Session 48 — Every Secret of the Town

Session Recap

Dawn of the 19th of New Summer finds the party still sealed inside the Druid's Grove. Before leaving, Thalia returns the orphaned giant moorhen egg to its mother (tracked down through Silithane's scouting bat) and casts her Plant Growth / Enrichment — which not only re-enriches the grove for a year but crunches the Dome of Thorns shut even tighter, sealing the dead grove near-impenetrably. Stunghelm Elkheart then Tree-Strides everyone out to New Halfwood, reuniting with his apprentice Clover, who tearfully treasures the archdruid's reply letter Thalia transcribed (complete with a defensive "transcriber's note" arguing Stunghelm isn't really a bad guy). The camp mage Humphrey pays out the party's reward for finding Stunghelm and saving the food supply — they pick cash over a New Halfwood title and pocket 162 gold, 8 silver (~27 each). They also adopt a new travelling companion: Songbird, a melancholy little water nymph trailed everywhere by a growing flock of hummingbirds he doesn't understand. Stunghelm turns into a bird and flies off to bury the woods' ~2,000 dead zombies; Clover runs after him on foot.

The party marches north along Eldrich the Elder's well-hidden caravan trail. Day one (17 miles) brings them to the mound of dead zombies, where Stunghelm Elkheart and Clover are working — and where Stunghelm speaks with Songbird's birds and solves the mystery: a witch-woman in the woods tried to harvest the birds' eyes, Songbird freed them from her cages, and they've been serenading their hero ever since (mistaking his clothes for an ambush predator). Songbird decides he's "a bird guy now." Day two carries them to the Menagoles — revealed firsthand not as the "small mining town" Eldrich described but a sprawling merged settlement of seven or eight hamlets (~5,000 souls) between two mountain ranges, deep in Laewendas's territory and dominated by her stamped-down fortress, Orathos Keep. Slipping in from the west to look like ordinary travelers, the party passes a guard pat-down (Jex hides his Reclamation Signet inside himself) and loses itself in a food festival — pumpkin juice, 300-year "forever soup," and Fenric's heroic loss to a 40-pound all-meat pie. Following gossip from a guard, a young mother, and finally a goblin tour guide and a one-eyed kobold gravekeeper, they learn the town's dark rhythm: ever since Orathos Keep went up about a year ago, people who "know things" keep vanishing — an alchemist, a blacksmith, the one-eyed hero Warwick — and a manor-owner was murdered two days ago. The session ends in the church's freezing undercroft, a tourist haunted-house that is secretly an old escape tunnel to the town prison: the party knocks on a hollow stretch of wall, and something knocks back. Still level 7.

