Session 1 (17/2/2020)

This session opened with the party in the Flying Fish, having spent their day cleaning rats out of the Hearthton Brewery's basement. After some discussion, the party went to visit Fabio, Lyra's mentor, who reluctantly let them into his home.

After the party headed home for the night, Aldor stopped by the temple to consult with Father Leif Rathus, then headed to bed as well.

The next day, the party discovered several disappearances: three of Bjorn's workers (Erik, Leif and Sven), Luke Hearthton and Darragh and Aldor's uncle Jarl. Investigating the disappearances, the party came to suspect a group of travelers passing through town who had been seen drinking with Jarl and Luke at the Founder's Rest.

They headed into the Foxholm Forest and encountered a pack of wolves with strange green eyes, also finding the body of Leif, one of Bjorn's workers, surrounded by strange plant creatures. After fighting their way through, they arrived at Kazbarrow, seeing an unconscious body near the entrance and the massive stone slab that blocked off the tomb itself shattered in half, leaving the entrance of the barrow wide open.

Teldaris date: Friday the 8th of June, 643IR

Lyra Grimm
We clear an infestation of strange rats out of the Brewery - someone seems to be meddling in alchemy he shouldn’t have? Very interesting. I wanted to read the books that I found there but Aldor beat me to one. There’s no point stealing it from him, he’ll just use it to make me feel guilty later.

We arrive at my master's house. I feel embarrassed to have him meet them, but I’m sure he has seen far worse in his time travelling. He seems to want me to tag along with them, even though he must know that I’m not terribly enthusiastic about it. Hopefully we find something interesting along the way that will make all of this trouble worthwhile. Perhaps they could even help me in my own journey.

Thus far I have deduced that Bjorn seems to be some kind of a leader? Or is just very confident. I cannot ascertain whether he knows how to use Common as a language or if he simply thinks he knows. Also Aldor is a sneaky little shit. Playing stupid when he clearly isn’t. He’s obviously snooping into places that he shouldn’t be. I must watch him closely.

Kel offers to let me read the notes he found. They seem to be hastily scrawled alchemical formulas, and notes about a possible code and symbols. They all seem to be focused around healing or enhancing attributes.

It seems that important members of the town are starting to disappear. One from Founders Rest, a few from the Mill disappeared. I recognised their names, but I don't believe I know any of them very well. Boring.

Aldor visited Luke’s house and it seems like Luke couldn’t sleep, and woke up and left sometime in the night, despite Aldor sleeping at his doorstep. Oh Christ. It seems like he was drinking with some strangers and then he left with them. We find the room that they were staying in is completely destroyed, more or less. There is a piece of blank paper on the desk in a battered room. I hold it up to the light and make out a few words,  “Nearly there,” “Seconds”, “Kazbarrow”, “Sceptor” “So close” “two of five”.

We leave to follow the trail. Along the way, Aldor and Kel leave to speak privately. When we all meet to continue, Kel briefly tells us of himself. We encounter wolves in the forest and then some twigblights and a vineblight. Oh yes, and a body. Apparently one of the ones who were missing. We destroy the monsters and they appear to have the same green eyes as the others did. We arrive at the entrance of Kazbarrow to see the entrance forcibly opened.

Kel'nazir Shadestone
Lyra led me to meet with a group of townsfolk for some kind of mission. Turns out some kid was meddling with alchemy and drew unwanted attention of some freaky ass rats. After clearing out the infestation I managed to sneak a few of the important looking pages in regards to the magics involved. While his methods are questionable I believe his heart was in the right place, plus if he can produce these healing potions I could make a mint off them.

With no leads on the source of the mutants, we turned to the only other arcane caster within the town, Lyra's master Fabio. What a waste of time that was. The old coot was speaking in half truths, refusing to assist. I feel that the old man is hiding something. I am also starting to question the sanity of our new companion Aldor. The halfling seems alert and responsive but does not seem to be able to stay focused for any more than a minute.

