My Adventures in the Land of Thea - Part 4

With the lack of construction stones still hampering our construction progress in Ostoya, the first expedition continued to search the land for any such deposits. Instead of staying idle, our craftsman turned their attention to making bows for everybody using the woods, leathers, and strings that we had in store.

While exploring, the expedition encountered an unnatural storm, and was attacked by a group of four Vilys and four Giant Crows. The group managed to best the wind demons, and gained nine moonstones in the process. Bolko, however, was heavily injured in the fight and perished the following night.

With our only medic dead, the expedition started to head home to regroup. On the way, they encountered a group of Orcs excavating an old settlement. While trying to help the Orcs, Bolebor fell to his death.

With two back to back losses, the group had no choice but to limp home. To make matter worse, the very next day the group stumbled into a dark mist. Even though they were disoriented and scared, the group managed to stick together and out ran the mist. For their efforts, two of them became more willful.

While the expedition was slowly making their way back to the village, one of the children of Ostoya grew up. Bronia decided to follow Bolko's footsteps and became a medic. With the new member, the village decided to send Bronia, Pakoslava, and Bedgost out to help the first expedition bringing everything home, leaving only five members back. That night, Leshko and Zoska decided to get married.

Just like when she got married to Bedgost, the couple stood naked in the river to be cleansed by the gods, and then the celebrations began. This time, however, the villagers' constitutions were much improved, and none got sick. Afterward, the couple was blessed with a child from the cabbage patch.

With the new members, the first expedition was able to get home without further complications. Everyone sat around the fire for a while. Between the heroic tales of Bolko and Bolebor, and the congratulations for the new couple and their child, the mood was both somber and optimistic at the same time.

The expedition headed out once more at day's break to find much needed resources for the village. Just outside the perimeter, they spotted a group of bedraggled slavers and their slaves. Unable to stand the sight, they gave the slavers an ultimatum to free the slaves. The slavers countered with an offer to free half the slaves. Sensing that was the final offer, and still feeling the recent deaths, the expedition decided not to pursue the matter further and accepted. Even though they managed to free one slave, that decision would weight on them for years to come.

While the expedition soldiered on, Mila, the freed slave grew up and became a medic. The group then camped to gather grains for a while so that the village could construct its own herbalist hut. After a few days, it dawned on them that grains might not have been the needed material, so they broke camp and headed toward the nearby Goblin Village according to the map they recovered. It turned out the Goblins needed help arranging trade with a Demon resource dealer called the Treasurer. We were glad to lend them a hand.

Before going to have a talk with the Treasurer, we decided to go back to the village to drop off our findings and replenish our food stores. On the way, we ran into another band of Dwarven bandits. This time, we managed to convince them to sit down and share a meal with us instead. They then parted way after giving us a small amount of Mithril. During this time, yet another of Ostoya's children grew up. With the recent tales of heroes and dangers still fresh in their mind, Martidusa became a warrior to help protect Thea. Because there were now two medics in the first expedition, we decided it would be best for Mila to stay back in the village to provide medical services when the expedition headed back out to continue scouting for stones. The expedition also replaced the gatherer Bedgost with the warrior Martidusa in order to help with the front rank.

As the expeditions went farther and farther out, it took them more and more time to come back and resupply. The decision was made for Bedgost to go and form a permanent camp within a day's walk of Ostoya. The camp would have two purposes. Firstly, it would allow us to gather an additional variety of food. Secondly, and most importantly, it would form a link in the supply chain for our expeditions, so they would not have to come all the way back to Ostoya to resupply. Because the only food source available to the camp was mushroom, we called it the Mushroom Camp. Right after it was founded, the first expedition came to exchange Bedgost for Sobiebor, leaving him as the only member of the camp for now.

As the first expedition moved on, we encountered a Leshy, a forest guardian, which asked us to stop a Bugay, another forest guardian. It turned out that the Bugay and his minions had started to sacrifice living creatures to gain mobility. We could not let that go on, so the expedition intervened. After the fight, a lone Pineconnetes decided to join us. We called him Spruce.

Back in Ostoya, even though we still did not have the straws that the expedition was supposed to gather, we decided to build a Herbalist Hut out of wicker and wood. Not only it would add to the healing of the villagers, it would also be a source of herbs, which we sorely needed.

A few nights later, the Mushroom Camp was descended upon by a group of three Cmoks and three Tough Bats. Being by himself, Sobiebor had no choice but to retreat, receiving a slight wound in the process. The very next day, another child grew up in Ostoya. Tosia also became a warrior to help us in the fight against the darkness. With our Mushroom Camp so under-protected, Tosia immediately left to join and protect it.

As the first expedition was still near by, they managed to come back and banished the group of Cmoks what were threatening our Mushroom Camp before continuing out on their quests.

That night, the whole land was shaken by tremors. Many of our people were injured. It was a sign of things to come.