The Road to Arborro (TF005)

“The Road to Arborro” is the fifth session of the Team 3.5 campaign. After finally getting Dimshade into something resembling order, the newly minted Team 3.5 adventuring party set out on the lead that the Imperial Princess gave them, about something involving an infestation in the town of Crusene. This session serves as the beginning of the second arc of the campaign.

= Synopsis =

Abralis 3
Lemmy guided Aine and Lath to the Careless Bells, where he requested a chance to watch Orla work part of her shift. Orla, immediately worried that Lemmy was here about Mortiferous Ensemble business, was relieved, and more than happy to show Lemmy the ropes. After a bit, Lemmy got up on stage himself. Drawing out music from himself, he put on a very good performance, what with it really being his first outing doing such a thing. Orla did reiterate what she said before: he was to find Oric in Hazelheim to the north, and he could potentially help.

On their way out of town, the Team bought a pair of horses and a cart off of an elderly borean farmer. Named Sheila and Mike, the two horses helped propel the group out of Dimshade proper and into the wider world around them for the first time as a party.

Abralis 4
Throughout the day, Lath clocked and alerted the group to a black speck circling the sky above them. At the end of the day, the party finally figured out what it was. Out gathering wood, one of the party came across the hippogriff, covered in tatters of what clearly was once Empire regalia. Leading it back to camp, Lemmy began conversing with it using magic. It’s simplistic mind got the point across that it had gotten loose during a big storm and was now hopeless lost to find it’s way back. Sheila and Mike were also not feeling the hippogriff in a major way, but they were placated by the presence of oats. Clearly establishing the hippogriff was domesticated, they provided a place for it at their fire.

Abralis 5
Lath was leading ahead a bit this day, which led him to discover something on the road: a burnished locket, with the words “We’ll always have Dunner’s Creek” carved onto the back. The hinge was rusted shut, so Lath pocketed it rather than forcing it open, keeping it secret from the rest of the party.

The hippogriff kept pace with them in the sky, occasionally landing to feast on some manner of woodland creature.

Abralis 6
Miles before making it to the Fort, the hippogriff sped off.

Upon arriving at Fort Dunhill proper. A bored looking half-elf by the name of Artur Castille checked them in under Team 3.5, noting the composition of the party as “human, dragonborn, and… construct thing”. His placid demeanor woke up when he realized they had not only found their missing hippogriff, but had actually managed to get it to come back.

Fully checked in, the party stopped at the Fort for the night. They wandered into a local tavern, What Ales You, where they saw the proprietor, Andry, kicking out a drunk, off duty Divergent Legion soldier. Aine immediately offered to take care of any issues; Andry, flattered, stated she knew how to handle off-duty layabouts. She did take up Aine’s offer to help clean up the mess the soldier made, however.

Abralis 7
Their first day out of Fort Dunhill was a rough one: a wagon tipper of a thunderstorm blew through the Avonstead, necessitating an early stop for the day. They hunkered down on the side of the road, stuck as the storm raged until the sun had already set.

Abralis 8
This next day was spent making up for lost time, and also trying to wring out clothing. The day was overcast and humid as all get out, making for a pretty miserable day out on the road. Nothing else much happened: just three soaked adventurers trying to beat the heat.

Abralis 9
As if Areus herself was smiling down on Team 3.5, the cloud cover broke the next day as they emerged from the Avonstead Forest, finding themselves in front of a massive field of sunflowers. Aine, on Sheila, immediately took off into the field, as Lemmy and Lath continued on the cart. As they passed under the wooden archway on the road, they were bade welcome into Arborro, a religious community dedicated to the goddess of love, Kotune, and famous for the Paramour Fields.

= Featured characters =

Player characters

 * Aine Solana
 * Glath ahn Latha
 * Lemmy

Non-player characters

 * Artur Castille: male half-elf bored checkpoint officer of the Divergent Legion, stationed in Fort Dunhill
 * Orla Raulnor: female gnome bard, employed at the Careless Bells in Dimshade
 * Andry Swiftwhistle: female halfling, owner of What Ales you in Fort Dunhill
 * Ruggi: hippogriff, belongs to the Divergent Legion

= Trivia =


 * This is the first session that has the PCs of Team 3.5 leaving Dimshade
 * This serves as the first time Kotune has ever been mentioned in any campaign.  Kotune fills the niche left behind by Sune when the world fully left behind any Forgotten Realms lore or gods.
 * As a result, Kalani, an acolyte of Sune, has now been retconned into an acolyte of Kotune.