Mission: The Northern Woods Pt. III: A Path to Peace

A message from the cannibal tribe bid the party to travel once more into the cannibal wood in order to seek a path to peace with the scheming chief. They discovered the town had been framed yet again-- a series of murders had been commited, and the dead buried in a grave meant to mimic those found in Farhaven. From there, the party met with their contacts, obtained copious amounts of black powder, and were charged with destroying some cannons the chief intended to use in a bid to gain power. The party accepted, fought their way through the ancient phantasms guarding an ancient ship, and ultimately communed with the memories of the spirits and realized destroying the cannons would be blasphemy. They party attempted to hide the cannons, but were discovered transporting the cannons by a group of the elders.

## The Northern Woods Pt. III: A Path to Peace? (by Rheinhart)

Lionhearted Loggas, Acrobatic Akame, Dynamic Dando, Dauntless Darwin, and I met up and reviewed the message we had received from the cannibals in the woods. It purported seeking a path to peace with the scheming chieftain who very likely murdered the prior chief and is now blaming us for it. The message implored us to meet secretly in a certain part of the woods to discuss how such a peace could be brokered.

While the journey to the forest was uneventful, we kept vigilant while traversing through the cannibal tribe territories. About half way to the rendezvous, we heard wailing and crying and decided to investigate.  Some members of the Fire Stick tribe were grieving for some murdered tribesman who had been hung and also buried in shallow graves with headstones similar to what Farhaven uses. Dando and I both know this is NOT how they handle their fallen and we were quickly blamed for said travesty. Looks like the lies this current chieftain is spreading also involves actively framing us for murder and sacrilege.

Slaughtering the grieving Fire Stick tribe members over a misunderstanding seemed to me to embolden whatever lies this new chief is telling, so I implored with them to hear us out and explain this was not our doing and they were being deceived. They started to attack us, but I kept trying to parlay with them, going so far as to cut down those who were hanged and to heal the tribesmen I nearly fatally wounded in the midst of the skirmish. They finally understood and believed me, but due to honor, they couldn’t just stop attacking us. However, the deadly intent from when the combat first ensued became more ritualistic combat. That doesn’t mean they took it easy on us or we on them, as a few broken bones will attest. Their honor, however, was kept intact, no one died from injuries, and we managed to combat the lies being spread about us. There’s hope for peace, yet!

At the clearing where we were to meet our contacts from the message to seek a way towards peace, they had obtained a large sack and barrel of “black powder” which is some alchemical formula for creating big booms whenever fire or heat of some kind is applied. We were supposed to take this stuff and find some ancient artifacts from their homeland called “cannon” and use it to destroy the artifacts. They explained that the chief bad mouthing us in order to unite the tribes under his leadership by way of common enemies was planning to use the cannons in a showmans bid for power. If we robbed him of the objects of his display, we could thwart his plans to unite all the tribes under his leadership. Something neither these folk meeting with us, nor anyone at Farhaven wants.

We accepted their plan along with their logic and they spent the night camping with us as they discussed how to use the powder, how \_not\_ to use the powder, where to find these cannon things and a bit about each other’s culture.  Darwin suggested we take the cannons rather than destroy them, which our compatriots wholeheartedly agreed to, although they seemed to argue about that before agreeing to it. The night was disturbed by another visit from that gott-forsaken ghoul that has plagued Dando and I since the very beginning! However, he was little more than a blob with a foul mouth and easily dispatched. Dando must have been half asleep because he then tossed that blob into the campfire!  That foul stench was abhorrent! Everyone had to move upwind of it. I pointed out to Dando we could have built a second fire further away, we didn’t have to use this one. We all had a laugh at that, silly catman.

The next day we set out to where we were supposed to find these cannon things. It turned out to be on the shore of that giant lake? Sea? No one seems to know its size, but it’s big. A fairly pristine ship sat on the beach as if gently placed there many years ago. The wood is still holding up and is strong in parts, but there are places you can tell have rotted quite a bit. Below decks were several phantoms from the time when this ship still sailed protecting its contents which we fought a pitched battle to overcome. I wonder if the tribesmen have to fight these things, too, or if they would have been left alone? In the captain’s quarters, we found a bell, ensorcelled with memory magic just like that skull Dando found the first time out in these woods. I got an idea to try and get everyone in on the spell this time and we all held hands as we activated it.  Everyone got to see the memory vision stored within, my plan worked! I might be ready to start learning some of the more powerful spells in my wizardry books!

