Pharast 12th 02 - A Bite, a claw and whip of the tail and down goes the cleric!

The night passes uneventfully.

After eating breakfast and hearing of rumours of troubles around the land the group decide to mount up and head south west.

Eventually they come across a mud brick hut on the marsh with animal bones and fetishes dangling from the porch, at the front gate there is a bell.

Natalia rings the bell and eventually an old lady appears at the door and is instantly recognised as one of the guests at the dancing lady’s feast. She invites the group in for a cuppa and a chat. 

During the conversation she mentions the presence of willow-o-wisps to the south and gives Kyrander a picture book to keep the ranger quiet.  The old lady asks the group if they would kindly pick up any black rattle cap mushrooms for her on their journey.

Knowing where the mushrooms where the group head South East and easily collect more than the lady requires before returning to her hut to deliver the goods.

The group then head west though dense forest and shrubs to find an elderly gentleman examining a wooden log full of bugs and sitting patiently near by was a black puma wearing smoke coloured tinted goggles.

The group announce their presence to the eccentric gentleman who takes a few minutes to look them over and then introduces himself as the “Mad hermit” to the group and asks what they want.

The group explain the reasons they are travelling through the land and try to engage the hermit in conversation but he just ignores them and eventually they decide to leave the hermit alone.

The group continue to head west past the now deceased sycamore tree and continue west past the elven keep of the dancing lady.

They then turned North West through more dense forest.

They soon find an area of moss, fallen trees and cave hollows where Kyrander spots tracks at the area, quite possibly from an hodag (reptilian) both old and fresh.

Kyrander attempts to follow the tracks with the group following closely behind.

He eventually finds a hollow underneath an mound of leaves and thinks the creature is in there.

Otto suggests that everyone hides whilst he throws something into the hollow but before that could happen the hodag exploded from under the pile and charges at the party.

Otto fires at the magical creature and hits.

Kyrander fires his magical beast bone arrow at the creature hitting and damaging the creature.

Natalia begins to casts a spell (call lightening)

Vaneer runs in avoiding giving the creature an opportunity to attack and hits the creature. 

Being the closest target the creature critically claws, gore and tailslaps Vaneer seriously injuring the cleric. 

Miro attacks and misses.

Otto magic missiles the creature.

Kyrander shoots another arrow only to miss.

Natalia calls down a bolt of lightening but the creature just avoids the electrical damage.

Natalia then casts a flaming sphere and hurts the creature with the ball of fire.

The Creature then hits Bob as the badger leaves it self open to an attack as he races into attack and hits the creature.

Vaneer hits back and critically injures the creature.

The Creature hits Bob with it claws and then misses Miro with its tail.

The Creature then hits Vaneer with its bite, gore and claw dropping the cleric to the ground.

Otto casts magical missile killing the creature.

Natalia races over to Vaneer and casts stabilise on the cleric.

Kyrander then administers Vaneer with a cure light potion bringing the cleric back round.

Vaneer then slowly works at healing himself and Bob before returning to the city.

Pharast 11th 02 - The Triumphant Return

Eventually Wyvernshore was soon within sight and hours later young Tig was reunited with his over grateful mother.

The group said farewell to Boken as he headed back north to his hut, the woodsman and the barbarian also bided their farewells before heading home themselves, whilst the musicians decided to stay around Wyvernshore for at least the foreseeable future.

Now home Vaneer turned his attentions to helping remove the death curse from Natalia.

Now exhausted from his spellcasting the group retire for the night.

Pharast 10th 02 - The Long Walk

Unsurprisingly the night passes uneventfully.

During the morning Vaneer tended to Kyranders close call of loosing his soul and casts some spells to aid the healing.

The group gather the rescued mob of hostages and begin to make their way home.

Pharast 9th 02 - Hors d’oeuvres of Doom!

The evening passes uneventfully.

The group awoke early and made their way to see the Nixie and dryad from the other day and see if they know anything about the spring feast, the Lord Regent and the dancing lady.

The Nixie was pleased to see the group again especially Otto but she had  never heard of the lord Regent, though the name “the dancing lady” rang bells with her but wasn’t sure why but it was most likely that she must be a fey creature of sorts.

The Dryad took a little longer to ponder the questions but she also drew a blank and had to admit that the names and event meant nothing to her.

With no information to go on the group take some time to talk about their options, obviously there is now a self proclaimed “Lord Regent” within the kingdoms domain which was critical to sort out but also no one seems to know anything about the feast or host making the idea of going unarmed rather dangerous.

They eventually decide that the best plan of action would be to have Vaneer not attend the event and wait nearby with the weapons; depending on how the event goes Natalia will send an animal messenger to Vaneer that would tell him if the weapons are needed, it was agreed that a bird would be sent if the situation was hostile and a rabbit if all is fine.

The group then head south west toward the area where they were told the ancient keep should be. As they were exploring the area they noticed a finely dressed purple male fey creature heading west.

The group attempt to follow the Fey creature as he was heading in the same direction as the supposedly ancient keep. Eventually the fey stops at some tree stumps and sits down to have a cup of tea as he pulls out a tea pot and cup from his top hat.

Minus Vaneer, the group approach the fey and greet him and he introduces himself as “Emissary” and asks if the group have been invited to the feast as well.

During the conversation Emissary mentions the feast is fun for the fey that attend but generally the non fey may have issues with the evening’s events. Seeing the concern on their faces he invites the group to sit with him to discuss what is expected of the evening’s progression.

He tells them that the ancient keep is in the west and once a year a dancing lady appears to feast. The feast involves intelligent beings being sacrificed and devoured.

The lord invites non fey and fey people and there will be luxurious foods, dancing, presents and a special event then towards the end of the evening the lady will appear and devour any creatures the lord has captured on the run up to the feast.

