Knights of the Black Horse in Kingmaker

[Paul Watson]

Introduction. The party of three who will be undertaking the exploration and taming of the greenbelt and Stolen Lands are:

Krager, the Scourge of Bandits, a dwarvern ranger who specialises in a waraxe in each hand;

Terjion Lebeda of Abadar, a priest with somewhat heretical views on the Lord of Coins rates, believing in a much more `noblesse oblige' approach than is traditional;

Visari Surtova, a noble who prefers light armour, mobility and subtlety to a direct blow.

Fireday, 30th Rova, 4711. The party left Rostland on the main road, Krager checking that neither of his companions were wanted bandits. Terjion was quick with his denial but Visari decided to be cryptic, prompting a lot of muttering from Krager and an ongoing suspicion.

They approached Oleg's on foot, finding the gates open. Svetlana greeted them warmly, insisting they have some good stew, while Oleg remained stubbornly mending the roof, grunting what might have been a greeting between hammer blows. Svetlana asked if the party were here to help with the bandits. Krager lit up at mention of the words `bandit', while Terjion described banditry as a scourge on civilisation, "and the only scourge around here is me." Krager agreed.

On pressing them for details, Svetlana insisted they should talk to her husband, shouting several times for Oleg to come down. Only when she shouted, "OLEG!!! The FOOD is getting COLD!!" did her husband clamber down, muttering that he asked for soldiers and got this. Krager, after the food, pressed Oleg for details of the bandits.

"Bastards have been coming here for three months. First time they were led by this scary b!~$# with the hatchets. She threatened to chop my hand off, almost did, too, and then took my Svetlana's ring as `compensation' fer not doing it. B$$#!." When asked about numbers, he said they started out with a dozen, but each month they come to take their `taxes' "as if I don't pay enough to the Lords" there were less, first half a dozen and last time only four. They always turned up on the first of the month, within an hour of sunrise. Asked about the scary b@#~! with hatchets, he said she hadn't been back since, just some moron in a hood. While Svetlana was in the kitchen, he explained that Svetlana "says she isn't bothered about the ring. And you know what a woman means when she says she ain't bothered."

"They ain't bothered?" Krager suggested, as dwarvern women tend to be far more straightforward.

"Human women, then. Look, it's not much, but it's my Sveti's ring and if you can get it back, make her happy, well, I might be able to grant you some credit."

More questions followed and the group made their plans. Oleg would leave all the goods out as normal. When the bandits were inside the gates, Terjion and Krager would close the doors and the party would get the bandits to surrender. Or not.

Starday, 1st Lamashan, 4711 The bandits emerged on time, the hooded leader and his 4 subordinates. As they sauntered into the trading post, calling out to Oleg about where his pretty wife was so they could show her what a real man was like. As soon as all were within, Krager and Terjion pushed the doors shut behind them as Oleg ran back into the house. Visari was in his position on the walkways above. While the bandits milled around, startled by the resistance, Krager dropped the bar into place and roared out: "Surrender or die!" the bandits, seeing only two opponents moved to attack them. Sadly, two of them failed to control their horses, so only one trotted up to each of Terjion and Krager.

Visari took a shot at the leader (Happs Bydon) but missed. Terjion unlimbered his greatsword and sliced open the bandit attacking him. Krager had slightly more trouble with his, missing on the first swing while his heavily armoured coat deflected the strike back. Happ slipped off his mount, drawing his longbow to strike back at Visari, but the walkway took the arrow instead. Two bandits slid off their horses, and as they moved to circle the party, Terjion cut another down, just after that bandit had stabed him in the thigh and another sliced off his own ear while showing off drawing his sword. Happ and Visari continued to exchange missed shots, while Krager finally managed to pull the bandit from his horse and slicing into his chest with his axe. Visari finally got fed up with Happ hiding behind his horse and aimed at the horse, driving it off.

Terjion strode up to Krager, just as the final bandit managed to find a gap in the dwarf's thick armour and scored a nasty wound through the shoulder. Terjion shouted "In the name of Abadar, be healed!" and Krager quickly dispatched him. Noticing that he was now alone, and as an arrow buried itself in his side, Happ yelled out "I surrender!" Terjion and Krager stabilised the bandits, and then turned to interrogate the bandit chief, finding out about Kressle (scary b$~%% with the axes), the approximate location of the bandit camp, the passphrase, existence of the Stag Lord and pretty much whatever else they wanted to know. Despite Visari's suggestion of killing the bandits, Krager and Terjion had them empty one of the middens and used it as a makeshift jail. Krager triumphantly claimed Happ's longbow once he found it was tensioned perfectly for him. Oleg passed out a small reward to the players and happily bought the bandits' gear off them, issuing credit with promises of turning it into cash once he could offload the supplies.

After another delicious stew, Svetlana approached Terjion, asking him if, in the explorations he could gather some moonradishes for Oleg.

Starday, 2 Lamashan, 4711. The party took off on their newly acquired horses, beginning their explorations with the area around Oleg's. On spotting more people travelling towards the trading post they rode up and introduced themselves to Sergeant Kestren Garess. Sergeant Garess was quite happy to conduct the swift trial, and execution, of the bandits, approaching Krager afterwards to enlist his help in hunting down Falgrim Sneed.

Moonday, 3 Lamashan, 4711. The party headed south, finding Svetlana's radish patch occupied by four groaning black-scaled kobolds. Krager and Terjion approached them, with weapons sheather, but were confronted by spears as the kobolds yapped about this being "Ourses!" Slowly and carefully, they managed to calm them down and began to negotiate for the radishes. With much waving of spears and declarations of "Ourses!", they slowly agreed to agree for Terjion to cure their painful bellies with his restorative touch in exchange for one and a half baskets of radishes. When Krager tried to ask questions about the recent strife with the humans, he was told "We'z neogitaing, stupids dwarf. We'z talking afters."

After the negotiations, Krager tried again, asking why they were more aggressive and it was explained as "We'z not at war with humies, silly dwarf, we'z at war with the mitesies!" After some wracking of brains to translate this into "mites", Krager tried to find out why they were at war, but didn't get satisfactory answers, just that "Tartuk said they's bad and they steals from us and they's badsies." His suggestion that the radishes work best with curried mountain goat, brought laughter as "there's no mountains here!"

When prompted about the possibility of more formal trade deals concerning the radishes, the kobolds looked nervous and said they'd have to talk to chief about that. So Terjion got them to promise to tell the chief they were coming, didn't mean any harm and they left having mapped the hex out and gotten vague directions "thats way" to the kobold home.

The party decided to press on to the bandit camp, but we had to stop there for the night.

[Paul Watson]

Toilday, 4th Lamashan, 4711. Krager decided to scout the bandit camp. Sadly he wasn't quite as stealthy as he thought. Fortunately, the bandit figured he could take one lone dwarf and shot Krager between the plates of his armoured coat rather than drop his thunderstone (Terjion's player played the Sloth card to make his actions take longer). Krager fired back, taking the bandit cleanly in the throat, knocking him off the platform. He then ran back to the party and they all hustled towards the camp. They spotted the next lookout, but he spotted them, hurling his thunderstone to the ground. Krager and Terjion moved forward, Krager firing his bow and Terjion casting spells Divine Favour and Magic Weapon, while Visari held back, shooting at the bandit. Krager managed to hit the bandit, but then the reinforcements arrived. Krager pulled out his axe and shouted "Surrender or die!" Kressle responded by hurling a dagger at Terjion but missing wildly. Krager and Terjion then charged up at her, ignoring the bandit beside her. Before Kressle could even begin to unlimber her axes, Krager and Terjion both hit her mightily and dropped her to the floor. The bandit beside her, as well as the one on the tree immediately surrendered, while the fourth took off at a run, Visari's parting shot going wild.

After disarming, disarmouring and tying up the bandits (Krager wished he'd remembered to grab some manacles from Oleg's, at which point Visari calmly produced a pair which they used on the still unconscious Kressle), they explored the camp, finding all sorts of treasure but no ring. Asking about the Stag Lord brought a lot of information about his fort, but the bandit couldn't quite remember the password. Fortunately Terjion completed it for him. The party decided against exploring the area completely, and so set off back to Oleg's with the bandits loaded up onto the cart along with all the stolen goods. Krager buried some rations, swords and arrows in a secure box as an emergency cache before they left.

Weakday, 5th Lamashan, 4711. On the way back to Oleg's, the party once again passed the radish patch and again found it occupied, this time by a giant whiptailed centipede. They debated ignoring it, but decided they couldn't leave it alone to attack someone else and so Krager and Terjion approached it, while Visari manoeuvred into a better position, licking the tip of his arrow as he did so. The centipede scuttled towards Terjion and Krager, and, while Visari's shot missed, Krager didn't, knocking the huge beast off balance and allowing him and Terjion to strike the killing blows. After some thought as to how they'd move the centipede, and some question from Visari as to why they'd want to, they decided to leave it so the kobolds could get some protein as well as the radishes and also some centipede plate shields.

Oathday, 6th Lamashan, 4711. The party arrived safely at Oleg's, where the captured bandits, including the still unconscious Kressle, were sent back to civilisation for proper disposal. On receiving the radishes, Svetlana beamed and whispered to Oleg, who, somewhat grumpily, told the party: "Apparently, I now owe you credit." That night, Krager took one of the bottles of alcohol to Sergeant Garess, spending the evening with him and possibly eyeing him up for a role in the future governance of the region.

Fireday, 7th Lamashan, 4711. The party continued their job of mapping the Greenbelt, taking an alternate route back to the camp.

Starday, 8th, Lamashan, 4711. The party awoke to find their horses with electric blue eyebrows. Krager realised it was an illusion, muttered about the fey responsible, but did nothing else as they began mapping the bandit's camp. That night, on Krager's watch, he spotted something creeping towards Visari's sleeping form. Pulling out his bow, he ordered it to stop, which it did, coming towards him as he commanded it. He offered the fey, although he didn't know what kind, some trail rations, which she took, but spat out soon after trying the hardtack and jerky. As Krager was about to answer questions, something small and vaguely draconic ambushed him, sending him into a confused euphoria as the fey fled. When he recovered a few seconds later, Krager woke Terjion for his watch and tried to explain what happened.

