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Message: <blockquote data-quote="djotaku" data-source="post: 9806100" data-attributes="member: 7054471">The entire campaign is available on my blog: <a href="https://www.ericsbinaryworld.com/series/tales-of-the-valiant-campaign-01-recap/" target="_blank">Tales-of-the-Valiant-Campaign-01-Recap</a> Each of the posts contains the story as well as my thoughts as the GM. However, it looks like story hour is meant to have the text in here rather than leading somewhere else? (At least based on the the random ones I clicked on) So I will copy the story into here:Session 1<h3>Character Introduction</h3><h3>Appaluna Harrietdaughter (Female Human Warlock)</h3><h4>Stats</h4> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Heritage: Vexed</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Background: Courtier</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">28 years old</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">6 feet tall</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Brown eyes and hair. Caucasian skin color.</li> </ul><h4>Backstory</h4>Appaluna was born to a noble family. She grew up in comfort, but was often bored and unhappy. When she was 20 she made a deal with an otherworldly creature. Some of the maids found out, and word got out that Appaluna had made a deal with the devil. Appaluna was cast out of the court in disgrace, and now works to try and earn enough money to buy her way back to nobility.<h2>Jackal Bonfeather (Male Beastkin Fighter)</h2><h3>Stats</h3> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Heritage: Slayer</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Background: Soldier</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5 years old; considered an adult</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">6'4" tall</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">181 lbs</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Yellow eyes, green skin, no hair.</li> </ul><h3>Backstory</h3>Unknown at this time.<h2>Ariana Mesa (Female Human Druid)</h2><h3>Stats</h3> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Heritage: Cosmopolitan</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Background: Scholar</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">22 years old</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Green eyes, black hair, tanned Caucasian skin.</li> </ul><h3>Backstory</h3>Currently unknown. But adventuring motivation: Adventuring will lead me to the answers I desperately seek.<h3>The Adventure</h3>The adventurers were each individually playing poker at the Tigerpaw Casino. They were joined by Silgre Silvertooth, an inveterate gambler with a huge unlucky streak. Suddenly the casino was overrun with large spiders. They teamed up to fight the spiders. Afterwards they were offered a bounty by Ariadne Sasaki to rid the casino and the town of the spiders. The team ventured into the sewers where they fought with some even larger spiders. Eventually they found a very large spider who was mother to all the spiders over-running the town. They also found out that she kneaded the bread for the bakery above and her venom was used in the sourdough starter. They negotiated with the spider to leave town and go to the forest. Afterwards they confronted the baker and were paid off by him to be quiet about his use of the spider in his breads.A few days later the newly formed team was hired by Kylana, a human mechanist who had heard of their exploits in Cardew. She needed their help in finding her solodron, Wingnut. She’d sent the solodron to Bellgrove to provide a water purifier to the mycolids living there. When the party arrives at Hulgig (a city next to Bellgrove), they are attacked by humanoids who are affected by a fungal infection. The team goes to the local goods story. When they don’t get the information they need there, they go to the largest building in town where the head of the town, a gnome druid, directs them to the caverns. The team suspects the mycolids may be to blame and the gnome shares their conclusions.In the caverns they save a human named Dusstan who got caught in a rope trap that saved him from the sporeborn by suspending him at the top of the cavern. Eventually they save Wingnut from some quasits, but never find out which magic user had summoned them. Afterwards they go to the mycolids and find out that their leader has secluded himself because he’s also sick. They suspect that the water has been poisoned. The party descends to the lowest level of the cavern and builds a raft to float to where the spore lord was. They give him purified water and he gets better. The adventurers then return Wingnut to Kylana and are rewarded and congratulated for their efforts.Session 2<h3>The Adventure</h3>The adventurers had been working with Kylana for the past month to try and figure out how the mycaloid water source was poisoned. A gnome arrived with a wedding invitation for Ariana from her college friend, a gnome named Favienne Northcord. The wedding is in a town called Moonbright. It’s far enough away that they decide they will take a scrawler to get to the town.As they are waiting at the ticket booth to purchase a ride on the scrawler, two dwarves show up looking beaten up. They tell the townsfolk that there are some goblins attacking all wagons headed into the town. The mayor tells the adventurers that if they help eradicate the goblins, their