Adventure Log:

A random assortment of adventurers found themselves in the tavern while Aiden was repairing the magical bottle. Armada and Nacht were curious and both helped only to be sucked into the bottle! They were attacked by Druid and Drow but won and made it out alive.

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Where did you go?

The magic bottle!

Who did you meet?

• Aiden
• Zevrouge
• Takashi
• Carlsberg
• Armada
• Tailor

What actually happened?

They were all sucked into the bottle and pitted against Druids and Drow.

Adventure Log:

It was an absolute faliure. Maybe not absolute but they failed to capture Talk Back. They tracked him to a cave and were faced with one obstacle after another. Turns out, he had help. Four people were helping him escape. Carlsberg tore through all the traps and deposited Dax and Nacht on the frontlines while D scouted ahead and Eden covered their tail. As the chase begins Carlsberg steps through a trap that knocks Nacht out cold. The Talk Back they capture turns out to be a fake and the mystery compatriots successfully escape. Talk Back is still at large and now seems to have recruited allies.

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Where did you go?

We took on a quest to subjugate Talk Back. Tracked them to a cave and failed to capture them inside.

Who did you meet?

Dax, D, Carlsberg, Eden

Talk Back, 4 mystery companions, misc. guards and wizards.

What actually happened?

We tracked them to the cave and took out the guards in front. The first cavern was littered with holes and spelled darkness. Talk Back and his crew were defensive and crafty. The second cavern revealed spikes, oil and silence traps. Carlsberg wild shaped and charged through with Nacht and Dax. Dax takes a lot of people out in one go and the chase is on. Carlsberg wild shapes again and takes Nacht and Dax after a Talk Back who turns out to be a fake when caught. The mystery compatriots escape and cave in their route.

Adventure Log:

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Where did you go?

Summoned by Mak Lang, we find Pak Lang not doing so well. After Kisla released the mysterious 6 eyed demon knight on the town, its been wreaking havoc all over Dawnport, Pak Lang being one of its recent victims. His wound seemed to be cursed with no normal healing methods working. Mak Lang scries a flower that could be turned into a cure

Who did you meet?

Pak & Mak Lang

What actually happened?

Adventure Log:

They got sucked into a bottle! Inside they find themselves in some grand battle arena fighting two air elementals and one terrifying undead. Aiden has been taken hostage and they must win and entertain to get him back. With the power of friendship they kill the undead first and chip away at the elementals. Nacht finishes the final air elemental with a miserable produce flame cantrip. It was a sad finish.

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Where did you go?

While walking around Dawnport the party is sucked into a bottle and forced to participate in a battle arena to save Aiden.

Who did you meet?

Adam-Bemathol-Goldsky was the mysterious magical game master who seemed to control everything.

What actually happened?

Battled two air elementals and one undead thing. Armada died once but was saved by Ariana. Lacking any effective damage against the elementals they chipped away at it miserably, winning the match. Aiden is returned and the party are quickly returned to Dawnport after the match.

Adventure Log:

The party are recruited as investigators for a very fresh murder. The Corngolds, a well liked family of four, were found mauled to death and mostly eaten in their home on the Hill View Farm. Aiden, Arianna, Nacht and Takashi begin their investigation at the morgue with Officer Excella to brief them.

The Corngolds

• Anton Corngold (Father, Former Adventurer - Carrier)
• Erin Corngold (Mother, Former Adventurer - Archer)
• Samuel Corngold (Son)
• Erin Corngold Jr. (Daughter)

Excella explains that their duties are to canvass the crime scene to find any evidence they could to point he investigation in the right direction. They learn that the initial assumption is an animal attack that occurred the night before. Based on the state of the bodies which were really closer to an assortment of parts and minced meat, whatever killed them were clearly large beasts. Excella believes that it was likely foul play. Their neighbour Lander Windriver reported the scene in the morning.

Examining the body of Anton Corngold they deduce the following:

• Was ambushed and killed instantly. (Determined from lack of bruises on right hand to indicate punches thrown or any defensive wounds on arm)
• Lividity on back of leg indicates Anton lay in that position for some time before being mauled.

