Module
One
| Module
One |
|
|
Face2Face
Game
Year
of the Tankard - 1370
| Mirtul - The Melting (May) | ||||||||||
| Kythorn - The Time of Flowers (June) | ||||||||||
| 18th |
Provisioning [Mirtul 25th AM]
Gaard had provided 25 gold coins plus one valuable antique dwarven coin
from a lost empire each as payment in advance, a further bonus to be paid once
they arrived. He also had arranged with a local dealer to provide them with
provisions for the journey. He recommended that they try to hire on with a normal
trade caravan on the basis that traveling alone was more dangerous.
The Staging Grounds [Mirtul 25th late AM]
After having purchased horses and supplies - although many of the companions
were riding a horse for the first time - they arrived at the staging grounds
to search for a caravan that might be about to leave and hopefully head in the
right direction. They found themselves with two choices, one was a group of
dour dwarves, who called themselves BattleAxe Transport. They were heading only
part of the way, and would not be leaving until the next day. The second was
a much smaller outfit, called the Lucky Pears. Essentially these were just three
guys, Gavert, Lise and Kibbett, who drove two wagons between them, one riding
point. They claimed to be very experienced, and had taken a commission to deliver
three wagon loads of the famous Neverwinter Water Clocks to Silverymoon. The
group decided to journey with the Dwarves instead, considering the "Lucky
Pears" to be cowboys. (Ed - funny, I'd have thought Gindle, as a Priest
of Tymora, would have leaned towards going with a party called "The Lucky
Pears!" :-)
Minnerel the Marvelous.[Mirtul 25th late AM]
About this time, the party were approached by a mage, who called himself
Minnerel the Marvelous. He told a sad tale about how he had been cursed by terrible
pain and sickness every time he cast a spell. Because of this, he was trying
to raise funds to travel safely all the way to Cormyr in the heartland's, where
he hoped that he would be able to affect a cure at a temple to Mystra. Unfortunately,
to finance his trip, he had been selling his various magical items. He offered
to sell his staff of Fireballs. Apparently, it had 5 charges, and he asked 100
gp for it. The group told him to go away and stop bothering them. (Ed -
their loss!)
The Trip to Thundertree [Mirtul 25th PM]
Finally they rejoined the Battleaxe Transport in time to leave, and they
started on the journey towards Thundertree. Thundertree was a small village
on the edge of Neverwinter woods, on the south side of the Neverwinter river
where it left the woods. They reached there just as darkness was descending,
and spent their first night under the stars - there being no inns at Thundertree.
Close to Neverwinter river however, it was not cold.
The Forest
Trail [Mirtul 26th / 27th]
The next morning, they continued on, heading on the forest trail around
the southern edge of the woods. Keeping the ominous looking trees on their left,
they soon found the temperature dropping as they left the micro-climate of the
Neverwinter river area. Soon, they were trudging through snow and wishing that
they had all brought warmer clothing. The day passed uneventfully, seeing nothing
but animal tracks, and when camp was finally made, they posted watches and shivered
through the night. The next day was similar, although the trail was crossed
at one point by the tracks of what looked like a large group of orcs.
Ambush
by Orcs! [Mirtul 28th AM]
After a second uneventful night in the cold snow, the party continued onwards,
looking forward to reaching Conyberry and a chance to get into the warm. They
did however feel a little trepidation, as the previous night, Gildung Orc Cleaver
had described the overly cautious way in which Conyberry residents greeted outsiders.
However, they never reached Conyberry, as midmorning, whilst the party were
acting as advance scouts (Gildung thought it would be good experience for them),
they were ambushed by a large party of orcs, who, unusually enough, demanded
that they surrender rather than simply attacked. Due to the overwhelming odds,
the party surrendered.
Becoming Slaves [Mirtul 28th PM]
The orcs were acting very un-orc-like, and not waiting for the dwarven main
party to catch up, force marched the group into the heart of Neverwinter Woods.
A few hundred yards into the woods, the snow had all melted, and the temperature
started to rise. The orcs were all acting nervous, and it was obvious that they
feared the woods that they were walking through - certainly Neverwinter Woods
had a bad reputation for people not coming out of it alive! Eventually, they
arrived in a large clearing, where there was an orc settlement, and the orcs
relaxed somewhat. They were stripped of their clothes, had manacles riveted
around their hands and feet, and then tied to large whipping posts.
Xred [Mirtul 28th PM]
A slightly mad looking Ogre appeared, and rambled on a bit about "Manshoon
and black Agatha". He needed the party members to grind some special Schoelweed
seeds for him. But first, he had them whipped to unconsciousness as a lesson
in obedience.
Meeting
Soggrin, Von Fedel and Blondung [Mirtul 29th AM]
When they came to it was morning, and they were chained to a long horizontal
pole in a cave. They met Soggrin, who was a barbarian woman, of the Black Raven
Uthgart tribe. She explained how the other two captives, Von Fedel and Blondung
were both of the Zhentarium, and that they had been her guards. Apparently,
she had been kidnapped about 6 months previously by Manshoon, the mighty mage
and infamous leader of the Zhentarium. He had discovered some ancient prophesy
of the Netherese, which claimed that a woman would arise in the barbarian tribes
who would give birth to a son who would inherit the power of the ancient Netherese.
According to Manshoon's research, she was the woman, and he wanted to be the
father of her son. He had kidnapped her, and was waiting till Midsummer Night
next year to conceive the prophesied son. Xred, who had worked for Manshoon,
had discovered this prophesy as well, and had kidnapped her again, together
with her ineffective guards. His translation of the prophesy decreed that the
conception would take place at Midsummer this year. He also believed that having
large quantities of ground Schoelweed seed would be important. Schoelweed was
rare, and only grew in isolated clearing in Neverwinter Woods. To retain it's
magical properties, it couldn't be ground by orcs, hence his need for other
slaves. Von Fedel kept going on about some magic invisible bag around his neck
and how it would save him when Agatha - a local ghost apparently - finally came
to wreak her revenge on Xred for despoiling her Schoelweed fields.
