Into the Wilds Campaign Diary

The campaign begins in the fighting pits of Badeguard, the capital city and western island of Baelstrad, the furthest east nation in Baleteia.

Session 1 - 15/07/2022

On a warm spring evening in The Grand Arena of Badeguard, eight finalists of the great competition awaited the setting of the sun that will signal the start of the final bout. A pair of rough and ready goblins spent their time lightly teasing a tiny pixie that had somehow qualified, whilst the other finalists waited in some variation of stony silence. Eventually, the green flash of the sun heralded the opening of the antechamber gate, and the eight warriors charged out into the arena whilst the announcer riled up the crowd.

One of the goblins, Plis, charged a scrawny looking fey that had been released as part of the arena fight, but as he closed the distance, both goblin and fey were swallowed whole by a huge reptillian beast. The wide mix of combatants, spells, and martial prowess in the arena provided good entertainment for the crowd, and eventually Rovak, Harley, Milre, and Irilith triumphed over the huge electric crocodile, earning them the title of "Champions of Badeguard".

The announcer, who was in fact the dwarf King Thirbac, invited the champions to meet with him in his chambers. They were escorted through increasingly ostentatious rooms until they arrived in the throne room, and came face to face with the king himself. Thirbac congratualted them profusely, and offered the champions their prize boxes. Inside the chests, there were naught but contracts, written in each hero's native tongue, offering them the job of escorting the king's daughter into the feywild on Baleteia whilst also hunting an unnamed individual. In exchange, the king offered a huge sum of gold, as well as any one wish he could grant to each champion. Irilith checked the exact wording of the contract using his legal training, and after he confirmed that it was sound, the champions agreed to sign.

Not a second after the heroes had signed, Gleb, the goblin who had not been seen since his brother Plis' death, barged into the room with a gang of goblins, demanding where his prize was. A fight very quickly broke out, and the king was evacuated. After the goblins had been dealt with, the king returned and thanked the party. He granted them access to the royal storeroom, and gifted each of them a small monetary retainer. Soon after that, the king introduced Cora, his blind elven daughter, to the party, as well as her giant cat Jinx. She made a good impression on the party, and the journey ahead seemed quite promising. The group headed to their new quarters in the palace soon after, and that night, Milre revealed to Irilith that they are, in fact, a skeleton.

Session 2 - 07/08/2022

The next morning, the champions were invited to breakfast in the princess' personal dining room. Harley and Rovak took a moment to take baths, and they arrived for breakfast just in time. Cora had laid on quite the spread for them, and they all eagerly tucked in. Harley's manners proved awful as usual, Milre barely ate, and Rovak started the day with mead and bacon. Irilith snuck Squire some food, and Milre had Cora order Jinx to retrieve some bones for her. After they eached finished, Cora led the party through the old mining tunnels inside the castle to visit the royals' master craftsman, where Irilith and Rovak had their runic gifts from the king affixed. Moving on from there, the party were taken to the docks, where they met a dwarven honour-guard who escorted them to their ship for the channel crossing - a large galleon called HMS Katera.

Soon enough the ship was underway with good speed, and spirits were kept high by Milre striking up a sailing jig. After around five hours underway, the galleon found itself in a rough patch of water, and a thick mist set around the vessel. With a sharp bump, another vessel drew alongside, and three undead creatures climbed aboard. They were identified as a draugr crew, and swiftly dispatched by the princess' bodyguards. The undead mariners left a curse on Rovak however, which he dispelled by leaving their corpses in the now calmer waters. Irilith and Milre boarded the draugrs' ship, a converted fishing vessel, and found a small amount of coinage, as well as a pair of healer's gloves.

Underway again, it took only another three hours for the vessel to reach the shores of Baelstrad, and it was around a half-mile offshore that the princess and her escorts were put on a small dinghy and rowed to shore. Near enough as soon as Cora made contact with the island, she picked up the trail of the person the champions had been assigned to hunt, and the group set off into the volcanic jungle. A few hours into their journey, the group ran into a pair of large flytraps lining the path that they had been following. They made the decision to try and destroy the flytraps from afar, but Rovak's patience soon wore thin, leading him to charge at the flytrap, and he was soon trapped in the giant plant's jaws. Luckily, Harley managed to distract the other flytrap and trick it into attacking a tree, and Irilith used acidic magic to melt the one trapping Rovak, who was miraculously not particularly hurt. The group pressed on for a little while longer before night fell over the island.

In the middle of the night, a strange plant creature approached the sleeping party, and began to threaten them with violence if they did not leave its grove. After some harsh words, a little diplomacy, and some violence from Rovak, the creature agreed to give the champions five minutes to leave the grove, which they did. They eventually found a new place to camp, but en route, Milre's disguise slipped a little, and Rovak finally noticed she was a skeleton. He demanded she explain, which she did to Rovak's satisfaction. However, she also confessed that she was a grave robber before she died, which caused the barbarian some pause. Thankfully for the groups integrity, Rovak was satisfied by the fact that Milre never engaged in that sort of activity anymore, though the skeleton did make the mistake of pressing him on his nickname of The Buried. Nonetheless, the group got a good night's rest.

