Against the Cult: Timeline/Chapter Summaries

I realized that I've been more sporadic in my summarizing of each chapter than I thought I had been. So here is a thread where I will summarize what's happened. These summaries obviously don't include everything, but they're not intended to do that. The intent is to jog your memory (or give you broad strokes of the backstory if your PC wasn't involved in that chapter).

Elven hero Cecily Raptor earned fame and fortune as an adventurer for centuries. She was single-handedly responsible for clearing wilderness regions of threats that encouraged the settlement of much of Keoland and the Gran Marches. Now she has retired and founded the adventurers' guild, "Dungeon Busters!" to continue the good work and earn money doing so. She identifies areas that might need help and sends crews of adventurers there to confirm the need, set up local guild halls, and complete jobs to get positive word of mouth for the organization.

To that end, Cecily sent an initial team to Hochoch to assess the need: Aanbo the monk, Klak the paladin, Morgran the cleric, Ogbar the barbarian, Quest the mystic, Sara the ranger, Thacogygax the sorceror, and Xana the warlock. Within a week of that team's departure, Cecily had a premonition that there would be need for a local franchise, so she sent one of her lieutenants, Olpert Razorson, with a franchise starter kit after them. Then she set about forming a second squad to send after him. Albertus the paladin, Kragga the wizard, Joseph the rogue, and Theran the druid left a few days after Olpert.

On Day 1, the first eight-person team arrived in Hochoch and immediately got a sense that something was going on, as caravan trade with the neighboring agricultural town of Orlane was dwindling and rumors abounded as to something weird going on there. Before that first day ended, they answered the call to help a miller who had been attacked by strangers who attacked the mill. They were joined by Durren Elderblade, an aspiring fighter who used this crisis as his audition for Dungeon Busters. At the mill, the mob of adventurers handily defeated a bunch of bandits who'd occupied the mill and held the miller's wife as hostage (as well as finding a bunch of kobolds in the basement). The Dungeon Busters captured some of them, including a man named Tap whose mind was broken (from a spell that Xana cast). From the captives, they learned that the bandits were part of the gang led by the infamous Bandit Black, a regional blackguard, but none of the captives knew why their leader had ordered them to take the mill.

On Day 2, the party decided to set a trap for Bandit Black, disguising themselves as wealthy merchants to get ambushed by bandits on Cecily's Road in the Dim Forest between Hochoch and Orlane. On the way (Day 4), they met Abel Jarl, who was distraught because his son was deathly ill. The party split, some going to see if they could help Abel's son Devek (team A), and the others staying with the merchant wagon (team B). The ones who stayed were met by a traveling minstrel, Jonbon, and then they heard a large beast nearby. Xana tried to scare it by imitating a dragon, but the beast - a huge owlbear - heard the roar as a challenge. It pounced out of the forest, killed Jonbon's mules, terrified the party's oxen, and casually gave a mortal wound to Klak. Xana drew the owlbear away by making more dragon sounds, and the party took Klak to Abel's house to help him heal and recover from his near-death experience. Teams A and B reunited.

At the same time, Albertus, Kragga, Joseph, and Theran (team C) arrived in Hochoch ahead of Olpert (having passed his slower ox-cart on the road). They began asking around, trying to confirm that they were in the right place and find out what the Dungeon Busters had done already.

On Day 5, Jonbon charmed Abel to leave his family alone and take the comatose son Devek back to the Temple of Rao in Hochoch in a handcart. They were hours down the trail when Abel realized he'd been charmed, and the party split again: half going back to Abel's house (team A), half continuing with Devek to the Temple (team B). Abel and team A arrived at his house and found that Jonbon had knocked out and kidnapped all the rest of Abel's family, taking them back down Cecily's Road through the Dim Forest in the opposite direction (toward Orlane) using the party's merchant wagon. Sprinting, team A caught up with the kidnapper, beat him down, and tied him up. They got back to Abel's house shortly after dark. Durren and Quest took turns guarding Jonbon overnight while the others talked Abel out of murdering the kidnapper.

That afternoon (still Day 5), Olpert Razorson arrived in Hochoch and started to set up a temporary office in the Inn of Eternal Rest while team B arrived after dark and took comatose Devek straight to the Temple of Rao, where the high priestess, Diana, assessed that Devek had been poisoned by some kind of magical sleeping potion.

