Baric Dayspark
Baric Dayspark
Dayspark as a last name was given by the church. Baric's family name is Torvald. The Torvald's are an old family full of tradition, honor, and military virtue. They have long ties to the royal line and Baric is a royalist. The nobility exists by the grace of the gods.
The Torvald family has estates around the city of Fareen. Baric has a brother named Guy. Guy wanted to be an adventurer but was suddenly called into family service on the eve of his first adventure.
Baric grew up on stories of heroism and expects to live a life that will make him live forever in stories. Baric also knows that he has the literal backing of the gods. "The gods are with us!" is a good rallying cry.
Baric is aware of all the gods and does his best to respect at least all of the non-evil ones. Baric is proficient in the Religion skill and will, in the right circumstances, run rites for other (non-evil) gods (to the best of his ability). Baric would prefer to show respect for the dead. They should be buried when we are able and at least laid feet to the east to set them on the dawn's road.
Heroic and idealistic. Baric is a good looking young man. 6'4" and 220#. He wears chainmail and carries a shield with the Dawn Cat totem embossed. A mace hange from his belt and a crossbow hangs from his pack.
View Character Profile
Alignment
NG
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Black
Hair
Black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Tanned
Height
6'4"
Weight
220
Progress. I think?
Baric
We headed back to the rooms we first entered in this complex and set to looking for materials that would help us burn trolls. Some table tegs, bedding, and cooking oil gave us seven more torches. While searching the odd store room, we found a number of valuables (like silverware). And we got attacked by a taxidermy eagle. We took it down without too much trouble but it was creepy. I called on Mitra for help detecting magic and swept the area from the aviary to the tentacle monster pit. It turns out that a bag we picked up earlier is a magic item. There is also some residual contamination all over the place. Bedrooms, kitchen, observatory desk. Some other things also showed up. Like runes on the kitchen hearth and the telescope in the observatory.
We spiked a door and took a long rest. We checked on Ermanguard, making sure she was fed and has drunk water. She continued to not provide any information. She seems to accept that we can kill her but she makes no attempt to bargain for her life. I have to wonder if she is not right in the head. When we get to the end of this location, we are going to have to determine what to do with her. I hope Solomon can give us insight on what is going on here. Of course, it has been a long time since he and his party were captured…
I have a theory that whatever Embric and company are working on here, it has some nasty side effects. It makes stupid dwarves and trolls with frost breath weapons or tentacle faces.
In any case, we headed back out to continue searching this place. Back through the tunnels. We ran into some bell alarms. Nice to see that the locals are that smart. In any case, in the cave with the tentacle monster pit, we held a defensive line while a bunch of Murlend’s eyeless stalkers attempted to over run us. Our fear of troll breath weapons had us spread out. This helped because, sure enough, eventually there was a frost troll and his breath weapon only got three of us. I’m counting that as progress. We also were fairly coordinated in wiping out the eyeless mooks, taking down the troll, and then applying enough fire to burn the troll to ash. Still, I am concerned about our supply of fire. I have five remaining torches. I think Tuath has a few. After that, we have to rely on Murlend . This might be doable with a single troll where the rest of the party reserves for regeneration and keeps the Troll down. Still, this might take a long time if we count on Murlend to do all the required fire damage.
Oh, and just like a bunch of other journal entries, we are kinda beat up and low on spells. It is worth noting that we made zero progress in exploration since the last time I made a journal entry. I suppose I am hoping that we are wearing the opposition down.
Tuath reminded us that he is having blackouts. We are going to have to look into that. Unfortunately, that is beyond me. We will need help of some kind. Hmmm.
Trolls.
Baric
After the fight with the Cthulhu Troll, we retreated to the observatory to recover. Ermanguard was still there and unconscious. We rested but at the end of the long rest, a troll came up the stairs. This one had a frost breath weapon. It struck me that there was supposed to be a white dragon in the area. I am sure they did not mistake this guy for that. Anyway, we chopped him down and the dwarves drug him over and tossed him into the tentacle area. Sure enough, the tentacles showed up to grab him. Oh, and the air elemental showed back up. The troll avoided the tentacles, but provoked the air elemental to do a whirlwind attack which knocked Dash across the room. It also knocked out the troll. Murland whipped out a bunch of fire to kill that troll dead. Then we fought the air elemental a second time. This time we finished it off. (Last time it escaped with a few hit points.) We did a short rest and set to exploring.
Roughly a dozen humans were making a delivery from the elevator to the ice door of this complex. While we debated possible courses of action, they finished their work and left. Hopefully, we will deal with them at a later date.
We checked all the rooms we had been in so far and saw about what we might expect. The troll we fought in the observatory had been through but not much else. Off the room with the Cthulhu troll there were some caves. We searched out this new territory. In a larger cavern was a pit that just needed a ‘monsters here’ sign. We scoped out the surrounding space and had Murland poke the pit with a lit torch. Sure enough, the creepiest tentacle monsters you have ever heard of popped up and attacked. All red tentacles and mouths. If I could draw, I am sure everyone who saw would be disturbed. Other than them spitting a light bomb that blinded a couple of us, they were easy enough to kill. We pulled a little loot from their pit and went on to the next area.
We found a very large cave. It had a few statues around. And two trolls. Luckily, only one attacked while the other ran off. The one that attacked was another with the frost breath weapon. That really messed us up. Still, we took the thing down in short order and laid on the fire until it was ash. Our problem from this is that we are quickly running low on torches. I have two left. I think Dash has a couple. I think Tuath has 10. We did some fresh aid. It is, just like at the end of my previous entry, time for us to go rest and recover.
Embic's Hall. Round 1. (Fight!)
Baric
Yup. That donkey was missing. Best guess is that we left it at the base of the cliff. But, if you think forgetting a donkey is weird, it turns out that Ozzie was carrying around a 70 pound chest since we left that beast. That means that he climbed a 200 foot cliff carrying a 70 pound chest that he just kind of overlooked. That dwarf is a beast.
Anyway, having recently defeated some Owlbears, we hid the chest and scouted the area to make sure we remembered what we had seen a few minutes ago. Our options included a door in an ice cliff face and a couple windows. We checked out the door. Runes, no magic. Also no evident, workable, lock or other possible access.
The two windows were 20’ and 60’ up the cliff. Ozzie and Dash climbed up to the closer one. Then the rest of us did as well. We found ourselves in the oddest situation. In this room was a dwarf woman. Ozz tackled her and it was clear that she was a non-combatant. She might be a bird keeper as the room has cages. She had released a bunch of them and they did not seem like a threat either.
She was mostly uncooperative. Or possibly just stupid. In any case, we managed to learn that her name is Ermanguard and that this complex might belong to one Embric. Ermanguard ended up hog tied and knocked out. That this was the best solution we could come up with is a bit distressing. Still, you have to go with the information you have, and she is an uncooperative inhabitant of a place that is tied to Soloman and his missing party.
