Session 7: The Last Serpent of Zareth-Ka

24th day of Sowing, 519 AE. (23-May-2026)

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In the days after the companions returned from Deadfall a number of rumours trickled into Thorneford about continued raiding and incursions by the Bloodmaw Horde orcs. During this time the Gilded Banner returned from their expedition westwards, their mounts and pack animals laden with coin. It also emerged that Justicar Velric of Thalar had convinced Lighbringer Blackthorn that the will of Thalar was that pagan temples and pagan worship should not be tolerated in towns led by Thalar's light.

But as the weather shifted from cold and snowy to warm and dry the greater concern around town was the fungus goblins. Their presence near town had noticeably increased in numbers, visibility and activity. Small objects had increasingly gone missing and the creatures seemed to be watching over all approaches to town. Ritualised activity centred on the hillock they had previously shown Lyra had become pronounced and the objects they placed there were now clearly placed in organised, geometric patterns. The fungus goblins' attachment to Lyra seemed to have intensified to the point of group separation anxiety whenever she left them, with some of the creatures holding her feet and begging "stay" while most openly wept at her departure. By the morning of Sowing 24th the creatures were subtly blocking her departure, but still allowing her to leave.

At this stage Lyra asked Altherion whether she should be concerned about the fungus goblins' behaviour.

"I would be concerned," came the retired wizard's reply.

Later that morning Alira, Dorcus, Jewel, Kratos and Lyra set out to complete their exploration of the Zareth-Ka tombs, taking with them the wagon, four soldiers and an ever-growing retinue of fungus goblins. Reaching the entrance around midday, the companions secured their gear and left the soldiers to set camp while they entered the tombs.

Following their hand-drawn map to the "throne room" of the fungus goblins, the adventurers encountered many of the small goblinoids who were ecstatic that their queen had returned to their domain. Making their way past the prostrate and gift-bearing creatures, the company pressed forward. Beyond the throne room our heroes discovered what seemed to be a storage area for the fungus goblins, followed by a low, narrow crawl-way leading into a dark space. Jewel navigated the crawl-way easily, finding herself in a space where fungi, rotting animal carcasses and strange, opaque sacks of fluid grew tangled with the walls and low ceiling. Cutting one open, Jewel narrowly avoided being drenched by the liquid spilling out. The only things within the sack's remains were a couple of small objects that seemed to be made of flesh.

Moving onwards the group passed through a rotating, cylindrical door trapped with a spear that struck if the cylinder was rotated the wrong way. Avoiding this they were able to collect two small golden bowls and move onwards.

Following this the companions found themselves in a short passage west of the great stone hall, where they fought the basilisk. Before them stood two doors—one a latticework of criss-crossing stone snakes, the other a sturdy but plain stone door. Examining the "snake door" they noticed that a single snake was missing and were unable to open the door. Trying the plain door, they found it open. Passing through that portal they entered a finely carved stone hall, lit by purple light and carved to represent a creature's gullet. Welcoming them was a dried husk of a creature—apparently the desiccated remains of one of the snake-folk. Yet the thing spoke! Greeting them with a simple "Hello, bipeds." After a brief discussion with the creature the companions left, rather than invoke its ire.

Navigating the many "statues" in the great stone hall, our heroes exited the eastern end of that space. Finding themselves in a cluster of intersecting chambers, the company searched what appeared to have been a small resting place for priests, along with what seemed to be an ancient antechamber to the great hall. This left them with a choice—eastwards through a foreboding passage, bearing an uncanny resemblance to a snake's throat, or southwards down a sloping stone passageway. After some discussion the company chose the southern passage.

At the end of the sloping passage the hallway opened into a room covered with five foot square tiles, where the tiles at the edge of the room were only one foot wide and a door occupied the opposite wall. A single floor tile was missing, showing only darkness beneath. Dorcus immediately stepped into the room, only to fall straight through the floor and narrowly miss the spikes below. After she recovered a couple of coins from an old human skeleton, her companions hauled her out using a rope. Finding that the tiles at the edge of the room were sturdy, the adventurers then worked their way around to open the door.

Through this door was another chamber, with only a one foot ledge around its perimeter and a smooth stone surface sloping down into a large flame whose source was unknown. A door centred in the southern wall appeared in good order and did not seem to have a lock. Making their way around this ledge too, our heroes discovered that the southern door did indeed open freely, leading into yet another room.

