"A wagon ... just what we need if we want to take this circus on the road."
Day 5 - Late Afternoon
There is some noise in the hall, and the dwarven guard returns, the unit is assembled outside and the commander thumps into the room. Addressing Lump, "All right, the Thain will see you briefly now. No weapons." The group is escorted through a variety of tunnels again, at least they didn't blindfold Tayanella this time. You enter a different room than before. This room seems to be set up as a sort of war room. large stone tables have been assembled and organized so that maps and charts are displayed. The Thain is here along with a variety of dwarven commanders and the Priest Stonehammer. You are ushered in under heavy guard as before and also as before the Thains elite guard stand all around the room ready to act in an instant. You are led to the end of the room and advised to stand in one spot. Despite the people in the room being deeply involved in plan making, your entrance cannot go unnoticed. Everyone's heads turn and watch you. The Thain steps from behind the table and approaches slightly. He seems to invoke some magic, and speaks in your Ancient Common "Your mission is a success I hear. I congratulate you on cleansing this world ever so slightly of scum such as those giants. He nods at a guard who retrieves the sacks of heads from you, now quite ripe. The guard looks inside, grimaces and then shows the sacks to the Thain, who inspects each one impassionately. [b]"Keep them and put them on stakes when the giants come as a warning." He turns to the group. "The bargain is complete. You have upheld your part and I will uphold mine. Loremaster Cronin will be advised to set aside some time to answer your questions and assist you with your quest." He sweeps his arm about the room indicating the maps. "As you are aware by now, things have changed in the last few days. A force of evil gathers in the lands of the Black Ice to the north. Our scouts have travelled far and reported seeing movement of portions of this army moving this way. We have reason to believe, backed up by divine confirmation, he nods to the priest Stonehammer, that this force is bent on attacking our lands here. You saw the refugees, and perhaps wherever you came from, you know the price of war, even a short one. These giants are not coming to steal a few cows and slink away. They are intent on battle, they have hell hound scouts, they have other giants, ogres, trolls, goblinoids (glancing at Grobly), wyverns, manticores, hags, and other fell beasts and beings. We are still learning much, our scrying and magical spying have revealed multiple distinct forces grouping in the Black Ice Tunnels. When these main forces leave their tunnels, if they march straight here, it will take them perhaps five days at their fastest to reach our walls."
"Why do you care? This is not your fight. But, it will be hard to accomplish your goals if this location falls. True, you may learn what information you need and leave. If that is the case, so be it. If you stay, we will pay you in gold to fight. I am convinced we can send this rabble back to their tunnels with their tails between their legs. We have discussed this already with other of your people. If you wish to discuss with them before you answer, so be it."
The Thain waits for answer. He looks tired but resolute. The priest Stonehammer seems to have a fierce look in his eye, a yearning for the battle to come, an almost predatory look that most of you know very well.
"Our desire to help, or at least mine, will rely heavily on our treatment here and that of our kin. We want citizenship and the ability to trade and go about our business as normal people. I understand this will take adjustment, but I am not willing to skulk around the undertunnels of this fort forever. If the people will be frightened, assign us a buyer agent so that we can obtain craft goods and other things from the market. You cannot expect us to go into battle in rags with no supplies. We need to be able to acquire food, water and components for our crafts. I want access to your best forge, and some able assistants. We have wealth obtained as spoils from the giants, and can pay for goods and services. If you can meet my needs and those of my companions, it will be a step in the right direction." Karkoran says to the Thain looking directly at him.
"Goblins are stooped. They fight for the biggist muscle." Grobly grins toothily. "Or da sharpest teeth. Hobs be clever and convince Gobbos to fight for them." The goblin spits. "When Grobly fights, he shows Gobbos who is strongest! Then my cousins come fight with us! Grobly is now oldest Gob ever, and dat makes Grobly smarted Gob ever!" Grobly pulls at his lower jaw with both of his hands. "We be needing what Karkoran wants. And armor. For Bazzt too. I wants to meet the druids of these lands. And we be needing tools for potions."