tickets on the scrawler will be covered. The team agrees to deal with the goblins.They head a few miles out of town and find an overturned wagon half-surrounded by a fetid moat. They try to lift the wagon and are attacked. They begin to counter-attack and Jackal is accidentally hit by a magic attack by Ariana. Eventually the wagon is set on fire and the goblins retreat below ground. After a quick search that nets Jackal some money, they head down the stairs.Underground Jackal is a bit reckless journeying through the tunnels and ends up triggering a trap. A fight ensues and the party kills one of the goblins. This scares their leader, Dib, who runs away and commands the remaining goblins to deal with the adventurers. After a bit more fighting, Jackal and Ariana fall unconscious. The remaining goblins use this as a chance to retreat to the rendezvous point with their leader. They know they won’t be followed since Appaluna has to stabilize her companions. Jackal searches the room and finds some gold hidden in a cobbled-together throne.The adventurers return to the town and get their passage paid. Other than the team, the others on the scrawler are:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Silgre - who they last saw at the Tigerpaw Casino.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hakoth Squabblesnap - This elderly orc holds an elaborately carved walking stick and loves to tell stories of their past. Headed to a tavern in Moonbright.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Halfling siblings - Yara and Ella Lightfoot - constantly bickering. They just want to feel the wind in their hair.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The operator: dwarf named Kildrak blackanvil</li> </ul>Jackal eventually gets tired of the halflings bickering and intimidates them into quieting. The scrawler is making its way to Moonbright as the adventure ends.Sessions 3 and 4<h3>The Adventure</h3>The team arrived at Moonlight where the scrawler dropped them off in the middle of town. The old orc and Silgre both also got off the Scrawler. After a brief conversation, the adventurers decided to go to the mayor’s house first. There they were hired to rid the town of kobolds. They agreed on a payment of 25GP per person and 3 nights room and board paid at the tavern.They head east and pass by Chana Petir’s farmstead. The halfling asks the party to help her rebuild her fence. In exchange she feeds them dumplings in cabbage broth. After that they head into the woods and come across four kobolds sleeping in a clearing near a fifth, dead kobold. They investigate the corpse and find out it’s suffering from scalemolder.After a bit more time, they find the clearing with the kobold encampment. Because Ariana knows many languages, she’s able to speak directly to them in draconic. The kobolds are awed that a human can speak draconic. They do still direct the party towards Cliff. After some convincing, he takes them to see the Chief. The party hears about the issues with the kobolds and agrees to help.On their way back to town they pass by another farmstead. Ariana helps them realize they need to do crop rotation to help their crops grow. They arrive back at the tavern. THey pay a merchant for information on how to get to the mill. Appaluna asks about the Mill brothers. When Jackal goes to sleep Ariana tries to prank him, but he’s a light sleeper.The next day the adventurers head to the mill after breakfast. They are able to find the right tree and get 5 gallons of the sap needed to cure the Kobolds. Ariana gets the special ring from the Kobolds. The next day they go to the market to look for weapons, but there are not any weapons merchants available. They go to the mill, but the brothers refuse to talk to them.In the morning, as the team is eating breakfast, Ebril tells them that her fiance hasn’t returned and Bartos (woodcutter foreman) is being evasive. Team agrees to see what’s going on. Jacks is rough with Bartos, but he doesn’t have to be as Bartos is happy to provide information. The team investigates the woods and finds the woodsmen around a tree. Jackal tries to shake them awake, but they are in an enchanted sleep. After fighting the sprites that were trying to protect Mossbeard the treant, they parley with him. The team convinces the woodcutters to agree to plant new trees for each tree they cut down and Mossbeard approves. Unfortunately, Bartos (Ebril’s fiance) wasn’t there.The team returns to town and goes shopping. Thanks to their warnings they are able to save 3 people from falling into the river when a barge crashes into the docks. They quickly save the 3 other folks who did happen to fall in. They investigate the barge, finding all kinds of strangeness, including melted cages. The Mayor asks them to investigate and find the crew of the barge. The team investigates a nearby enchanted woods. There they are attacked by rats who are intimidated by Jackal yelling at them. They are then chased by Mastiffs and psychically attacked by ravens. Eventually they make it to the sacred stone area where the crew is tied up and Appeluna has a surreal conversation with the Green Hag there in an attempt to figure out what is needed to save the crew without tipping her hand. She agrees to find the hell hounds the crew was transporting. Appeluna reunites with the team and they are able to find ⅔ of the hounds. The Green Hag agrees to release the crew if the captain is taken into justice. The