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The party meets in Flenala, outside the Snoozing Dog inn. Several marquee tents have been set up for volunteers to be grouped and tasked, with Captain Daren Shijo calling up numbers, making groups, and sending them to Sergeant Maji Relin. The PCs get to meet each other, and are immediately asked to move rations north, on foot, in military backpacks, and to be reassigned to help once they have reached Taro Rows, a village 40 miles north east of the town of Flenala. The player characters are provided rations two days as well.
The journey north is not without incident; the party is attacked by mephits. The mephits revealed that they had been threatened by an Oni into going out and attacking people, and were mostly easily dispatched by the party. Fun fact: there was a third mud mephit in the mud, which is why the other two were calling out "come on, fight, come on" in Cthonic on the first round. That mephit simply held perfectly still until the party passed on.
The next day (DOY 121), the weather turns from light snowfall to windy and snowy. The party pushes on, (at a reduced overland speed), and the DM forgets that cold weather can have exhaustion-based penalties if the PCs aren't wearing performance fleece or whatever (DMG 110). Don't worry, I'll remember next time! The road leads directly past a pleasant shack with meat-cooking smells, and as they near it they find themselves face to face with a ghoul and two skeletons. The players correctly attacked immediately, and were shortly greeted by a necromancer adept and his two zombie friends. I was mentally prepared for PC deaths here, and I was already practicing my "can you roll a d4, a d6, and a d8?" followed by "...that's gonna go so good on the rainbow roll table!" in my head.
This chained encounter was really pretty wild for 1st level characters and could have gone very badly thrice- first, the ghoul could have actually gotten to act (the players shredded it with perfect tactics and good dice), second, the necromancer adept's spell could have rolled extraordinary well instead of a bit below average, and third, the skelelons and zombies performed a bit lower than average, and if they had performed above average, well, like hey the dark knight class has pretty easy access to temporary hit points and paladins are just great against undead....
The pleasant meat smell, was, of course, pieces of two human legs being cooked, that belonged to the rightful occupants of the shack and nearby farm (nearby farm not pictured). The PCs buried the dead and then slept until morning, when the snow shifts to rain. At the start of DOY 122, Cyndra, Dis'Kolandir, Geddreng, Nyxara, and Skattebo then spend several hours walking through the chilly rain to Taro Rows, a village of farms (arranged into rows) and their mostly-Taro crops. Here they meet the late-middle aged Sergeant Nernyak, who relieves the party of their eighth-ton of rations and asks them to return the next day for a patrol mission.
The party trains to second level with the remainder of the day, at which point Dis'Kolandir immediately uses his first full Bladesinger performance to create a Floating Disk and pull Geddrening around on it through the pouring rain like an older brother pulling a younger brother around on a wagon.
That evening, Cyndra and Geddreng go to the largest, most expensive, smallest, cheapest, only bar in the village, the Yet More Taro bar. There, Cyndra is approached by Tivuren, an old man originally from Palendis, which unanimously and peacfully consented to abolish its monarchy and join the Assembled Councils of Ghelmidais in 2475, fifty years prior. He was an archdruid of the Wildfire Circle, and he quickly and clumsily explains how most wildfire druids were captured or killed during a historical event that related to the peaceful annexation of said former monarchy, how he was forced to permanently give up his magical powers over several months of ingesting a "medicine" distributed to dissidents in that place, and how he could still feel whatever was being done via the Primal Fire and Earth and recognize Cyndra as esoteric kindred. He shared that whatever was being done was likely with the aid of a magical device that the Wildfire Circle used to possess. For reasons as to why he is ambulatory, he offers “The constant chanting, the repetition. It did its work, for a time.”, referring to some set of decades old events. Less obscurantly, he provides Cyndra with precise directions for what she's seeking- “It’s just north of the border, west of the river." was precise and helpful. Contrast with "I tried and I can’t any more. What they did to me, what they did to us. I’m surprised there aren’t any more- I’ll assume you’re the first”, which is, of course, less so.
The next morning (DOY 123), the rain thins to a warm drizzle. The players begin their patrol of a ring six miles out from the village, and are seen and welcomed by the locals. They are givin a small flag to wear, which they briefly put on the orc. On patrol they find the remains of a standard human male, dashed into a tree by some manner of beast. Detailed examination reveals that there were at least two, maybe three huge beasts that did this, one of which was likely a boar, whose tusks provided the fatal blow. He has a gold and weapons on him, and examining his boots reveals an ID card, which proclaims him (complete with sketch) as Li Tili, a Isaï Memory citizen with visas into the two adjoining nations (Suri Memory and the Valleys of Bravery), along with a mandatory return note that prevents him from being detailed away from his home state under most conditions. There is also a ring, which Geddreng has examined. They cover the body in stones and place the small flag atop it. This is in violation of some flag code that I may have to detail.
Further patrolling finds the player characters attacked by goblin wolf riders, who fled after one of them was felled. Said flight was unsuccessful as arrows and Dis'Kolandir's discostep tricks struck down the two goblins. The party leaves the goblins to fertilize the forest and return back to Taro Rows to report their succes.
The next day (DOY 124) the warm drizzle loses the drizzle but remains warm, and the evaporating rain makes for a humid day. The day is uneventful as the party complete their patrol, but upon arrival find the village empty of any soldiers of rank. The player characters debate and almost reach a group decision before Cyndra announces she is going north to investigate what she has heard.
They set out the next morning (DOY 125). The heat has increased, wiping away the humidity, and the player characters march through 90 degree cloudy weather to the north, entirely without backpacks or tiny flags. The next day the clouds release some of the rain in spotty showers, and towards the evening they party spots several shadowcats- a class of unnatural beasts originally introduced by vampires, and very rare outside of Temlancia- involved in some manner of activity with an ogre, naked except for a moderate quality cat mask. The player characters, despite having the jump on this exciting source of XP, instead nail an entire pile of stealth rolls and keep their distance.
The next day they are within easy reach of the border, and the clouds releasing their rain as a day-long drizzle dispels much of the heat. They find a bizarre scene of a dead ogre and two soldiers, one of which is badly injured but stabilized, and the other attaching a Kenda Gem to the ogre's club. The soldier begins to explain but other soldiers reveal their looming presence- he quickly offers them a deal, either play along and get a free magic item, or say that they just got there and move along. The third option- revealing to the company that they had seen Larent attaching the Kenda Gem- is neither mentioned nor exercised. The player characters take the free loot, move north to the border, and then, crossing that, make camp for the night.
The next session will begin with DOY 127, which may or may not have more of a name then that by then.
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