Chaos, Them!, Baba Yaga's Hut, Food Storage, Matchmaking, and More....

  Now that the map of the Briars is done the Company of the Dark Moon (i.e., 85% of PCs in the campaign) gave one to master bard Llewellyn the Black, sold a copy to the King, and made 3 copies. Clarence (unbeknownst to the rest)  also sent one to the Grandfather of Assassins earning himself a reprieve from doing a mission for the Black Guild.

Impassable Plants and Giant Ants
  Seeker used his broom of flying to scout out the largest spinneys (these are the impassable thickets of briars up to a mile across that dot the Briars region). He had noted the the largest spinneys have a clearing inside, always in the exact middle. He found that each one has a large stone in the center inscribed with the same strange rune as the Gate of the Old Road and the various 'key stones' of the Old Road. He realized that the Old Road is only washed out or overgrown in the sections where the glyph stones are missing.
  The party also realized that the largest spinneys all cover the lairs of giant ants - 200-400 per spinney.

Clearing Out
  In Skull Mountain the hirelings, henchmen, and PCs worked hard to secure provisions (20 man-weeks of iron rations in the Cupboard on level one and 400 lbs of beef in the Meat Locker on level three) and supplies (240 arrow, 120 bolts, 200 candles, and 12 bedrolls on level one; the long boat on level three) and then met the mule train from Esber to get everyone and everything else out. The PCs stayed behind to Wizard Lock, secure, and Glyph key doors.

Maid Service for a Maiden
  Since the Beginner of the Third Way (i.e. the master monk of the Briars) had asked them to and because she had helped them so the party next followed the Three Riders to Baba Yaga's hut, deep in the High Briars (it had moved, of course) to help Vasilisa accomplish the three tasks for her 16th birthday. The party helped her: stir a 50 gallon cauldron of stew constantly for 36 hours allowing only Vasilisa's hands to touch the stirring paddle; sort a 12 bushel sack of mixed maize and wheat into two separate bags, one with only maize, the other with only wheat; sweep, wash, dry, and wax the floor of Baba Yaga's hut (just the first room). The party caught a glimpse or three of the vast maze of rooms off the 'hut' but did no snooping.
  They pulled it all off while being very conscientious and extremely polite. Brigid also made sure Vasilisa had clean clothes, was well-scrubbed, and that her hair was perfect.
  Baba Yaga arrived early and the entire party ended up having to stay for cake to avoid being impolite. The cake was delicious and Baba Yaga admitted that Vasilisa,

  "..never shirked, never lied, never complained, was never rude, never lazy, and never impertinent. She was always kind, always polite, always prompt, and had always accomplished her tasks..."

  So Baba Yaga informed the party that if they presented Vasilisa to the King of Seaward 'before the first snow of the year' Baba Yaga would owe them a favor. They are very polite, bid Baba Yaga farewell, and took Vasilisa with them.

Matchmakers and Maps
  The party promptly traveled to the capitol to present the map to the King, taking Vasilisa with them. During the audience the King gave them their payment for the map as well as the bounties for Ol' One Fang and Ol' Knobby. Vasilisa was presented and was quickly able to prove she was the daughter of Count Zotov whose entire family was believe wiped out in the Civil War in High Morath. Vasilisa explained she, the youngest, had survived with her oldest brother and a few guards as they fled over the Exile's Trail into the Briars and had fled (as ordered by her brother, who held them off so she could flee) when a pack of trolls attacked thereafter being taken in as a "ward" of Baba Yaga the next day.
  The Crown Prince was obviously smitten with the young Countess.

More later....

Major Arc Completed: The Briars Are Now Mapped

  For those of you who don't know/care my players have been doing a massive arc of mapping some of the wildest, toughest terrain in my campaign setting. The arc started in May of 2017 and finished this weekend, about 15 months of gaming real world, with a few breaks and other sessions. In-universe the adventure spanned about 500 days of travel, mapping, and fighting.

The Weather- The party endured everything from a Summer high temp of 112 degrees (44 degrees to you non-Americans) to a Winter low of -3 (-19 Celsius). There was a gale where sustained winds were 70 mph with gusts to 90 mph (Beufort scale 11 with hurricane force gusts) and separately a tornado touched down 1 mile away and passed within 1/4 mile of the party. Flash floods were also a threat more than once and they hate hail pretty hard, now.