crew is delivered to the mayor and the mayor agrees to send the caption to the nearest large town to face justice.The team is finally found by Favienne who is worried because her parents haven’t been seen recently and are missing marriage preparations. The team traces things back to the Mill and finds out that the brothers are doppelgangers. They fight them, win, and find Favienne’s parents. They then have to deal with a zombie attack on the town. In the first group of zombies, they realize that one of the supposed zombies is just a human pretending to be a zombie so as not to be attacked. They save him and find out it’s Bartos. Jackal takes Bartos to see Ebril. Eventually the team ends up at the tavern and fight alongside bartender/owner Portro who is a retired adventurer. Finally, they fight a necrophage and save the town.They FINALLY attend Favienne’s wedding. They are also invited to Ebril and Bartos’ wedding. As they wonder about what to do, Appeluna’s patron appears to her and urges her to investigate why the barge captain was transporting hell hounds to Nargoth. The team decides to head in that direction.Session 5<h3>The Adventure</h3>The team’s boat arrives at Wollerton. As they arrive, they hear the sounds of a brawl at the local bar. After someone is thrown out the window, the adventurers attempt to calm the bar brawl. There’s also a halfling with a sign yelling that the end is nigh. The party tries calmly asking people to stop, but the humans and dwarves do not listen. A mastic that belongs to one of the brawlers ends up biting Jackal. Eventually they end up dragged into the fight. A human and dwarf attempt to head butt each other and knock each other out. Eventually Appeluna ends the fight by casting sleep on the brawlers.Niva, the bartender, thanks the PCs and tells them that these two families don’t have love lost between them, but have never come to blows before. Niva shoves the halfling off the bar and kicks him out. Then she wakes up Lanter and the dwarf explains that the miller told him that Rodwin had killed his prized ewe. Jackal slaps Rodwin awake. He explains that the village priest told him that Lanter burned down his barn. The party asks them if they are sure it was the other person or if someone could be tricking them. Each one is a little ashamed they didn’t try to ascertain the truth. They gather their families and leave. The party wonders if they’re once again dealing with doppelgangers.The party went to speak to the miller. They question her and find out that she hasn’t spoken with anyone from the brawl and also that there was someone with spiky black hair and no facial hair who was spying on her. They speak to the elf priestess and hear a similar tale.The team then goes back to speak with the family heads to relate what they learned and to ask if they’ve seen anyone strange in town.As evening arrives, they speak with the innkeeper and learn about the cottage that’s been abandoned for 6 years and yet has had lights in the windows for the past 3 nights. They decide to stay the night to rest up.The next day they go to the cottage. The door is barred and Jackal is unable to break it open. Jackal breaks into the window and they see the cultists. Hector insists they are escapees from a wyvern in Reedthorp. They see through the ruse because Hector has spiky black hair. Eventually things devolve into a fight. Three of the cultists gave up as they were failing the fight (getting very low on HP). Appeluna makes these 3 sleep. The team knocks out Hector and tie him up. They interrogate him and find out about the hideout and get a map of the valley with the hideout and wyvern cavern marked up. When they search the house they find gold, a hat of disguise (which Hector had been using), amulets with the symbol of the Servants of Nidhogg. They bring the cultists back to the inn. The bartender agrees to keep them arrested in the cellar and reaches out to the local baron. He offers them 100 gp each and a plot of farmland if they investigate the cult site. Before heading out, Appeluna asks the bartender about the hell hounds. He doesn’t know anything about hellhounds, but knows that mentions the Learned CIrcle of Enlightenment was awaiting some sort of shipment and that their leader is Maretta Cyneburg.The team heads out into the valley. They pass a farm and come across a Shepherd who tells them that Maretta was headed in the same direction yesterday. After another day of travel they arrive in Reedhthorp. Ariana finds the survivors and Appeluna convinces them to tell their story. They talk about how a halfling showed up talking about how the end was nigh and then all hell broke loose. They were also attacked by Lambsbane, a wyvern who has been eating their sheep.Jackal convinces the group to head to Lambsbane’s lair to kill the Wyvern. They all climb up without trouble. His lair is empty so the team explores. Jackal and Ariana climb up and find his hoard. Ariana also finds the secret entrance to the cult lair marked on a map at Lambsbane’s cave. They wait for him to arrive to fight him since they promised the villagers to fight him. They launch a surprise attack when he arrives, with Jackal and Ariana jumping on his back to attack him. He tries a few times to get them off his back, but they continue to hold on. In his frustration, he takes to the air with Jackal and Ariana on his back. The team does incredibly, but with the wyvern nearly mortally wounded, he gets a few lucky