Date: 06/02/10

XP Awarded: none

Start: Magnimar, mid winter.

After accepting Lord Mayor Grobaras's offer, the party spends a day outfitting themselves for a winter journey to Turtleback Ferry and Fort Rannick. Tongtokl finds passage on a riverboat up the Yondabakari River to Whistledown and on to Turtleback Ferry for 50 gold pieces, and purchases seats for the party. Kiria informs the party that he's got to wrap up his starring role in the production of "The Korvosan Diplomat" at the Silver Curtain theatre before he can leave town, and that he'll meet up with the party in Turtleback Ferry shortly later.

The rest of the group sets out the next morning under grey skies and for days watch the dripping vegetation of the Mushfens slowly crawl past. Though the small cabin of the riverboat is sized for the gnomes and halflings that run the ship, it's a cozy and warm place for the adventurers to relax. The party doesn't see many other boats on the Yondabakari, or any traffic along the Dry Way (anything but dry!), the road that closely follows the bends of the river. Arriving in Wartle three days after leaving Magnimar, the party gets a room in the Turtle's Home. Like the rest of the ramshackle village, this inn rests on stilts rising from the murky swamp water below. A wooden boardwalk links the inn to the nearby tavern Lean-To, where the adventurers spend a few hours among the boisterous swampers and fur traders drinking the local favourite Bog Grog. It's not so bad, once you get used to straining out the grit with your teeth.

The next day the party is back on the riverboat for the two-day voyage to Whistledown on the shores of Lake Syrantula. Captain Billam informs the party that this drizzling weather is actually his favourite to travel in, because it keeps the thick swarms of biting fang flies at bay. He whiles away the hours telling the party more stories about the horrors to be found deep in the Mushfens to the south, most of which the adventurers disregard as fanciful tales. Finally the quaint white-washed houses of Whistledown become visible through the grey curtains of rain and the party leaves the riverboat behind for rooms in the Azure Cup, the only human-sized inn in town. Tongtokl finds more comfortable surroundings at the Traveler's Shelter, a popular gathering place sized for the many gnomes and halflings living in Whistledown.

After a cheerful evening swapping stories and drinking the town's excellent nut-brown beer, the party finds passage the next morning on a larger riverboat heading across the lake. Also captained by a halfling, it's sized for freight and the crew is largely human. The adventurers are somewhat surprised to find a small group of well-armored men onboard with them. Though very guarded at first, the party manages to find out that they are headed into the Cinderlands to try to locate a Korvosan patrol that has gone missing. In the afternoon the riverboat reaches the tiny village of Ilsurian where the tight-lipped men leave the ship, and the riverboat continues through the pounding rain up the Skull River. Over the next day, the supposedly haunted depths of the Shimmerglens slide past the riverboat as it nears Claybottom Lake and Turtleback Ferry. Passing a few ragged-looking fishing boats near the shores of the lake, the party's riverboat finally glides to a stop on the small beach in front of a collection of drenched wooden buildings and next to two ferry boats that seem to be made from enormous turtle shells.

The halfing captain informs the party that they'll want to be looking for Father Maelin Shreed, an aged cleric of Erastil who doubles as what passes for Turtleback Ferry's mayor. After a bit of looking, they find him in the Bottoms Up, the village's only tavern. He explains how one or two of the Black Arrow rangers usually pass through town every couple of days for supplies, news, or entertainment, but since the rains began in earnest a few weeks ago, nobody's heard from the rangers at all. The nearby woods have grown more dangerous, with firepelt cougars, boars, and bears becoming increasingly common along the borders of the forests. Earlier in the week, a patrol headed north to try to make contact with Fort Rannick, but they never returned. He asks the party to make the journey to the fort themselves to find out what is going on. The adventurers agree to set out the next morning, and hire the one private room at the village's inn, the Turtle's Parlor.

The next morning the adventurers begin walking during a brief break in the rain, north on an old road along the Skull River. After a couple hours of walking, the road crosses an old wooden bridge to the far shore and a crooked wooden sign reading 'Fort Rannick' points to a trail along the rushing river heading upstream. The party starts up the trail, but after only a few minutes the alert adventurers can hear the distant sound of barking hounds from the woodline to the left, as well as a lower sound that might be a muffled murmur of pain. With Tongtokl in the lead, the group push through light undergrowth as the source of the barking comes noticeably closer, and they become aware of a low voice singing off-key about eating bear. Coming to the edge of a small clearing, they spot a bear with its leg caught in a vicious-looking rusted iron trap.

