DnD Journal on Voltaicforge

The Empty Village

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Tirdas, 14th Second Seed

Just arrived at Nightstone. Been 3 days since I left Waterdeep with a bunch of ragtag ‘adventures’ that had been milling around Waterdeep that seem to be heading the same way. Joined a caravan as protection heading that way, some extra swords on the trip doesn’t hurt and I could sure use the extra coin. My order wants this relic delivered to the church in Nightstone, just a milkrun, but expected of my current junior role in the order. Nightstone is deserted! The village is a mess, looks like its been under siege by catapult for days, except for the giant tracks and the boulders aren’t machined. Killed some wargs and goblins on the way in. Gnome noticed something big is missing from the town square. A sweep of the houses has turned up very little except for a rather uncooperative woman, ‘Kella’. From what others in the group can piece together, she is part of the mercenary group Zhentarim, she’s packing a snake up her sleeve that’s apparently their symbol. She lied through her teeth and tried to run. We managed to box her in and cut her down when she continued to be unhelpful. She’s ended up in rope while we figure out what to do with her. Hasn’t helped her co-operation, the only thing we can get out of her is she has friends from her group on their way, four to six merc’s led by a ‘Xolkain’.

Thankfully I had the presence of mind to close up the drawbridge before we set off again to clear the southern part of the village. Gnome sent her owl up to keep an eye on the road. When we spotted some goblins goofing around with pumpkins on their heads unaware of us the others led the way as they move quieter. It was a trap by goblin standards I guess, though, but by the time I got to the fight however it was a waste, though - half the ambushing goblins were asleep and the rest were dead. Brains and pumpkin everywhere - I’ll have to ask the Ranger the story behind THAT longbow shot later. We’ve managed to get across to the keep that was sans bridge with some goods we ‘borrowed’ from the general store. Guards are telling us Lady Velrosa Nandar is dead, killed by one of the boulders dropped from a floating magical castle. Floating sarding magical castle! The same castle stole a monolith from the town centre. Couldn’t smell any moonshine on his breath, so he’s either a damn simpleton or telling the truth. Elves seem cut up about the fair lady.

Interrogated the goblins, apparently, the villagers have fled north to a set of caves there. Secret entrance that requires climbing, might be worth checking out. Rogue seemed a little too happy to slit their throats - I’ll need to keep an eye on that one. Cheif Hark runs the goblin.. what do you call a bunch of goblins? A murder? Along with the murder of goblins, he has Nog and Thog, two sarding orgres. Looking forward to cutting down some of the evil bastards. Bloody Nora! This trips gotten a whole lot more interesting for a milkrun.

We’ve decided to not take the risk of letting Kella go free so we’ve found her a ‘comfortable’ cell (isto es cellar) to keep her in until we return. When we get the villagers back we can either turn her over or let her free. Bedded down for the night to rest up before heading out.

Middas, 15th Second Seed

Feel stronger this morning somehow. I think the training Renald has been giving me on the religious magics has finally taken some hold. I’m starting to get the hand of this shield - I feel like I’ve gotten dexterous enough with it to be able to deflect more than just blows to my body. Worried that an Orge could snap some of my fellow ‘adventures’ in two with an errant step, let along a full blooded swing. I will need to keep an eye out for them and myself before the day’s through. I won’t be able to do it myself, so I should be thankful that I will have them along I guess.

Found 7 horseman at the gate this morning. Lead by Xolkain, saying they were mere ‘adventurers’. Sure. That’s who Kella said would be leading them, at least that checks out. Managed to convince them that Kella would be in the cave with the villagers - the ranger seems to think he’s pining hard for Kella. Not thrilled at lying about it but it’s too late to release her and we may need them to rescue the villagers, and we can leverage that lust. We organised a pincer attack with them leading the charge through the front and we took the way around the side. We’ve stumbled across the Goblin Hark in the cave almost immediately, with some of his goblin murder eating what I think was a human not that long prior. Most of the group made short work of the rats and goblins with It whilst I guarded their flank. The damn gnome tried to hide behind me during the combat - but when the Goblin chief rushed me she decided that the safest place would be clinging to my leg shooting off fire bolts left, right, and center screaming and cursing like a banshee, whilst I ate blow after blow from Hark. Not sure how I managed to keep my balance between the two, but we managed to put him down and move onto Nog and Thog whilst the druid went to investigate a door locked, from the sounds if it there was a townsfolk that might have been alive.

We arrived late to the fight and found that the ogres in a large, dark cavern, only lit up sporadically by the horseman’s torches. It stank and I could hear the whizzing of short bows from Lathander only knows where. The ogres roared loud enough to shake stalactites from the ceiling! They had managed to take out most of the horsemen before we even got there, wielding huge trees like they were clubs. We knocked off some archer sentries and I moved into face the ogre that was the most wounded, the one facing Xolkain. I haven’t seen one of the ruddy animals up this close since the wars, and I shan’t want to again! Rogue joined me after some failed acrobatics that would amuse me - if it wasn’t in the middle of a fight that could easily end any of us. The ogre turned to face me - I deflected enough of the sarding blow on the edge of the shield for my armor to deflect the rest but only barely. I’m certain that would have ended me then and there if I took it full on.

I barely managed to recover my footing before its next blow fell to cleave the rogues head clean off its shoulders - I don’t even recall getting my shield up to block the blow but I did and managed to deflect it. I’m not even sure if I meant to do it but I managed to call up the power of Searing Smite into my blade - the Ogre looked as surprised as I did when my flaming green blade bit into its hide and set it on fire. Between that and my shield work Renald will be proud to hear that his lessons and patience are actually worth it. The ranger joined us in what turned into a free for all on the Ogre. I can’t believe the damage it took, the Rogue got some perfectly executed blows on it and it barely even flinched, despite being on fire for most of the fight. The dancing flames gave the cavern an eerie, moving wave of light and dark to the cave that gave the fight a surreal quality.

I managed to put the ogre down with a fair longsword blow to the next, damn thing smelt like cow piss and burnt hide. By the time I got my blade out of it the fight had moved to the second ogre, which had a damn good go at rending the rogue’s body in two before he did some lighting fast acrobatic and a battle cry to end the second ogre. My shield will need some panel work before this is done. I will need to ask him the religious significance of ‘Today is a good day to die’, haven’t heard that on the field before. Considering how many fatal blows I blocked for him, I’m certain he’s not sure how close that statement was to truth.

Xolkain was furious! I had hoped to get back to the village before confronting him, but we had to do it then and there. We knew who they were and why they were there, and we had his girl. He was in no condition to disagree when I gave him the ultimatum - help us take the villagers back and shows us he could do good, and we would give him the girl back and let them go unharmed. The rogue found the villagers in an adjacent cave - and was promptly set upon by a horde of bats when he loudly proclaimed they everyone was saved. I was wrong about the rogue - I don’t think I need to worry about that one.

We barely caught our breath before the next wave hit, a returning hunting party of wargs and goblins. The rogue ran off by himself to face the new threat and was only protected by the gnome’s quick thinking of making the goblins think an imaginary boulder dropped on him. Rudding things actually fell for it, and even the warg looked confused - until the rogue broke his concealment by, either heroically or stupidly, cutting down a goblin. I called on Xolkain to assist; which he begrudgingly did as I watched the pack fell on the rogue and cut him down. The gnome got to him first to help him drink his healing potion but I’m not sure how long he would have lasted without it. We managed to take the rest of them out as a group before moving on to check out the rest of the caverns. 30 seconds after disappearing down a passageway entrance the rogue reappeared screaming and flailing his arms, with the gnome wizard lamely in tow. The tunnel lit up as she got a bolt off on something, but before she got clear a sarding tar-like ooze engulfed her, despite all I did to attract its attention.

The gnomes clothes were burnt away as the rest of the group wailed at range on this thing. I was hesitant to engage in melee but considering the gnome’s situation I couldn’t stand by, a move I immediately regretted when my longsword blow merely cut it in two. Thankfully the rest of the group and Xolkain took them down without further issue.

We rescued the rest of the townsfolk from their captivity and returned to the village uneventfully. Upon returning we honoured the agreement with Xolkain to return Kella, in exchange for his assistance. I made it clear to him the town was under my protection and ensured he left immediately with what was left of his group.

After helping out around the town and returning the items that we looted from the village. I must say I’m surprised and grateful to the party that they were willing to do what was right, but I’m eager to leave to return to the order in Waterdeep on the ‘morrow. I returned the relic to the church and thus my business in Waterdeep is done. We will rest up now the village is safe and under the town’s guards control.

Turdas, 16th Second Seed

Lathander came to me in a dream last night. It is minutes before down and the sunlight is starting to creep over the horizon. He is standing on a hill edge overlooking a valley, and I’m compelled to join him, to look at the scene below he is studying. He does not acknowledge my presence. Below in the misty valley just now being light by sunlight a stamped of people are streaming down the valley. They are running, tripping, falling, scrambling over one another. What are they running from? I can’t see from here the source of their fear. The sunlight breaks ovfer the horizon, washing over the valley below, getting brighter and brighter. I shield my eyes from the light as it washes out my vision. I wake to a hard floor in the guards’ barracks.

Morak does good porridge! The others shared a bowl with me before they wandered off to check out the Notary. I couldn’t tear myself away from the Inn until mid-morning, however. Found them much later with a sarding winged cat. Not entirely sure what’s gone down here, the place is a mess and these guys seem to be rummaging through paperwork with the gnome furiously copying what she can down. From what I gathered, John.. communed.. with the cat thing. It told them the giants were headed for a town north of here, Goldenfields. Apparently, the son of its late owner is there too. I’ve heard of it, believe I’ve been in the area heading into Waterdeep in the past. It’s a large farming community which supplies a large portion of the food in the south, including Waterdeep. Apparently, the giants left in that direction a few ruddy days ago! I left them to it and followed along with the druid John to meet with what’s left of the royal family here. With the death of Lady Velrosa, it seems the power now rests with Willhem, a 4-year-old child. Just one reason why Monarchy simply doesn’t work.

The elves seem to have been brokering a deal with the village and are expecting an envoy later on in the day to discuss terms. The elves have a problem with the way the humans are living, logging, hunting etc. The rudding child even convinced us to stay by offering horses to us to speed up our return travels, but only if we stayed and helped. Cunning blasted little rat - he’ll probably go far as a leader of the village. I’d like to be leaving as soon as possible to get a warning to Goldenfields but waiting for the horses will make the trip much faster.

John and a few of us brainstormed a few ideas to see if we could hammer out a diplomatic solution that wouldn’t kill the village with being unable to hunt. We spend the afternoon training the child on some basics of how to deal with elves and then split up to try and get the town into some sort of shape to accept an envoy. They arrived late in the day and thankfully the formal dinner went well. With some negotiating on the heir’s behalf and suggesting the child has an elven advisor for his tutelage, it seems we’ve managed to help them find an accord that will allow the town to continue being able to live and make some money, whilst keeping within the elves beliefs.

Thankfully we were able to slip away fairly quickly shortly afterwards, but not before getting the promised horses. Well set out immediately for Waterdeep and ride through the night.

The Defence of Goldenfields

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Fredas, 17th Second Seed

Writing this before setting off again immediately for Goldenfields. We’ve ridden our mounts hard through the night to Waterdeep with no interruptions. Headed straight to the spires of the morning to try and get a message sent to the town in advance. Renald was tremendous assistance of course and got the priests helped us send a message to the town in advance but the abbot at Goldenfields refuse to evacuate the town! The best we can get was a warning. We’re too exhausted to press on, so we’ve hunkered down for the night before setting out at first light.

Loredas, 18th Second Seed

We’ve gotten in a full day of riding but despite my urging to ride on, the group don’t want to arrive exhausted. It’s a reasonable concern but I can’t help but think well be too late, with the head start the giants have on us. We camped in a somewhat secure location and Lilli has cast a magical trap that will alert us if something closes in. I’ll settle in for a quick nap before taking the second watch.

Sundas, 19th Second Seed

We did well to survive today’s ambush. I was awoken not much longer after my shift, thankfully the rouge, Luke spotted the party of ogres, bugbears and goblins that were fast approaching our camp. I’m concerned about how they found us so easily and if they were a mere scouting party but there’s no time to worry about that now.

The group was split up and disorganised due to being out of position to defend against the likes of ogres. The druid, John showed us just how much of a grasp of nature he had by trying to use roots to keep the ogres in place, but they smashed apart them in fairly short order. Sancho the ranger, John and others all took knock down blows in the fight but we managed to keep everyone alive long enough.

We planned to press on today but we are far to exhausted to continue. We have some in the party that are seriously wounded so Sparky and I tend to the wounded. We will have to lose a day to rest up.

Morndas, 20th Second Seed

Lathander calls upon me again this night. This time we sit on a branch of a tree, overlooking the valley that is rife with people feeling, a stamped, hundreds, thousands. They stream from nearby mines and open field. From this vantage point, I can see shield dwarves and humans alike fleeing. I see now they are fleeing a mounted figure, in a grey-black robe. I can’t make out the detail clearly from here. I’m oath-bound to protect these people. Lathander silently offers me a shield from his left hand or a sword from his right.
The shield holds symbolism I recognise as Murdane, lesser deity and lover of Helm. The sword holds the blue-green wave opposing waves symbolising the Bitch Queen, Umberlee. I chose the sword. This is my choice. I pause momentarily, judging the task before me, kneel and swear to Lathander my Oath of Vengeance. I set off sword in hand in pursuit of the robed figure as the morning sunlight washes over everything.

The sunlight through the tent wakes me. We set off for Goldenfields as soon as we have broken fast, and ensure everyone is able to travel.

We reach the towering walls late in the afternoon. The guard conducts a quick search and allows us through unmolested. There isn’t much concern about out warning from the guards. But others have. A lady, Zi, has taken exception to the preparation and is loudly arguing with the Captain Strog, we learn later is the captain of the guard. Lilli talks to her as we proceed into town and finds out some of her ideas on how the town could be better prepared. She keeps her eyes downcast and her eyes evasive as she appears to believe her gender does not grant her status, but she clearly has fire in her soul. Giants have attacked recently but it sounds like a probing attack, and it has been ignored. It helps us see the weakness of the guard - they believe their mighty walls will keep them safe. We need to convince Strog the defenses need work but considering his mood, I’m not inclined to argue with a hot-headed orc when he’s in such a foul mood.

Upon the way, we met Lifferlas, a talking tree. Talking sarding tree, of course, why not. Good thing I was at the rear of the party, so the expression of shock my face wasn’t noticed. Lifferlas is a tree many hundreds of years old, the protector of the village. He tells the children a story and we listen for a while, how can we not.

We head to the Northfurrows end Inn to break the news to the innkeeper Meros, that his mother has passed in the attack on Nightstone. He is rightly devastated, but happy to have Rillex returned to him. Lilli was unhappy to lose her pet, but by nightfall, she had turned her familiar into her tressum friend.

On the way out we met Naxene, a mage in the Order of Magus and Protectors. She is in town as a hireling of sorts and is scrying for the castle the giants are arriving in. Nobody has had any luck finding the castle but she is unfamiliar with the object, so we lend her a copy of Rillex’s owner’s diaries to help her become unfamiliar with Nightstones obelisk that was stolen, in the hopes it helps her with her spellweaving.

We have found out that Abbot Daravikof has Strogs ear, so we have decided that he is the best bet to bend Strog into being more serious about the threat. The town here worships Chauntea, sometimes lover of Lathander and the grain goddess. They may as well be a part of my order.

The Abbot was most concerned and was happy to listen to our advice on improvements to the town’s defence. Whilst he did not want to cause panic amongst the populace, we insisted we round up the villagers at a general meeting and inform them of the threat and to hide below ground in the tunnels at a moments notice of danger.

Strog was drunk when he showed up to the general meeting. I moved to try and talk some sense into him before the situation got out of hand, but before we met Luke had slipped his arm around Strog and talked the man up, convinced the drunkard the improvements were all his idea! We swung the meeting toward telling the town it was Strog’s idea and building up his ego. I must thank Luke later; if I had have led the conversation with Strog I’m certain it would have escalated into violence quickly.

With the town better defended we retired to the inn to have some more delicious GoldenGulp, the town’s signature ale. John communed with the cat again and discovered the damn think lied about the attack! It just wanted us to take it back to its owners’ son, and used us to get us here. The others took it better than I thought; however, I think Luke was eying off cooking and eating it as a second meal.

With the threat lifted, it’s finally time to relax a little. The last few days have been arduous and I could use a brew. The others have wandered off or rested, Lilli is furiously scribing and identifying spells to improve her abilities, John is meditating, Luke has gone into the night to search for the town gossip. I decided to go and have an ale with Meros, I’m sure the poor man could use some companionship right now. The man doesn’t have the nickname ’the Yeti’ for nothing, he is a massive man! As I retired to bed, a few more GoldenGulps under the belt that I should have, I heard the screams from outside, cries of an attack.

I roused the sleeping John and Lilli and we rushed downstairs, calling for Naxene and Meros to join us. Outside, we can see that there is no alert raised! The fires on the walls have not been lit, the church bell silent. Naxene casts a firebolt into the sky as a warning; as the halfling bard from the inn runs up, breathlessly explaining that there are ogres and goblins in the town centre! The sarding things must have climbed the walls in the large gaps between towers, in between patrols.

We all run to the town centre where Lifferlas is being mobbed by two ogres and goblins. Two goblins run for reinforcements and the rest tried to take the children. Luke and Sancho prioritise the runners and bring them down with excellent bow shots from extreme range. Lifferlas is surrounded and taking quite a beating, bleeding sap, but still manages to strike devastating blows against the foes, massive tree branches smashing goblins into the dirt like flies and severely wounding the ogres. Meros run out alone, unarmored to tackle a bugbear. Literally. I’ve never seen a man crash tackle a bugbear before, and pick it up into a fatal bearhug.

After the battle, John notices that the armour of the goblins carries a stylised eye being pierced by a dagger on it. There’s no time to ask questions, however, as the alert has still not been raised. Lilli sends her tressum familiar on ahead toward the church tower and we rush into the church proper.

There is another pack of foes here, these wearing armor depicting a mouth biting a moon. The earlier goblins did call out to ‘get the moonbiters’, these must have been the reinforcements they were intending to bring to the earlier fight. Buy they concentrate their offence against the doors of the church, where a lone clergywoman stands defending the church. Zi.

She stands over the body of many dead goblins, defending against the attacks of 4 goblins at once with the fluidity and ease that only the training of a monk can provide. Hidden archers take a shot at her whilst we watch, and she merely catches the arrow inches from her face and quick as a flash throws it back at them. We join the fight from their flank, making as much noise and distracting as many as possible to stop her getting swamped.
Naxene digs deep into her reserves and fires a blinding bolt of lighting that sizzles down the line of ogres and bugbears but then we are surrounded. It is a hard fought battle before we down the last foe, only to see the sarding ranged goblins run for the fields toward the wall.

Lilli had sent her tressum familiar ahead so now the church bell is finally ringing and the signal fires are lit on the wall. After making sure Zi and the Abbot are safe, we leave to chase down the fleeing goblins through the cornfields.

After a short chase, we burst out of the cornfields into the dim light provided by the signal fires. The church bell is ringing in the distance, and the goblins climbing the 20ft wall in front of us are dimly lit as they clamber up it. We stop dead in our pursuit, however, as the ground rumbles and a large shuffling noise is heard on top of the wall. A towering hill giant slowly stands up to its full height on top of the wall, then easily drops down to our level, the ground shaking as it lands on one knee and a fist. I can feel the pressure of its war cry as it looks at our little party and let’s loose a roar. Only then can dimly see a second giant standing up to full height on the wall above us.

Things happened all at once. The group scattered for the spare cover that was available as one giant threw a rock directly at Sancho. I just saw it catch him square in the stomach and knock him completely to the ground and, Lilli and John rushing to pick him back up. I managed to stop the other one in its tracks with my holy symbol, infused with Lathander’s will. It distracted our other foe long enough to bring down the first Giant, felled by an arrow from Sancho, back on his feet.

The second giant was easier to tackle as we had time to position ourselves, but it didn’t stop it landing a few decent blows on me. It actually ended up surrendering! It was surreal talking to such a beast. It was as stupid as they come, and didn’t really seem to realise it was really hurting people. It was sent by a Giant Cheif, Guh. Whilst it was too dangerous to leave alive and in the township, but I couldn’t watch as Luke ended it. Can a creature too stupid to understand good or bad truly be evil?

Lilli’s familiar spotted activity by the gate into the town so we set off to investigate what was happening. Abbott Daravik was there looking a little lost, explaining that ‘Captain Strog’ was nowhere to be seen and their forces were leaderless. There was a small army in the forests near the gates. Ogres with some sort of sarding catapult system strapped to themselves, able to propel goblins over walls. Luke spotted a few Giants as well

From what the Abbot explained, they archers lined up on the walls kept the ogres to keep enough of a distance so they couldn’t get goblins over the walls. But they retreated far enough to stay out of the archer’s range. The troops clearly can’t find a way to break the stalemate, and without a leader, they won’t be able to.

I can’t let these people fall apart leaderless, and it’s more important than forgetting my time at Mirabar. I’ve taken command of these troops at least until we can resolve the crisis. A runner returns to the Abbott, explaining that the orc Strog has been found too drunk to even wake. What a disgrace to the uniform, any uniform. We’re not in any condition for a fight so we decided to take advantage of the stalemate and rest.

The Abbott wakes barely after we shut our eyes to inform us that Strog has been brought to him. The drunken orc was stripped then and there of his command and armour, hardly sober enough to resist. We insisted that Zi should be given command of the troops. She still looks down at the ground but there is fire in her soul. I’m sure she will grow into command quickly and do the city proud. Abbott Daravik was even kind enough to suit us up with some better equipment for the trials ahead before we returned to our slumber.

During tonight’s rest, Lathander and I stand further down the hill overlooking the same valley. I can see the people running closer now, and they do not move like humans should. Their legs and arms move somewhat jerkily, unnatural like they are an ill clockwork construct. Still, they run, shambling, streaming down the valley. I can see the mounted figure, the dark rider, moving amongst them. He wields a large double headed axe with a pointed shaft and flared, flat base. The deep blood red axe smoothly swings like a pendulum against the dark dawn background, cutting down the runners with ease. The fallen figures it leaves in its wake let off a mist which rises to the heavens with a faint, tortured scream.

Tirdas, 21st Second Seed

Today’s battle was fierce. We lost 15 of the town’s rank today in the battle. Our group fared better but not by much. We had to almost carry Sancho back into the town, and my shiny new plate mail is going to need the attention of a smithy if I ever want to fit back into it again.

After breaking fast, we quickly viewed the encroaching force over the walls. The Abbott has found 50 men trained in melee for us to take out to face the foes, with the remaining forces staying equipped with longbows upon the walls. We need to draw them into the range of the archers if we want to have a chance at this.

Our party, Zi, Naxene and Lifferlas stormed out the gates. We decorated Lifferlas’ branches with the heads of the giant’s we felled last night. The animate tree storms out the front, bellowing ‘come join your friends, Lob and Og’. We decided in advance we would aim directly to engage the four giants in front of us, whilst the foot soldiers split into two groups onto our flanks to engage the ogre and goblins to each side.

Lifferlas took the brunt of the opening volley, coming from the ogres firing sarding goblins at us! They used contraptions on their backs to propel them like a catapult at Lifferlas. We didn’t have to worry about taking care of the goblins at all.

The four giants fell upon Lifferlas whilst the archers rained down arrows on them - I tried to denounce one but failed, and had to resort to the ability to infuse a single word with Lathander’s will. As they wailed on Lifferlas, I managed to make two of them flee to remove them from the fight temporarily.

Despite Naxene cutting powerful blasts across them, Sancho’s expert colossus slaying ability, and Zi’s expert martial arts, they proved tough enough to knock down many of us. I took a particularly nasty blow immediately after seeing Sancho and Luke get lain low, and woke to John tending to me.

By then, Zi had moved too far forward to engage, taking Lifferlas out of the fight due to his slower speed and being too far behind the new front. Thankfully, with our combined damage and the archers on the wall the giants fell, then the ogres. The towns rank and file carried their wounded or dead whilst we regrouped inside.

The Abbott was tired but delighted at our victory. He suspects the town would not have fared well without our assistance, and I fear he is correct. They want to put on a rudding feast on the night, and we agree. Never been comfortable with events, but they have been a part and parcel of command from my experience.

Before resting, we had a meal at the inn. Luke quietly slipped off with a stranger that came in, returning with information he brokered. From what he’s gathered, the Giant activity is in many areas and are not isolated. He has been asked to go to the Bargewright inn at Womford. I think we may accompany him shortly if we can’t find any further leads on the flying castle we chased here.

The Friendly Dragon

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

21st Elint, the Star Walker’s Return

We all rested up at the Inn shortly after the fight. We had a quick, light meal upon waking to not spoil ourselves for the feast. Once we left, John went to talk to Lifferlas, who had indicated he wished to talk to the druid after we had rested.

The rest of us went to the fest in the meantime. They folk of Goldenfields know how to feast! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much sarding food in once spot in the last year. Strawberries, Raspberries, Duck, Pie, Kippers, Dates and more. As we were eating, John returned. He informed us that he had joined a group called the Emerald Enclave, a group Lifferlas seems to have great knowledge about. From the conversation, it seems John is eager to search for a druid called Aerglas who was responsible for giving Lifferlas life, a druid that has left on a pilgrimage never to return. He believes an old, wise treant with knowledge of him to be at the Shadowtop Cathedral, near the Disariner river.

The Abbot has been giving a speech praising Chauntea for the bounty of the harvest when he calls me to the stage. I’m no public speaker but I manage to make a small speech to convey how happy we are that we have been able to help the town avert a disaster.

We catch up with Naxene after the feast. She informs us she knows a person in Waterdeep with ’experience’ with dragons, one Chazlauth Yarghorn. He sounds a little… quirky, but we figure that if Naxene thinks it’s worth out time it is worth looking into.

We are hardly even finished talking to her before the bard that we heard shouting earlier burst into view desperate to sing his latest ballad on our adventures. It’s somewhat… unfinished but still enjoyable.

On the way out we found Meros enjoying the festivities. Whilst still pumped up from combat, he has suggested we find time to make it to Amphail, to meet an old flame of his. He wouldn’t say anymore but that she would be a good resource. He isn’t much for wasting words, this one.

Zi asked to speak to me personally. I headed into the church with her to find out she wanted to express her gratitude for helping save the village! She insisted that she should do something, something to show her thanks. What would Teisha think? As her hands went to the clasp of her dress behind her neck I moved a hand to stop her… but she unfastened her necklace and gave the black pearl pendant to me.

Zi wants me to take it to the butler of the noble house Calder Marskyl in Waterdeep. She isn’t any more forthright with what will happen then as she was beforehand.

We’ve collapsed back at the inn and will head back to Waterdeep at the ‘morrow. What a day.

22nd Elint, the Star Walkers Return

Mid morning greets us when we rise. We find Zi waiting for us when we head outside. She lets us know that they have captured a sarding bugbear! It’s in the jail cell with Strog and her and the Abbott have come up with a plan.

They want to release it and scry on it as it heads back to it’s home. But the problem, of course, is they can’t just release it. Her solution, and what she thought we could help out with is to do a fake interrogation first before letting it break out, in the hopes it would think it escaped us and leads them straight back to its home. Luke jumped in to agree to be the one to interrogate it a little too quickly for my liking.

When we headed into the cell we found Strog in the cell next to the bugbear. What a disgrace the man is to the uniform. He’s not even apologetic about being to drunk to serve the town in its time of need. We share some choice words with the disgraced captain, but before it can go any further we notice Luke has already started his ‘interrogation’.

Luke grins a mischievous grin as he threatens to cut off the bugbears bollocks. In fact, as the predator’s smile extends on Luke’s face, I’m struck by the sudden realisation I believe he’s for real. Has he done this before? I think he might have… His detail on the effect on the body after removal of the bollocks is far too great for someone who is.. not familiar with the subject.

Just as his knife reaches the bugbears skin it confesses just a little, telling us that a female, Gah, has taken over the tribe. She has booted out the females of the tribe and made all the males her husbands. I’m not even sure what to say about that, but what I will say is I don’t want to meet a female giant that can boss around an entire tribe of males.

Zi then interrupts the interrogation and we leave, ‘accidentally’ leaving the cells unlocked. The trap is set, Luke has taken a snippet of hair and palmed it when the bugbear was confessing. We pass it to the Abbott who will use it to scry on the bugbear.

We kitted up shortly thereafter and after some discussion set out for Waterdeep We made good time and will bed down just off the road for the night.

23rd Elint, the Star Walkers Return

Another day riding toward Waterdeep. Again we camp just off the road for the night. We lost some time when we had problems with Lilli’s horse’s shoe but we think we will still make Waterdeep with good time.

24th Elint, the Star Walkers Return

We arrived in Waterdeep almost on time. We chose to hit up the markets in the town first before heading out for business. Despite our better senses (and perhaps because of Lilli’s curiosity) we decided to head down to the dragon expert’s house.

Chazlauth answered the door in such an absent minded rush I turned to thank him and leave before he got more than two sentences out. Lilli rambled on for a bit before John stepped in to take a bit of a lead. We managed to get inside the house but he proved supremely unreliable.

He had cats running around the house, climbing over things, and then the strangest thing happened. A rudding baby dragon burst out a door chasing one of the cats around, playing like all the others. It was silver and playful. We had all fallen silent, watching this little creature, beautiful but soon to be deadly. Chazlauth introduced it casually as Irrizorl like it was another pet.

After discussing our current situation and concerns about the Giant threat, Chazlauth said that he had read tales of an old dragon that possessed many crystal balls and could scry on the entire world. It was located in the Kryptgarden forest, just outside of Westbridge. Hearteningly, he went so far as to say that of the encounters he had read about people meeting ‘Old Gnawbone’, most of the time at least one or two people made it back. Well, this is sarding wonderful.

After selling the Giant heads we had for some gold, I ducked into the spires to catch Renald up on our progress before heading down to the sea ward. There we found the house Zi referred to before.

I knocked on the door and showed the butler then pendant. His eyes lit up in recognition and let us in. From what I could gather from him, she grew up here. Her father was strict, but her parents are now dead. He passed us a box of her belongings which she no longer wanted with her new somewhat zen lifestyle.

We took the items with our thanks and booked an inn for the night. Lilli identified them for us, we now have a wooden box that can transform into a rudding boat on command, some device you put over your eyes that helps you see in the dark, and a clay flask that has unlimited water in it. We can see good use for these in the future.

Lilli let us know she got a message from Naxene at Goldenfields, the bugbear got out as planned but freed Strog and took him with it. They will track it when they are able to.

We had a quick chat before turning in, and we think it’s best to head now up to Raslanter and then onward to Amphail.

25th Elint, the Star Walkers Return

After a day’s ride we’ve made Waterinn, in Rassalanter. But of all the places to go, we’ve managed to pick the town and Inn with a Zhentarum agent acting as the innkeep! Before we rested, John noticed that the walls were rather thin for the walls of an Inn. Luke managed to slip out and get into the walls to find the innkeep spying on us.

He is tied up here, one Yondral Horn. He wasn’t particularly cooperative with our questions before Lilli worked her magic upon him, after which point he became much more useful.

Turns out he is a rudding Zhentarum agent! To Luke’s utter disgust, it turns out that the fence Luke encountered at Goldenfields was a Zhent agent, and the scroll he is holding is a blank parchment. We’re pretty much certain the meet that Luke was supposed to go to at the Bargewright Inn was an ambush or a setup. The area is a sarding Zhent stronghold. We quickly discussed it and we are unlikely to head to the area now.

Xolkain and Kella are still around and working for the Zhents. Xolkain is still somewhat sore about the incident back at Nightstone, but it seems the Zhents aren’t into anything that isn’t profitable, so personal grudges aren’t a consideration for the group as a whole. I think that’s good news, we don’t need to be chased around the countryside by any more malicious organisations than absolutely necessary. He knows about our group, which suggests the Zent’s have taken an interest in us for some reason.

