Epyha, a half-elf witch, leaves Restov and heads south after receiving a charter of exploration from the Swordlords of Brevoy. Aeldur, an elven ranger, leaves the Gronzi forest and also happens to Restov upon which he recieves a charter from the Swordlords. Grull of Skree, a half-orc barbarian, and Avertyn, a gnome rouge, depart from Restov after leaving the Gronzi forest. Rezin Medyved, a human inquisitor, departs from Stoneclimb to Restov, and then from Restov toward Oleg’s trading post. Sir Basque, a human cavalier, departs Greyhaven on horseback, arrives in Restov, receives a charter, and immediately sets out in the same direction as the Swordlord’s indicated the other agents were traveling.

All six adventurers pass by a small hamlet, and a run down border fort. Epyha stops at a thicket of trees to rest, when Grull and Avertyn arrive and decide to stop for lunch. Rezin, Aeldur, and later Basque, pass by and stop when they find out each has the same charter. Ephya then steps forward from the trees to reveal herself. All six agree to a common cause for exploring the Greenbelt, deciding to form a party.

The party departs and arrives at Oleg’s Trading Post by sundown; a structure which looks under construction with incomplete catapult defenses. They are greeted in the courtyard by a man who introduces himself as Oleg Leveton, asking if they are the soldiers he petitioned Restov for. The party informs him they are not, but inquires about bandit activity in the area. Oleg relates they have harassed him and extorted money from him, on the first day of each month, tomorrow being the day the bandits come. The party promises Oleg they’ll solve his bandit problem for him. Overjoyed, Oleg invites everyone into his store for supper, introducing his wife Svetlana. Basque introduces himself and then excuses himself to go stable his horse, Acheron. Svetlana approaches Basque in private and asks if he might be able to find her wedding ring, telling him the bandits took it. Basque agrees to look out for the ring, and return it if he is able.

The party eats well and sleeps for the night, rising early the next morning to prepare to ambush the bandits. They instruct Oleg to stand in the open to lure the bandits inside. A little while later, the bandits arrive at Oleg’s, a few going inside to collect the extortion money. The party catches the bandits off guard and surprises them while Oleg runs inside to hide. Basque rides out of the fort to meet the bandits who didn’t come inside. When one tries to escape, Basque chases him down with Ephya’s hawk.

One bandit died, but 4 remain alive, which the party stabilizes to interrogate. They find a necklace of a Stag on who they assume to be the leader. In addition, the party acquires 5 horses to use for their exploration. Oleg is grateful for the assistance and as a token of appreciation agrees to give the party free room and board when they need for their exploration.

Basque and Rezin wake up the bandit leader to interrogate him, Basque threatening to torture him if he doesn’t talk. He apparently works for someone called “The Stag Lord,” the leader of the local bandits, a woman who is apparently camped out on the Thorn river in the Narlmarches, near a bridge. When the interrogation finishes Rezin kills two of the bandit lackeys after determining they can get no more information from them. Basque objects, saying they need to be executed in a proper fashion. Basque then carries out a formal execution by hanging, asking the last two bandits their names and last words. Oleg then hangs the last 3 off his wall with rope as a “warning.”

The party then rests for the night and rides Southwest quickly to get to the bandits. They find the edge of the forest and set camp just inside the trees to avoid detection. They wake up the next morning to heavy fog and ride south along the lip of the forest until reaching the Thorn river. Ephya has her hawk scout North and South, finding a bridge to the South but the camp to the North in the forest. The party crosses the river to the South bank and sets up camp just within the tree line. They leave the horses, except for Acheron and scout North for the bandits. In later afternoon they finally come upon the bandit camp, presumably waiting for the bandits sent to Oleg’s.

Fearing for the horses, Grull and Avertyn are left to go back and guard the camp, while the rest of the party prepares to ambush the bandit camp. The sentries are dispatched with sleep spells, but the main camp perceives the attack. The rest of the party charges in and finishes off the bandits, killing two and wounding the other two into unconsciousness. The party finds a cart of trading goods to loot while Grull and Avertyn bring up their equipment to camp at the bandit camp, preparing for a coming snow storm.

Basque wakes up one of the bandits and begins interrogating him, while the other two are stabilized for later interrogation. Prisoner reveals the bandit leading them is Kessle, but that she isn’t the Stag Lord. The Stag Lord is a man, who resides in a keep two days travel South near the lake; he is apparently an alcoholic and is deadly with a bow. Basque then gets his name, his last words, and hangs him, but doesn’t leave him hanging.

The party hunkers down for the night, and are snowed in. The next day Basque begins training Aeldur’s horse for combat, when the camp is ambushed by a Tatzlworm, which kills one of the horses before the party finishes it off.

