(Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition Actual Play) The Frantic Four

[SirFozzie]

(My friends wanted me to run a new 5th edition D&D game.. our last game had petered out because of a dissatisfaction with the published adventure.. they preferred more free-form stuff from my brain rather than from a published adventure.. So, I took the seed of a campaign that I had germinating in my brain, and whipped up a beginning adventure while they created their characters. I will hopefully be updating this weekly with their exploits.. be it their character's exploits, the players exploiting the game system, or the players exploiting each other -- Foz)

The Barony of Kavran is the largest of the coastline nations of the continent of Baista. Their ports are busy with trade from the various smaller principalities and sub-nations that dot the coast. 250 years ago, they established the only known land route (The Trade Path) through the Hinterlands, the center of the continent once holding many nations that were all but wiped from the map in the God's War. It is said to be Kavran is to be cultured. Kavran literature, opera and art is said to be that of the highest in the known world. Sure, the elves of the Deep Forest may create better living art, and the dwarves of the Harkstan Mountains better at the forge, but their limited output is dwarfed by the strength, stability and quantity of Kavran. Kavran has been content with its position and land for many many decades.

But the Baron of Kavran has a situation that is both a boast of the virility of the Baron (and thus the nation), but also, at some time in the future, could be a problem of great magnitude to his nation. The Baroness has given birth to not twins, or triplets, but QUADRUPLETS. Since they were born so close to each other, each would have a valid claim to at least some Kavran land, as it's expected that they would quarrel and feud about the order of birth otherwise. So, rather then considering divide his land into fourths and diluting its power and prestige, he has decided that the kingdom must grow.

The word went out all over the land. The baron was offering great rewards to those who would voluntarily resettle new lands for the glory of Kavran. Of course, there were others that were given more of a direct inducement, those who had fallen out of favor with the capital or in great debt, for example, or, people undesirable to the peace and stability of their villages (that usually means that feuds were usually settled by sending warring clans to different settlements far far away from each other).

This includes the settlement of Glory, an ill-fitting name to a small band of re-settlers, who were told to settle an area furthest inland, on the Kayine River, near the Trade Path. Things were made even worse, when the small army unit sent with the settlers to protect them against the encroaching dangers of the Hinterlands managed to politic their way into being recalled to the capital. It is said that the commander of the army unit could not stand to be away from the culture, and the politicking of the captial, and managed to get an order recalling them to the Capital "urgently". The message promised a replacement unit would be sent out as soon as one could be freed up from its other duties. To date, no such unit has been sent.

So, the settlers of Glory, in and amongst building the new homes and building that would make up their new settlement, appointed a Town Mayor (a fighter recently sworn as a Paladin in the service of Karn, the Klavan god of Justice who stayed when his so-called compatriots abandoned their duty to Glory), and offered a deal to some of its members with.. difficult paths. The town would shelter them, and assist them in making their homes, in return, they would investigate areas that could be dangerous to Glory. The town would take a share of what they found (to try to build up the town, and protect it from marauders), but in general, the adventurers would be able to keep most of what they found.

This is the story of one such band, a group that earned its designation in its founding days, the so-called Frantic Four.

[SirFozzie]

Meet the Frantic Four:

Jeremy Whitebark (Fighter 2) - Jeremy is a long time sailor on.. ships of a certain ill repute, let's say.. although he long since quit the life, not having the stomach for the rough life of a pirate. His life lead him to the town of Glory when a press gang Captain informed him that he matched the description of a man thought to have left the pirate vessel Rapscallion soon before it was seized by Klavan port officials for unregistered trade (read: Smuggling). He had two options, one, accept a new opportunity with the Barony's resettlement program, or. possibly fave an investigation into his past life. He volunteered. He's the leader of the group, and a smooth talker (who's prone to picking slight loopholes in his promises)

Dagon (The Strange) (Warlock 2) The gnome known as Dagon is.. not well liked by most people who he interacts with. Oh, he's pleasant enough.. gives fair price and will not be cross with those who are not cross with him, but it's well known that he consorts with.. things.. things not of this world. And he has the unnerving habit of asking folks if they've "Found Th'rag'an the Elder in their life". This usually causes folks to hurriedly hold up their religious symbols, or make the religious gestures of their religion before hurrying away. Dagon has voluntarily moved out to Glory to seek new areas in his search for signs of the Old Ones and their Fell Presence across the Worlds that Are.

