Off to see the Gnomes

Snorri’s clan holds a memorial honorarium for Snorri. Everyone receives a special made silvered dagger. They let me read their libraries and I learn much about the local areas and recent histories. The Dwarves suspect the giants will soon move south, once they run out of slaves to eat. Some Gnomes are raiding into Southern Geoff, testing the giant’s strength. The Dwarves also think Jian needs to contact the Gnomes for info on the strength item she is researching. Kemp Consum is the leader of the Gnomes in Stark mountains. Intel suggests the Gnomes may launch a raid into the giant held city of Gorna from their base in Talbane. Gora is split between Femorian Giants and Ogres. Orcs were part of the initial raiding force but retreated after the Giants and Ogres started using them as food sources. We have two choices of how to get there. Overland and underground. Overland is faster but higher risk. Dwarves suggest we bypass Istavan. Decide to go overland. Stock up on trail rations and other supplies.

Day 1. Southern Plains of Sterich. Day 2. Well populated area. Cart paths, farmland and small keeps. Late afternoon. A group of guardsmen approach. They watch us pass but don’t try to stop us. Evening, arrive at Fitella. A walled city and river crossing. The east and west ends have refugee shanty towns. Many grain wagons entering city. Guards collecting a ‘gate tax.’ Their initial tax on us seem way excessive. They respond favorably to Brak and he talks them down to a mere 10Au per person. Move down the main street. Many street vendors. Jian asks a group of guards about a tavern and they recommend Miss Lizzies. Arrange for two rooms and stables. Aerrion wonders off to Sherman’s Last Stand, rumored to be a place not to go. Comes back much later, battered and bloody, but with a beat up platter as a prize. Try finding out about trade routes north. Everyone agrees that there just isn’t any trade going on that way. Next morning. Eat breakfast. Cross river on the ferry. Many empty grain wagons going our way. By the end of the day, out of the farmlands and into open plains.

Small groups of trees, mostly logged. Open camp. Next day, night and day. Into the Stark mountains. Late afternoon. Elwin spots an ambush. Combat against a large band of Orcs led by an Etin and shaman. Short fight. Jian knocked down by Etin but fixed by Brak. All but one Orc killed. Find assorted armor and weapons. Also 3 jaspers stones and one small glass shaft. Shaft radiates arcane magic. Travel on for two more days. Find giant and ogre heads on pikes. Midafternoon. Surprised by Gnomish party. They escort us to Talbane, a couple of hours away. It is well hidden with a normal population of about 300. That is doubled now with the presence of the Gnomish raiders. Led to a waiting area where we get a brief audience with a lieutenat after 30 minutes. Kemp will see us in the morning. Left to ourselves. Gnomes think there are about 90 ogres and 21 male giants. Meet Kemp the next morning. Rather pompous. Jian asks about her strength item. Kemp thinks much of the raiding is from a Hill Giant band in the mountains west of here. Thinks they have several shamans there. Possible strength item info. He also wants to know who Mazra is allied with. Mentions a second group of adventurers that came thru earlier on a similar quest. Rest and prepare. Gnome guides lead us to a valley with caves where the hill giants live.

Oosana

XP Kills - 675, Story - 400

Loot 198Au each

Snorri's Clan Pt 2

Decide which tunnel to explore. While discussing and preparing, attacked by a mob of spiders. About 2 ft in size. During the fight, I hear Orcish from down the tunnel, “Begone foul invaders, the swarm will defeat you! We have the two dwarves. Their deaths will be slow and painful.” Spiders die fast. Elwin bit but not hurt. Proceed slowly down the tunnel. Elwin hears footsteps receding. Keep going. Near where the dwarves fought, Elwin sees two giant preying mantises eating on dead spiders. Debate and decide to attack them. Rest wait while Elwin and I sneak down to shot them, then lead them back to the waiting party. One starts to attack after we shoot it, but runs away after we get a couple of good hits in. Aerrion, Dubious and I move in and kill the second one. Elwin and I check out the passages. Rocks fall down but miss. Elwin climbs up. Low tunnel at top. Elwin tosses rope down. Finds cobwebs and signs that someone was there to push the rocks. Go back rather then down the short tunnel.