We couldn’t manage to get more out of him at that point so we’re bedding down and taking watches on him. Tomorrow we will set out for

26th Elint, the Star Walkers Return

It was only a short 5 hours to Amphail. We have gotten ourselves some rooms at the local inn with… interesting decorations. There are enough rugs in just this room to sarding well furnish a small village.

It appears fortuitous we have arrived on this day, as it seems to be a local lord’s birthday. There are festivities preparing in town, with both a pie eating contest and an archery contest to be had.

The town appears to mainly be a second home for the wealthy youth from Waterdeep, taking advantage of the horsing community present.

We found Arelosa at the Inn just as Meros said. She met Meros when they were both in a travelling carnival. Meros, of course, was the strongman of the group. She had many fond memories to share of him, but when John spoke of the harp-shaped pin partially hidden on her, the conversation turned more serious.

She revealed to be part of a group furiously opposed to the Zhents, called the Harpers. They fight for equality and against tyrants, mainly from the shadows. She informed us the Bargewright Inn is a Zhent stronghold so it’s for the best that we skip going there as they planned for us to do.

She offered us membership in the Harpers. Despite my trepidation, I tentatively joined the organisation. I serve Lathander with my whole being, but I think that a group in opposition to the Zhents is a good group to have on our side. They haven’t proven themselves evil, but their methods appear to careless to be called good.

We all ended up participating in the contests. Somehow, the tiny gnome Lilli prevailed in the pie eating contest, a fact which I suspect the feisty thing will not let us forget anytime soon judging by how excitedly she’s been telling everyone within earshot for the rest of the day. I made some early wins in the archery contest but eventually the ranger Sancho got the best of me. I have never relied too heavily on ranged weapons.

We did have a minor run-in with a minor lord at the feast, one who we found harassing a serving wench. Not only did Luke break the tension by pretending to be drunk and insulting to the lord, he also managed to slip out with the rudding idiot’s purse. A wave of the hand from Lilli sends him to the nearest bush after tasting his meal. She told us later that his meal tasted most… unsavoury after some magics on her behalf.

Tonight Lathander visits me again. I’m mounted, dressed in the garb of the Axe of Mirabar. I can see the dark rider moving amongst the figures, reining destruction with his axe. I begin to ride him down hard with my mount, but as I’m starting to catch him he pulls further ahead, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. I hear a noise behind the flock of fleeing figures, deep in the black behind me. A misty cloud is spreading from a set of gates in the distance, creeping toward the fleeing figures. I can feel Lathanders gaze on me as I scramble towards the daylight breaking.

27th Elint, the Star Walkers Return

Were saddling up and heading out of town at noon. Before we’ve left I checked in with Arleosa, who suggested I talk to the lord protector at Triboar, one Darathra Shendrel. She’d like me to report back on inns the Harpers could buy out, and to those means has given me a magical sending stone so I can communicate with her over distances. I wish we’d had easy access to these in the Axe!

After 8 hours of riding, we’ve bedded down at a campsite. We’ve come across a few rangers out and about and decided to share the watch. They don’t have much information for us but it’s nice to break bread with others for a change whilst on the road.

28th Elint, the Star Walkers Return

Were bedding down at an Inn at Red larch tonight. Long day on horseback but uneventful. We expect to make Westbridge tomorrow. We haven’t decided if we want to even attempt finding Old Gnawbone immediately, but we will ask around about her before deciding.

29th Elint, the Star Walkers Return

Another uneventful days traveling tonight. Were looking to make Westbridge tommorow.

30th Elint, the Star Walkers Return

A Dragon! A sarding, rudding, Dragon! I knew deep down they existed at some point, but here, now, today?

Gnawbone came out of the forest, shape-shifted and invisible. We could see the trees falling and the ground moving, but the creature was not of this world to be seen. Just the sight of her was enough to drive a man mad, I could feel a wave of fear wash over me just upon her approach.

We delivered the pigs that the old man in town insisted on us bring out. We found him in town, a man who claimed to feed Old Gnawbone at harvest time regularly for many years, a form of protection for the town. We stupidly agreed to take the pigs out to the forest as he’s too frail too - I’m not sure any of us really thought that there would really be a big, mean dragon out there.

So there we were, a mighty ancient dragon bent down low over us, wanting to know why we had invaded its territory, and why it shouldn’t just eat us right now. It flung a squealing pig into the air and by the time it hit its mouth it was burnt to a crisp from its flame breath and swallowed it whole, waiting for our response.

Why couldn’t my life have stayed as it was in Mirabar?

We did as Ghaliver suggested. We whimpered and whined and provided platitudes for the mighty dragon. It’s a good thing that he gave us clear instructions for dealing with it because I don’t think any of us were in the frame of mind to think at all. We offered it gold and the pigs we brought it, bowing as low as we could as we did.

The dragon eventually decided to allow us to ask it some questions, for a gold price. After careful consideration, we ask what is driving the Giants behaviour? Gnawbone informed us that ‘The ordering that binds them has been shattered’. Again, we ask what is the best way to stop them? She replies that we could kill them all but the task is beyond us, or we could redo the Orderning but also beyond us.

She suggests we seek our knowledge located at the spine of the world, at the Great Temple, Eye of the All-Father, located in the Valley of Khedrun.

We turn to leave but the opportunity is too great. Knowing for sure what caused the event’s that lead up to being stripped of my rank in the Axe and exiled from Mirabar.

I asked Old Gnawbowne if the Marchion was of sound mind or he was being controlled like I’ve suspected. I just had enough gold to scrape together for the answer. Hislen. The gnome alchemist Hislen had ensorcered the Marchion and subverted the throne. Hislen must have masterminded everything that happened before I was exiled.

My life was ruined in a stroke in circumstances beyond my control. Everything was taken away in an instant despite the years of dutiful service. How many have died because of that sarding slime?

Lathander be damned, I will make Hislen pay for his crimes. I will plant my sword into his belly until he rests on the hilt and breathes his last.

As we go to leave, Gnawbone tells us that we should keep an eye out for a giant wearing the skull of a dragon. And, after casually eating the last pig, that we should not come back. Ever.

The others are sound asleep after the rounds the townsfolk bought us that night. We convinced them that there was indeed a dragon in the forest and that she must be paid tribute at harvesttime. Thankfully they have agreed and will be safe for the future to come after Ghaliver passes on.

I don’t pray to Lathander tonight. I look out the window into the lands yonder North, and wonder how long I must wait before I can claim my vengeance.

Tonight, I dream. Again, I’m mounted, but instead of setting off after the dark rider, I push against the fleeing figures. I ride down towards the misty back cloud that creeps toward the fleeing forms. As I draw closer and closer, I can hear a sound, crackling like lightning. But it’s not until I hit the misty wall that the shape takes form. The sound cackles like laughter, as the cloud starts to choke me. My mount falters and throws me at speed into the ground. As the mist chokes me and the life passes from my body, I can hear Hislens cackling laughter, laughing at his triumph. My sword falls to my side, useless.

The Construct Piece

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

30th Elint, the Star Walkers Return

This evening we’ve arrived in Triboar, after leaving Westbridge in the morning. Its a larger town than the last few we’ve been through of late, around two thousand or so people here I think.

We have gotten rooms in one of the inns in town, but not before trying ’the best’ place, the ‘Everwyvern Inn’ Not only is the proprietor a snooty noble, Draven, that is too good for ‘riff raff’ like us, even when Luke put on the charm and convinced him he was a noble and we were his bodyguards, he wanted 25 gold per person and 10 gold per plate of food!

He suggested we die in a ditch when we baulked. I hope he chokes on his rich food and fine wine.

Luke’s kindly shouted us rooms at what I guess is Triboars ‘second best’ inn, run by a Urgala Meltimer. She seems kind enough, and we’ve found the rooms to be to our liking.

1st Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

The coffee here at Northsheild House is good. Luke has put down 3 so far - he seems rather tired this morning. I wonder if the lodging is not agreeing with him, or if our ‘friend’ Draven will find his purse lighter this morning?

I set off to talk to the Lord Protector, Darathra whilst the others prepared to ride out. Before I got to meet with her, I overheard two brothers unhappily leaving her office. The got talking to me, with a sad tale indeed! They say their brother disappeared ten years ago, with his wife saying he run off with a younger woman. The brothers have never been happy with that explanation, and have recently come across information from a priest staying in town. This priest is saying that he is still at home and never left the rudding house!

Whilst the others may not be happy to stay, I’ve agreed to look into it - but suggested the brothers may not like the outcome.

After showing Darathra my Hapers pin, she has been very helpful. She informed me that there is an inn in town, the ‘Frost-Touched Frog’ that is abandoned, information useful for Arelosa. Giants have been active in the area, along with more barbarians and notherners. Doesn’t know about the ordning and suggests we ask around in inns/town about it.

She’s also interested in me helping out the brothers as she can’t spare the manpower to look into it. She will ask her outrunners for information and has suggested we stay in town for a few days. Upon pressing her about the activity around Mirabar she has confirmed the city has a new Marchion, by the name of Selin. I wonder what motivation Hislen has for putting him in the chair?

More interestingly, she’s let me know that apparently there is a large number of dwarves leaving the northern towns. From all over Mirabar, Mithril Hall, Citadel Felbarr, Citadel Adbar, dwarves are leaving their towns to follow their king, back from the dead. King Bruenor Battlehammer, the legend. How could he be back from the dead, he died around the year I was born.

She doesn’t have much more for me. There are tales of orcs attacking caravans, and trolls in the Evermores.

The party was happier to stay for a few days that I expected thankfully. We hit up the Talking Troll to talk to Silvarren, a priest of Helm. We found him deep in his cups and in a sorry state. After a bit of coaxing, he confessed to doing a spell for the brothers.

He insists that Merek never left his house, but admits he kept some information from the brothers. He said something about ’not being buried beneath the ground, but above the ground’. It’s troubling news, so we left him to his cups.

After asking around town, we heard that Urgula, our Inkeep and Merak were supposed to be involved back all those years ago. We decided to avoid directly questioning the wife and discreetly questioned Urgula about her involvement with him. The poor woman fell apart and was extremely upset about the whole thing. She did admit to having an affair with him, and she never really got over his disappearance. She was convinced that his wife killed him when she found out about the affair, but proof never surfaced.

Merek’s widow runs the flophouse on the outskirts of town, so we decided to go and check it out. The priest’s words about not being buried gave me concerns of dark rites, so I tried to attune my senses to the undead but found nothing. On a hunch about ‘being buried aboveground,’ we asked Lilli to get her familiar to fly up to the attic whilst we kept his wife busy with small talk.

Lilli sensed through the familiar the stench of dead upstairs, so Luke left to scale the wall. He burst in shortly thereafter through the inside door leading down from the attic and grabbed the wife, with proof that her husband’s skeleton in the barrel upstairs. I blocked her escape out the front door and we carried the shaking and wailing woman down to the Lord Protectors.

Darathra was initially upset we had confronted the wife but was quickly appeased when she was shown the skeleton we had found in her attic. Darathra still wanted more proof, so we eventually retrieved the priest from his watering hole at the cost of his bar tab. He sarding well managed to call up the spirit of Merek from the planes beyond!

We were able to learn from him the horrible tale that his wife indeed killed him, poisoning his stew with a sleeping potion. He awoke to find himself in a barrel, a barrel in which she threw in a live snake before sealing the lid with both of them in there. He died shortly thereafter of the snake bites.

Before his soul passed back into the other planes he gave us his wishes of where he wanted his body to be lain to rest, and messages for Urgula and his brother. He never stopped loving Urgula, and he regretted never being able to say goodbye to his brothers. We were able to pass on these messages before the brothers took away his corpse for proper burial. They passed us a longbow for our trouble.

We suggested the priest be locked up whilst he sobered up. He is needed by his flock in Red Larch and we should try and get him there without him falling back into his cups.

Before we managed to leave, however, a runner arrived with a message that there had been a robbery. Darathra again asked us to investigate on her behalf. On the way out Luke’s facade fell and admitted to heisting some possessions of Draven the night prior as I’d suspected. I can’t say I’m upset, I can’t use my sword on the fools and arrogant, so I can’t say I will shed a tear if Luke lightens their purses. He did mention that he lifted a fairly big spellbook, which aligns with Darathra telling us Draven is a wizard. We’d best be keeping a low profile around him for now, I do not want to be up against no sarding wizard. Its too late to take it back now, so we will have to deal with the consequences of Luke’s actions.

However, when we arrived at the scene of the robbery, it was the trading post that had been broken into. We found out that the trading post was run out of Yatar, which explained why Daratra would want an impartial, out of town group to investigate. The trading post was hated in town for being an out of town competing interest, and it traded in goods that hurt places like the farriers and harness makers.

Luke noted that there were thieves can’t scrawled on the building. After some probing, o we found out that the proprietor has paid protection money to the thieves guild of Yatar, the ‘Hand of Yatar’. There was also a grappling hook and harness left at the scene of the crime. Even my inexperienced eye could tell the masterful work on the gear. It’s strange they would leave it at the scene. Luke thinks it has been left as a message. The room is locked but almost all the locks are flimsy.

Narth, the proprietor is the only one with keys and says that a magical bag with gold has been stolen, a year’s worth of money. He’s angry to not have received protection from the Hand of Yatar.

We agreed to check out the farriers and harness makers who are the direct competitors of his business but decide not to show anyone the grappling hook or harness immediately so not to tip our hand on the investigation. We pretended to just be gossiping about the break in and don’t declare ourselves investigators.

The farriers hate the Trading post, but we can’t find anything suspicious there.

The harness makers again have nothing suspicious happening, the quality of the work is great but has a different style compared to the harness we have. We can’t find an identifying mark to tie the works together. The harness maker also hates the trading post, but this doesn’t prove anything.

We checked out the forge whilst we were there, but there was nothing of note. On the way out Lilli pulled us aside. She had just noticed that the spellbook was radiating magics. After quickly inspecting the spellbook, she realised it was trapped. It will rudding well explode if opened by anyone but Draven, and it will summon a creature to protect the book, but we don’t know what will trigger that outcome.

After some discussion, we went back and asked the smithy to craft us a lead pot. Lilli rambled on something about lead blocking magic emanations, so her theory was that if we encased it in lead it couldn’t be detected. Sounds like a bunch of lunacy to me, but we went and commissioned a lead pot from the smith. Whilst we were there, I also asked him to start working on a better shield for me.

We discussed a shield with Lathander’s symbol on it, the detail engraved it. He can’t do the gemstones, but he will be able to hammer the detail into the work, depicting the symbol of my god, a sunrise over the rolling hills of the landscape.

Exhausted of options, we got him to inspect the grappling hook and harness, without revealing too much of our intent. Hesitantly, he did inform us that the grappling hook was his work. He sold it to one Darz Helgar, who has a shanty shack at the caravan grounds.

As the smithy was a dwarf, I tried to find out what I could about the dwarven movements up North. By Lathander, was he excited! Bruenor Battlehammer has come back in a younger body and has rallied a large number of dwarves to reclaim Gauntlgrym, home of the first clan of dwarves, the Dalzun. They sound to be in the process of taking the city. He firmly believes that Battlehammer is chosen of the gods. It’s a powerful statement, especially from a dwarven folk.

We paid Darz an immediate visit afterwards to discuss the gear. As soon as he saw it he was crestfallen and confessed to being the thief immediately. However, he insisted that he was blackmailed by the proprietor of the Talking Troll, Kaelen. He did 10 years in the dungeons of Waterdeep, and is trying to make a fresh start, but was dragged into it by Kaelen who knew of his past.

I believe him, but we still took him to Darathra to be imprisoned for now. With her leave, we checked out the Talking Troll to see if we could find the stolen gear.

Lilli couldn’t detect any magic at the Troll so Luke once again helped himself to a look around, whilst we distracted Kaelen with small talk. We found him outside shortly thereafter with a backpack containing a strongbox. After checking in with Narth and confirming it was his, we went straight back to the Troll to arrest the owner.

He didn’t put up a fight after being directly confronted, so he’s also warming a cell, awaiting trial. I’ve asked Darathra to show leniency on behalf of Draz, being blackmailed, and I believe she will do so. The denizens of the flophouse helped themselves rather quickly to the now free booze available. The smell of the orcish ale was enough to turn my stomach, I can’t believe they would willingly touch the swill.

We went to return to the smithy to pick up the lead pot and finally protect ourselves from being found with the stolen spellbook by the wizard Draven, but of course, our sarding luck had run out.

Draven stormed up to confront us on the road about his book, but not before Luke and John slipped off quietly, unnoticed. Draven got confused and thought his locate spell had mixed up and found Lilli’s book by accident, so he insisted we go to the smithy to wrap her book in lead to he could find his.

As he dragged Lilli to the smithy, I saw out of the corner of my eye a dog I hadn’t seen before running into the smithy. By the time we got there it had run back out again. We awkwardly watched Draven force Lilly to wrap her spellbook in lead, in front of an amused smithy wondering why the sudden demand for lead.

Draven couldn’t do much without his spellbook so he enlisted Lilli to help, giving her a locate object spell scroll. She agreed to help out later on.

However, fearful that Luke would be found out when Draven got a bead on his book now that Lilli’s spellbook wasn’t corrupting his spell, we waited with held breath.

But Draven simply shrugged and said he still couldn’t find it. We retired to the Inn to find Luke and John there ahead of us with smiles on their faces. John had shapeshifted into a dog, picked up the pot, and returned it to Luke to wrap Draven’s stolen spellbook up, probably mere rudding seconds before Draven fired off a new locate object spell.

Draven did fill Lilli in on the protection on the book in his arrogance, however. The missing protection we couldn’t ascertain was that if the book was removed from city limits it would also explode! We had a very close call with that one, it would have been one short adventure had we foolishly tried to leave town with the book.

I’m furious that the Rogue didn’t sarding well tell us about his adventures in advance. If we knew about the spellbook and stolen goods beforehand we could have handled the situation a lot better than this mess. I’m tempted to pick him up and dump him in front of Draven and let him sort this mess. out. Why should I let him risk the entire group for his selfish actions?

Eventually, We agreed that night that the best course of action was to ‘find’ the book the next day, and return it to him. Lilli was beside herself with the idea of copying from his spellbook, so I hope it works out like that and not us squaring off against a sarding Wizard.

Even if our little wizard pulls this one off, we will be having words with Luke.

2st Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We awoke the next day and went back to the Troll, covering the secret hole we found the backpack in the prior day with lead. We then returned to Draven, pretending we found it where the stolen goods from the trading post were located. The best lies stick closest to the truth it would seem.

Draven seemed to believe us and was merely happy to have his book back. Before he rushed off to spend quality time with his now returned book, he said to Lilli that if she returned in 8 hours, he would give her a full 24 hours with it to copy what she wanted. I thought she would fall off her chair, but she recovered quickly, squealed, and scampered off to the Inn to get to sleep so she was fully rested for her marathon copying of spells. What do these sarding wizards see in the words that is so rudding interesting?

I messaged Arelosa about the Inn’s available in Triboar as per her request when we left her. We also got a message from Naxene, it seems they have traced Strog and the bugbear for the eight days since they ’escaped’. She will update us when they move again. From what Lilli grunted before rushing to bed, it appears Naxene was quite surprised to hear we all survived our an encounter with Gnawbone in one piece.

We settled in for a quiet afternoon at the Inn to wait out Lilli’s sleep. We didn’t get that, however. I heard cries for help outside before I could even get halfway through a sarding meal!

We rushed outside, asking Urgala to rouse Lilli from her slumber. We barely got out the Inn door before we were rushed by a group of Orogs! I was barely able to keep standing after taking two greataxe blows from the feinds. Once we got clear we got a better view of the state of the Triboar proper.

There were villagers running around every which way, either fleeing from danger, running to find their families, or using tiny water pails to hopelessly try and put out flames licking up their houses.

Flaming magmins bounced around the area, cackling gleefully as they set on fire everything in their range. The villagers had no hope defending against the fires they scurried in a disorganised, chaotic state.

We only made it a short distance from the door toward the nearest fire when an arrow from Luke felled a magmin at range. The feind chortled, shook and exploded in a shower of molten lava, setting on fire everything near it, including the house we were trying to save.

Only the shortest span later, we heard a smash back at the inn a few stories up. Urgala had jumped straight out the window from the top floor of the Inn and landed on the ground. We could see Lilli just beyond, sleepy but wide-eyed. I could see her start channelling some sort of spell, but we were mobbed my more orogs.

The orogs were larger than your usual orc, dressed in full plate mail and wielding great axes. They moved quickly and worked better as a team than the orcs did, but with the numbers we had we were able to work on down, then another.

We used the magic canteen we got back in Waterdeep to spew a gyser of water onto the buildings. We run between buildings, taking down magmin and orogs in tandem with Urgula. Unfortunately, she hadn’t seen the exploding magmin lesson we learnt earlier and she decided to engage one in melee. Thankfully it wasn’t a fatal blow, but it’s not something she will be doing again soon.

Some of the fires started to burn faster than we could put them out. We could hear cries from one of the buildings that weren’t in range of us, but Lilli managed to get her tressum to pick up the water canteen from Urgula and fly over to put it out!

We managed to contain all the fires in the immediate area with no losses to the buildings that we could see. But we should have known that what we were involved in was bigger than a scrappy fight outside the Inn.

With the area quieter than before, we could hear cries coming from the direction of the centre of town, where the lord protector’s building was. Lilli saw ahead using her tressum farmiliar that there were sarding giants digging in the middle of the stockyards, and a bunch of mounted orogs harassing the lord protectors place, accompanied by a burnt but resolute Urgala.

We moved down to assist as soon as we could get there, moving in and through the trading post to get as close as possible as quietly as possible. After taking what we could use from the trading post, we burst out the doors screaming towards the orogs. Luke had one down off his mount before they could even see him, and we fell on the rest of the group in short order.

During combat, we could see the giants clearer, in the stockyards. They were digging slowly but with powerful strokes at the ground. I found myself wondering if this was related to the theft of the obelisk at Nightstone, but a sharp blow to my armour brought me back to the fight.

We were joined by Darathra from the protector’s tower as soon as she could get to us to continue the engagement. We were able to defeat the orogs in short order and subdue one. Once he was incapacitated we headed up carefully but quickly to try and stop them from finding whatever they were digging for. As far as I’m concerned, If the giants want something, it’s in our best interest for them not to have it.

As we bunched up around the gate, arrows already nocked and firing I called on Lathanders favour to denounce on giant, creating fear in it. Lathander smiled today, as the fear that manifested in the beast kept it at bay. We only had to beat one sarding giant today.

It kept digging and its friend confidently said it would deal with us without him. He might have been right too, my plate does little to stop a blow from a beast as big as that. I’ve been practising using my shield to attack of late and tried to use it to knock the giant down. It merely replied ‘wut’ and brought its giant greatsword down on me like an angry smithy at his forge. I barely twisted to avoid the brunt of the blow, and barely managed to block the follow-up blow against John.

We heard the other giant hit metal and start pulling up its prize. A huge wreath, c shaped. Thing must way a thousand sarding pounds!

It was hurting. All seven of us were hitting it with everything we had and it was beginning to take its toll. It tried to get away from us, but with a nod from Darathra, we pursued it and with a cut to its Achilles heel, it came crashing down. It called out to its friend to run just before we caught up with it.

And then it was done.

Battle weary, bloodied and in no shape to continue, we watched the other giant drop the massive metal circlet and run. We did not pursue. Darathra will have men here within hours to defend the town.

We checked out the twisted metal that was dug up. After inspection Lilli declared it to definitely eminate magics, and we also came across the startling fact it was made from adamantine.

After quickly interrogating the orog for information, we disposed of it and took the giant head for the bounty. Moving the metal chunk took all of us just to drag it to the lord protecters building, where we hope to keep it safe for the time being. We also kept some sort of diving stick we found on the giant, later finding out it was indeed what we suspected. It did carry some form of divination magic - magics that could track down a part of the Vonindod construct! Unfortunately, none of us has any sarding idea what that is. I can’t see it delivering food to the poor or rescuing children from danger, however. I don’t think we want to see this thing completed if that’s the giant’s plan.

We agreed that what we had before us must be a piece of this construct. We called in Foehammer who was fairly certain that markings on it showed wear points for where the piece was rubbing against other parts of the construct. We also got off him enough lead to wrap the entire piece up, which we hope will defeat any further attempts to divine or scry for it. Darathra was satisfied the constructed piece, and the town at large was safe for the time being.

Upon heading back to the Inn, Urgala was rather appreciative of continuing to still have an establishment after all was done. She didn’t suffer much damage in the fires due to Lilli’s quick thinking with the water canteen. She’s let us know of a knight she used to adventure with that we should catch up with. Sir Harthos Zymorven, of Zymorven hall. She told us some stories of his battles against giants with his signature blade. He sounds like a good person to give us more insight into fighting giants, and Urgala hinted with a subtle mention of her name he might find more generosity that mere words.

3rd Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

Today will see us depart the town. We’ve sold our horses at the local ranch, as we plan to take the river as soon as we can reach it. The folding boat Zi gave us from her belongings should prove an excellent means to traverse the river directly past Noanars Hold into the High Forest, in search for the druid Aerglas. John has been quietly interested in pursuing the druid since Lifferlas informed him back in Goldenfields.

Before we departed, we caught up with Darathra quickly. She informed me of a friend of the Harpers up east in Everlund and gave me a platinum shield of Triboar as proof for Dral when I seek him out.

I also spoke to Darz before we left. He let me know about the brigand Weivil. That rudding bastard was wanted in Mirabar back when I still served in the Axe. He said he saw him in Xantharls Keep not that many spans ago.

On the way back, I picked up my new shield from Foehammer. His work is intricate and beautiful, so much so that I’m not even sure it should be worn as a functional piece of armour. But it would be an insult to a dwarf of his stature to disrespect his work but not putting it to use. As I turned to leave, he called out with a letter, complete with his seal. The note was for dwarven royalty, identifying the bearer for a favour, which may come in very useful in our future.

Luke’s informed me we are ready to go, so it’s time to get a start toward the river.

The Undead Among You

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

3rd Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return (continued)

Its been an uneventful day of sailing so far. We saw some fishermen getting catfish and crabs but that’s about all that can be told today.

We expect to reach Yatar tomorrow sometime. Lilli’s decided to claim the only cabin on the boat, but she’s having a hard time enforcing this claim.

The magic box that we got from Zi has worked wonders. As predicted when Lilli identified it, we tossed it into the river and spoke a word, and the damn thing unfolded into a boat that had to be over 20ft long. It had a deck, rowing seats, oars, anchor, cabin, and a sarding sail. We boarded it quite quickly, with the one pack horse carrying the Rod of the Vonindod.

John seemed to know his way around boats rather well, more than you would expect from an elf.

Luke filled us in on what he knew about Yatar. It has around 6,000 people in it with a Baron ruling the town. Luke seemed to think that the Hand of Yatar, the notorious thieves guild we saw reference to at Triboar may be comprised of entirely female thieves.

We may well find out tomorrow.

4th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We arrived at Yatar before dawn the next day by the river. It had a large fortification to the west and large banks immediately close to the town, so we decided to coast past and land downstream of the town, walking back up.

However, as continued downstream, we came across a large boat, light up well with plenty of lamps and activity onboard. We found out it later it was a pleasure barge, from the description Sikelion gave us. Or is is Cykelion? I’ll have to ask him later if we still have him hanging around us.

As we went past, he was somewhat forcibly ejected from the boat, sailing high over us as we passed and landing with a big splash. He struck out swimming for us, and we decided to let him, board, as there wasn’t many other places for him to swim to.

I’m not sure it was the correct choice, however, as seconds upon boarding he insisted that he was waiting for us. He claimed to have been merely passing time, having been instructed by his faith to meet us here. We turned to throw him back off the boat before he proceeded to spout a lengthy description of each of us. Once we sat him down and got him warm he revealed he even knew of our fight against the Giants, down to the eye of the Allfather we were seeking.

We kept him with us as we moved into the town. After checking into the Pearl Handed Pipe inn and getting a meal we headed out in search of a contact that Luke could get information from.

I found an inn run by a pair of old geezers that were persuadable into possibly selling up, It will be a good asset if it goes through. The pair were so old and hard of hearing I think that having some coin to take the burden of running an inn would be a relief for them.

We then turned our attentions to a shop that Sikelion pointed out, with a proprietor that would prove invaluable. By the time we left Esklindrar’s Maps, Books and Folios, the sage within would furnish us with information on the road ahead.

We ended up with a picture of the exterior of the temple, advice on the best route through the mountain range, description of the area, and a location of the temple to within a square mile.

He also gave us information on the social order the giants have. They have a regimented, almost military regime, complete with a pecking order of sorts. The hill giants are at the bottom of the ladder, going up to stone, frost, fire, cloud and finally storm at the top of the order. This order also governs the interactions between giants of the same ‘rank’

This social order is the ordning that has been shattered. Without this structure the social rules that bind them would fall into disarray, plunging them into chaos, fighting each other to fill the power vacuum.

He had some more information on us, regarding some of the towns we are likely to pass through on our way northeast. Griffons Nest might be a good place to get Griffons for travel when we are closer to Mirabar. Silverymoon, which is a few towns further up our current road east, is run by mageocracy, with the lady of silverymoon being the old ruler who still holds plenty of sway with the elite. And Longsaddle, close to Griffons Nest, has many wizards, sure to be of particular interest to our young wizard.

As we turned to leave, his parting words sent a chill down my spine. Rumour had it Nonar’s Hold, the next town we would encounter by the river, was ruled by knights called ‘The Hunt Lords’. The word was they used to run hunts for rich nobles but hunted men and beast alike. He hinted at a dark deal with forbidden power.

I could feel a wave of fear and anger wash over me once I made the connection to the evil undead, and I found myself with a tight grip on my longsword. Shaking it off, we left the building and head out into town to get silver weapons for those of us who did not possess magical weapons, as a precaution.

We left the same day before dusk, getting back onto our convenient boat. I wonder if it was fated for our paths to cross with Zi so we could have this amazing tool for our journey?

The candles almost burnt out, it’s past time for me to turn in.

5th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

The next day found us in the water for another day of sailing. John only smiled when I asked him about his familiarity of boating. That man is incredibly quiet and zen, to the point of infuriation.

I sent a message to Arelosa informing her of the latest Inn I’d found for sale, and asked for any info she might have on the Vonindod Construct.

6th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

Another day on the boat. We’re expecting to hit Nonar’s hold tommorow afternoon sometime. I will be glad to see dry land, not many boats around Mirabar. I’m not getting seasick, but it doesn’t mean I’m enjoying the ride.

7th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We arrived at Nonar’s Hold today not long before dusk. I knew something was wrong by the smell of the town. The town might have only had 120 people or so but folk seemed to be keeping well away from us. I’ve been on edge since we entered the town, and that feeling wasn’t helped when the Innkeep where we are staying barred the door from the inside at dusk.

We tried to strongarm the Innkeep into telling us about the town but he insisted the barring of the door was merely a local custom.
Finally, after seeing the sigil of Lathander on my armour, he broke down. He informed us the town was ruled with an iron fist by the Hunt Lords, the old human lords that for over 150 years have terrorised the area with their nightly hunts. They only emerge at night, dead, riding horses of bone. Death emanates from these five riders.

I found myself standing by his side, firmly clasping his shoulder, swearing to stand before this evil. The rest of the party were not so eager to take up this task, I rose before even looking at them for approval.

The description matches rudding Wights. I read about them in the Spire of Morning library’s copy of the Necronomicon back in Waterdeep. They are a humanoid, vain, risen from the dead after making a death plea to one of the forsaken vile gods. They chose undeath rather than facing their fate, and cling to an unnatural life. They are sensitive to sunlight and have a life draining touch that can instantly kill a weakened creature. Those slain as such are returned before the next daybreak as a risen dead, under the wight’s control.

They come out each night for the hunt. The townsfolk have learnt to bar the doors and stay inside after nightfall if they want to keep their heads. Those caught outside at night disappear in the sound of blade and horse hoof, never to return.

There doesn’t sound to be any good entrance to the walled off keep they.. reside in. They do have a castellan however. By Lathander, if he willingly assisted them then I will drag him out into the village and execute him right in the sarding village centre!

We tossed around many plans over dinner and ale that night. Whilst the rogue wants to face them immediately and without fear, sanity prevails and we agree not to face them on their home ground at their strongest.