Sunday, 9th Lamashan, 4711. The party moved out of the forest and into the hills, Visari spotting a small cave in the crag. On exploring it, Terjion noticed what he was sure was a vein of gold. The party made a note and settled down for sleep.

Moonday, 10th Lamashan, 4711. Despite seeing no fey during the night, the party was a tad suspicious, and on leaving the cave found "Humies house" scrawled above the cave entrance. Muttering furiously, Krager rubbed it out "I'm not human." He scowled. They then continued their explorations, disturbing a giant spider that tried to snatch one of the party, but was soon surrounded and dispatched. Exploring it's lair, they discovered the body of a bandit and Krager found the scrawled diagram of a hooked tree on a hill and a red `X' underneath.

And there we left it.

[Paul Watson]

Toilday, 11th Lamashan, 4711. The party completed their circuit of exploration and headed back to Oleg's, in preparation for new supplies and another night of drinking with the guards, for Krager at least. It also bought them just enough experience to level up.

Weakday, 12th Lamashan, 4711. The supplies carried a surprise for the party, a fourth member of their chartered group, who introduced himself as Radon. His first questions were about the local ladies, but he was somewhat disappointed to that only Svetlana was around, and warned off very clearly by the party from disrupting their hosts. Krager bought several sets of manacles and after a good night's rest, the foursome departed.

Oathday, 13th Lamashan, 4711. The party headed east, finding Bokken's hut. His habit of rubbing his hand and stopping sentences halfway through unnerved them a little, but on finding out he was a supplier of Oleg's they purchased some curatives from him before departing, and promising to look for the fangberries his potions needed.

Fireday, 14th Lamashan, 4711. The party headed south but found nothing especially interesting. Examining the charter and Krager's map, they decided to head back north to explore to the limits now rather than trying to later.

Starday, 15th Lamashan, 4711. The exploration was uneventful, save for a family of elk that were seen passing during Terjion's watch. He decided they were probably too tough to really add much to the trail rations he was cooking, however.

Sunday, 16th Lamashan, 4711. Today was a day of exploration and mapping without encountering anything especially threatening.

Moonday, 17th Lamashan, 4711. This morning the party spotted a shambling mound in the distance. However, Krager warned them that the threat it posed was out of their league at present so they had best leave it alone but post a warning on their map and headed south.

Toilday, 18th Lamashan, 4711. The party encountered the Shrike River, with Radon deciding to go for a swim in the frigid waters.

Weakday, 19th Lamashan, 4711. The party discovered several watery, webbed footprints leading up to their camp. Unable to identify them, they put it down to fey activity and Krager checked the horses' eyebrows thoroughly.

Oathday, 20th Lamashan, 4711. The party discovered the ruined crossing, and Radon eagerly rang the bell. As he did so, the vengeful corpse of Davik Nettles emerged from the water, demanding they give him the Stag Lord's body. When asked what else they'd get, the undead thing, which proved beyond the knowledge of Terjion, replied "You live." Which was good enough for the party to explore quickly and leave the vicinity.

Fireday, 21st Lamashan, 4711. The party proceeded North and on spotting a lightning blasted tree on a hill, Krager got excited, pulling out the note they found in the spider's lair. When he discovered that the earth had been disturbed at the roots, he asked for a shovel, only to find no one had brought one. With typical Dwarvern stoicism, he spent the next half hour digging with the blade of his second best axe to uncover the bandit's loot. They know the blacked stick for a wand of some kind but couldn't determine its nature, pocketing it with the rest of the stash.

Starday, 22nd Lamashan, 4711. The party headed south, across the remains of the battlefield. They came to the sycamore and discovered the cramped entrance, but decided against heading directly into the mites' lair. They did notice two mites who ran off when spotted trying to thieve the shines the party had shouted down they had to trade. As their supplies were running a little low, they headed back for Oleg's.

Sunday, 23rd Lamashan, 4711. Camping in the radish patch, the party awoke to find their tents painted in berry juice with dwarvsie's, priestsie's, humininses' and other huminises'. Krager was quite happy they'd got his species correct.

Moonday 24th Lamashan, 4711. Returning to Oleg's, the party stocked up on supplies such as shovels, picks and other assorted excavation gear. Still no women for Radon, either.

Toilday, 25th Lamashan, 4711. The party headed west, and found the bear traps, but managed to avoid stepping in them, spending several hours and lots of stout branches setting them all off. That night, Krager encountered the dragon and his offer of the rot gut was accepted.

Weakday, 26th Lamashan, 4711. Still heading west, Terjion discovered the bottle of hooch he'd laid out was gone but saw no sign of the fey themselves.

Oathday, 27th Lamashan, 4711. Heading west, the party discovered the cairn, but did nothing more destructive than clear the brambles away, treating the stones with proper respect.

Fireday, 28th Lamashan, 4711. The party headed south, and Radon found his bottle of hooch nabbed. Krager managed to talk to the fey and was told "We like you, dwarfsies, but the humanises, we don't `know.".

Starday, 29th Lamashanm 4711. The party headed back into the forest, discovering the trapper's corpse. After a quick run through of likely suspects, Krager swore and said "I'm glad they like me.". That night, Radon tried to talk to the fey, but they scuttled off into the forest.

Sunday, 30th Lamashan 4711. On waking, the party found Radon's tent adorned with "No giftsies X" in berry juice. The party found the ruined temple, and it's ursine guardian lumbered out towards them. Terjion cast Magic Weapon as he and Krager dismounted. Visari flung something at the bear, trapping it in a mass of sticky webbing.

As the bear slowly pulled itself free, the party got ready, none of its arrows finding their way through the webs. Terjion cast Righteous Might as the bear broke free. He, Radon and Krager all swung, only Krager doing significant damage. The bear returned the favour, its teeth tearing open his shoulder. Radon and Terjion sidestepped to flank as Visari circled around the back, licking his rapier. All hit, but the bear's teeth missed Krager, one clawed hand slashing Radon as he was pulled into a massive hug. At this point, Visari's rapier plunged into the bear's back, piercing its heart. As the bear sank to the ground, it shimmered, its corpse transforming into a shaggy, grey-haired human. Terjion channelled energy to heal the party, and the old man's body crumbled to dust as the glade became more peaceful, the pool turning sparkling clear, prompting Krager to ask "What did you do?"

And there we left it.

[Paul Watson]

Moonday, 31st Lamashan. The party awoke from camping in the temple to find a large elk standing in the plaza. Given it was the temple to the elk god, they decided to take this as a message and definitely not a venison dinner. Radon's backpack was found emptied over the floor, and then sorted into neat (ish) piles.

The party continued westwards, finding the large pool. They also heard very loud croaking that was either a few very large frogs, or someone from clan McCartney. It turned out to be the former. As the giant amphibians left the water, Radon cast Burning Hands, singing them slightly as they hopped to either side of the sheet. One frog caught Terjion with its tongue, while Krager advanced on it. Vesari leapt over the frog's back while Radon advanced with his staff. Vesari got bitten and his arm trapped by the frog, as Terjion cleaved his frog in two. Lacking Escape Artist (which he swears he was going to get next level), Vesari punched the frog between the eyes, dropping it. Radon then finished that frog off.

That night Terjion had an encounter with the fey who added him to their `nice' list.

Toilday, 1st Neth. The party explored the plains to the west.

Weakday, 2nd Neth. The party went back into the forests, discovering the statue of Erastil and clearing the site.

Oathday, 3rd Neth. Radon discovered his staff high up in a nearby tree firth thing in the morning. The fey seem to have taken a delight in picking on him. The party continued eastward, discovering a boggard's lair. Despite him knowing fewer than a dozen words in Common, Visari's skill with languages enabled a very slow, halting, with much punctuation of "me swamp" but ultimately profitable conversation that revealed the location of the dragonworms to the south and fierce pig to the east.

Fireday, 4th Neth. The party headed south to deal with the tatzylworms. They discovered the lair, and as the tatzylworms slithered across the island towards the riverbank, Radon cast Magic Missile at one as Krager launched an arrow into its shoulder. The `worms then slithered back to their lair and cover. Radon tried to swim across the river, but found the current too strong for him. Terjion and Visari set off at a fast pace around, looking for a more fordable position, while Krager moved more slowly, covering the island with his bow.

Eventually, the party found a narrow channel where the water wasn't too deep. Radon and Vesari managed to make it across with rope to assist the others, but Terjion still almost drowned on the way over in his armour.

Once the whole party had made it across, Terjion and Krager advanced towards the lair with Radon and Vesari approaching far more slowly. When they were within 20 feet, both Tatzylworms charged out, one managing to clamp onto Krager's shoulder. It breathed poison into his face as the other latched onto Terjion, Radon peppering them with magic missiles, while Vesari shot the one fighting Terjion, poisoning it with the centipede poison. Krager got raked by the tatzylworm's claws before Radon cast grease to enable him to slip free. Terjion gagged in the tatzylworm's poisonous breath. Krager, now severely wounded, began to fight o nthe defensive and as Terjion was bitten again, as was Radon, Terjion channelled the power of Abadar into healing, but inadvertently healed the `worms as well.

Eventually, both tatzylworms were killed and Terjion took careful aim to sever one's head, the other having been slightly ruined by Radon's staff. The party thoroughly explored the lair, finding magical armour and a map. Sadly, the map was of the region they'd already covered completely.

Starday, 5th Neth. Vesari fell asleep during his watch, and was awoken by Terjion from the loving embrace of the tatzylworm's corpse. The party explored the forest to the east on their way to Tuskgutter, Radon almost falling into the pit with the snapping, starving thylacine. With Krager's skill with animals, and several chunks of rations, they calmed the starving beast down enough for it to be rescued and released (and, no, Radon, a thylacine is still not able to be taken as a familiar).

Sunday, 6th Neth. The party approached Tuskgutter's lair, but the foul-tempered boar exploded out at them, goring Terjion. Krager swung mightily at the beast, as Vesari ran over its back to get into position. It took a lot of work, and very nearly killed several members of the party, but eventually, in a blood-foamed gasp, the boar breathed its last.

Moonday, 7th Neth. The party headed back to Oleg's, their spare horse laden with corpses. They talked to Vekel Bensenn, who handed over his old bow and 6 magic arrows for Tuskgutter's corpse, while Oleg began mounting the head. They also talked to Jhod, giving him the location of the temple of Erastil and collected their rewards.

