Session 1: Terror on the Road

The Companions of Iron Watch are on their way to Hilltown having joined a caravan belonging to the Stone Whisperer's Guild. The caravan is run by a man named Jerek Stonehand who is returning to Hilltown after exchanging ore for gold, provisions and weapons in Iron Watch. The heroes decided to join the caravan having heard the roads have become dangerous lately. There is safety in numbers or so it is said......  

Our Story Begins

Lysday the 5th of Harvestide in the year 3024
  The Companions of Iron Watch learned much from each other in the first few days out with the caravan. Zodak Stormcaller, a conduit of Aurus Goddess of Storms is a tall, muscular man with a full beard. He believes the he was marked by his Goddess at birth as evinced by the distinctive lightning scar on his right cheek. He wears chain mail and uses a shield while wielding a hammer or crossbow in combat. He plans to return to Springtown, a small village in the Kingdom of Merrin where he is from. He believes that the Stormlords are a heretical sect that are perverting his faith and believes that Conduits should militarize against them. He has a fiery temperment, but has worked hard to maintain control over it.   Malcor the magnficent is a halfling who has still not told anyone in the party his name yet. He fancies himself a finder of lost things, things that people did not even know that they lost. He has a mutton chop hairstyle and wear green studded leather armor. He can shoot a mean crossbow and uses a knife very well. He is tall for a halfling and very young.   The Little Stream that Flows Uphill was a bit much for the Companions to remember so they decided to shorten it to Creek Creek is from a clan of humans that live within the Druthain Wood. His clan has a tradition to tell stories, especially around the fire at night, so his companions have learned much about him. His sister was kidnapped by the Hearthrock Clan and as is the tradition, Creek and his clanmates tried to stop them, but when they caught up with them the Hearthrock Clan was slaughtered and his sister was gone. Creek tracked her to Iron Watch on his own and learned she was captive as part of a caravan headed to Hilltown. That is why he joined the caravan. Creek is a very spiritual person. He always says words to the great spirit before he eats and when he hunts he says words over the animal after he kills them. He is not comfortable around people. He asked Lyra Swiftfoot one of the carvan guards why she has not been taken by a man and bred. Clearly he is not used to the ways outside the forest. He has found the food to be remarkable and is especially fond of bread! Creek wields two elven short swords.   Volu is tiefling who is very friendly to everyone and very whimsical. He plays a flute. Occasionally he will wander away from the main caravan and sit on a log or on the grass and small animals will soon come up to him. Volu feeds them and interacts with them. Volu does his best to be helpful whenever someone needs it, like the time one of the cart wheels was damaged and he tried to help repair it even though he didn't know exactly how to fix it.  

Evening Day 1 - Rain, Rain go away

  It was a rainy evening and everyone was huddled under awnings that had been erected off of the sides of their wagons. Two of the carvan guards, Grakka and Lyra Swiftfoot returned to the camp and brought a diseased hyena to show it to Jerek Stonehand. Creek was intrugued by this and came over to talk to them. He recognized that there was something wrong with the animal and he tries to explain the great spirit would not want this animal to suffer and that he must be offered up to the great spirit. He even asked Lyra to come with him to take part in the ritual. She declined, and so Creek took the hyena to the edge of the caravan and affter pulling off his shirt, he removed the heart from the hyena, made an offfering to the great spirit and then returned the heart to the body of the creature as his clan had taught him.   Zodak decided to travel around the caravan to try and cheer people up. As he passed by the wagon of the Entwhistle family he saw Rebecca their 9 year old daughter. She was crying as her mother Liza tried to comfort her. He stoped and spoke to the little girl telling her that she should always be prepared for the worst and to weather the storm, especially while traveling on the road. Realizing that this was not working, he switched tactics and told her that rain can bring flowers. The mention of flowers made her stop crying and as she wiped her tears on the back of her hand, she made him promise to bring her a flower tomorrow.   Volu meandered on over to talk to Milo Hearthwick the halfling cook. Milo was whining about the poor ingredients that he has been forced to make into edible meals. He asked Volu to go hunting to find some plump rabbits. "Get me the rabbits," Milo said, "and I will make you the sweetest rabbit stew you have ever tasted!" Creek also came over and told the cook how much he liked bread and asked if he could have some. Milo looked at him funny and then said he had no oven. He asked where Creek was from and Creek told him he came from the Druthain Wood. Milo jokingly told him he should go back there.   For most of the evening, Malcor sat listening to everything going on around him, playing all the while with a small toy. He heard Borin Grimshaw speaking about his father Grizz to Arthur Entwhistle. Apparently, the old blacksmith has a family heirloom hidden in his wagon. A mighty warhammer that is the most impressive weapon that the boy has every seen. Malcor's ears pricked up at this and he stopped playing with his toy, clearly thinking about learning more. Eventually, Malcor thought better of it and got into his bedroll and went to sleep.  

