GM: Holy-K |GM BeltofTirva/BjarnfellSted, Dakkar, Aneleth, Irme, Karstin, and Riven were pulled from The Pit, where morale was low after recent losses amongst the slaves. The last expedition returned without Kheva, and they were punished severely for lying about her whereabouts. They claimed she died, but somehow Dolus Malus knew she was not dead.
The group was sent to explore the tunnels in the mountains to the east. When the group arrived at the entrance to the tunnels, they found a saber-toothed snow leopard inside. Aneleth used her magic to communicate with it. In exchange for the group killing the bear in the leopard’s lair, it would leave the tunnels. Aneleth talked it into leading the group to its lair. The group killed the bear, returned the lair to the snow leopard and its one remaining cub, and returned to the tunnels, camping for the night. The group tried out having two people on watch during each watch of the night. They also used four hunting traps. This method seemed successful at reducing interruptions during the night.
The next day, the group explored the tunnels and found an undiscovered tunnel leading generally south. Following it, the group fought and killed a basilisk. Sted collected some of the rats it had turned to stone. The group also drug a bear it had turned to stone to the cave intersection. The group pressed on through the new tunnel, encountering a bear, which they drove off. Beyond that point, they found the end of the tunnel, opening out and showing night had fallen. The group camped for the night.
The second night was interrupted by four aberrant, corrupted humanoids approaching the cave opening. Sted blocked the entrance, only allowing two inside. While Sted held off the two outside, the group dealt with the two inside. Then, Dakkar and Irme readied attacks, Sted stepped aside, and the remaining two corrupted were swiftly dealt with.
After restarting the group’s rest, they slept later into the day. With the remaining daylight, the group explored the valley outside the cave. They found signs of goblins but did not explore far. They returned to the cave to camp for the night.
Then, the group returned to Retreat’s End. Dolus Malus met them and searched them thoroughly. Dolus confiscated Sted’s petrified rats and smashed them. The group was thrown back into The Pit.
GM: Holy-K |GM BeltofTirva/BjarnfellEvelynne, Tahmeena, Torvald, Riven, and Dakkar were pulled from The Pit. King Foldrid ordered them to continue exploring the tunnels to find a path to Mount Runegate. Tahmeena shouldered Evelynne’s pack, and the group set out to the east.
After traveling for a time, Tahmeena spotted goblin warg riders ahead. They charged in on the group, and in a swirling melee, Torvald and Dakkar were injured. Tahmeena and Riven skirmished, mostly avoiding harm. Evelynne’s spells helped turn the tide. The end result was four wargs and one goblin dead, three goblins captured, and one goblin fled on its warg. The group left the goblins tied up where if they worked at it, they could cut themselves free. After Dakkar’s speech about being better than these goblins and leaving them alive, Evelynne slipped back and left a warg fang closer to the goblins to help them get free.
Pressing on to the cave entrance to the tunnels, Tahmeena helped the group avoid a cave bear whose tracks she spotted.
When the group reached the cave, they realized it was too exposed and well-traveled to be suitable for a normal night’s rest (may only short rest here). Tahmeena set her hunting trap near the cave entrance, and Dakkar placed his deeper into the caves.
On Tahmeena’s watch, the night’s rest was interrupted when the three surviving goblins stumbled into the cave, looking for shelter. One goblin tripped and fell into Tahmeena’s hunting trap, which crushed his skull. The other two were quickly dispatched by the group. After taking an hour to dispose of the bodies away from the cave, Dakkar used magic to obscure their trail back to the cave. The group tried again to rest.
On Torvald’s watch, he heard humanoids coming up the mountain. He woke Riven and sent him out to scout. Five orcs and an orc chieftain were coming up towards the cave. The group tried to hide, but the orcs were more attuned to the night. A short, vicious battle ensued. Below is an account overheard in The Pit as told by one of the survivors.
"Orcs crept up on us while we slept. Torvald and Riven ambushed them, killing one orc. I put another to sleep. The other three swarmed Torvald. He and I had not fully recovered from fighting warg-riding goblins. The big orc leader rushed Tahmeena and laid her low with two hits. Evelynne did something with that doll of hers. The big orc seemed frightened. I pulled Tahmeena away to safety."
"I healed Tahmeena, but then, Torvald fell. The orcs rushed us. Riven picked off many of the orcs from the shadows, keeping Evelynne safe for a time, but there were too many. When Evelynne fell, the spell on the big orc ended. He rushed me and downed me in one hit."
"According to Riven, he led the big orc on a chase through the shadows, giving Tahmeena time to fight and kill two orcs. He told her to heal Evelynne. Before Tahmeena could reach her, the big orc charged Tahmeena. She dodged the first axe blow, but the second caught her. She went down. Riven said the big orc got him next."
"We don't know what happened after that until I woke back up into this world of pain. The big orc was standing over Tahmeena. I leapt to my feet and ordered him to leave, vowing vengeance on him if he did not. He stood his ground. I lunged at him with my rapier. We dueled for what seemed like hours, but it could only have been a few seconds. Blow after blow missing or striking shield or weapon. I scored a hit when he overbalanced himself. It seemed I would fall, and all would be lost. I called out... to HIM. I parried his axe with my shield, and my rapier found its way through his armor and ribs to his heart."
