Crawic

Herein detailed are the adventures of Cadfan and Ansgar. Cadfan is a local felon, loser, petty thief, and general lowlife. Ansgar is the captain of the guard on the estate of Lord Leofing Whitehand. Ansgar once gave Cadfan shelter from a winter storm in a woodshed. They are both from Crawic, a town home to ~2000 people, ruled over by Whitehand.

Day -1

Angharrad kidnapped. Stranger in Crawic.

Day 0

Cadfan fails to track down Angharrad

Day 1

Cadfan's sister, Angharrad, has been kidnapped and taken into the Black Forest. The town guard have been of no use, so he has had to ask Ansgar for help for the second time in their lives.

In town, the pair asked the deputy captain of the town guard, Olwenn, about the kidnappers. A pair from the Sons of Morrigan, known bandits, had been seen on the outskirts of town recently. A ruined keep out in the forest was likely their base. Antia, a prostitute and close friend of Cadfan, mentioned that she had noticed a strange man with foreign coinage in town 2 days ago.

Ansgar and Cadfan set off on the hike north east into the forest. They found the keep, and approached in the gathering dusk. Ambushed a young bandit who was going for a leak. There were 4 more within. Heard a strange language being spoken in one part of the keep. There appeared to be caverns below the ruins. A sarcophagus of a raven woman concealed a secret door. There was some evidence of summoning rituals. One of the bandits seemed all the way mad. More raven imagery. Killed two bandits who were wittering about a beast and took their key. Found Angharrad, and slew the bandit abusing her.

As the trio escaped the ruins, the beast emerged and gave chase. Cadfan drove it off with burning oil. Ran into some goblinoid creatures but avoided conflict and made it home safely.

Day 2

Ansgar paid tribute and reported on the bandit activity to Whitehand. The foreign coin is from Lord Ó'Ruairc, a rival across the mountains to the east. Morrigan is a figure from folk tales. The old keep in the forest once belonged to a Lord Cannach, but now lies unclaimed since his estate was destroyed in an "accident". Whitehand tasked Ansgar to bring him the head of the beast. Angharrad promised to forage away from the forest whilst the beast was around. Ansgar reminted the foreign coin whilst Cadfan had a set of lockpicks made. Inga, a poacher and friend of Cadfan mentioned she had seen the beast and it stank of sulphur.

Elroc (deputy captain of the estate guard), Ansgar, and Cadfan set off to track the beast, armed with a pail of water to tackle it's fire breath that Angharrad had mentioned. Some way into the journey, the trio came across a pair of a manacled little green men fleeing at speed from something. We freed them, and they chose to accompany us. Names of Kreek and Krank.

With Kreek's help, the party found a vine-covered cave entrance out in the forest. Deep in the cave, Cadfan unlocked the chains of many more goblins who were in some sort of mining prison camp. Slew a pair of humanoid creatures, likely hobgoblins. The second one told us that the beast was summoned by The Sons of Morrigan from "down below". The wolf-beast was found and slain in a room with an alchemical symbol drawn on the wall.

Returned to the edge of the forest, where most of the goblins departed. Kreek and Krank stayed, and ran into Angharrad and Inga. Luckily, the latter pair didn't freak out, and the two goblins are now living with Angharrad and Cadfan.

Kreek and Krank got settled in whilst Elroc, Cadfan, and Ansgar went to pay tribute to Whitehand. For slaying the beast, Ansgar was offered minor lands and a surname, Elroc a squiring, and Cadfan was asked to prove his worth by spying on Ó'Ruairc.

Day 3-9

Ansgar and Cadfan visited a wyrding woman on the edge of town. To Cadfan she said "friend to fey you will be, but beware the old yew tree". To Ansgar she spoke "the shadow of the dragon is an omen but the coming of the wolf is a sign". Rumours brought news of a new religion rising in Ó'Ruairc's lands, and of Kelpies causing floods in the eastern rivers. An envoy of Ó'Ruairc visited, and according to Antia, he spoke of a peculiar martial religion. An old man told stories of a winged beast in the skies near the mountain pass.

Whitehand tasked Ansgar with learning more of the Sons of Morrigan in exchange for his lands. Ansgar and Cadfan spoke with Olwenn about the Sons, and he mentioned some graffiti. Herogod, Whitehand's secretary, identified the graffiti as a combination of the symbol of Morrigan and the ritual rune of summoning.

