Aporeu chronicles Issue 48: Got Wood II: Brother were art thou?

Stories from the adventurers

This week

Rescuing the brother without getting distracted this time.

Got Wood II: Brother were art thou? by Kalesh

Kalesh met Rhodax the dragonborn, Whiltin the gnome and Ulfgar the dwarf at the guild hall. We had all signed up for a quest to search for a dwarf's brother who had gone missing at their logger camp. We got some extra info from Lornan and were told to talk to Grandal Oltigan who had given the quest. Arriving at the dwarf’s house we knocked on the door and he reluctantly opened it. He explained that he had seen creatures at the camp that had dragged the loggers into the ground. He was worried that his brother might’ve met the same fate. He wanted us to search for him at the logger camp. He seemed horrified by what had happened, and quickly closed the door afterwards.
Heading out of town, we followed Ulfgar, who had the map and had been that way before. Whiltin kept asking whether Kalesh would give him a ride on his back. Kalesh saw that he was pretty old, and knew that he should respect the elderly. Kalesh let him on his back, but soon after Whiltin just got too annoying with his magic. Instinctively, Kalesh tried to throw him off, but Whiltin held on. He said he was just trying to show what he could do, and started shouting for monsters. Unsurprisingly, one showed up, right above Whiltin and Kalesh. A giant snake tried to constrict Whiltin, but failed. The group quickly killed it and we moved on. Kalesh didn’t allow Whiltin on his back again though, let him show what he can do while on his own two feet.
We crossed the river on a ferry. On the other side we spotted some plant creatures who left us alone. Ulfgar mentioned they had to fight them last time. A while later, Ulfgar stopped and looked puzzled. He said he didn’t recognize this part of the forest. Apparently, we had taken a wrong path a while back, and had to backtrack. Kalesh helped Ulfgar navigate from there on. Ulfgar seemed capable of defeating any foe, but navigating was best left to someone else. Kalesh would never say this to his face however.
It started to get dark when we got to a clearing in the forest. The clearing had a strangely calming effect, and we weren’t going to find a better place to camp any time soon in the forest, so we decided to camp here. There was a waterfall at one side of the clearing, Ulfgar warned us not to go near it. He looked ready to knock us all out if we tried, so Kalesh figured it would be best to go find some food in the forest. Kalesh also set his trap to see whether he could get any nice catches during the night. After a meal and deciding who takes the watches, we got some rest.
A bit after midnight, we all woke up from a pained roaring. The roaring seemed close but soon moved away. After some investigation, the roaring came from an owlbear who had walked into my trap. Kalesh is happy it fled instead of attacking us, as an owlbear is not to be trifled with. Kalesh should be more careful with setting this trap in the future, maybe invest in a trap for smaller animals.
In the morning, we made our way to the logger camp without incident. The camp seemed abandoned. Kalesh didn’t really see anything, but others pointed out tools and weapons which lay discarded on the ground and strange patches of dirt. We inspected two of those patches and weird insect creatures appeared out of it. We did defeat them in the end, but not before one hit Whiltin with a stream of acid that hurt him pretty bad. Luckily, it didn’t kill him though. He might be annoying, but that’s not worth dying over.
We didn’t see any trace of the dwarf's brother at the camp, so we decided to make our way to the lodge at the back of the camp and searched it. We passed the camp’s well and Kalesh decided to take a closer look. There was nothing in the well itself, but a brick on the outside was easily removed and a totem was found behind it. Rhodax inspected it and said that this was an object of destruction and should be left alone. While Kalesh wanted to figure out more about this totem, he agreed that there were more pressing issues right now. Kalesh hid it in a bush nearby.
We got into the lodge and found the brother behind a closed door that Ulfgar kicked in. He was terrified by what had happened at the camp and wanted to get back to Arnheim immediately. We showed him the totem, but he didn’t recognize it. We left it in the lodge and started going back to the city.
Along the way, we ran into some half-orcs who wanted us to hand over the dwarf. Ulfgar and Rhodax negotiated with them while Whiltin did some scouting with his weasel and I stood guard at the dwarf. Whiltin’s weasel revealed that there was another half-orc hiding close by with a hook weapon. Kalesh didn’t trust this situation and made ready to grab the dwarf if the situation would get hostile. Shortly after, the dwarf panicked and cast a spell that covered the area in fog. Kalesh was able to get a hold of him and convince him to get on his back while we dealt with the half-orcs. He dropped the fog and we got some help from a ranger that was close by. Apparently, she was the only survivor of a group that was sent before us.
The ranger explained that these half-orcs were followers of some god named Moccus, who had something to do with boars. The dwarf also admitted on the way back that they had killed a boar, which turned out to be a half-orc female that was shapeshifted. This was probably the murdered daughter that one of the half-orcs mentioned.
When we got to the ferry, we noticed that crazed creatures were following us and were getting closer. We discussed the totem and found out that Ulfgar had grabbed the totem while we left the lodge. The ranger suspected that this item was attracting the creatures and destroyed it before the creatures came any closer. Ulfgar was noticeably upset by this. I guess he wanted to fight more of them. The rest of us were just relieved that such an object didn’t make its way into the city. It would’ve caused a lot of devastation.