Harry, a Rouge from Cheliax trying to “disappear” arrives at Oleg’s after a long journey, hearing about the party, decides he might want to join them.

Later that day, Kessle and her underling wake up from their injuries, Basque then interrogates her. They learn the Stag Lord’s keep is mostly a ruin, and that there are “two dozen men” there, which is mostly met with skepticism. Basque inquires about the ring she stole, which apparently was stolen from her by mites, who live in a large tree to the East out on the plains. Basque promises her an execution ‘of her choice’ which is quickly turned around on him when she asks for a means of death which he can’t provide, until Ephya steps in to volunteer. Fed up, Kessle just asks for it to be done with, so Basque hangs the two of them and retrieves his rope.

The party hunkers down for another cold night, luckily no one and none of the horses suffers frostbite. Ephya sends his hawk out East to look for the tree, which is apparently very far away. Meanwhile the rest of the party explores the immediate area.

The next day, the party packs up their gear onto the cart they acquired and heads East exploring. They come across an abandoned mine which looks long deserted, inside they spot gold on the walls, which Basque spends some time digging to try and get a fair amount while the party sets camp. Meanwhile, with the snow storm having let up, Harry begins traveling south from Oleg’s looking for the party.

The next day, the party breaks camp and heads East exploring again, they find the old tree Kessle talked about, along with a dead Kobold at the entrance. Grull and Avertyn are again left at the entrance to guard their loot while the rest of the party proceeds into the cave on foot. Inside they come into a room with two mites flinging caltrops at each other with improvised devices, the party dispatches them and collects the caltrops before continuing on. In the next room they see a bunch of mites torturing a kobold, the party kills the mites and and stabalize the Kobold. His name is Mic-Mak, the party introduces itself. Mic-mak is the lone survivor of a Kobold raiding party, trying to reclaim a stolen “magic” statue, telling them there are lots of mites further down. Basque agrees to help Mic-mak recover the statue.

The party plus Kobold proceed further into the cave, to a small chasm with a complex rope bridge; Basque, Ephya, and Aeldur cross first, when they’re all ambushed by a huge whiptail centipede. Mic-mak runs away while the party fights the monster off; the Centipede attacks and almost kills Rezin, who falls unconscious barely alive. After some fighting, Basque finishes it with a well placed stab of his lance. Ephya rushes back across to check on Rezin, who is still breathing but unconscious.

The party suddenly hears shouting from deeper in the caves.

Hearing the din of battle and a scream that sounded like Rezin’s, Grull and Avertyn decide they should go into the cave to investigate the status of the party. While inside, they discover Mic-mak hiding behind a table. Mic-mak indicates he was with the party when a monster ambushed them, there is no more sound of battle; so mic-mak believes they’ve been killed. After convincing the Kobold to come with them, Grull and Avertyn decide to proceed further into the cave.

After coming into the next chamber, they find the rest of the party, Ephya attending a very badly off Rezin. They prop him up in a comfortable spot and proceed onwards across the rope bridge. Avertyn makes it across, but Grull pulls a trapped rope, causing the bridge to burst and plummeting her down into the chasm where she gets hurt somewhat. Basque lowers a rope down to her so she can climb up.

Further in the cave, they can hear what sounds like arguing. As they enter the next room, they see a few mites huddled around a makeshift map on a table and a giant tick. Grull charges in to cut down the mites while Aeldur supports her. A mite chieftain mounts his tick and fights with Basque; the tick grapples onto Basque, and then sticks him with a bite to suck his blood, causing him to fall unconscious. Seeing Basque in trouble, Grull and Avertyn leap at the chieftan to attack him. The tick chieftain, with a hatred of gnomes, has his tick attack Avertyn, decapitating him with a devastating bite from its pincers. Ephya then puts the mite cheiftan to sleep and the party finally finishes off the tick. Aeldur then walks around to ensure every mite is dead with his sword.

Grull drinks a healing potion, while Ephya feeds another to Basque, who is now able to stand up, but is still staggered from his wounds.

Ephya then discovers a mite’s note at the strategy table, which she translates from undercommon into a kind of ‘scoreboard.’ It mentions that the Kobolds have stolen some of their magic dust and a ring. The party also finds the statue. Ephya talks with Mic-mak and offers to trade the statue for the ring and the magic dust. Mic-mak doesn’t know about the items, but tells them they can negotiate with their leader Sootscales at the Kobold lair, which Mic-mak points to on the map. After a bit of pressure, he reveals the statue is the possession of ‘Tartuk’ the Kobold priest, it’s his source of power; returning the statue to Sootscales will allow him to kill Tartuk since the Kobolds don’t like him. Ephya determines the item is not magical but doesn’t say so.

