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The events of the following two adventures take place just after the riot event found in  “Age of Dragons – Adventure Notes 17.”

We were celebrating Matt’s birthday, and Matt’s girlfriend Catelynn; as well as Travis and Justin (Jake’s friend and his brother, respectively) – and Matt had mentioned wanting to play Dungeons & Dragons. So I downloaded the Pre-Generated Characters (all Level 1) and let them choose. The first night, I DM’ed Matt, Jake, Sami, and Catelynn. The next night, Matt & Catelynn turned in early, so it was Jake, Sami, Justin and Travis. Below are those adventure notes:

• • Sludge – Halfling Rogue – Jake
  • Nesmera – Dwarf Cleric – Sami
  • Malia – Elf Fighter – Catelynn
  • Uther – Human Paladin – Matt
  • Lute Litty – Half-Elf Bard – Travis
  • Tatanila – Halfling Monk – Justin

Game 1 (Jan 5, 2018) – Sludge (Jake), Nesmera (Sami), Malia (Catelynn), and Urther (Matt)

• • You’ve all come to King’s Hill Landing as a part of a large caravan that had left from Lakefront, as hired guards to protect the caravan. The large caravan traveled for several weeks and had more than its fair share of excitement, before arriving in King’s Hill Landing.
  • Only two days into arriving at King’s Hill Landing, a major riot broke out near where the caravan was stored, resulting in the death of quite a few people, as well as some major arrests. Local authorities believe that two guilds clashed while trying to recover an item, resulting in the riot as it spilled into the streets.
  • Two days after the riot, chaos is restored in King’s Hill Landing. While some of the caravan has chosen to move on to Drastor, past the Broken Lands, you’ve decided to stay in King’s Hill and see what adventure awaits.
  • It’s not long before one of the mayor’s men seeks out a group of adventurers to help in a matter that has come up. Knowing one another from the caravan, you all agree to go see the mayor about the problem he’s requested help for.
  • The mayor explains that a farmer is reporting an issue with his live stock behaving “strangely” (and can’t explain beyond that what “strangely” means). The mayor asks you to investigate what seems to be going on. Desperate to etch a name for yourselves, you all agree.
  • You travel outside of King’s Hill Landing, to the neighboring farming community, where you eventually find Farmer Garis Greenstone’s farm. He’s a human, tall, grey beard, and green eyes (for which his last name comes from). Beside him is his son, who is between 16 to 18 years of age, by the look of it, and his name is Torin Greenstone.
  • Farmer Garis explains, “The cows and sheep no longer feed on the hills near my property. I… tried to look into it… but… there’s an overbearing feeling that grips me when I get close… that I… can not explain.” He escorts the party to the nearby hill, as close as he can, before he feels the odd feeling and finally confesses after a moment, “The hill… was my wife’s favorite spot to sit and paint… and that’s… where she’s buried, just at the base of the hill… she’s been… buried there for years, so I am not sure… what the problem could be.”
  • You go and investigate the hill, which is about 100 feet from where Farmer Garis stops; and as you draw closer to the hill, Nesmera and Uther are both overcome with such grief, that tears begin to fall down their eyes, inexplicably. There is an overbearing sense of sadness that lingers in the air; each step seems to be step closer to an overbearing depression that grips your hearts. Eventually, you do make it to the grave site and see that her grave has been dug up; her body is still there, pulled slightly out of the grave.
  • As Sludge investigates the corpse, a cold chill fill the entire area and moments later, the ghost of a woman appears. When she speaks her voice seems to echo within itself, as if repeating all of her words, milliseconds after saying them. “Return the ring, and all will be restored… return the ring to me… Return it.”
