Dunlin attempts to install a sense of order for the campsite each night. When it never happens, he simply sighs and joins the nightly revelry around the fire, telling stories of hunting monsters in the forests, hills, and mountains of east Cheliax.
Davian, a bit uneasy about traveling this far out from 'home' follows Aragelda, trusting in her scouting of the forest. He tries to make the best of it, but in the end he isn't used to walking this far. "Maybe we should have gotten horses."
Edjarha spends his time worrying and doing his best to aid Aragelda's navigation.
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On the second day, Aragelda seems to get the hang of overland navigation. Much more confusing than traveling in underground passages, so many trees in the way! She finds an old hunting trail that shortcuts through a thick woods, and the party makes up the time lost the day before.
On the second day, you are making good time as you approach the Conerica River. The dappled sunlight of the woods gives way to a clearing, as you see a small river ahead. Crossing the river, in what looks to be an impromptu bridge, is a large tree, now partially broken up by the elements of wind, rain, and river.
The peacefulness of this scene is marred by the sudden impact of a large rock just in front of you. “You leaves alls your stuffs here, and Grongo let you live. You no do dat, you be squashed like a bug, and Grongo still get your stuff, plus Grongo make bread from your bones. Grongo no know how to do dat, but no matter. Grongo figure it out.”
Grongo very clearly has a very large rock in his hand, and appears ready to throw it.
1
2
3
5
4
- => Aragelda
- => Dunlin
- => Edjarha
- Grongo
- => Davian
Conditions:
Aragelda: 18/54
Davian: 21/36
Edjarha: 32/50
Gideon: 42/52
Enemy Conditions
Grongo:
"That's not going to work for us. If you walk away from this now, though, then no one gets hurt."
Edjarha moves up to the water's edge, casting a defensive ward and thinking about what he knows of this creature.
Dunlin readies his bow and takes aim at the large critter across the river.
"I didn't know there were hill giants around here."
Aragelda raises her shield up and tries to daze the creature.
, DC 21 basic Will, stunned 1 on a crit fail
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"Hey, you try to hurt Grongo!" says Grongo, as Aragelda's spell takes hold. He then chucks the rock in his hand at the cleric.
Grongo then picks up another rock, and throws it at Dunlin. "You tried to hurt Grongo, too. Grongo will make bread from your bones, tin man!"
He throws the second rock, which misses its target by the slimmest of margins.
- => Aragelda
- => Dunlin
- => Edjarha
- Grongo
- => Davian
Conditions:
Aragelda: 49/70 [pending shield block]
Davian: 43/43
Dunlin: 73/73
Edjarha: 66/66
Enemy Conditions
Grongo: -3
The Hellknight takes a moment to center himself after just missing with his first two arrows. An almost imperceptible nod announces the flurry of arrows towards the giant.
Davian sees what's going on, and casts mirror image to make sure he's not the target of a rock! He then moves behind Edjarha.
Aragelda moves up, and casts daze again, not wanting to risk crossing the slippery tree trunk in combat.
Grongo doesn't even pay attention to her spell this time.
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"Grongo make you pay, Tin Man!"
He picks up a rock, and chucks it at Dunlin.
He then bellows in rage, putting his off hand onto his greatclub.
- => Aragelda
- => Dunlin
- => Edjarha
- Grongo
- => Davian [mirror x3]
Conditions:
Aragelda: 49/70
Davian: 43/43
Dunlin: 51/73
Edjarha: 66/66
Enemy Conditions
Grongo: -21
Each of Davian's images sends a wave of magical missiles into the brute. "How deep is that river? Can we get across?"
”No, Davian! Make him come to us! Command would be nice right about now!”
Dunlin turns his attention back to the giant.
“Come and get me you oversized lump of excrement!
Aragelda uses a low-level healing spell on Dunlin.
She raises her shield up.
Edjarha easily leaps across the water, dropping into his martial stance when he lands and weaving a magic defense.
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Edjarha misses Grongo with a ray of frost.
Aragelda heals Dunlin up.
Then Edjarha laeps across to the other side!
"You brave little man. Grongo almost feel sorry to crush you!"
