LRC:Into the Woods

After having Janus cast Commune, the party learned that the soul of Ruha, the fire sorceress, was contained in a dagger made of thinium. Thinium, the party learned, is a special material that captures the soul of whomever has been slain by the weapon. The party stocked up on supplies and headed out on the road to the mines.

Meadmaker Road

The road to the mine was lined with occasional runes in Dethek that read “Meadmaker Road”, making it obvious that the dwarves of Lone Rock City were in charge of the mines. After about a half an hour of traveling on horseback the party turned a corner and discovered that someone was waiting for them. Standing six and a half feet tall and casually holding a 4x4 over his shoulder, the thug Brick informed the party that it was in their best interest to turn around. After some debate and threatening, Lukas fired his eldritch blast into Brick, starting a fight between the two. Others tried to either stop the fight, move past it, or get into. Eventually Brick was brought to within an inch of death but was stabilized by Timmie, who informed the party that “Watch no kill”. The party was battered and bruised by the showdown, but not seriously injured (OOC: Brick only dealt subdual damage.)

Mines

Meadmaker road was not only a wide road built to last, but it was also built so that those guarding the mines would see anyone coming. The structure that sits outside the mine entrance appears to be a smaller castle, with ramparts and rigs for boiling oil. Inset is the actually entrance to the mines, two huge doors made of adamantine. In front of the doors stand only but two dwarves in adamantine full plate with pickaxes, the equipment seeming rather ceremonial, though fully functional.

The party asks the dwarves if they’ve seen another dwarf come by recently and one of the dwarves on duty says that a clansmen passed by into the Dark Wood the previous day. With the clansmen being a named Meadmaker (i.e. Tio Meadmaker as opposed to Dulgar, of clan Meadmaker), the guard dwarves had no authority to tell him not to go into the Dark Wood. With this new information the party decides to leave Brick as a prisoner in the hands of the dwarves while they go into the woods to find Tio Meadmaker.

Bear Trap

As the PCs travel the in Dark Wood, they discover that it’s name is no misnomer. While there are clearings and friendly areas they are far and few between. The forest is mostly thick with trees and very little light makes it’s way to the forest floor. The deer path that the PCs are following have very obvious occasional wide boot tracks in the mud. As the party is intense on following the trail, Wolfdale trips a wire and a bucket of blood rains down upon him. Off in the woods the party hears growling as two bears rush towards their new meal. Abendago distracts one with rations and the other bear is quickly put down. While distracted Robhim casts Charm Animal and briefly makes a new friend. As the party moves away from the scene a form can be seen traveling around the party. A small form hisses and reveals itself to be one of the Dark Dogs, a black clad kobold with oriental swords and throwing stars named Dark Tongue. He agrees to help the party and lead them to the “elveses”. He tells them that the elves believe they own the woods and that the Dark Dogs will be teaching them that the Dark Woods belong to them. At the clearing where the elves will meet up the party, Abendago stirs up trouble by speaking inside Dark Tongue’s head. Dark Tongue believes it to be the wizard, Simon, and cuts his spell component pouch from his waist. Before a large fight breaks out Dark Tongue disappears into the darkness, swearing that the party is no ally to the Dark Dogs.

Shell-shocked

As soon as Dark Tongue takes off the party is stranded in the middle of the Dark Woods and they begin to freak out, yelling and trying to get the elves attention. Wolfdale is notified that the elves are watching by three arrows coming to within a hair’s-breath of his throat. After some silence, a single wolf approaches the party and sniffs each in turn. The wolf growls at Lukas, but doesn’t try to bite him. Slowly the elves reveal themselves to the party. A half-elf steps from nearly right behind the party, dressed in leaves and dirt but with a large hat with a feather sticking out the top. He introduces himself as Jones Henrysson, and it is obvious from the start that he has been away from civilization too long.

The end of Tio

While agreeing to take the party to go to find Tio, Jones goes off on gory war story tangents, with too much detail. He tells the party that he is using Tio as bait for a trap for the "bigger fish". The party will play a role in helping the Woodsmen. The party is ordered to march across a field in plain sight of the enemy. Jones assures them that they could survive. After going through the woods for a few hours Jones points the direction that the party should continue moving, while he and the elves disappear into the woods to get to the enemy cave up on the ridge. As the party gets about 50 feet into the clearing the invisible enemy makes itself known, dark-skinned elves with fiery red hair and large bat-like wings! The party manages to defeat the strange creatures and watch as Jones and the elves go into a large cave and kill whatever and whomever is inside.

After a few minutes of silence the party begins to hear screams of pain and watch as Jones throws himself and Tio over the side of the ridge. Jones lands on Tio and hardly notices the broken ribs as he proceeds to beat the chubby dwarf unconscious and beyond. Jones then takes the thinuan dagger from inside Tio's jacket, rips the dwarf open from lungs to asshole and begins pulling out intestines.... Moments later Jones seems to snap back to reality as a puzzled look crosses his face. Realizing what was going on he then hooks a grappling hook to the dead dwarf's ribcage and has the elves use a horse to pull the body away into the woods. He looks at the party, "There are things in the woods that we have to keep fed." Jones then hands the bloody dagger to Abendago. Jones asks the party that they not mention his name.

Returning to the City

The party returns to Lone Rock City and informs Ren Tidebringer what happened. Ren asked them the name of the leader of the Woodsmen and the party tells him that Jones leads the Woodsmen. Brennel asked Ren about the strange race of elf-demon creatures that the party encountered, and Ren responded, saying the party should forget they ever saw them. The party is told that their reward has not been determined yet. He also requested everyone formally join the Watch.