  • You all go back to Farmer Garis and ask about a ring that his wife (Larien) might have had; and he explains that they met when they were very, very, very young and he had given her a promise ring, that one day he would marry her. Eventually, the two married, using the same ring, and had their son, Torin.
  • Returning back to the grave, you looked around and eventually found tracks that led to some rocks on the side of the large hill. Moving one of the rocks, you discover that there’s a tunnel that leads deep into the ground.
  • Following the cavern down, it doesn’t take long for the darkness to consume you, and you realize that the cavern leads quite deep into the earth. You eventually arrive to a moist room, where there is large fungus and mushrooms; and many of them give off incredibly vibrant colors of green, purple, blues.
  • Moving through the large field of mushrooms that tower over you in some cases, Sludge accidentally brushes up against a Shrieker (mushroom) that emits a loud, piercing sound. Sludge cuts it down; but not before it draws the attention of several nearby Kobolds who rush into the room to attack.
  • Nesmera crushes several of them, before they realize she’s dangerous and gang up on her. Being attacked from all sides, the Kobolds flurry their attacks, and Nesmera falls to the ground, bleeding.
  • The rest of the party is able to take care of the Kobolds, so Uther rushes to Nesmera’s side and uses his Paladin ability to lay on hands, restoring her health. Pressing on further, wounded and bleeding, you all enter a chamber full of bats; and upon shining the lantern see that not all of them are bats; but stirges also. The stirges attracted to the light source begin descending down and piercing the flesh and necks of all of you, to draw blood. Enough of them hit the already wounded Sludge so that he is the next to fall, just as he races out of the room. Nesmera calls upon her goddess to provide a healing that restores some of Sludge’s health.
  • Finding a hall way that leads down a flight of ancient stairs, the party moves down and Sludge sees a Quasit. Throwing a poison dagger he hits it and the creature flees (Sludge is unaware the Quasit is immune to poison).
  • The party hears summoning and chanting sounds, so Sludge goes to investigate and discovers worshipers of Belaros, the Demon Lord. A woman floats above and the ring spins above her, glowing.
  • The Quasait tries to run by but Sludge grabs it and tries to kill it; Nesmera grabs it by the legs and the two rip it apart. The sound of one of the Belaros fanatics screams (it was his familiar). The leader (Brin Doombringer) shouts for the fanatics to find the ones responsible. Sludge sets up a trap that springs as four of the cultists trip over it. Uther charges and shield bashes several of the other cultists coming up the stairs. Nesmera does the same, with Malia – who has proven to be lethal with her rapier. Sludge waits for the fighting to start before using his rogue skills to strike from the back when he can, until an opening to the obvious leader presents itself. He then jumps off one of the cultists and grabs the Belaros necklace the leader is wearing and attacks.
  • The cultists prove to be quite a bit of trouble, cutting into all of you, wounding you all pretty gravely, until it’s down to a wounded cultist, another healthy one, and the leader. Uther kills the wounded one, just as Malia thrusts forward with so much force with her rapier that she no only pierces the heart of the cultist guard, but the leader as well.
  • Using his Divine Sense on the woman that had been floating, until Brin Doombringer had been killed; he senses great evil, and puts and end to her life (unaware that the evil actually came from possession). The ring is picked up by Malia, using her rapier, and the party returns it back to the grave, never questioning why the cult of Belaros had dug up the body to use it and what other magical properties or purposes it might have severed…

