The Last Good Day
Session One of The Crucible of Youth Campaign

Vítday, 29 Chillbone 204

It is a few hours after dawn on the twenty-ninth day of Coldsorrow, two-hundred and four years since the coming of the gods. The tiny fishing community of Bear's Reach is enjoying an unseasonably fine day. The sky is clear and a deep rich blue, unblemished by clouds. There is no wind to speak of, and even the usually turbulent Bay of Bereavement is as still as a mill pond on a Summer's day. The sun, although low in the sky, still has some strength in it and those who go about their business in their heavy winter clothing do so uncomfortably. The only evidence of the season is the thin layer of snow that still persists on the ground from yesterday, and the general coolness to the air, that becomes quite cold out of the glare of the sun.

In the graveyard, more than a mile from the centre of the village our heroes wait. Of them only Illyan Snowmantle looks particularly of note. His long, plaited white hair, his almond shaped eyes and other half-elven accoutrements have always set him apart from others. The other three are perfectly human and although powerfully built by the standards of soft city life, they are but average out in the wilds. Average in appearance, although not in deed. Arax Chandar is the apprentice of the wizard Trevane and Kaylas Chiesa is a cleric of the Church of the Land.

And if the fourth companion, Thorn Njedelstrom, has nothing exceptional to denote his own life thus far it is because he is the youngest - and lives in the shadow of a truly exceptional family. His grandmother is Kvar Njedelstrom, a great seer who has long used her powers for the advancement of her own family at the expense of others.

Yesterday evening, Kvar summoned Thorn to her heavily perfumed boudoir. "Tomorrow will be the last good day of the year," the octogenarian rasped at her grandson. "You should get out and enjoy yourself. Take your friends. Have a picnic….. While you're out you can do me a favour." Thorn eyed his grandmother suspiciously as she gestured to a small chest on the floor before them. "I'd like you to take that for me and hide it at the bottom of mine. And don't let that money-grubbing old hawk, Borax Chandar catch you."

And thus Thorn and his friends, along with the box (which is extremely heavy) are sitting in the graveyard and waiting for their other companions to arrive. Krais Brewer and the half-orc Nits Walker are supposed to be bringing the food. Arax has opened a book and is performing some sort of bizarre arcane exercises in his mind. The others are gazing out across the clear sea where the Isle of Arrock, some fifty miles distant, is visible.

The have discussed opening the box at some length over the last hour. Kvar didn't say they weren't to open the box, but she also put an old padlock on it. As none of the group could think of a way to open the box that didn't involve smashing it open, they have chosen to leave it well alone for the time being. It is just sitting there atop the elaborate tomb of Scarman Thorn, being mysterious in a manner than only a locked box can be.

Thorn catches sight of something glinting in the grass, and he slides down from the tomb he is sitting on an ambles over to it. Curiosity is tinged with revulsion as he looks down at the grass to see a lidless eyeball staring back at him. The eye doesn't follow his movements, and Thorn is convinced it isn't alive and so he crouches down and picks up it up.

Illyan asks Thorn what he is doing as Thorn stands to find the eye attached to a long, thin and fibrous piece of muscle. Thorn tugs and the thing comes away from the ground, wrapping around his forearm. The group are alarmed to discover another eyeball on the other end of the yard-long tether. It looks like a particularly gruesome set of bolas.

"What is it?" asks Kaylas with genuine curiosity. Thorn doesn't know and begins to wave his arm around to see if anything happens. Illyan tells him to stop playing with it. Arax closes his book and examines the creature. "It's an aberration," the seventeen season old says authoritatively. He goes on to point out how, in life the creature was filled with a gas that is lighter than air, and that it would have floated several feet off the ground. "But what does it do?" asks Kaylas. "It doesn't do anything," Arax replies, "it's an aberration."

The group are a little puzzled as to why the body of such a creature should be found lying around graveyard when they hear the sound of hoof and wheel on the track beyond the fence. "Morning, lads," says Noah Goodie, looking down at the group. Thorn stops digging a small hole where he found the aberration and looks up. Noah is a generally cheerful chap, if one gets past the scandal of him marrying his own first cousin. He is only a few seasons older than them and, by the smell coming from the back of the wagon, he is taking the town waste to the Boar stream for dumping.

Noah enquires as to why they aren't working, and Thorn explains their special dispensation from his grandmother, as this is "the last good day". Noah realises the truth in Kvar's predictions and hurries on to complete his duties and have the rest of the day to himself.