Key Events

The moorhen egg, returned. Still sealed in the grove at dawn, Thalia carries the S47 giant moorhen egg about looking for its mother; Silithane flies his bat through the canopy (an Investigation check) and spots the giant moorhen diving from the cloud cover. Thalia sets the egg down, dives clear, and the mother settles onto it — death-staring the "egg thieves" the whole time.
Reinforcing the dome. As a parting act, Thalia casts her once-a-day Plant Growth (Enrichment) centred on the grove: it refreshes the land's magical bounty for a full year and knits the Dome of Thorns shut even thicker — "probably no one is going to get into that dome ever again," for a year at least.
Tree-Stride to New Halfwood. Stunghelm Elkheart talks a tree into growing a handle and opens a portal to the great tree at New Halfwood, where the half-built camp has dug foundation trenches but is still "a couple years off."
Clover's letter. Clover runs to hug Stunghelm; Thalia hands her the reply to the aid-letter she once delivered — the opened original with the Archdruid's answer on the back, plus Thalia's bracketed "transcriber's note" insisting Stunghelm "just kills undead… I don't think he's a bad guy." Clover hides it from Stunghelm and holds it in both hands.
The reward. Humphrey gathers them to the shadowy meeting place and offers a choice for finding Stunghelm and getting food to the camp: a bag of cash or a noble title in New Halfwood once it's built. Silithane argues against huddling before they know the sum — pointing out you can sell a title and weighing it against a possible thousand in gold ("what is the gold amount?") — while Thalia muses about a library named after her. After a group huddle (Lash: "we have our own land far away") they take the cash — Humphrey conjures a burlap sack, sprinkles in his own loose change, and hands over 162 gold, 8 silver, which they doubt-count to his offence. Split ~27 gold each; Silithane tosses in the spare 8 silver when they divide it (Magra's share to the cart).
Songbird. Thalia wanders over to a 3½-ft blue-skinned, purple-clad figure being mobbed by 6–8 hummingbirds that shred his clothes while others serenade him. Fenric's mage-hunter Arcana (a 19) confirms it's not a curse and not natural; nobody can crack it. Reading as a water nymph who "shouldn't even be out here," he's been plagued ~13 weeks (one new bird every two weeks) and is "not on good terms with the water anymore." The party invites him along.
Tony's new stock. Tony flashes three new trinkets — beekeeping gloves, an ointment that "heals one pig of any ailment," and a needle that never bends (which Jex points out his own friend sold Tony last visit — "new to you"). No sale; the haggling devolves into Tony declaring Jex "the always-wrong customer."
Thanhold's long game. Silithane seeks out Thanhold, who lays out New Halfwood's future: first "build something worth protecting," then the harder politics of which church domains get to settle (the reps "don't get along") — he muses about dropping the Church of the Witches for the "newfangled fire religion." Silithane advises him not to let the camp grow so large it gets found, notes that traders will eventually wear roads to the door, and — mentioning the land the party already claimed up north — floats a future trade/correspondence "exchange program" between the two towns (Fenric suggests sending word early so the claim isn't given away). Then the gut-punch: Thanhold raises the old riddle of who betrayed King Aethelric to Laewendas 40+ years ago — a traitor who'd be "about 60 now, Thanhold's age." It is Silithane who instantly makes the leap to "Aelric the Elder" (Eldrich the Elder) — "we just know one man" — the party only able to joke that "we only know one old man" (see Open Threads), Silithane even double-checking the dead king's name.
Stunghelm flies off. His debt repaid, Stunghelm Elkheart runs, leaps, turns into a bird, and flies away to go bury the ~2,000 dead zombies three miles off; Clover — not yet able to fly — sprints after him on the ground.
The birds explained. First day of travel (17 miles) ends at the zombie pile, where Stunghelm and Clover are working. Stunghelm Speaks with Animals to Songbird's flock and relays their story: migrating from the western coast, they were nearly caught and eye-harvested by a witch-woman of the woods; Songbird let them out of their cages, so they now follow and celebrate him — and had mistaken his clothing for a predator trying to eat him. Told they actually love him, Songbird shrugs off his despair: "Fuck it, I'm a bird guy now." Long rest.