"Obviously we must speak with your loremaster before we can make a decision. We have an obligation to find our lost master that outweighs any of our other desires, no matter what they might be."
"Having said that, if I can help protect innocents from danger I will."
The Thain glowers and seems to consider the words of the group. When Grobly speaks most of the dwarves in the room look at him with a grunt or take deep breaths. Stonehammer grits his teeth and if he ground them any harder one might break you think. Luckily it appears most of the dwarves aside from perhaps Stonehammer cannot understand what is being said.
The Thain paces back and forth a step or two. "What you request is not unreasonable. I will assign someone to assist you in acquiring such goods as you need. Some goods and resources are currently rationed or purchased only with my approval and the prices are also fixed. I can't have the merchants gouging people on prices because of an impending attack, nor can I have someone buying all the iron or arrows or food to hoard away. I will grant your access to the forges under guard." He scoffs a bit. "ALL of our forges are the best forges. They are Dwarven forges! If you can find and pay for assistance so be it. Our smiths are busy making weapons and armor themselves, so don't monopolize the forges or your access will end." He takes a long hard look at Grobly. There is an uncomfortable silence. "Goblin, never have I spoken face to face with your kind without sinking my axe into a skull. Perhaps I will be the first dwarf in history to negotiate terms with a goblin. If your group can afford to purchase armor or make it, so be it. Unfortunately, interaction with the Druidic Circles is more something Marshal Hawke coordinates. The various circles wander through from time to time, but few take up residence here for long, and I must say we often do not see eye to eye. Speak to the Head Marshal if you can, but I dare say his time is stretched to the limit. Perhaps your assistant can do some looking for you. I must also warn you, most are not able to speak any language you know. You will have to be creative, I cannot spare resources for linguistic magic."
He pauses seemingly done with the subject. He turns to one of the dwarves standing off to the side, an innocuous fellow who is probably a trusted servant and stands out more due to this lack of over the top armor than anything. They speak briefly and the dwarf nods. "Borval will take you to see the Loremaster now and will send someone to your quarters later to act as a liaison with the merchants in town."
With that the conversation seems to end. The Thain returns to his maps and battle planning.
You get a sense that despite the gruffness of the Thain, things seem better and you have a solid place to work from now. With access to the market, as long as you can work with your helper, things may improve soon.
Borval leads you from the room, with a smaller contingent of guards than before, and it appears you are off to see the Loremaster.
Lump tenses up as the others start making demands, but as they are met he ceases to be as tense.
Later in the room, he suggests, "The Thain was right, we should focus on getting a more reliable, widespread, long-term means to speak with the current common tongue. That will help us in all endeavors."
Borval leads you through the winding tunnels and corridors of the fortress. As a minotaur, Karkoran is able to keep the path in his mind straight and oriented correctly, for the others, you feel as though it is a struggle to determine which direction you are going, and exactly how far up or down you are. After some time you reach a large white door. Borval raps sharply on the heavy door, and a voice within answers and opens.
Loremaster Cronin stands there, and you look in past him into a large room filled with all manner of strange things, rows of shelves with scrolls, books, bottles, boxes, and baubles. A large astrolabe dominates the center of the room. Tables are covered in books, and maps. magical torches illuminate the room and you see no evidence of candles or regular torches or braziers. He beckons you in and Borval leaves you to his care, although it seems several sentries are left stationed outside.
Day 5 - Late Afternoon
Loremaster Cronin clears his throat, and looks at the group. "Ahh." He fumbles about the room, digging through various boxes and stacks of containers, until he opens one filled with several small vials. He inspects one and pulls the stopper downing it in a gulp. "Ok, that should make it easier to talk. Languages are such fascinating things though. NO! don't touch that." He swats at an errant raptor that was sniffing at a taxidermied animal on the desk. It hisses in response but steps back. "Keep those critters under control. And you, big fella, watch where you stomp around, this is a delicate space, lots of breakables," he says to Karkoran. Sighing, he pulls up some crates, stool and chairs for the group. "Lets talk then shall we? I feel as though I have as many questions for you as you may have for me, but unfortunately the Thain has tasked me with many things to research before the coming nastiness. We can spare some time though." He seems to be bubbling with a hundred or more questions, but composes himself and takes a breath. "Ok, where shall we begin?"
