Real time:
Part 1, July 19
Je. plays Ursula, a hafling thief
J plays Hans, a hafling fighter
A plays Starfalcon, a half-elf ranger
S plays Blackstar, a human wizard
N plays Talnar, a human cleric
Backstory: We are here in Timberlake, my cousin Hans and I. We came from our home in
Riverhearth, looking for adventure - he and I have always shared a certain wanderlust. After we
arrived in the city, we got to know Starfalcon, a half-elf ranger, and his human friends, Talnar the
cleric and Blackstar the wizard. We all want to explore the world and search for wealth and
adventure! So we are, of course, keeping our ears to the ground, anxious to seize upon any
opportunity we can find. We hear that the Duke of Timberlake is distracted and concerned with
something odd off in the West, I wonder what will come of that? One day, Hans tells me that he
has discovered rumors that someone named Llewelyn the Black is asking for help. Now, that
sounds promising! All we can find out, though, is that he is somewhere to the west of the village
of Swining. People are surprisingly reluctant to speak to us of Llewelyn the Black. Everyone
seems to know who he is, but no one wants to tell us anything about him. So, we mention the
tales to Starfalcon, the ranger, and he tells Talnar and Blackstar. We get together, and decide to
just take off, see what we can see and find out. Swining is only about two days travel down
Wyvern Rock. Why not check it out?
Before we leave town, I loan a few gold pieces to Blackstar. He wants to buy a few more darts,
and I don't blame him. He's going to need all the defense he can get. He is kind of a wimpy
guy, head in the books, looks like a slight breeze will knock him over. Wizards, geesh!
Day 1: The morning dawns kind of overcast, light clouds and a strong West wind. As we leave
town, Timber Lake is on our right, and what a beautiful sight it is! We travel onward, and around
noon we come to the village of Pancy. It is a quaint little fishing village with a post, and an Inn
called "The Purple Grimoire Inn". It is quite the odd little inn - hanging on the wall inside is a big
purple spell book in a glass case! We inquire about it, and the barkeep tells us that the book is
actually blank. He tells us the store of how the owner used his spell book as collateral for loans
to buy both this inn, and a couple fishing vessels. After his death, it was discovered that the
spell book was blank, so they hung it on the wall as a conversation piece. Such a strange story!
Lunch was good, however, almost worth the 5 copper pieces.
We continue to travel on until dinner time, when we stop in the village of Carcester. We stay at
the Roaming Ogre Inn, where a silver piece each gets us dinner, a room to sleep in, and
breakfast. When we come down to dinner, we see a man struggling with a small blue dragon in
chains. Such an odd sight, he tells us he captured it in the hills and is going to try to take him to
the Duke. We wish him good luck, but personally, I don't want anything to do with a blue
dragon, no matter how small!
Day 2: In the morning, we head south toward Swining. We are almost to the famous Inn at
Denmouth. Along the road, we run into another group, a half elven woman on horseback, an
obvious barbarian man with blond braids, a dwarf on a pony, and a rather shady looking character who I recognize as a fellow thief, and not the good kind like me. They let us know that
the road ahead is clear. They went to Estem, where they heard about a Dwarven silvermine
called Dwarf Hill. They tell us they were looking for a powerful spell caster named Llewelyn the
Black. None of us mention we are looking for the same man, though we get as much
information as we can, of course. The elven woman (who lets Starfalcon know that she is
engaged to Olaf the Bluff) tells us Llewellyn is quite a powerful magic user and maybealso a druid. Sounds
like an interesting guy.
Not too much farther along the road, we arrive at Denmouth and find the famous inn. It is called
" The Inexpensive Blessing", and its sign shows a Bishop and a coin. The story is that the
bishop rode through and blessed the Inn for just one coin, thus it's name, the "Inexpensive
Blessing". We eat lunch here for 7 cp (by this time, I am paying for Blackstar's lunch - poor
broke guy. I don't mind, it's never a bad thing to have the wizard owe you a favor.). It is a
beautiful, clear day, if hot and windy. We continue our travels, and by sunset, we are in Swining.
