Wrath of the River King was the first 4th Edition Open Design project from Kobold Press and is set mostly in the Summer Lands, Midgard’s version of the Feywild. I ran this adventure in 2009, starting it in the Feyshore Forest near Parsantium.
Here’s the fifth write up, featuring a visit to the Birch Queen’s Fair. You can read past episodes here.
The party say farewell to the eladrin, following their directions to the Birch Queen’s Fair. Margarita and Koh-Bar manage to lose sight of Brave Ella who is scouting ahead in the forest. Koh-Bar realises Margarita is standing inside a giant footprint – more head into the trees. Not sure what else to do, the pair follow the colossal tracks, ending up in a clearing with a standing stone and a trussed-up Sharden hanging upside-down in a tree. They rescue the dwarf who is pleased to see them but can’t remember how he got there.
Venturing on, the trio come towards an enormous fallen tree as storm clouds gather overhead and it begins to rain. Standing on the tree trunk is a red-cap wearing dwarf – the Nain Rouge, lightning crackling from his fingertips. He blasts the characters with strong winds, knocking them over and shooting them with electric ray attacks. As the adventurers move to escape the zone of empathic weather, the Nain Rouge attacks Koh-Bar with his sharp claws, knocking the tiefling unconscious.
Meanwhile, Sharden has found the unconscious Ellessandra behind the trunk and manages to wake her up. Margarita chases the bloodied Nain Rouge along the top of the log but the fey conjures a fog cloud to blind the party. By the time the characters get out of the cloud, the redcap is nowhere to be seen.
The characters talk to Ellessandra who explains she came to the Feywild to bring up her son, Flax. When the party tell her about Hamid being arrested for murder in Riverbend, the eladrin gives them her wedding ring and a note saying she is alive and well. She also gives them the correct directions to the Birch Queen’s Fair.
The next day, the adventurers talk their way into the Fair past the ettin, Garag-Naran. The party promise to bring him an amphora of feywine from Ambertan the Warlock and a loaf of bread with honey in return for admitting them.
The characters wander the stalls. Koh-Bar balks at the price of a “house goblin”, while Margarita asks Voyland the Smith about trading in his longsword for a bastard sword. The eladrin smith is willing to do a deal – he’ll swap the sword if the party drive the horrible little gnome weapons dealer, Mudflick, from the Fair.
At Mudflick’s tent, Margarita provokes an attack from the spriggan and his four friends, but the gnomes are more than a match for the characters. They defeat the party pretty handily – Margarita is knocked unconscious and Sharden has to drag the genasi’s body out of harm’s way. The characters beat a hasty retreat from the tent, nursing their wounds.
Main image by Florian Stitz
Richard Green | Game Designer 