I would have the players write up what they did and/or saw for bonus XP. If someone used another players write-ups for a quest hook, they'd get XP as well. The format is kinda wonky, but I'm not going to go through close to 5 thousand words to fix weird errors. Here's some of the write-ups I've collected over the months:
2017-02-11
Gather and listen citizens of Lasiris. I, Aleck "Glaive-Wind", have returned triumphantly from the wilds of the wilderness.
Together with my brave companions we left the safety and security of our frontier home to concur and tame the savage hearts of men. That's right we set off to resolve the bandit menace.
Our journey took us to a place of ancient power and majesty. A relic from the old world. Created by the noble and honorable dwarves of ancient times.
Within the structure was a large monstrosity, part horse and part eagle, surrounded by the bandits we sought to slay. Though the bandits did not look as we would have imagined them, nor did they look as you listeners may imagine them. For these bandits had been cursed by the goddess Shushheck, queen of the four heavenly rivers. Their forms had been morphed to look part man and part frog!
Thus we fought these loathsome creatures, these bandits of the wilderness. And we emerged victorious!
But woe, it was not the end of our plight!
The very next morning we discovered yet another monstrosity. A beast with parts of both owl and bear! Its vigor was greater than any beast I have faced before, but with my companions' aide we vanquished this foe as well!
But alas the sound of our conflict attracted yet more dangers for us to best. It was a party of orcs, geared for war and raiding. They carried with them a helpless child bound and gagged. Seeing the child's suffering I charged into battle!
Oh what a mighty battle it was. The orcs are creatures of war and their prowess in battle cannot be exaggerated! But they were no match for my glaive and my companions. They fell one after the other in sprays of blood and viscera.
Rejoice people of Brokenstone for we returned victorious. And by our sweat and blood made your homes safer!
2017-02-18
Adventurers and companions! Nobel and common-man alike, I beg of you your ear. I have news from the frontier, news of particular interest to all of you.
The bandits which haunt your daily lives, which put upon you the most despicable of life's curses: uncertainty, which stole the life blood of the frontier from its very veins ... have ... been ... located! They are now known to me. Their lair is now a prison which Seer shall cleanse in the light of his rage!
We have received a sign of Seer's coming judgement! As I'm sure you have all heard by now now, I and my companions returned from the wilderness with a bandit. This bandit bore the Mark of Seer, Seer's Own Bite, The Dog's Tooth! This mark reveals the man to be a sinner! And is a promise! From Seer himself! That we will see justice done against these bandits!
Praise Seer!
Crowd(Presumably): "Praise Seer!"
I hold before you the tool of Seer's judgement. This sword shall find the bandit leader's heart, and it shall find it sinful.
May the bravest of you join me in this holy reckoning. For through Seer we shall purge the sinners from their hole!
Praise Seer!
Crowd(Presumably): "Praise Seer!"
03/24/2017
A small scroll, handwritten by Wanderer, has been brought back to town by Ares, it reads:
We planned our travel into the woods to make contact with goblins who presumably live there as we overheard some people in the inn speaking about a tribe of lizardmen which are living and coexisting with the farmers of small hamlets to the south. They have been driven out of their bog by some mysterious cult.
We decided to go there and lend the lizardmen a hand in high hopes they would be thankful and assist our adventure parties in the future.
The hamlets are situated just south of the town down the road.
We met a lizardman there who was working the fields, he told us that there is a cult forming in the south which is extremely strong right now but growing in numbers every day. The cult succeeded to awaken an ancient, dead god and the lizardmen tribe fought and killed that beast a few times before they suffered to many losses and had to retreat to the north. Unfortunately even though the god has been maimed and killed, everytime he came back to life. It is named "The Dark One" by the lizardman. We learned about some abandoned mine in the area of the hamlets and about the keep of this strange cult to the south, presumably (one of) the center(s) of their might.
Having little opportunity to stop neither the cult nor the god we moved into the forest to find the goblin tracks but almost got surprised by centipedes. We could hide ourself in time before moving on and encountering a wolf eating something which apeared to be a fresh corpse.
