Author: EtinerraDM

21st Day of Autumn

The party will seek out the sheriff and Bellaparra (a hedge wizard).

The party is in a house with a room with a fireplace. It appears as though the exists in the room have changed or moved. There is a big green door on the wall that didn’t have a door before. The party went through the door which led to the outside porch. Outside it is a little warm and overcast. 

The party walked half a day back to town (it’s now midday) and then decided to head to Ballaparra’s. He lives on a farm outside of town. At the back of the house is a chicken coup full of dead chickens. The group went into the house through the backdoor. Inside the house, everything was broken and smashed. The party was searching the house when Rem heard a squeak from the kitchen. Banging on the floor with the butt of his spear, he discovered a trap door. Bellapara was hiding under the house accessible by the trap door. He is an older to middle-aged, balding, mousy-looking man. He’s blind and used railings to get around the house.

He was asked by the enemies to get Old Peterson to join. He was also asked to join and was told he would be quite powerful. He revealed that the enemies were mages and they called themselves brothers and sisters. The first one came close to the end of summer, and then 3 days ago. They used Chaos.

The party went back to town with Bellapara. In town, someone will be hired someone to look after him for a ½ season. This cost 30gp, 20gp for posters, and 10gp for expenses. Reeves will handle the arrangements and the process will take 3 days. During that time, the party will rest and recuperate.

25th day of Autumn

Mort acquired more animal companions, a snake and a badger.

Rem spent 3 days drinking and talking with locals at the taverns. He heard the following rumours:

Rumour #1 – There is a force heading from Shalam.

Rumour #2 – There are lots of people leaving town.

Rumour #3 – There is a lost treasure in the forest to the west of us. Some sort of weapon (sword) buried under a circle of ground that will not grow plants. This is someplace that a hero fell.

Rumour #4 – In a major city to the south, a local nobel has died without clear hiers. 

The party is planning to head to Tannia, which is a 10 day journey on foot. In preparation, the party picked up some supplies. Rem purchased 10 days standard rations for 20sp and 10 days trail rations for 10gp.

26th Day of Autumn

The party begins its journey to Tannia. It is approximately a 10 day journey through grasslands on dirt, not well-travelled roads. By evening the party makes to the village of Goldvale. Goldvale is the home of a mercenary company called the Gold Death Company. The company has been around for 15 years. A portion of their symbol resemblesTear. The company was formed by Commander Malness. He has faith in Tear and gives Egill 60gp to spread the word of Tear.

The party learned the following rumour:

Rumour #5 – There is an Ogre band terrorizing some Hamlets between the Duchy of Elfast and Tannia.

27th Day of Autumn

The journey started at midday due to conversations with the Commander Malness. It rains during the journey but the rest of the day passes without incident. The party comes to the village of Rosepass. Rosepass has an inn called the Mellow Twig. The innkeeper is Laura. The party stayed the night at the inn.

Mort was awakened by his squirrel and heard noises in the cellar of the inn. Eventually the whole party joined Mort in the cellar and it was discovered that the noise was an emaciated goblin that was stealing food. The goblin was interrogated, but nothing was really learned other than that he’s been lost for a while. Mort eventually killed the goblin.

Etinerra has no moon, but there is a nebula visible in the night sky. The nebula is referred to as the Night Clouds.

28th Day of Autumn

The day was uneventful and no village was found. The party camps for the night and the night passes without incident.

29th Day of Autumn

During the journey, the party found a stone in the ground that indicates a Druid tomb is nearby. The party pressed on and came to the town of Lightbell. Lightbell had a tavern called the Lucky Apple.

30th Day of Autumn

The party across a hunter’s camp. The camp consisted of 6 human men hunting pointers (a type of rabbit). They said “May Almon watch you over your journey”. Almon is the Wandering God.

