(mostly) Aimless wandering... What could go wrong?

[etherial]

From the collected letters of Ursula von Knucklebreaker:

30 Sollus, 1421 T.H.

Dearest Mother and Father:

I put together a party to explore the spit of land between the Coil River and its tributary, in the hopes of expanding our sphere of influence to some prime real estate on the surface. My companion Romari wanted to start off by examining some sort of magic rock just a little South of Throal, and indeed it is a magic rock (and also tourist trap). Apparently there's a magical runic circle that we're close to the epicenter of and everyone wants to poke at it. I hope there is a way for us to profit from this situation, but it is also possible that this is some sort of trap. Either way, I will investigate it to the best of my ability.

Traveling along the Throalic foothills the next day, I regret to say that I understimated the forces of the Bandit Raiders and they managed to sneak up on us in the middle of the night. I tried to get everyone awake before combat ensued but Rir'Sha is quite the heavy sleeper. They got their ambush up good and despite our heroic efforts, Romari decided to surrender a pouch with 50 Silver in it.

On the fourth day, we came across a group of T'Skrang and Elves arguing with each other over who would get the rights to a patch of Alchemically fertile land. Maxim, through use of his Thief abilities, managed to convince them that they should share the land with each other now before another group managed to also stake a claim before they reaped any profit from it.

On the tenth day, we witnessed a ruin ahead and some suspicious flying creatures circling above it. Maxim and Rir'Sha scouted ahead and the things were some sort of mindless mouthing horrors that ate all they came across. Unfortunately, they tried to come across us. As we fled from their endless hunger and their carrion-eating undead eagle allies, and Rir'Sha was able to lead us through some woods that the horrors found somewhat delicious, and they proceeded to eat the trees instead of us.

Our return trip took us closer to the mountains and we decided to investigate one of the runic circles. Romari identified it as being related to the Obsidimen people and containing a degree of Wizardry to it, and he, Rilya, and Rir'Sha all now bear magical marks linking them to this place.

A troupe of apes had taken up residence in the runic circle and took us for interlopers. We managed to quickly kill or incapacitate enough of them that the rest ran off and I managed to befriend one of the ones we'd incapacitated. We returned to Throal to warn others about the corrupted ruins.

Yours,

Ursula von Knuckebreaker, née Nusserman


PCs:
Maxim, male Windling Thief
Rilya, female Windling Weaponsmith
Rir'Sha, male T'Skrang Scout
Romari, male Elf Wizard
Ursula, female Dwarf Beastmaster

NPCs:
Zimbu, a monkey
Zinj, an ape