Day 10

Headed towards the keep. Saw evidence of brigand traps. Found an old signal tower and liberated it from it's current bandit owners. They had seen Ó'Ruairc's envoy, and a goblin. Stole a strange sword from their stash. Stayed at the tower overnight, and heard odd choral signing from the forest.

Day 11

Returned home under ash rain. Paid tribute to Whitehand. He is having the sword investigated.

Day 12

Headed north. Found a stone circle with carvings of goblins. Huge black stone pillars surrounding some bloodstained grass. Rested at the old signal tower, where we heard strange chanting, distinct from the singing on Day 10.

Day 13

Rain

Found a scroll stuck to the door with a knife. Failed to find any game to hunt. Slept at the tower again.

Day 14

Rain

Returned home exhausted. Kreek and Krank explained the stone circle is a goblin burial ground. Went foraging to great success. Herogod read the note for us: "Free the forest from the faerie folk, fight for humanity." The knife was a poisoners dagger.

Day 15

To the south-east of Crawic, found a lone barn in the forest. Inside, there was a dark-skinned woman who spoke a foreign language and a little british. She wished to be left alone.

Day 16

Pushed north into the mountains. Drove off a pair of bandits from a merchant's caravan, but he was already dead. A lone goblin with broken manacles leading a horse disturbed camp that night. Convinced him to rest with us.

Day 17

The goblin left peacefully that morning after a tense standoff. Found a chapel to the triple goddess Morrigan. A blizzard forced Ansgar and Cadfan to shelter inside the chapel. The chapel seemed very wrong, and resisted Cadfan's attempt at a warding symbol.

A priest with 2 hobgoblin guards appeared from a backroom and told us we must listen to his sermon in exchange for shelter. Morrigan is a warrior's goddess, and is the new religion rumoured in Ó'Ruairc's lands. The Sons of Morrigan condemn feyfolk to death because they are not considered capable of ascendant thought. Hobgoblins are magical mutations of goblins created by Morriganites. Cadfan made it through the sermon by playing the fool. That night, we camped in the frozen wilderness.

Day 18

On the way home, spotted some goblins at their stone circle. When we paid tribute to Whitehand, he was clearly concerned by the Morriganite activity, and asked Ansgar to report any developments directly to him as quickly as possible.

Day 19

Procured a mule from Lord Whitehand. Set out NW. Saw strange holes dug into the ground. Quiet area, rolling hills. One ration went bad. Returned home safely.

Day 20

Set out SW of Crawic. Decent weather but strange red sky. Rolling hills. Heavens opened. As rain started pooling in the valley, a woman with claws and bat wings emerged from it. We fled. Found a strange door set into the side of a hill. It was small, ~5ft. The person/man behind it was not friendly and did not want visitors. Ansgar heard voices on the breeze speaking to him. Made it home, gave Krank a knife.

Day 21

Went hunting with Kreek and Krank. Noticed birds migrating the wrong way, at speed away from the mountains. Found 4 sheep. Got 3 of them. Butchered them with Inga's help.

Day 22

Headed south from Crawic. More empty hills. Headed home. Saw scorch marks on the grass. Got called to Whitehand that evening. He had finished his investigation into the Moonblade with the help of a Theurge who was travelling from a town to the NW. The sword is magically powerful, but is cursed to eventually drive the user into a rage of pure self-conviction. It was not forged by human hands. Whitehand was unsure what to do with it, so Ansgar suggested he might one day reforge the curse out of it.

Day 23

Headed to the old Cannach Keep. Something was following them. Was it ever there? Inside, returned to the northern edge of the corridor. Opened a locked door to find piles of rotting viscera. Ran into a rotting shambling flesh creature. There were more, but we burnt the room. The whole room burned up nicely. Inspected the wreckage. The skeletons of the flesh things were mostly human, but with odd differences. Runic graffiti. The cracks in the walls on one corridor definitely led down to some sort of subterranean area. Found a scorched tapestry and magic torches. The tapestry depicted Cannach and his wife. The wife was worshipping Morrigan, and Cannach was pointing a sword at her back. Carving of the three faces of Morrigan. Moving skeletons. Picture of a bird-winged reptile. Fountain. Mosaic of the flesh ghoul creatures. Cadfan was wounded in a fight with one of the flesh ghoul things. Retreated to the signal tower. Ansgar scavenged enough food. Rested at the tower that night.