Tayanalla pulls her hood back, letting her snakes see about the room.
"When we first saw you in the thain's throneroom your demeanor suggested you knew something of how we came to be here, is that the case?" she asks the old loremaster.
"I am sorry madame, but I do not. I was merely bemused at the social situation that had presented itself."
"I will try to be careful. I have some agility and decent reflexes." he booms in his thundrous voice.
Karkoran jumps in with a brief summary of their story, not knowing what the loremaster already knows about them. Then he will explain what they seek. "We are looking to find a temple that existed in our time where a friend of our Master Goodin, named Kao Lor resided. We suspect the temple and Kao Lor are long gone, but if we could find ruins, or evidence that the temple inhabitants moved elsewhere, and if Kao Lor's line endures we are to seek them out, although I am not sure why."
It talking about it, it actually seemed fruitless to Karkoran, so long had passed, how did they expect to find any leads to some person that lived so long ago, and what exactly was the end goal to finding Kao Lor.
"We may need magic to aid us if you cannot."
"Second we need to know about the world as it is now. Speaking none of the languages is a large enough detriment, knowing nothing about what is happening now is worse."
Grobly nods. "we should be learning the new languages... But that might take long time. "
Cronin listens patiently as the minotaur tells their tale. When finished, he nods "I had heard as much from Hawke, and I was present when you first spoke to the Thain. This will be tricky, but perhaps not overly so. I will start with a history lesson. Rather than spare you with a list of nations and empires that have risen and fallen in ancient or modern times, I will remark on the single thing that has shaped our world since your people have walked it. Most refer to it as the Dark Times, although it has been so long ago now, that few really know what happened. Perhaps three thousand years ago a being of immense power came from another realm. Much speculation, research and divination have been spent trying to determine what this entity was, but there is precious little to know. What information has been collected is accumulated by those with the mightiest of powers at the time, and by working with the very gods who are worshipped on this world. The being known as the Destroyer slipped into our reality, and began to in a word, destroy. He started with severing the bond between deities and their worshippers, effectively locking out the gods from assisting. How this was accomplished is not know, and the gods of course are reticent to answer admitting that something was able to overcome their divine authority. After the gods were effectively banished, he closed all access from other worlds. Travel through the astral, ethereal, shadow, all cut off. Demons, angels, elementals, all trapped here or prevented from manifesting. Summons failed to work. Planar travel shut down. Within a very short time, people in power began to notice, had the gods abandoned them? For your average peasant in the fields life was fairly normal for a bit as they have no direct connection to the deities or their servants, nor the ability to traverse the planes. Powerful archmages, and the High Priests were very concerned. Powerful heroes and legendary mythic figures assembled to determine what was going on. At this point, the Destroyer had not yet revealed himself. Initially many thought it the work of Rovagug, or other evil gods, but things did not add up. Shortly thereafter, weather patterns changed, the sun darkened, and the world grew colder. The Destroyer appeared for the first time and began to lay waste to empires singlehandedly. No army, mythic hero, elder wyrm, or archlich could stand against him. For a thousand years nations were crushed. No one could understand why, the Destroyer never spoke, never communicated his desires other than to wantonly kill and destroy. Some speculate that it fed on fear and death, or chaos. Other thought that the souls of those vanquished fed the Destroyer and made him more powerful. To his day no one really knows. All that is know is that in time, the Destroyer left. This wasn't a tale of heroes rising and defeating the bad guy. No, this time evil and darkness had won, and merely grown bored with us. The Destroyer left, the gods returned, and the world began to rebuild. In every nation there are signs of his destruction. Ancient ruins, scars from battles. Mass graveyards where the dead still walk. The black ice to our north is the result of volcanic activity spitting its blackened dust into the skies as the world cooled and people suffered, freezing to death as they starved. The populations of the world dwindled and hung on by a sliver. After he left the skies slowly returned to normal, and people began to rebuild, fearful that the Destroyer may return some day."
