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Session 8: The Halfling's Return
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Shortly after the Dryad's departure, the party was startled by the sounds of hoofbeats coming down the trail from the north. Abrubtly, the hoofbeats ceased only to be replaced by the startled cries of the halfling and Claz's donkey. As the Halfling had elected to remain in Uthmere to keep track on current events (and the Brimbleton's daughters), he learned that Kyte was in dire peril. The brimbleton's younger daughter brought him a notice pulled from the Ward notice-poll that advertised for bounty hunters. The notice described a beast that very nearly matched the party's furry companion and offered a reward for his capture, dead or alive.
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Startled, the halfling mounted the party's trusty donkey and dashed across the plains of the Great Dale in pursuit. Two days of racing across hills and streams crashed to a halt as he recklessly entangled himself in the curtain of webbing that still surrounded the party's campsite. After a quick exchange of information on what each other had been up to, the party completed its rest in order to start out again in the morning.
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The party's early morning start found them travelling east through unbroken woods in search of the Dryad's holy site. Kyte sensed movement to the South, the investigation of which revealed an elf shadowing the party's movements. As the party continued, they approached a hill topped by an ancient ring of stones. The circle consisted of twelve stones, each nearly fifteen feet tall. The outer surfaces were etched with eldritch runes in a forgotten tongue, and the inner surfaces were covered in a thin, emerald-green moss. Mammoth stone cross-pieces topped each of the four pairs of standing stones that dominated the North, South, East, and Western cardinal directions. To the south, one cross-piece had fallen and lay half-buried in the ground. The ground around the stones was stained red with blood and the smell of iron lingered strongly in the air. In the center of the ring was a shallow pool, rippling softly in the breeze.
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The whirr of an arrow through the air alerted the party to a creature crouched by the last stone. The elf had moved up to the Eastern slope of the hill and was firing arrows at a beast huddled against the fallen cross-piece. The creature appeared as some sort of cross between a Boar and a Man, with large tusks framing a porcine snout. The creature cringed in fear as the arrows rained in, collapsing to the ground after a few moments. Ivaeleus rushed to the elf's side as she moved in to complete the kill. She introduced herself as Maya, a hunter of the woods, and explained that lycanthropes (Were-Boars) were plaugeing the forrest and spreading the influence of Malar, the God of Beasts and Hunters.
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Maya offered to lead the group back to Loch Durnan, and they shortly headed south to finally get to the town. Kyte noticed that Maya had no scent and began drawing individual members off to the side to discuss the significance of that fact; first with Ivaleus, then Niclaus. Before the conspirators could come up with a solution, they were startled by the rest of the group yelling and running back to the north. The halfling had shot Maya in the Back!!!
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