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Umm... hi?
South from Arywell Stead a hard-packed dirt path stretches south past the distant Castle Everstand and even more distant city of Lastwall. Eventually, this path leads to the bank of the Kestrel River.
A campfire is built and a lone dwarf sits on a well used folding chair warming his hands against the evening chill.
A few hours pass before the dwarfs ears catch the sounds of hoof prints in the distance. He stands to look out across the flat land. In the distance he see a part of 3 slowing making their way to his location.
The dwarf smiles to himself and takes a seat next to the campfire to await the newcomers.
He is not worried that they might be brigands or thieves. He is, after all, the one that asked them to meet him here. On the banks of the kestrel.
He has some fun planned for his old friends.
Fun...and maybe a little danger.
It was Arkhan's intent to take the lead, to go first into danger, but his inexpert riding capabilities made this a desire kept in his heart instead of realized on the road. The horse was the most docile that he could purchase, the salesman had assured him. After this journey, Arkhan was sure he had been lied to.
Arkhan bids the horse, "Whoa, Shepherd. Whoa."
Shepherd, not for the first time, refuses to obey.
It takes several more yanks on the reins and it almost looks as if Arkhan will have to leap off if he wants to dismount, but Shepherd slows to a stop and nods at the dwarf, more familiar than the summoned rider.
Arkhan swings off of the horse stiffly. His gray face is covered in sweat, his steely eyes wide but softening with gratitude. He can't help but smile as he says, "You summoned and we have arrived."
As the party approaches, Aldwineas' sharp gnomish eyes note the smoke of a campfire, and recognize the shape of Tymor.
Aldwineas remarks to the party, and especially his mount, "Look, we're just about there!" Shortly thereafter, Blageis, his jet black riding dog, starts sniffing the air. Blageis seems to recognize a familiar scent, and begins running towards Tymor, with Aldwineas holding on for dear life.
Once Blageis reaches Tymor, he frolics around for a second, happy to see his friend, then sits down next to Tymor, unceremoniously dumping Aldwineas in a clatter of metal.
Aldwineas lifts his head and strains to get up. "Tymor, good to see you again. Do you want a dog?"
Tymor hears his friends coming and begins to stand to greet them, but before he can reach his feet, a streak of black fur knocks him backwards over the log he was sitting on. He is assaulted with saliva and dog breath. A hearty laugh and a deep booming voice rises from the fray: "Hello, Blageis! Yes, it's good to see you too, old boy. Okay. Yep... no, okay... all right. Oof! Sit down, boy!"
Blageis finally settles down and sits next to Tymor. Tymor reaches down and helps Aldwineas up to standing, then embraces his old friend. "Aldwineas, how wonderful to see you again." Seeing that Arkhan is having some trouble with his mount, Tymor walks over and helps him settle the horse and dismount. "As charming to animals as ever, I see, Arkhan." Tymor laughs and hugs his friend, not even noticing the awkwardness of having his head level with Arkhan's belly.
"Have you boys seen Kara?" "I think we should wait for her before discussing why we're here."
"I'm here, Tymor" Kara says as she approaches from the other side.
"With the speed and grace these guys are travelling, Treacher and I took a small detour to secure something to eat. Would have been more, but *someone* was bored and decided he wanted to play with a couple of them" Kara slides down her horse and throws a couple of rabbits on the ground.
"so, what was it you wanted to talk to us about?
Aldwineas' eyes light up at the sight of the rabbits Kara and Treacher have caught, and he starts digging around in Blageis' saddlebags for cooking implements.
"I don't know about you all, but I'm famished. Perhaps I can prep these, and we can talk while we eat?"
Arkhan bashfully hugs his old friend, grateful to break off the embrace quickly and doing his best to not show his discomfort from the movement. He turns to Kara and says, "We have the coin to travel by carriage, I do not know why we still use these animals. Aldwineas, if you are offering to prepare lunch, I will assist. I would be glad to walk some mobility back into my legs. Do you need any herbs or wood for a fire?"
It's pretty well-known by now that Arkhan isn't a woodsman, so if this is something needed, someone else will need to show Arkhan what to do.
"No meat for me, thank you. I have my dinner here.", Tymor says, patting his backpack sitting next to him. While his friends prepare their meal, he goes over what he knows. "My tribe received a message from the mayor of Arwyll Stead requesting help with some increased orc" (his face twists into a sneer, as if the very word 'orc' angers him) "activity in the area. That's really all I know for now, but it's been a while since our last job so I figured you all could use the money. And here you all are, so I suppose I was right."