[Paul Watson]

Toilday, 8th Neth: The party sold its excess gear (including the magical scale mail) at Oleg’s, resupplied (including several bottles of good whiskey for the fae by Krager) and set out again, spending a quiet night in the former bandit camp.

Weakday, 9th Neth: Whilst filling in the gap in their regular map to offset Krager’s mild OCD tendencies, the party came across the bridge. After Krager had asked his ancestor’s advice, and got no reply, Vesari tied himself to a rope for security and crossed, with and a worrying amount of creaking and swaying. Then they tied the rope around his horse’s bridle and led that across with even more creaking from the bridge. They next sent over their spar horse, but it shied in the middle and refused to move. Krager stripped himself of his armour to reduce weight and got onto the bridge to coax it over. Sadly, this proved too much for the rickety structure and it collapsed. Krager managed to hurl himself back to land, but the horse plunged into the river.

Krager climbed down to treat it, finding it remarkably healthy, while the others lowered his gear for him. He asked if anyone wanted their waterskins filled, only to have both Radon and Terjion cast Create Water. He grumbled all the way up the cliff to Vesari. That night, Krager left one of the bottles out for his watch, finding it gone but a note scratched on the floor indicating the direction of a for down the river.

Oathday, 10th Neth: The party moved down to the ford, reuniting themselves and proceeding to backtrack to explore the rest of the river.

Fireday, 11th Neth: The party returned to the ford, exploring the area. That night, on Radon’s first watch, a large creature entered their camp. Terjion and Krager awoke quickly, the former sleeping in his armour and the latter quickly donning his armoured coat as they approached the owlbear. Terjion struck the owlbear, his scream awakening Vesari and drawing Radon’s attention. Radon cast magic missile at the owlbear while Vesarri woke up, grabbing his bow and licking one arrow. The owlbear struck back, drawing Terjion into its grasp. Krager’s two-handed strike skirted the owlbear’s hide but did no damage. Radon cast grease on Terjion who managed to slip out of the owlbear’s grasp and slam it with another blow. Vesari drew his rapier and advanced as Krager struck the bear, and the bear mauled Terjion, dropping him to the floor. Vesari managed to strike, plunging his rapier through the beast’s mouth as it tried to bite him. Krager then rummaged through Terjion’s first aid kit, stopping the bleeding from his wounds. After having a potion poured down his throat, Terjion channelled Abadar’s grace to heal the party.

Starday, 12th Neth: The party moved east, discovering the Kobold’s lair. Nakpik jumped out to confront them, and then realised how outmatched he was. After some talking, when he finally identified Terjion as “the one who cured stomachs”, he led them into the caverns, past the pit traps, and into the presence of the Chief. When Radon greeted Chief Sootscale in Draconic, the Chief was impressed and ordered his guards not to attack. He explained that the mites had stolen their god, a statue called Old Toothy, and that, if they could get it back, the Kobolds would be their friends and, obviously, as the stolen statue was the reason for the increased raids, those would stop. And, when pushed, give them shinines. This was all relayed to Krager as Vesari also spoke Draconic and Terjion had cast Comprehend Languages before entering the caverns. When asked more about the god, he sent them to the shaman Tartuk who, after consulting his raven, proclaimed that the spirits had spoken, the party were the ones destined to recover the statue. The party asked the Chief if they could take the caged mite as a guide. The Chief considered, but eventually relented. The mite was led in, a rope tied around its neck. Despite Radon’s best effort to communicate (in common, Elven, Abyssal and Draconic) the mite remained uncommunicative. When the party made camp, Krager used one of his manacles as a neck collar for the mite.

Sunday, 13th Neth: The next day, the party proceeded to the old sycamore. Radon cast light on the mite’s head and took the lead, Krager taking the rear guard as he didn’t need the light. They asked the guide which way to go, and, fully understanding mite psychology, went the other way. They discovered two mites playing eat the caltrop and approached. The mites attacked, inflicting tiny injuries on Radon. Vesari pinned one with his rapier as Terjion strode up. The guide mite slipped free of its rope bond and tried to flee but Radon, quite irritated with it, flung an Acid Splash into its back, killing it immediately. Terjion killed the other mite with his dagger, the sword impractical in the tight tunnels.

Krager took the mite’s still glowing head and tossed it down the tunnel, the party following. They found the mites tormenting a lone kobold prisoner, but lost any element of surprise with the glowing, bouncing head. Vesari leapt through the mites, dodging and weaving behind them so they couldn’t escape, while Radon began to cast a spell. Sadly, the mites scratching him with their daggers, disrupting his concentration as Krager and Terjion stepped up beside him, the latter channelling energy to heal the kobold and the scratches Radon had suffered. After this point, the slaughter began, with Krager, who had previously simply stood there as the mite’s attacks bounced off his armour, killing two with his axes, Radon managing to get his acid splash off and Terjion stabbed a third with his dagger, while Vesari stabbed a fourth. The remaining two tried to cast doom, but Vesari killed on in mid casting and the other was dispatched by Radon’s spellcasting.

The party freed the kobold, Terjion channelled again, and Mikmek prostrated himself before his rescuers, explain how they had to get the statue back to his tribe. The party continued down the tight tunnels, but came to the chasm. Krager realised some of the roots and knots had been rigged but Vesari just walked out onto the wall and proceeded to stroll across calmly. At least, until he heard something hissing in the base of the chasm. Everyone volleyed arrows and quarrels onto the huge centipede as is clambered up the walls. Radon then cast grease on the wall, sending it tumbling back to the cavern floor before climbing under the hail of fire to the other side. It bit Vesari, injuring him severely. Fearing for his comrade’s safety, Krager leapt across the cavern. Sadly, he didn’t make it even halfway, crashing to the floor, rolling to absorb some of the blow. Vesari raced back behind Terjion who was then bitten but with a mighty blow, Terjion stabbed the beast through hits eye sending it tumbling down the chasm. Sadly for Krager, it landed on top of him ,requiring help to get it off him.

And there we left it.

[Devastation Bob]

Ha, good stuff! Keep em' comin'.

[Paul Watson]

Sunday, 13th Neth: The party clambered over the chasm, Vesari rather more easily than the others thanks to his spider climbing ability and were advancing on the next room when Radon slipped, sending dozens of loose stones cascading down into the chasm. The talking up ahead stopped and the party charged forward. They spotted Grabbles, chief of the mites, rushing to his giant tick, Tickleback, while his `generals' gathered around their strategic map. Krager and Terjion rushed up to attack him, but he managed to climb onto Tickleback's back. Vesari, still showing off, ran over the ceiling to stab at him but missed. This left Radon to take on the generals, one falling to an acid splash before the others could cluster around him. Tickleback leapt on Krager, biting deep but failing to grab hold.

Krager took a mighty swing at the giant tick, but only succeeded in annoying it while Terjion's dagger was more effective as it took Grabbles in the throat. The mites were nickel and diming Radon, each dagger scratching him when Versari went to help, spearing one mite through the back of the head. Tickleback bit Krager again, dropping him to the floor in a pool of blood.Vesari decided the tick was far more dangerous and left the mites to Radon as he and Terjion flanked the tick, the latter channelling energy to heal up Krager. After a particularly successful strike, Tickleback grabbed Vesari in its mandibles, sucking his blood out while Radon injured another mite with acid splash, attacking the last one with his dagger at the same time and taking the scratch in return. As Vesari struggled to get free, Terjion plunged his dagger between Tickleback's eyes and the tick collapsed, just as Radon slew his mite leaving Terjion, now slightly irked, to chase down the last one. A lot of healing (2 channels, 3 potions and 2 spells converted to cure light wounds) later, the party started looting. Sadly none of them could fathom out the mounds of earth on the table, or make heads or tails of the scribbles on the paper. Krager did test every single gold piece to make sure it wasn't a Svetlana's ring, though.

Mikmek, who had wisely hung back during the actual fighting, grabbed Old Sharptooth and shouted out "Death to Tartuk. Long live Chief Sootscale!" before clamping his hand over his mouth and refusing to say anymore. Under pressure, he was persuaded to at least admit that no one liked Tartuk and he was mean and nasty (which from a kobold says something).

The party moved onwards, and were still less than stealthy, 6 mites boiling towards them, one with a banjo. This one went down incredibly quickly for fear it was a bard. The others didn't last much longer with two fleeing, one taking a wound from Krager on the way out. Terjion let them pass and a thorough casing that turned up very little later, they continued upwards, encountering the centipede hatchery, a fight that took barely any time to complete with the party suffering one hit before the centipedes and their handler were gutted.

Moonday, 14th Neth: The party returned to the Kobold warren, where Mikmek proudly led them past the guards to Chief Sootscale. Once they handed him the statue, the Chief got a manic glint in his eye and hurled it to the ground shouting "The curse is broken!" This startled Krager as he didn't understand draconic. When the Chief brandished his club shouting out "Death to the usurper!" he was even more worried until the horde of kobolds marched past him, Versari and Terjion rushing ahead.

They confronted Tartuk in the process of fleeing. Rather put out by this, Radon cast Grease to fill the tunnel directly behind him. Versari missed with his sap, but Terjion punched Tartuk in the face, taking a nasty swipe from his sickle in response. Tartuk retreated over the grease, annoying Radon further when his magic missile fizzled against Tartuk's shield spell. Versari sprinted past Tartuk as Terjion advanced over the grease. Tickbiter pecked at Versari's face as Tartuk tried to slash at him. Terjion stabbed at the bird while Radon decided that if he couldn't hit Tartuk he'd settle for missiling his familiar. Another punch from Terjion and a wicked stab from Vesari dropped Tartuk and he was presented to Chief Sootscale.

On searching his stuff, with much chanting of Detect Magic, the party discovered Svetlana's ring and Tartuk's diary. Still under the effects of his Comprehend Languages spell, Terjion read through the diary, discovering Tartuk's history. Krager, who had been preparing to mercy kill Tartuk as opposed to letting the kobolds torture him, decided that the genocidal little f%+#er deserved it. Chief Sootscale promised the torture wouldn't last much longer than three months. Four at a push. And the kobolds and the warmbloods parted as friends and tentative allies.

Toilday, 15th Neth: On mounting his horse, Vesari discovered someone had loosed the straps so that his mounting became a rapid, uncontrolled dismount. There may have been some laughter from the forest.