We started exploring. Up some stairs we found an observatory. It seems to have been unused for quite some time. Approaching the telescope produces spectral tentacles that grapple and an Air Elemental that has a bit of a nasty bashing attack. We won the fight at the cost of a bunch of blood loss. We caught our breath and searched. The desk had nothing worth our notice. We stashed Ermanguard up here (gagged) and continued the search.
We found a kitchen without a water supply. Soup was on. Tuath went to take it off the heat and caused a fire elemental to pop out of the fire. Again, we beat it at the cost of a bunch of blood loss. I was going through the healing spells.
The next rooms were storage and bedrooms. We did no significant searching. At the end of the hall, we found a larger room with a Cthulhu troll. Instead of the usual biting troll action, this guy has a squid like mouth. With that, he attempted to bite our heads. He succeeded in doing this to me and it stunned me for a fair while. We chopped the troll thing down but had to deal with the regeneration. Luckily, we are all up to speed on how to fight these things. Tuath’s big contribution was to run for flammable material. This led to the first down comforter attack in the history of the party. Oddly enough, we were all into this as sound tactics. Even if it did take us a few rounds to figure out how to light the thing in a room full of burning torches. Like the other fights here, this was a bloody one.
At this point, we are in the troll room, low on spells, moderate on hit points. We need at least a short rest, perhaps a long one.
Parking
Baric
Anyone remember where we parked the remaining pack animal? I'm sure we had one before we climbed up that cliff.
I might be needing a new line of work.
Baric
We finished up at Axeholm. We checked the last spaces and scanned for magic. The only interesting bit was the chest where Dash got his magic items. There was a tripod in the chest that has a light magic residue that had a slight mind altering effect. The chest is also nice in that it blocks Detect Magic (and has the cool Signet ring lock). In any case, we rested and worked our way out of Axeholm, leaving it locked up behind us.
We then followed the path of Murlend back down the mountain. We started by checking out the creatures he had killed. Humanoid. Eyeless. Claws. Not sure what they are. Tuath easily tracked them for several miles. The interesting bit was that Murlend had as many as seven of these things chase him up the mountain. When he started his flight, there were only two. Three more joined and then two more joined in chasing him.
At the point of Solomon’s last camp, Tuath found the path the attackers left left by and we followed it up another mountain valley. There are plenty of other creatures in the area, from orcs to Giants.
We came to the tree line near the end of the valley (which ended in steep box canyon). We could see a fissure that would be worth checking out but Tuath said the tracks continued along the edge of the forest. We followed them. We found and scouted a small camp/storage area. No one was home. There was a pile of armor. Murlend confirmed that it belonged to Solomon and party.
The one building was a storage shed for what looked like Shanaguindus Ale. Detect Magic showed the slightest traces spread around the area in creates and the like. Dash had to try the ale. He declared it good but he had a bad reaction to it. I asked Mitra to restore him (curing a disease or poison effect) but the results were not conclusive.
There are two paths out of this area. One is a well used wagon track. The other was a foot path. We followed that and a short distance later found that it lead to what seems to be the foot of an elevator apparatus. Whatever we are looking for is likely up the cliff from here.
We returned to the valley end. While the rest of the party hid at the tree line, Tuath scouted ahead. He spotted a couple moss covered large creatures at the same time they spotted him. He ran back to the party and the fight was on. There were lots of things that caused concern in this fight. Dash scored the first damage on a creature and it healed instantly. One of the creatures cast some kind of entangle spell. These things seem resistant to standard damage. It became clear they were regenerating. So, let’s call them trolls. That cast spells.
We took them down well enough. They did the same to us. Unfortunately, they regenerate and get back up. On the other hand, we are quickly running out of resources. We have put them both down multiple times. We did go to fire and that seems to be working. Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of fire weapons on hand. Murlend has a fire based attack cantrip. We have a small amount of oil and a few torches. We have so few hit points remaining that, with a little luck, one of these things could easily put three of us on the ground in a single set of attacks. Two rounds after that, this fight will be over.
One more thought. We did not take the time to bury the dwarves of Axeholm. Rescuing Solomon and his party are a higher priority. If we manage to do that, we will have to return to Axeholm for that sacred duty.
Progress in Axeholm.
Baric
I am barely seeing straight after being kicked around by undead dwarves when we hear an explosion. This is no little bang but something that shook the mountain. Still, given the bloodied condition of the party, we take a minute to ask Mitra for some immediate healing. We head upstairs where we can look out the arrow slots. It seems that there is an unconscious human is on the doorstep. He is in a bit of a crater. There seem to be a couple bodies of some kind a bit down the road. With a Healing Word, Mitra heals this human and we start to talk.
His name is Murlend and he is part of Solomon’s adventuring party. They were sent by Harbin Wester to do exactly what we are currently doing. Harbin had provided them with a map. This is greatly annoying in that Harbin provided us zero help in finding this place. It also seems that Solomon and the rest of that party (less Murlend) had been captured. (Harbin is working hard to kill these guys. But, come to think of it, this place nearly killed us just a few minutes ago.) Clearly, we will have to look into rescuing Solomon at our earliest opportunity. Murlend did not have a great description of the group that captured the rest of his party but there do seem to be a couple examples to check out on the road. Murlend is some kind of spell caster and his favorite spell seems to be something that causes explosions. He may not have the strongest grasp of the forces he is playing with. I sure hope he does not kill us by accident.
In any case, we brought Murlend in, healed up, discovered that Murlend’s explosion cracked some of the stone floors here, destroyed at least one wall, and managed to kill one of our pack animals. Tuath strung up the dead donkey as possible food. Post rest, we went back to exploring Axeholm.
As we go, we check chimneys. Murlend’s explosion destroyed the chimney that we had used for initial entry to Axeholm. We would like a new way to get in and out without opening the front door. Back in the temple of too many dwarven ghouls, we found that the well dressed dead guy had a signet ring. We find a bunch of other rooms like a barracks, a dining hall (with a shaft with handholds heading down), a smithy, a tool room. We get attacked by stirges but are able to beat them down without too much issue.
We head up a new set of stairs off the temple. We run into the scariest Elf spirit I have ever heard of. This apparition screams at us to get out of her house. It actually seemed like a reasonable suggestion at the time. In any case, we fought. And we [killed?] her. [Again?] I’m not perfectly clear on the proper words for killing spirits. You think I would know this. This fight took us into a new room. It looked like a fancy bedroom but there were signs of undead (meaning ghouls). There was also a clawed break into a chimney that would have been how all those ghouls got into the temple below. I wish we could have spoken enough with the scary elf spirit. Tuath later mentioned that she reminded him of someone. Dash nodded in a knowing way. In any case, I would have hoped that she could tell us what happened here. This place was abandoned but the Dwarves took many things with them so it was it was not a rout. Why did she call this place her house? Why an Elf? Did she turn the Dwarves into ghouls? Speak with Dead might be the trick here but it is beyond my abilities.
