Story So Far

**Dramatis Personae**

Amund Ysse: A wandering pilgrim seeking out his fate on his path to follow the primordial gods.

Cornelio Verti: A stalwart priest seeking to spread the justice of Saint Vokun.

Cynric Morseth: A young paladin seeking to prove himself worthy of Saint Hargvend.

Elway Kidd: An eccentric pirate charting his course of adventure on the high seas.

Estrid Irian: A Delmirevian lady possessing arcane powers and a bad sense of vacation scheduling.

**Chapter 1: A New Beginning**

On Grave Isle off the coast of Amidox, a group of travelers board a small ship heading for Kembli. As they set sail, they are beset by Amidoxian orcs being pulled along by reef sharks. After a fierce battle, all of the crew and other passengers are slaughtered, leaving the disparate party of adventurers the sole survivors. As the dead were prepared for burial at sea, a scroll fell out of the captain's pocket, along with a bag of coins. Amund and Estrid were left unconscious after the fighting, and Cynric used this opportunity to go through their belongings to learn more about them, with his distrust in Estrid's arcane incantations spurring his search. The scroll is a letter to the captain's son, Willup, in the village of Vinewall. Taking stock of their situation, the adventurers weigh anchor at a small cove and camp through the night. While on watch, they observe a panther gazing upon them from the darkness. Upon first light, they set off for Kembli in their ship.

In Kembli, they set about tending to their own interests, with the majority of them visiting the Blue Manta tavern by the docks. Amund began searching around for information, with Cynric accompanying him on his investigation. Meanwhile, Elway was creating a rowdy performance at the Blue Manta. A good time was being had by all when Cynric arrived and took over the out of tune piano. Upon it he played a hauntingly beautiful melody that stirred most of the crowd to tears. After resting for the night, the group decided to set off toward Vinewall to deliver the ship captain's letter to Willup.

Vinewall was a small village with many outlying farms. This area served as the breadbasket of Amidox. When first entering the town, Cornelio found Willup and delivered the grim news, and Cornelio declined a monetary reward as well. The party made their way around the village chatting with the village folk, and they ended up at Fern's tavern where Estrid made a delicious pie from the wild jungle fruit she found growing outside. While the rest of the party dined, Amund made his way north of town to do some investigating. That night, Amund was sharing a room with Estrid when she awoke from a nightmare to a bed covered in salt water. When Amund went to comfort her, he saw a inky black tentacle moving at the corner of her eye before retreating into the socket. As morning arrived, the group reunited and Cynric suggested they look about the perimeter of the village to determine if they could help with fortifications against the orcs. Before they had gotten too far from the village, there was a sound of ripping cloth and Elway was gone without a trace.

**Chapter 2: How You Like Them Apples?**

After eventually giving up the search for Elway due to a lack of any evidence whatsoever. The adventurers then found a notice board in Vinewall, and they looked over some of the available jobs. They settled on heading out to a local orchard to take down a "devil dog" that was harassing the guards and workers there. Once they arrived, they found that the farmer only had one guard and a few teenaged farm hands working for him. Two farm hands had been killed recently, and the party set about investigating the orchard grounds. They found that one of the young farm hands, Ranley, had a symbol of Eddenroth in his belongings. This turned out to be a red herring, much to Cynric's dismay (he really preferred to smite some heretics). After setting up a site to camp out and watch for the beast, Cornelio found a small child running at him screaming for help. The child then grew massive claws and struck Cornelio before jumping into a tree. As the rest of the party caught up to him, they saw that a goblin sat in the tree firing shots at them. As the fight went on, the goblin transformed into a massive batlike wolf creature. After dispatching it, the creature turned back into a goblin. As they searched in the morning, they found a similar corpse with its throat ripped out. For their efforts, they were rewarded three bushels of apples.

**Chapter 3: The Golden Stag**

The party returned to Vinewall to rest in Fern's Tavern only to find Elway at his seat having a drink. He said he would explain later, and then they set off to find the Golden Stag they had been hearing about. As they reached the edge of the foothills leading into the mountainous region of Amidox, they saw several guardsmen from Kembli being led by the young Dalquin nobleman. They were looking for the stag to hunt it for themselves. It was at this point that Cornelio pulled the party aside and explained to them what happened with Horace Dalquin (Cornelio killed him for being a rapist bandit and hung his corpse for all to see). The party then hatched a plan to capture the young Dalquin and get information from him. As they followed along behind the Dalquin group, they were attacked by orcs. Once the orcs were dispatched, they watched their quarry camp. Elway and Estrid dispatched the guards with sleep spells, and then Estrid used her powers to lure Dalquin to the jungle while Cynric snuck up behind him and choked him out. As the party was leaving, they saw the Dalquin camp beset and destroyed by orcs. When Dalquin awoke, Cornelio and Cynric took turns torturing and questioning the young noble. They learned that he had made a deal with the orcs to not attack his undertakings if he let them have free reign around Vinewall. They also learned that Dalquin's father, the count, did not have knowledge of his dealings. Cynric then dispatched the nobleman, and Cornelio hung his body outside of the cave they were staying at.

