"No more Ocses," Scrabbler said after completing his sweep.
"Okay, then. We'll light torches and let Raag know it's safe to start unloading now. I assume you plan on remaining here?"
"Yes of course. I need Raag to take a message with him though. I could use some backup." Blix replies. Then she walks over to the fire place to light it. Once it is aflame, Blix moves to her personal belongings.
"I got an old map here of Redlake Fort. One of my ancestors, a man
named Fabian Blix, was the fort’s cleric. He died during the final siege of the fort, but one of his sons - my great-grandfather - escaped through a hidden sewer tunnel. From his belongings I got this map." She offers it to her rescuers.
Bupkis goes back to the shore to let Raag know what happened. "Orcs attack! Knight Calrianne Blix survives. Orcs dead now."
After delivering the news, he goes back inside the way station and studies the map; a sewer tunnel sounds like a good way to sneak in.
"How many live at fort now?", he wonders.
"We'll stay on the boat, til morning. Then we'll unload." Raag tells Bupkis.
Back in the way post when Bupkis asks about the fort, Blix jokes "That would be too easy, wouldn't it?"
Daneem nods at Raag's caution, suggesting "Best d-double the watches tonight."
Menrozzar nods. "Alright then, double the watch tonight. We should each chip in. Bupkis, Scrabbler, Ivan, since you three see better at night than Daseem and I, you should take the middle watches. I'll take first watch, and Daseem, you take last watch so you can rest up before you have to pray."
Scrabbler nodded and found a place to make himself a sleeping nest.
Daseem nodded, getting up early suited him anyway.
A watch is set up and it is a tense night for all after this raid. But it looks like all orcs from this raiding party were slaughtered. Nothing happens, and everything heard is the rushing of the water in the river and the chirping of the birds as the morning comes.
Once the morning sun with its brightness lights the day, Raag has the delivery unloaded. This is more complicated than normally with the pier destroyed. Six chain shirts, 12 battleaxes, and 20 spears are brought to Blix.
Blix pays Raag and then turns to the party. "If I can help you with anything, please take it. You saved my life with your battle against the orcs. If some weapon or armor makes it easier for you to continue for that, I'll gladly help."
Bupkis helps with the unloading, moving some of the lighter items with telekinesis. After the work is done, he searches for some of the ammunition that he used the previous night, recovering what is still usable.
He replies to Blix' offer of help, "Bupkis can always use small projectiles like sling bullets."
"We don't use that. But if you want some crossbow bolts I can give you those." Blix replies and leads to a box.
Menrozzar shakes his head. "I think I have everything I will need. Thank you for the offer, though."
With the gold in hand, Raag gets impatient. "Are you done here? We're already late as it is with all that unplanned delays."
Bupkis thanks Calrianne Blix for the bolts and boards the boat.
Daseem nodded and boarded the boat. He sat down on the rowing bench and waited, some exercise would do him good.
Ivan nods.
With everything wrapped up, Menrozzar boards the boat and prepares to press on with the journey.
The journey goes further downriver for half a day to the point where Kestrel River and River Esk meet. There it gets interesting, as the ship shall go upriver the Esk. Halrex goes from her calm drumming the rhythm to shouting orders and pushing all rowers to their limit until the boat is turned in the right direction and moored at the opposite riverside.
There the horses are unloaded and put in front of the boat to pull it from shore. With this aid the rowing gets easier again. But half an hour later the journey is interrupted again.
Ahead, a crude dam constructed of large boulders, animal carcasses, and mud blocks the keelboat’s route upriver. Bupkis is the first to notice from the crow's nest.
"Someone blocks river ahead!", Bupkis calls out.
for the love of Torag, can nary a day go by without somethin' tryin' ta pester us?
Ivan rubs his brow before shouting
What is it then?!
I should have bought a spyglass, Menrozzar thinks, so he could better see what was there. "It would appear not, Ivan. We should prepare for another fight."
Hearing Bupkis' cry, Daseem tries to get a good look at the obstruction. He was close enough to the railing to get a good view of what was ahead, or so he thought...
"Oh for f~%%s sake." Raag curses. And soon he finds even more reason for that, as to large humanoid creatures climb the boat at starbord and port.
"Aagh, giants come out of water!". Bupkis cries, and shoots at the one on the port (left) side.
Scrabbler hated giants. These ones werent really the same as the ones that had destroyed the circus, but they were the same size and basic shape. For Scrabbler's limited understanding, that was enough.
His instinctive fear gave way to white-hot rage. He scrambled down the mast on the far side from the giants and readied to leap out and ambush them.
