizens back to Varnhold.
4th to 6th of Arodus: They arrive at Varnhold where the Citizens pick us what’s left of their stuff and hold a makeshift ceremony for their beloved leader, Maegar Varn. They gift Demelvar the beer recipe that Varn himself had invented and the Gnome promises to make more in the future. After a somber day they leave with the citizens to Stag’s Rest.
7th Arodus: The group arrives back at Stag’s Rest and is welcomed as heroes as some news has spread of their exploits. Demelvar and Odin stop by a new chef’s restaurant to see what the “Omelet King” is all about and what his contest. The cheerful and energetic man gleefully tells them about the contest and asks them if it’s ok to host the contest in Stag’s Rest, he also asks for a Roc’s egg before he can begin. Odin invites the man to cook dinner for the royal court before telling him his answer to which the immediately starts cooking.
Odin has many things to do once back at the castle, after hearing a bevy of requests from locals the “Omelet King” cooks one of the best meals the Aesir have had in a long while.
Session 29: Settling back in.
8th of Arodus to 3rd of Rova: After settling back into the flow of things the group sets about selling the treasure they got from Vordakai and drawing up plans for the future of Varnhold. A decision is eventually reached that Midgard will make slow progress in claiming lands over to Varnhold and then integrate it into the Kingdom at large.
The Nomen Centuars invite the Aesir to a small camp that they set up just outside their borders, once there Aecora presents Odin with Skybolt and the Aesir are accepted as part of the tribe. The two sides quickly reach an acceptable alliance, and Tane is chosen as the bow’s official bearer.
Demelvar is delighted that Master Torval is staying in Midgard for the foreseeable future; the Dwarf is apparently no longer welcome in Numaria and has sent his apprentice Jamanda to collect his things. Demelvar is also tasked with improving, or making new, the Aesir’s magic items, a task which takes him most of the month.
Despite the long absence in seeing each other Belinda and Vulpes are still in love and she pledges to stay in Midgard, she warns that the Ymir will come for her as she is a master smith. While the giants treated her well they still held her prisoner, her time with the giants has changed her little, she now sleeps alone and is a bit angrier but other than that the same old Belinda that Vulpes remembers. Belinda asks for a smith of her own to be built in the capital and in return she will become the quartermaster and arm the guards and army (When Midgard gets one), her request is accepted and work on the smith is set to finish at the end of Rova.
The Aesir work to improve kingdom stability and Tane changes his focus to help that instead of securing info that helps Midgard’s economy. Roads are built to connect Varnhold with Midgard via the Varnhold pass, and Tyr and his men start patrolling that new area as well.
Early Rova they decide that among the list of things that need be done that the clearing of The Candlemear will be top priority.
4th of Rova: The Aesir take a ½ day boat ride to Candlemear Island to clear the island of hostile Will-o-wisps and transform the area into a town. Melianse hops on their boat mid way to Candlemear to warn them of the danger, Demelvar decides it’s a good time to show her his new Rain Shower tablets and drenches the group, Melianse loves it though.
After clearing the nettles and thorn bushes that dominate the island up to the tower the group is quickly beset by 4 Will-o-wisps, after a lengthy battle the 4 are killed. They decide to back up after looking to the top of the tower, with their see invisible potions active, only to see dozens more that are swarming around the tower. Odin has gotten a close enough look to know that this is a temple to the Old God Yog-Sothoth and the wisps are likely attracted to the feeling of fear they all get when near the tower. Odin consults the scrolls and asks the gods some questions but is unable to determine an easier way to clear the aura then the lengthy Hallow spell which would almost surely attract the attention of the Will-o-wisps. They head back to the boat to discuss a plan of action and rest up.
Session 30: Exploring the Nomen Heights.
5th of Rova: After resting up the group heads out to talk with the Old Beldame about the Candlemear. She tells the group that long ago she had attempted to dispel the evil aura that haunts the Candlemear but to no avail, the spell they need is Dispel Chaos but she can no longer cast it due to old age. They head to Stags rest after that.
6th to 10th of Rova: The group leaves Stags Rest on horse heading to Restov to seek the high priest of Erastil for the region to ask for a scroll to Dispel Chaos, Tane sends a rider ahead to minimize their time in Restov.
11th of Rova: The group arrives in Restov to collect the scrolls from the priest; he greets them warmly considering all the good work they have done in the name of Erastil and gives them the scrolls at cost.
12th to 14th of Rova: They ride back to Stags Rest from Restov.
15th of Rova: The Aesir arrive at Candlemear and Demelvar takes a few potions to make him immune to Will-O-Wisp attacks, Odin uses the scroll and the aura shatters in a burst of magic. While the rest run for their lives Demelvar stays to attract the Wisps to him. The Wisps attack Demelvar for a good 5 min before he kills a few and the rest run realizing they can’t hurt him. The rest of the group returns and they properly search the ruin and find that it could be very useful to mages if re-built.
16th to 25th of Rova: The Aesir hire “Narthropple’s Band of Exploring, Scouting and Amazingly Handsome Super Gnome’s” (NBESAHSG)to survey the low lands of the Noman Heights while they attend to Kingdom stuff. When the Gnomes return they give the Aesir a map and a list of area’s that are dangerous. They agree to set out and clear those areas, and stop by with a “Speak with Dead” scroll for a dead noble the Gnomes found that’s from Midgard. Using his new water tablets and secret textile recipe, Demelvar carefully distributes garments to members of the council that shrink when exposed to water, at the end of the court session he drenches the room in water exposing Oleg, Jhod, Frigga and several of Vulpes Valkyrie’s and Belinda. Demelvar runs far and wide avoiding the Valkyrie leading them through town and repeatedly drenching them with water, the Valkyrie eventually give up humiliated.
26th and 27th of Rova: The Aesir ride to where the gnomes found the dead noble use speak with dead on him, he tells them how he was murdered buy the people who he had bought gems from. The gems, of course, are gone but there is very little they can do as they know that the gem cutter of Varnhold and his family were all killed at Vordakai’s hand.
28th of Rova: The group investigates the area with an obvious trap and find that Ettercaps have made it, although the Ettercaps are quite dumb and are quickly bested. They do find a magic Dwarven Warhammer and Odin takes it to give to his son Thor.
29th of Rova: The group deals with some troublesome spiders in the farm lands of Varnhold.
30th of Rova: The group travels to Lake Silver Step using Varnhold pre-existing roads. There they find an area of bubbling mud patrolled by what look like mud men. They dicide to live them be to check out the pristine lake. At the Lake they find a sign explain how to fish for the Silver Eels, Tane sets to it since he has the bait required on him. Demelvar coaxes a Grig out of hiding to talk to it about the mud men. She tells Demelvar that the Elves made it in her Great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother’s time and that they are just constructs.
1st of Lamashan: The group decides to destroy the Mud Men and do so easily, they eventually dig up a body while searching for the mechanism that keeps this area connected to the Earth and Water plains. The body is wearing the uniform of a Taldane soldier-general of 200 years ago. He is carrying with him a Grinning Platinum Skull. Odin stashes the Skull as he thinks it may be dangerous.
2nd of Lamashan: The only area left is the Roc’s nest and they need an egg so they head to Talon peek. Demelvar quite disagrees with attacking it and proposed that they use Speek with Animal to talk with it. Odin agrees and they wait for it to return. A majestic black feathered female Roc returns and Odin gets it’s attention. After telling it that they are not food he askes for one of her eggs, and in return Odin will feed her for a night using his magic. The Roc agrees telling Odin that the eggs aer un-fertilized anyways because her mate was killed by a giant black flying lizard. Poor Sleipnir has to carry the eggs down from the mountain.
3rd to 4th of Lamashan: They get the Roc egg back to Stag’s Rest and give it to The Omelet King, who starts his omelet competition within a day. Odin gives his son Thor the magic war hammer and he quickly names it “Mjölnir” and breaks a table, Odin tells the boy that he now has to fix the table.
Session 31: End of Book 3.
5th to 19th of Lamashan: The Aesir explore the Tors of Levenies foothills with a contingent of their followers; Thor finally gets to go with his Dad. Of note Vulpes is almost killed by a Giant Flytrap on an Island and a Gemstone mine is discovered by Tane. They then return to Stag’s Rest to do kingdom stuff.
