On their way to Qin and its surroundings the Lorebook Hunters are flying over the western hills and mountains claimed by Kirtin. These lands are far from the old Empire of Sheljar, outside of the influence of post-Awakening Telse and haven’t sent their children to defend the Northern Slope in centuries. This is unclaimed lands, far from roads, lacking major rivers, and barely settled. On their fourth day they find a small village on a river and land.

Session Notes:
This took place over multiple sessions. It was all after they eliminated the threat of Parun, but discovered he is neither Scholar nor Proctor, merely evil.
Saffron, Maurice, Behn, Doceo, Aamar were present in at least one session as active PCs.
Mansaray, Samul, and Ixnyx stay at the airxip while docked at Thurible.
The remaining characters are in Sheljar. Ajhenas and Kuda are on the Tower Island creating a military, while Telley is on the settled island with the Temple of Wisdom (where the goblins hid) helping the people make a life there.  Braaz, and Els are working on restoring the two homes on the south end of the Island Inn.
Shonie is retired and remains in Telse.

The town of Thurible is small. There are maybe 13-14 houses and even the rare commercial buildings are also houses. The Beaver and Bottle serves strong liquor and some ale. One home also rents a couple of extra rooms when trappers come through town. Mostly, this is the nothing town of the wilderness, settled on an island in the river.

There’s one significant problem — about a third of the children have disappeared since the Awakening. It is a constant fear. The heroes, feeling like heroes, step away from their trip and pledge to help solve this problem. They search through town and discover the last known spot of the last children.

They walk the path knowing that a few kids never came back from this same journey. This path winds through and around cliffs, streams and forests. It is at times dark, at times safe.

Our Lorebook Hunters get jumped by a group of Proctors, all elves. These are eliminated, but clearly the Proctors are expanding their reach into the Western Wildes. The group tends their wounds and continues to hike through this rough land. The tracks take a turn into a little alcove, it is covered in a bush, but looks to be a cave, maybe a tunnel.

There are many more tracks of people (humans, halflings and goliaths) heading away from this entry. They decide to check the first entry. It is dark and the cave slopes down. One wall is worked stone. The other is a mix of natural rock and roots dripping with water.

Our heroes discover a chamber with a door across from them, immediately on their left and a larger double-door far to their right. They go left first.

Beyond that door is another chamber, this one occupied. A huge swarm of wasps and a disgusting woman made of human flesh, iron, stone and branches is in the room. There is a fight.

After they win the fight with the Sister of Wasps they hear a series of doors slamming, six of them. A scream of vengeance rings out as the group is trapped. An older voice says “No, they must go. They are the key to our power. You may leave.”

A door in front of them and the door behind them opens. A rope ladder drops from the ceiling. It leads to a small opening with the darkest possible green seen through the opening.

Aamar climbed a rope ladder and entered a dark world, thick with overhead vegetation and a huge tree trunk. As he surveyed the land he noticed a dark pool. Inside that pool of water a single hand is trying to grasp the edge, unable to pull itself out. The Cleric of Quar walks over to rescue the drowning man, noticing Bishop Ollium’s signet ring on the hand. When Aamar tries to grab the Bishop’s hand the vision of pool and victim disappears into a shower of coins of the realm — none are corporeal. Aamar also learns that every branch and leaf seems to be coming from the same trunk. When he gets close enough to the trunk it appears as if a wall. It is so large the curvature is not apparent in the near darkness above the coven.

He retreats from this other-world of an obscenely large tree.

No one else goes up. They explore the new door and try to prop others from closing again. The group works their way through the dungeon to another hag. In this case she is riding a swarm of children.

Through brilliant use of spells and tactics the heroes free the youth without an injury to Thurible’s kids. They destroy that ugly hag as well. But then, descending through the ceiling is the ethereal form of the Night Hag, the Auntie.

She speaks in hisses and pride. She announces that the group must be free, for if they succeed she will be even more powerful than she is now. They question her, but she speaks about a future that is more like a myth, a future where there are no limits on the magics of Kin.

