Journey North and the Erdestein Mission; Journey South with Erdestein

Game Session: 19-Sept-2020
Group: Luther, Narcan, Uvarum, Putz, Imlazor
 
Erdemon 12th to 19th Year 219 of Human Arrival
Leave Skodorak on the 12th, after loading up on supplies. Head north up the trail to Zhoran, a trip of eight to ten days to this dwarven mining city.
After 2 days of travel, group is attacked by bugbears trying to ambush the party. The 8 bugbears regret the attempt with their lives and we take their treasure. Group stops at a travel inn run by orc owner, had no idea what a bugbear is or were even around. Does mention that orc town of Gugor is having problem with a green dragon raiding locals there, but that was a month ago. Also, not much travel from the north which is not normal.
 
Erdemon 14th
A trading caravan of three carts in on the trail. Group makes some purchases. Luther buys two silver fore-arm bands for 12 silver pieces. That night, have chat with a "friendly" ogre who could speak common, was hunting and not having any luck, so we gave him some food. He went on his way.
 
Erdemon 15th
Reach Orc city of Gugor, about 1000 population. Orcs not very friendly, so Luther and Putz try to get some in archery contest. Orcs do not want to make any bets with Putz, but orc named Hunzog willing to challenge Luther. Luther wins the contest for 2 silver and parties with Hunzog afterwards. Luther gets very drunk, may have or likely have slept with a female orc per comments/smirks from Hunzog the next morning. Find out same story about Zhoran, trade has dropped off, no reason why.
 
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Game Session: 03-Oct-2020
Group: Luther, Uvarum, Putz, Imlazor, Kursk
 
Erdemon 16th
Continue to travel north from Gugor, around noon, attacked by goblins. Imlazor shows them by blasting out his first fireball. Luther yells, "You blasting ninny of fire thrower, yell when you going to blow something to smithereens." Check the bodies and all have green dragon scale as a symbol, one goblin is captured and says they are of the tribe Snorks and Fa-Uno, green dragon, is leader in cave by hide out. Group decides "Lets hunt some dragon", find the trail to the goblin hideout, get spotted by 2 goblins on watch but arrows and magic missiles get them. Charge main entrance to hideout. Big fight with goblins in main room, unfortunately Kursk, Putz and Imlazor encounter the green dragon Fa-Uno before rest of party wipes out goblins. Fight goes bad for us, as Kursk and Putz drop, so Imlazor cries out "parlay and truce" to the dragon. For us to leave and take our wounded, give up the plate mail and 20 silver from group booty. Flee back to the inn north of Gugor, takes two days(17th and 18th) to heal and recover for Kursk and Putz.
 
Nearly fully recovered, a party of orcs with wagons from Gugor come to the inn. They are leaders and guard for the Thane of Gugor's daughter, Wegra, who they are taking to Urog, another orc city, to meet Burag, son of the Thane of Urog, with intent to marry as an alliance. At dinner time, Wegra comes over to our group, causing some angst among the orc leaders. She asks about us being adventurers and what its like. She sees Kursk wearing an amulet and asks where he got it. Kursk said his human mother gave it to him but no other knowledge. Wegra says its a symbol of the Uruk, a "orc tribe of legend". Next day, the orc party splits off trail to Urog and we continue on trail to Zhoran.
 
Erdemon 21st(???)
A few days later on the trail, we see a lone figure trailing our group but keeping distance while matching our pace. Find out its Wegra, who now goes by Ferral. She was inspired by our adventure talk and made a plan to sneak away. She had her main lady attendant get a potion of change self and take her place. The lady attendant is willing to take Wegra's place as it is elevation of position. Ferral wants to see the world, different races and learn magic, as she is already a novice wizard but orc society suppresses such talent. She closely trailed the group in case of trouble but waited a few days so too far for us to take her back. We agree to let her come along.
 
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Game Session: 17-Oct-2020 < I missed session> summary is group made it to Zhoran with some minor encounters
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Game Session: 31-Oct-2020
Group: Luther, Uvarum, Kursk, Putz, Imlazor, Wurg (New player Dirck)
 
Erdemon 27 to Malecanthal 11 or 12, Year 219 of Human Arrival
Zhoran is fair sized dwarf mining city. Ask about local situation. North of city there are "no good guys". Lots of monsters and ogres and orcs.
Plan is to leave Ferral in Zhoran where she can safely learn some things. That night, somebody sees a late arrival come into town in middle of a rider, wearing plate mail with symbol of Vasha/Elbereth. Find he is a paladin named Sir Loric.
 
Erdemon 28th or "Erde Day"
After using the Erdestein divining rod, head north from Zhoran. Attacked by three "ghost" ogres, get blasted by two Imlazor fireballs.
 
