EoD 006: Back to Dulwich

The party debated their next move; high on everyone's agenda was avoiding the adult owlbear. Eventually, the heroes decided to rest overnight before retrieving the ghostly woman's bones from the lake. It rained heavily overnight, but luck was on the characters' side, and no one and nothing disturbed their rest.

The morning was pleasant but cool. Helmia, clutching two rabbits Elmo had helped her catch the night before, advanced toward the giant frog that they knew lurked by the lake. Using powerful druidical magic, she gained the ability to speak with the frog and made friends with their gigantic beast. When it emerged from the reeds, the rest of the party were glad she had done so--the frog was massive--perhaps the size of a horse, and it had a very, very long tongue and a very, very wide mouth. While Lion, Polumya and Theoden guarded Helmia, Elmo and Dimble skirted the lake and headed up to the waterfall to begin the search for the woman's bones.

It was to be a long search.

Elmo discovered the lake was not deep--perhaps only five-foot-deep at its deepest--but thick muddy silt covered its bottom, and after several minutes of searching, he found only one bone. Thus, some of his friends reluctantly joined him in the filthy, cold water. While Lion and several others watched over the searchers, they slowly amassed a pile of bones on the lake bank. This took hours and, to make matters worse, the heavy rain returned, drenching the guards as thoroughly as the lake drenched the searchers.

Eventually, by the mid-afternoon, though, the group had retrieved most of the skeleton. It was now too late to return to Dulwich, and so the group spent another night in the tomb to the east. It was an uncomfortable night--wild screeching and hooting just after dusk filled the valley, strongly suggesting the adult owlbear had returned. Luckily, it did not investigate the party's hiding place, and the next day dawned bright and early. Before the sun had fully risen, the group were off, threading their way back to Dulwich.

On the way, Helmia found a lovely spot to bury the ghostly elven woman's bones, and the party returned Taisto's remains to his distraught family. So touched were they by the family's misery that they refused any payment, and Theoden even gifted the widow a few extra silver coins.

Thus it was that four days after they left Dulwich, they were again back in civilisation. It had been an eventful four days, and the heroes were looking forward to resting, reflecting on their experiences, selling some of their loot and identifying the three magical items they had found. (One of these items--a Shock Hammer--seemed of particular interest and use, and Elmo was delighted to receive it as part of his share of the group's treasure.)

The group split up and went their own ways for two weeks.

When the party finally gathered again at the Dancing Bear's taproom, they were well-rested and prepared for more adventure! Over several mugs of ale, they discussed what perils to face next. Some of the group wanted to return to the Shunned Valley to explore that last tomb, while Polumya was particularly intrigued by rumours of strange doings at the town graveyard--rumours that the priest of Conn, Mikael Tuntia, Polumya spoke to dismissed out of hand. Wanted posters scattered around town also suggested that the group could make good coin hunting down a couple of bandits wanted by Dulwich's lord, Wido Gall. Rumours placed a large band of bandits in the ruin of Ironwolf Keep--the so-called Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands--and the group theorised that this might be a good place to start.

A compromise was reached: the group would lurk in the graveyard for a night to see what they could discover and then return to the Shunned Valley--adventure yet lurked in the valley, and the lust for danger and glory burned brightly in the neophyte heroes' breasts...

This post is a session summary from my weekly 5e D&D Edgelands of Darkness campaignset in the Duchy of Ashlar.