All of the doors fling open including the barn door where the Sister of Youth used to ride her swarm out to terrorize Thurible and other farming communities.

It is dark. By reckoning the group knows it is only late afternoon, but the sky is covered by cedar branches and leaves. They are under the canopy of the same dark tree that Aamar found earlier, but now with dozens of children trying to find their way home. One is an easy ally. Saffron’s crown of forgetfulness helps break the spell put upon him, and he leads them down a path. It is in a shroud of darkness and the children start to scream out to their parents, or grandparents, their aunts, their brothers.

Doceo leads the way upon leaving. Surrounded by his three dogs he scans the exterior of the lair and finds a path. In a small clearing he sees five dogs, some exact copies of Vondal, Victus and Delg, all staring at a point in sky while covered in ice. It dissipates as he approaches.

Saffron sees two skeletons, one with a ghost-dog and the other with a skeletal bird. Both approach a wedding rope. They are headed away from her, leap the rope and laugh. It looks as if Rohan and Teegan, friends of Saffron’s mentor, are finally happy — and dead.

As Maurice flanks the group he is alone in darkness, barely able to see the Light that Aamar has cast. A loud boom startles the young halfling. In the direction of that noise he sees his father holding a key and then a huge ball of metal rip through his father’s torso. The vision ends as the key falls from his father’s hand.

Behn’s vision is of Shonie, their former companion. She is trapped in a cage, unwilling or unable to speak. Her slight form indicates starvation. There are wounds. As he touches the cage Shonie disappears.

[DM Note: I had visions established for every regular PC and have contemplated telling Mansaray and Samul what they would have seen, but maybe the group heads back to the coven. This was also the first time the group encountered something that could be considered fey.]

Upon leaving the cover of that cursed cedar and the coven they are in sunshine again. By evening they are in Thurible. Only two families are missing children, both with the same names that were used by the Sister of Wasps and the Sister of Children. For the most part Thurible is happy, for the first time since the Lorebook Hunters visited.

But now the Hunters know something new. Their quest to stop the Proctors may empower other evils, and their possible futures include pain.

Become a Patron to see fiction set in the World of the Everflow. These stories are set in the time of the Awakening.

The Lorebook Hunters decide that before they head south to Qin (where they suspect two Lorebooks to be) they shall eliminate Parun. Parun, as an ambassador from Azsel, has established an exclave of the slaving empire. A halfling ranger with a whip of wounding he either has a Lorebook (Enchantment/Charm?) or is a high level follower of someone who does. There is a complication, as the Proctors of Grace seem to be able to home in on those that hold Lorebooks or are imbued with magic.

Session Notes:
Samul, Saffron Behn, Doceo, Aamar were present in at least one session as active PCs.
Mansaray, Mo, and Ixnyx stay at the airxip.
The remaining characters are in Sheljar. Ajhenas and Kuda are on the Tower Island creating a military, while Telley is on the settled island with the Temple of Wisdom (where the goblins hid) helping the people make a life there.  Braaz, and Els are working on restoring the two homes on the south end of the Island Inn.
Shonie is retired and remains in Telse.

Town of Frostfall

Aamar, Behn, Saffron and Samul are active.

Floating in the Airxip Toxić above the North River the group is searching for indications that Parun or a large camp is nearby. They stop outside of Frostfall.

Frostfall is a town of about 45 buildings inside a wall with a tow-rope ferry across towards the Western Slope. The ferry ends at the Doghorn family homestead and two other buildings. Frostfall also has an interior wall with a half-dozen homes on Maple Leaf Hill.

Thornton (Doghorn) is the Ferry hand, Juliana is his sister. Their mother operates on the town-side of the ferry. She is Isolda. Through a heavy stutter Thornton suggests that they visit his friend Aitne’s (Dustbeard) family shoppe. At the shoppe it is the goliath Grups Harpyja Stormchaser that provides the necessary intelligence about the nearby slavers.