He pauses. "Now that you know that. I can say that some information from the past has survived. There are many who spend their lives to seek out ancient empires. Hoping to recover lost artifacts from the ancient past. They uncover much. Using divination and other means, such as talking with immortal beings who interacted with the world in the past, there has been some reconstruction of the ancient knowledge and history. Sadly, in this particular area, we know of some of the nations that were near. In your day, to the south Varisia was one that existed. There were millenia between your time and the Dark Times, and since, glaciers cover much of the northen mountains still, in black ice, though they receed slightly each passing season."
"I have never heard of Kao Lor, although with a name we may be able to determine something, though it may require magical aid as you say."
"Given all that, I will pause for questions before we start with modern history and geography."
"Do you have magical aid that can help us with Kao Lor's fate? We must seek out him or his people. If the temple is gone that is our only lead."
"Do you know the name of the temple this person where this person resided? Your best and quickest option may be to find a powerful priest or shaman to commune with the gods. The spell is costly, but would be most efficient. Let me look through some old books here first to see if I can help. I have several papers written long ago by researchers who sought to rebuild ancient history. In fact I would be interested in learning what you could tell me of your times. As much information as you have, I would greatly value."
"Do you have any idea why your home has come under threat from this invading army at this time?" Taya asks, changing the topic.
The loremaster stiffens up a bit, and gets that ornery old man look about him, and looks over the top of his glasses at straight at you. "Damn stubborn dwarves is why! Can't out the past behind, always meddlings, poking the hornets nest, always need to hold a grudge, and make sure their enemies know just what....ahh, ignore this old man's ramblings, I've already babbled too much. I don't know what I'm saying."
"Say, do those snake things know they are attached to you, how do they not try to crawl away? Facsinating!" he reaches out a finger curiously and pulls it back quickly when several of Taynella's snake hair strike out at the man's finger. "Tsk, tsk, Oh my." he chuckles.
Tayanalla pulls her head back in surprise as the old man tries to poison himself with her vipers.
"They're both part of me, like an arm or leg, and yet somewhat separate at the same time."
"Back in my times, gobs faught gobs. The strongest gobs made tha smaller ones do what theyse want. From what the shorter long-shins said, Grobly sees no change." Grobly looks to the sage curiously. "What are Gob-kin like in this age? or the past forever?"
"Little if anything has changed with the goblinoid races, they still war with each other over scraps of land or underground warrens. They have not lifted themselves to any industry or peaceable craft or vocation."
"So should we give up any hope of histories that would point us to the location of a 10,000 year old temple dating back before this time of darkness?" Taya asks.
"Never give up hope!" He says emphatically. "I will do what I can and search through my archives and books. I may even send a letter or two, but this sort of research is slow. Also, I fear that if your missing temple was in the mountains to the north, if may be buried under thousands of feet of black ice. While I being my historical research here, may I recommend seeking out one who can Commune with the gods. While expensive, it may be your best and quickest hope. Answers the deities chose to give will help me refine my search."
"Oh that we had hours to sit and chat, I have so much to ask you. I would love to write a book about your times. Such interesting perspectives. Some day if you rescue your mentor, how I would so much like to meet him. Do you think that it would be possible?"
"We need to find a high level cleric or shaman. I can go look for one."
"the longshins still have temples, yes? Maybe we go there next? Or let you talky ones go while we go find us a potion shop.." Grobly says referring to himself and Karkoran.
"We should probably stick together. We need to keep Lump out in front so we don't seem so threatening to the locals. We have some valuables that we need to convert into coin before we start spending money."
