We begin our morning by leaving the inn early and heading to the marketplace so that we may stock up and equip ourselves for our task at hand. The first shop we come upon is a magic shop where Thorgrim purchases 5 healing potions and a potion of speed. I inquire after, but am unsuccessful in locating a scroll of Leomund’s Tiny Hut. I ask all of the shop keepers to keep an eye out for one for me as it is an extremely useful spell for our party to have that I will be able to copy into my ritual spellbook. The shop keepers all know that we are on business for the new Prime so I hope that they are diligent in helping to locate a scroll. We visit an apothecary next where Shaw hopes to purchase some poisons. On asking the keeper of the shop, he is told to speak quiety as it is illegal to even inquire for such things. Shaw rattles his coin purse at the man, who’s eyes look as though they will bulge from his head, and the takes Shaw aside to discuss business. Shaw purchases 2 vials of serpent venom which normally cost 200 gold pieces each but Shaw exchanges a vial of a blue slime for it instead. When I ask later what the blue vial was, he tells me that the party were attacked by a big blue slime in a cave a short time before I joined the party and this was a sample of that slime.
After our purchasing, we return to the City Hall where we sign our contracts, are given our beasts of burden, and we set out mounted through the city gate toward our first destination.
New session:
Jonathan has learned: The loggers camp was there for around 20 years but was evacuated quite suddenly. A story was put about that the timber from the new place was better but we believe this is a story to explain the reasons for the new place. There are lots of issues with the new camp and the loggers aren’t happy there. They have to break into the walls over and over again as the walls seem to be being repaired every few days. There are also very strong rumours that three families have been paid out, as they appear to have suddenly come into money and the husbands are missing. There is the impression that the men have gone missing and the families have been paid out and quite substantially too. In the forests to the south there are a number of groups who worship the forests, they’ve never been troublesome before. Mostly they have orc blood, there is also a an Orcish township further out. They are in trade (though not very good at it) they are no war-like. People really don’t want to talk about the whole situation and especially about the new camp.
We are asked to take supplies to the camp on our way, they have also given us a wagon. If we take the wago we will halve our pace as it is full of supplies but they’ll pay us an additional 5 gold. The wagon has its own draft horse to pull it. We decide to take the wagon to show some good will so that they will like us. There is an inventory written and there is mostly food. Vince is the horse’s name.
We now go on our way. We head East its about a 3 mile travel. It should take around most of the day just to reach the turnoff to the new camp. As we leave the lakes behind we see a few farms and farmhouses along the way. The road is uneventful, we pass the occasional person along the but nothing is out of the ordinary. We stop for lunch and then continue on. This seems to be the easiest gold earned. It gets toward the end of the day and we reach the turnoff which has 2 large stones with a large log laid on top that says logging camp on it. the track to the west has been recently made. It is in disrepair. It is evident that people have camped at this spot in the past. There has been no one pass us for several hours. We pitch camp here and make ourselves safe. We feel safe here. The weather has been pleasant today. I mediatate as Shaw takes up first watch and I take on second watch. Shaw’s watch seems to have been quiet with no issue. I take up my shift. I look up at the sly. There are 2 moons out tonight. One large a quarter lit and a smaller about to set. I feel as though I was a traveller. I’ve never seen a place with 2 moons before. The place seems a little alien to me. As the sun starts to rise, I go a bit more on guard again. As the birds start to come out there is a lot of movement on the trees to the East in the direction we’re going. A flock of birds seem to have suddenly come from the trees. I see that the bird are being chased by a flock of much larger birds. It is too far away to make out though. On the horizon. Two or three larger shapes chasing them. All I see are silhouettes. And then they are gone. Something about it is disconcerting. I wake my friends and tell them about it but nothing is there any longer. We have breakfast, attach the horse to the wagon again and head off again to the new camp to deliver the wagon.
This road is very rough. The wagon rattles and rolls. We need to go slower. it takes a good hour and a half to reach a border of some sort. This must be going into the Forest of Iherick. As we get closer, we’re see a large hedge. It is a good 20 foot high hedge. We think its the forest at first but it turns out to be this hedge. Those who met Paget think it is the border to his lands. The hedge has been chopped down and this road goes through it. There is a camp as we approach. We don’t see any people though. We continue at a slow pace. As we get closer we hear the sound of somebody chopping wood which seems to be coming from the hedge itself. As we get closer a person comes out who is half orc and waves at us saying hold there. we say greetings and he says they weren’t expecting anybody. He says we are for the main camp but well need to wait so that they can open up the entry again.
Something about this place seems off to me thanks to my affinity with nature. I ignore the people and study the hedge and the way it is growing. It looks like wild wilderness but its following a border and it is too regular. There is no evidence to suggest it is being maintained though.
Jonathan thinks some form of magic is present here. Tyhe loggers complain about the hole and the effort required to open it which they have to do every day. Jon says to them that its magical who says they knew that and how annoying it is. They ask us if we’re new as they don’t know us. We say we’re trying to get the old camp back up and they are happy about that. The worst thing about this place they say is the harpies who are always attacking them. They put wool in their ears and I ask them for some that we can have so that we cannot hear the harpies who sing and try to get us to come out to them. They say the land has a feeling of age to it. The trees resist being felled and they are huge. There are strange creatures around. At night they hear the calls of the creatures that sound like a howl with a bird like quality to them.