We continued our search. In another bedroom, we ran into another group of stirges. We stumbled onto a secret room which held a couple items that look super promising. A helm and a pair of gauntlets. We will have to study these further. I should add that as far as treasure goes, the fancy chest that uses a signet key for a lock seems quite valuable all by itself. Bonus if we find a buyer with an interest in dwarven history. This bedroom has a chimney with airflow. It is likely our new exit point.
We checked a couple more rooms before it was time to write down my notes. We have a couple places that we know to check out here. These are one set of stairs and the shaft down out of the main floor dining hall. Then I should do a sweep with Detect Magic to make sure we have not missed anything. Lastly, we will need to give proper burials to all the dwarves we have encountered here. Then it will be time to go see if we can find and rescue Solomon and crew.
While my mind wanders a bit, I have to wonder what any local dwarves would think of a group pf humans (meaning Harbin and the town of Phanlyn) taking Axeholm over. Hmmm.
(Out of character, when we started talking to Murlend, I was reminded of Monty Reed interrogating a character attempting to join us. Monty’s character was unstable. The discussion took place at the top of his lungs and ran a little like this: “WHAT’S YOUR NAME? … SHUT UP!”. The new PC spent the session tied up, hanging upside down. Probably not an optimal role playing session but I remember it 30+ years later.)
Undead in the Dwarf Fortress. Also, mostly losing a fight.
Baric
After the spider fight, we set to exploring the fortress. The first interesting thing we found was tunnels clawed out of the mountain. This came with an old stench. Tuath attempted to make sense of what little tracks he could find but there did not seem to be much to be learned (other than the tracks were odd: not boots or hooves). The second time we ran into these clawed out tunnels, we met their creators. We did not figure it out particularly fast but the inhabitants of this dwarf fortress (other than the spiders of unusual size) are dwarven ghouls. They fight with claws and bites and they are capable of doing a lot of damage in short order. This fight was against a handful of the ghouls. It was tough but we were never at significant risk.
Post-fight, we started talking about taking a rest. To do so, we had to bring in the pack animals. To do that, we had to figure out how to raise the portcullis. Before we got that done, we ran into three more ghouls. Luckily the terrain favored us and we took them out without issue. We did figure out how to raise the portcullis, brought in the beasts, and took a long rest in the most secure room we knew of. This just happened to be the room we first entered via the chimney.
After recovering, we set back to exploring. As a defensive structure, this place is amazing. Only a couple rooms in, we found ourselves in a temple. The smell of this room should have been a better clue but we did not pick up on it before the fight started. It seemed empty but a ghoul sprung out from behind a throne to attack Tuath. Then a few dropped out of a chimney and rushed Dash. And then more of them dropped out of the chimney and we were all engaged. In fact, we were well outnumbered. In short order, Dash was in bad shape. Then a series of attacks took me down. I do not think I had a chance to act from the first hit until I was unconscious. I was active in this fight for only two rounds. I really do need to find the cash to get better armor. Maybe I will stop making fun of Dash for all the damage he takes.
When I awoke (and you knew I was going to because I am writing a journal entry), I was told that Dash also went down but Ozzie and Tuath held the line. Given that they were both very torn up, it is clear that this was a very close fight. It is once again time to retreat back to the most defensible spot we can find and spend however long we need to get back to full health. The plus side of going down at the start of a fight is that I have most of my spell slots. The advantage of exploring an abandoned, ancient dwarf fortress is that there are few wandering monsters. We should be able to take as much time as we need before we continue.
While I was unconscious and dreaming, it came to me that I might be using the wrong attack cantrip against Ghouls. Toll the dead does great damage but the Ghouls seem to be very good at making their saves. Besides, it does necrotic damage. Against Undead. I am going to switch to Sacred Flame and burn them with Mitra’s radiance.
(Out of character: Dash needs to learn to use those Superiority dice. Check out this class guide: https://www.gameoutonline.com/dnd-5e-fighter-class-guide/)
Entering Axeholm. Fighting Spiders.
Baric
(Area map hexes are 25 miles wide this week. I think?)
Having located Axeholm, we immediately leave. We cross back to the other side of the valley and find a good spot to watch. We have some cover against the mountain and some trees to hide us. We also have a good view of Axeholm. We spend a couple days watching. We see that the area is active. There are bears, and Orc and Hobgoblin patrols. I even saw a Giant who was remarkably stealthy go by. Our watch convinced us that no one was obviously using Axeholm as a base.
On the second morning one of those Orc patrols was unlucky enough to run into our camp. Luckily we saw them coming and were ready. There were about 10 or so of them and we tore them apart in short order. It was nice to show how much more combat effective we have become. As we finished burying the bodies (under stones), a huge goat came up and Tuath made a new friend. We cleared out of the original camp and make a new camp a couple miles away. We spent another night without incident and headed to Axeholm in the morning.
At first we were stumped by how to get in. The obvious entrance was blocked by a portcullis that we were unable to move. Someone notices chimneys on the mountain side and we climbed up to investigate. The way was steeper and slicker than expected. Tuath took a pretty hard fall. After checking out the chimneys, Balderdash produced pitons and we anchored a rope and used a rope down a chimney for entrance. We found ourselves in an old guard room. Balderdash was finally able to acquire a shield as there was one hanging in this room. We found nothing else of value. There was only one door.
On heading out, we found a large room with spider webs. And then spiders. Very large ones. I was quickly hit with webs and restrained. I was still able to cast spells so I blessed the rest of the party and went to work with Spiritual Weapon and Toll the Dead. It was a messy fight with everyone getting webbed but we were victorious without too much challenge. Studying the room, we determined that we were above the main entrance. We could see how the portcullis and kill zone worked.
Saving miners and finding Axeholm.
Baric
(Area map hexes are 50 miles wide this week.)
Light on hit points and nearly dry on spells, we pushed the attack through the mines. Sure enough, we found more rat-men. Five of them. Given our low resources, it was a tough fight, but we pulled it out. On the whole, this was reckless. As we worked on licking our wounds and collecting arrows, some dwarven miners showed up. Turns out the miners had been holding out behind a barred door. Their previous overseer (Zalene) had been killed by the rat-men early on.
Talking to the miners, we determined that it was likely that we had cleared the mines. We rested. Then we did a tour of the mines to make sure they were as safe as such things get. We did get attacked by the world’s largest, tentacled, caterpillar but quickly killed it.
I tried to suggest that the miners seize the means of production, but they were not having it. It seems they value the Westor supply chain. We agreed to head back down to Phanlyn to see about installing DJ and collecting the reward. We did not get that far down the trail when we ran into another group that was on its way up to the Mountain’s Toe mine with DJ. They had not been warned about the rat-men’s invulnerability to standard weapons. If they had any less luck than us, they could have been wiped out. Harbin should really be held accountable for not sharing critical information. For that matter, DJ should have informed this group what they were about to run into. In any case, the leader of this other group was a cleric named Solomon. He and his crew seem like good folk. They offered to split the reward for installing DJ. We accepted. We headed back to the mines. The miners backed up our account of events. The miners were in the process of burning all the bodies of dead rat-men. I am good with that. As a side note, the mine has no guards. There are clearly orcs in the mountains. It is only a matter of time before everyone here pays the price of that.
