A CROWN RETURNED GAMEPLAY THREAD

You head Westwards along the path. It is not long before the path begins to widen and a wide natural and well-travelled road begins to amble along as you move into the Darkmoon Vale area. After a decent days walk you see in the distance a Lumber zConsortium camp located on the southern edge of the Dark Moon Vale woods. It seems to cut an ugly scar of stumps into the dense stands of the forest's prized darkwood trees.

Coming closer to the camp, you see five, sturdy log buildings stand out - a bunkhouse, a meal hall, an office, a stable, and a tool shop with numerous outhouses, wide carts, sleds, and stacks of unprocessed lumber amid the sawdust-speckled clearings. The camp appears as callous and unrelenting as the folk who work them.

Moving closer, you come across a band of about 20 or so surly woodcutters. They look up and one of them shouts and points in your direction. They shout out insults at you, veiled threats and generally treat you with derision.

One of them shouts, "WHY ARE YOU HERE AND WHAT DO YOU WANT? SPEAK NOW OR BE ON YOUR WAY!"

The shout back in response is almost overwhelming, "NOOOOO! It's ok little one! Follow me and I will take you to the Supervisor! A large overweight man steps forward wearing a red flannelette shirt and takes you through the lumber piles, past the meal hall to the office.

"There you go! he says and lumbers back to the other side of the lumber piles to work with his buddies.

As you walk in the office, you see a middle aged surly, grizzled slab of a man with red hair and a shaggy red beard wearing work boots, canvas pants and a long hooded bush shirt. He seems to be looking over some wood chips. He turns around to see you enter the office and says in a gravelly voice, "What can I do for you? I'm very busy here at the moment."

"What? A beast called Barlus? Never heard of it!" he says with a shake of his head.

"We don't care what you call the beast." Even in this moment Fira finds a way to be annoying. "We mean the one that's got the lot of your workers so on edge. The one that's supposedly mauling them. Somehow, Teedum's gotten it into his head that it looks like...a wolf."

"Hmmphf! OK. I thought you said that the beasts name was Barlus. Ha! I remember that fella. He came here to our camp to use it as his flophouse. I gave him the bums rush and told him to beat it. I let him know that the only way in no uncertain terms that the only people allowed to spend the night at the camp earn their stay with a dawn to dusk session of 'bracing outdoor exercise" - in other words, this camp is for employees only. He argued with me so I told him that he head into the woods to camp at 'old Ulizmila's place' as he would be safer sleeping in the ruins of a notorious local legends home than anywhere here, where 'axes were tipping over for no apparent reason. I don't know if he took my advice or not but he did head into the woods in that direction."

At the mention of the wolf, his entire demeanour changes from gruff and cantankerous to drop-dead serious in a heartbeat. "Oh, ok! So Payday has finally decided to do something about it by finally sending someone to help. Well, better late than never, I guess.

Yes, there have been rumours for a few weeks now and several of my workers have been wounded by traps in the woods or even gone missing; just four days ago I personally saw one of my workers in the woods step into a hidden trench and impale his foot on a wooden spike, only for the biggest, meanest-looking wolf I have ever seen burst from the bushes, grab my worker by the back of the neck, and race off to the north with its still shrieking prize. I was close to calling for a complete work stoppage as a result. Knowing now that someone is on the job sets my mind at ease, at least my workers will be safe for a while.

I have tracked that wolf for a bit, but when it became obvious the creature was heading in the direction of Droskar’s Crucible, I lost my nerve. I suspect the wolf has been living in the ruins and I suggest that you start your hunt there."

"Droskar's Crucible, of course." Fira grins, clenching her fist in front of her chest. She's surprisingly confident for someone with neither arms nor armor. "We'd better cut that wolf off before more poor, poor woodsfolk get eaten." She pouts, feigning pity.

You decide to head off into the Darkmoon Woods. The forest is a sprawling, trackless forest. At first the trees seem to be thinned out somewhat, partially due to the work of the Lumber Consortium Lumber Camps but also because you are walking through the forest fringes. As you make your way into the forest proper the forest undergrowth and huge trees become a lot denser and movement slows somewhat.

You have been travelling for the best part of a day now. Here, the forest is very dense in some places.

rollin' . . .

Trenton, on that Perception roll of 23, you just happen to glance up while passing under a break in the canopy at just the right time and spot a dark blue shape soaring through the sky above.

The creature is as much as 15 feet long and has a resilient body. Its huge powerful bat like wings sports talons. Its huge aerodynamic thin-horned head bares a snout ending in huge sharp teeth. Its flexible body easily carries the bat like wings. Its two powerful legs end in nasty looking talons.

Its whip like tail balances its flight perfectly and also end in two sharp talons.

The winged Wyvern doesn’t notice you and continues to fly north towards Droskar’s Crag.