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. Korra 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 Korra order Jinx to retrieve some bones for her. After they eached finished, Korra 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 Catera.
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 indentified 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 Korra 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 jounrey, 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. Nontheless, the group got a good night's rest.