31st Day of Autumn

While travelling, the group camp across a number of stakes in the ground with ribbons tied to it. Inspection of the area lead to the discovery of additional stakes with ribbons. These stakes lead to an area of vegetation with more stakes with ribbons encircling it. The vegetation was covering a rock with some runes. Once the runes were exposed to the light, they began to glow. When Obroam touched the runes he disappeared. This was followed by Mort. Rem held a rope while Egill touched the runes, and he disappeared. Egil then touched the runes and he disappeared. Darvan and Hudin decided to continue the journey to seek help.

The party members that disappeared were transported to a different place. This place had a similar rock but with different runes. The group touched the rock and returned to their original location. They continued their journey until they found Darvan and Hudin. Darvan got some dirty looks from a couple members of the party. Rem was happy that camp was set up and that he got out of some of the camp chores. The stones appeared to act as a 2-way teleport.

32nd Day of Autumn

As evening approaches, the party came upon a camp with lots of coloured ribbons. The people were dressed in coloured robes, had flowers in their hair, and were singing. In the centre of the camp was an analog of rock (teleportation rock?) made with sticks and logs.

33rd Day of Autumn

The party travelled to a small hamlet named Vanmeer’s Field. There was another group camped at Vanmeer’s Field. This group had 4 fancy tents and looked well armed and armoured. The standards that were flown depicted Elven symbols.
This group is called a Search and their leader is called the Seeker. They are seeking information and knowledge.The is an Elven woman in plate male called Bioanea (sp?). She tells us a tale. There are 20 elves in the group and the party will travel with them to Tannia. After speaking with the Elves, Mort has convinced one of them to join him as a follower (hireling?)..

18th day of Autumn

The party has been spying on a group of humanoids in an old castle. The castle is in disrepair and is quite overgrown with trees and vines. Inside the castle is a courtyard with some steps up to a door. The courtyard is guarded by an Ogre. The Orge is to strong for any member of the party to handle on their own.

Obroam has the idea of crafting spears for all the party members, including Hudin and his men. This will allow two ranks of people to attack the Ogre. The party does this and is able to overcome the Ogre without taking any hits. After defeating the Ogre, the body is quickly looted and the part retreats from the castle back to the wood surrounding it.

The party finds 90gp and a fancy wrought silver pendant.

The party was ambushed by a group of goblins and orcs. The goblins would fire missiles from the trees and then move to a new position. This made it difficult to determine where they were coming from.

Additional orcs attacked from the ground and a large melee ensued. Mort used entangle to immobilize a number of the orcs. The party was able to overcome the orcs and goblins without any losses.

The corpses were looted after the battle. The orcs had 126sp and 77gp. The goblins had 54sp and 18gp.

Three quarters of the day has passed.

The group returned to the castle. Past the courtyard and attached building, there are two squat towers covered in vegetation. One of the towers had orc noises coming from it.

The party attacked 4 orcs. One of the orcs mentioned Moloc while dying.

The party found treasure of 133sp, 49gp, a bluish gem, and blood red gem. The larger orc also had 2 keys on it.

The party decided to explore past the buildings of the outer keep. Pickles was ambushed by 2 orcs. The party attacked and the rest of the orcs charged and were killed. A group of orcs emerging from one of the towers was ambushed and killed.

The party found a pouch with a sealed flask (magical), organish gem, yellowish gem, green gem, and yellow gem. The orc leader had symbol (pendant from a necklace) with the shape of 3 fingers splayed out.

In the tower, the party found a room with a forge. The coals are hot and appears as though someone (or something) was interrupted. A goblin was caught and interrogated. Rem chopped off the biggest orc’s head and asked if this was the boss. The goblin confirmed it was.

The party learned that there are dark humans looking for something. They are digging below the tower. The goblin is afraid of the church-like building. The dark humans live in the larger building.

Further exploration of the tower led to a room with a chest and crate. The was labelled Shipment of Gillim Shallom from Merchant’s Guild to Paluk Tammia Merchant’s Guild. The crate had a noble’s outfit and 2 flasks of a dark liquid. The chest was trapped and Pickles suffered some damage from the trap when a stone fell on to him. The top of the chest has the initials DGI. The chest had the following contents:

• golden yellow topaz
• black pearl
• 2x red garnet
• deep green spinel
• jade
• pink pearl
• blue tourmaline
• 91gp, 2sp, 4cp
• necklace (platinum with gems)

In the basement of the tower, there was a room with two orcs. The orcs were killed and 4 goblins were found digging. One of the goblins was killed.

