Escape from Clearwine

1622, Dark Season,12

Luckily, lunch wasn't too hard to come by

 fter the decimation of the Lunar Slave Farm guard, Herculon and his gang had no time to inspect the premises much, whata with the escaped wizard who would quickly come back with reinforcements.  They just took the time to locate the body of Jaya, and headed back the way they came, through the old tunnel.  The Ernalda priestesses, with help from Yanioth Brandgorsdottir, make sure their traces are not visible, and offer the party shelter in a small shrine, 10 miles east of Clearwine.  There the party performs the rites for Jaya, in the way of the sun warriors.  They lament and get drunk and tell brave tales to remember her by.
Martulo is in a bad state.  He has become bitter and low on confidence.  He has lost one leg from the knee down, and is in dire need of healing.  But news from the Ernalda spies is not encouraging.  The Lunars are in an uproar, and are sparing no effort to find the attackers.  A desciption has been sent out, patrols are manyfold, and movement along the imperial roads is all but impossible.  On top of that, Ilduvu Illuviu is on the lookout for them.  There are patrols at every guard house, Chalana Arroy temples in all surrounding towns are being guarded, it seems the empire has a rather good idea what is going on.  Meanwhile, Sharkan, a traveler from Corflu, has arrived at the shrine.  He is one of the riverfolk, and a student of Sa'ar, and has been sent by the Zola Fel priest when he detected the disturbance in one of the River Voices.

ur adventurers decide to travel into the wild, bad weather notwithstanding, north through the foothills towards the old haunted ruins, and further north towards the Creek.  AT one time theye spot several flying shapes, they estimate it to be a griffin and some wyrms, possibly with riders.  IT is quite possible the have been spotted now.  They walk around the haunted ruins, trying to stay out of trouble, and easily find some game and a place to sleep.  During the night, the camp is attacked by a smilodon, who manages to take a rather large bite out of Daerius' arm before getting stabbed in the head and running off.  Daerius stares at the dangling flesh on his forearm, and intends to continue without too much interruption, but in the end is convinced to accept some healing.  The party then continues north, all the way to the Creek, but they run into a set of tracks heading northeast.  As it started snowing, the tracks must be very fresh, and they determine it must be a raider party of Broos.  Giomanach immediately commands the party to hunt the vile beasts down, much to the frustration of Herculon, who wants his feeble brother in safety before getting into fights left and right, seeing how Martulo would slow them down if they need to run.  Giomanach does not intend to listen, however.  He runs off, angrily, and Herculon has to physically restrain the wizard.
After much shouting and clasping of heads, Giomanach finally comes to his senses.  The racket they have made has alarmed the Broo party, however, and just as Herculon intends to let go of Giomanachs neck, they see a wave of vile Broo coming over the nearest hill at a steady pace.
Sharkan immediately enters a frenzy, all worked up, he leaps into the charging pack of Broo and is attacked by several of them.  Herculon and Daerius take care of the threat without too much trouble, and Sharkan impressively holds off three attackers without going down.
After the fight the party decides to make it straight east, rather than following the river to the imperial road guardhouse at the ford.  They run into a small local caravan, trying to make it to Jonstown in the dreadful weather.  They hook up with the traders, despite the reservations they have.  When they are sharing the evening meal, a Triceratops thumps into view, and charges towards the assembly.  Several of the party run for their life, while the annoyed dinosaur tramples their dinner and rams into the cart in the process, before running off.
The party decides to leave the imperial road again, and keeps heading east, towards the Lunar Slave market of Pimper's Block.  There they set up camp for the night, and double watch, but the hard travel of the last few days take their toll, and both Herculon and Sharkan fall asleep during the watch.  When the horses start winnying, they awake in the last minute, and sound the alarm.  A group of Lunar guards is approaching them, and intends to take them by surprise, but this turns out very badly for the inexperienced Lunar troops very quickly, and a Red Moon sorcerer and a commander teleport out before the party has a chance to reach them.  There is now no doubt they have been spotted, between Jonstown, Swenstown and Prax, and not much is said when they decide to pack their gear, before dawn breaks, and continue their trip.  Maybe the weather in Prax will be better, and traveling will be safer...

The Lunar Slave Farm

1622, Dark Season, 1

The party lacks focus... (c) David Dunham

From Whitewall, the travel to Orlmarth territory is quick. The sorcerer's magic enables the party to keep running at a Leopards speed, and they arrive in Clearwine at sunset. The party get a Room in the Ram's Head Inn in Clearwine, and drink more than is good for them. They meet a Thane, Osric, who is also drinking heavily, and complaining about the Lunar oppression in general and the decadence of the Seven Mother Cultists in particular. The party make some good acquaintances and spend a heavy night.
The next day, at a a dying Red moon, the party starts investigating, but it is as if their spirits have left them. Nobody takes any initiative, and before noon, already they are sitting in the Inn, drinking the local wines, ciders and ales rather than preparing a plan of attack. Some of the party members find nothing better than pretending to be in the wine business in order to get some free drinks and samples, and they particularly annoy Alembic Curcuricson, a local major wine trader, with their drunken talk. It takes until the evening before they think of having a meeting with the Ernalda High Priestess, and by then their minds are less than clear. Still, the High Priestess recognizes their quest and tells them the story of the Colymar Council, and the banishment of Benava Chan and Kallai Rockbuster. That night the party goes to bed in a sombre mood. The Orlanthi still are reluctant to spring into action, although a full day has passed, and Jaya of Yelorna is getting restless.

Some secret information from an ancient tome...

The third day of the Dark Season, and a black moon rises. The party seems to be paralyzed with indecisiveness and unable to act. Herculon is ready for action, but without a plan. Raiko and Daerius further investigate the business opportunities the wine trade offers, without finding out much useful information. By nightfall, the party is once again in the Inn, a silent mood has taken over the heroes. Jaya, however, refuses to wait for a battle plan, and feels she must act. She manages to sneak up to one of the guard towers around the Slave Farm unseen, and attempts to surprise the guard. For several heartbeats it looks as if she is going to kill the three guards, but then bad luck hits, and she drops down, bleeding to death. With her last breath, she invokes her power of Yelorna, and makes sure what she has learned is transmitted to the rest of the party. This information, as will later become apparent, is the difference between life and death.
Alarmed by their vision of Jaya dying, the party finally springs to action. They learn of the earlier purpose of the Slave Farm site: a Issaries trading compound. They find an underground tunnel to the Slave Farm and manage to get in unseen. The second they are spotted, they find themselves in a large cave, and through the exit overhead several Lunar soldiers are preparing to open a large trellis, behind which the party can hear shrieks and furious howling. Before the Lunars manage to open the door to the monsters' lair, Giomanach manages to holdfast the locking mechanism, making it impossible to release the beast without powerful dispelling magic.
The party now quickly escape the cave through the opening, and after some brutal killing, they have managed to make a foothold for themselves. The building nearby has a balcony, on which a class of Lunar students is preparing a Lune spell. As more and more guards pour out of the door, and Herculon, Raiko and Daerius go butcher style, Giomanach is having a hard time keeping the troops channeled. Still, they manage and seem to start getting the advantage, when out comes a full Lunar Sorcerer. This fellow turns out to be a serious threat, and Giomanach exchanges a few spells, but the guards prove to be no match for the brutal combat experience of this party, and before the Lunar Mage can do more damage, he finds himself opposing five furious opponents. The Mage shapeshifts to his Griffin form, and, after looking Giomanach in the eye with a look full of revenge and hatred for a few seconds, flies off beyond reach.