Day 24

Made it home. Saw huge gouge marks in the trees. Rested.

Day 25

Went hunting with Kreek + Krank. Found a bear! Managed to slay it, and drag it back toward Inga's. Harvested 75 fresh rations. Inga will have 10 dried rations for us on Day 35.

At Whitehand's estate, Ansgar found Jorj bragging about having killed the bear. Rennan is a bit of a loose-lipped guy when it comes to respecting authority. Got them to pipe down and smarten up, then went to bed.

Cadfan went to The Smoking Princess, near the brothel. He paid for a pint up front for once, which was noticed by Nolven, the landlady. Heard a rumour that merchants travelling the mountain pass were going missing. Ordered more bolts and a grappling hook from the blacksmith.

Day 26

Windy

Set off to the old Cannach keep. Made it safely. Cadfan abseiled into the cave below. It seemed natural. Constant barely audible whispers. Some small blind insects. Not gems or anything of note. Whispers got louder as he tried to leave. Returned to the room where Cadfan nearly died. Looted the ghoul. Musty fountain. Ran away from some sort of ghost. Heard reedy female singing as we fled. Foraged food and stayed at the watchtower.

Day 27

Cold

Headed north into the mountains. Went to the Morrigan chapel. Nobody home. All seemed quiet. Found a bone portcullis in the back. Heard far off sounds of combat. Came to a room with bloody spikes, some corpses, and a hobgoblin. Killed the hobgoblin. Looted a raven amulet. Books weren't of immediate interest, but we took some expensive looking ones. Found a big sleeping creature and killed it. Hidden door in a matching bookcase. Trapped acid door. Killed 2 more hobgoblins. Enchanted lock caused Cadfan to start feeling very weird. Temperature dropped. Cadfan snapped out after 30mins. Heard whispers, but the choral singing we heard in the forest a while back interrupted them. Floor trigger trap. 2 hobgoblins and Enk, the goblin from the mountain camp. Killed the hobgoblins, left the dungeon with Enk in tow.

Saw a very young red dragon overnight. Ansgar saw a funny looking bug, and squished it (it was a scorpion).

Day 28

Windy, mild

Enk confirmed there are at least 4 dragons in the mountain. We had seen one of the babies of the family.

We promise to buy Enk a lantern, oil, bow, and arrows if he could tell us where the Hobgoblins are found. Put out some dragonfire in the forest. Returned Enk to his people.

Got back to Crawic. Went to Herogod. The expensive-looking books are alchemical manuals. A tourney would be starting soon. The raven amulet is silver, albeit tarnished. Paid tribute to Whitehand. He was happy with our work. The tourney was going to have archery, sparring, jousting, and a horticultural show. People were travelling from the 2 other settlements west of the mountains. Cadfan was given permission to compete in the archery meet under Whitehand's banner.

Day 29 (Day 1 of Tourney)

The tourney is planned to last a week. There will be a horticultural show on day 2 for the benefit of the peasantry. A joust will take place on day 4, the archery meet on day 5, and the melee on day 6 before the whole thing wraps with closing awards on day 7. Ansgar was granted permission to compete at the archery meet alongside Cadfan under Whitehand's banner.

The pair purchased bows from Selwyn the Bowyer, who openly price gouged, but relented when it was made clear that the pair were operating with Whitehand's blessing. After hearing that the melee is going to be a bracket competition to submission, Ansgar went to buy a greataxe so he could get some training in.

Folk had journeyed from all over the westerlands to come to this tourney: from Hertham in the north-west under the banner of Lord Teowulf Shepford, and from Hinxton in the south-west under the banner of Lord Walahfrid Lander. Ansgar and Cadfan got stuck in asking the new arrivals for any gossip. Ansgar spoke to Burgwolf of Hinxton, a fellow melee hopeful, who mentioned that Hinxton had seen a few people of odd religion recently. They were likely morriganites, and were headed west. Cadfan spoke to a mule handler from Hertham who warned that a creature that preys on mules was lairing somewhere near Hertham, and that there also seemed to be one around Crawic judging by his mule's reactions. Cadfan told him to stay away from the mountains.