To when the group asked if he worked for the Lord Regent he smirked and said no, he serves instead of another powerful female fey who watches this land, the Regent isn’t as powerful as the dancing lady and from what he heard there will be a troll, humans, kolbolds and many fey in attendance.

Then there are the fey rules at the feast he continued, guests are guests and if they behave and show no violence then they will be unharmed throughout the feast. If a disagreement should occur then a contest of skills is involved as a way to resolve the matter. 

Otto informs the gentleman that group have been searching for a young boy, Emissary admits to not have seen a young lad on his travels and hopes that he is returned to his mother safely.  The gentleman then mentions that weapons are not allowed into the keep but for a small price of a favour he could sneak the group’s weapons into the party undetected.  “At some stage I can approach any one of you at any time to request information which must be answered there and then honestly” was the wording of his favour.

Kyrander asked why they had been invited as he sipped his tea; Emissary believed that the group had been invited for the fey to match in pleasure at the group’s displeasure of innocent creatures being tortured and killed as per the feast rules the group would not be allowed to interfere.

Otto asks Emissary to change the agreement as to exclude casting and combat as situations as to when the favour can be asked. Emissary agrees that this was a fair amendment and so the group agrees to his terms and the contract is bound.

Vaneer is called over just as Emissary opens a portable hole and motions to the group to put their weapons in the hole and during the feast he will pass it to Miro to hold onto but the group must remember that come dawn the portable hole will automatically empty out and return to him.

Emissary then gives them directions to where to find the keep and he confirms that he will arrive shortly afterwards to reduce suspicions that they may have been travelling together.

When they arrive the group find the keep in almost ruins apart from one 40ft tower that seemed to still be intact.

The entrance to the keep was on the east side.  Standing on guard outside the entrance to the ancient keep was one creature that looked quite familiar, a Redcap!, the fey creature asks “Weapons?” as he searches the group for any weapons, a job he wasn’t too good at as Natalia, Miro and Kyrander had managed to sneak slings and daggers in.

As the party begins to enter, just as they were walking into the remains of the keep towards the tower a couple of the group notice that nearby 2 of the shrubs seemed to be alive and were obviously watching for trouble.

The courtyard was full of colourful vines and tapestries and ‘fairy lights’ (small fey with lanterns). As they group entered the courtyard they were formally announced by another tall fey creature.

The group take a minute to look around and take stock of the various fey species that appeared to be present. They were surprised to see as they looked amongst the guests to see the familiar face of their friend Chief Sootscale!!  Who seemed surprisingly pleased to see the group.

The Lord Regent soon appeared and mingled amongst the guests and eventually introduced himself to Otto and his entourage shortly afterwards the evening’s festivities began.

As the evening progresses it starts a little dull but as the drinks get going things begin to liven up. The Satyr begins to get a little rowdy and is shortly thrown out after an hour from being too drunk.

Just within the one remaining tower left in the keep the cook could be seen cooking away at the feast, Kyrander and Otto looked with intent and recognised that the black goatish looking fey was known as a “springhilled jack”.

Eventually around 11ish the Lord Regent started to hand out gifts to his party guests, to the troll king he was given a necklace of fire balls;

Gregory was given a nice looking golden chain;

Chief Sootscale was given a bag of tricks;

To the group they were given a ring of fine fey/human craftsmanship.

Shortly after the presents are distributed the Lord Regent announced that the night’s special event was an Auction.

The item up for auction was the talents of the 3 musicians currently playing for the party; the group believe that the musicians are under some magical affect and not in control of themselves so decided that they would try to win the auction for all 3 and then release them after the party.

The bidding was vicious but eventually the group pulled together enough money to win all 3 bids and were presented a box with each talent stored within.

As it drew close to midnight a bell started to ring from nowhere and shortly afterwards 4 humans are brought out from within the central tower, to the groups surprise one of the humans was the hermit Boken, followed by a barbarian tribesman, a woodsman and a young lad whom seemed to roughly match the details of the young Tig that they had been searching for.

Not sure what was about to happen the group sink into the shadows to retrieve the stashed weapons from the portable hole whilst Vaneer plans a way to hopefully untie the barbarian.

Kyrander began the combat by hitting the Regent with his cold iron sword whilst his companion Spot tried to trip the regent over.

Vaneer manages to free the bounded tribesman whilst Natalia and Bob join the fray to provide a distraction from the cleric.

Just as Miro attacks the regent a flash of light is seen from atop the tower. The flash provided enough of a distraction to allow Kyrander to deal the killing blow to the Regent.

Otto misses his shot at the fey chef Ramsey.

One of the servants that looked surprisingly like the quickling that brought the original invitation wastes no time and flees the keep.

Vaneer cast major weapon on a spare sword and throws it to the barbarian to defend himself with.

The fey maestro attempts to flee keep amongst the ruckus.

The redcap standing guard outside and his animated shrubs run into keep joining the fight.

Miro smirks as he attempts to flank Ramsey only to miss his attack.

Natalia sends Bob rushing at the maestro to gnaw at the fey’s ankles.

Natalia throws a flaming sphere at the redcap but misses.

Kyrander shows Miro up but successfully flanking Ramsey and injures him.

Otto steps back and scorching rays one of the topiaries (shrubs).

Vaneer manages to untie the boy Tig and tells the lad to run and hide in the Privy.

The Barbarian follows closely behind Tig to ensure that the young lad isn’t attacked before returning to the fray himself.

Ramsey attempts to cast a spell at Miro, Kyrander and Otto but it fails to hold over the adventurers.

Shrub1 attacks Kyrander and misses.

Shrub 2 attacks Vaneer and misses.

Redcap raises its scythe and hits Natalia.

Miro attempts to faint Ramsey but faking a move to the left and hits him critically killing the fey Chef as he gurgles something inaudible but most likely offensive.

