Book I: The Darkthorne Prophecy

The Adventure insofar.

Emigration from the East
Many folk travel from the Easternland to escape the misery and starvation of famine. The first members of the party, Draven Malemir, Richtor von Steele, and Hroctor, meet for the first time as they travel with the many pilgrims on the journey.

Terrors Through the Mountain Pass
When disaster hits those traveling on the mountain road, many will have to face the dangerous and deep caverns beneath. The party first encountered the mysterious Necromancer in these tunnels. The heroes also destroyed the Cockatrice creature.

Journey to Redfall
The Party leaves the tunnels of the Mountains, and encounter the curious creature named Aeronir in a forest destroyed by the Necromancer. After having Aeronir lead them out of the forest, the Party arrives at Redfall.

Most of the players were dissapointed upon discovering Redwall that there was a surprising lack of talking critters.

Three Dragon Ante
The party is invited to a card tournament in Redfall  for a grand prize. During the tournament, the party discovers a plot to steal the winning prize money, and quickly move to intercept the theives. But before they could stop the theft, the bandits had already struck, and the heroes quickly search for them. Upon finding the base of operations, the party discovers an ellaborate underground dungeon that had allowed the bandits to escape. After finding the creature Tordex within the dungeons, the party encounters the bandits, along with other dangerous foes, and are sent through a portal created during the battle.

The Lone Island
After being teleported away from a battle, the party discovers themselves on an island. This island was sizeable, but clearly sea-locked. After attempts at constructing a boat and sailing off the island, the party realized that there were no other land areas nearby, and returned defeated to the island. During that time, they encountered the creature Beauregard, who directed the Party to a temple on the island with a possible way off. Beauregard told them of a portal within the temple, but warned that it was full of dangers that he was not able to fend off himself. After fighting off multiple undead creatures, the party survived and discovered a portal off, sending them through the arcanic plane and onto the shores of the Vernarin Gulf.

A Road Through the Night
As they escaped the lone island, the party found themselves washed upon the shores of the Vernarin Gulf. After making a camp, and waiting until the cover of night to walk through the forests beyond the shores, the Party organized all they would need for the journey.

During the night, the ranger Draven used his tracking skills to lead the way. Climbing high into trees where his darkvision could see far beyond the others', he discovered a cluster of lights in the land to the north, beyond the vast treeline, and believed it to be a town or city. He thus urged the others to follow him northward, and lead them on. During this time he also discovered some wild bloodshrooms, a rare fungus that he claimed he used to brew in his tea.

Deeper into the woods, Draven and Aeronir began hearing sounds of creatures roaming nearby beyond the torchlight. Soon, they all realized they were being surrounded by a pack of predators. Savage wolves leapt towards them, attacking them from the darkness, but they were quickly fought off with the skills of the warriors in the party. Yet as they cleared the ranks of the pack, one lone wolf ran to a small hill and howled into the night's wind, calling to his fellow beasts. It was then that three monstrous dire wolves appeared, as large as four men, and began attacking the party that had slain their smaller brethren. Only Tordex and Hroctor were sizeable matches for these beasts, and both warriors and monsters began ripping the forest apart in their mighty duel.

In the end it was Tordex that slayed the beasts, but in the fray a large oak had been ripped down by one of the wolves, and had crashed down up Beauregard, nearly killing him. With Beauregard very injured and the rest of the party quite weary, Tordex and Aeronir quickly gathered the beasts' hides, and left the forest. The continued north unitl dawn, by which point they reached the city, but they feared it was already too late for Beauregard.

Arrival at the Narrow Brooks
After leaving the forest, the Party arrived at the south gates of the city Draven had spotted. There they saw the coast line to the east, where the city's port was, as well as the two rivers that flowed through and south of the walls. There was one river between the party and the gate, and a small bridge to cross over. Rushing across while carrying Beauregard, Richtor and the rest of the party began crossing with ease.

However, having a large tree-trunk staff he had made in his hooves, Tordex attempted to pole vault across the river. In his stunt, the tree trunk snapped beneath his imense weight, and sent him crashing down onto the bridge, breaking it and sending himself and his fellows into the river's current. Most of the party were capable of swiming out without much hassle, but Tordex himself struggled with his heavy armor. With help from Draven, he was brought safely to the shore.

