After they had slain the manticore and exonerated Jorrus, Arwin, Enree, and Mala (see PC profiles here) were recruited by the Castellan of Belton as his retainers. The trio spent a few weeks in the Castellan's service in Belton, until the beginning of summer, when they were sent by the Castellan to serve the Castellan of Obanhold in the north.
Now Obanhold was a fort at the edge of the Northern Plains that was beginning to become a settlement. It was also the gateway to the lucrative fur trade. But in the recent weeks attack from the Plains Orcs had resulted in the Castellan withdrawing his troops from two of the outposts that guarded the trade routes, and several fur trappers had failed to return to Obanhold as expected, and the Castellan of Obanhold had sent for aid from his friend in Belton.
Our trio of heroes traveled to Obanhold with a letter of introduction from the Castellan, and arrived at the wooden-walled fort. There they were led to the Castellan, who received them into his service.
Our heroes interviewed some of the soldiers who were attacked by the orcs in their outposts, but ultimately decided to investigate the rumours of orc sightings at the fishing village of Yngley; it had been reported that two fishermen had failed to return from the lake, and that their disappearance might had something to do with the sighting of orcs on the north bank.
Our heroes traveled to the isolated village of Yngley, and when Remunas the headman learned that they were sent by the Castellan, they were welcomed into his home. Our heroes declared their wish to take a boat to investigate the lake, and Remunas sent his young daughter Elze to row them in a boat.
The party first investigated the island at the centre of the lake, but there they found no trace of the missing fishermen, but were attacked by a bear defending her cubs, which they fled from. Reasoning that the bear must have been driven out of her habitat in the forests on the north shore of the lake, Arwin proposed that they investigated there.
When the party came close to the shore, Enree sensed that they were being watched. The party called out to the watchers, but received no reply. They rowed along the shore, shadowed by the watchers, until at last they found a pebbled beach where they might land. Leaving Elze with the boat, our heroes proceeded onto the land, and they were then attacked by arrows. Elze was felled, followed quickly by Arwin and Mala. Four orc warriors dressed in the fashion of Plains Orcs burst out from the undergrowth. Enree raised his hands to surrender, and was disarmed by the orc warriors, who seemed ready to kill them all, until one of them rolled Mala's prone body over and recognised him - the warrior was Achoka, one of the orc mercenaries whom our heroes had met at Fort Davelmag.
Achoka decided to spare our heroes, but warned them to leave Yngley and indeed Obanhold, or they would die as the two fishermen had, and would not say more. When the party rowed the boat back to Yngley, they were met with much dismay and anger.
The next morning they were sent off from the village with little fanfare, and traveled back to Obanhold.
The Castellan looked troubled at their report, and bade them to seek the aid of the fort healer while he pondered his response.
Prepping and Running the Game
I was unprepared for most of the session as I had expected the players to choose to investigate the abandoned forts instead of the story of missing fishermen. I did prep enough to give descriptions of the places they visited and the people they met, and come up with a couple of encounters.
The encounter with the orcs went badly, and I had to figure out a way to bail the PCs out - fortunately I had linked the four orc mercenaries from the previous arc of the campaign to this arc, which allowed me to do so.
I thought the session might have been a little frustrating for the players, but at least one of them enjoyed the interaction with NPCs over the exploration of cave after cave in the previous arc.
The unexpected path the PCs took does advance the plot of the arc a little faster than I had hoped for, but I have a couple of weeks before the next session to plan my next moves as both the Castellan and his adversary.
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