attacks on Jackal and Arianna and they end up unstable and fall off the wyvern. He flies off to lick his wounds (literally). Appeluna, who had been fighting safely from inside the cave, stabilizes the others and they stumble into Reedthorp where people there help them recuperate. It takes 3 days to get back up to health.Afterwards they head to the Hidden Tomb, climb up the mountain, and go into the hidden entrance. They end up in a stairwell. From there they go into the robe room. Appeluna wears purple robes (disciples), Arianna and Jackal wear grey robes (novices). They leave that room into the main room and meet some Servants of Nidhogg. From there they are guided to the novice dorms. At the dorms they speak with Gratiosa Featherby and Appeluna recognizes her, but doesn’t reveal herself. She speaks with the other novices there to try and free Gratiosa, but it turns out they are part of Maretta’s group. They take them to the scriptorium where the team has to copy pamphlets for 5 hours. In that time, the members of the Circle of Englightenment figure they can trust our heroes and take them to the library to meet with Maretta. Maretta confides in them that she wants to disrupt the ritual because she doesn’t want the world to end. She gets her crew member to distract the librarian and Maretta takes them to the lower level of the library. There they learn how to disrupt the ritual. Maretta takes some books and flies out. The team goes into a few empty rooms, but eventually they stumble into the room where the ritual is taking place. They stop the ritual by destroying the bone of the void saint.The battle is going poorly until they free the sacrificial person who helps them get things disrupted to the point where they can escape. On the way out they see Gratiosa again and she tells Appeluna that her sister Oranegterra was also kidnapped by the void cultists and taken elsewhere. After they get out, Appeluna’s patron tells her that it was good that they helped stop the end of the world, but Maretta was lying about who she was. She actually belongs to a cult that serves the arch-devil Parzelon, the King of Secrets, and a rival of her patron.Session 6<h3>The Adventure</h3>The team took a week in Wollerton to recover from their efforts to free the area from the machinations of the Servants of Nidhogg. The local Baron gave them each 100GP and a plot of farmland. At first they thought to set up a base in Wollerton, but it was deemed too remote. They decided to lease the farmland for a rent of 10cp per month. Gratiosa’s parents also sent them a reward of 600GP for freeing her and also said they would put in a good word with Appeluna’s parents.As the adventurers sat in the tavern debating their next steps, a Kobold came in and asked for their help at his master’s tower.On the way to the tower, the kobold introduces himself as Windicul and explains that while his master, a dragonborn sorcerer was away, he thought to cast some spells to do his chores for him. Things went awry and he needed the adventurers to help him. As they arrived, they saw that many of the workforce around the tower’s lands were kobolds.When they entered the tower they saw that Windicul had animated a broom to clean the room for him and a rug to beat itself. Ariana set the broom on fire, but then it was just a wandering inferno. Jackal thought it would be better to chop it in half, but then it became 2 smaller brooms and the second half of the broom attacked Ariana. Eventually, they dealt with the animated objects.When the team headed upstairs they saw a terracotta soldier near the door. Jackal shoved the soldier and it woke up, saying “intruder”. The adventurers fought the soldier for a bit before Windicul remembered the resistances protecting the soldier. Once they shattered the soldier they found the door magically locked.The adventurers triggered the riddle that would open the door and Appaluna solved the riddle. Now in possession of the key, the team entered the sorcerer’s chambers. There they found that another broom that Windicul animated has cleaned the chalk circle holding in a demon.They split their attacks between the broom and the demon. Appaluna attempted to grapple the broom to stop it, but it wrestled itself out of her hands. She turned her attention towards the demon and attacked it along with Ariana. Jackal captured the broom and threw it out the window. Although the ladies were able to weaken the demon, it knocked them unconscious while Jackal was dealing with the broom. Jackal then dealt the killing blow on the demon.As the team catches their breath, the sorcerer appears. Eventually he makes his way upstairs and hears Windicul’s story of what happened. Appreciative of the help provided by the adventures, he gave them some magical gifts. Appeluna ended up with a grey back of tricks and Ariana got a Ring of the Ram. Jackal declined a gift and received gold instead. He also asked them to please deliver a package to a colleague at the magical university at Zobeck. They were told not to open the package.Before leaving, Appeluna asked the sorcerer if he had heard about the Servants of Nighogg. He did not have any more information than the adventurers did, but advised them to check with the university at Zobeck.The team decided to head to Appeluna’s hometown of Reywald on the way to Zobeck.(continued on the next post - in case there's a character limit)</blockquote>

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