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player_journals:maervahr:survival_stories_from_the_hinterlands_session_256_-_july_16th_2025

Survival Stories From The Hinterlands

JACOB'S DOMAIN CLEARING SERVICE: Part 8 (Continued) and BEYOND THE CRYING COLUMNS OF GALDREK-TOR: TARANIS'S QUEST

Session 256, July 16th, 2025 - JACOB'S DOMAIN CLEARING SERVICE: Part 8 (Continued) and BEYOND THE CRYING COLUMNS OF GALDREK-TOR: TARANIS'S QUEST

LOG DATE 07/16/25

DRAMATIS PERSONAE
  • Eomiaje the Hidden One
  • Voltendo
  • Korrak
  • Elithra
  • Wesel II
  • Atellia
  • Taranis
  • Marita
  • Jacob
  • Josalyn
  • Briiz
  • Oswald
  • Kheskhor
  • Selethede

SESSION CONTINUED

We are resuming the combat against three Weretigers.


Reed Moon the 8th, 499

  • Oswald does a fighting withdraw.
  • Taranis casts Charm Mammal.
  • Eomiaje maintains concentration on the force of Knights.
  • Atellia casts Light.
  • Marita throws her hammer. Actually she stays put.
  • Selethede tries to parley.
  • Kheskhor stays back.
  • Jacob and Josalyn attack.

One of the Weretigers is down so a Morale Check is being rolled. The two remaining Weretigers immediately surrender to us.

There are three women Weretigresses. They look like they are from the same place as the previous Weretigers that we heard about near Iway and Elsewater.

They surrendered.

COMBAT ENDS


They tell us that they were under the command of their superiors and were tasked to capture members of our guild by the Assassin's Guild. They were Assassins from the Assassin's Guild.

Thorgard says “Fuck the Assassin's Guild” and starts harvesting Weretiger parts from the dead one.

We are currently called the “Thighs of Adventure”…name change to be determined.

They accept what is going on but they tell us that they were coerced to kill us. Know Alignment from Eomiaje reveals that the Brunette Weretigress is Neutral Evil. The other Weretigress is Neutral. The Weretigers have become embroiled in politics and wish to return to the south and to the old ways. They were captured by the Werewolves from the rival guild.

The Werewolves at the Mombafra Assassin's Guild are so powerful that they control many, including the Gravegrip Gang. They were sent to capture or kill Oswald.

RAWF was the Powerful Assassin in the guild that hired them or tasked them to find Oswald. They were sent here to capture someone from the Thighs of Adventure, Oswald was one known to them as a powerful Cleric. They have been staying 40 miles to the south.

Eomiaje begins using ESP to read the thoughts of the Brunette Weretigress.


We head back to the Goldleaf Castle and make it back successfully.

Taranis asks them about the Dingy Shack in the field. She is surprised by his comment about the shack and asks him how he knows. The whole truth has been revealed. It was a temporary area of refuge, 40 miles to the south.

Oswald his healed for 10 damage. His Hippogriff is healed. He then prepares spells for 5 hours and 15 minutes.

A small party including Jacob, Josalyn, Oswald, Galarius and Eomiaje are headed south to seek out the dingy shack.

We will go to the site of the shack, then will rest in Qintama after 9 movement points.


We find the shack, closer than 40 miles away. It is west south west (7:00 from Qintama) on the border of the swamp hex.

We find the treasure in the shack easily.

  • 3,000 sp
  • 1 pearl inlaid small box (1,600 gp)

Josalyn detects a mechanical trap on the clasps on the box. Eomiaje is unable to untrap the box. There are a couple of small spikes and a small hole in the middle. Both side clasps have a substance on them.

We head to Qintama for the night. The weather is cloudy in the morning.


Reed Moon the 9th, 499

We arrive back at Goldleaf and Briiz will attempt to untrap the box. He fails and we ask the Weretigress for the key, but they deny having one. Using ESP, Eomiaje finds that they have the key in a hair bun.

Jacob opens the box and nothing emits from the small hole. Eomiaje already left.

1d4 Gems are found inside. There are 4 gems.

  • 5 gp.
  • 1000 gp.
  • 10 gp.
  • 100 gp.

Another gem was found on a body.

  • 6 gp.
  • 500 gp.

There are 4 gold anklets.

  • 5000 gp.
  • Broken wristband worth 800 gp.
  • Broken anklet worth 800 gp.
  • Anklet 1400 gp.