Alexandras Harkkon (Wizard/Rogue) Alexandras is not your typical wielder of magic, nor your typical rogue. She could be fine at either art, should she apply herself to it. Unfortunately, she was released from her apprenticeship with her Master (arranged for by her Noble family) when she was caught using her skills to steal reagents from the Master's supply cabinets instead of acquiring them herself. She's not EVIL, per se, she's just.. constantly seeking shortcuts as long as they don't "hurt anyone else". Her family considers her the black sheep of the family, and paid for her to be assigned to Glory, where they hope that the hard life of a Settler will teach her some lessons about the value of hard work and an honest day's pay. Unfortunately for her family, she immediately volunteered for the adventurer group, figuring that while adventuring was being "cold, wet and miserable" at times, at least it wasn't ALL the time, and after all, it gave her a chance to use her skills and show she really can do things if she puts her mind to it. Now if she can just stop taking those shortcuts...

Demeter of the Storm(Cleric 2) Demeter is.. different from the other members of the group. He actually volunteered for this, not only as a settler, but as a member of the Traveling Militia (as the adventurer's groups are euphemistically named). He is a member of the Church of Yllanst, The Tester, who teaches that life is a tempest that must be sought out, challenged and overcome. Unfortunately, while he doesn't have anything against his colleagues.. he finds a reason to be uncomfortable with each one (Jeremy's past history and flippancy with his "word", Alexandras's flightiness and past, and Dagon's weirdness and general Warlockness). He works with them, but cannot truly call them friends.

[SirFozzie]

Chapter The First: The Frantic Four and the Goblin Tower (part One)

Kandos (the fighter/Paladin currently serving as Town Mayor) summoned the four heroes to the Mayor's residence. He informed them that a couple of the town's militia had noted goblinoids using a local watchtower as a base of operations. The watchtower had been thought abandoned, but this changed things. The watchtower could easily see merchant caravans that used the Trade Path (or worse yet, look and see the barely defended borders of the new town). He charged the four with investigating the tower, and returning to the town once the goblin menace had been turned away. In return for half the treasure found, the town would build their new residences, and identify any magical items they found (which the party would get to keep).

The militia would use any money brought back to pay for resources to develop and defend the town.

The party left, and decided to travel through the woods so not to alert the goblins in the tower that they were coming. They were lucky when they literally stumbled across a rogue ghoul, who had been snacking on the bodies of some dead merchants the goblins had ransacked previously and taken off the road. The ghoul nearly paralyzed Jeremy with his sharp claws, but his armor held, and they managed to defeat the foul creature.

That night was clear and cold, Jeremy managed to simultaneously lead the party and to cause a bit of fractiousness when he set the watch order, he of course would take the first watch, Demeter volunteered for the night watch, and while Dagon and Alexandras looked at each other, trying to will the other into taking dawn watch, Jeremy told Dagon it was well of him to volunteer for the dawn watch (he did no such thing), since Alexandras needed her rest to properly help prepare her spells the next day.

The night passed, with the only issue being shortly after dawn was Dagon being swooped on by a giant eagle, who mistook the curled up gnome for an extra large chipmunk. Dagon managed to dodge the eagle's talons , but fell out of the tree. Demeter and Jeremy woke to Dagon mumbling fell words while staring at the eagle.

Alexandras proved.. difficult to wake, as it turned out that she had taken a small sleeping draught to help her sleep (she was unused to "roughing it", and was denied even her herbal teas by Jeremy's insistence on a cold camp that night). Dagon argued that they should just make a traverse and drag her along till she woke up, while Demeter argued that they should splash a canteen on her to wake her.. then realized it was probably.. unwise to suddenly wake someone who apparently carried several daggers on her, and was used to using them.

