An untamed frontier. Dark cults. Fickle fey gods. Ravenous fiends. Nothing black powder and sorcery won't fix... . Timberlands Campaign Diary
The Smuggler’s Boots Inn and Tavern was cast into darkness and compromised by eldritch forces. Strange stickmen (reskinned/buffed Scarecrows) molded themselves from the building’s wooden doors, windowpanes, and rafters. The lurching figures were covered with pitch-black bark that was molded over by screaming faces, their faces featureless save for large, hollow sockets full with pale witchlight. The heroes and civilians scrambled to draw their weapons or cover as the assault began.
Riley, the changeling dervish, dashed for the backdoor where three stickmen spawned. They were unprepared for the mystical dread that sparked within the figures’ eyes and froze up, only to be shortly assailed by claws made from razored roots. Sykes, the eladrian rogue, suffered too and found herself cowering as she tried to defend the workers behind the bar. However, the two archers, Wild the tabaxi ranger and Peregrine the half-orc hexblade started plugging away from the center of the tavern floor. The satyr bloodhunter, Aelric, dashed into a mass of stickmen to try and save the bar waitress, Shelly, but he couldn’t keep her from the creatures’ claws. She went down in a puddle of blood and gore, much to the group’s longtime ally, Niq the goblin’s, dismay. The celestial warlock seemed to have favorite wenches in every town, Shelly being the one for Tichner Fork, and he expended some of his power to rouse her back to the land of the living.
By then, though, the stickmen that weren’t attacking opened the front and back doors of the inns. From outside swept a chill wind, full of insane cackling and whispering threats. Ea, the agriothier wizard, suspected that something terrible might follow, so he webbed the front door while the inn’s bounces, the elves Centra the Scar and Fael Redfeather, attacked the stickmen gathered there. Something unseen howled and thrashed as it was caught in the web. But, more of its kin made their way in; wendigos.
The wendigos (from Nameia's Crimson Tome [DMs Guild]) manifested as they laid into the innocent bystanders, though one bit a chunk of the stunned Riley. Another drifted across the room and snatched up the innkeep, a mustel fellow named Osswac. The fiendish cannibal tore the otterfolk open as they might have opened a clam. Aelric fought his way toward the horrific display, as did Sykes as she shook off her fugue. But, it was too late. The wendigo bit off Osswac’s head and swallowed it whole, guzzled its blood even as the two heroes laid into it. While they downed the creature quickly, they had to direct their attacks to another of the fiends that struck another of the inn staff, a bearfolk named Jun, to the floor. This time, Aelric and Sykes got to him in time.
Ea blasted apart stickmen with firebolts, finding them quite combustible. Having learned his craft in the lands of the Agriother Warlords, he knew what sort of magic had created the wicker constructs as well as wendigo, the ancient blood craft widely practiced in the dead Empire of Enuk’lun! This did not bode well. Wild and Peregrine managed to whittle down the stickmen tearing Riley down and as the dervish shook of their fear they raged and sliced into the wendigo feeding on them. Between the hail of arrows/bolts and Riley’s flashing blades, the last of the horrors fell. In each instance, the fleshless skull somewhere between wolf and elk was left behind. They reminded the heroes of The Lodgemaster (Session 6-8) they had fought a month previously. Could this be his work?
In the fight, several bar patrons had been slain as well as Fael Redfeather. Absolute terror gripped the Smuggler’s Boots. Even though the monsters were bested and the doors barred once more, it took some time to calm everyone down. Centra the Scar thanked the champions for their help, and offered to cover their room and board, which they gladly accepted. No one really slept that night, the howling wind mocking and whispering their names.
The next day, the heroes decided it might be best to find the render, a crafted that specialized in using mystical monster parts, they’d been sent here for and make sure they were okay. The party crossed through the center of Tichner Fork, a modest ‘avenue’ consisting of crisscrossed docks and small buildings. Upon the other side, they approached the render, Glensi Strant’s, shop. It was a sturdy building with a tower attached, and one currently sealed up by a trio of mustel river pirates. Two of the otterfolk carried muskets, the third approached them with a barbed spear in hand. The conversation was tense at first, until Wild used his fey-granted magic to charm the mustel. The pirate treated him like an old friend and revealed their captain was inside, with more men, roughing up Glensi was likely to kill her.
Wild and the rest used the enthralled mustel to bluff their way inside. The ruse didn’t last very long, though, as the amassed pirates inside weren’t keen on being disturbed. Sykes cut off a good swath of them with eldritch darkness, her recent warlock pact allowing her to see within the gloom. As the pirates (reskinned bandit, bandit leader, gladiators, and knights) came out of the darkness disorganized, the other heroes made short work of them. That left dealing with their captain, a well-geared mustel, who was fleeing up the tower’s stairs after leaving Glensi a beaten but breathing heap in the wrecked workshop.
The heroes perused after, with Sykes the assassin getting to him first. She wasn’t ready for the sonic-empowered mace that Captain Thunderhead Lolet crushed her with. Nor was Wild the ranger prepared for Thunderhead’s shield that attracted every arrow shot at him. While battered, Sykes managed to get back up behind Captain Lolet by fey stepping Aelric into position. Still, they were smashed and battered just as badly as they gave it to the Thunderhead before the pirate captain finally went down.
In the meantime, Ea had gone to check on Glensi and the female mustel was revived soon after the battle. She was still in bad shape, so Niq the goblin spared some magical healing on her before tending to the others. Glensi revealed that Thunderhead and his goons had previously tried to shake her down for money and goods but her husband, the town sheriff Montl Strant, had driven them off. Now that her husband had been gone for some time trying to track down the madmen in the woods, they’d come back to get their revenge.
Sykes explained to Glensi that they’d come to try and entreat Glensi to move to the Convent of Quite Grace in Hillsbrook Valley. The render readily agreed, there was too much danger here on the frontier, so close to the river pirates from Brey Docks. Sykes wondered of there was more to Glensi’s story than the mustel was letting on, but couldn’t pry anything more out of her. Glensi stated she’d pack up what she needed and once her husband returned, they’d head to the Convent. In the meantime, she agreed to work on the arcanaphage wings and horn the party had obtained (Session Twenty Three) to change them into powerful anti-magic items.
With that, the heroes headed back into Tichner Fork proper to talk to the mayor, a satyr by the name of Anselm of Widebranch. Anselm was an older satyr, who had settled in his office for the day and was nursing some ale as he pondered over testimonials of what had happened at the Smuggler’s Boots the night before. He was glad to meet the heroes, and thanked them for their service to the town. After a brief chat, he worked out a pair of deals with the champions. First, he’d pay them a fine sum to head into the woods to the east, find Sheriff Montl Stant, and help the fellow clear out the madmen and monsters out there. Anselm suspected that the blood-crazed furrier Critz Pelter and those that had developed the same mental malady were behind the wendigo attacks. There was something foul in that stretch of woods after all. Then, another bounty was agreed on for the heroes to travel south along the river. There were reports of Direflies there after all, and chunks of blood honeycomb had floated through town every day for the last week. Anselm was especially keen on having that issue solved after hearing news of the dark fey siege back at the Convent of Quite Grace (Sessions 11-17) and what the heroes told him direflies could lead to.
With the promise of a payday, the party considered their next move.
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