Loose threads A Unknown known as the Swine Queen has a remote cult in her thrall, with children that need rescuing and a cult leader that may be complicit.
Participants Morwin Diannon, Seravi Senarir, Eleanore the Estranged, Xougog
Locations Musters village, The Iron Front, Unexplored Continent
Full Report
The party gathered outside a tent in an Iron Front war camp, meeting the Unknown Theresa there, a former artist that was married to Virgil, the Gnoll man that had posted the initial call for the Guild's aid. She informed us that Virgil had, after receiving no reply from the Guild and feeling the situation was urgent, run off to the cult's settlement to the northwest in the lakeside forest to get his brother, Solomon, who had been writing letters encoded with a plea for help back home. She urged the party to go there quickly and save them both, and they set off quickly.
There were two days of travel, during which the party was attacked by boars. They slew them and decided to make camp, only for Xougog to spot a Gnoll trailed by a boar skulking through the woods during his watch. He woke up the party, and when they snuck closer they saw the Gnoll foaming at the mouth and speaking to the boar, and the boar somehow speaking back to them. The boar disappeared into the brush, and Morwin took a shot at the Gnoll with her bow, striking down the Gnoll with a single strike. They then tied up the Gnoll, patching their wounds with the hopes of interrogating them in the morning. When they woke, they found that the Gnoll spoke Gnoll, the Escapee's Tongue, and Amurrun, though no language the party spoke. They were able to convey they sought the Charismatic, the leader of the cult, and the Gnoll, who volunteered their name was Love, promised to lead them the rest of the way.
Once at the settlement they found it to be populated entirely by Gnolls, save for the Unknown Charismatic. The ringing bell on the church seemed to cause Love to panic, rushing to arrive before the Charismatic began their speech. When the party arrived at the church, the Charismatic asked them some questions and, after a short speech, revealed that the community had been under assault by a specter they called the Outcast. The party offered to seek out this Outcast and banish it, and the Charismatic accepted, having Love lead them to where the specter was known to roam. During the conversation, the party noticed the Charismatic lie about a good many things, leading them to believe things were not nearly as peaceful as they might seem. They also guessed that either Solomon or Virgil might be this Outcast, and so decided to rush in hopes that they could save the remaining brother.
Once they entered the cornfields, Love disappeared from them once again, returning with a sickle and once again foaming at the mouth. He spoke in a Sylvan tongue, speaking of himself as an innocent in the third person, and threatening the party, encouraging them to flee lest the "gods of wood and stone stained with blood" end their lives. The party subdued him nonlethally, but was attacked by another boar foaming at the mouth, which responded to Divine Lance cast by Eleanore as if it were Evil.
After slaying the boar and knocking out Love, they made their way to a burned out farmhouse where the body of Solomon, pierced by several arrows, lay dead on the steps. They party were unable to determine date of death beyond sometime in the past week, and lamented that if they had not rested they may have been able to save him. Eleanore noticed movement inside the house, and upon entering discovered the Ghost of Solomon hovering over the unconscious form of Virgil, howling about how unfair it was that this had been done to them, and that he was going to prevent any additional harm coming to his brother. The party managed to calm the Ghost with some trouble, but convinced him they were there to help Virgil, not harm him. Virgil did not respond to healing magic, and Solomon told them he had been cursed, during which time it was revealed that the farmhouse was in fact the Orphanage, though no children's corpses lay about.
Just then, Seravi and Morwin noticed that there were figures moving in the corn, a mob having been assembled of the village folk with foaming mouths and vacant eyes seemingly come to slay them. The party picked up Virgil and ran out the back door as Solomon exited the front to slow the mob down. The party snuck through the corn towards the woods, spotting several creatures larger than men of monstrous size looming as shadows in the corn. After making it to the forest, they were confronted by the forest itself seeming to fight them, trying to restrict their movement. They broke out and slid down a ravine, only to be confronted by a massive boar god, more shadow than flesh.
They stymied it with occult charms and ran into an area where there were eyes on all the trees, and the wind seemed to speak to them. The wind spoke and called itself "A thousand names in a thousand lifetimes. They call me the Goddess of Wood and Shore, the Swine Queen, the Bride of Eyes." She named the boar god her consort, "the Beast of Blood and Shadow," and congratulated the party for besting it and her servants. She offered us a bargain, which was refused before terms were set, as it was implied that accepting such a deal would put the party in the pawer of this Swine Queen. The voice disappeared, and with that to party ventured back to the war camp, calling for a cursebreaker priest from beyond the portal to save Virgil.
They returned Virgil to his home with Theresa, and Eleanore revealed that the papers she'd taken from Solomon's desk revealed that the Swine Queen was likely a hag. The party resolved to return to the settlement to break the Swine Queen's hold on the populace, save the children of the orphanage there, slay the hag and deal with the complicit Charismatic.