He turns to his pack and begins pulling out provisions to make his dinner, then flashes a big smile to the group. You all have known Tymor long enough to realize that this isn't a side of himself he shows to just anyone. It brightens his face, but also deepens the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, which seem even deeper in the flickering shadows from the campfire. "But the time for that is later. For now, let's catch up. What have you all been up to? I have been mostly training with the elders. I have some new tricks to show you." He beams at this, obviously very pleased with himself.
Aldwineas pulls out a skillet, some plates, and a portable camp stove from Blageis' saddlebags, as well as a pouch of herbs and spices from his backpack. He then starts dressing the rabbits with the ease of someone who is highly practiced in the culinary arts. He shakes his head at Tymor. "Well, more for the rest of us, I suppose. Looking forward to seeing what you've learned." Aldwineas winks at Tymor. "I've picked up a trick or two myself." He then frowns. "But Blageis hasn't... I suppose you really can't teach an old dog new tricks." Aldwineas grins and shrugs, and gets back to preparing lunch, and asks Arkhan to assist him.
After lunch, Aldwineas takes his gear down to the river to wash it and fill his waterskin, then returns to the group, laden with pans and dishes. "Well, Arkhan, I'm glad I've got Blageis around, since I really don't want to carry all of this around myself - and I can't imagine being without it! Even if he is a bit overly enthusiastic..."
"Anyway, should we go talk to the mayor, or do we have enough information to start investigating? Do we know of any orc camps in the area?"
The ancestrally-ingrained hatred between dwarves and orcs was a strange concept to Arkhan. He couldn't imagine hating another species of man simply because he was supposed to.
"I have not been up to much other than studying. I still believe that I shall travel to Osirian. The temples and the history call to me, as does their need to fill the ranks of the Voices of the Spire that protect the Necropoli." He shrugs.
"Planning is easy. Carrying out the plan is not. Besides, I do not like the road."
“Sorry Tymor, forgot your heathen ways about meat. Next time I’ll keep a lookout for those berries you like so much. Should be the right time for them”
Kara continues making ready for lunch, but as Tymor mention orcs, Kara gives him a hard look.
”Tymor, we’ve had this discussion before. Don’t talk like that about orcs! They are not all bad. These might be, as I assume by “activity” you don’t mean setting up businesses and being productive citizens. What have they done?”
”Travel by carriage is boring and slow! You need to be out here in the fresh air, seeing the land for yourself instead of being stuffed in to a small wooden box. And trust me, small spaces are not fun with a tiger in them! He farts…a lot!”
Treacher lifts his head as he senses people are talking about him and gives a snort at Kara. Kara laughs as she gives him a loving scratch behind his right ear.
Kara sniffs the air and turn towards Aldwineas ”Umm, that smells gooood! I’ve sure missed your cooking, Aldwineas! You have a way with those spices, I’ll never learn. If that can’t get Tymor to eat meat, nothing can!”
"We should probably talk to the mayor first, getting the latest news. Are we all ready to go?"
Just to make a point, an unmistakable sound comes from Treacher and very soon everyone with any sense of smell is looking forward to leaving.
As rude noises are emitted from Treacher's nether regions, Aldwineas crinkles his nose and gestures in Treacher's direction. A light breeze blows towards Treacher in the direction farthest away from the rest of the party, attempting to blunt the worst of the smell.
"Note to self - avoid ravensroot when Treacher is eating... Yes, let's get moving to Arywell Stead to see what additional information we can get from the mayor." Aldwineas sniffs and eyes Treacher. "As quickly as possible, I think."
Aldwineas quickly finishes packing his cookware away, mounts Blageis, and starts riding away from Treacher.
"Let us away! It's good to be back together, to adventure!" Aldwineas takes a quick look around. "Uh... which way are we going again? Tymor? Which way should we go?"
Kara grins as she jumps on her horse again, turning towards Tymor and wait for his directions.
Arkhan stands next to Shepherd and sighs, preparing himself for another ride. He mounts and follows the party, letting the horse fall in with the group.
"How far is it?" Arkhan chimes in with his own inquiry.
"So north from here, right? I've never been to Arwyll Stead, but I believe that's right.
I've always wanted to spent more time here in Lastwall. Being this close to the hold of belkzen, there should be quite a lot of half-orc. And with the attitude of *some people*" Kara gives Tymor a look "I'm sure some would like to know of Averaka"
"But Tymor, you said you have some new tricks to show us. Can you do so on horseback?
