In the flesh. Tabletop regulars were permitted to attend for a bonus experience session.
Evelais, Verget the 8th, 838 ID
Six Shite and Tharb make their way to the village of Littlewolf, where they are met with little but derision save for the elf maids trying to sell them candies, flowers and baubles. Tharb, relieved that the place hasn't been touched by the Kindness curse, decides to introduce the northerner to his uncle Visyo Reddenbalm, who snottily agrees to an audience. The elf patriarch attempts to convince Six Shite to retrieve a cache of heirlooms that was purportedly lost to a 'lake fairy', with which he might be able to embarrass his rival Silas Roodeye and his clan. Reluctantly, in need of cash, the ranger agrees, and a sum is settled upon, part of which is that the Reddenbalm clan ceases to insult Tharb over his hefty appearance. On the way out, they run across Shayla the Swineherd, who asks Six Shite to return to her barn, where he meets another Wintersbreath refugee, Solveig, a druid who has sought Shayla's assistance. Solveig has arrived with her polar bear companion, Hrufgar, partly to find out why the Empire hasn't officially responded to her province's plight, as well as bear a warning about some massive footprints and other signs of passage she found leading into Floivin Province. The two agree to assist one another.
Meanwhile, in the Keep, Baro receives a message in the form of a shadowy crow from Shayla, telling him there are curious events unraveling with some strangers in Littlewolf. He summons forth his trusty phantom steed (Black Unicorn!) once more and rides off abruptly. Baro has gone off to get the treasure haul from the Haunted Horrn battle identified, and Gruulsh has a proposition to make at the Cathedral of Blades. Badger, mourning his fallen brother Ox, decides to neglect protocol and make a brief return to Nobbish where the half-orc could be properly buried. He pays for round trip teleportation via Teven the Worm, who takes him almost instantly to the city of Durmoral where he pays off a local soldier to transport Ox to their home village for burial. He pays the guard so much, in fact, that the soldier up and quits the Third Eidolorn instantly, realizing he has just made more than he will in decades of service...after that, Teven transports Badger back to his new 'home'. Gruulsh has inquired with Bishop Coniff if he might speak with dead, so they could ask the Score's late cleric leader Gremek a few questions. Conniff agrees, they will arrange the ritual once Commander Hoary can attend to hear the answers.
Ballyhoo arrives in a few hours to Littlewolf, where he is fawned over by the local female elven populace, before riding off to speak with Shayla. She tells him this is all business, but the lecherous bard still slips in some innuendos before he goes off to meet these unusual northerners. While he is being introduced to them, he discovers that Six Shite has almost gotten in a brawl with Lomi, the elf the PCs had sent to accompany the fisherman/brigand Bastaro on his task. Lomi is drunk and barely able to stand, so the bard dominates him to go relax in the shade somewhere, after hearing his explanation of how he lost the blind fisherman. Ballyhoo rides ahead to assist Six Shite, Tharb and Solveig in finding the Roodeye heirlooms, reaching the Everness Isle first, where he is tempted by a strange female creature in the lake-water. She manages to lure him to the depths and attempts to drain his very essence! Ballyhoo manages a slick escape once he breaks her grasp and reaches the service, and rides back to the other three on the boat, still approaching. They decide it's a bust, but Lord Ballyhoo vows to return for the shirt that was commissioned for him by Neddyn, which he had stripped off due to the lake being's seduction!
After severely pissing off Visyo Reddenbalm, Ballyhoo summons a phantom steed for Tharb so the fat elf can proudly show off in front of his people. The bard decides to race back to Floivin Keep and rejoin the other PCs, while Six Shite and his two companions head off to join the forces at Ettenhead and see what work Banghorn can arrange for them. Their journey is uneventful, and when Ballyhoo returns to the capital he finds that Gruulsh and Badger have been insulted out of the Seven Floods once more. The three go off to the Fiery Rat, where Flake gives them drink and meal on the house, sharing in the news and rueful at the loss of Mudgol. Badger drinks the memories of his brother Ox under the table, and then before long the three race off towards Ettenhead, arriving even ahead of the newcomers, who have set up camp nearby rather than approach the unsuspecting garrison at the old giant ruins.
