Last time on the Adventures of Team BAJA, the party got their affairs in order for the next portion of their adventure via a caravan up the trade town of Rivergreen, north of Illinathar. The trip proved uneventful, until they neared the town and were attacked by banshees. Victims of foul play, their spirits haunted the nearby town in the search of vengeance. The party fended off against the apparitions, through their battle, the dark power within Aydan surfaced and quickly dealt with the pair of spirits. The party now seeks to unearth the deeper mysteries latent in the town of Rivergreen.

The next morning, the caravan arrived into the town of Rivergreen. It was a bustling town trade town due to its small ports. The town resided at the edge of the Durmista Woods, a region of woodland under the protection of the Durmista elves, or Twilight Elves by the common tongue. Due to the recent devastation of the docks in Illinathar, for the various business and companies that could afford the coin, shipments were transferred to Rivergreen to be transported to larger ports further south. The rest of the businesses resorted to caravans, though it took longer to get to their destinations, the reduced costs were more than worth it for the small businesses. After the caravan broke up morning camp, the party found themselves in a relatively large town, similar in scale to the town of Berk. The cobblestone roads were generally pristine but due to the sudden influx of traffic, they have become battered and black. Talk of missing children has resurfaced in the town once again, it had been several years since a small group of children disappeared as if by some conjurer’s machinations.

The party split among themselves, with Aydan, Rainer, and Brightiron to search for a vessel transport the group to Lastil-Taswell; Jimmy and Arcaelus decided to investigate more into the mystery around the missing children. The trio found a ship that headed in the general direction of their destination, unfortunately the ship known as the Lady, only planned to stop at Hammersport which meant the party would need to take another caravan to reach Lastil-Taswell. The first mate, a half-elf named Vex, informed the party that the Lady could not set sail due to increased aggression with the Durmista elves and the town guard could not guarantee the ship’s safety. Jimmy and Arcaelus used the locket they found on the corpses found in the woods nearby to find it’s possible owner. During their search, they find a group of children and inquire more about the strange rumors. Sadly, the rumors were factual, a small girl had already gone missing a few days prior. The duo decide to find the investigate the matter further with the child’s parents. Using an article of clothing for a tracing spell, Arcaelus created a makeshift dowser to locate the missing girl.

Before any further work, the duo rally the rest of the party to locate the guard captain in charge for the town. They find a half-orc captain in a municipal building on the second floor with stacks of papers. He grumbled and grumbled about paperwork, and nonchalantly informed the party had free reign to investigate the matter. Under the pretense that their activities would not garner dubious amounts of paperwork.

Jimmy wanders ahead of the party and finds an ominously abandoned church on a small hill that overlooked the town and bordered the woodland. The half-elf druid spotted shifting shadows at the forest edge, though they quickly departed as soon as the druid drew closer to investigate. The rest of the party soon arrive and inform the druid that they sought to follow the trail for the missing girl before it was possibly too late. The party stealthily traverse through the woods, with the dowsing device that the wizard half-created. Night soon fell on the forest floor but the party pressed their advance deeper into the woods.

Team BAJA eventually find a clearing with two fallen tree trunks, the moonlight was shallow and weak from the overcast. With Aydan’s lantern they stumbled upon the unconscious body of the missing little girl. Arcaelus and Jimmy check on the girl, who seemed to be weak from hunger and fatigue with a couple of cuts and bruises. Rainer and Aydan survey their surroundings only to find a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring at them. Another beast emerged out on top of the tree trunk closest to the girl. They were met with a creature with something similar to a panther’s head coupled with barbed tentacles and six clawed legs. Their figures shimmered and faded between the darkness.

The creatures struck both the halfling and tiefling with its teeth and tentacles. While Brightiron charged at the creature and due to their mystical nature seemingly shifted out of the goliath’s mighty blade swing. Arcaelus instinctively unleashed a fireball onto the creature but it’s superior reflexes allowed it to dodge the fiery conflagration unscathed. The wizard grabbed the child and teleported a short distance out of the fray. The druid channeled the power of nature and brought down lightning against the creatures. Eventually the goliath struck the finishing blow against the creature with the help of the rogue and Aydan. The remaining creature took its leave and faded into the shadows. The clearing was light by the blazed tree trunk, the grass was scorched from the lighting bolts, and the forest came eerily silent.

The party soon realized they were surrounded by a company of elves with bows drawn at them.

How will our heroes fair? Find out next time! I will admit that the party considered this fight their toughest to date, and boy was it! Thank you so much for reading and following along our adventures. Your support and subscriptions have been appreciated. I am humbled by the growth this blog has undergone in the short time it has been online. We hope to do more in January once things settle down. There will be no further posts this week. We hope to return to a more defined schedule after January 11th. For more details please follow us on Facebook and Twitter to chat and keep being updated. We have a donation button at the top, if you want to help us out, we would really appreciate it. Again, thank you so much for your patronage and following, we look forward to more things in 2016! Happy New Year!