Anoria Campaign / House of Hurin / Eire the 27th through Galen the 2nd, 3592 CE / 12-29-19

Nari Ashida has traveled to Akama, seeking aid in finding her lost companion, Fiora Rebane. After parting ways with fellow Adventurer Henry Skalitz, who came to the mountain city only to retrieve his horse, she makes her way to the inn where the party previously met the dwarven Moonboat Capain, Glasur. Unfortunately, the innkeeper informs her that Glasur has not been seen since he ferried to party upriver to the Pillars of Midnight, almost a month prior. He does inform the kitsune sorceress that she may be able to seek aid in her quest at the Lodge, a temple to Thurn that also serves as the headquarters for the city's rangers. At the Lodge, Nari meets a cleric of Thurn named Bearpaw, who declines her request to join her team, but a young ranger named Yelt provides introductions to the ranger captain, Vonn Ashcroft. Captain Ashcroft agrees to provide aid to Nari in the form of a seasoned ranger named Akilah. Yelt also volunteers to accompany the sorceress, and Nari is even able to convince the reticent Bearpaw to accompany the party as a healer. The party has a violent encounter with some bugbear cultists as they make their way up the Black March, but for the most part the journey is uneventful until they spy the burnt out husk of Harsmad on the opposite shore of the Moonsfall River. Beached on the shore is Glasur's moonboat, the Black Snake, seemingly abandoned. One of the river boat captain's trained giant pike lies dead and moldering on the shore, while the other is nowhere to be seen. A bloody hand-print is further proof that something dire has occurred. Yelt attempts to swim across the rapids with a line for the others to follow, but is attacked by a now once again feral pike, and barely saved from death by his comrades. Bearpaw next makes the attempt, using his faith in Thurn to calm the beast. With only minutes to spare before the spell wears off, the rest of the group make their way across the river and scramble onto the Black Snake. There they find a grisly sight: the corpse of the boat's captain, the dwarf Glasur, appears to have had the flesh gnawed from its bones. Tracks lead into the wilderness, and the party moves in hot pursuit, coming to a series of ancient standing stones outside a cave. They discover the cave is the lair of a notorious ettin, Erdol/Lodre. The ettin has been raiding from his mountain hideout for years, and has accumulated a strange assortment of souvenirs, including a wyrwood that Nari finds trapped in a chest. Even stranger, the creature, who introduces himself as Kadeuceus, seems to know who Nari is and says he has been searching for her. Nari, reluctant to accept a new cohort after losing Fiora, agrees to allow the wyrwood to accompany them. After fighting off both a cave beetle and the ettin's enormous pet hellhound, they are confronted by the monstrous two-headed giant. Though they succeed in slaying the villain, Yelt pays the ultimate price, dying in his comrades arms from his wounds. As they prepare to exit the cave, the party is confronted by beast men, the same who Fiora once told Nari of. They warn Nari that she should halt her quest to find her lost companion, but Nari insists that they lead her to Fiora, even if it may result in the kitsune's doom. Through the dark woods, the beast men take Nari to another cave. Inside, Nari finds Fiora, now transformed into a ghoul from the ghoul sorcerer Arham's bite, and worshiped as a prophet by the beast men. With a heavy heart, Nari bids goodbye to her companion, knowing it is unlikely she will ever see her again, and returns to the ruins of Harsmad, where Bearpaw has interred the bodies of Yelt and Glasur. When she reaches Akama once more, her fame has only grown, and she earns the title of "Ettin-Slayer." Now Nari must train and decide what fate has in store for her next. Perhaps there is a clue from her new wyrwood prophet, one that leads her south, to a city called Cauldron.