Weakday, 16th Neth: Returning to Oleg's, the party returned Svetlana's ring, brightening Oleg enough to move them into the category of "generally alright, I suppose". They also alerted the Captain to the ending of the Kobold threat and then had to spend a couple of days treating Krager and Vesari from the red itch they'd caught from the tick's bite.

Fireday, 18th Neth: The party proceeded out into the wilds again, heading south west.

Starday, 19th Neth: Vesari woke up to a note scrawled in front of his tent `Truce', which prompted Krager to ask "What did you do?" Having done nothing, this time, Vesari said nothing in reply. The party then continued its exploration, discovering the eerily preserved unicorn corpse. Realising that something powerful and First Worldy had been involved, Krager constructed a cairn over the body and waited for the fey to appear that night. Very nervous, although quite happy to accept the whiskey, neither Tyg-Titter_Tut the grigg, nor Perlivash the faerie dragon, had much to say. They didn't know exactly what it was but knew it wasn't from around here, meaning the planet rather than the immediate vicinity. Krager promised that if he found out what it was, he'd give them a head start before he died. One going to wake Radon for his watch, he found the whiskey and the glasses gone on his return.

Sunday, 20th Neth: The party found themselves shadowed by a pack of wolves, at least until Krager took down a deer and left it for them.

Moonday, 21st Neth: More forests, although nothing especially interesting happened.

Toilday: 22nd Neth: More forests, although nothing especially interesting happened.

Weakday, 23rd Neth: The party headed north to complete that part of their map, finding the fangberry thicket. As they picked the berries, however, a swarm of spiders emerged to challenge them. Not wanting to set the berry patch on fire, the party retreated, although Vesari got poisoned by the swarm before he covered them in webbing and Krager launched a flaming arrow into the web. The swarm, although weakened, attacked again, poisoning Krager as well but now that it was out of the thicket, Radon cast burning hands, burning away the spiders.

It took a little while, and some strength damage, to shrug off the poison's effects, but they pressed on.

Oathday, 24th Neth: The party spotted a fort in their explorations and decided that, given the location, it couldn't be anyone but the Stag Lord's. Krager consulted his ancestors on whether they should assault it now and got a response along the lines of "Don't be a fool, you're still poisoned." So they pressed on.

Fireday, 25th Neth and Starday 26th Neth: The party finished exploring the plains to the East, Krager and Vesari recovering from the spider poison completely and camped at the ford, ready for their assault on the Stag Lord's fortress.

And there we left it.

[Paul Watson]

Sunday, 27th Neth: The party prepared for the assault on the Stag Lord's fortress. They spent the day scoping things out as best they could from cover, before deciding to sneak up behind the fort at dusk. Sadly, this provoked three waves of zombies as they approached half way. The party bulled their way through all three, with Terjion's channels weakening the undead and letting them fall prey to Krager's axes. Sadly, on the last wave a wild swing from Krager impacted with his nose, sending him reeling and leaving Terjion and Vesari to deal with them. Several healing spells were burnt through to heal Krager and Vesari from the zombie's lumbering strieks.

Owing to the dark conditions, no one on the fort spotted the battle and as they approached, Snitch spotted them but decided to flee rather than get involved. Vesari walked up the palisade, lowering a rope for the others. Radon and Terjion both suffered minor damage from the sharpened wooden tips before they landed. As they were climbing the stairs up to the watchtowers, Krager spotted a large stone doorway below them. Opening it as stealthily as possible, Krager then descended into the tunnel, discovering its exit outside the walls. Vesari scattered caltrops over the tunnel floor before they closed the doorway.

Carefully clambering along the roof, they made it to the first, now empty, tower as it was getting dark. Krager recognised Sneef in the second watchtower and he and Vesari approached stealthily, one well-placed blow from Vesari's sap laying Sneef low. They then stripped him, tied him up and then manacled him. Just to be sure. With Krager covering him, Vesari disguised himself as the bandit and made his way across the roofways to the third and final tower. Sadly, although his disguise held in the low light, his blow was badly timed, raising the alarm. He and the bandit duelled for a few rounds until Krager sent a flaming arrow into the bandit's back and with an impressive Willheim scream he toppled from the tower. This finally roused the other bandits who charged out, along with Auchs the lummox, only to have Radon cast burning hands from the roof, incinerating the four bandits, burning Auchs and setting the walkway on fire.

Having watched this, Dovan decided to unleash the owlbear, a sound everyone but Krager recognised. As Dovan ran, leading the owlbear out, Vesari hurled his web, trapping Dovan, but not `Beaky' . This resulted, very quickly in a nicely webbed up corpse as Beaky tore the unfortunate bandit apart. Auchs came barrelling out to help Dovan, only to fall through the fire-weakened walkway and crash to the ground. Radon then cast grease under him.

At this point, accompanied by a string of furious curses, the Stag Lord himself emerged. Beaky didn't dare attack him, but lumbered over to Auchs, slipping in the grease. As Auchs and Beaky both struggled to rise, Radon cast burning hands again. The Stag Lord stepped aside from the sheet of flame. The eyes of his helm glowed, he looked up and said "So, you want to play, do you, boy?" and sent an arrow flying into Radon's chest. Radon collapsed, bleeding heavily to the roof. Terjion raced up, calling on Abadar's healing power to heal everyone. Beaky managed to stand, and, still enraged, tore into Auchs. The Stag Lord took a shot at Terjion before retreating inside, taking a hit from Krager's bow and a miss from Vesari, who started cursing his bow. Taking aim at Beaky, Karger let fly, and the enraged owlbear turned its attention to the watchtower, tearing at the supports. Krager shouldered Sneef and Radon and deposited both in the third watchtower. Vesari crept down from his vantage point, seeking the Stag Lord. Meanwhile, Terjion moved to the back door, casting Bull's Strength and Magic Weapon before flinging them open. He encountered Akiros who laid down his sword before the priest.

Meanwhile, Vesari had found the doorway the Stag Lord had fled down, but as he opened it, the Stag Lord's arrow caught him full in the chest, dropping him to the floor. Terjion swiftly came to his aid, only for another shot to take him in the side. After stabilising Vesari, he charged down the steps at the Stag Lord. Despite stabbing himself in the thigh in the gloom, the Stag Lord finally managed a mighty blow that sunk deep into Terjion's side, dropping him to the floor with a mouthful of blood.

Krager poured a potion down Vesari's throat to get him conscious before running at the Stag Lord. Vesari pulled Terjion up the stairs, pouring their last curative into the cleric while Krager shouted at him to close the door. This done, and the cellars hurled into complete darkness, he started attacking the now blinded Stag Lord. Sadly, he didn't pay much attention to the chanting above until a giant ant bit into his back. This was followed by a swarm of rats. Sadly for the Stag Lord, the rats didn't really care who they bit and he ended up dying from their bites. A summoned stirge proved completely ineffective, failing point blank to pierce Krager's armour. Still, wounded by the rats, he pulled back up the stairs as soon as the Stag Lord was dead. Vesari opened the door, hurling a web into the room. He and Krager then proceeded to use their bows to cut down the wolverine clambering on the ceiling.

The party looted the camp as thoroughly as they could, keeping the helm as proof but casting the body into the river to appease the ghostly waterman. Davik Nettles rose from the water as the Stag Lord's corpse hit, gleefully dragging it deep into the river where both were lost from sight As the party watched, his ranseur bobbed to the surface drifting against the current to them. They also turned Sneef over for punishment, gave Bokken his fangberries and generally did everything possible to complete the adventure. They also cured Krager of the disease he'd picked up from the rat bites.

Akiros related the story of his fall from Erastil's grace after his temper had bested him, and the dissatisfaction he'd found with petty banditry. He offered them his service if they'd have it. The party is still deciding what to do with him.

And there we left it.

[Paul Watson]

Going forward, we are moving to a monthly journal format to account for the Kingdom turns more easily.

Neth, 4711: While the party waited for their masterwork weapons, and confirmation of their success with the bandit problem, Terjion decided that, after his near death, Abadar would want him to concentrate on more political matters than adventuring. Fortunately, a Numerian warrior skald, Kaylea Burning Sky, arrived at Oleg's having heard of the party and offered her assistance. The party accepted. So far, she hasn't killed Radon.

The weapons arrived from Brevoy, along with Appleby, the bureaucrat assigned to ensure the bandit problem was dealt with. He also brought with him the new charter and some colonists for the new nation.

The party claimed the Stag Lord's fort as the basis of their new home of Port Glory, capital of the Chaldea. Terjion became the ruler, with Kaylea becoming the general, Krager the warden, Radon Magister and Vesari the new spymaster. The remaining places on the ruling council were rounded out by Oleg (Treasurer), Svetlana (Councillor), Jhod (High Priest), Khesten (Marshall), Akiros (Royal Assassin/Headsman) and Appleby was persuaded to become the Grand Diplomat. The first buildings they constructed were the mill and a house, building roads throughout the local area.

They have opted for a moderate tax structure, a token level of promotions and 6 festivals per year (the holy days of Erastil and Abadar, founders day [insisted on by Vesari) and one other to be announced).

Kuthona, 4711: The party (minus Rado who was having far too much of a good time now that there was a town with unmarried women to leave yet) decided to continue its explorations to start the month off, heading south. They discovered a hut, complete with vegetable garden and scarecrow, but when Kaylea actually crossed the threshold of the garden, the scarecrow head followed her. As it animated itself, Kaylea watched in fascination, doing nothing as the scarecrow pulled itself off its stand and advanced. Krager shouted out for Vesari and moved to engage the scarecrow. The scarecrow struck each of them, causing Vesari to cower as Krager retreated, hoping to lead it away from Kaylea and break the spell. Vesari recovered enough to drive his rapier into the scarecrow's back. This caused it to get rather irked and ripped into him with both claws, forcing him to retreat. Deciding that a pissed off barbarian with a minotaur's axe might be a good thing at this moment, Vesari tried to free Kaylea by splashing water on her face. This made her wet but did nothing else as Krager struck at the scarecrow. Krager shouted out to try the fairy tale solution. Vesari leaned in for a kiss, and this did break the spell, just as Krager beheaded the scarecrow. Of course, in most fairy tales the kissed princess doesn't scowl, draw out a piece of parchment and note the names of the prince involved. Kaylea took her frustrations out on the door rather than Vesari, however. They explored the hut, but didn't find much of interest and so resumed their explorations. Kaylea also used her wand to heal Vesari who was quite surprised the barbarian could power it.