The Treadmills [Mirtul 29th]
Later that day, the party were shackled to the treadmill, and the business
of milling the rock hard Schoelweed seeds started. Most of the day they worked
at it, being only occasionally whipped when they started to flag. Eventually
Xred came out to inspect. Whilst inspecting, he suddenly realized that Gindle
was in-fact a half-orc. Thus all the ground meal was contaminated! In a fit,
it looked like he would kill everyone, but he calmed down, and set off with
a large group of orcs to harvest some new seed. The party were taken back to
their cave, but allowed to rest before being reattached to the pole.
Agatha arrives! [Mirtul 29th late PM]
As the evening drew dark outside the cave, the harvesting party returned.
They started to have a small celebration, with singing and dancing around a
fire. This was suddenly interrupted by the distant wail of a banshee. Protected
somewhat inside the cave, the party watched as Von Fedel put his hand inside
an invisible bag and produced a bee's wing. Casting a clerical spell, he suddenly
produced a load of balls of beeswax. As the wail got louder, the orcs outside
started going mad. There was a scramble inside the cave as everyone hurried
to put the beeswax in their ears. Outside, Xred appeared and cast some protective
spells, forming shields over the areas of his camp. Meanwhile, Agatha appeared.
She screamed again and the various shields that Xred had cast all shattered.
She blasted Xred and his stone tower with lightning bolts, and then fire balled
the whole camp, killing all the orcs and burning their huts to the ground.
Aftermath [Mirtul 29th late PM]
After Agatha left, the party shuffled out of the cave and surveyed the devastation
in almost shock. After locating the remains of the forge, they managed to find
tools with which to break their bonds. They wandered around the camp, looking
for anything that might help them (like clothes). In the ruins of the tower,
they went down into the cellar. Here they were attacked by some giant rats who
had been eating some of the food stocks that Xred had kept down there. A lot
of their original equipment was also found down there. After starting a fire,
they managed to escape and leave the remaining rats to burn or suffocate in
the smoke. They then searched again, and found a cupboard with Clint's spellbook.
Outside, Gindle found a chest containing all the herbs that Grazzght (the orc
shaman) had owned - . He sorted some out to take.
Conyberry
[Mirtul 30th]
After sleeping a restless night in the ruined orc camp, the party made their
way along the original trail, and found their way back to the Forest Trail without
incident. Continuing onwards on their journey, they finally made it to Conyberry,
where they stayed the night in the village hall. There they met 4 half-elves
who described their own journeys and troubles. They discovered that Everlund
Pass was blocked by "Wizard Weather" - an unnatural series of blizzards and
never ending storms. They would have to travel northward via Longsaddle after
all. The next morning they started on their journey towards Triboar, where they
would try to buy fresh horses and more provisions.
Triboar
[Kythorn 1st / 2nd]
2 days later found the party in Triboar. At Triboar, the party split up
to stay in two different inns. They tried hard to get into brawls, but failed.
Re-provisioning
[Kythorn 3rd AM]
The next morning, the party split up to go shopping and listen to rumours
to see if the story about the Wizard Weather was true or not. Apparently it
was. Unfortunately, Dortle had his pocket picked by a halfling thief. Some of
the others watched the same halfling steal something from a town guard, and
when chased, run, and suddenly jump up, a huge black war-horse appearing by
magic beneath him. He then rode off up the north road toward Longsaddle.
The Journey
North [Kythorn 3rd/4th]
The companions left Triboar with Dortle still unaware of his loss. They
traveled along the Long Road, heading north. After stopping to converse with
another caravan, they were advised of a couple of good places to stop - a group
of 3 oak trees just before the Broken Fang woods, and the Sprite's Refuge, an
inn one day short of Longsaddle. The overall journey would be three days to
Longsaddle. Their first night proved to be troublesome however. In the middle
of the night, the camp was attacked by bandits! The battle was brief but bloody.
Both Von Fedel and Blondung proved their worth, as did Soggrin. If they had
not been with the group, the story could have been different. In the morning,
Dortle discovers his loss and informs the party. They decide to push on northwards
to see if they can hear any news of the halfling thief. They got on the road
early, and soon meet another caravan, where they find out that they are only
an half hour behind the halfling. Von Fedel provides some healing courtesy of
the Dark Lord Cyric - it leaves a bad taste in the mouth for Joe and Gindle.
The Sprite's Refuge [Kythorn 4th late PM]
At the end of the day, they have still not caught up with the halfling by
the time they reach the Sprite's Refuge. They discover that the halfling thief
has not visited the inn, but meet with Hurle, a shady looking character who
tells them that the halfling was abducted by hobgoblins whilst he was relieving
himself in the bushes. He promises to show the party where the ambush took part
in the morning. A Gnome named Tarlop enters the inn - he is friends with the
innkeeper Shornik and talks about their missing companion Teth - an elven ranger
- who has not been seen for the last couple of days. Apparently he was investigating
signs of hobgoblin activity to the west side of the woods. Tarlop offers to
go with the party to search for the halfling and Teth.
Broken
Fang Woods [Kythorn 5th AM]
The next day found the party being led by Hurle to where the kidnapping
of the halfling took place, a bare half mile or so from the Sprite's Refuge.
Tarlop the Gnome, who knows the area of the woods around the Sprite's Refuge
quite well, assists in tracking the trail of the abducted halfling, and after
a morning of trekking through the forest, they break out onto an old forest
road - pot-holed and poorly repaired. Tarlop recalls having been this far into
the woods a while back, and recalls that there is a broken down old keep further
along the road. The party conclude that the hobgoblins must be holed up there.
They cautiously make their way along the road, until they come to Broken Fang
Keep.
