This past Sunday found me, and several other adventurers in the small village of Wildwood, in southern Chimeron. We were there in response to the missive sent by the village’s priest of Gaia, Marcus in regards to five children who had fallen ill: Daniel, Michael, Margaret, Zeke, and Juliet. Upon entering the village, our group spoke to a few of the townspeople to gather what information we could. Maria Thornwood, the village alchemist, provided access to several useful potions for our newer adventurers. The butchers in the village spoke of strange customers they had gotten recently; customers who purchased a whole bull and took it before they finished carving it up. Although, I wouldn’t have needed them to even kill the animal; it’s more fun to hunt live prey... Anyways, the other townsfolk we met included the sheriff, Sasha, and the blacksmith, Damien, who joined our group as our guide through a nearby silver mine. One of the children’s fathers gave us a quickly sketched map he made while going to investigate the mine himself. He claimed to have copied it from one he found in an overseer’s room of sorts before the map faded. Twenaria led us all in a prayer to Gaia, to seek her Blessing, and soon after we all headed out.
Our group ventured into the silver mine where we found a room with some bodies lying about. The bodies turned out to be miners who were working the mine and had been moved up to main entrance. One of the younger adventurer’s séanced one of the bodies and we ended up communicating with one Michael Silversmith who had died in the mine some 600 years ago. He told us of the purity of both the silver in the mine and the springs that were very good for healing. After the spirit had faded our group advanced further into the mine. In the next chamber we encountered a number of undead who, after being slain, would drop bits of silver. After clearing the room, we continued on and eventually came to a room that had a lock on one of the paths. Doing a little bit of investigating on my own, I sent my animal companion, Gwen to scout ahead. She managed to get through the lock and when she came back she warned of ‘death’ being up ahead. However the rest of us couldn’t advance until will found the key so we knew our next move. Shortly after Gwen returned to me, I was some how contacted by a man named Joseph, a Necromancer, and a veteran of the Bedlam war, who was studying the mine further in. He wished us safe travels and we went down the other path in search of the key.
Instead of a key in the next room, we found a tainted wellspring. We discovered it’s taintedness after I offered to touch the water and found it trying to disease me. I was fine due to my purity, but we couldn’t just leave the diseased wellspring there. We needed to drain the spring and plug it up, and seeing as how I was the only one with purity, I ended up drinking the whole pool. Let me tell you, diseased water tastes quite gross. The things I do for you adventurers..... sheesh. Ah well, Discordia gave me a cookie, for it. Ah, as I was saying, after I drank the entire pool, the others managed to plug up the pool to prevent it from refilling.
We advanced to a room with some golems who would not let us pass without first testing our knowledge of weapon construction and our proficiency with our weapons in honorable combat. After twelve of us had passed these two trials, myself among them, everyone was allowed to pass and we discovered one of the golems had the key!
On our way back to the room with the lock, we encountered more zombies, and other undead creatures who tried to disease us. We collected silver from them and eventually we made it back to the lock. After successfully getting through the lock, we met none other than Joseph. He was able to give us some more information about what had been going on in the mine, and explained he was there doing some research of his own, while looking for artifacts of power. Joseph also explained that the bodies in the room we met him had been skeletons, but now were partially put back together. Included in some of the bodies, were various cow parts, which led us to the conclusion that someone was trying to make a minotaur. In the tunnels, we came across a small chamber off to the side in which Gaia had gifted us with a wonderful bounty, such that we could rest and regain some of our strength. Though when you drink a whole spring of disease water there’s really only so much that can be done.... but I digress.
In the next chamber we encountered some members of a mercenary group called the Black Wings, Juliet and Morrowind. Juliet seemed to be the higher ranking of the two. We fought them as well as more undead of various sorts. As we were heading to the next room Joseph explained to us that she was using a form of projection so we could see her even though she wasn’t actually there.
In the chamber following, which appeared to be a vault of sorts, there were many items scattered around, including a ‘stealable’ banana peel. Many gems and other various trinkets were collected. Eventually we found the room where Juliet really was and we managed to defeat her and her minions after a while. In that room, we also discovered a well that appeared to be the source of the other springs. The Black Wing Necromancer was finally defeated by ‘purging’ the well by dumping a large amount of silver into it, which was also tied to Juliet dying. The well became pure and holy once again, and we decided to carry some of the holy water with us, to use for curing the children.
After defeating Juliet, we realised we were underneath Grandfather Oak. On our way out of the mines, heading towards the heart of the tree, we came upon an altar in a room with a glowing duck. The duck, when touched, seemed to be linked with some sort of trap in the room, creating an area of darkness and awakening the enemies.
After a bit more fighting and trudging through tunnels,we came to the roots of Grandfather oak. Seriously it was a lot of tunnels, I really need to stretch my wings after all that walking underground. The roots were being protected by three guardians who had been corrupted as well. As we cleansed the guardians using the holy water, they helped us beat the others as well as attack the undead that continued to bother us.
Progressing through the roots, we reached the heart of Grandfather Oak where we came face to face with seeming the root cause, pardon the pun. The unknown male declared that we were too late and that his work was finished. However, adventurers being how we are, attacked and very nearly all got wiped out. The enemy, later found to be known as Kas, at least thats what it sounded like...., left us there to rot and vanished from the tree with his minions. All hope was not lost however, we lived to tell the tale thanks to a well-timed Potion of Raise Dead administered to Phoenix by Viro before he went down. My regeneration triggered and I was able to help bring everyone over to be raised. And Death Watch is so immensely useful, as it allows me to recount this tale for you all. But the journey was not quite finished there. Yes, we let the bad guy escape, but we fixed the wellspring and once we got back to the village, we were able to cure all the children. Talking with Maria, the alchemist, once the children were cured, we were speculating that Kas, the enemy that left us for dead, is a Banin. Maria also offered to be our guide should we need to venture back to the mines, provided she was given about a months notice.
And that’s the fun everyone who could not assist Marcus in the village of Wildwood missed out on. Thanks for reading.
May your Spirits’ Soar
~Kazul, the Dragon