"I tried to revive Tahmeena and Evelynne, but they were gone. We buried them on Queen's Mountain, overlooking the cave."
"Tahmeena has her kingdom at last, small though it is."
Torvald, Riven, and Dakkar returned to Retreat’s End where they were stripped of their gear and thrown back into The Pit.
GM: Holy-K |GM BeltofTirva/BjarnfellTroll, Torvald, Tahmeena, Dakkar, and Evelynne were pulled from The Pit. After Dolus Malus whispered in King Foldrid’s ear, the King ordered a survey of the mountains. He expected the group to make it deep into the mountains or to not return. He wanted a road to Mount Runegate, reports of threats, and giant goats for his people to use as mounts.
The group traveled east towards the mountains. On the journey, Tahmeena spotted a cave bear aggressively holding its ground. While the group fought the bear, Evelynne used terrible magic on it. After it was dead, the group discovered it had been eating a goat it had killed recently.
Pressing on from there, the group arrived in the foothills of the mountains by nightfall. The weather indicated winter would be coming soon. The group found a place to camp at the base of a ridge, but on the first watch, goblins riding wargs attacked the camp. Everyone suffered injuries, but due to luck and tactics, the group prevailed. Two injured goblins attempted to crawl away. Evelynne slew one, and when Dakkar saw Evelynne might be in danger, he killed the other one. One goblin rode away during the fight, so Tahmeena advised relocating to try camping again.
The group traveled about an hour with Dakkar using magic to obscure their trail. Then, the group found a large cave. Troll snuck inside and found a sleeping cave bear. The group quietly crept up on the bear, ambushed it, and killed it. Then, they camped for the night.
For the next day, the group wandered the tunnels from the large cave leading deeper beneath the mountains. Many passages ended in dead ends. The tunnels led north. Weary, the group found a defensible dead-end and camped there. The night was interrupted first by a large black panther, which leapt over the hunting traps and attacked Torvald. The group killed it without waking Evelynne. Troll cooked the panther for everyone to eat. Before anyone could finish their night’s rest, a cave bear tried to slip into the camp to attack the group, but it was caught on one of the hunting traps. The group killed and skinned it.
After packing up, the group set out northward through the tunnels again. After about 3 torches worth of travel, they found a larger cave like the one at the tunnel entrance. The cave would serve as a safe place to rest, and it was also a crossroads. Tunnels led north and east. Fearing the eastern tunnel led towards an orc stronghold, the group chose the northern tunnels.
Sometime later, they found another large cave with many stalactites. As they marched through the cave, some of the “stalactites” fell, injuring Troll, Torvald, and Evelynne who fell unconscious and bleeding out. Torvald warned the group these were something called “piercers” that would eventually grow to become something worse if they lived. With Evelynne injured and dying, Dakkar and Torvald tried to get the piercers away from Evelynne. She somehow managed to live, despite bleeding significantly, until Dakkar could heal her. Then, a piercer nearly killed her anyway. With Evelynne hanging on to consciousness by a thread, the group dispatched the monstrosities as quickly as possible.
After the fight was over, the group recovered as best they could and decided to press on to find a way out as soon as possible. Tahmeena expertly navigated the group on a bending path north and east to find an exit. The group returned over the mountains to Retreat’s End where they shared the news of the tunnel network they found.
GM: Holy-K |GM BeltofTirva/BjarnfellTroll, Tahmeena, Kraz, Clide, and Dakkar were pulled out of The Pit. King Foldrid warned them to beware the owlbear dreadnought. It had swooped out of the sky, killed Lasryn and Torvald and carried them off towards the mountains. King Foldrid gave the group a choice of either going into the mountains to look for its lair or going to the valley east of Barrierton to find the goblin settlement there. King Foldrid wanted as much information about these two targets as possible.
The group decided to find the goblin settlement. As they traveled on the road north, they encountered an aberrant horror. Dakkar cast a protection spell on Troll who charged the creature and held its attention. The group focused their attacks on it and swiftly defeated it.
The group searched for a cave some of them discovered previously. When they found it, Clide scouted ahead, finding a cave bear inside. It charged out, mauling Clide. The rest of the group rushed to Clide’s aid, killing the bear and healing Clide. Kraz skinned the bear, and then, its remains were given to Troll to eat.
After the group settled down in the cave for the night, Dakkar took first watch. He saw clouds that looked like chains. He watched as chain-like clouds were broken. Afterwards, it seemed like two especially-bright stars were watching Dakkar.
In the morning, the group traveled deeper into the valley. Around midday, they found a group of goblins and hobgoblins trying to catch a wild horse. They were planning to feed it to their wargs. The group tried to ambush the goblinoids, but Clide’s excited shouting revealed the group too soon. The goblins fired on the group and then faded into the rocks and scrub bushes.