Encounters- They fought everything from a tribe of goblins allied with a giant to two separate kobold tribes. They encountered a full troll clan with a shaman, 3 holy hermits, 3 bandit groups, a full brigand band, and so many small groups of thieves, kobolds, highwaymen, goblins, wild boars, and lone trolls they lost count. Toward the end I stopped mentioning the routine encounters with venomous asps, venomous spiders, normal rats, brush wolves, brush cats, tortoises, etc.

Big Names- They killed Ol' One Fang and Ol' Knobby. They encountered the Red Maiden more than once (with no direct fighting) and lived. They met with Heruhoth, Champion of Kath and foe of the Red Maiden. They met Vasilissa, servant to Baba Yaga, a handful of times and met Baba Yaga herself once. They even saw her Dancing Hut twice. They met the Beginner of the Third Way ( a 14th level Monk of the Three-fold Path) and his disciples as well as one of his students who might be a ninja from Yashima. They dealt with the Man in Green, the Man in Red, and even the Man in Blue. They discovered the hidden Grove of the ranking druid in the region and learned that the druids and the monks don't get along.

Big Ideas- Two mountains nearby seem to be part of a weapon capable of  firing at spelljammers in space. The druids think the Briars are a natural part of the world but the monks think the Briars are the chaotic effects of the Contraption, deep in Skull Mountain. The Eldar (the Men in Colors) might be merchants who will sell anything to anyone, or they might be masters of deceit trying to gain control of the space weapon, or they might be something else. The Red Maiden is probably a rakshasa with a Wand of Polymorph sowing death and fear for Baron Samedhi - whoever he is. Skull Mountain, the Briars, and the Old Road may be older than the elves.

Next Missions- Vasilissa is about to turn 16; when she does she has three tasks to perform for Baba Yaga. If she succeeds she gains a reward. If she fails she is eaten. The party hopes to save her.
The Red Maiden must be destroyed.


The party will split the loot (they held off the entire time!) and gain all experience. I am removing the usual 'only one level at a time' restriction, if it comes up, to reflect the intense nature of the mission.

What's that?
Oh! The map!

Overview: DM's Report on the Briars Mapping Expedition and the Seaward Campaign and Pathfinder

  It has been a lot of gaming recently, and my new 45 hour a week contract plus launching my own company (that does stuff other than sell service contracts, see earlier) and my oldest son (who is working for my start-up) landing a sale and being the process of 2 more sales, all in one week....
  Exhilarating, and exhausting, and no time to blog.

Anyway.

Pathfinder
Sam, the 17 year old, fired up a Pathfinder campaign. I play a Diviner, Jack is playing a cleric of Friendship (we call him the CareBear Cleric), and Nick is playing a murdermachi..., uh, fighter.
Great scenario (take the recipe for a cure for a disease from a sage to an alchemist/cleric wife/husband team to make enough for the village being afflicted); good reason for the characters to meet, and dealing with goblins is a great first fight.
I'd never played Pathfinder before; reminded me of Runequest for some unguessable reason, but play was snappy and fun. We're putting it into what we call the 'rainy day rotation'.

Back to the Briars
Team Thief returned to the Briars. After Ol' One Fang, Ol' Knobby, meeting Grandmother, the goblin tribes, the troll tribe, and about 100 spider encounters, they thought it would calm down.
Nope.
They found the Tower and the Pool, a walled compound with a tower, ornamental garden with reflecting pool, and topiaries. At first appearing new and well-tended they eventually saw through the illusion to the ruined, decrepit facility. They could not enter do to some magical effect but sent a fox - who was teleported to what they recognized as the Garden in Skull Mountain! Seeker flew high over the place a dropped a tortoise into the pool, only to see it teleported to the lake on the third moon! That night a strange sight met them - an odd device, about 5' long and 1' wide with a saddle in the middle, and a light in the front, rose out of the pool with a man riding it like a horse or broom of flying. He used the light to search the grounds of the walled compound before flying back into the pool.

Days later the party encountered a group of druids and learned that the grove for the local Druid was hidden within a massive spinney. The party spoke with the lower-ranking druids at length and learned that they were opposed by the Wizard of the Tower. The party had already heard of him and that he lives in the western lower Briars and that it is a title held by many over the years. The Druids believe that the WotT works with the cultists and fear he maintains some sort of curse that keeps the Briars overgrown with thorns.

Later they went to the cottage where the very first adventure they had in Seaward rests on the edge of the Briars - and met an ogre. The ogre was a servant of the WotT and was receiving slaves from cultists in return for support from the Wizard. Notes indicate that the cultists work with/for the WotT, or something, and the WotT was working with the Eldar to get support to Ol' Knobby and the Goblins.

At this point Nick announced,
"My character is now officially a conspiracy theorist. It's all connected, man!"

