Pharast 2nd – Itsy Bitsy Spider

Despite sleeping in the open the group sleep peacefully without any incident.

Once all the group had awoken and finished off their breakfast they mounted up and decided to head west.

They ride for a short period and find themselves amongst a group of ancient dead oak trees; Natalia dismounts and begins to investigate the trees and the cause of their demise. Upon closer examination Natalia was able to tell that the trees had been dead for a long time and the most likely cause was from a disease.

Just a short distance from the dead trees is a scattering of bones, from which a quick rustle could be heard but before the group could react to the noise as 2 black blurred objects raced towards them.

The first blur made its way towards Otto and his horse but obviously missed its attack before jumping back under the flap of grass that it had attacked from. The second blur headed for Miro and his riding dog Oskar where it successfully sunk its fangs into the poor dog.

Now that one of the blurs had landed a blow the group could now see that their attackers were a pair of Black & Red spiders each the size of a pony.

The group set on the spider that was attacking Oskar making short work of the job and dispatch it quickly before it had another chance to attack, the other spider though continued to launch attacks at the group by jumping out and in of its trap door lair but constantly missed each target it aimed for.

The group in retaliation also kept missing their chances to hit a blow at the spider until one of Krylander’s arrows finally found its mark striking the spider which sent it scurrying back into its lair to prepare for one final attack.

The group sensing that the spider was getting ready they all took aim and readied their weapons for the impending attack. As expected the spider soon launched its next attack right in the direction of Vaneer. As the spider ran past each member they all took the opportunity to attack the critter only to miss and then just as the spider was about to chew down on the cleric, Otto’s cold iron spear pierces through the spiders skull killing it just in the nick of time.

Taking a couple of minutes to recover from the combat the group soon set to investigating the trap doors that the two spiders had sprung from. Searching the nests within reveals a number of dead bodies in various stages of decay, with no remorse Miro sets to searching the corpses and only thing of interest he manages to find is a small rolled up piece of parchment.

Unrolling the parchment revealed a crude drawing of what appeared to be a tree in a shape of a claw with a red cross on the left hand side of the base of the tree.

Happy with the outcome Oskar’s wounds were healed before the group remounted their trusted steeds and headed to the south east.

By some chance of pure luck the group as they travelled across the plains to the south east stumbled across a tree that had grown in the shape of a claw. Taking a chance the group dismounted and walked up the hill towards the tree.

Kylander and Natalia thoroughly search around the trunk of the tree to find that there is a loose mound of dirt under the left root, as they dig out the mound they found a folded up cloak with a number of items wrapped up within it.

Opening up the cloak the group discovered it contained 3 master worked daggers, a silver dagger; wand of burning hands, silver ring and to top it off the cloak itself Otto discovered appeared to be magical as well.

Happy with the days haul the group decided to call it done as it was now late afternoon and decided to set up camp next to the clawed tree ready for tomorrows adventures.

Pharast 1st – The Bandit Surprise Technique

The group wake early and make ready for the impending bandit visit at sunrise, working with the plan that they had decided on yesterday the group split and take up their positions as agreed,

Miro hides on the palisade about the Outposts wooden gates.

Bob, Natalia, Otto and Vaneer hid in the Storage pen where the bandit’s loot was waiting for collection.

Kyrander hides round the corner of the nearby main hall with bow ready to shoot should things go pear shape.

Just as the 1^st hour after sunrise passes the sound of horses could be heard in the distant moving at speed and getting closer, the group ready themselves for what ever happens next.

Shortly 4 horseman ride into the outpost and stop in the courtyard, looking very confident they observe the area almost spotting Miro skulking up above, the lead horseman a big burley man whom could learn a lesson in grooming dismounts his horse and opens his mouth to shout “Oi!! Where are you?! Oleg you stout little mongrel my payment best be ready this time otherwise me and your lovely lady are gonna have some good times! If you catch my drift!!”.

Oleg opens the door he is hiding behind slightly and points towards the storage pen, the bandit leader looks back at his cronies and nods at them at which the other 3 bandits dismount and make their way over to the storage pen unaware that three of our heroes are lurking inside waiting to pounce on them.

As the door to the storage pen opens Otto releases the sleep spell that he had ready to cast for when the door opened, the sorcerers spell goes off without a hitch and works better than he could have hoped as 2 of the cronies and the bandit leader fall subject to the spells magic energies and collapse to the floor in a state of sleep leaving only the bandit who opened the door still standing.

It was too late for the one remaining bandit, just as he notices what had happened to his comrades he turns his face to see where the spell came from only to see Vaneer’s Morningstar swinging its way into the bandits face, the blow sent him stumbling backwards tripping over one of the sleeping bandits.