Solomon will have Harbin save our cut for us for when we see him next. I consider that a bonus. My goal was to save the miners. We did that. We may have also saved Solomon and party. I feel exceptionally good about how this all turned out.
With that, we were free to go on to find and clear Axeholm. We spent a couple days rushing through the forest under the mountains before turning straight North. We follow all of our wilderness precautions (cold camp, watches, cover tracks). We have a couple of pack animals so that limits our effectiveness but we do what can be done. Along the way, we saw evidence of orcs but did not see any directly. We climbed the mountains for a couple of days. We saw a couple of the biggest fanged cats ever. They might have nearly been the size of manticores. We avoided them.
In the mountains, we see small groups of what we are taking to be hobgoblins. Two different sets of about a half dozen. Like the big cats, we hid and let them go by without provoking a fight. It took us another couple days to find Axeholm but, once we found it, there could be no doubt we were in the right place. Two 40’ high bastions, with arrow slots. 15’ wide entrance blocked by a portcullis. Looks like the first order of business with be figuring out how to get in.
Finally beating some Rat-Men
Baric
It seems that Tuath is having symptoms of an STD (Slime Transmitted Disease). I called on Mitra to heal him. If it really is a disease, or poison, he should be fine. We just have to wait to see if symptoms reappear.
Ozzie thinks he knows where Axehome is. He thinks he overheard something related from Dazelene. We swung by the Miner’s Exchange to talk with Halia (who really wanted all the details on orcs in the mountains) and she confirmed what Ozzie had. North Northwest into the Soneheart mountains. About 3 days travel. Between the Twin Sister’s peaks (which we are going to presume are two peaks that look alike). It is going to be a high vantage point. If we can find a trail, follow it. She offered an apprentice as a guide but we let that pass. We did buy shovels and rakes and implements of destruction. We stopped at the Lyonshield Coster and bought a couple pack animals and all the pack gear. Then we stopped at the smith, and arranged to have him silver dip 20 arrow heads and 2 clubs. I swung by in the morning to assist with Mitra’s guidance and the outcome was pretty good.
I ran a couple morning services. Using thaumaturgy seems to have been a bad idea in that the local farmers seemed more afraid than impressed. Perhaps I can convince Adabrah to put in a few good words with the townfolk for me. Toblin the innkeeper was rather unhelpful when I approached him but he was busy at the time.
We had a brief party chat to set direction and I swung the group over to taking another run at the Mountain’s Toe Mine. I fear there are miner’s enslaved there and, with silvered weapons in hand, would like to free them. It is mostly on the way to Axehome anyway. If the new weapons don’t work, we will flee and count it as a good try.
We did run our assault on the mine and the weapons did work. I think we killed 8 rat-men. I cast bless as we came in and I think it made a huge difference. While we have not cleared the place, we have broken in and are currently unopposed. Unfortunately, we are also bloody, tired, and very low on magic. I fear we are going to have to step back and rest before coming back tomorrow to finish this place. Somewhere in all this fighting, Balderdash seems to have picked up a rat-man infection. When we get a free moment, we will have to see what I can do about that.
Thinking further on that, Balderdash needs to take some notes from Ozzie. Ozzie stood in the middle of the fight, dodging shortswords and blocking bite attacks, for the longest time. Dash was behind Ozzie and seemed to get in the way of nearly every sword or bite that came his way. I can see that he is wearing chainmail but somehow it does not seem to be helping. Dash gets points for bravery but he was easy to follow around the caves. Just go from one blood puddle to the next.
(Start session with Preserve Life on Dash. Then the 10 minute rest. Then Short rest. Then long rest.)
Fighting the Rat-Men to a draw and making a new plan.
Baric
Having taken one of the Rat-men down, I called for the others to help and we charged back into the fight. Unfortunately, the rat-men were tougher than my first kill had led me to believe. We hung in the fight but I was the only really effective fighter on our side and they got a reserve rat-man to join them. All of our normal weapons caused wounds that healed as fast as we inflicted them. Tuath was able to ensnare a couple of them with magic vines. Ozzie was able to grapple but there was little value in that. Balderdash was able to drag one out into the sunlight. This made the rat-man transform into what looked like a human but did not kill him as we had hoped. That rat-man ran away and, given that we could do little to damage him, we let him go. As brave and tough as my team was, this was not a fight we could win. I managed to kill one and damage another but there were still four left and I was starting to have to focus on healing. We bailed out a second time. Luckily, they did not follow us out.
We licked our wounds, took a short rest, and marched through the night to get back to town. We were worried that the rat-men would catch us in the night when we could not escape them but we ran into no trouble on the march to Phanlin. We came in in the middle of the night and Toblin the Innkeeper was not too excited but set us up with rooms. (He also set us up with two rooms on an ongoing basis.)
About noon the next day, we went to see Harbin. He declared that the job was not done. I strongly disagree. The task was to deliver DJ to the mine. We did that. We made a strong run at clearing out the new owners of the mine. That was above and beyond any delivery. My only regret is that I think the rat-men have enslaved the miners. In any case, Harbin stiffed us for the job. He offered us 150GP to go back and clear the place and install DJ. I countered at 350GP plus expenses. Harbin declared it not worth that.
We took the job to go find Axehome off the job board (a second time) and went shopping. Ozzie thinks that silvered weapons will allow us to defeat the rat-men. We checked in at the Lyonshield Coster but Lynene Greywind has no such weapons. We checked in at the Miner’s Exchange. Halia is the proprietor. We traded stories. Halia is our best lead in that she said she would ask around and that we should check back with her in the morning. They have a pound of silver on hand if we want to buy it. We stopped in at the blacksmith. He was willing to experiment but is clearly not a weapon smith. At each location, we asked about Axehome. (We asked Toblin the innkeeper when it was first and option on the job board.) We quizzed DJ (Don Jon). He may be a competent manager, but he knew nothing of value for us. No one knew more than we did. We ran off to go see Adabrah. She was happy to see us but also knew nothing of Axehome (or rat-men). Tuath set up a standing deal to sleep here when the rest of the group is in town. I’m not a big fan of having a party member that far away but I get his preference to stay out of town.
In the morning, I do run my religious service. (OOC: I know I am mixing tenses, but we did not do much with this during actual play.) I start experimenting with the Thaumaturgy cantrip to see if I can draw an audience. I probably need to spend a few days in town just working on my connection to the villagers. I need to put out the word that, with notice, I can perform a number of ceremonies (that have clear benefits). Coming of Age and Wedding are the clearest use cases here in town. (Spells listed below.) My main point of the service is to spread the word that Mitra has sent me to help. I can cure wounds, disease, blindness (and other conditions), and provide guidance. I am not here to displace any other god. I should ask Toblin the Innkeeper for his help in reaching the town as an audience. He can clearly attest to Adabrah’s recovery once I stopped by.