The memory vision showed us the last mission of the ship and its crew, valiantly defending a port against numerous foes both monstrous sea creatures and ships of the line. We got to see the cannons in action and marvelled at their destructive power. We saw the captain barking orders to the crew, the sailors valiantly trimming sails and maneuvering the ship during combat with deadly shrapnel flying every which way. The gunners and boarding repellers and so on. After that vision, we came to understand with certainty that the reverence these cannibals have for this ship and these cannons means that “only an insane person” would have wanted the cannons destroyed. We knew we couldn’t follow through with the original plan to blow them up. But now we question why we were asked to do so in the first place?  Could the chief and set us up as the fall guys yet again and we inadvertently avoided catastrophe when Darwin suggested we keep or hide them instead of blowing them up?  That would explain the argument our cannibal pals had and subsequent hearty acceptance of us taking them rather than destroying them. My head hurts with the possibilities. Combating lies is far harder than striking down foes!

Loggas had attuned to the memory of one of the shipwrights on board the old battleship and we utilized that memory to craft a small cart from the supplies found aboard the ship. We managed to move two of the cannon to a hiding spot 30 minutes north of the “shipwreck” and while we got the other two cannon onto the cart, we departed for Farhaven as at least one of the cannibal tribe from our secret meeting yesterday as well as several elders from the newfound Fire Stick tribe witnessed our departure with the cannon. Their masks made it unknowable whether or not they approved of what we did, but they did not try to stop us. I sincerely hope we are making friends out here, but it’s very difficult to tell. Oh well, best we can hope for is to follow our heart and deal with the consequences, come what may.

## Darwin's Diary: Cannibals, Cannons, and Conspiracies (by Darwin)

Dear Diary,

Today I got back from an expedition to try and figure out how to deal with the Cannibals. Once more, I ventured out with Mr. Rheinhart, Mr. Dando, Mr. Loggas (the Dwarf from my last Outing), and Ms. Akame. She is... rather mysterious. But she is quite good with a bow, I will definitely give her that.

Anyway, we were all given notes that detailed a meeting with some Tribemen who didn't agree with the current chief. Getting to the meeting was simple enough, although we did run into a... slight hiccup.

It seems that someone killed and desecrated a few members of another tribe. Two men and a child. They buried one of the men, shallowly, and hung the other two in a tree. There were members of their tribe there, and they did not take kindly to our appearance. Apparently, there have been rumors about "outsiders" threatening and killing members of all the different tribes. I can't help but think that this is all a plot of some sort. My best guess would be that the Chief that we met is behind this. Especially given what we learned...

When the "Fire" tribe explained these rumors to us, Mr. Rheinhart tried to be diplomatic, but it ultimately still led to a battle. He told us to not kill them but it was... more difficult than I would have expected. It happened again. It came back. Thankfully, I was able to stop it before it killed that villager but still... This is getting out of hand. I wish that I knew what is wrong with me.

The rest of our group did fairly well with not hurting the tribesmen too much and we made it to the meeting without too much trouble. There we learned that the Chief is trying to unify the tribes underneath his control. Which is definitely not ideal. With that much power behind him, we would be hard pressed to stop him if he came for Farhaven. (Ways to fortify the town??) Apparently he was going to be making a show of power with some cannons that they had. It turns out that the technology of these cannibals was far less crude than I initially thought. Not only did they have bombs and blastpowder but they had guns, albeit rusty ones. We should be on the lookout for any more such unexpected capabilities. (Try and procure weapons for the townfolk?)

The tribesmen at the meeting, Finder and another who did not name himself, tasked us with getting rid of the cannons. They initially wanted us to destroy them but went along when I suggested that we just take the cannons. (Are they trustworthy?) We camped out for the night, were "attacked" by the ghoul from before, and left in the morning.

The cannons, it turned out, were on one of the ships that had brought the tribes' ancestors to this place. Climbing aboard we found the long-dead crew, enchanted to defend the ship. It was a difficult battle. Many of us went down. For once, I was a little pleased when the other one showed up, but that relief was short-lived seeing as I got shot in the head, almost immediately afterwards.

Once the fight was over, we found a bell that, according to the stories that Mr. Dando and Mr. Rheinhart told me, seems to be a repository for the memories of the crew. Upon touching it, we were all transported to a battle long lost. Given the chance, I would like to study that bell again. I'm surprised that I hadn't put two and two together before, and realized that the tribe's reverence of bells stems from their time as sailors.

While we were trying to hide some of the cannons and take some back to Farhaven, we spotted the tribesmen that we had spoken with the night before, as well as another member of the "Fire" tribe. They didn't approach us, which I thought was a touch odd. I am worried that we might have been played for fools, but at this point it is too late to regret.

I just hope that we haven't doomed our relationship with the other tribes. There is a lot to think on.

Darwin