Tymor sighs and looks at Kara closely. "Sometimes I can't tell if you are messing with me, Kara, but we've been traveling together long enough for you to know that I have no quarrel with half-humans like you. I've yet to run across a full-blooded orc that isn't trying to kill me, and I'm sure none of you have either. You know how much they have taken from my people."
"As for my new tricks, you will see them soon enough." He rides ahead of the party a bit, clearly bruised by Kara's seemingly willful misunderstanding.
Aldwineas directs Blageis to move up next to Tymor, and rides besides Tymor for a couple of minutes in silence, offering some support without saying anything. After several minutes of silence, Aldwineas reaches up to pat Tymor's foot, and says "I understand friend - you feel about orcs roughly the way I feel about goblins. Bastards killed my first family when I was a child, and I've never run into a goblin to make me think there is any good in the race."
He pauses to look back at Kara and Arkhan. "Thing is, if you haven't been through something like that, you just don't understand. She didn't mean anything by it, and I'm sure she's had her own trials to deal with, having orcish heritage, I mean. Anyway, if you want to talk, or not, I've got open ears. And I'll see about making something without meat for dinner tonight!"
Aldwineas gives Tymor a quick grin, then drops back with the others to let him be alone if he chooses.
Kara looks at Tymor’s back for a couple of minutes, before she steers her horse away from the tracks the others are following towards some greenery a little way off.
She joins the rest about an hour later and brings her horse up next to Tymor's.
”Here” she says as she hands him a small bag ”I couldn’t find many but at least I found some”
After a few seconds of silence, she continues
”I know you don’t dislike half-humans. If you did, we wouldn’t be friends. And I consider you one of my best friends. And I know you have your reason to hate orcs. The ones you’ve seen deserve that. But my point is that not all of them are like that and more of them would probably not be like that if everybody else didn’t always try to kill them on sight. I know how it feels to walk in to a room and have everyone stop talking. I just want us all to get a long and live in peace. So…what I’m trying to say is, sorry I said that, I didn’t mean it as harsh as it sounded. Friends?”
She reaches a hand out towards him
Arkhan stays clear of the tension until his curiosity gets the better of him. "Who is Averaka?" he asks Kara.
Kara smiles
”Averaka is not a ”who” but an ”it”. It is the greatest city in the world, my home town. It is the only true half-orc city there is and a place where half-orcs from everywhere can come and live without being persecuted”
”It’s in the high north, in the Land of the Linnorm Kings. I left 4-5 years ago with Councilor Bravok, a great man and one of our leaders, to go to Magnimar. He’s been spreading the word of Averaka wherever he can. He had to go back, but I kept going, continuing his work. I love the travel, so it’s perfect for me. And I get to help other half-orcs. Someday I’ll go back, settle down, see my parents, both half-orcs themselves, I might add. But not just yet. There is so much of the world to see yet.”
The group of friends takes the time traveling down the dusty road leading to Arywall Stead to catch up with one another. It has been a few years since they last saw each other and it is good to get caught up on everyone's lives since then.
They all share whatever knowledge they have of Arwyll Stead and it's lore.
the sole remaining holder of the Arwyll name. While the Arwylls aren’t the official rulers of the town, the townsfolk all but revere their namesake family, looking to them for guidance and security in the face of orc savagery.
After a while, the conversations run dry and eventually die out altogether. It is during this period of almost complete silence that, almost all at once, the party hears the clangs of metal hitting metal and the cries of what can only be a battle. It is coming from ahead of them on the path just over a hill that path is built over.
"Do you all hear that? Someones fighting up ahead."
Kara losen her Greataxe and takes her bow in hand, an arrow ready to shoot.
"Let's go check it out, someone might be in trouble."
She will continue up to the top of the hill, but stop if someone asks her to
Aldwineas' ears perk up at the sound of battle. He pulls his wooden shield from his back onto his arm, and as he does, sparks begin to fly around him. His hair begins to straighten as if he has received a large electrical shock, his eyes begin to glow lightly as current shoots across them, and electricity begins arcing across his shield.
Aldwineas guides Blageis to the top of the hill with his knees. As he does so, he waves his arms, and pulls more electrical power into a ball between his hands, which he then pushes onto his shield. As he does so, the arcs on his shield increase in intensity, and the static around him starts causing Blageis' hair around the saddle to stand on end. Blageis whines in protest.
"I know boy - the sooner you get me to the action, the sooner I'm off, ok?" He looks to see what is going on in the area on the far side of the hill, straining with the concentration required for holding in the power he has gathered to his shield. "Alright, let's find out what's going on!"
As the party approaches, Tymor touches Kara on the shoulder. "Of course we are friends," he says, and Kara feels a surge of energy flow through her.