I struggle to contain the rising rage I feel within me and try and keep focused on the task at hand.

It’s not long before we hear the sound of the gate opening and horses moving through the streets. I extended my senses, feeling the power of Lathander moving through me as I so. I could sense their undead presence even through the walls of the Inn, slimy and disgusting. They are an affront not only to me but Lathander himself! As the Innkeep stated, there are five mounted wights, on their steeds of death.

We took turns keeping watch for the night. They rode out into the woods but returned a hour before morning. They obviously kept themselves within a buffer of returning to ensure they did not get caught out.

When sleep claims me, this time I catch the rider. But it’s not the rider. I realise it does not carry the blood red axe it so usually wields. In fact, the valley itself isn’t right, the clockwork machination people are mostly not present.

The rider stops, turns, the cloak falling away, revealing a rudding wight. It screams at me silently, stunning me, causing me to fall from my steed. I fall hard and roll over to slowly. The wights blade sinks deep into my shoulder, piercing the armour like it’s nothing. Another wight grabs my sword arm and wrests my blade free from it. I am pinned, helpless as the rest of the five wights arrive at my helpless form as the rider wight plunges its bony, dead arm into my chestplate and into my chest. I can feel tendrils of death pushing through my skin, looking for the warmth of my life.

Between my screams I reach in Lathander’s direction, desperately calling for his divine help. He merely smiles and looks toward the horizon, as the sunlight rises, washing over the valley.

This time I do not wake. The life passes from me and soon I will serve them in death. But as my vision fades I see the wights react with fear to the light. The look at the morning light and scream at it, and start to run, leaving me be. They try to hide in each other shadow but to no avail. Fire licks at what little skin remains on their bones and as they collapse to the ground, curling up as the magics that bind their souls to their corpses starts to fail. I stagger to stand and see Lathander smiling at me.

He did not abandon me. He did not leave me to die. And he looks to me to carry out his will here and now, to rid the world of this affront to nature. His smile grows wider.

8th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

Despite our weariness at the little sleep we got the prior night we begin to plan our assault on the wights. I insist we should burn the place to the ground whilst they slumber in it. If any of them survive the building fire, they will be forced out into the blessed sunlight, where we will cut them down.

The others don’t like the idea. It’s risky. What if we burn too much down. What if they have catacombs, despite there being no record of it?

It’s simple. We burn it down and kill them. I will talk them into it or do it myself.

The druid and barbarian have gathered small animals to do recon on the place, to see inside the keep, to see them. They find no hidden passages, and only the wights asleep beside the old remnants of a feast, long gone and forgotten. They sit and talk and boast of hunts long gone past. We will give them a hunt. Their final one.

The rest of the party want to sneakily enter the building. Why would we fight them on their terms? Battlefield control is all about making the enemy fight on your terms, not theirs. I’m not used to having to deal with the lack of understanding of regimented battle that these adventures have.

After much discussion, it’s decided Luke can get in undetected and steal whatever of value is inside the keep. They will bar the doors and burn it down. Whichever wight makes it out into the sunlight will have to fight on our terms. I wonder if they will actually catch fire in the sunlight?

There are two brothers at the inn tonight. The night before there was three. I barely noticed them the first night but Luke did talk to them. They seemed to be talking about hunting Giants but did not know about the bounty on heads.

The were sullen and explained that during combat with a Giant one of the brothers was killed. Something didn’t line up - they didn’t retrieve his body and said they would go back tomorrow. They were wounded so we offered to tend to their wounds. Renald has given me some basic medical training as part of my studies, and John clearly has some natural healing ability. However, as we cleaned and inspected the wounds we both noticed at the same time that not all the wounds were from a Giant’s club - some were neart, sharp, quick, clean cuts - the sort you get from a rapier, such as the weapons they were carrying.

Luke went on that night after I sensed their departure from the town. It wasn’t long before Luke returned from his successful walk. The second story of the keep is soaked in oil now, and he has taken everything of value from within.

We take a rest and will wake not long after dawn when they have returned and will be inside the keep.

9th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

The innkeep was incredulous tonight when we told him the town was no longer under threat from the wights. Even more so to see us standing without a single scratch, dent, nothing to show for our struggles.

I snapped the piece of wood he had used to bar the door at night. These people might not yet have come to terms with it, but they don’t need these things anymore. A decade and a half of tyranny has come to an end here today.

The smoking, collapsed ruins of the keep is evidence enough for most of the town when they came to see us leave the burning wreck of the keep. The rest will come to understand in time, when they no longer hear the hunt moving between buildings of the night.

I don’t remember much of the fight but the rage. After the release of the wights from their forbidden bond with their corpses, I felt the hate and loathing subside. It was like Lathander’s emotions became part of my own. How much of my fear and hatred of the undead was mine, and how much of it do I share with my Deity?

I found myself screaming and shaking the corpse of a wight. It may have still had some soul left but whatever I could see in its face disappeared when I picked it up by the skull and crushed it, screaming at it. As I looked around at the pile of wight corpses, the second story of the keep collapse into a fiery conflagration.

From what the rest of the group tells me, our plan work perfectly. The wights struggled in the early hours of the morning against the door out of the keep that we locked from the outside. By the time they broke through the door Lilli had finished channelling a firebolt spell which went directly past them and blew down a part of the second floor directly onto them.

From there, it was just a case of blocking them in the doorway so they could only get to us two at a time and work our advantages against them. As soon as they hit the sunlight they seemed slower, weaker, less sure. They all came at me like in my dream, clawing, trying to take my life from me. My armour and shield blocked all the blows easily.

At one point through a clearing in the combat, I could have rudding sworn I saw Lathander sitting on a chair in the keep, smiling at me. Lilli hit them with a flame bolt which set two of them alight, cutting off my view of Lathander as the wights withered and died in flames under Lathander’s holy morning light.

On our way out we found the castellan. He’s chained up in his house for now, with the innkeep swearing the town will find a healer for the man.

He was distraught to find his master dead. I took this as an acknowledgement that the man was a willing slave. Thankfully Cykellion moved to stop me, having heard the subtext in the tone of the man’s voice. He was sure there was more to it than met the eye

We found in his house a journal, depicting a decent into madness of sorts. He did not see the undead wights, but his human masters. He explained reservations about the human hunting, but from there he seems to have lost his sanity. The dwarf is getting on in years and it looks like senility may have taken its course with him, or possibly being close to these magics. Either way, the man’s guilt is not clear, and he should be helped if a healer can at all help him.

Back at the Inn, there was one brother left remaining. We knew what had happened on this day because we had sent Lilli’s familiar out to keep tabs on them. Luke had ‘found’ a will in their backpack that gave us the impression that the eldest had come into a large inheritance. The familiar had informed us that they got into a fight when one attacked the other but was defeated.

I chose to attempt a casting of a spell I had been practising from one of the books Renald lent me before I left Waterdeep. Whilst under the influence, he was compelled, to tell the truth.

It was not quite as I suspected. The brothers made a bet for the entire inheritance on who could kill a Giant first! However, at least two of the brothers were not true to there word.

We gave the man healing assitance but left him be. He did not want to raise his brothers even if he could get their bodies to a temple that offered the service. And we thought any punishment the man deserved had already been doled out by the loss of his brothers.

We will sleep tonight in good spirits, but before I rest I cannot help but wonder. Surely Lathander would not bother directly with one of his many servants. It could truly not have been Lathander today, just a result of the stress of combat, tricks of the light, smoke. I do not dream of Lathander for sure. Or could it be? Does Lathander have aspects of himself?

The guilt has subsided over the last two years. but the bulk of it remains. Are these visions merely the burden I carry, given form?

John carries a burden too, Its plain as day. But the man never speaks of it.

I can hear Lilli snoring away, the peaceful slumber of youth. She has so many years ahead of her and her story has only just started being written. I hope she never gets to carry a burden like some of the rest of us do.

The Grandfather Tree

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

9th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return (Continued)

We left the next morning by boat again, leaving behind the acursed town of Nonar’s Hold behind us in our wake, continuing down the Dessarin River due East. It was a quiet day of sailing until late in the day, where we found the river blocked. Roots and tree branches blocked the way, yet the river clearly continued on. The blockage seemed artificial, but somehow it was hard to see how the trees could grow to block the river so. We had reached the edge of The High Forest, with trees towering mightily above us and the foilage stretching as far as the eye could see in each direction.

John was unperturbed by this, however, and with him raising his Emerald Enclave insignia to the trees, they moved apart thunderously, allowing us to pass. As we passed through the treeline, it was like the entire world changed. Inside the tree canopy, the trees stretched up and above us, curving over the river. The sunlight seemed warmer both in heat and how the colours radiated off the forest canopy, despite the canopy cover. The sounds of the outside world seemed to melt away, replaced by the sounds of nature, birds, game, and just silence. Even the river seemed to calm down to a calm gurgle.

It was almost like the forest was a large protective cocoon, protecting all within from the outside world.

We disembarked where we could find a clearing and headed further into the forest. It wasn’t long before we found ourselves feeling comfortable and safe, not checking over our shoulders for threats constantly. A place like this could be dangerous for an adventures senses, but the stress of the world seemed to melt of John as soon as we entered the threshold of the forest.

After some travel, we came into an area surrounded by a wall of trees, nigh 70 feet high. A cathedral stood mightily in the middle of it, with the trees of the forest curving over the top of it to create an artificial cavern. We heard the satry first before we saw the strange creature, singing songs of love lost. It is a half goat, half human being that called itself Greenwhistle.

He was not threatening and was more than willing to converse, but was not particularly helpful. We explained that we were in search of Turlang, the ancient treant Lifferlas had mentioned to us back at Goldenfields. Lifferlas indicated that his creator, the druid Areglas had left in search of Turlang in his pilgrimage to Shadowtop Cathedral, making the ancient treant Turlang our best bet to find the old druid.

Greenwhistle was not forthcoming on Turlang’s location and after some debate we got John to send a sparrow out to search for Turlang. We have no idea how long this will take, so I’m getting this down whilst I have a chance. As I glance around I can see Lilli absorbed in her spell book, Luke checking his belongings almost obsessively, Cykellion teaching Greenwhistle some rowdy bar songs, and John resorted to baking pies to pass the time. It seemed to calm John even more than he seemed in this mighty forest, and I must admit the pies were ruddy delicious!

I’m not sure I can stay here for long. I can’t shake the feeling of revulsion from the events at Nonar’s Hold. I can feel it following me like the spirits are sidling through the forest around us.

10th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

The day consisted of searching the skies for a solitary sparrow bringing us news of the ancient treant, but none came.

Lilli got a message from Naxene regarding the movements of the loose bugbear and the rudding orc captain. They’ve arrived at Grudd Haug which is know known to be a fortress dam across a river, fifty miles from Womford and another fifty from Beliard. Lilli scribbled some more words and sent back to Naxene, presumably to keep her up to date on our activities

During the day during scavenging, we noted the strangest thing. We had been foraging for supplies in the interim during our wait, and I could have sworn the higher branches were moving downward to offer us easier access to the fruit. Surely it must have been wind, despite a distinct lack of the wind in this dense forest. Even the fruit seemed tastier in this region.

11th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

The others began to get restless at not hearing back from the sparrow in the afternoon and decided to light a signal fire to signal Turlang to return. It wasn’t long after the fire was started that the sparrow returned and indicated that she had informed Turlang of our presence and he was on his way back to meet us but was furious about a fire in the area. Waiting for a treant was a waiting man’s business, so we put out the fire quickly and prepared to wait some more.

It was a few hours more before we heard the stompin of Turlang approaching and even more still before he burst into the clearing suddenly, furious about the fire. He was accompanied by an elven woman who we would find out later was named Tharra. It took some quick talking from Cykellion before we managed to calm him enough to talk to him. Turlang stood even taller than Lifferlas, towering above us, but with bark somewhat rougher and greyer than his.

It wasn’t long before Turlag warmed up to John on account of the affiliation with the Emerald Enclave. But even still, it took John some time to find out anything about Areglas. It seems that Areglas knew his time was nearing so he would have set out for the Grandfather tree within the forest to fulfil his destiny. Turlang finally agreed to let us passage to the Grandfather tree to pursue information on him, despite the fact Turlangs perception of time for us mortals seemed arbitrary. Areglas could have died moons ago or left yesterday it would seem.

Tharra wants to guide us there, and Turlang insists we go with companions. Out of the ground, two smaller treants appear and get ready to accompany us and it’s not long before were on our way.

We camped a few hours later as the light became too poor to proceed so we camped the night in the forest. Somehow, despite our weariness, a pie-off was called after Lilli boasted to Tharra about her pie-eating skills. I wearily agreed to watch the fool’s game, but I was intrigued enough to see the little gnome defend her claim that I did bet with Andrew on Lilli’s success.

With Johns supply of pies, Luke, Lilli, Tharra and John begin their contest.

John and Tharra are too exhausted to even finish one pie, but Luke and Lilli eat pie after pie before Luke bests Lilli around pie 6. With the excitement of the contest ended a long rest ensued for all.

12th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We were getting up and getting ready to pack up the next day when I decided it was time to try and extend my connection with Lathander. From the books I loaned from Renald before setting out from Waterdeep, I was certain that I was ready to call upon a spirit extension of Lathander.

After some time of praying, a growl was heard across the clearing from a patch of grass. The padding of soft yet firm paws and crackling shrubs ensued before a giant golden lion plodded out of the bushes, with a flowing silvery mane. It padded up to me with the rest of our group dumbfounded, and I ran my fingers through its ethereal mane before it lazily sat next to me and yawned.

I knew as soon as I touched the beast it would be called Morning, in respect with Lathander’s title of Morninglord. It was a strong beast but without ferocity. The look in its eyes betrayed an intelligence beyond that of a natural creature, one which I instantly knew would be loyal to the bitter end, just and true.

Before settling in for the day’s hike to the Grandfather tree we went for a quick run, brought on by John and Tharra shapeshifting into dire wolves. Lilli being so small jumped onto John and we went for a ride at breakneck pace through the forest. It took some time to settle in on Mornings back as he darted this way and that at speed, pouncing over obstacles and under branches with ease. The wolves kept up with us and we took turns taking the lead, in and off trails and following the scents only the beasts could sense.

Before long, however, we rejoined the group as we closed the distance to the Grandfather Tree. A few more hours saw us into a clearing, with a giant tree reaching into the sky at least three hundred and fifty feet and with a trunk of easily 50-foot diameter. It was surrounded by 2 round rings of raised earth and with an innermost set of 4 oak trees.

After taking in this awe-inspiring sight, John was the first to move. Moving with respect toward the tree, he was confronted quickly bu a dryad that came out of the tree itself. With reverence, John introduced himself to the silvery woman but notably called himself ‘Mindartis’, a name we have never heard him say even in his sleep. He went on to ask about Aerglas and was saddened to hear that he had passed just on one hundred and twenty seasons ago, his bones having joined the others buried around the Grandfather Tree.

Slowly, John then went up and gently touched the tree. He was there for some time, clearly, a unspoken bond being shared between them. Something in the air changed during the time, not a single person spoke. Thinking back, I think even the forest went quiet during the time that our druid and the tree shared whatever it was that they did. Not even the sound of leaves rustling in the wind or underfoot of any animals could be heard.

And then, abruptly, sound returned to the forest and the spell was broken. John returned to us wordlessly, but with gifts, the Grandfather Tree shared with him. Some of Areglas’ possessions from his time in this mortal coil.

Before leaving, Lilli sent a few messages off to Naxene so Lifferlas would know what fate had met his creator, fulfilling his destiny so many years past. She had found out that the Vonindod was a massive dragon slaying construct, news that sent a chill down our collective spine. If the Giants were trying to rebuild a device capable of defeating a dragon - well it didn’t bear the thought. How could our ragtag group of adventures pose a threat to a force like that?

We left later in the afternoon and camped out amongst the stars for another uneventful night. After some discussion, it seemed that Everlund would be the next best place to head, in light of the fact it was closest to our current location once we exited the grand forest, and our direction seemed to be taking us on the Northern path to Silvermoon and beyond.

Once Lilli started her detect magic ritual it was clear she was trying to shield her eyes from a cornicopia that John was given as part of his gift. Lilli was almost reverent in her inspection of the bounty, a wicker cornucopia that could provide ample food out of nothing for our group daily. With this and the Decanter of Endless water we acquired from Zi’s gear so many moons ago, we would never go hungry or thirsty.

This is great news. An army marches on its stomach.

Wizards and Teleporters

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

13th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We’ve struck out today for the edge of the forest closest to Everlund. Tharra tells us she has a plan to get us there quicker than we would expect but plays coy on how she plans to do so. It just requires us to get close to the edge of the Forest.

It has been an uneventful day, any beasts that might have caused us grief would stand aside at the sight of the two treants shadowing us, Crabapple and Walnut. I find it hard to believe there is a beast in this forest capable of causing harm to another, but it must be so. Tharra has filled our ears with tales of the forest, including the struggle of centaurs that have been fighting aberrations that poison the forest. It would appear not even a tranquil retreat like this is not safe from the evil that invades this world when none stand opposed to it.

We made good progress today, so we have hunkered down and enjoyed the bounty of John’s newly acquired magical item. It’s time to put this journal down and see what he’s decided is on the menu today.

14th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

Another good day of progress, with little to keep us down. The only thing stopping us getting there faster is the treants, who move at a respectable pace but are much slower than what we can attain.

Of the night, Lilli’s curiosity overcame her and she insisted on trying to find out where the food came out of the cornucopia. Upon digging in to see what was inside the horn-shaped wicker basket, she promptly stuck her head much too deeply into it and found herself suddenly wearing it as a hat.

We have a good laugh at the sight of the gnome stumbling about with her shrill, rapid fire cries for assistance muffled through the wicker. Unfortunately, she didn’t find the funny side of it and didn’t join in the laughter.

She has many years to grow up. I’m sure the rough edges will be smoothed out if she survives our journey. I must see to it that everyone in our group does. I cannot lose any more people I’m responsible for. They still haunt my dreams at night.

15th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We arrived at the edge of the forest shortly before lunch and took a break to hunker down some of the food John pulled out of the cornucopia. Tharra explained her plan to get us there, fly like droplets mist on the wind.

She wasn’t kidding. With a word and a touch, I watched her touch John who closed his eyes peacefully, taking in the serene forest one last time with a sigh. Then, he… evaporated into a mist and flew away on the wind, heading in the direction of overland. One by one Tharra sent us on our way, with Luke mistrustfully waiting until last before allowing the druid to touch him.

I can’t pen down what happened in the hours that we rode the wind before we arrived at Everlund. Perhaps it’s an experience not bound for a journal. It wasn’t and uncomfortable experience, but an odd one. I was conscious but unconscious, with a perception of the world and time that was… altered. The time before we landed in Everlund was a few hours at most by the tracking of the sun, but for me, it was an indeterminate amount of time.

Everlund was a big place, it must be second only to Waterdeep itself. After we got past the guards at the gate we could see the massive tower in the distance, a mages tower clearly. Despite the fact locals told us the tower in the distance appeared sealed and had no entrance, It was a task and a half to keep the fledgeling wizard on task to continue onto to our lead here, Danavar’s house.

We headed to Danavar’s House, the local village bar in Everlund that Darathra told me to find back when we left Triaboar. We found the innkeeper, Dral, behind the bar just as described. A one-eyed orc, polishing a glass as we entered the bar.

I slipped him the Harpers badge and the Triboar badge and surprisingly, he returned in kind by pouring us all a wine each, silently. I was a bit surprised and was the first to drink some of the wine he offered.

I was no longer in the bar but in a dark place. I was alone, but after a short break whilst my eyes adjusted to the dimness, I could sense I was no longer alone. The rest of the group seemed to pop into existence behind me. We were in a large marbled place, very cushy. Tressum were everywhere, and moving forward we moved into a large parlour, magically lit. Globes drifted around the room and it wasn’t long before a wizard in a purple robe appeared.

He introduced himself as Krowen Valharrow, an archmage. Lilli’s eyes bugged out when she realised we were inside the mages tower, teleported by the drink in the inn.

After some conversation and Lilli’s incessant questions of the wizard, we were led to a room with a circular seal on the floor. The Harpers had a teleportation network around the north end of the sword coast region, with this just being one spoke of the network. He would give us access to it for free, enabling us instant travel between Neverwinter, Yatar, Everlund, Loudwater, Waterdeep and Mirabar.

After we got over the initial shock of the revelation, we told him our story and what had been going on. We learnt from him that there had been a giant castle spotted flying over the Evermoors of late, possibly the same castle we were pursuing back at Nightstone. Whilst they were trying to keep an eye on the castle movements, they were also aware of other Giant activity that appeared to be picking over the bones of an ancient civilisation - like what we observed with Fire Giants looking for Vonindod Construct pieces. He confirmed that the Vonindod Construct was an ancient adamantine weapon that was built to slay dragons.

He also warned us of the great dragons that lurked around the areas.

*Blue Dragon - the doom of the desert (Domain of the Silver Marshes and Anauroch)

White Dragon, lair in the Spine of the World (reports of her being eccentric but crafty)

Red Dragon, Klauth (lair in the Klauthen Value)*

Despite our interest in using the teleporters our plan was always to continue on to Silverymoon and Zymorven Hall.

Before we left we did find out that the fire giants might have forges hot enough to forge adamantine. Gayntelgrum’s forge is fired by a volcano and makes the best equipment in the land. He also indicated the Giants had a place near Citadel Adbar.

We were teleported back to the tavern and went onto the Bright Blade Brandished to have a sleep before setting out. The inn definitely impressed, the liquor flowed free and was transported across the bar by magical magehand. Lilli was particularly impressed of course, but I even saw John take a few hidden glances at the scene we were surrounded by.

15th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We got up early and grabbed ourselves two horses from the local stables and set out quickly for Zymorven Hall. It wasn’t that long before we found ourselves in front of the keep, set against a hill.

We didn’t pause for long before we approached the guards to look for an audience with their Lord. Despite our gear, they only thought we were beggars. Despite this, we pressed on and got ourselves an audience.

We found ourselves in front of Lord Zymorven within the hour. He was able to recognise us for the adventuring party that we were and organised a meal that to us was a banquet. After some small talk and some gorging, we broached the topic of Urgula and her suggestion that we come and visit the ageing knight.

Zymorven was quite the boisterous storyteller! We swapped stories for some time before the conversation turned more serious. Eventually, he admitted that his famed sword had been stolen by his son, Hartel, who had disgraced the family and married a common harlot.

We offered to track the sword down and he insisted that if we did recover it we were welcome to use it, with the wish the sword would once again be used against Giant foe once more.

We broke bread and swapped tales of past brawls well into the night and collapsed well fed into his accommodation late in the night.

16th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We thanked him for the hospitality he shared with us and the accommodation and left early the next day.

Hartel was last seen in Yatar with his wench so we decided to head back to Everlund and give the teleporter network a try.

It was a quite on the road except for some game that we saw skirting the roads.

16th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

The next day was shaping up to be uneventful as we were expecting, but we were certainly wrong by the end of the day.

It all started with a carriage we found just off the forest. With some scouting, we found 4 men equipped with morningstars and heavy crossbows. John, scouting shapeshifted as a wolf, reported back that a zhent tattoo could be seen on at least one of the people.

John overheard enough of their conversation to know they looking for ’the flying misfortune’, a bronze dragon.

We decided quickly to confront them, Luke being particularly keen to take down the Zhentarum a peg or two after what they did to him with the fake letter back at goldenfields. I was keen to see some of these sarding mongrels back in the dirt where they belong, too.

After some hesitation, they realised that we were adventures and didn’t recognise us. They wanted us to help them hunt a bronze dragon that had been terrorising their caravans in the region. We knew they would only want us to be a distraction for their fight, but we decided to play along to find a good time to turn the tables on them.

As we fell into file with them, keeping wary, Cyke filled us in on what he knew of bronze dragons. With his background as a dragonborn, he knew a bit more about dragons than we did.

Bronze dragons tended to be fascinated with warfare, loved swimming. More importantly, they tended to be good.

Suddenly, we heard a sound fly overhead and through the trees of the clearing, a great bronze dragon strode through the trees into the clearing, snapping them like twigs.

Felgolos, the bronze avenger strode into the clearing, roared mightily, and hissed at the zents. A lightning bolt fired across the zents, smoking 2 of them as they stood. The others barely dodged out of the way to only get singed.

Like our encounter with Old Gnawbone, we felt a wave of fear wash over us, but we were already engaging the zents in combat. They shouted their dismay at our sudden but inevitable betrayal. As we closed the distance to their caravan, Cyke pinned one of them to the caravan seat with two javelins.

Felgolos strode in, picking one up and ripping him in half with one fell swoop. The last guy valiantly fended off, dodging and weaving in between my blows and Felgolos’, before Cyke put him on the ground with another two javelin’s being embedded in his chest.

Thankfully, Felgolos was quick to understand that we planned to ambush and was thrilled of the fight. We found out that he passionately hated the Zhentarum and was ambushing their caravans wherever he could.

After we established with him our mission against the Giants he was even more thrilled to have met us. He explained to us he was keen for us to help him recover Yondalla’s delight, a sacred pipeweed. He said it was being held near Ascore, guarded by two blue dragons.

In return, he was more than happy to help us tackle Grudd Haug.

We said that we would contact him when we thought we were ready up for the task and bid him good day.

With the days’ excitement out of the way, we ensured the Zents had breathed their last and continued on our way.

Before we turned in, Lilli got word from Naxene that Guh and another dozen or so hill giants, forty orcs and goblinoids, an ettin, ogres, wolves were present at Grudd Haug. They didn’t appear to be an urgent threat to Goldenfields at this stage.

17th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We reached Everlund and Denevars house the next day fairly early on and took the teleporter to Yatar to chase down this son.

In Yatar, we initially found it hard to find info on Hartel until I got the local Harper agents to assist us. We found that he was out of reach - in jail! From Lord Zymorven’s account, its no surprise that his son would be found behind bars. As for the Zymorven family sword, it was seen in the possession of a corrupt guard captain.

This was quite the foil, as we certainly couldn’t go after a guardsman, especially a captain, even if he was well known as being corrupt. We pressed them for more information and found out he was also a well-known gambler and loves gambling on the pleasure barge that Cyke was thrown off when we took him on board. He carried the sword with him everywhere he went since he acquired it.

We came up with an indirect way to get the sword off this guard. The gambling barge didn’t allow weapons on board, so with the Harper’s assistance, we organised an invite to the barge delivered to his house. Then we set up in an inn near the captains’ house and waited for him to return back.

We planned for Luke to slip in once the Captain had left, grab the sword and slip back into the night

Lilli’s tressum saw the guard come home and find the invitation, and rush in the house scrounging up all his gold as fast as he could. It saw him rush back out with a jingling sack and more importantly, with no sword.

Luke was ready, and with Lilli’s invisibility spell helping him he slipped off into the afternoon soundlessly. Cyke, Lilli and I waited at the inn for either luke to return or for an alarm to be raised.

After an ale or two we started to become concerned that Luke hadn’t been able to slip the past or overcome the guards the Captain had posted by his place.

Just as I was starting to consider investigating, a huge sword materialised from thin air and landed onto our table with a clatter. Lilli’s spell was so good that we hadn’t even noticed his return back into the Inn.

With our business settled, we headed back to the teleporter and made our way to Waterdeep. The Waterdeep teleporter exit was guarded by an agent as well as a massive shield guardian, one that made Lilli swoon with anticipation. I think she will spend the night figuring out how she will be able to command her own construct like that in the future.

After a brief stop at Lilli’s residence near the Tinkerer’s Guild, we headed off in search of Naxene, who had indicated she was in Waterdeep for a while doing some research before returning to Goldenfields.

We found Naxene studing in a large library of Waterdeep. Lilli filled Naxene’s ears with her signature rapid-fire excited talk to fill in Naxene on Gnawbone, the pie eating contest, and so on until Naxene politely stopped Lilli for a break.

Naxene made some good suggestions, such as taking invisibility magic and lightning resist equipment if we were going to pursue Felgolos’ wishes. Her research on Grudd Haug indicated that Guh wanted to be the biggest Giant she could be so she was eating everything she could, and it appeared the raids were merely feeding her massive died.

I can’t believe Strog would turn his back on his post for this rudding fool’s errand. I swear I will end the man, he was never fit for the uniform or the responsibility of the safety of the people of Goldenfields. There is no excuse for his behaviour, and when we breech Grudd Haug I will send the sarding disgrace of an orc before Lathander for judgment, personally.

Naxene also suggested that I get myself some lighter armour to be quieter moving through the dragon’s lairs and that perhaps some colour appropriate gear would be in order for our respective journeys.

I wanted to check in with Renald at the Spires of Morning so we headed there briefly whilst we decided our next move. Renald was happy to see me as usual, especially with my head still on my shoulders. It seems there’s a bit of a pool going around the church how long I will keep it in my head. I can’t say I blame them.

He offered to help, and the best help seemed to be to get more inks for our budding young wizard. Renald provided, and also gave us some scrolls including a few Revivify scrolls. I hope to not need these, but they will be indispensable if the worst does happen.

We will rest here tonight, under the pink marble church I’ve called home now for years, and will get ready to set out to search for this Oracle in the spine of the world.

How we get there is another problem. The easiest way will be through Mirabar, but the others don’t yet know that I can never return to my hometown.

18th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

I dreamt again last night. The figures move frightened in the valley, away from the cloud and away from the rider that moves between them. I have such an affection for these figures, such a desire to see them safe. but yet, I don’t think that I can.

I ride amongst them on Morning, looking for a way to save them. The cloud has already corrupted the figures and they are writhing, rusting from the effects of the cloud. I pick up those that fall, I guide those that I can guide away from danger. I try to help.

Suddenly, I recognise the face of Teisha in the distance. My wife is lost in the crowd, trying to find a way out, trying to save our children. She holds little Erik in her arms and Joane is holding her mother’s legs, lost and scared.

I head off to help them and save them, Morning ducking and weaving, leaping over the other figures that scream and squeal in their desperate flight.

Teisha sees me and screams. She screams at me to stay away. My children cry at the sight of their father and turn to run from me.

All my will went into spring Morning forward, all other priorities melting away. Teisha looks at me like she’s seen an abomination, shambling to get away from me. The look of abject terror and loathing drives a knife through my heart but yet in continue on.

As I near on them I lean off Morning, leaning further and further, Morning shifts in a way I don’t expect and I go tumbling to the ground. I only just have time to see my family continue to flee me before I hear the sounds of the Rider behind me about to run me through.

I close my eyes and weep silently into the ground as I feel the hooves run over my body.

I picked over my porridge with disinterest this morning. How could we get to the spine without the others wanting to take the route through Mirabar? Could I convince them to take another route to avoid Mirabar without arousing suspicion?

And could I be in the area without wanting to find out about if Teisha and my children were safe?

We grabbed some yeti hide gear from a vendor nearby and settled into a local alehouse to discuss our next steps.

Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get the group to agree with my plan to head up river past Mirabar to enter the mountains by another pass. My refusal to go to Mirabar got more questions and I got more frustrated as the conversation went on. Renald did always say that my anger would be my downfall.

Lilli became more and more childish and started to insist that getting some truth from me would be for the best, so with rage I cast Zone of Truth on myself, with confidence my training would help me resist it.

I was right. All but Lilli resisted the Zone, and I was able to press Lilli with impunity with my own line of questioning.

It didn’t matter, however, and I admitted to the group that I was never to return to Mirabar on pain of death. I told them that I got a number of my own soldiers killed. I saw Luke raise an eyebrow but he seemed convinced that I was telling the truth.

They didn’t press me on details but John did pull me aside to talk about it, all I told him was that I was at fault for what happened, through no fault of my own.

We left afterwards, using the Teleporter to get to Mirabar, with the understanding from the Harpers that their teleporter in Mirabar was safe and unseen. They were right, I never heard of such a thing in my time in the Axe.

We emerged in Mirabar, and the agent at that end told us that the building we were in was backed onto the exterior walls of Mirabar. He would be able to magically tunnel through the massively high walls of Mirabar to get us out without me ever stepping foot into the light of day at Mirabar.

Before leaving, the proximity to where I last saw Teisha and the children was too overwhelming and I asked the agent to track down information on my family discreetly, without them knowing about it or that it was from me. Teisha… My love. We will never be a family again but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to know they are safe.

