The Adventure Begins

Our campaign begins in Lakewood in 637 AC (After Collapse). As the name would suggest, it is a modest town situated between a lake and the woods, a few days journey from the Southern Road connecting Port Solaris to the twin cities of Tifton and Lofton.

While the town is not a stranger to visitors, several groups of travelers showed up at roughly the same time.

Buck Spinetail met Bodo Glimt when he needed his firearm repaired. Bodo, a War Forged artificer, expertly fixed the equipment and decided to accompany the Justicar for a time. Spinetail had received a request for help from a citizen of Lakewood and traveled south from Kallimheim to investigate the issue. Along the way, they met Rigline Aldineus Charlemagne in a tavern. Rigline is a Yuan-Ti bard, a wizard of the lute. Rig was sitting at the bar playing a drinking game. Rig explained the rules of the game and played a round with Buck and Bodo. They discovered Rig was also traveling to Lakewood and they set off together the next morning.

Mr. Fahrenheit, recently stranded in Crowmoor after his ship wrecked off the coast, was hired by Dreld Sweetbreath to escort him safely to Port Solaris. The two smallfolk traveled by cart and pony for several months. As they approached the road to Lakewood, they decided to hunt some bison for dinner. While the hunt was successful and the two managed to kill 3 bison between them, they returned to their campsite and found their cart and pony had been stolen. On foot, they trudged towards Lakewood to resupply. Upon arriving in Lakewood, they met an unconscious Won Jilliams. Mr. Fahrenheit gave him a healing potion to stabilize him, and immediately regretted it as Won proceeded to talk their ears off for the rest of the night.

Won was ambushed on his way to Silverglen. His bodyguard was killed in the ensuing battle and Won attempted to return the body to his family in Silverglen. After many weeks traveling alone, he arrived in Silverglen, dead body rigor mortis'd to his back, and immediately collapsed.

Squawk aided Beldor through the forest as Beldor was returning home to Lakewood after a long pilgrimage to Dragon Isle.

The various parties rested the night and as they were eating breakfast in the morning, the calm was broken by an argument between a husband and wife. Buck tried to use his authority as a Justicar to end the argument, while Beldor attempted to calm their emotions. The argument centered around missing gold. Rigline was able to get the wife aside and gave her 5 gold to persuade her to leave her husband. She left and eventually the husband calmed down.

Speaking with the inkeeper, Jolene Humphries, Buck determined that shipments coming to and leaving Lakewood are missing about 3% of their goods. This has been happening ever since Madame Morraine, the local witch, had arrived in town. The group began asking questions around town and were able to corroborate Jolene's story after speaking with Ash Humphries, the stable owner, and Madame Morraine. Buck had been summoned to Lakewood at the behest of Madame Morraine.

Speaking with Sam Parsons, the smithy, it was discovered that his outgoing shipments were being shorted, but his incoming shipments were not. Finally the group went to the docks to inquire about any unusual activity. The party decided to borrow one of the barges and hide in boxes to catch whomever was stealing goods. Mr. Fahrenheit captained the barge up-lake. When they docked for the first night, one of Bodo's magical alarms were triggered. Buck saw 4 small flying creatures fly away and used his dragon's breath to incinerate two of them. It turned out the boxes were using short nails so sprites could take the tops off and steal goods.

The next day, despite some expert piloting by Mr. Fahrenheit, the ship managed to hit something under water. Bodo went down to investigate the cause and found and old sunken ship. The mast had scraped the bottom of the boat and it was now taking on water. Before Bodo could relay this information, he was attacked by 2 Merfolk. The group rallied to his aid and made quick work of the Merfolk. Dreld Sweetbreath killed one of the Merfolk after casting a spell that caused tentacles to erupt from his body, screaming "I have a psychic tentacle beast inside me".

That night the group caught the other two sprites trying to steal again. The sprites took the party to the Fey town near Lakewood. The Fey want to return to their home, but the portal had been flooded when the dam was made to create Lakewood. The party agreed to help and returned to Lakewood to discuss plans with the villagers.