Mission: Run of the Mill

Working off the report of Koristos, the party heads upriver towards a lumbermill. Along the way, they were ambushed during camp by wolves, and ran headlong into a gnoll hunter with his hyenas. Eventually reaching the mill, they were attacked by a skeleton atop a skeletal horse. After quickly dispatching the threat, they investigated the mill. They found it mostly intact and functional, but definitely neglected for some time. They recovered tools, and found some tattered documents detailing lumber orders, mentioning a place called "Redstone". Investigating the cellar, they found and defeated more undead. During the fight, a strange man named Darrant joined against the zombies, doing his best to bash them with an impromptu club. The party learned from Darrant that he and the mill seemed to appear in this land sometime ago, and that he knew the men that the zombies once were. Darrant himself seems to have some strange qualities about him, but seems to be capable in the operation of the mill, and carpentry in general. The party gathered as much of the tools as possible, along with a bit of lumber, and made their way back to Farhaven without issue, Darrant in tow.

## Mission Report - Mill (by Darut)

***Expedition log to the Old Sawmill***

*Compiled by Darut, 4th private of the Deep, lost at an unknown planet at the time.*

Day 5

The centaur Koristos found an old sawmill upriver, should be useful.

Myself, the old fella named Touch, Takeda, and the noble boy Reinhardt are heading out to see if the place holds anything useful for Farhaven. Access to lumber would accelerate our progress quite a lot.

Small skirmish with wolfpack, note to self, warn others.

Day 6

Gnolls are still around, we ran into a hunter, we made short work of him.

At the sawmill, the building was guarded by an undead rider and his mount. Inside, we found tools and the sawblade itself in repairable conditions. Also, the remnants of some old records on paper tell us about a town called Redstone, supposedly nearby. We are bringing these back on kart

The cellar was infested with undead, probably the former workers. Didn’t seem to be difficult, but there was one I failed to see, and that one gave mea new, deep scar on the side. Turns out there was a man there called Darrant, who joined us in the fight. He seems weird, similar to the undead, but seems to be retaining his sanity. He also didn’t realize his town, the aforementioned Redstone is gone, probably decayed decades ago, which he spent in that cellar.

We made a deal with him, he will join us at Farhaven, and in return, we get his expertise with the lumber buissness.

## Sawmill of Sorrow (by Rheinhart)

I spent some time by the river mourning the death of my very first friend in this strange new world. Chappy did not make it back from that supply run to some vineyard where a shrine to some evil god named Jubilex was found. I wove a small wreath for him, said a few prayers, and cast it into the river wishing Chappy a safe journey beyond.

I have witnessed so many wondrous things since arriving in Farhaven. Myth and legend are nearly as common here as sheep and spuds back home. I do miss giant salted pretzels, soft beds with down pillows, and strong mead. Starting a town from scratch is hard work!  Speaking of which, my centaur friend Koristos spotted an old abandoned sawmill upriver a bit and suggested we check it out for supplies and such. It would be incredible if we could get enough lumber tools together to actually start building sturdy wooden structures rather than living out of yurts and various tents.

I met the others planning to search the sawmill at dawn by the river. Stoic Takeda was there, an older gentleman going by the moniker “The Touch” because “it's magic” (thankfully not the Midas kind) , and an odd kind of sailor, Darut, who claims the ships he sailed on rode an ocean of stars rather than water. We borrowed a horse and wagon so that we could carry a multitude of supplies back should we find any. On the journey to the mill, we spent some time getting acquainted with one another over a campfire dinner. At one point, we were ambushed by wolves who must have been quite hungry to have attacked us within sight of the campfire and did not cease until only a lone wolf, deprived of the rest of its pack, fled into the darkness. I hope they are not in league with those terrible gnolls and their hyena packs… whom we faced and defeated the next day, too.

It took us a bit to finally locate the sawmill for which Koristos had given directions to find as the mill itself was located on a tributary rather than the main river, but it was pretty easy to spot once we got close. We started to wander the grounds outside getting the lay of the land when a horse and rider surprised us coming from around the far side of the mill.  Only, both the horse and its rider were horrific! Little but skeletons, the both of them! Moving and sounding as if they were still alive and poised to strike with deadly intent. I hesitated but for a moment and thank mein Gott I listened to the others talk about the living dead still wandering the land. Such tales removed the shock of meeting the reality of it face to skull-face and allowed me to act rather than question my sanity.

My trusty zwei-hander, Scheller Wölfin, swift and true, cleaved the rider in twain. The horse, however, continued to attack, trying its best to stomp the life out of us (mainly me). Arrows bit into bones, bolts of deadly magic disintegrated parts of its skull. It did not stop until it, too, was broken in two by Scheller Wölfin. What kind of magic makes the dead linger? Why here? Questions for some other time, I suppose.

We investigate the above ground floors of the mill and discover it’s still mostly serviceable with just a bit of care here and there, it could even be operational after its deconstructed and rebuilt closer to town. There’s even a non-dull saw blade!  Too much for a single trip, but we will definitely want to get a crew back out here after our initial haul. The scrollworks found inside were so old that many items crumbled to dust when we tried to open them to read their contents. A few that survived mentioned a town nearby called Redstone (not that any town is nearby besides our new Farhaven). Either its an ancient ruin these days or… or perhaps entire areas appear in this strange land just like its inhabitants. The vineyard seemed that way, too. Once is coincidence, twice is the start of a pattern.

We discovered the mill had a cellar accessible from the trap door near the middle of the building. Expecting more trouble downstairs, I led the group down into that dark pit, trying my best not to show how scared I was. Its cramped down in cellars, which greatly hampers my combat style and severely restricts Scheller Wölfin. At first, all was quiet down there in the dark. The glow of the lantern and torches we brought with us lit a simple scene with a small table and chairs amidst a storeroom. Each chair but one held a corpse slumped over the table. As if on cue, they all stood up, faced us, and attacked! We were all prepared for it, but that didn’t make the struggle any easier. We hacked off their flesh, broke several bones, a skeleton rounded the corner and joined their table brethren. Amidst the fierce fight, another body off in the corner got up and joined the fray… but in our defense! He proved valuable in turning the tide in our favor and when he was the last one standing, implored us to spare him. He spoke! None of the others made sounds other than a grunt. We let me speak his peace before we put our weapons away.

“My name is Durrant,” he said, “and these are … were… my coworkers here at the mill.”  He went on to say that it was only just a few minutes ago that he came down into the storeroom. He has no idea what happened or how he got here.  His skin is very pale, but he breathes, albeit shallowly, and has a faint heartbeat. Almost like he’s barely alive. But there’s lots of strange things around these parts, so we accepted him as a friend and explained our stories about this Land of the Lost, expressed our sorrow at the loss of his coworkers and friends, but that we too were at a loss to explain much. Only to relate “what is”.

We gave him some time to grieve and then asked him to join us at Farhaven, which Durrant was eager to accept and helped us pick out the best tools and lumber for our first trip home. He’s the original mill-wright and would love to help us rebuild it and operate it closer to town.  I firmly believe he is a godsend and will be invaluable to grow Farhaven. A real table instead of a barrel-top would be a welcome surface for writing these things!