After my exile, I haven’t tried to find out about them, which was her express wishes. I never got a chance to rationally explain my actions, but could I ever truly justify them in her mind? I can only hope after they lost their status in the city she re-married someone with a position that could protect her and the children, the thought of her becoming a downcast traitors wife… It doesn’t bear the thought.

The others overheard me but I no longer cared about it. If they wanted to judge me let them sarding well do so and me damned.

When we got outside the wall a wave of nostalgia hit me. I remembered the nights of patrol, the drinking with the troops, the fights in the mines against the creatures that dwelled withing, the warmth of our marital bed.

I felt a snap, and with that, it was gone. I was just staring at a big wall, with empty surroundings. That was all gone.

I fell into file with the others as we got the boat ready. They had many questions about my family, which I answered as best I felt like at the time.

The rest of the day has been uneventful, and a quiet boat ride finished off the rest of the day.

19th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

The next day was only punctuated by Lilli’s tressum finding the bodies of 4 frost giants and 30 men wearing war paint in the area.

We decided to pull the boat in and head out, hoping to get a few free giant heads.

We got 4 heads from the giants and some other things from the spoils. Cyke seemed to think the barbarians were from the ‘Great Worm Tribe’. It doesn’t appear that there are any tracks leading away from the conflict.

We got back on board and finished the rest the day out without issue.

20th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

Not much to report in for the day. We’re still heading East and making good time.

21th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

It been yet another uneventful day, nothing to report. Cyke tried to do some fishing but it hasn’t been great, and besides, we can call up what we want from the bounty. He insists it’s not the same, however.

I’m going to put this down and turn in.

Actually, that wasn’t right. Moments after I put the journal down Luke made the call, Lilli saw a frost giant coming along the beach, calling out to talk to us.

We began to prepare an ambush before we noted it wore a dragon skull on its head. This was the giant that old Gnawbone told us to seek out!

We went to parlay with it, and after establishing that it, in fact, wasn’t with the Giants and was actually resisting the current power struggle. He genuinely didn’t seem to want the smallfolk like us to be hurt.

It even turned out he rudding well lived in Waterdeep for a time! He served in Waterdeep’s Greyhands, the mercenary defence force of the town. Even Lilli had heard of his deeds.

He was looking for the Oracle as well in the Temple of the All-Father, so we were happy when he agreed to join us. We had more information on its location than he did.

I’ll try and rest again now that all that’s done with. The boats resting much lower in the water with another guest on board.

The Oracle

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

22th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We reached the pass we were aiming to take not an hour into the next morning. The pass led into the mountain’s terrain that was the spine of the world, becoming white as it leads up into the higher terrain. Anyone coming here without decent snow gear was a fool.

After disembarking, we found the pass and travelled for the entire day into the mountain ranges. It was a good thing we got information on the area, as having to navigate this terrain without a road would have been treacherous.

We found the temple fairly quickly considering how hard it would be to find without a sense of where it is. It was a temple carved into the mountainside, with six pillars supporting a dome. Six statues were present on the outside, one depicting a giant from each of the giant races.

John stopped us before we got too close to the template as he had noticed tracks. Eight human tracks, heading into the temple.

With Luke stealthily leading the way in light of the possibility of a confrontation, we headed into the temple. As we drew closer it was obvious the awe-inspiring structure was not created for the race of man, elf, dwarf. Even the tallest man who would have ever lived would have been dwarfed and humbled in this place.

As we snuck in through the massive doorway we went into a large chamber that looked like an entry way into the temple. The walls on either side had ledges and pillars, with carvings decorating the pillars. The roof was by my reckoning at least sixty foot high. The structure had been bored out of the sheer rock face of the mountain but was polished smooth.

We were almost so engrossed in taking in the sight of the cavernous building that Luke almost missed a trap that would have dropped huge boulders on him. He pointed it out and we all managed to slip around it and continue on.

The next room was similar to the first. I noted that John was heading off to one of the walls to touch it, obviously needing to connect with the building and its culture through the tactile sense of touch. I, myself, felt the same urge and headed over to one of the carvings and removed the mail from my hand. The carvings were smooth and professional and depicted scenes of Giants fighting Dragons.

Lilli was standing in the middle of the chamber, mouth agape. It was not often you could silence her, but the reverence of the temple had done it. Even I found myself feeling respectful to whatever force was behind this structure, despite the fact it was most likely not aligned with my own beliefs. Even Luke raised his eyebrows. Harshnag fit the temple much better than the rest of us being a Giant, but even he was awestruck.

We heard noises ahead, which brought us all back together rather quickly. We carefully made our way up a set of steps, each five feet tall, to find a group of people ahead that must have matched the footprints we saw coming in.

As we approached, we saw seven barbarians, including a shaman, and a dragon wyrmling. They were up another flight of stairs forcing another massive door, this one covered in frost. We barely even got a chance to open our mouths before they were running at us, screeching at the top of their lungs and waving weapons.

Typical undisciplined barbarian folk.

Harshnag bellowed and struck the first blow, knocking one barbarian up into the air with one blow, then cleaving him in two whilst midair. The barbarians immediately turned and rushed toward Lilli, sensing weakness from the younger and smaller female gnome.

She was mobbed and went down with the rest of us falling on them in short order. In the ruckus, I saw Mornings form, having been dangling from a barbarian’s throat, disappearing in a shimmer of light with a vengeful roar.

We managed to get Lilli up again on her feet and despite being dazed, managed to crawl up Harshnags massive form to escape the combat, only to be dragged down by a barbarian who latched onto her feet at the last minute. I watched her beat the guy over the head with her staff as she was dragged down, an axe blow from a barbarian glancing off my armour bringing me back to the fight at hand.

Cyke fired off his lightning javelin, carving right through three barbarians right before John summoned up a wind wall, blocking the rest from the fight and giving us some breathing space to pick up Lilli again.

We were able to bring them down fairly handily with Luke quickly getting behind the dragon wyrmling and cutting it apart before it could even turn to face him.

Harshnag roared again and hit the last barbarian standing with an axe blow so vicious it cut his head clean off and propelled it against the wall, bouncing off the wall 30 foot above us and landing with a sickening thud. Once Harshangs roar finished echoing off the walls, we were once again left in a quiet temple, albeit a less clean and sacrosanct one.

With combat done, we found a small alcove to have a quick breather in, and to patch up Lilli from her wounds. Afterwards, with some scouting from the tressum, we were about to locate the switches required to open the frost covered door and proceed up the huge stairway into the temple proper.

As we walked into the chamber, the sense of awe was replaced by an even stronger sense of wonder. This vaulted chambers walls went up so far it was hard to tell where they ended, but it looked to be one hundred feet or so. There were seven statues in the room, again six huge statues of giants in a circle, surrounding a sevenths statue in the centre. The centre statue was a seventy or eighty feet tall robed giant, arms outstretched and face hidden. It faced a glowing archway at the end of the hall, which was an odd shaped square doorway.

I went forward to inspect the runes above the doorway as something caught Lilli’s attention in the wall off to the right. The runes appeared inlaid with mithril, and the door itself seemed to be glowing with a magical storm that rumbled and toiled, also blocking the way forward.

I had a suspicion that dwarves had a hand in constructing this enormous place, but that hunch was confirmed when I saw the runes were in dwarven script that said:

Oracle wisdom lies within
Pass the clouds to get in
But only in the arms of kin
And only by the arms of kin

Lilli had uncovered a secret door in one of the walls so I headed back, noting that all the giant statues had weapons with the exception of the front giant statue.

Lilli had uncovered a small alcove that would be useful to hole up in if required.

We started musing over the riddle I’d read from the runes. It seemed like we needed a Giant to help us pass the clouds, but why the reference to arms twice?

We got Harshnag to start fiddling with the runes on the statues. One of them froze him on the spot for a time, and another created some magic that made things fall up instead of down. I will never forget the look on his face as he disappeared, confused as to why things fell up all of a sudden. He fell for a while before thumping against the roof but managed to fall onto the tallest statue and slide down it when the magic field dissipated.

We decided from there to cease experimenting with the runes, and turned our attention to the southern doors, covered in frost. There were doors that ran North and South in the cavern, all blocked with frost.

Shoving our way through the door we come into a massive mess hall. The room was covered with large tables and stools, complete with a decorative statue in a crevice further down the room. We could also see a large Giant axe, the missing one from the room.

We started moving forward to retrieve it but we discovered we were not alone after all. A large centipede-like creature slithered out from behind the statue, twenty feet long and five foot wide. It was segmented and jagged, but the hide appeared to give it heavy armour. At its front segments, it had these strange webbed spines that gave it a ferocious, hooded appearance. It had spines on its back that looked like they were red hot. It had these antenna growths on its head and was bluish-wite. It didn’t merely snake along the ground toward us, as it had wings at its front part that could hold its front segments aloft as it ran toward us.

We didn’t even need to discuss retreating to the main room, the mere sight of the creature made us beat a hasty, silent retreat.

It came at us quickly, spitting slime out of its mouth as it flew and ran at us all in one motion. We got as many attacks on it as we could before it closed range. We stood with Cyke, Harshnage and myself firm in the doorway whilst the others kept to the rear and used their range against it.

It bit first at Morning who I summoned during our short rest. It screamed and recoiled in surprise at having no purchase on Morning as the great lion phased out of existence once again. I hit it as hard as I could with my longsword but was hit twice as hard back from red hot waves of fire that shot out of the spines on its back.

I was off balance and disoriented from the sudden heat wave when it turned to Cykellion and, almost with a smile, it ate him. The blow knocked Cyke out and he lay limply in the creature’s mouth as it reared back like a bird of prey trying to toss its meal down its throat. The barbarian limply flopped around its mouth as it tried to get him down its throat.

We redoubled our attacks on the beast but it did not seem to even notice our attacks, its spines firing back at each melee attack made against it. John managed to heal up Cyke right before the creature succeeded at swallowing him. He rolled out of its mouth moments before the thing gnashed its jaws shut.

Cyke landed on the floor in a pile of bile and spit, proclaiming in surprise ‘I thought it smelt bad on the outside’

The creature grabbed Cyke in its mouth again in response.

It was a hard fought battle and probably the hardest we’d faced in our time as a party, but with a mighty blow from Harshnag, the creature was felled with a burst of flame and a hiss that sent a chill down our spine, echoing around the temple.

Lilli had read something about a creature like this, they were called a Remorhaz. We just hoped to never see another one.

We grabbed the axe and got a sleep in Lilli’s Tiny Hut she cast for the night, and we settled in for a well-deserved if early rest.

23rd Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We awoke the next morning with a direct sense of how to proceed. We touched the frost rune with the axe, and with trepidation proceeded through the thundering cloud wall.

We stepped into a hexagonal chamber with a ceiling that was tapered to the centre point. Each corner of the room was more statue of Giants, holding up heavy lanterns. The place was dimly lit by these lanterns, which revealed a giant corpse on the ground, frozen in death. Underneath the body, we could see some runic carvings on the ground in a circular pattern.

A ghost appeared over the body on the ground, sadly introducing itself as Eigeron, a deceased cloud giant that was heir to Countess Sansuri. She is the current leader of the Cloud Giant tribe.

We learnt that he was killed by his mother in this very room, enraged by an answer that she’d received from the Oracle. The Oracle suggested her son could supplant her as leader and Countess Sansuri struck Eigeron down where he stood and bludgeoned him to death where he lay. The frost covered morningstar near his body corroborated his story.

We also heard that a blue dragon has been here asking questions of the oracle. Eigeron didn’t seem to know how much time had passed since he died but it seemed to only be many months, not many years.

He also explained the 6 flames in the room signified the 6 questions that could be asked of the Oracle each day, with the magicks being reset during Lathanders holy time of dawn, like many magicks.

After some thought, we asked many questions of the Oracle.

It was revealed to us that Countess Sansuri was interested in the Artefacts of Astoria. These artefacts were from a race of Giants before civilisation, an ancient race of Giants long forgotten by the annals of history. Sansuri had been searching for a black obelisk, which was supposed to be a map to these treasures. This obelisk, called the Nightstone, was a trove of information and knowledge regarding the Artefacts of Astoria.

We recoiled in surprise! Countess Sansuri was the giant in the castle that devastated Nightstone which kicked off our involvement in this whole mess! And we knew she achieved her goal of finding the obelisk. She is also a powerful wizard, who we need to be careful of. She’s been seen searching the untamed moors - which is an older name for the evermore, where castle sightings have been made! And we, of course, had already encountered fire giants who were seeking Vonindod construct pieces.

Annam All-Father himself broke the ordning, to rouse the Giant race from their complacency.

Eigoron let us know that the Hill, Frost, and Fire Giants tended to have the most evil intent. The Stone Giants tended towards neutrality, and the Storm and Cloud giants tended towards good.

Eigeron didn’t approve of what his mother was doing, despite having committed evil himself. He was involved with the Worm Tribe that we encountered, helping them bind a creature called a Couatl to a alter that they had nearby. Couatl were good, magical creatures that can’t die of old age or lie either.

We explained to Eigeron that we were pretty sure we killed their leader on the way in but he’s still stuck on the mortal plane. He doesn’s seem to think his ghost can rest until his sins are absolved. He wants us to free the Couatl from its bindings to the prison and we agree that we will search for it.

Lilli asked how we could infiltrate the storm giants. The storm giant court is in a maelstrom not accessible by conventional means. A special conch is required, which are only distributed to nobles or giant leaders. However, a dragon is capable and one already has infiltrated the giant court. The blue dragon that was recently in this very room.

The Oracle suggests we seek out a conch with the aim to find the Storm Giant King, King Heckoton. He has disappeared, and the Oracle cannot see him. However, the Oracle does not think he has passed on from this realm. His youngest daughter, Serissa, may be a starting point for us to find him.

The Vonindod Construct pieces are still scattered but the majority of them are located in Ironslag, it has the highest concentration of them. It’s fair to conclude this is where they are reassembling the construct and if we can stop them before they finish we won’t need to concern ourselves with finding individual pieces.

The Oracle was created by Annam the All-Father, and it seeks to correct the chaos he has caused.

Having exhausted our questions for the day we set out to explore the place whilst we had time.

We found a natural tunnel that contained an exit to the outside, which was in actual fact a sheer four hundred foot drop on the side of the mountain that would not be pleasant to try and climb. We also found some giant spiders that had nested in the cave system which we cleared out. From the look of their lair, it appeared that a few adventure types had fallen victim to the spiders in the past.

We went back to the abode for another rest to clear our minds, ready for another round of Oracle wisdom.

24th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

The next morning we woke up and only had the shortest of breakfast before heading back to the Oracle.

Lilli asked about the conches. The Giant Lords and Court members would each have one. However, without the will of the Storm Giants, the conches require we prove dominance over Giants before being used.

In Ascore lies the pipeweed Felgolos wanted us to retrieve. Two Dragons defend their lairs, with the pipeweed being in one of them only. The lairs are trapped and guarded, and we would do well do be on guard for hidden foes and magical defences.

The giant lords and their agendas were revealed to us

Cheif Guh of the Hill Giants. Seeks to become the largest Giant in the world, and as we knew was holed up at Grudd Haug.
Thane Kayalithica of the Stone Giants. Rules in Deadstone Cleft, a canyon of stone giant thane. Seeks to destroy humans.
Jarl Storvald of the Frost Giants. Rules near Hartwick, seeking a Ring of winter to create an ice age.
Countess Sansuri of the Cloud Giants, seeking the Artefacts of Asuria. Currently flying around the Evermore’s.
King Hekaton, currently missing.

It made the most sense for us to take these tribes in order from weakest to strongest. If we wanted to maximise the opportunity of raiding the dragon lairs, a bags of holding would be best to do so.

I couldn’t resist the urge to find out more about who had betrayed me and set into motion the events at Mirabar. I asked the Oracle who was involved with my presumed plot to overthrow the Marchion. I found out that the Marchion I served, Elastul Raurym, was controlled by Hislen, as Gnawbone told me. He was deposed after Hislen fled.

John wants to know who the ‘Green Flame’ It’s not something I’m aware of but clearly it has been eating away at John for some time, considering he is willing to speak of it in our presence. The Green Flame is the Doom of the Desert, the great dragon Iymrith, the very same dragon that has infiltrated the court!

It would seem there is turmoil in the Storm Giant Court now the Dragon has installed herself in the court. The older sisters were not fit to rule and the heirship would have fallen to the youngest sister, but the elder sisters (Mirran, Nym) were fooled by the Dragon and then betrayed their father. We also learnt that Queen Neri of the Storm Giants has been slain.

The Oracle also told us not to be too concerned with the Ice giant seeking control of the ring. Whilst the ring did control weather around it, the Oracle insisted it was beyond his grasp and that he would have a hard time finding it. Despite this, he still might be dangerous.

With our questions exhausted, we turned to leave the temple, picking our way through the cavernous, awe-inspiring temple one last time. We decided to tackle freeing the Coautl first before heading onward.

The Twin Dragons

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

25th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

After a rest before heading out, we exited the temple planning to head out looking for the Great Worm tribe. Instead, we were confronted with a weird floating ship in the sky. It was unlike anything I’d seen, it looked like a ship, complete with harpoons, bow and stern. But it also had skids on the bottom of it, like what would be found on a sled. And above it, a red balloon that held the thing floating in the sky.

Onboard, we could see figures with black masks for faces, beckoning for us to come up to them.

Lilli’s eyes went wide and she ran to the contraption, eager to get onboard and experience it, but Cyke merely picked her up off the ground, so her little legs kept cartwheeling like she was still running.

With care, we approached the ship and after some back and forth climbed a ladder to climb aboard using a rope ladder.

There are four people on the ship, all wearing black masks that are shaped like a dragon, and black armour to match. One of them introduces herself as Delsephine.

On behalf of Klauth the dragon, she has come to offer this airship on his behalf to aid in fighting the Giants. She only offers one condition for this offer, which is that we are not to encroach on the Kauthian Vale.

Every time Klauth’s name is mentioned they all bow their heads with reverence and wave their hands in a symbolic gesture. We quickly find it easier to stop using his name.

We are hesitant to accept this offer as it would be unwise to sard off a dragon, so we tell them we need time to think about it and disembark.

I knew Lilli had been desperate to try out hew new spell so I whispered in her ear to prepare herself and proceed to throw her casually off the side of the ship, floating well above the ground. Lilli used her new slowfall spell to descent with grace to the ground, whilst the rest of us tried to race her to the bottom on the rope ladder.

Harshnag did not have any concerns about the offer and was not worried about us leaving him for the time being. The airship would not be able to support his weight unfortunately.

Lilli checked in and sent for Felgolos, asking him how risky the offer was. Felgolos seemed to think that we were not in any great danger as long as we weren’t pressed into his service irrevocably.

Accepting the offer, we got a tour of the airship, which had a fire elemental heating the air going into the balloon and an air elemental turning a blade at the rear of the ship. Lilli seemed to take all this in with excitement, and ever John and Cykellion took great interest in learning the ship.

It made no sense to me. Surely it was just magicks and the elementals were for show. Hot air couldn’t possibly make a thing fly. And how could a twisted piece of wood spinning make a ship move? If hot air could do these things, all of the lands nobles would float off into the sky. I think they were misleading our group on their tour and hiding the fact it was merely magicks at play, so I checked out the accommodations.

The ship had four rooms with hammocks. We split up into two groups and share two of the rooms. But nobody’s keen to stay below decks for long, not with the sights that could be beholden onboard.

We continued onto the area where the Great Worm tribe were meant to be, just much more swiftly than expected. The crew insist the ship can cover one hundred and ninety miles in a day, whereas we could only manage forty, while mounted.

It’s almost no time at all before we are landing down near the Great Worm Tribe cavern area. Inside the large, naturally formed cavern there is a series of caves leading off to each side of the area, and there is a raised hill in the middle containing a gong and a alter.

A group of barbarians start to gather and begin to threaten us, but before they can really get into the swing of it Cykellion shows them the severed head of their leader, which we went back to get once we realised he was important. They flee instantly at the sight of the head, leaving us the immediately to ourselves.

As we are approaching the alter, I saw John eyeing off the gong. He walked up purposefully, grabbing a nearby mallet and gave the gong a good hard ring.

I’m not sure what possessed him to do so, but the effect was immediate. The ringing noise reverberated around the cavern, causing ice to drop down from the roof onto where we rudding well stood!

We mostly managed to get out of the way of the ice, but immediately after that some infant Remorhaz popped out of the dislodged ice and attacked us.

Thankfully, they were not as fierce as their full-grown adult counterparts, but they still required some putting down.

That little distraction out of the way, we strode up to the alter. As I approached, I could hear a voice in my head. I shook my head but the voice was still there.

It asked for us to free it from the alter. It was the Coautl! I.. spoke back to it in our head and told it that we would free it. Motioning to Cyke, I indicated he should approach the alter and place the head on it.

As soon as he did the alter split in two with a cracking noise and the Couatl spring forth from it. it was a serpentine creature, but with feathered wings which it used to sprint forth into the air in front of us.

I immediately felt a wave of goodness radiate from the creature and felt completely at ease around it. It was named Quetzal and insisted on knowing more about us, and insisted that we receive a reward for our assistance.

We introduced ourselves and gave it some insight into our pasts and shortly thereafter it vanished with final thanks, leaving behind a rainbow feather.

We pocketed the feather and turned to head out, but not before Lilli wove some magic on the alter. Immediately, a booming voice could be heard from the alter, shouting a chilling warning to all that come close.

DOOM! DOOM! DOOM BEFALLS ALL WHO WORSHIP EVIL DRAGONS! BEGONE FROM THIS PLACE! DOOOOOM! DOOOOOOM! DOOOM TO THE GREAT WYRM TRIBE!
DOOOOOOOOOOOOM! DOOOOOM!
Dooooooooooom.
Deaaaaaaaathh.

We could hear it all the way back to the airship. I would be interested to know what the barbarian folk would make of their new talking altar.

Lilli quickly discovered the Feather of the Couatl enabled her to scribe in her books without requiring magical ink, massively reducing her requirement to spend all our gold on magical ink. When she realised what she now possessed she jumped into the air with a sqwark and ran off to begin scribing as much as she could before we got underway.

Our next stop was to be Xantharl’s Keep, to track down the bounty we heard about from Darz back in Triboar.

We got the flying ship underway and proceeded to head toward Xanthal’s Keep, with Cyke, John and Lilli learning how to fly the ship.

It will be our first night aboard the ship. We’ve tried to set ourselves into groups that will be combat ready if it comes to it, and I’m keeping Morning in my cabin at night for extra protection.

26th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We landed at Xantharl’s Keep the next day and went immediately hunting for Worvil ‘The Weevil’ Folkbeard.

I knew of Xantharl’s Keep from my time in the Axe. It was almost a forward warning station for Mirabar, with a large compliment of soldiers from the Axe posted here. It’s Lord was Lord Narbeck who reported to the Marchion back at Mirabar, the new marchion Selin Ramur.

I would have been best to avoid this place.

We headed to the local inn, the Falling Orc. Also the only one in town. The stableboy there was not particularly impressed to be stabling a lion and a clockwork horse but was appeased by an extra tip for his efforts. The inn’s mead-puller Arzastra, organized a room for the night for us and we had a lunch before getting on with our hunt.

We found The Weevil cleaning out stables but decide not to take him had on. Waiting until darkness, we set Luke out to stalk the weevil, and break into his room at the Inn to look for evidence.

I saw at the bar downstairs having a mead whilst we waited for Luke to finish up his business. I was halfway through a mead when Lilli’s Tressum come downstairs mewing for attention.

I put down my mead with a sigh and headed upstairs, popping the buckle on my sword sheath in preparation for a brawl.

We heard Luke shouting at us to cut him off downstairs so we turned and ran outside. We could hear footsteps running and glass shattering and by the time I caught up the Weevil was down and encased in John’s vines, and Lilli was weaving spells on him to convince him to stay. Luke was already trussing him up.

From the trail of glass outside the window, I’d guesses the Weevil interrupted Luke and managed to break out the window fifteen feet above the ground. From the distance the weevil covered, he didn’t make it that before and certainly didn’t make it out of range of John’s Roots incantation.

I cast Zone of Truth on him and we interrogated him. He confessed his crimes and admitted there was a hefty bounty on his head, so that was enough for us to take him in. He did try and slip his cuffs, but Luke spotted it and laid him out quickly.

We didn’t hear the four Axe guardsmen catch up to us in the commotion. They saw my Axe badge and were satisfied when we said we were taking in a known criminal, so we went to the guardhouse to claim our bounty and verify our story.

It wasn’t a position that I was happy to be in but I think my face was forgotten around these parts away from Mirabar, and my appearance has changed in the years since my service. I still carry the badge of the Axe on me discretely, out of some sort of damn pride. Damn pride serving a city, in which the citizens would prefer to see my head on a pike. How stupid can one man be?

In the guardhouse, we are confronted with Lord Narbeck. I had a flash of panic but I didn’t meet him in person, so hopefully he won’t remember me. I never thought I’d need a false name, but I’m not even sure I have it to me to be a fake. I paid my price, and this sarding Keep wasn’t on the out of bounds list.

After hearing his story he was quite happy and chatty and was happy to see a criminal off the streets. However, when he fetched his commissioner to fetch the gold, that’s where things went to sarding, ruddy manure.

His commissioner cast Zone of Truth to get a confession out of our bounty, now hazily awake. But this caught all of us in its aura. I resisted what I couldn’t, but the Weevil proved difficult to pin down in the spell’s effect.

It took the man four attempts to get the prisoner in his spell, and the final attempt pinned me in the spells effect as well.

After confirming the Weevils crimes they agreed to pay us, and the commissioner turned pointedly to me and asked for my introduction of our group, and for out business.

Under the influence of the spell I could not lie, and he knew it.

When I introduced myself as Morath Khalid, Lord Narbeck’s eyes flickered in recognition, and he started flipping backwards through the bounty book.

Even if I had resisted the priest’s spell would I have told him the truth? I should have walked into this guard house with a fake name ready, but I don’t think that I could have even gone through with a lie like that.

‘Morath Khalid, Morath Khalid’ he mused. I stared bolt straight ahead at him, too proud to look away. I could feel the others gazes drilling into the back of my head, but I dare not look away. I know what’s coming next, and it threatens everything we’ve been working toward. It threatens any trust and respect I’ve earned with my companions over the last months of travel and hardship.

He finds my name earlier on in the book as I know he will and he spits on the floor in disgust. His look of bored satisfaction with our arrest turns to disgust and loathing. ‘Morath Khalid. You disgrace. I can’t believe that you would come to my town and seriously expect us to pay you for the dishonour. You should have been executed for what you did, hell I have a mind to put you in chains and deliver you to the gates of Mirabar myself’

I open my mount to reply but I can hear Lilli blurt out behind me ‘Whats he worth?’

I’m staring at a fixed point at the wall above Narbeck ramrod straight. It is like being back at that forsaken farce of a hearing I had before my exile. I stared straight ahead, the room not in focus, and the people passing judgment upon me mere blurs. I focus on a chip in the wall and answer the questions asked of me in straight, short answers. It helps drown out the voices of the public crowd that have filled the citizen’s gantry in the chamber to demand my head on a spike and my corpse hung in a tree to be picked at by the carrion birds.

I don’t even need to look at my companions to know what their expressions would be.

Lilli was surprised and had already covered her mouth to try and stop the words escaping that she had just said. John, contemplative and taking this in without significant expression. Luke, looking ever more suspicious of me. Cykellion, building to anger and ready to speak his mind.

I stared straight ahead and insisted to Narbeck that I had paid my price, and the price I paid was worse than chains. Images of Teisha and my children flash across my mind unbidden, and the look of revulsion she had on her face the before I was dragged away. The family that I was probably within a mile of at Mirabar, but yet an eternity from having again.

As Lilli stammered out the words ‘Wha.. What did you do?’ I can hear the others behind me all at once start to attack Narbeck for his comments and begin to defend me, but I put a hand up to stop them and ask them not to argue. I won’t have any more innocents in danger because of me.

He tosses us the gold angrily and demands us to be gone. And as we are leaving he answers to Lilli that there is no current bounty, but only a recording of my crimes.

The Weevil, not really taking in this parley on account of probably being concussed, demanded to know whey we weren’t being reasonable with him. The end of the sentence was muffled by a gag and he was already being dragged out of the room by the time he realised what was happening.

We left Xantharl’s keep immediately and are heading for Triboar. Nobody has spoken further to me and that is what I need for now.

The defence my companions put up for me warms my heart but at the same time, I wonder how far our trust goes. Every man has his price I read the scholars say. They leap to my defence in warm blood, but when Narbeck’s words sink in will their minds question?

If there had been a sizable bounty on me what would it have taken for the others to offer me up to pocket the gold? Twenty thousand gold? Fifty thousand? I respect these people and have trusted them with their lives, but gold is gold and gold talks, as the dwarves say.

What would Luke do if he received a contract for my life, a sizable sum of gold and a one-sided account of my actions proving my guilt? Would he kill me in my sleep? Would he confront me first? Would he understand? He is a good man at heart but swift with a knife when the prey is guilty, and one thing the Holy Scripture of Lathander teaches is that no man is free of guilt.

Have they read my Journal? Will they read it in the future? What would they take away from the words I have written here? Are the up top deck now, discussing what to do with me?

Perhaps I should burn my account here and be done with it. Perhaps I should leave the party when I next can and return to the church and abandon my path.

27th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

We spent the day traveling toward Triboar, but I wasn’t really aware of what happened. I spent most of the day in the cabin downstairs with Morning.

I dreamt the same sarding dream again. The same rudding dream as it always is.

Once again I am riding towards the dark rider, determined to get him this time, despite having never done so. Morning is ducking and weaving and bounding over the figures, cutting a line for the dark rider.

He sees me coming and swings his blood red axe at me, but I’m ready. I deflect the blow with the sword Lathander gave me and parry. Morning, the mount Lathander has granted me edges me closer and closer to the rider. At the last second, I block another blow, sword on axe, the rider closer than ever.

I catch up to him and grab him, poorly. My mailed hand only finds purchase on his cloak comes off to reveal a Paladin dressed in plate mail. He is bathed in the dawn light and carries a shield finely engraved with the dawn symbol of Lathander. He carries a blood red axe, and set against the night sky it is strikingly similar of the Axe of Mirabar’s insignia.

The paladins face - MY face - looks down at me with contempt. He rattles at me that ‘You need to save these people’, and picks me up from Morning without effort and throws me into a crowd of the strange figures that flee him.

The crowd of the strange figures close in around me, moving bizarrely, as if sick. They look like people but they do not. I need to save them, but they close on me. I deflect the first attack and the second, but they outnumber me and I have no room to manoeuvre. My survival instincts take over and I strike at a figure, which goes down with an ethereal screech. I keep attacking as they overwhelm me, fighting for my life against those I wish to save.

I am the rider. I ride amongst these figures, wielding a blood red Axe, the insignia of my rank in the Axe of Mirabar, cutting down those who flee from danger and certain death. I wish to save them. I tried to save them. Why can’t I save those I am sworn to protect?

I can see Teisha running away in the distance, horrified of the actions of the dark rider. They escape unharmed physically, but I cannot save them from pain nonetheless.

Why must I relive this day every sarding night?

28th Marpenoth, the Star Walkers Return

The others made a brief stop in Triboar to look at selling the Vonindod construct piece, but after taking it to Foehammer he talked us into keeping it in case we come across a forge that can work the Adamantite. We will keep it in the cell for now.

The others decided then that Waterdeep would be the next best stop to grab a bag of holding, with the intent to be ready to tackle Felgolos’ request next. A quick flight to Yatar and a teleport to Mirabar will have us there in hours.

I’m not really sure I care anymore. I wonder how bad it would be if one of the blue dragons guarding the lair ate me. How many would mourn my passing? One of the brothers at the Spires in Waterdeep would win a pool of gold, these adventures would bury their paladin friend and strip his body of the belongings he had that were still of use to them. Word would be unlikely to get back to Teisha about her ex-husbands overdue demise.

Slipping off and heading back to the Spires when we land at Waterdeep might be the best option for everyone.

