The Stolen Land
The Charter
Open Quests
- Find Svetlana's wedding ring (stolen by the bandits)
- Explore the Stolen Lands
- Eliminate banditry
- Bring Falgrim Sneeg to justice
Loot and XP
Party Loot
XP 1300/2000
Exploration Map
Map is right here. The black star is your current location. Flat-colour hexes are those where you know the predominant terrain; artistic hexes are those that count as fully explored. There's an XP award for exploration of each hex... Colour codes:
- light green = plains
- dark green = forest
- blue = lake
- dark grey = mountains
- brown = hills
- yellow = swamp
NPCs
Because we all like a handy guide to characters!
- Oleg & Svetlana Leveton: couple who run Oleg's Trading Post; Svetlana is a very good cook.
- Kesten Garess: taciturn mercenary who leads a small group of guards, currently resident at Oleg's.
- Jhod Kavken: Priest of Erastil; has not explained his reasons for being in the Stolen Lands.
- Vekkel: old hunter, encountered in the wilderness.
- The Stag Lord: Bandit leader, rumoured to be feared rather than loved, a dead shot with a bow, and a drunk.
Campaign Diary
19-25 Pharast, 4716
Leaving Jhod at the old temple, the party sets off to explore. They head first south, to the edge of the forest; that night, they meet an older hunter named Vekkel who is setting out to kill a legendary boar known as Tuskgutter. He says it's not anything worse than a bigger, meaner boar: "you see men who are bigger and meaner than other men; don't mean they're orcs". The party steer well clear of where the boar lairs, remembering their last encounter with the animals, and head west.
The ground slopes down, becoming marshy. As it turns into a true swamp, they see two abandoned buildings. A boggard - a frog-like humanoid - tries to tell them to back off, in broken Common. Unable to establish a line of communication, Eadfrid and Adwulf bully their way in to the ruins, while Guthmund stands watch. They find nothing of interest and head onwards.
The abandoned temple seems to be a safe place: though Guthmund spotted an owlbear, and Jhod reports seeing a wolf, neither of the predators came close to the temple, even though horses were tethered and defenseless on each occasion. Adwulf suggests that the place has a calming effect on animals, and Jhod wonders if this is Erastil's influence.
Returning to Oleg's, the party is greeted with terrible news: Svetlana tells them that the bandits have returned, capturing Oleg and taking him away as a prisoner.
15-18 Pharast, 4716
Jhod describes an abandoned temple deep in the forest. He is cagy at first, but explains it is a temple of Erastil, God of the Hunt. The party agrees to investigate, and slay the "wrong" bear that Jhod says is guarding the site. Exploring to the West, the party encounter the fey, and Tyg-Titter-Tut agrees to guide them to the temple.
The temple is abandoned, but a giant bear guards it: the bear seems dizzy and bewildered, and soon lumbers forward to attack. The party defeats the bear, and the apparent curse on the place is lifted. The water in the stagnant pool turns clear, the ominous shadows retreat a little, and the bear's corpse turns into an old man, who dies with a look of relief in his eyes - before crumbling into dust.
The next day, they bring Jhod back to the temple to translate the inscriptions. He describes a history: the wall-paintings in the cave are a symbolic account of how the last priest of the temple lost his faith in Erastil. He lured a giant bear to the temple, and sacrificed it in a prayer to anyone who would listen.
8-14 Pharast, 4716
After trading with Oleg for some new armour, and requesting a healing wand on order, the party sets off into the Greenbelt. They pause to bury the (somewhat gnawed) body of the bandit at the edge of the woods, building a rough cairn; after this they proceed to map the eastern edge of the forest in more detail. Late morning on the 9th, they come across a clearing where four kobolds are trying to digest their over-eating on radishes. Eadfrid tries to steal a radish, to see if it's any good: but the kobolds spot him, and won't be talked out of attacking. It does not end well for the kobolds.
Exploration continues, including identifying the direction of the river past the old bandit camp - which remains deserted. The party agree not to take on the main bandit fort at this time, but to explore the area instead. They encounter no intelligent life, and no dangerous animals, for a couple of days: though they do find a cave with a strange glittering wall, and make a note to come back later. On the way back to Oleg's, the party is jumped by a large and hungry spider; this time, it has bitten off more than it can chew and despite difficulty with horses, they slay the spider and investigate its burrow. Of most interest, they find a crude map on the corpse of a bandit: it depicts a dry dead tree on a hilltop.
Largely uninjured, but tired, the party head back to Oleg's for a rest and a hot meal. They are welcomed warmly; another new arrival introduces himself as Jhod Kavken.
7 Pharast, 4716:
Despite trying to track the bandit, his trail is lost somewhere in the woods. The party return to Oleg's, and meet Kesten Garess, a mercenary whose small group have arrived to guard the trading post. He asks the party to track down and bring to justice a man named Falgrim Sneeg, who stole from them earlier this year. Oleg is glad to see the party back, and trades with them.