When the party comes into view, they can see the bear becomes excited and moves towards them, tugging painfully at the iron bear trap. Moments later, the source of the barking becomes apparent as a group of large hounds bursts into the far side of the clearing and excitedly begin to race towards the wounded bear. Behind the dogs, a fearsome humanoid over six and a half feet tall (he would be over seven feet if his spine was straightened) appears at the edge of the clearing. With one huge misshapen finger in the place of his right hand, a spear in the other, and a bizarrely wide mouth, he comes up short when he spots the party and yells "I's huntin' bear! No concern o' you's less you's wanna be hunted too!"

Gob wastes no time in launching a fireball at the dogs, which engulfs them, the humanoid, and a few unfortunately close trees in a fiery explosion. Several of the dogs are killed, but a few of the badly burned ones turn to run towards the party instead. Tongtokl casts a spell that causes the foliage to grow sharp, long spines and the humanoid cries out in pain again. He turns and crashes through the forest away from the party, and the adventurers hear his crying and blubbering recede. Copper Dragon and Elvisa make quick work of the remaining hounds.

When Elvisa cautiously approaches the bear, it does not attack her but instead snuffles at her clothes and presents its leg for her to investigate. She soon determines that it's far too strong to be able to remove, and the party gets to work with a crowbar, a hammer, and some other tools to destroy the trap. After some time, the bear is released and it tugs on Tongtokl's cloak in an attempt to pull him towards an overgrown path that can be seen leading from the clearing. Tongtokl changes into bear form in an attempt to communicate with the bear at a basic level. He's able to find out that the bear's name is Kibb and that he urgently wants the party to come with him to some place down the forest path. Tongtokl resumes gnomish form and relays the information to the party while feeding the starving bear.

Tongtokl cautiously leads the party down the faint trail for some distance, with Kibb whining periodically as they walk. Along the way, the group passes a humanoid-shaped fetish fashioned from cornhusk and leather hanging from a tree branch, then a bit further on a second one. The trail meanders to a clearing holding a tangled field of corn and a diseased-looking patch of vegetables. On the far side slump two sagging buildings - a barn and a farmhouse - with windows boarded over and heavy with moss. The party watches the farm for any movement, but after a few minutes it becomes clear that all is silent, and the adventurers step into the clearing to approach the buildings.

As they do, there is a bellow from the left as another fearsome humanoid bursts from the forest undergrowth to charge the party. Its grotesquely misshapen head resembles a pumpkin on one side, and it wields a large, rusty (or bloodstained), curved hook. He reaches Elvisa and inflicts a terrible wound with the wicked hook. Elvisa strikes back with a flurry of kicks and punches, then withdraws as Tongtokl sends Copper Dragon to attack and begins his lighning summoning spell. Gob fires a volley of magical missiles into the creature as it strikes Copper Dragon with the hook, inflicting another serious wound. Copper Dragon and Elvisa team up to flank the large humanoid, preventing it from focusing its attention on one target, and with help from Tongtokl's lightning bolts, they bring the creature down with their synchronized attacks. While Tongtokl uses magic to heal Copper Dragon and Elvisa, Gob discovers that the body has a magical ring, a magical amulet, and that the curved hook it was wielding is also magical. The party picks them up, then proceeds into the farmstead.

The adventurers approach the barn and cautiously swing the wide doors open. The interior is dark and dusty, smelling of rotting vegetation and eye-wateringly powerful vinegar. With a cry, three more grotesquely deformed humanoids charge out of hiding in the darkness wielding sharpened farm tools. Elvisa quickly backpedals out of the barn's entrance and the creatures charge forward to surround Copper Dragon. Tongtokl again summons lightning from the grey sky overhead, and Gob calls down a thunderous hail of jagged ice chunks to damage the misshapen freaks.

