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Sequoia and Marcus arrive at the keep later the same day. They had
finished their business in Specularum soon after the others left, and
caught a later caravan heading north. From Fort Denwarf they have been
escort north by a fat little dwarf named Angus. It is late enough in the
day, and the party decide to stay the night in the keep. The upper floor
seems like a safer bet, but the stairs are now gone. After watching the
others waste some time trying to bunt each other up, Angus takes a rope
and grappling hook out of his pack, swings it up, climbs up, and secures
the rope for everyone to climb up. The night passes uneventfully, and
Marcus and Bree, but not Rodion recover their spells. Having not seen
Marcus in a while, most people are without the 'armour' spell, and Marcus
recasts it on Rodion and Bree, the latter attempt fizzling.
Gruff is still continually going on about boars, and wants to head
north into the plains again for some reason or other. The party assemble
in the courtyard of the small keep. Someone notices an arrow sticking in
the wood of the catapult in the centre of the courtyard. It has a note
wrapped around it, written in two languages. The first is bad common, the
second presumed to be the language of the Khan warriors. The note says
that the castle is property of Khan Chagon'nah and that the party are to
leave. Planning to do so in any case, the group set out north towards the
plains so as that Gruff can do whatever it was that he wanted to do. After
heading vaguely north for most of the day, the party set camp for the
night.
Gruff seems to be up for most of the night, grunting and burning stuff on
the fire, but morning comes around eventually. Gruff says that he needs to
help the boars, that they are being displaced, and mistreated by the
Khanate warriors. He seems to want the party to embark upon a vendetta
against an entire Mongol horde. The party want to head back to Fort
Denwarf. The group head back to the keep, to spend the night in the safety
of its walls.
Everyone gets safely to the upper level, and in the morning Marcus casts
'armour' on those still without the protection of the spell. The spell
fails to work on Angus, but that's dwarves for you. Angus wanders to the
room where it is possible to climb down to ground level to set the rope so
as that everyone can climb down. He hears voices and movement down
below. Angus moves to an upper doorway overlooking the courtyard, and
Gruff, Marcus, Sequoia and Axeful climb and drop down to the lower
level. Angus can only see part of the courtyard from his vantage point in
the doorway, but it seems as though there are at least four or five
Khanate soldiers down there, some of them with shortbows. It is not clear
what Gruff and the others are doing down below, but it isn't figured to be
friendly. Angus pops several unaimed crossbow shots at the fighters in the
courtyard, and they reply with arrows fired towards the doorway he is
crouching in.
The firing back and forth stops, and Angus gets a look at what is
going on. Eight soldiers and an apparent leader are standing in the
courtyard. The leader is shouting in to one of the rooms down below,
presumably where the others are. Angus takes the opportunity to plug the
leader with a crossbow bolt (he wasn't to know the leader was offering the
others the opportunity to surrender and leave). He hits the leader for 6
points of damage. The 8 soldiers charge towards the doorway where Sequoia
and Marcus were talking to them. Angus remains upstairs, firing shots at
any of the warriors who come into his field of view, Rodion and Bree climb
down.
Sequoia and Marcus stand side by side in a double doorway. Two lines of
four soldiers stand in front of them, only room for the front four to
attack, and those at the sides somewhat awkwardly. Axeful and Gruff are in
the room behind them. Rodion and Bree are two rooms to one side, their
door onto the courtyard closed, and seemingly not noticed.
In the first round of attacks, Marcus is hit for a little, and
Sequoia strikes her opponent for the same. The fighting continues, Marcus
is again hit for a little damage, but both he and Sequoia strike their
opponents hard. Neither of them fall. Marcus is wondering if surrender is
still possible. Rodion opens the door leading onto the courtyard from the
room he and Bree are standing in. He pops one of the stones found in the
hole from its backing, and throws it at the group of 8 men. He misses, and
only serves to send four of them charging towards his door. Four of the
soldiers still fight Marcus and Sequoia, four more are running to the
single door Rodion is standing in.
Rodion throws one more of the stones into the path of the running
fighters. They're right on top of him as the stone flashes into a whoosh
of fire. Two of them go down straight away, the other two take a good
burning. Rodion is somewhat blackened too, but stays on his feet. At the
other doorway, Marcus is again hit, again for a small amount of damage,
but strikes his opponent back with more force. Sequoia misses both of her
attacks on her opponent.