On Day 6, Quest announced that he was going back to town and left ahead of the rest of team A. The rest of the party was treated to a fine country meal and given additional food for the road by Abel's wife Elista (who had awakened from her drugged stupor with the rest of the family in the morning). Durren led the trussed-up Jonbon back down Cecily's Road through the Dim Forest to Hochoch.

Team B met with Olpert and Team C. Olpert got a status report on Dungeon Buster activities, and immediately gave them jobs related to setting up a guild hall. In mid-afternoon, a hurrying team A arrived with Jonbon back at Hochoch and met with Theran, Joseph, Kragga, and Albertus at the Inn as they finished their jobs. They introduced themselves, and on the strength of the party's testimony, Olpert hired Durren to be part of the Dungeon Busters...on a provisional basis as his assistant (so he can evaluate him personally). Nobody had seen Quest. The heroes took Jonbon to a holding cell, where he will await trial until the Keolish Reeve arrives in three weeks' time. Thacogygax, Morgran, Klak, and Sara all announced that they would not go with the group back to Abel's house to investigate what harmed Devek (for various reasons). The reconfigured party - Xana, Theran, Ogbar, Kragga, Joseph, Albertus, and Aanbo - force-marched their way back east along Cecily's Road through the Dim Forest. They arrived back at Abel's farm in the middle of the night, and were greeted hospitably by the family despite the hour and the size of the party. The Jarl family treated them to a meal and agreed to escort them next morning to where they think Devek came from when he fell ill.

As Day 7 dawned, the party set out with Abel and his daughter Abella; they pointed out where Devek went. The party followed that trail, taking time to travel carefully.

Around midday of Day 7, the party arrived at a crumbling, ancient ruined temple. Exploring, they discovered many traps (some of which had been triggered, including the needle that had struck Devek into the death-like sleep) and a set of zombies within the temple. Through their investigations, they eventually discovered that an ancient sect of sun-worshippers believed that a new age of prosperity was coming; they created a complicated potion to preserve themselves in sleep until the "New Dawning" would arrive...but one of their members betrayed them, making a pact with evil powers. This villain had murdered his fellow monks and animated their corpses in a dark ritual. This ritual kept reanimating the zombies after the party defeated them. The party confronted this apostate monk and disrupted the ritual, finally killing the villain and all the zombies. They also found some treasure (a bunch of valuables, some magic scrolls, and Theran got a +1 mace) and a formula for the potion that restores people from their magical sleep. They force-marched their way back down the road to Hochoch and arrived at night again. They delivered the formula to Diana at the Temple and the boy Devek began to revive. The party rested at the Inn.

Starting on Day 8, Aanbo, Joseph, Theran, and Xana each met with their respective class trainers, spending some of the money they'd earned and 2 days to advance to second level.

On Day 10, Ogbar retired from Dungeon Busters to return to his tribe and challenge the chieftain for the hand of his daughter in marriage. On the way out of Hochoch, he ran into new Dungeon Busters recruits Myrtha the fighter and Reptile the barbarian. He gave them directions and continued out of the story. Kragga met Myrtha and Reptile and introduced them to the rest of the group (except for Quest, who was still absent). As the party discussed what to do next, another new Dungeon Busters recruit arrived: Karliel the bard. Welcoming the new addition, the new party set out to retrieve the merchant's wagon they'd left in the Dim Forest at the Jarl farm. On the way they met Zahm Smith, a blacksmith hoping to find work in Hochoch, and wished him well. They were greeted warmly by the Jarl family once again; Abel and his wife Elista were particularly happy that Devek was recovering from his near-death experience. The Jarl family cleared room for the big adventuring party to sleep in their home again.

On Day 11, Elista and her youngest child loaded into the wagon with Myrtha driving, and the rest of the party walked alongside as they made their leisurely way back down Cecily's Road through the Dim Forest back to Hochoch. Arriving after sunset, the family reunited with Devek, the merchant reunited with his wagon, and the party settled down at the Inn of Eternal Rest for the night.

On Day 12, Morgran introduced the party to Louis Marks, the local constable who is in charge of watching any accused in the gaol in between visits of the Reeve. With the help of a priest named Brother Jamin, the party interrogated Jonbon. With spells making sure he wasn't lying, the party learned that Jonbon had prepared food that put the Jarl family to sleep. He was alarmed when they fell asleep and started to take the sleeping people to Orlane to get the help of Abramo or Misha, priest and priestess in the temple of Merikka in Orlane. This help would have blessed the family, changing them in a spiritual way as they "came face to face with the goddess." Jonbon did not know Bandit Black.

