Introduction Years ago, Mudberry was a semi-normal squalid little village. We had little going for us except for the presence of Widower’s Heart, a cold-growing fern that is only found in a few known places, our caves are one of them. Widower’s Heart is highly prized by thieves, rogues, and alchemists around the realms. The stuff is worth a ridiculous amount of gold in other places. Used as a magical reagent, but also powerful toxin, there was high demand. Unfortunately, we had more than our share of pirates, thieves, and brigands try and take over the town. Well, correction, we had several rulers for a couple of years and it was something of a nightmare. Every type of madman and tyrant you could think of ruled our little port-village in a period of two years. My brothers and I are monks, Memnos there has taken a vow of silence. My name is Yifdin, and the talkative one you met earlier is Kalos. The shorter one who went with him it Biggin. We came here kind of by mistake ten years ago. We came to tend this shrine to Selune. Once ever so many years, the moon is in the right place and shines in through this cave entrance onto this shrine. We were making a pilgrimage here and weren’t allowed to leave by the greedy pirate captain who ruled the village at the time. The mayor, Mayor Juckson, I’m sure you met his daughter, was just a fishermen back then. Having nothing else to do, we began repairing boats for money since the pirate captain wouldn’t let us leave. Juckson came to us for help. I’m not sure if he knew what we were, but we agreed to pray for help from Selune. We prayed many weeks, and one day we recieved a message, from Selune so we thought but now I doubt it. In the middle of the night, we say out in the sea a boat bobbing up and down. Juckson got his boat and went to the boat. He found a couple of bodies and something alive in the boat. He brought the only living thing back, a harpy woman, bound and tied. However, she despite being completely tied and bound she had managed to kill the men with her bare teeth. She was unconscious when Juckson brought her to us, and despite our better judgement we agreed to tend to her wounds. Surely she was a message from Selune. When she was revived she was much more articulate than I would have thought a harpy could be, with a mean carnal streak in her but articulate none the less. When she learned Juckson had saved her, she gave him one request, he asked her to free the town from the tyrants controlling us. She agreed, and went out the next day to confront the pirate captain. He had a dozen troops with him, but it didn’t matter. As she swooped out of the sky a roar of thunder erupted from her mouth that tore the captain and his men asunder. In but another few seconds she ripped the rest of his crew to shreds. She was ready to leave and Juckson pleaded with her not to go. We tried to stop his insanity but he wouldn’t listen to us. He asked her to stay, to make her nest and defend the village from us being taken over by anyone else. She agreed, but only on the condition that we feed her and her children. I think Juckson assumed she just had, you know, two or three children. A few days later she came back with a dozen harpies of all ages and sizes. Since then we’ve been protected from foreigners, yes. Our citizens are safe, but those who trade with us must do so at a cost. Mostly slaver ships visit us, giving us their sick slaves to satiate the harpies’ hunger, while buying our Widower’s Heart from us in bulk. Don’t let this quaint little village fool you, Juckson is an extremely rich man. There are caves in the cliffs where Juckson harvests the plant, and also has a bedroom. He has grown close to the harpy queen over the years. In times of need, when we haven’t had enough slaves to fulfill their appetites we have had to sacrifice our own before. The harpy queen does have a daughter, or sister, or cousin, we aren’t really sure of their relationship, but she is treated above the others, but still subordinate to the queen. The harpy queen is fierce, and deadly, her daughter is less brutal but is manipulative and has magics. She can change shape, she also has powers over others. She can manipulate them to her will. Thankfully my brothers and I have been left alone as long as we build and repair boats. We tend to the people of the village the best we can, but we aren’t really expert healers and none of use have been blessed enough by Selune to try and make a stand ourselves. The group heard harpies and secured themselves in the cave. There was a harpy attack but they quickly