Finished with their business, the party continues deeper into the cave, another room ahead has more mites, which most are killed, except two which run away. The room is filled with junk. Ahead, in the next room, Aeldur stealthily dispatches a Mite. Before the party continues, Aeldur notices many piles of sticking garbage, he recognizes them as centipede nests and instructs Ephya to light them on fire. A bunch of centipedes come out, which the party kills, and then sets fire to the nests.

After exploring the rest of the cave, the party retrieves Rezin and Avertyn’s corpse and returns to the surface. The party then sees a patrol of 5 men coming toward them, deciding they’re in no shape for a fight, the party mounts up and heads northwest, back to the gold mine. When they arrive they see signs someone is there, Harry then reveals himself, exchanges introductions with party. He asks if they’d like to team up, to which the party agrees. Camp is set up and the party settles in to recuperate.

That night, Basque does not partake in watch, being too wounded to do so. Aeldur takes up watch with Harry to keep an eye on him. During their watch they hear a party of Kobolds pass by with a chieftain, whom apparently doesn’t notice the mine the party is holed up in.

The next day the party stays put to rest, Ephya providing limited healing. The party buries Avertyn and says a few words for him, making his grave with a large stone.

The party sleeps again that night, undisturbed. The next morning Rezin decides he is not up to the rigors of wilderness exploration and heads North to Olegs. The Party departs South exploring, they locate a rickety bridge across the Thorn river and make camp on the bank.

That night, Harry and Aeldur notice a campfire across the river. They wake up Ephya who sends her Hawk across the river to scout the camp, finding there is only one human there. The next morning the man packs up his camp and heads across the bridge to greet the party. Basque introduces himself, the trapper’s name is Rick. He relates to Rick their mission in the Greenbelt, and sullenly informs him of Avertyn’s demise. The party finishes breaking camp and Basque asks Rick to relate to Oleg’s that they’re alive and well when Rick reaches the fort.

The Party travels Southeast exploring, finding a fork in the river where the Thorn river meets the Shrike river, which is apparently a natural ford. The party stops and camps for the night.

The party begins traveling East exploring the next morning; during the exploration, Mic-mak points out the Kobold cave. Mic-mak goes into the cave to retrieve the chieftain. Harry notices whimpering in the cave and sees a mite, chained up near the entrance. After awhile, the Kobold tribe gathers at the mouth of the cave; Basque then announces he is there to negotiate with their leader, Sootscales. Sootscales approaches, Basque then informs him that they have Tartuk’s statue, and that they’re willing to trade it in exchange for the magic dust and a ring that they know the Kobolds have. Sootscales agrees to trade the ring, but he needs time to procure the dust, when asked why he deflects the question. Basque then leans down and asks if it is because Tartuk has the dust. Surprised, Sootscales confirms this.

Basque lays out his terms. The statue for the ring immediately, and the party will help the Kobolds kill Tartuk in exchange for the magic dust. Sootscales agrees, so Basque hands over the statue, taking the ring. Sootscales holds up the statue for the tribe to see, and then smashes it, proclaiming Tartuk powerless.

The party dismounts and then follows Sootscales into the cave. They confront Tartuk, whom Sootscales charges, Ephya puts Tartuk’s minions to sleep. The party realizing Tartuk is a magical image, finds the real Tartuk and surrounds him. Tartuk tries to turn invisible to escape, but Harry throws flour at him, exposing him long enough for Grull to kill him.

Thankful, Sootscales allows the party to loot the room. The party finds among Tartuk’s possessions, a journal, which details how he was a Gnome turned into a Kobold after a botched resurrection spell. He ended up drifting through Kobold tribes and getting them killed as vengeance. Tartuk it turns out, instigated the war with the mites. He left a suicide note behind, mentioning using a fly scroll.

After concluding their business with the Kobold tribe, the party departs North to set up camp away from the cave. On the following morn they begin exploring Northeast, until they discover a burned down cabin near the river, along with a ruined bridge. Investigation reveals the ruin looks about 1 or 2 years old. A sign near the river indicates the location as “Nettle’s Crossing” with a toll amount and bell nearby, which Aeldur rings.

Upon doing so, a ghost rises from the nearby river. Upon seeing the party, it demands they bring the body of the Stag Lord to him. As it turns to leave, Basque asks the ghost who it was, to which it points to the sign. After finding nothing in the house the party rides away and makes camp for the night.