Arrival at the Menagoles. Day two (~20 miles) brings the party to the Menagoles at ~5 p.m., following Eldrich the Elder's caravan trail (so well-covered they lose it for stretches). The reveal: seven-or-eight mountain hamlets grown into one ~5,000-person settlement, ringed by mountains and split by a small river — and stamped in the middle, on an artificial hill, the 150×150-ft fortress of Orathos Keep, flying Laewendas's banners. This is occupied enemy territory: announce yourself as Reclamation and you're attacked; draw too much attention and you risk Laewendas herself.
Getting in. On a 3-to-1 vote the party circles to the western entrance (so they don't look like they came out of the woods to the southeast) and queues at a 5-guard checkpoint. Fenric's good armour passes (weapons are legal in Rivalon); Jex hides his Reclamation Signet inside his own chest; Lash passes as a blacksmith but her orichalcum hammer earns a referral from the guard Ambira to the Keep's captain (politely declined); Thalia gets waved through on her ant spray ("one and a backup in case it doesn't work") and a stray bloodied surgeon's glove.
The food festival. The party drifts through a festival of streamers and crowds: pumpkin juice from Klaus (5 coppers plus the "one-in-five" tax), the forever soup of Soup Joe — cooking 300 years, "fit for a queen" Fritthold the Peaceful, served in edible upside-down mushroom caps (Thalia keeps a collectible crown-engraved soup spoon) — and the festival's grand challenge: a 40-pound all-meat pie. Fenric takes it on bare-handed and eats ~12 pounds (a Constitution save; top-20 all-time), bursting his armour buttons into "fat Fenric." The reigning champion is Horanir Helmnet, a half-giant — proof the Helmnack/Helmnet family still lives here (cf. Ulda Golgain of Clan Helmnack, Session 47). The whole town also votes tomorrow night on the next soup ingredient (dry white wine vs. celery).
Where to stay. Guard Ambira tells Lash outsiders lodge in only two places: the church on the east side, or the Tapped Clapper by the central fountain (run by a cat-folk couple). She also overhears that a murder investigator has been told he's "too close to the case."
The water-carrier. Thalia helps a young mother, Aliana (baby Blythe), haul a well-bucket home, getting the first whisper of the town's pattern: an alchemist named Snuffles — a little mole-man — went missing weeks-to-months ago, and the cat detective at the gate was supposed to investigate but didn't.
The fountain, and the caravan. Climbing a market tree, Lash spots the central fountain (a stone goblin-wizard pouring clean water) and the big three-storey inn. At the fountain the party spots one of Eldrich the Elder's hired caravan escorts standing guard — the same man they'd clocked back in Ponterford — confirming Eldrich has indeed reached the Menagoles (he's been here ~a week). They defer the reunion as "a downtime activity." Lash flips her hammer to flirt with a messenger girl staring into the water.
The Goblin Tour. The party gets swept onto a goblin tour guide's walking tour (already escorting four badge-wearing goblins). Highlights: Elder Brantwaite of Little Layton — a 102-year-old former town elder who's twice demolished Layton Bridge demanding independence — and a paid clamber over the wall into the church estate.
The ash zombie — a callback. At the gravekeeper's hut, a one-eyed kobold gravekeeper has just killed an "ash zombie" that "died halfway" through the fight. Fenric realises this is the long reach of his Session 47 act: tearing apart the necromancer's book killed the loose horde even here, saving the gravekeeper's life.
The gravekeeper's gossip. Smoking through several cigarettes, the gravekeeper unloads the town's real story: ever since Orathos Keep was built ~a year ago, people who "know how to do things" keep going missing — the alchemist Snuggles/Snuffles, a blacksmith, and the beloved one-eyed charity-knight Warwick (whose disappearance brought the homeless back). A walled estate-owner was murdered two days ago (the lead detective was the victim's lover, hence barred). And the town's deeper history: the mines ran dry (no more tin); ~a decade ago an orc named Vara'nak burnt the mines — bridges, shafts and all — leaving a few burnt survivors, and the fort went up around then.
The haunted undercroft (cliffhanger). The tour's finale sends the party down into the church's freezing stone undercroft — Celestial graffiti none can read, stone coffins with pewter offering-bowls, and engineered scares (a recorded real death-scream; a rope-and-pulley "ghost" only Lash clocks). Following the little map, they learn the tunnel was an evacuation route from the town prison. They feel along the wall, find a hollow escape-tunnel section — and when they knock, something knocks back. The session ends there. Still level 7.

