Borderland of Adventure #1: Hollows Last Hope

In early Wealsun, a small band of disparate adventures formed a fledgling adventuring group in the borderland lumber town of Falcon’s Hollow. The small town sat at the edge of the Loftwood in the very southernmost part of Ratik and was a wild, frontier place.

BoA

 

The party comprised:

  • Krorz  male half-orc rogue)
  • Kemmo (male Bakluni human samurai from the far west)
  • Adoven (male dwarf cleric [Moradin]; searching for ancient places of his kin)
  • Belivar (male halfling summoner).

All sought glory, wealth and adventure. It quickly became clear that the nascent group were the only chance the small town had of fighting off a virulent infection stalking the streets. Mainly striking down the old, infirm and very young, Blackscour Taint was ravaging the town.

In particular, Adoven was keen to help the humans and so at his urging the group ventured forth onto the streets to offer help where it was needed. It was not long before they found an ill peasant wandering the street and after a cursory conversation, the peasant directed the adventurers to Roots & Remedies – the shop of the local apothecary, Laurel. There they found a rather long queue of sick people – many of them clutching children or supporting elderly relatives.

Shouldering their way past the queue they entered the shop to speak with the herbalist. It rapidly transpired that Laurel could do nothing for the ill folk gathered outside until she could brew a special curative potion. She had most of the ingredients, but lacked three hard-to-find items needed to complete the brew. The adventurers quickly offered to hunt down the items and so it was that they left the shop in search of elderwood moss, a specially pickled root called Rat’s Tail and a rare form of mushroom – Ironbloom Mushrooms – that normally only grew in areas populated by dwarves. The last item excited Adoven in particular because he was in the area searching for an old abandoned dwarven monastery. However, the party did not know where to find any of these items and so – at Laural’s suggestion – headed north into the hills to find Milon Rhoddam who apparently worked at a nearby lumbercamp.

Finding the camp proved to be no problem because a trail led directly to it and after a few encounters with surly woodmen the PCs located Milon. Milon was much more helpful – it transpired his nephew was ill with the taint – and so he readily provided the party with a map of the surrounding area and his thoughts on where each item could be found. He believed elderwood moss could be found on the oldest tree in the forest, that the hut of a vile witch may hold Rat’s Tail and that an abandoned ruin hard against the flanks of Droskar’s Crag could hold Ironbloom Mushrooms.

The next morning, the party made their final preparations and plunged into the wilderness.Their first day’s travel was mainly uneventful, except for Kemmo almost falling into a cleverly concealed pit trap set on the trail to catch the unwary. Only his warrior’s reflexes saved him from a bad fall.

The next day was rather more eventful. As they travelled through a sparsely vegetated part of the forest, the party noticed a gigantic creature flying through the sky. Adoven quickly identified the creature as a wyvern – although it bore an odd blue tinge to its scales. The adventurers scattered, desperately trying to find cover. Sadly, Adoven was not fast enough – perhaps his armour caught the sun  – and the wyvern quickly dove upon them! As it hurtled downwards, Adoven hurled himself to the ground, but unbelievably the wyvern was not hunting dwarf that day; rather it swooped and caught a boar before struggling aloft and flying off to the west.

Their next day’s travel through the forest saw the party attacked by two wolves. The cunning predators got quite close to the group before attacking and badly injured Adoven. However, Belivar and Kemmo slew the beasts quickly, saving the hapless dwarf from a painful death.

Later this same day, the party finally discovered an immense tree that was surely the oldest and most largest in the forest. As they investigated – searching for the moss which they needed – a snake-like dragon burst froth from its hiding place among the tree’s roots and attacked. Although the beast was swift and vicious, it failed to injure anyone and was quickly slain.

After their victory, the party decided to rest overnight near the gigantic tree – theorising that no normal woodland creatures would dare approach the lair of such a ferocious beast. As they set up camp, they found the moss they required and congratulated themselves. Sadly, however, they did find any additional treasures.

Sadly, the night was not without incident. A small clearly undead reptilian humanoid set upon Belivar during the night. Although the beast was slain without loss it did badly injure the halfling’s eidolon and the attack unsettled some of the group. Interestingly, the party discovered a sign about the creature’s neck that said “”Shaman” in Draconic. Adoven also swore he saw a rat living in the creature’s decomposing skull, but after the undead was destroyed there was no rat to be found.

The balance of the night passed peacefully and the next day the party continued their quest. It was now four days since they left town.

Toward mid-afternoon they discovered a ramshackle old cottage surrounded by strange fetish-like figures. The figures provided to be nothing more than signs to keep out the superstitious and the party entered the hut, ready to fight or negotiate for the roots they required. Bizarre, no one was home and so Krorz search the dusty, jumbled interior. He got the shock of his young life when the cauldron stirred to life and attacked him! However, the dextrous half-orc easily dodged its attacks and it was quickly destroyed by his companions. Shortly thereafter, the party discovered the roots they sought and also  a strange amulet that comprised a shrunken human’s head. It radiated faint illusion magic, but the party could not discern its purpose.

With night falling, the party camped nearby and the next morning continued their quest. Now, with two of the three items they required, they set out to find the abandoned monastery. That very day – the fifth since they left Falcon’s Hollow – they did so easily – the  ruins standing stark and proud on  the very flanks of Droskar’s Crag.

The party entered the ruins bravely, exploring the overgrown courtyard. Here they found the skeleton of a previous explorer and some small treasures. After a short discussion, they decided to investigate the monastery’s lone tower…

Published by

Creighton

Creighton is the publisher at Raging Swan Press and the designer of the award winning adventure Madness at Gardmore Abbey. He has designed many critically acclaimed modules such as Retribution and Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands and worked with Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Expeditious Retreat Press, Rite Publishing and Kobold Press.

4 thoughts on “Borderland of Adventure #1: Hollows Last Hope”

  1. Cannot wait to read these, just stumbled upon it. Been playing since 1981, love old school Greyhawk, and had a campaign set in Tenh using the Keep on the Borderlands and old Basic D&D modules in the beginning.

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