Examining the bodies further, they deduce the following:

• They were large carnivorous beast by the tooth marks on exposed bone fragments and the bite radius on a ribcage.
• The beasts were incredibly strong. An arm appears to be torn from socket.
• There were likely two beasts with the presence of distinct bite sizes.
• All victims were either missing their entire heads or their lower jaws.
• Erins body showed signs of a struggle.
• There was no sign of any magic or poison when detection spells were used.

Excella also notes that Erin (or whatever was left) was found arranged on the bed in the master bedroom. Outside the morgue, Nacht encounters the ghost of a young girl who whispers that she hid but they still caught her. Arianna also encounters the ghost and is told that her brother also hid but they caught him too. Finding nothing more the party head to Hill View Farm.

Arriving at the farm they greet the guards on duty, Corporal Mara Venn and Guard Reid, and the party split up. Takashi and Nacht search around the house for any tracks, blood trails or signs of forced entry. They find nothing except the traces of tracks leading towards the house. Aiden searches for traces of magic with his spells but also found nothing. Arianna begun inside and faced with a massive pool of blood guessed that Anton was most likely killed at the front door.

Weaving through the broken furniture, blood pools, claw marks, bloody footprints they uncover their clues:

• Living Room

  • Broken furniture & a bloodied knife show there was a struggle.
  • Brown fur found caught on debris, found to be of different lengths as if growing. Werewolf.
  • A partially burned 'title of sale' for the property with Anton as the only signatory
  • Footprints, claw marks, drag marks and multiple pools of blood.

• Kitchen Entrance

  • A differential in claw impression size confirms the presence of a second, slightly smaller creature.
  • Bloody footprints, streaks and pools. It's likely this is where the children were killed.
  • The spilled food bowl near the kitchen range, along with a missing knife from the knife block, plus the impression of Anton’s body in the blood pool near the front door will confirm the theory that Erin was the knife wielder.

• Hallway adjacent to master bedroom

  • The large, messy blood pool and bloodstained wall here indicates that this is the location where an adult was finally killed and mauled/eaten.
  • The adult fought to the very end, as evidenced by the bloody hand-prints indicating that they was trying to get back to the master bedroom for some reason.
  • There is a set of bloody boot prints leading from the hallway into the bedroom where they disappear. They appear nowhere else in the house.

• Hallway adjacent to child’s bedroom

  • The carefully placed smaller footprints and ajar bedroom door indicates that a child exited their bedroom and attempted to sneak past the creature in order to head downstairs.
  • The slight streaking to their footsteps indicates that they were not successful in sneaking past the creature and began to run.
  • The bloody streaks and extended claw marks heading towards the stairs indicate that the creature lunged at speed after the child and accelerating powerfully to pursue them.

• Master Bedroom

  • Blood on the bed where Erins bits were found.
  • A chest under the bed that contained an enchanted bow. Current status: suspiciously missing...
  • The bear rug looks like someone rubbed their boots on it.
  • The window is closed but not latched.

With all their clues, the party put together the most likely sequence of events:

• Anton opens the door to greet his guests but is bitten in the neck and instantly killed by the larger werewolf. He's left to bleed out.
• Erin who is in the kitchen cooking dinner with Erin Jr., hears the commotion and tries to come to Antons rescue only to be attacked by the second, smaller werewolf and their vicious fight takes them upstairs as Erin tries to reach her bow only to meet her end right at the door to the master bedroom.
• The larger werewolf then sniffs out Erin Jr. who was hidden and mauls her to death in the kitchen. The wolf then likely goes to eat Anton.
• Samuel who was hiding upstairs tries to sneak past the small werewolf eating his mother but is caught and chased downstairs to be caught and mauled to death too.
• The attackers went upstairs, shifted back to human form, arranged Erin on the bed, cleaned their shoes on the bear rug and escaped through the window.

Important to Note:

• The heads & jaws were meticulously missing to negate the use of necromantic spells.
• Tracks leading to the house were covered / erased.
• Nothing was stolen.

Motive:

• ???

Adventure Log:

Following Jasmine and Timmy back to the portal, the party find themselves joined by Eden. They find the ghost of Maverich in a clearing, his mouth sewn together. Soon after, bone constructs and an undead beast tethered to Maverich appear and attack.

