When last we left our band of heroes, they had just completed their trip to Brynn Shander to remove curses, restock their gear and head out to see about the troubles of Dougan’s Hole (they also had picked up a job delivering supplies to a reclusive gnome north of Lonelywood and heading to a pirate ship that the tabaxi rogue [whose name I can’t actually put down due to him using the name of a famous cat-person in Skyrim and that’s copyrighted] used to be crew of).
The party set off across the tundra, eschewing the roads in favor of the short cut, due to the ranger’s favored terrain being tundra. Along the way, they had a short encounter with some wolves that ended peaceably with the party feeding the poor creatures.
The party arrived in Dugan’s Hole.
There wasn’t much there, in terms of friendliness, services, nor comforts. It was a town on the fringes, and everyone seemed to resemble everyone else, with mild to moderate deformities running rampant. This was a town that…kept things in the family.
They hear whispered rumors of a pair of winter wolves trying to extort the town of treasure and food. They had apparently already been party to kidnapping two teens, whom the town speaker presumed dead.
Deciding to try their luck, they left town and, sure enough, was approached by a limping winter wolf.
Talking with them, the party was suspicious of their actual motivations, but decided to go with them to deal with the alleged frost giant they claimed was abusing them.
They found the lodge, huge and made of ice. The wolves stayed outside, claiming that the giant was gone and willing to signal his return. Still suspicious, the party entered anyways.
The rogue scouted ahead silently, finding a dead giant as well as a mammoth, apparently awakened, mourning the loss of its master.
The party approached, and the madness screamed at them as if they were to blame for the death of the frost giant. As it began to charge, the party was able to calm it, and get it to talk.
They found that the frost giant had been killed by another group of adventurers. The party cleric agreed to perform a funeral right on behalf of the frost giant, composing a wonderful and well thought-out ode.
Well this was going on, the party continue to explore the hold, in the process finding three kobolds, who had snuck in but were trapped due to the killer mammoth. The party agreed to help them get out and in exchange, the kobolds said they would serve the party. This really didn’t matter, as the party forgot about them as the dwarf went outside to check on the wolves only to be attacked by them!
The battle was pitched, with the dwarf nearly being killed. But the party won in the end, skating the wolves and taking some of the loot from the lodge with them. They headed back to Dugan’s Hole, the captives in tow, with a grateful populace.
Deciding that their work there was done, the party headed out toward Brynn Shander, to resupply, and make their way north to Termalaine.
Termalaine was apparently having troubles with cobalts in their mines.
Arriving at Termalaine, the party quickly found that the speaker one a contentious election, the opposing side being a Zhentarim agent. They found that the senior officers of the Town watch had somehow been influenced by this agent. The party immediately knew that the person behind all of the trouble was the speaker of Targos. Deciding to deal with that issue later, the party agreed to go into the mine to deal with their kobold problem.
The party entered the mine, soon coming across two kobolds trying to sabotage a wooden walkway. Capturing them, the party intimidated them into taking the party to their leader, Trex, who suddenly became smarter and more well-spoken.
The party descend further into the mine, soon feeling like they were being watched, but not seeing anything.
The party soon met Trex, the smart kobold.
The kobold, in perfect common, explained that they moved into the mine because they were forced out of Kelvin’s Cairn by yeti, and that all they wanted was to be given a chance in town. The party agreed to be go-betweens with the town speaker.
Suddenly, the rogue felt a tug at his consciousness. Investigating a side cave, he found a strange crystal…
After some trial and error, the party wizard came to the conclusion that it was a psi crystal, a psionic object, and that it was “pulling” at the wielder’s consciousness towards a location far to the south, in the mountains.
The party decided that they needed to deal with the creature stalking them, and then with the kobolds.
Will the party successfully negotiate on behalf of the kobolds? Will they be able to face off against that strange foe stalking them? Time will tell…
Until next time, Dear Readers!
The Daily Dungeon Master Blog 