The North Woods

The Myste-Hass Calender

11/10/19

Two Helvettian scouts accompany the Myste-Hass heroes on another expedition to the North Woods which confirms the fiendish influence that seems to be spreading. The party notices increasingly prominent dark clouds that hang over the Tower of Silma. The group moves north until they are attacked by another Vrock which tries to carry party members to its nest at the top of another abandoned quarry. The group scales the quarry rise and kills the vrock’s babies in their nest. The party also encounters a group in the woods, one of which is a distinctive female who communicates with Dramos telepathically, stating he should come home.

15/11/19

The Crystal Caves are revisited, ensuring the space is fully cleared out.

28/01/20 – 06/02/20

The forest has changed considerably since the adventurers last visit. Inside they find the ground covered with thick foliage and head along the north-west edge to reach the second tower. As they do so, the group are ambushed by five reptilian creatures who seem unnatural for this world. Moving on, the party reaches the base of a tower that stands remarkably stable on crumbling foundations. They deal with some orc scouts and then decide to press inside to fight a large number of pyrotechnic goblins and brutish orcs. Continued exploration reveals a maze with dangerous statues. On the floor above, the party finds vast amounts of gold and treasure, including the Dolos Sword, stored inside an office with two sides. The heroes decide to head home and stow their treasures instead of continuing up to the final floor.

19/10/2021

Setting out towards The North Woods, the party crosses Myloch’s Way heading west. Here they see wyverns patrolling the farms as a group of hobgoblins load crops onto a cart and move towards town. The adventurers intervene, attacking the hobgoblins and killing the patrol. They discover that Morthel has many of the farmer’s children hostage in the town. They leave one injured hobgoblin to take the cart of food back to town. The group then moves north, moving swiftly towards the remains of the Tower of Silma. Here they discover a tree has consumed the Genai Stone into itself. The creature asks if they have come to bring an offering. When they refuse, the trees begin to awaken and attack. Eventually, the group defeats the trees with fire and then Dramos steals the soul from the primary tree, capturing it in his iron flask. The group begins carrying the stone back to the tower on a giant floating arcane disk. Corym and Dramos encounters a cart on the road, with a farmer and his two grandchildren heading to the Tower of Dariss in fear.

11/05/2023

Olga, Jim, Rabbit, Corvus, Bode and Quinn all mark their name and leave a strand of hair on a quest request on the town notice board. They then receive a letter informing them to meet about about an hour away from the North Woods.

The group travel out on a bright, clear day and meet with a representative called Valygar. Valygar, a cleric of Alaie, is the spokesperson for an unnamed employer who has interests in the North Woods. She negotiates a contract with the party, which every except Bode and Jim sign. The agreed payment is 1000gp for each location deemed fully explored. Jim agrees to start on the map, but asks about product deliverables and the option of subcontracting.

She describes details about the Rift Caverns, tower in the north west of the North Woods and details her employer wishes to retrieve about the Logging Camp. Clearly, they are interested in the sustainability of the logging exercise, how far the logging intends to stretch into the forest, who the owner of the operation is and where the woods is being used.

Leaving Valygar to return to the Temple of Alaie in Myste-Hass, the group press into the woods, heading directly towards the location marked as Rift Caverns on their map. Using Raven and Terry, they scout the area and find several sections of ground that have fallen in from recent disturbance. The plant life in this area is also far more tropical than is normal for the north woods. It is hot and humid too.

Corvus harvests the flower from a topical-looking plant, with orange and yellow petals.

Whilst investigating one of the areas of fallen ground, Rabbit turns into a dire wolf and leaps in. However, the tunnel is steep and the earth loose. He just stops himself from falling down a sudden vertical drop about 40ft high. Quinn uses a rope to climb down and attempt an assist, but trapped in the unstable tunnel, they both fall to the hard floor beneath, narrowly missing another drop.

With magical light and the aid of a rope, the group make their way down the shaft safely.

Corvus uses his primeval awareness to determine that there are celestials, elementals, fey and fiends in a one mile area from them.

They press into the darkness, entering a cave system. Here they being to see veins of a crystlaine substance in the walls. This is Genai Stone. The group harvest a slither of stone each which they secure in the backpacks and head on deeper. The cavern widens out, and this space has larger segments of Genai Stone which glow dimly in the darkness. They are clear with a slightly purple tinge.

Rabbit drinks water from some of the stagnant pools, all of which tastes sulfuric. There are insects that buzz around these pools.

There are a few exits of this cavern space which the adventurers do not explore, turning towards the white light coming the north-eastern corner of the chamber. On clsoer inspection the light appears to be a full moon in a beautiful night sky above. The chamber roof is 10ft up, with a complete ring of Genai veins which have somehow opened a space to somewhere else.

Using a mage hand to tie a rope around a nearby tree, the group scramble up and look around. The ground is raised similarly to where they entered the caves, but they are amongst a thick jungle. To the north is the familiar mountain range which can be seen from Myste-Hass. To the far north east is a large pyramid structure.

Whilst looking around, snake creatures emerge from the woods and attack. They are armed with javelins and wear rough leather clothing with Aztec-type patterns decorating them. Around each of their necks is a glowing necklace.

The group fight of the snakes, rushing to kill one as it runs of into the trees. They loot their bodies, taking skin samples, segments of armour and the necklaces. Corvus puts his necklace on, whilst the others stash theirs. They head back through the rift and back to town, stopping only for Bode to identify the necklace.