Over the next 3 days the party explores Northeast, Northwest, and then Northeast again, finding nothing of significance. On the fourth day they turn west and spot a small hut in the plains. After cautiously approaching and shouting a greeting, a disheveled man steps out, and then goes back inside. After Aeldur mentions they have alcohol, he comes back out and greets himself as Bokkin, an alchemist with potions to sell. After a little bartering, Bokkin offers a discount on his potions in exchange for fangberries, which are far to the southwest.

The party camps and then arrives at Oleg’s the next day after more than two weeks of exploring. A contingent of guards has apparently been stationed at the outpost; there is also new faces around. Ephya talks with a Monk called Eronway practicing martial arts, apparently a member of the Pathfinder Society looking for magical items.

That night, there is a feast at Oleg’s to celebrate the destruction of the bandit camp. The party regails everyone with stories of their half a month long adventure. Basque pulls Svetlana aside and returns her ring to her, telling of how it ended up with the Kobolds; she thankfully accepts it. Afterwards, the leader of the Mercenary guards approaches Basque, introducing himself as Kesten Garess; he was sent to Oleg’s by the swordlords to protect it from bandits and to aid the charter group. Jhod, a cleric of Erastil, approaches Aeldur hoping he might have found a temple to Erastil out in the Narlmarches; he asks Aeldur to keep and eye out for one.

The party is awoken the next day by loud banging, upon investigating, they find Rick the Ranger hanging up a bounty notice for Tuskgutter, a boar. It was seen 2 days south of Oleg’s. The party then finds Oleg’s and asks him to put in requisitions for equipment.

As the party is about to leave, Basque approaches Kesten, revealing that he knows about a topic which Kesten was trying to avoid earlier; Basque also states that he believes himself to be a bastard of a Garess, and is hoping Kesten might be able to help him prove it.

The party then leaves Oleg’s heading southwest exploring, eventually stumbling onto a radish patch which is apparently occupied by bloated Kobolds eating the moonradishes there. After Ephya puts them to sleep, the party picks a bunch of moonradishes. Harry decides to put in the hand of a Kobold to distract them from pursuing the party. They travel away and then make camp, the next day they ride east, discovering the liar of a trapdoor spider. The party flushes it out with alchemists fire and kills the spider; inside the nest they find a minion of the Stag Lord with a treasure map.

After another night of camping the party sets off southeast, discovering a claw shaped tree described in the treasure map. The party is suddenly ambushed by a shambling mound, which almost kills Basque before the party rescues him. They search around and then are able to dig up the treasure under the tree.

The party then spends the next few days exploring, crossing the Shrike river heading Southeast and then turning West and crossing the river again, finally spotting the Stag Lord’s keep, a forlorn looking rundown fort. The party avoids it and travels Northeast, where it stumbles upon the fangberry thicket. After a run in with a spider swarm that Ephya destroys, the party then spends the rest of the afternoon picking berries.

The next morning the party hurries off toward Oleg’s, crossing the bridge on the Thorn river. They agree to split up, Aeldur, Ephya, and Harry head off toward Bokkin’s to exchange potions for fangberries while Grull and Basque return to Oleg’s. While there Grull meets a wandering Summoner named Elsbeth, who asks to join their party. The rest of the party reaches Oleg’s later that day and stock up on new equipment.

After a good nights rest, the party heads west exploring, eventually entering the northern Narlmarches. Suddenly, Grull’s horse steps into a bear trap and the party realizes they’ve walked into a trap field. After disabling the rest of the traps Aeldur scouts around and finds weeks out tracks from humans. After resuming their exploring they stumble into a second field of traps before finally setting up camp.

The next day makes for uneventful exploring, but on the following day the party leaves the forest and sees a swamp a few dozen miles away, along with lake Hooktongue. After doing some more searching, the party finds a blackberry bramble; when Basque gives it an investigative stab with his lance, he discovers that underneath is tomb. Seeing the tomb, Grull recognizes it as a burial cairn, one for a mighty barbarian warlord probably. Upon opening it, they find nothing more than a skeleton and a magic ring.

After closing the cairn, the group begins exploring Southwest. On the second day of exploring they smell sulfur drifting on the wind from the East. They travel east into the forest the following day, finding a hot spring. Upon investigation the party is beset upon by giant frogs, which are quickly dispatched. The party leaves the forest the next day heading south.

About midday the party spots a large pair of antlers above the trees, traveling back into the forest they find an overgrown statue of Erastil; which none of the horses will approach. Aeldur and Ephya spend the rest of the day restoring the statue; Aeldur goes hunting and offers his kill as a sacrifice to his god. Everyone but Basque, who was not near the statue, gained a keenness on their weapons. The statue has been sanctified.