Samul hides along the path waiting for Parun’s followers to come. Saffron is disguised as a wondering Azsel-ite. Behn and Aamar are to join the fight if necessary. They free two goliaths who are too fearful to return to the abandoned village that Parun is using as his latest base. Two Azsel monks are eliminated.

Parun’s camp is three-way fight

Aamar, Behn, Doceo, and Saffron are active.

Doceo, back at the airxip in the hills above Frostfall, notices a flight of dragons approaching. Upon conversing with Fierbas the ale drake he learns that the flight contains two scouts, two evokers and a captain. Doceo decides to rush into Frostfall in an attempt to warn the advance party.

Doceo rushes to the group, showing up just after the fight. Samul escorts the two goliaths back to Frostfall so that they can prepare a defense of the village. It is possible that the scouting group of the Proctors threaten the poor community. The former Mehmd pit fighter convinces the commoners of Frostfall to ally with New Sheljar. A wyvern skull pouch with an undead ripper lizard is rather convincing of the power of New Sheljar.

The first fight is an encounter with two dwarven spies and their wyvern mounts. This drains significant resources, and results in Doceo being poisoned. It takes Aamar an hour to form a healing salve. He also manages to convince a herd of elk, lead by a single giant elk, to join them.

Which means that when they get to Parun’s camp there is a massive battle. On one side is an adult black dragon and two elven evokers. They occupy a tower on the NW corner of the ruins. The battlefield in front of them is littered with Azsel halflings and their companion dogs. Some are alive, many are dead. Across a small stream is Parun and two wyverns, likely the evoker mounts.

Behn sneaks into the ruins to free the enslaved animal companions. Doceo rescues a couple dozen enslaved goliaths with a few humans and halflings. Aamar and Saffron try to take out Parun.

They use the cover of a stampeding herd of elk to advance on the skirmish. Eventually Saffron places her Crown of Forgetfullness on Parun. Aamar and Saffron take fire from the Evokers. Eventually the party of four assemble near Parun. The Proctors and the Lorebook Hunters take out the slaver, but the Proctors also take out Saffron.

The party decides to retreat, as do the Proctors. Neither side is confident of victory. The heroes take Parun’s body and flee to Frostfall. They are accompanied by the former slaves. It is unlikely any of the other Azsel forces survived the numerous spells and breath weapons that further destroy the city.

Based on the fight, they adjust their maps of known adversaries. The Western Wildes do not hold safety for the group, except possibly in Sheljar and Frostfall.

Become a Patron to see fiction set in the World of the Everflow. These stories are set in the time of the Awakening.

With Telse rapidly devolving economically the group decides to discover if they can restore the Everflow. The issues further west can wait. Aamar is Telsean. Maurice is from Fort Ooshar, another community that depends on the waters of the Everflow. Doceo needs trade, as trade is his life.

Session Notes:
Mo, Doceo, Aamar were present as active PCs.
Mansaray, Samul, Behn, Saffron and Ixnyx stay at the airxip.
The remaining characters are in Sheljar. Ajhenas and Kuda are on the Tower Island creating a military, while Telley is on the settled island with the Temple of Wisdom (where the goblins hid) helping the people make a life there.  Braaz, and Els are working on restoring the two homes on the south end of the Island Inn.
Shonie is retired and remains in Telse.

Planning Stages

Mayor Kellamon, Captain Piyu and Corporal Allison are meeting at the Mayor’s office. There they tell the Lorebook Hunters that they had gathered an earlier group in order to head into the opening where the Falls of the Everflow erupt from the cliff between Telse and Upper Telse. Aamar, Doceo and Mo take a couple hours to shop and then return to the offices.

They meet a group of clearly overwhelmed halflings. All are in leather or hide armor. Three have clubs, including Thad Trailhide, who Aamar has met in years past. Nerv Oxstorm has a dagger, but he’s easily frightened. Honora and Niras round out the Telse natives. Ursula Dustrain has a baton and studded leather. She admits that she’s an outsider, but has volunteered to help. Maurice recognizes her from Ooshar. She hangs out in the Drop, with Willan’s family. For now, he trusts her.

