Adventures in Beast World - Session 8 - A Missing Brother (Part 1)

Session Date: 2023-11-07 _4 Huhtikuu, 1365_ The party gets a good night's rest after returning all the stolen items to townspeople and visitors of the festival. Not to mention some pretty full coin purses as well. They set out with the intent to enjoy the festival, but are soon pulled aside by a distressed ovine woman seeking their assistance. Elena Tinsley is missing her brother, Samuel Tinsley. She tells the party that Sam has been missing since the previous day. Sam Howell is a little confused at why this woman thinks she is missing, forgetting others share the same name. Elena tells the crew that Sam likes to look at all the flower gardens and that she thinks he headed off to one of the gardens north of the town. She says it is very unusual for Sam to not come home and not tell her where he is going. The two are very close. The crew decides to do a bit more investigation in the town to find out as much as they can about the missing teen. Stopping first at the Fairweather Floral shop, they talk to Clara Fairweather. From Clara they learn that some odd things have been reported in the Whispering Garden. While she insists that the garden is named such because of the wind, there are a couple in the crew who feel like that is a little suspect. Clara suggests that they might learn more from some folks over in the local pub, so the crew heads down the street. The local pub, owned by Alden Brackenwood is hopping with people celebrating the festival. Some of the crew are a bit surprised to find a pub run by a brethren. They also encounter one lone wolf, Emily, who appears to be the only creature in the pub not celebrating. Sam slides in to talk to Emily, learning that Emily's partner, Hannah, has also gone missing. She tells Sam that her partner is a druid, and they came to the festival to catalog new and exotic plants. She also said that Hannah was out exploring the Whispering Garden and Emily spent the entire night looking for her. Emily offers to come help, but the crew insists that she rest and they will continue the search. With all this new information the crew heads north, out of town to the Whispering Garden. Walking through the garden they stumble upon a ursine bear stuck in a tree. The tree seems to be covered in what appears to be a living vine that has taken a hold of the bear. The crew works quickly to free the bear and chop up the vine. After some introductions the party solicit's Fynn's help to locate the missing beasts. While searching the crew encounters more living plants. Vine and twig blights start coming after the party almost as if they were protecting something. After making a fairly sizable pile of kindling out of the twig blights, the crew finally clears a path. Fynn's nose leads them to find the entrance to a cave system that takes them under the gardens. The crew gets ready for another delve.