They also questioned the bandit captives, from whom they learned that Bandit Black usually runs several operations at once, they're usually wildly profitable, and the attack of the mill was unusual: it was the first time they were instructed to occupy a building rather than sack it. It wasn't the first time that Black worked with kobolds, but it was the first time any of them had. None of the bandits could agree on which person they'd met was Bandit Black. Louis and Jamin tried to get answers out of Tap, but his broken mind was unable to respond coherently.

Returning to the Inn, the party met the newest Dungeon Busters recruit coming from Cecily, Chase the ranger, and Olpert called Xana away on some secret mission. Then Olpert split the remaining Dungeon Busters agents into two teams: one team to investigate the bandit activity in Hochoch (all the now-NPC Dungeon Busters), and the other team (Aanbo, Chase, Joseph, Myrtha, Reptile, and Theran) to go to Orlane to shed some light on all the rumors flying about that place.

On Day 13, the party set out on Cecily's Road east through the Dim Forest toward Orlane. They make camp after nightfall, but as the party split up to forage and make a fire, a badly-injured bear entered the camp and started tearing apart their packs. Theran started to talk to it when Chase and Reptile attacked it. Between their attacks, Aanbo's kicks, and Myrtha's sword slaps, they knocked out the bear. Aanbo treated the bear's wounds and the party dragged it out of camp.

On Day 14, the party continued on through the Dim Forest before the bear could wake.

The party traveled for that day and most of Day 15, arriving just before sunset at Orlane, a small lakefront farming village overlooked by a hill topped with a large temple dome. The first people the party saw acted afraid of them. The party proceeded to the Golden Grain Inn, where they befriended Bertram Beswill, the proprietor. The mood was dour, with serious people doing serious drinking. Bertram cheerfully served the party food and drink and disavowed any knowledge of bandit activity in Orlane. Suddenly, Joseph and Chase decided to leave the Inn. After they left, Myrtha then also decided to explore in the darkness, leaving her pack with the others. The three Dungeon Busters agents outside then split up. Then the sleeping drug that was slipped in the party's food & drink took effect. Theran, Myrtha, and Joseph passed out, and the others managed to stay awake but were all woozy. The common room customers in the Inn and Bertram all attacked Aanbo and Reptile, the only Dungeon Busters adventurers still awake and inside. Reptile fought off the mob while Aanbo dragged Theran's body out and Chase staggered in to provide Reptile cover to escape. The humans in the Inn decided to not chase the armed adventurers into the night. The exhausted heroes staggered through the town, Chase tracking where the others went so they could retrieve Joseph's and Myrtha's sleeping bodies. They managed to find an abandoned barn and went to sleep for the night.

On Day 16, the party decided to scout the village in the daytime and plan what to do next. Both Myrtha and Theran were missing their equipment, so the others spotted them some gear. Reptile and Theran decided to scout the Inn to see what the people there were doing and to find their missing equipment; Theran turned into a spider and crawled from room to room. He saw that Bertram, who had been cut down in the fight, was still alive and recuperating in a fancy room on the ground floor. He discovered that there was a cellar accessed either by an exterior door or a staircase from the kitchen. Upstairs, he scouted a bunch of guest rooms: one with an adventurer's gear (but not theirs!), one with a chatty guest who talked to him, and one with a scarred man who was torturing a prisoner. He did not find his or Myrtha's missing equipment.

Meanwhile, Aanbo, Chase, Joseph, and Myrtha investigated a hut they'd seen nestled in a copse of trees. There they met Ramne, an eccentric hermit, and his intelligent weasel, Whiskers. Ramne was a bit batty, and mentioned that he'd seen the party leave the Inn and wander around in the darkness the night before. He was very concerned that some of the party was missing, but seemed reassured that the party passed his trick questions about the names of various people in Hochoch. Speaking confidentially inside his hut, Ramne revealed that people have been disappearing in Orlane for months. Some of them come back changed. He's seen green humanoid monsters wandering the streets at night. Ramne didn't trust the party, though: he made it clear that it's pretty hard to tell good people from bad people, and he said he wouldn't trust the heroes until he'd seen them fight and defeat some of the green monsters.