Natalia moves the flaming sphere over to shrub1 and uses her cold iron weapon on the redcap.

Spot and Bob work together and chase down the escaping maestro and retrieve the party’s cash from the earlier auction.

Kyrander swings his fey bane sword at the redcap and successfully injures it.

Whilst Otto fires a magic missile spell at the redcap.

Vaneer unties Boken, who once dusted himself off sets to work making some sort of concoction from the drinks and liquids at the buffet table.

Shrub1 attacks Kyrander and hits.

The Redcap assists Shrub1 but misses Kyrander.

Shrub 2 attacks and hits Vaneer.

Miro attempts to flank shrub 2 and hits.

Natalia moves the flaming sphere onto shrub1 burning it to death.

Natalia tries to attack the recap but misses it.

Kyrander attacks the redcap and hits with his fey bane sword.

Otto magic missiles the redcap finally killing it.

Boken finishes his work but misses the target with his home made explosive.

Otto takes an opportunity of an opening on bush 2 injuring it just as Vaneer casts a healing burst before grabbing the last hostage and pulling them away from the tower whilst Miro attempts to flank bush 2.

Natalia begins to cast a spell just as the dark clouds above the keep open and emit a large flash of light.

At that moment there is another flash of light and the Dancing lady arrives looking for her sacrifices.

The dancing lady appeared to be a beautiful fey woman and apart from Natalia and Vaneer the rest of the group are fell captive to her beauty and the grace of her dance.

Not capable of much more Otto casts invisibility on himself whilst never taking an eye of the dancing lady.

Vaneer casts searing light at the lady hoping to break the spell affecting the other members of the group.

Shrub 2 shambles up to Vaneer and hits the cleric.

Natalia guides the Flaming sphere to shrub 2 and hits it.

Natalia finishes casting and summons 5 striges and sends them to attack the lady, sadly though 4 of the stirges succumb to the lady’s beauty leaving the one remaining stirge to land a hit on her.

Both Bob and Spot race in to lend their efforts but fail resisting the lady’s charms.

The dancing lady finding no sacrifices begins to dance her way towards group.

Vaneer retaliates against Shrub2 and kills it.

Boken throws another of his home made explosives at the lady hitting her whilst the only attacking strige is able to drain her blood a little.

Natalia starts casting again.

The dancing lady moves up to Kyrander and wraps her arms round him as she embraces the ranger and begins drawing his life force from his body.

Kyrander tries to resist the lady’s grapple but fails at the attempt.

Otto casts another spell of invisibility on Miro.

Vaneer casts a prayer to aid the group in dealing with the lady.

Miro now invisible and broken the lady’s charm sneaks over to the lady hitting and seriously injuring her as she screams.

Natalia finishes casting her lightening spell and sends a bolt hitting the lady and Kyrander the bolt only injured the ranger but was enough to kill the lady. 

As the lady dies she shrieks and points one of her slim pointy fingers at Natalia before exploding in a flash of energy, afterwards all appears to be fine apart from a colourless and weakened Natalia.

Vaneer checks Natalia over and even though he had never seen anything like this he had heard of similar aliments and confirms that the Lady had cast a death curse on Natalia with her last dying breath.

After a moments rest the group turn their attention to the boxed souls of the musicians they won in the auction, the soulless bodies where still slumped on the stage and so one by one the group opened each box and allowed the souls to return to their rightful bodies.

Once the musicians had come round and Vaneer had cleared them for good health the group informed them of what had happened and promised to guide them back to Wyvernshore before allowing them to travel home.

With dawn only hours away Natalia shifts into a bird form and takes back the portable hole to Wyvernshore before it vanishes as the grey fey said it would at dawn and ejects all the loot the group had gathered from the ruins of the keep.

Whilst Natalia flew her way home the rest of the group sets up camp just a short distance from the keep.

Pharast 8th 02 - Who wants to Partay

Then night passes uneventfully.

After breaking camp the group return north to meet dryad and inform her that the task has been completed.

The Dryad congratulates the group as they enter her clearing and as promised hands over the tree tokens as a reward.  She also confirms that she has found no sign of Tig that she can see within her forest boundaries. 

The group then head east to see the Nixie and hand over the tree tokens. The Nixie as promised releases the captured Halflings and warns them not to cut her trees down again without permission. 

Conversation between Ott and the Nixy gets a little heated and both disappear for a short period of time. Once Otto retuned they carried on back to Wyvenshore and as soon as they entered the city they made their way to talk to Tig’s mother, they explained where they had searched and that they were not going to stop looking.

As they entered the castle Otto called for a council meeting and whilst the council were discussing about the fate of young Tig, one of the castle guards approached the council saying that there is male fey creature outside with a message for Lord Otto.

The grey skinned fey creature with black hair (quicklin) was shown into the meeting room “Greetings! I bring an invitation, an invitation to a grand spring feast, though there is one rule weapons are prohibited from the feast”.

Asking further questions they ascertain that the Spring feast is in honour of the dancing lady early tomorrow evening (6pm) at a keep to the far east and is being hosted by Lord Regent Tillien. With his message delivered the grey haired fey takes his leave and exits the meeting.

The council ends up discussing the invitation and the ‘no weapons’ rule and whether the group should attend defenceless.

The group make a plan of action for tomorrow and decide to rest for the night.

Pharast 7th 02 - Feys, Killer Trees and Lost Boys! A Kingdom for all!

Since Otto's choice of bride, 9 months have passed with the group focusing on the development of thier kingdom.

Whilst out overseeing the city one of the citizens a Mrs Tannerson approached Otto and pleaded with him to find her son. It seems that her son Tig has been missing now for 4 days, the boy is 14 years of age and is always spending time in the forest just to the west of the city.