Malecanthal 1st to 2nd
Rough travel as region very rugged terrain of canyons, steep valleys. On the 2nd, thought getting airborne might help detect the Erdestein. Uvarum goes bird from carrying rod. Rolls 27 but no detection.
 
Malecanthal 3rd to 7th
Bad weather grounds search. Move farther north and Uvarum tries again with no luck. He has to fly/hide as he sees a dragon in distance, he feels was trying to detect Uvarum. good weather 6th and 7th but no detection. travel north.
 
Malecanthal 8th to 10th
Uvarum gets a response from rod and moves in close and feels strong vibration where he spots 3-5 ogres next to a cave mound. Uvarum reports back and group marches closer to ogres hideout during the 9th. On tenth, Uvarum in bird form tries to get a better count on number of ogres. Guesses to be 20 to 30 total, most of them adult or near adult.
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Game Session: 14-Nov-2020
Group: Luther, Uvarum, Kursk, Putz, Imlazor, Wurg male human fighter (New player Dirck)
 
Malecanthal 11th
Plan to lure out a few ogres at a time as we set up on ridge overlooking ogre cave mound. Putz does a fake elk call and two ogres come out to hunt, cross over top of ridge and both killed. Ogre leader comes out waiting for two hunters, calls out five more ogres and head up ridge. Once in range, Imlazor blasts off two fireballs, wounding the ogres but not killing any. Arrow volleys drop two more and melee combat takes out remaining four. We put ogre leaders head on a lance on top of ridge. One ogre sees it, calls out to entrance where nine more come out. All ten charge up to the ridge. Big battle, group does well rolling and bad guys do not, except the ones on Uvarum's pet wolf, Noz-Drull, who nearly dies at -9 before Uvarum can save with a heal spell. Search the cave complex and with help of Erdestein rod, find a hidden entrance, too small for ogres. It leads down to more tunnels. As we search, come across some humanoids, called "Grabers" a dwarf like race who are good miners, followers of Erde and protectors of an Erdestein. They believe it also protects them. Imlazor leads the discussion to convince the female leader named Helmae to give the Erdestein to us, with key leverage point of someone(Luther??) showing the Graber leaders our Erde marks. They agree to give us this Erde stone of power to save others after Imlazor offers his Erde cloak, a gift that disguised him as an elf to protect his family, along with a carved Erde statue.
 
1000 silver pieces in treasure, magic ogre sword and magic armor. Gave sword to Wurg to use as 2-handed bastard sword.
Silver split with group in 22-Jan session.
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Game Session: 22-Jan-2022 (yes a long pause in the campaign)
Group: Luther, Uvarum, Kursk, Putz, Imlazor, Wurg, Narcan (male elf cleric), Cymbaline (female elf cleric), and
NPC Ferral (female orc, learning to be a wizard, formerly named Wegra but wants to be an adventurer instead).
 
Malecanthal 12th to 16th
This clan of Grabers ready to help us leave by another exit instead of ogre hideout. Imlazor and Uvarum help use magic to close off the secret entrance so not even little ogres could come down. Grabers heal party and we head back out to go south. Group safely made it to dwarf mining burg of Zhoran by noon 16th. Ferral is still there at the inn we left her at and she has learned all the spells in the spell book Imlazor gave her. Also, see a caravan come in of 4 wagons, attacked by bug bears, lost a couple of guards.
 
Imlazor decides that with giving up of his Erde elf disguise cloak, he will now go by his human name Dalaz. Believes it to be a sign of his transformation and recognition that he is a human mage and left the world see it. Sir Loric is still at Zhoran, been hanging out mostly at the temple. Group tries to get more info but nothing. Narcan and ??Uvarum visit the temple, Sir Loric chats with them and says he is traveling all over to spread the word of Vasha. He is planning to head to Kragmorton while Narcan says we are heading south if wish to join us. Meanwhile, Luther buys four more pounds of Gnomish Clover.
 
Malecanthal 17th to 19th
Sir Loric does not join group. Group heads south to Mobiz. Just north of orc town Mobiz, ambushed by 9 bugbears(Luther failed spot badly), after 2 rounds of fighting leader of bugbears demands we surrender and he would let us live. Kursk, after already killing two bugbears, charges the bugbear leader. Ferral shows off her spell casting. All the bugbears are wiped out. Party wants to track them to see if lair nearby, Luther does for a couple miles but loses trail. Head back to trail and head south. We march on thru Mobiz, Ferral hides herself in cloak so as not to be recognized, just in case.
 
On 19th, at a travel inn, get stories from orcs of less goblin raids. Group heads south, on the trail, Luther spots "something" just off the trail, some type of shimmer or shadow. Everyone's Mark of Erde on the arm, starts to itch, same feeling as in kobold camp when evil "odd big orcs" showed up. Narcan gets a detect evil but then the "shadow" moves away and is lost. Was this just a random coincidence or gaining possession of ErdeStein mark the group? Party continues and makes it to Sleeping Dragon Inn.
 