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

Herculon becomes a Storm Acolyte

1622, End of the Earth Season

The reception committee

The party is received in the great hall, and encounters a number of famous Orlanthi. The High Priest tells them about the underground maze, and the acolyte challenge, and Herculon decides to take the test. The tunnels are magical in nature, and tend to change layout depending on the situation. They can lead to the evil town of Karse, into the Troll Woods, or into the ancient chaos remnants underground. The party decides to aid Herculon - passing the test of leadership - and they descend into the catacombs. Most of the threats are taken care of without too much trouble, but a headhunter poses a big problem. The beast carries a sorcerer's head and it has Daerius marked. The monster attempts to cut of the party using darkwall, but this is averted three times in a row, and the party understands they have no choice but to advance - passing the test of strategy - and hack the evil being to bits.

 

Skeleton agression.

The party then advances into another room filled with skeleton remains, and they rightly expect a trap - passing the test of insight - and walk in anyway - passing the test of courage. Sure enough, the bones form into skeletons, and it takes the party quite a bit of trouble to get the better of the undead, with Herculon narrowly escaping l;osing a leg and prematurely ending the examination.Herculon distinguishes himself with four decapitations. Daerius also fights bravely, and separates two skeleton heads from their bodies. After the fight the party returns a magical sail to the High Priest, and Herculon becomes a proud Acolyte of Orlanth. The party has some opportunity to do business with some of the traders in the temple, and Giomanach puts in an order for a silver dwarven axe with Ironmound the dwarf. The party also finds a master leatherworker that can turn the dragonscale skin into armor.
After the test and ceremony the party decides to continue their travels, and they take the tunnels to the Troll Woods. There, they are quickly spotted by Troll patrols, but the haste cast by Giomanach makes them too swift for any opposition to organize, and they make it out of the dark troll woods in a record time. As they re-enter Heortling territory, they run into a village with a peculiar visitor. A talking wyvern has convinced some of the villagers to become his followers, and this creates enmity in the clan. Things get out of hand, and a fight ensues, in which Giomanach suffers a serious wound. The wyvern is slain, and another dragonscale hide is looted.

 

Beware of false prophets!

The party take the road to Whitewall, the last bastion of Orlanthi freedom, and here they find another leatherworker. The last day of Earth Season, the party spends in Whitewall.

 

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

The Old Air Temple

1622, End of the Earth Season

 

After their encounter with the evil Shaman, the party takes some well deserved Recovery in Swenstown. During the evening outing the party runs into a bunch of Lunar soldiers, and they barely avoid a bar brawl. The next morning they leave Swenstown, en route for the Old Wind Temple, when they run into a Lunar worker hamlet. Raiko and Jaya decide to sneak into the campment, but Jaya is spotted, and three guards head forward. When the guard realize who they are up against, they change plans, and although Raiko and Herculon finish off one guard each, they third one escapes through the portal.

A wyvern Patrol: this might hurt

The party does not want to wait around for the rest of the Lunar garrison to arrive, and they make a run for it. They are spotted by a wyvern rider, but manage to escape nonetheless, until they take a false turn and stupidly run into a Lunar Patrol with two wyvern riders. The lunar sorcerer immediately start casting a Red Lune, but is burned to charcoal seconds later by Herculon's lightning spell. The rest of the guard charges, and Jaya barely escapes death when one of the wyverns take a bite out of her. The other beast attacks Daerius, who fails his parry. By this time, Giomanach is casting palsy, and manages to down one of the beasts. It takes two more lightning spells from Herculon to finish the fierce dragonbreed off. The victors take home the nice scale hide.

 

A good mood.

The party now tracks back, and finds the correct road to the Old Wind Temple, but are spotted by a Marble Phalanx Patrol, who block the road to the temple just outside the reach of the temple magic. Another fierce battle ensues, and again the party is unable to shove aside the powerful warriors, until Giomanach starts throwing around stones with his Animate Stone sorcery. The Lunars understand they might actually get in trouble, and decide to fight another day. Our heroes gain access to the Old Wind Temple.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

Across the Plains of Prax

1622, End of the Earth Season

 

Jhonen's caravan en route to Swenstown

Our heroes have felt the wrath of GimGim the Grim and escaped with their lives, albeit with some help from Sun Lord Yelanda. That is an achievement in itself. Their loyal newtling sidekicks have escorted them out of the town, and out of harms way, with the aid of some riverfolk friends and a reed boat. The party decides to seek refuge at the dwarf knoll oasis, where the run into Jhonen, a merchant seeking protection for a trek to Boldhome. Our adventurers decide on the spot. They wil escort Jhonen to Swenstown, then travel south to the Old Wind Temple. From there, they will head to the Ernaldori lands and liberate Herculon's captive brother.
The party heads west from Dwarf Knoll, using Tada's as a reference point, and steer clear of Moonbroth and the ever-increasing Lunar presence there. They make it to Pimpers block in one day, then decide to press on to the hamlet of Thorsen, on the road to Swenstown, so they can have a good night's sleep. Jhonen the merchant is no unknown in Thorsen, and his arrival causes some excitement from the locals. Jhonen's goods are eagerly inspected, and business is good, and the Issaries merchant invites his guards for a drink in the Obese Hog's Inn that afternoon. Of course our heroes accept, and Raiko once again ends up rather drunk by sunset. In order to get his head clear again, he orders a banquet, a clear indication of the level of luxury this party has become used to during months of training and no adventuring.
At dinner Giomanach notices one of the locals looking at Jhonen in a funny way, and that same evening there is some noise in the hallway. Giomanach investigates and finds the same local threatening Jhonen with a knife. The sorcerer intervenes, and the local scurries off.
The next day, travel goes a lot less quickly, and the mountain roads prove hard to negotiate with four wagons of goods. When the road is blocked by large boulders, the party has no choice but to clear the road, and before they are back on their way it is getting dark. They decide to set up camp on a clearing on the top of the mountain. As they do this, they notices a pack of wolves on the slopes, and during the night, the wolves stay near the camp looking for opportunity. The party sets up a perimeter of torches to keep the canines at bay.
The next day, after only an hour of travel, the party is attacked by a group of archers. They quickly deploy, only to find out there is a second half of robbers attacking them in the rear. The situation is less than ideal, and things would look ugly if not for the hardened adventurers: Giomanach quickly dispatches some crowd control, and Herculon, Daerius, Raiko and Jaya make the thieves see the error of their ways. They are no match for the veteran warriors and are quickly dispatched. If Jhonen noticed the use of vile sorcery, he does not let on: after the fight he congratulates the group for their efficiency.