Game 2 (Jan 6, 2018) – Sludge (Jake), Nesmera (Sami), “Lute” Litty (Travis), Tatanila (Justin)

• Sludge and Nesmera return to the Inn/Tavern called “The Cat’s Whisker” where Uther and Malia get rooms to rest after the adventure. Nesmera, a hearty female dwarf, and Sludge, a rogue always looking for another pocket to pick, stayed awake celebrating their successful adventure. Overhearing the two, a man approaches them and explains that he could use someone like them. “Lute” Litty and Tatanila, both from the same caravan that Nesmera and Sludge were on; walk over, after hearing the prospect of adventure, and listen as well.
• The man explains that a wagon, carrying a family heirloom that is very important to him, has vanished in the nearby woods just to the North East, in an area called The Darkwood. He goes on to explain that the heirloom is a Dagger that has a Blue Dragon hilt (and blue stones for the dragon’s eyes). He explains that his family crest is the blue dragon, so the wagon has the Blue Dragon painting along the side (and despite the evil nature of Blue Dragons, he assures them he’s not evil – it’s merely symbolic for sky dragons).
• He explains the trek is about three days to the north (east), and while he explains that urgency is important to him (the longer the heirloom remains missing, the less of a chance he will ever see it again), he understands if the party needs to rest and gather a few items before such a perilous trek. The party gathers a few items before beginning the trek.
• On the first night, the party is attacked by goblins out in the prairie at night. During this battle, Litty manages to shoot himself in the foot with his own crossbow, but the party manages to take down the kobolds. The rest of the night goes without incident. The second day goes without incident, but at night, as they draw closer to the nearby mountains where the forest rests against; they can see something racing out of some low caverns, and before long are attacked by several goblins on worgs, who are out hunting for meat. Seeing the campfire, the goblins think they can get meat, and kill a few adventurers and return with gold, gems, and equipment. The goblins are cutting through the party, before Nesmera calls upon her goddess and casts Guiding Bolt which devastates the goblins and worgs, leaving only corpses in the bright after effect of the spell.
• The party finally reaches the Darkwood on the third day; and as soon as they enter they notice immediately, there is no sounds of wild life; no birds, no foxes, no wolves, not even bugs such as butterflies or mosquitoes. Traveling inside on the thin narrow path, it becomes evident how these woods got their name, as no light seems to pierce the top canopy of the woods. Litty even takes notice to sounds of scuttling high above; sounding like spiders. Using a torch for light, you all see that the entire top of the woods, and everything around this path is covered in thick, seemingly endless amounts of spider webs.
• Moving cautiously through the webbed woods, they come to a nearby village that once served as a resting stop in these woods, long, long, long before they were over run by the giant spiders that linger on the top. Tatanila uses some insight about the area and has a vision of giant spiders abducting people from the village, long, long ago – and has a vision of a humanoid spider leading them all. As they make their way through the small village’s graveyard, which has too many tombstones for such a small village (perhaps it was cursed long ago?) – four death dogs emerge from a building and attack the party. While they do a little damage to the party (whose already suffered wounds from the goblins the night before), they are easily defeated.
• Tatanila spots of the humanoid spider from his vision, on top of the webbed in. Nesmera attempts to cast sacred flame, but strikes the in and ignites it. The humanoid spider climbs into the webs and begins throwing daggers down. The party manages to kill the unusual creature; but not before, as it falls from the webs, it strikes them – and summons forth more giant spiders. Knowing they can’t defeat the spiders, the party opts to try and run through the village and lose the spiders.
• The spiders give pursuit, and manage to get a few of the party members, with a web, but not before another one of them cuts them free, and encourages them to run. The party moves as quickly as they can, pushing their bodies to their limits, and testing their constitution to the maximum. They do out run the spiders, and reach a river bank that cuts across the river, coming from the near by mountain. Tatanila uses his Monk insight – and gets a vision about a humanoid carrying the very dagger they’re looking for.
• Sludge spots humanoid tracks and begins following. Litty steps on a trap, set by the humanoid, and suffers such a grievous wound that he begins to bleed to death. Nesmera is able to bring him back from the brink of death and restore some of his health, with the aid of his goddess.
• Eventually they follow the tracks to the base of the mountain, where they discover a hidden lever that reveals a cavern beyond. Stepping inside, the cavern is littered with junk and trash – among them – wagon wheels, and a portion of a wagon with the blue dragon symbol.
• Traveling into the cavern deeper, the party found themselves near an infestation of bats. Recalling that Stirges also resided in this area, Nesmera and Sludge urged caution, and the party was able to try and sneak past the fluttering creatures, until Nesmera’s shield clanged against the wall in the darkness, and altered the creatures. Quickly running through, as quick as they could the party managed to escape the Stirges and bats.
• The smell of cooking meat emanates from deeper inside the cavern, where they see part of a horse carcass (the rest of it, cooking in a pot above a smouldering fire).  Inside the room, there sits a wererat on a throne made of bones and other useless items. He shouts a command and several oversized rats emerge from the trash and attack the party.The wererat – a human (once) named Sven Twosun was once the nearby village’s innkeeper who was infected by a wererat one night, before the spiders attacked. Through means unknown, he has not only managed to survive in the spider woods; but has had his life magically prolonged.
• He had been scouring through the woods, avoiding the spiders and their ilk when the wagon had entered the woods, in attempt to escape nearby brigands who had been chasing them (hoping that the stories about the Darkwood would keep the brigands at bay). They never intended to go far into the woods; just far enough to see if the brigands would give chase; which they did not. But it was far enough for the spiders to notice and capture and devour the wagon riders. The frightened horses bolted and managed to make it to the riverbed, where they drank water, before Sven led the horses to the waterfall, where he killed them, and opened the chest and found the dagger, along with an inscription. He threw the dagger at the horse (planning to eat it anyway) then muttered the runes; and found the blade returned to his hand.
• The party fought their way through the rats, and once Nesmera could get close enough, she called for her goddess to shine her light and judge Sven Twosun; and the devastating light that had killed so many goblins the night before, had found Sven to be wanting – and took his life to be judged by the gods. The party recovered the blade and returned it to the man at the Inn.