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With Ingrahild healed, she thanks Goliath for his handy wand and happily leads you NE through the swamp. 10 minutes later, you reach your destination, a safe spot some 200' from a copse of trees where you can see the flickering lights of will-o-wisps moving through the swamp before disappearing from sight and reappearing elsewhere. "I do not know why you need them, but there's a bunch of wisps for your choosing. Now what?"
Ingrahild hugs Ulmo and proudly greets the rest of the party. Looking at Jericho, she smiles, "Actually, now that you mention it. My brother and I did pass by an eerie section of the swamp where we saw some wisps. Given the fact that they are tough bastards, we avoided them like the plague. However, given the fact that you are looking for them, I can definitely lead you there after I heal from the beating you apparently gave me.
Penny senses no danger from the surrounding area. After the dwarf is freed from her bonds, she extends a hearty handshake to the party. "I am Ingrahild Nargrymkin. My brother, Ulmo, and I came to the Ghostlight Marsh looking for the tomb of our ancestor, Nargrym Steelhand. Wait...I am starting to remember. Ulmo and I came here with a pair of hired mercenaries, and we stumbled on this circle of standing stones. That looked druidic to me. We were ambushed by a coven of green hags and their marsh giant bodyguard. The mercenaries died instantly. One of the hags cast some magic on me and ulmo and that is the last I remember. Maybe he is still at the circle of stones? I think I remember how to get there. Will you accompany me?"
The dwarven ranger is flummoxed by Ulmo's response. She smiles a little at Goliath's comment. "Uh, what? I called you orcs? We battled?! My body does feel sore as hell. My memory is so hazy. I do not remember anything except traveling in the swamp with my brother...my brother?! By the gods! Where is he? Did you see him with me?" Her voice grows frantic!
You feed the dwarf the potion carefully so she does not choke. Goliath heals the dwarf with the wand and she regains consciousness. She moans in pain, as she looks around. "Why the heck an I bound? Who are you fools? Thieves? Did you beat me up? Let me go! I am no one's prisoner!" She looks at Ulmo, "Why did you betray your dwarven kind? You're the worst kind of dwarf to turn your backs on your kin." She struggles against her bonds.
Both Jericho and Goliath can tell the potion is not harmful, but you cannot specify its effects.
Jericho tastes the two potions and senses that one potion is a beneficial potion, possibly to remove some affliction like lesser restoration or remove blindness, etc. He cannot identify the other one.
Jericho and Penny search the unconscious dwarf. You find her dwarven waraxe and handaxe, a dagger strapped to her ankle, 52 gp, and two potions.
Goliath delivers a resounding blow to the dwarf's head that knocks her unconscious.
Round 5: Dwarf
Round 4:Dwarf
Ulmo and Jericho both hit, inflicting 33 nonlethal damage on the dwarf.
Goliath moves up and swings, but the female dwarf moves out of the way, so the blow harmlessly deflects off her chainmail.
Round 3: Female Dwarf Since Goliath swung at her, she full-attacks the "greenskin" beast, drawing blood twice with her handaxe!
Round 3: Female Dwarf
Round 2: Female Dwarf As the rest of the party comes into view, the dwarf, clad in chainmail armor, grips her weapons even tighter. She looks at Ulmo, "If you think I'm afraid of your greenskin clan, think again! I will slaughter you and your tribe!" She has a crazed look on her face.
The female dwarf strains to look through the bog to see the face of the stranger addressing her. It is not until Ulmo comes within range of her 60' darkvision that she sees him. She calls out in Dwarven, which everyone understands except Goliath, "Filthy greenskin, I shall not be your meal tonight!" "Greenskin" is the dwarven racial slur for orcs and half-orcs.
The female dwarf stands and draws a dwarven waraxe and handaxe in one fluid motion, holding her ground. "Come meet your death, ya scum of a greenskin!" It is clear that she is directing her threat at Ulmo and has not seen the rest of the party.
