An untamed frontier. Dark cults. Fickle fey gods. Ravenous fiends. Nothing black powder and sorcery won't fix... . Timberlands Campaign Diary
The heroes and their allies, the Wrathyrst brothers, entered the Western Thicket to seek out a crack unit of musketeers, Newpoole’s ‘The Tempered.’ The region was lousy with various soldiers for the waning fey host making war against the mortals of Newpoole, and by extension the entire Congressional Colonies. The heroes knew that they’d have to face some manner of ‘massive’ tree as they pressed on toward the city. It made sense to save The Tempered and have them at their side for the next, larger battle.
The Western Thicket was a primordial, pristine stretch of forest where the Tempered trained. The party and Wrathyrst brothers split up to cover more terrain with an agreement to meet at the edge once again the following day. While scouting, the heroes spotted a cadre of sinister fey who clearly were also seeking the Tempered. This included Waning Stormthrowers bearing bone-crafted crossbows lead by an Animus Artisan carrying a burned blacksmith hammer. The heroes decided to ambush their enemies.
Atop Hibou the griffon, the rabbitfolk paladin Shinashe and the otterfolk bard Cedwynn snuck ahead and set the magical sarcophagus lid they’d taken from one of the waning host’s leaders, Dry Meadow, Swallower of the Innumerable War-Dead. They rightly assumed that the fey would wonder what it was doing here and pause to investigate it. This would give the party the drop on them. That is exactly what happened.
Shinashe, Gwaedd, the eladrin fighter Nalyth and the rabbitfolk artificer Freya charged the animus artisan directly and it wasn’t long before Shinashe’s polearm lopped the fey’s head clean off. The stormthrowers went to ground, each bearing a pixy-wing cloak that hid them from view. Still, the otterfolk sorceress, Cedwynn, blasted one to pieces. It seemed like the crossbowmen might just scatter, until the blacksmith hammer the dead leader was holding bent the iron fingers holding it away, flew up into the air, and slammed down into the ground with a wave of concussive energy and thunder.
The animus artisan the heroes slew wasn’t the true threat, it was this Blackened Smith. The heroes clustered around the construct, save Cedwynn of course. They found it difficult to strike and even then harder to hurt. Then, the stormthrowers appeared and blasted the animated weapon with lighting; healing the blackened smith and thus radiating that damage across the heroes. The tables quickly turned.
The heroes expended every resource they had to take the blackened smith down, while Cedwynn focused on rebuffing the stormthrowers. Her efforts, however, earned her several bone-bolts for her trouble. Eventually, the hammer went down, but in the chaos four of the stormthrowers fled. The heroes felt the foul quartet might strike at any moment and hurried on their way, healing as they went.
The party soon discovered a faint trail likely left by the musketeers. At the same time, Freya played on a hunch and cast see invisibility to check if the stormthrowers were still following them. While she got a glimpse of the four fey in the distance, it was fleeting. More interestingly, she noticed eddies of blue motes not unlike dandelion fluff. The heroes decided to follow it.
As it turned out, the two trails merged together. The invisible cloud of magic grew thicker until a great bank of the stuff cut off the deeper forest from Freya’s view. Fearing some mental magic at work, Shinashe and Gwaedd bid their companions to stay back and ventured forward. Gwaedd was unable to maintain his wits and wandered back to the group in a brief enchanted state. Shinashe, on the other hand, was able to get to the other side of the cloud she couldn’t see.
There, the overgrown ruins of a ziggurat lay within the forest. This relic from the Empire of Enuklun poured water from a pool at its top, and thus a great deal of its walls had worn away into a series of pools. It was amid these pools and displaced stones that the Tempered waited. The elite musketeers had dug into the ancient fortification, their muzzles peeking from between stones as well as watchful gazes.