If Halia at the Miner’s Exchange does not provide us with any leads on Axehome, I am at a loss. We have asked everyone we know in town for any information on Axehome and no one has more information than we do. Ozzie is somewhat familiar with the story of Axehome but not so much that he knows where it is. Dazelene and Norbus, the dwarves that Ozzie was working with at the slime temple, would likely be a good source of direction but I have no idea how to find them. Unless someone else has a new idea, I am thinking that it would take us five days to march to the city of Fareme. There, I can ask the church of Mitra, and my father, Lord Torvald. Given the resources of church and noble family, I expect we can find information on how to defeat rat-men (which we should do to save any enslaved miners), and details on the location of Axehome. It is five days march out, a day of research, and five days back but there is every reason to expect better results than wandering around lost in the mountains.
Thaumaturgy
TransmutationCantrip
CAST
At Will
Customize
Casting Time:
1 action
Range/Area:
30ft.
Components:
V
Duration:
1 minute
Source:
PHB, pg. 282
You manifest a minor wonder, a sign of supernatural power, within range. You create one of the following magical effects within range:
• Your voice booms up to three times as loud as normal for 1 minute.
• You cause flames to flicker, brighten, dim, or change color for 1 minute.
• You cause harmless tremors in the ground for 1 minute.
• You create an instantaneous sound that originates from a point of your choice within range, such as a rumble of thunder, the cry of a raven, or ominous whispers.
• You instantaneously cause an unlocked door or window to fly open or slam shut.
• You alter the appearance of your eyes for 1 minute.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its 1-minute effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.
Ceremony
PREPARE
1st LevelAbjuration
Casting Time:
1 hour + 10 minutes
Range/Area:
Touch
Components:
V, S, M(25 gp worth of powdered silver, which the spell consumes)
Duration:
Instantaneous
Source:
XGtE, pg. 151
You perform a special religious ceremony that is infused with magic. When you cast the spell, choose one of the following rites, the target of which must be within 10 feet of you throughout the casting.
Atonement. You touch one willing creature whose alignment has changed, and you make a DC 20 Wisdom (Insight) check. On a successful check, you restore the target to its original alignment.
Bless Water. You touch one vial of water and cause it to become holy water.
Coming of Age. You touch one humanoid who is a young adult. For the next 24 hours, whenever the target makes an ability check, it can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the ability check. A creature can benefit from this rite only once.
Dedication. You touch one humanoid who wishes to be dedicated to your god’s service. For the next 24 hours, whenever the target makes a saving throw, it can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the save. A creature can benefit from this rite only once.
Funeral Rite. You touch one corpse, and for the next 7 days, the target can’t become undead by any means short of a wish spell.
Wedding. You touch adult humanoids willing to be bonded together in marriage. For the next 7 days, each target gains a +2 bonus to AC while they are within 30 feet of each other. A creature can benefit from this rite again only if widowed.
PREPARE
Lesser Restoration
2nd LevelAbjuration
CAST
SPELL SLOT3
LEVEL2nd
Customize
Casting Time:
1 action
Range/Area:
Touch
Components:
V, S
Duration:
Instantaneous
Source:
PHB, pg. 255
You touch a creature and can end either one disease or one condition afflicting it. The condition can be blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.
Town, Umbrage Hill, Town, Trail, Orcs, Mine and Rat-Men
Baric
Back at Butterskull Ranch, we cleaned up after the fight. We bandaged wounds, caught our breath, and spoke a bit with Alphonse (or, Big Al if you asked him). We buried all the bodies which caused a fair amount of grumbling from my compatriots. The orcs went into a shallow, mass grave and the ranchers went into a much nicer set of plots. I said a few words over them.
With he Ranch so damaged, the workers dead, and the animals having run off, Big Al opted to come back to Phanlin with us. We had the three horses we had found on the way in and we picked up Bessie the cow so I suppose we were officially a cattle drive. We encountered no challenges on the sway back to town. Big Al did provide riding instructions to party members who needed that.
Back in town we handed Big Al over to Harbin Westor. We had to ask for payment and Harbin paid out 100 GP. He took Big Al into his house which is the first person we have seen enter or leave. Harbin makes a point of reminding us how important the Westor family is. I’m not really sure I heard of them before coming out to the frontier. They may run a number of businesses but that just makes them upjumped townies, not nobles. True nobles lead, then don’t hide and cower.
We then immediately heard that Adabrah Guinn’s place had been attacked by the dragon again so we did some minimal business and headed out immediately, arriving after dusk. Adabrah was fine. She had used the safe room that we had previously built. The dragon ate her farm animals. The tower did not attract too much wrath. A couple town militia kids (Bill and Ted) had come up to provide security. Adabrah was happy to see us and provided dinner, a place to crash for the night, and breakfast. As all was well, we headed back to Phanlyn.
We hit Harbin’s job board and there were two items of note. First was to deliver someone named Don Jon (DJ) Raskin to the Mountain’s Tow gold mine (100 GP). This was supposed to be 15 miles up into the mountains. The second was to go find, clear, evaluate, and possibly prep for use and old dwarven fortress called Axehome. This is somewhere up in the mountains and it is not perfectly clear how we find it. (250 GP). We collect both jobs. As we are going to do escort DJ to the mine first, Harbin puts the Axehome job back on the board. I collect it again as we leave.
We collect DJ at the inn and head out immediately. Tuath asks DJ about himself and we get a collection of stories about how competent and useful he is. He does not look like that much but I suppose we may see.
As we got a late start, we have to camp. At least we are all on the same page here. In the wilderness, we minimize our tracks. We do not make un-needed fires. We camp off any trail. We keep watches with party members (and allow non-party members to double up watches but never leave it to just them). On this particular night, Balderdash sees orcs passing by. He wakes us and we watch. Tuath does a bit of scouting but the orcs have missed us and are headed away. Tuath can not both close with them to get a good count and maintain his stealth so he let’s them go. We are careful with watches but finish our rest. In the morning, Tuath does some tracking and determines that there is a bit of an orc trail through here. Lat night’s band was about a dozen orcs. We make a note of it in case we want to come back to it later.
We head along our trail some more and see, off to the side, the remains of a fight. There are six orcs, all dead several days. These look like they had been flask frozen (and since thawed). There are signs of a larger fight and there are a total of 15 orc axes in the area. We have to take it that they fought the dragon and the dragon took a few to eat. We bury the bodies in a shallow grave. My team mates whine about the work but it is a religious duty and we get it done.
We continue along our train and do manage to find the Mountain’s Toe mine in the early afternoon. It even has a sign above the evident entrance. It seems that the mine might be under new management as, when we go to enter, we are waned off by some rat-men. DJ does not seem to know what to do with them and they are not willing to produce the current mine overseer until night fall. We back off for a short party conference. We consider our options and decide that the most likely case is that there are miners to be saved and that we will force our way in. If the rat-men do not yield, we will fight. We head back and give that ultimatum. They do not yield. Ozzie clearly thinks negotiations are over and is the first to swing.