It is not long after this that a breathless Nits arrives in the graveyard with a small picnic basket. He explains that Krais isn't coming. He has been arrested by Kaylas's grandfather, Vitor, for stealing an apple and blueberry pie from the windowsill where it was cooling. Krais is currently in the town gaol, to teach him a lesson. Although, he's probably sharing that pie with Vitor and having a quick lesson in swordsmanship. It is almost as though Krais got himself arrested deliberately to avoid the ten mile round trip to the mine. Cunning dog.

With their party complete, the group move off towards the mine. Kaylas takes a handful of earth and scatters it before him while uttering a soft incantation. The earth hardens into a floating disc, that he sets the box upon. He accepts the adulation and praise of his companions with good grace as the group move off.

Within half a mile they are passing the Dyer family home that incorporates the town's tannery and other foul-smelling pastimes. The bed-wettingly attractive Kaleena Dyer gathers her skirts and hurries over to the group. It is no secret that Kaleena has eyes for Krais and that she has subtlety been trying to marry him for the best part of a season. Illyan doesn't know what is more amazing: that Krais has managed to resist Kaleena's obvious charms, or that she is still prepared to wait for Krais even though every eligible young man in the village is lining up to marry her. Kaleena is disappointed that Krais is not with them, and a little exasperated that he is warming his heals in the gaol once again.

Beyond the Dyer homestead, the group leave the path to allow Noah and his shire horse to head back to town, and then press on to the Boar. Until this point the friendly (and bare) Wyrwood has been to their right, and Scarstone beach to their left. The Boar marks a change. The fast-flowing stream is cross by a bridge as wide three men standing abreast. At either end of the bridge is a gate, locked by a simple catch, and designed to keep out the predators who occupy the rest of the peninsular.

Beyond the gate the land rises extremely steeply until a quarter of a mile later the party are walking along the top of a shear sea cliff. To their right now is the Whittenwood, a significantly darker, dangerous and more ancient place. The gloom from the wood is oppressive, and the group take their mind of it by playfully ribbing Illyan at his growing reputation as the town lothario.

It is then that the group catch sight of a figure up ahead, disappearing into the woodlands. Arax recognises the figure as Thorn's younger brother, Rod. "Rod!" Thorn yells, "Get over here!" The eleven-year-old Rod looks back at his brother and then rushes into the woodland. The party head after him, pausing at the forest's edge to bury the chest, and then head into the foreboding Whittenwood.

The temperature plummets as they enter the forest. Out of sight of the sun, they can suddenly feel what season it is. None of the group are trackers, and the five stop impotently just inside the tree line. Thorn calls after his brother. Illyan hears the sound of splashing water, and the group charge off towards the sound. Soon they are chasing an unseen shape through the trees.

Thorn and Nits are out in front closing on the fleeing form that is now clearly visible as Rod. Thorn makes a flying leap at his brother's feet, missed and sails nimbly into a near-by ditch. Kaylas points his hand toward the earth and calls forth the power of Terranor, commanding Rod to stop. The youth freezes in place and is immediately bundled to the ground by the rest of the party.

Once Thorn has pulled himself out of the thicket of brambles he demands to know what Rod is doing in such a dangerous place. Rod is not particularly forthcoming with information - regardless of how hard Thorn shakes him. Rod says that he wanted to get away and get some peace and quiet. Thorn believes this much. He and his brother share the house with a bunch of women and children and both are climbing the walls waiting for the time they are old enough to leave. However, Rod says he has no desire to be a fisherman and that he just wants to be left alone with him thoughts.

Kaylas is a little suspicious and wonders if some magical compulsion has been placed on the youth to drag him off in the middle of nowhere. Arax says that this is not the case. Illyan defends, Rod's right to choose a different path than that of the fisherman, but Thorn is having none of it. He is going to march Rod straight back home and tell their mother.

But then Thorn starts thinking. What if Kvar sent them here because she knew they were going to meet Rod? He demands a straight answer out of Rod and notices that he has holding something tightly in his hand. Prizing open the youngster's fingers reveals a streamer of red ribbon, about six feet long. Rod refuses to tell them why he has the ribbon, although it is obvious he stole it from his mother. Eventually Rod is cajoled, bullied and threatened to lead the group to his destination in the Whittenwood.

For more than an hour, the unwilling rod leads the group deep into the Whittenwood. The forest is dark, oppressive and unnerving. Frost from the night before still hasn't lifted, and large clumps of snow can be found where it has fallen through the thick canopy above. The group are surrounded by the noises of the forest, but see no creatures larger than the squirrels that leap from tree to tree, still foraging for their winter food supplies.