A secret passage was found of the main room the goblins were digging in. Obroam used a dead orc to discover traps down the hallway. After careful exploration it was believed the hallway was clear of traps. Rem attempted to move down the hallway but was hit by a spear.  It was learned that each push changes state of traps and door

Eventually the traps were bypassed and another room was found. This room had a large circular stone made up of three circles with runes. The runes were copied, but the purpose of the stone circle could not be determined.

On the way out of the tower, a number of weapons and armour were taken from the orcs.

The party decided to head back to town, which is approximately one and a half days away. A full day of walking towards town and subsequent nighttime rest were uneventful.

19th of Autumn

The party made it to the edge of the forest where it looks over the plains. From there, it is just necessary to follow the woods East to get to town. Another day passes.

20th Day of Autumn

On the way to town, the party found 4 orc arrows stuck in a tree. It is not clear what this means. Rem took the arrows with him.

Upon reaching town, some the treasure was divided amongst the group. Huden and his men are awarded 107gp, 99sp, and 5cp. Rem’s share is 51gp, 48sp, and 5 cp.

18th of Autumn Continued

Pickles drinks the healing potion. We investigate the first floor of the tower. There’s a closet full of rubble in the foyer. A hallway leads out of the foyer through the center of the tower. Entering the hallway, we find two doors. In the first one we find a scene of interrupted work and a cowering orc. The orc tells us about how many orcs are here. He says there is no temple of Morlock here. He seems frightened of the colored/stained glass windows. The orc tells us that the dark humans live in the “big building.” He says that there might be four or more of those dark humans holding the power of Molock. The orcish coward says that the dark humans are with Molock and that they know their dark angel. They speak of conquering a city to the west. 

After the questioning, we tie up the orc while briefly discussing murdering the orc. We equip ourselves with some of the weapons and shields here in this room. We exit the room and, in the hallway, we find that there’s a third room. We also see that the hallway opens up into a larger room. In the second door is what looks like a barracks. Hay and furs are on the floor and the furniture is broken.

We swiftly head towards the third door. We find that the hallway opens up into a foyer that has another door in it. The third room is also a barracks. The second foyer actually has two doors. The foyer has a large pile of fur and a crate. There are three separate sets of furs in the center of the room, and amidst the furs is a chest. The crate appears to be a shipment between merchants’ guilds, which holds a fancy outfit and two carefully wrapped vials (small wax-sealed flasks). Pickles discovers that the chest is trapped (a string suspiciously attached to the lid of the chest). Pickles triggers the trap and is injured, but Darvan heals him. In the chest are very very expensive jewelry, gems, and coins. (Gold & Yellow Topaz, Black pearl, two red garnets, deep green spinel, piece of jade, pink pearl, tourmaline; 91gp 2sp 4cp; fancy eye-watering necklace of platinum and gems). The lid of the chest has the initials of: DGI.

The western door of the foyer leads to a staircase (down) and the northern door leads to a spiral staircase (up). We decide to open up the trap door to the second floor from the spiral staircase. The second floor is completely open. Ceiling is open in some areas. There are arrow slits along the walls of the tower. Satisfied with its emptiness, we head back down towards the stairwell to the basement. Pickles listens to the door and hears orcs berating someone. Probably, they’re scolding the goblins. The party charges into the room and a battle with the two orcs ensues. We quickly kill the orcs. 

