Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Lost Dispatches of Feraso #83 - Return to the Castle in the Moors

15th of Hexdec, 1060 - Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
I expected some response from the goblins chiefs in G'ba to the north, so it took me by surprise that a small band of lizardmen raided the village last night.  Krull & Company (even that annoying elf Markuus, you'd think his screechy voice would give himself a headache), dashed out with the younger militia.  They came back tonight with only the few slain in town.  Time to possibly escaate the situation.

18th of Hexdec, 1060 - Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
I've been trying to make contact with the party to sell one of the old maps of the swamps to help them find the lizardmen tribes, but oh how my luck has finally changed!   Not only did Theron, who doesn't know me any more than a random hobgolblin didn't negotiate my map down from 25gp, but the group has recruited a new sixth member to replace Zoog, who took a short caravan run to Omsjik.

I could not believe my eyes that they have Ned Overland in their party.
I had no chance to confront Overland over his past transgressions with the hated elf Talanth Blackash.  I can only hope he comes back from the swamp to indulge me in my questions.

....

22nd of Hexdec, 1060 - Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
No sign of Krull's Company (that's what the villagers call them.  Krull has the big sword and nice armor.  Theron is the voice of experience, but he's still outnumbered.

Did get to see my first shadow elf today, Other's call him a drow, but I don't get the connotation, nor do I appreciate the multiple pronunciations of that word. The onyx-skinned pointer's (can they be half-breeds?) name was Keleron.  His small caravan of supplies and guards was heading past the halfling villages into Ras-Prythax and the Duchy of Rhoona.  Keleron is a fine specimen, especially for an elf.  He's the anti-thesis of Markuus.  Dark, quiet, reserve, with a fiery acumen behind his midnight eyes.  I don't know what he's up to, but so long as it doesn't affect my village, I shall let him be.  .

23rd of Hexdec, 1060 - Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
Keleron and Company have left Eding....   Still no word from Krull

....

26th of Hexdec, 1060 - Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
...  Zoog has returned from his quick errand.  He too is worried that our new heroes are still out there, almost to be presumed dead....

27th of Hexdec, 1060 - Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
Krull and Company have returned ever-victorious!   Perhaps the map I provided was too informative, for they went on a bloody campaign to clear out numerous lizardmen enclaves.  It took them a bit (although it's the focal point of the map they purchased), but they finally reached the old castle Cesmir and Iris cleared out (and half-sank).  It had been re-populated by more lizardmen, and a few man-at-arms.  They couldn't figure out what the humans were doing working with the lizardmen, but they were all dead, including some spectacular plate mail armor that Krull refused to take off.

,,,,

29th of Hexdec, 1060 - Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes
I tend to keep to myself and observe, but today was an unplanned occasion that needed to be resolved.  Sellman, a younger brigand leader, was uncouth enough to bellow my name in the Blue Wizard enough for staff to fetch me from the cottage, but tactful enough to not explain why.

I'm surprised I could calm him down at all, especially since it was his men in the Castle of the Moors that Krull's Company slaughtered.

"Thank Akana, I was travelling with my family to Omsjik for supplies, less my wife and daughter could have been killed by those blood suckers!"

I countered with the claims that we haven not had a lizardmen raid of any size in a decade and it was his job to control them. 

I could have easily ensured his wife was a widow and his daughter an orphan, but I acquiesced.  Instead, I pulled out the map I sold Theron (and promptly recovered during their celebrations.) and used a piece of charcoal in my pocket to circle a new location for his base.

"It's an old temple/monastery to Akana in the old village of Alasku.  Keep the main entrance stocked with undead and use the numerous secret entrances and you'll do well.  It's even safe enough to raise a daughter in.   Just keep you plotting away from Eding."

Sellman agreed and left, even paying for another round of drinks.    He seems beneath his station doing this thing, but to secure our southern borders and get constant reconnaissance of the River Road is invaluable, even if he fancies himself "The Dread Sellman, Lord of the Highwaymen."

DM Notes:  This is the second foray in the Castle in the Moors.  Each time the heroes win and things abhor the vacuum of an adventuring party and repopulate under a different guise.

There were numerous forays into the swamps to hunt lizardmen.  We'll see the result of that shortly, but we have three new gentlemen to discuss.  

"The Dread" Sellman is a brigand fancying himself a commoner in his duties, and we can see him again, a decade later, still in this new lair at Alasku in the Ballad of the Pigeon God.  

Keleron is a just a cool NPC I saw on Hall of the Mountain King, and he seemed perfect filler and, even more remotely, a name for the previously unnamed village who destroyed the Elven Lands of Agenmoor in another 80 years.  Mountain King just a trove of random pictures, characters, Greyhawk encyclopedic knowledge, etc.... 

And Ned Freakin' Overland just joined Krull's Company.  That's an interview Elsderth wants, especially after 35+ years.

Next: #84 - Ned Overland

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