Characters:
- Elaria, wood elf ranger
- Marek, human fighter
- Erasmus, tiefling barbarian
Objective: Discover the cause of the unnatural storm afflicting Piskaro.
Events:
- Torrential rains continued to deluge Piskaro to disastrous effect. The near-constant rainfall led to flooded streets, an outbreak of fever, and fears the harvest would be ruined. It was already becoming difficult for fisherman to brave the tempestuous seas for their catch, so the threat of famine loomed large over the town. Piskaro was choked by a strange bluish fog that clutched at it like a funeral shroud.
- As a ranger learning to channel the mystical power of the earth, Elaria knew that the rain and fog were unnatural in origin. Tobias's research revealed that there were ancient folktales that associated the strange blue mists with the intrusion of the fey and with the destruction of settlements. Marek busied himself helping on the farmsteads just outside town; he was told of a runaway child that could possibly have been snatched from its home.
- Things were seen moving in the blue fog. The party investigated the home of a dog-trainer who claimed that furry, frog-faced men came out of the mists and made away with a few of his animals. The tracks leading away from the kennels ended abruptly, as if the thieves and the dogs simply vanished into thin air; the party discovered an oily blue residue at the scene of the crime.
- Erasmus, Tobias, Elaria, and Marek went to Andullah for further information. At Andullah's house they were introduced to Wilem, a whaler recently returned from the high seas. On his return trip to Piskaro, Wilem had spotted a island off the coast that had never been there before. He reported that the uncanny blue fog that was currently plaguing Piskaro seemed to be streaming from a hill at the center of the isle; the fog drifted over the sea and snaked its way to Piskaro, where it seemed to draw down the unending rainfall.
- Wilem was able to procure a longboat for the party to row out to the mysterious island. Landing in what seemed like a safe spot, the party made their way through the thick grasslands of the island's outer rim and began to climb the hills surrounding the mount from which the malignant blue fog issued. Their ascent was interrupted by an Elvish traveling song coming from the forest of twisted, blue-leafed trees to the south of the hills.
- Everyone but Wilem hid in the deep grasses; Wilem observed a number of frog-like bipedal creatures clad in comical fur suits--each carrying a spear. The creatures greeted Wilem peculiarly; Wilem returned their gestures and a parlay began. From the creatures, Wilem learned that the island was under the control of Bonnie Maedra, who made her lair in a cave within the mount that vomited forth the blue mist; that the entrance of the cave was guarded by one of Bonnie Maedra's minions; that the woods to the south were home to dryads who are vicious, pretty, and hoarding a great treasure; that there was a pool of healing waters to the west of the hills tended by a nereid.
- After talking to the frog-like creatures, the party decided to press on to Bonnie Maedra's cave which, as they were warned, proved to be guarded by a giant, obese knight clad in emerald armor and wielding a gigantic emerald greatsword. The knight spoke with a thunderous voice, but was clearly not open to negotiation regarding entrance to the cave. The party would have to fight their way into Maedra's lair. The knight proved adept and powerful with his sword, but Marek, Erasmus, and Wilem took him on directly, while Tobias and Elaria pelted him with blasts of magic and arrows from a distance. Erasmus climbed the giant, tore off his helm, and discovered that there was no creature within the brilliant green armor. Ultimately, the armor was split asunder by the party's assault, leaving the mouth of the cave free of defenders.
- The interior of the cave was strange and precarious. The party discovered a chamber full of ritualistic components such as athames, incense burners, mortars and pestles, and a number of bottled specimens and herbs. More troubling was a circular chamber choked with with blue fog; holding on to each other so as not to get lost in the fog, the characters uncovered the source of the supernatural blue mist: eight children chained to chairs, their blank faces tilted upwards, blue fog streaming from their mouths, where it exited through vents in the ceiling of the chamber. The chains restraining the children were easy enough to break, but the children seemed to be in a sort of trance and their mouths could not be shut without the application of undue force.
- Further exploration of the fog-choked chamber revealed a "mirror" whose frame appeared to be made of hardened vines with a reflective surface of cool liquid. Erasmus poked his head through the mirror surface and found himself looking into a chamber in which the walls and ceiling were hidden behind an artistic arrangement of human bones, the floor comprised of human teeth.
- A table in the ritual chamber also proved to have a similar mirrored surface on its underside; this portal lead to a room that housed a a collection of feminine treasures: a table strewn with pressed flowers also held a silver pitcher, a gold bracelet, a man's silk handkerchief, a silver-embroidered carnival mask, and a gold-locket (inside which is a miniature portrait of a woman who resembled Bonnie Maedra, but with darker hair); a rack of fancy ballgowns stood nearby, as did yet another fey mirror.
- This third mirror led to another cavernous area that was massive in scope. Pushed back into the recess of the cavern was a the headless corpse of a giant. The giant's body was bruised, lacerated, and smelled of rotted meat. Its belly was split open, and a thin wisp of smoke that smelled of raosted dog stole out from the wound. The party called for Bonnie Maedra, and a slender, feminine hand pushed aside the two sides of the giant's belly as if they were curtains. Bonnie Maedra, a thirty-ish woman with close-cropped blonde hair wearing a plain red dress, emerged from the belly of the beheaded giant.
- Conversation with Bonnie Maedra gained the party an insight into why she had brought the horrible, drowning rain to Piskaro: she claimed that a greater evil--the Watcher in Darkness, the Elder Scholar--had awoken in Piskaro, and that it was worthwhile to destroy Piskaro entirely than to let that evil grow in strength. The party began to probe this motivation. Maedra casually remarked that she would probably eat the stolen children she had used in her ritual to bring on the rain-inducing blue fog. The party tentatively began to offer alternatives, perhaps opening the way to allying with her against a greater evil to spare Piskaro, but Marek's moral compass would not suffer an eater of children to live!
- In the ensuing fight, Bonnie Maedra transformed into a horrifying blue-skinned monster with curling black horns, fangs, and wicked claws. This alteration of form unnerved members of the party; she seemed to exude a troubling aura that put ice into their hearts. Even so, Marek's halberd soon served the witch's head from her body.
- With Maedra now physically banished from the world, the party returned to the chamber where the children had been chained to chairs. The fog was now clear from the chamber, no longer streaming upward to the vents at the top of the hill. The children were all still unconscious, but at the feet of each was a withered apple, clearly coughed up from the throat of each child when Bonnie Maedra was slain.
- Wilem noticed that the island now seems to be drifting northward under its own power. The party bundled the children into their longboat and set off back to Piskaro. The rains had abated, freeing the town from the threat of flood and famine. The fever that the storms had exacerbated, however, is still an issue unresolved.
Spoils:
- XP - 330 each
- Coin - 69 gp each from coins found, selling the ritual components to Andullah, and the items in Maedra's dressing room.
- Magic items - Potion of Superior Healing, Scroll of Fabricate
- Other - The green knight's massive greatsword. It's possible you could sell that, but you'll need to find a special sort of buyer. It's also possible to have it reforged into a sword sized for use.
