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Rangers & Roosts

Last week, the party left the spooky forest containing the Sekerren Ruins behind. They decided that it made sense to finally head in the direction of Praxis so they could tell the Nullwardens about the animals and Alistair's experiments. As they made their way through the forest in search of roads, they were attacked by a small flock of electrically modified birds led by an extraordinary large eagle. As the birds tried to dive in for the first wave of assault, Briar erected a barrier that the eagle smashed into, dropping it to the ground for the rest of the party to attack. As the birds buzzed by, blasting the party with electric pulses, the party set up a pattern of smashing them with benches and knives to use their momentum against them. This strategy was quite effective, and the birds were all either killed or driven off.

After the fight, Briar inspected one of the corpses and made several deductions. First, the birds were altered using a different process from Alistair's magic. Second, whatever process modified the bird was the same as the process that modified the other elementally infused animals the party had been fighting, including the residual pain after alteration. Third, the birds had been altered for at least a month, since they had time to adapt to their new bodies and powers. The party decided to bring one of the bird corpses with them to help provide evidence for their claims, and continued their way towards Praxis.

As the party drew closer to the road network that would connect them to Praxis, they met a wandering ranger in the woods. He introduced himself as Firel of the Boundary Wardens. The party suddenly remembered that they had always known who the Boundary Wardens were - they are the organization that oversees the rangers and other guardians of the roads and towns outside of Praxis. The Boundary Wardens are responsible for protecting the outer parts of civilization from dangerous monsters, and they operate independently from the Praxis guard structure that controls life within Praxis. The party decided that the Boundary Wardens would be a reasonable agency to tell about their knowledge of the mutated animals and Alistair, so they info dumped on Firel. He was concerned about their discoveries, and decided that he would abandon his normal patrol route and return immediately to the Boundary Wardens headquarters to inform the leaders. Since that put him on the same path as the party, he offered to travel with them for a while, and they agreed.

Firel's guidance made the party's journey much smoother. They reached the roads without further incident, and were finally on the path to Praxis. When they reached the headquarters of the Boundary Wardens, Firel convinced them to report their findings in person. When they arrived, he arranged a meeting for them with Vidar, a middle-aged elven druid with authority in the organization. She listened carefully to what the party said and inspected the bird they brought. According to her, the Boundary Wardens had some knowledge of the existence of the kidnappings and had been battling the mutated animals as they encroached on the roads, but were missing some of the key information the party provided. She said Boundary Wardens would put out an order to apprehend Alistair on sight, ensuring that he would unable to use the road network to transport any more kidnapped people. The information the party brought about the mutated animals was also very valuable, especially with the bird corpse, and the Boundary Wardens would be able to use that knowledge to refine their battle tactics and minimize further losses in any future conflicts with the animals. Finally, the bench that Bench McSmashy brought back from the House of Liberation could actually contain some clues to Alistair's activities that could be revealed through a ritual that Vidar would perform.

After performing the ritual, Vidar gave the party several additional clues based on her observations of the bench and the bird. First, Briar's deductions about the different processes for the bird and Alistair's experiments were correct - and more specifically, Alistair definitely practiced arcane magic like wizards use, while the bird was altered by nature magic like druids use. Second, both the arcane magic and the nature magic seemed to draw from a shared source of power that matched the signature radiated by the Sekerren Ruins. Third, Alistair's experiments started about six months ago, which is similar to the time when the first mutated animals started appearing. Fourth, the birds stopped mutating about a month ago, and no rangers had reported new varieties within that time, so Vidar suspects that no new mutations have occurred or started appearing within the past month. Along with this information, Vidar also offered the party a significant monetary reward based on how much their information would likely protect the lives of the boundary wardens who might contend with either the mutated animals or the abomination within the House of Liberation. The party thanked her for her help and prepared to leave.

Join us this week to decide your next move as your clues and journal entries continue to pile up! Also, everyone hit 4th level, so you all have some legacy item abilities to choose! :D

Stupid Awards

Briar Sneaky Healer: "Bench" McSmashy: Din Morat:
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