The next day, exploring south west, the party continues through the forest when everyone feels a sense of dread overcome them. Ephya thinks the aura is necromantic somehow. They enter a clearing ahead and find a dead animal, which turns out to be a unicorn, which has been dehorned. It looks to have been killed in some unnatural manner, which the party theorizes must be magical, as the carrion hasn’t been infested with maggots. Aeldur finds the tracks of the Unicorn, which run into a field and then stop where it falls down, and no other tracks nearby. Feeling disturbed, the party decides to burn the body of the unicorn, and then bury the bones. They offer a prayer to Pharasma, it being the Day of Bones, her holy day. The necromantic aura fades, and the party is confident they consecrated the area as they leave.

As the party continues their exploration on the following day, they come to a river ford with some kind of wooden debris. Aeldur recognizes it as a nest. They are about to go past it when someone spots the glint of metal from it. The party charges the nest, finding tatzleworms inside. After killing the worms, the party searches inside the nest, finding a body with a backpack, which inside of it carries a map of the area, a temple of Erastil marked.

As the party crosses the river after retrieving the old map, they are ambushed by an owlbear. After dispatching it, they’re able to set up camp and rest for the night. The next morning, the party sets out exploring east; as they’re moving through a meadow they think they hear growling. Basque and his horse suddenly fall into a pit trap with some kind of rabid dog beast, which the party quickly kills. After getting Basque out of the trap the party made camp.

The next day while exploring East, the party finds a set of tracks belonging to another group; then hear screams coming from the direction they traveled toward. The party rushes off down the trail following the screaming; as they get closer, Aeldur thinks from the sounds that Trolls are attacking the group up ahead. As the party stops to debate about what to do, the screaming stops. The rest of the group stays put while Basque moves ahead to investigate. Coming into a clearing, he sees human bodies littered around three trolls; seeing them dead, Basque decides to leave and rejoin everyone else.

The group decides to head East, away from the trolls, eventually stumbling upon a ruin. Harry and Aeldur decide to get closer. Upon closer inspection, they find a weird lizard inside lying down which has a saddle on it. The two also spot a hut nearby, which suddenly opens up revealing a Boggard stepping outside. Both return to the rest of the party, which discusses what to do. The Boggard hears the group and then finds them. Basque and Aeldur attempt to communicate with the Boggard, but seem to fail, as it speaks none of their languages. The Boggard continues to shoo away the party, indicating that the area is his ‘kingdom.’ Seeing no way to make meaningful communication, the party leaves. While exploring the next day, the party is ambushed by Tuskgutter. After finally taking down the pig, the party cooks a large roast and feasts for the night; Aeldur removes the tusks as proof of their kill.

On the next morning, the party finally arrives at the Temple of Erastil, which looks heavily defiled. The stone working has been beat upon with picks, the temple is covered in the graffiti of all the other gods, and the reflecting pool has been covered in algae. After approaching the entrance, the adventurers are attacked by a huge bear. During the fight, Aeldur notices a broken holy symbol of Erastil around its neck; calling out to Erastil, the bear attacks Aeldur ferociously. After Grull dealt the final blow, the bear morphed into a human, a bracelet on his wrist carrying a woman’s name. The man’s body then crumbled to dust, as if he had been centuries old. When the man died, the area seemed to feel sanctified, the reflecting pool returning to a pristine state. After spending some time restoring the area, the party makes camp.

After an uneventful night, the party decides to begin heading back towards Oleg’s. They start exploring Northwest, when they stumble across a few bear traps and some fresh Human tracks, which lead to a deadfall trap and a dead ranger inside. Upon inspecting the trap, it looks like the trigger was gnawed loose by an animal. The pockets of the Ranger were turned out but the coins weren’t taken. Aeldur suspects animals killed the Ranger and looted his body. That night, squirrels invade Harry’s backpack; Harry has Ephya put them to sleep, and then kills them to make dinner. On the next day, Ephya discovers two squirrels wearing hats watching the party from the trees, both tied to the tree; she decides to free the squirells.

On the way to Oleg’s, Basque’s horse is stricken with diarrhea; Elzbeth is able to provide some herbs to sooth Acheron’s stomach. The party also sees squirrels following them, who seem to keep coming back after being chased off. Other benign ‘pranks’ seem to keep happening until the party leaves the forest. Basque suspects Pixies at works and shouts at the woods in Sylvan for them to reveal themselves.

By the afternoon, the party arrives at Oleg’s.

After a long and weary trek through the Northern Narlmarches, the party finally reaches Oleg’s that afternoon. Jubilantly, they inform Oleg that they have slain Tuskgutter, and produce his tusks as evidence, collecting Rick the Ranger’s reward. They also inform Oleg that they’ve completed a map of the Greenbelt. Basque has Ephya reproduce two copies of the original, one he asks Oleg to mail to Restov, and one he asks Oleg to keep, in case explorers begin heading south. Ephya, interested in purchasing a magic item she’d ordered, asks Basque to loan her some gold.