They manage to survive the attack with Marx only dying twice and Father Hoilsat coming close. Winning the relentless fight, Maverich is freed from the curse and reunites with his family. Mika senses something in the undead beast and with the help of Eden they retrieve a cursed stone. Nacht also notices a pink worm that Mika catches.

It's likely that Declan and Sainbarp are connected with the pink worms and the merchants. It's possible that they used Maverich to develop the herb and cursed him after. The conspiracy runs too deep in Aethermarch. It'd be wise to keep an eye on Declans movements in Dawnport lest he build another empire.

Nacht still has the herbs and plans on cultivating them in secret for his friends.

Adventure Log:

Timmy speaks of a secret portal that Maverich used to use hidden in the forest. After some chatting he agreed to lead the way. Arriving at the portal, Father Hoilsat accidentally throws Aiden through it and the rest jump through without a second thought.

They arrive in a bustling merchant town called Aethermarch. Finding the same flowers in a shopfront, Jasmine and Timmy rush in. The party follows only to find the two looking disappointed to find that the shopkeeper wasn't Maverich. They explained that it should have been. Speaking to the shopkeeper who introduced himself as Elias Thornroot, they discover that the herbs are a new product and that Declan had a large official influence in this town. They followed many leads only to be led back towards the portal.

Somehow in between, Marx managed to become a wanted individual in Aethermarch.

Adventure Log:

Nacht woke up that morning to find a skeletal leg under his bed and having had a very odd dream. He meets others in the tavern and they notice a party of adventurers returning from failing the 'house cleaning' quest. The desperate nobles nearby are offering almost triple for anyone to be able to clear it at this point.

Accepting with the others they head to the house and unsurprisingly, Talk Back starts filling it with hay. Always best to be prepared. They find the other pieces of the body scattered through the house and assemble them in the hall. A ghost appears and they find out her name is Jasmine, Maverich's wife. She leads them outside and they meet the ghost of Timmy, their son.

The ghosts show the party some blue spider lilies and explain that they were specially cultivated by Maverich himself. Jasmine and Timmy are able to possess the flowers and Nacht brings them back to town.

Adventure Log:

They left him! Those limp leaved, crooked stemmed assholes left him!

Kidnapped by the lizardfolk, Nacht swears that when he gets back to town, he's going to beat the rest of them black and blue.

Trapped in an iron cage and brought back to what seemed to be a temporary camp, Nacht sees another captive, an unconscious fairy who seemed to be poisoned as well. The way things were, it was going to be impossible to rescue the fairy and escape unharmed. The best he could do was get back to Dawnport and alert Dax.

He waited till the activity of the camp slowed and as night fell, Nacht shape shifted into an owl and successfully escaped at midnight. Flying blindly he thankfully runs into Mika! With her directions they run towards safety with the lizardfolk now alerted of their missing prisoner and on the search.

Working together they make it back to Dawnport and successfully cover their tracks ensuring they couldn't be tracked back to town.

Adventure Log:

After interrogating the captured lizardfolk, the party chose to head out to the nearest scouting camp less than a days travel away. They were looking to verify for themselves if the information was true and how bad the threat was before telling the port authorities. It was a precarious plan that risked alerting the tribes.

On their way they free a familiar turtle and it tells them where the nearest camp likely was.

Following the turtles directions, they come across multiple sets of tracks and realise they're likely already skirting the edges of lizardfolk territory.

Arriving at the camp, they're ambushed. (In my defense Arkozh said that the tracks were OLD so I thought we were gonna loot the area and fight in the next hex >_>)

They survive the ambush, two get away and they kidnap another lizard.**

Sigh.

Nacht is beginning to think that his adventure into the outer world is going to be a long list of crimes. Well, at least Dawnports prison won't be wasted.

Adventure Log:

Nacht, Zev, Mika and Hanz were discussing how to extract information from the captured lizardfolk currently being held in Dawnports jail, likely to the dismay of Dax. Two new arrivals decide to join them and they head down with Hanz as their translator.

The prisoner proved to be tight lipped and resistant to any questioning so the group turned to less that ideal methods, to the dismay of Zev. Lots of dismay this time round. Mika disguises herself as a fellow lizardfolk and is dragged and threatened by Nacht. Seeing another of his kind in danger, the prisoner talks and they discover a few worrying things.

