Stop the Poaching - Group 3, Session 3

General Summary

When the session began, the party had just arrived at the Satyr's Glen inn on the western road in the town of Dryad Falls. The rowdiest of the three inns in the town, the Satyr's Glen offered casino gambling and other "entertainments" in addition to rooms, food, and drink. As they did in Feybridge Crossing, the party kept things low-key. though, and focused on listening to those around them. What they heard were more reports of the Elven Rangers patrolling the roads and harassing not only merchants, but even the common farmers who were traveling between Spirit Lake and Dryad Falls. They also heard an interesting conversation regarding the failure of at least one farmer's strawberry crops which, in the farmer's opinion, was due to the drastically decreased number of Sprites in the region this spring.

In the morning, the party set off on the last leg of their journey to the village of Spirit Lake. As the week-long Dryad Falls Founder's Day was drawing to a close today, there were a number of people on the road starting the journey back to Spirit Lake or beyond, so the road wasn't deserted. The first three days were completely uneventfut; the second and third nights were spent at small roadside inns that were only marginally more comfortable than a roadside campsite.

As evening fell on the fourth evening, the party approached a roadside clearing that had obviously been used by many travelers in the past - and was already in use by anogher group traveling the road. A merchant and his three traveling companions were seated around a blazing campfire. A pavilion tent - too small for five, but luxurious for one was erected just beyond the campfire ring. Three bedrolls and packs were laid out alongside it. Nearer the road, a four-wheeled wagon laden with goods and covered with a tarpaulin could be seen with three saddles stowed under the wagon. Also nearby, five horses were tied off and grazing on the grass and shrubs at the edge of the cleared area.

There were two other "prepared" campfire rings in the broad cleared space, and the party chose one. But as the were removing their packs, the merchant called over to invite them to join him for some company. The group did so, and had a guarded, but polite conversation with the merchant as evening turned into night. The one half-orc and two human traveling companions, referred to by the merchant as his "bodyguards", were not very talkative; grunts and nods were all they contributed to the conversation. Eventually, the merchant announced it was time to turn in, and he disappeared into his pavilion tent. Two of his sellswords started to make themselves comfortable bedding down on the ground near the tent while the third kept his place on the "sitting log" by the fire. The party retreated to their own fire ring and built up their evening fire, set their watch schedule, and turned in.

The watches themselves were uneventful, but Dhraanng, while doing a casual walk around the perimeter of the group's area, had something interesting catch his eye as he glanced over toward the merchant's wagon. The merchant had explained during their earlier conversation that he was bringing finished household iron goods: frying pans, soup kettles, and some light hand tools into town; these were destined for the general store in Spirit Lake. He would then load up on locally crafted goods (quilted blankets and the like) that were apparently hot-selling items in the high-end markets of Endmere far to the north. According to the merchant, "frontier home-made" was quite fashionable these days among the upper society of the city. Dhraanng did indeed see quite a bit of cast iron hung from the sides of the wagon, and even more visible underneath the tarp which wasn't perfectly covering everything. But it was the small wooden cages that caught his eye. There appeared to be between one and two dozen of the things stacked under the wagon's tarpaulin cover.

Dhraanng informed the rest of the party of his "discovery" during the night, and they discussed it briefly and quietly as they broke camp and got ready for their last day of travel before reaching Spirit Lake. The merchant and his associated were also breaking camp, and once the merchant's tent was stowed on the wagon, their horses were hitched up and saddled and the group departed.

The party decided that they wanted to stay close to the merchant and see where those wooden cages were headed. They suspected that they had something to do with the disappearing fey creatures.

In fact, the party had many options in front of them now regarding how they would conduct their 'investigation' in Spirit Lake. Elianna of the Traveling Troupe had given them names of potentially useful contacts both in the village and in the forest beyond. They still had not decided whether to approach their fact-finding as an announced investigation, or perhaps to attempt an undercover attempt to infiltrate whatever operation there was. And now... were those cages important? Perhaps... perhaps not.

As the party trudged down the road on the way to Spirit Lake, they had much to discuss and plans to finalize before they reached their destination this evening.

The session ended at this point.

Rewards Granted

There were no material rewards granted during this session.
As they have concluded this Adventure, each party member is awarded 350 experience points.

Missions/Quests Completed

By the start of the next session, the party will have completed the final leg of the journey to Spirit Lake. They have acquired more insight into the potential negative impacts of the disappearing fey, and they have some suspicions about the merchant with whom they shared a campground on the road a day out of the village.

Character(s) interacted with

Conversations among various unnamed patrons of the Satyr's Glen Inn in Dryad Falls were overheard.

The Merchant and his three traveling companions (two humans and a half-orc) offered small talk, but their wagon offered more questions that need to be answered.