Previous (Group 2): An Evil Plan...Thwarted
Session 15: A Third Beginning
In the idyllic village of Maymill in the land of Quelorl, Mayor Grizzle learned of a problem that threatens the entire town. Maymill is a agricultural town that grows grains for the Tinsley Distillery, a whiskey distillery twenty miles to the south. The Tinsley family has been manning their distillery for over five hundred years. On this beautiful day, Mayor Grizzle got a communiqué from Bernard Tinsley, stating that the Tinsley family is going to have to move the distillery if something doesn't change soon. At Tinsley's Distillery there is some sort of spirit that is scaring away all of the workers. The distillery is working at fifty percent and more of the workers leave every day. If something isn't done within the next week or two, the Tinsleys will have to move their entire operation north, near the village of Lowlake. Lowlake, positioned fifteen miles north of Maymill, and its local farms would then become the primary supplier of grains for Tinsley's Distillery. Where could the mayor of a small village find someone to take care of restless spirits?
The people of Quelorl are a superstitious lot and they tend to shun nonhumans. The only nonhuman race that the humans trust is the halflings. They see the halflings as harmless, since they are small and resemble human children. Most humans see the dwarves and gnomes as tainted by the earth spirits, elves and half-elves (of which there are few) as tainted by the spirits of the forest and half-orcs as dangerous savages. Since spirits are fickle, dealing with spirit-touched can be bad luck.
Ollorin Thundercloud, as a dwarf, is an outsider among the people of Maymill. He was found on the beach, the only survivor of a shipwreck. Ollorin made the best of his misfortune and settled in Maymill. He quickly made himself useful since by profession he is a brewer. Ollorin can also hold his own in a fight.
Allister Harris, the son of the town blacksmith, works as a guard for the caravans that deliver the grain to the distillery. He has a strong sword arm and has successfully defended the town's interests on a couple of occasions. Living in the sleepy town of Maymill doesn't agree with Allister and he's been looking for a reason to leave for years. Since the wanderlust has taken him, Allister has found himself ignoring his superstitions and spending time with Ollorin Thundercloud.
The Shortcloak family is one of the three halfling families living in the vicinity of Maymill. The family consists of the parents, Lena and Torlin; three male siblings, Torlin Jr, Yuli, and Fredo; one female sibling, Darstina; and their adopted daughter, Corwynne. The family farm runs perfectly fine without the girls, so the girls tend to spend a lot of time off on their own. Darstina usually spends the days lurking in the shadows, learning the secrets of the locals. She doesn't use the information, it just thrills her to know people's secrets.
Thirteen years earlier, a young Corwynne wandered into the Shortcloak family fields. Dirty and cold, the young halfling was taken in by the Shortcloaks. The girl was quiet and Darstina was her only friend growing up. Over the last year though, Corwynne started spending time alone in the forest, and her adopted family began to realize that there was something very different about the girl.
Ollorin, Allister, Darstina, and Corwynne were eating lunch in the local pub when the mayor entered and nailed a poster to the wall. On the poster it explained the town's dilemma and asked for volunteers to help the town. Out of all of the people in the pub, only the four misfits decided to make an attempt. Although they were ready to leave the town, all of their friends and family rely on the trade with the distillery to survive so they decided that they couldn't let them down. Allister went to the mayor and told him that he and his friends would travel to Tinsley's Distillery and look into the haunting. The mayor wished him luck.
The next morning the Allister, Darstina, and Ollorin were waiting in front of the pub when Corwynne rode up on the back of a large elk. Everyone was surprised, because they didn't realize that Corwynne was a druid. The newly formed group started the journey to Tinsley's Distillery. By early afternoon, the group was more than halfway to the mill when Darstina and Corwynne spotted four figures preparing for an ambush. The two girls alerted their warrior friends and Allister and Ollorin charged the lurking figures. The battle was quick and in the end the four misfits were only ones left standing.
After the battle was over, Corwynne approached the corpses of the creatures and suddenly she realized that she knows what the creatures are. Small, with elven features, dusky skin, and runic lettering on their skin, the creatures are fey known as shadar-kai. They come from the plane of Shadow and are evil. As far as she knows, Corwynne has never read about the shadar-kai or even heard of them, but suddenly this information came to mind.
The group rounded up the shadar-kai's equipment and settled in to rest since Allister and Ollorin had minor injuries that could cause them to loose another battle. Corwynne healed them as much as she could then they rested for the night.
In the morning the group continued to the distillery, and they arrived just after noon. The distillery consists of seven buildings built on a low hill. With the lush greenery and the rustic buildings, it is the picture of rural industry. The three buildings in the center are the actual still buildings and there is also a storage building, a public house for the workers, and two private houses for the Tinsley family.
The group met with Bernard Tinsley and he explained that they had already had a couple of other group come, investigate, and leave without solving their mystery. The Allister, Ollorin, and Darstina began asking the workers what had happened, gaining very little insight. Apparently items move around the buildings as if moved by a ghost and recently rocks began pelting workers as they do their work. Corwynne and her elk companion, Skooby, were wandering the area around the grounds of the distillery when she had another one of her epiphanies. This is the only place during their entire trip that they had seen huckleberry bushes. She knew this was important, but couldn't figure out why.
The group met with Bernard again, hoping to get some more questions answered when a rock rose from the ground behind Ollorin and hit him in the head. The rock bounced of his hard head with a thump and suddenly Corwynne exclaimed, "Raknakle".
"Raknakle?", everyone in the area said in chorus. "What's that?"
A raknakle is a small fey creature that subsist entirely on huckleberries. They can telekinetically launch stones and they burrow through the earth without leaving a trace. Normally they aren't aggressive, but they are territorial. Something must have driven them out of their original home and caused them to come here.
Corwynne spoke loudly in the sylvan tongue, asking the raknakle to speak with her and negotiate a solution to their problem. She stood waiting for several minutes, scanning the area for any sign of the fey creatures. Suddenly five small humanoids, with long arms and legs, a potbelly, and gray skin appeared. Their heads are somewhat pointed. The creatures are bald but has thick patches of hair on its shoulders and the backs of its hands and feet. Their necks are twice as long as that of a normal human, faces angular, with narrow jaws and a long, hooked nose. Raknakle eyes are their most prominent feature; they are simply deep, empty sockets that emit a pale yellow smoke that smells of honey.
When the group saw the raknakles, Corwynne asked them why they came to the distillery. The raknakles replied that they were driven from their huckleberry bushes by shadar-kai. The shadar-kai leaders were dangerous spellcasters, and the raknakles decided they couldn't defeat them. When the group heard that they decided that they would rid the raknakles of their problem, and in turn solve Maymill's problem at the same time.
The following morning the group left for a huckleberry patch some ten miles distant. On the way, the group was attacked by a couple of shadar-kai patrols. They defeated their assailants, but the battles got more and more difficult. The group hadn't even reached the lair before they defeated nearly half of the twenty total shadar-kai, however they had not fought any of the spellcasting shadar-kai.