Journey South, Part 1

The party headed south from Tara along a game trail. The sky was overcast as they passed through Smuggler's Cove where just a month before they liberated a sailing ship and along the coastal plane between the steep ocean cliffs and foothills. 

While traversing the trail, they heard the cry of a great birds from the sky. Calderone the wizard (some say Calderone the Crazy) was able to discern to large birds of prey fighting above the cloud cover. A light mist began raining down on them, a mist of blood.

Suddenly, as the party looked upward, something fell from the sky, almost crushing Donal, the cleric. It was a huge shark, still heaving after being plucked from the sea. The cries from the creatures continued, with shrieks of pain and great concussive noises. The party waited for the victor to come down to collect its spoils.

Sure enough, a large griffon, badly injured cautiously landed on the opposite side of the shark to collect the prize. The griffon angrily cried at the party hiding in the trees, seemingly looking straight at them. It grabbed its prize and began to fly away, when Calderone unleashed a web spell on the hapless creature. Entangled in the webs, the griffon tumbled to the ground, the enormous shark nearly crushing it in its flailing. Tristan rushed forward with his bastard sword and dispatched the poor animal in a single blow, severing its head. 

The party harvested the animal for its magical bits and took a huge chunk of shark meet for dinner. While they were doing this a grizzly bear approached them quietly in hopes of ambushing them. Tristan was the only one who noticed, and with his bear repellant, created through great hardship, he sent the bear running back to its lair in confusion.

Moving on, the party came across a strange hedge along the game trail. The huge, semicircular hedge was not magical, but certainly didn't occur in nature by itself. Within the hedge were warriors, apparently turned to stone. Using a mirror, as the party had been warned of basilisks, they looked within the hedge to discover a sign! The crudely written sign read "Beware Basilisks," with some of the letters malformed or backwards.

Anarod the rogue climbed the hedge to get a better look, and what he saw was a sea of these stone warriors, and within the center of the hedge, three trees. The trees had an ornate tree house build atop it, with bridges between them, a spiral staircase leading upwards, and even a slide for easy exit. Standing on its hind legs at the base of the stairs was a curious bear.

The party called out for Finrose the druid, who they were told lived in this region, and after a time, the old elf appeared. His young human wife, Marisil  (daughter of Mad Luducus), and their two half-elven children, Lawren and Moira appeared at the windows to see the commotion.

Finrose brought the party into his home and made them welcome, explaining the threats to the region. As it turns out, the statues were of Northmen gods that the Tarans had discarded outside of town. Finrose was using them to scare off intruders, his children having made the basilisk sign.