After a nights rest I figured I would head to the allocated town hall meeting place and case the building. If the mayor would not let us into the archives for information I will simply transform myself into the man and get what I need. However this was cut short as I had spotted a trio of travellers in town. Shit. How did they find me this fast? Professor Reuben von Malakai and associates, the tall lady Sigrid and that little dwarf prick Kjell. The glove fused to my arm came from the digsite that the professor tried to kill me within. Perhaps they didn't know I was there, I had to keep my cool.

Meeting with the others we discovered that multiple town members had disappeared. Was this my fault? Had I led these killers to this peaceful town? What if the others find out? Would they want justice? I had to make sure we did not cross paths with these people. Standing watch while the others investigated the lodgings that I knew to be of the research team I was approached by Aldor requesting a private meeting. There was no time, I needed to get the group out of town before we were spotted. Maybe it would all blow over and they would leave. No. They deserved the truth.

I seems I was not the only one withholding information. A private conversation with Aldor revealed he was tasked with retrieving some kind of scepter. I believe that it may be one of the five items the professor is seeking along with the gloves that green ring. Come to think of it it was a similar colour as the eyes of the rat invaders. More green eyed enemies and a corpse awaited us in the forest. Another one to my conscience if I have led them here. I have noticed in combat that if I kill a creature that a small wisp of light tends to enter my gauntlet, filling me with power. It has also started to shield me from blows. Bizzare. Perhaps this can be used to my advantage.

We are well in over our heads here, every instinct is telling me to run but I cannot run forever. With my newfound allies and powers, we prepare to enter Kazbarrow.

Oorok Tharomarsh
I swear, I’m gonna have to start working nights to fix all this damage. Luke woke me up, stuttering about a rat problem in the brewery. Poor kid was scared out of his wits. I had to call some of the locals to help me deal with problem...and these were no ordinary rats. The further we went into the brewery, the bigger these things got, and the worse the damage got. Smashed bottles, holes in the walls, not to mention all the bottles Aldor took. It’s gonna be a nightmare replacing all of this.

To make matters worse, the rats were larger than any rat I’ve seen. The size of dogs, some with tails the size of my arm, and one with the body of a man.

We managed to find Luke’s alchemy lab in the basement. Always wondered what he had going on down there. He assured us the rats were not his fault, and I believe him. He’s never been a bad kid. Reckless, sure. But bad? Never.

But we still had no idea what caused this. We were told of Fabio, a former investigator and what some call an “arcane master”. He wasn’t much help. I get the sense he knew things but chose to keep quiet. Possibly to keep us safe? Whatever the case, we had to go elsewhere. But maybe this “arcane master” can help me. Maybe he can offer me some clarity.

After a much needed drink and a restless night, I woke up to hear one of the brewery workers looking for me. Luke never came home. He must have left after I took him home. I hope he’s ok...I need to find the boy.

There was word he’d been at Founder’s Rest. I figured if he’d been there, maybe Gerd knows something. I ran into Aldor on the way, he seemed rattled to say the least. I got to the town hall before heading to the tavern and found the others. Turns out many others went missing. Namely, three lumberjacks, and the Halflings’s uncle. All last seen at Founder’s Rest. We very quickly made our way over.

We’d walked in the find one of the rooms an absolute mess. Furniture destroyed, drinks everywhere, one room even had Dwarven hair in it. Gird told us Luke, and the others that went missing were heading to Kazbarrow with three strangers. A dwarf, a large blonde woman, and a third. What did Luke get himself into?

We made our way to Kazbarrow and it turns out Kel knows the strangers. A crew he worked with before he came here 4 months ago. It’s where he got his gauntlet. Turns out this old crew want this gauntlet back. They don’t seem like the type to take prisoners...and it turns out my hunch was right. We found a lumberjack dead. One of Bjorn’s friends...I hope Luke hasn’t suffered the same fate. I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose him...I made a promise to the Hearthton’s. I swore I’d get him home...I can’t break that promise.

More monsters showed up on the way. We made short work of them, and arrived at the entrance to Kazbarrow. We found a broken rock and another body...I hope he’s just unconscious.