Fully healed, you continue north and reason that the hydra dominated this territory as over the next hours, you do not encounter any further predators. Eventually, the bog water level lowers to 1 feet deep of swamp. In the distance, you see the light of a campfire. Assuming you approach, you can see a red-haired female dwarf clad in armor squatting near a smoldering fire, apparently mumbling to herself, although you are too far to hear what she is saying. You are about 80' away from her and with her focus on the fire, she has not noticed you.
The combined strikes of the Penny's fire magic, Ulmo's piercing strike, and Goliath's blunt force trauma kill the hydra.
Round 2: Hydra
Party is up again: Ulmo, Penny, Jericho, and Goliath.
Round 1: Hydra The beast's serpentine heads debate whether to attack the elf or the giant druid and in the end choose the bigger prey! The beast charges through its natural habitat, as the bog does not hinder its movement at all! The beast reaches within 10' of Goliath and then its 5 heads attack, but only one draws blood!
As the party slugs its way through the swamp, a huge creature with 5 serpentine heads rises from the swamp some 40' ahead!
The captain sneers at Goliath's comment. "How could I predict that our cook would poison the crew to turn us over to an orc barbarian? I thank you all for your assistance, but I wouldn't be in this predicament if I had not agreed to take you to the border of this swamp. And these are the comments that I get?! You may stay the night and then you are to get off my ship at first light." Clearly pissed, the captain storms off. The party rests for the night and recovers all spells. In the morning, you are escorted off the boat, with the crew quickly disappearing down the river. On the riverbank, you spot a stone carved with a circle of thorns—the marker Silvermane described that will lead you to the entrance to the Vault of Thorns. You head north, looking for more markers, officially entering the Ghostlight Marsh. The marsh is mainly comprised of slow-moving streams, pools of stagnant water, and waterlogged reeds. On average, the water is 4 feet deep and each square counts as 4 squares of movement.
Sure Penny, we are early enough that you can take that archetype.
The Captain asks, "Will you be staying on board until tomorrow to allow Penny to heal or will you be disembarking now?"
Goliath searches the ship with his spider companion and with his survival skill and the blood drops that he finds near the railing at the front of the ship, he surmises that the cook jumped overboard and is nowhere to be found. The rest of the crew recover after about an hour and once again, they are thankful for saving them from the orc barbarian and the treacherous cook.
Penny heals 9 hit points of damage and is conscious.
A giant spider appears next to Goliath. What do Ulmo and Jericho do? You see no combatants.
The orc barbarian makes the fatal mistake of stepping 5' west, allowing Ulmo and Jericho to flank it. It is able to deflect Ulmo's blow harmlessly, but in doing so, it falls prey to Jericho's sword, as it pierces its back and lung, killing Tark, as he screams in pain, before choking on his own blood, and crumbling to the floor.
Round 5: Tark
Round 5: Gash
The last orc dies to the dwarf's spear. Two foes remain and 3 party members are standing. Jericho's attack misses Tark.
Gash Redo Round 4 action Seeing Goliath closing in on him, the cook thinks better of it and moves around (NE), out of line of sight of Goliath.
Tark:
Gash
Seeing the big bad but slow Goliath approach, the orc cook, smiles, as his prey comes into point blank range. "Humans are my favorite prey!" He focuses on damaging shots. Two shots fly out and drop Goliath. Gash turns and redirects his 3rd attack at Jericho, but misses.
Orc: The lone remaining orc, quite nervous now, takes a swing at Ulmo, but misses.
Tark: The orc barbarian takes another slash from Jericho's sword and his anger grows even more, as he unleashes 2 more attacks that the half-elf smoothly parries away!
Gash:
Round 3: Orcs
Round 2: Tark Tark flinches at Jericho's cut and continues raging, as he full-attacks the half-elf! However, Jericho's decision to fight defensively pays off, as the orc barbarian's attacks both miss, unable to land a connecting blow!
Round 2: Gash
Gash uses Rapid Shot and now fires three arrows into Penny, exhibiting amazing accuracy and hitting all three times!
Round 2: Orcs
Black Orc
Purple Orc
Blue Orc
Penny's scorching ray hits, incinerating the green orc.