This square room had a door in the centre of each wall, a domed roof and the southern door featured a large steel lock. The companions immediately recognised this as the hallway outside the treasure room they had recently emptied. Thus they opted to open the eastern door, which they had not yet tried.

That door also opened smoothly, revealing a short passage ending in yet another door. This subsequent door opened to a rectangular room that was empty, other than a couple of sets of ancient manacles chained to the walls. Several of the group decided to search the room, with Kratos straying too close to one of the manacles. The ankle irons leapt from their place and snapped shut around his ankles! After some wrestling the group was able to force the metal restraints open, freeing Kratos. Finding nothing else of note in the room, the companions exited via its northern door.

This led them to the stem of a T intersection, with the eastern arm apparently leading to the ledge around the huge underground crevasse they had previously discovered. The team decided to head west and, after a short distance, the corridor opened into a square room. Another room with five foot floor tiles and an edging of tiles one foot wide. Suspicious of the room's resemblance to the previous room with a tiled floor, the companions took a moment to examine the floor. Spying a missing tile with darkness below, Jewel employed a pole to press floor tiles. The smaller tiles around the edge proved solid, however the five foot square tile nearest the door immediately collapsed when pressure was put upon it, revealing darkness and the gleam of iron spikes below. Carefully making their way around the perimeter of the chamber, the companions reached its only exit—an archway in the north wall.

Part way down the passageway beyond, the companions almost ran into a strange creature—a skeleton completely enveloped in some kind of acidic jelly. The thing struck Dorcus, its touch causing a painful burn on the half-orc's arm. As our heroes rushed to defend against the creature, they quickly realised that none of their attacks seemed to inflict any discernible damage to the thing. In a moment of inspiration they decided to lure the thing back to the room with the loose tile floors, hoping to trap it within the pit beneath that space. For once their tactics unfolded as planned and the thing found itself trapped below the room's floor.

Pressing onwards, the team approached yet another T intersection. Exploring to the east, they found what appeared to be the remnants of some kind of ceremonial room containing stone benches and a fountain that had long been dry. This chamber had a single stone door on its eastern wall, however this seemed to be firmly barred from the outside. Thus they pushed westwards.

After marching up a sloping flight of stone steps, the passageway opened into a square room with three exits, an archway to the north, a passage to the west and a stone door to the south. The southern door was flanked by two petrified Zareth-Ka warriors in positions of guard. The northern arch led into a shrine containing a cobra-headed idol and the western passageway appeared to be the opposite end of the corridor resembling a snake's throat they had previously avoided. Investigating the idol, Kratos realised that the ancient stone statue was atop some kind of pivot and could rotate clockwise or counterclockwise. Rotating it clockwise caused hundreds of the golden Zareth-Ka coins to spill out of two holes beneath the idol, several of the coins rolled into the western passage—resulting in the zing of blades from along the length of that walkway! After collecting the coins, Kratos then attempted to rotate the statue the opposite direction—releasing a noxious poison gas which the companions barely managed to avoid inhaling.

Next, turning their attention to the southern door, the companions found it unlocked and it swung open easily. Beyond lay a tangled wall of broken shields, branches and other junk. After taking some time to clear the mess away, the companions discovered that the chamber beyond was in fact a long U-shaped space. Spreading out to explore, Lyra and Kratos found an altar upon which stood two golden bowls, a wavy stone snake and a glittering snake-themed dagger, similar to the mace and sword the team had previously discovered. Meanwhile at the opposite end of the chamber, Dorcus happened upon a handsome young male half-orc who was apparently manacled to the wall. Hailing the barbarian with clear relief, the young man begged her to free him. Dorcus stepped forward and as she did so the leg iron upon the man's ankle popped open and fell to the floor. Expressing his gratitude, the young male told Dorcus how beautiful she was. At this the barbarian moved in to kiss him. After a short embrace Dorcus dropped to the floor, weakened almost to the point of death. Springing bat-like wings from his shoulders and small horns upon his head, the young male took his leave, apologising profusely. "You really are so very pretty, my love. But I have urgent matters requiring my attention."

After Dorcus had swallowed down a healing potion and received ministrations by Alira, the company pressed on. Believing the stone snake they had found might fit the door they had found earlier, the group took a roundabout route back to that place. And surely enough, the grey stone snake fit in place. With a gentle push, the stone serpents wriggled away into the doorframe, leaving the entrance clear. Beyond, the companions discovered a room of red and gold stone, occupied by mirrors and a great raised throne. Kratos determined to sit upon the throne, experiencing lofty visions of conquest and lordship. His reverie was interrupted by Jewel's discovery of a passage in the northern wall concealed by a rotting wall hanging.