The room connects to a chamber full of fearful goblins. We question the goblins, the party agrees that they should kill the goblins but disagree on how. The paladins decide to grab some weapons and give them to the goblins, providing them with the opportunity to give up their lives. At that, the goblins sink to the ground and beg for their lives. Pickles dishonorably murders one while it says that it didn’t want to tell us something about pushing something. The goblins shriek and beg for mercy, promising they’ll show us. We finally ask them what, and they tell us that they’ll show us. There’s a button. Darvan pushes the button. It reveals a door. Obroam, Rem, and Darvan open the door. Past the doorway is a hallway and they trigger a trap. Pickles then triggers the trap on them again. They ask the goblins to walk down the hallway and find the pressure plate, but the goblins disapprove of that idea. This angers the paladins and seems death-worthy in the eyes of Obroam. Egill feels conflicted – killing slaves doesn’t seem courageous nor feel in Tyr’s light.

Mortisms

• If we go to the center of the town and start screaming his initials someone will eventually give us a free meal.
• Oh man, if we’re spearing goblins, there’s no way I’m not getting in on this.

While discussing breaching the walls, Pickles brings up that when they’d last spoken with the kobolds they spoke of a back entrance tunnel. This is kept in mind as a backup plan should entering through the gatehouse is not feasible.

Pickles sneaks up the rubble pile wall and finds that the courtyard is empty and that the doors to the gatehouse is closed. Pickles clumsily sneaks onto the tower. Surveying from the roof, Pickles sees beyond the wall and through the trees two squat, damaged towers. He can hear the sounds of orc-speech. Listening closer, he hears one of the orcs lecturing the others, the gist being: “the boss is upset that the big one is dead, we’ll stay here until we figure out what to do next.” Some other orcs (3-4) are angry about being taken off guard duty and put on patrol now that the ogre is gone – they enjoyed watching goblins excavate. Having heard all that, Pickles returns.

We have a few options: attack the orcs in the diamond room, ambush the patrolling orcs, sneak past the wall. Pickles suggests setting the rafters of the gatehouse on fire to serve as a distraction and to learn the numbers. Pickles admits that as a littleling his prone-ness to making chaos for others and Obroam and I admonish him and suggest he learn the wisdoms of either Tangodorin or Tyr.

Pickles sneaks into the gatehouse again. He peers into the diamond room and sees two orcish figures watching the hallways. Pickles reports that the orcs are watching both hallways but in positions where they cannot see into the courtyard. The front doors are locked and they are watching the entrances from the wings. 

While Pickles is away getting into position for the attack on the gatehouse, kobolds encircle us. They ask us what we’re doing and Rem and I translate for Obroam and the kobolds. Obroam bribes the kobolds with food so they’ll leave us alone. He gives them all of his rations. The kobolds fight over the food and we get back to work making the battering ram. My dagger breaks while using it to trim the tree to make into a battering ram. The kobolds describe humans with black robes and green, scary masks beyond the wall. 

We finally bash down the door and charge into the room for the attack. Once the one orc is left standing, he shouts that his “soul will be taken by Moloch.” So Moloch is, indeed, their dark god. Rem strikes down the last orc. [Weapon Speed!] Pickles finds 49 gp 133 sp, a small bluish gem and a blood-colored gem on the dead orcs. The orc who’d had a gem carried a whistle and a set of keys. Mort had been badly injured in the fight, so I cast cure light wounds on him and Obroam lays his hands on him, glowing with the light off Tangodorin.

We returned to the dilapidated fort to continue our efforts of cleansing the ruin of the foul beings that inhabit it. Our parties scout Pickles reconnoitered the grounds and sure enough guards had been replaced. Two goblins in the courtyard, two in the tower, and two Orcs in the doorway to the complex proper. In addition, he learned that at least eight goblins laired in the western wing of the facility. With a direct route blocked, we had to be a bit more inventive with out entrance. While it was suggested we drop in on the goblin barracks, I had a more tactical idea. We would sneak into the fort via the west wings roof, into the room which we did battle in a few days ago as it was empty. While we were successful, we were almost noticed, but luck was on our side and we set up in the east wing.

