Dareg answers in dwarvenI snort in dry amusement as I listen to Dareg and then I reply in the father tongue,
Spoiler:I do not doubt that the eating will be better with more meat. I just wish we had some proper vinegar or beer to pickle the tongue and feet. I am truly partial to pickled flying mammilian feet. But let us butcher the carcass later. The beardless elf is going to need all the help we can provide when he leaps into the river.Meanwhile I continue to strain as I apply my dwarven muscles towards the goal of moving back towards the spot where the orc blood jumped overboard.
Hru emerges from the water with the great sword out of breath and feeling numb from the cold. The barge is still 30' away. With the help of Rellios who was standing by with a mooring line, he is eventually pulled to safety.
It is the evening of the third day of Kuthona 4707 and the Moon is full.
"Get 'is clothes off quick," yells Clareg. "And the elves too, I guess."
Dareg looks at him in shock and disgust "I can't believe yer me brudder!"
"The cold will kill 'im otherwise ya iddjit!" says Clareg holding up some blankets from the well stocked barge.
As the two brothers bicker, I turn my attention towards once more steering the barge down the river. My eyes scan the skies and the shores for where there are two goblins, there are two hundred, though hopefully not all on bats.
As the two brothers bicker, I turn my attention towards once more steering the barge down the river. My eyes scan the skies and the shores for where there are two goblins, there are two hundred, though hopefully not all on bats.
As you scan the shores you see a large recess cut back into the gorge, quite close to where the fight took place. It is hard to see until you are nearly perpendicular to it. At the point where the recess meets the river, it is close to 30' wide with a gentle slope of smooth rocks and sand. The recess narrows to 10' before becoming a pile of boulders and rocks. About halfway up, you can see a ledge strewn with boulders. The whole thing seems to be a natural formation, possibly cut by a smaller river that used to enter this tributary of the Yondabakari but has long since vanished.
Hru is shivering and unable to speak due to the cold.
I point out the rock formations to my companions.
"There could be goblin scum 'idden anywhere. Keep a sharp look out. Dareg, Clareg, pole this barge while I be a loadin' me crossbow."
I point out the rock formations to my companions."There could be goblin scum 'idden anywhere. Keep a sharp look out. Dareg, Clareg, pole this barge while I be a loadin' me crossbow."
The elf and the half-orc shiver in blankets. Dareg and Clareg pole the barge towards the outcropping. You see scraps of fairly fresh meat amongst a pile of bones beneath the ledge and smell smoke but do not see any fire.
"I be wagerin' that those bat riders made their lair up there," I say pointing to the signs of life.
"Are ya two goin' to be shiverin' a while longer?" I ask the elf and priest, "I suppose we could be makin' a camp and buildin' a fire fer ya. Or shall we go on? I be thinkin' that there be a goblin tribe about here, perhaps in the very halls we wish ter find and we might be wantin' a better camp site."
Rellios chatters through his teeth some, but manages to say,
"I think I can manage a while longer before we make camp...but I'm not certain about our battle priest...unless he's got some healing magic that can fix this cold."
"My feeling is we should clear the area first, afore we make a camp - hopefully it will be more secure that way."
"They never even touched me," I say to the orc blood, "Tend ter yerself."
"I be wagerin' that those bat riders made their lair up there," I say pointing to the signs of life.
"Are ya two goin' to be shiverin' a while longer?" I ask the elf and priest, "I suppose we could be makin' a camp and buildin' a fire fer ya. Or shall we go on? I be thinkin' that there be a goblin tribe about here, perhaps in the very halls we wish ter find and we might be wantin' a better camp site."
"I be wagerin' that those bat riders made their lair up there," I say pointing to the signs of life.
"Are ya two goin' to be shiverin' a while longer?" I ask the elf and priest, "I suppose we could be makin' a camp and buildin' a fire fer ya. Or shall we go on? I be thinkin' that there be a goblin tribe about here, perhaps in the very halls we wish ter find and we might be wantin' a better camp site."