29th Marpenoth to 1st Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

I’m watching the scene unfold before me once again. I know the dark rider will run people down. It was me, I was there, I took those lives.

Why does Lathander torment me with my past so? He is standing before me, The Morninglord in his light of dawn. He smiles broadly at me.

I’m done with this. I’m done with this misery. I throw the sword down at his feet and turn to walk away. When I turn around, the ruddy sword is sticking out of the ground directly in front of me. As I look up Lathander is in front of me again.

I step around the sword, ignoring it, and continue walking forward. As I reach Lathander, he steps aside, revealing the same damn sword sticking out of the ground behind him.

I angrily take it up and heft it toward him with all my weight behind the blow. It doesn’t land. Lathander has hit me before I get halfway through the blow and knocks me thirty feet across the field. As I look up and clear my head, the sword is on the ground just a few feet in front of me.

I pick it up, and without a pause, I hold the hilt in a stance like I would throw a javelin and aim at Lathanders beaming form.

I don’t get to throw it of course, as Morning’s jaws grasp my javelin arm and worries it like a hound would do with its prey. I’m torn backwards, thrashed back and forward by the now ferocious and growling lion until I no longer have any sense of direction. A final tug of my arm sends me rolling away.

Looking skyward, my arm on fire and no doubt badly savaged, I see Morning pad into view looking down at me as well at Lathander. He offers me his hand and helps me back to my feet.

As I survey the familiar scene I can hear his voice boom in my head, without spoken words.

“From Death”, he says. “Life”. He gestures to the scene in front of me and offers me my sword once more.

I can’t quit now, can I?

It’s breakfast time at the Spires of Morning. We stayed here for the night before setting out again into Waterdeep proper.

We found a building that Luke points out some Theives cant. He seemed to think it was quite an odd sign, somewhat old fashioned. We decide to head in whereupon the proprietor of the establishment promptly recognized me from the work I had been doing feeding in intel on Inns to Arelosa.

Strange enough, I couldn’t find a harper pin on him. I already figured that the inns are outside the Harper’s direct interests, but they clearly don’t mind.

It turned out he had a good stock of magical items, which was convenient as that’s exactly what we came to Waterdeep for. After some trading, we left with two Bag’s of Holding, along with a variety of magical equipment. I picked out an even stouter shield that looks guaranteed to help deflect even more blows in combat. It’s a shame to retire the one with Foehammer’s artisan carvings of Lathanders crest, but I think this will find a good home on the mantle where we make our rest.

He seemed to know that we were heading to steal from dragons from the bags of holding we were buying. He prodly held aloft shovels for each of us with a crooked smile and suggested from his experience, it was best to bring a shovel to a dragons lair. The faster you get the loot in the bags the faster you get out alive was his advice.

As soon as we returned via teleporter to Yatar, I hung it over my head on the air boat ship we were travelling in.

Lilli contacted Felgolos and arranged to meet him at Ascore. It was time to steal from Dragons.

I need to shake this off. We are going up against two dragons within a few days and the group don’t need me in shambles. I have a job to do, and the mission to quell the giant uprising cannot be underestimated.

The interim days have been quiet. We’ve spend a few days on the air ship now, with Cyke and Lilli learning how to fly the ship.

Im not used to the idea of being able to float so far above the sky in this contraption but it is an execelent means of travel, besides the Harpers teleporter network.

2nd Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We made it to Ascore the next morning upon Lathanders holy hour of dawn. Ascore is a ruined village, the skeletal remains of a bustling port on what was once the Narrow Sea. All that remains is a set of docks and a few remenants of buildings, with the desert of sanding having swallowed the town. The water long ago was lost, replaced by mere sand.

When we landed we found a halfling smoking a pipe waiting for us, a halfling with a booming voice that didn’t suit his body. Felgolas had, of course, taking a more appropriate form to go unnoticed.

He had flown over at night and when we pooled our knowledge, we knew that there would be lairs in both boats, with the pipeweed in one. Felgolas found one boat upturned and another right way up, with the upturned one bearing a large hole in the roof.

He also found that the dragons took to the skies at midday and entertained themselves with mock battles that went for some time. This was our obvious time to get in and loot their lairs, using John’s Pass Without a Trace spell to help all of us be more stealthy.

As preparations were made, I took a look around the area and the party. A unit is only as strong as it’s the weakest soldier, and I couldn’t that be me. I had to have the strength to keep these people safe and progressing, and any member we lost was equally as bad to the party. It was time for me to shake off the past and focus on the present.

As the dragons took to the sky around midday and began to spar with each other we set off into the Dragon’s lair.

The plan is to use Johns Pass without a Trace to keep us quieter than we usually could, and Lilli to keep Detect Magic running to keep an eye out for magical traps. Luke will keep an eye out for physical traps. Lili’s already detected which boat contains the pipeweed, the northern upturned one. If it turns pear shaped, we will run out of here as fast as we can, and Felgolos will distract the two dragons.

We darted from building to building quietly, finding signs of battle and death as we went. Some of it seemed as recent as some months ago.

After seeing some movement in one building we halted and headed south to skirt around and keep undetected. On our detour, we came across what appeared to be an old shrine of some sorts. Upon closer inspected it appeared to be a shrine to the three dwarves gods, older gods that I have only heard of academically, not seen in practice.

Passing through the antechamber John’s eyes were drawn to the Dwarvish script above the doorway to the main hall, declaring ‘Clear Eyes have a true sight’. We could see in the small main chamber a pillar of obsidian, almost like a pyramid but with the top flat, almost like it was missing the tip. I recall the decor and theme of the temple to be belonging to the worship of Dumathiod, the dwarven god of secrets.

Thinking quickly and noticing some flecks of silver in the antechamber’s soiled hand basin, he suggested I try cleaning the basin with holy water and washing our eyes with it. Clear Eyes.

It worked! We could see the pyramid now as more of a glass, not obsidian. It was clear now that the pyramid was completed when we could see clearly, with a gem in the top. Cyke calmly took it from the top of the pyramid, despite it looking inaccessible behind the glass-like exterior.

We didn’t hang around to ask questions, so we quickly got back on track to the northern boat. We passed by another boat, this one right side up but split down the middle of the boat, with the second dragon’s treasure pile openly visible on the deck. Four out of place statues were littered around the pile, all facing inwards. They weren’t the target so we kept moving, skirting around a magical trap or two on the way to the main target.

We quickly rappelled up the hull of the overturned boat and dropped down a hole in the top that Felgolos mentioned to us earlier. Inside, huge skeletal remains, like the ribcage of a wyrm dominated the gloomy interior of the boat. Felgolos remained watching the sky as we pressed onward, to the pile of treasure.

I’ve never seen so much wealth in one place before! The pile was 4 foot high and ruddy well massive. There was art, silver bars, carpet, marble chess pieces, platinum bracelets.

We were, of course, surprised when a cloud of coins moved and skittered and picked themselves into the air, creating a vortex, elemental like shape. The air elemental was on us before we could react, picking up Lilli and smashing her directly into the wall of the ship with a sickening crunch. Felgolos cast silence on the battle as soon as he could, but did the Dragons hear the noise from the outside, or did their mock combat mask a sound such as this?

We didn’t even need to co-ordinate ourselves, we all knew that we had to pull out all the stops to put the elemental down as quickly as we could, and we had it down within a very short space of time, but at the cost of a lot of energy from all of us.

We filled the bags of holding as soon as we could, getting the fancy art and magical items, before breaking out the shovels and moving hundreds of pounds of gold into the tiny, magical sacks. The silence spell and lack of sound made the entire event eerily tense, with all of us working hard, grunting, clamouring and generally making a scene in a complete lack of sound.

We didn’t bother with the silver bars as they didn’t seem worth the weight to take. They were off the side of the treasure trove, and I can’t help but feel it was this Dragon’s least favourite treasure. I wonder how it will react to having its worst treasure politely left for it when it returns?

With the advantage of silence but the risk of the dragons returning any minute, Lilli wasted no time in silently blowing a massive hole in the side of the upturned ship, plunging us into the light of the noon sun.

Despite knowing we should leave, the second pile of treasure glistened nicely in the sun. We carefully checked the statues for traces of magic and detected plenty more magic items. It was time for us to go before the temptation got the best of us. We had plenty of spoils of our mission, we had the pipeweed to complete our deal with Felgolos, and the dragons remained circling in the sky, blissfully unaware that one of them was less wealthy than before.

I couldn’t get my mailed hand on the little gnome Lilli fast enough, as she darted away from us, lured towards the temptation of more magical spoils like they whispered sweet nothings into her head. I tried to shout out a warning to her, but no sound came out.

I’m sure she was muttering excitedly to herself as she slipped quietly but excitedly along the ground and into the midship of the second boat, shattered across the midships but upright, splintered woods posing an easy flight up to the deck and treasure. I’ve never seen someone combine slinking quietly and an excited dance into one motion, but she managed to do just that.

Ironically, I felt the tingle of the silence spell end as she got up to the pile and started looting the magical items. Up above us, we could make out the top half of her torso, having quickly taken up a rapier and slippers. I could almost see the indecision on her face as she did a double take, trying to tear herself away from something. However, she seemed to loose the battle of willpower, and she disappeared briefly out of sight as she picked up a piece of paper.

I opened my mouth to shout again but I knew it was too late. I was close enough to see her eyes flitter to the pages and back up quickly. I swear she locked eyes with me and I saw her eyes widen.

She vanished in a thunderous explosion of coins and wood splinters, completely obscuring her from view and sending debris one hundred feet into the air. The sound roused the statues guarding the ship which began to come to life, and we could hear the cry of the dragons as they began their descent directly down the ground to investigate.

Gluttony

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

2nd Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

Lilli was up and over the edge of the ship and started running as fast as she could, running straight towards the ship we had just left. She must have been looking for cover from the skies.

I started moving, encouraging the others to start making a hasty retreat. The gargoyles swarmed and harried us but I could see they were merely a distraction to keep us occupied until the dragons would get back down to ground level. We didn’t have that long before they would reach us.

John, taking the hint, shapeshifted into a Giant Elk whilst summoning other creatures of the forest to engage the gargoyles whilst we made our retreat. I could sense that Morning was running out of the tunnel and across the plain directly toward us. As we started running as fast as we could toward the tunnel I saw Lilli reach the top side of the other boat and, leaping off it, start sarding well flying toward the tunnel. She had used the boat as cover to put some spread from us. Cyke and Luke were atop John’s shapeshifted form and they were trying to ride but were getting mobbed by the gargoyles. John’s creatures distracted only some of the gargoyles.

Morning reached me and I mounted up quickly. We could see the dragons closing in quickly, on the forms of John and Cyke, who were still lagging behind, engaged by Gargoyles. But as they run past one of the buildings we had passed by, a giant scorpion scuttled out of it to attack them. By this point, John had been damaged enough that his Elk form vanished. He shapeshifted back into the Elk immediately afterward and stampeded right over the scorpion, but the transition jarred Cyke from his seat and he tumbled to the ground, with the now enraged scorpion proceeding to tackle him firmly with both pincers and hold him tightly.

By this point I was already halfway back into the fray, sensing that they were not going to be able to shake their pursuers. Lilli had stopped short of the tunnel as well and was already casting incantations from a safe distance. As I drew closer I saw Cyke mightily pry apart the scorpion’s claws and roll out of its pincers, taking up his polearm and furiously wailing on the shell of the scorpion. I used some of Lathander’s power to case one of the gargoyles to flee but failed to make a second get off John, and then it was too late for tactics.

Felgolos had already taken to the sky to engage one dragon, but the other one landed right behind John with an earth moving thump and a hair-raising roar. It looked at us with fury in its eyes for only a split second before it opened its mouth and breathed lightning straight through John, Cyke, and both Morning and I. Morning vanished, the lighting destroying his bonds to the plain and the last thing I remember is tumbling at speed toward the ground, body contorted from the sparks rippling off my armor and through my body.

I awoke behind a building where Luke had dragged me, hastily giving me a healing potion from his belt. He must have slipped off John earlier on and skirted around the fight, preparing to strike. He barely gave me enough time to stumble back to my feet before we were running toward the tunnel again. Cyke had gotten back on John and was free, albeit with a dragon meters behind them. Cyke was smacking it repeatedly over the nose with his polearm as John ran, and was shouting at the dragon unintelligible in Draconic.

Lilli disappeared into the tunnel not far in front of Luke and me, and we ran well into the Tunnel to try and get out of reach of its lighting breath. John and Cyke got and didn’t get much more than thirty feet before the dragon’s head slammed into the mouth of the tunnel as far as it could go. Retreating back out a bit, it looked around in confusion and fury, before sending another lightning blast down the tunnel that took down Cyke. John carried him out of range of its attack and we quickly tended the wounds we could whilst others fired at the dragon from far enough back to be safe.

In the distance behind the dragon, we could see Felgolos swooping in at speed directly toward the tunnel. In mid-air, he shapeshifted back into a Halfling and landed in the tunnel with a slide, and caught up to us in no time. It was distant and the light from outside bright, but I could have sworn on Lathander I saw him on a flip before the landed right in front of the dragon’s nose.

We retreated quickly toward the airship, the sound of the Dragon’s roar and ire echoing down the cavern as we fled, with most of their treasure and Felgolos’ pipeweed.

Upon reaching the exit of the cave after some journey, we came across another gargoyle. This one, however, turned and spoke to us. In an otherworldly voice, almost like it echoed in our heads, it gave us a warning.

The doom of the desert will abide no insolence. Its young of which we have stolen from are young, foolish. Our treachery would be repaid when the time was right.

And then it was just a gargoyle again. The rest of the journey to the airship was uneventful.

We divided up the loot from the hoard of the dragon and counted the coin. There were more gold and platinum than I’d ever seen in my life in one place. Wary of the honor of our new friend Felgolos, we offered a split of the treasure on top of the pipeweed that we recovered from him. He was more than grateful for our generosity and accepted with a fiendish smile. I wonder what he would have thought had we not split him in?

It would be some traveling west before we made it back to anywhere near where we needed to be so we decided to make the detour a half day north to visit Lilli’s home, Citadel Adbar.

We made it there in good time with an overnight rest on the way. With some suspicion we were met at the gates by Dwarves on Griffons, however, with some talk and the fact we had a native of the city on board, we were allowed to access the citadel.

And what a sight the Citadel was! Walls that rivaled Mirabars very own in strength, a fortress of rock and stone. A mining city, with a forge that never stopped, the sounds of metal being hammed into the various crafts of the smithy’s.

We could see the smoke from well before we could see the town, and it was clear to us that whilst the denizens of the Citadel might sleep, the works that went on within did not.

We made our way to the forge as the city’s natural progression was toward the beating heart of the city. The smithy informed us that my writ I received from Foehammer would get us an audience with the King. Additionally, and sadly, they could not forge adamantine with their forge, mighty as it was.

Lilli took us to her Grammy’s place next, family she had not seen in many years. Of course, whilst the hospice was as friendly as one would expect from a Gnome’s grammy, us taller types had to crouch and sit knees up to fit inside.

Lilli and her grandmother wiled away the hours catching up on what had been missed over the years. Lilli was quick to show off her magic and it was not long before Grammy found herself hovering off her chair, floating in the air.

Our little wizard disappeared to reminisce for some time in her Gramps workshop whilst we enjoyed the tea and food on offer. Grammy had found some of Gramps old things and thought Lilli might find a use for them.

Grammy gave Lilli what she had left that might interest her; her Gramp’s ladybird shaped locket, his glasses of minute seeing and a box of other items of his. She rushed off to the Worksop once more to inspect these.

When we went in a little later, the locket was no more a locket and was a mechanical ladybird, flittering around the office with Lilli speechless and looking on in wonder. It fluttered around as if familiar to the room, and settled on a few times, the desk, a screwdriver, Lilli’s nose… before landing on a dusty old book on the shelf.

The book contained Grammys recipes, old Folkor recipes. And behind the book, a keyhole. As we watched on, the ladybird folded itself back up, this time in the shape of a key.

Lilli, trembling with excitement, used the newly formed key on the lock.

The entire bookcase slid back to reveal a room beyond, much to Grammy and our surprise. The room beyond was sheer lunacy. There was a contraption the likes I’ve never seen. There was a scarecrow with arms made of iron bars, wearing a bowler hat and an umbrella. No less than three crossbows aimed at various contraptions around the room. String, wire, and clockwork lined the room and it was unclear to everyone what it did if anything at all.

Lilli studied it for many hours alone before calling us back in. Tentatively, she set alight the scarecrow, which set in a chain reaction of explosions, clanks, clangs and arrows and various other things. By the time it was done, a lever was revealed that when pulled, revealed yet another secret compartment.

Lilli recovered her Gramps secret sketchbook and research, which was all encoded. Far from being dissuaded, she grew even more excited and intent, pouring over the book until we found her asleep over the book later that night.

3rd Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We headed up to where we were indicated we might be able to get an audience with the King of the Citadel. We faced a hall leading into the great hall of Adbar. Dwarves in plate armor and ceremonial tabards guarded the door. They had axes and shields at the ready, and despite their ceremonial inlays, I could see that they were as sharp as any sword I’d owned.

After a wait in which John eyed off the gong that was in the room with desire, we were allowed to proceed. John insisted to be allowed to ring the gong to announce our presence after some debate with the guards. I’m not sure I will ever understand the man.

Inside the room was a dias, stairs leading up to the throne. It was made of mithril, with a stout dwarf sitting atop. He had a magnificent brown beard with flecks of grey, and a helmet with a crow affixed to it.

We spoke at length with King Harnoth about our mission, I was inclined to trust him without too much hesitation. I had spent so much time amongst the dwarves of Mirabar that I find it hard to not respect their kind with little concern.

We spoke a bit about our mission to stop the giant threat. They seemed to have concerns of a fire giant camp, they had seen an increase of fire giant activity. This lined up with our information on the whereabouts of the rest of the Vonindod Construct being camped nearby.

They were very interested in the airship we arrived in and after some coercion, we agreed to take onboard three of their townsfolk to learn and sketch the ship – a tinkerer and two guards.

We hadn’t even finished the conversation when the sounds of combat were heard from the outside, and the guards we had passed nary long ago were thrown through the doors, bloodied and dying.

Eight dwarves marched in the room, laying their axes into the guards for good measure.

Ripples of confusion spread throughout us and the dwarves alike. The guards by the King’s dias snapped out of it quicker than us, but they closed ranks to stay close their king as was expected.

We turned to face the attackers, not fleeing like might be expected of visitors. I turned to face the threat and drew steel, and I could hear the rest of our party ready themselves for combat.

My mind raced with the possibilities. Was this a coup? Were these assassins, hired by another party? Disgruntled workers? Either way, my instincts went to defending royalty almost without thought.

Something was off with the scene. We closed and began to attack the dwarves that came to us aggressively. Lilli must have come to the same conclusion because a cloud passed her face and she made some motions with her hand an an invocation I hadn’t heard before.

One of the dwarves started to slow down, dropping its armaments. It started twisting and flailing, its body becoming deformed. Bloody Nora! The dwarf body collapsed on the ground, but a yak-like head appeared out of the ether from it, followed by a coarsely haired body. The yak creature stepped up and bleated at us.

The dwarves were ruddy well were possessed by whatever these creatures were. Everyone started to swap to non-lethal means to combat the dwarves, and sure enough, as they were subdued more of these creatures appeared from the dwarves. John heated up the breastplate on one until it glowed red hot and the dwarf tumbled to the ground, screaming and incapacitated. Lilli dispelled one or two more as she could, and then the fight was between us and these creatures, with the dwarves unconscious on the floor, battered but breathing.

John was able to call upon nature and summon a bear, which proceeded to tear into the yak-folk. This bear must have been one mighty soul in life, as it weathered blow after blow and took down multiple of these creatures before it succumbed to their blows, but not before we had dealt them lethal blows.

One Yak-thing broke through our ranks and went straight for the king. It was almost like time stopped for a minute. I felt my body instinctively disengage from the foe I was facing, its claws bouncing off my armor as I turned to run toward my liege.

Except the Dwarf King wasn’t my liege, but it seems years of service at Mirabar had honed my instincts. I positioned myself between the treat and him and proceeded to lay waste to the yakfolk.

The fight was over not long after it started, leaving us in a room with unconscious dwarves, dead yak like creatures, and a bunch of confused adventures and dwarves.

When the dwarves came to they were extremely embarrassed yet unaware of how they came to be possessed as such. The king was very happy with our assistance and insisted we stay for a few days for a reward to be arranged.

We headed back to Lilli’s Grammys to hunker down and take advantage of the gnomish hospitality whilst we had the opportunity.

4th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

Lilli and her grammy spent time catching up on the years past between them. I found myself at the forge talking to the smithy for some time, as everyone else checked out the city. Luke weaved in and out the city looking for information, Cyke found the nearest alehouse and John was to be found sitting at the edge of the citadel deep in thought, at vantages points were the distant forests could be seen in the distances.

5th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We presented back to the court as decorated guests of the citadel. There must have been ninety or one hundred guests, nobles, and their ilk. The King thanked us with the ceremony expected of a Dwarf, noting that despite not having a dwarf amongst our number we still stood between danger and himself.

We were presented with mithril shield medals, an honor that a dwarf would carry with extreme pride and one rarely given to other races. And to myself, an extra gift for so intently protecting the King; a belt inscribed with dwarven runes and insignia of the gods.

6th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We left citadel adbar the next day with our new recruits. Kilgar Stormbrow and Belar Ironshield joined us from the ranks of the dwarf guard to learn the airship. They were also present to guard Lilli’s cousin twice removed, Corwin Blackrock Folkor.

The new gnome runs around the ship much as Lilli had upon getting aboard, as we traveled from Cidatel Adbar to Everlund once more.

We arrived a few hours after nightfall and went to Waterdeep for some quick restocking of equipment before returning a few hours later and starting our journey to the Hill Giants lair, Grudd Haug.

7th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We flew past Grudd Haug by about half a mile but yet still alerted them. The encampment was built into a hill and we could see tunnels below it. The main building had a path to a watchtower behind it, in which we could hear a gong ringing loudly sounding an alarm.

We landed near where the two treants were located, Lilli having spoken to them the night previous to get an update how they were going. They had found a grove five miles west of Grudd Haug and had been scouting for some days.

They had seen twelve or so giants and thirty of forty smaller folks, consisting of goblins, bugbears and the like.

They had seen a hobgoblin take off and fly east on a wyvern a few days back.

Lilli started fumbling with her fingers and found that the ring Arelosa gave her was vibrating. The right that she had said would help out when needed.

Lilli gave a chant and a spirit was summoned in short order. It was confusing and was expecting Arelosa, and was doubly surprised to find out it was dead.

It took some convincing to stop the spirit from walking through walls and the like before we could get it to talk sensibly to us, but with some coaxing, it mentioned it knew of a tower nearby where he kept some equipment. He wasn’t keen to give it up to strangers, but after pointing out that he couldn’t really use it anymore we were able to get directions to where it was and decided to check it out whilst waiting for nightfall for an assault on Grudd Haug.

We found the tower with a boulder blocking the door and a voice, unintelligible but sad, clearly spoken from a giant. Lilli slipped in to check on the giant and to determine if it was a threat but this giant, Moog, was merely sad that her husband Hruk was stolen by Guh at Grudd Haug. Guh had taken the men as her husbands and kicked out all the female giants.

We tried to cheer her up with rabbit and pheasant pulled from John’s horn which worked. Moog made joyous proclamations like ‘floopy ears’ and ‘fat chicken’ in response and proceeded to eat the creatures whole. She burped rabbit fur and swiftly agreed to our plan.

We would have three of us pretend to be captured by Moog with the others using potions of invisibility to get inside the compound. If noise was heard the airship would come in to support or pick us up.

We headed back and made our preparations whilst we waited for right before nightfall to make our way to the giant’s encampment.

The ploy got us through the orc’s and goblins camped on the outside of the main building, Moog explaining ‘we food fah guh’. They didn’t give us mind. Cyke, Lilli and I were poorly bound and the others slipped into the shadows invisibly.

At the door, in front of us, Moog found her love. Forgetting us in a heartbeat, she grabbed her husband firmly by his hair and proceeded to pretty much drag him home, leaving us slipping off our binds and preparing for action.

Luke slipped into a side room near the main door to silence a room of sleeping orcs, whilst Lilli conjured an illusion of a giant, one to walk us in to pretend to be guarding us. We had to open the door for the illusion so it looked like it was actually doing the motion itself.

The room was a large 60ft main hall, with decrepit tables, gnawed bones waste, refuse and a pit loosely covered in wooden beams not too far in front of Guh. The tunnel system that runs beneath the encampment must be connected by the pit; the squealing of pigs and the smell of their filth was plainly evident from below. A ledge run around the inside of the building.

We walked in close enough as we dared, close enough to get our wizard within range of some of her spells. She wanted to know if we were food, but we tried to insist she stop continue to eat everything she could find. The tressum alerted us to an invisible creature that was sneaking into the room, an Orc. The traitor Strog.

As the situation started to turn sideways Felgolos hit Gah with a silence spell to silence the area. Strog and Lilli grappled with magics trying to affect the smell before Felgolos’ spell went through unhindered. Gah shook a cows leg in the air, dripping with blood and flesh and silently screamed, seeming surprised to not hear her voice.

Felgolos slipped out of Halfling form and into his majestic dragon form, sending everything in the area fleeing from his sight and immediately he hid four giants with his breath. Those with range started hitting Guh, those without move into combat with the giants as needed. A goblin walked in with a platter of pig and squeaked at the sight, dropping it and running out.

John’s summoned bear started ripping at the wheels of the wagon Guh was slumped in, which was already bulging at the weight of Guh. It groaned and strained for a bit before the wheel snapped and spilled her forward to the ground.

Guh squeaked a soundless, surprised shout, before slowly rolling over, right on top of the pit. The wooden beams covering it splintered under her weight in short order and she fell silently down the pit, before landing with a loud thump and a squeal of injured pigs.

I was brought back to the fight by a sarding ballista bolt slamming into my shoulder, throwing me hard to the ground. Strog had run out of the room and wheeled in an entire rudding ballista into the doorway and was busy reloading it.

Cyke, with all the instincts of a barbarian, jumped almost immediately down into the hole to pursue Guh. Luke was shortly behind, elegantly flipping into the hole in pursuit. I closed the gap to the ballista as quickly as possible and ambushed Strog as he was reloading it, missing him but slicing the strings off it and rending it useless.

I was so enraged and blinded by vengeance that I left behind the room full of the sounds of squealing pigs, a dragon roaring, bellowing giants and the sounds of combat to pursue Strog as he fled. I ran into a room with goblins tormenting a prisoner and moved past them as quickly as I could, Strog calling for the goblins to stop me as he fled.

John called up upon a wall of wind to push the goblins off me and to box in Strog and I willed Lathander to grant me the power to paralyze Strog in place. The damned orc was too powerful, however, and was able to resist the attempts to stop him.

By the time I caught up with him he was already on a wyvern and my arrows fell short and wild as he took off to the east. I returned to the main hall empty-handed to find a scene of chaos, with the enemy forces broken and fleeing, goblins choosing to jump out the arrow slits in the wall rather than face us, giants running out the door and the sound of silence from the pit.

Luke and Cyke returned covered in filth from Guh, who from the sounds of it simply exploded once fatally wounded in the stomach. They even found a goblin, shaken but alive that had been stuck in the folds of her skin. This goblin, Snert was understandably shaken and somewhat frustrated at having been lodged in his leader for some time, and was not particularly unhappy about Guh’s death.

8th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

The next morning, we convened to sort out what we would do with the remaining creatures at Grudd Haug.

To end the bloodshed and restore peace to the area, it was agreed to install Snert as the leader of Grudd Haug, with the treant’s Crabapple and Walnut to stay as lieutenants to maintain his reign.

The interrogations that took place before we left indicated that Strog would have fled to the stone giant lair to the east. After ensuring the remaining giants and orcs were content to stay peacefully under their new leadership (reinforced by Felgolos indicating he would return to visit if there were any issues) we rescued the prisoners and began to return to Goldenfields with them onboard the airship.

Betrayal at Deadstone

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

9th – 10th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We returned to Goldenfields early the next morning having traveled through the night to reach our destination.

Goldenfields was amenable to receiving the Grudd Haug refugees, which was a relief. Zi was most interest to find out about what had taken place in our battle, and we found ourselves recounting the events many times to multiple people. Both Zi and Naxene were upset that Strog had gotten away from us, but everyone knew deep down it wouldn’t be the last time we saw him.

We caught up with the Abbott, who was as upset as everyone about Strog’s escape. Naxene and Lilli disappeared to both scry for Strog as well as trade spells. John also went to catch up with Lifferlas to explain about the druid’s passing

With some downtime, we settled in for a few nights. I spend some time with Zi to check out the changes she had made to the city’s defences. What I saw was impressive, the guards were well placed and patrolled correctly, she had changed the captains around to maximize their individual skills, and many other improvements.

I sank a few drinks with Meros where I could as well of a night.

11th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

Scrying has paid off, with us finding the filth Strog with the stone giants today! We were all gathered with Naxene and were able to see the scene unfold as Strog parlayed with a Stone Giant. Astonishingly, John started lipreading the conversation! The Giant was Thane Kayalithicia, but the spell ended before we could get much more information from them.

Lilli and Naxene had finished swapping spells and scribing as the little gnome was want to do, so we got ready to head southeast to check out the city of Longwater and to begin scouting the Stone Gaint lair.

That evening we stayed at The Smiling Satyr at Loudwater. Whilst the others checked out the bazaar I slipped out to the Harper network and traveled to Mirabar to see how the status of my request for information on my family. I was back within 15 minutes with a scroll and a sense of unease.

Your family lived here in Mirabar under guard, for a year after your exile. Following that time it seems sometime after the first year, your family left the city. I do not have any further records after that time, I am afraid.

-Zazspar Bronzefire.

Teisa had left Mirabar. I could possibly find her and my children now, now that they were away from the city that would no longer tolerate my presence. I cant explain how this made me feel. I had found a fresh start with Lathander and the renewal he brings, and had come to accept my estrangment from them. I could not face my brothers either with the shame and guilt. But if Teisha had managed to leave the city, to somewhere I would not face the headsman’s axe, is it possible to redeem myself in her eyes?

Luke did hustle up some information on the Stone Giants, as there had been reports of a barbarian tribe in the area seen working with the Giants. Cyke seemed to have knowledge about them, the Blue Bear Tribe they styled themselves.

12th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We got up early and got the airship prepped for travel, aiming to check out the nearby towns of Orlbar and Llorkh.

Except the towns didn’t exist anymore.

At Orlbar, we stopped off to check for survivors. The town was a wasteland of rubble. No wall remained above my shoulder height, and the corpse of humans, dwarves and animals alike were crushed under the collapsed stonework walls and lumbar of ceilings.

13th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We trundled back onto the airship silently and set out for Llorkh, where we found the same scene.

We suspect that there may have been some prisoners taken judging from the tracks we found, but the Stone Giants did not seem to care if they captured anyone or not. I doubt more than a handful of survives remained from both towns combined, judging from the devastation.

Cyke told us that night that he had overheard dissent amongst the crew about our goals. One of the crew was starting to question Delsephines leadership and if we were truly serving Klauths will, citing the fact we had killed dragon wyrmlings and robbed from dragons. His companion was against his view and was certain we fought for good.

We will have to keep an eye on the crew now. Is there a front we face that we don’t have foes on?

We spent the afternoon scouting the rock face formation from the air with a spyglass. This paid off quicker than we might have anticipated, locating the Stone Giant cave system in a cleft we managed to spot from the air.

We saw a Roc’s nest nearby so we skirted the airship around, landing and deflating the balloon some distance from the cleft, and proceeded to move in on foot.

Cyke found and befriended a bird, asking it to scout the cave system for us. Only a fool would go anywhere near a Roc without a plan. It informed us of a series of fossilized Stone Giant lining the valley, over 20ft tall, almost fused into the cliff face. Many cave entrances were found littering the valley, presumably holding the living spaces of the Giants.

The Roc wasn’t in the nest as we approached, so we approached the valley as stealthy as we could, targeting the nearest cave entrance. It was almost unspoken that if we were spotted by the Roc we would run there as fast as we could.