Broken Fang Keep [Kythorn 5th PM]
The woods opened up in front of the keep, revealing an area of 3 foot high
grass and a rushes choked moat around the keep. The drawbridge was down. One
of the towers still stood at the eastern edge of the keep, but otherwise, all
bar the ground floor story had collapsed. As the party made their way across,
they were attacked by a Giant Lizard which was hiding in the long grass. Once
inside the keep, they looked down the well, merely glanced at the gate tower,
then headed on up to the main entrance. Dortle opened the door, knocking a carefully
balanced brass chamber pot onto the floor. Gindle then stepped forward and fell
into a pit that was concealed by a carpet. A strange rat faced humanoid creature,
chained to the floor attacked him, and only through his extreme acrobatics did
he manage to avoid becoming it's food. It looked nearly starving.
Meanwhile, Joe decided to check out the roof, climbing up onto the tower. At the top of the tower, he attracted the attention of some stirges roosting in a nearby tall tree, and he ducked down through the hatch into the room below to try to escape them. Two of the stirges followed, and after a brief struggle, he managed to destroy them. He then continued down to the ground floor, where he found a room with six skeletons. He fled out of the room and slammed the door behind him. As he started down the corridor towards the rest of the somewhat surprised party, the skeletons bashed their way through the door behind him. Gindle, with help from Tarlop turned them back. Von Fedel giggles and then commanded one of them to return and go into the pit - where it killed the creature still chained down there.
The party started to explore. After only a few rooms, they found a mosaic on a wall, depicting a battle between strange rat faced creatures and knights - the rat faced creatures appeared to be winning. A powerful looking man overlooked the battle. Someone found a secret passage, and they headed down a very narrow staircase which came out in a corridor below. As they came out, they surprised and killed a couple of Hobgoblins who were playing dice. Choosing to head towards the stairs that leads down, the party made their way to a junction room. From the smell, through the right door were stables. Through the left door, the group found a short corridor and a hobgoblin barracks! Quickly retreating back to the junction room, the party entered combat, the hobgoblins in pursuit. Just as they were dispatched, Joe goes to have a look in the stables, where he found another group of hobgoblins! As Dortle and Tank checked out the now empty barracks, Gindle opened the final door, just in time to see a third force approaching! Luckily, Blondung cast a web spell into the corridor, which Gindle then lit. Lightly scorched, and now very pissed off, they continued to charge towards him! :-)
The battle raged for a while, and things started to look rather dire. Joe was chased around the stables by two hobgoblins, who eventually fled themselves when they realized that the battle in the other room was not going well. The enemy fell before Dortle like wheat before a scythe, that is until an enemy priest appeared and did a Hold Person on Dortle, a Fear on Gindle,a Charm person on Tankrin who had been creeping up behind him, and finally raised some of his dead henchmen to fight again. Clint backed off, thinking that discretion (read cowardice) might be the better part of valor, when Blondung and Tarlop the gnome managed to pull the party's fat out of the fire, and temporarily scared off the enemy priest, scorching him slightly in the process. Meanwhile, Joe found a kitchen, and holed up there, weakened by his numerous injuries. Tankrin was subdued, and his weapons removed, whilst she tried to convince the party that the priest is in fact a friend not an enemy. Eventually, Dortle got to move again, and Gindle recovered his courage enough to return somewhat shamefacedly. Reunited, the party made their cautious way after the enemy priest.
After a short search, they found the priest's private quarters, within which a different man was sitting, obviously drugged, his head slumped over a table. Seeing he is wearing the same uniform as some of the dead guards, Gindle leapt forward and slit the man's throat - much to the shock of the others. Joe started appraising some of the trinkets in the room, whilst Dortle opened a chest the hard way, with his axe. Inside were some scrolls, some money and a wand. Joe passed around the money, making sure everyone had an equal share ("No really, I didn't pocket any myself!"). Tankrin, worried about his new friend the priest, searched one of the other rooms, distracting herself with the various coins etc. that she found in the personal chests of the guardsmen. As the others were about to leave the priest's private chambers, Gindle thought to look under the bed, where he found himself face to face with the enemy priest. The priest cast darkness, and then scrambled out from under the bed on the opposite side. Dortle heard the movement and hurled his short sword - striking someone. The scrabbling continued as the priest climbed up onto the top of the bed. He cast Obscurement, and the darkness quickly filled with the dampness of fog as well. Outside the room, where Gindle and a few others managed to escape to, they tried to keep an eye on the exits so they could prevent the priest from escaping. Meanwhile, Dortle took a mace to the head, and in anger nuked the area with a flask of greek fire. After the screaming died down and the fog disappeard, he went back into the darkness and dragged out the body of the priest.
Dortle then again went back into the darkness and dragged out Tarlop's body - who appeared to have died from a massive sword blow to the chest. It looked just like it might have been caused by a thrown short sword, but Dortle remained very quiet on the subject. Moving on, the very weak party decided to hole up, and went down a long narrow passage way (hidden behind a curtain) to sleep. At the end, they found the back of a secret door, beyond which they could hear what sounded like hobgoblins working. They tried to go to sleep, with Joe staying on watch. Whilst waiting, he headed back to the curtain, and saw that the body of the Priest had disappeared! He watched for a while, then eventually spotted the priest, still very much alive, approaching with a number of hobgoblins and an Ogre!
Joe ran back to the party to wake them. As the ogre made it's way down the narrow corridor, the party fumbled their way through the secret door into a temple dominated by a large ugly demon like statue. Clint remained behind, grabbing out one of the new scrolls he'd found in the chest only half an hour earlier. Reading the arcane words, a thunderclaps sounds and a bright flash of lightning sears his eyeballs as a lightning bolt blasts down the corridor, striking the ogre dead.
Meanwhile in the temple, the only other exit door was quickly barred as Kazan and a large group of hobgoblins were seen running towards the temple entrance. Looking around the temple Gindle immediately started to investigate alarge ornate altar covered in a rat and beetle carvings. He gained the feeling that a secret passage of some sort originated under it, but failed to find the opening mechanism. In his frustration, he took water made Holy by the power of Tymora and sprinkled it liberally over the altar.
The result was not what he was hoping for as he looks as if he is being attacked by something. Crying out in pain he scrabbled at his eyes, although the others could not see what is attacking him. Moments later, he is struck blind.!