6 Pharast, 4716:
The party, guided by Perlivash, ride all night through the forest to the bandit camp. Arriving just after dawn, Adwulf sneaks ahead to scout the camp: but he is spotted. Eadfrid and Guthmund rush up the track to the camp, seeing Adwulf being shot at by archers in the trees, and facing down the bandit leader. Though she injures Eadfrid, he cuts her in two with a single blow, and the two bandit archers surrender in panic.
Interrogating the bandits, the party learns a lot of information:
- The boss, Kressle, reports to a bandit called the Stag Lord. All his officers wear amulets with an image of a stag's skull.
- The Stag Lord is a drunk, and not popular with his followers, but they don't dare go against him.
- He's a dead shot with a bow ("Never misses!") and either his helm or his face - the two bandits disagreed - is like a stag's skull.
- His fort is downriver, on the shore of the lake.
After some discussion, the party decide that the bandits are truly repentant, and therefore should not be executed: but they are branded instead, marked on the cheek with the amulet, and sent to Oleg's with a note asking for some degree of mercy. How much will be granted remains to be seen...
The party waits, most of the day, for the two surviving bandits to arrive. Alhandra casts her spell in ambush a little early, and though one bandit is killed, the other escapes. After a rest, the party sets out to track the bandit.
4-5 Pharast, 4716:
After a good night's sleep, the party sets off, guided by Perlivash, the pseudodragon. He shows them where the first trap is, and leaves them to explore. It's a time-consuming job, but despite a couple of near misses, the party find and trigger (using sticks, not limbs) a number of vicious bear traps. On the way back, the party run into a group of six bandits; everyone is badly injured, but Perlivash arrives in time to help. He turns Guthmund invisible, and the resulting violent death of one more bandit is enough to scare off the two survivors.
Perlivash tries to convince the party that the bandit camp might be too dangerous for them, but they disagree - even though he points out their habit of nearly getting killed. He does mention a couple of other sites in the forest: "Giant frogs, and an ancient temple with a mad bear".
3 Pharast, 4716:
Despite the increasing difficulty of following tracks in the forest, Guthmund and Alhandra are doing well: until the tracks suddenly vanish. There's a patch of magical grease where the tracks cease to be visible, and though the grease disappears soon, the tracks do not reappear. There's muffled, high-pitched laughter in the treetops, though nothing can be seen.
A long day's ride, returning to the edge of the forest and following it, leads only to an abandoned campsite. Before the party can investigate, they are attacked by two wild boars; Guthmund and Eadfrid are both seriously injured. One of the boars is killed; the other staggers off into the undergrowth, badly wounded. Alhandra is able to heal her companions, saving them from likely death.
In the aftermath, a quiet voice says "Oh dear. We weren't watching."
Another voice, slightly higher-pitched, replies "And whose fault was that? You were looking for another prank, and they nearly got killed!"
A conversation ensues; it turns out that the two pranksters are fey - a pseudodragon, and a grasshopper-bodied girl. They accuse the party of being bad sports and not having a good sense of humour, particularly when Guthmund threatens to burn them out. Eventually, however, they agree to help: they know where the bandits keep camp, and ask only that the party clear out some "nasty traps" from the forest to the northwest.
2 Pharast, 4716:
The day after the ambush, the party sets out to the West, carrying the body of Happs Bydon. They attempt to hang him from a tree, as a warning to other bandits: but strangely, the first branch they use falls out of the tree; the second attempt is met by a shower of pinecones landing on Guthmund's head. They come up with a second plan: peg the bandit's body to the ground, then light a signal fire to lure other bandits. Despite waiting until nightfall, no-one turns up: perhaps the bandit camp is too far away.
1 Pharast, 4716
The party sets up an ambush. Though Eadfrid is spotted, and he and Guthmund both sustain serious injury, the bandits are defeated and their leader captured. The leader, Happs Bydon, is killed trying to escape: but not before he has revealed some information. The bandits' camp is "on the edge of the forest, near the river, to the west"; Oleg provides information that the nearest edge of the forest is around ten hours' walk (less time on horseback). The party decide to keep the bandits' horses; Oleg offers to handle the sale of any items they have without charging them, and will be able to get a good price.
28 Calistril, 4716
The party arrives at Oleg's trading post in the late evening. As they are sitting by the fire after supper, the storm breaks; Svetlana (Oleg's wife) explains how the trading post has been beset by bandits. The bandits typically arrive early in the morning, on the first day of each month. The first time, three months ago, they came in force: but since then it has been a smaller group. The party plan to ambush the bandits the following day.
20 Calistril, 4716
The party is chartered by the Swordlords to explore the Greenbelt and eliminate banditry.
