An untamed frontier. Dark cults. Fickle fey gods. Ravenous fiends. Nothing black powder and sorcery won't fix... . Timberlands Campaign Diary
Travelling with the elf druid Aryia, the heroes approached a hillside glade where they had encountered a herd of Corpseshoes. The undead-like creatures still lingered there and it wasn’t long before the party attacked. The abominations fell in short order. Upon in-depth inspection, the party reaffirmed that the corpsehoes were not undead. With Ea the war wizard’s arcane expertise the heroes realized that the horses had been transformed into flesh-golem like constructs due to their cursed horseshoes. The agriother also discerned that the black iron objects disappear off of slain horses at sunfall and reappear on fresh steeds within 100 miles. The corpseshoes horseshoes had to have their curse magically removed to prevent that from happening. So, after removing all of the horseshoes the heroes returned to the Convent of Quite Grace. There Eshkar the nature cleric and the nuns of the convent were able to disenchant the accessories. Now the locals knew how to deal with the corpseshoe threat.
The champions took a night’s rest before striking out for their next destination, the night sky lit up by a bright green star known as Summer’s Last Leaf. The appearance of this heavenly body marks the end of the season. The region worried what autumn might bring.
The party along with their goblin ally, Niq the goblin warlock, set out the next morning for Inniscorne. They elected to travel through the forest instead of taking the trade road up to the beleaguered city with the intent to avoid trouble. Yet, heroes always find trouble… or rather it finds them.
Late in the afternoon, the party heard an echoing deep scream along with the sound of axes striking wood. It wasn’t long before they came upon an uncorrupted treant being attacked by dozens of flying axes. After ensuring that the treefolk wasn’t infected with direflies, the party lent their aid. While the flying axes (using flying sword stats) were not dangerous as individuals, as a swarm they proved daunting. Wild the tabaxi ranger and Peregrine the half-orc archer/hexblade shot down as many as they could while trying to stay out of combat range. Sykes the eladrin rogue and Riley the changeling dervish quickly found themselves stuck in with every ax they smashed being quickly replaced. Ea the bearfolk wizard deftly employed fireballs and scorching rays to thin the herd of blades. Through it all Niq scrambled and squeaked to keep people alive. In the end, the heroes emerged victorious but bloodied.
The treant, Old Growth, thanked the champions for their aid. It explained that many of its brethren were still uninfected by the dreaded Direflies, but more were falling under their sway and becoming deadwoods by the day. Old Growth worked with a large lumber camp, guiding them to dead or diseased trees to be chopped down. When he arrived at the lumber camp for aid, he found the lumberjacks chopped up by their new axes which soon assaulted him. Upon inspection, the party found each ax head was stamped with GK. They were the smith Gerwald Knapp’s work, as were so many other animated weapons before. A clear picture was amusing. They bit Old Growth well and let the treant know Hillsbrook Valley had been cleansed and it was safe go travel there. The treant was thankful and went on its way.
It wasn’t until mid-afternoon the next day that the heroes reached the outskirts of Inniscrone. In the outlying farms and huts, they found bodies of those slain by their own tools or desperate survivors hold up in their cellars and boarded up homes. Clearly, matters had gotten far out of hand in the bustling boomtown.
Taking a side path into the village proper, the heroes encountered a tipped-over cart which was partially burned. Suspicious, Riley, Sykes, and Wild crept forward to have a look. Along the way Wild noted a lone pitchfork stuck in the ground not far off. Worried about what may be in the tall wheat nearby, Ea linked his senses to his hawk familiar to survey the surrounding area while Peregrine kept his heavy crossbow ready. The familiar spotted a plow abandoned in the wheat that was smeared with dried gore.
Sykes found a clutch of pitchforks spilled from the wagon. They didn’t seem magical or otherwise dangerous, so the rogue picked one up. It immediately came to life, vibrating in her grip. The other Pitch Forks floated up. Within a breath, the plow, a Fallower, disappeared into the high grass. It wasn’t long before the heroes were again fighting for their lives.
