Adventure Log - Second Venture Part 2

General Summary

Adventure Log - Second Venture Part 1

Session 11, 2024-10-27: Very bad dogs near the edge of the world

8-18 Latherion 7304
After defeating the specter, the party spent the night a short distance from the tower. In the morning Chok and Lorali still felt weak and clumsy from the specter's touch. While most of the party was making breakfast, Grog went out to hunt. On his way back he noticed someone hiding in some brush watching the party. It was a young woman named Sam from the Enclave who had gotten separated from the other two members of her foraging party when they scattered to avoid several orcs. She didn't have good wilderness skills (she was asked to join the party because she was good with a rapier and reasonably stealthy), was mistakenly headed away from the Enclave, and had only eaten a skunk during the past several days alone in the forest. She had never seen a skunk before and it sprayed her, but as she had no sense of taste or smell the spray did not affect her. So she was remarkably filthy, pungent, bloodied, hungry, and weary when she encountered the party. They gave her food and Chok healed her, and they gave her soap and she got somewhat cleaned up in a stream; she still stank, but not as badly. The party was interested in finding the orcs so Grog tracked her trail backwards for much of the day but did not find anything.
The next day, the party decided to proceed to the southeast, following one of the chevrons on the specter's tower. Sam had regained her nerve after getting food and sleep and clean(er), so she was willing to come along. Lorali and Chok also woke in good health, having healed from the specter's touch. After two mostly uneventful days of travel through the forest, mostly on a gentle downhill slope, the party came out on a mostly treeless hilly area and they saw a complete tower. When they reached it they found that it resembled the other towers, but from differences in the stonework it appeared to have been partly rebuilt a long time ago. Its stout wooden door was locked with a lock of fine and unusual workmanship that the party could not pick. But most of the party worked together to grapple the battlements with a rope and climb up (meanwhile, Firdri used Shape Earth to open a small hole in the wall of the tower and go inside).
The ground floor was a bit dusty and didn't contain anything except a simple stone altar with a bunch of dried flowers on it. Firdri found that the locked door could be opened from the inside using a latch. Stairs went up to the second floor, where there was a cistern containing plenty of stale but clean water, as well as a chest containing dried meat and biscuit, about enough for one person for a week. From the top of the tower (connected to the 2nd floor via stairs and a trapdoor), they were astonished to see endless water stretching away to the southeast. Directly south across the water was a large mountain; atop it, Chok could see with his spyglass several tall narrow structures that appeared to have something moving/spinning on top of them. The tower also had chevrons on it, one pointing NW toward the specter's tower, and another WNW, roughly in the direction of the mountain with a chunk missing (see session 7).
The next day most of the party journeyed down the hills a couple of miles southeastward to get to the water. It was a hot day and they were surprised to find that the water was salty, but it was cool and refreshing to stand in. However, the waves were large and nobody went swimming. Chok found some crabs in the water, much larger than the crayfish known in the Enclave waters, and brought some back. Firdri prepared them and they were tasty.
The party decided to stay at the tower for a while to see if anyone came by. They built a smoky fire atop the tower, and Firdri magicked several shining rocks and placed them around the outside of the tower's battlements to make a signal visible by night. But after 5 days with no visitors, the party headed south through the woods along the coast, toward the mountain with the strange structures on top. By early afternoon they came out onto a plains with grass about mid-thigh-high; the mountain was several miles distant, connected to the mainland by an isthmus. As they journeyed toward it Firdri felt an ebbing of magical power and realized they were in a low mana zone.
Soon after, the party was confronted by 4 wolves. Grog had never seen any so large and powerful; they weighed about 250 pounds and had strange glowing eyes that seemed to leave a short trail of light behind them as they moved. They gave a terrifying howl; Firdri fainted in fear and Sam was badly shaken, but the party was able to defend as the wolves sprang to attack. They pounced and grappled with their bite; Adonis was knocked down, Sam's right arm was broken, and Chok's left hand was seriously injured. As the party fought, they heard a loud cracking noise and the wolf atop Adonis fell dead. After a few more rounds of fighting another wolf fell dead with a loud crack. After the party severely wounded a third wolf, it fled with the other wolf that was still alive. Once they were gone two dwarves wearing clothing that mimicked the grassland came running and shouting. It sounded a lot like Dwarvish, but not the same as back home.