Jeremy had gone on a walking patrol while the party gathered their items, and was.. frustrated to find that Dagon and Demeter were still arguing about the best way to wake up Alexandras.. while not getting any closer to actually WAKING Alexandras. He managed to finally wake her, and just shook his head at Dagon and Demeter. "The three of you catch up when you're ready.. I'm going to scout ahead."

Well, Jeremy's confidence was nearly his undoing.. as he saw four goblins in a clearing over a pot of oatmeal. Now if he had spoken Goblinoid, he would have realized that the Goblins were arguing over the fact that most of the Tribe was "Back home" electing a new Chief, after the last Chief had "displeased the Master". Between that and arguing over the fact that one of them was planning to steal the oatmeal for themselves (now to be fair, all four of them had the THOUGHT, just one of them had jumped the gun, and had been caught in the act), the goblins were quite unaware of the party.

Things had gone from bad to worse, as Dagon and Demeter were arguing, fairly loudly a short distance behind them (Dagon had accidentally tripped Demeter by getting tangled up with the larger cleric, which Demeter thought was intentional, but Dagon was just explaining that first of all he had shorter legs and thus had to work harder to keep up, and it's not HIS fault that the big armor clad oaf wasn't looking where he was walking..)

Jeremy decided that if he didn't act, the goblins would be aware of the party soon enough, and attacked the four goblins himself. The goblins best tactic would have been to have one or two of their mates hold the lone human off and grab their shortbows and fill the overconfident fighter with arrows, but alas, the craven natures of Goblins meant that all FOUR of them went running for their bows, so by the time they got there and got their poorly made bows ready to fire.. of course, the human had caught them and was waving that sharpened bit of steel in their face again. Jeremy's armor kept him from taking the damage his reckless actions surely deserved....

Jeremy slew two of the Goblins, but the other two ran for their lives. The rest of the party did what they could as they FINALLY had caught up, but while Alexandras's magic missile took down one of the freeing goblins, Dagon's eldritch blast could not find the last one, and it disappeared into the woods.

The party knew it had to investigate the Tower, and quickly, before the fleeing goblin informed his compatriots that the townsfolk had sent a party to investigate.

[SirFozzie]

Chapter The First: The Frantic Four and the Goblin Tower (part two)

So, having possibly given their location away, the party knew that speed was now of the essence if they wanted to properly investigate the tower... making a beeline for it.. to find it.. pretty much empty? The door stood ajar and no goblins were in sight!

They made their way inside, and other than a torch crackling away, the barracks floor was empty, except for a large winding staircase along the wall of the tower. Alexandras felt some kind of large arcane power above them, while even the non-magical Jeremy felt the "heebie-jeebies" that set his skin on edge. the party started slowly climbing the stairs.. and out of nowhere a pair of matched wolves leaped on Jeremy, nearly knocking him off the platform entirely (safety rails, of course, being a non-goblin idea). The battle was short, but Jeremy took several wounds before the party managed to dispatch the wolves. Jeremy noticed the shadow of something along the wall, and took it slowly.. a voice from above, speaking Common said.. "I seek parley..."

Well, Jeremy was born, but he wasn't born yesterday, and he did advance, slowly.. and was rewarded for his forbearance by seeing the vial of alchemist's fire flying in, throwing himself forward before it broke and spilled its fire on the wooden landing, setting it ablaze, and seperating Jeremy from the rest of the party.. Alexandras actually came up with a novel use for a cantrip as a couple rounds of rays of frost put the fire out enough for the party to join Jemremy, who was still edging up the stairs , fearing another vial of fire.

When Jeremy got to the room on the top floor, he found a Goblin wizard puttering at a glowing portal (!)

