Having cleared out the nest of one of the sects of the Cult of Vecna, Lord Neverember realizes that our party is not your typical group of adventurers, and begins to entrust us with missions beyond the norm for others. In fact, our very first special mission is to travel west along the Neverwinter River towards the old ruins of Thundertree. There was once an old farmhouse run by a mother and her son that is now long abandoned. Wild claims of magical creatures and missing persons have circulated, and he would like us to go see what, exactly, may be happening.

Of course, we gather as much information as possible before heading out, and it seems oddly familiar, though surely we have never encountered anything like this before! A mother and her son ran this homestead several years back. Not many are able to recall the name of the mother, as she was a bit more of a recluse, but they do remember her son’s name was Jack. Legend has it that Jack and his mother retired from the farm after having struck it rich a while back, and they moved far away. What was left of the farm and the land itself seemed to be absorbed nearly overnight by the surrounding swamps and now lies in a state of disrepair.

Heading out the next day from our barracks, we are shocked to enter the swamps and discover that we may have misjudged some things, for, crawling out of the driftwood and pluff mud around us were lizards. Not just any lizards, though! These were lizards affected by the ash fall-out from the explosion of Mt. Hotenow, and these lizards were now zombies!!! Zombies crawling from everywhere, and heading towards us! We slaughtered them and ran, but we didn’t make it far, it being difficult terrain and all, until we got to an area with deeper water that required us to pass over the precariously perched log spanning the distance. Naturally, there was of course a troll demanding our payment for passing. What a day, it hadn’t even begun.

Finally having delved deep enough into the depths of the swamp, we come across the old farmhouse. It was delipidated and sunk in the water, but we were interested in any and all clues we could gather, so we decided to investigate. That may have been instantly regretted, as we grew too greedy and mined too deep. Buried in the muck inside this old home was an old harp. Beautiful and golden after cleaning, we thought we had found some great loot for our troubles! Luck, however, was not with us this time, as it was instead a Wind Hard Devil, which unleashed a sound most horrendous, as if a hellish chorus was raining down upon us. We sent that harp and everything it had with it back to hell and got out of that sunken house of horrors.

It should be noted that, outside the home, there was a massive vine stretched across the ground with parts of it easily exceeding a 30’ diameter. We followed along its winding path, assaulted by gas swamp bubbles attempting to engulf our heads, risking the inevitable bursts of fire should we not be careful, until we came upon a glorious site! Set back in the reeds and grasses, there was a giant nest, and nestled within that nest was a glorious and shimmering goose. Down white as snow, it seemed to have golden hue in place of the usual orange or yellows for beak and talon. Some were so beholden by its beauty that they seemed to wish to care for it deeply.

All that glitters, as they say, is not gold, however. For, in fact, this Golden Goose was but a gander, and he, along with his friend, a weakened cloud giant by the name of Meddycwar, had been luring in unsuspecting travelers and finishing them off as meals. Now, whether any actually smelled of an Englishman is debatable, as none of us were quite able to understand that meaning, it was certain that they needed to be removed from this world to prevent any further mishaps and disappearances.

Thus, we freed the old homestead of these strange creatures, collecting the remnants of strange golden egg shells and a giant’s horde in the process. The paperwork when we got back to Neverwinter was quite tedious, but nowhere near as tiring as being subservient to a vain goose.