Exploration in the Mire of Bad Luck

We want to go to DRM and spiral around to find any massive geography to locate where it might be. Like a lake, river or mountain. Some admittedly unconfirmed theory suggests that DRM might be on the opposite side of the ZHT mountains. We start in White Moon Cove and take the ISP stones with us.

As we arrive on the other side we find ourselves in a swampy and marshy area. The weather here is warmer than in White Moon Cove but still coolish. There is a river nearby the portal. By the portal activation a swarm of bees or insects seems to be startled.
Directly around the area we see of in the south west quite aways (more than 6-8 miles away) white capped peaks of mountains. (It appears to be one of the peaks of the taller mountains that we can see.)

The river leads towards the northeast. We decide to follow the river which puts the moutain peaks in our back. The river winds through the swampy area, and makes the passage difficult when moving through it. Some of the area has higher ground here and which makes moving easier on steady ground. There are some exotic sounds of various animals in the area. The constant buzzing of insects is everpresent. There are also frogs and other smaller lifeforms in the area.

We continue further northeast as we don’t have a map and want to avoid getting lost. We notice that a small boat might have been useful. Soon we get the feeling that we are not alone.
There is an area of clearing near the more marshier ground. We see up ahead of us some kind of raised area. Some wooden structure seems to form a perimeter up around an elevated area. There is some movement and we can hear the grunting of a large animal. The barrier is very primitive. Like gathered up instead of a constructed wall.

We see a lizardfolk who tries to handle a large boar that appears to be spooked by something. The giant boar appears to be completely agitated. Sapphire shouts out if we can offer assistance. The answer is lost on us. Nunde uses some telepathy spell to establish a communication between the lizardfolk, Sapphire and Kirnis.
The lizardfolk indicates that he tries to save his pigs. When asked to save them from what we see another boar/pig missing. Apparently the lizardfolk needs help bringing the boar into the pen.

When Nunde runs over to the pen we hear a commotion towards the east. Those creatues appear to be apes. The boar still appears to be hostile towards Nunde while the apes come to us beating their chests and appear very hostile.

Sapphire attempts to intimidate the apes with a very loud voice and astral looking arms. The apes stop moving forward but don’t move back as well. As additional creatures appear from the east combat breaks out.
During the combat the insects buzz around and some of us experience pain from the buzzing.
Through the grass arrives a swarm of snakes in mid combat.
The lizardfolk is a potential druid as he might have casted fog cloud, and plant growth during the fight to save his pig just before he ran away.

During the fight, the lizardfolk and the pigs run in the northwestern direction off.

As we start looking through the pen we notice that the lizardfolk has left lunch. We find 2 days worth of hard cheese rations there, but it didn’t seem to be too inviting as we forgot to take it with us. Smelly cheese, but edible. There are no other items around. The pen is just a trash heap/ pig pen. Nothing too particular about it.

Kirnis thinks that his magic might have messed with the items of the party and would like to check through the backpacks of the party. Sapphire is reluctant or defensive about it, but opens her backpack as well in the end as the rest of us have. Something seems to be odd about Sapphire’s tinderbox. Nunde says that the tinderbox is now resistant to acid.

After the fight and the magic tinderbox we decide to follow the road a bit further as we approach evening hours. Up ahead we notice an indiviudal that gets up on a rock. It appears to be a Tabaxi. He hisses at us and demands us to leave our items. We did not catch the name of the Tabaxi.

There are numerous fey and elemental creatures assisting the tabaxi.

After the fight we find a box with some stuff in it.

Looking around for food before the fight we find a few edible plants and berries.

1st watch: Uneventful but 4 Alarm spells placed

2nd to 3rd watch: Uneventful

4th watch: Kirnis jams his foot in the ground. Something seems to be half buried in the mud here. He finds a buried lance.

The next morning some rain starts. We start marching back to the portal area.

We are traveling back. On the way back we come across a very large tree that seems to be different than the other trees. Most trees are tropical like but this one is like a hard wood tree growing in this jungle. The tree itself contains a mark on the tree.

The symbols on the tree appear to be druidic but nobody can read this from our party. We did approach it very carefully as Kirnis warns us about fire lashing trees. Apparently he had some bad experience with those in the past.
Around the tree are also little ropes. The tree is 5 ft diameter. At 50 ft height there are the ropes. From the ropes there are small little ribbons that are hanging down from the ropes. From the ribbons are other ribbons that are taking the shape of small bows.

Nunde thinks that some druid circles do some rituals around trees that they think are holy. Unsure of what to do and not wanting to disturb anyone we decide to head back further to the portal. Maybe it would be worth coming back to check on the druids?

After quite a bit of more traveling we make it back to the portal. We made it safely back to White Moon Cove.