Otto agreed to help and that he would assemble the group to look for young Tig.

Once everyone was assembled the group mounted up and headed west.

The forest was a short hour’s ride from the castle and they began their search.

After searching for about an hour Kyrander and Vaneer spot a small child size stick-like creature (Twigjack). The fey creature waved at the group and ran further into the forest.

The group barely keep up with following the Twigjack through the forest but they eventually emerge into an open patch of forest, where stood a small man with a Redcap, Scythe, metal boots and had 2 Halflings chained up (Redcap-fey)

“Excellent!!!, more for the feast” Hissed the Redcap as he moved to attack the group.

The Redcap moves fast but misses his first attack. 

The Twigjack(1) attacks Miro hurting him severely. 

Another Twigjack(2) then appeared and misses hitting Vaneer.

Natalia hits Twigjack(2) and injures it. 

Bob misses Twigjack(2). 

Otto fires at Twigjack(2) burning it for double damage scorching ray.

Kyrander scores a critical blow against the Redcap.

Spot misses Twigjack(1).

Vaneer casts Bulls strength on Kyrander with his Fey-bane blade.

The Redcap misses Kyrander.

Twigjack(2) explodes a hail thorns at Bob hurting the badger. 

Bob attacks Twigjack(2) hitting with his claw.

Natalia summons stirges to aid in the fight which they then attack Twigjack(1).  Miro attacks Twigjacko(1) killing it.

Otto magic missiles Twigjack(2)

Kyrander misses the Redcap.

Spot attacks Twigjack(2) and misses.

Vaneer casts Bark skin on Kyrander.

Miro sneaks attack Twigjack(2) killing it.

The Redcap continues to attack Kyrander and just scores a hit.

The Redcap then tries to stamp on Natalia with his metallic boots but misses.

Natalia retaliates and hits the Redcap back.

Otto casts magic missiles the Redcap.

Kyrander and his fey-bane sword miss the Redcap.

Vaneer casts cure moderate wounds on Kyrander.

Miro stabs the Redcap.

Redcap moves to hit Otto after the sorcerer insulted the feys hat.

Miro takes the opportunity to hit the Redcap as he tries to move over the Otto.

Kyrander follows Miro’s lead and hits the Redcap with his fey bane sword.

Redcap hits Otto in response for the earlier insult.

Natalias strige drains the Redcaps blood and causes the Redcap to drop to the floor out cold and allowing Kyrander the opportunity to despatch the creature.

The 2 chained up Halflings were set free as the group set them free the Halflings tell them that they were chopping wood when they were chased away by a nixie for cutting the trees down and then they ran into the Redcap.

The Halflings also have friends that are still being held by the Nixie and they asked if the group would be willing to help free them. Natalia pointed out that the Nixie may have seen Tig so the group head west towards the Nixie.

Off in the distance there where a small group of halflings that could be seen glaring at the Nixie near a pond.

Kyrander and Natalia head towards the Nixie closely followed by the group. Natalie introduces herself and the rest of the party to the Nixie and explains finding these Halflings at the mercy of a Redcap. The Halflings also said that the Nixie has taken their friends hostage and so the group wanted to better understand the situation.

The Nixie is of course furious and recounts the story about the Halflings stumbling around her forest and chopping down 200 year old trees that are under her protection, which then starts an further argument between the Halflings and the Nixie.

Kyrander and Natalia try to calm the situation between the two groups and the Nixie offers a suitable settlement for the release of the Halflings. The Halflings agree to plant saplings to replace those trees fallen providing the saplings are obtained via the Nixie’s instructions.

The Nixie suggested that the group should head west to see the Dryad there and ask if she would be willing to give the halflings some of her special tree tokens. Once the tokens are planted the Nixie promises to release her captives.

The Group head west as instructed and shortly come across a small glade/opening within the forest.

After a few moments the Dryad appears to the group and halflings. The group introduces themselves to her and explain that the halflings had made a faux pas and the Nixie has suggested asking the Dyrad about getting saplings.

The Dryad seems amused by the current situation and agrees to provide the Halflings with the tokens she requires BUT only if the group does something for her in return. The group seeing that they had no choice as the Halflings were part of the kingdom agreed to assist the Dryad.

She told the group of an evil tree to the south called the Scythe tree that kills all that comes near it, if the group could get rid of this forest menace then in return the Dryad would hand over the tree tokens.

Whilst the group are discussing what to do next, Natalia asked the Dryad if she had seen a human boy of about 14 years of age recently. The Dryad admits that she has not seen any humans about from those that stand before her now but as a show of good will whilst the group deals with the Scythe tree, she will search her territory for the young lad.

The group heads south through thick forest, mud and roots.

After a couple of hours searching for the scythe tree using the Dryads instructions, they find themselves standing on the edge of a clearing with sickly trees all round the edge and bones littering the ground.

From the northern side of the clearing a noise could be heard of creaking wood, the group tried to see what was making the noise but all apart from Kyrander couldn’t see anything but trees and as he shouted “this is the tree we’re looking for” an slow large black tree of horrific appearance steps out from amongst the tree line and swings one of its branches at the party.

Otto retaliates with a casting of scorching ray.

Whilst Kyrander shoots and hits the tree.

Natalia casts a flaming sphere and sends it hurtling at their wooden foe.

Then Miro also attempts to shoot but misses the hulking tree.

One of the branches moves to attack Otto.

Vaneer tried to get close enough to battle the tree with his mace but one of the branches smacks the cleric and ends up critically injuring him.

Vaneer just about hits the tree doing very little damage to it.

Kyrander shoots at the tree again and hits it.

Natalia casts produce flame and throws at the tree which after suffering heavy fire damage already kills it. 

Vaneer starts to heal the group whilst the rest start to set up camp for the evening.

