Encounters in the Wilderness

Giant Snowy Owl

Today was session #2 of the Aeternal Realm of Sylvaeon campaign. The party is made up elves and humans: two chivalric Paladins of the Order of the White Rose, a brain-addled but resourceful Mage of the Hermetic Order of Wizardry, A skillful and deadly Sword Sister and a cunning Ranger/Thief.

Being inducted as recruit Wardens in the first session, with fanfare at a celebration located in the village of Arrowmouth, the recruits received their marking as a Warden - the Glyph of the Silver Moon. This was placed upon their hand by the Druid Mellion at their swearing in ceremony.

The PCs left Arrowmouth the next day, traveling roughly Northwest, by the old road that follows the Broken Arrow River. Making camp for the night, the party built a sturdy, large lean-to shelter and a fire to protect them from the freezing Winter elements. After a bit, they heard a hooting noise in a nearby oak tree. The Huge round eyes, reflected in the firelight, were seen in the tree....

As the clouds parted some, partial moonlight revealed the silhouette of a large bird-like figure in the tree. The ranger, Oban,  knocked an arrow as the sword sister lit a lanterns for better illumination. The creature spoke, asking the ranger to please not shoot it as the lantern reveal a giant snowy owl in the branches of the oak. The creature introduced itself and said that it had seen their fire, so it knew they were there. Mistaking all of the adventurers as "Parcifal"s, because the male elven paladin introduced himself first, but the bird quickly learned that they all were named differently, which amused him. Smyrynel, the female elven Paladin, tried to read the birds aura, which was somewhat hidden to her for some reason, but she did see a bluish-white aura and felt no malice from the bird. After some banter, in which the snowy owl said it was sent to tell them something, but could not remember, a howling was heard in the night. This jogged the memory of the bird, who said that he now remembered that the Dark Wolves were coming to waylay the adventurers journey to the Warden outpost.

malevolent Dark Wolf

As the beasts were crossing the river to the PCs by leaping across on boulders in the water, Kelvin, the magic user put two to sleep and they fell in and drowned in the rough-flowing river. After a vicious battle, in which three wolves of the pack were slain (the Alpha almost becoming another!) the Dark Wolves were routed. The Paladins and the Ranger took some severe bites. The mage used fire to hold a wolf at bay and the sword sister, Airyka, showed her prowess, along with the other fighting types, in cutting wolves into several pieces. The pack howled off into the darkness, but as the leader left, it spoke in a foul voice, telling one of the paladins that he would slay him yet!

The owl had been hurt badly by one of the wolves, as it tried to intervene between one of the PCs that was trying to bravely help another. The paladins healed the bird a bit and it showed them a power of the Warden glyph: he instructed the hurt PCs to raise the glyph to the moonlight and beams shone to their palms from the orb. Within a short time, the PCs were completely healed of their wolf wounds. The owl took his leave, saying he had been called elsewhere to serve.

The PCs placed 2 more small watchfires around the camp and as they were doing so, they found a moderate-sized stele on the far side of the oak tree, facing the river. The elves of the group were confused, as the carved runes on it was very similar to their own, but it seemed like an ancient variant, by the looks of this weathered stone.  There was a battle scene on the stone, depicting humans and elves joined against dark wolves and goblinoids - something vaguely similar to the recent encounter, minus the goblin-creatures. The mage a took a rubbing of the stele with parchment. After searching around the stele, two ancient elven arrowheads were found. They were made of an unknown silver metal and were not tarnished after perhaps many centuries of lying upon this battlefield.

After an eventless rest of the night, the sun rose on a clear day. The temperature was just above freezing that morn. Breaking camp, the party continued on the next leg of the journey along the river road to an isolated inn on their way to the Warden wilderness outpost...

(more later)