Day 2 - A Hunting We Will Go

Belsday the 6th of Harvestide in the year 3024   The party awoke the next day under the cover of clouds, but the rain had stopped. Jerek came to Volu first thing in the morning and asked him to go hunting with his friends for the caravan, just as he promised Milo the halfling. Malcor was excited and started to prepare immediately. Creek agreed, even though he shared with the group that he normally hunted alone. Zodak also agreed to go although he made a point of mentioning that he was not exactly a skilled hunter. Zodak left his horse with Liza Entwhistle and her daughter Rebecca.   The Companions set out together while the carvan continued on. As they were about to get into range to shoot some game, Volu stepped on a dry branch, spooking the animals which caused them to scatter. Creek was frustrated with Volu and as he was lecturing him on hunting basics, Zodak called out to them.   The Conduit was looking at a small stand of trees nearby. He noticed a small piece of cloth stuck in the bushes in front of a copse of trees. Creek stopped chastising Vol and came over to investigate. As he pciekd up the scrap of clothing his spirits rose. It was clear that it had belonged to his sister! He was closer to her than he thought. Examining the area, he discovered that his sister must have fled from her captors just long enough to leave him this clue. She was then captured and dragged away. At that moment, the party was surprised by a pack of hyenas that had snuck up on them as they examined the area around the discarded cloth. A pitched battle ensued and the companions were hard pressed to win the day. During the battle, the heroes noticed that two of the hyenas had the same necrotic wounds that they had seen on the corrupted hyena on the previous day. One of them bit Zodak and he was poisoned by the attack.   As the battle ended, Creek began to perform his clan's ritual but, something felt wrong. As he smeared the blood of the creatures on his skin, a ritual meant to purify the spirits of the dead creatures, Creek instead felt an uncleanness that he had never felt before. He immediately washed the blood off of his skin. Malcor was drawn to the fangs of the hyenas and skillfully removed one to keep. Appalled, Creek forced him to drop it, because the bodies of the hyenas were clearly cursed.   Creek now had more time to investigate the tracks left by his sister and after some contemplation he deduced that his sister was here just three short days ago. All thoughts of hunting were driven from Creek's head and he convinced his friends to return to the caravan right away.   The Companions returned to the caravan and Creek approached Jerek asking if the caravan could speed up. When asked why, Creek tells Jerek about his sister. Malcor added his voice to Creek's trying to convince Jerek to speed up. The caravan master told Creek that he would need to sleep on it and decide tomorrow. Even though he was wounded, Zodak spoke to Rebecca and let her know why he did not bring her a flower.   Creek goes out hunting on his own and comes back with enough food for at least 10 meals. Milo gets to work and is as good as his word. The meal on this night is excellent.   Grakka one of the caravan guards is concerned for Zodak when she sees his wound. She tells him it is beyond her skill to heal, but that she can help ease the pain with a poultice. As she goes off to make it, Creek looks at Zodak's wound and then tells him that he will kill him if he sees that the evil spirit is going to take over his body. Malcor overhears this and begins to laugh. He tells the companions that he finds Creek's concern for others ito be a bit naive.   Malcor wanders about the camp and stops to speak tio the The Entwhistle Family. Malcor asks Arthur about the twin padlocks on the clan's wagon by feigning insterest in wagon design and crafting. While speaking to Arthur, Malcor barely notices a tattoo on Arthur's forearm that is covered by his bracers. Arhtur says good night to him and leaves as soon as he notices that Malcor has seen his tattoo.   As Grakka applies the poultice to ease Zodak's pain, Creek speaks to Lyra Swiftfoot about having to possibly kill Zodak because he is tainted by an evil spirit. She looks at him quizically, not sure whether or not to take him seriously. Creek then let's Lyra know that if he could, he would steal her away to be his bride She tells him that that is not how things work here outside the wood and that if he tried to take her by force, she would defend herself. Creek then tells her the story about his sister.   As Lyra leaves, Kael Stonefist approaches Creek. It is the first time he has spoken to anyone of the Companions. The guard asks him to stay away from Lyra. Creek is puzzled by this and Zodak tries to explain to him that Kael is simply jealous and that stealing a bride is not how things are done outside of the Druthain Wood.   Soon after, the caravan travelers begin to turn in for the night.  

Evening Terrors

  Belsday the 6th of Harvestide in the year 3024 Night   As the Companions begin to settle down for the night. A cool breeze sweeps through the camp. Creek and Zodak settle down into their bedrolls and drift off to sleep. Malcor gets into his bedroll and turns onto his side so that he can look at the wagons of the caravan. Volu rest on his back in his bedroll, his eyes staring into the sky. He is surprised to see an eagle soaring over him and he knows that his patron needs to speak to him. Volu quickly gets up and pretends to go take a pee. When he does so he notices that Malcor is gone.   A hundred yards away from the caravan, Volu is approahced by a honey badger. It is his patron. The animal looks to be in pain as it tells Volu that he must cut the evil out of his friend Zandor to prevent him from suffering from the Dream Whisperer. Volu was very concerned because he had never seen his patron like this before. Something was very wrong.   Back at the caravan, Zodak was is in middle of a nightmare. He felt as if he was drowning. It was as is if someone or something was sitting on his chest, holding him underwater. He struggled as he slept and Creek and Malcor where drawn to the sound. Creek thought that the evil spirit was about to take Zodak so he placed his knee on Zodak's chest and drew his knife smacking him on the forehead with the flat of the blade trying to snap him out of it. Zodak then broke free and pushed Creek off finally free of his nightmare.   Volu returned to the caravan, but was having difficulty telling Zodak that he had a vision from his patron. A vision that told him it was absolutely necessary to cut the poison out of Zodak's wound. He finally convinced Zodak that is was necessary and they got some alcohol from Milo while Creek gave him a stick with no bark to clench his teeth. Malcor convinced his friends that he could help with the procedure and together with Creek they cut the poison out of Zodak's wound. He would not be able to use his shield arm, but he was no longer corrupted by the poison.   At that moment, Lyra Swiftfoot and Grakka two of the caravan guards rushed into the camp and warned Jerek Stonehand that a band of rampaging gnolls were only about one hour away from the caravan. Jerek asks the Companions for help and they all decide to circle the wagons with the women and children safely secured in one of the wagons. The guards and the Companions waited behind the cover of the wagons and fired on the gnolls as soon as they were in range. As the battle unfolded, Malcor was struck in the neck by a spear and fell unconscious. After Zodak cast a spell to stop his bleeding he was also struck down. Creek and Volu fought on valiantly with the guards and the gnolls were defeated.

END SESSION ONE