Session Logs

Session 1
Tuesday, August 8th, 2023 Valyana and Lutra Sol are introduced to the Kingdom of Stirling.

Valyana navigated her warrior trial with ease, though not gracefully. At the end of her warrior trial, she hastily grabbed a mysterious rune tablet which teleported her to the largest rock in the middle of Swamp Lighthouse Cove. At that moment, Lutra arrived at the cove during a perilous thunderstorm, for he had set sail for Stirling on the S.S. Island Time despite having no proficiency in watercraft. After being battered by wind, rain, and struggling to navigate through the treacherous cove, Lutra safely navigated to the sandbar there-within while Valyana increased her size and strength, managing to climb up the sheer, wet cliff face. She tried to aid in Lutra's rescue but was too far away despite her athletic prowess.

With the aid of Valyana, the S.S. Island Time was secured on the sandy beach using rope and driftwood. Introductions between Valyana and Lutra are formally made. During this exchange, Lutra grabs the mysterious rune tablet in both paws and is teleported to the same rock -- however future exchanges of the tablet appear to have effect on either party member.

The two adventurers proceeded to the lighthouse keepers house to seek shelter from the stormy weather with the lone orc lighthouse keeper. The party is fed a delicious dinner of eggs, tea, and provided sleeping accommodations in the cellar.

Session 2
Tuesday, August 15th, 2023 Salvir Diabrix and Silas of Elventree are introduced to the party.

Salvir starts the session outside the walls of Castle Stirling where he politely asks for entry to see the Princess and claims to have an invitation. He is allowed entrance to perform for a private dinner with King, Queen, and Princess where he performs satisfactorily enough to be invited to stay overnight in the guest quarters adjacent to the Princess' quarters. Salvir climbs down into the garden courtyard, retrieves some flowers, and attempts to climb up to the second floor balcony to meet the princess. On the first failure, Salvir bluffs the guard, on the second failure Salvir returns to his room to find the guard waiting to take him into custody. Salvir is placed into a dungeon overnight to await punishment where he is deemed sinful and sentenced to three days penance tied to a rock in Swamp Lighthouse Cove Ruins.

Silas finds himself high above the clouds on a craggy outcropping with a roc's nest. With rope and some athletics, Silas climbs to the top of the crag and out into the roc's nest where he would find a golden ring with a feather on it. Soon thereafter, a great mother roc returns to her nest to find Silas intruding on her eggs, scooping him up into her beak. Silas jabs her in the eye causing her to drop him some distance where he is promptly caught and carried off far, far away, eventually being dropped in the waters of Swamp Lighthouse Cove.

Hearing screeching and screaming from the basement of the lighthouse keeper's home, Valyana and Lutra rush out to see the spectacle of Silas being dropped into the cove. In a scurry Lutra leaps off the cliff and swims to the elf. Valyana enlarges herself for extra strength and throws down a rope which is used to bring both Lutra and Silas up to the top of the cliff. From the top of the cliff they see a red figure in the ruins in the island in the middle of the cove. To get across Valyana summons her wings and flies with Silas on her back and Lutra under the arm.

Once on the island, the party finds Salvir tied to one of the stones. The rope is easy to cut through and soon Salvir would join the party. Upon investigation of the ruins, the party determines that the stones direct the light of the sun to a large flat stone carved at the opposite end of the island. Upon investigation there is a 3" diameter hole which reveals a room below. By dead lifting the stone, the party is able to move the stone over, revealing a spiral staircase into the room below.

The party proceeds into the room which contains many old crates and sacks. From investigation of these, the party finds the marking of a feather which is known to belong to the Gryphon Riders of Stirling. The next room the party enters is a dining hall with the undead residents of this dwelling. The party speaks with Grith IronFeather, a dwarf skeleton who informs the party that the location is known as Swamp Cove Eerie and that they sealed themselves away over 500 years ago.

Session 3
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023 The party learns the story of Swamp Cove Eerie.

The party begins by partaking in a side-quest to obtain food for the eerie. As such, they descend the 50' cliff with a rope down to the sandy beach below where they find many fish in the sea and crabs in the sand as well as dolphins. Valyana decides to spear fish while Lutra dives into the water and collects a fish in person. Silas collects crabs while Salvir watches from atop the bluff. An orca eats one of the dolphins and a second is speared by Valyana. The third dolphin is bitten in twain right behind Lutra, whom makes a quick escape out of the water and up the cliff to safety. Meanwhile Silas faces off with a crab which escapes into the sand, summoning a large giant grab. Salvir taunts the crab without success and Silas is likewise as successful in his crab-collecting ventures as a failed attempted to thrust the two pocketed crabs at the large crab end up in miserable failure. The crabs bite his fingers and inevitably run off under the protection of the giant crab.