Now inside, we had to come up with a plan of how to deal with the current guards. Pickles had the brilliant idea of dressing as a goblin and taunting the orcs to lure them into ambush where we lay in wait. After putting on a bit of armor and dirtying himself up, he snuck down the hall and lured our foes to us. A short skirmish followed as the orcs took the bait. We then followed this ruse with yet another, Pickles bellowed out into the yard for the goblins to come inside. These foes were also slain in short order. Tangadorin’s blessings surely light our way. 

With no more outside guards to worry about, our troop entered the west wing. A couple of goblins who were mining our a celler came to see what was going on, and with quick word play, sent back to their tasks. At the end of the hall a ruckus spilled forth from a side room. As we entered we saw a large insect of some type attacking three goblins in what appeared to be a kitchen. As Mort and I entered to deal with both parties, Pickles had another bright idea, he chalked the door to the goblin warren shut, giving us time to mop up. Following this, banging was heard from the door and voices of goblins yelling to be let out. With the goblins contianed, we decided to use more unconventional tactics to deal with them. Pickles climbed to the roof to attack from the collapse sections with his sling while our Wizard, Rom, poured oil under the door and lit it. After a minute or so of screaming and the door burning to cinders, I charged into the room with the others in tow. While we did fell most of them one did manage to stick me in the thigh, I wish i had a replacement shield. And to top it off, those miner goblins fled during the wrapping up of their comrades. 

Two of the goblins surrendered to our group and were thus questioned. They appear to be labor for these Orcs and Dark Ones. It also seems these creatures see us as members of the Dark Ones and not intruders, very odd, but they dont seem to be very bright. With little gained from the questioning, the group moved to slay the goblins, even though they had become our prisoners. One was slain by Mort before i could stop him but i prevented the others from slaying the last pitiful creature. Goblin or no it had surrendered and thus would be treated with some decorum. The little creature was terrified and clung to my leg in hopes I would continue to protect it from my team.

Lastly Mort and Pickles search the room, finding some coin on the goblins and a chest that they were trying to get into. Our Littleling was able to crack the lock and gain the contents of the chest. Some coins, a scroll case, several fine crossbow bolts, and a suit of scale mail. Given the age of the chest, and the lack of rust and corrosion on the metal inside, perhaps their is more to these items than meets the eye?

We traveled to the castle spoken of by both the sheriff and the kobolds, or more correctly what was left of one. Nature had reclaimed the perimeter and had begun to take the inner walls as well. Crumbling walls, tight vegetation and shadows are all we saw upon a first glance. Pickles took to a tree to gain a higher vantage point and see what there was to see over the walls, while Mort sent one of this rodents to look inside an arrow slit, both forms of reconnaissance proved less than useful. So, deciding on being direct, our party entered through the front gate. Pickles still being stealthy, informed us of goblins in the crumbling wall tower, we entered boldly and slew the two vile creatures within though not before they gave out a shriek. As Mort and Fascul, looted the bodies, I stood guard at the door in case more heard the screams. Sure enough they had, but with some quick word play on Pickles part, they were dissuaded and didnt investigate very much. Im finding this littlelings abilitys more and more useful by the day. 

As we continued on, we crept along an inner courtyard wall to the main doors. Inside, pickles described a diamond shaped room with Kobolds working to clear the place of debris and dirt. Our group decided to enter as though we belonged, on the pretense that we were here to help the kobolds deal with the goblins. The gambit worked, the kobolds seemed unbothered by our presence and even directed us to the nearest goblins in the eastern wing of the ruin. Pickles and Mort slew two of them on a ruined stair with little issue since they were sleeping while on duty.

We then proceeded down the a hall, checking a few rooms before finding a room with more than just goblins, a bugbear was with them as well. We choose a plan of attack to volley the bugbear as a whole before dealing the the goblins. A short skirmish followed, with Pickles being downed by a stocky goblin with a curved blade and that Bugbear shattering my shield. But we prevailed, I slew the Bugbear after it over swung trying to finish me, in addition i took the stocky goblins life as well as it refused to surrender. Mort, though claiming the be a wizard finished off the last two goblins with that club of his, he could make a decent fighter if he tried.

