At the beginning of Game 12, Aeris convinced Beowolf to give him the lich Ishild's phylactery, a silver ring. Aeris hoped to learn something from Ishild, and when Ishild rematerialized again at the phylactery, Aeris convinced Ishild to ally with him in return for concealing him. Aeris set Ishild up in the former apartment of the "abomination" Hass, in the financial district.
At the end of Game 12, the Witches' Chorus told the party that their friend Gregor the naturalist might be able to help them find their kidnapped party member, Prosper. They went to Gregor's lab, where they found him talking with the herbalist, Gould. Ord Redding introduced himself and explained that he'd been tracking Prosper using the runes Prosper had been leaving. Gregor nodded with recognition.
Gregor says that others have also seen those runes and are searching intensely for the person who made them. One of them is Gregor's friend Bruhl, who's the one who alerted Gregor to the giant squid under Lofton Castle. Gregor says he'll take you to see Bruhl at his room at Mila's boarding house, and Gould the herbalist says he'd like to go along.
When the party knocks on Bruhl's door at Mila's boarding house, he's happy to see Gregor and welcomes you into his room. Bruhl is blond, has pale skin, and is soft-spoken. Gregor introduces everyone to Bruhl, and then asks Bruhl to have a seat while Ord tells his story. As Ord tells the story, Bruhl becomes increasingly absorbed by the story and is visibly shocked by some parts: that the person's name is Prosper; that Aeris, Kasskar, and Beowolf know Prosper; and that Prosper has been taken by the powerful Volker brothers.
After Ord finishes, Bruhl stares at the floor for a few minutes thinking. He says that Hollin is his home, but that his biological parents are Kirsi, a people who live in seclusion west of Hollin. The Kirsi call Prosper "Huldremose" and they have been looking for him since his runes started to appear. Bruhl suggests that if the party is open to traveling, they should go together to the Kirsi home, called Renhannes and Ringmere, and get help from them.
If the party agrees to go, Gould the herbalist says he'd be very happy if they brought him two items rumored to grow in Renhannes: a flower the Kirsi call Love-in-idleness; and wormwood, which is an ingredient in a possible tapeworm cure.
The party asked more about the Kirsi.
Bruhl says that they are an ancient race, original to this continent, Anhault. Many ages ago, they lived where Hollin is now. They live close to nature. They're friends to animals and can communicate with some of them. Some Kirsi visit Hollin unnoticed, and it was Kirsi in Hollin who told Bruhl that the squid was visiting Lofton Castle.
Desperate for help finding Prosper, the party agreed to travel to Renhannes. They would travel by ship to the city of Kirchner, then overland to the Tolland Wood. At the far end of Tolland Wood, they'd cross over Shear Pass in the mountains and enter Renhannes. So, they collected Bruhl and booked passage on a ship. They sailed out of Hollin, up the Dusa river to its source Lake Tomten, and to the large town of Kirchner on the opposite side of the lake.
Going ashore at Kirchner, they switched to the Muhlress Road. Following the road west, they saw some of the ancient watchtowers of the feudal civilization that ruled Hollin and Anhault before the Anhault Charter Company, including a major fortress where the Muhlress met Anhault's North-South Road. The Muhlress was busy with mercenary gangs traveling both east and west.
Wingless bugs they saw along the road molted to become glittering, flying insects - Silvermotes. But they soon discovered that the sparkling beauties would land on them and bite, producing a painful sore. They killed the ones that landed on them and rushed to kill any they saw that hadn't molted yet.
At the end of the Muhlress, on the edge of the Tolland Wood, they found the town of Arnhem. They stopped at the Last Inn there, looking for information about the wood before entering, and got some valuable advice.
The party finds themselves sitting in the dining room, near a group of Admiralty lumberjacks. Separate from the Admiralty men, another man notices the party and comes over. He's a burly man with a full beard and unkempt hair - maybe a woodsman. He looks at Beowolf and his troll hide armor, then his brow furrows as he looks tentatively at the other party members. He says excuse me, then introduces himself as Ohrdruf and says he lives nearby. He says that he noticed Beowolf and his troll hide armor, and would have guessed that you were a troll hunting expedition heading into the Tolland if your other friends had fit the type more closely.
