Expedition 5: The Greenwids

Player created map.

Expedition Party: Feodor, Gossamer

On an overcast morning two adventures set out from Strotherhine into the marshes around town. It is high tide and the brackish marsh waters have risen almost to the tops of the tufts of cordgrass that stick out of the muddy landscape. They come across a very high section of water, and thick dense sucking mud, they push past and take their time. Soon they spot a huge eel feeding in a shallow area flooded by the high tide. They coordinate together and manage to  kill the eel without too much trouble. 

They haul the human sized eel back to Strotherhine, and talk with the dockmaster, Olwen Nash, who buys it off of them for 40g, 2 salted fish rations, and an old filet knife. They spend the night in Stortherhine and make plans to travel to the oak and hickory forest to the west the next day. 

Looking over the map they have been working on they believe it will be faster to first travel to the earthwork spiral in the pine forest first so that morning they travel there, on the way they find an odd truffle-like fungus at the base of a longleaf pine tree. They grab it, hoping that Lief will be able to identify it for them later. They continue their journey and make it to the oak forest. On their travels they see trees rubbed with mud in a clearing and believe it to be the work of a large boar.

They make camp, deciding to take turns resting every other night. Gossamer chooses not to sleep the first night and is greeted by an owl with luminous white eyes. It watches the two of them but otherwise keeps its distance. The next morning they use Feodor’s compass to adjust their bearing and make it to the down sycamore tree, among the blackberries brambles. 

From there they travel west and come across four goblins with a wagon filled with odds and ins. They approach the goblins who tell them to step aside, as they are on the business of the Goblin King, and must return to the castle. The two offer to help push the cart to the castle. As they travel with the goblins they learn that the goblins intend to travel through the night. They tell the leader of the goblins, who goes by the name “Sag-thorn,” that they need to sleep and that they will catch up. Sag-thorn agrees to this and the two adventures make camp.

While they set up their camp, Feodor notices the goblins are watching them. He talks to Sag-thorn and who agrees to keep watch for them. In the morning Sag-thorn wakes them and points out white eyed squirrels that are watching them. This makes the goblins uneasy so the group sets out to the “castle”. 

They travel in a light drizzle that the forest helps to shield them from and before long get to a wide creek, which the goblins say is the last barrier between them and the castle. The creek is almost 50 feet across swift moving, but using some rope and gear form the cart they rig up a set of ropes to ferry the cart across. The goblins seem to have some experience with this which helps things along. 

They make it to the goblin “castle” which appears to be the ruins of a very ancient temple. It is crumbling and in bad repair, but elements of its ancient beauty are still apparent. Sag-thorn tells the two to wait outside. Before long the goblin “king” emerges. He speaks more eloquently and doesn’t look the same as the other goblins, he is taller, more human-like, and with some features that seem very boar-like. They ask him if he knows what happened to the missing garrison, he claims that he doesn’t. He asks them to kill Longtusk, an ancient boar that he sees as a rival to his control over the woods, and offers to knight them in return. He gives them rations as a sign of goodwill and then they leave. 

They travel toward Strotherhine and before long realize that some of their rations have spoiled. Pressing onward through the night they find themselves again at the sycamore grove. By morning there is a heavy rain, they continue their journey and find the area with the mud rubbed trees. They continue and make it back to the spiral earthworks, they make camp here, and Feodor keeps watch, seeing another of the strange deer that they have seen here before. The next morning they make it back to Strotherine.