The next day, they returned early to the hut, to find the Beldame within. As soon as Krager stepped into the garden she shouted at him to get off her land. They explained who they were and her response was "I don't need no lords. So tell your lord that he needs to do something about the bastards who smashed my door in!" When asked her name, she shouted "I am the Beldame. When they don't think I can hear them, they call me the Old Beldame."

"Are you old?"

"Not for a dwarf!"

"How rude of them."

Sadly, Krager couldn't think of anything else to ask her at that time and the party continued south to the Candlemere, discussing exactly what the Beldame was, as neither Kaylea nor Krager could identify her species (they don't think she's a hag or fey, though). They spotted the tower but lacking a boat, decided to leave its exploration until later. As they camped, however, one of the lights they spotted around the tower came closer. Krager, on watch, hid but couldn't identify the creature. When he approached it with "Hello.", the light swooped down and shocked him. This prompted an "Ow!" and the others began to wake. As both were in their armour, they didn't have to take much time to prepare. The ball of light struck Krager with its electric touch again as Vesari moved to flank. He missed, and the ball struck Krager again. Seeing that Krager was badly hurt, Kaylea unleashed a strange song that cut at the ball of light and Vesari but missed him, for now. As Vesari glared at her, she shrugged and drew her axe. The ball of light decided Krager wasn't a threat at the moment, and swooped at Kaylea zapping her. Sadly for it, the next round everyone hit it hard and as it tried to escape, Kaylea struck it from the sky. The ball of light evaporated, but the others still hung round the tower. At that point, Kaylea suggested they spend the rest of the night `away'.

The next day, Kaylea swam across the river between the two lakes, and kept a rope with her so that the crude, and barely riverworthy, raft that Krager and Vesari cobbled together could make it over. They discovered a fould smelling pool of bubbling mud, but Vesari thought some of the fungi might be of use as poisons and approached. At that point, the tendriculous unfurled itself and attacked, grappling him. Kaylea quickly rushed through ha tale of derring do to give him pointers on how to escape. However, Vesari was paralysed by the beast (DM error). The plant then slipped in the mud, dropping Vesari as Krager charged in, brought up short by the choking fumes. Kaylea charged in, raging, her axe cleaving into the plant. The fibres began to reknit themselves as Krager inched his way back to solid ground. Kaylea tumbled away, forcing the Tendriculous to charge after her, grabbing her with its beak. She broke free, tumbling back, slashing at it with her axe. This process was repeated several times as Krager fought to clear his lungs, but when he did he dragged Vesari from the mud and launched a flaming arrow at the tendriculous. This caused the plant to re-evaluate its target and lumbered after Krager. Vesari recovered, stabbing the beast as Kaylea lunged in and Krager broke free of the grapple muttering "Bastard was right, I need spikes." The tendriculous collapsed under the assault at which point it was splashed with oil and set on fire and Kaylea yanked out a potion to cure herself before her rage ended to avoid unconsciousness.

And there we left them.

[Paul Watson]

Kuthona, 4711: After defeating the tendriculous, and moving far away from the mud pool, the party rested and Kaylea used up a lot of charges of her wand.

The next day, they proceeded north around the lake, spotting a tiny trail, with odd, scalloped shapes in the dirt. Following it along, and ducking as the trail wasn't clear above four feet (leading Krager to think it was a Kobold trail), the party discovered a small pool. Krager decided to go fishing and then tossed some pebble into the water for a reaction. Which he got as old Crackjaw lurched out of the water. Despite rushing up in a rage, Kaylea discovered that a giant turtle's shell does a pretty good impression of plate mail armour. Krager managed to find a gap in the armour, as did Vesari. In response, Crackjaw snapped at Krager's ancestral axe, almost shearing it in half. This really enraged Krager, but deadly a mighty blow from Kaylea broke through the shell and killed the turtle. Krager decided he was taking the body back although he's not sure for what.

On making it back to Port Glory, they were approached quickly by Arven who thanked them profusely for killing the local legendary turtle, handing over his ring of feather falling. Krager retreated to his workshop to repair the axe, muttering about making it animal bane under his breath.

In their official duties, the council constructed another house, and a carpenter. They also claimed the fangberry patch for the kingdom. Unfortunately, this stretched their resources to the limit and their treasury is currently empty. Something Oleg is not happy about.

Abadius, 4712: The party set off to the east for further exploration to the east. They encountered, and rescued the Narpottle expedition, but did not hit it off with the gnomish explorer at all. They managed to find out about the barrow mounds to the West, and were a bit irked that they hadn't found it during their explorations. They also heard about the cursed Candelmere Tower to the south, with its will-o-the-wisps and writing that man was not meant to understand. During Krager's watch, Pervilash landed on his shoulder, saying that he should take his humans and come east as there was a problem they needed to deal with.

The next morning, they arrived to find the confrontation between Corax and Melianse the Nixie. Despite Krager's efforts at diplomacy, Kaylea managed to calm Melianse down. Krager was more effective `intimidating the s@$*' out of Corax. A compromise was reached, with Pervilash indicating that a dryad to the west might be able to help with replacing the destroyed trees. Corax growled and grumbled a lot but did agree.

The party rode west, with Pervilash guiding to Tiressia's grove. Finding her crying, Krager immediately held backm letting Laylea discover that while she did have some tree tokens, there was a blight on nature, a scythe tree to be precise, that needed dealing with and which she was incapable of doing do. The party naturally agreed, which brightened her considerably.

To the south they went. Krager spotted that one of the trees was not native, just before the tree ambushed them. He charged, hacking at it with his axe. The tree ignored him, trying to slice at Vesari who ducked aside even though surprised.

Krager and Kaylea hacked at the tree, while Vesari launched a flaming arrow. The scythe tree lunged forward after him, knocking Kaylea to the ground. Axes are bad but fire is worse, after all. Sadly for it the raging skald hit it in passing with her axes and the tree toppled over dead as it passed her. She and Krager then reduced it to kindling. That night, Tiressia stepped out of a nearby tree, handing over her promised reward, and promising to help them guard the Narlmarches.

The party returned to Melianse, planting the tree tokens for her grove. She was delighted with the clever mortals and promised to keep an eye out along the Greenbelt's rivers for trouble.

The party resumed its original explorations, deciding to finish looking around the scythe tree's domain. They encountered a manticore there, and a duel or archery and spikes ensued. Vesari licked one arrow which struck but to no obvious effect. His webs were more successful, filling the forest with webbing 3 times and slowing the beast down and force it to the ground. Kaylea raged and charged up to it, hacking with her axe. The Manticore, now badly wounded took flight and Kaylea brought it down with a single well-placed shot from her bow. Krager collected four of the spikes, planning to make special daggers with them.

And there we left them.

[Paul Watson]

Abadius, 4712: Battered by the manticore, the party returned to Port Glory where, under pressure from Oleg, they scaled back the festivals to zero in order to build up some capital. They claimed Tuskgutter's forest lair for their next hex, placing a farm around the fangberries. Vesari, Radon and Krager also contributed some of their personal wealth to the kingdom. Loy Rezbin and his wife approached them with their plans for the village of Tatzylford, and the council gave their ascent, but not a lot in the way of building materials.

Calistril, 4712: The party stayed home this month, with Krager filling in time by working on the manticore daggers. Radon got propositioned by Lily who will be ever so grateful if he finds an elven statue. The part claimed one of the river hexes, building a farm over it. They then reinstated the celebrations to their former glory. The rumours of trolls to the south began to cause some concern to the citizens, causing some unrest to build up.

Pharast, 4712: The party stayed home for a third month, helping with the celebrations for Planting Week. They claimed the gold mine for the kingdom but have not started to properly develop it yet. The rumours of trolls to the south continued to rumble on, but the party managed to calm things down.

Gozrant, 4712: The party decided they could leave the fledgling kingdom of Chaldea and went back to their explorations. They decided to fill in their map, and encountered a hermit and his cat. His habit of answering everything three times, not to mention the talk of the voices led Krager to conclude that he probably didn't have one screw fully tightened. Krager also meditated on his ancestor spirits and discovered that he would get something out of the hermit, but he wouldn't like it. However, this did mean he had to admit that he was hearing voices, which pleased the hermit immensely and reinforced him trying to be friends. They managed to leave, but while exploring, the hermit ambushed them. Well, tried to. Krager spotted the attempt before it could happen and charged in. The Hermit and Cat flanked him, with the hermit's short sword tearing quite deeply. Vesari moved up behind the cat. Krager hit the bandit hard, but his return blow skitted off Krager's armour. Cat was more effective, biting and clawing at Krager's back. Vesari's rapier failed to penetrate cat's hide. At which point, Kaylea charged into the fight, her axe glowing with fire and beheaded Cat with a single blow. Which annoyed Vesari as he was looking for a fur rug for his demanse. Radon's staff burst into fire as he swung at the hermit, chanting a Shocking Grasp spell as he did so. The Hermit collapsed, his already wild hair standing out in all directions. Krager proceeded to gulp down a couple of potions of cure moderate wounds to heal himself, before looting the tree. Radon took the hermit's armour as it was less `fetish-weary' than the Stag Lord's but after some comments from Kaylea, decided against changing right then and there.

Moving on, they discovered the lizardmen's village, hearing the plaintive sniffles of little Tig as he was tied up in the central square. They approached peacefully, and began a discussion in Draconic, with Krager asking "What?" a lot as the only non-speaker. This discussion basically revolved around "If you give us the boy back, we won't come back with an army." And ended up with Kaylea challenging the King to one on one combat for the boy. King Vesket went to commune with the spirits of the ancestors and returned, demanding they leave, without Tig, who was hunted properly. The ghostly skull of his ancestors also rose out of the mound to watch, although Krager was rather suspicious that it wasn't a ghost but a will o' the wisp. Regardless, Kaylea and Vesket squared off and despite some nasty wounds from the King's bite and trident (and downing his healing potion after a mere two rounds), Kaylea, the self-proclaimed "barbarian army of one" soon emerged triumphant and cut the cord around Tig. With a parting message to not raid their territory any more, the party returned to Port glory where Tig's overjoyed parents thanked them profusely, inviting Kaylea to the farmstead to dine while Krager went back to his work on the daggers and Radon went back to partying.