The two burnt soldiers are still coming at Rodion, and he realises
at least one of them will get to attack, even if he backs off. Rodion
stands to cast 'colour spray'; knowing spells are usually quicker than
swords. He is correct, and renders both of them unconscious in a magical
flash of colour. Sequoia finally does away with her opponent, and Marcus
manages to back off without being hit, allowing Axeful to take his place
in the double doorway with Sequoia. What seems like suddenly, only three
of the enemy are left. They take to their heels. Axeful does away with one
of them as he turns and runs, and the leader and one of the unhurt bowmen
take off out of the keep. Axeful, Marcus and Sequoia pursue to the
entrance of the keep, and fire off a couple of shots as they flee into the
plains.
Sequoia hits the unhurt soldier twice at about medium range, but
he doesn't fall. Axeful manages to hit the leader with a heavy crossbow
bolt at long range, but he too keeps running. Rodion walks over and binds
the hands and feet of the two unconscious fighters before the dazzling
effect of the 'colour spray' wears off. Gruff tends to some of the
injured, and Angus climbs down from the upper level. Marcus tries talking
to the prisoners, but they don't understand. The party argue about whether
to kill them, set them free, just leave them there, or fire them out of
the catapult. Angus belts one of them unconscious. A total of 3 shortbows,
7 shortswords, and 4 sets of studded leather armour are salvaged from the
corpses of the fallen fighters. Bree casts 'detect magic' upon the bundle,
just in case, and reckons that the three shortbows are magical. The swords
are wrapped in a blanket, and Axeful straps them to his backpack, to be
sold when the party get back to Fort Denwarf. Naturally, the shortbows are
brought too, but the armour is left behind, after being broken, too bulky
and not worth enough to bother. In the end, the two prisoners aren't
catapulted. The bindings on their feet are untied, and they're left to
their own devices.
The rest of the day is spent heading south towards Fort Denwarf,
going slowly, so as that Gruff can collect the herbs he needs for healing
along the way. Four days later, after travelling at about half speed for
the journey (giving Gruff the opportunity to get the herbs he needs to
heal people) the party arrive back in Fort Denwarf. The group head with
Axeful to the dwarven Inn. Everyone is sitting and having a drink, just
putting their bags on the floor, when Marcus realises that some of his
stuff is missing. His spellbook and flute are gone. Marcus is
understandably upset, and asks Axeful does he know anything about
this. Axeful doesn't like the accusation, but denies it. Marcus
apologises, but Axeful goes off to drink at another table. Angus goes off
to see if he can find out anything, but a mostly dwarven town isn't really
the kind of place where anyone cares about spellbooks going missing.
The next day, the party discuss what to do next. Bree casts
'detect magic' upon the shortbows again, just to be sure, and they still
figure as magical. The shortswords are sold at the armourers, and the
party stay another night in Fort Denwarf, figuring to head to the city of
Stahl (about three days south) in the morning.
One day south passes, the only incident being Gruff displaying his
seemingly erratic ability to heal people. The next morning the party are
coming down out of the mountains towards a large lake in the plains. Three
wolves, about 5ft high in the shoulder, bound out of the undergrowth, and
attack the party, or more specifically, Gruff. Gruff is struck for minor
damage before the party have a chance to react.
One of the wolves attacks Angus, and misses. The other two attack
Gruff, one of them hitting for 7 points of damage, which Gruff is still
well able to take. Sequoia attacks the closest wolf with long and short
swords, narrowly hitting, and narrowly missing, but at least the party
know exactly how tough they are.
In the next round, Angus falls to a bite from one of the
wolves. Gruff is struck again, but Rodion manages to take one of the
wolves out of the fight, leaving it floundering in a patch of
'grease'. Bree casts 'burning hands' on one of the two standing wolves,
and Sequoia and Marcus hit for 3 and 6 respectively.
In the next round, one more of the wolves finds itself walking into the
patch of 'grease' as it tries to get to Gruff. Gruff is struck again by
the still standing wolf, and Sequoia and Marcus both deal out 8 points of
damage, killing one of the wolves.