Combat & Encounters

No party combat this session — a travel-and-social episode. The only violence is secondhand: the kobold gravekeeper's ash zombie, which "died halfway" through their fight — confirming that Fenric's destruction of the necromancer's ritual-book in Session 47 dropped the loose undead horde dead even this far from the grove.
The guard checkpoint played as a tension beat rather than a fight: a 5-guard pat-down at the western gate of an occupied settlement, navigated by hiding the Reclamation Signet, passing off weapons as legal, and playing ordinary travellers.

NPCs & Factions

Stunghelm Elkheart — repays the party in full: Tree-Strides them from the grove to New Halfwood, reunites with Clover, then turns into a bird and flies off to bury the woods' ~2,000 dead. Met again at the zombie pile, he Speaks with Animals to crack Songbird's bird mystery, addressing the answer to the party more than to Songbird himself.
Clover — reunited with her elder at New Halfwood; treasures the Archdruid's reply letter Thalia carried back (and Thalia's note defending Stunghelm), hiding it from him. Chases the flying Stunghelm on foot, lamenting "he really isn't a very good teacher."
Humphrey — pays out the party's reward, conjuring a coin-sack from his staff (and topping it up with his own change); offended when they count it. Confirms New Halfwood's gratitude for the food crates.
Songbird (new — joins the party) — a small, sad water nymph displaced from the water and mobbed by hummingbirds. The mystery (a witch's would-be eye-harvest, foiled by Songbird freeing the birds) is solved by Stunghelm Elkheart; he embraces his flock and travels on with the party to the Menagoles.
Thanhold — the New Halfwood founder lays out the settlement's political future (church-domain rivalries; a possible swap to the fire religion) to Silithane, who sought him out, and revives the old question of who betrayed King Aethelric four decades ago — unknowingly steering Silithane's (and the party's) suspicion toward Eldrich the Elder.
Tony — restocks three new trinkets (beekeeping gloves, pig-healing ointment, the never-bending needle the party sold him); bickers with Jex over what counts as "new."
The Goblin Tour Guide (new) — a top-hatted goblin who runs daily walking tours of the Menagoles, promising "every secret of the town." Genuinely well-informed; leads the party past the town's elders and into its haunted church.
The Gravekeeper (new) — the Menagoles' mortician/surgeon/gravekeeper, a pipe-smoking one-eyed kobold with a glowing machine eye, openly contemptuous of Laewendas's keep. The session's richest source of intel: the missing skilled folk, the fresh murder, the dead mines, and Vara'nak's mine-fire.
Elder Brantwaite of Little Layton — a 102-year-old former member of the Council of Eight elders who governed the hamlets before Laewendas's occupation; twice tore down Layton Bridge demanding independence. A town fixture, not yet a contact.
Ambira — a Menagoles guard who passes Lash through the gate, covets the referral bonus for finding the Keep's captain an unusual-materials blacksmith, and points the party to the town's two inns.
Festival vendors — Klaus (pumpkin juice), Soup Joe (the 300-year forever soup), and Baragarranak (the orcish all-meat pie keeper); plus Aliana and baby Blythe, the young mother Thalia walks home. One-scene colour.
Eldrich the Elder — not met on-screen, but confirmed at the Menagoles (~a week ahead of the party): one of his hired caravan escorts stands guard at the central fountain, recognised from Ponterford.

Locations

Menagoles (visited firsthand) — revealed as a mountain settlement of seven-or-eight merged hamlets (~5,000 people), ringed by two mountain ranges and split by a small river, occupied and taxed (1-in-5) by Laewendas's regime from the central Orathos Keep. Its mines are dried up; skilled residents keep vanishing; a fresh murder is unsolved; and the church hides an old prison escape-tunnel. A balancing act of helping locals without being outed as Reclamation.
Orathos Keep — the Menagoles' fortress: a 150×150-ft keep on an artificial hill, ~30–40 guards plus a training yard and an unseen captain, flying Laewendas's banners. Built ~a year ago, coinciding with the start of the disappearances. Its name — Orathos Keep, deep in enemy Rivalon — is conspicuous (see Open Threads).
Little Layton — the largest-by-area, smallest-by-population of the merged hamlets, home to Elder Brantwaite and Layton Bridge; its independence streak is a local running sore.
The church & its undercroft — an east-side church (200+ worshippers above) doubling as an outsiders' lodging and, in its freezing stone basement, a tourist haunted-house. The undercroft is genuinely an evacuation tunnel from the town prison, lined with Celestial graffiti and offering-coffins — and not fully empty.
New Halfwood (revisited) — passed through at the journey's start: the food crisis stays solved, Clover is reunited with her elder, and the party collects its reward before marching north.
Druid's Grove (departed) — left sealed, its Dome of Thorns reinforced for a year by Thalia's Enrichment; the giant moorhen and its egg returned to each other inside.

Loot, Items & Rewards

162 gold, 8 silver — the reward from Humphrey for finding Stunghelm Elkheart and saving New Halfwood's food (chosen over a New Halfwood noble title); split ~27 gold each.
A new companion — Songbird the water nymph (and his hummingbird flock) joins the party.
Collectible soup spoon — Thalia keeps a crown-engraved commemorative spoon from Soup Joe's forever soup.
~28 pounds of leftover all-meat pie — Fenric bags the remainder of the festival pie after eating ~12.
No level / no pip noted — the party remains level 7.