"Master told me right right rune codes. yes. STAR X "BENDY THING" HOOK ZETA KAMA FLAME HART.. YES.. YES.. SUMMON TRIBE YES YES"

The Goblin Wizard... really should have written down the code, because as Jeremy advanced towards the goblin and the portal, it shimmered to life.. but not the translucent blue the goblin wizard was expecting, but an inky dark black. A black that was darker then the void. The portal had been opened, but not to the location of the rest of the Tribe.. but to a place that should not be. A place that was. And a place immical to things on this side of the portal.

Inky black tentacles reached through the portal, questing for anything it could grab. The goblin wizard screeched in terror, and ran to a nearby ladder to the roof, throwing it open and climbing out as quickly as it could.

Jeremy decided that if he could remove the runes, the portal would close, and at first it seemed like his theory was correct as the portal shimmered, and closed for a milisecond (leaving the tips of several black tentacles writhing on the ground before dissolving into foul nothingness as they were severed by the portal's close), but the outer runes still glowed and the portal was forced open again.

Dagon had a semi-bright idea.. this was a portal to another plane of existence, similar to the one that his Fell Gods slept in, so surely if he called out across to the planes to Those Who Lie Dreaming In Shadow, they would help punish this pretender.

The GM allowed it, asking him to make a Knowledge (Old Religions) roll to positively identify the extra-dimensional source (as all good Warlocks know, the NAME of something is very important). Unfortunately for Dagon's player, he rolled a 1. Enraged, several large tentacles burst out of the portal and grabbed him, attempting to drag him into the portal.. doing a pretty decent amount of Void damage to the player. Apparently he had, misnamed his enemy and thus attracted its emnity.

Jeremy severed a couple more tentacles, and yelled at Alexandras "You're the Wizard! You have to know how to close it."

Right about then, Alexandras really wished she had taken better notes in the short lesson her ex-Master had given her about how Portals worked. She managed to piece enough together that two of the key rune locations was "Location A" and "Location B". By reversing them, she could end the portal, since there was no power source at the otherside to keep the portal open.

She grabbed the two rune stones, pulled them from their locations, and switched them.

If her Master saw it, he would immediately have told her that was.. not a good idea. If he could have couched it in futurish terms, it would have been called reversing the polarity. In modern terms, it would be like taking a modern race car running at 200 miles per hour, and then immediately trying to run it 200 miles per hour.. in reverse.. in one second.

In his unique terms, he would have smacked her up side the head and yelled "YOU FOOL, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?" The remaining runes on the portal burst into flames so intense that they immediately started melting from the heat. The sense of arcane energy grew, and a crackling noise started issuing from the portal.

"Um.. what just happened?" Jeremy asked.

"Er.. ah.. I think we should. er.. run" Alexandras said.

The party was as united as always as they ran.. in different directions. Demeter and Dagon immediately started down the stairs, while Jeremy raced to the ladder and headed up where the Goblin Wizard had gone. Alexandras lived up to her nature, she also started for the stairs, but stopped at the top of the landing.. and looked back to the portal. "I CAN FIX IT.. ALL I NEED TO DO IS..."

BLAMMMOOOO!!!

[SirFozzie]

Chapter The First: The Frantic Four and the Goblin Tower (Final Part)

This is where things went bad to worse. As explosions go, it was a pretty good one, sending force and explosive energy everywhere. Alexandras caught the brunt of it, and was knocked off the landing, plummeting several stories down to the floor, knocking her unconscious and lucky to be alive (two HP from instant kill). Dagon stumbled on the icy landing and also tumbled to the ground, knocking himself unconscious as well (he had already taken a decent amount of damage from the tentacles). Demeter managed to stumble OUTWARDS (into the tower wall) and taking only a little damage. He raced down the broken remnants of the steps to heal his wounded compatriots while.. Jeremy...

Well, Jeremy was lucky enough to have STONE between him and the blast and managed to keep his feet.. He grinned at the cowering Goblin Wizard. "Now.. about that parley.."