The fight is odd. We hit well and hard but the rat-men shake off the wounds like they are nothing. They bleed almost not at all and their wounds heal in moments. I am using a new attack cantrip which does necrotic damage. This deals damage that seems to really hurt them and does not immediately heal. I add in a spiritual weapon that does force damage and this seems to also work to good effect. Given that blades and arrows are seeming to be ineffectual, we perform a strategic withdrawal. The rat-men do not follow us into the sunlight and I seemed to have killed one with the spiritual weapon on the way out.
We are 2 rounds into the spiritual weapon. We are either going to have to go right back in with the weapons that works (my spells), or leave the area and come back when we have a plan to deal with the rat-men. I think three rat-men are still in the cave. They are not that tough as I did not do great damage and still took one down. If we can hang in this fight for 4-5 rounds, I can beat them. If the dwarves and elf were to grapple to keep them off of me while I took them out…
If we retreat, we may have to go to the city of Fareen where I can consult with both my family and the church on humanoid rats, who wear clothes, use short swords, hand crossbows and bite in combat, and are seemingly immune to blades and arrows. If we do this, we can also research the location of Axehome.
Butterskull Ranch and the rescue of Alphonse Kalezorn
Baric
Back in Phanlyn, the first news we hear is that Adabrah Guinn was attacked in her tower home, by the rumored white dragon, nine days ago (back when we heard the screech on our way out of town). We head to the Inn and find that she is still damaged and recuperating slowly. She is being well taken care of but the town lacks proper divine support. I call for Mitra’s aid and he cures her wounds. She is clearly not used to such sudden aid and it takes her a while to accept that she is healed. I am going to have to work on my showmanship, if only so that people are faster to recognize divine intervention as it happens.
Adabrah comes down to the common room for dinner and ale. The townsfolk cheer her return. We trade stories of the past couple weeks. Her experience was that her windmill was attacked as she was waking up in the morning. She was partially buried but lucky enough not to be directly attacked. She did not see the attacking creature much but thought it was the dragon. We quiz the townsfolk but they have nothing to add on further dragon sightings. The party agrees to head back to her place in the morning and see what we can do to repair it.
I run into Lyanne of the Lyonshield Coster. She has my banner and I can pick it up in the morning. (Which I later did.)
In the morning, I do sunrise service. Tuath is kind enough to support me by attending. The townsfolk ignore me. I hope word of my healing Adabrah helps them come around.
We buy provisions. Tuath rents a cart. We head up to Umbrage Hill. The windmill has taken a lot of superficial damage but the dwarves pronounce the structure to be sound. We make a trip back to town to recruit help and spend two weeks repairing the structure and adding a panic room and escape tunnel.
At the end of two weeks, a messenger rides in from Phanlyn. He says that there has been an orc attack on Butterskull Ranch and that Harbin Westor would like us to rush over there and rescue anyone there that can be rescued. The owner of the ranch is one Alphonse Kalezorn. Alphonse is a retired sheriff and Harbin says that he (Alphonse) will have a reward for us if we save him. If he is dead, then we can bring Harbin proof and Harbin will pay us 100 GP for our efforts.
Tuath made mention of being a wanted criminal and asked that we call him by his last name around the retired sheriff. Hmmm. At some point we may have to look into that story and see what, if anything, needs to be done.
We set out immediately, leaving the last of the windmill construction project to the townsfolk. It is mostly painting and cleanup anyway. It takes us two days to reach the ranch. Along the way we pick up three horses with the BAK brand. Ozzie works up rope bridles as they have no bit, bridle, or saddle. We take the horses with us. We also pass a cow with the BAK brand but opt to let it be. Around 6 PM, we reach the ranch.
We can see pigs, dead orcs, and dead humans. The ranch has crops and an orchard. There is a standing, two story farmhouse and a barn and smithy that have been burned to the ground. We hear screaming from the farmhouse so we know we are heading for a fight. We make an approach, through the orchard, check out the burned barn, and run in to assault the farmhouse. The house is full of orcs. They outnumber us but our assault means that they have no time to organize. It is a tough fight and by the end, I am out of spells, everyone is bloody, but no one (on our side) has fallen. Balderdash has a mean left when using an axe. Ozzie raged the entire time. He is a sight to behold. [Out of character: Dave, are you getting the damage resistance for rage?] Tuath even got into Melee range and was kind enough to stab an orc or two that were bothering me.
We do a search of the building and find Alphonse tied up in the basement. Somehow he is still alive. At a glance, we are three for three on property owners being the sole survivors of attacks on their homes or business locations in the past few weeks. I should start a business operation.
I had been thinking that, while we were doing good works, we were also somewhat acting as errand boys for Harbin. I was thinking that we might need to look for bigger problems to solve that delivering warnings and supplies (even if there is always a crisis in these border lands). Now I think it is possible that the local orcs are on the move. If I am right, we have them and a significant dragon threat in the area. Harbin may not know it but Phanlyn is likely going to need a fair amount of saving in the near future. In a bit here, Alphonse will wake up and we will quiz him about recent events and anything he learned.
We have a lot of bodies to bury. It will be interesting to hear what Alphonse makes for plans given that the ranch population has been wiped out save for him. (Though, perhaps, there are hidden survivors. Many farm animals seemed to have escaped. It is possible some of the people did as well.)
On an only somewhat related note, I hope we score some significant cash soon. I could use better armor and I see that Balderdash could as well. I could also use ruby dust for Continual Flame. I wonder if the Lyonshield Coster can procure that for me?
The Logging Camp
Baric
The forest is mildly creepy. Tuath keeps us on track and does a wonderful job of finding a path that allows the cart to move. We are three days in when we hit the river. We turn North. Soon, we find the logging camp. The camp is clearly abandoned. We park the cart and give the place a look. There are a couple large groups of tents, a number of cabins that have been smashed, and one building still standing.
While checking out the first set of tents, a giant, 12 foot tall, praying mantis bursts from the ground. It’s big but still just a bug. I smack it with my mace. It returns the favor by grabbing me with its mandibles. I fight my way free. The dwarves beat the bug up, taking some damage, which I mitigate as we go.
While this goes on a second bug erupts from the ground. And then a third. I probably should have taken this fight more seriously and started by asking Mitra to bless us and asked him for a Spiritual Weapon. Instead, I play the role of healing battery. It is enough and we kill the bugs. We then opt to be careful, back out of the camp, and rest up before coming back in tomorrow. On the way out of camp, we see that there was a fight in this camp and it looks like the bugs ate the loggers.
The next day, we check out the rest of the camp. We even jump up and down in the middle of camp to see if we can get any more bugs to show up (in the theory that it would be better when we were ready for them). Lastly, we check out the standing building. It is a couple rooms. Sure enough, as we start checking it out, another bug climbs out of the floor. We have no problem killing it. In the second room, a back office, we find a sole survivor of the logging camp. It is none other than Tybor Westor. He has been hiding for three days attempting to not move. He is traumatized but unhurt.