Ansgar and Cadfan spent the rest of the day practicing with their newly acquired longbows at Whitehand's range. Jorj was rather suspicious when he saw Cadfan there, but nothing came of it.

Back at Angharrad's that evening, Kreek and Krank were set on going to the festival, convinced that if they wore a fancy helmet with a face shield that they'd fit right in. Not convinced by the custom helmets they had dreamed up, Cadfan went to Inga's to borrow some full-length cloaks, which she was just about happy to lend out.

In town, the trio from Angharrad's bumped into Ansgar, who was out buying lanterns and oil for Enk. Cadfan also ran into Antia, and after explaining away the goblins as Inga's kids, the two had a slightly awkward flirt. A passing kid clocked the goblins, but thankfully his mother wasn't listening to him. The party went to see a coinseller, who had a morrigan coin apparently from a digsite in the drylands just south of Ó'Ruairc's territory. According to the merchant, name of Oldham, the kelpies had successfully flooded much of the wetlands on the east of the mountains. He was good enough to mark out the quickest way through the mountains on Cadfan's partial map.

To round off the evening, Ansgar treated the other three to a round of ale (and apple juice for the goblins), before Cadfan, Kreek, and Krank headed home UNDETECTED. Back at home, Cadfan made the mistake of playing dice with the goblins, who thrashed him so thoroughly that he ended up promising to get them a dog and let them sleep in his bed. Suprised by Cadfan's assent to their bets, the goblins relented and let the thief have his bed back, explaining that they wanted to ride the dog if they could.

Back in town, Ansgar headed to a cartographer's stall, but found that all the maps were far out of his price range. Nontheless, Oswy the cartographer was good enough to provide directions to his home in Hinxton. From there, Ansgar headed back to The Smoking Princess, and offered to chaperone any of Angharrad or her gaggle of friends who needed it. He heard from the town guards drinking there that floating lights had been seen in the forest recently. Ansgar did end up walking somebody home - it was Angharrad, who was absolutely plastered and was babbling about lamps with fairies in them being sold by some merchant.

Day 30 (Day 2 of Tourney)

Clear.

Ansgar and Cadfan spent the majority of the day before the horticultural festival practicing their archery. Angharrad went to the horticultural show after giving a mini-display to Kreek and Krank so that they felt included. At the show, Cadfan fulfilled his obligation to the goblins and brought them a particularly lively wolfhound pup.

One of the prize animals on show was a lizard! The rather well-to-do owner had no idea what it was, so Ansgar took the beast and its owner to Herogod to consult the bestiary. The bestiary had no entry for this type of lizard, so it was then and there named a Sigurd after its owner. Angharrad won a commendation for her herb display.

Day 31 (Day 3 of Tourney)

Cool, clear.

Cadfan awoke to find Kreek, Krank, and Dog all sleeping in the same small bed. Of course. All 4 adventurers headed to the goblin burial grounds to give Enk his payment for the information.

Cadfan told Enk about the yew tree prophecy - apparently there were some ancient yew trees east of the mountains which he should be careful of. Enk came through with the information - there are two hobgoblin tribes: one in the chapel with its many levels, which goes down all the way to the Far Below; the other tribe lives "peacefully" in the land to the south-east of the barn in the forest. The schism between the tribes occured long after they were made in the Far Below due to some of the hobgoblins adopting the morriganite relgion, and some not. The morriganites from the mountain chapel are actively kidnapping goblins to make them into hobgoblins using dark magic and alchemy.

On the way back to Crawic, the party ran into a fairy wedding party. In exchange for a wedding gift of bear meat rations, the fairies revealed that the winged woman seen in the pool of blood is fundamentally linked to the morriganites, who summoned her using an extreme dark ritual. The strange thing living behind the door in the hill may be of some help if he is paid in pie.

Day 32 (Day 4 of Tourney)

Cadfan left the goblins and Dog at home whilst he went to see the joust with Angharrad and Ansgar. Upon arrival, they learned that it was a full open-field joust, so would be quite the spectacle. Whitehand and Shepford's sons had a bloody clash in the joust - Shepford's son died, crushed under his own horse. Ansgar carried Shepford's late son (his third eldest) over to Lord Shepford. In contrast to her furious husband, Lady Shepford was simply distraught. Harald, a cousin of Lord Shepford and his Knight Marshal, won the event in the end. Ansgar doubled the security on Whitehand's estate for that night.