The frightened goblin immediately pleaded with the fighter not to kill him.. Jeremy grinned. "Well, if you tell me what you know about the portal and things going on at the tower.. for example, where are all the goblins.. where does that portal go.. and what were you doing with the portal.."

The goblin was a great source of information.. The rest of the Mucklescar tribe was.. on the other side of the portal. Apparently it was difficult to keep large amounts of goblins on this side of the portal, so "Master Sanorti" decreed that small scouting parties would stay on this side of the portal, and when a juicy target was spotted, the tribe would pour through the portal to attack the luckless merchants. Had the plan been successful, trade via the Trade path would have become very difficult, if not impossible, choking off a supply of trade (and thus gold) to the Barony. The rest of the tribe was currently on the other side of the (now violently defunct) portal, electing a new Chief (apparently the old chief had displeased the Master in someway and died of "Sword Poisoning".

Jeremy: "You mean the Master stabbed him?"
Goblin Wizard: "No, Master melted a sword into molten metal and poured down Chief Yucklepuck's throat."

The rune stones were a method of directing a portal from past ages. If you placed the rune stones in the right order, you could travel from one portal to another instantly. It was the fact that Hertem (the Goblin Wizard's name) had been in a hurry, and grabbed the wrong rune stones that had caused the portal to malfunction. Hertem bragged that his Master had several other portals in other locations. When asked where his home base was, he answered "Master Sanorti holds the key to Ullem, the city of Portals". Unfortunately for Jeremy, Ullem is considered to be "Atlantis", ie, a legendary lost city from the past ages (here, before the God's War) believed to be forever lost that no one can quite agree where it is.

And then Jeremy, feeling that he had extracted all he could from the Goblin Wizard, decided to use the dubious loophole in his promise to the Goblin. Realizing that the portal's destruction had pretty much eliminated the stairs (and the area beneath the ladder), he explained to the Goblin that they'd have to climb down the outside and climb in through a window on the lower levels (assuming that they were still functional). He told the goblin to find a part of the wall that they could attach a grappling hook to and climb down to enter a window to make their way further down..

The goblin really should have not trusted Jeremy, as soon as the goblin peered over the edge, Jeremy snuck up behind and tossed him over the edge, to the cobblestoned ground well below him..

Hertem's last words as he plummeted was "You promiseeeeeeeddddd.." *THUD!*

Jeremy smirked "I promised not to kill you, and I didn't.... after all, as they say, it's not the fall that kills you, it's that sudden stop at the end."

He managed to make the descent, and join his colleagues who were resting somewhat more comfortably (thanks to the last healing spells of the day from Demeter), and managed to make a discovery..

(FILTHY LUCRE)

Alexandras's fall had been broken by.. well, the breaking of a hidden door set into the ground (under a rug). After Demeter had stabilized Alexandras's slightly smoking body, they managed to clear the wreckage of the door and while it appeared the Goblins took valuable valuables of the merchants they raided through the portal for their Master.. they hadn't sent through the less valuable coins.. and while it wasn't a huge amount compared to gold, there is a certain allure of a couple thousand "coins of the realm". (1400 CP, 1300 SP and 70 GP).. and even better there was a couple items that appeared magical... thankfully the agreement with the town stated that not only would the "Traveling Militia" get to keep any magical items they found, but that the town would absorb the costs to identify such items.

The party quickly headed back to the town of Glory..

One of the items was a Gem of Brightness, which would be a useful tool in battles against units (it's like a permanent 30' light spell (30' more dim light, without using charges, and can blind creatures that fail a saving throw, either one at a time (1 charge), or a 30' Cone (5 charges).. considering it has 37 charges, they are jammy gits.

