Out of the Woods

Party

Ace-Human rouge

Ryai-Elf Spellblade

Konguq-human wizard

Vodren-Human Cleric

Billie- Human Barbarian (NPC)

Mogwen-Guide (NPC)

Getting the ride from the Centaurs, the party reaches the Stone Circle. Vodren plants the acorn given to him by Old Man Willow. With a prayer to Habakkuk, the acorn sprouts up a foot magically. By doing this task, he was cured of his phobia of canines.

The party decides to spend the night at the Stones. On watch, Ace notices something bobbing in and out of the trees around their camp. He awakens the party, and the group prepares for an encounter.

They smell the enemy before they see them, but from the shadows comes a group of large masked lizard men. They tell their tale of being sent after the group of heretics from Solace but got horribly lost in the cursed woods. They claim they went to sleep one night in a cave and woke up in their current state. They want to be able to get back to High Seeker Hederick to report on their mission and hopefully be cured of their state. Konguq and Ryai give them the old magic pat down and conclude that there is a curse upon them and that their leader, Saang, is venomous. Mogwen doesn't want to help them, and Billie wants to kill them. The party wants to leave them behind but the lizard men tell them that they'll just follow their tracks. Not wanting to stay in Darken Wood any longer, the party allows them to travel with them, giving an I.O.U to Mogwen for doing so.

One of the lizard men, named Baaz, spends the journey with Amethyst and Ace. The three are intrigued by an occurrence away from the party and split to investigate. From there, they find a destroyed tree with a Dryad near it. The Dryad charms all three of them to find help. Once the party notices their missing companions, they head back to find them. Vodren meets with the Dryad and prays to Habakkuk to fix the tree. It works, and as a thank you, she gives him a charm potion.

As the party continues on, Billie starts getting antsy that they've been traveling with the lizard men for so long and convinces Vodren that they should spring a surprise attack on them. Saang asks Ryai and Konguq if the party should split off. Ryai, deciding to believe that they are just cursed, tells them it's for the best that they do.

Billie wasn't fond of that.

The group finally returns to Laketown in one piece and decides to celebrate. Ryai, requesting the strongest drink they have, gets plastered and shoved to bed early by Billie.

Ace tries to talk to Billie about what she's going to do next, and the only thought she has on her mind is revenge against High Seeker Hederick. Ace, trying to convince her that her doing so was suicide, decided to make a bet with her. That Ace could do it faster and better without her getting hurt. And if he did, she would drop it.

The next morning, the party heads out, Ace giving the Hoopak to Semolina Greenberry and returning to Solace to regroup and resupply. 

When they arrive, the High Seeker's guard stops them and tells them that High Seeker Hederick wants to talk to them. Vodren tells them they should get at least settled before going to talk.

Ace goes to receive Callum from Porkins. Porkins warns Ace that the guard has been on high alert recently, more so than usual.

The rest of the party sees Allon and gives him at least the spell book they found. Before the conversation can go any further, Oorana enters the inn with a large group of guards. Ryai hands Allon his journal with the locations of the dragon orbs inside it

The group meets with the guard and gets frisked for weapons and other items. Ace hides his Mishakal pendant in his boot; the spell casters are allowed to keep their spell books; however, Vodren's holy symbol is about to be discovered. Vodren freezes, and Ryai, not wanting the man who saved him from dying in the woods to get caught, drops a fog around the group.

Chaos ensues.