Late 2017

After the group had managed the colony of New Assension, they learned of a number of potential threats facing the colony.  These were:

1.  A number of (mostly) men had gone missing, returning befuddled and speaking of nymphs.
2.  A witch was controlling a pack of wolves, which were attacking people.
3.  There were scary ghost to the east, in the part of our map marked "ghosts".

Elzeny and her council consulted, and decided to send their group of troubleshooters out to stop the wolf attacks, their reasoning being:
a)  the wolves seemed to be the only threat that was an actual threat to the colonists;
b)  ghosts were above the pay grade of our adventurers; and
c)  they wanted to "deal" with the nymph "problem" themselves (aka - they wanted the possible nymph sexy times for themselves).

So, their flunkies went out, found the witch in her hut and discovered that she was eccentric but harmless - and not the source of the wolf troubles.  She was, however, able to point them in the right direction.  Eventually, they were able to find the wolves (or the wolves find them - same result either way).  During the very hard fight, they discovered that one of the wolves was actually a shape changer and seemed to be controlling the others.  While the hirelings defeated the other wolves, each was almost killed at one point or another, and the shape changer escaped.

The next session, the hired help followed the shapechangers tracks into the area of the map marked "ghosts" and met a grizzled man.  From this man, they learned that he was the recipient of a "gift" (though it was more of a curse) where he was forced to fight a battle between ghosts - a battle that he had fought in and found invigorating in his youth.  He believed that if he could succeed in getting the enemy's banner he could end the curse... but in all the years of the curse, he had never succeeded and his chances to do so were slipping away as he aged and his fighting skills waned.  While he would find himself unharmed after every battle, those outsiders who were killed helping him did not.  Despite this warning, the minions agreed to help him.  Unfortunately, the ghosts were indeed over their pay grade, and many again almost died - but fortunately, the spirits killed the old man first, ending the battle.  Elzeny's mercenaries returned to New Ascension with the man, contemplating how be successful in a future attempt.

The session after that, we were back to Elzeny and her councilors, who thought they should go investigate the nymphs.  Unfortunately, non of those who had returned from the nymphs had a firm idea of where they were (or the party forgot to ask), so they did a fair bit of wandering around, mapping the east shore of the lake.  While doing so, in a grove of magical mushrooms, they were set on by a group of goblins and fey, who tried to capture the women with nets to put them in cages.  After successfully defeating this threat, they interrogated one goblin and learned that the women were to be brides for a troll, and that others had already been captured in this way.

The party followed the tracks left by the cages and found a larger cage which was the centre of a ritual pulling it into the material realm from the feywild.  The cage was covered with spikes, on some of which were the severed head of women of various races - likely the fate of Elzeny and the others had they not prevailed over the kidnappers.  At some distance from the cage were a number of bonfires surrounded by dancing fey - part of the magic ritual.  The adventurers decided to try to fight one of those groups first, which posed far less trouble than expected.  This was a surprise, as one of those defeated was a troll, which Catarina managed to take down with the party's sole source of fire damage.

Summary of Mid 2017

There was much delay in the running of the game. Many moons passed with little play happening. However, two sessions have been done by the end of Oct, 2017.

In the first, the barony of New Ascension was welcoming in new colonists at a fevered pace. The ruling council heard about Perfection of Yuilia members being ambushed. They sent the barony's special forces, the B Team, to deal with the trouble.

The B Team ran across a group of Yuilia worshipers being attacked by a group of orcs. They took on the orcs in an attempt to save the religious caravan. However, as they were decimating the orcs, a vampire and its spawn rose from the river and attacked!

The battle was harsh, but in the end B Team was successful. They even managed to kill the vampire before he could get away, totally killing a monster who was NOT going to be a recurring villain. No sir. No way. Completely unrelated that he taunted the party about continuing the 'game' later. Pure random chance.


The second session dealt with the first running of the barony. In it the A Team handled some cases of government management. All were successful.

• Katerina kept the multiple religions in good standing with each other by resolving an issue about who would consecrate the barony's first graveyard. 
• Evangelene and Adella made the first steps towards a formal alliance with the Sootscale kobolds in the region.
• Craig and Elzney worked to deal with an issue between nobles and peasants about who had first claim to be the better land for housing.

After the barony work was done, B Team went south looking for information on wolf attacks. They first traveled around the lake and came into contact with the Swamp Witch, Old Belmere. Although grouchy, she directed the party out towards the east, where she said wolves more aggressive then normal dwelt.

The party wandered for a while, then were ambushed by a shapechanger (lycanthrope?) and a pack of wolves. The party was savaged, but mid manage to eventually emerge victorious. The wolves were slain, but the shapechanger fled. The party was set on tracking him down when the night ended...

Summary of 1st Q of 2017

First part of 2017

Many things happened as the party cleared to the end of the first book.

• They rescued a damaged iron golem, helping a logger.
• The party discovered an old cathedral to Olen. The main statue had it's stone heart torn out, in some kind of ancient ritual.
• They came across Akimos, a disgruntled warrior/trapper who was questioning his place in life. The party once more whored their way across the Stolen Lands, giving the lost soul something to live for.
• The group defeated a tatzylworm, a dragon-like beast deep in the forest. (And allowed the DM to test out new solo rules.)
• They came across a dryad and her satyr boyfriend, worried that an evil Scythe Tree would soon show up and eat the dryad's tree. The party was convinced to go help her (she had boobs), but the DM unfortunately had not prepared for that encounter. It was put on hold as the dryad gave the party ritual components to distract the evil tree until the DM could stat up the creature.
• The party finished examining most of their charter region, eventually finding the Stag Lord's fort on the edge of a great lake.
• The first attempt at stealth didn't work so well, with undead guardians --chained to their posts-- nearly killing the lone cleric sent on recon.
• Remembering they had the code book, the whole party then attempted to bluff their way past the guards and into the compound. It worked.
• After getting some information on the layout and who was whom. The party once again (sigh) whored their way to success. (Honestly! What is it with my party and sleeping their way to victory?)
• Killing the Stag Lord, freeing the captive owlbear, and ending the deprivations of the bandits allowed the party to fulfill the requirements of their charter. Their Writ of Exploration was transformed into a Writ of Colonization. 
• The Barony of New Ascension was established, with Baroness Elzney at its head.
• Over the winter months the party spent time working on getting resources and allies for the forthcoming building of their new barony.