Decisions & Open Threads

The reunion with Eldrich, pending. Eldrich the Elder is confirmed at the Menagoles (~a week ahead); the party defers meeting him as "a downtime activity." The next operation — the strike on Knucklebones at Lambert's Crossing — still hinges on his plans.
"We only know one old man." Thanhold's question — who betrayed King Aethelric to Laewendas 40+ years ago? — describes a traitor who'd be ~60 now, and it is Silithane (the party member talking to Thanhold) whose instinctive answer is Eldrich the Elder ("Aelric the Elder… we just know one man"). A seed of suspicion only; nothing is confirmed (and the patron's relationship to the dead King Aethelric is itself open).
Orathos Keep and the missing. Since Orathos Keep rose ~a year ago, the Menagoles' skilled people keep disappearing — the alchemist Snuffles/Snuggles, a blacksmith, the hero Warwick — and the Keep's captain is actively recruiting unusual-materials blacksmiths (the referral pushed on Lash). The strong implication: Laewendas's keep is abducting craftspeople who "know how to do things." Why the fort is named Orathos Keep is its own dangling question.
The fresh murder. A walled-estate owner with animal-folk servants was killed two days ago; the lead detective was his lover and barred from the case, leaving it unsolved. A ready hook the moment the party wants one.
The prison tunnel. The church undercroft connects, via a hollow escape-tunnel, to the town prison — and something knocked back when the party knocked. Could be a way into the prison (or whatever it holds). Picks up next session.
The dead mines & the burnt. The Menagoles' tin mines are spent; ~a decade ago the orc Vara'nak burnt them, leaving burnt survivors — and a History check hints Fenric and Lash have already met one such survivor on a recent map (a burn-scarred NPC; cf. the burned vet Golgain at New Halfwood). The fort went up around the same time.
The Helmnack/Helmnet line. The pie-eating champion Horanir Helmnet, a half-giant, places the Helmnack family alive near the Menagoles — tying to the ~600-year-dead Ulda Golgain of Clan Helmnack (Session 47) and the broader "things buried under the tors" thread.
Carryover: Eldrich the Elder's caravan and the Lambert's Crossing / Knucklebones operation; Eldrich's wish to visit the (now-sealed) Druid's Grove; Thalia's two undelivered druid tomes (to Kerri and Maelor); the Grey Man's nature; the held soul candles, cursed mask and cave symbiotes; Jex's deciphering tablet and legal non-existence; the imprisoned Caressa; and the eventual siege of Cathalon.
Roster. Player-run this session: Thalia (Cara), Fenric (Fantom), Lash (Kadie), Jex (Nat), with Salamandine and Tony the Anteater along. Silithane (Johan) was present only for the first half — the moorhen-egg hunt, the New Halfwood reward, the Songbird scene and the talk with Thanhold — then left at the halfway break (~82 min in), before the party reached the Menagoles; he takes a coin share, but none of the Menagoles content (the checkpoint, the festival, the tour, the undercroft) is his. Mia (Magra's player) was not present at all this session; Magra the character travels along as GM-run background and takes a coin share (sent to the cart). Neko has no active PC (Valmora left in Session 44) and was only at the table reacting and voicing NPCs; Ashlyn's player and Draak remain away. Still level 7.

Memorable Moments

Fat Fenric vs. the all-meat pie. Fenric bare-handing a 40-pound festival pie before a hushed, drum-rolling crowd, eating ~12 pounds into a top-20 all-time finish — and bursting his armour buttons — before being wheeled off on the cart.
"Inside myself." Jex hiding his Reclamation Signet by floating it inside his own chest cavity — "even if they pat me down" — and the guard agreeing he'd have to go "elbow deep" to find it.
"Fuck it, I'm a bird guy now." Songbird, having spent 13 weeks convinced the hummingbirds hated him, learning they worship him as the hero who freed them — and instantly making peace with his flock.
The goblin's hat-bank. The tour guide flourishing a tip-catch with his top hat, the silver landing not with a magical woomph but a clink — because his flat head keeps all his money under the hat.
"One and a backup in case it doesn't work." Thalia talking her way past the gate guard with two cans of ant spray as her most suspicious possession.
The knock that answered. The session's last beat: the party rapping on a hollow stretch of the prison escape-tunnel — and a knock coming back through the wall.
Soup fit for a queen. Soup Joe's "forever soup," 300 years on the boil since Fritthold the Peaceful, now mostly mushrooms — served, and eaten, out of upside-down mushroom caps.

SUMMARY: The party leaves the sealed grove, gains the water-nymph Songbird, and reaches the Menagoles — a Laewendas-occupied merged town where skilled folk keep vanishing under Orathos Keep, a murder goes unsolved, and a haunted-church tour ends with something knocking back from the prison tunnel.