They climb up the stairs to the swing arm where Quar’s faithful take the pure Everflow from the falls to eventually convert it to Telse’s greatest export – bottled Everflow, a healing potion. After our heroes, Nerv and Ursula use the swing arm to get across the 20 foot gap between the stairs and the opening the arm breaks. Thad wishes them well, grateful that it did not break while he was suspended.

Pudding and gelatin

Trudging through the shallow trickle that winds through an unfinished cave the group is slowly rising in elevation.The path winds, at times there are small pools. Eventually one of those pools has carved stairs in the back. This is unnatural.

They slowly emerge into a 40 by 60 foot chamber with a central trough that is 10 feet wide. It looks that normally the waters of the Everflow surges through that trough. There are four columns in the chamber, two to each side, evenly spaced from the walls.

Nerv screams. He is covered in a black goopy acid that eats away at his flesh. Mo hides and Ursula disappears. Several of our heroes take damage from the Black Pudding and Nerv is no more.

Unable to find Ursula, who likely left through an exit during the fight, Mo sees an 18-inch blue orb with a slight glow. It is suspended a few feet in the air. The three heroes learn that it is inside a Gelatinous Cube. They fight this other ooze, eventually tricking the sorry thing into the trough. Aamar carries the orb in his pack, since the other two are tiny halflings.

Willan’s influence

At the far end of the of the dungeon room is a single exit. It leads to a 10 by 10 by 10 tunnel that slowly rises. The floor is kind of slick, and there are fine tiles on every exposed surface. The only light they have is from a spell. The journey through this darkness is long, slow and continues to rise. They are almost certainly nearing the mountain behind Upper Telse.

Suddenly Ursula rushes into them. She is screaming of of a goliath surrounded in wind and lightning attacking her. As they discuss this with her Mo challenges her about her past. She admits she’s part of Willan’s gang. Her trip to Telse was to get more intelligence about the Lorebook Hunters. She tried to escape, then she tried to smack them with a baton to free herself. There was a fight. She died.

The shadow of Willan continues to appear in Telse and Ooshar.

Nils and the Lightning Goats

This battle was much tougher than it should have been. I’d already weakened the group, especially Aamar, in the first three encounters. Nils was a custom designed Beserker/Barb-Storm of Sea (though fluffed as Mountains). His two animal companions are Giant Goats that have electricity climbing through their horns. They can use those as a breath weapon lightning bolt type effect that recharges on a five or six. It was nearly a TPK.

As the group emerges into a large glade they feel howling winds around them. This glade has a huge muddy pit in the middle with steep cliffs and dense forest backing into more steep cliffs. There is a forty-foot tall pedestal within the muddy pit.Across the muddy area are two giant goats with lightning crossing between their horns.

Aamar, with the orb, climbs the pedestal. There appears to be a spot for the orb to rest there. It takes him a bit of time to get to the top. Mo slips into the forest to provide long range cover while Doceo watches at the base of the pedestal.

Just as the Quarite cleric places the orb at the top Nils, surrounded in lightning and wind, leaps from the far cliff and the two goats charge. The encounter is at distance to begin. The pedestal starts sinking and water surges out from the orb. Two of the heroes are now standing in water as they face off three electric opponents.

After taking a bit of lightning Doceo casts fireball and nearly destroys both goats. Maurice’s bow and Doceo’s fire bolts finish them off. Nils is raging on Aamar. The large goliath is attempting to chop through Aamar. The little halflings try to aid Aamar, but to no avail. Their cleric falls.

Things get very hairy. The animal companions are trying their best to save the people, but Nils is too powerful. Doceo finally thinks to cast First Aid on the fallen cleric. Aamar is back at one hit point. He casts Hold Person on Nils, who had been knocked prone when Doceo’s warhound bit him (it took a roll of 3 or less on a d20 to fail, Nils failed). The Hold Person works as well. A prone and paralyzed Nils is rapidly destroyed.

