After some resting and patching up to recover from the Ghoul-fighting, our heroes walked home to Wildehaven, weighed down by heavy loot — mostly silver coins. Nice to have in a purse, but at a rate of 10 for 1 Experience point a somewhat frustrating weight. En route we had a random encounter: and it was Humphrey Talbot, nobleman and heir to the foremost House of Wildehaven, out hunting with a larger party of footmen and professional trackers. He was friendly enough and even paid us compliments for the widely recounted boar-incident, although the conversation dragged, when the party tried to smile and bow him away, until he read the room and rode on. Why did we try to get him to go on? We each of us were acutely aware of all our loot and deeply worried that he might demand taxes and thus shave off potential XPs.

We returned un-taxed and went to the local wizard’s house first, to let Wildehaven’s resident mid-level MU inspect our loot. She found no magic in it but managed to make the invisible ink in the tome visible. It was written by one Sir Buckley Raven and went into the lore of several vampire families.
Analyzing the runes on the sarcophagus, the Magic User unearthed that the script created an undead-repelling aura 5 feet wide. Minig suggested that this aura may be a terrible prison for a vampire immobilised by it, chafing under unrelenting magical pressure for aeons, and surely filled with pent-up rage.

Loot analyzed, we went into the tavern and met a new player character: Fitzwilliam “wil” Percy, a slightly shady thiefish character, but with a good heart. He had toyed with the idea of helping Darkwood nobility lay claim to the Castle Stonemist, but we painted word-pictures of treasure and honor, so he decided to join our crew.
We played a round of black jack, Minig won and threw his winnings into the shared party pot. Then we bought one shockingly expensive healing potion and several holy water flasks (Minig bought two) before pouring the rest of the money into XP.

Farin elected to keep his valuable books and stored them with Goody, the village witch.

To Darkmoor

We discussed potential further activities, decided that the ruins were as good as solved and the kobolds moving out anyway; therefore we settled on going to Darkmoor in the southwest: home of the Elven Scout we were referred to, and also home of rumored corruption, behind bandit infested woods. Minig saw the travel to Darkmoor as an opportunity to earn coin. And wil made it possible by connecting with the trader Renfred Williams.

For 5g a day plus food, we would protect Renfred’s two wagons brimming with wares for Darkmoor. That would be 35 gold pieces each. We debated at length and finally hired an NPC mercenary for the trip, or rather, Willem did, and paid the new swordsman a full 7 gold pieces in advance out of his own earnings.

“Ryden the Blue” was he, a first level fighter in chainmail, now Willem’s retainer.

The trek through the forest went pretty well, not counting the ever increasing swarms of mosquitos all around us. Hermione scouted ahead to give us an edge on encounter rolls, and that helped us hunt a bit of game and avoid a pack of wolves. Of the terrible bandits rumors had warned of there was no sign. Neither did we encounter the baron’s taxmen who allegedly hounded travellers who escaped the bandits to relieve them of a certain amount in exchange for the “safety” of the road.

Regarding the wolves we had a fun quibble:
Farin, true to form as a cook, suggested that if wolves were to harrass us, we could climb up on the wagons and throw the wolves meat to give them something better to chew on than our legs and throats. Very in character, because feeding people and animals is always first and foremost on Farin’s mind.
However, almost cliché-like, both of the Halflings and Renfred the trader were shocked and horrified by the very idea and rejected it in any way, shape or form.

Stonemist

Finally we reached the swamp proper and encountered Darkmoor, built on stilts in the swamp, connected by wooden bridges, and surrounded by wooden palisades. Darkmoor was clearly stronger than Wildehaven by several tiers, with multiple guard towers and a liberal amount of armed guards all over the place. And right next to the town a bulky stone castle rested right at the edge of the swamp; Castle Stonemist, the home of the mysterious young baron Edmund and his cohorts. The whole vista was shrouded in mist and a constant drizzle of rain, which fed moss and lichen on the towers and roofs.

To enter the town Renfred had to pay taxes: 1 gold piece per wagon and 1 silver per person; he complained, but only nominally (“it is too much! It is always too much!”), and we all were surprised at the reasonable amount. And even Renfred admitted that he made more than enough profit from this journey to press this tax into insignificance. Still, his complaints touched Willem’s soft heart and the fighter gave his boss a gold piece to help alleviate the burden (but out of sight from the other characters, knowing that they would object)

The merchant was very touched by the gesture and invited the lot of us to a bottle of rum in the “Tasty Eel”, a tavern he recommended.

Frog Gods

Indeed, the Tasty Eel was the sensible tavern, right between the deeply cutthroat “Grey Raven” and the overpriced, ridiculously luxurious “Three Frogs”. Speaking of frogs, the dominant religion in these parts turned out to be the one of the “Mudborn”, an odd cult that worshipped multi-armed frog-people… rarely a good sign in roleplaying games.

Despite this ominous practice, their gods Avher, Julanda and Odos were officially part of the “100 gods” that Farin himself represented. That hardly changed the suspicious appearance of the Church, nor did it paste over the shady reputation of high priest Cassius Green, said to be deeply corrupt, fitting Edmund’s domain perfectly.
Avher is the main frog god, Julanda is concerned with Sea, Thunder and Storm, and Odos is the Hunter, with a human aspect, but still part of the frog-cult.

Now we settled down and fixed to contact Myrelin Orym next, the elven ranger that we had been told about: a trustworthy warrior in the employ of this sinister new baron. Myrelin would be able to give us actionable information we could build on … other than her we did not trust any of this frog-loving marsh-dwellers.

The whole story