Session 1

In the Happy Player, the barlady sees that Kira's glass has run dry. Kira demands a triple, The barlady, Mrs Frien fills a large mug, and slides it down the bar to her.
Looking down the bar, Kira sees a dapper halfling, who asks the barlady, Mrs Fram, for a whiskey.
Kira lights her finger with Produce Flame, and dips it into the whiskey. Following his protestations, he introduces himself as Whiskeythimble

Watching the proceedings is Dolly Dagger. He's holding onto his sack of homegrown hallucinogenic peppers. He offers Mrs Frien a sample - she declines but Kira and Whiskeythimble are eager to sample the wares. They're spicy but not too hot - however, Whiskeythimble feels the trip coming on, and watches as the bar morphs and strange items flit in and out of existence around him.

Dolly tries to slip some liquid distillation of his peppers into Mrs Frien's drink, but her hand clamps down as she catches him.

At this point Hardy Da walks into the bar. He greets Mrs Frien, and accepts a pepper from Dolly. His eyes go wide on taking it, and sees a rainbow bird outside. He rushes out to greet and sing for it, and Whiskeythimble, seeing the same bird, follows him.

Walking into the bar, a Yourunawitha Despair surveys the scene and asks for two flagons of ale. Telling Mrs Frien of her need to see the Plains of Despair, Mrs Frien lends her guidance on the best route.

Dolly sneaks into the kitchen to survey the scene, and sees a clean and well appointed kitchen, well stocked for the end of winter. He sees the chef, a mean looking woman working the spit. Dolly asks her about the kitchen, and the chef kicks him out - the kitchen is not for patrons.

A well dressed man in full armour enters the tavern, bearing a shield with a symbol of a crane in flight.

Mrs Frien greets him as the leader of the procession. She asks if any of his men will be staying in the tavern, and the man says that he is on his way to Albany with protected cargo. He asks if there are any willing hands to swell their numbers.

Dolly offers a pepper to the general, and Whiskeythimble attempts to pickpocket the general. Mrs Frien whispers in the general's ear - 'take the goblin, maybe you can teach him to sing'. Whiskeythimble manages to lift two envelopes from the general.

Mrs Frien asks about food for the camp - the general needs food for 40 people, and food for two royals - one of them a princess.

Whiskeythimble offers his services - the general accepts at 5 silvers a day for the next 5 days. Upon pressing, Whiskeythimble is able to persuade him up to 10 silvers a day.

The General tells the group to meet at the camp at sundown, and asks if anyone would like to attend the druid with him. Dolly offers him a pepper, which he pockets to eat when his mission is done.

Perusing the purloined envelopes, Whiskeythimble founds a letter of rights for 500Gp, and a letter saying that the Duchess will be making her way back to Albany, having been freed from her Lenthori prison. He flushes the second letter down a latrine.

The general, having finished writing his letters, walks over to the school where the local wizard teaches. The children stand and nudge each other at seeing a leader of the True Way. Upon being asked, they say that they have been learning Elven.

They are wide eyed at the sight of a tiefling.

Hardy offers to entertain the kids with a song, and wide eyed, they cry out not to. Whiskeythimble does card tricks instead to their amazement.

The mage returns, and the general asks for more numbers from the Wolf King to assist the True Way, but the mage maintains that it is important to stay neutral.

The party heads into the Northern forest - the same one Mrs Frien had advised them to avoid, and come across a hut in the wood, with an elderly woman out front. 'Hello there Kira', she greets them. Her face darkens on seeing Hardy, and she cautions him not to sing.

She offers the party with help, but has no whiskey for Whiskeythimble. Dolly offers her a pepper, but she declines. The general asks if she has heard anything from her superiors, and she says she has not. She reiterates that her and her colleagues have been deterring young men from being conscripted.

In the general's camp, the party settles in. Dolly volunteers for guard duty for the people being escourted. The party are pointed towards the clip board man, a sea elf. He signs them on, and points them towards the mess, and gestures Kira and Dolly towards the princess and her maid, Marjorie.

The princess is indignant that she was captured, and at having to deal with the old king on Lenthor. She introduces herself as Princess Lydia, and confides that she's not sure her escort care about her that much. She mentions that the clerics are guarding another tent even more securely than her own.

Hardy sets out to start playing to distract the guards. It's a terrible performance, but distracts the guards well enough for Whiskeythimble and Dolly to sneak into the tent of Mei. They see an obsidian chest on the ground, in a circle drawn with salt.

There's a separate chest to the side, that Whiskeythimble is able to pick and open, revealing some fine silks. Whiskeythimble takes the silks, and tells the others that there's a magic chest. Youra tries to sneak in too, but is caught immediately. She's still able to infer that the circle is protecting something from breaking out, and that it is slightly out of phase with reality.

Dolly decides to throw a javelin at the chest. Hearing this Whiskeythimble hides. Dolly misses the box entirely, and only just avoids breaking the salt circle. The priests - True Way initiates - are extremely unhappy with this. Youra offers to help repair the circle, and identifies the runes as Draconic. The box itself is not magical, but it is still covered in shadow, and the shadows also seem to be holding something in.

The guards, still upset with Dolly, drag him off to the captain. The captain asks why he would do such a thing, and decides to drop him off at the nearest town in the morning - with no pay.

Back with Marjorie and Lydia, Kira finds herself tiring of the chatter. Lydia invents an excuse to step away with Kira to escape Marjorie's talk. They go to find out what was discovered in the tent.

Whiskeythimble has snuck into the other tent, but finds nothing of value. Lydia and Kira join the party at the fire, and exchange what they've learnt. Dolly asks if Lydia can persuade the Captain, the princess is unsure of any chance of success.

Lydia mentions that the side chest had been opened, but Whiskeythimble says he'd noticed the same. Hardy sees through it, but stays silent. p

The camp settles down as the night progresses. Hardy is woken by a loud buzzing, very close by. Youra wakes up too - and senses that insects are coming, en masse and in the dead of night. Hardy and Youra wake the others, and Whiskeythorpe realises that these are huge cockroaches, surrounding an even larger wasp.

The party sees that the camp has been ravaged, and most of the survivors are dying, though Lydia is fine. Youra finds the captain, he is bleeding out. Whiskeythimble finds the healing potions the Captain bought, and stabilises him. While doing so he checks the captain's pockets, finding the pepper and 5sp. He also finds a letter of rights for 10sp.

Yours checks the tent of Mei, and finds the salt shield has been broken - and a very large bug telekinetically moving the box. It looks at her, hisses 'Filthy human' and scuttles off with the box. She casts Sorceror's Burst at it, but misses. She sounds the alarm for the others.

Youra rushes up to the box, and barely manages to recreate the sigils and protect the box. Whiskeythimble finds the last surviving cleric. The cleric casts Hallowed Ground, safeguarding the area. He asks after the captain, and says that it is imperative that the box be guarded, and the fate of the world depends on it.

The party spreads out to find supplies. Dolly finds 2 health potions, and short sword, some holy water, and a dagger. Hardy finds 3 health potions, a nice rapier, and a pendant with shining liquid inside. Kira finds a short bow. Whiskeythimble finds a short sword with metal like nectorising flesh. 1d6 necrotic dmg. He also finds a wolfs head medallion, and 12 platinum coins. Youra finds a shard from the Shadowfell and 4 healing potions.

The priest draws them together, and the party sets off for Thane.