I get a feeling a that the hedge as I pass through that the forest is in pain. It is quite dark inside the forest. It seems almost primeevil inside. As the road goes along we see footsteps of some huge beast that must be clawed. After some time we reach the camp. We ask a worker where his boss is and he says he doesn’t know but directs us to a place where we might be able to find her. Astana is the boss’s name.
Tibor wanted to go back to find something at the old camp and hasn’t been seen of again. Apparently a dozen of the timber workers were killed at the old camp site. Merit can be questioned about some of it.
Merit is a large half orc man with one arm. He comes into camp and sent across to us as he is told that we are waiting for him. He is quite old compared to the rest of the camp who appears to be quite young. His arm is missing just below the shoulder and he has a cloth tied over the stump. Thorgrim asks Merit: “About the old camp, why did everyone leave the old camp?” He says short answer it was too damn dangerous. We say we weren’t told. He asks us to prove to us that we are official people. We asked who or what attacked the camp and he said that he was told not to talk about it but he concedes. They were loosing the occasional worker here and there but it was getting worrisome as it was happening a lot and then one morning just after breakfast they were getting things ready in the camp and the west most cottage just collapsed. 3 people were killed including the cook. There were no bodies. It was very peculiar they were ready to call a cleric but while they were about to figure out what to do the second cottage that was used for storage collapsed in on itself. He was nearby about 2 minutes away and he raced over. He heard a scream it seemed as though the ground just swallowed up the building. They were called over by Tibor to have a discussion that was very heated it was a vote and they voted to leave. They packed up and started to leave but as they were leaving the soil near the campfire liquified and 6 more of them were sucked into the ground.
Tibor wanted to go back to check it out but hasn’t been seen of since. He says that he remembers the earth shaking but the trees did not move.
It seems to me like it could be an underground creature of some type like a huge worm or beetle or something.
We leave and as we go through the hedge again I pat it and tell it it’ll be okay and I get the feeling of thanks and support back.
We set off to camp. We are back on the main road now. We go to the old camp and we are eyed suspiciously by a camp camping near the border to the old camp. We enter the woods which seem to closer down over us as we ride on a little slower. We see a wild boar near a water hole who sees us and glares at us as we pass. It is quite large. I cast speak with animals.. i say hello friend. He says lizard people dig and never came back.
We continue to the old camp and it is deserted and looks like something out of lost. We look around. I turn into a boar so that I can hopefully hear if something comes to attack us.
The group enter the building while I stay outside trying to listen to the ground for anything coming. I hear noises inside of the building – voices a woman says that she is Tibor and a conversation behind when suddenly I hear a great noise that suggests that the floor of the building has crashed open and I hear the woman screaming. I think one of the creatures must have been in wait right beneath the ground of the building. I run and see the woman halfway through the floor with Shaw trying to hold her and pull her out again. I then feel the ground rumble and start to scream at everyone when the floor crashes underneath us and we all fall right into a cavern. Thorgrim stabilises the woman who is missing a leg and Shaw says that these creatures are Ankheg.
I follow Shaw into the darkness along the tunnel to explore ahead While the others stay behind tending to Tibor. I am picking up something vibrating above us. These are sandstone tunnels that were definitely not made by the Ankhegs. I do remember the boar I spoke to earlier talked about lizard-like men digging so perhaps that relates to these tunnels.
We have come across a lantern and a pickaxe from a miner. The boys begin to make a stretcher from the debris around the cavern with the idea that I will carry Tibor, but I begin to feel vibrations in the wall and I am concerned that a creature is coming toward me we grab what we can and run to the East away from the wall where a large claw emerges from it. It seems to just be digging and not necessarily chasing us but we make a run for it anyway. I stay with whoever holds the light. The sounds of the Ankheg fade away. But we run into the next cavern where I start feeling the vibrations again and much stronger than before. I start to freak out squealing and start to turn back into a humanoid when an Ankheg bursts through the cave roof above us down onto us.
We dispatch of it, and then another emerges. But we are able to dispatch this as well Fairly easily.
We decide to travel North in the hopes that we will move underneath the logging camp and find an exit from the caves. We hear trickling water in the distance. As we head north, we enter another cavern in which we see an underground stream next to which are three more Ankheg’s feasting on an unknown corpse.
I am still is my Starry Archer form and take out the first on one go. I am very satisfied with this kill and a thrill rushes through me as I revel at the bloodlust.
We find a pool to the west with glinting metal or something below. I drive in to investigate and find 400 gold worth of rough gems that can be polished to increase their value. I turn to the East to see where the stream goes and it appears to go under a wall. I investigate under the water and find a crack in the wall through, I follow a small tunnel to an opening around 10 metres in and find a room full of eggs with a gigantic Ankheg laying another egg. I believe I have found the queen and her nest.
I quickly and silently retreat back and tell the others what I have seen, and we decide to have a long rest before we continue further.
We set up camp with Thorgrim keeping first watch as I meditate so that I may take the final watch. Thorgrim’s watch goes on without issue and I take over. I hear scraping sounds all night. I hear a sudden bang toward the end of my shift. Something like a rock seems to have relocated from somewhere high to somewhere low, a shuffling ensues which I presume to be an Ankheg. It is somewhere in the distance so I am not too worried. The rest of my shift eventu
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