After the fish-collecting, one dolphin and one fish are brought to Johnny "Hot Skillet" who takes chunks of them into his pan and promptly sets it ablaze in his flaming frying pan. During this time the party converses with Johnny "Hot Skillet" and Grith IronFeather, learning about the other two floors of Swamp Cove Eerie -- The top floor is the dining room and kitchen, the middle floor has roosts for the gryphons and their riders, the bottom floor contains the nesting grounds where the juvenile gryphons are raised.

Exploring the middle level, the party meets Mor'kek the Mighty, a dwarf orc gryphon rider and his undead gryphon Charin whom informs the party that the source of the curse on Swamp Eerie Cove might have something to do with the gryphon in the hatchling level Pine and her three chicks whom weren't yet born when all members of the Eerie perished to the plague. Charin also notes how the party smells of crabs. Valyana who sees Charin's skull as a prospective trophy of her travels climbs up into Charin with interest to knock it off, but is addressed with great restraint by Charin. The party is immediately rushed out of the room by Mor'kek and pointed to the bottom level.

At the bottom level of the eerie, the party finds a sleeping undead gryphoness i.e. Pine in the center of the hatchery level -- her three chicks are sneaking around the cavern curious of the new visitor. Thrush and Gilly are curious and approach Silas and Valyana in turn while Pidgeon is cautious. Thrush finds his way into Valyana's gear and lays bony claws on her rune tablet which teleports his out to the lone rock in Swamp Lighthouse Cove. Pine's motherly instinct instantly kicks in and she knows that her chick Thrush is missing. Unleashing a wail of distraught the other gryphons are summoned to the hatchery while Pine accosts the party about her chick Thrush. Fortunately after some convincing arguments, Lutra claims to know where her chick went and rushes out of the eerie to retrieve him while the rest of the party deescalates the situation, inevitably settling on an agreement to lead Pine out of the eerie to her chick Thrush.

The party travels to one of the gryphon caverns on the middle level since the gryphons cannot fit through the passages of the upper floor and make a hasty plan to remove the stone and mortar barrier which blocks up all exterior passages to the eerie. Valyana finds an old rusty war hammer with which she strikes a mighty blow that breaks through the wall in a single powerful hammering. Pine wastes no time in rushing through, Valyana grabbing a-hold at the last moment. Florenso and Charin follow suit, picking up Silas and Salvir on their flight out of the eerie and into Swamp Lighthouse Cove for the first time in 500 years.

Session 4
Tuesday, August 29th, 2023 An adventurer is lost, an adventurer is found, and Lutra is not to be seen. Ephrom Thrarian joins the party. Salvir leaves the party.

The session begins when Florenso who was carrying Salvir is caught by a gust of wind and crashes into the bay, taking Salvir with him to his watery demise. Pine and Charin carrying Valyana and Silas find themselves full circle at the rock in the bay where the adventure had begun. Thrush, the missing bone-gryphon chick is right where the teleportation tablet takes all it's first-time users, scarred out of his wits and cowering as the waves crash upon the rock. The family is reunited.

Meanwhile Ephrom is going about his daily routine at Church of Tyr at the Town of Stirling weeding the garden, cleaning the grave stones, and tidying up for Father Mataxis, the resident priest, when a young elf lass rushes up to Father Mataxis with her mother in tow proclaiming that she's seen an unholy undead seagull flying about near the lighthouse in the swamp. Only by humoring her with a Blessed Dandelion relic does he assuage her childish fears. However, when she leaves Father Mataxis asks Emphrom to check on the sighting in case there is some truth to the young elf's tale. Excitedly Emphrom jumps at the opportunity.

Upon arriving at the Swamp Lighthouse, Emphrom finds a scene of a fainted orc lighthouse keeper, Valyana, Silas, and the undead gryphon Charin along with Pine and her chicks Thrush, Gilly, and Pidgeon. There he hears the sorrowful tale of Swamp Lighthouse Eerie. After some discussion Charin retrieves Salvir's corpse and makes Silas the representative of Swamp Cove Eerie. The party drags the lighthouse keeper inside his house, places him on his bed and then the party heads on their way to the Town of Stirling. As the party leaves, Silas nudges Salvir's body over the edge.

In a field along the way to town, the party notices a disturbance in the flora -- the bushes and a tree seem to move around. Valyana investigates the nearest moving bush by thrusting a spear at it, and out comes a hurt goblin who falls into a bow and begs for his life -- however, nobody in the party can understand goblin, so the exact words are untranslated. Combat ensues, the party destroys three bushes, and the tree, which is presumed to be a hobgoblin surrenders. He bargains his life by showing the party to their camp in the woods.

The party investigates this camp finding a Spell Scroll: Protection Against Good and Evil, 10gp of some gems, and some goblin goo. There they meet Fern, a young gryphon who had been captured by the goblins when he wandered away from the Stirling Eerie in search of adventure. Ephrom, a veteran convinces Fern that for his safety, growth, and development as a gryphon in the gryphon rider services should return and study, train, and listen to his commander whom will instruct him properly and with good intentions for Fern and his country. Finally, the party takes a short rest before arriving in town in the late afternoon.