The party escaped the forest's banshees, reached Kymal, and left its unsettling performance behind. They last stopped at the foot of Ironseat Ridge, heading toward Emon.
Story So Far
Player-Facing Campaign Record
Story So Far
What the party has actually lived through at the table: strange discoveries, uneasy memories, and questions that do not yet have clean answers.
The party left Kymal aching with hunger and exhaustion, unsure how much time had passed around the performer.
John's parents are gone, his memories are not settled, and the party now knows his grief has teeth.
Sion has taken over driving while the others rest. Clerix stays awake, fighting exhaustion and renewed paranoia.
John's Farmhouse
The party's earliest major discovery centered on John Smith. John had been speaking to his parents as if they were present, but the people John addressed were not there. When Clerix forced the issue with magic, John's buried memory cracked open.
What the party learned was simple and terrible: John's parents are gone, and whatever happened at the farmhouse wounded him badly enough that his mind built conversations around the absence.
- The full truth of the farmhouse remains unclear.
- Clerix found a ring and took it.
- John's home is no longer just a home. It is a place where something broke.
Afterward, the party was confronted by Searchers. Two died, and the party recovered a blank journal marked with a Vox Machina logo from somewhere that does not fit this world. Other Searchers later warned the group that something large is coming, and that they need to become a real team.
The Monster Wearing John's Face
John changed. Before the party could understand what was happening, he transformed into something monstrous before their eyes. The group fought him because, in that moment, he was dangerous and terrifying and no one had the luxury of certainty.
But the longer the fight went on, the clearer one thing became: the thing they were fighting was still John Smith.
Clerix reached him. Somehow, in the middle of the violence, the goblin separated John from the monstrous other self and calmed them both down. The monstrous John disappeared back into the other world rather than remaining loose in this one, and John was left changed by the encounter.
- John can now channel some of that other self's power.
- The party knows John was involved in his parents' deaths.
- What they know may not be the same thing as the truth.
The Road Out of Turst Fields
After the farmhouse, the Searchers, and John's transformation, the party had room to breathe. They restocked, secured a wagon carriage with horses, and began the road from Turst Fields toward Westruun and Emon, with John at the reins.
One day of travel has already passed. At the roadside stop that night, the journey did not erase what happened. Around the camp, people turned inward. Sion held her holy symbol and sat with old grief. Clerix wandered from camp looking for water to fish and saw something unsettling in the reflection before praying with his coin, hearing a whisper, and going straight to bed.
- Westruun is the next major stop.
- Emon remains the larger destination after that.
- Nicodranas is still waiting because someone there is connected to the blank journal.
Mud, Ravens, and Bandits
The road turned from quiet reflection into pressure. Leaf noticed ominous birds that spooked the horses and sensed something bad might happen. The party moved cautiously, sang on the road, and then had to deal with the carriage stuck in mud under worsening weather.
By the fifth day of travel, Clerix studied the strange journal and shaded the end of the page. The shading revealed the incomplete word or fragment "NICO--" and another phrase: "not yet." After some time, the shading faded. After speaking to his god, Clerix saw a vision of a pier and a raven.
The party later found bandits threatening a family on the road. They fought, killed three bandits, captured two, and saw one flee. The rescued family traveled with them toward Westruun, cooked for them at camp, and the party eventually reached Westruun, where they could hand over the captured bandits, find an inn, and speak with the family about the town.
- The party is now in Westruun, around day 5 after leaving Turst Fields.
- Clerix has new journal clues: "NICO--" and "not yet."
- Westruun remembers Grog through the Burned Quarter, the Quiet Side, "the Tide," and a shame older than hatred.
The Bramblewood Bandit Camp
Westruun did not let the bandit problem stay clean. The captured bandits from the road were freed by their friends or allies, and the party was pulled back into the trouble before the road to Emon could simply continue.
In town, prices, tavern trouble, suspicion of adventurers, and old memories of Grog made it clear that Westruun has opinions about people who arrive armed and call themselves helpful. One customer made that hostility personal enough to ask about John and make an offer John refused. Clerix bargained hard enough to secure a pile of rations, and the group leaned into the joke that they were now his bodyguards.
The trail led to a Bramblewood bandit camp. The bandits used hostages, and one hostage died before the party could save them. Leaf scouted as a rat and escaped danger, the group took out guards quietly, then broke the camp in open combat.
- The party defeated the bandits and took three prisoners.
- Silk helped push the investigation forward through interrogation.
- Clerix's hunger for bounty money is now part of the question of what happens to prisoners.
A Funeral, a Storm, and One Gold Coin
The bandit camp left more than prisoners behind. The three captured bandits were put in prison in Westruun, and a funeral was held for the hostage the bandits had killed. Leaf, John, and Clerix attended. Silk and Sion stayed with the cart, passing the time while Sion taught Silk small things about being human.
