Cue awesome training montage.
Day 1: Due to the remoteness of Danton Mills it takes considerable time and money to procure the reagents necessary for Finnious’ training. 4200+ gold pieces are spent to obtain said materials as well as the ingredients for the creation of magical ink and Finnious believes it will take him upwards of 22 days to complete the training itself.
The local herbalist is jubilant though and agrees to train Mr. Trommer in the arts of herb lore and wound binding.
Friedrich finds a shady spot and begins work to attain a state of perfect oneness with his axe. The villagers take to calling him “the dwarf who casts no shadow” and word spreads quickly about the oddity.
Friedrich finds that animals cannot abide his presence: cats hiss, dogs bark and horses shy away from him.
Marcus spends his time hammering Colby around a make-shift sparring ground with the flat of his broadsword. He is not particularly gentle and his mood grows fouler by the day.
Paavo begins training with Father Mick, learning how to call upon his faith to quell the restless dead. They take Sundays off. He commissions a local woodcarver to craft him two ironwood holy symbols of Ukko at the cost of 60GP. He also calls upon Ukko to remove the affliction plaguing Mr. Trommer.
Day 2: More of the same. Ser Derwood and his doughty young men depart.
Day 3: More of the same. Helmut and company return from their logging camp, laden with fresh cut timber.
Construction begins on several new buildings around town, as well as a palisade wall.
Day 4: (Sunday!) Paavo finds himself without anything to do.
Mr. Trommer completes his crash course in herbalism.
Day 5: Finnious finishes his studies of the arcane treatise and completes the mini-quiz at the end of each chapter, gaining an understanding of planar pathways, ley lines and points of power. (And 5000XP.) He recognizes the Warlock Stone as one such place.
A restless Mr. Trommer sets off for a couple days to find bind wounds treatments and escape the confines of civilization.
Day 6: Finnious identifies the mace “Shieldbreaker.”
Day 7: Finnious identifies the dagger “Soulsink.”
A group of pilgrims arrive from Cinderham-on-the-Moors to gape and gawk at “the dwarf who casts no shadow.” They take up residence in town.
Day 8: Finnious identifies the horn of sounding.
Marcus declares the bruised and battered Colby “barely competent” as a broadsword wielder and stalks off. Mr. Trommer returns somewhat disgruntled with only
1d12=3 bind wound treatments.
Day 9: Finnious sequesters himself away to train.
Colby is without anything to do until Day 13.
Ser Derwood and his band return from a circuit of the moors. The ranger reports the following:
Word from the north is that the siege at Hadraith Tor continues as expected. The place is all but impregnable; a garrison of ten men could hold it for months. Must’ve been some treachery what took Ser Larchmont. Or magick. The Baron has dispatched Ser Ambrose of the Enchanted Sword to relieve Ser Reese and is calling on his vassals to raise their levies. War is brewing.
Something strange is going on in Cinderham-on-the-Moors: once the bridges were regularly decorated with garlands of flowers and lanterns were hung along their length. They were a popular place to pledge one’s troth, but recently the Abbott did away with that kind of business. Something is different about him.
The Forest of Night is wicked as ever and, disturbingly, seems to be creeping slowly beyond its normal boundaries.Day 10: Ser Derwood and his band depart, bearing a letter from Paavo to the Sherriff of Devonshire detailing the goings-on at the Warlock Stone.
Marcus goes with them, indicating that he is bound northward, as he won’t spend his last remaining days rotting in this backwater burg waiting for Death to find him. He also complains bitterly about the sale of his ruby belt which he felt certain you would return to him after that adventure in the Forest of Night where he saved all your miserable hides.
Day 11: (Sunday!) An increasingly restless Mr. Trommer again sets off for a couple days to find bind wounds treatments and escape the confines of civilization.
Day 12: Paavo finishes his training with Father Mick,
at which time the good father implores Paavo to use his new-found abilities to put to rest the shade of Damned John O’Crewet and end the evil plaguing Dunder Downs once and for all.Helmut and Co. head back out across the moors to their camp at the outskirts of the Hundred Thousand Oaks.
Day 13: A cow is found savagely mutilated, one panicked villager reports sighting a howling beast that walked like a man out on the moors the night before. Paavo begins training Colby in the use of the dagger. It goes much better than Marcus’ instruction.
Day 14: Mr. Trommer returns, looking somewhat worse-for-wear, but totally laden with bind wound treatments:
1d12=12Day 15: Work proceeds apace on the new construction in town. The palisade wall is half-built. More folk arrive to glimpse “the dwarf who casts no shadow.”
Day 16: Uneventful.
Day 17: Bored, Mr. Trommer again sets off for a couple days to find bind wounds treatments and escape the confines of civilization.
Day 18: (Sunday!) Uneventful.
Day 19: Mr. Trommer returns with
1d12=10 bind wound treatments.
Day 20: Friedrich finishes his exhaustive training, double-specialized in axe. He has nothing to do until Day 30.
Day 21: Ser Derwood and his doughty young men return with a letter for Paavo from the Sherriff of Devonshire.
Paavo of Willowsby,
I have received your letter and its contents trouble me greatly. The Forest of Night has ever been a blight on the fair land of Aldagmor, and whatever vile sorceries these cultists have perpetrated at the Warlock Stone can only bode ill for the realm. It is most regrettable that you were unable to stop this ritual – still, know that your efforts do not go unnoticed. I have personally written to the Baron of Aldagmor on your behalf, citing heroism and valor in the face of unconquerable evil. Additionally, I have shared this missive with Lord Sherlane and the Abbot Bryce -- who was most distressed over the loss of poor Brother Lewis.
May you walk in the Lord’s grace,
Ser Eldon Graves
Sherriff of Devonshire Day 22: Ser Derwood and his men depart. Colby finds himself proficient in dagger. He goes off in search of Finnious, hoping to glean some understanding of magicks. (dual-class)
Paavo takes up the mace.
Day 23: Kalanos the river boatman arrives from Misha’s Ferry with a passenger. The man, Stephan by name, is acting on behalf of his brother Pyotr, who owns Suskyn, a prosperous homestead on the edge of the Great Eastern Forest. Pyotr's clan make their living by catching and breaking wild horses from the nearby moors and recently had the good fortune to capture a small herd of pure white horses. These will soon (2 weeks) be ready for sale at Elvallie, where it is hoped that the elves there will pay a high price for them, as the white horse is the symbol of their tribe. Pyotr needs a few guards to ensure that the horses arrive safely at Elvallie, Stephan offers l00gp each to any who will help him, and considerably more valuable, a trained warhorse as well.
Day 24: Once more, Mr. Trommer sets off for a couple days to find bind wounds treatments and escape the confines of civilization. It’s a ranger thing.
Helmut and his logging crew return, with even more timber.
Day 25: (Sunday!) Uneventful.
Day 26: Mr. Trommer returns with
1d12=3 bind wound treatments. (28 total)
Day 27: Uneventful.
Day 28: Uneventful.
Day 29: Paavo deems himself proficient in the use of the mace.
Day 30: Finnious emerges, his training complete, as a master of the 2nd circle. The palisade wall nears completion.