Humblewood Recap #4

Humblewood Recap #4 Sunday December 7, 2025 @ 12:00-3:30 P.M.

 

<<WARNING SPOILERS FOR THE HUMBLEWOOD CAMPAIGN: ADVENTURE IN THE WOOD! >>

PART 2: THE BANDIT MENACE

    Eliza requested to come with the party to Alderheart and they agreed. The party went east towards Alderheart. They traveled for a day and rested the night…

    The next day, the party sensed an ambush ahead in the forest as they traveled northeast along the road to Alderheart. Luna rushed ahead and a Jerbeen thief and four Mapach bandits jumped out of the bushes. They demanded 3 gold each for safe passage through the Humblewood.

    Quilliam asked them, “Where are your papers?”

    The Jerbeen responded with, “I don’t need paper; I have steel.” He drew his dagger as proof of this.

    Luna drew her battle-axe saying, “I have steel of my own. Luna charged in with her axe and beheaded a Mapach bandit.

    Quilliam cast Entangle and restrained one of the Mapach bandits. The Mapach bandit struggled but couldn’t break free. Quilliam cast Shillelagh as a bonus action on his staff.

[Note that you cannot do this by RAW. RAW states the leveled spell must be the bonus action and the cast cantrip is a standard action. I feel that as long as one of them is a cantrip, it is fine, so the reverse is also ok.]

    The other two Mapach bandits attacked Luna and Zivvy. Luna was stabbed by the Mapach’s short sword. Zivvy dodged out of the way barely. 

    The Jerbeen thief tried to move towards Luna but the restricting vines hampered his movement. He flanked Zivvy and stabbed her in the back twice. The Jerbeen thief instructed the Mapach bandit on where to attack Zivvy next.

   Zivvy knowing she was about to be attacked cast Gust Barrier.

   Lucian leaned against the cart and watched. Eliza hid under the cart.

        

   Luna chopped into the Mapach bandit’s gut and he was disemboweled.

   Quilliam flanked with Zivvy and hit the Jerbeen Thief with his staff.

   The entangled Mapach bandit struggled again to no avail. The other Mapach bandit attacked Zivvy and missed. The Gust Barrier threw him back 10 feet and knocked him prone.

    The Jerbeen thief attacked Quilliam but missed.

    Zivvy hit the Jerbeen thief with her rapier in the kidney, skewering it out of his body.

 

   Luna moved through the vines and hit the entangled Mapach bandit. This loosened the vines restraining him and he managed to escape the entanglement.

   Quilliam bashed the Mapach bandit on the ground in the face.

   The Mapach bandit got up, shaking his head, bleeding from his obviously broken nose. He made a wild swing at Quilliam with his short sword but Quilliam blocked it with his shield.

   Zivvy lunged at the bandit with her rapier and stabbed him in the ribs. He gasped his last breath and dropped to the ground.

 

    Luna slashed the last Mapach bandit with her battle-axe, leaving an X-shaped wound in his chest.

    The party found 110 silver pieces on the bandits. The party took a long rest and continued towards Alderheart.

    On the next day, Quilliam and Lucius managed to gather and hunt enough food and water to feed Luna and Zivvy as well.

 

 

     The party finally managed to reach Alderheart. The party made their way to the Canopy Market where Eliza said she would find a place to set up shop. Quilliam went to the bookbindery and found a book about sleep potions for 1 gold piece. Lucius picked a pocket for 10 platinum pieces. Zivvy put an Efficient Quiver on layaway for 30 gold from Eliza. Luna wandered around admiring the sights and sounds of Alderheart’s market.

     Zivvy went to the Underfall to find some poison. She found a seedy dealer who sold her a vial of basic poison for 90 gold. She was then accosted by a big Jerbeen youth and three Jerbeen children. They wanted Zivvy’s money. Zivvy refused and said she had no money. So, they picked her pocket of the vial of basic poison she had purchased. They sold it back to the seedy dealer for 50 gold pieces in return.

   Zivvy went back to the market and found out she had been victimized. So, she went back to the Underfall and tracked the four Jerbeen kids down. She demanded her vial of basic poison back. The big Jerbeen child told her that they had already sold it. So Zivvy demanded her money back. They refused. Zivvy cast Sleep and put three of the kids to sleep. The big kid woke up one of the smaller ones with a help action, then stabbed Zivvy twice with daggers.

