An untamed frontier. Dark cults. Fickle fey gods. Ravenous fiends. Nothing black powder and sorcery won't fix... . Timberlands Campaign Diary
The heroes spent a tense night of restless sleep and gnawing anxiety back at the Nightveil Tower. While they’d destroyed both portals to the feywild the waning cult built and drove back the archfey who’d arranged all this madness in the morning they still had to break the siege around the Convent of Quiet Grace. While they’d faced human cultists and their twisted creations the battle before them involved scores of lesionnaries, bilge cats, hag fishers, a rookery crone and who knew what else. On their side, they had a handful of mercenaries, militiamen that were little more than farmers with guns, two fey knights, a wizard, and a stone golem with a cannon. It was a strong, but small force, one that could be easily overwhelmed.
Shortly after dawn, the party followed the head of the mage tower, Isebrand of Nighveil, to the top of the building. There they used his complex apparatus, some sort of magical massive spyglass, to survey the battlefield. To the champion’s shock, the encamped army was nowhere to be seen. The fields where the Lesionnaire forces had once gathered were trampled and strewn with trash but empty. They focused on the convent keep itself. The walls were still intact and congressional forces still walked the ramparts. In the courtyard, common folk and merchants milled about. Where had the fey host gotten off to?
After a quick debate, the heroes gathered all their allies and started a march toward the Convent of Quite Grace. If this was a trick they wanted to have what strength they could muster to thwart it. Wild the ranger used a change of his owl tattoo to turn into said bird and flew ahead to scout things out. When he arrived those in the courtyard had gathered before the keep’s steps. Two women; an older paladin in well-worn plate mail and an aristocratic one in crimson nun robes spoke to the assembled.
The warrior woman, Dame Ostara, assured people that they suspected the fey threat was over. However, she and the woman by her side, Mother Alda, were uncertain that this wasn’t some sort of trick. For the time being, they’d decided to remain safely within the keep for a few more days until they were sure the danger had passed. This drew boos and jeers from the audience; they wanted out. Mother Alda, the head of the convent, took a step forward. She assured the assembled that she wanted out as much as they did. However, the retired paladin was correct. They’d all lost so much already. There was enough food and space for everyone in the courtyard and the catacombs below. It was better to sit tight.
Wild took off from his perch, but before he left the area the ranger used his senses to see if there were any fey about. There was, in fact, one below the keep… a very powerful one at that. Riley, the dervish, had used their beast senses spell on Wild once he’d transformed. Thus the party was caught up by the time the ranger returned. They decided that Wild, Sykes should range ahead of the forces once more. They’d travel with Sister Ristea, whom they met at the beginning of all this terror (Session 11), and use her secret passage to slip into the keep. They’d track down the two leaders and tell them of the relief coming.
Sykes the rogue took a moment to study the convent and its keep as they approached. It certainly harkened back to the Empire of Enuk’Lun. However, any icons of the sorcerer-king had been removed from its walls and modern masonry techniques had been used to repair it. This was not the same for the escape tunnel Sister Ristea led the pair through. Several Grim Visages of Enuk’Lun still lined the ancient passage. After exiting from a storage room, the three sought out the head cleric and hospitilar. Alda and Ostara were relieved to see Sister Ristea alive and knowing that help was on the way.
It wasn’t long before the rest of the heroes and their allies arrived to open gates. Those besieged cheered for their rescuers. The forces the heroes bought settled where the fey host camp had been while the party met with the convent leaders. Dame Ostara explained that the camped lesionnaires flew into a panic very early in the morning, packed up their things, and fled off in different directions into the hills and across the valley. Gwaedd postulated that the fey had someone sensed the destruction of their supply chain and the rebuke of their lord. With their morale broken, the callow creatures scattered. That meant, though, that they may cause pockets of trouble for some time to come. Mother Alda greeted Eshkar warmly, glad to see that he had returned as well. She was heartbroken to hear about the dreadful fate that Whitebark, the dryad that watched over the convent’s apple orchards suffered. (Session 12).
Mother Alda then gave the heroes a tour of the convent and answered their questions. A large number of refugees from across the valley had been saved and housed within its walls, but there were still so many, too many, missing. Abruptly, Wild asked the holy woman about the powerful fey beneath the convent. After being shocked to silence, Mother Alda asked them to quiet that question for a few minutes. She quickly led them to the prayer room of the Convent. There sat a marble statue of a lovely woman in healer’s robes, but it didn’t seem to be any of the fey gods. After locking the chapel door, Mother Alda used a secret latch by the statue and pushed it out of the way. She and the party headed down the secret stairway. She knew Eshkar had a good heart and the others were heroes that saved them all. Mother Alda prayed her trust was not misplaced for this secret must never get out.
The chamber at the bottom of the stairs was covered with enchanted rooted winding from all over the valley into a bramble sarcophagus. Mother Alda explained that the tale that the archfey who’d saved the ancestors of all those that now lived in the Congressional Colonies lay sleeping underneath Fort Rapscallion for the last three generations was false. In truth, The Wandering Knave, Fool of the Crossroads and Gallows was there beneath the Convent of Quiet Grace. The sarcophagus was a relict from the Empire of Enuk’Lun which channeled power from the land around it to heal those within. Given the archfey was near death after performing the miracle that brought so many refugees to this land, the Knave had fallen into a coma. They hoped to help him recover here, and made the move in secret to ensure the savior’s safety.
Siegfried put forth that that might be why the Duke of Autumns End invaded the valley. The vile waning fey might have known of either the Knave’s existence and/or the Bramble Coffin and wanted them for himself. This was dire news indeed. Mother Alda entreated the heroes not only to stay silent about this truth but to make a home within the keep. She’d give them room, board , and protection if they would stay and help stabilize the area. The champions readily agreed, much to the cleric’s relief.
All that the heroes had left to do was seek out the merchant they’d come to the valley to find in the first place. (Session 1 and 2) Thankfully, the wily Kreil Humner still lived. He was delighted to see the heroes and used a bit of sleight of hand to purchased the screecher heart off of them as contracted. Kreil, however, suspected his buyer, a necromancer named Dahlia was dead. The heroes confirmed that they’d run across her corpse and vardo previously. (Session 14) Kriel then mentioned there was a monster render in nearby Tichner Fork, Glensi Strant, that might have use for the item. When he was ready to travel up there to see, he’d find the heroes to pay for an escort. The party sent word for their allies in Nightveil tower to travel to the convent as well as militiamen to pick up the vardo.
Later that night, the heroes met with an impromptu council to discuss the problems plaguing the area around Hillsbrook Valley. There were still herds of the mysterious corpseshoes to deal with, a rumored infestation of direflies at Tichner Fork, no recent news from Inniscrone where there was also a famed smith that could help them. In addition, the mustel river pirates from Brey Docks were still a problem and the scion of a local family wanted to search Hillsbrook Valley for survivors. The council also desired to be better defended if the fey forces ever came back and requested that the party travel to Milestone Fork to fetch a talented gunsmith there. If that wasn’t enough, the party still had another contract to fulfill by delving into an Enuk’Lun ruin at the edge of the region and their ally, the tabaxi artificer Moon Silver wished to take an expedition into the nearby Moon Kiss Mountains to follow up on his theories about the tabaxi’s origins.
One thing was for sure, the champions had a lot on their plate. They thought it best to rest for a few days first. They wanted to see what other merchants and travelers might come to the devastated area thinking the harvest festival was still going. The heroes had done so much and definitely deserved some downtime.
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