The last village to visit before arriving in Swenstown is Aylesford. The party arrives at the village perimeter and notice corpses everywhere. Clearly something is very amiss here. As they roll into the market square, they notice the buildings, with the chapel being particularly gruesome. The door has been pulled out of the hinges, and inside lie most of the villages women and children, brutally slaughtered. Giomanach starts barking orders to Jhonen's men, in order to create a safe zone quickly, while the rest of the party start tracking. They find weird tracks leaving the village and follow them. After a few minutes they run into a clearing and notice a group of men around a crackling fire. Two leather tents are standing near the fire. Our party manages to sneak forward and launch a sneak attack, and within seconds several of the warriors are dead. Still, one manages to open a large cage, liberating a chaotic being halfway between a bear and a human. The monster charges out, howling, and runs into Herculon. In the same second, a shaman crawls out of the tent.
A fight ensues, the shaman summoning his fetch, a spider- like spirit, and several haunts. The players have a lot of trouble getting the better of these guys, and it takes the arrival of Giomanach on his speed enhanced mount to make it happen.

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

A cover blown...

1622, End of the Earth Season

The party has been spending their hard earned cash on training and all kinds of expensive entertaining, and they have become a bit complacent as of late. With their renewed reputation as river voices, their obvious good fortune, and some generous buying of drinks for the locals, our heroes have become the mainstay for some of the local taverns, and most popular among the average Pavis barbarian. With the harvest at its end, and a good one thanks to our heroes aid in freeing Heler, the city is basking in the Earth season summer sun, with that particular atmosphere of goodwill, massive ale consumption and occasional tavern brawl so typical of this time of year.

The Sun Domers save the day!

At one time during the dinner someone notices a small group of Lunar guards on the market, but this worries noone, and at the end of the dinner banquet, the party, in high spirits, heads for the inn. The long stay in civilized Pavis having blunted our champion's excellent perception skills, they fail to notice a dark figure on the roof of one of the houses bordering the market square. A poisoned crossbow dart hits Herculon, and luckily he resists the poison, still suffering considerable damage. The assassin is reloading his crossbow, but this plan is foiled by Giomanach casting holdfast on the crossbow. As a consequence, the party, rather than running for cover into the dark alley where the rest of the assassin troupe is waiting for them, charges forward.

The party leaves Pavis behind and takes to the desert.

From said dark alley 5 figures appear out of the shadows, forced to advance and initiate combat. A red mask assassin holding a net tries to catch Giomanach, but only succeeds partially. A brutal fight ensues. Soon the party notices these opponents do not die as readily as most opponents do. Jaya almost loses an arm, before being able to even attack her opponent. Raiko summons his ancestor and attacks, and Giomanach has to palsy another assassin heading for him with a flask of nasty acid.  If not for Daerius' impressive resilience against the fierce assassin attacks and his first rate armor, the party might well have been wiped out by the steady damage output and high skill of this adversary. When another assassin starts casting Sever Spirit, in an attempt to banish the ancestor and kill Raiko in the process, Raiko needs all his cunning and luck to stay alive. By now the party realize they are facing a very powerful opponent: all damage done by Herculon is divided amongst the opponents, making even his blows mere scratches, and they realize their luck is about to run out. As they prepare for a retreat attempt, a Lunar guard unit enters the square, boding more trouble, and just when things start to look desperate, their two newtling allies appear on the scene, with Sun Lord support. The stalemate allows our friends a very narrow escape, and they decide to quickly leave town, head for Sartar, and leave Pavis behind them for a while until things have cooled down.

They head for the Moonbroth Oasis, and luckily find a caravan heading to Boldhome that is still looking for guards. It looks like their luck has turned for the better again: a safe trip and getting paid in the process!

Posted with Blogsy - (c) Rudy Boeynaems 2012

The Aftermath...

1621, Third Day of the Sacred Time

After the fight with the Broo, the party are checking for wounded, looting the dead, and trying to revive collapsed Herculon.  They are too busy to notice the scorpion man sneaking up, until the evil creature is within charge range.  The scorpion man emits sleeping waves as a chaotic feature, and the entire party, with the sole exception of Giomanach, falls asleep.

The scorpion man chasing Giomanach.

The scorpion man notices Giomanach remains standing, and charges forward to skewer the lightly armored mage.  Giomanach is clever and scared enough to run, increasing the distance between the scorpion man and the rest of the party. Raiko and Jaya come to their senses, as does still wounded Daerius.  The latter attempts a first aid.  Meanwhile, Giomanach is under attack from the scorpion man, and desperately blocks as much as possible.  He gets lucky and blinds the scorpion man, buying himself some time.  In the meantime, Raiko summons an undine and makes it head towards the scorpion man,


Herculon, in the meantime, is still trying to wake up, but after a few seconds of awareness he loses conscienceness again.  But now, the party has a much better chance:  the undine has enveloped the beast, and the sleeping rays are filtered out.  Between the three of them, the party would still have had a hard time, will both warriors out of action, but the undine saves the day.  The scorpion man drowns.


Once the dust settles, a party of riders appears.  These are the guards of Duke Raus of Rone, who have come in aid of the fort, with some delay.  They have been informed by Tameh, the rescued kid, and are thankful the party took care of the broo and the scorpion man so efficiently.  The party is invited to Ronegarth, and receives healing and shelter for the night.

he next, fourth day of the Sacred Time, the party leaves Ronegarth, heading north on the Zola Fel.  As they approach the north Bog, they are recognized as the River Voices, and are made to feel very welcome.  Raiko enchants the crowd with his stories.  They meet the Naiad, get acquainted to the catfish Zola Fel Priest Bright-Eye, meet a Agimori warrior, kill a gorp or two, and then continue their voyage to Pavis, taking along a severely wounded newtling, called Ge'hechya and a dead newtling, by the name of Ma'Char.