The other, when I (the GM) generated it, I just started telling the warlock that I though he was an extremely *bleeping* lucky *bleeping* bastard.. it was a Rod of the Pact +1. Not only does it provide a +1 bonus to spell attacks and DC's to resist warlock spells, by holding the rod in his hand, he could instantly regain an expended spell slot (once per long rest). I mean, talk about a perfect item for a Warlock

The town's Mayor was.. surprised by the successful nature of the Frantic Four's mission, and agreed to live up to not only the letter, but the spirit of the bargain (unusual for elected officials, probably not so much for a Paladin, even one who wishes that there was a "Smite Greedy Merchant and/or Quarreling Townsfolk" method of channeling divinity making sure that the houses built for the four were well built and in decent locations.. Jeremy's house was built by the river, a reminder of his ocean-gong past life, Demeter's house was built close to the town's center of worship, Alexandra's house used a good deal of the stone that the town had received (since it was well known that mage's domiciles were more likely to be combustible), and Dagon's house.. well.. by mutual consent, Dagon's house was at the edge of the settlement, well away from others.

The town's mayor informed the Four that while they would send details of what the four had found, it would be.. highly unlikely that those off in far-off Klavan city would take heed of the town's warning.. (after all, "the yokels are just jumping at shadows"), so urged them to continue to seek out information about this "Master Sanorti", his plans, and his location.

[SirFozzie]

So ends week one: I forgot to mention that Jeremy's player, before sending the Goblin Wizard plummeting to his doom, made the Goblin Wizard scratch out the rune code for Ullem. Well, what the Goblin Wizard THOUGHT was the code to Ullem, after all, he did such a great job setting up the runes in the first place.. be interesting to see how the party follows up on THAT bit of info.

[SirFozzie]

Oh, please let me know if you like it, how much detail you want (more/less/same), and what I should throw at the poor bastards.. I mean, the party next...

[Travis]

Oh this is going to be a fun one to follow. I hope you'll include some thoughts/details from your side that you obviously couldn't share with the players as the plot unfolds.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Travis

Oh this is going to be a fun one to follow. I hope you'll include some thoughts/details from your side that you obviously couldn't share with the players as the plot unfolds.

This

[timmae]

I'll be reading this for sure!

[timmae]

Warlockness! Ha!! Awesome read... reminds me of about 4 years worth of Saturdays in my earlier life. I can't wait to see what befalls the group with Jeremy and his use of the rune code.

Even the cleric seems to be a tad bit evil. This is a rough group of travelers, no doubt. I'd love to see an adventure that tests Jeremy's ethics (or lack there of) to dire consequences.

Also, it has been a while but Wizard/Rogue is a weird combo is it not?!

Love the plot lines and the set up. I'd be having a blast (no pun intended).

[SirFozzie]

Demeter's flaws are he's more of a war cleric then a typical bandaid cleric, and he's very brave which means he's more comfortable smacking bad guys with a giant freaking hammer.. and he's humorless. That.. does not exactly meld well with "Lazy free spirit Wizard/Rogue" "Warlock with Old Ones Pact" and "Fighter ex-pirate".. well, at least until they work together

Wizard/Rogue is a unique combination, but it's not THAT crazy, she'll probably leave the Rogue levels behind (maybe one here and there), but having a crossbow to go with her ray of frost/magic missile) is an interesting combo, and I think when the character was being rolled up the general feeling was "Uh oh.. if we have no trap finder the DM is going to drop all types of traps on us.."

And for their next adventure, I was thinking of having them investigate the fact that several woodsmen have gone missing, and lead them into the forest, to battle spiders (of the large and giant nature) and some kind of monster "druid" who resists the fact taht the metahumans are pushing out deeper into the wild lands.

(maybe tie it into the elves getting a wee bit twitchy as the Glory settlers get a bit closer to the traditional homes in the Deep Forest)

the other thing I was thinking of, is moving them back into Klavan City trying to get the additional help they were promised. (being Mayor is NOT going to sit well with the newly minted paladin-Mayor.. the art of being a good feudal lord (to name them: The need to forge compromises and shades of grey does not always sit well with the oaths required of a paladin)

[SirFozzie]

Here's something that will be used as a handout to the party after a key battle in our next session (which may or may not be Sunday Night, as the Pats play late sunday)

