The New Raiders
Session II
General Summary
The Party began the session in a forest. They found themselves on the opposite side of the hills from which they entered the bear's cave--a distance that should not have been navigable in the time it took them. Furthermore, they found that hours had passed in what should have been minutes, and the hole from which they exited the tunnel had vanished. Grihymm Phrahdrandon was strangely unable to recall any of the events of the cave.
The Goblins
Greeting them right away were some goblins who insisted that the party follow them to meet "the boss." The party refused, and the goblins (after writing some more words in the dirt), decided to let them leave. The party returned to Crossbones and--after meeting Saskia Stonegleam and her horses Sugar, Nadia, and Shadow--spoke with Khol Nazalk. He had little light to shed on the topic of the goblins or the cave they explored.
They found most of the raid options were taken from the wall. Still remaining were a couple of creature sketches and the large door they knew had something to do with the death of the raiders whose tents they inherited. After taking a lesson from Khol about the shorthand used on the raid postings, the party grabbed a page noting ten grungs somewhere southeast of camp.
Completing the Tour
The party continued the rest of the tour that Milo Gloomtongue would have provided had they not cut it short. They now have a sense for the layout of Crossbones, including the notable places in camp and their purposes.
The Grung Incident
The party took an early rest to start their third day in Acaelica bright and early. Skipping the customary visit to Operations, they proceeded directly out of camp to the east, following directions to the grungs. However, they were followed by the goblins from the day before, and learned that one of the goblins was named Crook. The others refused to give their own names. The goblins still wanted the party to come meet the boss, whom they insisted was now available for them to see. The party refused (saying they had to meet the grungs first) and convinced the goblins to join them. On the way, they would take a brief rest and offer the goblins some berries they collected en route, but the goblins staunchly refused.
Crook and his two companions followed the party to a ruin, where they managed to kill four grungs and meet their leader Marin, whom they elected to leave alive.
The Bird Door
After Johann VonGruppen charmed the incapacitated grung leader (not killing him), and with some particularly astute observations from Algernon, the party found a bone beneath Marin's throne of stone, which they claimed for their own.
This bone tuned out to be a sort of key. When placed appropriately in the skeleton of the bird that was grafted onto the wall of the hidden area behind Marin's "throne room," it revealed a small space containing sixteen Threads of the Old Weave. The threads were of sizes ranging from roughly 3 to 6 inches long, hanging from the ceiling. Murmus Bigtoe used one for his Identify spell, which he found resulted in its immediate destruction (thought it did seem to enhance his spell in some way). Johann learned from Marin that the threads were "catalysts," and that they were of value to magic users in some way.
After Grihymm Phrahdrandon successfully prevented the curious goblins from entering the room to see, the party grabbed one more thread and left the rest behind.
Algernon not only placed an Arcane Lock on the "bird door," but also on the wooden box containing the bone used to open it. The party took a short rest in the antechamber of this ruin (healing Marin the grung leader while they did) and agreed to follow Crook and his friends to their boss.
Meeting Twig
The goblins led the party to a clearing with a single tree in the center, about a 2-hour walk south of Crossbones. The tree had some sort of magnificent dollhouse built into it, out of which came a tiny creature that sat upon the shoulder of one of the goblins. He told the party that they could call him Twig, and asked their names in return.
He seemed upset that the party killed his bear, and insisted that they owed him a favor. The party asked his name, and he told them that they could call him Twig. He also asked their names in return, which most provided. Grihymm and Faewynn didn't give their true names (Grihymm pronounced his name differently than he would to his family, and Faewynn said her name was Fae), but the others were more forthcoming. This amused Twig a great deal.
Twig wanted the party to wait until nightfall, which they refused to do. The group suggested that they would come back tomorrow, but the small creature refused. Instead, they offered to lead him back to camp, where he was happy to follow.
Twig Comes to Crossbones
The party led the goblins and their boss back to Crossbones, where a guard lowered the gate. The party noticed at this point that their companions had vanished. They told the guard about those they had led there, but the guard was very upset by this and locked them out immediately. Johann VonGruppen persuaded the man to let them in, and this guard alerted Khol, who returned to the wall to address the party. Upon hearing their tale (and collecting the thread they retrieved from their raid) he told the party that the little blue creature was of the Fey.
It seems that the party had made a serious mistake by leading him to Crossbones.
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