Copper Dragon is becoming badly wounded by the combined attacks of the sharpened farm tools, and Elvisa dodges through the blows to bring down the smallest of the three, one with stumpy crooked legs that can barely waddle. Gob fires off another set of force missiles and brings down the second, a hulking brute with milky white skin and cloudy eyes. With combined attacks, the party finishes off the third, and an uneasy silence again settles over the farmyard.

The back wall of the barn has a large set of doors that have been blocked off with a pile of thick timbers, but two staircases on either side of the barn rise to a catwalk that end in smaller doors in the same wall. A rusty still stands on the floor, the source of the powerful vinegar smell, next to a hook holding an iron ring with three rusty keys. Climbing up to the catwalk and opening the door, the group finds a large, dark, stuffy room covered in thick sheets of filthy webbing. The catwalk continues around the room at high level, and in the far corners expands into a square platform that's fenced by wooden beams. The walls inside the cages are hung with iron manacles - most bloody but empty, but the nearest cage holds three emaciated men dangling unconscious from the wall.

The party rushes forward and Elvisa fumbles with a set of iron keys to find the one matching the crude lock on the timber door. The men show no signs of movement, yet the group can see they are much abused but still breathing. As Elvisa guides the third key into the lock, a sudden movement in the webbed funnel below draws the party's attention. To their shock and horror, a furry spider leg the size of a tree trunk emerges from the black pit below, quickly followed by the bulky body of an immense spider the size of an elephant. Eight red eyes larger than dinner plates are fixated on the party, and two huge fangs drip a vile green poison. With lighting quickness, it scuttles up out of the web and looms over the party.

With a shriek, Elvisa drops the ring of keys (which thankfully remain lodged in the lock instead of falling into the web below) and bolts down the catwalk, pushing past the rest of the party to get out of the room. The spider lunges forward and there is a loud crack as it bites the wooden railing along the walkway into pieces. Gob, Tongtokl, and Copper Dragon quickly follow, and the party stops to catch their breath in the front portion of the barn. Through the door they can dimly see the bulk of the spider move about and return to its web below.

The party stops to plan their next move. Elvisa suggests cutting through the wooden wall, but Gob notes that the wooden cage has got to be a good twenty feet off the ground, and someone would have to be most of the way up the side of the wall to cut through at the right location. Tongtokl says his wood-warping magic isn't powerful enough to affect the side of the barn and that the party would have to chop or saw through the wall - something that would be noisy and take a few hours. Eventually the group agrees that any other humanoids within the farmhouse should be dealt with before returning to rescue the prisoners. Since Gob and Tongtokl have used up most of their magic for the day, the adventurers agree to return to Turtleback Ferry to rest for the night before returning to deal with the farmhouse the next morning. The journey back to the lakeside village is uneventful, though Kibb is very distressed that the party is leaving the Kreegwood forest.

Once back in Turtleback Ferry, Elvisa buys a long wooden ladder and a sturdy woodaxe from the general store. One of the village fishermen recognizes the bear following the party, telling Tongtokl that he's seen the bear in the presence of a Black Arrow ranger named Jakardros before. Soon after, the party runs into the mayor who is surprised to hear about the farmstead so near to town. Father Shreed explains that every now and again, raiding ogres from the mountains come down to the lowlands. Their violent urges and lusts leave a trail of death and destruction, and sometimes even less fortunate offspring known as ogrekin. Something not nearly ogre but not quite human either, these horrific creatures are sometimes found in the far reaches of the Kreegwood. He urges the party to return as quickly as possible, and offers to get some fishermen and loggers armed with spears to help the party. Realizing the villagers would be messily slaughtered by the ogrekin, the party says they will return the next morning to deal with the problem themselves.

The next morning before dawn, the adventurers rise and outfit themselves for the journey to the farmstead in the drizzling rain. Picking up Kibb, who has been loitering just outside the village, the group uneventfully returns to the wooden bridge crossing the swollen Skull river. Tongtokl again leads the party down the overgrown path, but trouble strikes when Elvisa trips over a cable stretched across the path. With a snap and the groan of wood, large branches swing down and impale her on sharp spikes lashed to the trees. One of the leather-and-corn-husk human-shaped fetishes is hanging from the trapped branch. Tongtokl uses a bit of his healing magic to fix the worst of her wounds, and the adventurers are soon lurking in the dripping undergrowth, spying on the soggy crops of the farmstead.