The pitchforks didn’t seem too dangerous at first. There weren’t many of them and their tines didn’t draw much blood. However, Riley noticed that a strange, noisome pitch was left behind in their wounds. Shortly after the first pitchfork immolated and the dervish found the flames that rolled across their body hotter than expected. It wasn’t long before the other implements were flaming up. Wild worked on extricating himself from the middle of the melee.
At the same time, Peregrine and Ea were engaged by the fallower. The sinister ploy slammed into the warlock archer and then the earth it had travelled through exploded. This rattled the half-orc but between his well-placed shots and Ea’s firebolts they managed to dismantle the machine. While the other three heroes ended up charred, they outlasted the pitchforks that had all perished in the conflagration. They found more 'GK' stamps on the tools.
The heroes bound their wounds and proceeded into town. They found Inniscrone was a mess. Bodies littered the streets. Patrols of flying swords as well as Flying Greatswords and Shields roamed the streets. There were only a few buildings on the town square that showed life. The inn, the Broken Bough, was boarded up from the inside with smoke curling from the chimney. Across from it a fine manor house was in the same state. Then on the far side of the square, smoke curled from the forge’s chimney.
Wild paused to sense what fey presence he could. He discovered lesser fey powers in several houses near the square as well as a strong on in the blacksmith. Using this information, Ea first enrobed Sykes in invisibility before the rogue snuck around the city. She heard voices within both the inn and the manor house. Looking in on one of the houses, Sykes discovered hob mobs cleaning up the mess inside… and burning corpses in the fireplace. She moved to the blacksmiths next and spotted two more hob mobs that were working on various tools as well as a battered, malnourish fey chained to the forge.
The eladrin went back to the group to relate what she found before she along with Wild and Riley snuck back to the blacksmiths. They watched the chained fey fellow for some time. The fey wore tattered pants, his soot skin covered with patches of grey. His right arm stopped at the elbow that was a patchwork of thick scar tissue. Manacles with broken chains curled around his chaffed, scarred wrist. His head was covered with ugly scars, patches of ginger hair, and broken horns. The hob mobs finished a device and went to try and unlock a remaining manacle on the fey’s ankle, only to have it break.
Riley approached the fey. Via introductions, they learned the fey was Cindermane, a magical smith enslaved by Gerwald Knapp. Gerwald hadn’t produced any of the wares he’d become so famous and rich for, but rather it was Cindermane. Gerwald had stolen Cinderman’s arm, a black-iron gauntlet, and used it to command the fey. Over the years, however, Cindermane’s magic had waned and was stretched thin until recently it broke for some reason. Cindermane wasn’t sure what it was. He did know that the weapons and tools had come to life and attacked people across the city. He hasn’t seen Cindermane since.
Riley and then Sykes attempted to unlock the poor soul’s chains, but no matter how skilled they were the locks were too arcane to bypass. Cindermane apologized for his arrogance but explained he’d forged his own chains and he doubted mere mortals could overcome his work. He did offer that if they returned his arm to him, that he could take control of the weapons. Wild continued to watch and listen from hiding and knocked and arrow when Cindermane revealed he was part of the waning court.
Riley and Sykes related the recent invasion from the Duke of Summer’s End. Cindermane suspected that might be the catalyst for the weapons’ animation. He was also disgusted when talking about Lord Fallowfields. Cindermane reiterated that Lord Fallowfields was a bastard child from a dalliance between the archfey and waning princess Solemn Harvest and an unknown infernal. Lord Fallowfields was an outcast and usurper even among the waning court. The party considered that maybe the waning court wasn’t the absolute, monstrous evil after all.
Cindermane let them know that he suspected that Gerwald Knapp was either hold up with the Lord Mayor in her manor, or in the Broken Bough. As well, Gerwald had recently complained about a tax collector in town. Last, he relayed that he was forced to sleep under the forge and hide there whenever Gerwald had mortal visitors. The heroes took the information with thanks and let the enslaved fey they’d try to help. The trio left and rejoined with their friends, trying to decide what to do next.
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