Kingdom Month of Lamashan: Varnhold is annexed and re-construction of the town starts. A Large fire breaks out in Olegton but Odin’s precognitive writing limits damage to only a few houses.
4th to 25th of Neth: The group explores the Tors of Levenies themselves, of note they find a dead adult Silver Dragon with its head and treasure missing.
Kingdom Month of Neth: Varnhold is repaired and a large amount of disenfranchised Rostlanders move there, bringing with them much wealth.
Kingdom Month of Kuthona: The Island in the Candlemear is claimed and a city started with the intent to attract a powerful mage to study, and make some magic items for the kingdom.
Kingdom Month of Abadus, New Year 4712: The New Year is cold but mild, the Tower at Candlemear is finished and Tane and Frigga snipe of mage of some potency from a neighboring kingdom.
Hey everyone, I hope you have enjoyed this so far. I have loved running it these past 8 months.
I wont be adding anything new for several weeks as I am moving to Seattle, but after that I will be conducting the sessions Via Skype and some handy internet tools. Just gotta say that this is an amazing AP and I can't wait to continue.
Xy.
Session 32: Trouble at Tatzlford.
12 Months of Kingdom building, Year 4713: The year is good for Midgard, improvements mostly focusing on city infrastructure.
6th of Calistril: The Aesir are awoken early in the morning by a messenger from Tatzlford asking for immediate assistance in repelling an attack by a small army of Bandits, Barbarians and Trolls. Vulpes quickly assembles his Valkyrie and the Aesir ride to Tatzlford.
They arrive around noon and are greeted by the Mayor and head of the towns meager 11 guards, the Aesir go to talk to a woman named Kisandra who has brought this information at great risk to her self. Kisandra is very helpful and informative in what is coming, an attack from Fort Drelev. She is the daughter of Fort Drelev’s former general who was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his daughter to the Tiger Lords as a hostage.
The Aesir begin preparing the towns defenses but are only able to set up a few before the enemy army arrives. Odin has been the leader of hundreds of battles and was Brevoy’s general for half his life, he figures that Vulpes has learned much and lets him command. Demelvar and Odin provide battlefield support magic while Tane and Tyr sneak around to capture the army’s leader one Ameon Trask.
Although a small battle compared to Odin’s mighty battles of the past, Vulpes proves to be a capable leader and the Valkyrie win a decisive victory without any loses. Vulpes challenges the unit commander of the Tiger Lords to a duel, after winning he lets the man go. Tane and Tyr wait until Trask orders the 6 massive trolls to attack before springing their ambush quickly disabling the man and taking him captive. The trolls are summarily slaughtered by Vulpes, Demelvar and Odin before they can cause any harm to Tatzlford.
Trask refuses to talk when questioned by Vulpes so Demelvar has his Tatzlwyrm, Mr. Gaggelfuzz, bite the man’s leg off and eat it. Odin saves the man’s life with healing magic and they leave him tied up until the next day. The Aesir receive a gracious meal from Mayor Loy and his wife as well as heroes praise from Tatzlfords citizens.
7th of Calistril: The Aesir leave Tatzlford, leaving behind the Valkyrie incase more attacks happen, they bring Trask and Kisandra with them. Once back at the capital Tane, Demelvar and Akrios properly interrogate Trask and learn that Baron Drelev ordered the attack. The Aesir call a council meeting and Kisandra explains the situation in Fort Drelev and begs the Aesir to liberate the town and her father and rescue her sister from the Tiger Lords. Most of the Council members agree that Baron Drelev should be removed from power and the town liberated, but the Aesir decide to wait on Tane’s spy to bring them information from Fort Drelev first.
Kisandra tells them that if they want to liberate the city that her friend, Satinder Morne, can help them as she is well informed. She gives them her ring and instructions on how to greet her if they want help, the Aesir also grant Kisandra asylum.
Session 33: Fort Drelev.
8th to 10th of Calistril: The Aesir plan and wait for Tane’s informant to deliver information on Fort Drelev. When it arrives they heavily discuss what to do and its decided that posing as a small merchant group will be best, they hand pick 5 loyal merchants to make the ruse hold some weight.
11th of Calistril: The Aesir and their merchant wagon leave stags rest loaded down with thousands of gold worth of merchandise and start along the kingdoms roads as close as they can get to the Wyvernstone Bridge, the only reliable way to get to Fort Drelev with a wagon.
12th and 13th of Calistril: The Aesir take the roads to the edge of their territory and cross into the plains of the northern Hooktongue Slough region.
14th of Calistril: Reaching the impressive Wyvernstone Bridge at mid day, Tyr notices a crude house hanging under the bridge after pointing it out to the group Demelvar calls out to the occupant. The occupant briefly pokes her head out then slithers up onto the bridge. Odin recognizes the creature as a Dark Naga, an evil but powerful creature. The Dark Naga, feeling confident that a mere merchant caravan could pose her no harm tells them that this is her bridge and that they will have to pay 100gp to cross. The Aesir briefly discuss who actually owns the bridge but Odin knows that the bridge has been abandoned for decades but has another plan and approaches the Naga. The Naga waited patiently as the group discussed what to do, then the ever so charismatic Odin approached her and offered to buy her bridge and that she could collect taxes for them to be picked up at regular intervals. After an hour or more of discussion the Naga agrees to the transaction and the group is on their way again, up one bridge.
15th of Calistril: The group moves into the idyllic plains of the Northern Slough and after several hours of travel are ambushed by a group of Basilisks, an all too short fight later they all lay dead on the ground and the group continues on. Soon after the group comes across a several-acre field of Golden Cloudberries, a favorite meal of many animals and people alike, predators usually lurk around such large fields. Demelvar gathers several bag full’s as does Tyr before the group moves on.
16th of Calistril: The group continues to travel.
17th of Calistril: The group arrives at Fort Drelev around noon and the guards let them pass. The group sets up next to an abandoned temple of Erastil, Tane knows the 3 priests that had watched over this temple were arrested shortly after Drelev surrendered and have not been heard from since. The group heads across the street to the stable and smith, they find a lone haggard man making weapons. The man, Gask Sutton, begs for food offering weapon repair or a free weapon, Vulpes gives the man one of the basilisks. Gask tells them that he’s being forced to make weapons for the baron and has easily made enough to arm all the guards here 3 times over.
Moving on the Aesir see many other abuses of the population, Vulpes almost snaps and kills a few guards but Odin calms him down. The group goes to the Velvet Corner where Kisandra told them to meet her friend Satinder Morne. Satinder is the owner of the brothel and when they arrive she is busy keeping the guards under control so her girls don’t get hurt. Tane approaches and hands her a rose and the ring and Satinder invites them into a private room. Satinder is happy that Kisandra managed to find help and starts asking the Aesir’s intentions. After much discussion Satinder informs the group about a secret way into the Fort’s prison and tells them of a birthday party the Baroness will be having in 6 days, the perfect time to deal with the Baron and his lackeys. The Aesir attempt to convince her that she should be the public face of the coming rebellion but she turns it down and suggests the former General, Lord Numesti, instead.
The Aesir move back to the main area or head out into town, Vulpes heads out to help those in need eventually finding a starving family and giving them all his food for a place to stay for the night and Vulpes makes quick friends with the family. Demelvar attempts to hit on Satinder but is outmatched by Tane’s superior skills, Tane ends up paying Satinders exorbitant cost and spends a nice night with her. Tane attempts to recruit her to his spy network seeing that she is an expert in manipulation and subterfuge, she tells him that she didn’t think that her religion was allowed in Midgard that they were an all Erastil nation, Tane quickly denies that and she tells him to ask again when the town is liberated. Demelvar after being rejected turns his attention to the guards that are hurting the girls and many leave before they have had their fun either mildly poisoned or itching too badly. Odin and Tyr mind the merchant wagon and keep to themselves.
18th of Calistril (Part one): The group except Vulpes meets at the soup n’ kettle to discuss the days activities, a prank against the guards almost ends badly but Tane keeps them from hurting the staff and instead sells them some snake oil, the guards try to steal it from him but he convinces them to buy it for a lower price. Tane’s informant has not showed up and Tane asks Satinder, she tells him that she saw him but he was arrested 2 days ago.