The group of combatants is standing in several inch deep waters of the Everflow. Their only known route away is starting to fill with water.

Never take a 200-foot dive

With Nils defeated the three heroes notice the rising waters about to flow to their escape. Aamar knows Nils and respects his family. While Doceo and Maurice run the hours through the tunnel Aamar is attempting to return the body of Nils to his home. Dragging a goliath through the tunnel and cavern slows the cleric down.

Using rope and Mo’s great leaping ability the animal companions and halflings get across the 20-foot gap easily. The water is starting to flow again. Aamar stuck with the huge body feels the water rushing past him. It may be impossible to return the body to its ancestral home. Instead he retreats to the chamber, puts Nils up in the room to the side of the trough and squeezes through the remainder of the tunnel nearly surrounded by water.

When he pops out of the Falls of the Everflow he tries to leap to the platform but falls short. A large human he tries to grab his companions. Mo gets one hand on him, but Doceo fails. Hanging on for his life, 200 feet above the lake Aamar is in serious danger. He is slipping. Mo quickly ties off a rope as Aamar falls.

Thinking quickly the Cleric of Quar casts Thorn Whip catching it on the platform and pulling himself up just enough, slowing the fall. Mo ties the other end of the rope off. The two halflings pull their deeply injured friend up as Usrula’s dead body pops out of the Everyflow plummeting into the lake below.

Become a Patron to see fiction set in the World of the Everflow. These stories are set in the time of the Awakening.

Over these two sessions the goal was to gain a few clues to the larger arcs around the Scholars and Proctors, while also exploring the place that the group now calls home. Those in the second session also got to used “downtime” of a couple weeks with some player agency.

Session Notes:
This took place over two sessions.
Doceo, Saffron, Samul, and Behn were in the first session.
Aamar joins them for the second one.
The remaining characters are in Sheljar with Ajhenas on the Tower Island, while Telley is on the settled island with the Temple of Wisdom (where the goblins hid) helping the people make a life there.  Maurice, Mansaray, Els and Kuda are working on restoring the two homes on the south end of the Island Inn. Ixnyx cannot shed Brazz as she established a taut-line message system between the three occupied islands.
Shonie is retired and remains in Telse.

Halfing Slums of Sheljar

Behn, Doceo, and Saffron took one of the mulgoblins that committed to their aspirations and the rowboat down to the isle south of the broken bridge. Here they encounter two occupied buildings. One is a small alehouse with a covered dock area, but there are huge reptilian creatures on those docks. The group ignores them and circles the full isle. There’s a field, and a platform, and abandoned hovels.

Except for one home, with its low roof, unwelcoming for the humans, and the poor mulgob NPC, the hearth has a fire and creepy laughter. It turns out to be from a goblin, who has made this place her home. She never stops laughing, and in fact, cripples their NPC with Hideous Laughter. Her continuing attempt to charm others results in a small conflict.

When the group manages to defeat the little one, which takes a bit as she heals herself rather than taking some damage, a small pastel mote flies into the mulgob. That mul then behaves exactly as the little gobkon, but with big fists too. They dispel the magic infecting the mul and then cast Gust of Wind to blow the mote into the sky. There is a nilbog somewhere else in Sheljar now. A problem that could turn up later.

Downtime

With drop in sessions that rarely require the same PCs two times in a row players can collect downtime between sessions. I opened up our final session of 2016 by asking those present how they used the days or weeks that passed. This will now be an off-table discussion, but will be carried forward.

Aamar – The Cleric of Quar has a month of time. This is split between two activities. The first is the granting the blessings of Quar to the lands that will now be farms. These actions mean that when winter comes to the bog-city the few dozen living there will not have to trade for food. He also took an overland trip to the Glass Tower (we will play this as a 1on1 session or through chat).

Behn – He chose to explore a few of the unexplored islands and “kill another one of those creepy ground beasts.” Asked who joins him in slaying the tunneling nightmare he answers. A few players get 1,000 xp for off-camera action.