At Appleby's suggestion as the girl is quite bright and would be an asset, not to mention keep her away from undesirables, Lily Teskertin has been recruited as their Diplomat, while Appleby returned to being the Lord Chancellor and organising the kingdom. The council approved construction of a butcher's beside the carpenters, overriding Radon's pushing for a brothel instead to `help morale' and `make a happy Magister'. They also claimed the area around the moonradish patch. The troll rumours were again quelled, and the general political calm enabled Taxfest to proceed in a proper manner, with Terjion himself conducting the ceremonies.

And there we left it.

[Paul Watson]

Desnus, 4712: The kingdom claimed the area to the East of Oleg's, building a farm there. They also had some bandit activity. This perked Krager up immensely. The party tracked them down and Krager demanded they surrender. He didn't get much further than that before the dozen or so bandits panicked and immediately surrendered. Krager was disappointed as he had a long speech prepared, but he was quite happy to take them into custody. They were quickly sentenced to work on the new farms and road building for a couple of months.

Sarenith, 4712: The kingdom claimed the area around Bokken's hut, converting much of the area to farms. They didn't have any other major events this month but built an Office of the Guard so that any future bandit activity could be dealt with more effectively.

Erastus, 4712: After some attacks on their farmers and hunters, the party set off to find the North-Wind-That-Howls. They tracked him to a vaguely wolf-headed rock, but were ambushed. Krager, who wasn't ambushed, finally got to use his animal bane arrow, slaying one of the wolves. Vesari moved himself into position behind another. North-Wind bit heavily into Krager, but the dwarf was far too stubborn to fall over. Kaylea then charged up and tore the worg apart, while Krager turned on the wolf beside Vesari and killed it immediately, while Radon cast Shocking Grasp but failed to strike the wolf. The last wolf fled, but Vesari shot it with an animal bane arrow and dropped it. He then proceeded to search the wolf's den without much success, but a lot of complaints about the smell, while Krager skinned the wolves (Kaylea wanted some new boots) while Kaylea prepared the wolf jerky into something actually tasty.

The party then followed the Mad Hermit's map further east to the barrow mounds finding the one that had cracked open. Slipping inside, they disturbed the bat swarm, but Vesari hurled a web at them, While Krager stepped behind Radon. Which was fortunate as his burning hands spell incinerated the trapped swarm. They proceeded forward, Kaylea and Radon made their axe and staff glow, having a verbal contest about which was bigger, brighter and shinier, while Vesari ignored them, stepping into the darkness Krager following, suspicious that the human could see properly. On finding the central chamber, Krager immediately stomped on the skeleton's head as a precaution, setting off the trap. He and Kaylea dodged the black beams from the stone faces, but Vesari was tired by the ray as it sapped his energy and Radon almost collapsed in exhaustion. Fortunately, with some inspiring words from Kaylea, he recovered. At that point, they heard bones clacking in the side chambers, Krager and Vesari both spotting the marching skeletons. Krager drew his hammers and charged up to the edge of one corridor, followed by Kaylea, whose axe crushed the skull off the first skeleton they encountered. Vesari launched an arrow into the skeletons but it chinked harmlessly off their bones. Radon rushed up to the other corridor, sending a sheet of flame through the skeleton crowd, five of them falling to the ground in flames. He proceeded to smash the sixth with his staff. Meanwhile, Krager and Kaylea proceeded to pound their skeletons into chips as Vesari searched the room. He was unable to perceive exactly how the trap worked, but did find the doomed explorer's ring of sustenance.

The party then moved into the burial chamber itself. The Barrow King sat up on his beir, grasping his axe and slowly moving towards them. He dodged Vesari's web, and the ray of flame that Radon hurled at him but fell on the floor in doing so. Radon also stared into the brilliant sheet of flame and was briefly blinded. The King, Krager and Kaylea traded blows, a bit of Krager's soul drained away by the king's mighty axe blows as Vesari snuck up behind him, plunging is rapier into the King's back. Radon hurled magic missiles once his sight was restored and eventually the King collapsed to the ground. Kaylea claimed the axe as her own and the party returned to town where Krager worked on repairing it.

The party claimed more territory around Bokken's, building more farms while the Stag's Head Inn set up shop in Port Glory.

Arodus, 4712: The kingdom didn't grow this month as the party consolidated its hold on the land.

Rova, 4713: The kingdom expanded into the forests to the west of Port Glory, expanding to the point where Terjion has acquired the title of Grand Mof. At his suggestion, construction of a shrine to Abadar was constructed, while at the festivals, Radon's magical performance wowed the crowds.

And there we left them, on the anniversary of their entry into the Stolen Lands.

[Paul Watson]

Lamashan, 4713: The party decided to continue its explorations and headed west. They discovered the abandoned keep and while Radon, Kaylea and Krager went through the rotten front doorway (after Krager and Vesari had scouted around the outside. They thought they heard something inside but couldn't determine what.) Vesari simply walked up the side of one of the towers, show-off that he is. As they entered the keep, the portcullis dropped. Kaylea and Krager both managed to throw themselves forward, but Radon wasn't quite as quick and got badly gashed. While Vesari was exploring the rat-infested tower (from the outside), Krager stood guard and Kaylea used her wand to bring Radon back from woozy to fighting fit.

The party rejoined with Vesari by the tower but decided to leave the door firmly closed for now. Krager wanted to explore the central tower and was a bit irked when everyone else easily outpaced him. Although not quite as annoyed as Vesari when Rigg Gargadily, a quickling, tried to stab him. Fortunately, Vesari's reflexes pulled him out of the way of the blade. Krager then gave Rigg some grog to placate him, but the quickling spat it out. He did, however, like the wine offered and promised to kill Krager last. Kaylea then offered some wine to put him in the difficult existential position of having to kill two people last. Rigg spat at her and when asked why he was going to kill any of them piped up "becauseyouretrespassingandit'sbeenagessinceIhadadecenthumanwhoscreamsonice lyundertheknife" he then stabbed Radon, who'd asked him the question and raced off. Fortunately, Radon threw off the poison.

Vesari tried to trap Rigg in a web but the quickling avoided that easily. Krager drew his bow, while Kaylea and Radon stood back to back as they watched Rigg daub his blade with poison as he vanished from sight. He reappeared as he raced towards Radon, stabbing him again. Radon tried to strike him with his staff, and a Shocking Grasp, but the quickling easily dodged aside and ran off. He repeated this trick as Vesari retreated into his web but was rather less successful as Kaylea's fey-bane axe tore into him, along with Krager's arrows. Swearing revenge, Rigg ran off.

Meanwhile, Vesari noticed he was not alone as an assassin vine slowly crawled towards him through the webbing. He moved as quickly as he could through the webs and the undergrowth, avoiding the vine's attempts to entangle him. Sadly, Radon was less lucky and was wrapped in thorns. As Vesari left the web, with the assassin vine slowly moving behind him, Radon set the web alight. Krager, meanwhile, had noticed the grimstalker in the tower and was taking potshots at him, especially when he started crawling down the tower's walls. Radon freed himself from the thorns and fired a ray of fire at the grimstalker. The fire seared him badly, causing him to growl at Radon, and also deafened him with the roar of flames. Unable to reach Radon through the undergrowth, he instead rushed up to Vesari and stabbed him with its claws. This rather enraged the noble who stabbed him with his rapier, his body shaking as he fought off the poison and took a step back to let Krager, himself now bound by the thorns to take a shot. At this point, Kaylea got bored of missing out on the fun and rushed up to hit the grimstalker, very nearly killing it in one blow. Radon was going to complete the job, but Vesari shouts at him to not kill it yet. The vine tried to strangle Kaylea but was ineffective in getting a grip, so she struck it with her axe, cleaving it in two as Vesari harvested some of the venom from the grimstalker's claws. As they explored the grimstalker's tower, they found the chest but Vesari refused to pick the locks on the grounds that "I'm no thief", so they resorted to Radon splashing acid onto the lock. Vesari, with help from Krager, then strung the grimstalker up on the wall by its own entrails as a warning.

Having raided the tower, the party returned to the central chamber. Kaylea waited outside for Krager, while Vesari and Radon were less polite and strode in. And succeeded in setting off the trap, filling the tower with purple mists. Fortunately, they fought off the delusions that the frescoes were animating to attack them.

Once Krager and Kaylea had stopped laughing, the party proceeded upstairs where everyone except Radon was entranced by the Dancing Lady's dancing. She tried to get to Radon, calling him "My Prince", begging him to come to her and hwen he tried to step away, she cast entangle on him. Sadly, this interacted with the magic of her dance and broke the spell, stunning the three entranced humans. Outraged at the rejection, she slashed at Radon's side, taking a bite out of her shoulder. He proceeded to make the `betrayal' worse, hitting her with his staff and Shocking Grasp. She managed to bite him one more time, before Kaylea's axe hit her in the side and Vesari, who'd abandoned his dropped rapier for a dagger stabbed her through the thigh, severing an artery and dropping her to the ground. She glared up at him, mouthing a curse before she died. Fortunately, Vesari managed to fight off the dark magics. After searching the place, and some comments about how easily Radon knew the price of the nude statue and Kaylea pocketing the philtre as the only one who recognised it for what it was, they finished their exploration of the castle, Vesari and Radon teaming up to take down the rats. They found an exquisite elven statue in the rubble, which Radon claimed for Lily, and several gems in Rigg's lair. They then decided to turn in for the night in the Lady's room, laying down bear traps and caltrops around every entranceway, just in case. This proved prudent as Rigg tried to ambush them in the night. He easily sidestepped the caltrops and the first trap but tripped over another in his haste. He landed hard in a third trap, the heavy jaws crushing his neck. Kaylea's laughter woke up the rest of the group.

Returning home, and discussing how to get a cart out to the woods, they quickly went to see Lily. Radon got his kiss, Krager got the cloak, but it was hewr whispered suggestion to Kaylea that they 'break his brain' that got the most reaction. As they left, they were approached by Kesten, who informed them of a series of attacks. Two nights ago, some livestock were attacked and a shepherd boy named Beven was found having been mauled. Well, most of him was found, anyway. And last night one of the maid's at the Stag's Head didn't make it home. They found her this morning. Quite a mess she was. However, we had to stop before the party could properly investigate.