   Zivvy cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, forcing the big Jerbeen kid to fall to the floor laughing about how they had stolen from her. The remaining kid stabbed her with a dagger but she made the concentration check on Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. She used Charm Person on the last kid and set him in front of the doorway to stop them from leaving. She stole back her 50 gold pieces and grabbed their weapons (5 daggers, 4 slings). She would later sell them to Eliza for 5 gold pieces. Zivvy ran away. Unfortunately, she didn’t have enough time to search the hovel, where they had many holdout weapons hidden (extra daggers, slings, and pouches with pebbles).

      Luna searched for Zivvy when she realized she was missing. She found her on the stairs near the entrance to the Bright Hollows. Zivvy told her the situation. Luna insisted on being brought to the children. In their hovel in the Underfall, one boy was punching the other three children to prevent them from leaving. “Billy, stop attacking us!”

      Zivvy said she would go get the party and tell the authorities. So, she left to go to the Canopy Market to find Lucius and Quilliam. They then went to the Council Plaza where the Perch Guard were headquartered.

    When the Charm Person ended, Billy ran inside the Hovel and punched the last kid who hit him. The three Jerbeen kids used their slings to pelt Luna with rocks and goad her into the room. Luna reversed her battle-axe to the staff side and charged into the room. She hit the biggest Jerbeen with the handle. The four Jerbeen thieves flanked her from two directions and stabbed with their daggers.

     Luna tried to persuade them to stop for 5 gold. She rolled a 12 but unfortunately the difficulty was 14. Luna grabbed the biggest kid and raised him to the ceiling of the hovel. The three other kids stabbed at her. One of them killed the big Jerbeen kid by accident.

    Luna’s last act was to gently put the big Jerbeen child down on the ground just before the other kids knocked her out. They left her bleeding out of multiple stab wounds. They stole her gold and small objects and ran. Luna died of blood loss in the hovel.

   Meanwhile, the Perch Guard told the party that the four Jerbeen children were already wanted for misdeeds by Magistrate Gregor Thornspur. Zivvy showed them the hovel where they found Luna and the ringleader Jerbeen dead with Luna’s body laying over the Jerbeen. Lucius grabbed Luna’s longbow, quiver and arrows, and rapier.

   Lucius led the Perch Guard to the three Jerbeen children who were beaten with clubs and taken into custody. 

   The party grabbed Luna’s body. They took it outside Alderheart. Zivvy made a shovel with her tinkerer ability. They buried Luna in the earth as according to Hanera, a lawful good goddess of hearth, whom the party assumed she had faith towards.  

   The party headed back up to the Council Plaza and presented their letters of recommendation from Walden Krane to the guards. They then waited a long time for their petition to be heard by the Birdfolk Council led by a bright Gallus called Bita, the Council Speaker. The party related the destruction of Ashbarrow, the bandit problems of Meadowfen, and the increasing burning of the wood by migrating Emberbats. The Birdfolk Council would mull over what they had said and would consider sending supplies to Meadowfen. Perhaps after the Bandit problem was dealt with.

    The party spent 1 gold piece each and took a Long Rest. In the middle of the night, the north gate was attacked by bandits. The party woke up and ran to the north gate. They made it onto the wooden palisade and saw dozens of Mapach bandits, Jerbeen thieves, and a few Vulpin captains leading them as they robbed a merchant caravan and attacked the Perch Guard, merchants, and civilians alike. Quilliam cast Fog Cloud to help the citizens escape. Zivvy missed a hand crossbow attack. Lucius shot a Vulpin captain with Luna’s longbow. The Vulpin captain signaled a retreat and they began an orderly withdrawal. The Perch Guards used the Fog Cloud as cover to mount a counteroffensive and drive them back. Routed, the bandits fled.

      Quilliam helped to heal the injured. The Perch Guard officer had a rousing speech and inspired the party, civilians, and guards to chase after the bandits…

  

   

Humblewood Recap #3

Humblewood Recap #3 Sunday November 23, 2025 @ 11:00-2:30 P.M.

 

<<WARNING SPOILERS FOR THE HUMBLEWOOD CAMPAIGN: ADVENTURE IN THE WOOD! >>

PART 1: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

   After thirty minutes of traveling, the party arrived at the large cavern that was 60 feet x 60 feet wide and 30 feet tall. On the other side of the cavern were three cave exits. One was large-sized, one was medium-sized, and one was very small in size. The party entered the large cavern…

      As the party moved forward, two slimes unstuck from the ceiling and dropped down at Lucius and Luna, but they both managed to dodge out of the way at the last second. Zivvy saw a skeleton stuck to the west wall with 20 arrowheads scattered around it. Quilliam saw a female dusk Corvum with green eyes stuck to the east wall. Quilliam managed to free her from the wall.

