Callaghan

Callaghan, the experienced Ranger who occasionally helps out the elves, has not returned in many days.  He was one of the favourites for the Race, and had been asked to check out the safety of the woods around Araucaria.  He hasn’t returned. 

On Day 2 at noon, the day after the General Rules of the Great Race are published, Gerion asks the adventurers to explore the route from the Great Oak to those woods, known to the elves as Arden, and if possible to find out what happened to Callaghan.  He will understand if they wish to refuse.

For a brief description of Callaghan, see The Elven Village.

If the player characters accept, the route they are urged to follow leads them through part of the Taiga, leaving the forest opposite the Great Lake, and then heads directly away from it. Having left the forest, they should cross a river after 4 or 5 miles, and reach Arden around 10-12 miles after exiting the Taiga.  Although the mist is somewhat thinner, visibility is still only 600-700 feet.   

Gerion recommends they begin the following morning, when an elf patrol will travel with them to the far edge of the Taiga and send them off in the right direction.

To give some context to the proposed journey, this map summarises the various routes the party will have followed already, if they have completed the adventures in Phase 1.

This shows the Elven Village, the Hold of the Forest Dwarves, the Gnome Domes, the River Journey, the trip to the Ziggurat and the journey to the Ironwood, as well as the location where Eccles arrived.  The adventurers will be heading off in a different direction, according to their knowledge to date..

Towards the evening of Day 2, a young dwarf, Balar arrives in the village.  He is quiet and wary.  He may attempt to befriend any dwarf player character.

The Search for Callaghan

Early on Day 3, the party set off with an elven patrol. The three elves will traverse the Taiga with the adventurers, crossing several large Roots.  When they arrive at the edge of the forest, opposite Bar-Alda, the elves will point out the direction to the woods around Araucaria.

The referee may choose to roll for wandering monsters during this journey, but it is recommended that no more than a single encounter should occur each day.  Also, as this is essentially a wilderness scenario, encounters are not 'levelled' - the characters may meet creatures significantly weaker or stronger than they are.

Unless otherwise stated, the referee should attempt to determine the best way in which the creature(s) can attack. 

D10	Creature	Notes
1	Pair of Perytons	These will fly down from the clouds above, and will attack the party, unless a sufficient response is made to dissuade them.
2	Treant	A slender Beech Treant.  As with many of its kind, it will speak very, very slowly, and thoughtfully, and take a lot of time.   If there is no sense that the party has harmed any trees, it will be cautiously friendly. However, it will offer little information. It has not seen Callaghan. When it leaves, if it has got on with the adventurers, it will say the usual brief form Treant acknowledgement: ‘There is just one Tree’.
3	Blue Dragon Wyrmling	This will be hiding in a clump of trees, and will seek to engage with the rearmost member of the party.
4	Skyshark	This is a larger form of Skyshark  It will swoop down once to examine the party, and may attack on its second or third pass.  The best plan for the party may be to run and hide!
5	Owlbear
6	Axebeak
7	Giant Boar
8	Hook horror
9	Mammoth
10	Adult Green Dragon	This will be seen through the mists, flying low and heading away from the party. It can be avoided.

In this direction away from the Taiga, there are rolling grasslands, interspersed with bushes and clumps of trees. 

Eventually, after nearly five miles of hard, difficult walking (say around 2.5 - 3 hours of travel), the party will see a line of trees ahead of them through the mists.

The trees are elders and elm, and there are many bushes - they line both sides of a wide, slow-flowing river.  There are flies, wasps, bees and dragonflies flitting about.   

If the characters are alert, they may note that this waterway is similar to the river they travelled along between the Gnome domes and Bar-Alda - specifically, the river between the Forest Lake and the Long Lake. Although from the maps, it seems to be in the wrong place? Or has the party been teleported?  Perhaps there are two similar rivers?

If they investigate the river further, then half a mile downstream (to the left as they approached the river from the Taiga), they will find the bones of two huge Highland Cattle.  These are doubtless the creatures they saw being plagued by the Ennui Mosquitos during the River Journey.   The mosquitos seem long gone, and the river flows quietly over the remains of the Cattle. 

