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Before they could set off for the goblin village, they received an urgent message from Kesten Garess. He had located the hidden shrine of a Lamashtu cult, and believed they were preparing for a ritual of some kind within days. With Lamashtu – the Mother of Monsters – being a prime suspect for the Barony’s epidemic, this was too much of an opportunity to pass up. Darius immediately set out for the location.

Along the way, they had to pass the large bridge over the Gudrin River. But upon arriving they found a collection of refugees desperately waiting to cross, with armed men demanding payment to do so!

Darius immediately confronted the men, who claimed they were working for the ruler of the area – the Stag Lord himself! They knew of the Baron’s reputation, however, and had absolutely no wish to cross him. They suggested he speak to the “Stag Lord” himself – in his camp on the other side of the bridge. In return Darius gave them five minutes to disappear.

Upon crossing the bridge, Darius indeed found a gang of bandits led by and imposter “Stag Lord Reborn”, who were dispatched far more easily than had been the genuine article.

They arrived at Kesten’s shrine in time to find a suitable hiding place, and that evening saw cultists arrive and begin – praising the Mother and asking her to cull the weak and raise up the strong.

When they burst forth to confront the cultists, they initially stood to fight. But unfortunately they fought to the death, with the apparent purpose being to buy time for their leader to escape.

Maha gave chase, but lost the figure in the snowy gloom. She did, however, track the cult leader’s destination….

A secluded hunting lodge on an out-of-the-way trail.

There were only a few travellers currently staying at the lodge, but the proprietor – a grumpy dwarven woman named Dumra – was *not* pleased at Darius’ presence. She was particularly unhappy when he ordered Kesten and his guards to man all exits and not allow anyone to leave the lodge. She harrumphed at his insistence that a Lamashtu cultist had taken shelter in her inn, and only begrudgingly answered questions about who had arrived and when.

One of the current residents was a young woman named Olika, clearly pregnant but traveling alone. After some investigation Darius determined that she was looking for help with a difficult pregnancy – but would not say from whom. At any rate, he was certain this was not the cultist he had seen running across the snowy highlands.

Next were a more upper class pair of travelers named Kabron and Una Tedrim. They claimed to be vacationing on a hunting trip, but it quickly became clear that Kabron knew absolutely nothing about hunting. A search of his room also revealed no hunting gear whatsoever. And in response to further questioning they lamely claimed to have “forgotten their gear”. On the other hand, they both were clearly urban dwellers who would be unlikely beast cultists.

In the kitchen was a woman named only Tsanna, who claimed to be the Tedrim’s maidservant. But her demeanor did not at all strike Darius as that of a servant, and she and the Tedrim’s did not tell matching stories of their travels. He also sensed something very… unsettling… in her presence.

When he confronted her, it quickly became apparent that she was, in fact a priestess of Lamashtu. But she claimed that the barony would be “drowning in a river of blood” had Lamshtu been behind the epidemic. Lamashtu did not do battle with diseases that killed the strong as easily as the weak. Darius still could not allow such a cult to flourish in his Barony.

Tsanna laughed and warned she would be no easy prey. But even with her power, she was still one against Darius and his companions, and was soon beaten.

She reluctantly answered his remaining questions. She was here, apparently, at the request of the other travellers. The Tedrims – lawyers by trade – were cursed by Pharasma (goddess of death) for defending Necromancers in court. Priests of Pharasma had told Olika that her baby would be born dead, and she had turned to Tsanna in desperation. Darius pondered Tsanna’s fate, and then decided upon banishment. She had done nothing he knew of to deserve death or imprisonment, but she could not be allowed to practice in his domain. Olika begged him to allow Tsanna to save her baby first, and he agreed. Tsanna remarked only that “believe as you will, but Lamashtu does not abandon those who call to her”

Whatever else she might be, Darius believed Tsanna about Lamshtu. It seemed unlikely that their current problems matched the Mother of Monsters’ preferred methods. They continued on to the goblin village – hoping for answers there. Even if Lamshtu wasn’t involved, the goblins were clearly using the situation to their advantage. Perhaps they knew something.