We will split treasure sometime later.


During Midsummer's Eve, the Druids plus Xrith'atiril will harvest Greater Mistletoe. Xrith plans to harvest with Domencilius. A silver sickle is purchased by Galerian the Bird Druid.

The Druids collect mistletoe together and they all make it back to Goldleaf the next day and one of the builders have made everyone pie.


NEW LINEUP

  • Iona - Giant Goat, Medium Warhorse
  • Jesketh - Medium Warhorse
  • Walker
  • Taranis - Druid
  • Thistlebell - Druid, Riding Horse
  • Galerian - Druid
  • Mirella
  • Titus - 2 Medium Warhorses
  • Thorgard - Hippogriff
  • Tatrin
  • Lok-Vurn

Reed Moon the 15th, 499

Titus and Thorgard are headed to Goldleaf from Maelc and they make it safely.

We are all at the Goldleaf domain.


NEWS and RUMORS

We must go to the West Reach of Hollow and head east of Criss Antha, and go to a ruined moathouse which borders the Badlands. We must avoid the Fossilbed Uplands due to undead Dinosaurs. There is very little hospitality in the Badlands until we meet Krellin's Deep, which is near where we looted the broadsword Cataclyzer. Taranis must gather something in the mountain areas and head through the lands of the Ursine Moon Cults. There are two iron constructions, 10 miles away looking over Lake Multha. They are the twin giants of Crying Columns of Galdrek-tor. We must avoid these but head to Mt. Orangehead. On the map is also Halls of Fetania on the mesa edge of Lake Lie'n.

We have the option of following the Sage's map directly. The map takes us directly by Mt. Orangehead and it avoids the traps laid by the Ursine Moon Cult.


Day One, we head to Eliope.

We make it without issue.


Reed Moon the 16th, 499

Day Two, headed to Nettin.

We make it safely and the weather is cloudy.


Reed Moon the 17th, 499

Day Three, are headed to Nob.

The weather is clear.


Reed Moon the 18th, 499

Day Four, We head to Farius and arrive safely.


Reed Moon the 19th, 499

We arrive at the Sanctum of the Yew, traveling the more dangerous routes.

The map starts 3 hexes south east of the ruined moathouse which is near a lake and north of the other swamp. The swamp is one hex south of where we headed.


Reed Moon the 20th, 499

We are headed to the lake hex, which is 10 miles long.

It has begun light rain in the evening.


Reed Moon the 21st, 499

It is cloudy. We are headed east from here, toward Mt. Orangehead.

  • scrubland
  • medium forest
  • medium forest

Taranis begins keeping a journal, at the edge of the forest…which is The Hollow!

  • medium forests
  • scrubland

We head south to the scrublands from the forest and then head south again.

  • scrubland
  • heavy forest
  • medium forests

We make camp in the scrublands. The night passes.


Reed Moon the 22nd, 499

We head south east from the scrubland campsite.

  • medium forest hills
  • medium forest

We head into the hills.

  • medium forest
  • plains
  • medium forest hills

We head into the plains hex.

Galerian is a Hawk during the day and an Owl at night. He sleeps in a tree.

We can only be surprised at night, but not when Galerian is a Giant Eagle.

  • medium forests

We are headed south east into the forest.

  • medium forests
  • swamp to the south

We are going north east from here and are 4 hexes from Mt. Orangehead, 20 miles. Iona and Jesketh are in the trees during their watches.

In the evening time, there is an encounter…


ROLL SURPRISE

We are not surprised and neither is the creature.

Iona, Jesketh and Walker are on their second watch. We see a singular form like an Ogre 8“ away.

  • Walker starts waking everyone up.
  • Iona and Jesketh both Hide in Shadows.

The Hulking Creature barrels through the woods straight toward Walker.

A Shambling Mound attacks Walker. It has AC 1 and is about 9' tall. Walker attacks and misses. It strikes Walker for 11 and 11 damage. He takes 22 damage total and becomes entangled!

Walker is not dropped but is at 1 hitpoint. He did not have Stoneskin.

  • Taranis charges.
  • Galerian casts Barkskin.
  • Walker cannot move but tries a Divine Intervention.
  • Iona goes out on a branch above the Shambling Mound.
  • Jesketh fires his bow.
  • Mirella pulls out her wand and yells OKSUM!
  • Titus goes psionically enlarged and with body weaponry and charges.
  • Thorgard charges.
  • Tatrin casts Prayer.
  • Thistlebell casts Faerie Fire (-3 segments).

