Hello Adventurers! This post is the first in a series of Campaign Diaries for our Heroes of Iyastera family campaigns! The story will be told in a series of journal entries and letters from the people the adventurers meet during their travels. To begin, here are two entries from Merrick, the innkeeper at the Dancing Crow:

It’s been a week since the first day of the harvest, and Oscar still hasn’t woken up…

When harvest week began, everyone was so excited– berries were ripe, the kids were out alongside the adults filling their baskets– and plans for the festival were underway. Oscar was all excited to try a new recipe for his mead. It’s always a hit, every season…I think he was trying some spiced something or another, something to sell along with Annie’s pies. I don’t know what she puts in them, but I reckon Amaethon herself would leave the Haven for those pies! Maybe this will be the year that brother of mine will finally ask the big question…we all see how they look at each other and Mayor Roland has more or less given his blessing– not sure I’d want him for a father in law, but he’s a fair enough man.

I guess that all will have to wait, now that they’re both asleep from this…thing. This sickness. We still don’t know what caused it…when the kids fell asleep first, we all thought it was a joke they were playing, like the time they pretended Raul ran off to join Clan Crios and become a mercenary. Little fool left a note and everything, only to turn up two days later after hiding in the woods. His poor mother nearly ripped an ear off dragging that boy home. But this…this is no joke. There’s something unnatural about this sleep…it’s as if they can’t feel or hear anything. Next thing we knew, Cleric Foras was gone too, then Oscar and Annie…there was no warning. Oscar just fell right over, asleep before he hit the ground. I could barely carry him upstairs.

We’ve sent word to the capital. I hope someone can come help us soon…Oscar is looking paler, and cold, like all the warmth is being drained out of him. I’ve never seen anything like it. The kids are even worse off.

Is this a curse? Has Amaethon abandoned us?

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Some strange travellers came to town today…stranger than any other we’ve had. They said they heard about the sickness and want to help, but they don’t look like healers. I suppose word must have spread to the other towns when we cancelled the harvest festival. No point in celebrating with this curse over our heads.

They’re insistent on staying, even after the warnings. They seem nice enough, but still so strange. They barely know eachother, it seems, and they keep talking about some lake up north. Can’t say I know what they’re talking about…there are lots of lakes in Moineir. I wonder if they’re from Glenfaera? I didn’t think they dealt much with non-elves there though, much less dwarves, tieflings, and dragonkin. I’ve heard of these adventuring-types before. The kind of people who like to wander into caves and such, in search of “treasure”. I wonder if they ever actually find anything.

Well, whoever they are, wherever they came from, I hope they can help us.