Ulgrotha: The Crossroads

Party: Sorval / Vultha / Taurio / Zantaroth / Iskren / Viken

Xivaskir 20

We rejoin the party in the middle of the night, where Vultha wakes up to meet the local rogues. After some thought, he realises they were going to meet up near the stables, so he heads there.

The pair of Joven and Chandler are indeed ready to engage with Vultha, explaining some of the local habits and customs to him. Telling him various options to explain his appearance, such as a curse or ancestral weirdness. Joven sells Vultha a treasure map after he asks for items that would make their life more comfortable. A minotaur walks in, thunder rolling at its back, pale white and full of tattoos. As the newcomer seeks accommodation, it is put up in the room the party is using. Joven has a request, explaining that if Vultha manages to find the sword related to the treasure map he bought, he will pinpoint the location of one of the Outsiders that Serra and Sengir would call foes.

Come morning, the new party member sleeps while Zantaroth and Vultha go outside for communing with Autumn Willow, hoping to convince her not to be angry when they go to Sengir. The spirit creature called is a ferret. A quick chat and some whistling happens, but apart from a warning, the pair does not gain any new intel. They then spend the next hour hunting down, murdering and boning a mammoth.

Iskren wakes up, pale and colder than normal. The remainder of the group sees the newcomer, they speak with the new cow in town and go to get breakfast. They see a pair of bloody lizards with a pile of meat on them. A conversation later, the party now knows Viken and has passed the meat to Joskun. Viken mentions a mission that requires the group. A Lord of the Goblins known as Eron is currently hunting down the minotaur tribe and Viken seeks to save his people... but Rollo announces to have found a calling here and chooses to remain at the Inn. Viken gets a small pouch of money for Amoola Thunderhoof, the mother of one of the Inn's guards.

A black carriage drawn by flame-maned steeds arrives and a servant exits from it before expiring in a dramatic way. Zantaroth explains Autumn Willow is unhappy about the group going to the Baron, but they settle on 'get the corpse of Ishan out' as an explication. Sorval explains some of the local intrigue (Leshrac is a source of trouble, there is a Wizarding School but a sea creature causes them trouble).

A rather uneventful trek comes to a halt as the road taken by the carriage is blocked by a strange (and magicked) tree. A group of humans have taken up residence in a nearby tower, but they turn out to be bandits who enjoy the support of flanking werewolves, so combat ensues. As the party handily dispatches their foes (apart from Zantaroth who is bitten by one of the werewolves) , a quartet of dangerous fey creatures appear from the fallen tree and attack the group. Some heroics by all involved later, Taurio slays the last of the creatures. 

The party stands near a ruined tower, a magicked tree, surrounded by corpses. The hour of noon is upon them and the future looks ... good?