Verget the 5th.
The PCs manage to butcher the first of the lake trolls, sending the other fleeing out (presumably) into the lake. They search through the remains in their lair to not much avail, and then decide to gather up Gary's remains and head back to Tarndim on the trail of the Hosspotch smugglers they saw fleeing earlier. The locals who saw them claim that the halflings continued eastward across the Skunk Ridge. Blake musters a pair of soldiers to accompany them in case they need some manpower. They decide to take out the E.E. Garbal, the barge they purchased, so they can keep a close scan on the shoreline for the fugitives while they head towards the meeting place where Finian's family might be held captive, and possible make a stop off at Great Axe Isle and the Hall of Mercies, to potentially raise Gary.
En route, as they near the point where the Pinewater joins the Well, they spy a rocky promontory, where a massive figure sits by a firelight talking to something else...presumably a pet. Indrid and Blake creep up to scout out the situation, when soon a booming, threatening voice greets them, and an eviscerated cattle is launched down upon them, missing as it rains its insides out over the hillside. The pair decide it wise to retreat back to the barge, and the group continues on towards Cedarway up the Pinewater.
Verget the 6th.
They moor the Garbal in Cedarway and ask around, but none have seen the halfling smugglers. They check the Bounders Meet campsite where they meet the centaur Nazlareth Moontemper of the Bounders, who trades them a few healing potions and encourages them on their way. They get back on their barge and proceed north until a point near the map they saw, and then moor the craft, stowing Gary's remains on board. After a brief journey, they arrive at a quarry which is heavily guarded by a mixture of cloaked, secretive halflings and savages of the Low Crow tribe from Wintersbreath. They plan out a grand strategy but it is quickly abandoned when they are spied by a mutant dire crow that serves the tribe.
A ferocious battle ensues, as they face down not only a cabal of murderous criminals but a Low Crow shamaness and several chakram-hurling Vandrakki. Soon the battle is joined by another trio of nefarious figures...Harley Hosspotch, Masaka/Gary's cousin Balo Reddenbalm (who turns out, is not so dead or kidnapped), and a gaudy looking halfling wearing purple with all manner of tricky magical abilities. Miraculously, the PCs persevere and whittle down the array of enemies, slaying their treacherous cousins and routing the Low Crows. The purple-garbed bard manages to vanish when the tide turns, and a few smugglers potentially scurried off into the hills, but the threat to Finian's folk has been quelled...for now.
PCs: Blake Bauerkroft, Finian Redfoot, Indrid Hosspotch
NPCs
Balo Reddenbalm (wood elf male): A wiry, handsome
wood elf with a head of short, stylish hair that looks as if he’s constantly
groomed it. Tattoos cover a part of his neck and look as if they extend down
his arm, and he wears a fine green cloak with a golden trim. Daggers and vials
are stuck through a bunch of loops in his belt, and he absent-mindedly fidgets with
a thin, coppery sword.
Nazlareth Moontemper (centaur female): Standing 7’ tall, this creature has the body, legs and tail of a horse with a coarse, brown-black coat. From the waist up she is an exquisite woman, full-breasted with a muscular torso and arms. All her skin is dyed with some pale white pigmentation, with black tribal designs including star and moon shapes that surround her violet eyes. A thick mane of black-gray hair is braided elaborately down her back, and she wears a mail brazier, plated shoulder pads, and a violet and gray shawl over where a saddle might normally be slung. A knotted oak spear the size of a man is clutched in her right hand, its head of sharpened bone or ivory, and a longbow and quiver of arrows are carried over her shoulders.
Private Fest (human male): A thickly moustached infantryman of the Last Eidolorn Guard, he serves under Blake at Tarndim, and is one of the two mustered to accompany the PCs towards the slave tradeoff.
Private Tab (human male): A young crossbowman of the Last Eidolorn Guard, he serves under Blake at Tarndim, and is the other of the two mustered to accompany the PCs towards the slave tradeoff.
??? (halfling male): A flamboyant, well-dressed halfling in purple frills, with a fancy tophat and a slender parasol crowned with a gilded weasel’s skull. He dons a colorful thespian’s mask over his face, flanked by deep auburn mutton chops. Around his neck hangs what looks like a silvery hybrid of flute and whistle, and the backs of his black leather gloves have thin blades wedged into them. A strapped-shut book hangs on a waist-chain.