Meanwhile, Kazan started to negotiate with the party through the door. He tried to persuade them to join forces with him, and begged to understand why the party have invaded his temple. After several minutes of discussion, the beam barring the door suddenly sprung off and fell to the ground allowing the doors to burst open. As Kazan and hobgoblins started to charge in, Clint read the second spell from the scroll he found. Suddenly a sticky web filled the corridor and the entrance way trapping Kazan and his hobgoblin allies fast.
The party gathered themselves together, and leading a blind Gindle legged it! Running out through the underground complex they exited by the stables to find themselves in the woods again with it nearly a dark. Making their way towards the old trail they found two horses that had escaped the stables uninjured and wearily they travelled for about an an hour until it was almost completely dark whereupon they hid in the woods and slept for the night.
Broken
Fang Keep [Kythorn 6th AM]
After waking, through a luckily uneventful night, Clint and Blondung studied
their spell books, and Von Fedel and Gindle prayed to their respective God's.
After some persuasion, Von Fedel cast cure blindness on Gindle, and restored
his sight. Gindle and von Fedel then healed some of the party's many injuries.
Strengthened, the party decided to return to the ruined keep to sort out Kazan
once and for all.
Upon reaching the keep, the stable entrance was barred from the inside, and the party were unable to gain access. They decided to approach from the front again. This time, however once inside the keep's yard, they decided to enter via a broken area of wall. Inside they made their way down some stairs leaving Tankrin behind to extract a chest from under some rubble. At the bottom are the stairs, Clint and Gindle found a set of ugly statues lining a wide corridor. As they care if he started to creep long corridor will on the outside of the statues zombies started to appear from behind a beaded curtains in alcoves. As they started to combat them the other members of the party ran down to assist. With Dortle's axe in rapid motion, the zombies were soon reduced to their component body parts with only minor injuries to the party.
Meanwhile, Tankrin had finally managed to extract the chest and discovered a dagger in a secret compartment at the bottom. By the time Tankrin descended the stairs the combat was over and the others were examining the bodies and some horrible moldings at the end of the corridor, Tankrin found that one of the statues has a real short sword in its grasp. Examining the obsidian blade, Tankrin spotted a dwarven rune engraved upon it. Dortle later revealed that it was the rune for "freedom".
Moving on, the party made their way through several rooms before opening a door into a dark room and encountering and undead ogre! Dortle waded in, and in true dwarven fashion succeeded in downing a creature a lot bigger than himself! The abomination destroyed, the party realize that there appeared to be some prisoners held in a in a cell behind a strong door. Having picked the lock, the prisoners were released. The first was a badly beaten elf, who turns out to be Teth, the missing elf and ranger that Tarlop the gnome had been looking for. The second was a merchant from Luskan named Bastock. The last was the halfling that the party had been looking for, the one who had stolen their blue stones.
Whilst introductions were made, Joe questioned the halfling to understand the nature of the magical walls that the halfling had been riding, and finally manages to "persuade" the halfling to part with a supposedly magical earring for 150 gp. Teth, Von Fedel, Bastock and the halfling, together with Söggrin all decide to return to the surface, and to make their way back to civilization, and in particular to the Sprites Refuge.
The others have barely been gone a minute when suddenly there are cries of alarm, and they come rushing back chased by hobgoblins and Kazan. Meanwhile in the other direction the door opens to reveal four hobgoblins charging towards them. Dortle's takes them out backed up by Tankrin. At the other end the situation becomes more dire, as Gindle is frozen by one of Kazan spells and is about to have his throat slit by an hobgoblin. Luckily Clint manages to use one of his own spells in knock-on conscious the hobgoblins within the room. Kazan plunges to run into darkness again, and uses the blacklist to escape. In the darkness, the halfling thief also decides to take the opportunity to escape from the party.
Gathering themselves together, the party make their way down into the depths of the dungeon again. The temple door is locked, and has a Glyph of Warding cast upon it. The secret passage way looks as if it has been caved in. The stable doors had been nailed shut. An attempt is made to burn away the warding, which only succeeded in destroying the door. Gindle then tries to go through the door, and the Glyph is invoked - draining his life force and sending him to unconsciousness. The others decide that creeping through the now smoky dungeon is probably not the best thing to do, and make their way out through the stables (having pried it open) and head back to the Sprite's Refuge.
Sprite's Refuge [Kythorn 6th evening]
After a hard day's traveling, led by Teth, the party made their way back to
the Sprite's Refuge. Here, they meet again with Shornik the innkeeper. There
are a number of merchants staying there, as well as a large group of Longriders,
staying the night before heading back to Longsaddle in the morning. Shornik
(and Paskar the halfling cook) are very happy to see Teth still alive, but very
saddened to hear of the death of Tarlop Two Toes. Gindle, being on death's door,
is brought around by a potion that Shornik had behind the bar.
After telling the story of the events that happened at the Broken Fang Keep, the leader of the Longriders offers to accompany the party on their onward journey in the morning to Longsaddle. He also expresses concern about Soggrin, as she is obviously a squaw of the Black Raven tribe, one of the Uthgardt tribes that recently attempted to attack Longsaddle - only to be scared off by the Harpell's magic.
Longsaddle
[Kythorn 7th evening]
After a hard day's traveling along the Long Road with the Longriders, the party
reach the cattle/horse country around Longsaddle. Passing ranches and farms,
the party make their way to the centre of the village which is dominated by
a huge rambling ivy covered mansion on the top of a small hill. Locals show
great mistrust in the party when they see Soggrin, but no-one actually says
anything. Joe spots a local woman with pierced ears, and managed to persuade
her to get her mother to pierce his so he can wear the earring that he coerced
out of the halfling thief Hael.