Shinashe motioned the rest of the party through, though it took some doing to get Gwaeed to the other side of the befuddlement bank. It wasn’t long before they were hailed by an otterfolk, Sergeant Elian Gunsmoke. The party and the senior musketeer exchanged some words at a distance and he requested that they hold fast while he spoke to their captain. While Gwaedd had recovered his senses, he was stunned to silence. Elian Gunsmoke was an infamous pirate hunter Gwaedd had feared in his criminal youth. Elian was well known as a relentless foe that had slain many a river pirate. He might know exactly who Gwaedd was, and who knew what would happen once his secret was revealed.
Soon enough, the captain of the Tempered, Lady Veerle Oldguard hiked up a leg on a stone and spoke with the party. She was a bit cold at first, until hearing the heroes were working with the Wrathyrst brothers. Captain Oldguard asked if they were nearby, and was giddy to know they were and that their ploy to get aid had worked. She instructed the heroes to come up and rest with her soldiers. That way they could break camp sooner rather than later and seek out her dear friends. Freya felt pangs of concern, as it was clear Veerle held more than a friendly affection for the brothers. However, her musings on matters of the heart were cast aside as her enchanted gaze followed the eddies of magic also flowing from the temple’s zenith.
There floated a ragged figure in dark robes with a mangled crown holding its cowl in place. It was from this unseen apparition that the obscuring magic flowed. Freya got Cedwynn’s attention and climbed to the top to investigate. In the meantime, Sinashe and Nalyth filled in Captain Oldguard about what had transpired from their first meeting with the Wrathyrst brothers until now. Much to Gwaedd’s displeasure, Elian Gunsmoke called the younger otterfolk over. Dread overcame the bard, but the sergeant only struck up a conversation about the cannon and guns Gwaedd carried. He quizzed Gwaedd on where he was from too and praised him for being an adventurer out there making the world a better place. Gwaedd wasn’t sure if the old mustel making overtures to take him underwing was better or worse than his past of piracy getting out.
At the top of the ziggurat, Cedwynn noted that the roots growing among the pool formed arcane patterns. They were drawing power from deep within the flooded structure and likely allowing the specter to manifest. Once the apparition realized Freya could see it, it started making gestures and nodding or shaking its head to her questions. The artificer surmised that the ghost was the one projecting the befuddlement aura to protect the musketeers from the dark fey. In turn, Cedwynn imbued sorcerous power into the roots.
The musketeers flew into action as the apparition appeared, but the heroes assured them that it was okay. Even though it was empowered, the phantasm was still scattered and disjointed as it spoke with the heroes now. It turned out that it was a Shadow of Enuk’Lun, one of the dead empire's secret inquisitors who dealt with incursions of the fey. Centuries ago, the archfey that the Congressional Colonies served and the Empire of Enuk’lun were often at war and it was up to the Shadows of Enuk’Lun to ferret them out and destroy them. The ghost had drowned in the temple below but in undeath did its best to keep it safe and hidden from the fair folk. When it realized the mortal musketeers were hiding from dark fey, the apparition thickened the magical mists around the area to keep them out.
At first, the heroes considered empowering the Shadow of Enuk’Lun further, before Nalyth the fighter, an archeologist by trade, pointed out that the Shadows of Enuk’Lun were zealots who wanted to kill all the fey. With further questioning, Freya confirmed this and it was decided to let the specter fade back and not clue it in on who exactly all of the mortals it protected served. After all, the Tempered and the heroes paid homage to either the Golden or Ebon court of fey. Releasing this undead horror to help them against the Waning Court would help in the short run, but be too dangerous overall.
The heroes and Captain Oldguard agreed to camp overnight and head out in the morning to join back up with the Wrathyrst brothers. While resting it was discovered that the bone-bolts had broken off cursed fragments in both Cedwynn and Gwaedd and this was what the waning stormthrowers were using to track them. Shinashe expended some of her divine power to destroy the fragments and heal their bodies. Thus, the night passed quietly. The following morning the heroes and musketeers marched out of the Western Thicket. On the edge, they caught up with the Wrathyrst brothers and allies. It was time to plan their next move.
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