"I think we are being assigned someone to interact with the merchants. Are we supposed to go back to our quarters, or wait for someone to get us? I am not clear if we are allowed to wander around unaccompanied. I want to get to the forges. We can split our efforts somewhat, if we can get things moving towards getting equipment, a lab and so on. Ashe, I also need to talk to you about casting some spells for me."
"When we find our mentor, I will tell him of your aid to us, and he would probably want to thank you personally. How much does a commune with the gods cost? We must raise this money and then you will ask the questions? I figure you know how best to steer your research."
"Well typically you need a huge ceremony with holy water and incense, a lot of it. Usually on the order of five hundred gold crowns. You are contacting the gods after all, and they like their incense and holy water, or unholy if they are the unsavory types."
"I would be willing to help craft your questions if you find someone. I know that High Priest Stonehammer can, but he is quite intractable and likely to refuse, and it may be that he is already engaged in using such divinations for battle planning."
Karkoran has been sitting thinking and he suddenly booms out loud.
"I believe with Commune you are allowed to pose simple questions to the gods, in the form of yes or no questions, although they may answer if it is unclear or occasionally a short phrase. We know that we were transported here by a magical circle invoked by Jovar."
The tiny construct fixes Qahnaarin with its lumpy glowing eyes. No emotion emanates from the creature. "I have no knowledge of this location. The method utilized to transport the entirety you see here, was a form of plane shift. I had chosen a mountain temple, which may no longer exist. We would be within 5 and 500 miles of this location. I cannot tell you more.".... later.....
"The temple location I chose is a branch of the sect to which Master's friend Kaoo Lor belonged. If the temple still stands and practices the same arts, they would surely have record of Kao Lor and the fate of his progeny
"Jovar himself said the spell works like plane shift and that he chose the mountain temple as the destination. I don't know if the spell fails if the destination does not exist, or if the spot that the temple was located in will suffice, this could lead us to believe the temple does still exist. He also specified 'mountain' temple. This will help us narrow it down, and we know a range of distance."
"I think the typical caster of a Commune will be able to ask at least nine questions. If we ask if the temple still stands, and if we get an affirmative, we can use additional questions to narrow down its location. If no, we can ask if Kao Lor or his sect still exist, and if so, use questions to narrow down their location."
Karkoran goes into greater detail explaining his plan.
I propose questions as such:
1) Does the mountain temple intended as the destination of our exodus spell still exist or stand in some manner other than a useless ruin?If we get a yes to #1 , we ask
2) Does Kao Lor himself, or his progeny/sect inhabit the temple?If yes, we just need to find the temple, see below.
If no, I think it is the same as a no to #1, see next question.If we get a no to #1 or yes to #1 and no to #2. We ask
2 or 3) Will the ruins/locationtemple provide us clues to Kao Lor or his progeny's location.If yes we need to find the temple, see below.
If no, we need to try another strategy. The backstory said Goodwin was "the son of the planetar Socharial Xreychar". Maybe we can track this guy down. Surely an immortal such as a planetar is still hanging around the upper planes and might have some interest in finding his long lost son, outcast or not.If we need to find the temple we ask these for questions 3 or 4 through 9 or more.
3) Is the temple north of our location?
4) Is the temple west of our location?
This narrows it down to quarter slice of pie in a circle with a radius of up to 500 miles. Although that radius would start at the spot we were dumped when we arrived. We can cut the pie in half with question.
5) Is the temple greater than 250 miles from the location?
6) Pretending it fell in the northeast quadrant we ask, is the temple between north and northeast of here for example?
Questions 7 and 8 continue the same process. Say for example it was less than 250 miles and in the north to northeast half of the northeast pie slice, we can cut that slice in half the long way and in half vertically. If we had more questions we can keep up the process. If we wanted to spring for another Commune we can narrow it down further. Depending what was revealed we might be able to track it down ourselves, although the square mileage of the area would still be significant, it will be a fraction of the original, and if we send all our kin to the area we can fan out and scour the mountains for it.