Inside they came upon a curious sight. A lone small goblin was being punished for some offense against “the shaman”. The sentence was, apparently, to be fed to an owlbear. The goblin in question, however, was laughing – claiming they would soon see “who Lamashtu really blessed”. Sure enough, when the owlbear was set loose… it promptly turned on its captors instead of its intended target.

The goblin introduced himself as “Nok-Nok”, and seemed to believe he was a “Seer” of Lamashtu. Mostly because he had a dream about her once. He too claimed that Lamashtu was not the cause of the epidemic… but he thought the shaman had something to do with it. Or was at least attempting to take credit for it. The shaman had moved a goblin village to be near a “womb”.

They returned to Tuskdale so that Darius could confer with all his advisors. They knew that magic seeds were causing the disease, and that they were ingested. They thought it likely that they were initially tiny, and grew until they “bloomed”. Upon blooming they turned into a magic portal of some kind. It seemed unlikely that the goblin shaman could have caused the epidemic, but it was clear he at least knew enough to take advantage of it. Tristian had noticed some patterns in the spread. It afflicted mostly villagers. And appeared most severe near the Gudrun River. He believed the seeds were in the water. They would need to search upstream to find the source, and it was possible the goblin shaman knew enough to narrow the search.

But before they could deliberate further, Kesten ran into the room claiming the peasants were rioting! Darius addressed them personally, and was able to convince them that their best bet for a cure would be to allow him to continue trying to find one. They weren’t happy. They were scared. But they agreed that there was no other solution at hand.

Darius and his companions headed for the last known location of the goblin shaman’s village as soon as things were settled. Kesten went on ahead to scout things out. When they arrived, they found he had set up a makeshift camp nearby. The goblins had set up a fort nearby, and they had taken prisoners from surrounding villages. Kesten’s men had rescued several, but did not have the strength for an all out assault. And certainly could not continue protecting those they had already rescued if they made the attempt anyway. He said the goblin shaman had apparently been performing some sort of ritual on the prisoners… He wasn’t sure what that meant, but it did NOT sound good.

They began their assault on the goblin fort straightforwardly. The goblins had numbers, entrenched positions, and traps, but they were not hard to bait out and not terribly tactical fighters.

Before long they came upon a chilling sight – given what they now knew about the epidemic. Goblins forcing prisoners to drink water from the river…

The prisoners were held in makeshift cages all over the fort. As they found them they freed them and send them back to Kesten’s camp.

Before long they came to a large gathering of goblins – including a particularly large goblin NokNok called out as the chief. But rather than charging directly, NokNok had a different idea. He entered the circle, alone, and called out the chied directly. The chief was having none of, it but it did not take long for NokNok’s catcalls and claims he was too scared to fight to have the intended effect. Unfortunately for the chief, NokNok’s actual goal was not a straight-up fight. NokNok tripped him. Hid behind him. Pulled his helmet down over his eyes. This was not a fight to the death. It was a fight of counting coup. And the chief was losing. Badly.

But when it seemed the chief had completely lost the respect of his tribe, the Shaman stepped in. He was not a large goblin. He was not a strong goblin. But as he began summoning spectral wolves it became clear he had other ideas for how this should play out.

In the end, however, he too was beaten.

But as the shaman lay defeated, he began laughing. “The baron be too late! The Bloom be happening now! Blossom seeds came down stream. From the Womb! Seed breedery! Now all lonsgshanks… Boom… Boom… Boom…”

They looked at each other in horror as they realized what he meant. All of the seeds would now bloom. *All* of them. They rushed back to Kesten’s camp, to find “hatched” Manticores, Hydras, and others assaulting the camp and the un-infected survivors.

They fought off the beasts. Saved as many refugees as they could. But this was only the beginning. There was one much larger concentration of infected. The hospital in the capital – where Tristian and Jhod had been treating villagers. It was now a race… for HOME!

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Author’s Notes:

I had forgotten how wild and crazy this whole chapter gets. But when all is said and done its probably my favorite chapter. The wild and wooly conclusion of Chapter 3 in the next installment.