Eight(ish) Years of Haven

Posted on 19 March 2026 by jameseck

In January 2024, I said it would make sense to start making my yearly summaries at the top of the year. But toward the end of 2024 one of the driving players (CoB) went on a mission and I got busy with finishing my basement and sessions really slowed down. January 2025 came and went without me even thinking about summaries and only now, with the play report backlog caught up, I’m ready to summarize the end of the 2024 era of play and the new era that picked up in 2025 with a bunch of young players (mostly my children and younger siblings of prior players) who seem to be in it for the long haul once again.

Previous Years of Haven
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6

We have a lot to talk about
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Haven: The Dwarven Palace

Posted on 17 March 2026 by jameseck

On December 7th, a group of adventurers familiar with the dwarven ruins makes another delve. This time, they intend to return to where they battled an aggressive plant and see what else lies behind the fortified entrance they went through to get there:

  • Elfleen (SaE): Level 7 Elf Thief
  • Pluta (ClE): Level 5 Elf Magic-user
  • Gobblebob (JaS): Level 5 Goblin Magic-user
  • Al (BeS): Level 3 Elf Magic-user

To reach it from the unassuming mine entrance, they go through the massive throne room to the secret door that lets them slip down the hall to fortified door. The outer door they left closed behind them, but the door past the arrow loops still lies in pieces where Pluta sundered it.

What else is inside?
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Haven: The Crystalline Oracle

Posted on 15 March 2026 by jameseck

On November 29th, adventurers again determine to delve the dwarven ruins in the Aethreachas mines:

  • Elfleen (SaE): Level 7 Elf Thief
  • Pluta (ClE): Level 5 Elf Magic-user
  • Al (BeS): Level 2 Elf Magic-user
  • Amaranthe (MJF): Level 1 Human Druid

They once again go in through the mine entrance and make their way toward unmapped territory. They go through a mess hall and to a kitchen they know bypasses the intersection with the flying bricks.

What will they find?
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Barrier March, Sessions 140 and 142 (The Singer’s Redoubt)

Posted on 14 March 2026 by jameseck

On September 7th, 852nd Year of Asterneth, having rested but a single day after their ordeal in the rainbow world, the party makes way to High Tower. While the others had been researching the crystal rabbits, Kilterson heard rumors on the road that Marvin Stale, a blueberry magnate near Avenway, had been found to be missing:

  • Kilterson (MaC): Level 7 Human Druid
    • Meddle, Level 5 Halfling Scoundrel
    • Hengen, Level 3 Dwarf Fighter
    • Percival Penniworth, Level 3 Human Thief
  • Ingrid Corvinsdatter (MaD): Level 6 Human Barbarian
    • Berderan Huffderner, Level 3 Gnome Cleric of Sargrim
  • Leonard (JoF): Level 5/4 Elf Cleric (of Sky Light)/Mage
    • Helen Pagris, Level 3 Half-elf Fighter
  • Silbern (TrS): Level 6 Human Cleric of Roil
    • Saori, Level 3 Elf Assassin
  • Wig (SaC): Level 1 Halfling Scout

On the 8th, they continue on to Avenway, picking up a new Halfling companion seeking adventure on the area. In Avenway, they learn that it was nine days earlier that villagers had made their way to his cottage seeking day wages to pick his berries for him and he was nowhere to be found. People have long worried about him, living in the region south of the road known as the Fold. He had often talked about the music that had drawn so many others away never to be seen again.

To investigate
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Parry Gripp, Session 17: Freeing the Pegasi

Posted on 26 February 2026 by jameseck

Nearly a year ago, our heroes were left standing in the corridor just beyond one of the airlocks to the sun-aquatic habitat where they were told the pegasi were imprisoned. Now, the thrilling conclusion:

  • Ginger (SaE): Level 3 Gingerbread Man Rogue
    • Hernan: Level 2 Breakfast Burrito Acolyte
  • Candular (ClE): Level 3 Candicorn (Unicorn with a candy corn horn) Bard
  • Robot (LyE): Level 3 Robot Bug Fighter

With the robot gorillas destroyed, the party moves down the tunnel, soon emerging into a green field where they can see the dome and water above, including the thousand-arm robot octopus still roving about. They see elevated perches and gardens and pegasi flying about seemingly freely.