Decide to move toward Orc lair noted on map provided by dwarves. A valley is between us and the cave. Open sky above. Elwin spots Orc and large clawed tracks. Check the cave across the valley. Orc and clawed tracks. Slowly move in, I lead with Elwin covering. Rest follow. Big room with pillar. Keep going. Room with a fire pit and seven alcoves. Foot and paw prints. Paws go to #3. I spot a dead manticore in #3. Probably not the one I saw, been dead too long. Full of arrows. Pull one out. Have an allergic reaction to the stuff on it. Nice looking arrow, malachite tip. Looks to be worth 100Au. Brak casts a Cure Disease on me which cures the allergy. Party checks the other alcoves. Elwin wakes up the Stirges in #5. Brief fight. Elwin gets sucked on. Find a secret door in #6. Also an empty vial with “Invisibility” written in Dwarvish. Debate using the 3x5 tunnel behind the door. Gracie and Dubious go.

They hear a crunching sound. Lilth wants to check out the noise. He and Dubious go. Gracie comes back to tell us. By the time we get there, they have killed the two mountain lions. Dubious finds clues about his clan. Head toward the mine. Find a poem written in blood. A taunt about dwarves getting beaten in battle. Close to the mine. See earth moving like something moving underground. Elementals? No tracks. Leave the critters alone. Head back to the new battle site. Find tracks in tunnel we bypassed earlier. Figures. As we travel down, encounter and kill more spiders. Make it to the iron mine. Fresh tracks. Most recent ones lead out. Single shaft leads in. Crude smithy outside. Many mining tools. Most dwarven made. Scout around. Don’t think this is where dwarves are. Move on to Orc Leap. Rope net bridge across a 120ft deep, 50ft wide chasm. See a small spider crawling along underneath bridge. Jian magic missiles it. Leave the mules here. Cross the bridge carefully. See some bloodstains. Everyone at cave mouth. See tracks. Find no traps. A wooden wall with a small hole. I hear spider chittering from other side. One pops out. I shoot it. Hear in Orcish “Come quick!” So much for surprise. Sky breathes thru hole. Elwin dives in followed by Aerrion. They work on opening the gate. It opens and we move in. Charge down the tunnels. Narrow. We cover each other as we go. I spot an untracked area of sand in middle of tunnel, probably a trap. Warn folks. Aerrion tries to jump the trap but the low ceiling causes him to fall short. Fire trap. Dubious and I get burned. More spiders. These squeak as the die. Hear Orcish divine chanting. “Thank you Father.” Bless? Cloudy darkness in Orc chamber. Light spell fails to help. Dubious and Aerrion charge into the darkness. Sounds of fighting. Sky moves up and breathes again. I tumble in blindly and cast Obscuring Mist. Instead of a cloud, it cancels the darkness. Aerrion tumbles after the Orc cleric but gets Feared by the him. Aerrion runs around the far corner. Several Orcs attack me in route to Dubious. Ouch! I tumble clear and shoot the Cleric. The dwarves hack thru the Orcs. As Brak charges the cleric, the Orc steps forward, strikes a tinderstick and jabs himself. He blows up. Damn explosions! Fight over. Find the two dwarves back where Aerrion was hiding. He prevented two Orcs from finishing the dwarves. Find a spider queen in another chamber. She bargins her freedom. Dwarves blinded by torture. Make it back to the Dwarven compound. Snorri’s clan has a repository of books which they let me read. The Dwarves reward us with gifts and we stay for a few weeks while they prepare them.

Oosana

XP Kills: 1500, Story: 200, RP: 300
+1 reputation point, +2 action points

Loot:
Wine bottle with strap - Ever Smoking bottle
Shield
Pick Axe

Everyone receives a gift from the Dwarves. Have to be careful not to offend if gift not very useful.