We delivered the dwarf back to his brother, and told him what had happened. We got the reward and Kalesh even got some interesting gauntlets off of the half-orcs.

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Got Wood II: Brother were art thou? by Ulfgar

I had a chance ta redeem masel’ and I had ta tak it! Ach, need ta write better for tha comm’n folk.
I had a chance to redeem myself and I had to take it! Recently there was a mission which I did not manage to complete. Now, I would lead my party back there! Well…..try to.
Together with Kalesh, half a horse with half a person stuck on top of it, or a centaur as he is apparently called, Rhodax, half a dragon, a black dragonborn, and an old gnome named Whiltin who did magic, I reported to Lornan for the quest.
We were told that an old dwarf I know well now, Grandal Oltigan, had come in a panic, asking for help to save his brother. We soon went to his house, me leading the way there, and asked him about the mission. He was in quite the panic but did manage to tell us he had gone to deliver the rations but ran from what he found. People were being dragged underground so he fled, but his brother was still at the loggers camp.
We swiftly went underway of course! After crossing the river and heading into the woods Whiltin was riding on the back of Kalesh, and the two were arguing, eventually Whiltin started yelling for enemies to attack us, so he could show what he could do or something. Of course a giant snake attacked him from above. Together we made quick work of them and moved on, past more of the walking plants that attacked us last time, but no problem now. I had the map and was leading the group, however at some point we did have to retrace a little bit before we found the correct path to Alboro Glade.
Arriving at the glade we sensed the same calming influence we had found before. Kalesh went to hunt and placed a trap, but soon we decided to go to sleep. I made sure to take the first watch, and sure enough the ghostly image of a woman again appeared and started walking around the pool, calling for Pulsar. I made sure not to wake up the rest, and just nodded at her, which she seemed to acknowledge before she left for the cave behind the waterfall again.
During the next watch we were all awakened because of the howls and growls of an owlbear in the woods. Eventually it moved away again and we noticed it had gotten caught in the trap but had escaped.
The next morning we traveled on from the Alboro Glade to the logger’s camp. We encountered a camp in disarray with tools and weapons lying around, even an armored boot. There were clear spots where the ground had been disturbed, of which we were somewhat cautious, however I decided to just walk on towards one.
Up burrowed some insect like creatures with which we did battle, of course defeating them safely. After the fight I saw a boar on a hill, watching us. I suspect that was Bart, the wereboar we saw last time. I found myself glad he was still alive.
In the side of the well we found a loose stone, behind which was some sort of totem, a very intriguing thing. We hid it for now and went on to the cabin. Whiltin gathered some coal from the fireplace and I decided to explore some other rooms. When the first door I encountered was locked I bashed it open, finding a very scared dwarf behind it. Shameful! He immediately wanted to leave for Arnheim. We did question him about the totem for a bit, and it was retrieved so he knew what we were talking about. However, he denied knowledge. As everyone left the cabin I pocketed the totem.
Leaving the camp I saw the boar again, seemingly following us. However soon I could not bother about that anymore as we encountered a few orcs on the path, who told us we were free to leave but we had to leave the dwarf back at the camp.
Now as we were talking, one of the Orcs said the dwarf had harmed his daughter, Ladigan, the dwarf, suddenly cast a spell causing a giant cloud of fog, and he tried to run away. However, I already had my hand on his shoulder and did not allow him to.
A fight ensued, made more difficult with the fog, but eventually we did prevail, in part thanks to the aid of a ranger, part of a previous group which had been sent to get the provisions to the camp.
On our way back to Arnheim we talked more with Ladigan and he admitted that apparently they had killed a boar, which turned out to be the daughter of one of the Orcs. We berated him heavily but did escort him safely to the city.
Just before we reached the river we again sensed we were being followed by more of those insects, but the rest wanted to continue on. As we discussed on the boat they asked about the totem and I showed ‘m, which was then destroyed with a lot of anger. And it was such a lovely thing! However, we did finish the mission, saved the brother from his own foolishness and returned him to Grandal!
And I even got a nice cloak out of the deal.

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On the next issue:

Monster hunting for fun and profit