My Adventures in the Land of Thea - Part 2

While our first expedition was camping to nurse our own medic back to health, the people back in Ostoya managed to build our very first permanent structure, a pasture. Constructed from woods, mushroom, and canes, the pasture would guarantee a small but steady supply of meat, and gave a small chance of attracting humans to join our cause. That very night, the village was attacked by a small band of undeads. The four brave villagers fended them off with only moderate injuries to Pakoslava and Veroslav. For our troubles, we gained a shield, some food stuff, and a small amount of experience for the group. On the same night, while camping to recuperate, our first expedition was attacked by a group of four Spors. They fought vigilantly and emerged victorious. For their trouble, they managed to scavenge a button.

Being satisfied with our progress toward surviving in the land of Thea, our quest giver appeared to guided us toward the next task. Theodore revealed to us a potential clue to the Cosmic Tree, whose burning caused the Darkness that plagued the land.

Taking that all in, we decided that we were simply not ready to unravel such mysteries. The first expedition then broke camp and continued exploring the land, running head long into three groups of wandering badness. We suspected there was a lair nearby.

With lives on the line, the expedition decided to attempt to assassinate the first group of three skeletons. Because we did not have much sneaking skills, the attempt dragged on for three full rounds, after which we emerged victorious. We even scavenged a suit of armor off of our fallen foes and immediately equip it. Defeating the skeletons also revealed an Undead Ruins, which was likely the source of the three enemy parties.

Without waiting for us to engage them, the group of four Spors attacked first. We managed them easily, and in the process gained a fairly common magical ring, which added a bit of sorely needed armor to our flimsy medic. With confidence, we proceeded to attack the last group of skeletons. The fight was again tougher than we expected, with Bratumila slightly injured, and Bolebor heavily so. Once again we camped to nurse our wounds and try out some of the new equipment. We also dismantled some of the heavier items and discarded some of the woods to keep from being overburdened.

That night, our village of Ostaya was visited by a black cat. Thinking the cat could be a familiar of a protecting house demon, the villagers followed it only to be ambushed by a witch. The Baba Yaga looked to be very old and crooked, so they decided to stay and fight. We managed to fight of both the witch and her four minions, with only Pakoslava suffering a minor wound in the process. After the fight, we found an old book on herbalism, which bestowed such knowledge onto our craftsman Zoska.

The next night was the Night of the Goat, when we feasted in honor of our ancestors, the Dziody.

As luck would have it, the Dziody actually appeared to us, and revealed one of their ancient cities where we could go to have our curses removed. Afterward, we waited until Bolebor was healed and decided to head back to the village to rest. On our way, we encountered a strange trapped creature. Lacking knowledge of such demon or beast, we decided to leave it be and continued on.

The next night our village was visited by a Lapiduch, the Spiritcatcher. We let it do its jobs and was rewarded by a blessing of strength on all four villagers. Came morning, a groups of travelers arrived to talk and trade. They left after pointing us to a nearby Herbalist who would be able to cure us of any wounds and poisons.

The first expedition returned to the village, bringing with them the boons of their adventures, and the sorrows of Bogumila's passing. After sharing embraces and condolences, they once again headed out to the unknown.

Facing such emotions and uncertainties, that night Bedgost and Zoska decided to marry.

The couple submerged naked in the river for several minutes to be cleansed by the gods and get ready for new life. Afterward, the celebrations lasted for seven days, with plenty of food, alcohol, and naked dancing. The celebrations were not without cost. All four villagers ended up sick afterward.

Meanwhile, our first expedition continued to explore west of the village, running into a small skirmish that saw Bolko, our fragile and only medic, injured. Before we could recover, a group of skeletons attacked, and dealt even more injuries to our medic, but we managed to fend them off. All that fighting, however, gave us enough research to unlock steel as a building material. Unfortunately, there were none within our village's confines. In fact, there weren't much of any resources near our village except for plain old woods.

The expedition soldiered on, camping, fighting, and making their way toward the location of the Herbalist, finding her exactly where the map indicated. With no needs of her services at the time, they simply talked for a while and bade good bye. On the way back home, they stopped and scavenged the newly revealed steel deposit.

Back in Ostoya, Zoska was tasked with building a few reptile vests out of our supply of scaled leathers and spider silks, putting his newly forged gold crafting hammer into good use. The vests not only provided rudimentary protections, but the act of crafting them also provided us with valuable research. After making the vests, we unlocked and started building a cabbage patch.

Both the village and the first expedition encampment hunkered down and focused on crafting and gathering materials to construct new buildings in Ostoya. The lack of stone deposits became apparent, as we had no obvious way of getting any kind of stone.

During this relatively calm few days, our God appeared to us and revealed a Divine Quest.

Feeling inadequate for such task, we decided not to immediately embark on the quest, but instead explore more of the area and build up our strength. This would hopefully allow us to find a much needed deposit of stones.