Over the past year or so, the five of you have had the luxury of being gainfully employed by Runa Hildrsdottir. Primarily escorting various packages to and from Lepidstadt University at the behest of Professor Petros Lorrimor. Occasionally this would be broken up with a search of some ruin or another to confirm or copy specific carvings and deliver the results.


A few days ago, Runa came to you at The Lighthouse, the inn run by Samara's family. She offered a chance to find and explore a ruin rumored to be north of Lepidstadt in the swamps along the border. If you are able to find this ruin, you are discern whether or not it belonged to a sorcerer named Voran Earthmane. You are take meticulous notes of anything interesting, bring back any and all artifacts you may find, and properly sketch out the ruins noting where any artifacts were found. Runa emphasized the importance of doing a proper archaeological survey as it will be tied to your pay.


There is a small village in the region called Avelton. If the information the professor has discovered this far is true, then the ruins should be within a day or so of it. The region is dangerous, of course, particularly since it it lies on the border with the Realms of the Mammoth Lords and near the Tusk Mountains, the Shudderwood, and the Worldwound, just for good measure.



Accepting the job is a foregone conclusion, the opportunity to find and survey a ruin, without supervision is nearly impossible to resist. By the next morning, you've packed your gear, said your goodbyes and set out to Avelton. The short journey was rather uneventful, if not terribly easy, the marshlands of the western edge of the Shudderwoods are notoriously finicky. Even in the chill of middle autumn the stagnant pools waiting for the winter rains are filled with buzzing insects of various levels of vampiric natures. Game is plentiful so no rations were wasted during the few days you were journeying and on the late morning of the 31st of Lamashan you find yourselves arriving at the outskirts of Avelton as the early mists are beginning to burn off.

As you pass the outer orchards, you spot the locals working to harvest the heavily laden fruit. As is custom in Ustalav, they stop what they are doing and stare, silent as the suspicion of outsiders becomes palpable. Children are quick to hide behind and adult or are shuffled off out of view, those who were using tools tighten grips until you pass.

Avelton is a small collection of homes alongside a stream that turns a water wheel for the mill. A smithy stands nearby, downstream from the mill. In the village’s center stands a temple to Pharasma, freshly painted and kept in good repair. Not far from it is a comfortable-looking inn and public house that, given the lack of travelers in this region, likely serves the villagers who live in the dozen or so red-roofed, wooden homes that comprise the rest of the buildings. The community would appear idyllic, if not for the fact that all the shutters are closed up tight and not a soul moves about, in Ustalavic tradition of welcoming outsiders.

Vostiun silently nodded to the nervous farmers as they passed as is the traditional Ustalav greeting of strangers. He starts to readjust his pack and stretch as the enter the town proper. "They take their apples seriously here. I'm going to pick up some cider but we should probably keep out of their orchards to avoid a fuss."

As they pass the temple of Pharasma Vostiun makes a gesture that is part warding and part reverential.

"Do you want to go ahead and check out the tavern?"

In reply to Vostiun Hephaurio (msg # 2):

Kon nods and crudely mimics the unfamiliar gesture in kind toward the temple, ending with paired hands and a bow for his own part.

"I can take your things with me to the tavern."

Turning back to the others, he gives a half-hearted smile, "Come on, let's see if the staff are as friendly as the rest of the people."