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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 1788879" data-attributes="member: 2785">Wow, where to start?Well, the evil wizard Lazzaro Benicci, who the party believes is a necromancer (but isn't, he's a conjurer) has absconded with Fiorenza's sister Gianetta after tricking Gianetta into marrying him (Fiorenza is the party's bard). The PCs took a week off to scribe some scrolls, then sailed aboard a merchant cog to Benicci's last known destination, the Arbonnesse township of Bretta, on the river Onduse. Arriving in Bretta, the party discovered that Lazzaro and Gianetta did indeed pass through the township, and afterward stayed with the local lord at his keep before moving on, presumably to one of Lazzaro's estates. They also heard that the local pagan communities were being menaced by ogres, and decided that dealing with the ogres would be a fine way to get in the lord's good graces. This would hopefully sway him into granting them an audience and information on Lazzaro's destination.So. Off they went into the woods, but instead of finding ogres, they discovered a warband of gnolls sacking a pagan thorpe. In a tense battle, the gnolls were slain and the pagans rescued, but not before the valiant henchman Stefano died upon a gnoll's axe. This was not the end for Stefano, though; he rose from the dead spontaneously, speaking of visions of a heavenly lady urging him to return, and did so as a paladin. Speaking with the pagans, they discovered that a local druid of some significance named Beow had gone missing a fortnight ago, and the gnolls and ogres had begun to raid the outlying human lands in his absence. Hm.After seeing to the pagans' needs they set off back to Bretta, where they met with the local reeve in an effort to gain audience from the lord. Warning the reeve of the druid's disappearance, they returned to the Riven Rood inn and waited for a summons from the lord.It didn't come. Instead, the reeve arrived and claimed that the lord wanted the PCs to clear out the ogres before he granted them an audience. Annoyed, the PCs picked up from the reeve's manner that he was holding some information back. Fearghus, the faen (spryte) druid, cast charm person on the reeve and got him talking. In point of fact, the lord was hoping they'd all die fighting ogres and then he wouldn't have to talk to the party at all. Curious. Why didn't he want to talk to them? Fearghus asked the reeve. Because, the man replied conspiratorally, once I mentioned that you were looking for Lazzaro Benicci my lord became quite agitated.Bothered by the lord's behavior, the party set off into the woods anyway in hopes of stopping the ogres from ruining more lives, and they resolved to visit the grove of Beow the druid in hopes of discovering why he'd disappeared. When they arrived at his grove, they discovered it to be blackened, twisted, and blighted. Discovering the druid's cohort, a 1st-level ranger awakened dire wolf named Cadwr, the party learned that some group that wielded "black fire" had abducted the druid, with the help of Beow's former apprentice Skoewth, who had apparently become a blighter of the natural world rather than a defender.The party convinced Cadwr to lead them to the ogres, who were apparently busily spending their days raiding the local barrow-tombs of ancient pagan kings. We left off with the group ready to send in the rogue to scout the ogres' lair, wary of the ogres' leader, who is apparently a spirit shaman powerful enough to call lightning. That was the abbreviated version of what's been going on. Hey, you asked. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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