Tybor recovers enough to start planning to reopen logging operations. We store the supplies we brought and secure the rest of the camp. While we get Tybor to sign for the supplies, he also opts to join us in returning to town. Tuath spends time mucking about in the guts of the bugs collecting trophies. I gather as much of the dead loggers as can be found and give them a proper burial on the edge of the camp.
The return trip is uneventful. Harbin is happy enough to see us. We collect payment (25GP per party member) and head for the inn.
Post fight and on to another delivery job.
Baric
Post fight. We caught our breaths. I called on Mitra for a touch of help and he healed most of my wounds. We looted the orc weapons and set to burying them in a cairn. We did it in the caves as the material was close at hand and we were concerned about more orcs showing up. While the rest of us worked on this task, Tuath went scouting.
Tuath found a war band of orcs up the mountain. 2 – 3 dozen of them with scouts/guards posted. He came back and let us know. This caused us to speed our efforts to clear out. Dazelene and Norbus opted to travel with us back to Phanlyn. We headed out on this two day trip, doing our best to cover out tracks.
We stopped by Adabra Gwynn’s windmill on Umbrage Hill on the way down. She was happy to see us and trade news. We spent the night, took care of a number of chores around the place, and were rewarded with a healing salve (which Dash took).
The following morning, we headed into Phanlyn. We looked up Harbin and presented Dazelene and Norbus as proof that we let them know of the ‘dragon threat’. He paid out. We told Harbin about the orcs. He was unimpressed.
Dazelene and Norbus, and Blithe all have other things to do and opt to take their leave of the party. Balderdash (now Dash to us), opts to join the group.
A look at the job board gave us our next task. One of the job board postings is to deliver a couple crates to a logging camp run by Tybor Westin who is a relation to Harbin. This looks to be four days out, four days back and pays 100GP. (The gnome quest is still there, looking a little faded by the sun.)
We went to the Lyonshield Coster and sold the orc weapons. I also ordered a banner of the Dawn Cat to hang on the town shrine when I am in town. I paid up front to pick up when back in town. We also picked up provisions.
In the morning, we stopped by Barthan’s Provisions. He had the crates, 2 wheel cart, and an Ox named Vincent. Directions are to head west to a river, follow the river north until we hit the logging camp. He had a paper describing the inventory. Food, Ale, Oil… The directions are to head west into Naerwinter wood until we hit a river. Head north until we hit camp. If we hit the mountains, or go more than five days, we have gone too far.
We head out. Just outside of town, I hear a faint nightmare screech. It is coming from the other side of town, in the distance. I call for the party to stop and listen. We do not hear it again.
We head out. No drama on the first day. We hit the forest. We run into a boar. We spook it and Tuath goes running off after it. This is how we lose people. Eventually, Tuath returns. We have a bit of a discussion about running off alone. He does note that this particular boar seemed oddly intelligent. We agreed not to attack the boar but rather to attempt to make friends with it if we could.
I had thought we were done here.
Baric
Just when I was sure that we had this ruin cleared out, a couple more oozes showed up and gave us one last fight. We then connected with Dazelene and Norbus to discuss closing this place up. While giving the place a look, we saw some strange thing on the floor of the main temple space. An orb shape with a crescent mark. At Tuath's suggestion, I called on Mitra and blasted this stain with radience. This seemed to damage it. Tuath took some damage but we failed to determine the cause. Creepy temple. We spent the rest of the day, and all of the next day, tearing down the altar, burying the corners that have secret doors with rocks, blocking up the hallway into the temple with morre rocks, and tearing down the statutes. Norbus and I prayed to our gods to clear the evil from the space. Tuath took the opportunity to avoid moving any rocks and instead went off to do arts and crafts (he made a few arrows).
We were spending one last night in the outer cave system when a late watch was interrupted by a dwarf running from orcs. Tuath did the critical job of waking everyone up. We formed a defensive pocket using a door. This did not work as well as I might have hoped in that the orcs had brought javelins (which they used to fair effect). Still, our formation was better than allowing them to swarm us as they were more dangerous with their great axes. The new dwarf (Who later announced himself as being Balderdash the Ambivalent) was very lucky to have found us because the orcs outnumbered us all and gave us a tough fight. Ozzie and Balderdash fought with me to hold the orcs back. The rangers ranged as far away from the fight as they could get. We won in the end but now we will need to bury the bodies and rest again before heading back to town.
As a group, we are going to have to work on tactics. If we have the room, a fighting retreat can be very effective. This would suit the rangers. Fire and move back. If we can stay ahead of attackers, we can have a perfect fight. On the other hand, given that we have a dwarf (perhaps now two) in the party, staying ahead of attackers will be challenging. The fighting retreat also does not work when one is in a cave with little room to flee. As noted before, our kill pocket, using the door as a choke point, worked well enough for this fight. I can not think of a better way to have handled this attack.
Clarity of our goal here and more ooze.
Baric
We started with a party meeting where we decided to go back to Dazelene and Norbus to clarify our roles. That discussion told us that they are on a mission from their god (Norbus is the zealot) and that their goal was to determine if this was an actively evil site. The Ooze indicates that it is. After some back and forth, they gave us a 300 GP gem to cover our expenses and we agreed to give the place a best effort cleaning out. We also picked up that this is a shrine to “The Nameless God”.
Heading back in we found the next secret door and fought a couple more oozes. I took a bit of damage but cleared most of it up with the assistance of my god. The second ooze was hiding in a secret area in a column. Opening this, we found a bunch of dwarven skulls and a coffer with 15 small gems.
Post fight we looked at resources and decided that the best plan was for me to heal Ozzie and call it a day. A spell and a short rest had everyone healthy but me out of spells. We headed back to the base camp, set up watches and spent the night.
In the morning it was crafting hour. The rangers scoured the woods for materials to do arts and crafts projects. Norbus, and then Dazelene, joined me in giving the dwarven skulls we had found a proper burial. We chose a spot with a fine morning view and buried them together. Norbus added some dwarven prayers to mine.
After lunch we were ready to go back to work. This place is based on secret doors but with good searching and Tuath showing surprising mechanical aptitude, we seem to be finding them and getting them open without having to bash them in. A few rooms in we once again encountered oozes. This time there were three of them. Two grey and one of a golden or brownish color that we had not seen before. Still all acid though. One difference, some of these guys could hit. Tuath took a bit of a beating. Mitra reached through me to heal him. Ozzie and Blithe (and Tuath) all delivered the offense and we finished the fight.
I used two Cure Wounds and have but one left. (I also have Preserve Live for 10.) At best we have one more encounter and I suspect we are back for the afternoon crafting session. Unless I miss my guess, this complex does not seem too big. We might have it cleared out in another trip unless we find significantly more doors or stairs.
When we have cleared the space, I should use Detect Magic to sweep the place to make sure we do not miss anything. We should destroy the statues and pull down the altar. We should sanctify the space as best we can and ask D&N to possibly cover it back up.
(We should short rest to get back the d4 HP.) (We should also do a refresher in the use of Hit Dice for recovery.) (Tactically, I should have used Preserve Life instead of Cure Wounds on Tuath. I could have done a guaranteed 10 points in one action.)