Session 33: The rescue
18th of Calistril (Part Two): Night time, the group sneaks out of town via the docks and makes their way over to the escape exit that Satinder told them about. The group gains access easily, Odin and Vulpes hanging back a ways to let Tane, Demelvar and Tyr do their work.
In the first large cavern that they entered however the group was set upon by two massive Black Puddings. After one split in two when Tyr shot it with an arrow the group had to switch to their much less effective bludgeoning weapons. Demelvar however was able to kill them with impunity after he managed to escape the grasp of the one that had picked up and had dragged him back into the water. The Saps the group had brought along were largely damaged or destroyed; Vulpes shield was also destroyed as was Odin’s Mace, only the mace was salvageable through Odin’s magic.
The entry room cleared the group moved on and eventually found the entrance to the prison it’s self. Tane carefully picked the locks and found Lord Numesti and his captured lieutenant. Lord Numesti, grateful for the rescue, vowed his life in service to the Aesir and Midgard for saving his life and that of his daughter Kisandra. Tane and the other Aesir realized with Lord Numesti’s help that the Priests of Erastil and any other prisoners not conscripted into the army that attacked Tatzlford had been fed to the Black Puddings. The group took the time to recover Lord Numesti’s equipment and robed the keeps treasury as well before leaving.
Back at the Velvet Corner the Aesir along with Satinder and Lord Numesti devised a plan for the downfall of the Baron and liberation of the city, Numesti more than happy to be the rebellion’s public face. But first they were going to fake Lord Numesti’s death the following night.
I decided to introduce the quests that appear on the front and back covers a bit differently this time. I wrote a small story for each of my 5 PCs that took place during the day they were waiting before they acted, 17th of Calistril. I'm posting it here because everyone liked them. It's a bit of a long read but I hope you enjoy it.
A day in Fort Drelev
Tane: Late morning Tane was passing near the north gate and caught eye of the gate guards harassing a traveler, Tane was about to pass it up as not worth the trouble when his keen eyes spotted the man's holy symbol of Erastil.
Tane walked calmly up to the gate and interjected "Jim there you are, what the hell has been keeping you, come on your supplies are needed at the caravan!"
The guards gave Tane a stern look "What the hell's this guy to you merchant." Said with a tone of disdain.
Tane, still upbeat, replied "This man is part of our caravan and has vital reagents for the potions we want to sell, he's with us." As he said his last part he garbed the mans shoulder and led him away, the guards grumbling in acquiescence.
"Umm... Whats going on?" questioned the priest a bit confused.
"Shut up and follow, you were in danger, I just saved you." The priest looked around with a concerned gaze before jogging a bit to catch up with Tane and following.
Tane lead the man to the caravan next to the Temple of Erastil. "Umm... Thanks, well this is where I was going anyways." The priest started walking away towards the Temple.
"You wont find them, its just a burned out husk now." Tane said. The priest looked at him to see if he was kidding and by the look in Tane's eyes he knew he was not. But still he had to see for him self and ran into the Temple.
A few minuets later Tane found the man kneeling by the alter sifting some ash through his hands, clearly saddened. The priest looked up at Tane "I came to help them, to make them some cloaks.... It's what I do... do you know what happened here?"
"I do" Said Tane. "After the Baron surrendered to Pitax and the Tiger Lords he arrested the priests and put them in the castle dungeon."
"I see...can I help them?" said the priest.
"I don't think so, but we are going there tonight, ill let you know if we find them." Tane thinking added "You said you make cloaks, you have any that may help us rescue them?"
"No...no I don't keep the materials to make them on me... its kind of a right of passage, the priest has to gather the materials as it requires hunting to do so."
The priest stood up and cleared off the alter with a swipe of his hand. "Tell you what though, since you helped me and seeing that your faithful of Erastil I'll make you one."
"Yeah? And what do I have to bring you for one?" Tane's curiosity peeked.
"Well...6 great dragonfly wings... you can....you can find them in wetland areas, but they are dangerous so hunt carefully. By the way my name is Borzaki."
"Tane." As he waked away leaving the man in the Temple "You stay with the Caravan and keep that holy symbol covered."
Tyr: Strolling down by the docks Tyr overhears part of a conversation from a few piers over. "...but it is in fact the lair of a mighty Elasmosauruses named Hooktongue! Yess the same creature that gives its name to the the vary lake and swamp and it's real! It's an immense black snake with jaws strong enough to carry a bear and a back decorated with razor-sharp fins, but no one has seen it in nearly a decade!" Tyr watched as the very animated man pantomimed what the creature looked like as he spoke it.
As Tyr drew closer he recognized the man, for he and his men had spotted the eccentric Taxidermist many times in Midgard's wild areas hunting. Tyr had shared campfires with the man and saved him when he inevitably got in over his head.
Tyr walked up to the gathering of local hunters, swamp people and fisherman that were gathered to hear this mans story.
"So what of it we have all heard the legend." Quipped one the gathered men.
"No...no it's not legend its real and by real I mean you can kill it and stuff it... That's where you all come in, I'm willing to pay for it so I can stuff the largest creature ever attempted to be stuffed." The gathered crowd snickered as the man spoke.
One spoke up "Well how much do mythical creatures bodies go for these days old man?"
"EIGHT THOUSAND GOLD! And its not mythical you inbreeds!" One of the locals looked annoyed at the last part "Whats to stop us from just taking the gold from you, old man?"
The man giggled and pointed at his boat "My pretty pet." he said "Will tear you all to shreds."
The group looked at the boat and saw what the man was pointing at and they saw a stone-cold-still and stuffed panther and all of the gathered erupted in laughter before walking away "Yeah what ever old man."
Tyr was the only one still standing there, the mans face a beet red from anger "Quanchy you still looking for creatures strong enough to kill and eat you?" Tyr said.
The man was instantly calm as he recognized Tyr "Ahhhh Tyr my friend" As the old man put an arm around the half-elf "Just the person I wanted to find here. Did I ever tell you about Li'l Hooktongue?"
Odin: After a long night of not being allowed to sleep with the staff at the Velvet Corner, Odin went to check up on Sleipnir. Arriving at the caravan Odin saw a striking young woman in noble garb arguing with one of the real merchants.
"OK then you obstinate fool, eight thousand gold!" The woman said.
"Look lady you can't just buy Sleipnir...I mean that horse...whose name is not Sleipnir....he's not for sale anyways, just go away!"
"GHHHH I HATE.... wait.... Sleipnir?... that's Odin's...." her voice trailing off into a whisper. The young woman turned around slowly and met Odin's gaze, a look of amorous attraction and dread crossing her face.
"Calm down, calm down. Whats the problem lovely lady." Said Odin as he put an around around the woman's shoulder and led her closer to Sleipnir.
"Well...I...Oh wow he's magnificent, truly magnificent." The woman stared at Sleipnir.
General...I mean...King...Err... Odin its a pleasure to meet you, I'm Jennavieve Kensen." The lady curtsied, despite the lack of a dress, to Odin.
Odin recognized the family name, one of the premier horse breeding families of Brevoy.
"Ah yes, come looking to buy Sleipnir?"
"Yes... well no, just horses in general. But all the horses are gone that I wanted." Jennavieve said as she pointed at the stable/smithy.
"That, is a shame." Said Odin.
"Yeah well they had sent me a letter saying they had my horse. I wanted one of Windchaser's herd."
"Who's that." Odin replied
"Oh its this magnificent horse that roams past the swamp in the plains between here and Pitax. I had asked the local stable here if they could get me one, such a fine steed could bring great renown to my house."
"I see, but all the horses here were taken by the Tiger Lords, so I head." Odin said. The woman looked sad, like something important was riding on her getting this horse.
"Lord Odin." She picked up a bit. "I'm not sure why your here but could I trouble you to get me one of Windchaser's herd? I could pay a lot."
"Well I do like the sound of that, how bout we go sit down and work out the details so I can rest these old bones?" Odin patted his elbow and after the woman took his arm led her off to the Velvet Corner.
Vulpes: Vulpes couldn't stay at the Velvet Corner, could barley stay in this town. All the injustice had to be answered for but he had to contain him self as to not cause further harm. A nice family had offered to shelter him for seemingly nothing, but for good people helping out someone that looked in need of shelter. Vulpes had left his armor at the caravan to not draw attention, he looked like them, maybe better fed but like them. Vulpes gave them all his food and even told them hopeful stories of Odin and of a better future.