• Lizardfolk run rampant across these lands with as far as we know, seven different settlements each led by a priest.
• They worship a divine being they refer to as Zilla and their priests are actively trying to revive something, we aren't sure if it is their god or not.
• The lizardfolk have no alliances with any other beings and raid settlements indiscriminately.
• The nearest settlement is a three day walk North where this particular juvenile, Voz, is from.
• There is a scouting camp a day and a half walk North-West and likely others spaced similarly through the lands.
• The lizardfolk are forbidden from entering the mountains.

They also learnt that there were likely no other humanoid races present on the new continent and that the lizardfolk were still unaware of Dawnports existence. A highly precarious position to be in when frontier adventurers are well, adventuring. Dawnport was too new and would be impossible to defend if the tribes chose to launch an all out attack.

Learning all this, Zev insists on keeping this information to themselves and especially away from Dax. Nacht urges him to share it with the others at the very least.

Dismay. So much dismay.

Adventure Log:

While milling about the front of the inn, the adventurers see a stranger approach. She introduces herself as Ellliana and becomes fast friends with Beatrix. Suddenly a noble approaches flanked by two guards. Nacht recognizes the noble as the same one who almost cost them their lives and stiffed them of any reward. Daevros.

He explains that a box and its carrier, Pippin, have gone missing and its retrieval was of the highest priority. Leading them to the manor, Nacht sets eyes on the prince for the first time and is thoroughly unimpressed. Dax appears and convinces Daevros that the adventurers are the best Dawnport has to offer and the party follows their only lead towards their makeshift home base, the tavern.

Meeting Linda she explains that the party just missed Pippin and that he had left with some friends. Nacht notices signs of a struggle on the way out and warns the party. They ran around to the back of the tavern to find Pippin beaten and the box in the hands of bandits.

With the help of the guards, summoned by Elliana's cries, they beat the bandits and retrieve the box. Daevros rewards them highly with a little convincing from Mika and the party retires to the inn for a well deserved mug.

Adventure Log:

Nacht walks into the tavern to find a mix of new faces and old. Joining Zev, he observes what looks to be a priest and a fighter. Agreeing to accept a quest together, the adventurers head out to an abandoned house led by Aiden who somehow knows the way.

As they arrive at the house nothing out of the ordinary presents itself. The group proceeds to explore inside while Talk Back scouts the property pocketing anything he finds. Inside they are met with a hall and a multitude of locked rooms which Marx proceeds to try to open. While they explore the inside, day suddenly changes to night and the house comes to life in a hostile rage.

Talk Back is nowhere to be seen and everyone inside is surrounded and forced to fight for their lives. The furniture is almost impervious to physical attacks and fire seemed too high a risk inside. Nacht is almost taken out by a pipe and table but is healed by the priest, Father Hoilsat, who destroys the table and pipe with Marx. As the dread of being trapped and losing begins to set in, Nacht rushes to heal the fighter Beatrix who was facing off against two enemies while Zevrouge bargains with the spirits as a last resort.

By fate or luck, the doors to the main hall fly open and the group flees while dragging Aiden who was incapacitated by fear. They make it back to Dawnport only to be chastised for their failure by a noble.

Adventure Log:

They arrived in Dawnport in the pitch of night. The frontier town was even less than expected, if that was possible. Guided to the tavern by a dockhand, Braum the innkeeper and his wife Linda tasked Nacht and his party with a quest to slay some foul kitchen beasts. As it was, they were merely overgrown crustaceans.

Cautious and curious of his new company, Nacht trailed the group on their adventure into the salty caves beneath the inn.

• He watches Zev take the lead with the innkeepers. "Curious and brash. A handy fellow to have around"
• As Talk Back scales the high ground in the cave Nacht muses, "Smart merc. Good eyes, keen senses"
• While Marx charges towards the crabs, "Orc's are always good brawn"
• Listening to Mika the whole adventure, "A strange child of the forest. I'll keep an eye on the youngling"

Having bargained for the nights lodging and fare, they ended their first adventure a gold richer and smelling like a week old fish market.