We were only two hundred feet or so from our target when the cry from behind us chilled our spines, and with a whoosh of air that rocket us the Roc picked up Morning in its talons, my steed twisting and snarling against its captor.

The Roc sailed well past us, giving us time to break into a sprint. John summoned a pack of horses to hopefully distract the roc which worked. It started chasing down the horses after my hold over Morning broke, confusing the Roc which was expecting to dash a corpse against the cliff face. It shrieked and took chase for the horses, as we bolted toward the cave entrance.

It finished the summoned horses with ferocious speed but it gave us just enough time to get inside. The walls of the cave shook as we sprinted and fell inside the pathway leading deeper to the cave, pebbles and rocks falling from the roof from the weight of the Roc slamming to a stop against the ground directly above us. A talon explored in the cave but we were just barely inside enough to avoid contact.

We did find ourselves face to face with a barbarian and two bears, however, which snarled and attacked us without hesitation.

Not wanting to draw any more attention than needed, we brought low the bears and subdued the barbarian, binding her tightly. Our combat had, however, left a bear cub with no parents. It nuzzled the bodies of the bears we had killed and made whimpering noises I can’t say I’ve heard from a bear.

John went to the cub and tried to console the bear cub. I took a step forward and expected we would need to deal with it too but there was a softness in his eyes that stopped me in my tracks. It was clear what he saw in nature, what he saw in this little innocent cub that had lost its parents so violently only moments ago. I felt a twinge of guilt over the part I played in the murder of these creatures despite their clear intent to rend us limb from limb the moment they saw us.

He shapeshifted into a bear for a brief time and began to whimper and cajole the cub to him, shielding and comforting the small cub.

With the immediate threat dealt with, we pressed deeper into the cave system, looking to meet up with the cave system we suspected was the Giant’s quarters.

What we found was a single cavernous room, in which the barbarian and cubs seemed to be residing. No further tunnels, just solid rock walls.

We were stuck between a Roc and a hard place.

We didn’t have long to wait to see what our fate held us. A giant’s shadow blocked the entrance to the cave, and the Stone Giant came into the cave to investigate the Roc’s cries.

Mobrog, the giant, was much more conversant than the gelatinous blob of a hill giant that we had ended back at Grudd Haug. I stepped forward to explain and parley the case of the smallfolk with him before resorting to more violence, and he leaned on his massive club and listened to us. He was one of three giants in the clan that was not happy with the destructive path the group was following and was amenable to our cause.

Their Thane, Kalelythica, was insistent that their god Skoraeus Stonebones was instructing her to destroy the world of the small folk.

Unfortunately for us, there were twelve giants quite happy to continue the carnage and the three that did not agree had no influence to change their ways. Even killing the Thane would not help, as they used a voting system of determining leaders which would guarantee another ruler that would continue the death and destruction.

Mobrog insisted that the Thane could not be reasoned with, and retreated to a sacred cave where she received the word of Skoraeus. He and the others that wanted peace simply wanted to return to a life of wisdom and meditation as was the case before Kalelythic took over.

We convinced him to take us to the others that supported him and we left the cage that only a short time ago seemed to be our tomb. Mobrog waved away the Roc which returned begrudgingly to its nest. We dragged along the Barbarian woman that we had tied up, who turned out to be the barbarian cheiftan’s daughter named Hydia. The bear cub followed John, an apparent connection being quickly formed already.

We quickly made our way through the winding caves to meet two other giants, who reinforced the story Mobrog told us. It was readily apparent that peace in this area would only be found through more violence, as they only way forward could be found with a new Thane that promoted peace, not destruction. And that could only take place if there was a need to chose a new Thane as well as less opposition to these three in the vote.

Or potentially, no opposition at all.

The Giants refused to involved in the conflict at all but stood aside and would not come to the aid of anyone we provoked. We left the trussed up barbarian with them and prepared to traverse the caves, planning to ambush and separate them into smaller, manageable groups.

We progressed through the first room of two giants well, cutting them off from running and taking them down with timed strikes, but immediately run into problems when a Stone Giant charged out from a rudding wall, knocking Cyke into a pit of mud. I turned to face it but it promptly picked me up and threw me into the mud next to Cyke

I saw Cyke manage to keep afloat long enough for Luke to throw him a rope and drag him out, but the mud started sucking me under. Something about it didn’t seem right; perhaps it was the texture of the mud. Was that a tingle I felt as It started to pull me under? My entire suit of plate armor wasn’t a particular help in trying to keep afloat.

I managed to keep my head above long enough to see the rope being thrown to me as well and grabbed it as I went under. I was towed out of the mud sputtering, the strange tingling starting to cover my body. I saw the Giant dead, having been dealt with at the same time they were trying to get me and Cyke out of the mud.

I quickly started getting the mud off myself, as I started to note the mud in my beard was getting quite hard, much faster than any mud should be able to dry. I washed myself off with a skin quickly and vowed to avoid such a fate in the future.

It brought into perspective the giant statues that lined the valley. Were they statues, or were the fossilized giants? Perhaps it was their burial process?

We proceeded through the caverns, encountering packs of two giants at a time, enabling us to divide and conquer with a degree of safety. The giant’s ability to seemingly walk through walls as well as bring time to a crawl was the biggest problems we faced.

Lilli polymorphed herself into a giant ape for the duration of the fight, raining down mighty blows on the Giants. The little wizard was no longer small and diminutive, she was now a ferocious force of nature.

We came across a cavern with a large number of barbarians in it and quickly found ourselves deep in combat on multiple fronts. The chieftain waded into combat with us; however, Lathander granted me the ability to freeze him in his tracks long enough to deal with him and his followers. He seemed to have an aura around him of spirits that whirled and screamed.

The hold I had on the shaman chieftain broke just as Luke cut his way through the pack to him and the chieftain flicked a greenish bolt at Luke that appeared to almost stop our rogue in his tracks. He shook it off however and the shaman seemed thoroughly surprised to find himself impaled on both of Lukes swords. I could see Luke whisper in his defeated foes ear as he let him sink to the ground defeated.

South of the cavern was an empty chamber lined with more statuesque giants lining the walls. A simple altar sat in the middle of the room, impressed with a set of giant handprints.

Cyke almost immediately went up to the altar and put his much smaller hands in the handprints. He turned to us and opened his mouth, however the altar started to bow and look soft at the point where his hands touched. With a sound like mud swallowing a felled tree, Cyke was pulled into the now soft altar surface and disappeared into it.

We tried to get him out but in the seconds proceeding his swallowing the surface of the altar was as hard as a rock. We tried smashing the top of the altar, Ape Lilli tried ripping the top of it off, we tried finding a door on the side. We pressed up against it and couldn’t hear anything from the altar. If he was inside it the walls of the altar were too thick to let any sound out.

We were in the middle of a discussion about how to proceed next and perhaps contact Naxene to scry for him, when the altar disgorged one shaken and dazed barbarian, almost like he was thrown out of the alter and unceremoniously sprawled onto the ground.

He hazily told us that he was contacted by.. some sort of being that allowed him three questions. He was told that the thane was being tricked by an entity called the Steinfang that was pretending to be their god, making her think that her divine instructions were to kill and destroy our people and settlements. We could stop the carnage by reducing the aggressive opposition to two or less so the vote would pass.

We also learned that Strog was still in the area. He was here and had a wyvern nearby.

After getting Cyke back on his feet and making sure he wasn’t harmed, we got moving north, onward into the sacred chamber where Thane Kalelythica meditated. A path on the other side of the island leads to another exit to the rest of the cave systems.

The chamber was quite large, larger than the others. It had almost a small lake of that foul mud, with a small island in the middle, where the thane rested in meditation. Carved into some of the walls were questions, with some answer. The most recent carvings that had no answer as yet queried Strog’s loyalties and how the gods must be pleased.

Ape Lilli and John jumped the mud to the other path, meaning we could block the Thanes retreat and attack from both flanks.

A stone golem tore itself free from the wall and the Thane stood up from her meditations.

I brought to bear big blows on the Thane as I closed range to her. She tried to knock me back into the mud but I was prepared this time and deflected the blow with the shield. Cyke also dodged out of the way of her attempts to toss him into the mud also.

She was mighty and carried through with her blows with power and ferocity born of survival instinct and rage of our intrusion into her sanctum, and we were tired and weary. But we prevailed and brought down the Thane with no major injuries.

Lilli’s familiar saw Strog come to investigate the commotion shrouded in invisibility and run away at the sight of us bringing down the Thane. We made our way to the exit of the cave opposite the way we came in, finding ourselves on a bridge over the valley which led to the final set of caves.

At the other side facing us were two giants and Strog. We decided to intimidate them, but confronting them with the severed head of their Thane, insisting they stand down. Strog started streaming for them to attack but they faltered when learning of how many of their kin we had slain.

We pretended that we were working for Strog and he had asked for the deaths to seed more confusion amongst them. The giants, confused, started arguing amongst themselves and across the two groups that stood at the bridge. Our party and 3 friendly giants, with two enemy giants and Strog at the other. Calls for Conclave started being voiced by the giants on our side. Conclave was the Stone Giants voting process to agree on a new Thane.

Something started to bother me about Strog. How had such a drunken failure of a captain stayed one step ahead of us for so long? How did he continue to be cunning and play the people around him so well?

I found the Gem of Truesight that I had picked up in the temple of Dumathiod when we had stolen from the Dragons, and unleashed its magics. I could see things as they really were. I could see Strog and his Orc body, but surrounding him was a much larger ghostly form, a demonic looking ogre, yet somewhat smaller than an ogre. Strog was not an Orc at all, but a Oni.

In the midst of the arguments and calls for Conclave; I got Lillis attention and imparted enough in my body language that Lilli took the hit. The little wizard performed an incantation and threw her hand in a flourish at Strog, and the Orc form vanished like a cloud of smoke. Strog was revealed to all in his true form, an Oni. He had bluish skin and ivory horns that sprouted from his contorted face, which contained dark eyes with shining white pupils.

The groups erupted into more arguments and bickering. Shouts got louder, calling for the recognition of Strog’s deceit, his disloyalty to the giants, and an ever louder voice calling for recognition of Strog’s membership in the Stone Giant clan.

Strog’s true form indeed bore the markings of the clan, having been brought into the Thane before we arrived. Indeed there was now actually a tied vote of three versus three.

Conclave was agreed but there were now three. Lilli, now in her normal diminutive gnomish form, prepared a fireball with the intention of reducing the opposition’s numbers was stopped by the Giant standing next to her. Conclave was called, and no violence would be tolerated.

Undeterred, she then stepped forward and insisted to be also brought into the clan. Despite initial laughter at the proposition, she impressed enough to be considered. If we did not get the conclave issue sorted out before other clansmen returned from hunting abroad, the vote would be further swayed and all would be lost.

It was not a straightforward process she would face, however. Strog stepped forward with a snicker on his disgusting face and drawled that he would invoke a clan member’s right to challenge a new initiate, taking the form of a trial by combat.

Lilli gulped audibly.

The trial had to take place before sunset, so we hunkered down for a rest whilst we could. We fought through the night and it was morning before we get hunkered down in one of the caves that had we had so recently fought in.

We awoke before sundown and grimly marched out as a party with our Giant friends flanking us. Outside the cave system, in the field near the Roc’s nest, we found the area the combat would take place. Strog was already there, dressed in a black, spiked plate armor with a billowing red cape.

Whilst we were not to interfere with the trial, we had prepared a trick to help Lilli. John polymorphed her into an ape, with Lilli making the motions and incantations like she was performing the spell herself. It was safer and allowed Lilli to concentrate on the fight instead of maintaining the spell.

There was no ceremony or speeches before the fight. In this twilight hour, I made a silent prayer to Lathander for Lilli’s safety and victory in the upcoming Trial, and there was silence amongst the spectators as Lilli in Ape form and Strog converged on each other.

Lilli’s giant ape fists pummeled Strog with a series of ferocious blows but between Strog’s strong stance and tough armor, he was able to weather blow after blow. It looked like he was getting some amount of continuous healing from something he was wearing, but the ape’s blows were making an impact as Strog either positioned himself for the armor to take the impact of the blow or to try and get his weapon up to deflect the blow.

Lilli took the worst of it, however, as her lumbering form was slow and signaled her attacks easily and early with her mighty body winding up each time. Strog was expertly weaving between blows and finding her vulnerabilities each time, hacking deep into the ape’s shoulder, sides and upper things. Soon fur and blood covered his blade as the ape wore down and the blows became slower and easier to attack. If Strog was surprised that the little wizard wasn’t having issues keeping the spell active despite his onslaught he wasn’t showing it.

One final blow dispelled the ape form and it fell away from Lilli, fading into nothingness in a grotesque death. Our little wizard was ready for the loss of the form, as she fell from her position in the form a few feet off the ground with an expertly timed somersault and landed on her feet. Strog’s blade came down with a blow meant to cleave her head from her shoulders, but when it arrived Lilli had instantly moved thirty feet away, slipping back into a second ape form.

Strog now looked incredulous that he was facing a second ape, not understanding how Lilli was able to slip back into it so seamlessly.

The fight continued and the two continued to trade strong blows. Strog was looking more wearied upon having to face a second ape but he had learned the ape’s moves and was able to land blow after blow.

Suddenly, Lilli lost her focus after a particular nasty slice across the ape’s belly and the spell vanished. Lilli tumbled to the ground in shock, and Strog’s blade caught her as the drove the blade down into the wizard as she lay on the ground stunned. It sunk deep into her elbow and she screamed in pain and shock. She started to crawl away, calling up what defensive magic’s she could and the next overhanded, vicious blow was deflected by a magical shield she springs into existence. Strog simply continued to rain blows down, and each blow the shield shrank and the blows were deflected less and less, the blade getting closer to the wizard. Lilli was on her back, crawling away from the aggressive display as her shield continued to fade.

Cyke stepped forward to intervene but the giant standing next to him grabbed him by an arm and kept him in place spectating. I looked at Mobrog but the giant watched impassioned at the scene unfolding in front of him. They would not interfere and would not tolerate interference.

Lilli’s shield failed in a spark of dark purple light and she was open to Strog’s final blow. He sneered as he raised his sword two-handed over his head, ready to bring the blade down and cut the gnome in half where she laid bloodied and bleeding on the ground. Her arm that had been cut lay uselessly next to her and she was covered in deep cuts across most of her body.

Lilli brought her good arm up as if protecting herself from this final blow, but at the last second shakily pointed it at Strog and uttered the single word ‘fuego’.

One could almost see all the energy left in her body leave her, challenged into the fireball spell that slammed into Strog directly in the chest, engulfing in a bright ball of flame. The grass in the surrounding area withered and burst into flames in mere seconds as Strog’s smug expression disappeared and he emitted a short, guttural roar, cut off by a thud.

The fire cleared a few seconds later, leaving a twenty-foot area of burnt vegetation and Strog’s unconscious and badly burnt and injured body, flung fifteen feet from where he stood. And one badly injured, singed but conscious and alive wizard.

The newest, smallest and youngest member of the Stone Giant clan shakily got to her feet. With a small smile, she made a small motion and made the markings of the clan appear on her body by illusion, and drank in the atmosphere of being named an official clan member.

Her vote was immediately counted and Mobrog was voted Thane. John tended to Lilli’s wounds as I called from the unconscious body of Strog to be locked up pending an execution.

Thane Mobrog refused to execute Strog but agreed for him to be imprisoned, with the promise he would review Strog’s membership in the clan and possible exile from it. His unconscious body was hauled away without grace to be kept under guard.

With Lilli being tended to, we investigated the caverns and in particular the body of the Thane. She carried some items of use to us, as well as a warpick.

The weapon piked my curiosity and I picked it up to read the runes. Inspecting it, I was distracted by what I thought was a whisper from around me, but it must have been someone talking whilst I was busy inspecting the weapon.

Upon inspecting the warpick, it did not exhibit any joins. It looked to have been forged from a single piece of iron. It had dwarven runes intricately set into the hilt, and the weapon’s pick looked like a large, curved fang. It seemed to contain almost a life of its own. I slid it into my belt.

Lilli started inspecting the carved words and responses and was able to detect magic emanating from the area. With some of her arcane knowledge, she suspected the words were of the Steinfang. The Thane filled in more of what he knew, warning that in this case, the words were not the words of the Gods, but the words of an ancient earth primordial known as Draunn. Draunn lies trapped within the Greypeak Mountains, seeking only chaos and destruction, disinterested in the affairs of mortals. This would explain the deception, as well as

Thane Morbrog was interested in us discussing the prisoners that they had in the cells, and to give advice as to what should be done with them. They lead us to a small area with cells, containing a Gnome and an Elf. The gnome was captured in Llork and was a Loudwater resident, Alister Noggings. He was captured purely to find out more about Loudwater’s defenses before the assaulted the town directly.

The elf, Sialia, was a ranger that had been sent out by the High Lord Zazrek of Loudwater. They had been scouting the Stone Giants lair themselves and she was captured, as she said, skulking around. She seemed evasive and not interested in answering our questions. However, John recognized her and mentioned that they knew each other from their pasts.

I used my magical zone to ensure she only spoke the truth, which took more attempts than I care to recount. She proved resistant to the attempts but succumbed eventually. She was simply a range sent to scout the location. However, considering we had just ended the menace of the area and offered safe transit to Loudwater for both her and Alister, I would have expected a better attitude from someone that we had rescued and assisted in her mission.

John would not vouch for her as he had not seen her in such a long time, which did not help my opinion of her. Nevertheless, I’m sure we could manager her on a quick return trim to Loudwater and then we would be done with both of them.

We retreated to the airship with our latest additions to the party to rest up.

###14th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

In the morning I rounded up everyone that would come with me to interrogate Strog. Lilli was still resting up and insisted on staying behind, furiously catching up on the scribing of spells that took all her downtime.

The new Thane and we went the initial cave we got cornered in, where Strog was kept under guard by two of the clan. I cast a zone of truth on Strog despite his refusal and complaints, and we started trying to get information from him.

He was not co-operative but the new Thane put more and more pressure on him. The conversation got firey as he tried to taunt and bully our party, even going so far as to get the Longwater ranger Sialia to get involved. We were getting nowhere slowly, so the Thane angrily insisted Strog answer our questions or face exile. Strog continued to insist he was a legitimate member of the clan.

Strog did reveal after some work that he was indeed disguised at Goldenfields and was gathering information on the town. The whole mannerisms of Strog must have been a ploy all along.

From the tone of the conversation, it was clear he was working for someone but refused to divulge who. Someone that he was more frightened of than he was of us. He was really acting like a pitiful creature backed into a corner, attacking and fighting all that were near with his words.

Somebody that was more of a threat than us. So I asked him if he was working for dragons.

He insisted he wasn’t working for dragons. Strog could not lie under my zones influence, but Lilli saw the loophole he’d use.

‘Are you working for a dragon, then?’ Lilli inquired.

Strog would not answer the question. Did we need any more proof?

The voices in the cavern started to become shouts, and then threats, much like during the Conclave arguments. In the fever pitch that gripped the room, Strog’s voice could be heard renouncing Mogrob’s Thanedom. Mogrob exiled Strog from the clan, and Strog’s body language could be seen to shift into a combative stance. I could hear that whisper again that I heard in the cavern earlier, clearly over the confusing din. It called for destruction, for the dismantling, for Strog’s head.

Luke, Cyke and I piled onto Strog without hesitation, hitting him with the full force of the rage that was felt. I fell on him and as the anger rose in me It started to feel like Ironfang was weightless. I hit him with significant force and I joyously felt the weapon sink into his flesh. The weapon reverberates as if it was singing, and now holding the weapon I could clearly hear the voice it had, the spark within it rejoicing in the violence.

I went to return the swing, flanking Strog with Luke, and my weapon sailed through the empty spot where our foe had been, nearly embedding itself into Cyke.

He had not simply turned invisible, and I started to check the corners of the room for if he had quickly shifted a short distance away as I was able to do.

He was not in the cavern at all. Everyone looked around in stunned silence, eventually narrowing on the cave entrance, where Strog could be seen hundreds of feet away, past the Roc’s nest, out in the open plains.

He waved at us, as the shimmering field of invisibility enveloped him.

Everyone started running out of the room as fast as the room would allow us, but Strog was already gone and moving in Lathander knows the direction. I called for someone to get the airship to come in, and the Thane. We swiftly reached the location Strog was but we couldn’t find anything to track him with.

Defeated, I broke everything I could find insight. Ironfang seemed as angry to have lost a foe as I was, and the destructive nature that came over me I’m not entirely certain was fully my rage coming out or whether this dark voice from Ironfang had some part of it.

As the airship arrived I managed to get myself under control before I damaged anything valuable on the airship, and we all started scouring the lands, all eyes searching for Strog. Lilli conjured a message to Naxene to ask for assistance Scrying but Strog appeared to had found a way to block divination magic’s on him.

We also heard from Harshnag, who had moved into position at Svardborg and had met with the Jarl Storvald of the Ice Giants. He informed us that a longship had been sent to raid Bryn Shandr a few days ago, believing the Ring of Winter was there.

After hours of searching the hunt for Strog was called off. Thane Mogrob was interested in us staying to find out what responses we got from the Steinfang but with the news of a threat on Bryn Shandr, we knew we needed to get underway.

Frosty Welcome

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

15th - 19th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We arrived at Loudwater shortly before Lathanders holy hour of dawn and dropped off Alister at this clock shop. He had a shop with a huge selection of clocks, which instantly attracted the attention of the now healed Lilli, who excitedly bounced around the shop, inspecting the mechanisms, identifying movements, and generally being her usual self.

After physically dragging the gnome out of the shop Sialia insisted to visit Telbor Zazrek. He was appreciative of the return of the citizens we rescued and presumably gave Sialia the reward she was owed for her service.

Unexpectedly, however, the ranger seemed to be interested in tagging along with us, despite the risks and warnings of what we had now undertaken. I don’t know if I trust her motives, as she seemed to be interested in tagging along with John based on their old companionship, but I saw her eyes flitter to the gold and platinum when we were splitting our the spoils on the way here. Ill need to keep an eye on this one if we are to journey together, but I expect the going will get tough quickly for her and she will find herself interested in being somewhere else, where the money comes with less blood on it.

We made a quick stop at Waterdeep via airship for some replenishment of suppliers. Upon the sad explanation of Strog’s getaway and a description of his equipment, he presented us with an identical cloak as what Strog wore. It had a spell called Dimension Door wovden into it, allowing the wearer to move up to five hundred feet away instantly once per day. Sadly, once again Strog was one step ahead of us and always had an exit strategy.

We started making our way to Bryn Shandr which was all the way north, as far as the spine of the world but further west, nearly on the coast. We got underway direct from Mirabar, facing a 4-day journey.

However, the most direct route to our destination was through the Klauthian Vale, the very one place that Klauth had sworn us never to venture near or into.

A detour would waste precious time which could result in the destruction of yet another settlement. The horror of the scenes at Llork and Orlbar came back to me with full force, and I knew that we could not lose more life because we were simply too late.

The faces of the dead citizens at my feet outside the gates of Mirabar came back to me then and there. I could not lose more innocents simply because I was incapable of protecting them.

Despite not wanting to have to deal with the dragon Klauth any more than absolutely necessary, we convinced the Klauth worshipper’s leader Delsephine to make contact with Klauth on our behalf. She was incredibly resistant to concerning Klauth in our affairs, but we insisted that she do so.

We were led to her cabin where Delsephine began a ritual to contact the mighty dragon. At the conclusion of the ritual, her body went stiff and her eyes rolled upward, and she started to speak with a low, gravely voice.

Klauth, speaking through this human vessel demanded to know why we would disturb him, especially to dare ask for permission to cross his territories. We pleaded with him for permission to cut our journey shorter, ostensibly to guarantee that the Frost Giants were stopped, but more so to protect the people at the town. If they believed the Ring of Winter to be in the town we would

Klauth had a far simpler solution to the dilemma. He would take flight and raze the village, ensuring that the Ring of Winter not be found.

Terror set in as we realised what we had just led Klauth to conclude. It took some convincing to Klauth that there was time for us to intervene and not risk the Giants getting to their goal. As well as that, we had information from the Eye of Anann that the Frost Giants would not find their goals.

Klauth eventually gave us one opportunity to stop the threat our way, and begrudgingly gave permission for us to cross his borders, but conditionally.

Delsephine’s controlled, blank eye form turned directly to Lilli. Klauth, in his direct, gravely, deep voice, warned Lilli that any attempts from her or others to Scry on Klauth or look for information on him, on pain of death for all of us and her entire family. Lilli turned whiter than Delsephines blank eyes, and in that moment the spell was broken.

We set a direct course through the Klauthian Vale to Bryn Shandr, Lilli rushing off to warn Naxene immediately not to Scry on Klauth. I had never seen the gnome so afraid of anything before, the warning had doused any flame of curiosity about the dragon completely.

The rest of the trip was almost uneventful, until Lilli excitedly burst out of the cabin, having decoded the first chapter of her Gramps secret research. She was darting around the cabin pointing out passages from the recipe book and rapidly talking about things she remembered from her past time with her family. Clearly, only one familiar with the family history and with Lilli’s tinkerer’s mind would be able to solve the riddle of reading this book.

The first pages of the book were a personal message from Gramps to her granddaughter, having been specifically encoded to ensure her, and only her could read the words. The book in its entirety was the bulk of her grandfather’s life works and research, and it was clear he took great pride and stock in it. It also spoke of significant danger and his suspicions that rivals in Adbar. Other tinkerers investigating similar fields had met with accidents, too coincidental for him to believe unrelated.

He was studying combining applied magic and technology and specifically spoke to the applications of airships much like the one we stood on. He was certain that they were oft built underutilised and poorly, and the elementals that created the hot air and wind that drove the ship could be greater by far more harnessed correctly. He urged caution on the designs and implored that they do not fall into the wrong hands.

We piled out of the cabin to leave the dwarf to get puzzling over the remaining chapters of the book, seemingly with chapters for contacts, suspicious people, the build of airships, and something relating to a special project.

Later that night, I found myself staring off into the distance as we passed over the dim lights of Neverwinter, wondering if I could see any sign of Nine Oaks in the distance.

If she had fled Mirabar I wonder if my brothers at nine oaks would know more about her whereabouts. Just south of Mirabar, it was the town I grew up in before seeking out a post at Mirabar and meeting Teisha. I have not spoken to anyone of my family in over two years. Pain of death stopped me from returning to my family at Mirabar, and the shame and guilt to my brothers at Nine Oaks. But if I could find Teisha again, and try and explain to her what happened… Perhaps she would understand. And perhaps my brothers would know more.

Surely the good deeds we had done over the months would count to wash away the tarnish to my name.

Was it enough, however, for me to stand and look at my brothers in the eye and explain my actions? I’m not sure I can face the shame of it. But if it meant the chance of seeing Teisha again… would it not be worth the pain?

John found me staring into the distance and I confided in him my thoughts. Whilst we were rushing against time currently to stay one step ahead of the Giant threat, he assured me that we would find time to look for my family later.

It was mid-morning on the 19th Ukltar when we arrived at Bryn Shandr, in the middle of a frozen wasteland that was this region so far north toward the Spine of the World. We didn’t waste any time getting into the city. Instead of avoiding spooking the residents and militia by landing outside the city and walking in like we usually did, we flew directly over the city and used rope ladders to drop in a clear spot almost in the centre of the city.

Through the crowd that formed around us pushed Duvessa Shane, the leader of the settlement. Usually being met with scepticism when we brought dire warnings to towns, we were surprised when she refused to speak in private and demanded answers from us openly.

Upon us explaining the Giants we believed to be on their way, Duvessa immediate mobile the city force which whipped into preparation to bolster their defences. She explained that we were far from the first adventurer’s to have brought warnings of threats, and far from the first time they faced threats from Giants. In the past, they were even attacked by a red dragon with a crystal horn, which was hunted and killed by adventures like ourselves.

We proceeded to scout ahead in the direction we expected the Giants to come from, as they closest water ingress was to the west of the city. Ahead, across the snowy plains, we found five Frost Giants walking toward the town with snow wolves chained and in tow.

We approached them and told them to retreat and that Bryn was under our protection. They, of course, refused, telling us that they had come for Artus Cimber and that if we turned him over from the town other lives would be spared.

We didn’t have time to ponder who this person was or even confirm his presence at Bryn, as diplomacy swiftly broke down, especially once Sialia got into an insult match with their leader and before we knew it we were in combat.

We were able to deal with them despite the cold and their might and returned to town to inform Duvessa of the Giants target.

She had not heard of this Artus fellow, however, the local Harper contact Beldora had. We learned that Artus Cimber was an ex-harper agent, that was disappeared some time ago and was actively being searched for by them. He vanished some time ago, after gaining possession of the Ring of Winter, which was rumoured to halt natural ageing amongst other abilities.

Beldora did not know where Artus was but did know a bastard son, Sirac; he was located in Bryn Shandr. We spoke to him but he did know have any further knowledge of his father except for legend.

A helm we recovered from the Giants had a blood red gem contained within, which Lilli identified as a gem with a drop of blood from Artus Cimber or one of this bloodline. Obviously, this is what made the Giants think that Artus was located in Bryn, the gem not finding Artus but instead leading them to his son. This must explain why the Oracle insisted that the Frost Giants would not be successful in their task of locating the Ring of Winter.

More scouting of the area only located their longboat, which we set fire to. Harshnag confirmed that the Frost Giants he’d infiltrated had only sent one boat out for the raid. He’d convinced the Jarl to go whale hunting and provided us locations to find Svardborg, also confirming the conch we needed was left on the throne in the Jarl’s absence.

20th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We arose the next day and started preparations to make the trip to Svardborg, Harshnag confirming that the Jarl and 20 other giants would ride their great ship Krigvind out first line the next day. We wanted to get out tonight so we would arrive not long after they had departed.

Beldora had organised an amulet by midday for Sirac, and using the gem we were able to confirm it had worked. We got no location for a member of Artus’ bloodline.

We left just after nightfall without event and began our journey to Svardborg.

21st Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We approached the Isle of Svardborg with caution but without fear. It was an almost circular isle, with a channel of water into the middle of it with another circular pond, forming a crescent that nearly stretched a full circle.

There was a series of buildings, ranging from large, two-story buildings that looked like storage or a longhouse, down to smaller shacks, totalling seven in all. We could see movement, but it was all contained on the inner side of the buildings, leaving the sides facing out to the ocean clear. Ice sheets had formed and frozen in a ring around the buildings, essentially splitting the island into two areas, the inner ring where the boats and docks were, and a clear, outer ring.

Harshnag had noted to us that the Giants isolation so far out here had made them complacent, and considering so many Giants had left whaling there was only a third of their forces remaining.

We were able to land without incident on the outer skirt of the island, hidden by the ice sheets from the inner ring where Giants and their ilk formed.

I called upon my inner power and felt out for an object like the conch, and felt a pull to the building to our east, so we set off directly to that building, hoping to be able to get the conch and leave quickly

We opened the large, oversized doors and entered a dining hall. The carcass of a mammoth was rotting on the ground in the middle of the room and tall, large tables lined either side of the room. Magical flames lined the walls, that cast a dancing light on the room.

Above us, we spotted ice creatures in the rafters, watching us silently and intently. We proceeded slowly through the room but they did not move to attack, they simply seemed to watch us.

We headed upstairs, finding ourselves in a room with two giants, more wolves and a human man in thick furs. We were blocked into the doorway for some time by the Giants, allowing the spellcaster to attack us with impunity. It took me slipping past the giants to deal with the spellcaster before we were able to bring down the foes facing us.

The conch was sitting on the throne as predicted, and we took it. We also spotted in the room six giant’s eggs, frozen to the floor, and in a crate a frozen dwarf that had passed some time ago. John and Sialia wanted to move the dragon eggs out and away from the giants but their attempts to break an egg from the ice only resulted in shattering the egg, releasing the sarding dragon wyrmling inside!

The wyrmling was alive and began to bite and thrash aggressively, defending itself and its unborn brethren. It spat and growled in draconic, Cyke telling us it warned us not to come close and also to not threaten the eggs. We could not convince it that we were trying to help it and that it was in danger from the Giants, so we chose to leave them where they were.