Erastus 4th 01 - A nervous declaration

A closed council meeting is called and the discussion is about the choice of either Margo or Eylana.

The meeting lasted 2 hours, the first involved every council member giving their two coppers worth of advice and suggestions. The final hour was pretty much sat in awkward silence as Otto twisted, pained and sweated over his decision but eventually he blurted out the name MARGO!!

A sigh of relief was breathed by most of the council and it was agreed that the marriage to Margo must take place within 2 years.

Sarenith 26th - Erastus 3rd 01 - You want to split the cheque?!

Egage the week long collage of dating for Otto, drinking, being merry, boating/riding and talking to the fathers.

Sarenith 25th 01 - A Matter of Giggity

After a couple more days travel the tired and travel sore group arrive back at the castle only to be greeted by a man with an extremely long moustache and an attractive blonde woman.

Upon greetings exchanged it is reviled that the gentleman is Lord Brezeki whom has been accompanied by both his daughters Margo and Elarna, though Elarna was not present to greet them. Lord Brezeki had come to Wyvernshore to ask Lord Otto if he would consider marrying either of his daughters.

Some sniggers ran between a couple of the group members as Otto had never been keen knowing that someday as part of their agreements he would have to take a bride to ensure the kingdom flourished, eventually Vaneer apologised and explained to Lord Brezeki that the group has only just returned from dealing with an unlawful cult and have been travelling for days. He described that the travel and battle has not left them in presentable condition let alone smell and matters of marriage should not be discussed at the main gate.

Lord Brezeki pondered a moment and agreed that the high priest had a point and apologised for his eagerness. Natalia suggested that the group should retire and wash up and that the conversation could be continued at this evening’s meal.

A tired Otto eventually manages to get back to his chamber to find a young lady resting in his chamber.  Shocked by Otto’s appearance and the women scampers off the bed and tries to leave the chamber.

Otto steps in the way and blocks her asking her to explain her presence, she explains that her name is Elarna and is the daughter of Lord Brezeki, she apologised for the intrusion it was only because she wanted somewhere quiet to read and that there was a weirdo in the library so she wandered about the castle and found this room.

Otto concerned about this “weirdo” seeks out Vaneer and asks him to visit the library and see what is happening. The cleric eventually made his way to the library and found another young lady sitting at a table thumbing through some of the books on Kingdom building and development.

She saw the cleric walk in and suddenly sat upright, when Vaneer queried as to her identity she introduced herself as Alayna Varnhold daughter of Varn in the North and was here to talk to Lord Otto. Vaneer thought to himself this should be interesting! He smiled at Alayna before inviting her and her father Varn to the evening meal.

There were many items of conversation discussed at the meal, both fathers tried to persuade Otto to take a liking to the daughters, Varn informed the group that he wanted to stay for a month or two to learn and better understand kingdom expansion.

During the meal one of the waiters serving food shouts “for the family” and drops the plate he was carrying, drew a dagger and rushed to stab Miro in the neck.

In a blinding flash the attacker’s neck appeared to be cut and he dropped to the floor as Miro was re-sheathing his dagger.  A moment of stunned and quizzical silence falls over the table before the feasting continued. With questions rising about what just happened, how and who the heck is in charge of security around here!

Throughout the evening Otto learned many things about his possible “suitors” and at the end of the night asked the group to follow him to discuss their opinions of their guests.

It was noted that Margo was brought up and instructed by her mother, she enjoys meetings and has a head for politics, she believes in fairness to all citizens or as Vaneer put it a political machine.

Elarna as Miro put it was purely/simply a bookworm but was happy and seemed pretty confident.

Alyna on the other hand unlike her father, she apparently had no interest in marriage with Otto, in fact Natalia mentioned she seemed more interested in our High Priest! Vaneer laughed awkwardly before trying to divert the conversation away.

Each person gave Otto their opinion of whom he should marry which ended up with Miro and Vaneer stating Elarna as Otto was interested in her and it would be more a marriage of love than politics. Whilst Natalia and Kyrander both backed Margo as she had a strong head for politics and would be good for the kingdom whilst he was out exploring the land.

With an even tie the decision rested soley in Otto’s hands and the poor lord didn’t know what to do, before retiring to bed Vaneer suggested now was not the time to decide and that maybe he should take a week to spend time with his suitors and then decide afterwards.

Sarenith 22nd 01 - Children of the Corn

An hour before dawn and with very little rest, the group spot twenty robed figures who walk past the barn and approach the cornfield maze.  They give the figures a minute’s head start before setting off behind them.

Donning the robes found in the abandoned manor, the outsiders manage to slip into the procession without notice and head deep into the centre of the maze [Unbeknownst to them, if they had tried to enter without the robes they would have been set upon by swarms of stirges and attacked by a faceless stalker].  The centre of the maze consisted of a large circular clearing and the assembled ‘cultists’ spaced themselves out so that they formed a perimeter around its radius.  In the centre of the gathering was a small controlled bonfire and before it stood an altar of dense ancient dried husks formed from plant matter and discarded chitinous shells.  Ornigaard, the missing young lad, was tethered to the altar and was soon joined by a crying Shel Lupescu, as she was pushed into the circle by the senior cultist who was garbed in white.  The senior member soon revealed himself to this crowd, fully disrobing.  To nobody’s surprise it was Ravenmoor’s mayor!

As night began to give way to day, Mayor Krieglar began chanting unintelligably and was soon joined in chorus by the surrounding folk.  The pitch grew higher and after several minutes the adventurers were appalled to see thousands of bugs and insects descend onto the cultists, who disrobe and allow their entire body to be covered in multi-legged vermin.  The buzzing and high-pitched squeaks from the insects merge with the humans’ chanting to create a disorientating sensation for the onlookers as the mayor shouts out “it is time”.  With that he brandishes a long spear made of dark iron with a ornate but functional spearhead of metal and wood crafted to a fine tip that looks like a large wasp stinger.  All of the other cultists seem to be caught up in a chanting frenzy and are no longer paying attention to the proceedings.