Titus's body weaponry goes to AC 5 and his hands become battle axes.

We lose initiative.

Walker will need to check suffocation. He is unable to move at all and it prepares itself to attack anyone that stops it.

Magic Missile goes off and does 4 damage. Thorgard did 15 damage and Lok-Vurn does 9 damage. Taranis hits for 6 damage.

Galerian's Barkskin goes off and Taranis, who is charging, is being attacked. His AC is 5 and the Cloak of Displacement blocks the attacks. Prayer goes off and Thorgard gets a second attack but misses.

Walker uses divine intervention

  • Taranis disengages.
  • Galerian turns into a Sabertooth Tiger.
  • Walker is disabled.
  • Iona attacks.
  • Jesketh waits.
  • Titus punches.
  • Mirella uses her wand.
  • Thorgard attacks.
  • Lok-Vurn attacks.
  • Tatrin charges.

Faerie Fire goes off and there is no save, so we get a +3 to hit!

Iona hits for 11 damage and Lok-Vurn hits for 6. Magic Missile goes off and does less damage than normal.

Our weapon strikes are not very effective! The creature is still alive however. Iona is out of reach from the Shambling Mound. Lok-Vurn is hit and Stoneskin absorbs the damage.

Mirella does 3 damage from the Magic Missile. The Shambling Mound has taken a lot of damage and Walker is still stuck inside of it.

Taranis has disengaged.

  • Galerian charges.
  • Mirella moves to engage.
  • Thistlebell does not do anything.

Thorgard attacks first and does 14 damage, the creature survives! It must make a morale check. The creature retreats backwards into the woods with Walker.

We destroy the creature!

Walker survived and did not suffocate!

COMBAT ENDS


Walker is healed up and we return to camp. There are no additional encounters.


Reed Moon the 23rd, 499

We are headed to the north east from here.

  • medium forests

The map takes us to the south east. We can see a small mountain range about 16 miles distant and we are headed that way.

  • medium forests
  • scrubland

Across the scrubland is Mt. Orangehead. We head into the scrubland and there is a possible encounter.


ROLL SURPRISE

The Hawk comes down and the Riders spot about 200 Antelope about 4 miles away.

NO COMBAT


We see Mt. Orangehead which is crowned in a vibrant orange color. Taranis knows that this is a fungus, as well as any Druids. We have to stop here to collect the moss and fungus, to ward off something.

The party discusses sending the Hippogriff Riders up to collect the fungus, which must be applied as 1 application per day per person. It takes 1 coin of the moss to cover the body daily. 5 coin weight per person per day.

We need this due to the Ursine Moon Cult, which have an extreme sense of smell, which is deterred by the fungus and could avoid the encounters with this as we move through their lands.

We discuss routes going around the Crying Columns.

There is a river and a pond that lead to Lake Multha. We must go between the two rivers and around the columns to reduce encounters. Taking the direct route would take us through the lands of the Ursine Moon Cult. There is 7 hexes of heavy forest.

We decide we want to avoid the heavy forest but first will go to the Mt. Orangehead to obtain the fungus.

Thorgard and Galerian will travel to the Mt. Orangehead to collect fungus and Thorgard can collect 4,000 coins.

We are planning to go straight north out of the Hollow and then east, then back south. There is a river that add one point of movement. We head into the medium forest.

  • heavy forest
  • medium forest

We head into the medium forest and then encounter the river.

The riders head north and Thorgard scouts on Hippogriff. We are just west of the Ursine Moon Cults.

We will have to camp for the night.


Reed Moon the 24th, 499

We head into the medium forest.

Two hexes to the north are some hills known as a huge region called the Giant's Belt. We continue on into the hills north of the forest.

  • hills
  • scrubland
  • lightly forested mountains
  • lightly forested hills.

The weather is cloudy in the evening and the night goes by without incident. The night is still cloudy.

We head north east into the scrubland, to the north are hills.

  • scrubland
  • medium forest

To the north is wasteland and there are hills up this way. We head south east.

There is a small lake to the south east that splits the hills and forest. Galerian can see this as he scouts as a Giant Hawk.

We scan around for some buildings. We see a tiny settlement built 2/3rd up the mountain, paths coming up the mountain. They are complex to navigate but plain to see.