This hidden ingress led them into what was apparently a storage area filled with boxes, crates and barrels, along with six bronze lids atop pits in the floor. Within these pits were huddled a dozen fungus goblins, which Lyra and several others released. As they were freeing the miserable goblinoids, Jewel and Kratos searched the place for valuables, with Jewel finding a small glass vial holding three ancient-looking seeds. Learning that the exit passage led to the place they had interacted with the desiccated Zareth-Ka wizard, the companions chose instead to open the door in that space's eastern wall. Beyond that portal they encountered the same ancient Snake-man, who seemed quite annoyed at the disruption. After some brief negotiation, the serpent-man demanded that the group leave his chambers. Dorcus moved to attack, however the desiccated thing snapped its fingers and she froze, unable to move. As the others made moves towards violence, the creature cast a spell that caused everyone except Jewel to fall asleep. The thing then instructed Jewel to remove her companions from his abode. Obeying the creature, but leaving Kratos until last, the cunning halfling quickly pulled the basilisk head from Kratos' pack and held it up to the ancient monstrosity. The creature simply observed that the basilisk had been dead a rather long time. Its eyes had clouded over and no longer possessed the power to petrify.

Deciding they had pushed their luck far enough, the adventurers withdrew, regrouped and moved back to the eastward-most part of the subterranean passages. Linking up the last of the corridors, the companions realised their maps were now complete.

Returning to their wagon and guards, they found all well and, after an uneventful night, returned to Thorneford.

Summary

Since Last Session

• Rumours spread of renewed Bloodmaw Horde raids and incursions.
• The Gilded Banner returned from the west laden with treasure.
• Justicar Velric convinced Lighbringer Blackthorn to suppress pagan worship in Thorneford.
• Fungus goblin activity around town increased dramatically: thefts, surveillance, ritual activity and growing devotion to Lyra.
• Fungus goblins became increasingly distressed whenever Lyra left them.
• Altherion advised Lyra that their behaviour was cause for concern.

During Play

• The party returned to the Zareth-Ka tombs with soldiers, wagon and a growing fungus goblin entourage.
• Explored previously unmapped sections of the tombs and discovered fungus goblin breeding/storage chambers.
• Met an ancient desiccated snake-man wizard who greeted them with "Hello, bipeds."
• Navigated multiple traps, including collapsing floors, a fire pit, animated manacles and a trapped idol.
• Trapped an apparently indestructible jelly-covered skeleton in a spike pit.
• Looted Zareth-Ka treasure, including golden bowls, a stone snake key and a snake-themed dagger.
• Dorcus was nearly drained to death by a disguised fiend posing as a captive half-orc.
• Opened the snake door and discovered a throne chamber with hidden passages.
• Freed a dozen imprisoned fungus goblins and recovered three ancient seeds.
• Confronted the snake-man again and were effortlessly subdued by his magic.
• Completed exploration and mapping of the Zareth-Ka tombs.
• Returned safely to Thorneford.

EXTRA: Visitor’s Guide to Thorneford

By the time you find a suitable inn and secure your possessions you have developed a functional mental map of the town—refer to the detailed town map on the reverse side of the map parchment accompanying this guide.