Grateful the Mother of the family, a woman in her early thirties, widowed recently, offered herself to Vulpes for his generosity but Vulpes turned her down saying he would not rob her of her self worth. Vulpes set out his bed roll and went to sleep in the house's main room.
Middle of the night Vulpes awoke, had he heard a noise... no but this was the time for his usual watch. He laid down to go back to sleep and heard metal hit metal and rolled over and was up on his feet hand on sword hilt. He looked around and saw a small light filtering in from the kitchen, he approached carefully and peeked in.
Inside he saw the older boy of the family packing a sack with food, holding a battered longsword with the crest of a knight of Brevoy, the boy had a piece of paper in his hand and looked to be leaving.
"Throwing you life away wont help them." Vulpes said surprising the boy.
The boy jumped and turned around "I'm...I'm not throwing it away."
"Yes you are, I have seen that look before, it was mine once. A great man stopped me then from killing my self" Vulpes said as he sat down at the kitchen table
"I can help, I need to help." The boy said clutching the piece of paper.
"Where is your mind boy? What is that." Said Vulpes pointing at the paper, eventually taking it from the boy when he said nothing.
"Speartooth... Eight thousand gold bounty... Killed over one hundred people." Vulpes looked angry and lightly hit the boy upside the head.
"You want to die?" Said Vulpes. "No...I...I just want to help my mom and sis and bro." The boy said.
"How did you get this?" Vulpes questioned.
"My dad..." The boy sniffled "He hunted it, said it would be easy... him and a couple of old friends from the kinghthood went to hunt it, last year." The boy lifted the longsword "Only one of them returned, he brought my dad's sword back" The boy shed some tears "I have to do it, for him, for mom, we need money and food." Vulpes just shook his head.
"I understand why you want to do this, but it will kill you too, and do you think that will help your mom now? Do you?" Vulpes said.
"Your dad trusted you to take care of the family while he was gone, you can't just run off. I know your sad but this wont help."
"Ill tell you what, I will kill it for you... For your dad. A small condolence I know but It will help, you just promise to stay here."
Wiping the tears from his face the boy said "Ok...I wont go. You said someone stopped you? Can you tell me?"
"Sure... Ever hear of the Valley of Fire?" Vulpes said as he started his story, he glanced at the kitchen door and saw the boys mom, she was smiling as she went back to bed.
Demelvar: Chesk Umberweed frantically searched through his shop, looking through every drawer and cabinet. Every vial and jar all the little bags that held all the things and Alchemist could ever want and not want.
"Oh for the gods sake, where the hell is it." The man said to himself as he continued to turn his shop inside out.
"Where's what!" A happy but completely unexpected voice said.
Chesk fell over in surprise, landed on his ass and scrambled backwards knocking over more stuff until he finally hit a wall and stopped, starring wide eyed and breathing heavily at the strange blue haired Gnome that now sat on one his chairs.
"Where did you come from... I'm armed!" Chesk said as he pulled up a broken wooden spoon.
"Best not to think about that." The Gnome said. "So I heard you lost something?"
"Ha.. haha... so you heard that eh?" Chesk nervelessly said. "Not lost, per say..."
"Look, haha, look" The man said calming him self down. "Just go I have work to do."
"Hmm.." Said the Gnome pulling up a piece of paper "I don't think so. Says here that you have to make twelve vials of Metal-acid, Signed: mean looking Dwarves. And it looks like your out of the Giant Slug spit you need for it sooooo, your screwed dude."
Chesk's eye twitched "How... how..." Chesk's facade crumbling as he started weeping. "How am I going to feed my family now?"
"Woh, woh, I didn't mean it, it was just a joke, jeez no need to cry."
"So I have some after all?" Chesks face brightening.
"No, no, haha, your still out of that, I mean your not screwed... know why?" The Gnome said grinning.
"No, why?" Chesk said rubbing his eyes.
"Because I, The great alchemester Demelvar Sprigglemort and stalawart companign Mr. Wigglefrump!" The Gnome announced loudly holding up a small blue rat. "Shall bring you the Giant Slug spit before the big scary Dwarves return." The Gnome bent over and put a packet of food down, the small rat adding a piece of half eaten cheese to the top. "Don't starve and I might even invite you to the Midgard Alchemists Consortium when this is done."
The Gnome turned and walked away picking up a lief and sniffing it and eating it before saying "Oh and by the way you should work on the missing half of your first name, that way you'll have a respectable man's name."
"Ill give you potions if you bring it back" Chesk said hope in his eyes.
"Wait... how do you know my name?" The confused Check said has the Gnome left his shop.
Session 34: Assault!
19th of Calistril: The group lays low for the day sneaking out of town before nightfall to enter the secret passage into Fort Drelev. Only Demelvar, Tane and Lord Numesti enter, it turns out that Numesti is quite stealthy when needed and somehow not at all missed from his prison cell. After planting a bomb the group detonates it and flees the scene making sure that they are being followed. The trio leads the 8 mercenaries into a trap were the rest of the party is waiting and slaughters the lot of them. After the slaughter is done with Tane disguises himself as one of the guards and Demelvar takes a potion of disguise and they bring a mocked up Numesti head with them and return to the castle.
Once there Tane and Demelvar spin a wonderful tale of what happened to the Baron and hand over the head. The baron takes some time questioning the two before he accepts their story as truth and leaves. Tane mingles with the guards and Demelvar hides when his potion wears off. Demelvar hides in the stable so he has company but finds out that the horses have been fed to the hill giants but at least it’s not visited much. Tane also takes up a hiding spot in the trees of the court yard and the two wait.
20th of Calistril: All seems calm the day before the Baroness’s party, Tane and Demelvar remain undetected and the others prepare to assault the castle when they open the gate for them.
21st of Calsitril (Part one): After the Baroness starts her party Tane and Demevar move to undo the gate. They notice that the Giants have been left inside the courtyard tonight. Tane convinces the mercenaries at the gate to open it and the giants start to leave, excited that they get to go out after having been told they wouldn’t.
As soon as the giants start filtering out Tyr opens fire and the rest of the Aesir charge them. After a bloody battle at the gate the 6 giants lay dead, and the gate guards are slain by Tane, Demelvar manages to let a guard slip though and the alarm is raised. The first mercenaries to respond get cut down by Vulpes, Demelvar and Lord Odin’s summons, after another fight the rest of the mercenaries show up and a grand fight ensues. After a lengthy combat the mercenary guards flee in disorder, perhaps to re-group outside the castle gates. Before the group can decide whether to give chase or head into the keep, Baron Drelev, his bodyguards and what can only be Imeckus Stroon emerge from the keep to drive off the Aesir.
Session 35: The Legend of Armag.
21st of Calistril (Part Two): Baron Drelev and his bodyguards quickly set up a shield wall at the inner gate to block Vulpes and Dire Tiger Demelvar. While the guards succeed at holding Vulpes in place they have no such luck with Demelvar, who is still radiating an aura of deadly fire, until the Baron manages to land several attacks to his vitals. Imeckus Stroon attempts to neutralize Vulpes but the stout warrior refuses to go down luckily Odin arrives and makes Vulpes more resistant to spells and heals Demelvar who had transformed back into his Gnome self to drink healing potions. Tane drops down behind Baron Drelev after being forced off the wall by a wall of fire, but Tane is quickly disarmed by Baron Drelev. While Tyr snipes the bodyguards from his position on the wall Vulpes moves up to Baron Drelev but is quickly disarmed. Lord Numesti tosses Tane’s sword back to him and moves in front of the Baron distracting him long enough for Tane to shove his swords into the man’s abdomen forcing surrender a few seconds later in a cowardly display by Baron Drelev. Odin summons the King of the Apes behind Imeckus as Vulpes rushes in and grapples the mage, seeing the battle lost Imeckus quickly utters a word of teleportation and vanishes from the field.
The group and Lord Numesti secure the keep; they find the nobility of Fort Drelev within who are mostly in support of the Aesir if only to get their daughters back. They find that the Baroness has escaped and after tracking her out the secret entrance Tyr and Fenrir quickly track the fleeing woman down. Tane finds that the Baron’s mistress is a noble woman that the baron was offering shelter to, she is also a very good dancer and singer, Tane offers her shelter in Stag’s Rest and she gladly accepts.
