Beginning Day: 7th of Lowsun
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Our adventurers rise with the sun, awakening shaken but otherwise intact following the events of the prior evening. The small fire of the night before burned out, and with it the bulk of the Vine Blight they had used as fuel out of spite. With Aelar once again mobile, if not healed, they set off through the forest and emerged on the other side without further incident. They once again reached a crossroads a few Ks outside of the village, where the path become a far more well-traveled, hard-packed dirt road in both directions. By midday they had arrived into the village center, a collection of a few single-story buildings and a two-story inn surrounding a singular, large and unnaturally smooth stone jutting nearly twenty feet into the air.
After bothering a poor dwarf at one of the dwellings, they were given the extraordinarily complicated directions of walking across the way to the inn, where they were greeted by the owner, Thea Farlight. Waiting inside, and well into his cups, they met the dwarf Gorm, Emissary of the Earl of Fallcrest City, and Damaia, a tiefling Fighter who had also answered the call for aid. Kayla attempted to make friends in her own way by crafting a flower for the dwarf, which was immediately placed in the alms box Kaladan insistently shoved under the Emissary's nose.
Over a lunch and some light day drinking, our band of heroes, now numbering five strong, learned that over the past weeks, something had been slaughtering the herds of Rowntree Sheep that called the six standing stones that flanked the town center home. To make matter's worse, two of the local farmers, Doran Brook and Cassius Morningfall had gone missing several nights prior while standing watch over the flock of Berinon Farlight, the town having banded together in an attempt to protect the remaining flocks.
Gorm provided a map of the area, and they set out for the Farlight farm, directly north of the town after the dwarf assured himself they would return before dark.
After bothering a poor dwarf at one of the dwellings, they were given the extraordinarily complicated directions of walking across the way to the inn, where they were greeted by the owner, Thea Farlight. Waiting inside, and well into his cups, they met the dwarf Gorm, Emissary of the Earl of Fallcrest City, and Damaia, a tiefling Fighter who had also answered the call for aid. Kayla attempted to make friends in her own way by crafting a flower for the dwarf, which was immediately placed in the alms box Kaladan insistently shoved under the Emissary's nose.
Over a lunch and some light day drinking, our band of heroes, now numbering five strong, learned that over the past weeks, something had been slaughtering the herds of Rowntree Sheep that called the six standing stones that flanked the town center home. To make matter's worse, two of the local farmers, Doran Brook and Cassius Morningfall had gone missing several nights prior while standing watch over the flock of Berinon Farlight, the town having banded together in an attempt to protect the remaining flocks.
Gorm provided a map of the area, and they set out for the Farlight farm, directly north of the town after the dwarf assured himself they would return before dark.
Upon arrival, they find Berinon standing watch over the decaying corpses of his flock. Upon careful inspection, Kayla determined that the wounds were consistent with a wolf attack, but that a dark power lingered around the injuries. One by one, each of our heroes inspected the stone around which the attack had occurred, each concluding that it did indeed curve at the top to point directly toward the town, and that it was unnaturally smooth. Aelar used Kaladan as a step stool, and deftly climbed to the top of the rock, where he confirmed that it, too, was quite smooth. The light fading, they headed back to the Gilded Lamb to bed down for the night.
Gorm immediately grabbed a tankard and left to sleep in the barn. Rather than head to bed, our band settled in for a few more drinks after briefly accosting the inn keeper's son, Geth, who had been conversing with the only other occupant of the room. Learning only that the stones had always kept the trees away, they eventually let Geth go, and turned their attention to the stranger, a modestly handsome, black haired and sharp-featured human named Percival. Although a long, thin silver sword hung at his waist, he professed to be a simple bard. He and Merla entertained them with sea shanties long into the night, while he and Aelar danced upon the tables.
When morning finally came, our band enlisted Gorm's aid once more to lead them to one of the two remaining farms that had not yet been attacked, that of Jade Morningfall, Cassius's sister to the north west. They made their way to the stone, learning that the herds could not be easily kept away from the stones themselves, which were their preferred grazing grounds, and that the attacks always happened at night, so they weren't worried about the flock grazing here during the day. Jade was outwardly unaffected by her brother's disappearance, reckoning he and Doran had simply been out tracking down whatever had killed the flock.
After inspecting this stone, and again confirming that yes, it was smooth, and yes, it pointed toward town, the group decided to wait until dark, to discover what was happening. During their watch, Kaladan and Kayla observed a dense fog bank roll in from the north west, which stopped on the far side of the stone from them. Kayla attempted to send some light into the fog, but all her magic stopped dead on the border. Quite suddenly, the group was set upon by a trio of wolves emerging from the fog. Each wolf seemed to be far hardier than they would have thought for a time, although eventually, a thin film of darkness would seep off the animals and stretch off behind them seemingly into infinity. After dealing with two of the animals, the last was slain in mid-leap right next to the stone, its blood splattering over the rock.
Black light immediately began to glow from the blood, and smoke rose from the stone where it was hit. The fog vanished in a blink, and there was an impact to the air - thunder, without sound. In the far distance, toward the village, an explosion of pulsing light lit the horizon.
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Ending Day: 8th of Lowsun
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