At the sound of the crashing cow-man, the gate guard rushed down to wear he saw the ruined bridge and the strange bunch of adventurers crawling out of the river. The guard demanded an explanation, but the party quickly convinced him that the bridge had broken from disrepair and decaying to the point where it couldn't have held them. The guard dismissed the party then, and allowed them to enter the city's walls. Inside they met the cluster of humans and dwarves awoken by the crash emerging from their houses to inspect the scene.

The Party quickly left for the Marketplace and the Inn, for Beauregard was running out of time.

Blackened Roots
Upon arriving to The Narrow Brooks, the party bought a room for Beauregard to rest, and began exploring the town's Southern District, where they stocked up on arms and supplies. Once they had a physician come and inspect Beauregard's state, he told them that he was dying from an ailment he'd found spreading through many in the city, mainly the farmers. The physician believed it was caused by some poisenous plant, but he had no cure for it. In the last hours of his life, Richtor and Tordex decided it would be best to relieve the boggart of his sufferings.

After mourning for their friend, the party went looking for work,  but  Hroctor  went on his own to stay in the city. The others  found a farmer who was struggling to repel a strange weed from his fields. " Darkthorne ", they called it, a black thorny plant that strangled entire crop fields almost overnight. Employing the adventurers to help at the farm, it was discovered that a large quantity of Darkthorne weeds had destroyed his crop. Upon further investigation, the party noticed that an old oak tree on a small hill that had been dead for some time, and a giant Darkthorne plant had filled the inside of the husk.

After destroying the giant Darkthorne, the party discovered a mysterious man hiding near the destroyed plant. They learned that this man had been planting black seeds in Horace's farm, and in the area around it, causing Darkthorne to spread there. But before he could be questioned, he decieved the party and made an escape, and then he was shot down as he tried to flee.

Swamp Monster
After defeating the Darkthorne and the mysterious man suspected to be behind it, the heroes were unable to discover the truth behind why Darkthorne had grown in the area. With their only source of information dead, they were at a lost for answers. The farmer, however, had just lost his entire livelyhood to the Darkthorne's devastation. Aeronir the Prophet generously gave to him some gold, hoping that with the money the farmer could rebuild a life, and so the Farmer gave praise to Kealn and his mercies.

Upon returning to the city, they learned that their companion Hroctor had been arrested by the Elves for theft, and was being held at their camp in the swamps west of the city. In hope of infiltrating the Elves' camp, they sought out a Gandri Stonefoot, a known enemy of the Elves who was wanted for disturbing the peace between the dwarves of The Narrow Brooks and the Elven troops. Gandri helped them prepare for their mission, giving them disguises, and created an monstrous disguise for the warrior Tordex.

Once the scouts to the camp were taken care of, the party moved in to the central point, where they used the cover of darkness and Tordex's montrous presence to terrify the entire Elven camp, making it easy to scare off the most of them and defeat the rest. After the camp was cleared, they found Hroctor chained to a tree, and set him free.

The heroes escaped back into the city, their friend now safe. But what they did not realize was that their actions did not go unnoticed. The Elves had found tracks and signs of an ambush, not just a monster but a planned attack on the camp. Immediately they demanded that Lord Garret, ruler of the Narrow Brooks, hand over Gandri and his accomplices to settle this dispute. But Gandri had been in hiding from the city guard, and Garret couldn't find him. Unsettled by Garret's incompetence, the Elves then moved to take over the city, planning a full invasion fleet to land in the port and sieze control over the port's operations.

Under the Elven Siege
With an Elven fleet on its way to sieze control of The Narrow Brooks, the heroes again sought the secret council of Gandri, and were surprised to also find Beornin, captain of the city guard, there with them. The dwarf guard was fearful that the city would be taken, and that the protection of its people would be at stake if the elves siezed control. For that reason, Beornin pledged that he and the Guard would stand behind Gandri and the heroes, and aid them if they were to defend the city.

In the mad effort to ward off the entire fleet, the heroes were put in command of the main docking bay, the only one large enough for warships to land. Beornin and the majority of the guard were spread out across the rest of the city, for the Elves who had fled from the camps had returned to siege the gates. With a handful of guards, they heroes had to fight as countless warships and boats came in, flooding the docks and shores with elves.