Selected Entries from the Personal Journal of Eldreth Windspeed

Entry 17 (dated approximately 12 years ago)
I took my oath today as a Druid of the Deep Forest. No less a personage than Grandmaster Ellteth himself was in attendance! I could hardly believe it.. He even spoke to me after the ceremony, and I swear, I can hear his voice now..
“I sense a future for you, Druid. You will serve the wild, and in time, serve an even greater Calling..”
I wanted to ask a question, what greater calling was there then serving the Wild? But I couldn’t speak, I was.. well, I wanted to pretend like this wasn’t completely beyond my experience.. but he seemed to understand.. and had a small smile on his face.
“Yes.. you do not understand now. But that is because you are taking the first steps upon a long and meandering path. I look forward to meeting you at the end of the path, Druid.”
With that, he left the ceremony. His words.. both excite me and trouble me, and I cannot decide why it shifts back and forth.


Entry 51: (dated 1.5 years ago)
I came across some unusual tracks in the forest today, leading to a cave. If I did not know better, I would have thought they were owlbear tracks, but these were.. Subtly different. An owlbear usually trampled the underbrush as it passes through. This walked almost like one of the rangers that guard the Deep Forest’s ways. While it could not totally conceal its tracks, it took care not to disturb the path unduly. Quite.. unusual. The cave was not lived in, but had an unusual shrine inside, with the wall featuring a sigil in our native tongue honoring “Grandmother Spider”. I will keep an eye on this cave in my guardianship.. there is a mystery here, and I want to know more.


Entry 74 (dated 13 months ago)
Well.. the mystery is solved! I stumbled upon Grandmaster Ellteth’s hidden sanctuary! I followed the tracks again, and caught him as he wildshaped himself back into his elven form in the cave,. He was shocked that I had tracked him as well as I had, but I think he was pleased. He told me that he had not expected me to take this step for many years to come, but my growth had surprised him. He promised to explain it all to me at a gathering tonight…


Entry 75 (dated 2 days after the one above)
After meeting the Mistress, the Grandmaster explained that I was now a member of an ancient order, amongst our race. Our cousins in their woodland sanctuaries (Is it strange that I now refer to my family and bretheren in the Deep Wood as “Our Cousins”? Pah. My mind wanders..) have withdrawn from the world. Outside, empires rise and fall, and the land itself heals from the Great War that happened in our father’s time. The Grandmaster (or as he explained, his true title, in serving the Mistress was “Chosen Fang”) told me that he admired the other races in a way, especially the humans that so dot this land.
“They despoil the land, and are mere blips upon the stage of time, it is true. But they cram more living in their allotted span of years than our Cousins do in their centuries!”
His face grew grim..
“But the kingdoms.. they seek to remove the shadows of the forest, and that our Mistress cannot allow. As you now know, the races seek out lands that our Mistress claimed as her own before the God’s War.. and the lands that will be hers again when She rises from below. I have a new task for you, small Fang. I am sending to you to the lands bordering the so called “Barony” of Klava. I have heard that they are aggressively expanding their lands. Be silent and sharpness in the dark. Use the gifts that the Mistress has granted you. Grow powerful and feed upon them. Draw your web around them, turn them back, and great power will be yours!”

Entry 91: (2 weeks ago)
The Mistress will be pleased. I’ve fed two of their woodsmen to her creatures, and during the sacrifice, I was granted a vision.. a vision of a totem of the Mistress’s power! Once I manage to attach myself to the device, my ability to serve as one of the Mistress’s chosen instruments of vengeance and terror will be complete! The impudence of these so called “Glory” settlers will be punished, and I am an instrument of her fury! Beware, death comes on eight legs, and it is swift and as sure as the Night Below…

[timmae]

Ahhh... How the good ones become evil. Will we see more of the grandmaster?

[SirFozzie]

possibly. I want to be open in seeing where/how the party wants to go.

[SirFozzie]

Just an update, as we watched the Pats game, there was no session sunday, but there will be one tommorrow.