     The female dusk Corvum asked for samples of the living sticky slimes and pulled out two vials from her pockets. Zivvy cast Mage Hand twice and used the hand of force to collect sticky slime and place it in two of the vials. The female dusk Corvum stowed the two full flasks and produced another empty flask.

    Meanwhile, Lucius swung his short sword at the right sticky slime and it got stuck. The sticky slime struck back at Lucius with a sticky pseudopod and wounded him. Luna swung her axe and hit the left sticky slime but managed to free her axe.

    Quilliam cast Thunderclap. This hurt the sticky slimes and knocked out Lucius. The female dusk Corvum dodged out of way. The sticky slimes missed their attacks. Lucius failed a death check having a vision of himself dead in the same cart with Lucien. Luna swung her axe and hit the left sticky slime but managed to free her axe again.

   Quilliam gave Lucius a Healing Potion. Lucius got up and failed to free his short sword. Zivvy cast Mage Hand and unstuck the short sword and placed it in Lucius’ hand. The sticky slimes missed their attacks.

   Quilliam cast Thunderclap and the right sticky slime melted into a gooey and gluey puddle. Lucius hit the remaining sticky slime, but got his sword stuck again. Zivvy used Mage Hand to fill the last empty vial for the female dusk Corvum. The sticky slime missed Luna. Luna swung her axe and struck down the last sticky slime.

   Zivvy used Mage Hand to help Lucius get his short sword back. The female dusk Corvum introduced herself as Kenna Brightspark, a slime researcher from Winnowing Reach. She had come to the Mokkden Caverns looking for a special rare type of slime, much less common than the acidic and sticky varieties the party had already seen. She said it had been spotted deeper in the cave. Lucius collected the twenty arrowheads. He also found a brass magnifying glass inside one of the sticky slimes. The party saw three exits up ahead. The first one was a single corridor to the left, the second one a double corridor in the middle, and the last one a small corridor.

     Zivvy found a dead end at the back of the corridor on the left. Luna found struts barely holding up rocky debris at the top of the ceiling in the middle corridor. Quilliam walked into the smaller corridor and found it linked to the middle corridor and went further into the cavern.

     The party squeezed through the smaller passage on the right and used it to proceed further into the Mokkden Caverns.

     Thirty minutes later, they came upon an area with bioluminescent walls, fortunate timing as Quilliam’s torch extinguished. The party found four slimes in the next room, three of them sticky slimes, but the last a large iridescent color. Kenna’s eyes went wide and her jaw slacked. She produced two more empty vials and pointed at the new slime.

     Luna ran in and managed to not get stuck in the slimy trails left behind by the sticky slimes. She sliced the large iridescent slime in half with her axe and it split into two medium-sized slimes. Zivvy cast sleep, which made Luna and one of the iridescent slimes go unconscious. The sticky slimes maneuvered toward Luna. Lucius used stealth to hide. Quilliam moved forward and cast Thunderclap. This damaged a sticky slime and a shifting slime, but fortunately didn’t wake the slumbering shifting slime. The shifting slimes changed to a vibrant yellow color. The other shifting slime hit Luna with an acidic tendril that also grappled her.

      Luna managed to break free of the grapple. Zivvy shot her hand crossbow and hit one of the sticky slimes approaching Luna. The sticky slimes attacked, hitting Quilliam and Luna with their pseudopods. Lucius moved ahead of Zivvy and fired his bow at the shifting slime. The conscious shifting slime collapsed into a pool of acid. Quilliam cast Shillelagh and used his staff to bash the sticky slime that had struck him.  The shifting slime slumbered. Kenna Brightspark surged forward past the sticky slime trails, determined to get the shifting slime goo before it was slain.

     Luna slashed with her axe and took out a sticky slime. She managed to pull her axe free of its sticky body. Zivvy cast Mage Hand, and filled up one of Kenna’s vials. The shifting slime woke up. The sticky slimes missed their attacks on Luna and Quilliam. Lucius ran past the sticky slime trails and delivered a sneak attack with his short sword. The slime died, but his short sword was stuck in the puddle of its remains. Quilliam bashed the shifting slime with his staff. The shifting slime changed to a clear, translucent color. The shifting slime attacked Quilliam but missed. Kenna stowed the full vial and brought out an empty vial.