22nd of Calistril: The announcement is made to the people of Fort Drelev that they are once again free and the group spends most of the day hosting a large feast for the town’s people. Exploring the keep more Tane and Demelvar uncover Imeckus’s notes and determine that Armag is attempting to gain possession of the legendary sword of the original Armag kept in his tomb. This Armag is being led by the surviving two Black Sisters of Gyrona and this information is brought to Odin’s attention. Odin tells the group of the events 40 years ago in which he, as General of Brevoy, routed out the Black Sisters and their cult from Brevoy killing two of them, and his time spent looking for the tomb of Armag in his earlier days to put a stop to the Tiger Tribe. Although Odin never found the Tomb in his younger days he tells the group that if this fake Armag attains it he can use it to bring bloody war upon Midgard and surrounding nations.
Odin tells the group that to deal with the Tiger Lords without killing them they will have to cow them so that they see the group as vastly stronger than them. To help with this Odin uses his magic on the Tiger Lord’s stuff that Baron Drelev had stolen and determines that one of the rings is part of a set that can help them. So Odin tracks the other piece of the set with magic and the group readies to set out the next day.
23rd and 24th of Calistril: The Aesir ride to a site they had visited nearly 4 years ago, a small cairn to a Tiger Lord Chieftain at the edge of the Greenbelt. They exhume the grave after Odin undergoes some special rituals as to not cause angry spirits to rise and they retrieve the second ring in the set.
25th to 27th of Calistril: The Aesir make their way to a small hidden valley in the northern hills of the Slough and find the Tiger Lords camp. As soon as they approach, the Tiger Lord’s on watch wake everyone up and prepare to charge across the small river, but Vulpes lets out an intimidating war cry and challenges them all to group on one combat. Successfully cowing the barbarians despite a language barrier the group is let into the camp. As they enter the camp the group sees the entrance to Armag’s tomb and Odin realizes just how close he was 40 years ago to finding this place. A quick search of the camp shows the group that the hostages are un-harmed and un-molested by the Tiger Lords, including Lord Numesti’s elder daughter. The group gathers away from the ears of the Tiger Lords to discuss their next course of action; rescue the noble daughters or head into Armag’s tomb to kill the fake Armag and the remaining two Black Sisters.
Session 36: The Tests of Gorum.
27th of Calistril (Part 2): The Aesir venture carefully into the tomb, not far in they are greeted by two young looking women wearing all black. They greet Odin and tell him that they will be taking revenge for his crimes 40 years ago and the death of their other two sisters at his hand back then. Odin orders Vulpes to execute the two black sisters and the group moves into kill them. Between Tyr and Vulpes one of the Black Sisters dies within seconds, the other proves more resilient with Demelvar too busy ogling the sisters Blackwick Cauldrons, a powerful cauldron from Irrisen that aids in alchemy, and Tane struggling to hold the summoned Babau away from Odin and Tyr. The second Black Sister joins her siblings soon after.
After studying the entry chamber and discussing which path to take and the curious lack of the Tacticians Way they decide to open the test of strength door. Within they find boulders and increasingly larger ledges that have indentations where they should go; Demelvar tries in vain to move the small one but strains his back. Tane takes the time to find and disable a trap that added a timer to the ledges once the first boulder was placed. Once through the strength room the next one holds another test and trap, Tane is unable to find the trap before it’s too late and ice encases the room. Demelvar and Odin quickly cast spells on the group to resist the icy cold and after that it’s a matter of time before the group rotates the wheel and unlocks the door.
After wondering through fog filled corridors for a while the group manages to get all members into the next “Test”. Once in the room seals it’s self and locks the Aesir in with an Iron Golem crafted to look like The Lord of Iron, Gorum. Thankfully the Golem has no countermeasure for bombs and is turned into slag but not before it deals crushing wounds to most of the group. The Aesir catch their breath within the Golems chamber while Tane checks the doors and determines the correct one that would go deeper into the compound. They proceed into a natural cavern with no lighting on one side, as they enter a group of eight heavily armored bloody skeletons emerge from the unlit stalactites but is quickly shut in when Odin forms a large wall of stone from wall to wall and floor to ceiling. They move through the one exit into more fog; after some more time being lost in the fog they find their way out again.
The next room is quite a bit different than the others and appears to be a temple to Gorum, lavishly sculpted pillars and wall fountains but otherwise barren of furnishings. Standing at one end is Zorek the immortal guardian of the tomb, a human man a full 10 feet tall wielding a nasty looking spear, he wastes no time in challenging the group. Vulpes answers the challenge by engaging in the time honored tradition of cowing your enemy with a show of force, thanks to Odin’s prep work and guidance, Zorek steps aside nodding his approval of the group’s strength. Zorek tells the group that within is the “Re-born” Armag and that he will give or expect no mercy.
Session 37: Armag the Twice-Born.
27th of Calistril (Part 3): With in the final chamber Armag awaited with several more of the Bloody Skeletons. Already fully prepared to fight, Vulpes rushes in and scores a good hit on Armag while the rest of the group goes about dealing with Armag’s guards. Tane maneuveres to Armag’s side and uses the Stag’s Helm to repeatedly sneak attack Armag, Odin cordons off the room with Walls of Stone and summons a Hound Archon to help with Armag. Focused and unrelenting Armag destroys Vulpes shield and nearly kills the warrior before being brought low by Vulpes, Tane and the Archon.
After the fight Vulpes picks up Ovinrbaane and for many tense moments struggles with the weapons powerful impulses before gaining control. Tane meanwhile has found Armags tomb and ushers Vulpes in, once in Vulpes renounces the sword and informs Groum that it is not needed and places it back in its proper place. The group then collects the many treasures that are in the tomb and leaves.
28th of Calistril: The group rides back to Fort Drelev, catching with the freed noble daughters and their escort.
29th of Calistril: Once back at Fort Drelev the Aesir attend the official ceremony that inducts the city into Midgard, renaming it Hannis Falls in the process, and naming Lord Numesti as the new Mayor. They spend most of the day inspecting the town and its neglect and damage before riding out for Stag’s Rest the next day.
30th of Calistril to 2nd of Pharast: The Aesir return to Stag’s Rest.
3rd to 8th of Pharast: The Aesir hold court and determine plans for the future of the Kingdom. They improve the Stag’s Rest a good deal and send relief aid to Hannis Falls. One of Demelvar’s odd experiments causes droves of unusual animals to come to Midgard and throughout the month hunters and trappers will gain much wealth.
9th to 12th of Pharast: The Group rides back to Hannis Falls; the roads are still not completed yet but are well under way, by the end of the month they should be almost to the newly acquired city. Once at the city they start deciding on how to solve all the problems present and after some debate decide to start with Speartooth the Tiger that’s been plaguing the region around Hannis Falls for years.
Session 38: The Rogarvian.
13th of Pharast: The group spends the day finding Speartooth’s Tracks then tracking it.
14th of Pharast: Late afternoon the group approaches Speartooth’s lair, a narrow ravine nestled between 2 hills. They spot the beat sleeping in the middle of the ravine and cautiously move up on it but it does not move. The group gathers around it and Demelvar comes around to the front of it and sees that it’s been eviscerated. As soon as the group realizes that something’s wrong a great and huge Red Dragon comes sliding to a stop having landed invisible from a glide and breathes a gout of fire on the group. The Dragon loudly declares that he is here to end “The Rogarvian” staring dead on at Tane.
The scattered group reacts rather quickly, most of them having been seared quite badly by the fire; Vulpes rushes into attack the dragon and finds out firsthand just how tough its scales are. The Dragon doesn’t let his surprise go to waste and hops over Tane and nearly bites the man in half with a vicious bite, leaving him bleeding badly. The group once again has to stay out of the Dragons way as it continues to move about erratically, scoring hit after hit on Tane as it keeps the group mostly on the defensive never staying in one place for more than a few seconds. Demelvar manages to hit it with one of his Electro-Bombs before running over to Tane and using a scroll of Mirror Image on the Spy Master, Odin remains busy attempting to keep the group healed with mass healing spells and Tane alive who is taking the brunt of the Dragon’s physical attacks. Demelvar’s last action most likely saved Tane’s life as the Dragon’s next powerful bite destroys one of the images.