The yellow orc's head pops like a tomato when Goliath's earth breaker lands on it. Round 1: Tark
Round 1: Gash
He takes aim at Penny, taking 2 shots, hitting once.
Jericho moves forward and beheads the orange orc, as its body slumps over the railing back into the river. Round 1: Orcs
Black Orc:
Purple Orc:
Blue Orc:
Yellow Orc:
Green Orc:
On the last day of the party's voyage on board the keelboat, the boat’s cook, Gashnakh, promises and delivers a special meal for the party and the crew. The party is relieved from performing their daily duties, as the boat is docked. The deck of the boat is outfitted with tables. As the special guests of honor, the party is served their meal last, while chatting and drinking with the crew. With their meals getting cold due to the constant conversation, the party starts to dig in, when Jericho senses something off, after a few bites. His experience and exposure to different types of poisons as a rogue reveals a special type of sleep poison, used in anesthetics to knock patients out. Jericho yells a warning to the party, who quickly spit out the food. You are able to fight off the sleeping effects, since you did not ingest the full meal, though it takes a few rounds to fight off the dizziness and get your bearings. When you recover, the rest of the crew was not so lucky, as they were a few minutes into the meal, and you see them unconscious, their heads resting on the dinner table. Orc screams jar you into action as 6 orcs and one leader climb onto the deck, as you see Gashnakh come out of the kitchen, garbed in a chain shirt and wielding a longbow. Finally, a burly orc leader climbs onto the deck. He is a badly burned orc with blotches of discolored and severely scarred flesh. When Gash sees the party conscious, "Damn the hells! That poison was strong enough to knock out an ox! How are ya still up?! Guess we are going to have to gut ya! Right Tark?" The leader of the orcs looks over at the cook, "I am disappointed in you, Gash, but I will deal with you after we kill these guests!"
You return to the keelboat with your magical saddle and some knowledge about the fort. You continue the riverboat journey for 2 more days. On the morning of the 3rd day, you reach the waters of the Ghostlight Marsh. You are sitting down to enjoy breakfast on your final day of the journey.
Calriannne raises her eyebrows. "Redlake Fort?! One of my ancestors, a man named Fabian Blix, was the fort’s cleric. Fabian died during the final siege of the fort, but one of his sons (my great-grandfather) escaped through a hidden sewer tunnel." Calrianne draws you a rough may of Redlake Fort, showing the sewer tunnel on the western side of the fort. "If you do visit the fort, I would be interested in knowing of my ancestor Fabian’s fate, if you learn anything of value. I cannot abandon my current post, but if you could send me some communication, I would appreciate it. For saving my life, I don't know if any of you ride, but this magical saddle may prove helpful." Calrianne gifts the party with a Horsemaster's Saddle. "Thank you again for saving me. I am forever in your debt."
The knight looks shocked at the druid's words. "Giants?! No, these were orcs with their bears who overpowered me. Thank you for your intervention. These bastards spoke about doing things to me...I am glad you killed them. They mentioned raids up and down the river. They never mentioned that they were working for any giants. Where might these giants be found for your appointment with them?" Calrianne shrugs off the orc's death and nods at Ulmo for taking care of the issue.
Jericho rushes into the way station and sees a blonde-haired woman dressed in chain mail, bruised, gagged and bound by ropes struggling to free herself. Jericho frees her and she introduces herself as Calrianne Blix, an Ozem knight assigned to this way station. She heartily thanks Jericho and the rest of the party as she walks outside to greet them. You interrogate the orc and he happily reveals that the orcs were planning to sack several of the way stations along the river. Calrianne suggests that only good orc is a dead orc, but leaves his fate in your hands. Afterward, Calrianne asks about the party, as she has never seen you before on the river. "Why are you traveling on the river?"
Penny and Goliath ombine to kill the yellow orc.
Round 4: Orcs The blue orc strikes at Jericho for killing his friend.
The wounded green orc strikes at Ulmo.
The yellow orc strikes at Goliath.
Jericho puts his sword through the red orc's back, killing him.
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