Chapter One: Gotta Take a Tankard or Two

Each of the party members has converged upon the city of Aug Autal for their own purposes. Geoffrey D’Charny, an ex-noble of the Northern expanse seeking some form of redemption or revenge, met with the Lead Priestess of Quan Yen in the city. There, this unusual Paladin of Peace was instructed to shepherd a restless young sorcerer and tinkerer named Wynsten to an apprenticeship under the unusual and colourful dwarf Gastric Tankardtaker. Lucien entered the city seeking his fortune, but on his way to contact the Romni in the city was interrupted by the mysterious Madame Tajemství. She pulled a favor with Tankardtaker to get Lucien employed with him – but she has a second agenda: There is a negative coven of witches – hags in the region, and she wants Lucien to keep his ear to the ground and report in on them. Meanwhile, the bard Raven Kassiday was performing at the Rope and Tackle when he heard a rumour of an elegant – and perhaps magical – set of pan pipes having been delivered to Gastric’s Sundries. Intrigued that his primary instrument may have a magical counterpart he could acquire, Raven arrived at Gastric’s. Gastric proved to be a strange dwarf who never lets go of his two tankards of ale – always keeping one in each fist and he even has hooks on his belt to “sheathe” them. He stands on the top of a sort of cherry-picker stand in the middle of his large warehouse store and is constantly barking out orders to his subservient members. The pan pipes indeed proved to be unusual – they are made of heartwood – a rare circumstance when a dryad’s tree has been damaged and she takes the fallen part of her and allows a Satyr to carve it, making these unusual pipes in the extreme. By the time Raven had been asking about the pipes and their value, the other members arrived with various notes of introduction. Gastric nodded and with much raising of toasts, formed together a “troubleshooting Squad” to deal with his acquisitions. He sent the party to his northern estates where his sister, Efluvia, works on plants in the strange mansion-like greenhouse in which she resides.

Efluvia proved to be a bit easily distracted – it is clear she is not around people often – but she eventually after some tea was coaxed into explaining her concerns. The estate is actually a very large one, covering over a mile of acreage of differently grown swamp plants that she cultivates. The property has been in the family for generations. There is a northeastern corner of the property that contains some form of old graveyard which also has a number of goblins that have moved in just south of a small river and bridge. Something has riled them up and they are being destructive. She has asked the party to deal with them, either calming them and getting them to move or killing the goblins if necessary.

The party had two possible approaches, one coming from the south that would be the obvious way, or a roundabout way crossing the river at an earlier fording and them coming in from the graveyard north of the bridge. The party chose that route. On the way there, the party encountered a weird little creature playing in the muddy riverbank. Raven stopped to listen, but in an extraordinary bit of luck not only was able to understand the creature but heard a chilling sound: The faint strains of hag charm music, being sung as a lure to draw n children. It is very far away, but it has confirmed Lucien’s fears the hags are there. The creature was a Mud Mephit named Glort. Raven at first attempted to intimidate the little creature, but ti was not happy – soon the party soothed it and made amends, and Glort, in his own excitable and weird way offered a trade – there was a nasty creature to the north guarding premium loam (mud) he wanted. If they got him his loam, he would tell the party what was going on with the goblins and where their traps were.

The party assented to this odd request and confronted a very nasty giant trapdoor spider which had a burning red rune on its back. The spider had left a skeleton of a previous adventurer there as bait; indeed, the skeleton ended up being animated as it was spontaneously raised because of the tragedy that killed it. Raven’s confusion spell managed to cause the spider to attack the skeleton, ruining the surprise of the party investigating a skeleton and having it attack them, and with swift blows of steel and spell, the spider fell and Lucien magic missled the skull off the skeleton.

The party gained some loot from the fallen creature, especially with Geoffrey went into the trapdoor hole and found some items in the pit as he was digging out the loam. A masterwork alchemical set seemed to be the most sought after prize, with many party members finding an interest in it.

Glort proved good to his promise as he enthusiastically explained that there is a human (or dwarf, or elf, all humanoids look the same to him) that has taken up residence in part of the graveyard and is apparently on the run from something and highly paranoid. He has organized and riled the goblins – maybe even ensorcelled them – to act as his defense. Glort has offered to swim through the mud and disable the traps he knows since the party was nice to him. Having now grown late, the party takes evening watches, knowing the next day will prove a confrontation. But will they try to deal with the paranoid human, plot the demise of the goblins, or will some other option emerge…? The discussion of different tactics by Geoffrey and Lucien certainly shows that the characters have different approaches to their possible solutions. . ..