Session X Prologue

Karn D&D Campaign
Session X

Date/Time: August 6, 2006 / 3 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Game Date/Time: 5829 AD, Day 235 (Time of the Harvest)
morning (8 a.m.)
Game Locale: Cat-N-Bucket Inn, Village of Harper’s Gamble

Restoring the Balance

After seeing the monks off on an extended religious pilgrimage, the party focuses on the business at hand: getting out of the elven wilderness and back to the land of men. Thanks to the tracking skills of the barbarian, the group finds their way back to the road leading to Harper’s Gamble.

Upon reassembling their carriage and heading north, the adventurers are accosted by a swarm of 6-foot-long giant red ants. Being caught unawares, the group’s taxi is quickly overtaken just as our, umm….”brave heroes” flee out the back of the wagon! Carrying the unconscious taxi driver, the group flees to the safety of a nearby river. They regain their wits about them just in time to see their horse dragged away and their carriage pillaged by the overzealous (and over-sized) insects.

As the army of ants recede into the dense undergrowth, a cry for help is heard from the wood. Before anyone is agile enough to stop her, the brave(?) wizard runs into the forest to identify the sound of the distress. With the cleric in tow, the elf mage arrives just in time to see a dozen or so ants attacking a mysterious woman. Lyra and Keltin both rush to her aid, and the melee classes begrudgingly follow their comrades into the fray.

The ants’ encroachment is checked, and the nearly-dead woman begins to meld into a large oak tree! Before disappearing, she implores the group to “save her forest” by “restoring the balance.” “Follow the source,” she hisses as she vanishes into the tree.

The party, feeling a bit weak and under-powered, withdraws from the wilderness to seek shelter and regain its resources.

Over a bottle of wine at the Cat-N-Bucket, the travelers seek the answer to so many questions…where did Chitin the bard go? What does that map from the Brinewolf mean? What significance do the scriptures from the sewer complex have? Should they go back and pursue the meaning behind the tree-woman’s cryptic message?

For the meantime they are safe behind the stockade walls of the bordertown village, Harper’s Gamble. But will their next foray out into the dangerous wilds be their last?