Winter Fall and a Riverboat Ride

When last we saw our heroes, they had just completed rescuing the young girl from the monster in the caves of the Red Water.

Return to RedWater Falls Village

A light snow has started to fall. The air cold. The fir trees smell fresh and clean after the dank and dark dungeon. As the heroes move through the trees, the young girl - probably about 12 - moans and stirs in arms of Doctor Holiday. Bree, one of the quarry miner's daughters. “Wher.. Where am I?” Cough cough.. “who are you?” She sees the strange group and starts to look scared.. The group does well in calming the young teen.

Upon return, some young children playing by the falls see the party. One calls out to Bree while 2 run off into the village yelling and pointing. By the time the party arrives, a crowd from the miners and villagers have gathered. Cheers ring out and shouts of joy. A older woman rushes up and scoops up Bree, tears in her eyes. The heroes are patted on shoulders, hugged, and more.

The crowd as a group escorts the party with Cedric in the lead to a large tent. It seems a festival was in progress of being setup.  Winter Fall. This is the time the red fir pine cones are gathered.

Nature check by proficient by the party determines the pine cones can be used for

·        Steam engines are powered by the infused red tinged cones. Instead of 4-5 large chunks of wood, a single cone can give off the same heat and energy for a longer period in some cases.

·        Also used to create burning musket rounds

·        Can be infused by an alchemist to create fire resistant magically enchanted potions, clothing etc.

After some interaction in the village and local traders, the group is escorted and seated at the table of honour.

Winter Fall agenda:

·        The gathering

·        The celebration

·        The honouring

·        The Spirit of thanksgiving 

The Gathering

The cones only fall one night of the year along the Redwater Falls and river. If they are gathered and brought to the alchemist (Chanlik) and infused correctly, they can be used for the above.

Has to be done within 24 hours. Large cones sell for 5gp, small 1gp. Villagers ranging from 5 years old to old-timers participate. Gathering goes on from dusk until 9 bells. Bringing back all the cones, they are given to the old hobbit alchemist. 2 options gold as payment, or he will infuse them for use for silver (1sp for small 2 sp for large). Each of the party find a number of the pine cones using a variety of skill and luck. Robin Hood found the most.

The celebration

Around a massive bonfire, A large feast is held under the tents, the party the guests of honour! Long tables with benches, with platters of meats - pork, sausage, chicken, beef with gravy, a variety of steamed vegetables with melted cheese, warm freshly baked bread, cheese, fruits and more. Ale, mead,  cider and wine sit in flagons on every table. All the villagers wait for the party to sit and start. One little 5 year old boy reaches for a bun but his older brother stops him. After the heroes start eating, all dig in! Music played by a few musicians wind their way around tables.

The Honouring

The 2 innkeepers lead the ceremony honouring the power of the red water falls as well as the Temple of Nine. And the life, it brings to the growing village. Once only a few tents.

A group of 9 robed and hooded figures enter and stand in a circle around the bonfire. Each one represents one of the imprisoned demigods.

·        Merikka, Agriculture

·        Stern Alia, Law & Truth

·        Wastri Amphibians, Bigotr

·        Xilonen, Corn

·        Zuoken, Phys. and Mental Mastery

·        Chitza-Atlan, Underworld

·        Tlazoteotl, Mother of the Eart

·        Rudd, Chance & Skil

·        Iuz, Deceit & Pain

Everyone starts to chant in an olde language.The party realizes after some history checks determine this is a dialect of  gnomish. Giving thanks for the water of red life. A large goblet is passed around and all drink from it. The guests of honour go first! The sip tastes very spicy hot. This has a strange effect, those whom cannot handle it (Failure) gain some small wisdom for 24 hours. Those whom can take the drink become more hardy for 24 hours.

The Spirit of Thanksgiving

Led by the 2 innkeepers once again, a light (magic) show in the fir trees and falling snow lights up the area. The children laughing and 'oohs' and 'ahs' from the villagers.

As the party watches , a number of townsfolk bring over small gifts in thanks with a murmur of words for saving Bree. Each party member gets a small minor magic item.

After a restful night - at no charge - the heroes climb on to the riverboat, heading once again up into the forests of the once the fey kingdom of Celene.