After completing his business with Oleg, Basque finds Kesten, who just happened to be hoping Basque would turn up soon. Kesten describes to Basque a history of his between him and a thief called Falgrim Sneed, who’d stolen from Kesten on contract and damaged his reputation with his hirer. He believes Sneed has fled south and taken up employ with the Stag Lord, and asks if it would be possible for Basque to apprehend Falgrim, dead or alive, but preferably alive. Basque agrees, and asks if Kesten can spare any men for the group’s imminent assault on the Stag Fort. Kesten agrees to allow two volunteers to accompany the party.

Meanwhile, Aeldur finds out Jhod, and informs him about the location of the Temple he’d been searching for, in addition to the beast they found within. Jhod seemed to have known something had happened, as his nightmares had been lifted some days ago. Gratefully, Jhod offers his spellcasting services free of charge in recompense. Aeldur decides to ask if Jhod would accompany the party south to help tend to their wounds against the battle with the bandits. After being reassured he’d not be asked to fight, Jhod reluctantly agrees.

The party rests well that night in preparation for the journey South. The next morning, the entire group departs South, having commandeered a wagon the party had salvaged from the bandits earlier and left at the fort; allowing Trenton, Robert, and Jhod to accompany the party.

The first day passed uneventfully, on the second morning, many of the party awake to weird pranks. Acheron’s hair has been rainbow dyed, while bark has been glued with sap to Harry’s face. Several others are pranked, and Aeldur concludes that they’re being stalked by faeries. Everyone makes individual appeasements to the faeries to leave them alone that night, but on the third morning only Basque and Elzbeth appear successful. The party continues South toward the fort and arrive at the forest on the fourth day, enduring varying pranks along the way.

Having had enough, the group piles up a large sum of gold coins to make a group appeal to the fey to leave them alone. Reluctantly, a faerie dragon and a weird cricket-centaur reveal themselves, the dragon introduces them as Perlivash and Tyg-titter-tut respectively. After a short conversation, the fey agree to stop pranking the group. Basque attempts to persuade them into looking over at the Stag Keep and see if they can find anything. A little too afraid by the prospect, the fey decide to leave and let the group handle it.

The party then heads out East from the forest and sets up camp near the fort under the cover of night, using hills and brush to conceal themselves from the fort. After spending the next few days and nights observing the fort the party plans its attack.

The West wall, being the weakest defended, is selected as the point of attack. The stealthier members will move up, hop the wall, open the gate, and allow the rest to storm the keep by force.

On the night of the attack, the party begins its advance on the hill to the keep, when zombies suddenly spring up and attack Aeldur, Harry, and Epyha. Acting quickly, they’re all able to run away from the zombies without attracting the keep’s attention. The zombies mill about the fort and finally bury themselves again.

After regrouping, the party decides they need to use a raised causeway at the front of the fort to get to the gate. Aeldur thinks they could do it if the torches lighting the ramp were doused. Basque decides to ask Jhod if he could conjure water above the torches and douse them, which he is able to do just barely. Harry then proposes that they have Jhod begin randomly dousing torches over the next few nights, first to observe the bandits reaction’s, and then to make them lax and unsuspecting of the torches failing.

After the first few times, the bandits cautiously relight the torches with supervision from a lieutenant. By the third night the bandits have become lax, on the fifth, the party decides to put its plan into action.

On the night of the assault, Jhod puts out both torches, causing one of the guards to leave his post to go inside the fort and inform his colleagues to relight it, leaving only one guard watching the causeway. Harry, Aeldur, and Ephya sneak up the ramp to the base of the wall, and Ephya casts a sleeping hex on the guard, allowing Aeldur to climb up the wall to the watchtower and tie up the guard.

The gate then opens up, with one man walking outside to light the torches. As he does, Ephya casts a sleeping hex on him; Harry then running up and pulling his body over to the side of the wall and tying him up. The guard from the other tower finally arrives back at his post and realizes the gate has been left open. Leaning over to investigate, he is hexed by Ephya as well; Harry, climbing up the wall, is able to subdue him as well. Meanwhile, Aeldur shoots and kills the last bandit in the watchtowers.

Ephya climbs up the wall to join Harry, noticing a bandit inside the fort separated from the rest, she hexes him too, and sends Harry in to tie him up as well. Walking inside, he’s spotted by one of the bandits, but bluffs as if to appear to be one of them and passes by. After tying up Ephya’s latest target, they both see that one of the bandits playing cards inside has realized the front gate has been left open. After calling out with no answer, he and a bandit lieutenant walk to the gate to investigate.