"Well," I say to my companions, "As leader of this expedition, I am after gettin' further upstream if we can. There are doubtless interestin' sights all about and goblins are always worth killin' 'n lootin' but I be thinkin' we continue upriver while we tend to our wounds. Is that agreeable?"
Hru mumbles a few words in orc and shuddders. Growing up among the orcs has left Hru disinclined to show any weakness and so he begins to pull his partially dry armor back on. He then calls out "Anyone hurt bat, by our friends back there?" He attempts to chuckle but it comes out as more of a deep feeble cough. "Carry on as you will, but not too far as of yet for it seems the Iron Lord see fit to test me, but he's revealed something to me; a short way back at our testing ground there lies another barge on the river bottom, and before we go forward into peril that may threaten our ship, we may want a look at her, a halfling merchant vessel if I miss my mark. There's no shortage of treachery from goblins and if we can avoid some, all the better."
"a short way back at our testing ground there lies another barge on the river bottom, and before we go forward into peril that may threaten our ship, we may want a look at her, a halfling merchant vessel if I miss my mark."
"Are ya after jumpin' back into the river then? Or did ya have a different way of examinin' the thing?"
"I can call upon Gorum's favor to protect our best swimmer against the cold of the river with a little rest and some prayer; then he can investigate, or in the least hook a line to it and use our strength, with Gorum's blessing, to pull it up. It is but a halfling ship."
Rellios offers to take a line down to the barge, so that it can then be pulled up for further inspection.
"To be effective, I'd have to do it without armor - assuming Hru can give me some sort of elemental protection, eh? I don't much feel like freezing again"
"You're the final arbiter, Master Klyndak - if you decide otherwise, we'll press on down the gorge instead."
"Well if thats what ya be thinkin'. I guess we'll be after pullin' up the wreck."
I try not to sound too dissapointed.
I'll let you decide what to do. Hru, once warmed by the blankets, takes no further damage from the cold. Rellios was never fully submerged in the water and wasn't even in there as long as Hru If you choose to investigate whatever it was Hru saw it was quite near to the 40' wide recess in the gorge. If you choose not to, you can keep going for several hours before you would need to start take turns at sleeping.
Last call before we potentially get in another fight, anyone in need of healing?
A recon of the shore and ledge reveal it to be currently uninhabited. It was most certainly some sort of guard post for the goblin batriders. They've created a banked fireplace on the ledge from which they would have a commanding view of the river while remaining very difficult to spot. Smoke is funnelled up the wall of the gorge within the recess and would be hard to spot from downstream. The guardpost is kept in the pristine condition you would expect from unsupervised goblins.
The night poses no danger to you and allows some of the wounded to heal.
In the morning, you are able to see the barge beneath more clearly. It takes a few attempts but you are able to use the block and tackle to lift it a bit from the barge and then drag it towards the shore. It is a team effort and it takes all of you to do so. The boat falls apart before you can get it out of the water but the cargo is revealed and above the surface of the water before that happens: forty clay jugs sealed with wax each embellished with the same symbol of a heart within a mountain.
The dwarves recognize the shape and size of the jugs very clearly as that which usually contains dwarven wine.
"Well lads," I say as the contents sink back out of sight, "There's a thing to make a dunk in the river almost worth it. What do you say to rememberin' this place and when we be after comin' back with the throne, we make a stop and go divin' for some liquid refreshments. Or shall we go after it now to be carryin' it with us?"
"Gods know how long its been down there - it could be vinegar by now..."
If they are close enough to shore that Rellios could just wade in a bit, maybe pop one open for look....or do we feel we're now just wasting time.
If Master Klyndak is clearly growing annoyed, I'll avoid the whole idea...
Now that the boat has been dragged halfway to shore before falling apart, the cargo is close enough to the surface that you can easily reach in from your barge and grab some. Removing the wax seal on one jug reveals the stopper dated '4682'. Opening it reveals it has not gone to vinegar.
