DnDNerds!

Jhank, Sly Zib Uppercut, and Sir Parrik take their keelboat on an exploration of the eastern portion of Highstar Lake, where they first discover a swamp witch who mainly just wants to be left alone. She warns them of several dangers but offers a quest for some magical mushrooms away up a river to the northeast. They begin to explore the northern coastline and one of their sailors is lost in the night to a vicious bear attack. They eventually spot the river she referred to but are chased away from it by a hydra.  The boat is attacked by a giant gar which swallows another sailor whole and tries to eat the blink dog Glint, but a combination of Sly Zib crashing the boat into it, Jhank charming it and then attacking it while enlarged, and Sir Parrik diving into it lance-first finishes off the beast and they tow its enormous carcass back to the fort to provide copious food and a cool looking skull. On foot, they explore north into the forest and save the wagons of some gnome explorers, who sell them an expensive map to a place called the Cave of Beauty.  

Floki leads Caradoc, Jorgrim, and new halfling monk Chaz to go investigate the disappearance of dwarven monk leader Gorya Bronzevow, but on the way there, they stop to eradicate the growing ankheg problem at the Old Sycamore. Tragedy strikes as the mama ankheg burrows right up to Floki and crits on him, one-shotting him into unconsciousness, and finishing the job with its mandibles. Their leader fallen, the rest of the group scrambles to defeat the ankhegs. They divert to take Floki's body to the Temple of Dumathoin, where Umgurn drains the temple treasury to set out for Secomber to get him raised.  Now joined by Eaglebane, they explore northward, encountering some giant lizards and a friendly centaur named Neigh-than, as well as the Zhentarim adventurers and their goblin allies.  The party discovers an old Uthgardt cairn and a dragon-shaped barrow. Inside the barrow, Caradoc awakens a loyal skeletal horse and gets attacked by a will-o-wisp. The party flees back to the surface where the wisp is defeated, and they take the road back to Oleg's Trading Post where it all began. 

Sir Parrik leads Barriq, Jhank, and Arty northeast from the Dungeon of the Hark to clean out a monastery inhabited by Worgs.  They discover that the worgs are cursed former monks of Auril, cruel goddess of the cold, and the pack's leader Gazrith gives them safe passage into the undercrypt to try to break the curse.  In the crypt they fight ghouls led by a wight and a coldlight walker and battle the magical crystal that keeps the curse intact. A magical cloak and staff are recovered, along with some coins and other treasure.  Having freed the worgs from their curse, the party of course decides to slaughter them anyway. Gazrith the winter wolf and several worgs fall in the ensuing conflict, but some of the pack escapes into the Southwood to harass the party another day. They clear giant wasps from the belltower and turn the monastery over to the Hark in exchange for a copy of his map of the surrounding area. 

Barriq leads Jhank, Parrik, and Fjori westward, following new all-star NPC Conrad toward a mysterious settlement of mysterious inhabitants that everyone knows are wererats.  On the way, there is trouble with a mad hermit and his cat, a trail is blazed through a peat bog and a hidden glen of hardwoods, a dragon graveyard is discovered, and many new hexes are sighted and explored. Bariq is attacked on watch several times, and almost dragged into the Underdark by some troglodytes. Arriving at the Dungeon of the Hark, there is some disagreement about quarantine, what's meant by disease or affliction, and the wererats finally reveal themselves. Bariq wants to slaughter them, Jhank wants to befriend them, and Parrik and Fjori mainly just want to avoid getting lycanthropy. The party decides to remain there over the next several weeks to get to know their new neighbors better.

Under Wellby's Command, Jorgrim and Eaglebane depart the farmstead with a troop of laborers and skirmishers to discover the mystery of an abandoned village. They are attacked by a fierce ankheg, which burrows up in the night to attack their camp.  Once the village is cleared, they are again attacked, this time by an even more terrifying burrower, a bulette! Now the abandoned village is even more ruined, but the three companions journey north and discover the tree village of the Bignose goblin tribe, where they ask for help attacking the Black Dog Brewery. After a visit to the nearby stone face for oracular advice, the goblins agree and a haphazard plan is hatched.  During the combat at the brewery, Wellby breathes his last as the necromancer and wig afficionado Losser Mirklav drains the life from him, but Losser and his shadow mastiff are at last defeated and the brewery restored to the proper worship of Urogalan. 

We skip 3 months in-game and the adventurers spend the time improving the four sites they control: the Dead Wizard Ranch (aka Farmstead), the Stone Circle, the Temple of Dumathoin, and Fort Heartwood (aka Stag Lord's Keep).  We put our homebrew downtime / property management system through its toughest test yet and it all works out!  

Fjori leads Thronor and Artvirious into the wintry mountains to explore the hidden ruins of the Temple of Dumathoin! They encounter cursed Azer and a very mean Otyugh who nearly devours Thronor despite his piety towards the undesecrated tombs of the dwarven priests.  Treasure is recovered and Thronor decides to make the temple the fourth Resources & Teams site managed by the party! With a bit of time left in the session, we switch characters and Caradoc takes new adventurers Eaglebane and Rasprax under his wing to battle a giant badger and rescue a thylacine from a pit. 

The party gathers its small army and heads south to at last confront the Stag Lord! What they discover is not what they expected! They encounter axebeaks, a Korred, wooden people, a childlike brute and a necklace made of human fingers! Will the party gain control of their long-desired stronghold?

Jorgrim leads Caradoc, Mikmek, and Arty downriver to scout out the route to the Stag Lord's Keep!  Mikmek's fondest wish is granted by a wishing well and he is reunited with ClipClop the Pony. The party encounters a cyclops woodworker who inhabits ruins with strange wooden golems and who makes a pretty good goat curry. Mikmek stays on there and fresh-faced halfling monk Wellby Goodbarrel takes his place in the party. After some razorvine along the river, the party is attacked in the night by a dreadful chimera!  Downriver, they discover a hunting lodge infested with giant skunks with a dreadful painting inside, and are attacked by ice toads who try to pull them from their boats.  The Stag Lord's Keep is sighted from afar and the group retreats upriver to plan their next move.

The fates of Bariq and Sir Parrik (and Floki's body) are resolved, after which Thronor leads Jhank, Umgurn, and Artvirous first to the Order of the Burning Forge's monastery, where they hope to collect their armor from the dwarves.  The dwarves refuse to let them in and send them away empty-handed, much to Arty's annoyance. Then, after wishing they had a bridge to cross the Thorn River near the farmstead, the party journeys up near the Stone Circle to retrieve the Uthgardt tribesmen before continuing on to the Ammarindar outpost in the eastern Southwood, where they previously fought a black pudding and a wight with the help of some ex-bandits.  The bandits have now become undead and there is a troubling sphere of magical darkness with the former bandit leader hiding in it, as well as another black pudding that drops both Thronor and Jhank, damaging their armors in the process. However, a treasure room is discovered and some clues to the location of the Halls of the Hammer are revealed, so the party grabs as much coinage as they can carry and returns to the farmstead, with plans to spend most of it on improvements to their two bases.  Bonus: at the end, there's a section where the spirit of Floki encounters the spiritless fire giant body of Jontoff the Bearer!