Day 33 (Day 5 of Tourney)

Ansgar and Cadfan both acquitted themselves well at the archery meet, with Cadfan coming a respectable third whilst Ansgar managed to beat out all other competitors to the top spot! Whitehand awarded Ansgar's prize personally. Sir Harald congratulated the two of them, and thanked them for dragging his nephew's body out from under the horse yesterday.

Ansgar and Cadfan enjoyed a night of raucous celebration at The Smoking Princess. Ansgar bought pints for every guardsman and their family whilst Cadfan focused on getting absolutely hammered with Inga, Antia, Angharrad, and the smith.

Day 34 (Day 6 of Tourney)

Ansgar won his first bout at the melee after a little trouble, and then pulled a flawless victory against his foreign opponent in the second round. The third and final bout was against Sir Harald, a worthy opponent. Despite a harsh beating from the knight marshal, Ansgar managed to pull victory from the jaws of defeat to become the champion of the melee! Whitehand awarded Ansgar with a fair sum of bars, and also offered him a weapon from his personal armoury.

Ansgar and Cadfan went out once more that evening to celebrate: Cadfan got plastered again, but this time with a larger entourage; Ansgar bought people a few rounds to be polite but spent most of his time looking after Cadfan.

Day 35 (Day 7 of Tourney)

Warm and pleasant.

Cadfan, very hungover, went to collect bear jerky from Inga. He also comissioned an apple and blackberry pie from John Baker before heading to The Smoking Princess for breakfast. He also started kitting out Kreek and Krank for adventure.

Ansgar spent the morning doing his job - checking the perimeter, and discussing recent events with Elroc.

There was a massive crowd at the closing ceremony for the tourney. Whitehand gave a pretty good speech which included a suprise note about warmaking against Ó'Ruairc. During his speech, Ansgar spotted a huge winged beast heading for the town! He alerted Whitehand who ended the ceremony early, much to the obvious disappointment of the townsfolk. Ansgar enacted a curfew, and spread the message for all fighting men to converge on the town square with either spears or bows. Cadfan ran to the lantern seller to gather burning oil, and in doing so received a blessing from one of the fairies in the lamps. He also mustered all the lowlives and poachers that were in town. Ansgar managed to persuade both Lord Lander and Shepford to send some men, and put Sir Harald in charge of them. The town and estate guards also mustered as eighteen strong, under the command of Elroc.

Ansgar used a horn to draw the attention of the winged beast, and as it got closer he realised it was the same winged woman that he and Cadfan had seen rising out of the blood rain pool on day 20. The woman dived on Ansgar, but he caught only a glancing blow, which gave the mustered forces of Crawic enough time to rain fire and arrows on the beast. The winged creature faded to ash as Inga's eldest son landed a clean hit with an oil bomb as the killing blow. She screamed a final lament about needing a baby. Ansgar decapitated the woman as she died.

Ansgar rallied the men after the fight, toasting the strength of Crawic and its neighbours, and their faith in the spirits of nature. He laid the blame for the creature at the feet of Ó'Ruairc and the heathen Morriganites. This resonated well with the men of Crawic. Ansgar told Elroc to alert Whitehand and Herogod that the beast had been defeated. When Herogod arrived, he confirmed the creature was formed of brimstone and alchemy, and had been summoned from another plane. He was shocked at the amount of power that the Morriganites would have needed to summon something like that in the blood rain.

Ansgar and Cadfan had the guard clean up the ash, and took Herogod back to his quarters with the beast's head. They spoke to Whitehand about the state of play with the Morriganites. He agreed that Ansgar and Cadfan should tackle the chapel again as soon as possible, and invited both Ansgar and Cadfan to his armoury, where they took Macha's Lance and The Taxas Bow.

Day 36

Drizzle.

Angharrad is having food covered by Whitehand! Kreek and Krank are successfully training Dog to sit.