Meeting back at the barn in mid-morning, the party decided to not do anything for the rest of the day except to prepare an ambush at the barn, with the idea that they would go to the Inn at night and try to draw a few bad guys (and maybe some of the green monsters) into following them back to be attacked by the whole group away from the rest of the village's buildings. But when night fell, the bad guys executed their plan first: they attacked the barn, and while the party was fighting, a second group deposited the body of the man who had been tortured to death along with Theran's and Myrtha's equipment at the side of the barn, framing the party for his murder. Joseph got separated from the others in the barn as he was sniping from the roof of the nearby abandoned farmhouse. In among the bad guys was one of the green monsters: a troglodyte! A mob of villagers led by the Mayor and his bodyguard arrived a few moments after the fighting was finished. Reptile, Theran, and Myrtha carried away their gear and the dead victim while Aanbo and Chase stayed to face the music. No one knew what happened to Joseph.

(note that this is a summary of two threads, because the party split up)

It being now the middle of the night/early morning of Day 17, Myrtha, Reptile, and Theran left into the trees with the body of the tortured man while Aanbo and Chase remained to face the mob of villagers. The mob was not impressed when Aanbo and Chase spoke to Ramne (who was simultaneously also guiding Myrtha, Reptile, and Theran through the woods via Whiskers). Apparently, the hermit has long been considered a madman by most of the village. When the heroes pointed out the body of the dead troglodyte, the heavily-armored town Constable, Grover, tried to spin the story that the heroes were actually working with the monster, not fighting it. Some of the citizens were enraged, seeing their family members among the bodies of people the party killed. There were two elves there, as well as a retired adventurer named Alan, who pointed out some suspicious details (like the mob being armed for a fight), and a big argument ensued between different villagers. Wanting to avoid a lynching (and not entirely convinced that the Constable's story was the truth) or a general brawl, the Mayor of Orlane ordered Aanbo and Chase to be taken prisoner and held in the gaol until a proper trial could be held in the morning. The rest of the villagers took their dead friends and family to await burial in the nearby Inn of the Slumbering Serpent while Constable Grover and his two heavily-armored dwarven cronies (Donovan and Hulbar) took the captives Aanbo and Chase to the gaol. Alan tagged along to make sure there was no foul play.

Meanwhile, the group (Reptile, Theran, and Myrtha) carrying the dead body emerged from the woods and crossed the bridge, planning to turn the villain's plan back on them by stashing the evidence in the Golden Grain Inn. They broke into the Inn and entered the cellar just before Grover, Donovan, Hulbar, Alan, Aanbo, and Chase came into view. Thinking that he was finally away from other witnesses (and when the conversation turned to whether there might be a network of tunnels under the village), Grover turned and attacked Alan while Donovan and Hulbar moved to kill Chase and Aanbo. With the help of Alan, Ramne (who'd observed what was happening via Whiskers), and one of the two elves, Aanbo and Chase were just barely able to overpower the Constable and his dwarven allies. The five victors arranged for Chase and Aanbo to hide until morning, then meet in the Mayor's office after the elf (who seems to be secretly working for the Mayor) delivers his report. They all split up, with Alan heading north to delay any villagers who might cross the bridge. Aanbo and Chase take the swords from the unconscious Constable and dwarves, as well as a spear, then hide in the Golden Grain Inn's curiously-abandoned barn. Finally getting out of conversation with Alan, other villagers came south across the bridge soon after and found the Constable and his dwarven friends beaten down and disarmed in the middle of the street.

During the hour that Chase and Aanbo rested in the barn, Theran, Myrtha, and Reptile explored the cellars and basement of the Golden Grain Inn, discovering a secret meeting room with a barred door leading into rough-dug tunnels...which contained something that they heard but was gone by the time they opened the door. They closed and barred the door, stashed the dead body in the secret room, and observed a ladder that leads upward to the ground floor of the Inn. After exploring everything below ground (with the exception of the tunnels), the trio moved up the basement stairs into the kitchen. From there, the trio burst into the common room, interrupting a late-night discussion between Bertram Beswill (somehow healed from near-death), the assassin who Theran had earlier observed torturing the man (whose body they'd just stashed in the basement), and a burly, robed cultist. They immediately fought, and the sounds of combat were loud enough that Aanbo and Chase heard it faintly outside in the barn. They decided to investigate, ran out of the barn, broke down the door into Bertram's bedroom, ran through a living room, and arrived in the common room just after the assassin backstabbed Reptile, killing him instantly.