The party decide to take up the offer of rooms at a place called the Gilded Horseshoe, it being the only place with rooms actually available. As they are waiting to be served food, 3 Harpell wizards enter the inn, greet the innkeeper and start to converse quietly together. Just as the party are starting to eat, the lead wizard, named Andall Harpell, strides over to the party and accuses them of being suspected of Gaard's murder. Apparently, Gaard's bloodless body had been found in his cellar, and the party were the last people to see him alive. He demands that they all go with him to the Harpell Mansion.
Once there, the party are interrogated politely, and their innocence is proven by magical means. Von Fedel is however identified as a member of the Zhentarium, and is taken away by the Longriders for further questioning. Blondung appears to be telling the truth when he says that he has left the Zhentarium, and the Harpells decide to let him remain free.
The Harpells offer to help the party on their journey, and tell them some of their theories about the blue stones. DelRoy Harpell, an ancient looking mage, tells them some history about a place named Khiezar Dalan - a place that Dortle recognizes as the name of an ancient Dwarf Hold which was lost. Apparently it was a place which used to be an important source of ancient dwarf magic - stuff that is different to the normal magic of the weave that is in use today. He seems to think that maybe the blue stones have a similar style of magic to the ancient dwarven magic.
He also tells a recent story about some dwarves who were killed by drow. The story goes that the dying breath of the last dwarf told the people who found them that they had found the entrance to Khiezar Dalan, and had found an old dwarven rune stone to prove it. The Harpells are waiting for a powerful dwarven party to pass by so they can ensure the original runestone gets to King Harbromm in Citadel Adbar. Meanwhile, he would be happy if the party could do him a favour and take a copy of the runestone to Lady Alustriel in Silverymoon.
(Note: Runestones are flattish stones typically about a hand-span across, onto which are carved the full detailed name of a particular place - sometimes this includes a description of where the place is. In the very center of the stone is a carved magical rune which is often used to open the portal to the place in question)
Longsaddle
[Kythorn 8th morning]
The Harpells then help the party by partially identifying some of the items
that the party have gathered, and provide them with a "troll-killer staff",
with the unusual invocation words of "Eat More Longsaddle Beef". Unfortunately,
there are no caravans heading east towards Nesme - the next stopping point on
their journey -but the party decide to head on alone anyway.
On the road to Nesme [Kythorn 8th early afternoon]
The group set out on the magically built road to Nesme, and have only travelled
a short distance before they encounter a lone rider who gallops past them at
top speed. Before he is out of sight, a group of 15 Black Raven barbarians gallops
into site, obviously in pursuit. They are about to attack, but spot Soggrin
and parley instead. Their leader - a barbarian named Derboshrin - knows Soggrin,
and boasts to her how he will have her for his squaw once he "rescues"
her from these scum (the party). She is not to impressed with Derboshrin's attitude,
and insults him in front of his men. He orders his men to attack. There is a
very quick combat. Several spells go off, disabling or killing most of the party,
and Derboshrin suddenly finds himself outnumbered. Like the coward he is, he
runs off, yelling vehemently to Soggrin who bursts into tears.
Soggrin explains that she will never be able to go back to her tribe now, and that she has been away from it for too long. In anguish she cuts off her topknot and throws it to the ground, proclaiming herself tribeless. The party continue their journey, and after a short period, find a wagon with dead people lying butchered around them - obviously where the barbarians had been chasing the lone rider from. The party decide to take the wagon onwards to it's original destination - the town of Nesme.
On the road to Nesme [Kythorn 8th night]
At the end of the day, the party set up camp on the top of a rise, close to
the road in hills. The place has been used many times before as a caravan camping
spot, and although a nearby copse of trees provides firewood, the party decide
not to have a fire, relying on the cover of darkness. The night is uneventful.
Goblintide
Ford [Kythorn 9th evening]
After an uneventful day on the road, the party reach the Goblintide river. Just
crossing the ford is a pair of wagons. The traders introduce themselves as Rostar's
Trade - transporting Nesme wool to south. The two groups agree to join forces
for the night as the area next the ford is a natural camping spot.
As the camp is being prepared, some of the men from Rostar's trade find 4 corpses. Upon investigation, it seems that they were killed by barbarians - probably the Black Raven tribe again. The party notice that there is a pouch with small blue stones spilt by it next to one of the bodies. This must be one of the other groups that Gaard mentioned. Rostar's wizard finds a spellbook which says it belonged to "Nelissa of Daggerford" - presumably one of the dead.
During the night, the group is attacked by goblins - leaping from large rafts drifting silently down the Goblintide. Battle ensues, during which the goblins are driven off, but not before one of Rostar's trade loses his life.
The remainder of the night proves uneventful, and the two groups part company in the morning.
Meeting
Manshoon [Kythorn 10th mid morning]
After the party has been traveling only a short way, an unnatural fog starts
to coalesce around them. As they start to get worried about this, a rumbling
of thunder can be heard in the distance to the east. The thunder doesn't stop,
and gets louder and louder. The party move off the road, leaving the wagon behind,
until suddenly a black dragon and rider can be seen overhead. The dragon circles
the party, causing Gindle to run in all directions, finally ending up back at
the wagon. Joe also falls off his horse and lies prostrate in fear. Blondung
recognizes the rider, gasping "Manshoon!", and dives into a gorse
bush to hide. The Dragon lands, and Soggrin, pretty much unaffected by the dragonfear,
sighs in resignation.
The dragon's rider gestures and the fog disappears. He thanks the party for "rescuing" Soggrin from Xred, and chucks a bag of coins at them. Soggrin tells the party that there is nothing they can do against the archmage leader of the Zhentarium, and that if they try they will only die. She resignedly walks towards the dragon and climbs aboard with Manshoon. They then fly away heading back east.
Meeting the Dragon Cultists
[Kythorn 10th mid morning]
Almost before the dragon has gone out of sight, a group of four riders come
cantering up. Their leader, a woman, shouts something unintelligible, then frowns
as she realised that they don't understand her. She then comes closer She is
accompanied by 2 oriental looking fighters and a male half elf dressed as a
priest of some sort. She questions the party, trying to discover something about
them, before finally deciding that they aren't powerful enough for her to worry
about, and announces that she is named Karana Tharr - a Keeper of the Hoard
of the Dragon Cult. She declares
that the party now know too much, and orders her men to kill them. The warriors
leap forward, shuriken flying, and it very quickly looks as if the party are
about to be overwhelmed when the enemy priest casts a hold spell on Gindle and
Clint.