Before the mayor can kill either of the two sacrifices, the party spring into action and move to attack Krieglar:

Miro attacks and manages to score a hit, as the mayor has no armor or shield and is wide open.

Kyrander, Natalia and Vaneer all miss the mayor, which they attribute to the off-putting noise surrounding them.

Otto throws a flask of alchemist fire at a cultist to try and destroy some of the insects – the flask hits and kills the insects and also sets the cultist alight, but the human does not react to this – he just continues to chant as his skin burns away

The mayor blasts the group with a large wave of negative energy and damages them all.

Otto in retaliation attacks and critically injures the Mayor.

Natalia attempts attacks with a flaming sword she conjures up, but misses.

Kyrander steadies his aim and shoots the mayor, which was well placed enough to kill him.

With his dying breath, the mayor managed to chastise the outsiders for interfering and unknowingly unleashing something worse upon the lands than he – Mayor Krieglar’s ancestor who had saved the village from starvation, drought and famine, had done so through an agreement with Ghalunder, the God of Pestilence [irony?], bringing good fortune to Ravenmoor in return for the occasional sacrifice.  Unfortunately for the village, the mayor’s death resulted in the spawn gestating within their savior’s bloodline being unleashed…

All around the clearing the cultists began dropping to the flor in convulsing fits as their life force is siphoned away to give birth to the rising catastrophe.  Vaneer took action very quickly and casts several healing bursts of positive energy, restoring the health and vitality of the cultists and saving their lives.  As this was occurring the rest of the group wearily watched as the mayor’s dead body lifted up off the ground with his belly extended as something sharp poked through it from within.  With a ripping sound, the body exploded from around the emerging creature, exposing something that resembled a giant mosquito, except that it quickly matured so that it’s body was larger than an Orc’s.  The blighted spawn’s legs were covered in razor sharp hair and its proboscis, which extended from its head, was larger in length than an elephant’s trunk and ended in a wicked point sharper than even the mayor’s spearhead.  The creature had large powerful transparent wings, but they were currently slick with ichor and as a result it was currently grounded.  Seizing the opportunity, the heroes rushed the creature, knowing that they likely had less than a minute to try and kill this aberration before it would be capable of taking  flight and bring devastation to the surrounding area.

Rushing forward, the group quickly felt a wave of nausea and anxiety wash over them as the creature’s appearance seemed to unleash a perverse wave of energy that afflicted all nearby living things, but they pressed on, until Miro started to hear whispers in his head that made his body feel bulky and slow to act:

The creature attacks Natalia, hitting with its stinger and both poisons her body and confuses her mind, addling her actions and sense of reality.

Although slow to move, Miro is still able to attack the creature and scores a hit, wounding it.

Natalia backs away from the creature whilst Kyrander provides cover fire and hits.  Vaneer casts another healing blast.

Otto blasts the creature with rays of fire, but the creature is resistant to such attacks.

Natalia attempts to call down lightning strikes upon the insect beast but ends up babbling to herself thanks to the creature’s confusion affect.

Vaneer moves in to attack and hits the creature whilst flanking it with Miro.

Otto fires off a volley of magic missiles which strike and injure the blighted spawn. 

The spawn tries to attack Vaneer with a series of attacks, but narrowly misses.

Under the effects of the confusion Natalia accidentally attacks one of the prone cultists.

Kyrander shoots at the creature and manages to hit and injure it, giving Vaneer the opportunity to strike it as well.

Otto fires off more magic missiles and hits.

The creature hits Vaneer and penetrates his armor, causing the priest to become confused as well as seriously hampering his spell-casting capabilities.

Miro finally takes advantage of his flanking position and critically injures the creature and deals the blow that finally kills it.

Taking a couple of minutes to recuperate from the intense battles, the group are pleased to see that both Natalia and Vaneer return to their right frame of mind, though the creature’s poison still lingers in their system and has weakened them both physically and mentally – this will have to be recovered via magical means over the next couple of days through use of Lesser Restoration spells.

Ornigaarde and Shel are released from their bonds and given clothing.  The former mayor is relieved of his very fine spear and Miro quickly legs it to the mayor’s estate to look for more incriminating evidence and notes of misdeeds (and incidentally loots it of any notable valuables and many bottles of fine wine).

Several minutes later, the cultists begin to stir and come to their senses, alive and confused.  Though they had clearly been involved in wrongdoings for a number of years, it was through peer pressure and a misguided upbringing that led them onto this path and so they were not put to death!

Alizna the elderly weaver accompanies a weighed-down Miro back to the maze and following a long discussion they all agree to burning down the corn labyrinth along with the nearby farmhouse and shack, once all the villagers were escorted back to their homes.  Alizna reluctantly takes on the temporary post of village elder for several weeks until the arrival of a head cleric of Desna and several representatives of Erastil who looked into the whole affair and brought a more acceptable level of religious practices to the village.  Followers of Erastil also helped the villages adopt more modern farming techniques and with prayers from Desna they ensured that there were no immediate droughts or famine brought about by the appearance of Ghalunder’s Blight Spawn.

With the village now in safe hands and adopting more acceptable teachings the group returned to the kingdom’s capital, Wyvernshore.

Sarenith 21st 01 - Squeel! Little Pi...gg.y?

The group had been travelling for two days straight and now find themselves back at a familiar ferry crossing, with a familiar crazy looking ferryman demanding 2 copper per horse and per person for the crossing.

