Bear Necessities

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Summary

Adventure:Bear Necessities
GM:Miles
Session: Autumn 815
Night: Tuesday
Location: Town
Level: Low

Party:

1. Skafloc - Elven Earth Mage
2. Brac - Human E&E Barbarian Shapeshifter
3. Fonkbin - Elven Illusionist - Party Leader
4. Art Wallace - Human Air Mage
5. Dodgy - Halfling Namer
6. Jexler - Human Fire Mage

Employer:
Bors (Dwarf). The owner of Bors House of Ribs, the best boar restaurant in all of Seagate.

Mission:
Bors mother (Betsy but you better call her Ma'am or suffer the consequences) has demanded Bors and his fellow brothers come home and fix the problem of boars being stolen from her farm estate.

Pay:
18 months of free food and beer from Bors establishment and an amulet with a special ability.

Diary

Day One

Bors describes his problem. He and his brothers have finally escaped their mothers clutches and can’t bare to return. He hires us to investigate the issue of the boars being stolen. All he can tell us is there are bear tracks left at the site of each theft. The problem started about 6 weeks ago. He recognises that we are new to the guild and gives us 14 resurrection stones, some healing potions (10) and 4 grenados filled with the scent of boar glands.

Day Two

Bors opens a portal to Kerrena and we step through to a small village used as a staging area for the boars being sent to Seagate. Everyone has an opinion about the thefts, most blame hill giants, goblins and bear shapechangers although none have any proof. We ask about the area and hear stories of a ruined castle of Cryth (in the swamp?) where legend has it there is a great dragons treasure hidden, but you need to watch out for the vampires. We are warned not to step off the path to the front door of the manor house. Ma’am will be very upset. We head out on the 5 hour journey but only an hour out of the village we are accosted by some ruffians demanding a toll. It is a rudimentary trap with a body on the road ahead of us, 2 hidden archers in the forest and 2 ruffians behind us. Other than Bracs initial attack failing miserably (and needing to be rescued by Dodgy and Jexler) we overpower the group easily. Brac changes to tiger form and chases down the archers who fled into the forest. He tortures them for information. We are all surprised when changes back to human form and bites off one the victim's testicles but it has the desired effect of making them talk. It is a shame they had nothing useful to tell us.

It isn’t long before we come to a bridge with a magic aura of “gather information” but we suspect this is part of Ma’ams defenses so we cross it. We stop and talk to a few hunters guiding some wagons of boars and beer, headed to the small village we started in and the portal to Seagate. Nothing new is learned.

About an hour before reaching Ma’ams homestead we are attacked by a band of orcs. Some magic spells stop them in their tracks and the leader starts talking to us, saying they are hunters who don’t work for Ma’am. Before we can get much else from him arrows start raining on the small band from the forest. It seems their cohorts don’t take kindly to ‘squealers’. Art throws up some mist over the whole area and the other orcs retreat. Brac searches the forest for a few minutes and spies a human female leading the remaining orc band. He comes back before anyone can spot him. In the meantime we have managed to save one orc so we take him and the dead leader with us to Ma’ams. We have also found some nice recurve bows and 6 silver pieces - finally some treasure.

Ma’ams estate looks very well fortified but it turns out to be quite ornamental. We quickly learn no one would be dumb enough to attack Ma’am in her own house. She is rumoured to be able to turn into a dragon but no one will go into details. As we enter her house our spells drop and we find we can’t cast anything or use our talents. Harold, her man servant, leads us into her main room where we discuss the happenings so far. Ma’am instructs us to find out what is happening to her boars and to kill any vermin we come across. All orcs and goblins are of course vermin by definition. With our orc prisoners we are sent to Blade, Ma’ams human ‘information specialist’. He has a half goblin/human working for him. We are instructed to keep this bit of information to ourselves. After some skillful interrogation by Blade and his accomplice, we are informed of the following:

1. Clarise is the human necromancer leading the orc band
2. She arrived 3 months ago searching for something.
3. She has the orcs searching for the scent from a cloth she holds
4. The scent is possibly from a male human
5. They were narrowing in to the swamp for the scent
6. The orc band comprises 20 warriors, 10 trackers and 20 regulars
7. Clarise leads the band fairly. She pays the orcs, but beats any one who gets out of line. She is tougher than she looks and calls on a wraith from an item. She lso sleeps surrounded by a wall of bones.
8. Of the orcs the leader is Gorn, the 2ic is Eric and there is a fire mage called ‘Black Ebony’

Blade informs us of how dangerous the swamp can be with will o wisps, witches, dark elf spirit shaman, liches etc There is a tribe of werebears to the north and he gives us directions (go north 4 miles, follow the stream for 15 miles till you reach a gully. follow it till you reach the head. There is the werebears stedding). Thorn is the leader and there is a truce between Ma'am and Thorn at the moment.

A hunter called Jack is sent to help guide us on our mission. Our plan is to talk to Jack tonight, check out the pens, stake one out and see what happens, then go see the werebears.

We meet Jack in the tavern and before he and Brac get drunk Jack tell su there is a pattern to the boar thefts, which he has only just figured out. The boars are rounded up from the forest and placed in pens for up to 4 weeks to feed them grains that increase their flavour for the final destination of Bors House of Ribs. In the first week some pens are raided but only a few boars are taken. There are 3 pens jack suspects might be hit in the next 3 to 7 days.

Day Three

We decide to check out the last known raided pen for any clues. It takes all day to get there. We can't find anyting from tracking th area so Art summons an owl from the local area. The owl has seen bears tied to carts being led by dwarves and elves at dusk.

Day Four

We take all day to visit the 3 suspected sites of the next boar abduction and leave each boar with a slightly different coin in its belly. Thnakfully these boars will eat anything. We leave some cantrips in place to alert us of any happenings. The first pen has 9 boars, the second 2 boars and the third 6 boars. We stake out the 3rd pen but by 10pm, well after dusk, we decide to check on the other pens. We head off but are quickly paralysed by other cantrips (very similar to what we laid). Skafloc fixes us all.

How did the raiders know we were here???

We quickly DA our items and realise the 6 silver coins have a locate spell on them. These coins came from the captured Orcs being led by the human necromancer. We now know there is a link between them and the boar thefts. Brac does a locate on the coins he planted in each boar and finds some from the first pen are on the move. We are all pretty knacked so we rest up before heading out in pursuit of the raiders.

Day Five

It is 3am by the time we are ready to go.

Calendar

Autumn 815wk: Fruit (4)
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Lugnasad		1	Guild Meeting - Alusia	2	'	3	'	4	'	5	'	6	'
	7	'	8	'	9	'	10	'	11	'	12		13
	14		15		16		17		18		19		20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28		29		30		1		2		3		4
Autumn 815wk: Harvest (5)
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14		15	Equinox	16		17		18
	19	Harvest Moon	20		21		22		23		24		25
	26		27		28		29		30		1		2
Autumn 815wk: Vintage (6)
	3		4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17	Blood Moon	18		19		20		21		22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30	Beerfest