Well, he says he's glad to hear that you're not a troll hunting party. He says the trolls of the Tolland aren't like other, wild trolls. The Tolland trolls live in clans, some clans hundreds of years old, and they're intelligent and organized. It's possible that if you head into the woods hunting trolls, you might find the tables turned by a clan that knows the terrain much better than you, that suddenly you're the prey.
But trolls aside, the Tolland is a dangerous place for visitors. The paths through the wood are faint, and in many places the canopy completely blocks out the sunlight, and the musty air in the deep wood seems to smother torches and make you sleepy, making it easy to loose your direction. A lot of apparent paths in the wood are just animal paths that only go to patches of exposed salt that the animals lick to get their sodium.
At this point one of the Admiralty lumberjacks who's been listening breaks in and says, "We experienced that ourselves, in the wood looking for tall oaks to cut for keels. Even keeping close attention to our direction we couldn't avoid getting lost in the woods, apparently going in circles, and more than once coming back out of the wood where we had gone in. We had to send back to Hollin for a navigator, who's in the wood with part of our workgang right now. Hopefully they're getting it straightened out rather than going in circles again."
Ohrdruf says that without prying into where you're going in the Tolland, he might suggest that for many destinations in the wood, the Tolland Stone is a good intermediate landmark to shoot for. It's a tall granite pinnacle or formation near the center of the wood, about two thousand feet high. It can be see from much of the wood, when the canopy overgrowth allows you to see out. Also, the Embrun Grove is about half way from the near entrance of the wood to Tolland Stone. Many of the paths in this half of the wood lead to the grove, and in some places without paths, a web of granite milestones also leads there.
At this point a mercenary, Paine (statistics here), spoke up.
A mercenary who's been paying attention says that if they're going to head for the Tolland Stone, his party is going part of that way, and they're welcome to come with them. Since the party has Beowolf and few other hardened folks, it could be mutually beneficial to travel together. He says his name is Paine, P-A-I-N-E. Their party has a ranger with them, Bridgeman, who can help with the forest confusion that Ohrdruf mentioned.
If asked about his party, Paine says that he works for one of the mining companies and they're actually troll hunters basically. He says the trolls have always tolerated the miners because they could raid them; for both sides there was some inconvenience but tolerable. Well, a new silver mine opened about a day's trip into the wood and it seemed to have really struck it rich. For the first time, one of the trolls clans really hit a loaded caravan and took away a good chunk of silver. And, it seemed clear it was no accident, they just hit the exact right one. Well, the mining company decided to teach the trolls a lesson, and they sent me a small party to hunt down and kill some trolls who might have been responsible, which we did. We left the bodies near where we thought the clan had a cave. A few weeks later, the mine itself was attacked, apparently in revenge; many miners were killed and a lot of wealth was taken. So, now we're heading out to really clamp the area down.
He says, the old towers you saw along the Muhlress Road at one time functioned to provide control over the countryside. Well, there's one old tower about halfway to the Tolland Stone in the forest, and the plan is to get the tower in operation again and use it as a base for controlling that part of the forest.
The party did join up with Paine and his mercenaries. They entered the wood, and after a day of traveling found the troll-ransacked silver mine that Paine had described. From there they set out for the tower that Paine planned to resuscitate, but traveling there they were ambushed by trolls (statistics here and here). Although they managed to kill one troll, the party was routed and scattered. The scattered fighters reassembled at the silver mine, but after talking again with Paine, the party decided to strike out on their own.
Paine had originally told the party that he planned to resuscitate a tower halfway to the Tolland Stone, and although they were splitting from Paine's party, they decided to make the tower their next waypoint. They did find the tower and explored it briefly, finding storerooms and a troll lair there. But having no real purpose there and not finding any loot, they quickly moved on. After a few more days, they found the two-thousand-foot-high Tolland Stone, and were surprised that they each gained +1 Wisdom by touching it.
After two more days of travel, the party found the Embrun Grove. Entering the grove they saw a roaring bear standing rampant, threatening lumberjacks who'd been cutting an ancient oak there. Almost immediately, three more bears ran into the grove and the four bears began to maul the lumberjacks. Not knowing what the situation was, the party stood aside and let the bears win. After the bears left, party found about 10 gold pieces on the lumberjacks.
The tower the party explored briefly was borrowed from Tir-Barad Tereg ("The Trolls' Watch-tower") from I.C.E.'s old Hillmen of the Trollshaws adventure.