"What does everyone think? We can change the questions to accomplish what we need."
"Well thought out." Taya says to the minotaur.
"All we need now is a cooperative high priest. Too bad those seem to be in short supply."
"Maybe we should be thinking about what Gods we wants to be asking... Goodwin was powerful, asking the wrong God might be bad."
"Good ideas, everyone. To bring things back to the more immediate task, to get the money, we need to help the Thain, unless you have other ideas."
"Well, if you want to sign us up for the army, I guess we can give it a try. We need to make sure they are just going to us us and the others from Goodwin's home as expendable troops in their war. They might be trying to solve two problems at once by getting us killed while we fight the goblinoids for them."
Tayanalla watches the old sage as she says this to see if he gives away any reaction.
Loremaster Cronin responds. "We could use your help, but it is wise to make sure you aren't in too far above your heads. The Thain is proud and he and Stonehammer will stop at nothing to see the giants punished for the attack. You didn't hear that from me."
"There is also another spell called Legend Lore, it may be just the thing to help out, unfortunately with such vague details the time involved is on the order or many many weeks. But it can lead to other information. If you can obtain a copy of the spell, I may be able to invoke it, I have...some talents. I may not be able to engage in that research until after this war is over, as the Thain will require my services, but keep it in mind."
Day 5 - Later Afternoon
There is a knock at the door and Dorval has returned. With him is a small halfling girl, or woman you aren't sure. Perhaps a teen, her age seems indeterminate. She also has a bad limp. Dorval says (which only Lump can understand) "This is Jopple. She is your assistant and contact to help you acquire things in town."
The waifish halfling girl says "Hi." She has a mop of medium length black hair, large eyes and fair skin.
Dorval adds "Jopple used to run the logs in the lake, until she fell between two and her leg was crushed. The healers did the best that they could." He looks at her for a second, and she seems downcast, and then he continues, "In addition, Head Marshal Hawke has returned and you are requested to meet in the planning room."
Loremaster Cronin says "Well it seems our time together is at an end. We should discuss matters again soon. Good luck."
"this girl's name is Jopple." Lump informs the group, and he eyes her leg to think about if he can fix it.
Jopple looks nervously at the group but sets her jaw firmly and follows along. Dorval leads you from Loremaster Cronins to the planning room where Marshal Hawke is.
You are led into a large room with Marshal Hawke standing at the front of the room. Many others of your brothers and sisters are also assembling and filing in with escorts. Marshal Hawke stands at the front with some other marshals and he is holding a large scroll. A big map is hanging from the wall.
The room is lined with benches for everyone to sit on.
He waits patiently while the groups file in.
Taya smiles encouragingly at the halfling and follows along to a seat.
"Thank you for your time Loremaster."
Karkoran follows the people to the other room where Hawke is. He nods to Jopple so she isn't afraid.
Grobly will offer the halfling a warm, toothy smile. Pointing at her he will say: "Jopple" Then, pointing to himself he will say: "Grobly" The goblin will keep pace with her, smiling all the while. He had never had a Halfling friend.
Dorval was speaking their local common, but with the share languages spell you can understand him and communicate back.
Jopple also only speaks common, perhaps more, she has not said.
Jopple looks at Grobly "Hoi Grobly." She sticks out a tiny finger and pokes at Grobly's greenish leather hide. "Ehhh."
You are led to a large room with Marshal Hawke and others of your groups all filling up benches waiting to discuss tactics.
The various groups file in and chit chat and greet each other. Marshal Hawke seems like a lean no nonsense sort of person. He has the sort of dark eyes that see much and can take stock of a person in a glance. As Sly takes measure of him, he looks back meeting his gaze.
He starts out in your Common Tongue, probably aided by a Tongues spell.