At that moment Kyrander let the arrow he had ready fly into the stumbling bandit hitting the bandit in square in the chest, Miro attempts the same from atop of the palisade but his arrow misses it mark.

Bob runs out of the storage pen and charges towards the injured bandit tearing a chunk of the bandits arm off and kills him. Pleased at how smooth the plan went the group give themselves a minute to relax during which Natalia takes her scimitar to the throat of one of the sleeping bandits, Otto then makes a move to dispatch the other sleeping bandit whilst Kyrander ties up their slumbering leader.

The group then discusses what to do with the now tied up bandit leader, after some debate Vaneer comes up with an idea and the group tie the bandit leader to one of the outposts broken catapults before slapping him awake.

As the bandit wakes Miro tells him that unless he answers their questions they’ll see how far a bandit can fly, the bandit remarkably believes Miro’s bluff and doesn’t notice that the catapult is not in any working order what so ever.

After 10 minutes of questioning that group are able to find out that the bandits name is Happs Bydon, he is part of a small bandit camp situated 30 miles south and 5 miles west of the outpost near a river bank. The camp expects Happs and his men back by this evening and that the bandit camp is lead by a vicious women who wields axes and that the camp is a small hold of the “Stag Lords” larger group.

Once all the questioning had died down, the group left it to Oleg and Svetlana to decide the bandit’s fate, Oleg seemed keen for the bandit to be punished and loose his life at which point Happs starts to plea for his life promising that he will change his ways and leave the region for good.

After much deliberation the group decide that enough blood had been shed this morning and agree that as long as Happs keeps to his promise he can live but if they hear or see him acting in any criminal way they won’t think twice of hunting him down and exacting Oleg’s wishes.

With Happs released and gone the group finally sit for breakfast and discuss the fight and what to do next, Oleg grateful at his outpost being saved from Bandits suggest the group head east and seek out the hermit Bokken and pick his brain about the local area if they wish to explore the greenbelt further.

Oleg then looks about the room and notices that his wife is nowhere to be seen he asks the group to help him with an issue, it seems that the bandits previously stole Svetlana’s wedding ring and would really appreciate it if they could retrieve it for him (See Missions for further details).

Just as the group are getting their mounts ready to head east, Svetlana also asks them for a small favour. She would like to treat Oleg to cheer him up but to do so she needs a supply of Moon Radish and would be terribly grateful if the group could find some and bring them back to her (See Missions for further details).

With an idea of where to go and a couple of extra side missions to see to, the group mount up and head east in search of Bokken.

After travelling east for half a day the group came across a small hut amongst an small cropping of trees where an human male could be seen pottering around the front of the small hut. The group cautiously approach the hut stopping a short distance and announced their presence to the gentleman.

The gentleman seemed a little out of place in front of a group of people and came across as an nervous and jittery person. Starting his conversation with “What d’ya want!!”.

Otto and Vaneer between them explained to the hermit that they had been charged with the exploration of the greenbelt and had been recommend by Oleg to come and talk to him about the surrounding area as he had been referred to as an expert in the area.

Playing to the hermit’s ego seemed to work as he became a little more relaxed and seemed happy to give out some information about some of the nearby landmarks. Once he had finished talking about all he knew he then asked the group if they would be interested in purchasing any of his wares.

Curious, Otto asked what wares he was talking about and with that Bokken disappeared into his hut to shortly return with a number of flasks cradled in his hands, “Well Potions obviously!!” Bokken said with a gleam on his face, “I only have a small selection but I can probably make you any potion you want….for a cost of course!!” as he winked at the group.

“Well we don’t exactly have a lot of cash on us to be honest” returned Vaneer, Bokken gave a big grin “Well!! No worries I’m sure we can make a deal, as a matter of fact I’m in need of some Fanberries! Bring me a load of Fangberries and we’ll talk about a nice little discount on my potions”.

“That sounds fair I guess!” said Vaneer, “Where would we find these Fangberries?” asked Natalia, “Ah! My dear that’s easy, you should have no problem finding them along the forests edge. Collect me a mass of berries (See Missions for further details) and we shall talk further”.

The group bid the hermit good day and decide to head south east, after a few hours travelling over open grassland the group spot a heard of Elk nearby, thinking that the sun should soon be setting it would be a nice idea to obtain some supper for the evening.

Natalia agreed to assist Otto by using her druid abilities to keep 29 of the 30 elk calm whilst Otto cast an sleep spell on the 30^th so that Natalia could respectfully deal with the sleeping Elk.

With supper obtained the group set up camp under the stars for the evening and enjoyed some roasted Elk.