Snorri's Clan Pt 1

Debate what to do now. Both us and the Drow prisoners. Aerrion takes parts from the monster, some kind of demon. Return to the surface. Talk to Old Bardy about Snorri’s clan. Jotens Mts is where we need to go. A mount called Old Baldy. I have seen it before during a previous trip. On the north side is a chasm running east and west. A dwarven trade trail is on the north side of chasm. It leads to the Golkern clan and Snorri’s family. Will know we are close when we see Dwarven stone work. Trails are narrow but passable by horse. Will have to pack provisions since mostly barren. Back in town, learn a few things from the giant. He is not local but from the Geoff areas. Occupied areas include Oytmeet, Gorna and Hornwood. Looking for ways south. Prelude to Invasion? Purchase four mules to carry supplies. Stay four more days before heading out toward NW. Small hills at first. Some forage. Trees between hills. Second day. Herd of wildebeest. Shoot one. Third day. Find several gutted wildebeest and man sizes tracks in area. Jian suggests moving more northerly to try to avoid combat. We do so. Fifth day.

Night camp. Third watch. Aerrion and Elwin. An agitated bird lands on a horse. Elwin tries a ranger trick to talk to it but fails. Squawks and caws. It files away. A bit later, they hear noises. Aerrion kicks Gracie awake. She spots four bugbears dragging a travois. Aerrion kicks Jian awake. Into kicking I guess. Gracie tries a friendship spell. One attacks and another appears friendly. The other two ready. Jian casts a pyrotechnics while Aerrion shouts for everyone to wake. I move toward the noise in the dark. See the bugbears. Shoot one that is holding javelins. Horses disturbed. Brak charges into the fray, chopping one in half. Cussing in common from the bundle on the travois. I cut it open. An old woman. She asks if we have killed all fourteen. Uh Oh! I shout a warning to the others that there are more. Elwin spots a large group moving toward the horses after Jian casts a Light spell. He cuts the horses loose. The run thru the bugbears, trampling four. Brak is in a frenzy and starts swinging at Aerrion. Why? Aerrion swings back, hitting Brak. What is going on? I cast a Light spell to better see what they are doing. Jian and Dubious are dropping bugbears quickly. Sky tries to make Brak chase him. Aerrion is fighting defensively. I run up and ask “What is going on?” Brak looks at me as a friend and says “You get him(Aerrion) while I get this one(Sky)” before he attacks Sky. I try to bluff Brak into taking Sky as a live prisoner but Brak shouts “Take no prisoners” and charges after Sky, shouting “Die cowardly bugbear.” Jian, who is tying up a bugbear that surrendered to Gracie, fakes getting attacked by the bugbear, shouting “Help me Brak, this one is killing me!” Brak leaves Sky and charges up, cleaving the helpless bugbear. Sky escapes and Jian and Gracie calm Brak down.

Apparently, his new sword has some weird side effects. Cally, the freed prisoner, is friends with the crow. She was captured three days ago and her goats killed. The bugbears were taking her somewhere for Nazra, a hill giant chief. Crow is named Clack. Bugbears scouting around. She has a glen she lives at. Behind us. Rest up. Morning. Cally brews something on the fire. Says it is a healing salve. Comments that Aerrion is running from something. Says Gracie is trouble. Has seen Brak’s new sword’s symbols before. Minotaur leather. Calls me a “watcher.” Mentions the Golkern Dwarves are great metalworker and the have a library. Cally gives us a salve that can cure diseases, blindness etc. Spend the day resting and scouting about.

Move out the next morning. Cally heads back to her glen. Start seeing Old Baldy in the distance. Two more days. Get to the base of the mountain. Looks like part of the mountain is ripped away. Rough chasm. Find a trail like gully on the north side. Singe file travel. I catch a glimpse of a winged critter, probably a manticore. Two days later. Using grain on mules to feed critters. Chasm thirty to sixty feet deep. Another day. Hear deep voices talking excitedly. Elwin moves up. “We have our duty.” Elwin translates. He takes the lead. Seven dwarves in campsite. Two are arguing. Blanket covers a bloody something. Elwin hails the camp. Starts explaining our quest. They are kin to the Golkern clan. They seem to need help with something. Selkin speaks. “Our clan has fallen, a follower of Morden.” Jian asks them to speak Common. Claims in Dwarven, “Gracie is my servent” “Hail Dark Mistress.” The dwarves debate between recovering lost companions and returning with the cleric. They were attacked by Orcs. A younger one, Lilth, wants to recover four missing dwarves. Selkin favors returning with the cleric. We decide, after some debate to go with Lilth and attempt to rescue the four dwarves. Selkin gives us a scroll of Entropic Shield. I see an eight legged critter as we start for the caves. Selkin and the rest of the Golkern clan will take the Cleric back. We keep Snorri’s ashes for now since it is our honor to return them. We are six days from the Golkern home. They will take our horses but we keep two mules, just in case.

