Mission: The Northern Wood

The party sets north to explore the northern wood, and begin mapping the region. They heard a low, tolling bell and followed it to a small encampment in the midst of preparing a *Red Feast*. They were invited in, partook of the feast, and quickly realized they were cannibals. Following Koristos' lead, the party takes their leave of the celebrations and journeys to a valley in order to learn more of the cannibal people's history. After fighting through ambushes, spiderlings, and a ghoul intent on drowning them, they find the true history of the *Red Feast*.

## The Northern Wood (by Rheinhart)

A group of us we sent to explore the woods to the north and begin mapping the region. I know little of maps, but Koristos helped me correct any mistakes I made drawing it out. He has a great memory of the terrain, but a seeming disdain for chalk and parchment. I do ok if I can see what I am drawing, but have a hard time when trying to visualize what birds may see and scale it correctly. Steadfast Darut, dynamic Dando, and that oddball Vacant rounded out our scouting party.

We set up camp near the border to the northern woods after an uneventful day of trekking across the plains. A short while after the witching hour, we heard a dolorous bell tolling low and distant. Vacant immediately set off to discover its source while I rousted the rest and broke camp to catch up with the guy. He’s a very difficult person to read any kind of emotion and I asked him later why he followed the sound of the bell so abruptly. “I heard it calling me, but was mistaken.” I had no response to that. A poet back home once wrote, “never send to know for whom the *bell* tolls; It tolls for *thee*.” Those words proved hauntingly true.

In the pre-dawn light, the tolling of the bell faded away, but not before we had located its source. We discovered a small encampment of a half-dozen or so patchwork tents along with some poorly made tables and benches lining the middle of the small place. The folk there understood the common tongue most seem to know upon arrival here, but with a very thick accent that took us a few minutes before we could properly understand one another. They said the bell and the feast laid out amongst the crude tables were to honor the recent passing of one of their own. A celebration called “The Red Feast”.

I still regret accepting their offer to join in the feast. What I initially thought were pork dishes turned out to be human flesh! These were cannibals we were dining with! Vacant was the only one of us that seemed unperturbed by that fact and Koristos, while extremely curious about their culture, was not quite as repulsed by it as the rest of us. I’d heard of ritually eating the flesh of one’s enemies as a way to try and capture the essence of exceptional people that had passed on either through natural causes or fallen enemies, but nothing like butchering and consuming the entire body like that.

Once we realized what the Red Feast was, I encouraged everyone to leave immediately and feared we would be next on their menu. I was only half right, it turns out. Our job was to scout out the area, so after we left the village, we ventured towards a special place Koristos had learned about while conversing with their clan elder. Maybe it would offer some insight into whom we just met as well as provide us with landmark fact finding nature of our mission.

Sure enough, more cannibals ambushed us at this special place, however, they were from a different tribe than the ones we met during their Red Feast. A big note has been placed on our map about these clans of cannibals roaming about this area. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Additionally, this special place houses some strange magic maze that was difficult to traverse thanks to plentiful giant spiders, swampy ground in many places, and ghouls roaming the land using magic to control vines in the area to deadly effect.  It was here that I received my 3” scar near my left kidney. A reminder of that wickedly cunning ghoul that tried to kill us all and nearly succeeded at least with me.

The special place Koristos led us to ended up at a sort of shrine with a magic skull that housed the memories of these people’s prime fore-father. Vacant held it aloft and the thing shared its memories with him as it shared Vacant’s. It was the only time I’ve ever seen Vacant show any emotion whatsoever.  A single tear ran down his cheek. These cannibals came from a water planet years ago and barely survived in this foreign land. They started to consume their fallen as a last resort means of survival. At first. It gradually became their way of life and started to spawn ghouls. Nowadays, the Red Feast is a means of attempting to prevent ghouls: if nothing remains of their dead, nothing can rise again. Tragic tale indeed. Maybe we can send missionaries to help teach them how to farm the land rather than continue with their cannibalistic ways. It makes me glad someone knows how to farm the land here as that is one area I am completely ignorant of any knowledge. Perhaps I, too, should learn. After I learn magic, that is.