During their stay with the Naiad and Bright-Eye, Raiko has taken the vows as a Cleansed One lay member.
  Now, when heading north, they sail into a rare sight: on the left bank the fishermen villages, on the right sight, high up the bank, a huge encampment from the Sun Dome Templars.  The adventurers notice a huge ballista on the bank, and for a moment they think they're running into an ambush.  Then the River Barge hits the huge gorp lying in the Zola Fel.  The crash is so unexpected, that several party members are catapulted into the water.  It takes some aid from the driver undine to get everyone out of the water safely.  In the process, the boat is ripped in two.

They notice Yelanda, now a Rune Lord, standing amongst the commanders at the command tent.  Jaya returns the crown of Yamsur to her, making a friend for life.  Yelanda speaks for the party, who want to resurrect the newtling Ma'Char, much against the inclination of the Sun Domers.  The party get their way, and Ma'Char and Ge'hechya leave for their hometown, after making a promise of returning and serving the party for one year.  The party tells the Sun Domers all they know about the Gorps, the Breeder Gorps, and their experience in trying to kill them.  This Breeder is huge.

he next day, the Sun Domers have gathered tens of wizards, and with the aid of a troop Humakti and the party, they intend to kill the chaotic breeder in one blow.  The plan fails, and hundreds of little gorps escape, but the backup plan that is in place works: the entire area is cleared out, only few are wounded, and only lightly, and the scourge of the Zola Fel is lifted. The Sun Domers are grateful, albeit with the usual reservations.  They allow teh adventurers to restock damaged weapons and supplies, before offering them another boat to get back to Pavis.  They hook up with their friend, Storm Voice Ademin.  He has been loyally waiting with their goods, and bids them farewell after they loaded the 7 crates onto the Sun Domer boat.  Ademin continues south, after advising Herculon to become an acolyte as soon as possible, and learn consecrate.  Services too Orlanth are necessary, and much too rare these days.  As the barge sailed north, Ademin sung a song of storms and winds.  If only the Sun Domers would realize exactly what the cargo was...

Up the Zola Fel

1621, Third Day of the Sacred Time

 

The party has investigated the mudshark den, and returns with a plan.  With some trouble, they manage to get up into the cave.  Good thing though, they manage to get in unheard.  Raiko and Jaya  enter the rightmost cave, and discover a mudshark sleeping.  Raiko sneaks up to the monster, and kills it silently in its sleep.  The rest of the party heads the other way, and alert a next of younglings with a female mudshark.  The creatures attack at once, but prove no match for this hardened party.  They hardly manage to threaten the adventurers, and within seconds the mudsharks are dispatched and the mission accomplished.  When they return to Sa'ar, the Zola Fel priest, to report a successful mission, they are received as heroes.  All along the town they get congratulated and hailed as river voices and heroes of Corflu, Zola Fel favorites.

Sa'ar has arranged a boat with a pilot and undine for their travel north, and after a night of heavy partying and drinking, the adventurers head for Lokazzi and beyond.  On the second day, along the Zola Fel, they are hailed by a young boy accompagnied by an otter.  The boy requests their help with getting rid of a gorp in his cave.  The party helpfully complies, and follow the youngster into his narrow cave, where they discover a gorp in the water indeed.  Using their Zola Fel River Eye, they quickly spot the creature in the murky water, and a few disruptions and fire arrows take care of the chaos abomination quickly.  The grateful fellow gifts Jaya with a bronze and golden shield that lights up in the dark.  Then the party accepts his invitation to visit his homestead.  The adventurers follow the young boy through the marshes, through murky pools, mangrove trees, and finally arrive at a ramshackle collection of huts in a clearing amidst the trees.  The homesteaders receive the heroes with respect, and offer them a meal and lodging.  The next morning the party returns to the river, and heads north against the Zola Fel current again.  The banks become more and more overgrown with vegetation as they head up north.  They arrive at a homestead close to the bank, and are hailed by a lady inside the walls of the stead.  She is in despair, as a gang of broos have just kidnapped her young son and adolescent daughter.  Her husband and brother have left only hours ago, in a futile attempt to follow and kill the Broo and rescue the children.  According to the woman, the Broo were ten, led by a shaman.  Our heroes do not dawdle.  They quickly find the trail and head off into the woods on a rescue mission.

It takes them a few hours, before they hear sound of melee in the distance.  When they check out the situation, they see the two Rivermen, surrounded by ten or so Broo.  The children are kept in check by one of the Broo, the Shaman is overseeing the events, and the 8 other Broo attack the two helpless men.  Herculon, in his typical idiom, charges forward, followed, after some hesitation, by Raiko.  The rest of the party, however, fails to respond as quickly, creating a dangerous situation for our heroes.  The charging heroes cannot avoid the brutal murder of the two tribesmen.  Within seconds, Herculon and Raiko face 7 Broo, while another one charges forward in an attempt to prove his exceptional valor.  The Shaman starts casting Malia's scourges upon the party members, who quickly learn Avert is no remedy for Malia's terror theism.  At first, Herculon seems to buckle under the pressure from 4 Broo, but he withstands the attacks, and in his berserker fury, after suffering several wounds, he manages to cut one broo in half through the chest.  The other Broo keep hacking at him, and the suffers several other serious wounds, which he barely notices in his Berserk fury.  Raiko has three opponents, and defends himself bravely, but lacks the destructive power of the berserker.  The last Broo is intercepted by young Daerius, and after a short fight the Talastaring prevails.  The aid allows Herculon to decapitate two other Broo quickly, and after about half a minute, the situation is already looking a lot better.  

As the Shaman notices the change, he retreats, accompanied by two surviving Broo, and taking the kids along.  Our heroes sense the danger, and start sprinting.  Raiko, with a useless right arm due to a very serious wound, summons his ancestor spirit, and in the guise of Hadrath, summons a large water undine.  He binds the undine and commands it to envelop one of the Broo.   Herculon, bleeding out of half a dozen of serious wounds, blindly follows the Shaman and his helper, and Jaya and Daeriius follow suit.  They discover the fleeing Broo, homing in on the heartbreaking cries of anguish from the children, as the Broo have already initiated the breeding.  Shocked, our party attempts to stop the brutality, but prove very inefficient in doing so.  The young girl suffers the worst fate, the young boy's assailant dies in the act.  Then, exhausted, Herculon falls to the floor, his several serious wounds now taking effect with a vengeance...