Session 12, 2024-11-24: Rescued...then imprisoned

18-19 Latherion 7304
The dwarven soldiers and the party could not understand each other, but the soldiers had the party drop all of their weapons. They were carrying strange wands about 3 feet long that looked like a narrow pipe with a wooden handle for bracing against the shoulder. They used something like a firework rocket to signal for 2 more dwarves to join them. The dwarves all had tattoos encircling their right eye, but one of the new dwarves had a larger tattoo and seemed to be the captain. They put together a stretcher to carry and had Adonis and Lorali carry Sam and Firdri on it (Sam was badly hurt but Firdri was feigning unconsciousness). They continued marching across the grassland toward the mountain. During the hike Firdri realized they'd transitioned from a low-mana zone to a no-mana zone. After a few miles they reached the gate into the mountain; a drawbridge was lowered to span a moat with much clattering. Adonis was terrified by the machinery but was forced across the bridge.
Once inside, they were taken into an extremely clean well-lit room with several dwarves dressed in white robes. Two dwarves were in the process of sawing the lower leg off of another dwarf while he screamed. The party was terrified but the other white-clad dwarves examined their wounds and carefully treated them. Sam's right arm especially was bandaged and immobilized. Chok healed some of the party when the dwarves weren't looking and was successful but it seemed unusually difficult. Meanwhile another dwarven healer was examining Firdri who tried to continue feigning unconsciousness. He put an acrid, irritating chemical under Firdri's nose which would have forced him to wake up, but Firdri cast an expensive spell, which failed due to the no-mana zone, but it fatigued Firdri enough to make him truly unconscious.
After a while the soldiers wanted to take the party elsewhere in the mountan, and they had a discussion with the healers. They started to leave without Firdri, who had awakened but was continuing to feign unconsciousness in hopes of escape. But he 'revived' when the rest of the party left and went with them.
The party and the soldiers went up a wide staircase with a high ceiling; there were open windows in the walls above that would be good for firing arrows at invaders, which reminded them of the passage up from the Great Gate to reenter the Enclave. They entered a large chamber with a pool in the center; in the middle of the pool was a fountain made of a large smoky crystal as big as a human. Runes were carved on almost every surface. Many dwarves in the chamber were moving back and forth, and some looked on in surprise. One reacted angrily to Lorali and managed to punch her before the soldiers sent him away.
The soldiers took the party down a hallway and around a few corners. Ceilings were about 6 feet high and there were dim lights on the wall (vision -3). They reached a room about 5x10 yards in size with several bunks about 5 feet long carved into the stone walls, and plenty of clean bedding and a water flush toilet and basin. A lever let water run out of the wall into a basin, and another lever made the lights go on and off. Adonis noticed that the lock on the door was similar to the lock at the repaired tower near the mountain. The soldiers locked them in but returned after a while with warm stew and biscuits for dinner. That night many slept badly due to noise from dwarves passing in the hallway outside; Sam didn't sleep at all.
The next morning (after warm porridge for breakfast) an elderly dwarven sage wearing spectacles was brought into the room by the guards. He wrote broken Common on some paper and seemed to understand what the party wrote in return. Adonis and Chok disagreed how much they should communicate about the Enclave and started fighting over who would respond in writing, so Lorali and Grog took over. The sage knew about humans and magic from old books but they hadn't ever seen any, and they didn't know about halflings. He initially thought they were escaped slaves of the orcs. Lorali asked to be set free (pointing to Adonis' and Chok's fight as an example of doing poorly in captivity) but the sage responded that it was for the Council to decide. He was interested to learn there were also dwarves in the Enclave. After a while the soldiers separated Chok and Adonis, taking Adonis to a separate room. When the sage left Lorali asked to be taken to Adonis' room, which was done.

Report Date

27 Oct 2024