9. Cane You Just Listen to Me?

Alrighty, it's been a tough few days. We arrived in the remains of Apple Bay, finding the town scorched and derelict. Body after body was lying on the ground with black marks across their skin.
Immediately we split up and began searching, I travelled with the mutt to see if there were many survivors, starting with the magic shop as that is how his mind appears to work. The shop was, unsurprisingly, empty and untouched. So we began to make our way around the Bay, finding very little until we made it to the Mayor's house.
Upon arriving, we saw some 15 poorly dressed lizardfolk standing around and watching a tiefling wearing an iron crown as he shouted up at the Mayor, who was apparently barricaded into his house. Eli and Bren were there as well, involved in some kind of conversation. The tiefling, apparently known as the Dreadlord Dardas, began ranting that he wanted the town back, as it "belonged" to him. The mayor began blaming this entire problem on us, including the town's destruction. "You killed the hag, now we got attacked" etc. The mutt and I broke the door down with my battering ram, and Dardas immediately got bored and wandered off... he's an odd one, clearly.
Making our way into the house we noticed some survivors from the apparent attack the night before. We left Bren downstairs to keep an eye out just in case, and headed upstairs to find Mayor Brandywood in his office, clutching his cane and looking ready to kill us or run. He began to tell us once more that we were responsible for the state of the town, as they once only had to sacrifice a few individuals to keep the majority safe. That wasn't a popular opinion with myself, as I told him they could just begin to build defenses around the town like any normal settlement. This appeared to annoy Brandywood, as the lure of Apple Bay has long been the lack of a need for defenses. I continued to push the idea, even offering our services to protect the town as they rebuilt. For a fee, of course. The Mayor, much like many people in the past (Lotan) doubted our capabilities, so instead we suggested that we escort the survivors to Castle Baldur. For a fee. He seemed somewhat amenable to the offer, even if it was less of an offer and more his only option. Eli and the mutt were against my suggestion that we attempt to enlist Dardas and his lizards to escort the town through the nights, but they did think that sending Lotan ahead to warn the Castle was a good idea.
I then sent the others out to begin finding and moving more individuals into our roving house, as well as to search for any kind of extra transport, e.g. carts and horses.
Following this, I began to guide the mayor and the 45 or so individuals who had been taking shelter in his estate to the Hut, on the way informing Brandywood that the cane he was using had a connection to the surviving hag, as she could see through the eyeball on top. Hob didn't seem that fussed, and even used it to temporarily incapacitate me as an example of the trade off being worthwhile.
After a little more time, Eli, Bren and the mutt found 20 or so more townspeople hiding in other buildings, including Mugsack, the tavern owner. We loaded them into the house and the two carts we had found and began trekking to Baldur. It was expected to be a 3 day journey.
Unfortunately for us, the very first night out we were attacked. About 6 hours after dark the guards from Apple Bay noticed some trees beginning to move, and Mhurren's sword buzzed as one of the trees lashed out and killed a guard.
Bren immediately jumped off the house and brandished the floating globe, scaring off some shadows (much like those we encountered in the mine). The tree closest to the leading cart I was on had a strange face on it as it and two others lurched forward, the odd tree targeting myself.
Feeling a burning passion, ignited by the strange metallic arm I am now used to, I summoned forth blue protective lights and ran up the face of the sentient tree, smacking at it multiple times with the glaive I'd taken from the Oni. As I was doing this, I noticed Gordon take a shot at it with his crossbow, burning it slightly. Eli was standing atop the house, a ring of burning objects revolving around them, launching them at the two other trees. A shadow had crept forward as my attention was distracted and took a swing at me, and I felt myself grow weaker as it sucked some form of life from my body. Running down the trunk again, I took a couple more swipes from the shadow, and felt that same creeping weakness.
Landing one more hit on the tree, I saw it and the other two grow still. One of the carts had apparently been damaged in the fighting, and we began to hear shouting from the guards behind the house. Running over we gazed upon a 20ft tall creature, with glowing eyes and 4ft long horns eviscerating the "special" members of the local guard.
We decided then that our best bet was to crowd everyone into the hut and just run, but the creature continued to gain. I remembered the scroll Eli had given me for some reason, and began to read from it. As soon as the magic took effect, the house began to move at a pace equal to the creature.
We spent some time attempting to figure out what it was, as it used some strange abilities to cause immense pain to Bren and murder one of the surviving guards.
Gordon said that it had to be from the Negative Plane. It was anathema to life itself, created by some dark force and therefore attracted to similar forces.
Having had a close up encounter with the cane that the mayor held, that was my first thought. However the others, including Mhurren, began to dither and dicker about whether it could have been the bag of souls or the stone we got from Umbriana, especially as Bren used the bag to prevent the spectre from consuming the souls of the goats Eli sent to slow it down. However, I became convinced they were all wrong as this creature had not attacked us the night before, but had raged against the town.
None of them were inclined to listen, as that's how idiots are, so, as always, I went to solve the problem myself, attempting to track down Brandywood. Eventually he was found to be hiding in a closet, unsurprisingly, and so I took the cane off of him, heading up to the roof. I felt inclined to just throw the cane off the roof, but decided that perhaps working with the group might be a better avenue. Plus, I was still feeling weak after my encounter with the shadow. So, I handed it to them and watched them argue once more. I wanted to just throw it to the creature, as the cane attempted to defend itself by paralyzing whomever held it. For whatever reason, Eli, Bren and Gordon continued to argue until Gordon got sick of the argument and broke it. The spectre immediately stopped, and wandered off.
We all relaxed, and continued to travel into the night.
The next day, we spotted a strange pair travelling toward us on horseback from the direction of Apple Bay. A man with a symbol of a white blade upon a black field on his shield, riding a strange striped horse of black and white. Beside him, a dog with a gnome on his back. The man with the crest introduced himself as Sir Willem, and asked after the individual who felled the Bitch Queen. We all claimed to have helped, but indicated that Bren managed to land the final blow.
Sir Willem, and the gnome whose name was apparently Pippen, asked Bren to join their quest, seeking the Holy Blade as Sir Willem did, in the service of Dawnshine. I believe the oath was something along the lines of "Do you promise to do right and seek the holy blade?"
After Bren agreed (even though I thought that perhaps he already had a cause), he was given a hilt with no sword. It gave off the feeling of magic that is used to manipulate energy or tap into other sources of power.
Sir Willem and his "berserker horse" as he called it then rode off into the distance. A few hours later we were met by the vanguard from Castle Baldur, bearing the same crest Sir Willem had. Upon reaching the town, we began to relax and wander around shopping and selling goods. Myself and Gordon sold several items to the Quartermaster for a lucrative price. Apparently working in a group sure is profitable.
I then wandered around town for a while, seeing what else was available, and finally decided to buy a greataxe. My arm and I are finally in sync, so I figured I could start being a little more bold with my actions and trust it to do its own thing.
I'm not sure what the others got up to, but the mutt has just told me that the lord of Baldur has invited us around for the evening as a thank you for saving the citizens of Apple Bay. It should be fun.