As the two of them approach the gate, Ephya casts a sleeping hex on the lieutenant and gives the signal to the rest of the party waiting at the base of the causeway. The party charges up the causeway, quickly dispatching the bandits at the front gate. Just inside the fort, one of the other lieutenants attempts to turn a wheel opening an iron gate. Elzbeth decides to grease the wheel, causing him to lose his grip and let the gate slam shut. Ephya casts a sleeping spell on one of the big bandits, causing him to fall asleep; without having a way to quickly subdue him, Harry delivers a coup de grace on the bandit. Inside the fort, Basque, Acheron, and Grull charge in and begin fighting the bandits in close combat. Aeldur, Trenton, and Robert shoot arrows from behind them.

Having heard all the ruckus, the Stag Lord finally arrives at the scene, shooting a near crippling arrow at Basque, who hobbles over to Elzbeth and accepts a healing potion from her. After failing to open the gate while being attacked by Grull, the bandit lieutenant stabs another bandit next to him and shouts his surrender to Grull, who eyes him and then moves to attack the Stag Lord, who fires another arrow at Ephya and nearly kills her. Grull, Basque, and Elzbeth’s eidilon surround the Stag Lord and finally subdue him.

With the battle won, Basque signals Jhod with his whistle to come up to the Fort and begin healing everyone. The surrendered bandit lieutenant approaches Basque and reveals his name as Akiros, and asks for mercy after explaining he’d been trying to find a way to leave the Stag Fort. Basque believes him and promises he’ll be spared. The party gathers the rest of the bandits together and puts watch over them while they rest for the night.

The next morning, Basque wakes up the prisoners to begin his interrogation. He starts with the Stag Lord, whom tells Basque that he has no name. He informs the party of their operations in the area, which have been to racketeer money out of the few locals who live in the area. He sent scouting parties down to lake Candlemere whom never returned, and had dispatched Kesstle to the northern Narlmarches to extract tribute from Oleg. He was surprised to learn Kesstle had been killed, apparently believing that her lack of appearance when due to return had meant she’d left the Greenbelt. The other bandits, whom Kesstle had spoken of when she’d been interrogated, if they ever existed, never returned to the Stag Fort to report their fellow’s demise. Basque questions the Stag Lord about the fate of a family at Nettle’s Crossing, who reveals he’d never known about the murder there, leaving Basque disgusted.

When questioned about what is in the fort’s basement, the Stag Lord refuses to tell them exactly what awaits, but enigmatically tells the party they’ll be able to handle it. The party proceeds down into the dank smelly dungeon like basement, and are ambushed by constructs inside. As they fight, a werewolf attacks the party, which Aeldur determines to actually be a shapechanged druid. Aeldur, wearing the Stag Lord’s helm, is mistaken by the druid for being the Stag Lord; and is attacked viciously by the druid, until he retreats to the ceiling of the basement. Elzbeth casts Grease on the ceiling, causing the druid to slip and fall, ending the combat as he returns to his human form.

The druid curses at Aeldur, questioning him about why he’s finally come to kill him. Aeldur then removes his helmet and reveals his true identity to the beaten man, asking who the man is, and why the Stag Lord has imprisoned him. The druid tells the party his name is Nugrah, and that he is the Stag Lord’s father. Upon questioning, the party learns that Nugrah abused his son, whom he regarded as a failure, until he was ambushed by his son and thrown down here to rot away. Disgusted with the man, Aeldur kills Nugrah.

The party search the keep finally, discovering a large sum of treasure and equipment, which they load up onto their cart. They also find out that Aeldur had accidentally killed Falgrim Sneede, who’d been on watch in the towers. After loading up the prisoners and Sneede’s body, the party departs for Nettle’s Crossing.

After a few days of travel, the company eventually arrives at the river, and Basque summons the ghost residing there by ringing the nearby service bell. Upon presenting the bandits to the ghost, it commands him to throw them from the bluff onto the stony rapids below. Basque complies, and executes the rest of the bandits, recovering the Stag Lord’s body as proof of capture for the Swordlords. The party then departs for Oleg’s that afternoon.

Finally, after weeks of being gone, the party arrives back at Oleg’s victorious. Basque has word sent by fast courier to Restov that the Stag Lord has been killed; a reply arrives soon after bearing a new charter to settle the Greenbelt by the authority of the Swordlords acting on behalf of King Surtova, and that a starting fund will soon be provided to accomplish this. In the meantime, settlers begin arriving at Oleg’s after receiving word of new lands being opened up south of Restov.

