The Timberlands Session Diary: Session One

Screecher Hunt

An untamed frontier. Dark cults. Fickle fey gods. Ravenous fiends. Nothing black powder and sorcery won't fix... . Timberlands Campaign Diary

The heroes were assembled by their employer, the satyr Alram Coldblade, and offered a dual-tasked job. Alram's brother, the scholarly Hemm, had tracked down information about a ziggurat ruin from the era of the fallen Empire of Enuk'lun that may contain unspoiled treasures and make a fine structure for a new settlement to be built around. Alram asked the player characters to travel to the location first and ensure it was cleansed of any traps and ancient horrors and then signal Hemm and his crew in to begin mapping the area. In addition, the area is said to be haunted by an exceptionally large, powerful screecher. Alram scrounged up a buyer for the gizzard of the ghostly owl-thing and part of the party's contract is to slay the monstrosity and deliver the harvested part to the buyer. Anxious for adventure and glory the heroes agreed.

The assembled left the city of Livina's Berth and travelled the road along the shores of Lake Reinhard. Being late summer moving into autumn the path was quite busy with workmen travelling home after a season of work and merchants with the first harvest goods. The hours rolled by without incident until water bubbles began floating up from the lake and then ground. The intensity and size of the strange, inverse rain rapidly increased. Familiar with the fey, the tabaxi ranger Wild uses his senses and confirmed one of the fair folk was behind the uncanny weather. The heroes left the road and moved north into the woods to investigate.

Less than a mile away they found the fey responsible, long after the bubbles stopped. Clad in smoked-glass armor the dead fey could have been mistaken for a tabaxi if not for its height and otherworldly proportions. The clearing around the corpse was blasted by lightning, though the party never heard accompanying thunder. Jutting out of the cait sith's chest was a strange spear; it's haft made from direfly infested wood and tip a massive, barbed burr. After identifying the fallen fey as a knight of The Blind Prince, who Bears the Brightest Crown they burned the body lest the direfly infestation turned it into a hive. Though their otter-folk bard, Gwaedd, claimed the fallen knight's glass longsword.

The party stopped that evening at a roadside inn, The Hollow Knot. There they picked up drinks, gambled some and heard a few rumors. The half-orcs of Esker Keep were supposedly setting up a harvest celebration to rival that of Hillsbrook Valley. Loga orcs were already trading for winter goods, which was a bit earlier than usual. The secretive wood elves of Elfrun Station supposedly were stopping and turning back more travelers than usual. The party spent some time chatting with Chasing Clouds of Dandylions, a tabaxi bard before getting a good night's rest.

Back on the road they traveled for a day more before cutting into the unmapped forest. Hours into the woods they were surrounded by darklings. The accursed fey stuck to the deepest shadows of the woods but asked for the heroes' assistance. A kindly treant, Haw's Throne, was suffering. As the ancient tree always took pity on the darklings and protected them from the baleful sun they felt honor-bound to help it. Upon arriving in the grove of Haw's Throne the heroes were aghast that the treant was infested with direfy hives. Still, the mighty plant struggled against being transformed into a deadwood. Haw's Throne told them of its long-dead master's, the fey knight Haw, barrow. There they should be able to find Haw's Light that would rid it of the infection. It also begged them not to let the darkling's near when they used it.

Arriving at Haw's Barrow, the party overcame puzzles and traps and retrieved Haw's Light, a star-tipped pike. Taking it back to Haw's Throne they used it. While the resulting fire ravaged the treant's grove and burnt the ancient creature black it successfully eradicated all traces of the infection. Haw's Throne assured the mortals that it would heal in time and offered to share some of its bountiful magic with them. The heroes, being heroes, declined. They felt that the darklings and treant needed that magical energy more than they.

The next day the party neared their goal. However, the scattered ruins of an Enuk'lun complex hindered their progress. Not as much, though, as the flock of strigiarpies nesting in the overgrown debris. Their eladrin rogue, Psykes, got the drop on the winged anathemas while the half-orc gunslinger, Orym, distracted them. Upon noting the strigiarpies' fear musk the satyr wizard Siegfried cast Calm Emotions to keep his compatriots steady. It wasn't long before they bested the terrible flight. In the aftermath they settled in for a quick rest for on the bluff ahead they spotted both the ziggurat and more strigiarpies.