Previously...
The heroes entered a series of rat tunnels and confronted a “rat-man,” who managed to escape. After rescuing the innkeeper’s son, the party finds some loot as well as clues to a sinister plan, but they are left with more questions than answers.
Session Events
The party returns to the burned-out building to further investigate the clues. There, they suss out a plot to poison the town. The two sealed barrels in the cellar turn out to contain liquid poison — a LOT of it. There are four tunnel exits in the old cellar; the party knows that one leads to the cellar of the inn, while a second tunnel leads to a hidden exit in a culvert on the edge of town. Checking out the other two tunnels, the party follows the third one to a hole that opens deep in the shaft of the town well, just above the water line. The fourth tunnel forks in two directions: one heads toward the bakery and the other toward the keep. Both passages end abruptly, indicating that the tunneling was still in progress.
The party consults Ellie’s mentor, Madame Enorca, the village wise-woman (some say witch), about the red gold* and the strange sigil they found. Enorca tells the girls that the red gold is an illicit currency used by evil humanoids. The money is cursed, and compels those of good heart to covet it. The coins are minted by a shadowy organization whose sigil the party found. The symbol represents the cult of Khoss, an ancient and evil faith dedicated to tearing down the veneer of civilization. She explains that the word “Khoss” is an archaic form of “chaos,” and that the cult aims to return the world to a barbaric state in which the strong rule and might is superior to law. She also warns them that the cult dabbles in black magic and necromancy, and they are never to be dealt with — only destroyed.
Nearly two weeks pass with no new information or events, however, and life in the village returns to normal. The strange events continue to weigh on the party members’ minds, so they are intrigued when they receive invitations to meet with the local lord. The party assembles at Brackleborn Keep — the stronghold of Lord Canton Ferril — where they are escorted through the modest fortress and into the lord’s great hall. There, they meet Lord Ferril and his wife, the Lady Eloise. Also present are the keep’s seneschal and a court scribe, along with the village mayor, the shiriff, and the merchant banker, and (curiously) a dwarf envoy in noble’s robes. Several party members notice that Lady Ferril’s eyes appear red and puffy.
Lord Ferril commends the party for their recent heroic actions in saving the innkeeper’s boy and uncovering the plot to poison the village. He is curious to know what compelled them to leap into action like that on behalf of strangers. Each party member steps forward to give their reasons, and Lord Ferril seems impressed with their heartfelt answers. After the girls finish their explanations, the lord tells them that he has an urgent mission for which he desperately he needs their help…
Two days ago, his 10 year-old daughter, Emelia, departed for a neighboring province accompanied by her bodyguards. During the journey, bandits ambushed her palanquin, killing the guards and kidnapping the girl. Lord Ferril sent his men to the ambush site, where they followed the bandits’ tracks to an old trail into the Gloomy Forest. The guards pursued, but were chased away by a pack of vicious wolves.
At this, Lady Ferril begins weeping and a servant gently escorts her from the room. The lord offers each hero 500 pieces of gold (a small fortune in these parts) and a parcel of land for their own if they will enter the forest, find and rescue Emilia, and (if possible) kill those who kidnapped her. The party accepts Lord Ferril’s mission and returns to their homes to prepare for the mission.
The party departs for the forest in the morning, following the Gold Road westward. About 10 miles down the road, they find Emelia’s wrecked carriage still in the ditch. Nearby, a dusty old, weed-choked road heads toward the forest’s edge a few miles to the northwest. Heading up the dusty track, they soon come across a trio of forest bandits accosting a local hunter. Dixie orders the bandits to stop, but the villains attack them instead.
Soon, two of the bandits are dead and one is captured. Interrogating their prisoner, the party learns that their immediate boss is a bandit named “Turk,” and that he takes orders from a hobgoblin named “Gurd.” The bandits’ victim, a local hunter named Daryl, gratefully gives the party two doses of wolf repellent (the forest is crawling with them, apparently) and he agrees to escort the bound prisoner back to the keep.
The session ends here...
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