As tents begin setting up around Oleg’s, the party decides to discuss the issue of governance at a meeting. Basque nominates himself as ruler of the new country, which the party agrees to with little resistance; Basque then takes the title of Baron. Aeldur claims the title of Sheriff, position of Warden, protector of the nation’s rural areas and enforcer of the law in the countryside. Ephya claims the title of Archmage, position of Magister, dean of the nation’s higher learning and magical employment. Harry claims the title of Lord, position of Spymaster, head of the nation’s intelligence network. Grull claims the title of Bishop, position of High Priest, head of the nation’s religious institutions. Elzbeth claims the title of Lady, position of Grand Diplomat, chief diplomat and negotiator. At the conclusion of selecting their own titles, the party discusses the other positions of government left unfilled, and decide to extend invitations to Kesten Garess, Akiros Ismort, and Oleg Leveton to become members of their council. The party asks for Kesten to take the title Lord Commander, position of General, commander of the nation’s armies. For Akiros to take the title Lord Commander, position of Marshal, commander of the nation’s watch and enforcer of the law in the city. And for Oleg to take the title of Lord, position of Treasurer, the nation’s financial accountant and tax collector. With no other names forbearing the party concludes its meeting, still in need of someone to occupy the position of Councilor, representative of the people, and Royal Assassin, executioner of the king’s justice.

In the following day, after announcing the leadership of the new nation to the people gathered around the Fort, Basque is approached by Loy Rezbin, a commoner from Restov with aspirations of higher station as Basque’s Grand Diplomat and connections with powerful individuals in Brevoy. Convinced of his usefulness, Basque discusses the proposition with Elzbeth, who agrees to take the position of Councilor instead. Basque raises Loy to lordship and makes him Diplomat.

Finally, after a few days of waiting, a cart bearing large amounts of gold arrives at Oleg’s trading post, along with large amounts of building materials sent by the Swordlords. The party then announces to the settlers around Oleg’s that the expedition south to the Tuskwater will begin. Basque instructs Svetlana to direct new settlers down south to the location of their new city, indicated on Oleg’s map.

Upon arriving at the site of their new city, Basque declares the founding of their new nation, the Barony of Anatoray, and the name of their capitol will be Sancere. Over the next few days, Grull, Jhod, and the rest of their clerical staff, begin purifying the Stag Lord of its undead taint, and soon enough, construction begins on Sancere castle, with a tent city sprouting about the construction site.

During the building, a group of Kobolds approaches the city, revealing themselves to be of the Sootscales clan. Sootscales talks to Basque, telling him that he has heard of the beginning of the human settlement and desires to be a part of their country in order to avoid conflict between the Kobolds and Humans. Basque accepts his offer, informing Sootscales that by pledging fealty to him, Sootscales will rule as his vassal over the Kobolds, with protection under Basque’s law. Basque sends Loy with Sootscales to explain the responsibilities and privileges the Kobolds can expect from their expanding nation.

Eventually, after more than a month of construction, Sancere castle is complete.

A few days later, a few of Aeldur’s rangers begin receiving reports of disappearances. Deciding to investigate, the party heads to a makeshift tavern where the latest disappearance was reported. After a brief chat, the party learns from the bartender that a young serving woman hadn’t shown up for work since leaving after her last shift last night. Aeldur finds her tracks and follows them, eventually leading the party to her mangled half eaten body. Aeldur determines that, given the recent full moon and the body, this must be the work of a werewolf. Basque decides to put out a warning of a murderer on the lose.

The next night, as the party is on patrol looking out for the werewolf, they hear a cry for help just outside the city. Upon rushing to the scene, they find a portly man being attacked by a werewolf. The party rushes in to attack and subdues the werewolf.

After subduing the werewolf, the party returns to the castle, where Basque has it chained in the dungeon. On the following morning, they head down to interrogate whomever it is after they’ve reverted to their original form. The scared and confused man tells the party his name is Kundal, a Barbarian from one of the Kellid tribes of Numeria who’d been exiled and found his way to their kingdom.

Kundal is aghast when he learns that he’d become a werewolf, and that he’d been responsible for the recent killings. He tells the party he’d no idea that he’d been turned into one, except that for the past two months his dreams have been nothing but nightmares. Basque believes Kundal, but tells him he must take measures to prevent any more of his citizenry from coming to harm. Ephya proposes that Kundal could report to the castle before every full moon to be locked up in the dungeon. The party agrees to this condition, with the additional stipulation that Kundal begin serving with Aeldur’s rangers, to which Kundal agrees. Basque has Akiros acquire some silver arrows for the guard just to be on the safe side. The following day, Basque announces that the culprit has been captured and dealt with.