September 11th
A mostly uneventful day of travel along the Caravan Road north toward where they encountered the
Orc warband. They do, however, come across a strong high elven woman in glistening full plate armor and a grand kite shield on her back, leading a large guard of high elven soldiers opposite them along the Caraven Road. Accustomed to the
Greater Faydark, the party makes effective use of the large trees off the path to make safe camp. That evening,
Carlos recounts another tale of thievery and enemy-making.
September 12th
The next morning,
Ellie leads the party into the northern forest on the hunt for
Orcs. However, she is easily distracted and the tracks aren't that fresh, so the day is mostly unrewarding and they are no closer to their prey. The party doesn't seem particularly concerned as they spend the day bonding over being lost in the hot, humid forest.
September 13th
The next morning,
Ellie regains her focus and finds tracks of the
Orcs and something else. Something large and heavy. A few hours pass as the party carefully follows
Ellie through the forest to one of the large hills on the edge of the forest before Echo Canyon. At the foot of the hill, there is a large cave entrance. With some scouting by Barkimedes, they discover several elite
Orc warriors, an ogre, a couple dire wolves, and an
Orc caster within the cave. Fearlessly, they enter the cave and attack the
Orcs. A well placed fog cloud by
Yarver and the narrow cave passage ways mitigate most of the
Orcs' battle effectiveness, but actually slaying the battle hardened warband is a fairly grueling task. They are ultimately successful and grab some of the finer
Orcish leather to take back to
Linadian.
Roswyn finds herself a new fashion accessory in the form of a full-sized bear pelt.
September 14th - September 18th
After dealing with the
Orcs, they continue their quest for materials and set out on the search for spiders. They explore the northern part of
Greater Faydark for several days looking for signs of spiders, but they are less obvious than their last encounter. During their uneventful expedition,
Ellie shares a story of Barkimedes where he gets loose at a large city gathering with a buffet of food. One of the council members in attendence mistook Barkimede's tail for some sort of snake and the resulting shock surprised the entire hall. It's at this point that the party comes to the realization that Barkimedes is
Ellie's lifelong pet from
Luclin, not some magical creature that can be constantly resummoned.
Ellie shares that having a pet that is also a cat creates a very special bond; they don't see them as pets and more as friends as real as any other. Barkimedes is not a tool to be used, but a friend to be looked out for. The party collectively establish a stronger bond with the loveable feline and vow to make their best effort to protect
Ellie's childhood companion.
In a semi-related event,
Ellie's stories of Barkimedes awoke a longing for
Roswyn's own childhood animal companion: Rivervale Reed. In response,
Roswyn summons a celestial steed that takes the form of Reed the donkey. He is decidedly less enthusiastic than Barkimedes and is clearly a tool to be used but not abused.
September 19th
After several days, the party stops to set up camp as they always do.
Yarver casts his daily spell to sense if there are any phase spiders around, and actually senses one just under 5 miles away. The party decides to press on in the dark with lanterns lighting the way. As they arrive at the spot
Yarver sensed, the weight of all of them spring a trap set by the spiders (or a collapse due to lack of structural integrity) and they all plummet 20 feet into the heart of a spider nest. They are unsurprisingly ambushed by its inhabitants, and after some combat, decide that perhaps it's too dangerous to continue. After harvesting a large amount of phase spider silk,
Ellie and Barkimedes ascend the webbed walls and lower down rope for the others, and they make their escape before more spiders show up.