Port Glory continues to grow as Ratchkins the herbalist opened up his shop. However, the attacks, along with persistent troll rumours, created a deep unease in the populace.

[Paul Watson]

Lamashan, 4713 (continued): The party investigated the murders, piecing together the wounds as caused by some large canine, possibly a worg. However, the tracks Krager followed appeared to change to heavily booted feet outside the city and he lost them. The party quickly purchased several silver arrows and two bottles of silversheen and staked out the inn. On spotting the werewolf, Krager let off an arrow as both Vesari and Kaylea moved towards it, while Radon cast Ablative Shield on himself. The wolf then charged, the greataxe missing Kaylea but his vicious bite tripping her up. As Vesari struck with his swords, to little effect, Krager leapt off the stable roof and charged forward with his silversheened axe. Kaylea got up, taking another hit from the axe and massively wounded the beast, dropping it to the ground. Krager then cast stabilise on the barbarian revealed, in case this was an innocent rather than a monster. After several manacles had been applied, they forcefed him wolfsbane, Kaylea and Krager doing their best to keep him alive despite the damage the poison did him as his body fought off the curse. Eventually, Kunlan recovered himself and pledged his axe to their service.

Meanwhile, Kaylea had managed to slip Moff Terjion the Philter of Love and preparations are on the way for the wedding.

Neth, 4713: Radon went out to see the Beldame, wanting to recruit her as a fellow arcanist. He did slightly better than the others by not provoking a fight with her guardian. The Beldame asked if he could get her some blackcap mushrooms from the mud pools in exchange for possibly aiding him in future and the rest of the party agreed.

On reaching the pool, and Krager muttering not again as a tendriculos charged over to them, Krager rushed up to it, the tendriculos pulling back as smoking wounds appeared on its body. Sadly, Krager then succumbed to the fumes and the tendriculous managed to bite on to him. Vesari tried to help Krager, dosing him with antitoxin to keep him going, while Kaylea charged up to strike the tendriculous. Krager managed to squirm enough that it couldn't swallow him, vanishing and reappearing behind it. This enabled Vesari to stab at it with both his rapier and short sword, while Radon's bolt of fire put the tendriculous down. Vesari has kept one of the mushrooms with the intent to try to cultivate it.

The wedding of Moff Terjion of Abadar and Kaylea Burning-Sky was a great success, with Akiros taking up Kaylea's old position of General, while Kunlan became the new Executioner. Baron Varn of the new settlement of Varnhold to the East sent his regards and a standing invitation for the Moff and his bride to visit once the winter snows were cleared.

Kuthona, 4713: Krager's OCD tendencies finally got the better of him and he led the party out to fill in a gap in their maps to the west in the depths of winter. They found a hidden lair deep in the forest, and as Radon walked inside, casting light, a hodag charged at him. Sadly for the hodag, the party were swifter and it was unable to toss them aside. It did maul Kaylea, somewhat. As Krager tried to sidestep it, hoping it would miss so he could slip past and set up a flank for Vesari, the hodag hit him with a vicious bite that set his wound bleeding profusely. With mighty blows from Kaylea and the others, Radon cast a Shocking Grasp through his staff, dropping the badly wounded hodag, smoke rising from its body. Searching the lair, they discovered Stas' spear along with some other weapons.

They returned to Port Glory, and attempted to return the spear to Stas, but he was more than grateful for the council treating him so fairly, especially in front of his drinking buddies and really especially when Krager bought them several rounds of ale. Krager also finished making a magic bow for Vesari.

[Paul Watson]

Kuthona, 4713 (continued): The town they returned to was a bit less content than usual. Tracking it down to the malcontent Grigori, the party listened to him rant about “the Mof has married a monster, a creature that isn’t even fully human. We don’t want another Chorval, do we?” The crowd mostly agreed as Kaylea was starting to show some fine red scales as she embraced her draconic heritage. He persisted with “no unmarried owman, and damn few married ones, are safe from the rapacious lusts of the magister”, which even the party had to agree was mostly true. Sadly things took a negative turn from there as he criticised Svetlana, suggesting she had fallen victim to the magus’ lusts, which got the crowd agitated as she’s still highly regarded. Kaylea began to intervene at this point countering claims of them stirring up trouble by pointing out all the good they’d done and even getting Tyg’s parents to step out of the crowd to support her. Claims of them plundering the treasury from their own ends were met with laughter from Krager and furious protests from Vesari and Radon, all of whom had sunk considerable income into the kingdom. Claims that they promote monsters into power were harder to dispute given both the general and headsman were an ex-bandit (and ex-paladin as Krager was happy to point out) and murderous werewolf but they appealed for the value of second chances. The crowd was starting to turn at this point, so Grigori pulled out that they may do some good, but they expect to be paid handsomely for it. At this point Stas stood up and disputed this, punctuating his point with a beer mug (empty, he’s not daft). At this point, Grigori realised his chances of winning the crowd over was lost and left town in a hurry.

Abadius, 4714: The party decided to go exploring, eager to fill in the blanks to the east before Baron Varn decided to investigate them. Not wanting to leave Radon alone in town, especially not with the snows keeping people indoors, and over his strenuous protests about the cold, they rode out and began to explore. During their explorations of the hills, they heard a cry of distress from one of the nearby gorges. Krager and Radon raced heedlessly to help, Kaylea keeping up. All three managed to dodge a small avalanche that blocked the gorge. As Vesari was approaching the debris, he was bitten incredibly hard from behind. He shouted out as he spied the leucrotta and stepped back to fire his bow. Sadly this distracted him enough for the leucrotta to get another bite in and he collapsed to the floor, barely alive. The others had just managed to climb over the debris, with Krager making easy work of it. The Leucrotta was dragging Vesari off but Kaylea raced up, using her wand to partially restore Vesari from the brink of death. Radon hurled magic missiles at the beast as Krager charged up to it, bashing it with his hammer as Kaylea’s axe gashed along its side. Another volley of missiles laid it low. Vesari was healed up from Kaylea’s wand and proceeded to carefully slice off its head for mounting. They also found the beast’s lair with Krager claiming the armour, checking it didn’t clash with his cloak.

They decided to continue their explorations, only to be ambushed by a shambling mound that quickly grabbed Radon. He was unable to break free, but the party attacked in response. Radon managed to slip free as Vesari smashed a bottle of alchemist’s fire on the mound, splashing Kaylea, who ignored the splashes of fire, and Krager, who would later complain about the stains it left on his armour. The mound grabbed him, but Kaylea cleaved it apart before it could do much more damage. Having been out for a fortnight, the party swiftly returned to Port Glory where the building of their castle had quelled the unrest.

Callistril, 4714: The party again set out exploring, determined to fill in the gaps as Krager couldn’t tolerate a hole in their map. After a few days they found the old ferry station on the Shrike River but spotted it was currently inhabited. By trolls. The party debated whether they could manage this fight, but eventually decided on a plan. Approaching cautiously, they managed to get the drop on the lone troll fishing outside. Radon hurled a scorching ray at it but something went wrong with the casting as, in addition to burning the troll badly, he swapped places with it, putting him perilously close to the lair. The party immediately set to hacking at the troll as Radon immediately set to running like hell towards them, pausing briefly to lay a batch of grease in front of the troll’s ‘door’, a mangled section of the wall. Vesari hurled a web into the building as soon as the first troll came out, slowing those inside. Krager and Kaylea raced up to the lone troll as it lumbered after Radon who also burned it. The troll was put down, and Radon delivered the coup de grace with his burning staff as Vedsari added more webbing to the filled interior. Another troll struggled free. Krager made it to him first, sooty wounds appearing across the troll’s skin just before Kaylea roared up, hacking at it. Radon also joined in as Vesari came closer, dropping yet more webbing into the terminal as the party dropped the third troll. As the remaining two lumbered out, Radon cast burning hands, singing them, but setting the webbing around them alight. As Radon, Krager and Kaylea attacked one of the trolls, Vesari took shots with his new bow into the last one. The party swiftly killed their troll and Krager smashed a bottle of alchemist’s fire into it, not caring about the singing he took. Radon finished it up with a combination of burning hands and flaming quarterstaff, but the terminal very nearly burnt to the ground.

And there we left it, with Vesari muttering about their herbalist and the weird s+!$ he needs for his potions.

[Paul Watson]

Callistril, 4714 (Continued): While Krager went round making sure all the trolls were dead, the others explored the burnt ruins, finding the remains of a merchant (fortunately only bits of him so he was clearly dead before they set everything on fire) and a Swan Boat Feather Token. They then proceeded home as fast as possible, collecting three potions of Resist Electricity in planning for an eventual assault on the Will o’ the Wisps of the Candlemere.

Several dwarves moved into the hills, setting up a gold mine bringing further prosperity to the region. The troll heads also helped quell the rumours of trolls for this month.

Pharast, 4714: The party went out exploring, only to be ambushed by the forest drake. With one exception (Binky, Kaylea’s horse) all their mounts died (although Radon’s weasel familiar survived by burrowing under several layers of clothing). The drake swooped on Radon after a particularly vicious Empowered Scorching Ray, and then retreated up into the air. Vesari leaped onto its back, barely clinging on as it soared higher and higher, slapping at him with its tail. Eventually, the drake got fed up with its annoying passenger, and shook him off. Vesari then calmly floated to the ground with his ring of feather falling. The drake was prepared to swoop down but a volley of arrows from Krager and Kaylea soon changed its mind. As it flew away, Kaylea took another shot and the drake plummeted to the ground. While Vesari and Radon went to take pieces of the drake’s corpse, Krager went in search of its lair, and Kaylea followed, discovering the remains of the unfortunate elven scout.

Despite lacking their mounts, they proceed (more slowly) to the West. Krager spotted a lot of troll tracks leading up to the mountain cave and the party decided to do its best Brave Sir Robin impression and headed home at a leisurely pace, exploring the hills on their way back.

The radishes were successfully farmed, much to Krager’s pleasure as it meant he got proper seasoning to his stews again.