Rod leads the group along a path that only he can see. He moves through the wilderness with an almost supernatural ease - he doesn't even seem to be looking where he is going. At length, they reach a dark depression in the earth, where stands a truly ancient tree. The trunk is more than thirty feet in circumference, and heavily gnarled with age. However, the group do not notice the many years that hang off the tree, as much as they notice the many ribbons. Hundreds of red ribbons are draped over and through every conceivable branch, twig and knot-hole. Thorn puts his head in his hands, and tells Rod that his behaviour is definitely not normal.

Illyan descends into the hollow and looks at the tree. Something doesn't feel quite right down here. He reaches out and touches the ancient bark. Now Illyan, was trained as a healer and has within him a link to the Light, to the embodiment of all that is good and pure, and slightly dull. There is something in Illyan's make-up that is antithetical to the tree. When he touches it the bark begins to smoke, and he leaves an impression of his hand on the surface.

Illyan immediately draws his companions' attention to what has happened. Kaylas and Arax throw some minor spells at the tree, but it doesn't seem to be magical. Illyan doesn't think it is magical as much as it is evil. Nits immediately wants to be gone. This place - the forest, the hollow and especially the tree - are giving him the willies. They are only half way to the mine and they really need to be going. Illyan touches the tree again, and again he burns the bark with his touch.

"Get away from my tree!" yells Rod who races up to Illyan and hits him with such a powerful uppercut that it drops the healer onto his backside. "Rod!" exclaims Thorn, secretly impressed with his brother. Illyan clicks his jaw back into position. He can feel his eye swelling. "Right, that's it!" he yells, "The tenets of my order are very strict. I only attack in self-defence!" He then grabs his staff and prepares to beat Rod within an inch of his life.

Thorn and Nits separate the two. Thorn asks Rod how he found the tree, to which Rod replies that he simply stumbled across it while wandering through the woods. Thorn doesn't believe that for a second, but the hows and the whys suddenly seem less important.

Arax has noticed something moving in the woodland around the hollow. He hasn't seen it, but it makes him feel uneasy. Illyan senses it too, and it is growing worse. He puts the babbling Nits (who is insisting everyone leaves immediately) out of his mind and concentrating. A wave of nausea washes over him. A terrible sense of terror rises in his stomach. He is forced to one knee as he struggles to master it. Slowly Illyan, regains his feet, the fear threatening to overwhelm him at any point. He turns to see the his companions disappearing down the path as fast as their legs will carry him. Not wanting to stay in this place by himself, he runs after them.

As he does so, Illyan catches sight of something out of the corner of his eye. It is man-sized shape, but slightly larger than he is and not in the right proportions. It is moving extremely fast, and then it is gone. Illyan catches up with the others who blunder through the Whittenwood in a fear-crazed frenzy. Ten minutes later they are spent. They collapse to catch their breaths some distance from the tree and the hollow, and quickly realise they have strayed from the path Rod led them on, and are now completely lost.

Thorn blames Rod and proceeds to shake him vigorously. However, that doesn't succeed in getting them out of the woodland. They all look to Illyan who lives in the Whittenwood to lead them out this dark and oppressive place. Illyan points out that the part of the Whittenwood where he lives is ten miles to the north, but he will do his best.

The six take their bearings and all choose six different directions. Thorn is adamant that he can 'smell the sea' and can find the way out. No-one believes him, and they follow Illyan's lead. Four hours later, the group finally decides to trust Thorn's instincts, and he leads them out of the trees in about ten minutes.

Back on the cliff path they retrieve the box, and sit down to a late lunch. Rod doesn't want to spend the rest of the day with them. He says he will head up to Higham Dip in the Wyrwood and be "alone" there. Thorn doesn't believe him. He decides to test rod and asks him if he can open the box. Rod recognises the lock as being similar to the one on the box where his mother keeps her ribbons and says he will give it a go.

Rod expertly uses a knife to pop the lock. Thorn expects to find a note from his grandmother reprimanding them, but one is not present. What is present is more material wealth than the party has ever seen. Ancient gold coins (not of Norandon issue) as well as gems and pieces of jewellery. Illyan is unimpressed. What does wealth mean all the way out in Bear's Reach? Kaylas points out that it means enough for someone to try and take. Thorn realises that the reason Kvar told them to hide the box was because she is expecting trouble.