The Draconians intervene [Kythorn 10th mid morning]
Suddenly magical darts fly among the party, striking only the dragon cultists.
They turn to face the new challenge - a group of strange creatures descending
from some nearby trees. There is a shadowy man sized figure with dragon like
wings hidden at the edge of the tree line; a troll sized gray skinned creature
with a dragon like face and wings who was casting the spells; 3 similar, but
green orc like skinned creatures half gliding their way towards the battle;
and 4 smaller red/yellow goblin like skinned creatures half flapping, half running
towards the combat at the front. (The word draconian will be used in future
to describe these).
The two eastern warriors rush at the new combatants, ignoring the party to concentrate on this new threat. Karana zaps a lightning bolt from a wand at the troll like draconian. The priest casts a hold spell on the gliding creatures, causing two of them to drop out of the air and crash to the ground. The fighters take out 2 of the smallest goblin-like draconians, which amazingly suddenly turn to stone, trapping the warriors blades. One of the creatures gets past the warriors and attacks the priest, who hits it with his staff, causing one of it's limbs to wither away. It screams a strange screech and collapses in agony.
The troll-like draconian starts to cast another spell as the two fighters dispatch the remaining goblin like draconian and charge up the hill towards him. A fireball erupts over the fighters and when the smoke clears, they lie groaning blackened on the floor, their horses dead. Karana starts to fiddle with a ring on her finger, and the dragon-man figure at the back jerks into motion, gesticulating intricately. Sickly green bolts of energy stream out from it's fingertips, striking all four dragon cultists. The victims bodies disintegrate, and their belongings literally drop out of the air onto the floor.
The two orc-like draconians pick themselves up and continue down. One of them kills the goblin-like draconian with the withered arm, the other heads to Karana's belongings, and searches around, before finally picking up a ring. Without a word to the party, they all head up the hill back to the dragon-man, before disappearing out of sight.
The party, like vultures, descend on the remaining dragon cultist belongings!
A short while later the party are continuing their way towards Nesme. They meet with a patrol of the Riders of Nesme, and hear that the road ahead is clear. Finally, as evening draws near, they reach the fortified town of Nesme.
Nesme [Kythorn 10th evening]
The guards on the gates question the party, wanting to know where they have
come from, how good their journey was, what business they have in Nesme etc.
Hearing about some of the problems encountered on the road, the guard suggests
that the party might be asked for an audience with Lady Tessarin. He directs
the party to the Merchant's Hall (the old converted temple of Waukeen).
On route, Joe tries to do a little pick-pocketing in the crowd, but gets spotted
and has to do a quick escape through the back alleys. The rest of the party
find the Merchant's Hall, book in and then head off to have a night on the town.
Nesme
[Kythorn 11th morning]
In the morning, there is an invitation to an audience with Lady Tessarin. She
initially questions the party on the activities on the road - seeming very concerned
about the reports of a dragon and the Dragon
Cult in the area. Hearing more about the reasons for their journey to Silverymoon,
she agrees with the urgency. She was surprised and somewhat upset to hear about
Gaard's death. She suggests that perhaps the party get together with 4 Gnomish
priests who are currently in town with their latest invention - a boat that
can move without sails or oars. They have been looking to open up a trade route
between Nesme and Silverymoon - but the Rauvin valley has so far not been "tamed",
and currently, only groups of adventurers make the journey. Traders consider
it too risky, If a "safe" route could be opened up, then trade would
pay for raising a force to "tame" the valley.
The party agree to go via boat, and Tessarin arranges with the gnomes to "set sail" next morning. The cloth is delivered to Ebon Escalde, and the wagon is sold. Supplies are bought, and the party go out on the town again, this time Joe and Tankrin go on stage at "the Pride of the North" to earn a few gold. Dortle pays the 25gp entrance fee to watch the lavish shows and enjoy the very impressive feast. Clint and Gindle consider it too expensive, and go put down a few Nesme Trolbrau at a smaller pub.
Nesme
[Kythorn 12th]
The party meet with the four gnomes on the docks of Nesme and say their farewells
to Lady Tessarin and Blondung - who had decided not to join them on their final
leg of the journey after all. They board their strange boat, and start the new
leg of their journey. The journey starts off well, and for the rest of this
day, those on board do nothing but watch the scenery go by once the early morning
fog clears.
The
River Surbrin/Rauvin [Kythorn 13th]
As another foggy dawn breaks, the party find themselves steaming past the end
of the area patrolled by the Riders of Nesme. Later that day, there is incident
where the river narrows and a large tree trunk has been put across as a makeshift
bridge. Failing to ram it out of the way, there is no choice but to go ashore.
Despite spotting trolls on the moor to the south, and barbarians in the hills
to the north, a few of the party members disembark and clear the passage. By
the time they have got back on board, the barbarians and trolls are closer.
The gnomes lure the barbarians closer, then surprise everyone by burning them
terribly with a couple of deck mounted flame thrower devices. Upset by the needless
violence, the party voice their concerns, and the boat continues it's journey,
it's passengers somewhat more subdued. The barbarians continue to track the
boat's progress, though at a distance of several miles.
The
River Rauvin [Kythorn 14th]
This day is much like the rest - dawning with thick fog from the moors. Today
however, the fog fails to clear. Mid afternoon, the gnomes mention that there
is a strange current in the water - within minutes it turns out to be a sea
monster - which the gnomes describe as a waterlimgoer. The creature is huge
and everyone is ushered inside the deckhouse as one of the Gnomes fires his
flame thrower at it's head. It breathes scalding steam on the boat, then lunges
down and eats the gnome. The boat then shifts, and moves in the water, and it
becomes clear that the creature's body is actually under the boat trying to
capsize the boat.