After the fighting we looted the bodies and I healed pickles as much as I could. As we made our way to leave this ruin and see to our wounds, we heard more goblins from the northern door in the diamond chamber. Pickles ran and hid as the rest of us took to taking cover with the doorways walls. As we listened, we heard only two voices and thought to take only two goblins by surprise before making our final leave. However, while it was only two speaking, it was four of them in total. Not the best odds given my injuries. But by working together we slew them all, though Mort did take a wound. The way he swings that club of his makes me think there is more to this strange man than meets the eye. With the goblins dead, we had one more clever trick up our sleeves. We positioned the bodies as if they had attacked each other to throw off any would be investigations. 

We took our leave of that ruin finally, having dealt a blow to the dark beings that dwell within. A half days journey later and camp was made. Our cleric of Tyr, Egill Thorinson, did well in healing Mort and Pickles before we bedded down. Two days have passed, and with Tangadorin’s Light, and a little help from Egill, I am whole once more. We are now headed back to the ruin to continue our efforts in cleansing the ruin of its goblin, orcish and Dark One’s, by Tagadorin’s Light we shall see to the heart of this matter. 

A few days have passed since our encounter and dealings with the Kobolds. Our company is in Gireford once more, replenishing supplies, receiving healing from the temple, and preparing once more to head back out to the hive of villainy.  While in town we spoke again with the Sheriff, who seemed most interested in out dealings and goings. He informed us in what details he could about the castle atop the hill, saying it was an old fort of the realm that had been used by the orcs in the past as a stronghold.

His concern was noted and we decided that we should reconnoiter the outpost while he sent off to the Marshal for actual troops. I also suggested that we attempt to camouflage ourselves using paints and cloaks that looked like the wildlife around ourselves if we wanted to watch and not be seen. This took a couple of days.

In the mean while, the rest of my companions ate, drank, and told stories of their exploits over the kobolds. I on the other hand, spent time with the priestess Mylla. She had been curious about me, my god, and “pagans” in general. She is a bright young girl, and the search to know more is pleasing in Tangadorins sight, so i indulged her. First I told her of our encounters with the kobolds and how they were cowed by our cleirc and even chittered about the dark ones. Mylla suggested that they were referring to worshipers of that True Darkness that brought the Doom to our world before, i pray she is wrong.

After, I spoke of how Tangadorin found me as a wayward sot, penniless and lazy. My gods edicts and tenets. But in turn she also spoke, about how since the old high priest had passed, she was to be the new high priestess, save that she was not powerful enough in the light for said position and an outside priest was brought in to lead this following. She was eager to learn more, be more, see more. I told her all things are possible within the light, to never give up on her hopes and dreams and one day, she would reach what she sought.

The hour grows late now, and i must rest, for in the morning, we march back to that overgrown hillet. May Tangadorin’s light shine our way to the heart of this matter. 

4th Day of Autumn, 59 Ad

Our group traveled into the wilderness to find the lair of the loathsome kobolds. In our search, we tracked their trails to a collapsed tower covered in overgrowth, scattered coins leading us to a dug out cellar to the ancient structure. We ventured into the dark to find our quarry, and were not disappointed. The lair was a series of tunnels with cracks in them, through which the vermin attacked. Tossing bottles of flaming oil at us, their attacks were in vain as our mettle stood strong.

After regrouping in their kitchen for lack of better words, we did battle once more, with Golani slaying three of them, but this time Corvin cowed them into retreating by bearing that symbol of his god aloft. After searching a bit more, our group decided that there was more to be gained from tricking the creatures into speaking to us than slaying them all, and so they were right. With Pickles acting as a translator, we spoke with the Kobold leader and learned that these were merely a labor force for Orcs and “Dark Ones” in the castle beyond the hill, and they they were only attacking the caravans because the orcs were leaving them with little to no food.

After a bit of discussion, we struck a deal, we “deal with” the orcs and they stop attacking the Caravans. While I didn’t like dealing with these creatures, they are but a symptom. The cause lies in the castle, and i shall bring Tangadorin’s Light to these “Dark Ones”.