We headed out of the building, noticing the mephits had vacated the mess hall that we entered through. When we started to approach the airship, however, we noticed that it had mephits crawling all over the sarding balloon! The rudding things had covered the balloon, and it looked like some of the crew had taken arms to fire at them. It appeared there was at least one hole in the balloon and there was commotion across the deck as they realised the damn things explode when they die.

When we got close enough to hear them, I noticed that I could partially understand the Mephits. I was still holding IronFang in my hands, sensing the power within it. I managed to talk to the Mephits somewhat and found they were ordered to keep us on the island until we spoke to their master. They were amused that I could talk their Terran dialect, but they refused to budge until we had spoken to their master, which we suspected to be the dragon that was the mother of the eggs. What is a sarding dragon doing on an island infested with Giants?

We relented and skirted around the Isle, keeping away from the foes inside the inner ring, and we entered the building the Mephits had indicated. After dispatching two Giants, we quietly called out the name of the dragon we had come seeking.

Behind us, the large adult white dragon Isendraug unfurled from the ceiling and dropped to the floor with a thump. We groveled as per usual with parleying with dragons and asked it why she brought us to meet her.

Surprisingly, we found out that she was essentially captive on the island, as they were using her eggs to keep her hostage. If she flew from the room or tried anything the Giants insisted they would destroy her eggs. She was very interested in our help in eradicating the Giants which had claimed what was originally her home. Whilst we wanted to get out and leave immediately, we agreed to her plan to at least rid the island of the giants that were threatening her eggs and decided to negotiate with her again afterwards.

We went to return to the airship, stopping to dispatch a group of giants in a tower building. Isendraug had informed us there was a horn here that would be blown to alert the Giants on the Isle and we wanted to remove it as a threat first. We dispatched the giants with relative ease as they were drunk and surprised to be in combat. The new ranger, Sialia, was scoring hit after hit with her arrows, impacting visibly wounding blows on each that seemed inhuman.

Afterwards, we retired to the airship to have some much-needed rest, as we had an assurance from Isendraug that the whaling party would not return for another day or two. Lilli crept off to inspect the latest spoils of adventuring we had picked up here and tinker with her clockwork box.

We decided to start working on killing the Giants and foes in the inner ring of Ice. We went back into the lower story of the building and found a back room with an ice tunnel that leads past the ice wall into the inner ring.

Inside, we could see a small lake within, a small channel of water leading in from the ocean. There was a few large longboats and smaller boats within, with some giants and tribal warriors visible. There was one giant on a boat close by that was by itself, so we set an ambush in the back room. Cyke and I straddled the doorway and Lilli used an illusion of the wizard that we felled inside the room, beckoning for the giant to come inside. As it did, Sialia sprung into action, hitting the Giant with a flurry of hits. Cyke and I hit hard into him from either side of the door, and with a flanking blow, Cyke brought the Giant down as the Giant sunk the blade deep into the joint in my armour at the shoulder.

We spotted another Giant by itself on the other side of the Isle on a boat to the east. John used a water walking spell to allow us to walk across the channel to a storage room. Within, there was a badly damaged boat, one that was never completed. The room was some sort of construction dock, with a wooden crane and other building things.

Again Lilli conjured an illusion, this time of a tribal warrior. Our target saw it and become frustrated that the warrior wasn’t working, and came to investigate, charging at us once the illusion made some lewd gestures toward our target.

We hid the best we could but as being careful in full plate armour is difficult the Giant spotted me quickly, charging in to attack me. It didn’t last long however under the combined assault as the rest of the party revealed themselves to the Giant, and I dodged its blow with ease and added my force to the fight.

The next giant was on a small boat, four hundred foot across the small lake. We swam underwater, using John’s water breathing magics to breathe, whilst floating down the carcass of the Giant above us. We crawled up on the small rowboat and attacked the Giant with such speed that it was tipping and falling off the rowboat with a surprised look, not even having time to react before being fatally wounded.

Lilli took the initiative, and stood proudly over the body of the Giant, telling the Yeti and tribal warriors on the main longboat that we were emissaries of Isendraug, and they would do her bidding. We were hoping they would surrender without a fight. Whilst they were intimidated by our quick takedown of the nearby Giant; they did not seem to buckle like we might have liked.

With their hesitation, Cyke jumped onto the ship and laid a warrior low, and I followed suit, using Ironfang to cast a shattering point of noise centred on a cluster of warriors, killing 4 instantly. As the rest of our party landed on the boat to close melee they surrendered and lay down their arms.

Before they finished cowering, there was a geyser of water from behind us in the small lake within the isle and the dragon form of Isendraug fired out of the water like a cannon. Water spray as far as our boat coating us in salty foam, and she slowly landed on the boat, causing a ripple of fear to spread throughout the survivors.

Isendraug took a hold of the remaining Yeti and warriors quickly and informed them that they served her now, and they acquiesce quickly and retreated to their cave until summoned by their new master.

After some negotiation, we were able to explain to Isendraug that we could not simply kill all the Giants, even with our combined might. She agreed to remove half her mephits and to move her eggs to the airship as a sign of good faith. She also finally confided to us that her partner was chained to the Jarl’s boat magically, with a spell and was hoping that the wizard that we had killed would help us. We informed her that he was dead, but we have found a scroll with a single codeword. She believed that we could free her mate with this word, but was on the Jarls massive longboat with no easy way off without serious risk of death from harpoons and boulders.

We agreed to send to Harshnag and find out how long we had until the Giants return, and have a long rest. Isendraug would move her eggs to our boat and we would move it to the lake in the middle of the isle. We agreed to help try and free her mate but would not commit to killing all the Giants. She wanted to see if we thought it was possible, and we insisted that if it got too bad we would insist on evacuating her and the eggs, after having done everything we could to free her mate.

We formulated a plan to ambush the giants when they returned. Our dragon ally indicated when the giants return they would follow a fairly habitual return to their town, with groups of giants splitting off to the dragons temple jail, the great hall and the room we found the warning horn.

The group got busy setting up traps with alchemist fire that we found in the loot of this isle, which we planned to detonate on two of the groups. We would ambush the Jarl’s group with Isendraugs help, and Harshnag would free the dragon’s mate on the boat and take control of the massive longboat, Krigvind.

Cyke went with the dragon to help move the eggs, whilst Lilli’s relative Corwen protested his innocence to Lilli, having been offended at our wizards learning’s from her book. Lilli spoke magically to Harshnag to let him know what had happened and ensure he knew his role in the upcoming battle. He was keen to claim the longship as spoils of the victory, and was not against the killing of his own kind. He didn’t sound too impressed with the Jarl from the way Lilli spoke of his messages.

We had the tressum out scouting and retired to wait for the return of the longship Krigvind.

22nd Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

The tressum alerted us the next day to the return of the ship and we got into position hiding in the Jarl’s throne room. Hiding behind the chair, tables, and pillars of the room, we were able to hear the Jarls group approach the room after they had docked and the giants had disembarked from the longboat. Lilli conjured up an illusion of the wizard we had killed sitting on the throne, toying with the conch. We hoped to lure the group into the room enough to engage them with no retreat. Isendraug had already quietly frozen the door shut with her breath so there would be no escape for these giants.

John could hear them complaining as they came up the stars speaking in Giant. They had only caught one whale, and the Jarl was complaining about the crews’ incompetence. He was in a foul mood and was ready to burst.

As they opened the door to the room, a huge yet distant explosion could be heard - one of our traps nearby. The Giants entered the room and were shocked at the noise, and then noticed the wizard illusion grinning and playing with the conch.

They moved into the room and demanded answers from the wizard, and whey they moved close enough John using the wizards own staff of fireballs, fired a blast into the middle of their group and the room erupted into violence.

We hit them hard before they were able to separate with a barrage of ranged attacks. Sialia popped out of her cover and started raining arrows into the group, firing arrows in rapid succession so fast that it looked like a storm of arrows was landing on the group of giants all at once. Luke scored some direct hits on the leading giant, his arrows finding a home in the chest of the giant. They scattered after being hit directly by a few fireballs, with some closing into range with Siala, the Jarl going for John and a few of them going for me and Cyke. One of them threw a boulder at the illusion wizard and the boulder landed harmlessly on the throne, the boulder occupying the phantom illusion, with its arms and legs sticking out from the sides of the boulder.

The Jarl looked like he was going to cast a spell on John, throwing an arm out in his direction, but Lilli made a quick gesture and the magical energy that coalesced his hand dissipated like a candle being blown out. The Jarl sneered in surprise, pointed at Lilli, and growled “That one. Kill that one”.

Cyke and I moved to pick up giants to stop them getting to Lilli as they turned their attention to her. It was around then when Isendraug burst through the door behind the Giants and took up a flanking position with me. However, I got cut off from the others and 3 giants closed ranks around me. Their blows were ferocious and my armour did not offer the protection I needed. I was knocked out for a brief moment. I’m not sure how long I was out for but I crawled back to my knees, feeling a divine presence fill me with energy. As I got my feet underneath me I could saw Lilli closing into the giants that had felled me, an ape form shimmering into existence around her.

She started raining big ape fists down on them and I could see Sialia, firing the blow and dancing between the Giants, putting them down in a strangely elegant, yet lethal dance. Her blade struck a Giant across the shins and quickly fired a shot from her bow into one’s knee, and a swift circular cut of her blade cut the throat of both the giants in one swift move. The Jarl had closed and tangled John in a fishing net but was brought down by Luke with a flurry of slashes from his flaming sword and the giant slayer. John struggled to get out but had to spend a lot of time struggling with the net, arms pinned and unable to contribute to the fight.

As they Jarl fell dead to the ground the remaining Giants cried out, vowing to avenge their lord and carry out his last wishes, being the murder of our wizard.

Lilli’s ape body was battered by three giants which closed her in. Her ape form vanished from her and the little gnome was slammed by one giant hard enough to fling her toward the second which kicked her violently back to the first giant. Nobody could even get close enough to her to help her as she was smashed between then giants like a rabbit caught between a pack of hungry dogs.

She fell to the ground in the middle of the giants and one giant simply stepped on her body, crushing her chest and the organs within. Lilli coughed blood out her mouth and her eyes rolled back in her head, as the giant pulled his foot away from what remained of her lifeless body.

Sialia and Luke wasted no time killing these giants and we rushed to the broken body of our wizard. The others inspected her grievous wounds at a loss as to how to continue. John, freed of her net started to tend to her wounds but we all knew it was too late.

I dug frantically into my pack, looking for the scrolls Brother Renald had given me back at the Spires of the Morning so long ago. I was not practised or ready for the magics contained on them, and it was likely I would fail, but it had to be tried. If I didn’t get to her with few moments and succeed, it would be too late, and nothing could be done.

I pulled out one of the scrolls I had and, placing one had on Lilli’s head I started to read aloud the words contained on the scroll, praying for Lathander to heal and give life renewed. I could feel energy beginning to swirl around my body, an orange dawn-like glow, getting stronger as I read my way through the scroll. I could hear a voice, echoing yet calm speak to me, seemingly from miles away but also sounding like it was being whispered right in my ear.

‘From Death, Life’ Lathander whispered.

The scroll started to crumble apart in my hands and as I looked on, I could see Lili’s body through the gaps in the scroll as it combusted. It crumpled like being burnt and faded into the air and I was able to see the wounds on Lilli’s body re-knit and heal, colour coming back into her cheeks. She took a rattling breath and another cough of blood but was back with us. Lathander had smiled upon our mission and had taken pity on our wizard.

We stopped for long enough for Lilli to gather her senses and recover from the shock of what had just happened to her, but had to get moving. We took our way out the balcony of the throne room and across the roof of the level below us, climbing down from the roof and encountering two of the giants, returning from the direction east. Only two of the six that we expected to be sent up there were returning, covered in unnatural burns and filled with rage.

We hurried out to the balcony and climbed down as fast as humanly possible to the ground, ready to get involved in the fight proper. John took the opportunity to wildshape and fly off as an owl to provide us sight.

We stormed the longboat as Harshnag finished off the remaining giants and manned the massive balistas on it. John reported back in that he had lipread the dragons and found out that Isendraug was planning a double cross, but was hesitant based on our prowess in battle. The recently freed partner did not believe her, but as the fact the airship had moved dawned on them they came for us.

They landed in front of us, the male trying to fear us but only earned a rebuke from Cyke. With much back and forward, she realised that we didn’t trust her. Clearly still fearing our abilities she admitted her plot but chose to honour our agreement.

Under her watchful gaze, we unloaded the eggs and her partner brought us the giant heads and items we agreed on.

Suddenly one of the cultist stormed off the airship with some followers in tow. Their leader, Brassik was impressed with our reluctance to engage the dragons despite their suspicions of our past interference with dragons. He threw himself upon the mercy of Isendraug and begged to be taken into her service.

Wanting to see the back of them we agreed, and uncovered under a Zone of Truth spell that they had indeed been through our gear but they had not taken anything. Isendraug insisted on her own interrogation under the spell. Satisfied with their answers, she demanded their fealty and they took sides with the Dragon.

Corwen, seeing his chance to finally be under a Zone of Truth to confess to Lilli all but dove into the spells influence, having run of the airship with a shill scream. Corwen proceeded to run his own interrogation, revealing to Lilli that there was shame in his family line.

Bartelberry, a Falkor in Corwens family line, admitted on his deathbed that he stole designs from Lilli’s Gramps. Whilst Corwen was no part of it the shame the little gnome felt had clearly been eating away at him for some time. Lilli forgave him, for what little forgiveness was needed for a gnome with no part in the event.

Bartelberry stole a design for a mule elevator from Lilli’s Gramps and submitted it as his own. This was alluded to in what Lilli had decoded of gramps journal, but now was confirmed.

With the mephits removed from the airship, we struck a truce and departed the island with haste until it disappeared over the horizon. We struck out for Fireshear towing the great longship behind our airship, fulfilling our promise to Harshnag that this would be his spoils of war. Onboard we carried some of the boxes we had found, including the one with the frozen dwarf.

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Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

23rd Uktar the Star Walkers Return

I awoke to find myself standing at the bottom of a hillside. Looking up, I could see the form of Lathander at the summit of the hill, dressed in full battle armour, his cape billowing behind him. Light streamed down from behind him, and I could do nothing but avert my gaze to his glory.

Lathanders gaze turned toward me, recognising my presence. His voice seemed to reverberate within the air itself as he spoke to me.

“You have touched the barrier between life and death. You have done this with my power, power that I have let you touch through your faith and resolve”

Laying my sword at my feet as a show of respect, he continued to tell me that he was pleased with my service, and granted me one question. Without looking up at his magnificence, I asked the question that I had only recently started to think could be possible. How could I redeem myself in the eyes of those that had known me before, regain my standing in Mirabar?

Lathander intoned, “When the night falls, some are consumed by it, and that dawn will not come again. Some that have been dwelling in the darkness will not see the dawn. Walk in my light and it will light your way”

As I started to rouse from this dream - or was it a vision - I saw Teisha and the children through the mist, happy and healthy.

I got up to find that it was breakfast time, and we had a new addition onboard, a clockwork mule. Lilli stood next to it triumphantly, explaining she found it in pieces in a box we recovered from the Giants lair. She also informed me of a message she received via magicks from Naxene. Naxene was scrying for Strog but had still had no signs of him, and she was sure that he had some sort of scrying protection.

Walnut, the treant that stayed behind in Grudd Haug, also reported that the camp was doing acceptably under its new goblin overlord, and Felgolos had been stopping in to continue putting fear into the others.

24th Uklar - 27th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

The rest of the trip was reasonably uneventful. Other ships that came close veered away the moment they saw the mighty longship we had in tow. We had to work to keep the longship on course as it plowed through the seas behind us, but we eventually made it to port at Fireshear on the 27th of Uktar.

Arriving at the Fireshear docks was a experience in itself. The dwarfs at the docks got rather worked up about having a mighty long-ship turn up at their port. It took me going ashore to convince them to let us come ashore and get berthing for the ship, and assurances that we weren’t there to cause issues. Harshnag insisted on jumping ashore as mighty as could be, demanding access to the inns of the town to search for brave Dwarves to man his ship, noting that only Dwarves had the reputation to be brave and strong enough to join a Giant on his boat and man the oars. This got us into the city rather quickly. It really is true that the way to a Dwarves heart is through their pride.

After dragging Cyke and Harshnag out of the nearest Inn, we made our way to the nearest temple. On the trip, we discussed what to do with the frozen dwarf corpse we had found and made the decision to pay the hefty cost to attempt to have her resurrected. We couldn’t guess how long she had been dead, but we could only hope that a priest in the city was up to the task.

Parting with a lot of loot, we settled back to watch the priest work over the dead body, performing the rituals that broke down the barriers between the planes and called upon the soul to return. I could feel the energy of the spell tingle and fizzle on my skin, different to what I experiences when I reached blindly through the chasm between life and death to pull Lilli’s fleeting soul back from the ether. I knew that my hand was inexperienced and I had only been successful in the spell because Lathander had guided it.

Here, I could see a real practitioner work their trade, expertly weaving a connection from the corpse to the soul with ease, calling her from the years of wandering from wherever she had departed. The magic was familiar but yet so very different, not the same as what I could touch while connected to Lathanders power, yet oddly familiar in it’s difference.

Bailey Dain, coughed and shivered. Her eyes darted around wildly, and she moved like a old woman, frail and disconnected from her body. It took some time for her to relax and get comfortable in our plane again, back in her body.

As soon as she told us her name I was shocked. I of course knew of ‘Ragged’ Dain, the famous soldier of the axe some twenty five years ago. Indeed she was his daughter, having passed when the ship she was on was attacked by Giants. She hid in a box to avoid their wrath, only to find herself trapped. She averted her eyes at that point, her silence impressing on us her final days were something we’d best not ask about.

As we sat in the temple, the priest cleaning up after the ritual, she reminisced of her Father. Indeed, she insisted his best day was the day he left, siding with Bruenor Battlehammer all those years ago during his reign.

We informed her that she wasn’t the only one back from the dead, and she was thrilled to hear of Battlehammers return to Gauntlgrym. She was adamant on making the journey, so we said we could take her with us if we made our way there soon.

We retired to the Singing Manticore inn, with Luke slipping out quietly to check around the town. We had noted from Lilli’s journal that there was mention of a clockwork mule in it, a package that was lost in transit to one Elsie Hammaver. He returned, having found the lady in question, so with a clockwork mule and not much else we set out to deliver the package that had been lost so many years, presumably since the Giants intercepted the boat.

In the local trading house we found Elsie after parlay with her disinterested clerk, but as soon as she saw the clockwork mule all was forgotten. She was haughty and prone to emotion, but she was indeed grateful we returned this mule for her.

Her assistant coughed and suggested perhaps we should be rewarded, and only they did she realise we were really even there. We left with a clockwork spider monkey, with the intention of training it to be a fully fledged crew member. Lilli named it Gizmo as soon as she set her eyes on it.

We returned to the tavern where the liquor flowed freely. Considering we were all still alive and another Giant’s den was no more, there was plenty to celebrate. Harshnag loud and boisterous stories of our battles attracted many looks and it wasn’t long before he had the beginnings of a crew. We piled back into the inn, drunk as a dwarf during the Ghuregbuzramerag.

28th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

Despite my best wishes to get to Nine Oaks with haste to search for Teisha and my children, the rest of the sarding group has decided to go via Gauntlgrym. The closer we get to my childhood home the harder it is to stay calm. I can feel Ironfang’s warmth at my belt as I dewll on this. Its almost like the weapon is alive, feeling warmer to the touch. And light! When I fight my foes with anger its almost as if it weights nothing, like the weapon sings on the impact with flesh and bone. But it is merely a weapon, a tool. I mustn’t worry of such things.

We skirted around Luscan about 20 miles away, plenty of berth for the township we thought. But alas, they sent out griffon riders. I was below deck when they arrived, but I heard later they spoke to Cyke who was manning the crows nest at the time. I’m not sure what was said, but the departed without incident after speaking to him.

It was only a hour after this that I found Lilli speaking with the others, looking guiltily at me when I approached. They had received a message from Naxene and were debating if they should tell me or not.

The little wizard gulped and avoided my gaze when I demanded to know what the message was. She caved, and revealed Naxene had been finally able to scry on Strog. Burying a wooden box at the foot of a oak in a stand of trees, nine in total. Apparently, it was as if he knew he was being watched.

I remember sitting with Teisha under that tree on one of our infrequent trips back to my little village after we wed. I was not certain they were still there as the Harpers advice on their whereabouts was not guaranteed, but Strog had been there, mere feet from my home.

My blood froze. He had tracked down my family. He had either found them or found their trail. He was certainly ahead of me, and if he had got to them first. Ironfang shook in my belt, I’m certain of it this time. Was it as hungry for Strog’s blood as I was?

Lilli had already gotten the ship to head directly to Nine Oaks. The ancient dawrven city Gauntlgrym and its legendary king could wait.

Cyke wanted to know more about what had happened between us, and I shared what I could with him. The barbarian warrior might have been undisciplined in combat, but his bravery could not be mistaken. Those that who would stand with us against evil in this world were to be trusted.

I caught up with Lilli shortly after and insisted that she get Naxene to continue to scry on Strog. She was being blocked again, clearly meaning Strog wanted us to see him bury the box. Am I walking into a trap? And if my family’s safety is at stake, does it matter even if I do?

Despite my misgivings on sharing the details of my dishonour, I rallied up the group and asked for their help. They would all stand with me. I would never ask them to sacrifice for my family, and hopefully it would not come to that. But they would back me tomorrow, I knew it.

29th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We arrived at Nine Oaks at sunup the next morning. There was less houses than I recall, clearings and stumps being the only evidence they once stood, except the town hall. It was a burnt out husk of its former self. Nine Oaks was always a small town of fifty or so people

Before we landed I reached out magically, using Lathanders will to see if I could locate an item in Strog’s possession. I found nothing, as did the others methods of searching.

The sight of the town hit me in the stomach like a giant’s punch. How many years had It been since I’d been home? The clearing the town was in was no different, the trees no older, the light and weather the same. If it hadn’t been for the torn down houses and burnt out town hall it would be like no time had passed since the last time I mounted and rode toward Mirabar from here. The last time I did was Teisha riding with me, her smile lighting up the world.

Strog had been here and defiled all those memories. The memory of the day she brought our children into the world, the day we wed, the day I last saw her smile were fouled, unlikable. My grip firmed on Ironfang and I now knew without doubt it contained some living essence. I could feel it wash over me, calling for Strog’s blood, no actually the blood of my foes. Any of them. All of them.

It was the little wizard that saw the internal struggle that was going on that grounded me, urged me to resit the rage. There was still good to be done, and no evidence my family had come to harm. Yet.

The group decided it would be best for me to stay on the boat whilst they went around town looking for Strog or my family. They door knocked, not getting far in the tight knit community but not getting an answer at our family home. John spoke to one of the ancient trees in the grove, finding and unearthing the box Strog buried.

Returning back to the ship, I gripped the box and tore the lid of it, finding a note from Strog.

Joyous Yule, Morath. If it is, as I suspect, you or your friends scrying for me, you will find this note. If you can be bothered enough about the safety and security of your family. I hope your reunion is everything you deserve it to be. Knowing you, it will be ruined and I will barely have to lift a finger. Think about your family and how close I got to them, next time you consider looking for me. Best wishes, Strog

Underneath the paper was a doll, marked by a foul stain. It hit me like a intense odour, and I recognised it as a plague. We burnt it immediately.

Being somewhat sure that Strog was not in the vicinity, we set off to my family home. I was met at the door by my brother Fredu. I was hesitant, waiting for him to say something, words of disgust, recognition, anything. I waited with baited breath for him to speak, and when he finally did, he wanted to know who I was.

Shocked, I looked down at myself a little. I was fully armoured in plate mail, elven and light but strong. My trusted shield hung off my arm, and the artefact Ironfang hung from my belt. The intervening years had not done wonders for the lines of my face, and my beard was as mighty as any Dwarves.

Of course he wouldn’t recognise me. It took me a few tries to explain to him I was indeed his brother, returned. He could not believe me, and looked me up and down, and then to the ragtag group assembled behind me.

Teisha, storming out of the kitchen, was quicker to recognise my voice. She nearly split me in two with her broom she had been sweeping the kitchen with, much less interested to entertain what I had to say. She was shocked to have seen me after all the time that had passed, and I had to convince her to let me talk in between her blows that rattled off my armour, but dug at my heart.

She begrudgingly agreed to talk, but not in front of the children. My eyes must have lit up, because she was swift to tell me I wasn’t to be near them but they were in the town. Praise Lathander! My family were safe and well, outside the clutches of the evil that had befallen Mirabar.

Teisha let me and Lilli in but not the others. She must have decided the little wizard was no threat, not knowing how wrong she was if she had reason to need to fight. I took off my weapons and left them with Fredu whilst he sat and chat with the rest of the group.

I sat opposite my wife, looking at her like it was for the first time again. She was as strong as I remembered, but the intervening years had softened the lines of her face somewhat. She still locked me with her piercing gaze, hair flowing down the sides of her face. She had always been thin but she seemed thinner, more wiry, alert.

She cut me off before I had even said anything, not sure if she would believe what I or Lilli would have to say. I looked away from her, leaving Lilli to suggest we try a Zone of Truth. She wasn’t convinced at first, but after the spell went up and I asked her to lie to me, she found herself open mouthed and unable to speak. Her eyes softened a little bit and I went to laugh at her expression, but she curtly ensured I knew where I stood in this conversation.

Where had I been all this time? How could I answer that easily. I launched into a tale of the time since my exile. The march out of town, the civilians I’d sworn to protect pelting me with with spoiled foodstuff and their own spit, stripped so bare little protected my modesty. Looking up at the in penetrable walls of Mirabar from the outside, the guards sticking their cocked arrows into my back to move me on, away from the town. They’d openly discussed killing me down the road and dumping my corpse for a time, but they didn’t follow through. At that point I think I’d have let them.

I told her of finding myself at a inn, stealing food and beer to survive, finding old clothes to wear. Having nothing to my name and in the company of the criminals that I’d protected against, I did not dare reveal who I had been. I made up names and stories to go depending on the people I around, and sold my sword to make ends meet.

She heard about the year of taking bad job after worse, sleeping in the barns with the animals or in the woods outside of town, trying to avoid the worst of jobs, the ones that would question my morals further than I already had been forced to. About my meeting with Brother Renald whilst he was on mission at Helms Hold. I had been passing through when I had met the Brother, who spotted me as I walked past him. He caught up with me, insisting that I come and speak with him, that I walked in the light of Lathander.

I ignored him of course, having no interest in religion or all-mighty powers. But he came and found me morning noon and night, until I listened to him. He regaled me with tales of the Morning Lord, insisting that those that would walk in the light would be offered rebirth. After a time, he offered me food and shelter at the Spires of Morning in Waterdeep If I would listen his teachings.

Anything was better than rolling in dishonour for any longer. Beer and combat had not cleansed the pain I felt in my spirit, so could trying religion be any worse? I could see Teisha’s face softening, eyes becoming misty at my honest recollection of my time spent lost, unwilling and unable to return to Mirabar. I entertained notions of returning to save my family in a blaze of glory, but we all knew I would be cut down before getting inside the gates. Returning by myself was nought but assisted suicide, and I lacked any resources to get in any other way.

She wanted to know, in a quiet voice, if whilst at the bottom of a tankard had I whored. The question cut to my very heart, that I would betray her like that. I cried as i told her that I hadn’t, that I wouldn’t, nay I couldn’t. She cried too, obviously relieved at my answer.

I regaled her tales of the time there spend in learning, my hunger for learning first being sparked and then growing. The countless hours and frustration of learning of something so intangible. The first awakenings of my spiritual instincts, the growing certainty that I was on the right path.

I told her of my mission to deadstone so long ago, before finding this group and the purpose we had. Brother Renald’s insistence that this was the path I should be on, the reason Lathander guided him to rescue me now a year beforehand.

I told her of our fights and victories, the empty town at Deadstone, the siege of Goldenfields, our encounters with Dragons, the Undead, the Betrayal at Deadstone, and our recent Frosty Welcome. Our mission to end the threat of the Giants. Indeed even here, she had heard whispers of the growing threat.

She couldn’t believe Lilli had killed a giant, that any of us had. The giant slayers of Nine Oaks.

My story done, she explained the intervening time. They had been kept under house arrest at Mirabar, under lock and key, guarded day and night. They were below even the beggars in the streets, without freedom. The marchion himself and Hislen even burst into the house, certain that I would be there, having returned to rescue my family.

They only got out when my three brothers returned to Mirabar to rescue her and the kids. Sneaking in and dressing as guards, they got them out with Teisha dressing like a guard also, The were spotted in the escape and Walder, lagging behind them was shot in the back by a guardsmen and killed. They had a plot in the family section of the Nine Oaks graveyard for him, but were never able to recover his body.

I lay my head on the table and cried, cried for my stupidly brave brother Walder, the fact that my brothers had to take up the challenge of rescuing them in my stead. I should be buried in the cemetery, not Walder.

She had waited for me, waited for the day I would return home. Why had I not come sooner? I had not thought I was worthy. I had thought she had hated me for what I did, for what consequences it had. For leading to their imprisonment, the death of my brother.

I had gone out that day in Mirabar at the orders of the Marchion to drive out plague victims, to save the rest of the city. And had returned, bloodied and having killed many of those civilians, having them delirious, sick and too far gone to understand their actions fall on me and my men with a mindless bloodlust. I had killed so many people that only months ago were my local baker, carpenter, grocer, friend. How could she ever love me again? I could not love myself from that day forward.

She had known something was up. The way Hislen stuck to the Marchion, the way his rein seemed to deteriorate and his word become confused and cloudy. Hislens rise to fortune and fame buy suspiciously convenient votes from the councillor’s, one that he was on.

She had understood, of course, having not lost faith in me on that day like the rest of the city had once the Marchion denounced my grisly murder of the plague victims. She knew something was stirring within the elite of Mirabar, something I had unwittingly fallen part of. She was tough and smart, the woman I wed. Why had I not taken the chance earlier?

She had waited for me. We cried together for a while, before she took my hand and said it was high time I saw the kids.

I felt my heart skip a beat when I walked into the neighbouring house and saw them. They were both grown up so much, Joanne now nine and Erik six. Joanne, recognised me, cautiously watching me for a bit before exclaiming ‘Dad!’ and running over to hug me. Erik, having not seen me since he was four, only waddled over out of curiosity after some coaxing, but fell into our embrace.

Lilli was deep in argument with a bemused Teisha, trying to prove that she was a tough wizard. Teisha must have said something about being able to handle her earlier, but I wasn’t really paying attention to the wizard at the time. With the crackling of a spell Lilli levitated off the ground and held Teisha her hand, flying off with my wife over the town in a clear show of power. I had cried harder that I ever remember doing so when I was reunited with the kids, but noted that Joanne was sick. Illiad was there, incredulous on my return, but I could see he was sick as well. It was then I noticed Joanne held a doll in her hand, identical to the one Strog had buried in the box covered in swamp plague.

When Teisha returned the kids were excited to take turns to fly, so we let Lilli taken them up in the air, one at a time. I quietly explained to Teisha what I’d found with the doll, explaining the plague sickness that must have taken hold. I asked for her blessing to treat them, and she watched in surprise and I used Lathanders will to cure Illiad, Joanne and herself of the plague with a touch. I cured Joanne with a blessing when she returned, and thankfully found Erik to be well.

Avoiding destroying a doll that Joanne seemed quite attached to Lilli brewed a pot of tea, and ‘accidental’ dropped the doll in the boiling water, sterilising it. We soothed Joanne and got her to forgive Lilli’s clumsiness, but she would get to keep the doll for now at least.

Whilst we all talked and I filled Illiad in on what I had been up to I saw Joanne desperately asking for more magic Trying to get her attention, I tried to call her over for another hug. But as she turned to me I saw Lilli had given her our endless decanter of water, the magic item that would with the right word fire water out of it like a cannon. Lilli told her what to say, and the decanter exploded with water, knocking Joanne over and nearly knocking me over. I stood, sopping wet, water dribbling all throughout my armour whilst everyone else looked on in laughter. It took me a moment to find the funny side, but it wasn’t long before we were all laughing hard, Joanne refusing to hug me because ‘Daddy’s too wet’

I messaged Arelosa during the day, asking for harper assistance for the town. I could not defend the people here and my family if Strog decided to make his return, and I could only think to ask them for help. The Inn, whilst in ruins, could be a useful base of operations for the Harpers, and having a harper asset in town would make me sleep better at night.

