The first change we noticed was around Spring festival. A travelling bard arrived with stories of people turning into gods. His tales focused on beings like the Angel Noriel, the Seldion the Sage, Kassen the Spirit, andBesmira the Titan. These tales were fantastical but villagers leery of a charlatan encouraged the bard to move on after a few days.
But a few days later the sound of dwarven caravans came as usual for market day. But instead of rolling into town the wagons rolled right by. People came out and saw carts and wagons overflowing with dwarvesand their belongings.
The foreman from the logging camp called out “Whats wrong? Where are y'all going?” Only to receive a brusque, “Away, and you would too if you know what’s good for ya” from a nearby dwarf.
When the foreman grabbed the dwarf to pressed for more information the dwarf lashed out knocking the foreman who was a big man on his ass. The dwarf then stood over Payton's recumbent form literally frothing at the lips with barely repressed fury while other dwarves glowered ominously from nearby carts. The villagers were all stunned at the intensity of the dwarf's rage until he turned his back and collected himself. Before stomping off he spoke with words so flat they could be coffin nails. “The land is dead to us. Only madmen remain in its festering corpse. We leave it to you now.”
Then the dwarves rolled out of the village. Some villagers cried out in fear. Without dwarven trade metal and stone would need to come overland from far away. The town elders sent Ned Davis, the best forester, to check out the dwarven citadel to see what was left behind. He never returned.
Then several townsfolk fell sick with a rasping cough. Many blamed the dwarves. Said they must have fled a plague. Others blamed a band of Romani who had arrived in town right as the sickness began to take hold. Especially when one of the Romani fell sick as well. Either way the doctor and apothecary were swamped with patients. Meanwhile nasty looks were given to the town's resident dwarf and the Romani.
To distract the villagers the elders sent three more foresters into Darkmoon forest to gather herbs to help treat blacklung. (The disease was named so after the gunk coughed up by its victims.)
It was around then that another storyteller, a wizened old gnome, arrived to distract the town with yet more tales of gods and betrayal. His stories lit the imagination using iconic names for the new pantheon. He referred to the gods using names such as Muse, Warden, Wanderer, Chaplain, Lightbringer, and Beast. His tales were filled with struggles and tragedy. When Besmira was freed from the ocean depths she challengedSeldion for leadership. Seldion called on the Lords of Fire and Earth to aid him but even with their aid the fighting went on for days. Finally Besmira rent the Lord of earth asunder, drove the lord of fire insane, and threw down the leader of the new gods setting Beast upon his trail.
The stories were terrifying, but they also caught the imagination that other tales had primed and every day the healthy villagers would crowd the inn room to hear more tales until many began to believe.
Some citizens were bothered by the differences in the stories told by the earlier bard. But this herald had explanations for everything. "The gods were the same in both tales. Humans change when the mantles of godhood are thrust upon them. The Titan Besmira was the one to explain this to the new gods after fighting to prove they didn't know how to be gods. She then declared herself to represent all that moved in darkness while other would represent the light.
Besmira's ways were drawn from a more primitive time but they were also a foundation which anchored the gods into their roles more firmly then they had been before. This changed them but also gave them power they lacked before. There were lively discussions each night in the inn. Many an eye was blackened in quarrels as people argued whether gods might save the town and if so which one.
After 4 days the second group of foresters also had not returned. The disease is still spreading. The town apothecary is mobbed at all hours. People are scared. Another town meeting is called. This is where we will start.
Chelwyn - Young Elfin oracle. Lame in one leg yet in tune with the world around her to the point some find her creepy to be around. She was one of the first to accept tales of the gods at face value.
Mikaela Tobiasson - local Dwarven stone-mason. Mikaela has been on edge since the dwarven exodus. The accusatory glances and name calling hasn't helped either. She intends to find out what happened to her people that is why she is going to the meeting dressed for battle tonight.
Zaitan Sun - Thule ranger with a talent for history and linguistics. One of the only remaining foresters.
Pesha Catalan - Romani witch was passing through when his Grandmother fell sick with the cough. His grandmother had recipe for a possible cure but the foresters failed to bring back any of the ingredients. Now she is sick as well. Pesha needs to go get the herbs for his grandmother and she loaned him some of her powers and her black cat to help out.
Jerkim Hersenblogcht - Gnome Herald of the Besmiran Pantheon. He is curious what happened. There is a story here if enough people go to make getting one seem safe. He also feels bad as he asked some local pixies for help but they haven't reported back and he feels responsible for them.
Bo Davis - Strong village lad son of one of the missing woodsmen. Does not believe in bloodshed when it can be avoided. (monk) He wants to discover the fate of his dad the first scout.
The party met at a raucous town hall meeting where it was decided that they would go to seek a cure for the black-lung (disease/curse) inflicting Falcon's Hollow. Pesha (witch) had a potential cure from his grandmother but the components needed were not available in town and the towns herbalist felt the darkmoon vale nearby was a good bet for at least the mushrooms and the lichen.
Some fast talking with the mayor acquired the group some food and a ride on a dray most of the way to the Darkmoon Vale where it was thought that they could find components needed for Pesha's grandmother to twist a counter curse.
Jerkim the gnomish herald bamboozled the old broken down dray mare into hustling the party to the logging camp with the promise of sugar and carrots. Gaining the party an hour of daylight and in the process gained Jerkim his first convert to Chaplain the god of small towns and animals.
At the camp the gypsies made the guards nervous, but Bo was able to use his family connections to talk his way in. While there he brought out a retired forester named out of the camp. Rhoddam the forester suggested places to look for lichen, and mushrooms, as well as giving some tips about finding Strega's hut.
Sadly Rhoddam could barely walk so he couldn't guide them. But a scout named Zaitan had headed into the forest just that morning and hadn't returned. The party headed out on his trail hoping to run into him.
What the party actually ran into was an ambush of hobgoblin slavers. The slavers had a pretty decent ambush point but the party managed to quickly neutralize the snares and captured two of the slavers for questioning. They also found the that the slavers had captured Zaitan whom they freed.
The next morning the slavers were questioned and it came out that the hobgoblin tribes had heard of the dwarven exodus and were moving in to take over the mines. Initially sent to gather information and a few locals for questioning the scouts had hit on the idea of using slaves to work the mines and had started to gather locals.
Jerkim cowed the second hobgoblin and had it grovelling for forgiveness at his feet. (Impressive when you are only 2'6". He talked them into leaving human lands and telling their tribes to stop slaving. By the end he had converted the hobgoblins to Besmira and the party reluctantly freed them after deciding they weren't willing to kill them and couldn't trek captives through the woods.
(What equipment did you leave them? swords and bows? Just their lives? We didn't decide. This was where we left off. It was likely to be 3 more days of travel to get to the dwarven citadel which was the location of ironbloom mushrooms and the site where Bo's dad had disappeared scouting.
The session will start with you breaking camp. Zaitan had been tracking what he thinks was a kobold and says there were signs it had been trapping pixies and draining them of blood. He has a pretty good idea on where to find old growth Darkwood lichen about a day from the current camp site.