Failing to capsize the boat, the monster only succeeds in slamming the boat into the river bank. Oil starts to leak from a broken tank and starts to burn - luckily on the outside of the boat. Everyone disembarks. The Gnomes fire their portable complex flame throwers at the waterlimgoer, and are themselves all killed as the creature dies. The party retrieve their belongings and shaken horses from the stranded boat, and find themselves alone on the troll moors with a good couple of days march to Silverymoon plus the river to cross.
The
Trollmoors [Kythorn 15th]
The party march throughout the night, encountering one large band of trolls
which they only just defeat - the Harpell's staff is suddenly very useful to
them. By mid morning, exhausted from lack of sleep and the constant fear of
troll attacks, the group find a bridge crossing the river that has been made
by four large tree trunks. It is clear that the bridge was probably constructed
by people from the north side of the river rather than by trolls. A large band
of trolls appear, and the party run across the bridge, setting it on fire behind
them
Moving onwards, the group suddenly come across some barbarians, who appeared to be waiting for them. They make a wild dash through the fog and the woods, being chased by barbarian riders. Coming across an ancient road running parallel to the river, the party find themselves surrounded next to an escarpment, and have no alternative but to head into a cave to defend themselves.
The barbarians - who appear to be from the Sky Ponies tribe - wait outside. They claim that the cave is evil, and that they will not enter, but will wait outside for the party to come out and die an honorable death by their blades.
Khiezar Dalan [Kythorn 15th]
Not very keen to die an honorable death, the party retreat to the back of the
cave, which they quickly realize is definitely not natural by the presence of
a wooden door. Tracks on the floor however reveal that all is not as it seems,
and a not so secret door is quickly found. It swings open easily, leading down
a rough hewn passage way. The sound of orcish voices can be heard from round
a corner - apparently playing cards. Gindle, having orcish parents, decided
to brazenly approach, relying on Tymora's luck for a favorable outcome, and
he rounds the corner asking in orcish if he can join their game. The six orcs
clustered around the small fire scatter around the large cavern and ready weapons,
surprised at this sudden visitor.
The orcs seem overly suspicious, and Gindle gives up his initial approach, stepping forward to attack. Two of the orcs flee the room, going to get help. A brief battle later, made all the quicker by the appearance of Dortle and Tankrin, results in 4 dead orcs. A few moments, one of the ones who had fled returns with another two orcs - they were perhaps not expecting to see as many invaders as they did, and they turned tail. Dortle leaps forward and fells two of them, Gindle throws his blade at the remaining one, but misses. Dortle hurls his blade at the last as well, and kills it dead.
Meanwhile the others check out the East exit from the room, and Gindle checks out the second southern exit. The latter turns out to be a store room of old barrels, filled with semi-rotten foodstuffs. Gindle ignores the cowardly orc hidden at the back, and joins the others in the other cavern. This third cave has a dark pool of water in it, and glowing red walls. There are no signs of orc tracks, it looks like they avoid this place. As they are about to leave, a ghostly apparition of a ancient dragon appears above the water. "At last! No more orcs! Sammaster did this to me. He awoke me from the sleep of death and stole my body. I command you now to wreak revenge!" it says, before sinking back into the water. Somewhat surprised, at this strange vision, the party return to the entrance, and examine the wooden door. Gindle, Joe and Tankrin all failed to pick the lock, but when Dortle stepped forward with his axe, intending to break open the door, dwarven runes suddenly glowed on the door. Dortle is amazed. "Khiezar Dalan!" he whispers. He tries the door, and it opens easily.
The party step inside, leading their horses and close the door behind them. Gindle casts a light spell, and it quickly becomes apparent that this place has not seen visitors for a long long time. Dortle reminds the party about what he knows about Khiezar Dalan.
Khiezar
Dalan [Kythorn 16th]
Having spent the night walking through the trollmoors and fighting trolls, the
group are particularly tired, and decide to rest. They keep a watch, but in
the end, the place feels somewhat safe, and Tankrin falls asleep on his watch.
Eventually, the party awake, rested and somewhat refreshed. Leaving the horses
behind, the group start to explore the lost halls of Khiezar Dalan. The dwarven
halls has been abandoned for nigh on 2000 years apparently, though the doors
were obviously protected in some way, as they remain sturdy and solid. There
is heavy dust on the ground everywhere. The upper levels do not seem to hold
much however, and hopes are raised, then promptly dashed, when a dwarven sign
proclaims a passage as a "Safe Route to Silverymoon", but the passageway
has caved in.
Descending a long staircase, the party find an armoury, in which are a number of fine dwarven weapons. Further down the stairway, the party find the main entrance on the other side of a deep pit. A raised drawbridge stands in the way. Gindle, with rope attached, crosses over and unlocks the doors, passing through to the other side and lowering the drawbridge.
Beyond, lies a room bounded by a long fissure in the rock. The fissure is crossed by a very narrow bridge. Some light glimmers from down a passage way and more from further along the fissure, where another wider bridge crosses, joining other tunnels. Distant voices can be heard, and Gindle, followed by Tankrin and Joe approach quietly to listen in. A strange hunched undead creature of some kind is speaking to a couple of drow, making some form of bargain. The deal complete, the undead creature disappears through a crawl way in a caved in passageway, and the two drow pass the hidden party members, traveling onwards into what appears the be the old dwarven mine shafts. One of the drow appears to look directly at Tankrin, but does not react in any way.
The party follow the drow, at a safe distance, and spot them entering a large cavern separated by a magical barrier of some kind. Beyond the barrier, what looks like a small drow city can be seen! The party retreat and head back to where the undead creature had gone. It had left 8 skeletons behind as a "guard", but Gindle drives them off using Tymora's power.
Crawling through the narrow opening, Tankrin, soon followed by the others, finds a half eaten dead humanoid creature - though of what race he could not be sure.
