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• Aros – Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue
• Galiena Erenaeth – Half Elf, Celestial Warlock / Druid
• Baldur – Human, Pack Chain Warlock (Spear)
  • Hellina – Human NPC, Wererat
• Wickedstraza – Dragonborn (Bronze), Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline) – Not present

The party gets up in the morning, near after Lake Kelnor after the mangy black bear attack. Baldur and Aros say they will climb some of the trees and see if they can find any nests with eggs while Galiena looks around for potatoes since they’re common on Eagle Rock, and Hellina tends to the campfire.

Baldur and Aros are able to scale two trees; where Baldur finds one egg, while Aros finds two. Aros does a nice acrobatic leap from the tree, while next to him, watching Baldur step on a branch on the way down that gives – sending Baldur plummeting gently to the forest floor below. Aros checks on Baldur and asks, “Did you find any eggs?” Baldur holds up his his pouch where the egg he had found was broken. “I guess we can still use it.”

Aros and Baldur return and see Galiena still looking for potatoes and call her back. “We can just stick to eggs,” Aros says as he breaks his two eggs into the frying pan and Baldur lets his seep out from the pouch. Aros begins to scramble the eggs together, so that it can be split evenly between the four of them. Aros offers to make breakfast, but doesn’t cook the eggs and slices of dried bacon very well – but no one complains, as they sit in the chilly, foggy morning; until after breakfast where Baldur says, “I thought your kind were experts at breakfast.”

Aros grumbles, “We are. But maybe if we didn’t have a smashed egg from your dirty pouch.”

Baldur thinks about it, “Well, that’s a good point.”

The party decides to make their way around the left side of Lake Kelnor.

As the party proceeds to go along the left side of the lake, the party hears something trailing them in the shrubbery – however, they’re not able to determine what it might be (horrible Perception checks). Hellina tugs at Baldur’s sleeve and whispers, “I believe there are kobold trailing us. There was a time – before the swamp became dark – that the swamps were safe. Then when something came – depending on the stories – kobolds came here.”

“Maybe they’re out for second breakfast as well,” Baldur shrugs, pointing to Aros. “I assume all little people eat twice as much in an attempt to grow taller.”

Aros puts his foot down, “Hey! No height jokes!”

Hellina sighs and continues to explain, “Depends on who you list to – most claim that a Black Dragon moved into these swamps – and that’s what tainted the swamps and brought the kobolds here in mass.”

Baldur halts. “A black dragon? But dragons are extremely rare. And you’re saying there might be on here? In the swamp we’re headed for?”

“That doesn’t make me feel comfortable,” Aros mutters beneath his breath.

Galiena adds, “Most stories come from some form of truth.”

“Maybe it’s a Dragonborn,” Baldur shrugs. “They’re bigger than Kobolds.”

Baldur decides to use Minor Illusion to create a Black Dragon – or at least from what he imagines a Black Dragon might look like. Baldur then guides it towards where the Kobolds are, and three Kobolds emerge from the bushes looking confused. “Hey!” one barks in rough common, “What have you done to Coal The Black?”

“Coal, you say,” Baldur turns to the others. “Yes, well I am a great and powerful wizard who has shrunk him down from his terrible size and silenced him from casting spells! He’s under my control!”

“You have to give Coal back! Coal rewards us! Keeps the land swampy!” one of the Kobolds, named Kril, explains. “We were gathering whistling leaf for Coal!”

“Whistling leaf,” Galiena asks. “Why does Coal need Whistling Leaf?”

“He eats it,” Kril explains, shoving the other two kobolds – Dur and Foom behind him. “And he also makes sure you people don’t come into swamp looking for it. Coal knows it’s for healing potions. Potions town sells to heroes who might want to come and fight Coal. Not that Coal is afraid – he’s eaten others who came into the swamp. He just makes us collect their things and bring it to his nest in the swamp.”

“We use the weapons,” Kril explains, “from dead heroes to fight the animals who come into the swamp. They eat plants. Get sick. You saw one. Bear, from what one of the scouts said. Watched sick bear attack your tents.”

“So the animals become sick from eating the plants in the swamp?” Galiena asks.

“Yes,” Kril nods. “Fog came… made plants come alive… we always have to come out, steal sheep from farms for ourselves. Coal sometimes goes and hunts for horse or cows on farms to eat.”

Galiena asks, “Can you take us to where the Whistling Leaf is? We’ve never seen it before.”

Kril reaches into pouch and pulls out a leaf that whistles in the gentle breeze.

“Will you take us to where the Whistling Leaf is? Maybe we can help you get more for Coal, after my companion Baldur releases him,” Galiena winks to Baldur and Aros.

“Sure,” Kril replies, looking back and Dur and Foom. Aros, however catches Kril making a gesture and has a distinct feeling the Kobolds may be taking them into a trap.