Calistril 28th - Mischief at Olegs

We find our heroes 4 uneventful days later, after travelling south the crew make it to the northern edge of the Greenbelt. As they approached Oleg’s, they could tell that the outpost was surrounded by a 10ft high wooden palisade with a 20ft square watch tower on each corner of the palisade.

The rundown old former fort looks as if it had seen better days and in dire need for repairs to it, as the group ride through the large gate into the trading posts court year the group take note that the place appears empty apart from one female peering at the entering group through a partially open door.

“Parley!?!” shouts Otto in the direction of the female whom after moments of obvious consideration opens the door fully and steps into the courtyard.

The female asks as to the group as to their purpose of being here, when they mention that they have come from Restov her demeanour suddenly changes from that of scared to that of relief, she suddenly shouts past the group to across the courtyard at an man saying “It’s them!! They’ve arrived!”

She suddenly turns her attention back to the group and pleads them to stable their horses (Dog in Miro’s case) and to make themselves at home as supper shall soon be ready and she scurries back into the trading post.

Looking at each other slightly baffled the group stable their mounts as suggested and make their way into the trading post. Despite the outpost’s external condition, it’s internal appears to be in a better state of repair. The group sit at a nearby table where the smell of some sort of stew could be noticed wafting in from the kitchen, the group discusses amongst them about what they thought the babbling woman was talking about.

During the conversation, Miro got bored and decided to take his leave and “Scout” around the shadows of the outpost to see what mysteries/fortunes the trading post has to hide. Unfortunately Miro doesn’t sneak of far as whilst not paying attention to his surroundings he managed to bump into the stout gentleman they saw earlier who asked what Miro was doing, a sheepish Miro responded that he was just looking around this fine establishment and made his way back to the group.

As the female serves the group with some stew for supper the stout gentleman walks into the commons area, “Oleg!” where are your manners come and say hello to our saviours!!”

The stout middle-age man stumps forward scowling at the table of heroes, “I’m Oleg, owner and proprietor of this outpost, but excuse me for my scepticism but until you deal with the issue I’ll withhold getting as excited as my wife there.”

“Whilst we’re on the topic, you both keep mentioning we’re here to resolve something?....What is it you’re expecting us to do exactly?” asked Vaneer.

“Well obviously the Bandits!!” growled Oleg, “Of Course we’re here to help with the bandits! *Laugh* We’re just making sure you’re who you say you are, aren’t you Vaneer?!” Otto quickly said whilst giving Vaneer an quick side glance, “errrr…Yeah! Of course, we had to ensure you weren’t bandits in disguise *chuckle*” replied Vaneer.

“So tell us about these bandits, if you may just so we can understand the situation better before we plan on what needs to be done?” Asked Otto

Both Oleg and Svetlana begin to tell the group about the bandit issues that they have been subjected to, they told them that a group of bandits always appear at the outpost an hour after sunrise on the first day of every month where they take all supplies and items that we have and then leave.

“Wait! So they’re due tomorrow!” said Vaneer, “That’s right! That’s why we’re so glad you’ve arrived when you did” said Svetlana.

“So how many are we talking?” asked Otto

“Well originally there where 8 of them, 7 men and an brute of an women whom appeared to be in charged, then after that only there were 5 men and now only 4 have returned since one of which always threatens to do horrid things to me should Oleg not pay up.” Explained Svetlana.

“And do you have any idea where they go once they leave?” asked Otto, “No” replied Oleg.

The group finished off the stew they had been eating and then walked out into the courtyard to survey their surroundings as they formulated a plan to deal with the bandits.

With a plan soon made the group decide to hit the sack earlier so they have enough time to prepare in the morning for the bandits arrival.

Calistril 24th 4710 - The Quest

The crew stand before Lord Surtova as the charter of their latest quest is read out in the hall for all to hear...

"Be it so known that the bearer of this charter has been charged by the Swordlords of Restov, acting upon the greater good and authority vested within them by the office of the Regent of the Dragonscale Throne, has granted the right of exploration and travel within the wilderness region known as the Greenbelt.

Exloration should be limited to an area no further than thirty-six miles east and west and sixty miles south of Oleg's Trading Post. The carrier of this charter should also strive against banditry and other unlawful behaviour to be encountered.

The punishment for unrepentant banditry remains, as always, execution by sword or rape. So witnessed on this 24th day of Calistril, under watchful eye of the Lordship of Restov and authority granted by Lord Noleski Surtova, current Regent of the Dragonscale Throne."

Shortly after, the crew collected their equipment and started the journey to Oleg's Trading Post which is where we pick up their adventures.