Pueblo Alto

The party approaches Pueblo Alto, a hub of activity at the top of a flattened mountain. Now that Sandy is no longer cursed with stupidity, she shows little interest in Prince Faelon. In fact, she mostly remains out of the picture, unless there is a need or booty to be had.

While wandering through the woods to Pueblo Alto, they meet a troop of orc archers who attempt to talk with Jason Hawksclaw because of a common bond, the Order of the Arrow. The orcs are mercenaries and are seeking employment, but they have found the hobgoblins of Pueblo Alto a bit too evil for their tastes. They describe the Pueblo as "treacherous". Prince Faelon proposes a bounty of 1 gp per kobold head to the orcs and they accept. Faelon puts down 20 gp to start the killing of Kobald poachers. It is agreed that the party and the orc archers will meet back in Telero in two weeks for the final tally.

Massaquoit Barkeater spots a rat, an unusual sight in the forest. The party tracks the rat to a holding hall, sort of a food cache/silo for the Occopannac. They find the holding hall demolished by a pair of stag beetles and several dead Occopannac braves. There is also a sniveling wererat here named Tom Holbrook.

Llaun advises Prince Faelon to attack the intelligent creatures first, so the party takes down Tom Holbrook and his rat allies. Massaquoit "fascinates" many of the rats while other party members slash and hack their way through the rat swarm. Inside the longhouse, they find Tom Holbrook cowering in the rafters of the longhouse. Tom begs, pleads and attempts to negotiate for his life. Sandy binds him expertly with her silk rope and searches him. She finds a pouch holding 27 silver pieces. He claims to know the whereabouts of the "the Big Cheese" --- the character the party knows as Gene Parmesian. Tom claims that he was infected with this wererat disease by a pin-prick while he was serving as a guard in Telero. Attempts by the Rabbi to heal Tom are ineffectual; the disease has ravaged inside his body for too long to be cured by low-level spells.

Tom tells the party that at the den of the Big Cheese they will find a lever. When they pull the lever, gold will fall from the ceiling. He also informs the party of hostages in the other longhouse, housed with four large spiders. Llaun directs the party towards the smaller of the longhouse. Prince Faelon concurs.

The party moves towards the smaller of the longhouses. Sandy stays behind with Tom, hiding in the shadows. Faelon enters and, along with Lars and the rabbi, begins cutting down bodies from the ceiling and moving them out of the building. At this point 4 giant spiders attack. Llaun successfully puts 2 of them to sleep and the party makes short work of the other two. After quickly killing the sleeping spiders, the party moves the corpses into the treeline and discovers that one tribesman is still alive.

The party decides to go after the stag beetles that are busy munching on seeds. Most of the party notices a tomahawk lodged in one of the stag beetles' back. A well-devised plan is poorly executed when Faelon, frustrated from breaking his shortbow string, decides to charge in and draw out the stag beetles. Faelon, closes with the stag beetles and is immediately pinned down and pounced upon, shattering his ankle. The rest of the party with urgency, quickly defeat the stag beetles to help the injured Faelon. Rabbi Simeon and Massaquoit heal Faelon as best as they can. He will never fully heal and will probably walk with a slight limp for the rest of his life. He is badly shaken by this experience and becomes much quieter and more introspective.

After searching the compounds, the party finds exotic Indian seeds. These seeds are the remainder of the destroyed cache of food. The party quickly gathers these seeds up and take them with them. It's time to visit Chief Chogan again.

Occopannac Village and then to Telero

The party reports their findings and returns the surviving brave and remaining seeds to Chief Chogan. They then return to Telero to check on the baroness. Jason and Sandy go off to the local tavern to celebrate their battle victories and their spoils. Both Simeon and Faelon receive correspondence, presumably letters from Pergael. Also, Faelon receives a large package from Pergael containing fitted Pergaen Field Plate armor which he requested from his mother. Confident (at last) that their deed a few weeks earlier (namely killing Snodgrass at Forkestre) will not get them in deep trouble the party tells the baroness that they believe that Snodgrass stole the town's money and ran off. The party then retrieves the cache of stolen/taxed goods which they found in Forkestre after dispatching Snodgrass. They tell the baroness that Snograss was indeed stealing from the barony. Lady Elaine never trusted or liked Snodgrass and she does not question or doubt the story.

Also, the orcs are true to their word. They have left dozens of kobold heads awaiting the party, when they return to Telero. Prince Faelon will have to find some more money to pay the orcs. He refused to take any share of the treasure found at the holding hall.

Llaun spends some time bolstering Pearce Plowman's ability to run an efficent tax system in Telero. Llaun and Massaquoit convince the baroness to help the Occopannac and she agrees to send a wagonload of grain to Chogan. Sandy initially refuses to go along with Llaun's plan, but her stubborness breaks when she is presented with a light horse from the baroness.

The party treks north intending to assault the den of Gene Parmesian. They will assault his lair, assuming there is any truth to Tom Holbrook's story.