The party killed off the Woebegotten Troll and freed the three water nymphs in his cages. The party discovered that they were taken from a group of nymphs working near Candlemere Lake.
Guided by the nymphs the party went to the lake, where they met with Kylar Sweetwater, the dancemater of the nymphs. Peaceful contact was made with the nymphs who were thrilled to have their friends freed from the troll. The party stayed with the troop of nymphs for four days, getting down and partying!
Kylar told the party that around the time the New Gods ascended, the world had been bombarded by primoridals from the distant reaches of existence. The New Gods had battled one such creature, a walking mountain of fire. Another one had struck on Candlemere Island. In order to keep it quiet, the water nymphs encircle the island and dance. Their dance takes in the emotions of the world as a dance partner, and then redirects that emotion back into the world, away from the Island. This lack of any sensation and emotion keeps the thing on the island in a state of torpor. The party thought it would be a good idea to check this out.
But before that, the group returned to New Ascension. There they heard about some incidents near the north east border of their realm. Upon investigating they discovered swarms of stirges had been attacking outlining farms.
After fighting a outlying swarm, the B team discovered an odor in the air. Following it they found a giant swarm of Stirges, enough to darken the sky. Circling around it they chased down the odor to find a group of soldiers from the new barony to the east lighting fires with special chemicals.
They spoke to the soldiers and were told that a wizard in the barony of Jesselheim had accidentally mixed Stirges with demon blood (or something) and started a plague of the blood-sucking beasts. The only reason the wizard was still alive (and the town not destroyed) was that the wizard also had the chemicals needed to force the flying death-bugs away. So the barony was now driving the swarm westward... towards New Ascension.
The party negotiated for a sample of the chemicals, and that was where things were left as the group now has to deal with a black cloud of puppy-sized mosquitoes.