Next round, Gruff is moving to get to the fallen Angus. Bree is moving to
get beside the wolf still in the 'grease'. Both of them wander into the
patch of 'grease' on the ground, despite knowing where it is, and Rodion
has to cancel the spell.
Gruff tries to tend to Angus, ignoring the attacking wolf. He
determines that Angus is merely unconscious, but Gruff is struck once
more. The party get it together. Marcus scores a critical hit on the now
grease free wolf, and 15 points of damage is enough to bring it
down. Sequoia and Gruff finish the remaining one between them in the next
two rounds.
Gruff still hasn't recovered his healing spells, and it will be a while
before Angus regains consciousness on his own in any case, so the group
stop to rest and meditate. About eight hours later both Gruff and Bree
have their spells back (the others having guarded), and Gruff tends to the
injured. The rest of the day passes.
That night, the party are woken by Sequoia on her guard turn. She says
that Gruff has had his throat bitten out by a wolf. It attacked Gruff, and
tried to drag him off, she gave chase, but then things seemed 'strange',
and she woke the rest of the party. Gruff is slumped on the ground nearby,
with a wolf sized bite in his throat. It is just before dawn, and just
about to get bright. It is decided to carry Gruff to Stahl to see what can
be done, but Angus realises that he can't actually figure which way is
which. Angus goes off to find the road off which the party camped, but
comes back after scouting 'round for about 2 hours, and says that
everywhere around here seems the same. It is still just getting
bright. The group search around the area some more, and manage to locate
the lake, which seems weird. The party decide to follow around the lake,
carrying Gruff. The party walk for a while, but the blood on Gruff's
wounds seems to be getting syrupy, and he's beginning to smell
(more). After another while walking, Gruff is really beginning to
reek. Out of curiosity, the party try to start a fire, but stuff doesn't
seem to burn too good, and somehow, the ground seems clean, or
artificial. It is still not quite bright. Walking continues for a time,
but Gruff is growing rancid, and Bree is vomiting. Gruff is left sitting
by a tree, and the group continue their walking around the lake. Rodion
takes out quill and paper, and begins counting up to a thousand paces, and
marking them off. The party walk on. Without really realising it, the
paper is full of marks. It still seems to be early morning, and nobody is
hungry. Walking around the lake doesn't seem to be getting the party
anywhere, so they head off away from it. Soon enough the group bump into
Gruff's corpse slumped by a tree. He seems to be getting browner, and
still smells. The party decide to sit and watch him decompose. Marcus
checks off the time composing stories in his head, but soon enough finds
that he's exhausted all the topics he can think of. In talking about
recent events, Gruff and the boar god that he follows are mentioned. Bit
by bit, it seems to get brighter. When dawn finally breaks, the party find
themselves snapping out of it. 'It' being sitting around Gruff, chanting
'boar' over and over.
Gruff, by all appearances is alive and well, and even says that his god
has granted him more powers. He does have a nasty scar on his throat
though. Gruff says that he'll need boar blood to perform his new powers,
but he never really has had a problem finding the creatures if they're
around.
The party continue on the their way to Stahl, and duly arrive the
next afternoon. Marcus upsets the guards a little, who extract a fee of
4gp for entering the city. The party head to the Axemeat Inn, having
stayed there with the dwarves when heading up with the caravan. Rooms are
paid for. Rodion, Bree and Gruff go off to see if they can locate anyone
who might be able to 'identify' the magical shortbows. In the market they
find a trader in bone and carved items. Rodion purchases a bone ring with
a blue gem that seems to have a kaleidoscope effect when looked
though. The trader is happy to help. He says that the party's best bet is
a man named Kaverna, who is the wizard about town. He gives the group
directions to the Wizard's Cloak Inn. Rodion remembers the spell component
that Cappu had said would be good to have picked up for him. The trader
does indeed have a yellow ox hoof, and he and Gruff talk while Bree and
Rodion go into the Inn. Kaverna isn't around, a more frequent patron
closer to the weekend. Rodion and Bree meet up with Gruff, who says that
the guy was asking 40gp for the ox hoof. Everyone returns to the Axemeat
Inn.
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