Gozran, 4714: Having acquired new mounts, the party set out exploring to the east. On their way through the hills, Krager noticed a lone wolf following them. Concerned it might be injured, he tried to tempt it with some jerky. At which point the werewolf lunged for him, biting him in the shoulder. Krager’s notoriously un-dwarven constitution failed him and he contracted lycanthropy from that bite. Radon lit up the area with bolts of fire, but sadly did very little to actually hit the werewolf. Vesari covered his sword on silver sheen, while Kaylea charged the beast. As Vesari was just about to strike, the beast dropped dead from its wounds. Frustrated at wasting his silversheen, he stabbed the corpse repeatedly anyway, Krager kicking it in the nuts for good measure. With a week to go to the full moon, Krager took wolfsbane once a day, successfully resisting the poison, but also failing to shift the curse, taking three full doses before he was clean.

Continuing on, the party explored several areas of the hills before they stumbled onto Munguk. Specifically, they heard him moaning in giant about “no booze, no game, no woman, no booze!” Approaching cautiously, they managed to persuade Munguk to listen to them, with promises of booze (despite only having a few bottles of rotgut and wine between them). Vesari then tried to explain how the trolls had booze. This lie was so transparent that even Munguk, a giant of very little brain, realised it was false. With a bellow of “You lie to Munguk” he picked up his club and charged. Vesari tried to dodge past but Munguk managed to successfully club him. Kaylea charged up but sadly missed, as did Krager and Radon’s scorching rays. This meant Munguk ignored them, concentrating on pounding Vesari into the ground. When Krager finally did hit him, Munguk pounded him till he fell over, with Kaylea suffering particularly bad fortune with her attacks. Vesari used this opportunity to get a long way back from Munguk, just as Radon managed to hit him. Enraged at the pain from the fire, Munguk charged at Radon. Kaylea struck him and then as Munguk had to move again to reach the magus, she struck him again sending the giant plunging to the floor. Vesari searched Krager (for healing potions, honestly) and they then proceeded to drain one of Kaylea’s healing wands to heal everyone up, muttering about Cayden Cailean’s protection for drunks and Desna’s cursed luck the whole time. Despite this, they continued their explorations, encountering some of the Sootscale tribe in their travels. They warned the kobolds about the trolls and how they were a threat. The kobolds did a little figuring, mostly along the lines of these guys who saved us, beat up the shaman and just said they killed a giant say it’s dangerous and promptly fled as fast as possible.

Having finished their explorations, and with plans to take on the trolls being formed, the party returned home to find Port Glory astir with fear as a changeling child had been found, rumours buzzing that everything from a coven of hags to a cult of Gyronna was in the town, kidnapping and eating children.

And there we left things.

[Paul Watson]

Gozran, 4714 (Continued): The party started to investigate the cult, or coven, living in their midst. Krager’s knowledge of other religions and Vesari’s detailed notes on the kingdom’s inhabitants allowed them to deduce the likely candidates, many of whom had a connection to Radon, being spurned lovers, adulterous wives and the like. Following each of them quietly, they eventually discovered several of them meeting together. Vesari discovered the hidden trap door in the barn, but sadly also tripped the alarm, alerting the cult.

At this point, Kaylea, hurled the trap door open and the party, minus Radon, scrambled down into the cult’s lair. The cult’s priestess began chanting louder as the cultists drew their daggers and attacked, inflicting small scratches on the party. Kaylea casually knocked one down with her axe, while Krager’s hammers pounded another to the ground. Kaylea then charged at the priestess, ignoring the dagger scraping across her armour, while Krager teleported around the cultist who missed him and Vesari plunged his rapier through a third. As two cultists became filled with unholy rage, the priestess realised she was in deep trouble and invoked the maddening aura of her goddess, both Vesari and Krager falling victim to the Hag Queen’s rage and attacking each other. Unfortunately, she did not notice that Kaylea was unaffected and she was beheaded while trying to escape. This broke the nerve of the cultists, one of whom fell to the blades and hammers as the other broke and ran. Kaylea easily caught her on the ladder, the axe smashing straight through her body. They stabilised the other cultists for trial, and took the shabble and Hag’s Eye to the castle’s room 101, for things that were too evil to sell.

Krager offered the cultists a clean death by poison in the cells, or a public trial followed by quartering, hanging and drawing, not necessarily in that order. One, Lettie Woodcock, took the offer confessing her involvement in the cult, implicating the others, although she denied direct involvement in the kidnapping. She did admit to being present when the child was sacrificed, however, and was found dead by Krager the next morning. The others were duly tried and executed, with Krager holding up the Eye for the goddess to see. When he turned it to his face and snarled “And don’t come back into our kingdom.”, the Eye cracked, a dark curse spilling around him. Fortunately, he managed to fight the dark magics off before the cracked Eye was returned to its chamber.

Desnius, 4714: The party settled down to rule their kingdom rather than immediately deal with the trolls, claiming more forest and farmlands.

Sarenth, 4714: As shrine was constructed in the city to Abadar, rededicating the earlier shrine to Erastil.

Erastus, 4714: The party expanded the shrine to Abadar into a full blown temple, just in time for it to help put down a virulent plague that spread through the city.

Arodus, 4714: Krager discovered a band of child bandits, easily capturing them and putting them to work on maintenance work for the city.

Rova, 4714: Very little happened this month.

Lamashan, 4714: The party upgraded the temple of Abadar into a vaulted cathedral, a new shop district opening up and a graveyard was sanctified beside the shrine of Erastil, with the Port Glory’s oldest resident being the first inhabitant.

Neth, 4714: The shrine of Erastil was expanded into a temple.

Kuthona, 4714: Noble villas were constructed beside the castle, expanding the wealth of Port Glory.

Abadius, 4715: The party built a civic park and set aside part of the city as common land. However, they also had to deal with a band of rowdy adventurers who boisterously burned down the Stag’s Head.

Callistril, 4715: The party increased the power of civic government with a town hall, rebuilding the Stag’s Head.

Pharast, 4715: The party built up a barracks and military training ground, leaving a band of novice adventurers to fight back a goblin raiding party. A tradition of monthly military parades was instituted, with Oleg muttering about the expense, even though the city can well afford it.

Gozran, 4715: Ground was broken for a new district of Port Glory.

Desnius, 4715: An alchemists shop was set up in the new scrolls district.

Sarenth, 4715: The party constructed the centrepiece of the Scrolls district, a colossal academy of higher learning.

Erastus, 4715: The country expanded again, claiming more farms and forests.

Arodus, 4715: The city fought off another goblin raid, building a library adjunct to the academy.

Rova, 4715: A terse message arrived from Lord Varn asking why the Moff had not taken up his invitation. Randall Morn, a wizard of some small renown, erected a tower in the Scrolls district as the party built a border crossing at the limits of their territory.

And there we left things.

[Paul Watson]

Lamashan, 4714: The party decided that they had better visit Lord Varn, so Terjion (now officially Kaylea’s cohort) and their royal guard set out, with Krager leaving his cohort behind to look after things. Despite the Lamashan rains, they managed to make good time to Varnhold, where Krager presented Lord Varn with an enchanted shield he had created for the visit. Varn gratefully accepted it and had it placed in the armoury.

He also asked if they knew of a rabble-rouser named Grigori who had been causing some trouble, spreading slander against both themselves, and Lord Varn. As what he said was clearly untrue of Varn, he had taken the same approach to the rest of Grigori’s ravings. The guards didn’t break anything important when he was arrested for sedition, but he promised to free him and send him eastwards.

Varnhold was substantially less impressive to the arty than Port Glory, lacking Cathedral, Academy and Castle, but Varn explained that growth was hard with the mountains at his back and the vicious centaur clans to the east. He happily agreed to a trade agreement with their colony and to a proposed visit next Founders’ Day. Krager and Varn’s Sergeant at Arms also struck up a polite working relationship, agreeing to coordinate their anti-bandit activities and liaise regularly on larger problems such as the manticores in the mountains. Krager did finger his manticore spike dagger at that mention.

The party spent a week enjoying Varn’s hospitality, meeting a visiting Taldan sage, Erviul Pendrod who was happy to explain about the Taldan history in the region. Possibly too happy for the party’s liking. When they returned, they found Port Glory affected badly by another outbreak of plague that was fortunately dying down and a mountain of paperwork from Appleby. The much anticipated brothel was build, over Svetlana’s objections, and positioned near the adacemy so that it was easily accessible to the students.

Neth, 4714: The party determined to deal with the island of wisps, given its proximity to Port Glory. They crossed over, with Krager clad in his blue dragon hide armour, while Kaylea and Vesari both downed potions of Electrical Resistance and Kaylea read from one of two scrolls of See Invisibility she’d purchased. As they approached the tower, she spotted half a dozen wisps moving towards them. Krager took the lead, by quite a margin and when Kaylea indicated he was surrounded, he channelled energy, searing through the wisps. They responded by shocking him badly, even through the armour.

Vesari moved up to help Krager, while Kaylea held back. As the wisps split up, Kaylea raged, slaying one in one mighty blow. She then began using her wand of magic missiles to help Krager see where the wisps were as they kept going invisible after they struck. Krager was a bit busy, at that point, spending the fight healing himself with spell and potion, so Vesari took up the slack, crippling one wisp before finally dispatching it. However, one wisp shocked him badly enough that he saw another wisp and it wasn’t until his sword passed through it that he realised it was an illusion. Kaylea killed another two before the fight was over, one cut down as it tried to flee.

As they explored the odd tower, its blasphemous construction putting Krager on edge. Vesari was able to puzzle out the language of the strange runes enough to see this was a place used by the Old Cults to conduct their blasphemous worships of the Great Old Ones of the Dark Tapestry. As they were exploring, Kaylea noticed two more witchlights approaching and read carefully from her second scroll, acting as if she had seen nothing as the light winked out of existence. The two wisps shocked Kaylea but were then caught between her and the other members of the party. One was heavily wounded by Kaylea and Krager, while Vesari managed to stab the other with his swords inflicting significant damage. Both wisps tried to flee, only to have one cut in two by Kaylea’s axe and for her wand of magic missiles to bring down the last. Significantly battered and out of protection, the party returned to Port Glory.

A tavern, the Pen and Strumpet, was erected near to both the academy and brothel to attract passing trade from both, as was a monastery to try to raise the class of the neighbourhood a bit. It probably won’t work, not with students lowering the tone. The local alchemist managed to make real progress, increasing their reserves.

And there we left things.