"Daga"

1621, Storm Season 50, Truth Week, Freezeday

The party has dragged several crates of stuff to the Zola Fel river bank where the boat is moored, and is preparing to load their flatbottom.  Since it is evening, they decide to set up camp where they are, and leave for Corflu the next day.  They set up three watches, and everything remains quite during the first watch, but as Herculon and Raiko keep second watch, a gang of thugs approaches as sneakily as they can.  Not without being noticed though.  Our friends pretend to not have noticed the attackers, and Raiko moves out of sight and sneaks back.  When the thugs attack, Herculon is ready, he takes out the first thugh with one blow to the head, then finished the second by almost decapitating him.  The thugs realize they have bitten off more than they can chew, and the headman starts planning an escape only seconds after starting the fight.  He casts a darkwall, in an attempt to disorganize the party and retreat, but Jaya runs forward, luckily ends up straight next to the thug leader, and compels him to surrender.  Morik, as he is called, decides to give up, rather than die for the cause.  On the thug leader they find a note from Gimgim The Grim, and a purse with 250 Lunars.

With the weather getting more and more ugly, the party has no choice but to get out of the sandstorm, but just at this moment their boat begins to slip free.  The pilot tries to jump on board, but fails, and if not for Herculon to grab the line at the last moment, the boat would definitely have been gone.  However, for all his brute strength, Herculon is unable to keep the boat from drifting off.  Daerius and Giomanach try to catch the line and assist him, but to no avail.  When, after several shameful attempts, Giomanach manages to grab hold of the rope, Herculon, exhausted, must let go.  The boat crashes into the marshy shore brush.

The next morning, the weather is better.  The boat has suffered some damage, and the party starts repair.  Morik is taken captive, the henchmen are stripped and sent off.  Morik tells them about the crown he is supposed to find, and his award he received in advance.  During repairs a hooded figure appears from the north, with an ox wagon.  As the orlanthi in the party come forward, the visitor reveals his true identity: He is Ademin, the Storm Voice.  He is willing to consecrate a shrine and hold a service for the Orlanthi, permitting Herculon to recuperate his theist spells.  For several days our party remains busy finding wood and reed to repair their boat as well as possible.  Meanwhile Jaya and Raiko head back to the Rabbit Hat Farm, and after some searching, discover the Pumpkinhead's treasure trove.  They find several trinkets, as well as the crown of Yamsur.  They only tell their comrades about the crown.

The repairs finished, the party head south again.  The boat has lost a lot of his speed, though, and Ademin manages to keep up with them in his ox cart.  The first morning of the Sacred Time, our heroes wake up in a different environment.  The Zola Fel gone, no more boat, and some of the party members have taken on mysterious identities.  Ademin now seems to play the role of the Orlanth, Raiko has become Hadrath Ingilli, and Daerius is toiling in the field as Barntar, bringing water to the scorched fields forom his well.  Giomanach seems to have become an incarnation of Pavis, and Herculon is chained to a rock, berserking away, like The Storm Bull on a good day.  Amina Ingilli, priest of Zola Fel, appears and convinces Raiko to become initiate to Zola Fel, and mend his ways.  Raiko accepts, without going into detail exactly what ways would need mending.  Daga, the wraith of drought appears.  He has taken Heler, the rain god, captive, and is disappearing into Daga's desert with him.  The party tries to stop Daga with violence, always an option, but The Storm Bull cannot bear to be this close to Daga for more than a few seconds, and collapsed from teh drought.  Barntar seems to be more enduring, but must give up as well.  Jaya, who is playing the part of Ernalda, intends to bring water from Barntars well using her cooking pots, but Hadrath summons the biggest undine he can, and drives it to Daga, who vanishes upon contact with the water entity, releasing Heler.  The party escapes through the well.

They do not return to the boat, however:  Ademin has vanished, but the party wake up on some beach, with a gang of baboons trying to steal their possessions.  It takes them some convincing and some rolling of muscle to get their gear back from the Baboons, and the limited communication is not helping. In the end, however, they recuperate everything, and discover they are only minutes from the town of Corflu.  In Corflu they meet up with the local Zola Fel priest, and he tells them about a series of runes that have appeared on their wrists.  These runes are the Zola Fel runes, and the characters are the river voices, selected by Zola Fel himself to help the Corflu people in their struggle.  The townsfolk are very enthusiast about the new visitors, and they receive a heroes welcome during their stay.  The priest arranges a fast vessel for them to return to Pavis, but requests a service in return: the locals being exploited as workers in the river, often get attacked by mudsharks, and the party will have to kill these ferocious beings.  They accept, and after a short recon mission decide on a plan.

Strange Occurances at Rabbit Hat Farm

1621, Storm Season 48, Illusion Week, Wildday

torm Season is near its end.  So is the year 1621.  The Sacred Time approaches.  Our adventurers return to the village of Rabbit Hat Farm.  This village is built around an old Sun Dome temple, and counts 60 souls.  An attack seems to have taken place, as their latest adventure testifies. The youths rescues on the Zola Fel bank near Rabbit farm having been escorted to the Chalana Arroy temple, our friends once more prepare to leave for Corflu.  Daerius and Giomanach have returned, and are ready to join the party, so on the morning of the 48th day of the Storm Season, in particularly vile weather, the party find a boatsman crazy enough to bring them to Corflu for 4 Lunars a head.  After some bargaining they manage to lower the price to 3 Lunars each, still a considerable sum.  Our heroes are sitting on the deck of the Riverboat, covered in furs, in generally good spirits.  They take turns keeping watch, all through the night.  Apart from some Sun Dome patrols they spot, the trip is uneventful, and they arrive near the spot of the fight at noon the next day.

fter a one hour hike, they arrive at the damaged village walls.  In front of the village are several overgrown fields.  A weird state to be in, the fight only took place a few days ago, but every single field is the same.  When they decide to go through the fields rather than along the road, they discover another plant is being grown inside the outer border.  It turns out the Rabbit Hat Farm farmers were growing Hazia.  As they approach town, they spread out, and start investigating the old temple and a granary.  Jaya notices a Broo Totem and approaches, not minding the scarecrow with a huge pumpkin for a head standing in the middle of one of the fallow fields to the left of the village.  She is attacked, but a quick intervention by Raiko and Herculon takes care of the threat.  As the investigation continues, Jaya stumbles upon a bag of jewels, that turn out to be Yelmalio temple jewellery.  In the granary, Raiko discovers a young boy, Jocelyn, who runs away frighted when he sees the party.  In the pursuit, our adventurers discover a funnel shaped hole in the ground, and decide to investigate it more.  They drop down a hole that looks like it was made by a Krarschtkid, and end up in a natural tunnel, following it back towards the village.  They hear water in the distance.