Despite the fact that Vulpes has had run across the battle field several times attempting to catch up to the Dragon the group eventually manages to drive it off, as it’s leaving it takes a parting bite at Tane that leaves him almost dead. The group takes a parting shot or two at the Dragon before it turns invisible again, the area they had been fighting in now torn and rended badly and the hill side’s vegetation on fire.
The group then returns to Hannis Falls to recover from the Dragon and discussing where it came from and why it was after Tane. Odin attempts use his magic’s to contact a deity to gain knowledge of the Dragon’s name but picks the Dragon’s own destroyer god and suffers a great curse for his arrogance leaving the mighty lord unable to cast anything but the most basic magic.
15th of Pharast: The day is spent discussing how to protect themselves from the Dragon should it return and where to go next. Demelvar convinces the group to head to Wyvernstone Bridge to make sure that Master Torval’s stolen Adamantine makes it safely to him.
16th and 17th of Pharast: The ride to the bridge is mostly uneventful with one a minor problem at the Cloud Berry Fields. They approach the Bridge near evening on the 17th of Pharast.
Session 39: Diplomatic Incident.
17th of Pharast (Evening): The Aesir spot a group at the bridge with possibly a giant with them, as they approach closer they realize that it’s a Technic League force with a Golem. Demelvar recognizes one of the League wizards as an ex-student of Master Torval named Savrol and that the Golem is sporting one of the Coil Guns Master Torval and he invented. After a brief discussion neither side is willing to back down, the League wants Master Torval and its Adamantine returned and the Aesir don’t the League leader orders an attack. Both sides were not prepared for what the other brought, the League members have to retreat after about a minute but the Golem with Demelvar’s Coil Gun mounted on it proves to be a bit much for the Aesir to handle.
Odin on Sleipnir rides up next to the Golem and he uses a Scroll of Stone Shape and dumps the Golem into the River a hundred feet below. As Odin sets to repairing the bridge Demelvar flies down to the river to see if he can recover the Golem, Vulpes follows him on Sleipnir. Demelvar finds the Golem at the bottom of the river near a glowing spear, the Golem attempts to fire on him but the Electrical cannon explodes and destroys the Golem, Demelvar quickly scavenges the cannon bits and takes the spear before flying back up.
Once on the bridge Demelvar hands the spear over to Odin for inspection as is Midgard law, Odin likes the spear and keeps it, his right as lord. Demelvar manages to salvage the core device to the Coli Gun which will mitigate some of his construction cost.
18th of Pharast: The Aesir wait until the river boat carrying the stolen Adamantite comes down the river, Demelvar joins the crew and the rest of the Aesir ride back to Stag’s Rest so Odin can recover from his curse.
19th and 20th of Pharast: Upon returning to Stag’s Rest Tane find’s his soon to not be fiancé has a circlet stuck to her head with a constant alarm spell going off. After ridding finding someone to break enchantment on the circlet it remains stuck to her. Tane visits one of Demelvar’s students who is willing to give him some Universal Solvent for free if he supports the Alchemists Guild drive to have an Alchemist Lab built in every city. Tane agrees and frees his fiancé of the circlet, after words she leaves and breaks off the engagement with Tane, although that was Tane’s plan all along just a small mishap by Demelvar speeds things up. Tane then hooks up with the much more attractive Lady Maray whom is now helping him run things with his spy organization.
21st to 23rd of Pharast: Demelvar stays with the stolen Adamantite as it makes its way through the river network, on the last day the boat is stopped suddenly in the Tuskwater as a large Elasmosaurus wraps around the boat. Melianse is upon its head and she angrily demands that Demelvar remove the now disenchanted circlet, Demelvar frees her and she happily jumps back in the water the Elasmosaurus lets the boat go. Demelvar later writs an apology letter to Melianse saying that she was supposed to get a different Circlet that someone else accidentally ended up with.
Kingdom Month of Gozran and Desnus: The kingdom runs smoothly and is quite stable, a small incident prevents the Kingdom from selling any magical wears for the first month as fears of a curse abound. The second month sees an outbreak of Will-O-Wisps in the south, Demelvar leads a Wisp round up and captures many of them to help him make a Wisp Fire Reactor for Stag’s Rest.
Session 40: Fishing!
12th to 14th of Gozran: The Aesir set out from Stag’s Rest to Hannis Falls to deal with the problems that Narthropple’s mapping company found in the northern half of the Hooktongue Slough.
15th of Gozran: The first area they come upon the Gnomes said they found many bodies missing their fingers, eyes and teeth, the Aesir find one such body within a few hours of entering the area. After an investigation of the area they determine what is doing this but it will have to be lured out. After dosing himself up on potions Demelvar gets tied to a rope and stick by Vulpes who tosses him into the river like he is fishing. Due to Vulpes expert fishing skills the Demelvar-bait attracts a rather nasty critter after only half an hour of fishing. The large monkey handed badger with a 5th hand at the end of a prehensile tail grabs Demelvar and attempts to chew on him but Demelvar appears to be made of stone and it does nothing. Demelvar quickly turns the encounter around on the creature and starts shredding it with his razor sharp claws. The other Aesir attempt to help but it’s over really before they can and Demelvar has a fresh kill to add to his “Thing’s killed in warewolf form” list.
16th of Gozran: A minor tribe of Boggard has set up a wonderful ambush point where the East Sullen River enters Lake Hooktongue. The Aesir arrive and promptly counter ambush them and force them into submission. Odin tells the Tribe leader that the Gods are angry and that if they continue to prey on people and shipping that he will come back and eradicate them, the tribe appears to be compliant.
17th and 18th of Gozran: After surveying a particularly rank part of the bog that the Gnomes pointed out as being really unsafe but was actually just a joke to get the Aesir to go into the Stinking Bog they head to Hannis Falls.
19th of Gozran: The Aesir investigate an area the Gnomes said had some Dragon and Goat headed lions that attacked them. They discover a pride of Chimera when they ride into their cave and promptly slaughter them.
20th of Gozran: To the North of the Chimera Pride the Gnomes reported Hill Giants preying on caravans and after tracking them all day find their lair. Arguing over spoils and drunk from stolen ale 2 of the Hill Giants are dead before they realize what’s happening, the third is quickly killed.
21st of Gozran: To the North-West of the Giants the Aesir investigate the odd looking well with rusted pickaxes littered around it. After Demelvar uses a potion of underwater breathing he dives in and finds a flooded mine. He tells Odin of this and after describing it to him Odin devises a way to un-flood it and restore the mine to operation, The Aesir plan to claim this area for a new mine when they can.
22nd of Gozran: The group heads South-West to a spooky gravestone that the Gnomes found. Odin figures out that it’s the Grave of a long dead explorer and the group restores the Grave site and performs a ritual to calm spirits, just in case.
23rd to 28th of Gozran: The Group heads back to Stag’s Rest having cleared everything in the Northern part of the Slough; Narthropple will be done by month’s end of the survey of the Southern part of the Slough.
Session 40: The Murderer
29th of Gozran to 6th of Serenith: The Aesir spent most of the beginning of the Month enjoying the Founders week celebrations, then they move on to Kingdom matters and Narthropple gives them his report of what’s in the southern part of the Slough. On the 6th the guards call in Odin to help investigate a series of strange murders.
7th of Serenith: Odin and the rest of the group start an investigation on the murders and after searching the crime they track whoever did it to the Brewery. The brewery has a few clues and from this Odin determines that the murderer must be coming into town from a nearby ruin and they head to the nearest one.
8th of Serenith: Late evening the Aesir arrive at the Tomb of the Fallen some 30 miles to the east, upon arriving they find that the care taker has also been murdered and search the tomb. They figure that the murderer must have recently vacated and went south.
9th of Serenith: The group tracks the murderer to an abandoned ferry station the old ferry appears to be missing. They move in to investigate and trigger a well placed trap that causes a large explosion knocking everyone down and causing some injury. Believing they have lost the trail they head back to Stag’s Rest to attempt a scrying with a piece of the creature’s claw they found at the Brewery.
10th of Serenith: Demelvar attempts the Scrying but it fails so Odin casts a divination that tells them the murderer is hiding in the catacombs below Candlemear.