Dareg and Clareg try their luck grabbing up a few other jugs. Clareg is impressed with his but Dareg makes a sour face. You are soon able to see that on the jugs where the wax held, the wine remained in good quality but on the jugs where the wax eroded, the wine turned to vinegar.
After a while, Clareg gets a big grin and says in dwarvish
"Didn't you say something about pickling the mammalian?"
Klyndak wishes to keep moving, am I right?[/ooc]
I chuckle happily as we calculate the value of our find.
" 'aul all we can aboard me lads and then we will be continuin' on our way. A good spot friend priest. We can use the vinegar to pickle our winged foe fer later eatin' and the rest we can be after sellin' when we return to proper civilized lands."
And then we push off from the bank, looking for the waterfall and the 100 foot high gorge walls.
DM:
Then I have 1 more 1st today -Bless (again) and I've used up my strength surge domain power on evryone for the rest of today.[ooc]
As you travel up the river, against the current you find that the gorge narrows and the mountain climbs. Soon, you become certain that the priests intepretation was correct -- at least the landscape matches what was described. The current has gotten stronger.
Below is a page from the priest's letter or rather essay that he sent with you on this journey.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
Both legend and epic poem confirm that the Northeastern gate to the Foehammer Spires lay at the end of a tributary to what we now call the Yondabakari.
Earlier than 2960 A.R., the Foehammer Dwarves claimed this as the rear entrance to their kingdom and promised to protect 'the place once held sacred by our giant kin'. The extant texts contain several references to ancestors and spirits dwelling in deserved rest but the nature of this 'sacred place' is not specific. All that we can be sure about is that it is located on a tributary to the Yondabakari in the Mindspins near a guarded bridge.
On matters of more immediate relevance, I can be of little help and can tell you only that at the rear entrance, you should find a soaring stone bridge over a 100' high waterfall and that the bridge is defended by two towers. Beyond the waterfall, a stone stair climbs towards the spires -- "a path well-carved for weary feet". Descriptions of the spires are rare as all writings of relevance assumed familiarity with the site and had no need to describe it. We do know that they are columns of stone 200' high linked at their top by bridges that allow access from one to the other. Their names, according to one poem are Hammerspire, Axespire, Miner's Pick, and The Urgosh. Each is capable of housing an compliment of 50 to 100 dwarves and commands an impressive view of the protected region.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
The river has become progessively narrower as you have travelled deeper and deeper into the gorge. The currents are so strong that soon it becomes impossible for you to urge the barge forward any further. You can hear the low rush of the waterfall and see a mist rising from the water less than a 200 yards ahead of you.
"Looks like we'll need to find a place to stow the barge soon - start making our way on foot to this bridge- if'n I'm understanding your directions at all..."
"Should we be looking for some kind of stairs?"
"Aye, we'll be needin' to anchor the ship and tie it down well," I say, examining the walls of the gorge for a suitable landing.
Map! Hru scans the high cliffs overhead wincing (which looks incredibly odd on his bestial features) "W-we're going up there?" he asks.. life in the Plains of the Cinderlands among the tribes hasn't prepared me for this! Gorum give me strength...
"I'll admit I'm not much of a 'and at climbing," I say as I contemplate the walls of the gorge.
"Shall we be stowin' the Barge here and continuin' on foot, figurin' as there will be a path sooner or later?"
Hru, still eyeing the cliffs apprehensively answers Klnydak. "I f we must, then I guess it's Gorum's will. We'll definately need the food and water, so perhaps a few of us should climb up with ropes and haul up the supplies we need, then after securing the boat, be on our way."
"I would rather be after tryin' to continue along the beach for awhile on foot," I say to the orc blood. Mayhap we'll be needin' to climb but let's try walkin' first. And we'll be wantin' the food right enough and the sleepin' gear."