The tunnel leads to a huge natural cave with an underground river running through it.  The cave is dark, hot and moist, and Jaya enters first.  She lights up the cave, and looking up, sees a huge two headed dragon snail on the ceiling heading in her direction.  By the time Daerius and Raiko have advanced, the chaos beast has blocked the entry to the cave, and Herculon, eager for combat, has to wait to advance.  The dragon snail is emitting heat, and burns Jaya and Raiko seriously.  Daerius advances, but one of the heads takes a bite out of his leg.  From behind, Giomanach palsies one of the snail's heads, but this does not stop the heat radiation, and the damage begins to add up.  Then Herculon makes it to the front and cuts of the other head.  This stops the monster, and the party finish it off quickly, thus stopping the heat emission and restoring control.  They survey the damage: three party members seriously wounded.  Herculon has to use all his devoted mana to heal everyone.  The party advance, Jaya spreads more light, and the party notice a cave entrance on the other side of the stream.

They walk though the water, hip deep at most, until Jaya disturbs a gorp lying in hiding underwater.  Raiko is attacked, but manages to use his acrobatics to back-flip out of the way.  Arrows are disintegrated by the gorps acid, and the party changes tactics.  They spread and start luring the monster, meanwhile peppering it with disruptions.  This has some effect, but is still slow, so they spread out even further and start setting up a fire trap.  Meanwhile Raiko has made it to the cave entrance, but upon entering he is attacked by a guardian spirit.  He enters spirit combat, and prevails, and binds the spirit in his dagger.  Jaya used lamp oil to set up a trap, and once the monster is lured into the puddle, they light it, ,burning the monster to death.  A foul smell fills the cave, the party advance into the next tunnel, leading to a five way crossroad.

They decide to recon from the crossroads, and manage to alert two krarschtkids at once.  The choatic maws approach with disturbing speed, but this time the fighters are well positioned and the kids are dispatched without too much trouble.  Meanwhile, Raiko has been looking through the third passage, and finds a dead krarschtkid at the end of it.  The three passages being a dead end, their only option is the fourth tunnel, leading into a large, man-made hall.  In the middle of the hall is a well, next to it a number of crates are stacked, and from their vantage point they notice two other exits.  They carefully enter the empty hall, not noticing any movement, and spread out to check the other exits, the well and the crates.  Jaya tries to pry open the most valuable looking case, and is struggling with the lock, when Polybius appears in a hidden balcony high up against the wall, aims his crossbow, and manages to hit Jaya on the head, but her plate helmet protects her.  He takes another prepared crossbow, fires it at Jaya again, and misses.  Giomanach casts palsy, and Polybius fails to resist, losing control of his leg.  He disappears from sight, and the party decide what to do next.  Herculon takes his grappling hook and tries a few throws before he is lucky enough to have a hold.  He starts climbing up, intending to present the sniper a lesson in decapitation.  However, Polybius commands his familiar Krarschtkid to jump down the hole, and it does, maw wide open to take a good bite out of Herculon.  The berserker has little choice but to let go.  He drops down, unharmed, and the party tries to kill the krarschtkid, but it escapes through a vertical upwards air vent..  Meanwhile, they hear Polybius casting upstairs.  Daerius decides to try and climb up, but fails miserably, holding up everybody, much to the dismay of the others, who protest loudly.  Polybius re-appears, and tries to mark Raiko several times, but Giomanach averts. Raiko then makes it up first and when Polybius sees the Ingilli is going to make it up, he decides to retreat, under cover of his familiar.

With some (a lot of) help from Raiko, Daerius also makes it up the balcony, and the two decide to keep the pressure on Polybius while Herculon climbs up.  Polybius has started casting wrack of chaos on Daerius, and it hurts.  the Krarschtkid then bites Daerius in the head, but his helmet protects him.  By this time, Giomanach also made it up the rope, with some effort, while Jaya is still busy trying to build a stairway out of crates - without much result.  As Polybius casts another wrack at Daerius, the latter evades, only to be covered in krarschtkid pratzim seconds later.  Jaya now has made it up, and the party advance into the sorcerers filthy lair.  Polybius tries to fire off more spells, but keeps getting interrupted, and he decides to shape-change to bat and escape.  However, by this time the party is completely filling up the exit, and Polybius flutters left and right, but does not escape.  A shield bash finishes him off.  The party then loot his lair, and load everything into the crates: grimoires, more temple stuff, poison vials, and a large personal stash of Hazia.

An interrupted trip to Corflu

1621, Storm Season 43, Illusion Week, Freezeday

After rumours from the south that the Lunar council in Corflu is putting pressure on the Ingilli family to lend them the warship in Corflu harbour, Raiko decides to round up his fellows, and book passage on a ship south.  Giomanach is in the Rubble, and Daerius is off on a romantic weekend with Crazy Meg, so Raiko finds two new friends to accompany him: Mycolith and another one.  The riverfolk are very hesitant to make the trip in Dark Season, and they have a lot of trouble finding a shipper who will take them.  In the end they have to accept the steep rates from Antar, a Pavisite with a lot of ambition but no ideas.  They ship south on what seems to be a rather clear day for the season,  but it soon darkens and starts raining, as they head along the Zola Fel.  After a quiet day they make camp on the  shore.  The next day they continue their journey, but at noon, under a steady drizzle, they notice a gang of Broo taking advantage of a group of farmers on the river bank.  Antar the shipper is hesitant to interfere, but Herculon simply throws the Pavisite overboard, and with some trouble, manages to ram the vessel into the muddy river bank.

Our heroes disembark, some with more elegance than others, and charge forward to face the fearsome Broo head on.  The Broo are taken somewhat by surprise, and the ferocity of the attack leaves them very little time to group up, shifting the favor to the party almost immediately.  Some of the Broo are still busy doing unspeakable things to their captives, and their bestial instincts prevail, giving our heroes the opportunity to press the advantage home.  One of the Broo emits an icy cold, no doubt a feature due to his chaotic nature, and some of the adventurers suffer serious wounds from this, but not Herculon, who carries on, in his berserk frenzy, hacking and slaying and almosttaking the head of the first Broo.  Mycolith collapses wounded, but Jaya manages to slay her opponent, a Broo with a piglike demeanor.  Herculon then chops the head of another Broo, a clean cut this time.  The leader of the Broo, still standing, now faces several opponents.  He cannot hope to win this, but the party find out this Broo has a very annoying chaotic ability: his flesh is extremely sticky, and when the Broo is finally slain, he has several weapons glued to it.  The party have to burn the beast to release their weapons.

