And the adventurers decided to go the other way.
Obviously, this angered a lot of people.[1] Lady Siena, Lord Buckman, as well as representatives from other villages were disheartened at being abandoned. But this was only the cherry on top of angering the priests. In the villages they passed, the party had preached for both the Master and the Old Gods (sometimes both in the same village). Neither side was happy, and this branch of side quests was promptly shut down.[2]
Anyway, the party set out to Winterhaven. This was the village where the plot of the previous campaign played out. The party had Ireth, and so they expected a warm welcome. They couldn't have been more wrong.
You see, the previous adventuring party did shut down the ritual and stop a demon lord from coming into this world. But the village still suffered a great loss of both human life and property damage, so the lord would have been on the fence regarding the party anyway. However, to top it all off, the rogue had bluffed his way into the lord's trust, and lied about his noble family. That seemed innocent enough at the time, but since then, the lord had sent his eldest son to be a page at a non-existent court!
As such, Lord Ernest Padraig kept up a frosty attitude towards the adventurers, and was slow to thaw. Thankfully, they managed to get the townspeople on their side (including a dwarven blacksmith itching to forge blades instead of plows), which tipped the balance. They even made friends with the local sage, who agreed to follow them around and provide sagely advice. OK, he also gathered relevant books from his tower library, and studied them on the road, providing tidbits of information on the coming apocalypse.
Why yes, the apocalypse was coming.
I had sown hints here and there, but only with the help of this sage had the adventurers realized the full extent of the threat. It looked like Myrkul, a god of death, was maneuvering to break through to the material plane, and engage in combat for domination - something that had not been seen since the dawn of the world!
Oh, and I tried to engage the newest party member in some roleplay by providing some visiting Hungarian nobles intent on asking the lord's daughter into marriage. However, Szivem was brief and refused to stay with them at the manor, preferring the companionship of her party members in the tavern.[3]
The adventurers then travel across the Zarek Valley towards the last villages they missed so far, losing only a slight bit of time, visiting the fountain at Travensburg.[4]
After a while, they arrive at Tallow Falls, and have an educating dialogue with a kid tending to pigs.[5] After the mandatory visits at the tavern, the temple, the shops etc, the party hears the story of monsters preying the villagers, and set out into the woods to investigate. They try to locate the village woodsman, who guides them around. They find out that the monsters are just regular goblins (good to have a ranger in the party) by the footprints they leave. The adventurers also find another magic fountain, this one greatly desecrated: corpses and bodyparts strewn around. So that's where the disappeared villagers went.
The adventurers remain to clean up the fountain, but no spirit appears. The woodsman is captured by the goblins, but the party intercepts them.
After a hard fight, they retreat to the woodsman's cabin to rest and recuperate.
[1] Not just me IRL. Although I did manage to swallow my anger and carry on. I then analysed the situation and realized that, hey - this game is not about me. I create the world, but I don't write the story. This was a hard lesson to learn, but I pride myself on taking in stride every decision made by the party since.
[2] Along with the rewards planned.
[3] I wonder how they will related this to her mother, the queen.
[4] At this point, they were all convinced that finding all the surviving fountains was their primary quest here. Ha!
[5] When the DM is bored, he gets creative.
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