The Party
- Gilbert Fezziwig (Gnome Artificer) – Mark M.
- Maran Maraka (Half-Elf Bard) – Mark C.
- Nihl (Dragonborn Monk) – Kasey
- Rosetta (Human Cleric) – NPC
- Villitch (Aasimar Paladin) – Ross
The Bard and the Monk
January 28, 2023
Marching on along the road through the Gariagas Woods, the party came upon the town of Motia where they heard about woodsmen going missing. They met a Bard, the Half-Elf Maran Maraka, who told them he was searching for a wizard who had learned the Black Art of turning men into orcs and suspected the missing were being put to that purpose.
He also told them that, the day before, another adventuring party had come this way on the same search and were said to have gone up the road to Sylora, so Maran joined the adventurers and they all set forth. Halfway there, they came to the aid of a Dragonborn Monk named Nihl who had been ambushed by bugbears.
Nihl was the sole survivor of that previous expedition and was heading back to Ludinium hoping to find reinforcements. He gladly took up with the party in order to mount a second attack on his enemy, Neyata, the Evil Half-Elf Wizard who was making Orcs out of men after using the same process to turn Goblins into the very Bugbears they had just fought. First, however, they all took rooms at the Sylph & Centaur in Sylora.
Come dawn, the adventurers rode into the woods following Nihl’s lead. When the ground became too soft for their horses, they walked the remaining miles of swamp to find Neyata’s crumbling keep. Wasting no time, they entered and engaged Bugbears, Orcs and even Zombies made from Nihl’s former team-mates! The wizard herself conjured an Earth Elemental before a near-fatal smite by Villitch drove her to flee.
In the dungeon, the heroes found a horrific laboratory where Neyata had conducted her Black Magic, but little else as she had made off with all of her notes and materials. One thing was found, however: a small wickerman figure which could be used to contact Griselda the Green Hag.