1. Castle Thorneford. The entrance to the outer grounds of the castle.
2. The Light Of Thalar church. Situated just within the castle walls, this whitewashed stone building calls those faithful to the barony’s official religion to worship.
3. Stockyards. These large stockyards and holding pens serve the bustling seasonal trade of regional livestock.
4. Hallowell’s masonry. Stone-cutting yard run by a master mason. Primarily working in the castle and town walls, also supplies dressed stone and services.
5. Dunlow’s carpentry. Busy workshop and lumberyard run by the town’s carpenter. Sells construction timber, services and rudimentary furniture.
6. Oathspan bridge. An ancient stone bridge straddling the Ashwater. The traditional site of binding oaths, rumored to be enchanted with defensive magic.
7. Gatehouse. Squat stone portals enabling secure access to the town from the east and the west.
8. Fendrel’s Boats. Local boatwright providing construction, repair and maintenance of watercraft.
9. River’s Rest Inn. Premium accommodation and dining, catering to the successful merchant and wealthy visitor.
10. Gennard’s Goods. General merchant and outfitter, specializing in the essentials of homesteading and wilderness survival.
11. Shrine of the Gods. A small temple to the Thousandfold Host, where holy water, blessings and sanctuary may be found.
12. Carter Aylen. Wheel-wright and timber-smith who constructs, repairs and hires frontier vehicles.
13. The Drunken Goose. A cheap and seedy alehouse frequented by laborers and riverhands.
14. Ironwright’s Smithy. Blacksmith who supplies the area with tools, hardware, ironmongery and more.
15. Town Square. The beating heart of the local community. Official decrees, public judgements, markets, the occasional execution and so much more can be found here.
16. Millen’s Herbs. Local herbalist and healer selling medicinal plants, poultices, remedies and wild tonics.
17. The Scriptorium. Residence and study of the town scribe and sage, offering translation, lore and literacy services.
18. The Copper Scales. This bustling mercantile welcomes barter and offers a wide variety of domestic wares and household goods.
19. The Silken Measure. A meticulous tailor and canvas-man who provides fine clothing, sails, haberdashery, tents and other custom goods.
20. Map’s End Inn. Bustling with sellswords and adventurers of all fortunes, this establishment is famous for the massive regional map scrawled on its wall by generations of patrons.
21. Selyne’s Leathergoods. Master hide-smith, supplying the town with reliable boots, belts, harnesses and other leather items.
22. Borough Stables. Roomy livery and tack, where mounts can be safely boarded and fed for a daily fee.
23. Greave’s Stock & Feed. A practical stockyard run by a weathered hand, supplying the area with animal feed, oats and livestock.
24. Food Stores. A heavily fortified and guarded long-term store for food and civic security.
25. Watchtowers. Tall, sturdy stone towers, manned by guards at all times.
26. Garrison quarters. Barracks and offices for the town guards.
27. Docks. Busy wooden piers stretch into the Ashwater, enabling offloading of ships by tender and other daily activities by riverfolk.
28. Watermill. A large stone sits upriver from Thornford, providing free milling for those with a food allotment and commercial milling for others.
29. Tannery. The secure compound of the tannery is a short walk upriver from the Watermill, processing commercial quantities of hides.

EXTRA: A Scout’s Guide to the Barony

By studying the extensive patchwork map of the region that spans the entire end-wall of the Map's End Inn, you can easily visualize the broad features of the barony and its surrounds—refer to the map parchment accompanying this guide. Furthermore, during your stay in Thorneford, you have pieced together various rumors and fragments of information regarding the region. But be warned! Such intelligence is by its very nature incomplete, second-hand, and prone to minor error.

Thorneford

The military and trade heart of the barony; the heavily walled frontier town and castle guard the place where the Ashwater empties into the sea. It stands as the westernmost point of civilization in Caerwyn and is the hub of all commerce, contracts and information in the area.

Ashwater River

Originating in mountains hundreds of miles to the south, the Ashwater is the principal waterway feeding the Mistmere lake, before spilling out of that great freshwater body and finding its way to the sea. With Thorneford sitting on the eastern bank of its mouth, the Ashwater is a clear territorial boundary—settled lands to the east, wild lands to the west. Wide, swift and deep, the Ashwater only freezes over in the very coldest parts of winter.

Stormridge Plains

Rolling for hundreds of miles west of the Ashwater, the Stormridge Plains are a veritable sea of windswept grassland. Much of its length is split by a great shelf of crumbling limestone cliffs, which seem to act as a magnet for storms much of the year. Largely untamed and open, it acts as a natural highway for nomadic herders, wild beasts and those daring to strike out towards the distant western mountains.

Briarback

The dense conifers of the Briarback sit in a natural pocket behind the limestone divide that splits the Stormridge Plains. Often dense and frequently overgrown with briars, blackberries, blackthorn and other similar bushes. This dense, tangled and changeable undergrowth provides excellent cover for outlaws, predators and secrets buried long before the barony was established.

Runebrook Vale

The small, mountain-fed Runebrook river winds its way out of the western mountains, through a low-lying river valley before winding along the northern edge of the Wyrdwood and emptying into the Mistmere, after making its way though the Mismarsh. The rich river, loamy soil of the valley is pocked occasionally with the ruins of failed farmsteads.