They relock the box. Rod is sent home, on the understanding that Thorn won't tell their mother. Thorn fully intends to back on this. "Last good day…," he says, "Yes, the last good day for Rod!"

It is now much later in the day that the party had intended, and they have to hurry if they are going to reach the mine and return to Bear's Reach before dark. They continue to follow the cliff for another hour, at which point they can see Von Turnsgate Hill rising out of the wood to the west. At this point the beaten path turns and heads inland where it joins a slightly overgrown trail into the Whittenwood. There is no-longer a path to follow on the cliff. There is nothing now to the south but hundreds of miles of trackless terrain.

The follow the path that rises quite steeply as it turns west around the hill. When Bear's Reach was first settled a large amount of rock was taken from Von Turnsgate Hill. The foundations of most of the structures in the town are still made of it. This created a quarry about seventy feet deep and several hundred yards across. No actual stone has been quarried in many decades, and the area has returned to nature, and the quarry has formed into a lake.

Approaching the quarry from the east, the path skirts its highest edge looking down into the quarry and the lake. The path descends as the lip of the quarry descends until after about half a mile it reaches the same level as the surface of the lake. From this point it is not far to the iron mine, that is dig into the side of what is left of the hill.

As the group presses on down the path, Arax drops behind. When the party turn the notice him stating intently at the surface of the lake. Despite the near freezing conditions there is a figure bathing in the water below. A woman. Illyan and Thorn grab Arax and pull him to the ground and the group advances to the edge of the drop to get a better a look.

A woman with long dark hair is bathing in the water. The sight that shocks the group more than a naked female form is that they do not recognise this woman. She is an outsider. Illyan determines to speak with her; stands, waves and yells "Hello!" The woman look sup, and sees Illyan silhouetted against the sky. She turns in the water and swims to the shore with long, powerful strokes. She then rises from the water and walks across the compacted snow to where her clothes are left in a heap.

Illyan and Arax are all for going to speak to the woman. Thorn is a little more suspicious. He wants to hide the box first. The group head down the path until it reaches ground level. Thorn, Kaylas and Nits turn off toward the mine while Illyan and Arax clamber over rocks and stones to reach the woman.

It is only a few minutes before Kaylas and his companions arrive at the mine. Two wooden out-buildings, glazed in snow, sit close to a dark hole dug into the side of the hill. The ground shows a lot of recent movement but the area is devoid of life. Evidently, the group delayed themselves for so long in the Whittenwood that Borax Chandar and the Goodies who work with him have closed up and gone home.

They approach the mine itself. The entrance way is about ten feet wide and six feet high (Nits will have to stoop). A solid lattice gate of treated wood has been placed over the entrance and secured in place with rope and bolts. Today was the last time any iron would be hauled out of the mine before the Spring. In a few weeks the journey to the mine will be too dangerous due to heavy snow falls. The group unhook the gate and head into the darkness.

Just inside the mine are a collection of lanterns. Thorn takes one and lights it. The smell of whale blubber permeates the air, but it sheds an adequate light on the proceedings. The mine is neither deep nor extensive. A single tunnel has been dug a quarter of a mile into the hill. Six side-tunnels have been dug from the initial tunnel. According to Garmond Lyar (miner and amateur spelunker), the mine links to several naturally occurring tunnels that criss-cross the earth, and may even lead down sea caves far below.

The group head to an unworked seam and find a place to hide the box. It isn't particularly difficult and nothing leaps out of the darkness to eat them. However, the mine is a cold, damp and unwelcoming place and they all happy to be out in the sunshine. They pause to reattach the gate and then head off after their companions.

Illyan and Arax are disappointed. When they arrived at the water's edge there is no sign of the woman. Her footprints are quite visible in the thin layer of snow, but following them has just led to a greater mystery. The footprints disappear mid-stride. There is no lingering magic at work, and no trees near enough for her to have climbed. She has simply gone.

Illyan and Arax report this to the others and, given the darkening hour, they turn and head back to the village. They have been walking for two hours and are back on the cliff edge with the Whittenwood to their left when the world goes dark around them. Dusk is coming, but to lose the light so quickly is unnerving and unnatural. The group can see a large storm front moving in from the north. The dark clouds are blocking out the sun. Arax summons a magical light atop Illyan's staff and the party return to Bear's Reach under the shadow of the threatening storm.

The End of The Last Good Day
The Crucible of Youth Campaign continues in
Death and Taxes

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