The road to Grey Dog Village

1618. Sea Season. Stasis. Freezeday

Characters partaking:

Aylwin from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Philip
Blanka from the Ernaldori - Colymar Tribe, played by Bram
Gunnar 'the devoted' Gunnarson from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Gunther
Hjotra from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Ulic Qel-Droma, a Bagnot resident from Tarsh, played by Alexander

fter overcoming the gang of robbers eager to steal their goods, our adventurers empty their agressors' pockets and split the earnings. Then the party resumes their travel towards Grey Dog village.  Aelwin insists on driving the cart, but when he fires up the horses, Ulic, walking in front of the cart, stumbles and falls, and is ran over by the cart.  The wound is major, but not fatal.  Apart from that the trip is quite uneventful, and after a few hours they pass the Humakt stead, where they have a short chat with Aelbric Svenson, the retired Humakt Rune Lord, whose sole frustration in life is not to have died on the battlefield.  He feels he still has one good fight in him though.  Odd takes the opportunity to sneak around the stead in order to check whether the man is to be trusted, but sees nothing alarming.  Ulic uses intuition to determine Aelbric's true attitude, and sees the Humakti is up-front.

hey take to the road again, and fail to notice how a gang of duck is leading them, then changes direction to meet them head on.  The duck pretend to be friendly and invite the party over to share dinner, and our gullible friends gladly accept.  They follow the duck off the road towards what they call their Stead.  This turns out to be a cave.  In the entrance room two barbarians are roasting a boar, and the duck invite the adventurers in.  Now the adventurers start to have a bad feeling about the invitation, and Ulic casts his intuition spell and reads that the Ducks are definitely having ulterior motives.  He feels that the Duck have a plan, and they are annoyed because things are not happening as they planned it.  That's the instant the shit hits the fan.  Ulic raises the alarm and casts fireblade on his sword, and in reaction to this the ducks standing outisde charge forward.  Within seconds the scene turns into a battlefield, with Hjotra and Aelwin holding off the ducks outside of the cave, and Odd using his stealth skills to quickly recon the cave complex.  He runs into more ducks, charging into the fight, and casts darkwall into the corridor.  a short fight in the dark ensues, and the ducks retreat.

eanwhile around the campfire in the entrance room heavy fighting takes place as well.  One of the robbers in bashed into the campfire and is unable to regain his footing, he dies in the flames, screaming in agony.  The brave adventurers charge into the fight, and when two humans charge out of one of the corridors, they are met promptly.  Odd has retreated to the main room as well, and enters another corridor, only to run into the same ducks.  He tries the same tactic, casting darkwall, but this time the ducks cancel the magic, and he is under attack. Before things turn ugly though, the remaining ducks realize they have been beaten, and they retreat into the caves.  The party keeps the pressure on, and the retreat becomes a rout.  The Duck commander manages to flee, as does his human second in command, but they do not have time to take along their stack of cash and potions.  The gang healer who retreated into the hidden cave is brutally decapitated by Hjotra.  After the fight, the adventurers find Gunnar who managed to keep wurming through a narrow passage in the rock and is unable to retreat.  Just when his companions consider whether they should leave him there for a few days so he loses some weight, someone manages to pull him out using troll ear wax as lubricant.  As the feathers come to rest on the cave floor, the extent of the slaughter becomes visible: heads and limbs are strewn all over the place, thick red blood follows the striae in the rocky floor, and bodies are in every cave.  The lone survivor is quickly and brutally dispatched.

ut in the open in front of the cave entrance, Aelwin is waiting near the cart when someone takes a shot at him with his bow.  He is unable to see where the shooter is firing from, but Ulic, who climbed up the ladder inside the caves appears on top of the mound and sees a human firing his bow.  Within seconds, the archer is overcome with palsy, and runs for his life. The leader is nowhere to be seen.  After a lucrative day, the party loads the bags and crates of stolen goods and all the weapons they managed to retrieve on the cart and head for Grey Dog village, where they arrive late at night.  They check into the hotel where they are supposed to meet their contact, and hit the hay.