After sending our bugbear to scare the wolf away we got stormed by a group of orcs who fought fiercely and almost killed our paladin. I tried to convince them to join my (newly established) cause in uniting different tribes of the wild to perform coordinated strikes against the cult but these ignorant fools just didnt want to listen.
The camp we established afterwards has been done really sloppy so we got easily spotted by a group of kobolds at night. In the struggle which developed out of this our bugbear companion got killed, Ares got beaten unconcious and bound and I could just in time climb a tree. The squad leader of the kobolds asked me to surrender, having little choice I put away my weapons and got my feet onto the earth again but I could sell my vision of the need of unification against a greater evil to this leader of the kobold group. He promised me to bring me in front of his leader, a black dragon (therefor the name blackwing clan as the kobold told me).
I could achieve free travel back to town for Ares, he carries with him the knowledge of two signs we developed with the kobolds squad leader. The wherebouts of these signs can be explained by Ares nicely, just so much: with these signs we plan to identify our allied factions to make them not attack each other, should they meet each other in the wilds.
Ares will leave any minute now and will take this scroll with him. I will part with him and go to seek the assistance of the dragon. Our blackwing clan - adventurer groups alliance stands for now, I am confident to take the first successful step in throwing this cult and this risen god back into Kelemvors realm. May HE protect my path! Signed, Wanderer.
04/08/2017
Captain Urgosh sits down in the corner of the Brokenstone-Inn.
Besides him sits a Spice trader, a middle aged man with blond hair, a scar over his left cheek and an amulet of Kelemvor around his neck.
Captain Urgosh reports about his last expedition and the trader writes his words down at a parchement, to be delivered back home to the temple of Kelemvor:
"After my arrival here in Brokenstone by orders of the High Priestess of Death I ventured out to gather clues of our lost brother, only known as "The Wanderer".
While sitting in the tavern to gather rumors about his whereabouts some information about a portal, who appeared recently, got to my ears and the ears of a few other brave - and probably not so brave (but short) people.
Chances have been high "The Wanderer" took the way thrugh the portal as well so I joined the first expedition team who entered it.
We stumbled across a fight between snake-things, a human and a windy Genasi thing.
Our group decided to assist in this struggle, the Genasi was suspicious - and still is, somehow, so I rushed to the aid of the human first - who has proven himself to be a capable warrior himself!
After our first contact with the enemy we learned - surrounded by an endless sea of sand (which I hate already!) - that we are in a completely new area of whatever. We got some stone symbols handed over by some strange old man who didnt know any whereabouts of our lost brother.
The people in the tavern of a nearby settlement didnt know anything either so we explored further north and were supposed to run into a trap but our Sandman-Navigator Aesir and me spotted it from a distance - diletantic work, set up by fools which are as commonly found in this area as there is sand.
After we navigated around this "trap" we didnt manage to hide ourself from the eyes of some cavalry, while both parties looked at each other calmly our foolish (and horned) follower unsheathed his daggers, which brought the enemy to assault our position.
Struck by a bolt of inspiration, the smalest one had the biggest idea and threw a bottle of acid in their midst, unmounted most of them right after one of these "professional" fighters chased us - lance ready - just to hit the dirt and fall down his own horse! What a sight!
The following battle was long and brutal, one of us even managed to summon and hold a cloud of mist at the battlefield.
As a noteworthy fact: The desert commanders are not worth half a copper piece out there, they dont know how to position themself in combat, dont know NOTHING about small squad tactics, dont know how to set their feet properly while attacking and - above everything else - they dont know HOW TO HOLD ONTO THEIR OWN WEAPONS in a close combat situation - thats probably the reason why they carry enough weapons on them to equip an entire squad!
Long story short, he melted away - by shame and by acid from our gnomish follower who did not flee the fight - the enemies followers got slaughtered, we lost the horned one but I managed to keep his horns. They will buy us equipment, food and most importantly water, which is extremely important and really scarce in this region.