Within minutes, the Broo are killed, and the few survivors are healed.  Around that time, Antar made it to the shore swimming.  Understandably, the pilot was not pleased at all about having been thrown overboard, but he felt reluctant to take it up with Herculon, who was still recovering from his berserk fury, covered in blood and grasping his great axe with a maniacal grin on his face.

The party decides to return to Pavis to take the survivors back, and Antar is too afraid to object.

Return to the ogre hideout

1621, Dark Season 54, Truth Week, Wildday 

One walktapus, two walktapi - just cut off a piece!

he lucrative encounter with the fake Etyries ogre gang has made the adventurers a wealthy bunch, and they spend several months living the good life, hiring the best trainers in town, and studying and improving.  Daerius and Herculon even manage to fail to show up for the Rain Calling Ceremony, and will have to make amends at a later date for this oversight.  The adventure begins as the party, minus Daerius, who has a job as a bodyguard  for a customer he did not want to disappoint, are wandering through the Farmers Quarter of town.  One of them spots a silhouette keeping an eye on them, and they surround the spotter and find out it is a young street hoodlum, called Hinko.  Unaware of whether this fellow was keeping an eye on them or burglarizing or whatever, they try to find out more about events in New Pavis.  The only information the youg guy reveals, is about a house in the center of New Pavis where rumour says a Chaos presence can be detected.  It quickly becomes apparent that the house that is being talked about it the former ogre hideout, so the rumour might be true as well.  The party learns that the Lunar guard have woodpanelled the house, and they decide to head over to the house and investigate.  As they are checking out the building, they cross a Lunar Guard captain from the Silver Shields, who finds it suspect to see them staking out the closed mansion, but they manage to convince the Lunar they do not mean trouble.

fter pretending to leave they return and break in to the house.  They are confronted with a  putrid smell of decay, and carefully advance further, down to the cellar, where they hear a rumour underground.  They inspect the floor, and find a hidden trapdoor that leads into a stone corridor about 3m high.  Herculon guards their rear as they descend into the hallway below, and they soon discover a fullgrown Walktapus as it charges towards them.  During the ensuing fight, Jaya suffers a grievous wound, as her left arm is practically ripped off, but by a weird stroke of luck none of the arteries is cut.  Raiko then takes the front, only to be badly hurt as well, and if not for the armor the consequences could have been very grave indeed.  It becomes clear that Herculon is required to dispatch the chaotic abomination, so the barbarian descends and confronts the beast.  Now the fight ends rather quickly, as Herculon keeps stabbing the monster in the same location until it drops.

ith the monster dispatched, the party starts investigating the corridor.  They find a hidden compartment beneath the floor, but it seems to be full of ground, with only a minimal storage space.  Either the compartment is unused, or they were unable to discover it's secret.  They do find a small chest with some money and baubles.  One of the jewels bears the mark of Duke Raus of Rone.  Then a weird noise, emanating from the dead walktapus becomes audible.  Only now the chaotic ability of the Walktapus is revealed:  as Herculon heals both Raiko and Jaya with his newly learned Heal Wound, thereby expending his entire devotional mana pool, the beast starts to regenerate, and nothing the party can muster seems to be able to turn this around.  The party decides to take drastical measures, and they put fire to the beast, after covering it with crinkled up linen soaked with lantern oil.  Then they quickly leave the house, considering their mission accomplished.

Ogre Infiltration: finale

The way to Pavis...

 

1621, Fire Season, Harmony Week, Waterday 

After selecting the goods they want to salvage, the party decides to help the three wounded Last Step fyrdmen onto a horse, and the victim is loaded onto the fourth horse.  There is little room for other gear to be taken along, so the party leaves behind the barrels and crates in the cave, and return straight North towards the Pavis road.  Before long, they notice movement underneath the sand, and they see three giant centipedes appear from underneath the sand.  The huge creatures are slow, but still undoubtedly can dish out a lot of damage, so Alwynn starts distributing shield and protection spells.  Giomanach attempts a few palsy spells, but has no chance to break trough the huge animal's endurance defense.  Herculon goes into a heroic frenzy, and starts hacking up the giant creatures.  The party tries to stop two of the slow creatures at once, and so they have to split up.  Raiko gets a serious wound on his leg, but is able to retreat on foot before collapsing into the soft embrace of Alwynn.  Herculon hacks one of the centipedes in two, and Daerius finishes off a second one, while Herculon heads for the third one and dispatches him with two devastating hits in the head.

The party failed to notice the approaching ogres.  Herculon and Daerius sprint forward to allow the ogres as little time as possible to prepare for battle.

The fight barely over, and with everybody focudes on wounded Raiko, the party fails to notice a four horse wagon approaching from the north.  Seeing where they are, the chances are big that these are the ogre warriors, returning from New Pavis or the Rubble.  And considering where the party is, the ogres must have a good hunch what is happening.  All this turns out to be correct.  Herculon, still in his heroic frenzy, cannot be held back, and he charges forward, followed by Daerius.  This leaves the ogres too little time to prepare for the fight, as the pressure in upon them straightaway.  Giomanach manages to palsy a younger female ogre, leaving only three enemies.  A few seconds later Herculon crashes into two Ogre warriors, unable to break through to the headman.  Daerius soon joins him, and the two try to dispatch the ogre warriors quickly, but they turn out tougher than expected.

The headman, rather than join the battle against the two warriors, is able to summon his ancestor spirit, then decides to close the 70 some meters to the wizard and healer, and Alwynn needs to act quickly to heal Raiko so that they have some defense against the charging ogre. Meanwhile Herculon has beheaded one of the ogres with a massive blow, and seriously wounds the second one before his great axe is snatched out of his hands.  It takes a frantic few seconds before the second ogre is dead as well, and the entire party can focus on the headman, who has decided to change strategy and run for it.  Jaya follows him, riding on her zebra, and the headman cannot escape.  The ancestor spirit decides to change strategy and discorporates, trying to capture Jaya.  Jaya has no defense, and is taken over in seconds.  All of this has taken place without the party knowing, and as Jaya returns no-one suspects anything, until Daerius gets hit.  A chaotic fight ensues, with everyone trying to stop Jaya without having to kill her.  It takes an acrobatic roll from Raiko to unsaddle possessed Jaya, and everyone jumps on her in order to stop and subdue her.

The wagon is empty, and the party heads to Last Step to return the wounded family members and deceased.  They are given a heroes welcome, even though there is one dead to grieve about.  The Shaman from Whitefly exorcises the possessing spirit from Jaya, and the party head to New Pavis, to inspect  the ogre house.  The house turns up a lot of sellable items, and the party take their pick and sell off a large quantity of armor and weapons, and find other valuables, including jewellery, herbs, and a document with a seal, asking the reader to give full support to the bearer of said document.  The document is signed by the Etyries High Priest from Furthest.  The party accumulate a large amount of silver, and start looking for possibilities to spend their money.