Is it a prison indeed?
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Haven: Attackers Near Schek Micheia

Posted on 24 February 2026 by jameseck

On November 12th, a large party sets out through evergreen satyr lands to deal with mysterious attacks complained of by satyrs, orcs, and goblins in the vicinity of the main Micheia shrine:

  • Elfleen (SaE): Level 6 Elf Thief
  • Pluta (ClE): Level 4 Elf Magic-user
  • Foxtrot (DaB): Level 4 Kobold Squire
  • Gobblebob (JaS): Level 4 Goblin Magic-user
  • Al (BeS): Level 2 Elf Magic-user
  • Silviss (MaB): Level 1 Kobold Thief
  • Spencer (KaH): Level 1 Elf Fighter

They take some extra time going via the winding paths of satyr lands rather than the road between Schek Kagrit and Schek Micheia, thinking it will result in more adventure on their way. They stay the night of the 12th at Ghost keep before setting out on the 13th.

Into Satyr lands
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Haven: The Dwarven Vault

Posted on 21 February 2026 by jameseck

On November 5th, another party goes into the dwarven ruins to check some tunnels near the mine ingress with few notes on the public map:

  • Elfleen (SaE): Level 6 Elf Thief
  • Pluta (ClE): Level 4 Elf Magic-user
  • Foxtrot (DaB): Level 4 Kobold Squire
  • Silviss (MaB): Level 1 Kobold Thief

Entering at the makeshift mine door, they turn right and head down but find a dead end where a fresco of a dwarven king is flanked by absent pieces of the fresco, apparently broken and scattered in rubble in front of it. Searching the abscesses, they find some widen levers that when pulled open a secret door hidden in the king fresco.

What beyond?
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Barrier March, Sessions 138, 139, and 141 (Into the Goblin Caves)

Posted on 19 February 2026 by jameseck

Having nearly died on their attempt to enter the quarry via the river, but been saved by Kwon, the party spends some time recovering in Darkshelf and gathering information about the mine layout from the miners. When they have recovered, they climb the hill above the quarry under tree cover in search of the ventilation shaft Kwon said he used to enter:

  • Luke Leaf (TrS): Level 3 Human Scholar
    • Miles, Level 2 Human Hedge Mage
    • Hector Razorleaf (MiM): Level 1/2 Half-Elf Ranger/Cleric
  • Shifty (MaC): Level 2/2 Soldier/Scout
  • Ruptig “Tig” Underhill (JoF): Level 3 Gnome Thief
    • Grift, Level 2 Gnome Scoundrel
  • The Nameless Dwarf (SaC): Level 1 Dwarf Thief

They send Ruptig, the sneakiest of them, down ahead, descending with the help of a rope. He finds the grate at the bottom and the cuts Kwon made, allowing him to open it noiselessly and enter the chamber below. He goes down a passage to investigate voices at the guard post but is heard by the guards. They are slow to investigate and he is able to hurry back and get back up into the shaft and the grate back in place before they come. They dismiss the sound as something to do with the goblin meddling down below.

What now?
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Barrier March, Sessions 136 and 137 (Mysterious Beasts at the Quarry)

Posted on 18 February 2026 by jameseck

After dealing with the necromancer in Wetdell, Baron Wetdell is impressed with the adventurers’ work and he passes along a message to them that Bailiff Neistor of Darkshelf is in need of help from outsiders who can investigate troubling activity at the quarry there, where the dwarven quarry master, Bazeli Erak, is too powerful for the locals to be too curious about him and his never-seen dwarven miners:

  • Luke Leaf (TrS): Level 3 Human Scholar
    • Miles, Level 2 Human Hedge Mage
    • Hector Razorleaf (MiM): Level 1/2 Half-Elf Ranger/Cleric
  • Shifty (MaC): Level 2/2 Soldier/Scout
  • Ruptig “Tig” Underhill (JoF): Level 3 Gnome Thief
    • Grift, Level 2 Gnome Scoundrel
    • The Nameless Dwarf (SaC): Level 1 Dwarf Thief

Luke and Shifty go ahead to Darkshelf and speak to Neistor, who offers them 750 GP for information about what is really going on inside the quarry and mines, and 250 GP if they find Kwon, a foreigner he was able to hire to investigate but who convinced him to insure his life in the venture. He also tells them about terrible beasts that seem to be mauling people down by the river. They agree to look into both.

Off to scout ahead
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Haven: The Healer’s Laboratory

Posted on 17 February 2026 by jameseck

On October 29th, some of the adventurers who hit the ruins last week and the week before gather to delve again:

  • Will (KaB): Level 7 Human Monk
  • Elfleen (SaE): Level 6 Elf Thief
  • Pluta (ClE): Level 4 Elf Magic-user
  • Foxtrot (DaB): Level 3 Kobold Squire
  • Al (BeS): Level 1 Elf Magic-user

They plan to go through the intersection they explored around the week before and see what they can find (Will refuses to see what the paper on the walls deeper in might be, convinced it is part of the giant wasp nest he has seen from the other side).

Once more into the Dungeon
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