One such elf, mounted on the back of a griffon, nearly wiped them all out. If it weren't for the bravery of Tordex, all could've been lost that day. Tordex fought the rider, and sent the creature plunging towards the depths of Mardborun's realm, nearly sacrificing himself in the feat. As the warrior surfaced, he found the others had been left faced with a warship filled with Elven mages, casting a rain of spells down upon the harbor. Aeronir the Prophet battled in power against them, while Draven sought to snipe them down from afar, but their skill was too great. In a final assault, Hroctor, Tordex, and Gandri all borded the warship, and fought the mages face to face. With the command ship taken, the fleet had lost it's strongest force, and soon the other ships began to flee. As for the forces that had already taken to the shore, they were wiped out as reinforcements from the City Guard came in to the port, helping to slay the last of the invaders.

The Narrow Brooks were saved, but at a heavy cost. Slain by a mage's witchcraft, Tordex the mighty had fallen in battle.

After the Battle for the Narrow Brooks
When the battle was over, the Lord Garret anounced that he had sent word to the High King of Heradain, proclaiming that the elves would no longer be granted access to his city's ports for the treachery they had caused. In honor of the fallen hero Tordex, he offered a funeral and tomb for the mighty warrior's memory. In thanks to the heroes, he threw a feast and welcomed half of the city into his home, holding the heroes as his guests of honor.

During the feast, the party was properly introduced to the Lord Garret, and able to speak with him for part of the night. Richtor, the scoundrel, began wooing one mistress at the party. Aeronir discussed with the lord about trivial things such as politics. Hroctor got drunk.

But Draven was met by such a strange person. A beaming gnome sailor by the named of Ergyle Jimestend, who specialized in trading exotic spices, herbs, and other curiosities. Ergyle had taken interest in Mr. Malemir, when he heard a rumor that he had a common interest in the Bloodshrooms plant. Welcoming Draven to share a fine cup of tea with him, Ergyle and Draven left the main table and went towards the kitchens to prepare their own special brews.

As they prepped their drinks, another sailor from Ergyle's ship came over, a dark man, heavily armed, and had strange runic markings tatooed to his arms. The man introduced himself as Padreon, and told Draven that he knew his mother, Cynthia, before she died. Padreon told him how they grew up together, but after he left his hometown of Duskhaven that he had heard Cynthia had married a man known as Lord Malemir. He couldn't believe his ears when he heard the name again, but this time being shouted and praised in the city streets. Draven and Padreon talked for a while, and Ergyle was contempt to drinking his own tea for the moment, but soon the gnome started wandering towards the barrels of ale.

As the night grew older, Padreon decided he had to leave. With only time to ask one last thing, Draven called to him, "Wait, what do you know about my father?"

Padreon only glanced back over his shoulder, "I... I never knew the man."

At that moment Padreon left, and Draven saw him leave with his gnome friend. He was then convinced by Adonnan, a sorcerer they had met during the battle, that he and Draven should go into the city and look for these two, if it meant Draven learning a thing about his birth father. As the sorcerer and ranger wandered through the towns, going from tavern to tavern in search of the notorious gnome drunk, they discovered Ergyle in a pub called the Bracken Bucket. They offered to help the nearly unconcious gnome back to his ship, hoping that they would find Padreon waiting there. But on their way out, they were ambushed by several assassins in the dark, flanking them from all sides and aiming to kill.

Adonnan and Draven tried to fight them off, but the assassins were too many and too well hidden in the dark for them to tell how many were out there. They held them off quite well for the most part, until Adonnan's untempored magical nature grew too dangerous for him to control, and the sorcerer errupted into a magical blast of fire. The flames shot out and killed the many assassins who had drawn in to close, and likely forced the others to fall back. Fire set the buildings alight, and Draven and another assassin were thrown back from the blast.

Just as Draven's vision darkened, he saw a figure, the size of a gnome, running out and grabbing at the assassin next to him. He heard the voice of Ergyle screaming in pain, as his mad grabs at the assassin's cloak spread the fire onto him. The assassin reached for his dagger and plunged it into Ergyle's ribs, killing the gnome, but it was already too late for him as the flames burned his already bleeding wounds, and his lungs suffocated as he struggled to pull his burning cloaks off of himself.

Back in the castle, Aeronir was given a vision from his master Kealn, and had wandered into the Lord Garret's library. Richtor, who had been roaming about the castle, met him there, and the two began discussing trivial things. They were interrupted when a firery blast shot from the market place in the town. The two ran for the window and saw the great fire out there, and realized something terrible must have happened. Aeronir took his wolf and made for the scene, sending Richtor back to the feast hall where Hroctor would be sleeping in his drunken stupor. Both made all haste, Aeronir sending his wolf ahead to scout the place where the disaster had happened. But Richtor had a scheme of his own he wanted to achieve first....