Oosana

No XP or loot. Will pick here next session.

Party Time

The next day, after a pleasant night of feast and fun, we receive four invites to celebratory parties. From the Mayor, the Tradesmen Guild (halflings), Caravan Transport guild and the Ranchers guild. I ask around trying to discover why the four parties. Turns out that each group is trying for the most prestige in order to attract the best guards. We split up and plan on visiting all four parties. First stop for each is: Mayor ~ Gracie, Jian and Dubious. Tradesmen-Bakersmith ~ Elwin and I. Teamsters-Lady Hefnerhard ~ Brak and Sky. Farmers-Willibrooks ~ Aerrion. I have a party dress made for 15 gold. Good price, looks worth twice as much. Each party has a presentation. Mayors: Dubious gets a full set of Dwarven Plate. Tradesmen: Elwin gets a set of lenses, “In Doubious’s behalf” - Lenses of Detection. Farmers: Aerrion gets a pair of Elven made boots. Teamsters: Don’t know.

Elwin learns of a dwarf NW of town. He claims to have found a mithral mine but he has never shown any mithral. It is only a day trip away. We decide to visit him. A half day out, spot carrion birds in sky. Signs of battle. One human and two dwarves. One dwarf still alive. I heal him. Name of Thomas. Attacked by Dark Elves like Gracie. His master was Old Bardy. Wearing a clan symbol. Thomas mentions breaking thru to another chamber. Had bad feelings about it. He is now afraid of caves. We decide to explore the caves. Thomas takes our horses to his shelter a few minutes away. The cave entrance is well traveled. Elwin surprised by two Drow males. Shot by a bolt. Gracie charges up shouting, “How dare you attack my party!” Her bluff appears to work. They tell us to follow and we do. Arrive at a large chamber with more Drow. Gracie speaks with one of the males. I understand some of what is said. He wants her to follow him to Kyless. Discuss to follow or not. Some move into chamber. Dubious gets concerned at the tone of the discussions and the encroaching Drow. He starts swinging. Tangled combat in close quarters but we take little damage before killing all but one that gets away. Explore around. Find armor and stuff. Plus a ring and wand. Several goblins are chained in a chamber. Mining mithral. It is sent away via a twenty foot chamber with blue sparkly magic.

We decide to try the portal. Probably stupid. Gracie, Dubious and Sky go first. The rest follow. The first three startle three Drow, two males and a female acolyte. Brief scuffle. Dubious cleaves one in half and the other two are captured. A small room nearby has four chests. Elwin searches and unlocks them. He also finds a bone tube and a potion bottle. Scroll is a divine type to break enchantments. While they continue futzing with the chests, I and others start hearing distant chanting. Arcane in nature. Sky moves up and looks. A male spellcaster is chanting and walking around a magical circle on the ground. Sky moves to attack. Four spiders move out from the walls. The Drow mage casts a Lightning bolt, zapping Sky and dropping Jian. Dubious and Sky charge the mage while I move to help Jian. Brak charges the spiders. Drop them all. Mage had a wand of Magic Missiles. Gracie finds a room full of jars with body parts. A young dwarf lies on a table, gutted. Elwin, Sky and Dubious find a small chamber with a spider in it. They soon dispatch it. Check out a second door. No noise. No traps. Locked with no key hole. Gracie interrogates one of the prisoners. She learns the other dwarf is with Kayless. Need the wizard to open the second door. Kayless is down stairs. Will have to use the teleporter again. Debate what to do about the door. Decide the scroll won’t work. Dubious bashes at the door and succeeds in smashing it open. Gracie runs in to read the runes on the chest. Oops, a trap. Explosion. She is badly hurt. Elwin move in but also trips a trap. Falls down in a weak heap. Chest still locked. Dubious and Sky carefully bash the chest open. Dwarves can be such useful tools. I search the room while they work. Find expensive spell components. Spellbook. Black cloth around a spider mask. The female prisoner says she can make the portal work. Debate the wisdom of letting her. Jian ungags her while we talk. Decide to try it. Poof, new room.

