The Bear with a Bowtie

This is a strange place, people are so loud. As I waited for the party that I had signed up to venture out with, I managed to lose myself in thoughts of home. An interesting group of people they are, very confident in themselves, boisterously so in some cases. The one known as ZuggZugg seems to be the only one of us to be a veteran of this place in any capacity and he took charge seeming to have some task in mind. Something about a bear in a bowtie. Our travels took us along a road that seemed fairly well kept, met some locals and poorly old man who seemed most lonely and invited us in for some soup, the party declined. The old man seemed to be very downtrodden by this and the party then promised to return once our business was completed.

During the night something managed to leave a message in our camp telling us to follow. After a very brief discussion ZuggZugg lead us to follow the tracks thinking they were definitely the bear’s. It was fairly obvious to most I think that the tracks were not only feline, but oddly bipedal. Stark pointed this out, but I suspect it didn’t change much in the mind of our leader as we continued after the tracks leading to a cave. Normally I would not have any issues with delving into such a place, but it appears my travel to this place has disconnected me from Kamsa. I am slowly managing to understand the night sky here, so I hope sometime soon I will be capable of regaining that connection.

Into the cave we went, myself and Stark stayed largely to the rear as we ventured forth. Shep thought he saw something move, I am unsure if ZuggZugg believed him or was just playing along, but he did make a deal with the unknown moving entity and then continued onward. It was not long before there was a screech and suddenly we were being attacked by a number of Myconids and swarms of rats. I am afraid to admit that I panicked and ran initially hoping that somehow no blood would be drawn, but it was not to be had. I cannot say what happened during the fight with ZuggZugg and Shep as we were separated, but the combined efforts of Stark and myself managed to defeat several swarms of rats before ZuggZugg sounded the retreat. When Shep rounded the corner he was very bloody and seemed to be barely conscious I was able to return some energy back into the man as we retreated back the entrance where our combined efforts managed to make short work of the remaining assailants. The party was however spent by the end. I knew when I volunteered to come here that it was to be a difficult trek, I am now beginning to think the danger was undersold.

After we rested for the night, we returned to find a pool that appeared to have some coinage within, which it did. It also just so happened to have a small pod of slimes and jellies which turned out to be fairly harmless. We then found a door which to my surprise led use to a fairly well kempt room whose occupants were a large bear and a small cat. To paraphrase the conversation, the large bear, named Yogin, and the cat, named Jazmesus were once apart of a circle of druids active in the area a long time ago. The group of them were apparently tricked by a powerful hag, that goes by the name of Israim, who managed to corrupt the druids and turn them into various abominations.

Yogrin, a former archdruid, managed to find or create a way in order to weaken the hag, but seems to be becoming more and more feral at time goes on. His daughter showed us the book where the recipe was stored and asked us if we would help her acquire the missing ingredients.

And finally, the egg sac of this creature depicted here that seems to reside within the Ghostwood Marshes.

The party agreed to do what we could. During the conversation ZuggZugg mentioned that he had encountered the hag Israim once before and lost several companions during the encounter. On our return home I asked him to elaborate some. I will attempt now to paraphrase his story to the best of my ability.

Whilst exploring some rumors his party stumbled across a magical door in the basement of a ruined fort and managed to get pulled into some other place that seemed to be a home of sorts and was guarded, (I use that word lightly based on his description) by several animated suits of armor and statues and small flying mechanical pests of sorts. After the combat with the ‘guardians’ they seemed to have found a flower garden of sorts, the flowers of which seemed to have a myriad of effects upon the person should they come into contact with the pollen. As best as I could follow it seems the party then got split up and the druid in the group as a bear was running ahead and at some point after, they ran into Israim. It seems like the ensuing combat was quite frantic as the party was simultaneously attempting to escape, find each other, and keep the ones who were found on their feet. It appears that only ZuggZugg and one other managed to escape.