Meanwhile, the kids were riding Cornelius and having a ball, whilst Teisha and my brothers mingled and talked to the group. I did notice that Sialia wasn’t seeing eye to eye with Fredu, ill have to ask her what that’s about later on.

We heard that the village was suffering with its harvest. We could see ourselves that the crops were doing poorly, possibly due to the overworking of the soil some harvest ago. John took to the fields for some hours, returning to insist that the harvest that was due only tomorrow would be amazing, but that’s all the quiet man would say.

During the afternoon whilst we were resting and filling my brothers on what we had all been doing John confided in me that the trees in the grove had spoken to her of a druid being in the area many centuries ago. Whilst this didn’t surprise me, his name did, one Turner Khalid. None of us knew us to have a drug in our family tree, not in living memory at least. Yet a trip out to the older section of the town graveyard did indeed the existence of a Turner Khalid, living some six hundred years ago.

Its nighttime, and we’d better get some rest before harvest. I’m interested to see what John has cooked up for us.

30th Uktar, the Star Walkers Return

We were awoken by the sounds of excited activity, dogs running around excitedly, everything. We got outside to see John had not been kidding with his promise on the harvest. Overnight, every crop in sight had grown to fully mature and then some. We were greeted with thick, healthy plants which looked every bit like they had been cultivated in the richest soil with the best of care. Produce was ripe and abundant. Indeed, as the village looked on the people walking through the fields, the problem of getting it all brought in before nightfall seemed to be the largest issue.

To solve this problem, Lilli began to chant rituals and summon clockwork horses, seemingly able to make five or six of the constructs a hour from the ether. The entire village pitched in to bring in the harvest, using the horses Lilli summoned, their farm animals, and their bare hands. Sialia was notably absent, having taken the opportunity to go hunting. She promised she would return with something rewarding for all after the hard days work ahead.

I felt that Teisha and the kids had had enough time to settle into the idea that we were here that I called forward Morning to greet them. They looked on in wonder for some time, Teisha stammering and asking what it was. Morning may have had the form of a lion, but its celestial nature was apparent in its mane and coat with little investigation. Teisha gave Morning a hug, thanking the beast for protecting me on my travels.

It took us all the best part of the day to bring in the abundant harvest, the last clockwork horse winking out of existence as we all slumped into the town common area, stomachs grumbling. Sialia has returned with a mighty stag, a cheer going up amongst the hungry residents. Ill finish this entry up tonight before we turn in.

Feast of the Moon, the Star Walkers Return

I never finished last nights entry, as we were interrupted by Corwin coming running, having had a hit on adamantite via using the Rod of the Vonindod to scan the area. But he hadn’t detected any since arrival, meaning if we got a hit now something must have moved adamantite into the range of the spell. We hurriedly geared up to scout, and I insisted that Teisha get herself and the kids on the airship and be ready to evacuate the township if needed.

On foot we dashed out, and it wasn’t too long before we could see a dragon in the distance, and heard the noises only a giant would make. Lilli’s tressum confirmed the worst. Fire giants. A dragon. Goblins dragging a piece of metal, presumably the adamantite that we had got a hit on during our travels to Nine Oaks. And all coming directly toward the town.

What a sarding fight! We found the dragon and fire giants carrying adamantite, presumably the adamantite we detected on our trip to Nine Oaks. They were coming straight for the town before we arrived ready to stop them. The dragon was ferocious and hit us hard with its breath, but we managed to down the beast and its allies. It was a younger dragon, to our relief.

The goblins waited to see who would get the upper hand before fleeing before us as we claimed the day. The airship arrived not long after combat finished with the crew and Teisha of all those that could be aboard, having insisted to come along. We loaded the adamantite onboard for now and returned to the town for a much earned rest.

Arriving back at Nine Oaks coming on sunrise, we got ready for the dawn service. Due to being the closest thing the town had to a Priest, I was asked to perform the ceremony. Despite my weak protests to the fact I was not trained or ready for such a task, I found myself unable to refuse the honour. We would have a dawn service to praise the gods for the harvest, the last one before winter.

The townsfolk had already arrived in the cemetery as we got there, and I made my way to the front of the assembled crowd. I was unprepared on my speech and the goddess of Grain, Chauntea, was best to thank for the harvest, a deity i was only somewhat familiar with from fringe references in the works I had been studying.

Nonetheless, I gave a inspiring speech giving grace to Chauntea for the harvest, and still taking the time to encourage the town to remember the dead. The town had lost a few folk in the last year, including a old farm animal named Ol Betsy that Joanne pointed out mid service needed to be remembered for her sacrifice. We all had a good laugh at that, and i was quick to remedy my speed to include the illustrious animal. I noted Walders death and my personal sorrow at having been away, but did not call attention to the circumstances surrounding his death.

I closed the ceremony with a passage from Marget Cotte collected works on Lathander - ‘And when the night is darkest, in the places that have never known light; I will go with thee and I will burn bright’ I could feel the power of Lathander in me, speaking these words and conducting the ceremony during his holy time of dawn, and I’m ever more certain this is the right path to be on.

After the ceremony was finished and everyone milled out toward town to break fast, I spent some time at Walder’s grave, along with my parents. Ames and Abeth’s graves were well tended, and I saw Teisha give me a small smile when she noted my gratitude at the respect she had continued to show them even in death.

Turner, the supposed druid in our family tree was had a grave stone that was simply a tree stump with his name carved in it. I wonder what his life was like, and if we could ever find out more about him? Our family history did not go back far enough to help us. The grave was not marked with a family name, only the name Turner.

We were just leaving as two strangers turned up into town, who we invited to share the morning breakfast and harvest with us. We would later find them to be Meadow and Osborn, members of the Grinning Pony. We had heard of them, and as they were said to travel well and side with good they were welcomed into the town for the feast.

Fredu got into the food and drink quickly, emptying his plate before most even had been given their plate. We all drank and ate, sharing stories of those we had lost and reminiscing of them long into the day and evening. There was no clear break in the festivities between breakfast, lunch and dinner, and by the end of the day we had all spoken, sung, drank and ate with everyone that was present and exhausted our conversation and stories.

An archery competition was called, as well as the predictable terrible off key singing from those more merry than others later in the day. Lilli turned herself into an ape to show off and ran around the town terrorising everyone, whilst Teisha sang a song that captured everyone’s attention, upstaging the slurred off key songs that came before. I had near forgotten how beautiful the sung, her voice and presence bringing a tear to my eye which I quickly wiped away before it was seen.

Just before nightfall my harper contact arrived on a Ethereal horse, but we chose to save most of the conversation for the following day,

Sialia was out cold before the end of the night and as we stumbled back into the family house we found her passed out in a pile, with the bear Cornelius, Morning, the kids and Sialia all nestled together in front of the fire.

1st Nightal, The Star Walkers Return

The day was uneventful. We mainly recuperated from the fight and from the ale the night before, and got talking to the Harper that was sent.

Wesley, who’s name I embarrassingly forgot to ask earlier, was our contact from Waterdeep. He had travelled to Mirabar to come down south to Nine Oaks to respond to my call. Explaining the situation with Strog and my wishes to provide not only protection for my family but the town itself took some time.

Thinking things through, Wesley cast a spell on the house Teisha and my brothers lived in to provide protection quickly, and then the discussion turned toward long term.

There was a possibility the Harpers could rebuild the Inn and use it as a base of operations, which would mean more traffic to the town and a permanent presence. However, no titles of land deeds could be found, making it impossible for the town to grand land to the Harpers. Wesley said that the titles were with Waterdeep and they would look into it. Waterdeep used to protect and patrol the area but the activity had slowly died off over the years, now leaving the town vulnerable.

I spent the rest of the day playing with the children, taking Erik on a short hunt in the forest and chasing Joanne around the town.

I had not thought the day would come where I could be happy again.

Teisha and I spoke more of the events that had happened, and corroborated stories on Hislen. She spoke of him with as much venom and hatred as did I, and under the confines of her house arrest the few times she had seen him it was obvious that he had far to much influence over the Marchion. Indeed, he was not as careful with hiding it in the short time they visited her, obviously not thinking she was a person of note.

I would prove him wrong.

2nd Nightal, The Star Walkers Return

As much as I could forever stay here and soak up the people and atmosphere, it was time to get on. I dint believe the Giants would relax whilst we passed the time here.

I bid my painful goodbyes to the kids, my brothers and Teisha. A life of adventure and travel was no place for children, and I could not put Teisha in further jeopardy than I had already had. On the other hand, I could not leave the group that I had fought and travelled with nor leave the path that Lathander had set me on. Despite the fact that leaving after a few short days from locating my family safe and well drove a cold, icy knife into my heart, we had to press on.

We were packed up and on the airship before midday and after the painful farewells I stood and watched the town recede into the distance. Knowing that I would return as soon as I could was the only thing that kept me calm for the time being.

Hislen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

2nd Nightal, The Star Walkers Return (Continued)

We headed to the village of Bleeding Vines, probably around ninety miles West of Nine Oaks. Meadow and Osrin had overheard our conversation about searching for Gauntlgrym, and had pointed us in this direction.

We found our person, Ivan Bouldershoulder, at a winery in the village. He was a dwarven veteran that has served with Bruenor Battlehammer, and was a friend. It was a good bet that if we could get information from him we would find our way into the legendary city.

After some persuasion and showing him the letter I had received from Foehammer, he led us to the storage cave for the winery. The vast cavern held hundred of barrels, but concealed into the cavern wall was an entrance to a massive tunnel. He wished us luck and we struck out into the tunnel, and after some time we found the gatehouse and minecart network he had described.

We took a minecart down the twisting tunnel, which bent and twisted at strange angles. I swore at times we run across the ceiling, defying gravity. Once we reached the main cavern of the city and disembarked from the cart we had to soak up the beauty of the city for some time.

We were deep underground, in an enormous cave carved out of the rock. It had hundereds of levels, with minecart tracks sprawling all around. Twisted stairs connected levels, and the sheer scale of the city was breathtaking. Many doors were sized large enough so that not only could a giant fit through them, but indeed a dragon! The cave was complete with stalactites and stalagmites, the visible area blending natural formations with complex and massive carved structures. It contained hundreds of levels, twisting stairs and minecarts at many junctions.

We were quickly spotted by dwarven guardsmen and challenged upon our entry, and with a display of the letter I had and a firm request to have an audience with the King, we were ushered into the royal chambers.

It was some time before Bruenor was ready for us and we were escorted into the throne room. His throne stood on a dias at the far end of the hall, and a large table fit to host a feast was off to the right.

Brunenor stood and waited for us to introduce ourselves. As I began the introductions, a wizened figure moved from the shadows to stand by his side, slightly behind him as if attentive respectful. It was Hislen!

Hislen, the cause of all my families pain, suspected of all sorts of death and manipulation to line his pockets at Mirabar, stood by the king. He looked over us, not recognizing me. Why should he? I was a changed man, with a long flowing beard that would make a Dwarf blush. I was no longer a clean cut soldier wearing the colours of Mirabar.

Against my nature, I introduced myself under a fake name. I would not tip my hand to Hislen. He does not react.

He did recognize Bailey however, she was pleased to see the king. She recounted our resurection of her and he started looking over our group again, surprised we would spend so much wealth on a stranger.

Bruenor asked me for the letter, the one from Foehammer. He hardly even read it before asking me in a booming voice ’listen here boy, do you even know what you have here?'

Confused, I listened as he suggested I take another look at the letter, another good look. I used the gem I’d found, the one that allowed me to see things as the really were. The runes on the letter now made sense. They said Final Gift.

Bruenor explained to the group the Final Gift, an almost sacred act a master smith performs before letting his forge go cold and his workshop silent. A single last work of his craft, the cumulation of the hundreds of years of work. Foehammer had granted me his final gift, his last craft, and would only need access to Bruenor’s forge to do so.

Whilst he spoke, I noted something about Hislen. With the truesight I now had, I could see he was in fact a dark elf, a drow, disguised. I didn’t let it show, and let the conversation continue.

Bruenor, having noted we all bore medals from Citadel Adbar’s king, insisted to know what deeds we could have done to deserve such an honor. He was suitably impressed when we explained our story of protecting the king there, and after everything he had learned insisted we stay and celebrate. Bailey’s return was cause for such a celebration, and I’m sure he was interested to hear more of our exploits. He reached behind his shield and pulled out a mug of ale one for each of us. Cyke looked on with greedy eyes when he noted that Bruenor was producing beer out of thin air.

The advisors scurried out to leave us in peace, but before I turned my attention back to the group I saw the true form of Hislen slip back into the room and hide behind a pillar under a cloak of invisibility.

Bruenor was indeed a surprise for such a revered figure of the dwarven race. He was quite relaxed and friendly, boisterous even. He drank and laughed at our stories,

I had managed to get Lilli’s attention, and communicated enough to her quietly about the situation. She slipped our with Bailey, insisting that she could let us speak further in privacy.

Minutes later, I could hear the little wizards voice in my mind, asking for Bruenor’s forgiveness for the magics she had used. She had liked us through our minds, able to talk to each other in complete privacy. We filled in the king on the situation with Hislen and the fact he was eavesdropping and formulated a plan to prove this to the king, and capture him so we could interrogate the drow. Was Hislen indeed a drow all along I wondered, or had he been replaced here in Gauntlgrym?

Whilst this was talking place two monks had come in and began mock combat as our evening entertainment. Lilli, insisted to join in the fun and gained permission to shapeshift Bailey into a giant ape, which she henceforth rode into battle against the unwitting monks.

The trap was now set, and I communicated to them where the drow was, and the ape jumped and swiftly landed on him, with the rest of us a heartbeat behind. The king was not far behind us, having taken the time to finish his mug of beer before joining us.

The drow’s magic had been dispelled and he lay visible to all, battered on the ground. Bruenor grunted a command to the monks, who after almost punching him in the chest region with a strange, almost ritual like combination of their fingers, dragged him out to a cell.

Bruenor who commended us on exposing a traitor in his midst, but lamenting the loss of his advisor. I broke my silence and explained to him the backstory with Hislen and my real identity, and the events that had befallen me at Mirabar. He was shocked and dubious having trusted Hislen, but respected my honesty and allowed us to investigate Hislens tower in the city for signs of his advisor, with my pledge that if found we would bring him to the king for questioning unharmed.

The tower was full of traps and magics protecting it, but we managed our way past the front door with only a small incident of Cyke storming through the magically trapped door impatiently. The first two stories were empty, but we encountered a group of drow on the third floor. Sialia had gone on to to the fourth floor, putting us in a position of being split and pincered in between the two sets of foes.

We dispatched the foes and moved our way up the tower, through more elementals and demons, to find at the top of the stairs what was clearly a wizards study.

Across the room, full of alchemy works, dusty tombs and strangely a coffin, lay ornate mirror. Upon glancing at it I felt a strange feeling pass over me, a urge to inspect the reflection more, but I instinctively fought it. I looked to the other and saw a confused expression on their faces, indicating it wasn’t just me that felt something weird.

Except Lilli and Sialia, who had vanished.

We turned the place upside down looking for them, inspecting for trap doors, the mirrors frame, books. It wasn’t until we shouted their names that we discovered the mirrors properties, as it shimmered and showed us a otherworldly cell, with nigh invisible barriers that held a trapped and confused Lilli. We spoke to her through the mirror before trying to cycle the mirror through to Sialia, confirming we could control it.

During our search for a way to get them out we inspected the coffin, which contained a duplicate of Hislen in it. I ensured the body was mortally wounded before we closed the coffin back up, suspecting Hislen may have some way of moving into the body if he was killed. We also found plenty of wealth and gold containing the stamp of Mirabar. He was wealthy, far beyond his means to acquire. I was now certain he had manipulated his position at Mirabar for his own greed, turning against his own kind on the council at Mirabar. Had he used his magiks to convince the other councilors to make decisions to line his pockets? Lilli’s gramps accusations of Hislen and the listing of the tunnel collapses within were too coincidental to Hislen’s activities, and the wealth he had accumulated was proof.

We had to search the room and the books before confirming we had the keyword required to recover souls lost to the mirror, and we managed to get our our companions. I had a niggling suspicion, as it seemed clear Drow had infiltrated the building and were using it an base of operations, and I thought I knew where Hislen was.

I approached the mirror and uttered the one word I needed know know for sure. Hislen. His visage appeared, sitting in a cell, in there for gods knows how long. The mirror was indeed a prison, with many cells within, a portal to another plane with separate cells for each prisoner..

He tried to get us to let him out but I merely smiled and told him who I was. He didn’t remember me, recognition only forming on his face once I described his actions.

‘Why would I remember a insignificant soldier, a pawn, fit only to solve a problem for my king’ he sneered. Despite the rage building in me, I didn’t let him go on and flicked the mirror back to a mirror state. I wanted his confession to wait until it suited me. We took the mirror and returned through the tower and back to the king.

Upon returning we interrogated the drow, using a combination of magiks to probe its thoughts. It did not reveal much, but we did learn that indeed the drow had infiltrated Gauntlgrym for the purpose of stealing Maegera.

We ascertained that the drow, Draac Xorlarrin was part of the plot, and the fire giants that we had heard about before were the leaders of the plot. It seemed they must need Maegera’s might to power the forges at Ironslag and complete the Vonindod, and had tried to steal the primordial. They had tried using the mirror to entrap him but the artifact was not powerful enough. Duke Zalto of the fire giants had sent for an iron flask to contain the primordial.

There was two entrances to Ironslag, through the adamantine doors that signaled the front or through the mines, with a mineshaft entrance at a yakfolk village.

There was little more to learn from the drow, and we spared him no quarter. Sialia swiftly ended the drow, who was defiant to the end and refused to rise to her challenge to fight the drow on an even field for his life. He simply accepted the end we gave him. It was clear the elves and the drow were hated enemies, even If I hadn’t had heard such things around the pubs in the past.

I let Bruenor in on the details of my past and my real name. Whilst he was frustrated that I had deceived him, he did quickly recover as we explained the extent of Hislen’s deceit. We showed Bruenor the piles of gold, diary and other items we aquired from his lair, as well as filling him in with Lilli’s gramps suspicions from the pages of his diary that we had thus far decoded.

Knowing I had to go a long way to prove to him that us, a group of ragtag adventures were worth listening to over his trusted advisor, suggested to him that to prove the situation to him without a doubt that he let me interrogate Hislen. He readily agreed.

Quickly we emptied a room near the throne room, a storage room, one Hislen would not recognize. We knew enough about the mirror to know how far away to stand from it to avoid being caught in the lair, and it was easy to set it up in the middle of the room facing a wall, in such a way that I could be visible to the mirror with the King and others standing aside, out of view of the mirror but able to hear the conversation.

‘Hislen!’’ I commanded, and the mirror blurred and brought him forth. He scowled and spat. Brushing off the fact we had cut off the conversation, I got him to start talking again.

I led the conversation as if I was grieving and wounded. allowing his ego to come out. I was but a nobody, a useless soldier, fit to only be a pawn in my liege’s desire’s. In Hislen’s view, the plague was easy to stop. Setup a situation where the infected peasants were killed to stop the spread. Never mind the pain or consequences. A soldier, one blindly loyal would suffice. A small sacrifice for the greater good.

I seethed, but did not allow it to show. He followed on unprovoked, reveling in the glory of his crimes. It was clear to us he had manipulated the council at Mirabar for his own profits, and had manipulated the minds of others to his whim. The cave-in’s referenced it Lilli’s gramps journal was all but confirmed to be him.

Asking of the Dwarvish King, the one Hislen was unaware that was standing behind the mirror, Hislen smiled. It was obviously wasn’t it? Why wouldn’t it work again?

At this, Bruneor could wait no longer. He stormed forward, in view of the mirror but out of its magical reach. He fumed at the trapped Hislen, who was shocked to see his King standing before him having heard the conversation. He was so self assured that he didn’t see the deception we had setup.

Bruenor was done with him, and when questioned on his fate, he waved his hand. He would be for us to do whatever he wanted with. I didn’t get the impression that he wanted to deal with a long term prisoner, especially one with such magical talent.

I stared directly at Hislen as I commanded the mirror back to a inactive state, his panicked face being cutoff and he started to berate me. He still hadn’t realized that I was the soldier he talked so lowly of.

I had not spent years of my life tracking down this waste of life to take any chances. He was contained in a perfect prison, and Lathander be damned if I let him out before I was ready for him.

I discussed his fate briefly with Bruenor, and it was not much longer before we made it to our destination, Maegara’s lair. We made it to a platform well above the magma, one overlooking the fifty foot body of the primordial. The heat was intense, and I was certain anything that came near the primordial would be incinerated, magical resistances or not.

The room had huge volumes of water pouring into it, which may have been the only reason it was tolerable being in the room at all. The primordial stirred and moved, but seemed sluggish. Bruenor explained how a number of water elementals provided water to the cavern, cooling down the room and keeping the primordial trapped and weakened, and thus able to safely power the great forge.

It was the perfect spot, and at the edge of the ledge I pulled out the mirror and set it up on a rock so I could see it. Calling forth Hislen one more time, I revealed to him who I was. That lowly soldier he send to his death, and then after I did not die, to exile.

In the light of Lathander I sentenced him to death for his crimes. Not just what he had done to myself and my family, for the subsequent death of my brother, for the people killed in the mining shaft cave ins, for the gross misconduct he had done for his own financial gains, and for however many more things he had done that we were not aware of.

He cried and screamed, and swore that he would kill me, drain me of my blood, bring destruction to my family. I had already picked up the mirror and swung it as hard as I could toward the primordial and the magma below. I was sure the wizard within the mirror would try some of his tricks to escape, and I wanted to make sure that he did not. With the destruction of his clone in his tower we had reduced his options, but it was not impossible he would have other tricks.

I had to make sure he had no time to move a hand or utter a word before he was overwhelmed.

The mirror flipped end on end, the face of Hislen shouting, and then screaming as he realized where he was, shrinking to a tiny speck. Magera saw the object and started to slowly but powerfully swing towards it. As the mirror hit the magma there was a violent clap of thunder and flash, as the entire contents of the mirror was deposited into the air just above the magma.

Suddenly there was a remoraz, elementals, goblins, ogres and other creatures of which some we could not recognized. They began to crawl up on top of each other, fighting to stay out of the lava and pushing down the creature below them, subsequently getting climbed on themselves. , We could see Hislen trying to weave a spell amongst the conflagration, wriggling to get out of the writhing mess of limbs. The din was deafening and eerily creepy, as the anguish from all the creatures drowned out all noise but the steady clangs from the forge.

Maegera’s fist firmly collided into the mass of creatures and they disappeared into his fiery fists, the noise being cut short and replaced by a deafening thud as the massive fist made contact. Maegera lazily inspected the area they creatures had been, as the shattered parts of the creatures briefly formed floating fires as they combusted quickly. I could see Hislen, having being flung from the mass directly into the magma, was engulfed in flames and wildly waving his arms around for anything to grab on to. The noise of the first strike was barely fading away before the primordial stomped squarely on the wizard, ending him.

Shortly, the magma came to rest and Maegera turned disinterestedly away from the area. Ironfang sang through my mind, relishing in the triumph and violence of the end of my sworn foe, one I had sought vengeance on for so long. He may have been only one foe, but the realm was a little safer today without his like in it.

As I write this back on the airship I still relish the feeling of satisfaction that washed over me. We left shortly thereafter, having uncovered the plot by the fire giants Duke Zalto to steal Maegera. Bruenor tasked us to rid the lair of the fire giants, and we had set sail immediately to do so.

Duke and Countess

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

3rd Nightall - 5th Nightall, The Star Walkers Return

We traveled uneventfully on our trip from Gayntlgrym to the lair of the Fire Giants, located near the Citadels to the North East.

The days have not stemmed the range of emotion that I have felt since taking the life of Hislen. Rage, Anger, Sorryw, and pure Joy have all crossed my mind. Have I truly accomplished what I set out to do after two years ago. The worm had a damn backup body, could he have had more? Was his soul truly sent to whatever misbegotten plane of existence one such lost his soul to upon his true death?

I had the others using their scrying spells to search for him, which is only a small comfort that they cannot locate him. If he truly had resurrected despite losing the body we desecrated, it would be no small feat for him to evade our detection.

I pray to Lathander, in my room on the airship with Morning sleeping peacefully, guarding the door. I had hoped to find peace in my actions but my soul has never been more torn.

I can write no more for now. May my rest bring me comfort.

6th Nightall, The Star Walkers Return

We have scouted and landed near where the Fire Giant lair of Ironslag was located, in the early hours of the morning. A massive door blocked out path directly into the lair, set into the mountainside.

There was no way through without using the airship to batter our way in, at great expense and noise. We promptly skipped by using a cave network that lead to the top of the cliff faces. We pressed on, hoping to make a shortcut through to the lair through the caves, which was a success.

A chimera stood in our way, which we quickly despatched, before coming out at the top of the caves where we found ourselves under the sky once more, picht black with the twinkling of stars. The moon was not full and the shadows were ours.

A yakfolk village stood before us, with little motion to be seen. Stone walls some twenty feet high surrounded large pats of it, with a cleft in the mountain separating it into two halves with a sturdy bridge. Within, Pens of slaves, many naked, surrounded the area, in which the yakfolk had erected crude huts in amongst the open space. The slaves slept as soundly as the yakfolk did at this hour.

I hung back as the group quietly made their way around the village, quietly ending the lives of the yakfolk. I brought up the rear, trying to be as quiet as a man could be wearing full plate armor.

We finished up many of the yakfolk as they slept, freeing slaves as we went. Many yakfolk we had slain carried keys which we cut from them, unlcoking the cages we could find. We rounded up those we rescued and told them to silently make their way toward the cave exist as we continued, but one did not follow the others.

The elf stood proudly up after being freed, graceful and elegant for a naked elf we had just freed from captivity. She walked toward us instead of fleeing with the others. Her long curly hair hung to her waist, the pale blond colour almost blending into her fair skin. She walked with poise that accentuated her figure, and seemed unconcerned with the situation that we had just met her in. She went to speak but was interupted by the sounds of the camp’s cheiftan and his shaman, roused from their sleep. Without a further word, she pirouetted, grabbed the Giant Slayer longsword that hung by my side, and prepared to attack with us, falling into a perfect stance for the weapon. I stood mouth agape and the beautiful form of the elf, cloked in her nakedness, who prepared to fight for the people she was locked up alongside with the vigor of a king defending his people to the last.

The chieftain and his shaman fought in vain, but were pushed backwards and took shelter in a hut to escape our relentless attack. Lilli erected a wall of wind and force in front of the hut, blocking them into it. A plague of locusts surrounded John after some seconds of his concentration, which in short order swarmed the hut. There was a moment of confused grunts and screams from the building before the hut simply exploded into pieces of rubble and lumbar. The yakfolk clambered out of the hut covered on locusts, wounded from our assault. It was only moments later we fell on them and once more the night was silent.

We hurried forward, finding a set of caves which took us deeper into the mountain, which clearly turned into mines on the way. Some salamanders stood briefly before us and were dispatched in short order, except for one which we were able to dominate into serving out will.

Pressing on, we came into a huge forge area, glowing pits of lava, massive anvils, and a huge chain from which buckets lay suspended just off the ground. A group of orcs worked on a significant forging operation as we watched silently from above.

We moved through the huge two hundered foot room from the railings above, managing to move with reasonable silence through those that opposed us. When it came time to lay seige to the giants below Cyke bellowed and jumped down from the railing, landing on the head of the giant be sailed by goblins. Their blows had no hope of penetrating my plate armor, and yet one of the plucky creatures manage to find a gap in my plate not once, but twice. He looked at his weapon in sheer surprise and proceeded to claim victory, holding his weapon up high despite having merely causing the joint to fill up with some blood.

In that moment I saw Sialia, out of position on a giant’s flank get laid low with a vicious blow. She sceamed a guttural scream and went silent as the giant knocked her down.

Wrapping myself in Lathander’s will, I dashed to her side from across the cavern within seconds, ready to block the followup blow meant to crush her skull with my shield. I engaged the wounded giant and patched Sialia up with what was left of the power I had in me to get her back into the fight. We brought the giant down together and turned back to the main fight.

Cyke was fending of giant blows, bellowing as he did, with Lilli harassing the giants from afar with magiks. John’s arrows found their mark on the giants and as I watched one fell to its knees, all but defeated. The goblin that had wounded me stood next to Lilli, and as I watched it seems that she had convinced the goblin that it had been fighting on the wrong side as it attacked the giants alongside her.

As we ended the remaining giants and we recovered from battle I congratulated the goblin on his damage to me, and gave Lilli a look that the tiny thing was her problem if she chose not to end it.

We came into the view of a second room, with the Vonindod standing nearly completed in the middle. Duke Zalto stood there flanked by drow mages, inspecting the giant construct. We chose not to tackle him just at that time, and proceeded to scout the rest of the fortress.

From some slaves that we freed we heard about the countess, busy preparing meals for all in the kitchen. We send the goblin in first armed with our endless decanter, convincing it that we were the side it was best to stand with.

Once the commotion started we burst into the room, taking the distracted goblins and countess unawares. There was water gushing in from a locked door in the room, distracting them as they confusedly tried to mop it up. The goblin had locked himself in and spoke the command word, causing a ruckus of commotion.

With a single fireball blast from Sialia’s wand the goblins were no more. The Countess, stunned, demanded to know of our intrusions. And we told here what we were here to do - get the fire giant’s conch, and end any chance of the Vonindod being finalized for good.

She was not particularly happy with this fact, and was brought down in a blaze of magic and swords. But not before a warning was shouted, a ogre running to alert his lord.

We had hardly caught a breath before three huge giants burst into the room, fiercely armored with huge tower shields. They were nigh impervious to attack, and charged through us like we were not even there.

I was thrown against a wall and clambered shakily to my feet, managing to knock loose a armored joint with one well struck blow. The follow up blow stuck deeply in the giant, IronFang flickering with ripples of Lathander’ light. The sentient weapon relished in the critical destruction of our foe, and the others brought down the other giants as I ensured my foe would not rise again.

When we let the kitchen a second line of defense had been formed, with the drow mages doing all they could to slow our advance. They called up storms of sleet, wind and vines to try and stop our progress, but we persevered.

The duke whilst cornered fought us valiantly, wielding a huge maul coated in pure flame. The end of the maul was in fact a cage, containing a gnome, weakly screaming for a end to his suffering.

Once we showed the Duke the error of his warmongering ways, we retrieved the badly burnt gnome, discovering he had a tattoo that the Zhentarim.

Ironslag lay dormant and silent as we left, fire giant conch in our possession and dragging a pleading Zhent prisoner in tow. The only one we left alive was the Duke’s young daughter, who seemed utterly disinterested and even hateful of her parents goals. We let her leave peacefully.

We left for Citadel Adbar, with a airship full of freed prisoners, a serpent like prisoner trying to lie, cheat and talk his way out of his situation, and releif at the defeat of two enemies that had threatened the residents of Citadel Adbar.

We lost the Zhent gnome over the edge of the ship on the way back to adbar, having proved highly unco-operative when we discussed his fate with him. Apparently he had been sent by his superiors to try and deal with the fire giants and had received imprisonment for daring to make the suggestion.

It was half a day to the citadel to announce our victory and return the freed prisoners to civilization.

I dreamed that night of holding Hislen by his pompous neck over the pits of lava at Gauntlgrym, his faced contort into pain and fear. “My name is Morath Khalid. Prepare to die” I scowled at him, letting go and watching his face scream silently into the void as he disappeared below. He knew shortly that molten lava would soon envelop his body, a warm embrace that would end his life in the most painful way imaginable. His last breath would be a searing hot breath, hot enough to stop his breath within moments.

I felt no remorse at ending the worms life. Lathander calls for me to give new life, seek a new dawn. But in that gnome, as I stared into his eyes in the moment he knew his fate was sealed, I only saw darkness.

I have had my vengeance on Hislen. And it feels good. If he somehow returns, I will excise judgment on him for a second time.