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Background and Summary: Raff had previously been trying
to hire some ruffians on behalf of some raiders to the south. He
now felt betrayed by them when sent into the swamp and captured;
and the rest of the Party was concerned about any group of raiders
in the area. So the Party decides to have Raff lead them to the
raiders' settlement.
Half the Party infiltrates the settlement, while the rest spy from
a overlooking bluff. They find that the raiders have been taken
over by some formidable, well-trained Orcs from far away, and are
intent on doing some serious raiding. As well, the Party finds that
a small band of foreign Dwarves and Humans are also spying on the
raiders, having followed the Orcs from elsewhere. A ghostly ship
arrives one morning, in order to transport the raiders straight
to the harbour of Yorvik; the Party and their allies attack, while
the ship leaves with only some of the raiders. After the remaining
leaders are killed, the stranded raiders agree to pack up and leave.
Yorvik, meanwhile, repels the invaders (having been forewarned).
However, Ikh'to, the commanding Orc manages to escape. The Party
tracks him back to an ancient cave complex in the hills near the
raiders' settlement. They find and kill Ikh'to and many local Orcs
that he had recently conquered. They also find that centuries ago,
the complex was home to Thorfinn the Three-Fingered, a key figure
in the Frost Keys adventures that involved associates of Mei-Peng's
mother.
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(Session 35)
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Junius 2
(June 2)
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During her training sessions, Mei-Peng arranges for Zarine's preserved
corpse to be sent back to her family in Hestia (Mage Guild in Jorvik has
the means, and they did accept Zarine as an exchange student, so they
offer this service for free).
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Junius 15
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Vishu decides to look for some new sneaks for the Party, and meets a
Ranger looking for work: Shiannan
(R1) joins.
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| Junius 21 |
Party heads for the hills, to where Raff says is the bandit
encampment. |
| Junius 23 |
Shiannan leads the Party off the small trail to
the encampment; in the woods they are surprised by 6 Bugbears; Shionna almost
dies before the Bugbears are all killed. |
| (S36) |
|
| Junius 24 |
Overlooking the encampment, the Party spies on
it for a while; they see that there are far more bandits than when Raff
was last here, that many of the previous leaders are now hanging on gallows,
and that there are new leaders in much more impressive armour. All in all,
the place looks far more imposing than before. |
| |
Raff takes Vishu, Trafalgar, Aknot, and Shiannan to
the bandits, as if they were people he hired (his original task, several
weeks ago). Before they get to the encampment, though, they are confronted
by two Dwarves and two Humans; these newcomers say they've been spying
on the place for a while now. They are quite concerned about 3 powerful
Orcs (!?!) that are running the place. The newcomers, the Orcs, and
many of the current bandits all arived about a week ago via some sort
of teleportation device; the newcomers were invisible at the time,
and destroyed the device and then fled the encampment. Ruff
(A?), Tuff (A?), Bambi
(Mk), and Thumper (MK)
provisionally join the Party |
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Feeling this made the place a much greater threat than they
had originally thought, the Party sends Shiannan back to Jorvik to warn
the locals that something major is afoot. |
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Meanwhile, Raff, Vishu, Trafalgar and Aknot successfully "join"
the bandits. Ruff reveals that he has some sort of telepathic ability and
can communicate with both Raff and Shiannan; this allows for some useful
secret communication between those inside the camp and those watching from
a rise above. |
| Junius 26 |
Raff and the other "recruits" learn
that the bandits are intending to strike Jorvik itself (the largest Norse
city), and will be leaving next morning. Shiannan, who had just delivered
a more general warning and had left Jorvik, turns around again and becomes
a permanent communication relay in the city. |
| (S37) |
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| Junius 27 |
Early in the morning, the bandits congregate at
some old docks near their encampment. A mysterious fog rolls in, and then
a ghostly ship suddenly docks - the Chaos, a legendary and exotic
pirate ship whose exploits go back centuries and whose crew consists in
part of undead. Her captain "Queen" Phaedra disembarks and addresses
the lead Orc, Ikh'to. She resents being summoned again (having recently
dealt with some Elven ship for him). Ikh'to explains that they merely need
passage to Jorvik, and that she is quite welcome to join in the plundering.
She accepts the offer, and the bandits start to embark. |
| |
Ruff quickly passes around a potion of invisibility, and tells
everyone on the outside of the encampment to charge when he addresses Phaedra;
the Party is puzzled by the instructions, but readies themselves for battle.