After handing over the fee and just as they finished crossing the river the ferryman mentioned to the group "Ye just made it in time for the Founders Festival, ye'ave!".  "Founder's Festival?" questioned Otto.  "Aye!  Tis the festive celebratory day fer the founding of Ravenmoor village.  It'll be going on all day!".  Vaneer just sighed, he could see where this was going...

Entering the tiny backwards village the group notice the addition of colourful bunting across the simple houses, a nearby field had numerous small unlit bonfires around its perimeter and now housed several large tents, whilst plenty of outdoors seating and tables were being set up.  Their search for Ornigaard, the young lad whom owned Applesauce, had little success until they bumped into his father.  Viorec last saw his son this morning, though the stirge named Applesauce had been absent for the last week which has led to his son's change in temperament, becoming quiet and sullen, spending most of the day out looking for the missing insect.  Upon asking how the group already knew about the disappearance of Applesauce they handed Viorec the note that was delivered to them.  Though he didn't recognise the "Help Applesauce!" message as being in his son's handwriting he assured them that it was nothing to worry about; maybe one of his son's friend's had sent the message?  In the meantime Viorec was certain that the boy would be back for supper so he invited the entire group to stay and join the festival.

Miro, Otto, Natalia and Kyrander joined the festivities and took part in the first event of the festival along with several burly locals, knife throwing.  The first round involved of throwing a starknife at a bail hay located 20 feet away, which only Kyrander and another villager succeeded at.  The second round saw them both trying to hit bail of hay 60 feet away, this time it was just Kyrander that achieved this and so he along attempted the third round, throwing the starknife at a bail set at 100 feet.  Though Kyrander failed to hit the target in the third round he had been the only competitor to reach that round and so won the event and received a small handmade totem of Desna, the Goddess of Dreams.  This consisted of tightly woven dried plants and herbs, formed into a small butterfly figure that locals traditionally burnt before going to sleep in order to grant them dreams gifted by their goddess.

The second event was raven fighting where each party member placed a bet on their favourite bird to win the fight with Kyrander winning a pretty penny with his winning choice of 'Foolscap'.

The third event involved Bonfire leaping!  All party members took part with Miro and Natalia jumping over the tall fire with impressive acrobatic ability.  Kyrander and Vaneer only just manage to jump over with some slight hair burning, whilst poor Otto slipped and jumped into the fire but got out quickly enough without taking any serious burns, whilst locals quickly rushed over to put out any embers and cheer the attempt.

The final event before the founders feast involved trying to catch a greased up pig.  Otto was still licking his bonfire wounds and so stepped out of this event and offered to hold on to the party member's items whilst they rolled around in the mud with several locals and a local bred pig.

For the first half a minute all the participants failed to catch the large pig, with a notable face plant in the mud from Kyrander which brought about a lot of merriment from the onlookers.  Things soon got a lot more more exciting with Miro almost grabbing ahold of the swine, then Kyrander managed to grab the mobile bacon factory, only to let the greased critter slip through his slimy palms.   Natalia on the other hand not only managed to grab the pig but was able to hold on to the animal and won the event.

However...

Whilst holding on to the pig Natalia notices that the fat of the animal's belly was rippling when suddenly the beast sprouted two extra legs from it's belly and an extra head from it's back that looked similar to a Venus fly trap.  As the crowds around the mud pit screamed and ran for cover Otto threw a Scorching Ray spell at the mutating beast, which unfortunately resisted most of the magical flaming damage, the spell also has the unfortunate effect of setting alight the slightly greased participants standing close by.

Kyrander rushes over to Otto to retrieve his weapons so that he could join the fray whilst Natalia tries to roll away from the deformed creature only to bitten by the creature's mew giant maw.

Bob and Spot rush into the fight and bite and claw at the creature whilst the creature bites Bob back, dealing a gashing wound to the feline.

Vaneer attempts to cast a hold spell at the creature only to find it has no affect on the creature.

Otto casts magic missile and thankfully it hits and damages the beast

Kyrander shoots and misses, whilst Miro manages to stab and injure the creature.

The pig creature faces the group and unleashes a shriek, sounding like an inhuman baby that has just been wounded.  The noise causes Spot to vomit but the rest of the group are able to resist whatever effect the shriek was trying to achieve, allowing Vaneer to cast Sound Burst, stunning the creature which gives Otto the chance to cast another fire spell which does enough damage to kill the creature.

After the fight the village folk was obviously in turmoil and in order to understand what had happened the group turned their attentions to the pig corpse in front of them.  Otto could sense a faint magical aura surrounding the creature, so whatever was going on it was most likely a set up of some sort, possible aimed at the visitors.

Believing that the attack was planned the group turned their attention to the pig breeder whom after an hour of questioning turned out to be just as confused as the group in what had happened to his prize pig, Sally.  With the breeder proving no help the group begin to question the general village folk hoping that someone may slip up and divulge some hidden morsel of information that they could use.

Questioning the village folk didn't pay off as much as the they had hoped, the only information that they had obtained was the location of the pig feed near a manor on the outskirts of the village.  The grain appeared to be normal and Natalia checked the few pigs that were feeding and they appeared to be normal with no signs of deformities.  It was however apparent that if the grain had been tampered with, it could have occurred without anyone noticing anything amiss.

Being one of the few fun and relaxing times during the whole year, the villagers had decided that they weren't going to let the pork-monster put off any more of their festival and so the feast proceeded as planned.  Taking a break, the group join in the feast, though they are slightly hesitant to try some of the dishes which included deliciously flavoured black mushrooms, a flayleaf salad tossed in vinegar which was also a mild intoxicant, fried silkworms, smoked tick legs and disturbingly delicious stirge blood sausage.  As the group looked to their druid to confirm the safety and edibility of the food (which was given the all-clear), they were visited by several young ladies who were all vying for the title of founder's feast queen.  Each lass was in her late teens and visited the tables of feasters, giving a rendition of how the village was saved from famine, several generations ago, by Iola Krieglar (the mayor's now deceased grandmother) who undertook a vision quest and with Desna's blessing she learnt of a ritual that ensure good harvests for the village.

