Session 04: The Logger's Camp

"“Deep in Neverwinter Wood, along the river that flows west toward Neverwinter, is a logging camp. Every two months, Phandalin delivers fresh supplies to the camp, which is run by the half-brother of Phandalin’s townmaster, Harbin Wester. Barthen, the local provisioner, has prepared a new delivery. He needs someone to bear the supplies safely to the camp.”"

Phandalin
In Phandalin, Spills the Stew presented a job notice to the adventurers who were in need of coin. The job required the adventurers to deliver a cart of goods to a logging camp run by a man named Tibor Wester in Neverwinter Wood. The party made their way to Barthen's Provisions where Elmar Barthen handed off a cart and an ox named Vincent to the party.

Before the adventurers left Latham introduced his companions to his new squire, a young human man named Shanjan. After making Shanjan's acquaintance, the adventurers wasted no time to hit the road. Quoorin was able to forage as the rest of the party was led by Moneux.

Pavel & Kriv
As the adventurers setup camp at the end of their first day, they were approached by two travelers, a male human named Pavel Hornraven and a mute male dragonborn named Kriv.

Pavel introduced himself as a travelling merchant and displayed a variety of magic items for the adventurers. Quoorin exchanged his Hat of Wizardry in exchange for a potion and coin from the merchant.

The following day, the adventurers saw no sign of Pavel nor Kriv.

Orc Raiders
When the party made their way into Neverwinter Wood they happened came across an overturned cart and dead humans surrounded by a group of orcs. As one of the orcs hurled a javelin at Moneux, a panther flew out from the wilderness, attacking the orc and throwing the javelin off its course. The orcs attacked the party as they approached but proved to be no problem for the adventurers and were quickly slain.

Quoorin and Moneux searched the cart while Latham and Shanjan checked the humans. The cart had plenty of supplies for travel as well as a small bag of gems and magic items. Varien was able to figure out how to attach the attacked overturned cart to theirs.

Signs of Trouble
The day after the party encountered the orc, Moneux led the cart through the woods to a logger's camp along a river. The adventurers mistook the camp for Tibor Wester's, the loggers pointed the adventurers in the direction of Tibor's camp. Before the party set off for the correct camp, one of the logger's petitioned for the party to visit the local ranger, Falcon. Many of the workers had seen and heard troubling things in the wilderness, they spoke of Falcon as a warden of the woods and hoped he could look into it.

The adventurers went downstream from the logger's camp, eventually finding a tree that had seemingly been bent and ripped down onto a logger that had been dead long before the adventurers arrived. Further along, the adventurers came across a large hole in the earth surrounded by blood and gouges in the surface around the hole.

The Logger's Camp
When the adventurers finally made it to Tibor Wester's logging camp they found it completely abandoned and with signs of devastation in the destroyed cabins around the site. It was not long before the adventurers came face to face with the cause of the destruction, giant insect-like creatures that spit acid and burrowed through the ground — ankhegs.

The adventurers fought bravely against a single ankheg before finding three more. The battle was hard fought but the adventurers cleared the camp of the beasts. After surveying the wreckage of the campsite, the party found a totem hidden inside a cabin. Shanjan had seen similar totems before, someone planted the item at the campsite to bring misfortune to anyone near it. The young spellcaster tossed the totem into a chimney of one of the destroyed cabins before destroying it.

Tibor Wester was found inside the only building that wasn't completely torn apart. After being questioned about what happened and learning of the totem, Tibor confessed that his loggers had encroached upon the territory of a group of half-orcs and that they had totems and ornaments in the woods with a similar design to the totem that was found in the chimney. Tibor agreed to travel back to Phandalin with the adventurers, but the party was to venture towards Falcon's Hunting Lodge before returning to town.

Player Characters

 * Latham the goliath paladin of devotion
 * Moneux the shifter beast master
 * Quoorin the wood elf battle master
 * Varien the half-elf warlock of the fiend

Non-Player Characters

 * Elmar Barthen, the male human owner and proprietor of Barthens Provisions in Phandalin.
 * Kriv, the male dragonborn traveller and companion to Pavel Hornraven.
 * Panther, the male animal companion to Moneux.
 * Pavel Hornraven, the male human travelling merchant of magic items and companion to Kriv.
 * Shanjan, the male human spellcaster and squire to Latham.
 * Spills the Stew, a male tabaxi bard and adventurer looking to catalog the adventures of heroes.
 * Tibor Wester, the male human leader of a logging camp