400XP for group
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Game Session: 05-Feb-2022
Group: Luther, Uvarum, Kursk, Dalaz nee Imlazor, Wurg, Narcan (male elf cleric), Cymbaline (female elf cleric), and
NPC Ferral (female orc, learning to be a wizard, formerly named Wegra but wants to be an adventurer instead).
 
Malecanthal 19th to 28th
At Sleeping Dragon Inn, evening of 19th at Sleeping Dragon Inn, orc innkeeper asks Uvarum for help. Small items and bits of food been missing but he is not sure what is doing it. Nozdrul finds tracks but Uvarum needs Luther to track and Luther determines it is kobolds. Get party together and track them for 2-3 hours, path becomes a group of 8-12 kobolds but going into swamp, so end tracking as tracks getting harder to see at night and in swamp water. Innkeeper gives out 20 silver for letting him know what it is stealing. This is a new thing that is happening. He also says goblins raids are down last month. Group wonders if related to wiping out most of the goblins helping Fa-Uno raiding.
 
Malecanthal 20th
Head south to next inn, Ferral is keeping out of sight since near her home clan village of Gugor and does not want to be discovered. What we do discover that night, Wurg(Dirck's hick low IQ human fighter) likes to talk about dragons, orc princesses, earth stones to the other human travelers. Fortunately, the other orc travelers are not interested either. Also late that night, a bunch of goblins sneak into the inn to raid but luckily we do have a single person on watch, Narcan, who raises the alarm and party wakes up and smashes the goblins, with Kursk and Wurg catching part of fireball from Dalaz casting at fleeing goblins. And for LEWT, get 200 silver and... a full set of plate mail the goblins had in a cart. (Just the way the dice roll, ugggg). Wurg wants to use it.
 
On 21st, bypass around Gugor to protect Ferral identity and with several safe days, reach Skodorak on 25th.
 
Ferral tries to help Kursk learn more about his "Uruk" amulet symbol, a tribe of legendary Orcs that even the elves respected them. Per the shaman who gave the amulet to Kursk, makes no sense that Kursk's human mother has it in possession and Uruk legend has them far to the north of even the dwarves of Kragmorton, maybe, possibly but they do not exist anymore. Kursk wants to go ASAP but Luther convinces to go after we save Erde.
 
Luther sets up meeting with Malinda, the thane of Skodorak's dragon mount, to sell the ogre leader +1 chain-mail we got from up north. After some minor haggling, settle on 1000 silver pieces. Also, everyone new to the group wanted to meet the dragon. Ferral asked Dalaz to help disguise her more and so he cast some skin "bleaching" spell, so she went from very dark brown to a more natural lighter tan. Ferral and Kursk ask if Malinda knows anything about Uruk's but she adds little to what. Again Wurg is a blabber mouth, has more brains below the belt than between the ears. So when Malinda asks of our adventures, he lets is known we have a "purdy Erdy power rock". And Dalaz being completely honest when questioned by Malinda, and tells mostly all that "Yes we have an Erdestein, Aginor asked us to get it. We got it up north in area where Balthamel lives." Dalaz does NOT say anything about the Orb of Haldor. We ask both the orc emissary with us and Malinda to secrecy about the Erdestein. Plan to head to Hudham the next day.
 
450xp
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Game Session: 19-Feb-2022
Group: Luther, Dalaz nee Imlazor, Uvarum, Kursk, Wurg, Narcan (male elf cleric), and
Ferral (NPC female orc, learning to be a wizard, formerly named Wegra but wants to be an adventurer instead).
 
Ulmomon 1st to 3rd
Leave Skodorak with weather improving to get to Hudham with Erdestien. Still rainy travel. On watch, party attacked by 5 Katun and a leader Urmech. These are the baddies who seem to be able to "shimmer" away from sight. Luther and Dalaz on watch as they attacked the camp. It became apparent they were after Dalaz in trying to take him alive. Some spells from Ferral and Uvarum helped Dalaz delay being abducted and the fighters able to rescue Dalaz. All five Katun were killed but the leader got away. Move camp in case of second attack but no issues.
 
Party makes it to Hudham late afternoon and quickly get a meeting with Auric so he can study the Erdestien as well as pass on information what he has learned about the Orb of Haldor. He states the Orb sucks life force from the user. Confirmed it does seem partially powered. Party rests and sets up watch on Auric's study/house.
 
Ulmomon
After a day of study, Auric says the Erdestien, with its earth power, could be used to power the Orb of Haldor but may drain the Erdestein in the process.
Ferral is introduced by Dalaz as a wanna-be magic user. She is thrilled that Hudham exists.
 
Treasure from Katun
1 MW javelin
3 gems 10, 50, 100 silver pieces.
 
400XP
 
400xp