The party killed the ogre and sent the captive to safety. Confirming the druids' beliefs the party kept on.

The ravens and the observers from the mountain warned them that someone was following them just in time; a strangely dressed man and his three servants entered an ambush. The servants were Sons of Kyuss! Byron turned the Sons and the man easily survived the arrows of the scouts. A fierce battle was angaged but, in the end, the party defeated Musr al-Sahaab, the necromancer brother of the Jann Alchemist they had killed in the Counties 2 (game) years prior. Captured, they were unsure what to do, so they asked Clarence to send his messenger genie to the Caliph of the Jenha (overlord of all good genies on this plane) for his advice. 3 days later a Djinn arrived and took Musr to face justice for his evil ways and betrayal of his sheik.

Later they encountered a platoon of brigands. Being Team Thief they worked hard to eliminate the watch and infiltrate silently only to have the commanding lieutenant charge out of his tent in full panoply for war! Brigid went berserk and the fight was on. The lieutenant was winning (!) handily (!!) when Byron succeeded with a Hold Person. Since the rest of the party was fighting the other 40 brigands Seeker gave him a coup de grace. The henchmen really shone in the large pitched battle.

A later ambush on the party by a band of ogres led by a half-ogre cleric was defeated, then tracked back and the party spent two days whittling down a full ogre tribe. In the end they were able to kill all 31 ogres (that includes women and children, who all fought to the bitter end, refusing quarter). The Party eventually made it all the way back to the Gate (the beginning of the Old Road through the Briars) then went to Skull Mountain to rest, resupply, and catch up.

Along the way they encountered a merchant trying to take 4 pony carts to Skull Mountain. The henchmen were doing their best to follow orders to stay out of sight, but an earlier merchant had been able to trade with some of the hirelings who slipped out to purchase tobacco, ale, and taffy. The party bought his gear and such and sent him back with his 4 surviving guards. They learned that 7 or 8 other merchants had already tried to get to Skull Mountain but only 1 had returned. It seems that the Company spending gold, topazes, and rubies to ship hundreds of pounds of food to Skull Mountain was never very secret....

Seeker spent his time searching the perimeter of Skull Mountain's plateau;

The plateau is about a mile across, is paved with stone where native rock is not the norm, and is surrounded by a stone-lined ditch.

He found a concealed chimney akin to the one from the Kitchen in Skull Mountain's Guardrooms of level 1. A stout metal grate prevented him from entering, but smoke and the smell of distant cooking was very evident.

Other Information
Going through their notes from past discussions, legends, folktales, the books they found at the Ogre's Cottage, notes from the Library of level 3 of Skull Mountain, etc. and asking some questions of the Druids,  the party reached some tentative conclusions:

1) The space battles seen previously appear to be between unknown forces and the navy of the Duke of the Moon.
2) The Duke of the Moon is probably human and good-aligned.
3) The Grand Druid may live on one of the moons.
4) The Eldar cannot lie about any topic but themselves.
5) The Eldar seem to work for/be servants to some other person or group who seems to be evil.
6) Elves are from space.
7) No one is sure why (at least) PC elves don't know elves are from space.
8) A space-faring elven empire meets with the king of the local elves at least once a year.
9) Prophecy says that the High King of Eiru will come from one of the moons
10) The combination of the Control Room, Remote Station #1, Remote Station #2, the Sleeping Princess, and the Montanic Lances seem to be a weapon system capable of firing at spelljammers, perhaps even at the moons.
11) More underground caverns, almost certainly connected to the Cavern of Herds, stretch at least another 1.5 miles east from Skull Mountain.
12) There are caverns/tunnels/levels about a mile to a mile and a half west of Skull Mountain

More to come!

DM Report: Back to the Briars All Over Again

  After a long break to "catch up the timelines" the party returned to the Briars. Still in the High Briars (more rugged, more remote, much more dangerous) they are hoping to map the eastern half of thsi High Briars before Winter arrives in earnest.
  They probably won't make it.

Mapping the Briars: A Really Big Day

The party has been working really hard to do something never before done in 38 years of the campaign: develop a detailed map of the Briars.
  To explain both why this is a Big Deal and why it has never been done before, the Briars is hilly to very hilly terrain covered in thorns, briars, thickets, and thick copses of locust trees about 500 square miles in area. Between the trees often blocking clear sight of the sun or distant landmarks, the lack of clear trails in 90% of the area, and the short sightline (20 yards at most in the high briars!) parties get lost, on average, in 3 days. Clean water is limited, especially in the high briars, and food is wary and scarce. In Summer the weather is very hot and in Winter it is very cold. Travel is slow regardless. On foot, most parties get lost the first week, run out of water in the second week, and die of hunger, thirst, and exposure before they find the Old Road again.
  Then there are the monsters: kobold raiders, small ogre tribes, trolls, and the hippogriffs and gryphons always watching. On top of the commonplace poisonous spiders and asps the place is littered with corpses.