A few minutes later, Ruff appears on the dock as he stabs and nearly kills
one of the two Orc subcommanders; he then bellows to Phaedra that she and
his "associates" had an agreement, that she owed them a favour,
and that favour was going to be that she leave immediately and not partake
in the raid. Ikh'to is outraged as Phaedra agrees and orders her crew to
bar any more bandits from embarking. The Chaos begins to recede into
the mist. |
| |
On the shore, a chaotic brawl breaks out. Most of the bandits are utterly
confused, with their leader and their ride leaving without them, and with
attackers in their midst. The Party (both those who had "joined"
and those charging from the rise) focus their attacks on the two Orc subcommanders,
a known Mage, and a few known Clerics. Many of the bandits stand back
and refuse to join in the battle, sensing that their employment may have
just come to a sudden end. After a tough battle, the leader-types are
all killed and the remaining 54 bandits agree to a truce. The Party proposes
to the bandits that the Party be allowed to keep whatever booty was on
the deceased commanders while the bandits can take whatever else is in
the encampment. Not wanting the bandits to reform as a cohesive unit of
any sort, the Party tells them they must dismantle the recently built
buildings and go away, taking whatever can be carried. The Party notices
that this includes one chest filled with Hestian coins, which seems highly
unusual.
|
| (S38) |
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Meanwhile, being forwarned of an assault coming by boat, and
with the bandits being reduced in numbers, Jorvik is easily able to repel
the attack. |
| Junius 28 |
With the bandits having dismantled much of the
camp and beginning to leave, the Party heads for Jorvik. |
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Litha 1
(inter-calendar 1)
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This being the first of 5 "intercalendar"
days, it's a religious holiday for many people. Riff and Raff refuse to
walk that day. The rest of the Party pushes on, with the 2 Dwarves trailing
a day behind. Through Ruff's psionic connection with Shiannan, the learn
that Ikh'to vanished during the combat and has not been found since, despite
extensive searching. Ruff says that his group wants to try to find the Orc
commander, guessing that he had snuck out of Jorvik, so Ruff, Tuff, Bambi,
and Thumper leave the Party shortly before arriving at the city in order
to search. (Ruff also mentioned that he didn't want to enter Jorvik as "there'd
be too many questions asked of us"), |
| Litha 2 |
In Jorvik, the Party meets up with Shiannan and sees some
of the carnage at the city docks. The Party is offered a reward for warning
the city, details to be worked out in a few days. |
| |
Mei-Peng offers her skills to the locals as a skilled amateur
torturer, and attempts to find out more about Ikh'to and the other newcomers
amongst the bandits from captives from the battle. Some if not all of the
newcomer bandits seem to have come from some Norse-inhabited place called
"Leifland", centred about a city named "Leifheim"; all
names and descriptions are unfamiliar to all Party members and locals. The
bandits were hired by Ikh'to with the promise of much booty from raiding
distant cities such as Jorvik (prior to which they had never heard). Word
is sent to Wolsingham and other towns in Noranglia that they may be attacked
from sea unexpectedly. Attempts to contact Ruff, who might know more about
this unknown land, prove futile - for some reason now, Ruff won't respond. |
| |
Aknot drinks himself silly; eventually wakes up naked and
possessionless in a gutter. Vishu finds him and spends the next day or two
nursing him back to health. |
| Litha 3 |
An Elf from Glantri contacts the Party. Eldarion
explains that he has come looking for word of an joint Elf-Norse exploration
that sailed East over the great sea in search of suspected lands.
While these lands used to be impossible to reach by sea in past centuries
and millenia, suspicions had been growing that the journey may not
be so difficult now. He thinks that locals as well as the Party might
have some idea what has become of the ships (in particular, he was
looking for Jasmin and her associates - he is quite disappointed to
hear of her death, but doesn't explain how he knew of her or the Party).
The Party can't tell him anything about the expedition, but does mention
that Phaedra mentioned having been asked by Ikh'to to deal with some
Elvish ship - perhaps there is a connection? |
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Before this matter can pursued any further, Shiannan suddenly receives
a short message psionically from Ruff saying that Ikh'to had indeed fled
the city, and was heading northwest to the mountains across the lake from
the bandit encampment. Attempts to contact Ruff fail. The Party borrows
some horses and a cart (for the Dwarves and Gnome) as an advance on their
reward and rushes off.
|
| (S39) |
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| Litha 4 |
Leave horses and cart at the village of Grensvik, and head
west into mountainous terrain. They find an old path heading in the desired
direction, and occasion fresh tracks of someone heavy and booted. They come
to a burned pile of strange beasts; Kera asks a raven what happened, and
is informed that 4 humanoids that might be Ruff and his band had killed
many big beasts, burned the bodies, and then left the region. Raff and Shiannan
are still unable to contact Ruff. |
| |
The tracks lead the party to a small waterfall coming out
of a tunnel exiting a mountainside; they go in and find a water-carved complex
of tunnels and caverns. 4 mundane Orcs attack the Party and are easily dispatched.
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The Party comes to a big hall, and 20 Orcs led by Ikh'to ambush
them. The Party is victorious, although Becq and Raff are badly injured.