We stay at the the Empty Mug Inn for a silver piece each. We ask around, and get just enough
information to know we need to head west to find Llewelyn. While the rest of us sleep, Starfalcon
goes out to investigate.
Day 3: In the morning, Starfalcon tells us that rumors in the town indicate that Llewelyn is an
unusual spell caster trained by the Druids who once was an adventurer to the south. Most of
the outlying villages worship Llewelyn for what he does for the poor, but he has an odd sense of
honor, often says he can't do a certain thing due to some oath he made long ago. They say his
fortress is about 4-5 miles to the west in the forest, but we should be careful because there is
nothing much there. So, why not, after breakfast, we head out to the west.
As we are riding out, we hear a girl crying, and look over to see a broken fence, and a bull
charging a little girl! Hans and I move to attack, and sadly, we both miss terribly. Talnar hits
him, though, causing the bull to start charging us! Just as I am about to yell that the villagers
might get upset that we killed their bull, Hans sets for charge, and the bull can't avoid the blow,
falling down dead. Suddenly, the bull, the girl, and the fence just - disappear! And a young man
appears, clapping. He congratulates us for a job well done, says the last party to come through
didn't bother trying to save the girl, so they didn't find him. He introduces himself - we have met
Llewelyn the Black! We talk for awhile, tell him a bit about ourselves, and he offers to take us to
his tower. The bottom level of the tower looks almost like a cottage, but strangely, with a tower
on top. We go inside and sit down with him, and he tells us why he needs help. He explains
that a raiding party of Orcs is attacking the kingdom. There are people, a brother and sister
helping the Orcs, people that he has an oath with. He explains that he once swore a Great Oath: because of it he cannot harm them or interfere with them; he cannot speak to the authorities about them; and he cannot directly ask others to interfere with or harm them. But, since we are strangers, he can tell us about it, and we can do what we wish.
We all know what he is asking.
He takes us to the top of the tower and shows us the smoke from the camp where these people are staying, just about 8 miles away.
He offers us a place to stay for the night, but tells us not to go above the fourth floor, and to
ignore any strange sounds in the middle of the night. Come to think of it, the tower looks to be
just five stories tall from the outside, but we all distinctly remember going up seven floors. I am
a little anxious about this, so I ask Telnar to try to detect evil. He senses no evil in the tower, so
we all relax just a little. In the middle of the night we hear a woman laughing, but nothing
sinister, thank goodness. Day 4: We wake up in the morning, refreshed, and a lovely young woman fixes us breakfast, and wishes us luck. We set out toward the bad guy's camp, and as we are walking along, we
notice an Ogre, about 15 feet away, leaning against the side of a tree. Luckily, he doesn't notice
us! Starfalcon attacks him. I sneak around to make sure he's the only threat around. We all
land blows against the Ogre, and finally kill him. Thankfully, I am able to get all my sling bullets
back, and Blackstar gets all his (my!) darts back, too.
The Ogre apparently lived in this hollow tree he was standing against. Inside, we find a note
asking him to watch this road, signed by "Hammerhand". The Ogre must have been busy,
because he has a ton of stuff inside this tree. Mostly junk, but we do find some pretty amazing
things.
-a large quartz
-a sunstone
-a ring made with silver and gold enterwined bands, a puzzle ring
-a crown made of bands of platinum with an onyx on it
-a matching scepter of gold, also with an onyx on it
-a case made of wood, also with an onyx, with five potion bottle inside, identical steel bottles.
Hans smells one of the potions, says it smells like pungent plant material. He takes a drink, and
says he feels a lot stronger, ever so briefly. We all convince him to stop sampling the potions.
Geesh!
And finally, there are also 6000 SP! I guess our horses are going to be tired.
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