While traveling:

• the perceptive Baris sees a camouflaged figure creeping near the riverbank on the far side of the river. No further investigation was done..
• A battle was heard up river so the party prepares. An orc (or 1/2 orc?) battling what looks to be multiple Black Rune Clan (BRC) dwarves and associates. After some good range shots by the party the BRC forces retreat. The lone 1/2 orc - Thograa - swims over to the riverboat and thanks the party profusely. It seems he was a member of an adventuring group or small band searching through the now abandoned elvish lands for loot, and was separated from his group and set upon by the BRC.

 

• An islet is seen in the distant river with a broken down tower. Some searching finds a trapdoor.
  
  Further investigation shows that below the trapdoor is a small room with a variety of supplies: rations, glass spheres and a large set of boots, for a 8'+ tall (at least) creature. A stairwell descends below - a trap is set off - crossbow bolt -  and then disabled by the rogue Kantif to a locked and secure door. After some discussion, the group finally listens at the door AND hears heavy breathing. Before they can act, the door is flung open and a tall hyena-like humanoid confronts the group. Backing down from the creature, the party retreats, leaving most of the supplies back where they were found under harsh words from the towering humanoid. 
  
  

  Leaving the crumbling tower, Extraño whom had kept one ration pack having ascended earlier than the rest, realizes the ration packs they had found were from human and elf flesh and advises the party. The heroes board their riverboat and prepare to cast off.

  
  

Until the New Year!

A dark cave, trogs, unseen spiders and a battle

The party easily tracks the - what seems to be - a large creature to the mouth of the cave. There is a waterfall of clear water coming down from a cliff, and swirls in with a stream of

blood red water(?) coming from the mouth of the cave.

 The water(?) is cold, but Extraño Buho, goes into the slow moving flow. slipping slightly, he tastes the red fluid and it has a sweet taste to it. 
The heroes venture into the dark, Cedric carrying a torch and the wizard Extraño conjures some globes of light as well. 

Moving down the passage, the group hear strange noises, and push forward against the current of red water.

They move along and then come around a corner to an ambush by these small lizard-like creatures mainly carrying spears and crossbows.

Battle continues against the cunning creatures until the heroes come to a point where the tunnel rises above the cooold red water - thankfully - but also to another battle.

Making short work of the small creatures, the party moves onward. 
 

The adventurers come into a larger room with a low ceiling no more than 4'-5' high. Stalactites and stalagmites fill the room, some having become pillars in the humid dark.

Exploring the room, a skeleton - dwarf warrior looks to be - is found in one area and a skeletal hand looking to have once held a short blade in a pool of mud. Some minor treasure is found as well as a slime covered ring in a pouch. Doc Holiday puts the ring on and learns to his dismay the ring cannot be removed..

Moving down the passage, a bolt flies out of the dark. The trogs still harry the group. Coming into a large room there looks to be some raised platform with a variety of gifts(?) moldy fruit and fish - as well as a large giant skull. A ramp moved upwards into the dark and a very narrow passage are the only exits. 


The party splits up!
The majority of the party moves with some difficulty through the narrow passage, being pulled and pushed to get through. Meanwhile Kantif and Cedric decide to head up the ramp, filled with spiderwebs.

While the main party fights off some more trogs, Cedric and Kantif move up burning a passage to walk through the webs. They come into a large room, where the webs are different they seem infused with a red filament or colour.. as they start to examine the webs more closely, Cedric notes a strumming or vibrations in the webs. Something is moving closer.. the paladin and rogue decide to retreat and rejoin the party!

Venturing further in, they come across large mushrooms and moss. Baris the witch-doctor takes some samples..
Crossing a fast moving clear stream the party comes upon a trail of blood. Robin seems to see something strange with the tracks.. Getting ready they move cautiously into an area with multiple passages. And then a massive fist crashes into the wall right above Kantif's head! A strange hairy and bearded humanoid creature towering over nine feet tall attacks.

The party engages the large monster, battling back and forth. Doc Holiday takes a massive blow from the giant ogre, but his orcish blood allows him to fight through and recover and continue to battle. As they engage the creature, more trogs ambush the rear of the party.

A close battle in the end but the party is victorious! They find the girl, drugged it seems as well as some treasure and more.

Exploring the rest of the caves they find a long passage that soon becomes work stone and then up to double doors. Along the passage are murals of the ascendance of hero to a demigod.
The double doors are trapped but the skill of Kantif removes 1 of the 3.. using guile and some black powder, they are able to blow the door open and the final 2 traps are ineffectual.