The Party interrogates a captive named Borosh, who isn't sorry to
see Ikh'to dead. He readily accepts an offer of his life in exchange
for information and Party membership: Borosh
(F1) joins. They learn that these Orcs had only moved in a few
years ago. Ikh'to had barged in yesterday, killed their guards and
several leaders, and taken over the complex. |
| (S40) |
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The Party finds sign of some unusual digging activity
on one wall (likely centuries ago) and a carved note on a wall in Elvish:
"Florelli
was here 153T42". Mei-Peng finally realises that she knows where they
are. A party of associates of her mother, X'eng
Tao Tse, had come here nearly 300 years ago (i.e. in the time of Mei-Peng's childhood) on their quest for the legendary Frost Keys; this was
hide-out of Thorfinn the Three-Fingered, a huge giant/troll abomination.
|
| Litha 5 |
The Party finds some mummified Orc corpses in one room. Searching
the wall behind where they were placed, they find stonework that is sealed
with a waxy substance that seems to be air-tight. Some members want to remove
the stones and see what lies behind; but a Portent from Trafalgar for Raff
suggests significant danger; so they hold off. |
| |
Exploring further, the Party is about to enter a cavern when
Borosh proves his loyalty and warns them that it is inhabited by "Ice
Beasts" - Orcs may pass, but it is unlikely they would ignore the Party.
As the Party is still not fully recovered from their previous battle, they
retreat and rest some more. |
| Quintilis 1 (July 1) |
Fully rested, the Party returns to the carvern with the "Ice
Beasts". Three beasts - some sort of water-loving troll - and a piercer
attack the Party, and are killed. The Ice Beasts are able to heal their
wounds; the Party finds them must use fire or acid to kill them. |
| |
Learning from Borosh that ahead simply lies another
exit to the mountainside, the Party turns around to find more things to
kill and loot. They work their way to ahigh point of the complex, and come
to a steep downward passage with a stream in it. Aknot slips and slides
out of site, around a corner, and over a 50' waterfall; but only 10' down,
he is caught by set of big tentacles that try to squeeze him to death. The
rest of Party struggles with their footing, gets a long rope going, and
Riff and Vishu descend to help Aknot. It is an awkward battle, but Aknot
finally chops his way free ... |
| |
... and falls the remaining 40' into a shallow pool in a chamber
occupied by three more Ice Beasts. Riff and Vishu are lowered down by rope
as quickly as possible to help Aknot. As below the rope is a deep and turbulent
pool, Riff tries to swing himself to the side of the chamber; he remembers
at the last moment that he's tied to the rope, and so tries to cut himself
free, all the while one Ice Beast treats him like a pinãta. Vishu,
in the meantime, tries to elegantly jump free; but with all the Dwarf and
Beast activity below her, instead gets flung into a wall and crashes to
the the ground by another of the Beasts. Shionna convinces the non-to-bright
Borosh that he should jump down to help, and he does; the fall doesn't kill
him, but the weight of the water crashing down keeps him underwater and
he drowns a short while later: Borosh killed. Shionna then proceeds
down the rope, followed by others one by one. In the end, most of the Party
is down and eventually succeeds in killing the Beasts. Riff and Shionna
are nearly killed, while Aknot, Vishu, and Mei-Peng are merely mangled. |
| (S41) |
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The Party proceeds into the next chamber, and finds a pool
occupied by some transparent creature that tries to pull people into the
water and drown them. It proves to be very difficult to damage; but they
do succeed in suddenly disrupting it. They retreat to rest. |
| (S42) |
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| Quintilis 3 |
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Exploring elsewhere, the party finds a blocked off passageway.
Entering it, they are mugged by 6 Ghouls; several membes are paralysed,
but the rest readily destroy the Ghouls. Proceeding further, they eventually
determine that the passageway leads to the back of the stonework found in
the Orc barracks room; the portent that dissuaded Raff from taking that
wall down was likely in reference to the Ghouls waiting hungrily behind
it. |
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The Party returns to the pool with the transparent water creature.
They dam the waterfall above the pools which results in the pool shrinking;
Kera then shrinks the pool further by means of several Destroy Water
spells, and that seems to kill the creature. |
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Further exploration in the complex yields nothing of interest.
The Party exits the complex, and heads for Jorvik. |
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| Training |
Quintilis 5-22: Training for many. |
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Surviving members:
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Mei-Peng
(N3), Vishu (Mk3), Aknot
(F3), Trafalgar (WrC3),
Beqk (Cvr3), Razzle
(MU2), Kera (NtC4), Riff
(F3), Shionna (B3), Raff
(F2), Shiannan (R1),
Ruff (A?), Tuff
(A?), Bambi (Mk), Thumper
(Mk) |
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New members:
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Ruff, Tuff, Bambi, Thumper, Borosh
(F1) |
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Casualties:
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Borosh |
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Retirees:
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Ruff, Tuff, Bambie, Thumper |
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Continuing party:
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Mei-Peng, Vishu, Aknot, Trafalgar, Beqk, Razzle,
Kera, Riff, Shionna, Raff, Shiannan |
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