  The party continued, using their communication helm to stay on track, using magic items for food and water, and using the broom to confirm distant landmarks. Between the Saturday and Sunday sessions they spent 3 game months in the high briars, mapping. Here is what they encountered on Sunday:

• Another kobold war band, quickly dispatched.
• A group of 9 trolls (!!). A very dicey encounter that was almost as bad as Ol' One Fang. If hadn't been for their Marble Mastodon Figurine it would have been a TPK! As it was, it was a long fight that no one escaped with more than single digit hits. The party had to rest for a few days after, but they did get a Frostbrand from the nearby troll nest.
• They saw the famous Red Horseman near Grandmother's hut
• One night near the mountains the sentry spotted the Red Maiden and her massive owl watching them from about a mile away. He alerted the camp and they prepared for something Very Bad to happen with the two Scouts in full Prepared Ambush mode as the religious brother Byron warned them evil was approaching. A chimera burst from the briars right into the ambush and was quickly slain. During the fight the Red Maiden seemed to vanish so Seeker scouted where she had been - and realized she was merely watching while Invisible! After a time she flew away. He found a candy wrapper from a famous candy maker in Adrian with orange fur and black fur stuck to the toffee remnants. The Chimera reverted back into a kobold in an iron slave collar. Close inspection revealed that the collar and been bent into place by a being of incredible strength whose thumbs were on the 'wrong side'...

   Close to Skull Mountain and considering taking a rest, they realized - they had never scouted the mountain's exterior! They did so and mapped the trails around and over Skull Mountain. Nearby they found a campfire with the bare footprints of a human. They found a steep trail that led to a pass to High Morath and the land approach to the Deep. They also found a boulder with a small "cabin" inside it. A cabin that looked a bit like this:

  They eventually figured out how to activate a scrying device that had three different views. With Tongues and such they realized one was the Lunar News Network (whatever that means) and another was the General Education System. They also saw a brief bit that mentioned a wax that 'made swords immune to rust monsters! Special offer, order now! Just send the proper glyph to the second moon!"

  They returned to the Briars and a few days later found the dead body of Erena the Gorgeous, killed by repeated punches and kicks from a human with bare feet....

  On a whim, Seeker donned the communications helm and, at midnight, looked at the second moon and said,
  "I would like to speak to a sales representative."

  In the morning the Man in Purple had a tent nearby and was sitting at a table with the Man in Green. The party spent a prodigious amount of money to ask some questions. So many they were told they had to wait a year to ask more! They learned:

1. No one knows what the Lurker is, just that Disintegration and lightning seem to cause it pain.
2. Skull Mountain was originally ruled (and first dug) 8,000 years previously by the Titan of the Mountain. He vanished long, long ago but his brother, the Titan of the Volcano, still looks for him every Midsummer.
3. Inside Skull Mountain is something called the Contraption that controls the various natural portals to the many elemental, para-elemental, and quasi-elemental planes natural to the mountain.
4. The Sleeping Princess at remote station #1 is a Marid in a genie pact who is the centerpiece to making the Montanic lances work.
5. Ol' Knobby was once an ogre, but he has lived in remote station #1 near a broken ward so he is bathed in intense magic while he lives and sleeps there. It has warped and changed him, making him bigger, stronger, smarter, and stealthier. 
6. The Men in Colors trade with the royal family of the elves once a year; only the elvish royalty know about this.
7. The battle they saw in the sky was mind flayers being driven off by the navy of the Duke of the Third Moon.
8. Lord Whitehill works for the same person that commands the Red Maiden; the Red Maiden is, in fact, a rakshasa. The mysterious commander of them both wants them to create civil wars in Banath and High Morath.
9. Rupert is a Claric//Magic-user vampire bound about with Geases, Quests, and curses so he is trapped in parts of Skull Mountain, but he could potentially be freed just by having the right conversations. In fact, he once was contained to one tiny room.

