Mini 17: Honeysuckle Abbey Report

General Summary

16th of Keltier 1524

The party is up and ready to leave at 7am and starts their off part of the journey. By 9am the group travels out of the forest and are now travelling through open plains and fields. Nobu is very curious about Isabelle's survival skills and knowledge and enjoys talking to her about it. Galanith is able to find berries as they go which Nobu talks to her about as well. Really impressed by the skills of the pair.

At 1pm they approach Honeysuckle Abbey, a small village with a palisade around it. All the guards in town wear vestments. They seem to be followers of Haelyn. All the farming around the place is beautiful flowers. They decide to get some lunch here, talk to the locals about dangers in the area and restock a little to prepare for the cold. Honeysuckle Abbey has no inns, but donations are accepted in exchange for door in the temple of Haelyn. They are directed to speak to the High Training Priest for dangers. Though the average cleric does not seem to know about Ruimele's situation. They still believe her to be fighting valiantly in the war against the goblins. Apparently the goblins are welding the cold, which makes Isabelle fear that the stone statue up this way might be involved.

The party discusses how most don't know about Ruimele and they discuss grief that could effect the moral of all of their forces. This leads to Brienda talking about her grief when her parents died but how she was pushed to keep at her work and studies as the new head of house during a time of war. She thinks she has repressed some of the memories of this time. She changes the subject to tell the group her and Nobu's idea to get a house when they return after the mission so Nobu has a place to store nice paper and paints instead of worrying about them getting ruined during travel. Nobu sees through the change in subject and brings it back to that topic with the twice of talking about games. Brienda admits she used to play dragonchess with her uncle a lot to simulate strategy lessons. Nobu promises to play games with Brienda when they get a set and other games too.

They speak to the head training priest to discuss getting blankets for the horses. They have the blankets are willing to give them up if they can be paid for. They are mainly used to train the priests in surviving out in the rough with their horses. The priest tells them about other dangers:

• Locals who have become unhappy with crown and local barren. They have been lynching people on official crown business recently.
• The dead have been march to the gorge in the NW. People have been known to go missing there and feel like time has barely passed.
• An ancient goblin spirit, Grandmother Naggath, who punishes those who have been faithless or cruel partners. It is recommended to have sweats with you so you can give her an offering should you come across her.

Isabelle inquires about missing trainees or alchemists. A few have gone missing but their bodies have been recovered but have some not. All alchemists and herbalists have been called to Dharilton and the trainer received word that they arrived safely.

The party leaves at 2pm. They travel for a while on the road before stopping at the side of the road to make camp for the night just as it starts to get dark. They want to rest early to get on the road early. At 7pm they start official watches with Balthazar's Tiny Hut spell up. They use Isabelle's speak with animals to tell the horses about the plan since they cannot be in the Hut.

Isabelle's watch is unevenful aside from seeing dark shapes in the distance. Humanoid figures killing an elk. She observes them but doesn't interfere though. When she wakes up Nobu for his watch and tells him. Nobu watches them and leaves them be. He can see they are carving it up before heading off into the night. Galanith is up next and is told about the hunters.

During Galanith's watch she notices a strange occurrence for winter. A bear is up and about. It cleans up the remains of the elk before stalking towards the horses. Galanith gets up and gets between them which causes the bear to charge at her. She uses her sacred flame spell to successfully scare it off. The last thing Galanith notices that Brienda is restless in her sleep.

17th of Keltier 1534

Just after midnight Balthazar takes up his watch over the party. It starts to snow during his watch, blocking off his view of the outside of the dome as the snow starts to rest on top of it. He keeps an ear out for the horses and relies on his alarms to keep them safe.

At 3am the party is woken up when the dome fades and the snow falls on top of them. They get and start moving with Balthazar magically getting rid of the snow on top of people. Thankfully most of the party notice Brienda walking off after Kaida is forced off of her by the snow. Isabelle runs after her and wakes her up. Isabelle asks what she was dreaming of when she realises Brienda was heading NW.

She was dreaming of a battle. Shadows were fighting and large colossal figures fighting above or behind the armies. Brienda fears she spoke too much about her past and caused the nightmare. Her perspective shifted a lot which made it confusing for her. Afterward they walk instead of rid to help them stay warm as they eat their rations.

At 7am the party arrives Dharilton's portcullis gate. It is a highly fortified city that looks difficult to lay siege to. They approach and speak to a guard, giving the letter to the guard in order to verify the legitimacy of the party's need to enter the city. Once it is confirmed, a representative from the temple of Haelyn leads them through the city and to the temple. Their horses are stabled here and Isabelle speaks with them to ensure there are no conflicts between the stable hands and Allag.

They are led up to an office to discuss what has happened where a lion cub keeps watch over the meeting. The priest that meets with them ensure that they fully understand why they are here and then fills them in on extra details:

• Numbers of new recruits are low because people are suspicious of the Northern area still having the plague.
• The goblins here and empowered with the power of cold. • There is an ebb and flow to the war as a result. The goblins push back in winter and are pushed back in summer.
• The druids of the area support the Haelynites in their war efforts but lately have been distracted as their sacred tree in the area was under attack. The goblins have established an encampment there now and this is where Ruimele was poisoned.
• The same sort of dart was used on two powerful head druids. One was killed instantly, frozen inside and out while the other held on for longer before dying 5 days later.
• The goblin encampments move frequently. They have no stable settlements in the area.
• The druids are the ones that buried the stone statue. Before this in winter the terrain would shift to the advantage of the goblins. This happened years ago.
• Any missing alchemists have always had their bodies turn up. • At the beginning of winter the goblins were near an abandoned settled (due to plague issues) called Rhion's Brook. They are currently encamped at the tree.
• There are conspiratorial whispers about the fact that crown might have been the ones to spread the plague on purpose. The research centre to find a cure is in Rhion's Brook which the locals are suspicious of.
• The plague was called the Shivering Plague, Symptoms include blurred vision, disorientation, a sudden drop in body temperature, uncontrollable shivers and exhaustion.

The party is warned to keep this information to themselves, especially about the paladin before they are taken to see her. She rarely is coherant. Isabelle speaks with the lion cub to see if it knows anything but it seems it is just there to watch the priest on behalf of it's mother.

When they see the champion, they can see she is struggling and very ill. A lioness lies with her in bed, keeping it's head on her chest protectively. Isabelle speaks to the lioness but she only knows what they have been told which is that a dart caused this. The goblin who fired it is dead and seemed to be one of their assassins. Not a leader but a higher rank then the standard goblin.

Galanith speaks with the clerics that work on the champion to see what spells they are using. A full rang of restorations and healing is provided daily which seems to heal some before it progresses in a one step forward, two steps back sort of manner. They think that the lioness is helping as the champion gets worse anytime the lioness leaves.

Balthazar detects the thoughts of the champion.

Question: How did this happen? Answer: Flashes of battle, fighting with a great sword, flying over head, pain in the neck, falling, darkness.

Question: Who leads the goblins? Answer: A shaman with ice spurs that grow out of it and has ice hardened skin.

Question: Do you know how to fight this? Answer: No response.

Question: How did you get back? Answer: Brief flashes of the sky/wagon top and feeling of movement. Sensation of pain as bone pierces the skin.

Question: Who are the goblins working with, who are their allies? Answer: Normal looking goblins, and giants of varying types, and a creature that looks like the stone statue they fought before but a more frosted look to it. It turns to snow and more versions of it can appear.

The group takes a moment to consider what they have learned and if they have more questions or if they should head out to the sacred tree: the Grandfather Oak.