Mirewood

This vast coastal swamp borders on the Gulf of Bones along the western coast of Caerwyn. It is a brackish, tide-fed wilderness where fresh water and sea water mingle freely beneath a dense canopy of black mud, twisted roots, shallow pools and winding tidal channels. Most local folk stick strictly to the fringes, although some daring souls are known to make a living deeper within its flooded groves. Some hardy souls ancient crumbling stone ruins upon sandy islets amidst its depths.

Gulf of Bones

This cold, treacherous body of water is lined with jagged, rocky coastlines and connects Thorneford to the rest of the world. Rarely freezing over, the gulf provides shelter from the worst of the winter storms that blow out of the deep north. Its uninviting coast has a long history of grim tales, maritime raiders, hidden coves… and occasional predation from things that come from beneath the sea.

Hollowcrest Flats

This series of broad, flat lowland valleys push into the rugged Hollowcrest Hills from the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bones. In many cases they form natural highways for travellers looking to bypass the craggy heights. However, dead ends, blind canyons and raiding monsters are significant risks. Few navigate these detours without an experienced guide.

Hollowcrest Hills

This series of windswept crags run north from the great southern mountain, along a spine of bedrock that was disrupted aeons ago. Its uppermost parts devoid of all but the hardiest of plant life, the lower slopes are green with lush, dense forest, which spills out to the adjacent plains. Empty of major settlements, its heights are home to ancient mines, crumbling watchtowers and monstrous raiders.

Mistmere Plains

These low-lying, gentle grasslands flank the eastern shore of the great Mistmere. In seasons of especially heavy rainfall of mountain run-off these form a morass of floodplains. When dry they offer easy travel and good graze, yet settlements are few and far between, with flash flooding always posing some risk.

Mistmere

This massive, deep freshwater lake dominates the central landscape of Caerwyn. Fed by three significant rivers, including the mighty Ashwater, it swells seasonally from half a dozen lesser tributaries. Frequently blanketed in mists that last until midday, local legend maintains that its massive volume of water has no bottom. Once host to a number of mighty bastions and towns, today its coasts host only a small number of fishing villages and cabins.

Mistmarsh

This large freshwater swamp occupies the western coast of the Mistmere. Its surface is normally covered in mist, concealing treacherous bogs, stagnant ponds and secretive, scaled denizens.

Wyrdwood

This sprawling and brooding deciduous forest seemingly rises up out of the Mistmere and occupies much of the space between the Mistmere and the southwestern mountains. Varying from impenetrably dense to lightly forested, its greatest consistency is its long history of rumor. It is said that old pacts hold here and non-human powers stir beneath its canopy. Most consider it a place of danger connected directly to the fae realm.

Session 6: The Deadfall Entanglement

11th day of Sowing, 519 AE. (9-May-2026)

The days following the second expedition into the Zareth-Ka tomb were mostly warm, turning cooler with the odd patch of snow after several days. This was a strange time for the folk of Thorneford. Each day saw the town gates approached by the small lumpy-headed bipeds that had crowned Lyra queen. At first they were chased away, then driven off with several killed and even an entire group massacred, with all the bodies hanged from the town walls. Still the creatures returned, seeming determined to complete some business in or with the town. Around this time odd small objects started going missing from the crop areas outside the town walls. On the 9th day of the Sowing, Myrthall Fenhall, Castle Thorneford's resident wizard, waited with the town guards as the creatures approached. After speaking with them for some time, the wizard entered the town and sought out his associate Althirion Quell and the wizard's friend Lyra. This was how Lyra learnt that the small bipeds were the result of magical hybridisation of goblins with some kind of fungus and that they spoke a dialect of the goblin language. Accompanied by Althirion, who spoke goblin, Lyra went to talk with the creatures at the town gate. Learning of their need to spend time with their queen each day, Lyra agreed to come and meet with them at a suitable distance from the town walls — on the other side of the Ashwater river. The following day the fungus goblins proudly showed Lyra an area they had been preparing on a small hill not far from the town's fields. Numerous of the creatures were waiting for her approach, prostrating themselves before her and offering her small gifts of food.

With Jewel and Kratos unavailable, the remaining members of Adventures Incorporated! were unwilling to explore reports of fighting at the old fortress upstream of the Ashwater river. Instead, they chose to investigate rumours of trouble at the logging hamlet of Deadfall northeast of town, more than a day's travel by wagon. Joined by several fungus goblin "guards", the journey proved uneventful, with a restful overnight stop in the remains of an old wooden fortress where only the defensive trench remained.

