A particularly bad omen

1618. Sea Season. Movement. Clayday

Characters partaking:
Brian Boru, a drifter without tribe, played by David
Ragnar from the Orlmarth - Colymar Tribe, played by Maximus
Kemal from the Hiording - Colymar Tribe, played by Dominique
Hund, a Colymar Humakti, played by Ben

Tusk Riders on a raid!

ith Ranath paying back his debts to the Sage of the Grey Dog temple, our adventurers undertake their adventure without spiritual guidance.  This turns out rather poorly.  The party first decides to return to Old Man Village to recuperate the sets of armor that are being made for them.  Kemal already made the trip with a trader the week before, and was able to lay his hands on the first set made.  The party returns taking the wilderness route, in order to avoid Lunar patrols, even more so because they have learned during their dinner at the inn the night before that the Lunars take captive any stranger without ties to the Colymar, or, to a lesser extent, to the Lismelder.  Soon after leaving Grey Dog Village, they notice they are being followed.  They wait for the group on their tail and learn it is a small band of Lismelder, with the obvious intention to not abide by the King's rule that Lismelder and Colymar should keep the peace.  Some quick maneuvring by our adventurers causes the already nervous Lismelder to attack, and a fight ensues.  The four attackers are no match for the party though, and they are dispatched relatively easy.

 discussion ensues, will the party leave the attackers to die, or will they make an effort to save their lives and show the Lismelder their good intention?  In the end, after much mudslinging, they decide to escort the Lismelder back to Grey Dog Village, and their mercy is well received by the villagers.  After having lost a day, the party leaves for Old Man Village once again.  This time their voyage is rather uneventful. Upon arrival in Old Man Village, Brian insists he should get the armor that is finished, and his fellow party members back down.  When after this Brian shows up with a brand new and expensive Kite shield, although he had been claiming to have no money, and has been unable to repay debts owed to his fellow party members, dissatisfaction starts to spread.  After collecting the armor the party returns to Grey Dog Village, and from there they decide to head north to the Humakti Stead in order to allow Hund to recuperate his divine spells.  They spend a day on the Stead, and on the way back they run into a pair of Dragonsnails, those vile chaos creatures that emanate out of Chaos spawns all across the lands of Sartar and way beyond.  Against expectation, they dispatch the ferocious beast without casualties, but after the fight Brian insists that Hund should have his Bison carry one of the dead horrors' shell on its back.  Hund refuses to have his beasts of burden sullied by anything chaosspawned, and Brian challenges Hund to a duel.

umakti never refuse a duel, and a short fight follows, in which Hund puts down Brian easily.  After the fight, Hund uses his divine healing to save Brian from bleeding to death, and requests the new kite shield as compensation.   This rekindles the enmity, and the two barbarians start to fight again.  This time Hund decapitates Brian by chopping of his hand at the wrist.  They have to return to Old Man Village once again, and the clan members request a ridiculous price for regrowing the clan-less Brian's arm.  He insists no further, and asks the local smith to manufacture a contraption that he can fasten to his stump, in order to have some way of doing combat.  The party members decide they need to find more money, and fast, and come up with a daring plan, to travel to Snake Pipe Hollow, the imprint of chaos on Dragon Pass, in order to get some of the riches accumulated there.  They travel north to Runegate, than follow the road to Jonstown, avoiding Lunar patrols as good as possible, and bribing them if everything else fails.  After spending the night in Jonstown, they leave the tribal ring grounds, and spend the night in Dangerford, the last beacon of civilization before the long and dangerous road that leads to Alda Chur.
They travel north for most of the day, until the light fades, and then make camp in a clearing near the road.  Brian is not paying attention when a small gang of the violent tusk riders charge without warning, and the fight turns ugly quickly.


Will the party be able to overcome this enemy?  Will Xaldin be able to follow the trail and find his party members?