Date: 12/08/04

XP Awarded: 1,747 (to 4th level characters)

Start: Trail between Beorunna’s Well and Citadel Felbarr

After slaying the musk creeper and its plant zombie servants and looting its pile of equipment, the party resumed traveling through the lightly forested, rolling hills. Camping in an open vale at sundown, Kai heard orcs in the night passing nearby. They couldn’t be seen because clouds obscured the almost-full moon, but they soon moved off without bothering the encamped adventurers.

The next day brought many more miles of the same terrain, including a herd of long-necked branta grazing on pines that fled when the party approached. Later that day after cresting a ridge, a group of mounted barbarians appeared in the distance. Most of the barbarian women and children turned around and disappeared over the ridge they had just come over, but a detachment of mounted archers rode down towards the party and fired arrows when Theodar started to approach. The group slowly backed up and the barbarians eventually left, allowing the party to continue. After a few more hours of travel, the adventurers entered a deforested deep, sunken dell with a large stockaded town in the center near a large, black pool of water. Entering the town, the streets were lined with bordellos, boardinghouses, and taverns and filled with loud, drunk barbarians, grizzled mercenaries, and other shady characters. Passing through town, the party found a veritable army of halflings at work on and around the Rising Star, one of the most well-kept establishments in town. Celowin’s offer of drinks brought the halflings in with him and soon made him into a very popular figure in the establishment. Before long Pydow Starnhap, a member of the halfling clan that runs the inn, was playing the fiddle and the excellent halfling porter ale was flowing. Theodar spotted a suspicious-looking mage at a table by himself but decided not to approach him on Pydow’s advice - she said that many archmages live in isolated towers across the North and come here to buy their spell supplies, and it is best not to disturb them. Later she took Fei and Theodar to introduce them to Alina the Spellwarder, one of the friendly mages that lives in town. While they were gone, Celowin finished his bath and spoke with Ombert Starnhap, a well-dressed merchant. He apologized for Celowin’s package not being ready yet, but that raids by lycanthropes had delayed this item. Celowin suggested that his fellow adventurers may be able to help out after he spoke with them. Kai left the Rising Star to find information on the person he is searching for, and showed after being gone many hours, looking as if he had been involved in a fight, though he did not find what he was looking for. Later that night, Theodar awoke with vague memories of a troubling dream, one with a voice offering sinister advice.

The next morning Theodar paid a visit to the shrine of Tyr, meeting Magnus Helder, the shrine’s cleric. He was able to recommend a good weaponsmith in town, and Theodar was able to sell much of the party’s accumulated goods and find an alchemically silvered heavy mace. While about town, he encountered a riotous mob of barbarians driven by a one-eyed priest of Talos. He confronted the priest, but did not challenge him while surrounded by his seething followers. Instead he got his warhorse and followed the mob around town, with Celowin trailing Theodar. A little later the mob was stopped some chain-clad warriors led by a man in a breastplate with two braids of bright red hair and a sword that glowed with an electric light. The warrior conversed with the priest, and shortly after the mob left town, casting Theodar black glances as they departed. Afterwards the man approached Theodar and introduced himself as Hask Bloodaxe, sword-thane to Andar Heartwood, leader of the Black Lion tribe. The priest of Talos was Aelthas Palarson, a troublemaker too popular with the younger Red Tiger barbarians to get rid of. Hask mentions he already has his hands full trying to keep the peace between the Black Lion and Red Tiger tribes as it is, and that if Theodar is going to stir up trouble, he’s not welcome in Beorunna’s Well.

After Theodar and Celowin return to the Rising Star, they confer with Fei and agree to travel to the Moonwood to protect the woodsmen so they can get Celowin’s goods. Kai declines because he needs to stay in town to try to track down info on the person he is looking for.

The next morning Fei, Theodar, and Celowin set out on horseback to the southwest, toward the Moonwood, with a set of instructions from Ombert. On the way there the adventurers encounter a small group of bugbears in a dell near a small stream. Celowin leads the charge in on horseback and keeps up a continuous stream of arrows, while Fei’s magic overcomes them with magical fear and sleep. Theodar charges into combat, and soon the bugbears are all dead.

Continuing into the edges of the Moonwood, the party finds the woodcutters and helps them cut down branches and dig dirt to form a low defensive wall. They work past sundown and are near finishing when they hear the howling cries of approaching lycanthropes. A werewolf comes running out of the woods and vaults the low barrier to land next to Theodar and Celowin, while a wereboar charges the barrier but fails to break through. Theodar attacks the werewolf while Celowin backs up to fire silvered arrows at it, but the wereboar breaks through the barrier and begins attacking Theodar with his stone battleaxe. The werewolf closes with Celowin and claws him before the silvered arrows kill it and the body reverts to that of a naked, gore-covered woman. Meanwhile, Fei’s magic and Theodar’s blows finally bring the wereboar down, though Fei has to use some of his dwindling power to keep one of the woodcutters from running into the forest in a panic. The woodcutters who aren’t overcome with fear quickly start repairing the wall as best they can, when a wicked-sounding horn comes from the nearby forest. Celowin’s keen eyes spot another wereboar winding a terrible horn of black iron and gleaming silver metalwork. Theodar prepares himself behind the wall, and the wereboar charges the wall to break through. He destroys a section of the wall, but Theodar’s defensive stance drives the wereboar back. Because of the ruined wall, Celowin can’t get a good shot at the wereboar, and is starting to run low on arrows. Fei is already out of magical powers and uses up many of the scrolls he had scribed. Finally Fei uses up one last scroll and throws a bolt of fire through the wall of branches, catching the wereboar by surprise and throwing its body several feet. The woodcutters put out the fires and patch the walls, and no more attacks occur.