  The party learned that the Man in Green's special introductory offer for non-magical weapon wax was limited to 10 jars of the normal wax or 5 jars of the deluxe wax! Brigid bought 3 jars of the deluxe wax (enough for about 3 years) and is treating Mor Altach with it to protect her sword from rust, lightning, and magnetism.
  The Man in Green gave a few prices for skyships (hideously expensive) and mentioned that if they were to light the beacon at Midsummer a skyship would take them to the Third Moon for a per-person fee. The Man in Green gave Seeker a device that would allow him to place an order at will once. he also mentioned that if they wanted armor, weapons, etc. they would need to talk to the Man in Red.

  We broke for the weekend.

Mapping the Briars: The Party Meets "Grandmother"

Today's game was about 5 hours. The party was using the tools seen here (using mapping, oculars, and magical communication to stay on track, etc.) Musad the genie is still collecting their reports, etc., too. The late Summer weather is much better (if freakin' hot) so travel was a touch easier.

Today they played through 6 weeks of game time. In addition to the asps, giant spiders, and rats they encountered:
- Many instances of hippogriffs, gryphons, etc. flying by
- A tribes of ogres (12 total) fleeing from Ol' Knobby's ambition. The party put them all down in 9 rounds and relatively low damage. The survivor accepted a parole to go to Goblintown after explaining the Ol' Knobby, no longer held back by Ol' One Fang, has ambitions of ruling the Briars.
  The party was also told that Ol' Knobby was horribly changed by some power and is a powerful, twisted creature.
- They fought a group of brigands and took out a 10th level mage with backstabs and spells and a 10th level fighter with Hold Person and a barbarian. The survivors accepted a parole to turn themselves into the baron of Esber.
- A war party of 17 kobolds totally surprised Brigid with 2 segments of surprise. Then the party slew them all.
- The met a brushman named Wilson. They spent the night in his cabin. In the morning Vasilissa traded a pie for one of Wilson's hams. The party spoke more with Vasilissa and WIlson explained how to be properly polite with Grandmother.

- They met Grandmother.

  The tiny old woman with fangs jutting up from her lower jaw almost to her eyes was 'rowing; her giant mortar with a giant pestle while an animated broom erased all evidence of her passage. She paused and spoke with the party.
  The party was very polite and deferential and gave her the traditional gifts: spices, fabric, and clean water. She praised them for their politeness and said she would welcome them for tea some day. She also told them to give Vasilissa a message that Grandmother would be late.
  Hours later they found a clearing. A circle of dragon femurs topped with human skulls (that followed the party with their gaze) surrounded a clearing 120 yards across with a small hut in the middle. Vasilissa was trimming roses by the hit and called a greeting, The party gave her the message, and she thanked them and said it was good they did as they were told.

  They left immediately. The general attitude was

  Things they learned from Vasilissa while at Wilson's include:

• Grandmother is evil, maybe the most evil thing ever, but she has rules: she won't kill children unless they are 'naughty'; she won't harm the polite; she won't destroy cities unless their rulers have insulted her; etc.
• Never, ever ask her a personal question: 'how do you do?' or 'would you like some honey in your tea?' = OK; 'how old are you?' or "where are you from?" = she eats you. While you're alive and screaming.
• Vasilissa was sent by her stepmother to serve Grandmother as a servant because her late father owed a debt and Grandmother will forgive it in return for honest, loyal work. Vasilissa has been serving Grandmother for 4 years; in 2 more years, when Vasilissa turns 16, Grandmother will release her and 'reward her as is fitting' which means she might get gold, a powerful magic item, and a blessing. Or a prince for a husband, Or she might be cooked and eaten. It depends on how honest, loyal, and clever she was as a servant.

  We broke for the night and hope to continue tomorrow.

DM Report: Phase I of the Briars Mapping Expedition

Over Memorial Day weekend we got in about 16 hours of table time. Earlier breakdowns are here, here, and here and my guesses are here.

More Adventure: After recovering from the near-fatal for several members fight with Ol' One Fang and using the Broom to ferry the freed slaves to Skull Mountain the party mapped for 3 more days then headed to Skull Mountain where they met - their other characters. Because the mapping will take so long other adventures are going on at the same time. All of them were at Skull Mountain for Midsummer and, as per tradition, they used the pre-sets on the mountaintop oculars and saw:
-Pyrotechnics over High Morath
-A flying swanship land in Timberlake
-An 80' tall humanoid climb to the rim of the Demon's Eye and wave at them
-A space battle between a dozen dragonfly ships and what appeared to be a massive snail ship. Clint thought that the oculars briefly put a red circle around the snail ship

Team Thief returned to complete mapping the western Upper Briars. The grind of mapping continued. As a group we discussed how mentally exhausting the mission would be: Constantly climbing through rocky, hilly terrain covered in briars; your clothing wearing out rapidly because of the constant wear and tear; limited sight lines meaning you are under constant threat of ambush so you can never relax; meals a constant cycle of one type of magical paste to another. Rough living.