“One moment,” Aros smiles. “There was something I wanted to check with my companions.” Aros huddles Galiena and Baldur around and whispers, “There’s something,” that’s when he notices Kril edging closer. Aros looks to his companions, then to Kril and says, “Let me show you a magic trick.”

Kril approaches as Aros takes a gold coin in his hand and makes it disappear (Performance + Slight of Hand success). “Now,” Aros says, as he walks up to Kril and “pulls it out of Kril’s ear” (Performance + Slight Of Hand success). Kril’s astonished at the idea that there’s gold in his ear and calls to Dun and Foom to help him get the rest out. While they’re distracted Aros whispers to his companion, “I think they’re leading us intro a trap. The leader one,” Aros looks over his shoulder as Kril is yelling at his companions that there must be more in there, continues, “he made some kind of gesture and the other two smiled.”

Baldur looks to the kobolds, “Do you know where the blights are?”

With Kril too preoccupied with getting the coin out of his ear, Dur clears his throat and answers, “All over inside. It’s what makes animals sick.”

“Floating eyes?” Baldur asks.

“Yes,” Dur replies, ignoring Kril’s demands of helping get more coins out.

“What about Fairy Dragons?” Galiena asks.

Kril suddenly stops rapping the side of his head and looks at the party. “Wait. What you know about Fairy Dragons?”

“Is Coal’s girlfriend the Fairy Dragon?” Baldur asks.

Kril shakes his head, “No! Coal not know about Fairy Dragon. We keep Fairy Dragon for ourselves.”

Galiena raises an eye brow, “Oh? What do you keep it for?”

Kril pauses, “How do I say this… Chief Boondah keep Fairy Dragon because he force Fairy Dragon to breath in his face.”

Galiena recalls from her own research how Fairy Dragon have a breath that can causes states of euphoria.

“Chief selfish,” Kril sighs.

“Oh, so he doesn’t share? Wouldn’t it be great if you had a Chief who shared?” Baldur asks.

“We could help you,” Galiena adds, realizing what Baldur is eluding to.

“We could make one of you chief,” Baldur adds.

“That seems like good idea,” Kril thinks about it. “Chief Kril. I like it.” He looks to Dur and Foom and says, “Cancel trap. We have new plan.”

Baldur looks at Kril, “So how do we make this work… um, Chief Kril.”

“What about, we bring the three of you to Chief – say we caught you in swamp. We tie you up – but loose like. Chief will want to know what you doing in swamp. Will bring you to his hut to ask questions. So he can have answers for Coal. You kill Chief in hut, we keep door closed, you make escape, we pretend to shoot arrows at you. You escape. Kril becomes Chief,” Kril explains.

“You’ve given this some thought,” Baldur whispers.

“Every time we catch heroes in swamp,” Kril admits.

Galiena nods, “Sounds like we have Plan A.”

“Plan K,” Baldur corrects, “for Plan Kril.”

“And I can assassinate the Chief,” Aros nods.

“That’s Plan A,” Kril nods, “for Plan Assassinate.”

“We could poison him,” Aros adds.

“No,” Kril shakes his head. “Chief Boondah has his own cook. Miserable woman Kobold named Chellah who cooks and tastes Chief Boondah for him.”

“So plan K2,” Baldur thinks it through. “Part 2 of Plan Kril. You take us in while Aros stays hidden and assassinates the Chief.”

“Ok,” Kril nods. “Which one of your is Arrows?”

“Him,” Baldur points to Aros.

“Why they call you Arrows?” Kril asks.

“It’s Aros,” the halfling corrects.

“Yes, I said Arrows,” Kril retorts.

“You’re putting the emphasis in the wrong place – air-ooos,” Aros tries to annunciate.

“Yeah, Arrows. I know what arrows are. I have them on back. Why they call you arrows if you don’t have bow and arrows?”

Baldur whispers, “Just tell him your name is Arrows.”

“Well,” Aros sighs, “I go by Arrows – but I lost mine when our ship crashed.”

“Oh,” Kril nods. “That make sense.”

As the Kobolds escort the party into the swamp, Baldur and Galiena are overcome with fear (while Aros seems fine; as a Halfling they’re resistant to being frightened). Baldur looks at Kril, “I feel weird in here. What’s that, Kril?”

“That from Coal,” Kril answers. “You get used to it after awhile.”

As the party moves through the swamp, Aros and Galiena are able to acquire some Whistling Leaf, however, Baldur keeps ripping the ones he tries to get in half (Nature checks).

The party eventually arrives at a small kobold swamp village. Galiena, Hellina and Baldur, with their hands loosely tied are taken to the Chief, while Aros remains in the swamp and heads towards the Chief’s cabin.