Arkhan puts his heels to the horse, trying to emulate what he saw the others do. He follows toward the noise. "Let's go!
The clang of metal on metal and the shrill whinnies of frightened horses can be heard from up ahead. As the party crests the hill, a scene of battle comes into view 50 feet away. Panicked horses bolt past, and corpses litter the ground around the road—some are recognizable as human guards or fallen horses, but others are twisted, winged, horned monstrosities with fiendish features. All of the combatants have fallen, except for two of the flying yellow monsters attacking a lone, wounded half-orc woman wielding a bow.
The half-orc woman takes a swing at one of the flying creatures but the thing is able to just barely dodge the swing. The force of her attack causes the half-orc to turn just enough to spot the party cresting the top of the hill. She looks up and yells for you to help her. You can see her wounds are dire and that she will not last much longer if left alone.
ROUND 1
Aldwineas
Kara
Tymor
Arkhan
????
????
Half-Orc
Aldwineas frowns at the creatures, and decides to charge down the hill into melee, regardless of what his companions do. He grabs the reins of his mount and moves towards the creature farthest away from the group. He stops Blageis 20 feet from the creature, and swiftly dismounts .
He dismisses Blageis, "Hagb, boy. Hagb!" Blageis sits, and prepares to withdraw. Then, faster than the eye can see and with a crack of lightning, Aldwineas disappears and moves into a flanking position behind one of the creatures. With a guttural roar that could only come from a 40 pound gnome Aldwineas forms a light mace of pure lightning and attempts to strike the creature.
(Touch attack)
(Lightning damage)
"Does anyone know what these things are?"
Tymor rides forward 25 feet and speaks a few words. His hand erupts in flame.
Seeing the battle so close, Kara drops her bow, draws her axe and with Treacher at her side, charges at the one Aldwineas isn’t fighting.
”I have no idea what it is, but they shouldn’t be alive!”
Fast dismount
Arkhan inexpertly rides the horse toward the battle. He attempts to leap from the saddle but is too unskilled to make a good showing. Still, he gets to his feet and draws his glaive as he nears the enemies. He yells out, "Enemies! That is all we need know!"
To the embattled half-orc he yells, "Close ranks with us! We will fight as one!"
The creature that Aldwineas, Kara, and Treacher attack is caught of gaurd by the ambush and is dead before he even knows what happened.
The other one, seeing is partner fall, takes one quick look around at the party and a particular nasty snarl at the Half-Orc before he disappears into thin air.
Combat Summary
Round 1
Kara looks around with her axe at the ready
”Is it gone? Or do you think it’ll return?”
She looks at the other half-orc
”Are you okay? Here, let me help you”
After a couple of minutes without the thing reappearing, she asks
”What happened here? Do you know what those things was? And why did they attack you?”
She starts going through the bodies to se if anyone is still alive, casting cure light wound if she finds any (she can do it 3 more times)
After checking the bodies, Kara goes back to the top of the hill and picks up her bow and then searches the body of the dead thing....whatever it was.
Aldwineas looks around for the disappeared creature and sees nothing. He calls to Blageis and points to the half-orc the party just saved and tells him to defend her. "Ostab!"
Aldwineas then starts looking around for a high point (trees, cliffs, etc) that he might be able to get on top of and scout for any additional incoming creatures, since he knows he's pretty useless in patching up the injured.
Arkhan considers going to the half-orc's aid but leaves her be since Kara is already handling her injuries. He stands nearby to listen to her answers to Kara's questions but still alert to the reappearance of the vanished half-orc.
The half-orc falls to one knee as soon as the second winged creature disappears. She is breathing heavily and you can tell that the battle would have been lost had you not shown up when you did.
She stiffens for a moment when Kara casts her healing. The blood running down her face and the numerous scars that enveloped her arms, legs, and neck close only leaving scars. The blood begins to dry as she slowly stands, using her bow for support. Thanks She says to everyone. Kara is not sure if she meant that for her or for everyone for saving her. She does not specify.
In answer to Kara's questions, the half-orc points to the dead Tiefiling witch and says Sister. Tried to kill. I was faster. Flyers were small demons. Other one like to report to boss. It is obvious that her common is not very good.
She then shifts her finger over to another dead figure laying on the ground, Human town leader and then shifts her finger again Human town priest
While the half-orc talks, Kara starts searching the bodies of the dead.
The tiefling
2 bird feather tokens
1 whip feather token
1 Scroll
The witch also wielded a quarterstaff outfitted with tribal fetishes and wore dirty black robes. The devils have nothing of note aside from their spears.