11th of Serenith: The Aesir arrive at Candlemear just after midnight with Melianse’s help and start searching. After talking with the one of the Mage’s students they start searching the catacombs. Below they eventually find the murderer, an intelligent awakened raptor; Vulpes quickly executes the creature after Demelvar casts Hold Monster on it. The Aesir return to Stag’s Rest for morning tea and discuss what to do next.
12th of Serenith: The Aesir, except Tane, leave for the southern part of the Slough after Demelvar reads the report and sees that a rare poisonous plant was found there, the rest are more concerned with the refugees that were discovered and Vulpes just wants to kill the huge twelve headed dragon that the refugees told the surveyors about. Tane goes to attempt to convince Garuum, the renegade Boggard, to come with him to liberate his people and take command of them. Tane believes that because one Boggard chooses to want to live a peaceful life that doesn’t include cannibalism and killing that, if put in charge of the tribe, the rest can also change and the Aesir won’t have to wipe them out. Tane has effectively spent years attempting to convince Garuum and even brings him a magic spear as a gift for his last attempt, after hours of conversing he is successful and Garuum ventures out with him to meet up with the other Aesir.
Session 41: Blood on the Water.
13th of Serenith: The group sets out from Alfheim meeting up with Tane and Garuum early in the day and they head into the Slough. The first place they investigate is where the Gnomes said they heard Worgs, when they get close they see 5 Worgs surrounding a crying baby and they quickly move in to kill the creatures. As the Worgs attack Pixies that are invisible also attack but their arrows are largely ineffective. After killing 2 of them and the Worgs the rest escape except one that Vulpes has grabbed, throughout the fight the Pixies have been saying “For the Mistress” so Vulpes attempts to interrogate the captured one but before he can the Pixie erases his own memory. Back at camp they tell the Pixie that they captured, whose name is Berry, that he had an accident and that they will take him to the Fay leader in the region.
14th of Serenith: Thanks to Tyr’s excellent tracking abilities the group finds the Bog Mummies that the local swampers want killed, Demelvar gets his first field test of Ol’ Bristlemitts, his Golem, and it vaporizes 2 of them before they can even close to melee.
15th of Serenith: Moving on the group uses the surveyor’s notes to find a pack of giant slugs that Demelvar carefully calms down and collects their acidic spit before moving on.
16th of Serenith: Demelvar leads the group to the grove of ultra rare Azure Lilies and Demelvar manages to collect 4 of the 5 flower’s poison spores.
17th of Serenith: The group stumbles into the Bog Strider village of Tok-Nikrat and after talking to the leader manage to find out that there are only 13 left and the Boggard continue to capture them when they can. They ask the group to save the one captured the other day by the M’botuu tribe.
18th of Serenith: The group enters what has been described as the hunting grounds of a mighty dragon with 12 heads. After wondering for some time the creature jumps out of a pond they are passing and attempts to eat the group. Quick reaction by Vulpes and Belinda contain the beast and deal massive damage to it before the rest of the group can kill it.
19th of Serenith: The Aesir come to the Refugee camp and assure them that they will take them to the “Promised Land” of Midgard and begin escorting them to Hannis Falls.
20th to 23rd of Serenith: The refugees are escorted with out any casualties to Hannis Falls, although several of Vulpes Valkyrie are injured protecting them.
24th of Serenith: The Group rests in Hannis Falls for the day.
25th of Serenith: The Aesir find a local swamper brave enough to take them on a boat to the shore near M’botuu and they assault the village. The initial landing goes well and Demelvar’s Golem drives the Boggard underground with well placed blasts from its lightning cannon. The group except Demelvar and Ol’ Bristlemitts head underground to confront the Boggard leader. The fight with the Boggard leader is a short one where the group sets it up so that Garuum gets the final blow on him thus assuming the mantle of leadership, as the Leader dies he calls out for help from the “Legless Lady”. Tane questions the remaining warden Boggard who this is and they relay that it’s someone the Chief has been going to lately at the bog scar to the east.
Once back above ground the group finds that Demelvar and his Golem have leveled the village except the prisoner hut, in which they find the missing Bog Strider, he even destroyed the old stone statue of Gorgunta that the Boggard used to sacrifice their victims. The Boggard give an entire bottle of Sun Frog venom to Demelvar as appeasement so he stops destroying their village.
26th to 28th of Serenith: The group returns to Stag’s Rest to conduct their official duties.
Session 42: The Kingdom of the Aesir. (End of book 4)
29th of Serenith to 9th of Erastus: The Aesir oversee their kingdom, trade is booming and towns are growing, the nation of Midgard officially crowns Odin king having now cut all ties to Restov and growing to a recognizable size. After the ceremony the Aesir head back to the swamp to finish up some unfinished business arriving at the edge of the Swamp on the 9th.
10th of Erastus: The group makes their way into the swamp in search of giant Dragonflies; they follow the Gnomes directions and find a beautiful glade full of all sizes of Dragonflies. Tane and Demelvar devise a plan to pin down the larger ones so Odin can kill them with a spell, once they do this Odin uses a scroll of Cloud Kill from Vordakai’s spell book that Demelvar is carrying. While the tactic is effective Demelvar is horrified by the destruction wrought by the spell on the smaller Dragonflies and vows to gift the entire spell book to Tiressia as a gift and apology for the senseless slaughter.
11th of Erastus: The Aesir travel to where they know the Legless Lady is; The Bog Scar. While they are outside of it waiting on Demelvar to brew them some water breathing potions the Legless Lady appears and with a glance charms the group except for Odin and Demelvar who is too busy making his potions to even look at her. After some chit chat with the Naga and Odin releasing some of the Aesir from her charm with well placed protections spells they take her up on her advice to come in. Once in she offers the group some drinks in a nicely set up bar in a room filled with stolen shipments from the last few years of making the boggards disrupt the trade through the swamp. Odin tells the group not to drink the offered alcohol but Demelvar sneaks it in when he is not looking. The Gnome is, of course, immune to the poison in the drink and nicely points out to the Naga that the poison adds a nice flavor to the drink. The Naga, having had enough of the Gnome, decides to blast him with a cone of cold spell but the Gnome takes it and just comments that the drink is better chilled. The rest of the Aesir attack the Naga though and quickly bring her down while Demelvar enjoys a nice glass of poisoned beer.
Afterword they bring the wagon up to the Scar and take inventory of the stolen trade goods, the Aesir decide they want to return it all except a container of Gems worth 20,000gp. Vulpes leaves his 6 Valkyrie who travel with him to take care of moving the cargo to Hannis Falls.
12th of Erastus: Swamp travel is slow.
13th of Erastus: The group closes in on the Chuul lair that the Gnomes told them about but as they draw closer they hear celebratory laughing and cheering and find that a group of Midgard citizens has taken care of the menace themselves, Vulpes is impressed and proud that this group did this and awards them all commendations.
14th and 15th of Erastus: The Aesir make it out of the swamp and into the plains west of Hannis Falls.
16th of Erastus: Tyr tracks the horses of Windchaser’s herd across 20 miles of open plains; Odin insists that the group speak with Windchaser first before taking one of his herd. The first indication that the herd is present is when it rides around the group’s wagon and thunders off, Demelvar seeing the chance of a lifetime transforms himself into an Air Elemental and proceeds to get the magnificent steed to chase him. After some time of this Demelvar manages to speak with Windchaser and finds that the horse is quite intelligent and proposes a trade of his herd. Windchaser wastes no time in moving to the rest of the Aesir that are shouting things at Demelvar and addresses them in Taldane quite to everyone’s surprise. Seeing as this is an intelligent being Odin starts a diplomatic discussion with Windchaser and convinces him to lend one of its herd in exchange for protection from the state, after a brief horse to horse chat with Sleipnir, Windchaser agrees.
17th to 21st of Erastus: The group finishes its business in Hannis Falls and heads back to Stag’s Rest, Vulpes Valkyrie are still moving the tons of cargo to Hannis Falls.
Session 43: The auction and Hillstomper.