Grongo moves to Edjarha and swings his greatclub!
WHAM! The club hits Edjarha HARD.
He then swings the club a second time, and misses!
- => Aragelda
- => Dunlin
- => Edjarha
- Grongo
- => Davian [mirror x3]
Conditions:
Aragelda: 49/70
Davian: 43/43
Dunlin: 65/73
Edjarha: 45/66 [Shield Block Pending]
Enemy Conditions
Grongo: -39
"Why would he come to us when he can throw giant f%@#ing boulders at us? Now hit him with everything you've got!"
With that, Edjarha steps up, lashing out at the giant with two quick kicks before darting over to the other side.
Daian continues to send more and more missiles across the river.
HP 43/43
AC 20 (21 w/ shield)
Buffs: Longstrider (8 Hr); Mage Armor;
Hero Points: 0/3
Focus Point 1/1
Spells (1st) 1/4; (2nd) 2/4; (3rd) 3/3
Spell Rune (1st) 1/1
Aragelda starts forging across the river.
Dunlin drops his bow, draws his blade, and attempts to run across the log.
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"You think you little men scare me?" bellows Grongo.
He steps and then swings his greatclub at both Edjarha and Dunlin! Both take a mighty blow from the club, as it swings through the monk to get to the Hellknight!
The giant then swings again at Edjarha! This time he misses!
- => Aragelda
- => Dunlin
- => Edjarha
- Grongo
- => Davian [mirror x3]
Conditions:
Aragelda: 49/70
Davian: 43/43
Dunlin: 43/73
Edjarha: 23/66
Enemy Conditions
Grongo: -68
Dunlin steps closer to the giant and grips his bastard sword a bit tighter before swinging it at the fell creature.
Aragelda sends a ray of healing at Edjarha!
She then trudges forward.
Edjarha strides around the giant, lashing out with a pair of kicks from a flanking position, before backing away once again.
The rune flares on Davian's hand as he continues to send wave after wave of missiles into the brute from the other side of the river."[/b]
HP 43/43
AC 20 (21 w/ shield)
Buffs: Longstrider (8 Hr); Mage Armor;
Hero Points: 0/3
Focus Point 1/1
Spells (1st) 1/4; (2nd) 2/4; (3rd) 3/3
Spell Rune (1st) 0/1
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The giant runs away, bleeding from his many wounds. The party chooses to move on, knowing that giants such as Grongo can cover a lot of ground quickly. Hopefully he has learned his lesson well.
A few days later you cross over the Andoran border without any trouble, and make your way around Droskar's Crag. You follow the River Foam for a day or so until you see a large, well-guarded stone-and-timber lodge stands on the northern shore of the River Foam, right next to plunging Gold Falls. A stone palisade surrounds the inn, with guard towers, making this frontier inn look like a small fortress.
The remains of an ancient stone bridge, long collapsed by earthquake can be seen over the falls, with a more contemporary wooden bridge currently spanning the river. A small dock near the Inn services the occasional river traffic.
As the adventurers make their way into the inn, they are greeted by the proprietor, Mierson Berekland, a friendly middle-aged retired Pathfinder. Even to this day, he proudly wears his Wayfinder on a chain around his neck.
“Good day, friends. Welcome to the Gold Falls Inn!” says Mierson. “Where do you hail from?”
Davian points back behind him. "From the old abandoned hellknight fort not far from here." He helps explain some of their situation.
"yes, that's right." Davian snaps his fingers, glad that Berekland know what he was going on about. "You know about teh Citadel there?" He seems surprised.
Dunlin removes his helmet.
”Hale and well met friend! Indeed we have traveled from Citadel Alterein. As you are a learned man, no doubt you can see from my armor that I am a member of said order of knights; my order is that of the Pike; monster hunters and defenders of those upon whom monsters prey. I see from your wayfinder you were at one time a Pathfinder or are still a member of that august organization. My older sisters are, er… well one of them… no I guess both have moved on though my oldest sister, Robin, still does the occasional mission for them. The other, Wren, left to work with one Zarta Dralneen. She was a bit more of the studious type and spent most of her days cataloging items for what she called the Dark Archive? Meant nothing to me then and still does not now.” Dunlin shrugs.