After some bargaining and preparations, the party left for Kymal, with nine days of travel still ahead. A storm forced them toward forest shelter. John kept the animals under control, Silk anchored the wagon, and Leaf found their way through the forest. Sion tried to steady the cart from behind, but some equipment was lost before they reached camp.
Around the campfire, Clerix told the others that he had been sold for one gold coin as a child. He remembered it as an honor. He says the coin he still carries and prays to is that same coin.
- The three bandits remain imprisoned in Westruun for now.
- Kymal is the next destination; nine days was the remaining journey at departure.
- Clerix's childhood account was shared with the party as a campfire story.
The Fog and the Music of Kymal
The party woke surrounded by fog. Leaf sensed clear, sunny weather, but the sun was nowhere to be found. As cold and dread closed in, Sion's Divine Sense met an overwhelming undead presence. John readied the horses, Sion packed the camp, and Leaf used Earth Tremor to open a trench between them and the phantoms. Silk cut trees while Clerix's Turn Undead delayed the front ranks. Clerix passed out from the strain, and Silk carried him into the wagon. As they escaped, deafening screams and falling trees revealed the horde behind them: banshees.
They pressed toward Kymal, refusing to stop at the crossroads and gathering supplies along the way. During night travel, Clerix's coin fell from his grasp while he slept. He woke accusing the others of robbery, then jumped from the cart to search when they denied it. The party went back and found him dirty and dishevelled, his clothing torn. The coin was recovered, but the search cost a day's travel. Afterward, before reaching Kymal, Clerix looked gaunt and drained.
Kymal's guards questioned their intentions and admitted them after they called themselves merchants. Beyond the gates, the streets were dirty and desolate. At the central plaza, people gathered around a performer, dancing as apparently magical gifts were handed out. Silk, Leaf, and John joined in while Sion guarded the cart. Clerix first approached well-dressed men with guards, felt disrespected, then joined the music. The party received several gifts; Clerix's Identify revealed ordinary cheap trinkets and clothing.
John eventually came to his senses. The people he questioned about the performer were unresponsive, seemingly entranced. He dragged the others back to the cart, where Sion was fast asleep. After waking her, they felt aching hunger and heavy exhaustion, as if they had not slept in days. The men Clerix had approached wore different attire now and offered rations. Still angry, he threw the bag down and stomped on it.
Leaf tried to check the moon's phase for signs that days had passed, but clouds hid the moon. John, Silk, and Leaf chose to sleep while Sion drove. Clerix fought his exhaustion and stayed awake, his paranoia renewed. Outside town, Sion briefly woke her companions to check whether the influence persisted; their sleepy protests left her somewhat reassured. They continued toward Emon, stopping at the foot of Ironseat Ridge.
- Clerix's coin was recovered after his rage and frantic search; his drained appearance afterward remains unexplained.
- The performer's gifts proved mundane, but the music's apparent influence remains unexplained.
- The party suspects lost time in Kymal; the exact elapsed time is unknown.
What does John remember, what is he protecting himself from, and can he safely channel the other self's power now that the other self has vanished back into its own world?
Clerix took it from the farmhouse, and he was also the one who pulled John back from the monster.
Odd objects, fractured memories, and private pasts keep collecting around this group.
The blank journal points beyond Emon toward someone in Nicodranas, and now the incomplete word or fragment "NICO--" has appeared.
The three bandits are in prison in Westruun, and the killed hostage's funeral has been held. Whether the consequences end there remains open.
For a cleaner list of unresolved leads, keep the running mystery board at Open Questions. For route tracking, use Travel Log.
Field Notes
Party Notes
| Character | Current table-facing thread |
|---|---|
| John Smith | His farmhouse memories remain unsettled. In Kymal he recognized the crowd’s apparent trance and pulled his companions away from the performance. |
| Leaf | Her Trials continue through practical danger: she opened a trench during the banshee escape, while the hidden sun and clouded moon left weather and elapsed time uncertain. |
| Silk | His origin remains unresolved. He spent quieter time learning small things about being human with Sion, then carried Clerix to safety during the banshee escape. |
| Clerix Goblinstan | Says his prayer coin is the gold he was sold for as a child. Its loss sent him into a rage; he recovered it but looked gaunt afterward. The journal clues, ring, and visions remain unresolved. |
| Sion, Iron Scourge | Her Horned Ascent continues through danger and service. She sensed the forest’s undead, was found asleep at the cart in Kymal, and now drives toward Emon while checking on her exhausted companions. |
| Gloom | Currently on indefinite leave until further notice. Her past remains private. |