Kingdom Month of Arodus, Rova and Lamashan: Midgard starts making some of Demelvar’s planed Electro-Technical improvements, including building the large Wispfire Reactor on the edge of town, a precursor to the Golem Works a massive factory for building Golems. During the last month Demelvar does a surprise auction of Vulpes bachelorhood and, just a surprising, ends up fetching 52,000 gold from a very wealthy noble woman whom recently moved to Midgard from Taldor named Belinda Housen. So shocked is Vulpes that he is unable to give the woman an immediate answer and elects to sit down with the woman in private to get to know her.
10th of Lamashan: The day after Vulpes gets auctioned off the stable handler from Windchaser’s newly built stable comes to the Aesir and informs them that Windchaser wants to talk to them and that a wounded mammoth also showed up. They leave at once, perhaps to Vulpes relief as he now gets to wait on his decision.
13th of Lamashan: After 3 days of riding the Aesir arrive at Hannis Falls and head to Windchaser’s stable to indeed find a large mammoth resting inside the wooden fence circle. The mammoth introduces its self as Hillstomper of the Mammoth Graveyard and pleads for assistance driving off a young Linnorm that took his graveyard from him. Odin heals the Mammoth and the Aesir agree to help the awakened mammoth, in return Hillstomper tells Odin that he can take some of the ivory and whatever the Linnorm has.
16th of Lamashan: With the aid of Hillstopmer the Aesir arrive at the Mammoth graveyard days earlier than without his help, thanks to Odin’ knowledge of this particular breed of Linnorm and Hillstopmers knowledge of the land the Aesir are well prepared and lay an ambush for the Linnorm. Demelvar draws the young Linnorm into a narrow canyon with the use of a timed firework “trail” and the ambush is sprung on the unsuspecting creature and it is killed within seconds, the Linnorm barely having time to react.
17th of Lamashan: The Aesir collect the Linnorms substantial treasure and 2 pristine and massive ivory tusks worth an estimated 60,000 gold and head back to Stag’s Rest.
24th of Lamashan: The Aesir arrive at Stags Rest laden with treasure.
Session 44: Pranks and Invitations!
Month of Neth: Winter has come to Midgard, the Aesir and the rest of the population settle in for a cold season. The grand Cathedral of the Edda is completed and Odin gives the first sermon.
Month of Kuthona: Mendev sends some envoys to officially thank Midgard in recovering war supplies. Demelvar however has other plans and just as they are entering Stag’s Rest uses a scroll of Veil to disguise the group as trolls. By the time Vulpes arrives the guards have the trolls cornered and wounded, but thanks to Vulpes expert knowledge in trolls he quickly determines that they are not Trolls. As Vulpes is leading the “Trolls” away Demelvar drops the spell on the group and they return to normal validating their claims that they are indeed from Mendev. Vulpes orders the guards to arrest Demelvar but they never find the Gnome. The next day Vulpes sees Demevar and stabs the Gnome, displeased Demelvar tells Vulpes that he has no sense of humor and tells him that he won’t make magic items for Vulpes until he learns. The whole thing injures Midgards relations with Mendev and causes some unrest with in the Kingdom.
Month of Abadar, New year 4714: Odin consults the Edda about the new year, they show him an unclear future filled with war.
Month of Calistril: Olegton finishes building city walls and the massive Golem Works is completed in Stag’s Rest, filling four city blocks the structure is as big as the castle or cathedral and promises to produce enough golems to make army units. The Golem Works helps offset its massive operating cost by holding a public auction of one golem per month; however golems won’t start rolling off the line for another month. Midgard receives an invitation to the Rushlight tournament, Odin remembers competing for Brevoy during some of the tournaments held almost 50 years ago. Seeing as Brevoy its self cants show up Odin decides to accept the invitation, over the next 3 weeks he holds tryouts for champions to represent the Kingdom, as the Aesir have to bard most of this is focused on finding on, a young Grig wins the competition to compete, as she is a citizen of Midgard the Aesir are fairly sure it will be ok. Tyr agrees to the archery part and Belinda is chosen for the log slaying contest. After some debate Sleipnir is chosen as the competitor for the jousting but as he needs a rider to compete Vulpes volunteers.
Session 45: The Rushlight.
4th of Pharast: After a long journey the Aesir arrive at the Rushlight Tournament grounds just south of Lake Rushlight. The group is greeted by Nunzio Arpaia the master of ceremonies for the tournament and he shows them to a small estate flying the flag of Midgard. Demelvar and the rest of the Aesir head off to talk to the King of Pitax, Castruccio Irovetti, who greets them with open arms and a smile. Demelvar quickly asks him why he sent Baron Drelev to attack Midgard and Irovetti explains that Baron Drelev was a bit too eager for his own good and he is glad that the Aesir put him down before he caused more damage to either kingdom.
The Aesir spend the rest of the day exploring the fair grounds and talking with the people that showed up. Demelvar meets a very manly Gnome brewer named Bixenlixen Libixyten and offers Demelvar some of his brew, a blackberry stout. The young Gnome brewer is looking for a distributer for his beer and agrees to sell to the Midgard Brewers Association if Midgard’s jouster can win while drunk on his beer, Demelvar agrees! Tyr scopes out the competition at the archery practice range and meets a charming Elf from the Mivon border guard named Navarathna who seems to know Tyr by reputation and strikes up a conversation.
At the party that Demelvar throws at the estate house a rather entertaining group of actors calling themselves the Sapphire Imp Actor’s Troupe and the party becomes even more lively. Demelvar hooks up with the groups lead singer, Asmeranda, a very beautiful Halfling woman; the rest of the acting group seems to be quite protective of her. Lord Odin meets a rather rotund individual named Malchor Tevalkan who seems to be a merchant of sorts that is just making contacts.
5th of Pharast: After the massive hangovers are done in the morning the group splits up and wonders the fair grounds. Tyr once again attempts to find the charming Elf woman from the day before but instead finds a brutish looking Half-Orc at the archery range as well as a human that is watching him overly closely. After talking with the Half-Orc for some time, apparently a member of Tymon’s team, the Human man approaches and introduces himself as Barten Orlen an archery competitor for the last 3 years for Team Pitax. Orlen tells him how he lost all 3 of the previous year’s archery competitions because someone was cheating and using Adamantine arrows painted to look like tournament arrows, he asks Tyr to find the cheater and expose him.
Tyr is able to tell Tain about the potential cheating before receiving a letter from Navarathna asking him to meet him at his room later in the evening. Demelvar throws another rocking party and tons of people show up for it, but he sneaks out early to counter cheat the competition. Tain hooks up briefly with the ever so beloved High Priestess of Calistra from Tymon, Mialolessa, in an attempt to get some information or maybe just bragging rights but he only gets the latter. The very nervous Tyr meets Navarathna as per her letters request and when she reveals that she got his letter to meet he wisely hides the one from her, although very awkward Tyr manages to establish a friendship with the Elf. Demelvar meanwhile sneaks into the staging tent and slips some universal solvent into the arrow quivers as per Tain’s request then proceeds to steal one of the log slaying great axes. Demelvar leaves the tent with the axe and once safely away he enchants the axe as a dancing axe with specific instructions as to when to activate and returns it to the great axe pile in the staging tent.
6th of Pharast: The day of the archery contest comes around; Tain makes sure to get to the arena early so he can spot for cheating. Demelvar meanwhile has given many children fireworks and gets them to distract contestants with loud noises and lights. During the Daggermark contestants turn Tain notices that the man switches the arrows he was given and points it out. After a short investigation Daggermark is disqualified from the Archery contest and the contestant personally humiliated by King Irovetti. Tyr goes next and, unexpected by the audience and Aesir alike, breaks the tournament record for archery scoring 4 hits and 2 bulls-eye’s on the dragon target in half the allotted time breaking the record by 2 points scoring 56 points in the contest and a win for Midgard. Tyr’s new found friend comes in second place while the returning champion, Villamor Koth, does fairly bad and takes his rage out on his poor bow. The celebrating for Try goes on long into the night.
7th of Pharast: The log slaying event is up this day and Midgard fields Belinda, she gets lucky and draws to go last which is a nice boon for Midgard. In an extremely unlucky drawing of weapons Villamor Koth ends up with Demelvar’s enchanted axe and it cost’s him many points. Belinda goes last and shows the audience how log slaying is done coming in 3 points under the tournament record and scoring 32 points and another win for Midgard. Tymon’s own arena champion places second leaving Midgard in a commanding lead needing only 1 more point among the remaining 2 events to win the tournament.