My regular group only meets from 7-10-ish PM and we always have dinner along with it, so we often only get an hour or so of actual gameplay in and not a whole lot happens. I've condensed the next three gameplay reports into one post to save time and knock out several sessions to catch up to the present-day campaign (the following sessions occurred in May, 2020.)
Previously...
After the party came to the local lord’s attention, he tasked them with entering the Gloomy Forest and rescuing his daughter, Emelia, who has been kidnapped by bandits. The party accepted his mission and set off for the Gloomy Forest along the Gold Road where they encountered a trio of bandits accosting a local hunter. Making short work of the thugs, the party captured one and learned some info about the bandit leadership.
SESSION 4
The party enters the Gloomy Forest and follows the Old Forest Road for a couple of miles until they come to a clearing where the path splits in three directions. Suddenly, a pack of snarling wolves leaps into the clearing from the woods and attacks! The party members quickly kill the vicious beasts and then look around a bit.
To the west, several skulls mounted on wooden stakes stand to either side of a forlorn path. The leafless trees are withered and dry in that direction. To the east, the path enters a lush and verdant section of the forest. This path intrigues Armolas so she inspects it more closely. Her keen elf-senses discern a marker stone just off the path, concealed by thick foliage. Pulling away the thick vines, she reveals that the stone is carved with elfin runes that read: “Sacred Shrine of Elusia -- 2 miles.*” (*elfish equivalent)
The north path shows lots of signs of traffic, mostly man-sized boot-prints, but also some tracks that appear to be those of small children or perhaps halfling-sized humanoids. The party decides to follow the tracks to the north, and soon they begin to smell campfire smoke and hear the sounds of men talking and laughing loudly. Up ahead, they spy a bandit camp — a half-dozen ragged tents set up on either side of a babbling creek. A wooden footbridge spans the creek gully and connects both parts of the camp. Several forest bandits sit around a crackling campfire and don’t appear to spot the approaching party.
SESSION 5
The party takes advantage of surprise and heavy foliage to quickly overrun the camp, engaging the bandits, one of whom is their “boss,” Turk. There is also an ugly little man with the bandits who shoots a crude bow from a safe position behind the tents. The little man wears tattered leather armor and a dirty blue cap.
*As the players were rolling up their characters, I often let them tell me the names of things and people in their backgrounds. I've found that if they come up with the name, they tend to remember it. The name of the halfling’s village came from Ellie’s player, iirc. Same with her mentor, Enorca, which is “a crone” backwards.
SESSION 6
The party searches the bandit camp, recovering weapons, armor, and money off the bodies. They realize that the six tents are large enough for up to four bandits each, so there are likely more bandits lurking around besides those they've killed so far. The party decides to pursue the goblin who bears Armolas’ hunter’s mark spell, so they continue up the path. Before long, they spot the goblin’s body on the ground, apparently dead of the wounds he sustained in the camp fight. As Armolas approaches the goblin’s still body, her keen eyes spot two more goblins hiding up in nearby trees, short bows trained on her. A third goblin crouches in some nearby bushes, scimitar drawn.
Quick as a flash, Armolas fires an arrow at one of the goblins in the trees, killing it. The other two goblins launch their failed ambush, as the “dead” goblin rolls over and fires a concealed crossbow at Armolas. Before long, however, the goblins are slain. The party finds a cleverly-concealed pit just in front of where the “dead” goblin was laying, designed to trap someone approaching him.
Nearby, the party discovers a hidden trail leading deeper into the woods to the northeast. Following this trail, they descend into a deep hollow in the forest, where the light grows even dimmer and the woods become more ominous. Signs of crude shoes tromping up and down the path are clearly visible, indicating that many goblins have used this trail recently. Soon, the party comes to the end of the trail, where they spot two dark cave openings in the steep embankment of a tall, brush-covered hill.
The session ends here...
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