Cadfan, Ansgar, Kreek, Krank, and Whitehand's mule headed for the Morriganite chapel. They stopped en route to take lunch by the watchtower and foraged for three rations. In the onward journey, the group ran into a calm boar. Krank took the opportunity to try and befriend the wild beast, and it worked. The whole entourage rested overnight in the tower.

Day 37

Mild.

The party carried on north toward the mountains. More birds were seen flying out of the mountains and toward the woods. At the chapel, chanting could be heard from the outside. Kreek was spotted whilst looking through the window, and the morriganite preacher came outside to accost the group. They killed the priest with archery fire, but made piece with the two blokes and the woman inside. The woman was a felon called Olympia who had come from the east in search of violent work. The two men, Tan and Thatch, had met on the road whilst travelling from the east of the mountains. Thatch had come from the riverlands after being displaced from his job as a stableboy due to the floods. Tan came from Ó'Ruairc's town after being branded a simpleton and undesirable. All three strangers agreed to work with Ansgar's entourage.

Cadfan and Olympia cased the chapel's main room again whilst Ansgar spoke with Tan and Thatch. They found a summoning circle beneath the altar after noticing it was slightly out of line, and chose to smear it into illegibility. The group proceeded deeper into the chapel dungeon. The bugbear corpse had been moved from the room west of the library.

In the shrine, Olympia read the words painted on the wall in blood: "sharpen thy spear and ready thy shield". When Krank enacted the phrase, he felt a shadowy embrace and received a combat blessing from Morrigan.

Olympia couldn't read the runes on the lock that had bewitched Cadfan previously. In the portcullis room, the group killed 3 hobgoblins, and found the corpse of another one. The corpse was wearing a leather jack with a symbol of a winged spear on it and had 4 arms. The lock to the next room was clearly enchanted, so Cadfan deliberately tripped it from a safe distance. A huge thunderwave rippled out into the room, but nobody was hurt. Cadfan dug a carved marble rune out of the keyhole and then broke down the door.

Down a short corridor, the group found a huge treasure horde with a minotaur dozing on it. They waited for it to fall asleep then Cadfan and Olympia stabbed it to death. Under the treasure hoard was a pressure plate, which Cadfan carefully loaded the minotaur corpse onto to avoid the removal of the treasure causing any issues. The group made off with a large haul of bars, coins, gems, potions, and a scroll, as well as the minotaurs horns, teeth, and nose ring.

Back in the main room of the chapel, the party reunited with Tan and Thatch, and noticed that there were many birds flying west still. Cadfan tried to carve some of the gold out of the Morrigan statue, but Krank's blessing/connection started causing him pain.

Around the campfire, the party agreed a watch system, and settled in for the night. Kreek, Krank, and Tan hit it off well, and Thatch seemed happy despite his quietness. Olympia had polite conversation. During the night, there was severe disturbance at the outside door and a smell of smoke. Something was trying to get in. Cadfan made the call to retreat the whole camp one room deeper into the chapel complex, which was vindicated when flame blasted down the door of the chapel before a strange chirping cry was heard along with the beating of wings. The night was quiet after that.

Day 38

Cool breeze.

The group set out to return to Crawic. Despite being caught in a hailstorm on the way down the mountain, the whole entourage made it back safely. Thatch, Tan, Kreek, and Krank stayed at Angharrad's whilst Olympia, Ansgar, and Cadfan went to see Whitehand. There, the trio were stopped by Herogod, who informed them that he had partially translated one of the texts they had previously retrieved from the chapel library. The first text was focused on alchemical runes and rituals; the portion that Herogod understood detailed the production of hobgoblins, which involved complex potions as well as a stretching rack. Herogod identified the ritual circle that the party had found under the altar to be for summoning, and near-certainly for the manifestation of the winged woman/demon. Herogod idenitifed the potions as transmutation associated and the scroll to be one of animate dead. The party handed over the teeth to him.

The trio presented the enourmous haul to Whitehand, who was utterly dumbfounded. He agreed that the next priority should be trying to find out where the morriganites get their funds from. He taxed Ansgar's troupe heavily, which Olympia brought up to Cadfan after the meeting, outraged. Cadfan explained the long game of Ansgar's potential land to her, and she agreed to stick around for the eventual payoff provided things continued to go well. Ansgar paid Tan and Thatch 5 bars each for their labour, and invited them to work for him in future.