If instead they explore upstream, they will eventually reach the Forest Lake.  

Of course, the adventurers may decide to explore the river further.  However, if they do cross it at some point and continue on their hunt for Callaghan, there is a 50% chance that they will meet Orsino.  

Orsino is a powerful Werebear, but usually appears as a burly, fifty-year-old human.  He will greet the adventurers from afar - but will not get close. If they are friendly, he will mention that he last saw Callaghan heading for Araucaria around 3 ½ weeks previously.  That ties in with when the adventurers last saw him.  He will also tell them that he and his colleague Chaffinch intend to be at Bar-Alda for the Great Race, and they will hopefully meet them properly there. 

Should the party attack Orsino, he will back off, and escape into the mists.  If they follow, he will seem to be heading towards the forest that is their goal.  However, once he is far out of sight he will change direction and head for his home.

There is little to impede the adventurers reaching the forest – apart from the Wandering Monsters.  They will have been asked to scout the periphery of the Arden, and perhaps to venture a little way in.  

Spread around the Roots of the Great Tree Araucaria, for roughly eight to ten miles in every direction, is the Forest of Arden. This is composed mostly of trees found in temperate lands: thus, trees such as oak, ash, elm, beech, hornbeam, birch, maple, plane, alders, hazel, willows and lime proliferate, although a few conifers like spruce, fir and pine trees can also be found here. A range of lichens, mosses, ferns, wildflowers and other small plants can be found on the forest floor, while many shrubs and bushes can be found in the middle layer.  Travel through the forest is difficult. Imagine an idealised ancient English forest. The forest counts as Difficult Terrain for the adventurers walking through it, unless they have some other advantage.   

Arden is rich in wildlife, including deer, small mammals, boars and wild pigs, wolves and bears.  Great varieties of birds are found in the branches, including starlings, woodpigeons, thrush, tits, blackbirds, robins, finches and many breeds of owl.

This forest is irregularly-shaped and is mostly bounded by the open wilderlands and hills, except in one direction, about a quarter of the way round the circumference from where the party reach the woods, towards the left as they are facing Arden, where a wide mist-shrouded swamp can be found. This comes right to the edge of the forest.  It is on this side of the Forest, on the border with the swamps, that the main encampment of the Koboldi Liberation Front can be found.  The Forest here, on this side of the Trunk, is generally accounted their territory.

Once they reach the forest, if they head to the left, they will reach an area of peril within half a mile, when they enter the territory of a Gorgon.  Their first indication of this will probably occur around a mile from the most direct line from the Taiga, when they may come across the statue of a Kobold (equipped as a member of the KDR), half hidden behind a tree on the edge of the forest.

A few hundred yards further on they will come across the petrified, half-eaten body of Callaghan’s dinosaur mount, Fortesque. And a hundred yards away is the petrified body of a Meenlock (summoned by Callaghan when he detected the Gorgon).

If they search the area, within an hour they will come across the petrified body of Callaghan a few yards into the forest. 

In this area, every ten minutes or so there is a 30% chance of detection by the Gorgon, that has made this area on the periphery of the forest, up to the edges of the swamp, its hunting ground.  

Gorgon, Large monstrosity, unaligned - see MM.  If it encounters the adventurers, it will attack them, firstly with its breath weapon, and it will then attempt to gore the least well armoured.  

This Gorgon was inadvertently transported to Orn, similarly to some of the refugees; its Command Key requires the presentation of a statuette that can only be found on its home plane, a long, long way away.

One way of avoiding the gorgon may be to seek refuge in the woods - it may encounter difficulty moving through the trees and undergrowth, while if they can climb high enough into the branches of a tree, its breath weapon will be unable to reach them.  This was Callaghan's plan, but he was caught before he could put it into effect.

If they spend too long in the forest, the adventurers may be beset by a party from the KDR (details to follow, but see also the Adventure of the Dragon's Scale).

If the party can defeat the Gorgon, and take any undamaged petrified creature back to the village, they can possibly be restored to life by the elves.