The Dalquin matter tended to, the party then traveled onward and came across a strange glade presided over by a satyr named Figlily. This glade included two Kembli guardsmen making out near a hammock and a large frog statue surrounded by fireflies. Figlily graciously invited the party to dinner and became enthralled by Estrid, calling her "goddess" and offering to fan her while she ate grapes. He had a wrestling match with Amund and also sang a bawdy tavern song with Estrid. Elway decided to investigate the frog statue, but as he began to identify it, Figlily told Elway to stop. Amund meditated and saw the frog as a massive real frog licking at fireflies. He also saw Figlily help the golden stag on its way. Elway tried to identify the statue again and Figlily grew to enormous size, sprouting a thick coating of hair and cruel claws. He then apologized, explaining that he was the guardian of this frog's prison. The frog was apparently a tyrant from the feywild and was imprisoned in marble. Figlily then set the party on their way.

The party then found a treant being attacked by orcs, and they intervened. The wounded Treant led them to a henge with a dead ogre. There they found the golden stag. They repaired one of the stone arches, and a portal opened. The stag turned into a golden elf and beckoned them to follow. They entered the portal, then emerged a few hours later with some changes. Cornelio had some living vine gloves. Amund had ritualistic tattoos on his arms with prayers to Teztine and the Feyheart on his arms. Estrid had massive scars on the inside of her forearms. Elway had learned some magical spells, and Shitpot's fur had taken on a golden sheen. Cynric's armor was wreathed in flowers. Upon looking where the portal had been, they found a spear. Elway identified it as the Spear of the Summer Court and handed it to Estrid.

**Chapter 4: Calder's Mill**

Upon returning to Vinewall, the party found the town in a dour mood. More orc attacks had been plaguing the countryside near Vinewall. They spoke to Willup and discovered that he had a fighting force of only 12 men at his disposal. Vinewall had sought help from Kembli, but their forces were tied up with other efforts. He also mentioned that Calder's Mill might have some mercenaries to hire and that they had not sent aid even though Vinewall sent guardsmen to deal with incursions from lizardmen in the past. Armed with this knowledge, the party set out toward Calder's Mill. On their way, they were beset by a man who asked who followed the teachings of Sucrath. Cornelio and Cynric came forward, and the man said the others could leave in they valued their lives. There was a fight with his group, with the strange man unleashing magical gouts of fire. After the battle was over, they found that the man was in fact Grevin who had been killing Sucrathists in the area. They found scales on his body and nearby a lockbox with writings buried in the ground. The writings were composed of injustices committed by the church in those lands. The party took one of the survivors hostage and interrogated them. The prisoner told them of the great wrongs done by the church. As Cynric started collected the blood of the fallen on his blade to deliver the fatal blow, Elway casually walked over and stabbed the prisoner to death.

On the way into the mill town, the group saw the rite being performed by some Children of Silence members. Once in Calder's Mill, the group visited the Fruit of the Vine Inn and partook of jungle juice and a stout flaming beverage that left Estrid particularly drunk. They asked around for a mercenary Child Hastings had told them about named Hakim. The innkeep also told them of Munar Bottlethane who frequented the nearby alleyways. Elway went down said alleys and found Munar gambling with some humans. Elway lost twenty gold pieces to the dwarf and then spotted him cheating. Upon being found out, Munar agreed to join the group. The party then found Hakim camped nearby with his goats. After agreeing on a price of six pieces of gold per day, joined the group as well.

The party then spoke with old man Calder in his windmill. He told them he would sent fifteen guardsmen for the price of 200g or if they would take care of a mill being built in stonebridge. Elway, Estrid, Munar, and Hakim set out for Stonebridge that night and cunningly distracted the guards with a monstrous illusory lizardman and magical sleep. They then used mage hand to douse the construction with Dwarven liquor and lit it on fire, which consumed the nearby building materials. They rode straight through the night back to Calder's Mill. Elway told Calder the job was done, and the old man sent ten guardsmen to help the party. The party then set about returning to Vinewall, where they saw a group of orcs in the distance. When they were within sight of Vinewall, they saw two massive plumes of smoke. Using his spyglass, Cornelio saw that the village was besieged by orcs and a group of farmers were also being attacked. Hakim offered to take the guardsmen to deal with the farmers, while Munar and the party set forth to Vinewall to defend the village square. After a vigorous defense, the city of Vinewall was saved.