Following the tracks of the undead creature they had seen earlier, they explored their way through the complex, passing through what looked like a food preparation room and a kitchen into a dining hall, where they discovered a group of zombies wandering around aimlessly. After dispatching them, they continued into a large wide gallery. At the far end, Dortle was outraged to find what looked like a defiled temple of Dumathoin - one of the dwarven gods. Bursting in, the group interrupt what looks like some form of ceremony, the body of a tall shaggy humanoid resting on the altar and being raised as undead!.
Several zombies turn to face the party, and the undead creature the party had first seen orders them to attack. Dortle charges and ignores the zombies, attempting to leap over the altar at the end to attack the ghast leader. He misses his jump, and sprawls atop the alter and the undead monster there. It starts to attack him, but he manages to dispatch it. The undead leader then charms Dortle and commands him to attack the intruders. Unfortunately, he doesn't redirect the zombies, who continue to attack Dortle, so Dortle defends himself against those instead.
Meanwhile, some of the zombies start to attack the others. A ghoul appears from behind the door, and attacks with surprise paralyzing Tankrin. Clint whips out the wand of lightning he had blasts several of the zombies and the Ghoul as it comes for him, just missing Tankrin and Gindle. Joe runs away.
The undead leader runs around the temple, and attacks Gindle. Someone is frozen, and someone else manages to take down the undead leader.
Licking their wounds, the party explored the temple for a moment, before heading onwards down a corridor and around a corner. One of the dwarven defense mechanisms - a huge block of stone - had fallen here and mostly blocked the passageway. Luckily, a smaller block of stone had wedged the larger block so that a small crawl space was available. The group took off their packs and crawled through. On the other side, the group found a stairwell heading down and a couple of abandoned armories. Heading down the stair, passing another wooden door, the group found their way blocked by a large stone door with no means to open it. Using the Wand of Enlarge, Clint caused the stone door to shatter. It opened revealing a gulf - the large crevasse the party had crossed earlier. On the opposite side, another stone door stood. This too was shattered using the Wand of Enlarge. Beyond, they could see an open area with several ancient desiccated bodies still lying where they had died. Six enchanted weapons suddenly rose from among the bodies, and flew directly at the party. Dortle and Gindle braced themselves ready to defend, Clint, Tankrin and Joe took to their heels. Three weapons targeted the two that remained, and the other three flew after the others.
Tankrin dodged inside the first door she came to and slammed the door behind him - Joe and Clint continued to flee. One of the chasing weapons started to chop at the door, the other two flew after the others. Just keeping ahead of them, Clint and Joe stagger up the stairs, and dive through the crawl space. They don't stop running till they manage to get through the door into the old dining room area. As they regain their breath, they hear the weapons start to hammer at the door. They continue to flee, closing the doors behind them till they are at the entrance of the lower levels.
Meanwhile, Gindle and Dortle manage to smash the weapons attacking them, and then rescue Tankrin from hers. The three of them manage to leap across the chasm, and start to investigate the area opposite. There are two areas of defense - one which was still barred. Inside it, a dead dwarf had carved a dying note - indicating that the weapons they had made had risen up against them. The last area was the Rose Forge. Upon entering it, several animated suits of armour stepped forward to defend the forge. Dortle stood on the stair and slowly took them apart. Battered and bruised however, they finally gave up and fled the dungeon before the last of the suits animated.
Re-united at last with the group at the top (defeating the last of the two flying weapons on route) the party exited the dungeon to find that the orcs and the barbarians had battled with each other, and that the way was now clear. The group rested for a night to heal up, took their somewhat parched and hungry horses, and continued on their journey.
On
the trail to Silverymoon [Kythorn 17th / 18th]
The group made reasonable time, and avoided battle on this final leg of their
journey. Stopping for a night, they huddled beneath a tree in the cold winds,
and then stiffly resumed their journey the next morning. Midday, they met a
group of Silver Knights, led by Captain Glandril, on patrol from Silverymoon,
who escorted them into the city.
Silverymoon [Kythorn 18th
evening]
Once in the city, the group are ushered fairly quickly into an audience with
Lady Alustriel. The powerful sorceress already had a visitor - the famous dwarven
adventurer Bruenor Battlehammer. Alustriel appeared to be expecting them, though
was disappointed to hear that they had arrived by land rather than by the river.
Lady Tessarin had already informed her about the Gnomes boat leaving Nesme.
The group presented her with the blue stones they had battled their way across
the North to deliver. Lady Alustriel looked at the stones, and proclaimed that
there was nothing magical about them after all. Bruenor Battlehammer looked
at them and claimed that they were a semi-precious stone only found in a far
off country known as Vassa.
Alustriel seems just as confused as everyone else as to what is going on. Why Gaard would send groups of adventurers across the north on a pointless journey. Why was Gaard killed? Some more details of the party's journey came out in discussion. The encounter with Manshoon was mentioned - and Alustriel promised to contact her sisters in the east to look into Soggrin's kidnapping. The encounter with the dragon cultists was mentioned, together with their subsequent destruction at the hands of the "draconians". Alustriel and Bruenor did not recognize their description, and said they would pass the word to ensure that more information could be gained on these strange creatures. As far as the Dragon Cult went - Alustriel claimed that the cult was no longer the force it used to be - and was now splintered and disjointed.
Dortle handed over the copy of the Runestone that describes the location to Kheizar Dalan, and Bruenor became very excited. Hearing about the presence of Drow in the neighborhood he became more serious however, and soon after, he rushed off to organise a major dwarven expedition from Citadel Adbar to re-open the lost dwarf hold.
Gindle recalled the dragon ghost that appeared in the orc caves next to Kheizar Dalan, and it's weird proclamation: At last! No more orcs! Sammaster did this to me. He awoke me from the sleep of death and stole my body. I command you now to wreak revenge!" Alustriel told the party not to worry about it, since Sammaster was now dead.
Despite the fact that Alustriel had known nothing about the bonus that Gaard had promised they would get upon reaching Silverymoon, she paid them a significant sum anyway in recognition of the effort they had gone through. Finally the audience finished, and the group headed off to find an inn to sleep in.