Doceo – Unloads his cart, and starts making plans for future trade routes. He also works the various crowds and factions to learn what exactly he’s now involved with and how this can help him in the future.

Saffron – The Bard sends a message to her childhood mentor Teegan. There she discovers that Teegan’s brother Rohan is almost certainly The Necromancer, a scholar that Saffron helped kill. Saffron is also worried about how she’s become a killer.

Samul – He needs a boat in order to some day rescue or purchase the freedom of his beloved – Fairuza. So, despite not educated in shipbuilding or piloting he collects a few hulls, about a dozen sails and other supplies. From all of that he gets one barely-able-to-sail seafaring sloop (crew 3, holds 7 others, 1 small covered area, no cabin, moves 20′ under normal conditions).

Pirates and Traders

Gathered and recapping their various activities the group is at the Sheljar Inn (Samul’s palace, just ask him). There, as they chat the clang of Ixnyx taut-line system interrupts. It is the line from the Tower Island where Ajhenas is working with a few muls, a hob, sometimes Kuda, towards building a working defense. The highest tower has noticed ships in Sheljar Bay between the Statue and the shore. In the past the trade ships stay well on the outside of the Statue, with Sheljar still being presumed haunted by the rest of the Western Wildes.

There are two galleons and three ketches. Two of the ketches are firing Firebolts on another ketch. Samul mobilizes his navy. It’s a single sloop. He asks a couple mulgobs to man the sails and Aamar, Behn, Doceo and Saffron join the excursion.

The sloop rushes out past the two galleons, getting close enough that Doceo welcomes them to the protected waters of New Sheljar using Message. The galleons ask for help, their escort is under fire. Their flags declare that they are from the trading family of Qin. The Qin to Mira route was once prosperous, but is now risky. The galleons call the opposition pirates.

Taking one of the pirate ships by surprise, appearing from behind the galleons the sloop has the wind at its back. Saffron casts Walk On Water for the crew of the sloop. Aamar is at the rudder with Saffron besides him. Samul rides the bow while Doceo and Behn are in the center ready to fire on the enemy.

It is a complex fight. Samul, nominally the captain, he thinks, leaps from the ship and sprints across the low waves. Behn and Doceo throw Fireballs at it. Aamar prevents the other two vessels from sinking, though they still burn, by casting Plant Growth on the kelp and seaweed. Later, Doceo leaps from the stern, walking on water as his own vessel provides cover from the attacker.

But the vessel which our Lorebook Hunters are fighting is well armed, and protected by casters. One of those spellmen keeps throws a Fireball at them. Later it casts an Ice Storm. She is not dedicated to an element, just the death of those on the sloop. (Spoiler: it doesn’t work).

That ketch also bombards the sloop with its catapult. And there is a dazzling display of lights that charms half the crew (Hypnotic Pattern). It’s two Archers (Volo’s Guide) also provide additional, deadly, long range support.

Behn goes unconscious shortly after throwing a Fireball back at the damaging caster. A sorcerer should not take two arrows, a fireball and an ice storm. Saffron eventually heals him.

Remember when Samul ran across the waves? Enraged and Frenzied he enters the opposing boats with his chain whipping through the pathetic crew quickly and easily. Even the Archers and mages have little defense, especially when they are bothered from afar by Saffron and Aamar.

Eventually our heroes, though they be a bit grey, take the ship with two of the pirates promising loyalty rather than dying. Doceo searched the captain’s quarters and discovers that they are part of Willan’s group of bandits, thieves and pirates.

Six of the two entrapped and burning vessels are saved as well. The group captures a larger ship, armaments and maybe can take the two ketches trapped in kelp and get something savable from their burning hulks.

The two galleons have sailed off to safety over the horizon. Maybe they’ve made it clear that the inner passage is no longer haunted, certainly protected and now safer than the open seas.

Maybe they’ve also let Willan know that two of his pirate ships are gone.