"OK, not everyone is here yet, but that is to be expected. Let's get this rolling and I can dole out duties if we get any other recruits from your people. Here is what is happening. A fire giant named Rambanchus, self stylized as a king of some sort, has been mighy successful in raising an army of monsters to come and sack this fort. This fort, as you know is a bastion of power in this wilderness and is fairly impregnable against your run of the mill ragtag band of orcs or what have you. A lot of trade and resources come down the river, past the dam and on to the towns and cities of the kingdom. The economy of this is at stake. Clearly if a major army appeared, it would be met with an equal army sent by the king. However we are not at war with anyone, and you don't often see that level of organization among the tribes of the various humanoid races."
"This is something a little different, not an army, but not just a raiding force bent on stealing a few cows. Due to the unique nature and powers of the creatures the enemies have assembled, we need to unique response. The Thain has already determined to not ask for aid from the King, feeling as though it is not needed, wishing to deal with it himself. Dwarven pride and all that."
"Anyhow, we know that Rambanchus has divided his forces into smaller groups, able to move faster. They are also not crossing that great of an area. They don't need supply trains and a giants can carry a lot of food for the few weeks it would take to come here and wreak havoc. We know that there are plenty of orcs, goblinoids, ogres, trolls, ettins and cyclops among the forces. Apparently Rambanchus has been quite successful in emptying the hills and mountains of these creatures and forming them into some sort of band with the promise of war, food, and riches. They are stemming from the mountains to the north. These rugged areas are harsh and many of the ranges are covered in the black ice, but beneath the ice lie hundreds of miles of tunnels and open areas. The ranges are volcanic in origin and large portions of the ice have melted leaving, huge caverns that could hold entire towns. A griffon rider cannot see any of this from the sky. We don't even have maps of what lies under the ice. Some of these bands have come to the surface and we are seeing them moving."
"Your role is to pick a group of these creatures and strike at them. Whether through full assault or through sowing fear, doubt, dissent, or creating chaos to cause these groups to break apart or fail, I don't care. We need people willing to take these risks. My riders are already spread thing, and this is not the kind of things they do. The dwarves are slow moving and would just as soon meet these forces head on in battle to the last one standing. That won't always work. If you can manage it great, otherwise get in, and get out. While we have these individual groups weakened, slowed or eliminated, we can focus on the leadership, which will be much much more difficult. We know little so far, but with some magical scrying and divination we have discovered he is no slouch. To prove this, our scrying was blocked shortly after our first attempts. Rambanchus has skilled arcane and or divine magic aiding him as well. "
"None the less, with some luck most of them won't even make it here, and will give up without a cohesive force or leader."
"I have identified on these maps where these sub-groups are moving from. As mentioned most are some combination of humanoids, giant types and the like. They have recently added aerial support, manticores, wyverns, and they have hell hound scouts as well as other minions. Expect to encounter other creatures in their service a well, many that we have not seen yet. Our plan is simple. For those of you going, pick a spot on the map to travel to, strike at the group and do as much damage as you can for as long as you can. If you have to fall back or return here, do so. We would rather have the information learned from a failed assault than have you throw your lives away."
"We can provide equipment for this from our stores, but we don't have gear for large sizes, like ogres or minotaurs, or other exotic weapons or special materials premade. Some of this can be fashioned, but clearly you can't make a suit of ogre sized armor over night. Keep your requests logical. The Thain has authorized roughly 100 gold per person in supplies. This includes healing potions. He has authorized that you may keep any spoils, but you must report it because we need to know the level of wealth, weaponry, armor, and magic that these enemies have. If they are raiding ancient ruins, lairs and tombs, we wish to see the items to record from what era and culture they come from."
"You probably have a lot of questions. I can take a few. Keep them brief, but clearly I wish to answer them if they are important."
"I will require a few days to acquire gear, forge some weapons and do some alchemy."
"Lump, can you tell Jopple that Grobly and I need an alchemical lab and supplies. I also need high quality steel and wood for some weapons. "
Lump of course relays the big bull-man's request to the urchin Jopple.