Tepela Forest

The northern valley of Kuulpec, known as the Tepela Forest or the Tepela Valley, is filled with dense jungle. According to the Queen of the Pantherans, is it controlled by the Pantheran Pirate Faction, although there have been reports of incursions from the Kryjak Pirate Faction in the villages to the north.

## The Road South

### The Old Man

Shortly after making their way to the road from the exit of the Forsaken Halls, the party could not decide whether to head North to one of the villages on the coast to find a ship to take them to Erendel, or simply head South to pass through Cher. As they stood there debating the merits of both choices, an Old Man walked up to them from the South.

He was very jolly and looked far too frail to be travelling on his own, and claimed he had walked through Cher to get here. The party hated the old man and just found him annoying so they sent him on his way and decided to head South to avoid sharing the road with him.

### Torgen Captured

On the road heading South, the party was ambused by a group of weretigers. The first appeared in front of them in its tiger form, and as it approached slowly transformed into a humanoid weretiger. They were then set upon from all sides by more weretigers and Torgen fell. He was stabilized by one of the weretigers and seeing this and realizing they were outmatched, the party fled into the woods. They would later learn that this group of weretigers were members of the Panthera Pirate Faction who control the Northern Forests of Kuulpec.

### Torgen Rescued

After giving the weretigers the slip, the party snuck back up to them as they traveled South with Torgen bound in the back of a wagon. They healed Torgen from afar and used an illusion spell to conjure the Old Man they met earlier in the distance. They also created the sounds of creepy whispering voices in the forest surrounding the Pantherans. This prompted the tiger-folk to investigate, and while they were distracted they freed Torgen and fled back into the woods.

They then waited in hiding until nightfall, and continued heading south. When they came for a fork in the road, they followed the trail that looked less travelled that veered off to the west.

## The River Ruins

   The trail the party followed after rescuing Torgen brought them to a set of ruins by the river. Scattered throughout the ruins was a series of dead Orcs covered in massive bite marks. They also noticed the orcs all had the same insignia, which they later learned denoted their clan.

While they searched the ruins, a Hydra attacked from the river. This monster was clearly wounded, having likely just fought the orcs. The party killed the Hydra and after a quick search of the ruins, they came across a mysterious stone that seemed to orbit them when thrown up into the air.

Deciding they needed to avoid the city of Panthera at all costs, they fashioned a raft out of the surrounding trees and the rope they had on hand. The set the raft aflot on the river and road the current down to Panthera. This plan had the unfortunate effect of bringing them directly to the city they wanted to avoid, and as they travelled down the river they could see the weretiger group they had just escaped crossing a bridge into the city.

Using a water walking spell, they made their way to the southern bank of the river and disappeared into the trees.