The location of the site we are trying to reach is about 10 hexes to the south east.

We setup camp on the border of the hills, near the lake.

The night passes without incident.


Reed Moon the 25th, 499

To the north is more wasteland which cuts to the south. We head south east. South and south east is medium forest. south east is more wasteland.

We head into the wasteland and see a small mountain range and more wasteland. At this point we will start applying the fungus to our characters and mounts potentially.

We stop at the edge of the forest for the night.

Galerian is exploring on his own while scanning for structures. He sees a small hamlet along with a ruined castle to the south east of the hamlet. This is located just beyond the solitary mountain that is north of our camp.


ROLL SURPRISE

This is during the first watch. We are not surprised but the creatures is surprised.

We plan to avoid it but see many fires from torches, moving in the forests edge to the south east.

COMBAT AVOIDED


Reed Moon the 26th, 499

The weather is clear in the morning. Walker goes to interpret the tracks from the encounter last night.

We start setting up for the find traps routine, Mirella can cast 5 times and Tatrin will cover 4 traps per day.

Galerian sees a structure to the south east that separates us from the scrubland. It looks like a windmill made of metal about 3 stories tall. As we move into the hex with the windmill, Galerian can hear the sound of a creaking from the windmill. It is rusted dark like gunmetal. The mill does not appear to be spinning much, only a little bit.

Galerian flies closer to the metal windmill. It looks dilappidated but he can see about halfway, there is not outside staircase but there are two windows. He cannot see the bottom of it yet, so he gets closer… He sees some trampled ground around the entrance but it is too wide and heavy to be a human. Galerian returns to us and tells us what he sees.

We are going past the structure and going into scrubland.

  • heavy forest
  • scrubland surrounds the heavy forest
  • medium forest hills x2

The windmill is three hexes west of the goal so we go south east about two hexes. The Crying Columns of Galdrek-tor lie due south from the windmill.

  • heavy forest
  • scrublands

The Riders can see one of the columns of Galdrek-tor and the one further south, about 10 miles beyond.

We set up camp…the weather remains clear.


Reed Moon the 27th, 499

We go south east instead of due south. The Columns look kind of like a pair of warriors in a guarding position with swords and look heavily rust streaked. Galerian can see that the rust is coming down their faces making them look like they are crying. These columns are associated with some past Conqueror and Taranis wants to avoid at all costs.

We head into the medium forest to the south.

  • medium forests
  • heavy forest

Lake Multha is visible to the riders which is seen to the south west. Taranis takes over guiding the group.

We are looking for the Easterling Pipes. We must takes notes of the area, to record everything. The pipes are 10' diameter tubes that we need to keep an eye out for.

We can see a twin waterfall, much faller than Taughannock Falls. It falls into a pond and there is a stream flowing off. We see some hills and a plain to the south, cutting through the forest. There is an opening or big clearing beyond that. Some of the trees seem to have fruits on them, in a glade. There are several gigantic creatures along with a Giant Lizard, Giant Dog, Giant Bison, Giant Spiders and Giant Beetles.

These creatures appear to be living in harmony in this glade. Galerian can see that there is the edge of a pond in here as well. There are a couple more things he sees, one more clearing from a distance. It is a square shaped clearing with a square cube statue in the middle. Maybe another standing stone in this clearing as well.

Galerian goes to check out the doom cube. He can tell that the land past a southern point is more marshy and boggy. There are some trails through the forest, nothing super big but there is a trail going between the two glades. It connects the two clearings. There seems to be a lot of undergrowth on the east side and something is canopied in the marshy area. There are four ruined structures in that area, places that have fallen to disuse.

On the edge where the ground gets boggy, Galerian can see several brass colored tubes, sticking out of the marshy ground to the south west. The clearing in the south is not flooded but around it is all swampy, its like a drier area. He can see more animals and amongst the Giant animals, Lizard (2x the size of a subterranean), an Ape, a Dog (18x a normal dog colored red), Green Dinosaur (like a Norlup but x2), Giant Donkey, Giant Earthworm, Giant Stag, Giant Bison, Giant Gazelle.

The Earthworm is drinking and talking with some Beetles.


END OF SESSION

player_journals/maervahr/survival_stories_from_the_hinterlands_session_256_-_july_16th_2025.txt · Last modified: 2025-07-17 03:47 by maervahr