**Chapter 5: The Devil You Know**

After a short series of journeys, the party found themselves in Kembli, where Lord Dalquin rewarded them handsomely for saving the town of Vinewall. He also tasked them with finding out who had killed his sons and if it was related to the recent death of Sucrathist clergy. None other than Bishop Luca Dachund, a hero of the church, entered the room and began telling them what he knew of the situation. The party set off toward the palm forests west of Calder's Mill with a Children of Silence member named Clarent. During their travels, Child Clarent was shown to be a rather mild-mannered servant of the church. While in Clarent's company, the party came upon some refugees who were acting suspicious, and they ended up being members of the Primist resistance in the area. The party managed to free them while Clarent slept on watch, and they followed their general direction the next day. They saw many sets of footprints coming together heading to the northeast, and the continued forward. Then they were ambushed by a large bear-man and some forest spirits. Once they had bested the bear-man, he flew away.

After more travel, they came upon a cave and outside were many Primists who began to shower firebolts upon them. The apparent leader unleashed demonic energy and showed themselves to be a Skarjek worshipper as they pulled the life energy from all the other Primists, killing them where they stood. After the battle, what was apparently a cultist hideout was found in the cave. Upon leaving, they saw the bear-man weeping over the corpse of a woman before leaving. The party reported back to Kembli and spoke with Bishop Luca. He told them that he knew about them killing Dalquin's sons. However, he was more interested in dealing with the cultist threat. He traveled with them for a bit, and one night he had a confrontation with Amund. He woke Amund and took him to a clearing. There, he said that he needed Amund's loyalty against the cult, so he offered to fight him. Only recently, Amund had told his companions that Bishop Luca was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Primists. Bishop Luca fought him unarmed, and he laid him out dead with a thunderous blast of divine energy. After resurrecting Amund, he told the young monk that one day he hoped Amund could help him atone for his sins, but he said that Amund was simply not powerful enough yet.

Upon arriving at Lowperch, the party did some investigating, and Amund got himself kidnapped. The party eventually found him in another cultist hideout after they fought through cultists and fiendish abominations and were captured in combat themselves. Within this hideout, they found a fleshy demonic dragon creature. Luca ran in and started attacking the beast. He eventually was killed by the beast, but a prayer to the Father saw his life restored.

After the battle, the party found themselves in a strange domed room with an archway in the middle. The spirit of a dragonborn appeared and began to charge them, but it stopped when it saw the dragon-headed mace that Cornelio found on the upper levels of the cultist cave. After looking around the room, the party found that the mace activated the archway and it was actually a portal. Projected onto the ceiling was a map of portals, and the party went to several of them, finding some more dangerous than others. They also undid illusory magics to show a portal rimmed in red light that did not correspond to any known city in Nasria. They decided against going there.

**Chapter 6: Vanguards**

Eventually, the party returned to Kembli just in time to help defend it against a full onslaught. A rift appeared in the sky and a sword wreathed in thorns descended upon the cathedral, killing many Sucrathists as it did so. Cultists began stabbing townsfolk, and many fiends began to teleport into the city from the Nine Hells. It was at this time that the orcs also assaulted the walls.

With all hell breaking loose, the party decided to focus on the city itself and defend as many townsfolk as possible. They fought inside the streets and through the town square. Then, they defended the docks from a lizardfolk attack. As the battle raged, many former allies joined including Hakim, Munar, Figlily, the mysterious panther, and the bear-man. Luca himself murdered anyone near the Primist shrines indiscriminately and then charged headlong into the throngs of orcs. Amund ran after Luca, helping him kill the orc in charge of the assault. As this happened, Elway leapt aboard his ship and put up a valiant fight against lizardfolk before being driven away. He grabbed Anna and swam away as his crew, ship, and Hakim sank below the waves. Eventually, all the threats were defeated. A bloody silence fell over the city and the party steeled themselves for more danger, but it luckily didn't come.

Hakim sought to get revenge for his death, as he had returned as a revenant. The party obliged by going into the swamps and finding the large lizardman who had been in charge of his tribe in Kembli. Upon finding him, the party delivered poison to the large beast. Amund and Elway then followed the lizardman down into its lair where shamans waited to cure his poison. As they fought, Hakim burst from the group and helped slay the beast. After that, an army of bullywugs attacked the remaining lizardfolk.

With the enemies of Kembli pushed back and the lizardfolk scattered, the party collected rewards from Lord Dalquin and Calder. During their meeting with Dalquin, they were also offered more work. He told them that they needed to find mercenaries to help end the orcish threat once and for all. He gave them papers with his seal that promised gold for the service of any who would agree to do so. Picking Delmirev as their first target, the party got aboard their new boat and prepared to sail to the northwest. At least that was the plan until other developments came to light...