The Upper Valley. Map by Amanda P.

Player Characters:

• Harrow (Derek/Me) - Fieldwarden Background
• Aster (Zedeck Siew) - Beast Handler Background
• Snowdrop (Bobby M.) - Foundling Background
• Cornelius (Dano O'Connor) - Mountebank Background
• Cobb (Scott AKA Lonely Adventurer) - Marchguard Background
• Lyra (Brent)- Cutpurse Background

Journey Log

No Omen. Harrow was youngest again.

A Costly Reprieve

Decided to take the Return to the Stone Forest job, which involved finding a missing father and daughter that had ventured into the forest hunting Gilly Worms after the party accidentally set off a Gilly Worm craze from their haul in the first session. Hired a local guide, Mina Skrell (illiterate, not a pack horse) and rented a mule (Jasper, our buddy) to pull Cornelius's cart.

Aster woke up with a terrible itching on his neck, and had strange red abrasions where the itch originated. Terrible thunderstorms delayed journey, traveled a muddy path through the Western Gates of Waterfall City on their way out to the Mill Pass. Weather got worse as they traveled upward, and they ended their first Watch outside of Isthmus Town.

Continued onward, with weather improving over time. A bag of feed fell as they crossed the bridge to the East of Isthmus Town, and Aster prayed to Rivulus and thanked him for his vagaries. Decided to stop in Reprieve to avoid camping in the wilderness, but forced to pay an exorbitant sum (100 GP) to let everyone stay in Reprieve. Aster graciously paid for everyone. Aster asked about Fasha, but no one knew anything. The old man intimated that the fugitive farmer owed him money.

Everyone should have someone make visual notes for their campaign sessions. By Zedeck Siew.

Murderous Observations

Woke up refreshed, continued on the Western route to the Stone Forest. The path led to a bridge made of the roots of a tree that spread out over a stream. It was covered in moss and early morning dew, making its footing quite treacherous. Snowdrop used Control Plants to part the moss and strip the moisture off the roots in the process, clearing the way for everyone to cross.

Two black crows observed the casting from a distance, but flew away upon approach. Traveled into the woods and went East following snake trails. Led to a grove where trees seemed to bend over a lone oak. Hole in the oak on one side where the tree seemed burned.

Cobb lit his lantern and hung it from his sword in order to peer into the three. Saw a softball-sized brown object. He crawled inside to get it. It felt soft and warm inside the tree, and the object was softly glowing a warm to the touch. Object is a Heart Seed, and is capable of birthing a new forest. Worth 500 GP, but priceless to certain people and entities. Snowdrop knew both of these things because of his time living in a monastery, but encouraged Cobb to take it. He did so.

Always check holes in oaks. You never know. By Zedeck Siew.

They continued South and came upon a clearing with a waterfall to the Southeast and a vine-covered cabin to the Southwest. The path itself continued on to the West for some distance. Cornelius and Lyra opted to explore the cabin, finding it abandoned but with a suspiciously pristine white tablecloth laid out.

Outside, Aster looked for animal tracks but found none. He did, however, note the presence of a logging path to the West and thought he saw a flash of movement, but was unable to determine its source. Harrow investigated the waterfall and saw that a beach encircled the pool the water from the falls poured into.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen of the cabin Cornelius found a smooth white stone mounted to the wall with a strange black gem embedded in its center. It reminded him of a tiny Crystal Prism he once found that, if stared through, revealed a strange scene in the Woods.

Like normal, he saw a sanctuary with a moss-covered altar. Unlike normal, a red-headed woman was standing at the altar and seemed to be sacrificing a fox there. A broken red arrow shaft laid near the animal on the altar. The mysterious woman seemed to sense Cornelius's attention and turned around to stare at him, causing the vision in the prism to fade.

Lyra, on the other hand, proceeded to ransack the cabin, cutting into the mattress on the broken bed she found. Though nothing was in the mattress itself, she did meet resistance as she was cutting, and looking under the mattress revealed an iron cage like the one that held the wisp that was found during the An Acolyte's Request job.

The two left the cabin, but Lyra hung back long enough to pull the black and white stone from the wall in secret.

Upon revealing what they had found, Harrow and Aster were able to identify that the iron cage they found was indeed of the same make as the one they had previously encountered, leading both men to believe that the cabin must belong to the sorcerer who was said to have charged the wisps with the sorrow of Rivulus. Cornelius also revealed the vision that he saw in his prism, leading many in the party to speculate that the sorcerer was the woman he had seen.

Aster, offended on behalf of Rivulus, declared his intention to burn the cabin down in retribution. Cornelius argued against this, suggesting that given the state of the place it wouldn't necessarily hurt the Sorcerer and that it would be better to just ransack it.

A more thorough search revealed old scraps of clothing and what looked to be human bones within the oven. Upon finding the human remains, Harrow joined Aster in calling for the place to be burned down. Cornelius noted that the stone was missing, but said nothing. Aster took the tablecloth and used it to bundle up the human remains so that they could be put to rest.

Meanwhile, Snowdrop used his Amulet to detect that the air near the ceiling of the cabin is magical, which led many in the party to suspect a scrying magic was being utilized. Rude gestures were employed, and Cobb set the cabin on fire as they exited.

Burn it all! By Zedeck Siew.

A Can of Worms

They headed East to investigate the Waterfall, first noting the pristine nature of the water cascading into a pool at the base. Some sort of black object stuck out of the waterfall several feet up, splitting the water in that location. They also found a beach and abandoned encampment, a yellow rope stretched out on one part of the shoreline.