Baldur, Hellina and Galiena, with their hands (loosely tied) are escorted to the Chief’s cabin – where an overweight Kobold, covered in warts, his eyes glazed over, looks at the prisoners. “What meaning of this?”

Kril bows, “Captured two in swamp. Said they were here to kill Coal. Said knew secret. Me stay and listen to secret?”

“No!” Chief Boondah takes several efforts to stand from his bail of hay that passes for a bed. Kril nods and closes the door behind him.

“Hello great and powerful Chief,” Baldur begins. “We’ve heard many great things about you. All of the best things about you. And I come here with a proposition to make you more powerful than Coal himself.”

While Baldur speaks with Chief Boondah, Hellina moves to block the Chief’s view of Galiena as she moves to the window and unlatches it, which allows Aros to stealthfully climb in. Galiena also notices a Fairy Dragon trapped in a cage. Baldur sees Aros slide into the shadows and slowly move behind Chief Boondah – and Baldur raises his voice, “So much power! MORE than you can ever imagine!” And at that moment, Aros grabs Chief Boondah, covering his mouth with one hand, while shoving his dagger directly into the ear of Chief – killing him instantly!

“I can’t leave the Fairy Dragon here,” Galiena says.

“What?” Baldur spins and turns on her. “That wasn’t a part of any of the plans.”

“Plans change,” Galiena rebukes. “I’m freeing the Fairy Dragon.”

Baldur takes a deep breath. “Okay. New plan. I will Minor Illusion a Fairy Dragon in the cage, and we make our escape out the window.”

Galiena grabs the exhausted Fairy Dragon who curls into her hair as they climb out the back window. Kril eventually opens the door – and as expected – sees the Chief dead – but none of the heroes – he looks – and sees a Fairy Dragon (the illusion lasting up to 30 feet) – and looks out the window and sees them escaping – but doesn’t see the Fairy Dragon who has made itself turn invisible in Galiena’s hair, and he smiles. “They killed the great chief!” he shouts the alarm. Arrows fly, spears fly, one accidentally hits Baldur for trivial damage – but none of the kobolds give chase. When Kril goes into the hut and makes himself the new chief he looks at the cage and no longer sees the Fairy Dragon – and assumes it’s still there – and turned itself invisible, just as it’s done in the past.

After a moment, the party comes to a pause, tending to Baldur’s wound. “Well, that went better than I thought,” Baldur smiles, “despite the arrow to the shoulder.” Hellina tends to him. “So we have Whistling Leaf, and well, an entire Fairy Dragon. Now we just need the floating eye and the blight things and the muddy monsters.”

“I found something over here,” Aros points out. “Looks like something dragged through the mud – and it’s definitely blights. There’s smaller ones that veer to the left and the larger one is to the right. Everything looks… weird – the plants are black. Definitely the blights.”

“Let’s go for the larger one,” Baldur suggests. “Because we only need one.”

The party tracks down a Vine Blight moving through the swamp, and launches an attack – and defeats the Vine Blight fairly easily. The party throws the Vine Blight’s parts into their backpacks and continue moving through the swamp. They see a floating eye (Gas Spore) floating through the swamp – and Baldur casts Toll the Dead while Galiena fires an arrow – both strike – and with that – the floating eye explodes and shoots mist in a radius around it; the liquid hitting the swamp bubbles. The party moves to the edge and scoops a portion of it into a container.

Things seem to be going well with the party –

A shiver of fear grips Galiena and she turns to the Fairy Dragon, “Do you feel that, Dearbhán?”

The Fairy Dragon telepathically communicates with Galiena informing her, “That is Kyzotal, but the Kobolds call him Coal.“

It’s not until the party reaches two Mud Mephits – that they have an issue sitting in a bubbling pool of mud.

The Mud Mephits not only manage to restrain Baldur in the mud, for almost the entire fight – but when one of them was killed – the explosion further restraints Baldur’s attempts from getting up. The party does eventually kill both of them, and by the time they’re doing, they’re all decorated in mud, especially Baldur and Hellina, who was swinging her kitchen knife weapon repeatedly at the mud creatures, trying to free Baldur. And by the time that battle was over, Baldur was worse for the wear. Baldur scoops the Mud Mephit essence off of his body and scoops it into a container.

The party safely – and eventually – makes their way back to Felhorn, exhausted they head directly to Razathorn’s home, hoping Relgar is there. The party hands him the components that they gathered to Relgar, without explaining since they’re still covered in mud. “Um,” Relar smiles, “Thank you. I will, um, get started on this right now. Come back tomorrow.”

The party then returns to Lady Falsour and deliver the Whistling Leaf to her, and mention they will be by in the morning.

The party then all return to their room – eager to be clean.

TO BE CONTINUED.