[
Menrozzar hefted the lucerne hammer and roared as he charged forward, his eyes changing into gold reptilian slits and his hands warping into red-scaled claws. He swung at one of the Merrow on the deck.
What Raag cursed, Daseem welcomed with open arms crying, "Gorum be smilin' on us!"
Racing up to the nearest one, Daseem swung his blade in a wicked arc hoping to slice through it!
Ivan moves to engage anyone not already engaged first, if all enemies are engaged, he moves to the closest enemy and swings his hammer in a wide swing, aiming for exposed kneecaps.
Bupkis shoot goes wide, but Daseem goes into melee with the merrow, which is painful and end with Daseem being grappled. Not able to use Gorum's favored weapon in one hand Daseem is at a big disadvantage here.
After some struggling the merrow drops Daseem and claws at him.
Scrabbler comes down partly unnoticed. Menrozzar uses the opportunity of the giant preoccupied with Daseem to deliver a bone shattering crush with his hammer.
The other giant claws at Ivan but only scratches the shield. Ivan then shatters a kneecap.
Behind the dam another merrow stands up and slings a javelin at the boat. It hits the boat.
Menrozzar whips the lucerne hammer back around, continuing to try and wail upon the Merrow.
But he misses.
Bupkis hopes that his friends can deal with the giants on the boat, and returns fire to the one behind the dam.
Scrabbler leaped out at the giant who he didn't think had spotted him.
Bupkis fires something at the merrow behind the dam, and shows him painfully that this is no safe place. Scrabbler stabs Ivan's merrow and tries to mount him, but fails, as he is again raiding a dead steed.
Ivan moves to the next enemy like an unstoppable landslide. He slams into merrow, hammer leading the way.
Ye picked the wrong dwarf to aggravate today ye water logged, overgrown sludge pile!
Much to Daseem's disdain, Ivan ruins the chance of a heroic fight with a blow of his hammer. Only the merrow behind the dam is left. He throws another javelin. But he is not very good at throwing.
Menrozzar ends his bloodrage with all foes on deck dead. Seeing there’s only one left, behind the dam, he pulls out the longbow and fires an arrow at it.
Bupkis shoots again at the sniper behind the dam. He shouts, "Stop shooting at boat! and take apart dam!"
And another merrow goes down. That's all the visible attackers for now.
"How did these idiots manage to build a dam here? How are we supposed to get past that?" Raag complains.
a crude dam constructed of large boulders, animal carcasses, and mud blocks the keelboat’s route upriver. It's not a masterwork of engineering, but it's solid and in the way of the boats trip.
Daseem grunted when the Merrow's claws ripped through his skin. He nodded though, he had been careless - this was clearly a lesson from Gorum if only he was smart enough to understand.
Retrieving his wand, Daseem sets about curing the worst of the damage.
Bupkis says, "Need to dismantle dam, so boat can pass. Bupkis needs to have a closer look — figure out how take apart safely."
Possible shortcuts: Animate dead on the merrows to have them clean up their own s@+&.
Big explosives. Could be a job for Duke Nuke Em - if you have him on short dial.
Bupkis looks at the dam. He tell Ragg, "Two day's work to clear, Bupkis thinks. Unless can make big explosion!"
Daseem glanced at the dam, it was going to be hard backbreaking work. With a shrug he pointed out the obvious, "W-we must post guards. E-easy to attack us here."
Ivan looks over the crude dam, trying to assess if there were any weak points they could take advantage of.
Menrozzar sighs, then says, "If we don't have anything to blow it apart, let's get to work. Sooner it's cleared, the sooner we can continue."
It is indeed as simple as getting the stones out of the way, after the corses that block the space between are removed and the mud gets washed away. But if you have no giant around to do the work for you it is a tedious task. With thick ropes from the boat and the help of the horses they are slow but steady removed. Ivan takes a more Dwarven approach. Searching for the weak spot in the stone and with a few well placed blows with his hammer, Ivan manages to break a stone apart into small enough pieces for him to carry. That he walks underwater to accomplish that doesn't bother him. After two days of hard work the river is free of this obstacle again and the journey can continue.
With the horses pulling the ship and the crew rowing it goes slowly up the River Esk. At this point you travel already through the Ghostlight Marsh and look out for the marking stone on a riverbank with a circle of thorns carved into it.
Bupkis does his best to help with the dam-clearing work, but his telekinesis isn't good enough to lift heavy objects. He feels inadequate as the big folk do all the work.
Bupkis did his usual sounding work as the boat traveled past the Ghostlight Marsh, keeping an eye out for the marker.
Finally, he spotted the stone. "There marker is!", he called out, then, "Orcs hide on river bank!"