Our heroes arrived at the hamlet of Deadfall just before midday on the 12th day of Sowing. They found a small, muddy hamlet of a dozen wooden buildings clustered within a log palisade perimeter. Most travellers and workers seemed to be using their own shelters — typically tents. Thus, the companions set up camp within the hamlet's boundaries and started asking questions of Deadfall's folk, quickly learning that the man in charge of the hamlet was named Edrin Rook. Finding Edrin without difficulty, the man wasted no time in telling them of his woes. He confirmed that logging had stopped, with crews being unwilling to enter the tree line. But a greater concern to him was that his wife Naerie and their son Roderick had gone missing. This had taken place when the pair had gone to gather ingredients for a special salve Naerie made to prevent timber rot. Describing the location as "a few miles east along the river, where the trees are only a few hundred yards away from the south bank," the heroes set out to investigate. Only to discover that the place was in fact well over 10 miles away. Realizing they would not reach these trees before dark, the group returned instead to town, planning to set out and investigate first thing in the morning.

Resuming their plans the next day, the company journeyed east along the small waterway to the place where the forest approached within several hundred yards of the southern riverbank. Finding a large log, apparently used as a bridge, they crossed the waterway and entered the tree line. After several hours of searching, they located a dirty, ripped red linen scarf, a place where signs of a struggle were clear, a wicker basket full of mushrooms, and a child's wooden sword with "Roderick" carved into the blade. With further searching, our heroes found the tracks of small creatures, some walking in small boots and others apparently on paws. Tracking these prints to another section of woods nearby, the group realised they were short on time and headed back to Deadfall. Before sunset, the companions were able to confirm with Edrin that the objects they had recovered from the woods belonged to his wife and child.

With the fungus goblins barred from staying within the town, the creatures camped out under the stars just outside town. However, during the night there were hideous screams and cries.

Morning's light revealed the goblinoid troupe one member short and Lyra's loyal little followers mimed something winged and vicious as the culprit. Yet a short time later a very familiar-looking fungus goblin carrying a pointed stick arrived. Along with several others, most of whom went their own way after prostrating themselves before Lyra and offering her gifts. Returning to the trail they had found the previous day, the group was able to follow the tracks up a creek to a clearing where several cave and mine entrances were apparent. Here they spied a pair of small schnauzer-headed, grey-furred bipeds guarding the area. Choosing to engage the creatures directly, several of our heroes engaged in the gambling game they were playing. This broke off when the creatures lost the game. As the creatures retreated into one of the mine entrances, Dimrock called to them and one remained to watch and parlay. Soon several more of the bipedal canines came to the clearing. Asking questions about Naerie and Roderick, AI! was able to negotiate a possible truce and return of the hostages, promising to come back the following day with an answer. On the return to Deadfall, the company was chased by a pack of wolves, but evaded them via spell and sword. Back at Deadfall, the group learnt that Edrin had limited authority to make such an agreement and even less authority to enforce it, but was ready to agree to it with the limited authority he had. Edrin had two copies of the agreement prepared and signed them both.

The company chose to spend the night outside the hamlet gates in hopes of catching whatever had killed one of the fungus goblins. Using one of the lumpy-headed goblinoids as bait, the main body of the group kept watch from nearby. In the last hour of the night before dawn, a great winged creature swooped down and bore the unfortunate fungus goblin away, screaming until the winged creature ripped it apart. The flying monster had the naked upper body of a woman and the lower body and wings of a great eagle.

Taking the signed agreement papers back to the clearing where the canine humanoids lived, the companions were able to get them both marked by the leader of the canine group. Leaving one of the copies with them, the heroes escorted Naerie and Roderick back to Deadfall. That night, after a tearful reunion, much merriment was had with many folks, including Edrin, buying the companions food and drink.

Late the following morning, the band of heroes started their journey back to Thorneford. Stopping to camp overnight at the location of the old fort again, the company found that a band of hunters were now using the place as a base of operations. These folk proved friendly and willing to share their space and the night passed without incident.

Setting out early the next day, the company travelled several hours before reaching a small stone bridge over the river to their south, finding their way blocked by a 12-foot humanoid who demanded a toll for each person who wished to cross. Dorcus immediately charged the giant, with her companions joining in immediately. After a brief but intense battle the creature lay dead, the log it had wielded as a club lying at its side. Discovering a large sack full of coin, primarily silver, the band continued their journey. In the late afternoon they reached Thorneford without further incident.