While travelling they correctly guessed the command word tot he Ring of Raven Control they found and before too long Seeker was giving shiny coins to the various ravens of the Briars and contemplating becoming their new king.
Three or four times they witnessed a bright light from the Low Briars, always from the same spot.
One night they saw the Red Maiden on her owl chase a griffon, then transform it into a chimera and order it to follow her before she returned over the mountains.
They saw Ol' One Fang;s daughter, armed with a massive great sword but she ran off. The ravens told Seeker she gave Manbreaker to Ol' Knobby and that her name is Erena the Gorgeous.
And near the end they met the man in Purple with his travelling fortune telling tent. Just like the legend says, he answered 6 questions for them.
Total in-game time to map the western High Briars? 112 days. The eastern portion is larger. The Low Briars is much larger but the terrain isn't as bad.

Notes: It took about 50% longer than they expected because of bad weather, Ol' One Fang, and wanting to be at Skull Mountain for Midsummer. They hope the eastern portion will go faster. and they really hope they can get out of the mountains and hills to the Low Briars before Winter!
With the thorough map they are able to travel through the Briars they have explored much faster and, most importantly, without a real chance of getting lost!

What I Got Wrong: Almost everything! When bad weather hit the party just hunkered down so they avoided the flash floods and the tornado and the worst of the rest. The immediately fled from Ol' One Fang and then carefully counter-attacked and ambushed him. Although the party does admit - if O' One Fang's first blow had not been a miss at least 2 party members would have died - it was that close.

Next Steps: The 'other team' will try to get to the portion behind the eyes of Skull Mountain and then try to get to Remote Station #2 - the paladin has a weird metal plate that might fit the slot in the side panel.... Team Thief will continue their mission to the east while looking for Ol' Knobby, the new owner of Manbreaker. They will continue to hide from the Red Maiden whenever they see her.

Questions?

Mid-Session Report: Briars Expedition - Ol' One Fang Is No More!

After the last session we woke up to a hearty breakfast and 4 pots of coffee, talked a bit, and sat down for the early session.

The party learned that Ol' One Fang (OOF) had put a stone over his lair's entrance. Seeker cast Audible Glamar to mimic the sound of the party falling into the pit trap nearest cavern and OOF charged out, boulder ready and the fight began.
Brigid pulled out her rarest of weapons, a Wand of Lightning Bolts, and blasted OOF for - very little damage after he saved. Godfrey, Nigel, and Thorin used the last of their enchanted arrows, pouring on fire, and Seeker engaged in hand-to-hand. OOF missed Seeker!
Then first thing in the second round, OOF tagged Seeker for minimum damage vs. a non-human - 15 points. Seeker fled. Godfrey and Nigel used their last enchanted arrows and Sparrow - engaged the female hill giant that had been this close to ambushing the party. Sparrow is a thief, but was using a great sword one-handed (magic items!) - he was overmatched. Brigid confronted OOF as OOF chased Seeker, who was running for his life. She struck with Mor Altach and hurt OOF. Then OOF hit Brigid with Manbreaker for 36 points, below average, and put Brigid well inside 'minimum damage kills you' range. She held firm.
The third round was the same with the party pouring everything into OOF while Sparrow held off the female hill giant by himself. Brigid got in a mighty blow with Mor Altach as Nigel, Godfrey, and Thorin all had excellent, top notch rolls with mundane arrows and Seeker fired his bow, also hitting and...
...OOF went down.
  Brigid began a coup de grace  as the female hill giant broke into a dead sprint for OOF. The archers shifted fire to her, Sparrow hit her (finally), and even Thorin tried to block her, but she kept racing for OOF, crying out 'Father!' in giantish then - snatched up Manbreaker and kept running! The archers got off another salvo before she slid down a steep slope and vanished into the thick briars. Godfrey pursued her (as the party called him back) and hit a pit trap on the prepared escape route that damn near killed him! He hobbled back to camp with 3 h.p.
  The party found 3 slaves in the lair and spent 3 days healing, clearing traps, etc. The cash loot was tremendous and they got a few nice magic items. They also found a Skull Mountain style door. A door that had been forced, then hidden. They found more of OOF's loot in the vestibule, and a narrow corridor went further back.
In the back room was a metal wall covered in 144 small hemispherical piece of crystal that flashed various colors, each one with a rune by it. The ceiling was a sort of smoked glass that lit up as they entered. On a side wall was a panel of metal that had weird glass plates on it with writing. The writing was in the ancient tongue used by wizards and looked like this:

There was no key hole, although there was a narrow slot off to the side.

