Expedition 70: UnBearable Silence

### Summary

The group enter the silent forest north of the Blackwater Swamp, and find many skeletons as well as a tower with a semaphore device.

### Detailed Writeup

In the morning of the 16th of Forge Bea, Nexrin, and Uzmir departed north toward the Silent Forest. The Kiorian mousefolk who had reported the disturbances at the edge of the silent forest did their best to facilitate travel through the swamp, allowing quick travel through the region. At a small inn to the north of the swamp Bea and Nexrin, fresh off of the dive into Icerune, rendezvoused with Uzmir, who had received word by letter in Vrall of the job opportunity. The group decided to favor a stealthy approach to the swamp, so those in heavy armor were left behind. The expedition manifesto consisted of enough food for a brief lunch, weapons, spell components, and other typical adventuring fare. As agreed with the mousefolk, and barring a payment of 8 silver, the contract stipulates that the party will spend at minimum 3hrs in the wood until the cause of the disturbance has been established and/or eliminated. Upon entering the wood at noon, the party encountered a veritable wall of giant spiderwebs. It appears that opportunistic spiders set their webs here in hope of catching flying insects that find their way to the forest from the swamp. Uzmir made a memo to remember to return and collect webs for clothing and armor purposes. More research is required. After twenty minutes of searching Uzmir located a gap in the webbing large enough for Nexrin’s large body. Unfortunately, Bea was unable to find any spiders to talk to, although the region shows promise as a possible spider-silk harvesting community and bodes well for Kiore’s GDP, assuming this is a natural phenomenon rather than a deliberate border wall of Liefsend (is this expedition legal?). Anyway, the wall was pretty worthless against us. **Note:** the forest is eerily quiet and carries a heavy necromantic aura. Undead in the region are highly sensitive to sound. Our fortuitous decision to try stealth saved us, and all future expeditions must follow that example. AVOID FIGHTS AT ALL COSTS. Monsters in the region are weak but plentiful and long fights will snowball as the noises attracts more. Continuing north, the party happened upon what assume was the cause of the disturbance. A wooden coffin, propped against a tree, with hinges to open from the inside. It was the first of many. Against the party’s better judgement, Bea attempted to crack the coffin open for further examination, finding it to be full of skeletons, all of whom were both spooky and scary. Luckly, the skeletons were remarkably weak, except for one that was able to bulls-eye crit Bea in the back with an arrow from a longbow. It was truly a masterful shot that demonstrated the menace and threat posed by the monsters, spoiled only by the fact that it was not fired by a skeleton but by Nexrin, who missed his original target horribly. The ruckus of the fight attracted a minotaur skeleton, which was easily dispatched by Uzmir with an eldritch blast. As the party fled the second wave of the fight, Nexrin noticed the skeletons putting themselves back together. Note: Bludgeoning seems to be the only way to deal any permanent damage. These skeletons seem to serve the purpose as lumberjacks for Liefsend, which explains the disturbances. Attacking them is unadvised. After escaping the hordes, we moved west, in hopes of examining the coastal regions and potential shipping blockages, but we took a detour to examine a mysterious tower. The base of the tower is inhabited by a large brown bear, whom Bea was able to avoid as she stealthily explored the tower. The second floor was a basic living area. Paper money found on site may help to date the tower. The next floor was full of skeletons, none of whom were animated, further solidifying the theory that the skeletons are lumberjacks. Finally, the top floor housed a large mechanical device which Nexrin identified as a semaphore device. The trees grow over the tower, rendering it useless, although this has implications for the history of the wood. After securing the tower, the party looted it for treasure under the mistaken assumption that the tower would protect us from the undead. We used that time to loot the corpses and question the birds. The birds confirmed our suspicion that the undead were responsible for the silence of the forest by killing everything that made noise. They also claimed that the undead were capable of climbing and that the only way to be safe was to be in the air. They reported no other creature that could have caused the disturbances. After several hours of observation from the tower yielded no results, the party shimmied quietly down the rope and began the track south, communicating in mimed actions and unclear hand signals. With Nexrin’s spell and our stealth skill it should have been nearly impossible for us to be caught, but somehow Nexrin managed to get is bowstring caught on a tree branch, which loudly snapped and alerted every undead within ten kilometers of our presence. Had it not been for Uzmir’s quick thinking preparing a fly spell, we would certainly not have made it out unscathed. When the spell wore off, we landed safely in Kiore.

Spoils: Rusted Fine greataxe, Rusted Longsword, Belt of Gender Change, Sack of silver links worth 13s, Various minor jewelry, 2G, Toothfillings 2s, Spyglass 1G, Basic silverware for 6s, Locket with a picture of a dwarven family, Badge of semaphore tower captain 1s.