Session 3 - 13/11/2022

The group were rudely awakened by Rovak's shouts as he was dragged under the surface of the water. Moments later, he re-emerged, covered in blood and leaking shadow. He was incensed when Irilith suggested it had only been moments since they last saw each other, as according to the barbarian, it had been weeks since he fell into the pond. He described that some antler-headed spirit had talked to him and offered him great power - but no contracts, rather unlike the fey. With Rovak back safe and sound, the trio had time to turn their attentions to a different problem - Milre had up and vanished. The group found a small bone in the corner of the clearing, and set off along the trail whatever had left it had tracked. Minutes later, whilst following the trail through the forest, the group were attacked by a small fey with a net. As Harley dodged the net, they noticed the other fey was holding a large femur, and the group set off after the fey. After fighting through a thicket, braving clouds of spores, crossing a goat-owned bridge, and avoiding some bewitching fey, the group came to a large lake at the end of the river.

At the lake, the hunters saw it was abnormally deep, and some smaller sprites were arguing in the depths. On the far side, there was a lute bobbing in the water. To rescue their bardic friend, the group charged the fey in the lake. After Rovak slew the biggest sprite, the other tried to flee, but most were cut down by the party. After the fight, Harley identified that the bigger fey was a pixie of The Wildling Court, though it was acting strangely. Soon after the party had rested, a huge serpent dove out of the lake, splattering half-drowned fey all over the lake's shores. Rovak woke up one of the fey, called Nutmeg, and it explained that the mad Wildling Pixie had been feeding them to the serpent for months now. Apparently they had managed to live inside the serpent's throat, and only escaped when they tricked it into coughing. One of the recently swallowed fey claimed that a skeletal bard had been happily welcomed to The Wildling Court, though this didn't seem to line up with the fact that her lute had been discarded. Keen to get clarity, Rovak finally convinced Harley to reveal that he was from The Radiant Court. With a little more information from Nutmeg, Cora ascertained that their target had been to The Wildling Court recently, so the group resolved to head there next.

Session 4 - 23/01/2023

The group followed their throng of Wildling sprites towards the location of the court. The sprites managed to be more of an annoyance to the group than Harley ever was, but there were thankfully no casulaties. After some time retracing their steps, the party were led through a shimmering feygate into a glade of wild partying. The caravan of sprites the group had rescued slowly filed away into the crowd, and the party approached, alone, into the thronging crowd. After some time wandering the increasingly fervent dance circles, the group found their way to the centre of Milre's symposium, and found their bard. However, as the four reintroduced each other using faked fey-proof names, Irilith spotted a person in the crowd who looked remarkably like Cora. The princess explained that her double was their target, and that they should seek them out as soon as possible. Milre marked Cora with a large C to prevent confusion, and the group split up to try and track down the mysterious half-elf.

Irilith accosted a knackered bard who had been bound to play since eating a fey crab cake. The burned out tabaxi gave Irilith a few details about the blonde, and then begged the lawyer to take a message back to the contintent that she was still alive. Irilith returned to the group, and they managed to figure out that the bard had been trapped there for around four hundred years. Harley confirmed that this was possible for people taken by the fey, and that the group may have more time than they expected. Milre managed to persuade a few dancing pixies to inform her that Cora's double had exited by the tree door.

As the party went to leave, they were accosted by the primally dressed king of the court, who forced them to stay and talk to them. Irilith did his best to talk the party out of having to stay, but the king was remarkably obstinate, which eventually annoyed Rovak to the point that he asked to leave. The king, enraged, set his champion upon the group. The champion danced around the group for some time, but as soon as the fey closed the distance, the party managed to give him a good hiding. It managed to survive for quite some time by feeding on the party's blood. However, after Milre bled it of all power it had taken from the party, and Rovak nearly split the creature in twain with his pickaxe. This was enough to amuse the king, but the party did not relax now that the king was satisfied. Rovak and Irilith in short told the wild regent to get bent, and made to leave as soon as possible. However, Milre was willing to trade some of their music in exchange for a secret, and the king gladly obliged. The king also whispered in Rovak's ear that "there are two in the party who have seen the face of the same god".

The group escaped from the Wildling Court into a different location to where they entered. As they got their bearings in the middle of a mysterious lake island, Irilith finally persuaded Cora to tell them the full truth of her life. She revealed that the godess Katera had created Cora and her sister to hunt each other in perpetuity. The party's true charge was to protect Cora from her sister, and then kill the latter. Milre revealed that the king told her that the deep court is stirring up trouble in the feywilds and that they were also brewing trouble in the depths. At camp, late at night, Milre whispered that the princess saw more than she let on.