Venturing through the party comes across an amazing site. Across a large 50' wide chasm is a ancient and cracked stone bridge. Across the way, a large cavern can be seen as well as what looks to be a underground city or complex. At first the party determined the ruins were dwarvish, but there seems to be something different about them..

The party, wounded, tired and with the unconscious girl, decide to head back to the RedWater Falls. Moving through the caves the party mistakenly encounters the mud in the first cave and nearly all succumb to its strange effect to go diving into it! They survive the encounter muddy, tired and cold.

Doc Holiday breathes deeply looking about enjoying the day and being out of the cramped caves, sees some ravens roosting high up in 4 or 5 fir trees. Moving away from the party he silently speaks to them, thinking of the feather he holds and for some bizarre reason the black lipstick as well.. As he looks up, one of the Conspiracy of Ravens - a small, young bird caws back to the rest. Only Baris the Witchdoctor understood. The raven all black - except for one stripe of feathers down the right wing are gray - landed on the young half-orc's shoulder. One beady eye looks over the 1/2 orc. Doctor Holiday looking amazed realizes he has a new companion.
 The villagers will be happy to see the girl safe! What will be next for our heroes of RedWater Falls?
 

The Party

Our Heroes:

Extraño Buho (Jake): Wizard - Messenger | Arakocra
Kantif (Devin): Rogue - Charlatan | 1/2 Elf
Baris (Liam): Druid - Witch doctor | Human
Cedric Hornraven (Tony): Paladin - Human
Doctor Sigmund Holiday (Connor): Fighter - Doctor |1/2 Orc
Robin Hood (Brayden): Ranger - Bountyhunter | Arakocra

RiverBoat Ride

When we join our heroes, they are traveling upriver on a steamboat towing a barge of supplies, heading towards the Keep Blugann in the Kron Hills

The party idles away on the boat, some keeping watch, others interacting with the party. The two lads

under the watchful eyes of Mrs. Teedleton were fascinated by the two Arakocra, Extraño and Robin.

While traveling along the river that borders along the former kingdom of Celene and the Welkwood forest, the party sees a dwarf astride a massive boar. Wearing armour emblazoned with the Rune they know well: Dwarf slaver. The barrel-chested dwarf had no beard, a long handlebar mustache. A perceptive Baris saw another dwarf on the opposite bank of the river. At that point the dwarf held up his hand, four fingers raised.
Kantif seemed to have some knowledge of what the sign meant..

The steamboat travelled onward. Master Senji advised they needed to go up to a small mining village - RedWater Falls - to deliver supplies and restock on fuel for the steamboat. At the fork in the river the again perceptive Baris noted a dwarf hiding! Holding a globe of fire ready he waited and the dwarves sprung an ambush.
A small cannon boomed and a shot flew high right over the chugging steaming engine, multiple musket shots fired from ambush and the battle was joined.
Two goblins frantically tried to reload the small cannon, while a variety of shots from the party on board the steamboat grazed and hit the two crew. A ray of blue frost hit one goblin - from the wizard Extraño - freezing his clawed hand to the barrel! Frantically moving he was shot by Robin Hood and others until he slumped over.
The masked Witchdoctor Baris jumped into the cold waters of the river and swam to the right and went to attack two dwarves on the high bank.
Cedric used his healing skills to help those shot by the dwarf musketeers, while Doctor Holiday fired and then decided to also get to the shore by braving the cold river water after a dwarf thew a grapple and snagged the towlines pulling the barge.
Battle continued as Baris defeated one dwarf and pushed the dead slaver into the river grabbing his musket. Cedric waded to shore as well, and engaged with the one goblin still alive. A heavy hit weakened his shield arm until it was hanging limp, but he persevered and killed the goblin.
Doctor Holiday ambushed by a second dwarf slaver was looking to fall as he was cut and heavily slashed, but his tough orcish endurance saved the Doctor's life, as well as shots from Robin Hood's longbow and Cheeta's crossbow. Seeing the battle going badly, two dwarves tried to retreat - one taken at 400 feet by the deft and accurate longbow of Robin Hood!

Gathering the 2 muskets, a few rounds of ammunition, as well as a few gold and silver coins the wounded and beat-up party continued their river journey up to RedWater Falls. They perceived that the river was tainted red, but could not determine if it was natural or arcane. Able to rest, they arrived at the small village.