Move out to look around. A bunch of little spiders are etched into the floor, forming a much larger spider. It is about seventy feet across. Several low, four foot, walls are around. Jian and Dubious find something. Big with teeth and claws. Sky and I check out the other corner of the room. A Drow cleric steps out by Sky and shouts “Intruders!”, before casting a Ring of Blades. She then casts a spell at me but I shrug it off. Two more Drow step out by the monster fight. The cleric shatters Sky’s long spear with a spell as he draws it. I keep shooting her. Meanwhile, Dubious has heroically smacked the monster twice, severely wounding it. It collapses and Dubious finishes it off. The other Drow are also soon down.

Oosana

XP - Kills: 800, Story: 200, RP: 200
Everyone gets 1 action point.

Loot:
Wand of Magic Missiles
Wand of Burning Hands
Mace, light +2 damage vs good
Cloak of Resistance +2
Cloak black and spider mask
Spell book of 8th level mage
Plate Mail, +1, built for elven female.
Ring ??

Out of Favor, Out of Town

Hear thru the rumor mill that the Cuthbertians moved Pell out of town. Mayor has hired mercenaries to supplement the town guard. They may be of questionable qualities. A few weeks have passed since we recovered the four wands. Jenya comes to our inn one night and reports they have communed with Snorri’s spirit and he wishes to stay dead. He wants his remains and gear returned to his family. Mountains well north from here. Jian and Leena doing research on a possible strength item. A merchant stays at our inn and reports that trade routes north being restored. Still dangerous for single travelers. He is a human Dervish. He is going to visit Cauldron before traveling north. He offers to escort us as far north as Port Tortuli. About a sixty day trip. We accept his offer. Take our mounts. During the trip, Aerrion trains with him in the way of the Dervishes. No incidents of note during the trip. We wind up in Manmerg, a free city. The next destination is Istavin. Debate barge vs overland. Stay in a small inn in Manmerg. I shop around and find a quality cross-bow for Elwin and a pair of scimitars for Aerrion. Decide to take the barges. A ten day rather boring trip. Once there, have to decide between the hill side or the wood side. Hill side has spotty wood supply for fires and populated by hill folk, knolls, giants etc. Wood side inhabited by wild elves and Sea Prince raiders. Vote for the hill side. Dropped in a small hamlet, Yeomanry, north of a marsh. Ride north. Spot a group across the river traveling south.

On the fifth day of riding, still going north. Open plain, river to right, light trees to left. I spot turned earth and leaves ahead. While checking it out, hear sounds of bows being drawn. Surprise attack. Ogres and Knolls. Kill them after a brief but vicious fight. Scout around. Think they may have seen us a day away. Heal up and resume traveling. Camp. Third watch, skittish horses. Gracie hears a rumbling noise behind her in camp. Two large zombie type monsters, resembling Umber Hulks. Much spell fire later, they are down. Piercing weapons mostly ineffective. Dubious and Aerrion cut into the remains looking for gems. Jian hears something large approaching. A giant something. Prepare and engage. A Hill Giant. A brief battle. Dubious grapples with it and against all odds, manages to knock in unconscious. We tie it up and once it wakes up, lead it toward Longspear, a nearby town. We don’t bother resting first. As we approach, a crowd develops. Townsfolk and city guards. Most are amazed. Wind up with parade following us as we enter town. Guards take custody of the giant and we are provided free food and lodging.

Oosana

XP: Kills - 1200, Story - 400. Dubious gets a 200 RP bonus.
Everyone get 1 action point and 1 reputation point

Loot:
12 50Au trade bars
4 golden topaz @ 100 each.