    Luna slashed with her axe and took out the last sticky slime but her axe was stuck in the puddle of its remains. Zivvy cast Mage Hand, and filled up one of Kenna’s vials. Lucius tried to pull his short sword out but failed. Quilliam tried to use his hands to fill his empty vial but found out that the shifting slime was surrounded in sticky, acidic goo. His hand was caustically burned and he was stuck to the shifting slime. The shifting slime hit Quilliam by extending its tendrils over his stuck hand.

    Luna retrieved her axe. Zivvy cast Mage Hand, and filled up the last of Kenna’s vials. Lucius took out his dagger and stabbed the shifting slime. It released Quilliam as it retreated into a pool of clear acid. Lucius grabbed a golden and bronze spherical trinket from the shifting slime’s body.

     Zivvy used her tinkering to make another torch and the party made their way towards the entrance of the Mokkden Caverns, retracing their steps to leave the cave.

     Once they were outside in the Mokk Fields, Lucius attuned to the trinket he had found. He planted it in the ground, and it became a magical tree with a platform 50 feet in the air that served as a perch and place of safety where the party could take a long rest. Lucius used the tree and some feathers he had found to make fletching and shafts for the twenty arrowheads he had found in the cave.

    The party returned to the Winnowing Reach the next day. The party went to the Magistrate’s Office. Kenna showed Magistrate Walden Krane her collection of slime specimens proudly. This was enough proof for the Magistrate to give the party 5 gold pieces each for defeating slimes. The Magistrate thanked them for returning Kenna to the Winnowing Reach safely. He told them to return to his office next morning for their next mission.

     Quilliam bought some more reagents for a Healing Potion for 25 gold at the apothecary and a new book from the bookbindery for 1 gold. The party rested at The Wrangler’s Rest for 1 gold piece. Quilliam made a Healing Potion.

     The next day, Magistrate Walden Krane met with the party in secret and discussed their next mission. He wanted them to kill Susan of the Swamp, a witch consorting with dark forces within the Mokk Fields. He wanted her demonic amulet as proof of them having done the deed. The party negotiated a reward of 7 gold pieces each and Lucius demanded a short bow and quiver.

      The party wandered into the Mokk Fields and found Susan’s hut by the afternoon. They knocked on Susan’s door and she answered it. She let them inside and she explained she was working on a magical ritual. The party explained that they had been hired to kill her by the Magistrate of Winnowing Reach. They needed her demonic amulet as proof of her death. Susan played her ocarina which did not seem to be a demonic amulet. The party and Susan made a deal. The party would collect reagents from the swamp for her ritual and she would give them her ocarina as proof of her “death”.

     The party headed to the swamp and split into two groups. Zivvy and Lucius looked for herbs and Quilliam and Luna looked for frogs. Zivvy and Lucius found a bull-rush root, a small scale, and a muck covered feather before they found the appropriate herbs. Quilliam and Luna managed to catch one small frog, but found a bull-rush root, a lizard tail, and a feather in the wake of the fleeing frogs.

     Suddenly, a giant frog erupted from the muck. Quilliam cast Shillelagh and bashed the giant frog. The giant frog missed with its bite against Quilliam. Luna chopped out the giant frog’s spleen with a clean cut of her axe. Zivvy and Lucius arrived in time to see the giant frog fall.

     The party of four grabbed the giant frog spleen and returned to Susan’s hut.

    Susan was thrilled at seeing the giant frog spleen. She split it into a portion for the ritual and placed the rest into vials.

    Susan performed the ritual and summoned a lesser demon. She badgered it with questions and it seemed confused and then became enraged. It attacked her, and she curled up into a defensive ball of spikes. The lesser demon attacked her again and it fell on her spikes…twice! Quilliam cast Veil of Dusk on Lucius. Then Lucius delivered a vicious sneak attack with his short bow and shot the imp in its spleen in the back.

   Susan was confused why the ritual failed. She was happy for the party’s help with everything. She gave them two Healing Potions and her ocarina. She told them about how to make certain potions and that she could make them if they had the right ingredients on them for 1 gold piece. They had the ingredients for a Potion of Animal Friendship but declined. She also told them she was going to be moving to Alderheart since she was “dead”.

     The party returned to the Winnowing Reach. Zivvy used deception and the demonic amulet to fake Susan’s demise. The party received 7 gold and a letter of introduction each from Magistrate Walden Krane.

    The party rested the night at The Wrangler’s Rest for 1 gold.

    Eliza requested to come with the party to Alderheart and they agreed. The party went east towards Alderheart. They traveled for a day and rested the night…

[End of session.]