Return to Nauem

We return to our fledgling heroes in the aftermath of a savaging by a band of Kotopoio (one of the many definitely evil bird-like species we have encountered so far). It was the middle of the night, and so we went back to sleep in order to recover and heal wounds; fortunately no more attacks came our way. The next morning, with Fenn's spiritual tank all filled up, he was able to restore poor Orwin to full health.

Buoyed by the return of our party member from near-death, we decided to carve up some Kotopoio meat and start a fire to feast on their presumably chickeny flesh. This is where we made a critical error, since to get firewood, Orwin went into the nearby forest and was immediately set upon by two Cornix! He quickly lost all sense of himself in the midst of the screeching psychic attacks of these dread flyers, and fell down on the ground, near once again to death's door. The party rushed to his aid and were able to injure one of the birds, whereupon they retreated deeper into the forest. Relying once again on Fenn's healing prayer, Orwin was brought back from the brink of death and we fled hastily from the forest, having learned the apparently cardinal rule of this world: DO NOT GO INTO THE WOODS!

Thankfully this was the last injurious encounter on the way to Nauem, where we faced another kind of problem in our attempt to return to the Kydemones Academy for further instruction: Nauem appeared to be about to boil over with some kind of pagan populist uprising. Being associated with Kydemones and the D'murge Pantheon, we couldn't risk going through the front gate anymore. Luckily, Evendur had secret knowledge of a hidden entryway and we were able to make our way through the city to the Academy, where we were welcomed by the sisters there.

At this point the party took care of personal business (some of which was quite secretive, I must say) while awaiting our audience with Lady Tarala, mistress of the Academy. Our meeting with her was informative; Nauem was indeed, as we had heard, a powder keg. Tarala feared for the safety of those in the Academy and requested our help in devising a way to secret out as many of the more vulnerable members as possible, preferably to a safe house further South (for there had been ill omens and dreams of horrors arising in the North).

It was to our surprise then, when at breakfast the next morning, a mysterious woman and her sister intruded upon our planning session, saying they had come from the South and that no hope for escape was to be found there, and asking us to take the escapees North with them instead. The suspicions of the party were immediately raised, not least because the woman seemed to know our purpose. While we were mostly of one mind to overtly thank the women and then seek our own council once we were in private, Orwin once again displayed a fair amount of his "deal" by first attempting to flirt with one of the women, and then (loudly and publicly) proclaiming that we should kill them on the basis that they were obviously up to no good.

And so, dear reader, we regret to inform you that we have no answer to the Orwin question as of yet. We'll all have to wait until next time to figure out just how the party intends to escort a bunch of vulnerable Kydemones folk to safety, and whether Orwin gets arrested for attempted murder by any local authorities along the way!