After some period of seeing no movement, the group proceed along the woodline to the slumping wooden farmhouse, thickly overgrown with vines, moss, and weeds. Cautiously stepping up rickety stairs onto the leaking front porch, the party see the thick pine pillars are decorated with violent and perverse imagery. An unsettlingly large rocking chair of wood and bone sways erratically at one end of the porch under a collection of wind chimes fashioned from what appear to be humanoid bones. A dirty green moth the size of a shovel head clings to the porch ceiling, watching the party with alien eyes. The horrid scent of sweat, bad meat, urine, and decay leaks out of gaps in the poorly-constructed pine wall. The adventurers sneak past boarded-up windows to the front door, and Elvisa throws the door open.

Immediately there is a snapping sound as a hinge studded with sharpened bones swings down to impale Elvisa. At the same time, a high-pitched whining sound rings out as several spinning rusty saw blades rise in the cracks between the floorboards and run the length of the porch, slicing through the feet of Gob, Tongtokl, and Copper Dragon. Jumping back off the porch, the party is wary of other traps but don't see any reaction inside or outside the farmhouse. Through the open front door, they can see one end of a huge couch haphazardly upholstered in animal hide and human flesh. Tongtokl again uses healing magic to patch up the worst of the wounds. The party passes through the doorway to enter a long room with a mangy dire bearskin rug on the floor and a single door set in the rear wall.

As Elvisa passes the sofa in her approach to the door, the sound of groaning wood echoes through the room and the wooden floor sags and explodes downward. The Shoanti nimbly dodges backwards, narrowly missing being tossed down a wooden chute sloping into the darkness below, lined with sharpened stakes oozing a black, tarry substance. Carefully moving around the gaping hole in the floor, the party opens the back door to find an L-shaped hallway with doors at either end and a set of stairs leading up. Moving down the left branch, the party position themselves well back from the door as Elvisa throws it open.

A cloying stink hits everyone with an almost physical shock. The room is dominated by an immense bed, its ratty sheets stained beyond hope. A huge easel sits next to the bed with a palette of various shades of red and brown paint. The source of these morbid pigments - several crushed organs and ragged stumps of flesh - sit in receptacles next to the easel. A set of human-hair brushes jut from a broken skull by the easel, while a comb made from a human mandible sits on a small bedside table, its teeth clotted with thick strands of greasy black hair. The bodies of three horribly deformed men dressed in ragged finery are propped up in huge open coffins against the far wall, their mouths sewn tightly shut with lengths of hair. Buckets of filth are stacked against the walls, fat ravenous flies lazily circling their rims. Lounging on the bed is an incredibly corpulent monster with stringy hair and bald patches. She wears a huge red curtain as a shroud, and her bed creaks in anguish as she shifts her massive form to regard the intruders.

The creature casts a hurried spell and floats up off the bed and in a shrieking, scratchy voice screams "Get'em, boys!" The corpses in the coffins on the back wall stir and shamble toward Elvisa. Elvisa approaches the bed and delivers a painful kick to the floating woman. From the hall outside, Gob finishes a spell and sends a stream of missiles into the creature. Tongtokl commands Copper Dragon forward to attack the deformed zombies, but the dog refuses to engage the unnatural undead.

The spellcaster looks seriously wounded by Elvisa and Gob's attacks. Her profanity-laced shrieks of rage seem only partially directed at the party, and partially directed at "her boys". She casts another spell, but does so in a defensive manner that doesn't leave any openings for Elvisa to exploit, and vanishes in mid-air. Elvisa, thinking that she's turned invisible or that perhaps it's a trap, tumbles away from the zombies back into the hall and takes up a defensive stance. The zombies lurch forward and crowd into the hall in an attempt to attack the monk. With support from Gob and Tongtokl behind, Elvisa beats down the zombies and after a minute of fighting, they are all destroyed. The adventurers can hear the high-pitched shrieking coming from outside the farmhouse, in the direction of the barn. Running to the front porch, they can see the flying woman above the tangled field of corn plants. A group of identical images surround her, constantly shifting and dodging, making it difficult to tell which is the right target. On the ground below her, the ogrekin with a spear grunts and readies a charge against the adventurers.