”But this inn, the Golden Falls Inn, did you say? Why this is a magnificent piece of architecture. Please, I beg of you to tell me more about this building’s history over a flagon of ale.”
"Good day, Mr. Berekland. We've traveled here at the behest of one Brynne Taithe, who asked us to investigate a finding you wrote her about."
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“Excellent! Any friend of Brynn Taithe is a friend of mine!” He invites the team to make their way to a back room for some extra privacy. Sitting in the room is a young woman, sipping a cup of tea.
“May I introduce Liese Kahkosa, a young druid of the Darkmoon Wood, and a friend to all in the Vale. Leise, these are the Heroes of Breachhill. From what I understand, they cleansed Citadel Altaerein, formerly a Hellknight fortress of a nasty infestation of undead and other creatures.”
Liese stands and gives a bright smile and tilt of the head to the adventures. “Charmed, I am sure! Are you interested in a new adventure? Why, of course you are, why else would you be here?
“Let me tell you a little story. About a day’s travel east of here, along the southern edge of the Darkmoon Vale there used to be a little orphanage run by a Caydenite priest by the name of Hallworth Cailean. An orphan himself, he took over Thunder’s Kennel Club when the former headmaster, Toveare, retired.
“Hallworth was a industrious soul, as well as a devout believer in the Drunken Hero. He loved those children as if they were his own. It was by his hands that the first Bottomless Stein was created. He claims to have created them to save money, and with the price he was probably paying to have ale shipped to him, he might have been right.
“So, as it turns out, life as a lumberjack is dangerous, all the more so since the Lumber Consortium doesn’t always give their teams the protection they need against everything that lives in these woods. So there was never a shortage of orphans for the Kennel Club.
“As you may imagine, running an orphanage is expensive. So, Hallworth approached the Lumber Consortium looking for stipends, as it was their activities that caused the deaths of these children’s parents. Perhaps this was his mistake? On the surface, they promised to take care of all of the children who lost their parents to lumber accidents. And for a while, it was true.
“Life at Thunder’s Kennel Club was never better, until that day. A day that the people of Falcon’s Hollow and the Darkmoon Vale will never forget. No one knows who started the fire, but none of the children escaped, nor did Hallworth Cailean himself.
“The building still mostly stands, though it was ravaged by fire. Locals say that it is haunted by the souls of the children, and I have not seen anything that would discredit this statement. My brothers and sisters...”
The young woman collapses back down to her chair, overcome by sobs.
“It’s ok, my dear, Drink your tea, I can ask them.” Meirson takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly, to calm his emotions.
“You see, Liesel grew up in the Kennel Club, but was off on her apprenticeship when the fire happened. We’d like you to help us out here, and in doing so, I think you can help your friend back in Breachill.
[b]“I apologize for not giving Brynne many details, but I didn’t want agents of the Lumber Consortium intercepting them, and learning of what we planned. But I knew she’d have some new young adventurers who would be able to help. I would appreciate it if you could go to Thunder’s Kennel Club and retrieve what information you can on the Bottomless Stein...”
Liesel interrupts, “The Stein be damned! Put those poor children’s souls to rest. They deserve better then this! If you can do this, all that is mine is yours!” She throws a silken pouch down on the table, and breaks down in tears once more.
“Can you do this for us?” asks the innkeeper. “Put the dead to rest, and, if possible, retrieve the Bottomless Stein and Hallworth’s notes? If you can, you’ll always have a friend, a room, a bowl, and a pint here at the Gold Falls Inn.”
"We can certainly try. What exactly do you mean by putting the dead to rest? We aren't here to murder folks." Davian ponders
Davian cringes, the only other time he came across undead were the hordes of zombies that came out of the woods. "Wouldn't there be someone that knows what their doing around. We can try but...the undead scare me." He admits. "I have never seen a ghost before."
"Well....we've come all this way. I suppose we'd better have a look, at least."
Davian shakes his head, he had no further questions.