Setting Out
Baric
I have set out to find my place in the world. I joined some others for a simple caravan guard detail. We left the city of Fereen to deliver a small cargo to the town of Phandalen. Our delivery was from the bank of Westor to the Phandalen town master (one Harbin Westor). My fellow guards are, like me, setting out to make their marks upon the world. There is an elf named Tuath, a human named Blithe, and a human named Bill. The first two have obvious martial training. The third not so much. We bonded well enough on the trail. We had little difficulty finding the town master and making the delivery.
The trip itself was uneventful and the town we ended up in is quaint. We got rooms at the local inn. The inn master goes by the name of Toblin. With a little time to kill, we scoped out the town. There is a shrine to Tykee - Goddess of Luck and Good Fortune in the main square. There is a provision's shop (Barthan's), a branch of the Lyonshield Coster trading house (based in Fereen)(this location run by one Lynene Greywind), and a miner's exchange. Lynene Greywind spoke to us about orcs moving into the area and threatening the town. Tuath clearly does not like orcs.
As a bonus, this town has a number of tasks for which our group is possibly well suited. They should pay enough to keep us going and we can help the locals. There is rumor of a small white dragon in the area and it has the locals quite concerned.
Tasks on the job board include:
1. Warn the reclusive herbalist/midwife Attabruh Quinn about the white dragon and escort her back to town for her safety (25GP reward). Attabruh lives in a stone windmill. Head down the miner's trail and follow the signs. [As a group we opted to take on this task. We got a note from the town master (Harbin) to let he know we were on official town business. More on this below.]
2. Warn dwarven prospectors up in the mountains about the dragon (50gp). This is further away.
3. Visit Gnomengard. The rock gnomes are rumored to have tools to defeat the dragon. Mater Harbin Westor will pay 50 gp for any such tools we bring back.
We also picked up in conversation that there is a "Falcon Hunting Lodge" in Norwinter wood (a forest to the east and north). This lodge is the only safe place in its area.
in any case, we had a restful night and then headed out to see Attabrah Quinn. Finding her home was easy enough but there is a Manticore attacking the windmill.
The Manticore (or, Warning Attabrah Quinn)
Baric
Where was I? Ah, yes, we had arrived at the windmill of Attebrah Quinn only to find it under attack by a manticore. This huge monstrosity tore into the structure. We could hear a woman calling for help. As a group, we leapt into action. I blessed my compatriots to give them the power of Mitra and charged into battle. Blithe and Tuath fired their bows. A dwarf came in from the north, bravely joining the fight, charging and throwing javelins. The manticore turned on us, flinging spikes from his tail and flying at me in a counter-charge. A spike smashed into me and, I have to admit, I was briefly stunned. But we quickly turned the tide of battle and brought the brute down.
Attebrah helped me with my scratch. She seems quite nice in an independent way.
The dwarf joined us. He answers to Ozzie and has a soldier's training. I quickly recruited him into our band. (The elf Tuath seemed a touch uneasy. He may not be a strong judge of character.) Ozzie, like the rest of us, is setting out to make his mark upon the world and is thus a perfect match.
We gave Attebrah the note from Harbin Westor and told her the rumor of the dragon. She was unimpressed. She wrote us a note to return to Harbin but declined to come back to town with us. We did a basic repair on her broken tower door, stripped the manticore of valuable parts ( a wing, some spikes and some teeth, shared between the rangers), and dug a pit to bury the remains of the manticore (which seemed to us to be more intelligent than a simple beast). Then we returned to town.
Harbin Westor paid us for the task of warning Attebrah. We picked the next job on the board as the trip to warn the local prospector dwarves. Ozzie comes from there so we now have an in.
We headed to the inn where Toblin took excellent care of us. Rooms, food, beer, and rumors. He has again heard that there are orcs moving in the area in numbers that threaten the town.
I have taken over the shrine in the middle of town and started running sunrise services. The locals are a little stand-offish but they will come around. The first time a farm kid gets stepped on by a horse and needs actual healing will be the turning point. As Mitra grants me spells at dawn (indeed, as part of the service), I am happy to use any and all remaining slots right before the dawn service (and the new day's spells if the need is sufficient).
After a day of rest (including some shopping, I needed a shovel to be prepared to bury the dead), we are set to head out on our new task of warning the prospecting dwarves.
Meet the Dwarves
Baric
We head out to find the dwarven mining camp. Ozzie guides us and we get there is two days with no drama. It is afternoon as we find the canyon they are working. That is when we get the surprise. "Dwarven Mining Camp" is two dwarves named Dazelene and Norbus. (Dazelene is the social one, Norbus the reserved one.) It seems that they have found a ruined dwarven temple to an evil dwarven god.
I am in a tad over my head as there are not clear symbols but I think we are looking at Abbathor here. His symbol is a jeweled dagger pointing down and his main thing is greed and acquiring wealth by any means necessary. All we have to go on is the generic temple, ancient, blood covered altar, and a couple of leering dwarven statues.
It turns out that Dazelene and Norbus (and previously Ozzie) knew they had more than they could handle in that they had encountered Slithering Terrors that would attack them and then flee into cracks in the rubble. Thus, they had sent Ozzie off to get healing potions from Attabrah Quinn. It strikes me after the fact that these are expensive items and none of them had equipped Ozzie with a way to purchase such expensive items. Hmmm.
First I took care of business. I got Norbus to sign a note that they had been warned about the white dragon in the area. Then, as a party, we made plans. Dazelene and Norbus wanted help clearing the monsters from the temple. My party members immediately wanted to know how they were going to get paid. It is a clear reminder that my party is made up of mercenaries, including Ozzie who was into charging his prior compatriots as much as the rest of our party was. I argued that there was a clear need and that we should rise to the occasion. I think they may have worked a deal but they did opt to join me in exploring the temple. Deciding that now was a good a time as any, or perhaps that it was better to deal with local monsters before sleeping in the area, we entered the temple area. Tuath and Ozzie were evidently not concerned about light but I needed some so I lit a torch. That goes to show that I am getting the hang of this adventuring thing as I do have a cantrip to address this issue.
Soon after heading underground, we found a clear temple and those evil dwarven statues. Along the way we passed a broken secret door which clued us in to search for more. We found a couple and explored the passage ways they opened up. Sure enough we got attacked by grey amorphous blobs that attack with pseudo-pods and flee into cracks or under doors when wounded. They seem highly acidic and Ozzie's attacks quickly destroyed his sword. I have lent him my mace as I can smite the creatures with Mitra's radiance. So far we have fought three of these creatures. Ozzie has taken a little damage and (by Mitra's grace) I have given him some healing.
The dwarves had a fondness for secret doors. We are going to have to search in a methodical manner to find all these doors but the symmetry of the temple design may help us determine exactly where to search.
While I have my reservations about looting a temple, bringing down even an abandoned locus of evil is clearly a good thing. My party members seem to have no thought to the morality of our actions so it will be up to me to guide them.