We left our heroes in the midst of a fight with orcs, wolves and an ettin, in the foothills of the Shadow Wall...
June 2, Sunday (cont) - The ettin (a two-headed giant) quickly charged into combat with Malachy and Badric, our two best melee warriors. Despite dealing some very impressive damage, the combined might of our warriors, aided by the un-engaged spellcasters, made short work of the giant. Thalmyr, largely left to his own against the orc sub-chief (assisted by Arian's spells), finished the monster off after taking a lot of damage.
After a significant amount of very necessary healing, and some treasure looting, the party headed back toward the road to camp for the night.
June 3, Monday - The party heads back south, and camps near the Dawnstone.
June 4, Tuesday - The party travels south/southwest, and camps north of the familiar cluster of hills containing Castle Langborne.
June 5, Wednesday - The party loops west of the Langborne hills, through the grasslands, and camps in the grasslands west of Castle Langborne.
June 6, Thursday - The party continues south through the grasslands and then through the eastern end of the Silver Hills (filling in a blank space on their map) and camping on the southern edge of the Hills (at the northern edge of the Shearingvale).
June 7, Friday - The party makes the easy journey overland to the village of Olmsby, and spends the evening in the familiar accommodations of the Half Pint Tavern.
June 8, Saturday - The party sleeps in, has a late breakfast, and travels the last easy 7 miles to Linden, arriving in the early afternoon. They check into the Linden Inn (their usual place), Raglin Tindall proprietor, and relax for the evening.
June 9, Sunday - A day of rest. Having left Linden for this "Dawnstone" adventure on May 28 (12 days ago), the characters are content to rest. As a result of their experiences, Duncan (the wizard), Melior (the druid) and Malachy (the barbarian) all reach level 4, and will require some training time. Arian (the new sorcerer) reaches level 3 (and has some "metamagic" options to study and learn).
June 10, Monday - Melior and Thalmyr head the few miles south to the hamlet of Bornil, so that Melior can meet the person who requested his presence (in a cryptic druidic language letter). They go to the small temple of Nysera in Bornil, where they meet a half-elven cleric named Sabedril. They also find an elven craftsmen named Teneval, who makes excellent quality bows and arrows. Soon Mareth Silverbeam, a druid, meets them, and leads them south into the Greenreach Woods. After journeying through the woods for most of the rest of the day, they arrive at a sacred druid grove (near dusk) and are introduced to Nalisander, leader of the druidic circle of the northern Greenreach Woods. Nalisander introduces Melior to some of the other members of the circle, including druids, rangers and some others, and tells Melior about their goals - to protect the northern Greenreach Woods. Nalisander (nicknamed "Nighthawk") has no requirements of Melior, but tells him that the members of his circle gather at this sacred grove each full moon and new moon to exchange information, and that they bathe in the pool in the sacred grove that has some mystical powers. As darkness falls, Nalisander asks Melior to run with them, and transforms into a stag. One of the others, a reckless druid nicknamed "Tempest", transforms into an eagle, but Nalisander says (in deference to Melior) "No, tonight we run, not fly". Melior transforms into a panther and runs off with the druids. Thalmyr returns to Linden, arriving on June 11.
June 11, Tuesday through June 18, Tuesday - Melior spends several days running with Nalisander's druidic circle, learning his new level 4 shape-shifting ability of swimming creatures [In game terms, he uses his increase of 2 ability points points to increase his WIS to 18, which is his spell casting ability, with bonus from +3 to +4]. Malachy communes with his bear totem spirit and gains his level 4 benefits [in game terms upping both DEX and CON from 15 to 16, for a +3 bonus each instead of +2]. Duncan studies to advance to level 4 [exact details TBD, since Duncan's player has missed sessions 15 and 16, and we don't know what he will choose...]. Arian, our new high elf sorcerer, studies to understand his new metamagic options [he chose "careful spell" to protect friends from area of effect blasts and "distant spell" to increase his spells' ranges]. The remaining characters, who weren't leveling up, spent this time relaxing, since they have been adventuring almost non-stop for the last 10 weeks or so.
June 16, Sunday - Malachy and Thalmyr are having dinner in the common room of the Linden Inn, along with copious tankards of ale, when Mordecai (our NPC fighter) walks into the Inn. Mordecai left the party in Rimini back on May 12, when he returned to his home in Drayvan, near Alten in Alsberg, with the intent to use some of his share of the group's treasure to help out his father. For the expenditure of a few hundred gold coins, Mordecai was able to buy some additional acreage adjoining his father's struggling farm, and was able to hire on some tenant farmers to help work the new land. Leaving Drayvan in early June, Mordecai's father Edmund was now set up as a gentleman farmer, and could continue his work as a potter with no real concern over his financial security.
Next - Raglin Tindall, proprietor of the Linden Inn, comes to the party with a problem...
GM Commentary - This was a nice mix of a threatening combat, some limited exploration, and some character development (with hooks for future expansion). The stuff with the local druid circle that impacted Melior served two purposes; it allowed a seamless "this is how you get to level 4", along with planting the seeds for future engagement with these NPC's in the future. We don't ever need to run into Nalisander's Circle on anything but the most superficial level, but they are there to use if I need them...
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