By Kelemvor, I promise to reinforce my efforts to find the lost Wanderer and fulfill the other tasks you gave me as well!
May the dead light of Kelemvor shine below you all!
Urgosh, former Captain of the 11th Black Forest Scout Squadron."
The Spice Trader closes the letter as Urgosh finished his report and left the Inn..
04/15/2017
Adventure, 15 April 2017, east along the Sword River ...
George, Ares, Captain Urgosh and Barley left town heading north along the road. There was a cold wind blowing from the North, a bad omen. We came upon a group of broken stone pillars. A group of creatures could be seen but we couldn't identify them. In a moment of ill-advised bravado, we attacked and found the "creatures" were two Beasts of Ill Omen. After fighting for a time, they succeeded in killing Ares. The survivors rested and we were joined by Shnicel who was traveling from town. Captain Urgosh scouted a bit east of where we had encountered the Beasts and found more pillars without any creatures nearby. Nothing for it, we went to examine them. Broken stone pillars, are the most boring things imaginable. No one can read the runes cut into the stone or copy them. Not even sure it was in any language and so we left. Another hour we found the River, about a mile wide at that point. Our group decided to go downstream, taking our time to avoid being surprised. We started hearing a humming noise coming from south from where we were. Barley was chosen to sneak up and see if he could find out about it and what else was there to be seen. Past the tall grass of the riverside, Barley came upon an intact pillar which was the source of the sound. As he approached, he felt uneasy and shivers began running up his back, so he returned to the riverside and told the others what he'd found. Captain Urgosh had the same feeling, so we all continued eastward along the river. Then we came upon a hamlet and found six orcs. Calmer heads did not prevail, so we attacked this group of orcs. Captain Urgosh was killed, George was killed, Shnicel was killed, Barley was nearly killed but we managed to kill four orcs, one of which Barley killed himself. Since he was alone, Barley ran away from the Orcs and returned to town. Timmons, a scribe of Brokenstone, wrote this for Barley, the hobbit, just as he spoke it.
2
04/15/2017
After arriving in town, an old Half-Orc sits in the tavern and have a drink as - much to his surprise - a true blooded Orc enters the tavern. With rough habits he annoyed the barkeep and the half-orc has been suspicious at first but the true orc proved himself to be a loyal fellow to anyone with orcish blood in his veins - at least while drinking at the tavern table.
After a blue scaled fishman-lady entered the tavern as well and the group formed quickly but they recognized the depressed moot in the tavern.
After asking the barkeep he told about a group of adventurers who left hours earlier but no one did return yet - people fear for the worst.
A short coversation made it clear that to prepare for the wilderness, we need some potions of healing so the group visited the local magic-dabbler.
He is not only firm with magic and potions as it seemed, he is also great in stealing the hard earned gold of others thrugh overly high prices so the half-orc convinced him to drop prices a bit if the group reaches out to the forest to pick some fresh ingredients for the potions.
A few hours of marching south we encountered six giant spiders, BEWARE ALL for these beasts dont only bite with heavy poison, they also jump down the trees and pounce on you to push you down.
Some of us got paralysed and dragged away, some others fumbled badly and slipped away in the mud near the river but the blue scaled Achon kept the group alive and together. After this mess of a fight the group moved back to Brokenstone, with a bushel of half the needed ingredients, some poison sacks which have been cut out from the spiders and a battered pride.
Maybe next time we will pull ourself together even more and dont underestimate the wildlife of this godforsaken wilderness.(edited)
04/17/2017
Travelling to the Highlands:
The dark story of how an orc and two humans left for the northern portal. Upon reaching they were greated by the howling of citizens in the Cold Village. hunters warned them and yet they ignored heading towards the Tundra with faces ever so courageous. Many things were described by our survivors, an altar of sacrifice a dying dwarf that he mentions amputating the carcasses private partsd and throwing it at his party memebers. But sadly enough, he describes how his arab friend had his soul absorbed by Will o Wisps, They cremated him and from there on the real adventure. The road back to the village was filled with danger and with the death of their ranger it had become alot more perilous. The orc however had a pale face, not wanting to mention alot of his adventure.....his amputated hand and arm say much as well as his friend lying unconcious behind us with his left ear cut off and a bandage rolled around his head. The orc ends our interview with a closing scentence. "Stay away from the North".