While waiting for the riverboat to restock on fuel and deliver supplies as required, the party did some exploration. Finding a temple to Beory and the Nine (a shrine outside the temple to Beory, while the inside temple was to the Nine Demigods imprisoned by IUZ).
During this time Baris did some searching in the brush and trees nearby for herbs and roots, he found some unknown ones, not what he was used to for his alchemy work. 
While at the BlackBell alehouse, they meet the dwarf slaver previously seen on the river! Kantif, - in disguise as a human since 1st meeting everyone - recognized the dwarf slaver. Cedric learns of of a missing girl taken by some type of monster.
It seems Parson Creoll knows more. Meeting up with the Parson near the temple they learn that 3 girls were playing up river and supposedly a furred and taloned bipedal monster took one of the village girls. The paladin vowed to help and find her.
Meanwhile, Doc Holiday was negotiating fixing his blunderbuss with a dwarf smith - at first doing work on some horsehoes and then trading one of the BlackRune muskets.
Extraño approached the BlackRune dwarf slaver in the alehouse, asking of an address he was searching for in Verbobonc.. After some tense words and the bartender intervening, Extraño exited.

Cedric gathering the group, the party deciding to try and save the young girl, at that moment, Extraño whom was off by himself noticed the clumsy dwarf slaver trying to sneak up on him! The slaver quickly ran away.. with the birdman chuckling.

The party then moved off up river, following the tracks under the perceptive eyes of Robin Hood and the skills of the witchdoctor Baris. They tracked the strange footprints to a cave where the wide stream flowed from - pure red water here.

Into the caves next...? Until next time.

GreyHawk Campaign Reboot

The players decide to restart the campaign with new characters. So setting the stage (1 year later in game time):

******************

Background:

It has been just about a year since the beginning of the end of the uprising or "the Revolution" some call it.

To throw off the shackles of the dwarf slaver clans. It was a catastrophic failure. Many were killed and even more became slaves. The Wild Coast stays under the Iron grip of the dwarf Black Rune Clan and its allies.

The small one bright light (though some may disagree) in this was the Lord Jintassin Tel'nas of the Grey Elven House Tel'nas gathered  nearly all the enslaved and free full-blooded elves and using arcane powers from an unknown type and source, opened arcane gates to the Bright Desert across the Woolly Bay. The elves - all along the Wild Coast and in the former FEY kingdom of Celene passed through, leaving the remaining slaves to take the brunt of the dwarven slavers’ wrath.

******************

The Party intro:

You all are travelling away from the Wild Coast - lands ruled by the dwarf slaver clans. You are on a small riverboat pulling a barge of needed supplies heading into the Kron Hills through the WelkWood, travelling up the Jewel river away from the former Orcish empire of the Pomarj and now into the empty and wild Elven lands of Celene along the MyFal-Emeral River  - your reasons could be many: refugee, mercenary, former slave escaping the iron grip of the Black Rune dwarf clan, adventurer, or other...

( DM note: travel is along the river (red line & arrows and then yellow line and arrows)

You all have purchased a one way standard passage to a frontier fort away up in the Kron Hills, you hope far away from the Dwarf clan slavers..

 

On the small steam powered craft there are 2 crew, the rag tag group of you, a halfling woman with 2 young human boys, and a old male Dragonborn - rare to ever see these creatures. Elves are highly sought after as slaves, Dragonborn even more so.

It is nearing the end of fall, winter approaches. The forests of the lowlands fall away as you move into the hills. The old Dragonborn - his red scales dull and scarred looks out across the wide river. “Eet weel bee a coooold weentur.” He mutters, lighting a long bone pipe with a snort of fire. One hand rests on the gunnel of the ship the other gently caresses the pommel of a long wide-bladed sword sheathed at his side as he puffs and blows a large smoke ring. 

The halfling woman - a Mrs. Teedleton - huddles for warmth with her 2 young wards - human boys of about age 9 and 7. (Drake & Drayse)

The crew of the riverboat is:

•  Master Senij - owner operator. Older grizzled and weathered human. Has a variety of tattoos on his arms.
• Cheeta - human girl probably about 20. Long red hair in a ponytail. Wielding a crossbow to great effect - her shot brought down a deer and you all ate well on the first night onwards.

You all travel into unfamiliar lands with unfamiliar faces.. so starts the adventure!