Mission Mission (Date 1/8/3)

The group gathered themselves to launch a rescue mission. King Regar whispered his cautions to Euwyn. Yuri volunteered himself to come along. Shelby sought information from Justice. But as they were finalizing affairs for departure, Lex and Giada appeared. They had a harrowing tale to tell of capture, slavery, sacrifice and escape, but central to the tale was the gnoll, demon-priestess. She had to be removed from power if there was to be any hope of peace with the gnolls.

As usual, Lexington had an unusual plan. Rather than try to fight their way down her, they would draw her out. And how? With the power of Strom! They would go to the plains and bring the power and the word of Strom to the gnolls, convert them to their faith and when she heard of this, she would have to come forth to put down this blasphemy.

Adding Giada and Lex to the mix the party journeyed forth. They sent Yuri to gather info from the logging village. He came back with rumors of dissent among the ranks amid concerns that Antionne might be losing his mind. He dug up his son’s dead body the other day!

Hurrying on, they reached the plains in a day and half only to find the town under attack by giant insects. They rushed in and killed the bugs, saving several gnolls in the process - by the grace of Strom - though one house was destroyed.

The Stalk (Date 1/7/27)

Measuring nearly ten feet in diameter at the point it broke the water, the giant trunk held aloft what appeared to be an enormous cat-tail covered in scuttling insects, each the size of a small dog. The bugs were spawning from cocoons along the surface of the stalk. As the strange plant grew at an alarming rate from the sea bed, and each cocoon broke the surface, it would burst open, releasing a fully-formed and aggressive bug. After some initial reluctance to rely on the power of Strom to hold them up on the surface of the water, the party attacked, discovering in the process, that while the creatures looked and moved like insects, they were in fact made of plant material. In the fight, one took off Hedge’s left ear with a lucky strike. Once the exposed creatures were defeated, Justice took to hacking down the stalk, finding it green and pulpy once the outer shell was breached.

Euwyn took this time to use his magics to explore the lakebed. There he found a pair of the drowned ones, humanoids with translucent skin, gills and webbed hands and feet. Their garb looked like fisherman’s gear which had been immersed in water for a decade. Euwyn tried to speak with them, but they only stared curiously keeping their distance until their master arrived. From out of the stygian depths came the stuff Malwanese nightmares, an impossibly long tentacle terminating in a cluster of suckers like dozens of tiny mouths, and – perhaps… a single eye? The prince swam desperately for the surface, certain he had imagined the eye, just as he must be imaging the buzzing lights that folded into the corners of the tower every day upon his waking there.

Justice and Hedge felled the exposed stalk, and as it toppled, the entire shoot crumbled to grey dust, quickly dissolving into the lake and vanishing. A flotilla of fishing vessels cheered at the great victory, having ventured out to see the heroes of Malwan in action. They paraded them home with shouts of impressed joy and gratitude.

Little could be done to restore Hedge’s lost ear. Eaten by the lake…. He commissioned Edgar and Lumi to build a new helm for him, incorporating a modified ear horn in hopes that it would restore some of his lost hearing.

Lexington and Giada were now two weeks gone.

The Mystery Note (Date: 1/7/24)

Shortly after the group returned from the woods, Justice was visited by Antionne Tyrelle who mistakenly thought the man had left him a note stating his son was not dead. He also seemed to be trying to draw Justice into an alliance against the elves and the prince, but the young cavalier would not bite and sent the woodsman packing more confused than when he arrived.

Justice brought new of the note to the party, Marty was summoned and a brief debate was had over what to do, with the result being a collective shrug.

Two days later, a clamor came from the docks, priests were summoned, and injured/poisoned sailors reports of a giant stalk emerging from the lake covered in fungal, insect pods. Marty investigated in manta-form and discovered the stalk went all the way to lake bed. It seemed to be growing at an alarming rate. Before he could investigate further, a pair of drowned sailors with translucent skin chased him off. Marty summoned the group…