staved them off. While the harpies were regrouping, the party went onto the beach and attempted several things to try and get their intention, including shooting an arrow at the boat, trying smoke signals, etc. Juckson uses contacts to sell the Widower’s Heart to slavers. His wife was… lost a couple years ago. He has 7 children staying in the house. Other than the tavern we have a Bed & Breakfast, a Tailor/Leatherworker/General Store and a Mapmaker/Weaponsmith/Blacksmith. Since the ice just broke we have several fisherman out at sea right now. We were just able to take to the seas over the last couple of weeks. Many of the people are on the ocean going to nearby towns for trade, some even left recently in a ship going to the south to trade Widower’s Heart for much needed supplies. They seek to buy slaves for the inhabitants. Summary Recap Then the Harpy Queen came with reinforcements, entering the cave and roaring, producing a thunderous noise that shook the cliffs. Helios was briefly charmed by a harpy, going to far as to swim out into the surf to reach her. During the combat Ughragog was dropped once and him, Helios, and Bardman got injured pretty badly several times each. While able to dish out a fair amount of damage, the party is relatively fragile. After the battle, they decided to go back to the ship along with the monks. Once back at the ship they informed the rest of the crew what was going on. Alerie seemed quite interested in the mayor while Quarlton went to the side of the ship and began taking pot shots at any harpies flying over the cliffs. Based on their conversations with Yifdin, the party seemed interest in going into the village and discussing with the established townsfolk before taking out the harpies. Some of the townsfolk mentioned included: Mayor Juckson (Commoner): Myla Juckson (Commoner): Bartender Philgo- Alchemist/Ex-Pirate (Brigand Captain Stats): Old man in the tavern Kimno-Fenra: Tailor and alchemist, roguish Omeek Tefra: Blacksmith, mapmaker Sheillk- Bed and breakfast operator Opting not to take a rest, the party went back with Alerie, Quarlton, and the two surviving pirates who have now switched sides. Getting back to the beast, Helios, Nikon, and Ugh went to go see Kimno-Fenra, while Bardman stuck with Alerie and Quarlton to go innterogate the girl bartender in the tavern. Kimno-Fenra turned out to be a Nard woman who runs a tailor & leatherworking store, also somewhat of a general store. She was interested in their plight. She had a crew of halflings working for her. They then met with Omeek, a young man with darker skin who was quite delighted that the Harpy Queen was dead and was interested in harvesting her remains. Between the two of them, they gave the group a general idea of the layout of the cliffs. Meanwhile, Bardman got to watch Lady Alerie slap around the smart-mouthed bartender girl and was at one point choking the child while bardman tried to defuse the situation (+1 darkside point). Their group ended up marching towards some caves on the north side of town where the girl told them they could find Mayor Juckson. Alerie, Bardman and Myla (the daughter) entered the inner cave where they heard a man’s scream while Quarlton and the pirates covered the ceiling entrances into the cave with their bows. Inside the chamber they met a woman who gave herself away as the Harpy Queen’s daughter. She blinded Alerie and intimidated Bardman, sending the message that she would leave him and his companions alone if they fixed their ship and left. Bardman agreed while him and Alerie left. At the mouth of the cave they were met by the rest of the party. After discussing what to do for a while, Myla came running out of the caves a bit beat up. Bardman healed her, and after rolling extremely well on a perception check (or insight check?), realized that this was not Myla but likely the harpy daughter. After preparing for combat while keeping her unaware that they knew, the party attacked. The harpy’s first action was to charm Lord Quarlton with the command of “Protect Me”. In fight, Alerie used the shatter spell several times, Ugh threw hand axes he’d picked up at the blacksmith’s shop, Helios cast fire bolt, everyone hid from Quarlton, and Nikon got a critical hit using chromatic orb. The harpy flew off and the party followed, except Nikon who decided to stay far away from Quarlton. They chased her onto the tops of the cliffs and into a den that likely belonged to her mother. They slew the harpy princess and game session ended. Next game: Divvy up loot, talk with townsfolk, get ship repaired.