After the feast, Shel Lupescu was voted the prettiest and most comely of the candidates and won the title of Founder's Feast Queen, which she was utterly delighted to receive.  After this, dancing commenced as night began to fall and Otto was quickly approached by Shel and the two spent some time dancing amidst a variety of merry village folk.

As the festivities came to an end and folk started to head back to their homes, the group wandered back into the heart of the village discussing what to do next when Natalia noticed the village's elderly weaver watching the group as they walked.  Discretely Natalia cast a spell and detected that the old woman had an aura of magic about her.  Once the woman was out of ear shot, the druid informed the group of her discovery and they soon made it their business to find out who she was and where she could be found.  After some questions it was soon revealed that the woman they sought was the village weaver whom Otto had previously met and purchased some simple clothes from and just moments later the party were at her door and asking her some pointed questions.

Alizna the weaver claimed innocence in relation to the earlier events and believed that the pig was fed something demonic in origin which incubated inside the pig and hatched during the wrestling competition in an attempt to get rid of the party.  Though she was not born here, Alizna came to Revnmoor several decades ago for her own interests and knew many interesting rumours.  When querstioned further about these rumours, the weaver revealed that there was an inner circle within the village who had different intentions or beliefs to the majority of locals and though she was not sure of their intentions, she knew that every dawn after the founders festival there was a gathering of robed people within the maize maze located on the edge of the village.

Leaving the weavers, Otto bumped into Shel, the founders feast queen, and making an excuse about 'pursuing new avenues of enquiry' he quickly left the group to their devices as he was led to a quiet haystack with the beautiful young lady.

Seizing on the only lead they had managed to obtain, the rest of the group decide to head towards the cornfield maze and discover an old barn and disused farm house nearby and decide that the barn would make the ideal location to camp in for the evening which they could then use to stake out the nearby maze.  As they entered the barn old and new bloodstains could be seen all over the barn whilst a makeshift altar was at one end, with a tatty cloth butterfly, or moth, above it and a scattering of bones lying around it.

As the group explore the barn an young voice from behind spoke "Have you seen Applesauce?".  A chill ran down their spines as they turned around to find the young lad they had been searching for all day standing in the barn doorway.  The group try to question Ornigaard about the note he had sent, but the boy claimed it hadn't been him and that the person who had written it was in the abandoned farmhouse nearby.

Uneasy the group, minus Otto, decide to follow the lad to the farmhouse next door, though Vaneer was feeling uncomfortable with the child’s actions and manner... almost as if the boy wasn't really himself, he thought, and as such delayed the rest of the group from entering into the farmhouse, stating that something just didn't feel right with the situation.  At this moment Natalia just happened to notice that the scarecrow behind them was magically animated and was slowly moving towards them in an attempt at not being spotted.

After a rather pleasant time together, Otto was rather startled when Shel insisted that he met with her family, but being a gentleman and a lord he agreed and soon found himself back at her family house.  Shel's family was one of the few that were still awake - the vast majority were fast asleep with their hay and herb filled totems burning away, unknowingly releasing a harmless sleeping agent to keep them unaware of the activities that would be taking place on the outskirts of the village.  Slightly weary of the situation, Otto accepted a cup of tea from Shel's family, had a slice of cake and then dodged out of the way when the first attack came... the whole family had donned red robes, weird masks and crude weapons and seemed intent on rendering Otto unconscious!  Teafully Shel explained that she needed Otto to take her place tonight, otherwise she would end up sacrificed and her family had no intention of letting that happen!  Luckily the sorcerer had a sleep spell handy and in no time at all Shel's family were in their own magic-induced sleep.

Back to the outskirts of the village - As soon as Natalia pointed out the moving strawbag the party instantly flew at it.  Miro was the first to hit the scarecrow but as he did he dropped his weapon in the dark. Kyrander shot a flaming arrow at the construct, setting the straw alight.

Just as the scarecrow started to light up the lad shouted "That's NOT nice! You meanies!!" at which point he then began to change shape as he grew taller, slimmer and paler in skin colour till he stood there as a grey humanoid creature "Never mind though, as you'll all join us shortly" he said in a slithering voice.

Natalia attacks the faceless stalker [an evil changling with few discernible features] whilst Miro picks up his fallen weapon and positions himself to strike the stalker when the opportunity presents itself.

Running for his life, Otto approaches the group slightly bewildered to see what the rest of his party is fighting.

Kyrander destroys the scarecrow with another flaming arrow, causing the straw creature to disintegrate.  Spot attacks the stalker, biting a gaping hole in the stalker's throat and killing it outright.

Once Otto had been updated on the events that had just happened the group decide to investigate the farmhouse which was practically empty, barring a horticultural lab in which they find a slime creature being used to grow the delicious black mushrooms they ate earlier (though digesting such a species granted no ill-effect) [the group fail to notice that four strange puffballs being grown in the lab are in fact immature spores for extra-planar parasites that kill their host and transform them into a mutated monstrosity, such as had happened with the pig earlier that day].  They also find that there is a basement in the old building and within it is a statue to the god of parasites, Ghlaunder, amongst a pile of clothes, a number of dark red robes and mosquito masks.

The group decide to take the robes and masks in the hope that they matched what the other robe wearers would be garbed in at dawn.  The destroyed scarecrow and the corpse of the faceless stalker are dragged inside the farmhouse so that no-one would pick up on a fight having taken place and so with the area tidied up to resemble 'normal', the group return to the barn dressed in the robes to await dawn which was just a few hours away.