Aster decided to investigate the object in the waterfall, ultimately praying to Rivulus for guidance. He noted that the object seemed to attached to something being obscured by the falls. Cornelius investigated the campsite, large tarps and two sleeping bags. The party began to suspect that the camp must belong to the two they were sent to find.

Lyra investigated the rope and was unable to identify it, but Cornelius had encountered such things during his time as a Mountebank. He revealed that it was colloquially known as a vomit cord, and if flipped over to its yellow side induces vomiting if anything crosses it.

The shape in the water that Aster had seen suddenly resolved itself into a mass of Gilly Worms, which rose from the waters to attack the invading party. Aster successfully scrambled back and dropped his Heating Stone into the waters, hoping for a repeat of his last encounter with the worms.

Lyra grabbed the vomit cord and hurled it at the worm, almost hurling herself in the process. Snowdrop leveled his crossbow at the creature and fired (8 damage), which struck several worms before passing through. The Gilly Worms managed to move out of the boiling waters, but their injuries were too great and they ultimately collapsed.

The party, this time well-prepared for a Gilly Worm haul, load their cart (and hireling!) down with worms.

Meanwhile, Aster decided to dive into the pool (once it had cooled) and retrieve the vomit cord and his heating stone. Upon diving underwater, the marks on his neck erupt into gills and the blessing he had received from Rivulus was revealed.

He was able to retrieve the vomit cord, but his heating stone was ultimately lost.

They decided to investigate the object sticking out of the falls, and Aster's Grappling Hook and Silk Rope were employed to hook onto the object. They found it to be very secure, and decided to use it as an anchor to climb up and examine it.

Lyra, with her nimbleness and background as a Cutpurse, is selected as the best candidate to brave the climb. She easily did so, and found that the object was a horn attached to a terrible gargoyle, its mouth ajar and filled with terrible teeth.

She retrieved the horn and climbed back down, ultimately giving it to Cornelius because he had room in his pack.

Gilly Worms are the new sharks. By Zedeck Siew.

They continued West, ultimately finding a trail that led back to Bottleneck Cave. They examined the trail closely and found that there was a set of tracks going from the cave back to the cabin they had previously left.

Harrow led the way down this back path towards Bottleneck Cave, attempting to stay silent in case danger awaited at the shrine (succeeded at DEX save, no longer needs to make DEX saves to be stealthy).

They heard two people talking quietly within the shrine. They noted as they crept in that the iron cage that had previously been here was missing, suggesting the one under the bed had been the one they had first encountered.

There was a strong smell of rotting fish, plus a terrible smell that made Harrow's hackles rise even in his human form.

They rushed in, weapons drawn, and found two people tied up and looking scared. They immediately started pleading and ask to be released, explaining that they were a father and daughter (the very ones they were looking for) who had come to the Stone Forest to find Gilly Worms, but had ended up being captured by a foul-smelling man who had been staying in this shrine. He had left to "get a ransom" for their release and had never returned.

They also found a small lockbox and a stinking pile of hay in the corner that appeared to have been used for sleeping.

Prying open the lockbox, Harrow confirmed his suspicions: there was evidence of stolen tithe, 42 GP, and an animal wolf on a string (either dog or wolf) that could only belong to the fugitive farmer Fasha.

They untied the missing people and left the Stone Forest. On their way out, they noted that the cabin's outside was completely undamaged, there were long scratches on the weeping trees that lined the path to Bottleneck Cave, no signs of trolls, and the central pond of the forest had been dredged during the Gilly Worm rush.

Reflection

This was really the first session where the activity we decided to take up was a direct result of something we had done in an earlier session. We definitely felt like we were leaving money on the table when we left a pile of Gilly Worms to rot instead of finding a way to get them back to town, and apparently the people of the Upper Valley agreed with us. I can't speak for everyone in the session when I say this, but for me personally I felt compelled to take this job because the family wouldn't have been in the situation without us.

Control Plants continues to be the most useful Spellbook to have in a Cairn wilderness. 10/10. Speaking of magic, this was a interesting session as far as mystical happenings go. One of my favorite things I have to do when I Warden Cairn 2e is figure out what some of the mysterious items do that characters get from their Backgrounds or Bonds, and Cornelius's Prism was a great example of that in this session. They really help players get invested in the game and become interested in the larger world.

There were two instances of Foreground Growth that happened in this session that I want to call out. People always ask about Foreground Growth and how it works, and it is hard to explain because there isn't just one type or way to handle it. In Aster's case, he ended up being blessed by Rivulus and gaining the ability to breath underwater. Now, this may seem random but Aster actually went above and beyond as a character when it comes to venerating and providing offerings to Rivulus, and this goes all the way back to our first session of West Marches. Zedeck had no idea that taking Aster down this route would result in any reward, but it flows pretty naturally from the fiction.

Harrow, on the other hand, was simply rewarded for succeeding at being stealthy despite his terrible Dexterity and repeatedly taking a cautious, stealthy approach when dealing with problems. It might seem hand-wavy, but there's a bit of an art to it once you start to wrap your head around the concept.

The return here of Fasha was welcome and not unexpected. The truth is, I immediately started trying to figure out a way to track the murderous farmer down the second that the 2nd session was over. I don't like loose ends, and my character doesn't want to live in a world where someone can murder a person who was only trying to help them and then get away with it. There's enough of that shit in the real world.

Don't worry, we'll be seeing Fasha again real soon. It's this sort of thing, by the way, that has always driven me back to the table time and time again. I don't need gold for XP or levels. I just need to see the impact my character is making on the world and the consequences of his actions (or inaction).

That's all for now. Tune in next time for an explanation of how Downtime can lead to more adventure in Cairn 2e.