The Boar Hunt

Player Characters

Important NPCs

• Aldran Foxglove, wealthy merchant and suitor of Maayan.

Locations

• Borderpoint, a town on Battle Coast between the Onyx Cryptocracy and the Scapolite Theocracy.
• The Tickwood, a scrap of forest in the Hinterlands around Borderpoint.

Enemies

• Boar, a regular forest animal.
• Dire Ticks, nasty ticks the size of a small dog.

Adventurer's Log

5th day of Diamond, year 54 of the Age of the Great Invasion

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• Two days after the Swallowtail Festival, Aldran Foxglove arrives unannounced to the Rusty Wyvern. He declares that they will need to hunt their dinner for the evening and suggests going to the Tickwood to slay a boar. Lucius and Maayan agree to go with him. Zyindra, on her way back from helping Hannah with a patient, agrees to come along after Lucius gently implores her. He doesn't want to be a third wheel while Aldran tries to woo Maayan.
• Aldran buys each of the adventurers a horse from the Squashed Goblin stables. They ride out into the Hinterlands, past the Ravenroost to the Tickwood. They leave their horses to graze at the edge of the wood and head inside to hunt boar. Aldran explains that he is hoping to learn more about elven hunting methods from Maayan.

The Boar Hunt Chase Mat

• Inside the Tickwood, the party encounters extremely dense underbrush. Maayan and Lucius climb a tree and begin hopping from branch to branch. Aldran tries to follow but is unable to climb the tree. Fortunately, Maayan helps him up. Zyindra simply moves through the undergrowth at a surprisingly spry pace. Lucius spots a boar moving through the undergrowth and the chase begins.
• Past the undergrowth, the party takes to the ground again. Lucius notices a pit trap and moves around it but before he can warn the others, Aldran falls in. Fortunately, the trap isn't spiked and Aldran is unharmed. He tells the others to go ahead without him. They don't want to lose the boar, after all. Maayan and Lucius chase after the boar while Zyindra stops to help Aldran out of the pit.
• Lucius and Maayan reach a cliff-face. They can hear the boar moving up above and so look for a way up. They find the goat trail the boar used to reach the top of the cliff. When the others reach the cliff, Aldran tries to climb up but doesn't get more than a few feet before he is stuck. Taking him by the hand, Zyindra leads Aldran up the goat trail while listening to him wax poetic about the curve of Maayan's pointed ears.
• Lucius and Maayan stumble into a dire tick nest. Lucius has little trouble with the ticks and makes short work of one or two with his rapier. Maayan simply dodges the leaping monsters and continues on. Aldran isn't so lucky. In trying to dispatch a tick with his own rapier he accidentally stabs his foot. It is up to Zyindra and her Protection magic to save him.
• Up ahead, it seems the boar has come to a halt and is hiding in the bush. Lucius fails to spot the boar but Maayan's hunter instincts tell her exactly where to look. She places an arrow between the boar's eyes and slays it.
• Aldran and Zyindra join the others. Zyindra heals Aldran's foot and then the wealthy Onyxish man ties up the boar for transport with surprising skill. They head back to the horses and then return to Borderpoint.
• They dine on boar that evening, as roasted by Ameiko. Maayan and Shiphrah have a feast of fresh vegetables imported from one of the nearby farms. During dinner, the others get to know Aldran better and learn he is a merchant who made his wealth by establishing ship-routes from Vesicule to other parts of the Amethystian Empire. His main trade item is stone cut out of the Irespan, which has magical properties and is useful for enchanting.

TO BE CONTINUED