At this point the players threatened to murder me over the female hill giant getting away and the fact they now feared blanketing the Briars with fallout if they messed with the panel too much.

The players rested and healed then resumed mapping after sending the slaves to Skull Mountain via broom. After a few more days they encountered a band of brigands and kobolds hired by the kobold king to find the exile by searching Skull Mountain. The party rushed back and prepared, but the brigands came, inspected the eyes, and left.

The party now suspects the g6 key opens the door in the back of the eyes.

They decided to have the party rest at Skull Mountain for a week and we took a real-world break, too.

Post-Session Report: Mapping the Briars

Play today was about 7 hours. The team had already placed their team in Skull Mountain and they headed to the High Briars on the first of Plantings ((mid-April). 8 o'clock, day one - giant spiders. A dozen of them. The party dealt with them then burst into laughter - if there had been surprise the party might have died as they left the road!
The party began their methodical mapping doing 'super-hexes' as possible, as I mentioned in the pre-game post. Pretty soon they settled into a routine and the map started coming together. The 'minor highlights' were:
-Skull Mountain reported a lone kobold, ragged and scrawny, tried to enter. They killed it and hid the body.
-The party spotted hippogriffs from the mountains more than once.
-The  famous ravens of the Briars seemed to be curious about humans so deep in the wilderness.
-Lots of encounters with things like brush wolves, briar cats, wild cows, feral goats, etc.
-Patches of large spiders here and there meant they had to stay sharp.
The more major encounters were:
-A troll - the party got 2 counts of surprise at 30 yards. The scouts and the fighters put it down while it was surprised and then Bridget put it down for good with Mor Altach
-A quickwood hurt the party, but was slain.
-A hangman tree was so tough they got away from it, marked the location, and went around.
-A warband of 20 kobolds ambushed them spreading injuries around, but Bridget got into melee and killed them a a prodigious rate. Seeker was able to Hold three of them (the only survivors). Details below.
-A beautiful human girl who said her name is Vasilissa of about 14 with blonde hair in a braid and a peasant's dress. She was looking for someone to help her with two bags. One was full of dirt and poppy seeds, the other full of good wheat and rotten wheat. Someone she would only call 'Grandmother' had given her a limited amount of time to separate the poppy seeds and the good grains, respectively. Seeker used his Gather cantrips to do the tasks for her. In gratitude she told the party,

"If you meet grandmother, always be polite and don't be snoopy about her affairs and she won't eat you. Probably."

Then she hurried off.
-They met a 10' tall raven that called itself the Raven King. It told them of the 'shiny cave' where they could get many shinies. Days later the Raven King started warning them to go to the cave for the shinies or they'd be sorry.
-A clearing deep in the briars. At the center? A shrine to St. Christopher and a sacred pool that seemed to hold back the thorn bushes 1/2 mile in all directions.
-Ol' One Fang (details below).

The kobolds: one of the prisoners was a boastful 'thug' (sergeant) who told them the folktales of his clan, the Ice Dagger Tribe. The prisoners were ferried to Skull Mountain by broom, causing a pursuit by a griffon that tried to pluck off the kobolds as they hung beneath the broom like Christmas stockings. They also said that they were following an 'exile' from the kobolds who has stolen a key. After dropping off the kobolds Seeker searched the body of the one killed by the hirelings at skull mountain. He found a silver key etched 'g6' that was of the same design as the key to the Apartment in Skull Mountain.

Ol' One Fang: The party were fairly certain they that Ol' One Fang's lair was near the source of the Rill (the river in the Briars) in the mountains overlooking the Briars. The Raven King seemed to confirm this. As they got close they noted that the brambles were often trodden down, the barbarian spotted massive bootprints, etc.
As they came into a ravine near the slope up into the mountains O' One Fang (OOF from now one) rose up and began hurling boulders from a position atop a hill with no briars.
The party immediately ran back the way they came at a dead sprint. Being the Thief Crew they assumed they were in a heavily-trapped killzone and retraced their route at maximum possible speed. Seeker got hit with a boulder before they could get around the shoulder of a hill.
About 20 yards further down Godfrey (the scout) and Nigel (Godfrey's scout henchman) turned Invisible (the other magic the party negotiated for) and set an Ambush using the scout rules as the rest of the party kept running.
The rest of the party then got hit by the Raven King and about 12 huge ravens. Raven King was screaming how OOF rewarded him with shinies for luring humans into the traps and he would eat their corpses after OOF crushed them. OOF was running behind, obviously coordinating with the ravens.
Then OOF ran into the ambush zone and rolled 2 segments of surprise just as Bridget engaged Raven King. While Raven King's beak and claws hurt Bridget badly, it wasn't enough. Bridget, Thorin (the fighter/thief) and Seeker put Raven King down.
In the ambush Godfrey and Nigel hit with 6 out of 8 arrows and did an incredible 34 points of damage (and using up all but one of their magical arrows) before they ran away. Nigel got hit with a boulder, but kept going. OOF actually turned back!
The party checked out Raven King and found a ring on its leg - this was eventually revealed to be a Ring of Raven Command.