Aric, Verget the 9th, 838 ID
In the morning, the newcomers do at last arrive. Tharb and Gruulsh greet one another warmly, having met during the quest to crack open the Sunken Forge on Greataxe Isle. Scuff the dwarf and nearly a score of his workers are already at work on the ruined castle, and some of the North wall has already been completed, while cheap shelters have been built for the camp to protect the garrison from the elements until more permanent structures are finished. Badger finds to his dismay that Bernice the Golden Hen was devoured by some of the hungry dwarf workers, Odd Jon unable to stop them. Jon himself morns the loss of Ox and (possibly) Mudgol, while the archer goes off to his broken tower perch to mourn (and hopefully not fall off this time).
Learning that the Haunted Horrn hideout for the Score has been eradicated, along with some of the villains there, Banghorn urges the PCs to begin their mission to infiltrate the dreaded Crowslode mines, and the subterranean sprawl beneath. They are to assemble a team of three competent companions and seek out the Southerner Wendel Eumatic Tork III, who supposedly is seeking to test his mettle against the fabled, deadly caverns. They first convince Solveig that her interests lie in helping the heroes, and then decide upon Mistlethroe and Monch Gnarlbottom to join them, in addition to a personal guard hired on to protect the dwarf nobleman directly. Banghorn then decides it is time to promote Badger and Ballyhoo, so that he may also promote the newly recruited Six Shite to Lieutenant so he can start his own branch responsible for scouting out the Vandrakki fortifications and numbers to the north, and possibly pull off some assassinations. Six Shite chooses the loyal Tharb, and sergeant Grenjar Gnarlbottom to work with him, and so Ballyhoo and Gruulsh race off on phantom steeds to retrieve him.
After acquiring the dwarf, they stop back at Littlewolf, first accosting Lomi who has somehow been freed of his spell. Gruulsh is enraged, physically abusing the House Guard, who is now inhaling opiates in a wagon, and rolling him before Silas Roodeye, who is deeply offended, but offers a 'refund' by sending another soldier to work the Ettenhead later. The PCs and Grenjar go back to Evernesse Isle to find Ballyhoo's shirt, which is now gone. They do, however, find the corpse of Bastaro, drained of its blood, on the isle itself, with a last note scrawled out in his blood, as best a blind ma might: 'TO MY WIFE. FUCK YE! I DIED HAPPY IN THE ARMS OF A YOUNG BEAUTY. - B' They do not find the Roodeye heirlooms, and instead embark to Ettenhead once more. Grenjar is surprised that he has been called upon by Six Shite, worried that his unfortunate 'curse' might have embarrassed him, but the barbarian greets him warmly and thinks his 'skill' might be of some use ahead. The heroes rest, to depart for Floivin Keep the following morning.
Tault, Verget the 10th, 838 ID
The PCS, along with Grenjar and Tharb, all roll in to Floivin Keep, where they retrieve Baro and the items he had studied. They divvy up the goods, and fetch Commander Hoary for the death-speaking ritual, which Conniff conducts beneath the Cathedral. They learn that the Score was definitely hired by the Seven Lords of Syn, servants of King Tomas the Unspared of Vhorinyr, the being responsible for attempting to repair and resurrect the Death Titan Ulan Vhor. They also learn that Syriux is most definitely some sort of living construct, and that the Score not only had hideouts at the Skull Collar Hideaway (conquered) and Haunted Horrn (conquered), but in the Free-Mest and every town in Sothos Karr, whether it's a full-fledged safehouse or a cache of supplies or a sympathizer. That is all the pertinent information Gremek's corpse can provide them, since he seemed not to know too much.
Hoary ensures the PCs that a few squads of hardened Last Eidolorn soldiers will crack the Hud Horrn, now that the majority of the dangerous Blooded Lash captains and their employers have been taken out. There has been no news of the Kindness curse...the Cathedral has been freeing what citizens the clergy can from Castle Floivin, a few each day, but the surviving mob that fled towards Hobfast has not been encountered, nor have the halflings been heard from. Gruulsh and Ballyhoo have an audience with Monch, who is delighted to join them on their quest into the Crowslode, almost like he was planning on being asked...Badger takes a bunch of the PCs excess treasure haul to be sold and/or stored in their vault, and the group gets ready to seek out the southern adventurer Wendel while Monch arranges for the last member of their next expedition. Captain Krennyk begins to arrange a supply wagon for them.
PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Gruulsh, Six Shite, Solveig
