Alison Campaign Log #4

Gathering Moon 25 (evening)

David looks at us, and says he believes he owes us an explanation for his outburst from earlier. His mother is M’ner and his father is Cos’n. His father had some type of contact with Durn; his birth name is Davic neMadine van Gredgor.

When he was five, his father was killed as his mother was considered to be a trophy, she sent him away at age 10 as his life was in danger from the man who killed his father. He found a woodsman just over the Wall to take him in and help him learn the ways of “these people”. He had just approached Landing as he was coming to an age where the Woodsman would have been in danger. He asks that we continue to refer to him as David while within the Reaches.

The night passes uneventfully.

Shearing Moon 1

We head in a generally eastward direction.

Shearing Moon 2

About mid-watch, Bri and Ali get attacked by a fly by of bats…Bri gets bit (1 pt) as does Ali (3pts). Bri starts shrieking at the blood which sets off Ali, who had been holding it in. Most of the party awakens (Cynthia sleeps through). Brenna tends to the injuries. Max has another attack of PTSD and is incapacitated for an hour and a half.

Second watch passes uneventfully…Third watch, however, the bats fly back and Cynthia takes 1 pt.

Morning arrives. David and Max are -1 due to disrupted sleep. As a result, we are moving a bit slower than normal. About 4 PM we come to another of Durn’s starting points, and we make camp.

First watch passes as does second; third watch however…

Cynthia eventually notices a bog snake as crawled up and is about halfway up her body; she grabs it behind the head and proceeds to milk it for venom.

Shearing Moon 3

The Day of Mam. We head to the cache. Cynthia manages to gets us slightly lost and slips into a bog of quicksand. David tries to help her out and loses his balance – Max lends a hand and retrieves them. A few hours later (around noon) we make it to the cache.

• 4” burnished brass mirror
• Eye patch
• Hook on a sleeve
• A baggy set of pants with a peg-leg
• A longish coat, about knee length
• Headscarf
• Hats
• 5 packets of fibers – 1 each of yellow, red, brown, black and white.
• 2 ounce vial sealed with wax on the end
• Small bundle of sticks, about 10” in length
• 5 small (2 oz) tins with a colored pasty substance.
• Another set of symbols as seals
• 2 lb jerked fish in waterproof pouch
• 1 lb salt in waterproof pouch
• Wooden box with blank parchment, pens and ink, all waterproofed
• 2 packets (6×4”) 1 marked Jamikin Quicktide and Lavilia Stillwater (both Free Coaster names that are on the list). Each packet is sealed and marked with the Snake Symbol.
• Small bag of about 50 coins

We grab the cache, and return to camp (taking only about an hour), and decide to try for another cache today.

We find another camping area abound 6. Max helps Brenna with dinner, but she is still wary of him to a degree.

Standard watches, the night passes.

Shearing Moon 4

Ali gets bitten by a LARGE MOSQUITO in the afternoon, and moves very slowly for the rest of the afternoon…we camp about 5:30.

During second watch Max notices a snake in the moving towards the fire and kills it, flipping the body back into the underbrush.

Shearing Moon 5

Around 5 pm we make it to the next starting point and make camp.

Shearing Moon 6

We have a bit of stumbling about, searching for the cache. A bog cat jumps out and attacks David, and he tosses it a ways off, knocking it unconscious in the process.

• This cache includes a complete outfit of upper class Chaldrean clothing, modern styles (male).
• 2 lb jerk fish
• 1 lb salt
• 2 more packets marked Delvin Darkmoon and Marc Guidestar, sealed with the “S” symbol again.
• 50 coins

We return to camp about 10:30 AM and head towards the final cache.

About 2 PM Marya has a snake drop on her head. Bri body slams her as it is about to strike, knocking her clear. Max swings at it, Cynthia manages to drive the snake away. Max has another fit of PTSD. We wait about an hour for him to recover and head off again.

During first watch, the cats perk up and Bri hears someone approaching (Ali does not hear it). A few minutes later someone yells as they stumble over a branch, and Ali starts waking people up. There is a short person(?) coming into camp (after asking Bri’s permission); he is about 4’ tall, human appearance. He says he was heading towards the Free Coast, but thinks he got lost, he appears to be 13-15 years in age. He says he is from “the farm” and his parents hate him, he’s going to the Coast as they will never look for him there. His name is Fred.

As his clothing is wet, Bri gives him a dry blanket, and Ali finds a spare set of trousers for him. Cynthia storms off into the bog, but is unnoticed. She is discovered missing during third watch as Marya did not raise an alarm.

Shearing Moon 7

Cynthia returns early morning stating she has recovered the cache, and knows where we need to go next. She holds up a drawing of a man hanging from a tree, and Ali immediately recognizes it as Durn’s Stand, the place where the Free Coasters fought their most significant battle against the Chaldreans.

Despite stern looks from Marya and Bri, she says this is all that was at the cache.

We finally figure out that Fred is actually a Free Coaster (based on his last name, Runningbrook) and we head off towards Durn’s Stand. Around 5-5:30 we come up to a farmhouse with poorly plowed fields…

Cynthia negotiates payment for the return of Fred to his family (feed for the horses) and we make camp at the Y leading to Durn’s Stand.

Shearing Moon 8

Break camp, about 9 AM we get to Durn’s Stand; a huge tree. There is a big stone that looks like Y symbol, which Cynthia indicates is possibly what we need to look at. The stone gets moved and underneath is another waterproof packet with a single piece of paper in it, that looks like a K with a skull and crossbones, which reminds Cynthia of a place she called The Pirate Cave, and says that’s where we need to go next, about a days journey north

We make camp at the cave, which is filled with lots of “stuff” including a desk that has the same symbol. It gets examined for traps and none are detected. Cynthia opens the desk.

Inside a packet labeled “in the event of my death please see that these documents are delivered to the appropriate persons”; inside are 3 sealed envelopes; one is labeled to Terese Blackwater, one to Parsifal Blackwater (Terese is Cynthia’s mother, Parsifal is her brother), and the third is to Porter Evenstar of Jetty. There is also a thicker sealed packet about ¾” addressed to Delvin Darkmoon. None of these have the sigil seals.

The packet to Darkmoon appears to be some form of Will outlining the disposition of his belongings. Parsifal is named the heir.

The packet for Jetty is written in the same language as the documents found at one of the earlier caches which seemed to be inappropriate to be read aloud (Brenna blushed and refused to read them.) Brenna looks at these and says they seem to be poems, but that they don’t make any sense. (They are a form of limerick in the Free coast dialect translated into Gl’arn, which when literally translated into Chaldrean make no real sense.)

The letter to Parsifal contains instruction to locate Cynthia as she would know where Durn’s papers, and signed Cecil Reddawn. (There was Important Information in the letter which I’ve not noted.)

The other is a letter to Cynthia’s mother.

About this time a man comes up and asks what we are doing there…it turns out he is Porter Evenstar and was asked to keep watch on the cave by Durn.

Brief introductions are made, he is “impressed” that Brenna is with us as he can’t remember when the last time one of Mammon’s Own was out and about without Temple Guards, and tells us that Durn wants to see us.

3 points.