04/27/2017
After ariving in town a group of two deepgnomes, one bugbear, and a human set off due east in search of treasure. Upon finding a group of traveling adventuring elves the rogue decides to murderhobo the group which results in the human and bugbear to die while the deep gnomes run away back to town where they find a fallen assimar and a hobgoblin to go search for the dead bodies. 6 miles to the east and 1.5 miles to the north they come upon the bodies chained to a magical pillar and fail to unchain them (NOTE: do not touch the pillar) and decide to go find easier loot. Upon finding a paper at the bulletin board for finding a party that has disapeared due west, talking to a nearby church they find that the group was carrying a scroll and trying to find a magical oasis. They have been missing for 4-5 weeks now and are a party of 4 warriors. One deep gnome deciding he didnt like the priest attitude, takes a dump on the stairs of the mosque which results in 5 guards filling him with holes and dying. (RIP we won't miss you). Finding Pally, a paladin, they head west and find a magical well that is full of water that cures wounds. Heading towards a nearby mountain range (SW) they find a dead body killed by what the party assumes to be goblins, heading farther sw they come upon a town where they set up camp for the night and are attacked by easily dispatched goblins. Heading into a cave nearby the next day they find a large spidercrab and fuck it up then find a town of kobolds which procede to give them the party a good ass wooping to which we head back to town for some R&R
04/30/2017
In the name of Vecna I was sent to this desolate shitwhole. They told me establishing a church would be easy and that my predecessor did not die in vain, well through rumors of his corpses whereabouts we ventured to the north eastern hamlet occupied by orcs. Our plans were all blown up in our faces as we got surrounded and cornered by a band of unexpected orc scouts. Forced to shamefully flee and drag the body of our unconcious ally, we were met with another band of goblins who shot at us until their hearts content fortunatley my ally was their to pull me up onto a floating disk guided by our wizard and in that we all safely retreated back to town. When will this orc plague be purged, we do not know but until then we sit and we plan our next attack.
05/05/2017
SUNE the goddess that I listen to told me to travel north. On one day I saw in distance a group of friends(I like that word by the way), but when I saw they were fighting I ran as fast as I could but I could only arrive after they finished. Unfortunetly one of them died. So I decided to help and befriend them. We went through the path my dead friend (apparently she was a bird) has set, after a while and going through stone pillars which radiated magic we soon found a huuge canyon but with a weak looking bridge. So I couldn't go through it. But my friend did, when the last one called Vizulk I think started climbing through this line bridge pretty flying ladies with wings came out. But I am smart and I started running with my bird people call "hawk" away. unfortunately again 2 of my friends died falling in search for love the lades eminate with their evil voice. after they went inside the hole we started talking using my bird because one of my friends(not vizulk) was on the other side scouting. When he came back we went through the bridge and we came back to the town with map my now dead friend gave me.
06/05/2017
Varsuk opens his book and writes:
Todays losses:
- one Bird, no more eggs at breakfast from now on
- one rogue
- one brave warrior
Todays discoveries:
- A person on the floor with this sticking out of his body (maybe weapons - we didnt investigate further)
- An old watermill situated at a dried out riverbed, in it we recognized a furry and animal-like looking human
- Forest to the south of this place (has not been visited by our group)
- encountered three Beasts of Ill Omen, we slayed one but the other two made off with our man-bird
- A strange humming stone pillar (didnt investigate this also)
- the grassy area changed to a hilly area which went rocky
- found some old ruins there (didnt invest these any further)
- encountered a huge chasm, roughly 1000 foot wide and it went along left and right as far as we could see
- a bridge hanging over this chasm, it carried us well but beware, Harpys living in the black chasm, they charmed 2 of our men and forced them to walk over the cliff
- a huge mound behind the area of the bridge, the one of us who explored it talked about Goblins, Hobgoblins and one strange looking Goblin moving in there (thats probably also the spot where we are supposed to find the iron ore for the blacksmith)
Varsuks thoughts go back to the dead follwers, his screams echoing in his mind, he closes his books and sighs.(edited)
05/06/2017
the adventure day 2:
After getting through a portal I arrived in recently famous desert.