Among the humans’ gear that is still intact is a chain shirt, two suits of studded leather, 15 arrows, three longswords, and a shortbow. The priest’s body carries a silver holy symbol of Iomedae and a flask of holy water. Most of the weapons and armor are adorned with the mesa-and sunburst insignia of Arwyll Stead, which means they can’t be sold in town.
While the "human lead" was outfitted with useful equipment, the items are clearly marked with the Arwyll crest (a badger standing its ground) and rightfully belong to the Arwyll family. He bore a masterwork longsword, a masterwork mithral chain shirt, and a masterwork heavy mithral shield. He also wore an obsidian arrowhead necklace around his neck and a silver signet ring. He also had one potion amongst his things.
Once Kara reports back to the group, the half-orc says, I Vegazi. Thank you more for rescuing. I follow the human scouts and leader. Saw trouble. Helped.
Vegazi looks party over and then asks Kara, who she assumes is in charge, You help bring dead back to human town?
Not seeing any suitable perches in the area, Aldwineas finds an open area in the direction of town, concentrates on gathering electrical power for a few seconds, then pops 30 feet straight up to try to get a better view of the area. As he gently floats back down to the ground, he looks forward, trying to get a view of either A) the town, or B) any other potential combatants in the area.
Arkhan speaks up to continue the conversation, but he does so in a harsh, jagged tongue.
Instead of answering her request, he starts helping her gather the corpses and their belongings together, using a rag to clean their faces before wrapping them in their cloaks. His gaze lingers on the holy symbol as he attempts to place the iconography. Arkhan admires the weapons and armor of the fallen but doesn't take them from the dead. He ties them in their wrappings with rope and whispers to them, "May the Inheritor find you worthy of her rewards. My Lady of Bones, I pray for your wise judgement of the Sword-Maiden's supplicants."
He lifts the first body and calls Shepherd, who lazily trots away. The attempt to follow the horse while laden with a corpse threatens the warrior's dignity but he pretends to pay it no mind.
”orc jIvItpu' je. orc Dajatlh'a'?”
”My name is Kara. We will help you take the dead to the town. I’m not sure I understand what happened. Were you travelling with the humans? Or with the tiefling? Or both? Who was being attacked when you got here? And who was fighting who? And what do you mean when you say “sister”?”
When Kara has a better idea of what happened, she says
”If we are going to bring all of the dead to town, we need those horse we saw fleeing. I’ll see if I can find them. Wait for me here. Treacher, come!”
”I think we should bring the attackers too. Some from town might know something about them”
Aldwineas makes his way back to the group, and reports to Kara any horses he saw when he attempted to scout ahead, and any other things he saw to the entire group.
As he meets up with the rest of the group, he notices the mithral worn by the human leader, and his eyes go a bit wide. He is obviously sorely tempted to "find" mithral objects that have been "lost" by their owner. In particular he stares longingly at the shield, which is clearly way too big for him to wield effectively. "Do we really need to bring the bodies to town? I mean, they could send out folks to retrieve them, and it wouldn't be our fault if some of the valuables happened to go missing in that time, right?"
Aldwineas pokes around, looking for anything else of interest on the bodies.
Vegazi is very vague with her answers to Kara and Arlhan, speaking in a mixture of orcish and common, explaining only that she was following the group of humans, the group was attacked, and that she helped them. She looks disgusted that you even mentioned her travelling with the tiefling and then looks confused that Kara asked what she means by "sister" saying, Sister is..sister... she totally ignores the question as to why the sister attacked.
I not know why humans here...only that I saw...and followed...and helped She says to Arkhan in the same language mixture as before.
At then mention of gathering other horses, Vegazi says that she will go help. Both her and Kara return a few minutes later with 4 horses to assist with bringing the bodies back to Arywll Stead.
Vegazi looks to Aldwineas with, what you take to be, disapproval. She does not answer his question. She only starts loading up bodies on the horses. You can not tell if she is angry with Aldiwineas at even mentioning leaving the bodies out here...or if she is just showing a bit more of her orchish side while doing the heavy lifting.
Aldiwneas does not find anything else of interest on the bodies.
The party takes about an hour or so to load the horses with bodies and prepare to leave the area. Once everyone is ready, they take off twords the town of Arywll Stead
Alwineas finds a scrap of paper that he looks at, then brings over to Tymor. He begins discussing it with him in Sylvan.
Anyway, this note mentions the Hell's Fury Orc tribe as causing trouble, and something about folks down at the Path Riven having comrades missing - we may want to go there sooner rather than later. I hope we're not being led away from possibly saving some folks..."