 

Ogre infiltration

South of Pavis, near Ryan Village...

 

1621, Fire Season, Disorder Week, Wildday

The party approaching the rocky mound

After the initiation of Daerius and Herculon at the Pairing stones, the Orlanthi help them cover the traces and ritually bury the Lunar patrol.  Storm Voice Frekor Firmfarer performs a obfuscation and purification ritual, and with the flames of Humakti blazing high into the Pavis sky, the adventurers and Orlanthi feast and drink and honour the fallen, the storm god and the new initiates.  During the party, Frekor tells the two new initiates about their new mission.  This mission will involve traveling to the Pavis Air Temple and report to High Priest Faltikus.  It is important not to tell Faltikus everything though.  Frekor makes it very clear in which conditions Faltikus has become the new High Priest of the Pavis Air Temple.  Rumour has it Faltikus is a Lunar agent, some call him a Nysalor Illuminate, but one thing is certain, he was appointed to the post by the Lunar government, and his appointment was one condition to avoid total suppression of the Orlanth cult in Pavis (normal Lunar practice). the other being the agreement that the Orlanthi organise the HeroQuest every year to escort rain god Heler to the Plains of Prax.  Frekor than reveals the new initiates what their second mission will be.  Uphold the promise made by Herculon to the Last Step Stead survivors, and track down and destroy the ogres responsible for the hold up and rescue eventual survivors.

7th Day of the Fire Season, 1621

The next morning, the party heads east towards Pavis.  At first it seems like a good idea to follow the river bank all the way downstream to the capital, but the many creeks and streams in the valley make the party lose a lot of time.  In the end, they decide to head for the Pavis road and keep to familiar terrain.  When heading for the road, they run into a lone Aldryami trekking through the chaparral, and Raiko attempts to approach the barkskin, but any attempt to approach is only responded to by arrow fire, and after ducking into cover a few times, Raiko gives up his fraternization attempts.  They put up camp for a totally eventless night, before arriving at the road the next morning and following it in the direction of Pavis.

8th Day of the Fire Season, 1621

After a long walk along the Pavis road, under a relentless summer sun, the party sees the off-white colour of the high walls of the Rubble appear in the distance.  The heat of the afternoon sun makes the sky shimmer, and dust devils are everywhere.  This time they do not head for the tent camp under the Rubble walls, but cross the bridge towards New Pavis.  Since none of them are New Pavis citizens, they have to fill out heaps of paperwork, and Giomanach decides to apply for a weapon permit. Not aided by the Lunar bureaucracy, they finally enter the city walls, and the Orlanthi head to the temple, while Giomanach visits his aunt at the Chalana Arroy temple and Raiko tags along with Jaya into the rubble to visit the Yelorna temple.

The Orlanthi report to Faltikus, who does not seem overly interested, and who's only worry seems to be being singled out as responsible for the death of the Lunars.  He tries to convince Daerius and Herculon to tell him more about what happened, but Herculon's web of lies seems to work, although Faltikus is not completely convinced. After meeting up with their friends again, they notice Giomanach is accompanied by Alwynn, acolyte of Chalana Arroy, who is too worried about Giomanach heading out after a gang of ogres to let him go alone.  Having a good healer along on a dangerous mission has never hurt anyone, so the other party members make nothing of it and make her feel welcome.  They decide to leave the following day at daybreak.

9th Day of the Fire Season, 1621

The next morning the party heads west again, and south at the Last Step stead.  They follow the trail to Whitefly and Ryan, and when passing the source of the stream into the Zola Fel they notice barefoot child  tracks heading out into the desert.  They decide to follow these, considering it weird to find kids' footsteps around here.  Surely, before too long they notice a small group of children keeping an eye on the party.  They attempt to overtake them but the kids disappear, and the party decides to continue walking in the same general direction.  After a weird encounter with an Aldryami, the party sees a rocky mound in the distance, and they notice several holes in the wall of the mound.  They decide to approach carefully.  Four perfectly round cave entrances are visible.  The geometric shape worries the party, and they decide to carefully investigate one of the entrances.  Inside they disturb 2 Krarshtkids, and within seconds they are under attack, with only Herculon's shield preventing some serious damage.  Giomanach's sorcery saves the day here, with two lucky palsies in a row taking out the chaotic monsters.

The howling krarshtkid comes bouncing forward...

Another entrance leads nowhere, but the third leads upwards and there another spawn of Krarsht is hiding.  This time the fight is even shorter, with Palsy once again saving the day, and Giomanach starting to feel very powerful indeed.  Within seconds, the krarshtkid is vanquished, not able to divulge it's destructive power.  Further exploration of the round corridors reveals nothing, and the party decides to make camp in a now empty corridor.  They cast alarm on the entrance, and with a double guard run no risk after the spider fiasco a few days before.  The night passes uneventful, and the next morning the party decides to climb the mound to get a better lookout position.  Arrived at the top of the mound, they stumble onto the ogre camp, seeing it below them through a slit in the cave roof.  They notice a captive in very poor condition, a bunch of kids, and several adults, both male and female, standing around a bonfire.  An area behind the ogres is closed off with wooden panels, and in a corner they notice many crates and barrels.  They try to set up a surprise attack, with little success, and within minutes the fight has broken loose, with Herculon and Daerius in the middle of it, supported by Alwynn's healing and Giomanach's sorcery.  Meanwhile Jaya is still on the lookout outside the cave, pulling some of the attention to her.

The blueish inside of the ogre cave

Giomanach attempts another mass palsy, but the ogres turn out to have some serious resistance to his magic, as well as a means of nullifying it's effect, and Giomanach's feeling of superiority becomes a bit tarnished.  If not for the healer doing an excellent job on Herculon, Daerius, Giomanach and herself alike, the fight could have gone completely differently, with particularly nasty consequences for the party, who would probably be on the next days menu.  The party cannot help noticing the absence of warriors, and realise they have been lucky to find the tribe with minimal protection, even if it was nearly enough to take them out.  They discover a stash of official paperwork, including a rent lease and permits to enter the Rubble and to carry weapons in Pavis, written out to verious Etyries temple members.  Jaya discovers a span of horses, but no wagon.  After the fight, the party collects whatever valuables they can carry, leaving behind the crates and barrels for lack of a means of transportation, and ready themselves for the return to Pavis, in order to investigate further into the ogre activities.