After looking around the town I went to a designated place to meet other adventurers, it turns out that one of my new friends is made of fire(not to mention his stories). We after arguing decided to go south-west to a cave filled with kobolds. When we were going on road leading south I met 3 orcs who were in need of water. So we gave them some water, they were so grateful that they told us about scorpions that killed others further south and the leader looking orc gave us a bow. After parting ways and going couple of miles while turning right we found a big magic pillar that had aura of all magics with chained bodies. Puni(the dwarf friend) accidentaly touched it with his spear, when he got back to us he looked somewhat inspired. After going for an hour we noticed a camp but I wanted ignore it. About 20 minutes after that we were approached by tartar souce guys they demanded that we give them all food and water along with my friend Puni which they called a slave. But before I could think how to save my skin others (the fire guy) started the fight, fortunately the worst thing that happened was an internal injury Puni got. After killing them we cooked one of the horses because others ran away we rested for hour. Later we decided to check the camp the tatars were probably residing. But it turned out it was not the case, we instead found yuan-ti's. The fight was brutal, puni nearly died but the fire person and Jun died. When we finally killed the snakes we looted their stuff and found couple valuables. We wanted to talk to their prisoners but they were killed earlier. We got back to town safely and sold our loot. I prayed to my fallen friends before heading back to brokentone.(edited)
05/06/2017
Puni grabs a parchment and jots down a correspondence to his old training partner:
My dear friend Strongmite,
My account of the days activities as best I could recall, must begin with a lament, for we have lost two brave yet foolish warriors this day, and many innocent souls as well.
The first went by the name Ignis Firebrand, a strong fighter and beacon of light unto us all who went too deep too quickly and fell behind enemy lines.
The second was a paladin I knew only by the name of Jun who valliantly attempted to rescue Ignis but was too struck down.
We set out from the desert town along the south road where along the way we hailed a group of three orcs who were weary from travel, they told us of scorpions further to the south that slew three of their comrades and I gave them water to last them until they got back to town.
From there we headed west whereby we happened upon a magical standing stone, that upon closer inspection, had been used as a place for sacrifices. Appaled I tried to cut down the elves and their children, but when my spear struck the stone it's magic surged into me and filled me with inspiration.
We continued to the west for a ways, taking note of a camp we passed along the way but when we were nearing our destination we were halted by a group of armed horsemen who thought me a slave. They attempted to coerce us into giving them all our food and water, and that I go with them as their slave. Now you know if it would save the lives of the others I would have done so, but they would not survive the trip back to town with no supplies, so we had a fight on our hands, or not much of a fight at all. We slew the lot of them, 9 in total not counting their horses of which they each had 1, with the worst of it being an internal injury that I sustained.
Though victorious we had taken a few injuries between us, and chose to rest for a while to bandage some wounds. After having done so we made our way back to the camp we saw earlier, thinking that it was where the horsemen had come from, and that we could use it as a respite for the night. however when we got there we found yuan-ti slavers. Here is where Ignis went too deep, and the rest of us followed the flame into battle. it was a hard fought victory, having lost two of our finest men, and I am ashamed to admit that I too had been on the verge of death twice that day. When I fell the battle was nearly won, and when I awoke all was finished. the yuan-ti had killed the people they treated as slaves, two of our men were dead and the yuan-ti lie dead with them. It will be a day too soon if I ever see those sands again.
But enough on that, you must have had your own adventures since I've been away. Tell me about that. And when do you plan to join me out here? This place could do a lot better if it had a personality like you lingering about.
Your brother in all things,
Puni Hammerfist
