I did take a look at the map of the Dessarin Valley, so I could correlate the when and the where of various events. Encounters are kind of tricky, since I wound up creating a large caravan. Ragtag bandits groups aren't going to assail a string of 8 wagons with 16 guards and 10 drovers and assorted passengers. On the plus side, they aren't going to be attacked by any cultists, either; I'd rather the group have to go looking for them.
We finished up some of the details of the Great Fire Snake Arson Attempt in Triboar. I showed them the symbol of the fire cult, which they discovered on the corpses of the arsonists. Nobody knew anything about the symbol, or the arsonists. They learned that one of the arsonists had submitted a couple of fire snake casks as cargo, which is how the casks ended up inside the cargo warehouse (no burgling required). And they found shards of dark glass where the casks had come apart; Su'uvarax knew that salamander eggs were made of obsidian. So they put all the pieces together.
The caravan set out in the morning. The first point of interest on the map was Black Maw Bog. This is where I first started noticing the limitation on good encounters; random predators wouldn't attack such a large target. They did see giant toads, and I was prepared to have wanderers get pounced on, but they were careful. Freyja took the opportunity to examine new and interesting plant life, and collected some samples.
Su'uvarax asked Liliandra about the Sumber Hills. She mentioned the Haunted Keeps, although she's not sure where they lie, and also Summit Hall over on the east side, home of the Knights of Samular. They're an order of paladins of Tyr.
During the next day, they discovered the remains of the caravan. Thoril and Freyja investigated, and pieced together the story. Since Freyja is a member of the Eagle clan, she's into birds, plus she rolled well, so she identified giant vultures as the initial attackers. Thoril also realized that there weren't as many corpses as one would expect. Some of the cargo seemed to be missing, too.
While the caravan was making camp, a patrol from the Knights of Samular rode up: a veteran and 2 novices. Thoril made fun of their armor and tried to tackle one of the novices, but had no purchase. Initially, the novice demurred at taking off his armor to fight, but the veteran gave him the nod. Thoril managed to roll well and take him down a couple of times, but never quite pinned him. His victory was a boon to his fellow guards, who bet on him against the merchants, who were more impressed with the paladin.
The groups exchanged news, since the knights had just come from Westbridge. They were very interested in the caravan attack, and the story of the arson attempt decided them to head all the way up to Triboar for more information. In return, the caravan learned that Westbridge was talking about some children who went missing from a local homestead, and that a delegation from Mirabar was expected to stop at Summit Hall to return the body of a fallen comrade. Liliandra had come down from Mirabar with the delegation before pausing in Triboar, so she was able to tell them about it. She also mentioned a couple of merchants who were overdue in Triboar from Waterdeep, and a group of adventurers from Triboar who hadn't been seen in a while.
In the morning, the caravan proceeded to Westbridge. The town was still talking about the missing children, and the innkeeper also mentioned a dwarven prospector who hadn't been seen in several days. So a general theme of people going missing has been established. The innkeeper also provided a lot of detail about the delegation from Mirabar, which passed through Westbridge. Fancier than their usual customers. There were some diplomats, and a dwarf historian transporting his library to Waterdeep, which he mentioned since Su'uvarax was once again disappointed in his search for a library in the village. During the discussion, Liliandra mentioned that the nearby Kryptgarden Forest was home to an ancient green dragon. Su'uvarax was initially interested in talking to it, but no one wanted to go with him, so he tabled the idea.
Freyja had been monitoring the weather. She noticed that rain clouds were moving toward the Sumber Hills from all directions, which is not how rain clouds usually work. She got the innkeeper to talk about the weather, and he mentioned how, when it rained, it tended to be a short, heavy deluge -- not at all useful for crops. Which was a concern, since the local farms provided a lot of food for cities in the region.
So a lot of seeds have been planted for future investigation.
Coming up next, they could do with an encounter. Given the size of the caravan, I'm inclined to postpone a jackalwere encounter until after the party is on their own. I'm still going to use the cockatrices, but I want them closer to Red Larch. If anyone gets petrified, that will give the whole caravan an excuse to linger for a day. So it's going to be a monster, and since the players got to fight an ankheg in Lost Mine of Phandelver, I'm thinking bullette (land shark). It's usually a CR 5 monster with a 4d12+4 bite attack, which could easily kill characters. I might scale back the damage and hit points, and make it a CR 4 encounter instead. I can have it emerge basically right underneath the advance scouts (Thoril and Maendir) and then it has to close with the caravan. That would give everyone a chance to react, at least.
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