The party began tracking OOF and were able to use his movements to avoid the various traps leading to the 'stairs' (a rocky slope) leading up to his cave. Seeker went Invisible and used the broom to scout - he found a path for non-giants, disabled the trap on it he found, then flew to the cavern. There he observed OOF healing himself with shamanic spells and ordering a bedraggled female elf in chains to heal him more. As she protested she could not, Seeker flew off to brief everyone else.

End of the session.

Overall Feedback from the Players:
-Because of the 3 times a day check in with the cartographers on Skull Mountain with the magical oculars, if the party gets lost they can correct course within a few hours. In the confusing maze of the Briars they get lost about 1 in 3 days. They very quickly realized that with their check ins within a week they would be lost and without magical provisions might very well starve to death before they could find their bearings again, another reason the Briars are so dangerous.
-They realized the large spiders and briar asps (a cobra-like snake) are the routine threats to normal groups and are quickly coming to hate the vile vermin.
-Sam recognized the tasks of Vasilissa, but can't remember what fairy tale they come from....
-Realizing that Raven King was OOF's spymaster and that the ravens of the Briars were reporting their movements to OOF, they realize that OOF has been the effective ruler of the western Briars for 2-3 human generations.
_The weather slowed them down to about 2/3rd - 3/4th of their hoped-for speed, but they are making progress, But after 52 games days they have barely dented the vastness of the Briars.
-After thinking about the holy pool and the shrine they had the cleric try Turning Undead on the briars - the closest briar bush burst into bloom with briar roses. They are puzzled by this....

My Comments:
-They reacted to Vasilissa in a very proper manner, if you know your fairy tales.
-This was 2 firsts for an initial OOF encounter - they ran immediately (almost every other party has charged right into the avalanche)  and no PC died in the first encounter. In every other encounter OOF killed at least 1 PC on first contact.
-Watching them realize how very little they know about the Briars after travelling the Old Road back and forth for 4 real-life years is a lot of fun.

Next Time: They are going to go after OOF in his lair!!

DM Data Dump: Fruit of the Briars mapping expedition

Fruits of the interrogation of a kobold officer:
 “Long ago, when the Lord of Evil ruled Skull Mountain, he ruled the entire realm. Kobolds were rich and fat and the elves lived far, far away. The Lord of Evil built the Old Road and the Old Bridge so he could conquer the wicked elves. The elves came to fight the Lord of Evil, but he drove them away. Then bad people came from the sky and attacked him with fire and acid from floating things. The Lord of Evil made the nearby mountain grow crystal horns so he could shoot lighting at the moon. The bad sky people called for help and an army of men and elves came and destroyed the Lord of Evil, his friends the Red, Blue, Black, and White cultists, and robbed kobolds of all their wealth and food. Now kobolds dream of when a new Lord will rule the mountain, make the mountains grow crystal horns, and drive out the elves and humans again.”

 “Freetown is far to the west, past the King of Kobolds. Anyone can live there, even stupid kobolds who do not worship the goat god and don't sacrifice humans. Some of them even worship the Human god! We go to Freetown 2 times a year to buy tribute for Ol' One Fang.”

 “When we travel east we navigate by the Shining Hut, the hut where the Human that Glows lives. When have never been there and no kobold will bother the Shining Man because he can crush our skulls with his hands.”

 “We also navigate by the wizard's tower. We never go there, but we see him, sometimes. He's scary.”

Pre-Game Report: The Mapping of the Briars

My wife, Jennifer, suggested I do a pre-game show, uh, report before the huge marathon this weekend so I can compare what I think will happen versus what does happen.

The Coming Adventure:  The thieves and such of the campaign, accompanied by the barbarian (custom class) Bridget (arguable the toughest fighter PC) will hexcrawl the entirety of the Briars (map here).