After recovering from the previous evening’s festivities, Kristov, Faus, Sturmberg, and Lucia decide to head to the northwest in search of more settlements and the potential for treasure at the grave of a long-forgotten lord.
Before leaving, Kristov gives Jabari 100 silver out of his coffers to pay for the hirelings and the upkeep of Ogre’s Thorn. While he knows it goes to a worthy cause, it pains him to part with that much silver, though he doesn’t share why.
Heading out onto the road, Kristov says, “Adventure has always taken me where it will. Searching the dank wood sounds intriguing,.”
The group chats amiably on their hike. Sturmburg shares tales he has heard of the Dankwood and the wondrous height of the trees that grow there. Lucia admits that she has grown weary of the responsibility of leading the villagers and is excited at the thought of travel. Faus seems keen on the legend of the vengeful lord and the thought of treasure at his burial site.
Lucia successfully leads them off their known path and into the western wilder lands. However, it isn’t long before something unnatural stirs in a copse of trees they paused to rest at. The wise druid sense there is an otherworldly nature to a dense fog that begins to roll in.
Yelling to her companions that the Blood Mist has found them, most of the part scrambles to find trees or rush from the area. Faus is too slow and is quickly enveloped by the fog. Looking back, the rest wonder aloud what they should do.
“We can’t just let him be enveloped, can we?’ Kristov asks.
Meanwhile, Sturmburg is unnerved at the sight of the mist and rushes away from it as Lucia berates him for cowardice.
“I’ll fight things that are actually fightable!” the dwarf wheezes.
After leaping from their trees and escaping to the edges of the fog, Kristov and Lucia round up Sturmburg and come up with a plan to help Faus. Kristov pulls 10 meters of rope from his bag and ties it to a large rock while Lucia and Sturmburg take hold of it. The old merchant then rushes into the mist to find the sorcerer.
In a few moments, there is a tug on the rope and the druid and warrior pull their partners to safety.
“That was weird. Where did everyone go?” Faus asks. He seems none worse the wear for the traumatic experience.
The druid urges them to get away from the mist and continue to head west. While she doesn’t make it too obvious, Lucia is completely unnerved over Faus’ comments and strange behavior. The stress of the issue gives her a headache and almost causes her to lose the path but she grits through it.
It isn’t long before the party comes across the wretched remains of another traveler. Ravens and other wild animals have already picked the remains to pieces. There isn’t much left but Lucia and Faus investigate the body. After some time, Lucia finds a bronze medallion identifying the remains as that of a Rust Brother.
Fortunately for Faus, she is also able to tell that the corpse is diseased. She stops him from taking the skull just as he was about to touch it.
“This guy got what he deserves,” Lucia says as she spits on the ground. “But you shouldn’t touch it.”
The mouse-like sorcerer ponders loudly to himself whether the skull is worth the risk. That vocal rumination is distressing to Lucia. She and Sturmberg shoot Kristov dirty looks but the merchant just shrugs.
Sensing the judgement, Faus says, “Remember the scorpion fight? Those skeletons protected us!”
“I think it’s diseased,” Lucia says. “Not sure if it makes that better or worse for you.”
With a sigh, Faus leaves the remains and the medallion. “We can always come back for it,” he utters with a grin.
The group trudges on for a few more kilometers, and eventually finds a small village near the side of a large lake. Marching into town, they notice that most of the villagers appear to be women or youths. Very few men are seen and all of the villagers give the quarter a wide berth.
Lucia is able to catch the attention of one woman as she comes out of her home. The woman advises them to head to the only inn, named “The Humming Swine” and speak with the mayor. Before hurrying back inside, she mentions that there have been some “troubles” but doesn’t elaborate. She says it’s why most of the men are gone.
Opening the low door to the tavern, Kristov sees there’s not much to the dingy interior of the hall. A lone dwarf sits at the bar while being waited on by a human of Ailander descent. In a corner, a group of old men and women animatedly play a gambling game with dice and runes. On the opposite end, a woman dressed in strange but simple clothes sits on a bench to herself, talking to a blue bird on her shoulder.
Sidling up to the bar, Kristov orders a round of beer for the party. The bartender gives him mugs of a watery-looking ale before growling, “That’ll be four copper.”
As the merchant pays, he is able to get the bartender to talk about the trouble the town is having with the undead. The bartender claims that mass numbers of restless dead have come from the west. A party of the men in town was sent but few returned, and those that did are still in shock. He also complains the mayor hasn’t done much about the issue.
Meanwhile, Sturmburg sits next to the fellow dwarf and strikes up conversation. He can see that the dwarf is a trader or craftsman and belongs to the Meromannian clan. After buying the gruff dwarf a bowl of stew, he finally gets the dwarf to talk.
The Meromannian loudly gripes about the watery beer, the thin stew, the state of the village and of the humans he dislikes. Pressing the dwarf about why he left his clan, Sturmburg finds out the dwarf is a mason who come from the south to work at a town in the northwest. The dwarf claims he was attacked by restless dead on the way back to the mountains and he lost his tools. The veteran warrior tries to convince the dwarf to come with the party to find his tools and eventually fix up Ogre’s Thorn.
“A master craftsman is nothing without his tools,” Sturmburg says. “But I know you need to get back to your people. I”ll leave you to it.”
As Faus eavesdrops on the conversations, Lucia intently watches the strange bird lady. The druid has never seen such designs and colors on the woman’s simple clothing and is intrigued how such a weird character could come to live in the dingy village.
All the talk of undead is unnerving Faus. As he looks to the exits, he considers whether it’s worth leaving and waiting for the party to finish and continue hiking.
After getting her ale, Lucia works up the courage to go talk to the woman. The lady looks at her dreamily before saying she is the mayor of the village, “but I prefer to think of myself as an artisan.”
With a little probing and getting the woman to focus, the druid learns that the town is called “Heartwater.” The mayor seems unaffected and uncaring about the issues with the undead. In fact, her own husband went missing a few days ago with many other men, but the mayor believes the group were simply hunting.
Before their conversation can continue, a maiden bursts through the door yelling, “the dead! The dead are back!….”
JesseFolk.com 