Dakkar put two of the hobgoblins to sleep, and Troll charged the other one. Clide advanced to help Troll. Kraz helped Tahmeena with ranged attacks before moving into the melee. When the goblins woke the two hobgoblins, Dakkar put the goblins to sleep instead. The fight went the group’s way. Soon, all that was left was Legs, a goblin with strangely long legs the group mistook for a hobgoblin. He surrendered and gave some information to the group, but in the end, he turned out to be far cleverer than the group expected. With help from Dakkar to make the group smell like goblins to bypass the wargs guarding the outpost, Legs led the group to about 200 feet from the outpost.
The group bargained with Legs, agreeing to let him go if he told his people orcs killed his companions. Using the focus for his connection to the Skypiercer and a spell to temporarily heat a rock, Dakkar tried to convince Legs that a great curse would befall him if he betrayed the group.
The group traveled back to the cave to rest for the night. Dakkar took the first watch...
Dakkar collected his possessions, awoke Tahmeena with a spell, and headed up the hill...
Not long after he left, Dakkar used a spell to warn Tahmeena. She woke everyone, and they rushed up the hill. In a chaotic, desperate fight, the group killed two of the bugbears and the hobgoblin. Clide fell during the fight, but Tahmeena revived him and kept everyone else whole while they chased down the last bugbear. Troll carried Dakkar’s body with her. They cornered the last bugbear and killed him.
After Tahmeena healed Dakkar, she demanded an explanation. Dakkar gave little information. Kraz told him the land was too dangerous to go alone. Dakkar acknowledged that he had learned that and other lessons well. He apologized to the group and thanked each of them. He told them later he was lured to the top of the mountain by the hobgoblin who had disguised himself with magic. Dakkar believed that may be Klerd, but he was not sure.
The group tried to rest, but they were disturbed by a saber-toothed snow leopard. They fought it off, capturing it. Troll wanted to train it. The group took it to Barrierton, but the guards there seized the animal and killed it.
When they returned Retreat’s End, the group gave their information about the goblin outpost, and they were returned to The Pit without any reward.
GM: Holy-K |GM BeltofTirva/BjarnfellTroll, Grumok, Torvald, Manivar, Tahmeena, and Dakkar were pulled out of The Pit. King Foldrid gave the group a choice: Explore north towards and into Snowrose Trench or capture wild horses in the valley east of Barrierton. No reward was offered.
The group traveled north on the road to Barrierton discussing the Runegate dwarves’ numbers and defenses. It seemed to number 500 or so dwarves. They may keep about one-third of them at Retreat’s End. The walls of Retreat’s End are patrolled by 8-12 guards. A group of their soldiers stands by to move out from Retreat’s End to deal with threats elsewhere in the valley.
The trip up the road was interrupted when a werewolf charged the group. The creature was out of its mind, so Manivar could not reason with it. The group killed it, and it returned to its female human form.
The group reached the valley and found a place to camp. Partway through the night, a hunting cave bear found their camp. After rousing everyone, the group surrounded the bear and killed it. Later in the night, an orc approached the camp and tried to convince Grumok to join the orcs. The conversation grew loud enough it woke Troll and Manivar. The orc tried to convince Troll to join the orcs, too. Manivar used the distraction to sneak up behind the orc, discovering 8 more orcs hiding nearby. Before the offer to Grumok and Troll was settled, Manivar killed the orc, waking Tahmeena, Torvald, and Dakkar and causing the other orcs to charge the camp. At first, Troll let the orcs slip past her, but after Tahmeena and Dakkar killed two of the orcs swiftly with their cold breath, the tide turned. Dakkar pointed out to Troll which side was winning. With Troll’s help, the rest of the group made quick work of the orcs, and Troll ate one of them. One orc had tried to flee, but Grumok killed it. That helped Grumok find four horses the orcs had tethered nearby.
After searching in vain for a cave, the group made their way through the night to Barrierton to rest in safety. They had to talk their way into Barrierton, but bringing four horses for Clan Runegate helped that along. The group slept in the stables.
Before the group could go about their business, Captain Ralmid found them and ordered them to kill a yeti that had been spotted west in the tundra. With little choice, the group packed up and headed west into the tundra and a massive blizzard.
In the blizzard, the group nearly walked into a group of two frost giants, ten goliaths, and two winter wolves. Hiding in the thick snowfall, they avoided capture or death, but only for a moment. The winter wolves heard and smelled them. The frost giants and their goliaths took the yeti they had killed, sent the wolves for whatever they had detected, and told the wolves to bring their prey to the camp of their queen.
The group ran. The winter wolves pursued. Manivar, Dakkar, and Grumok made it past the giant owls, small herds of mammoths, and a ravine to nearly escape. However, Troll, Tahmeena, and Torvald were hampered by those obstacles, and Tahmeena and Torvald fell into a ravine. Tahmeena healed Torvald before he succumbed to his wounds. Troll savagely wounded the closest winter wolf, but even Troll succumbed to the relentless attacks by the winter wolf. Alerted by Tahmeena, Dakkar doubled back to heal Troll. Troll was able to kill the closest winter wolf, but Dakkar fell when a mammoth hit him. Torvald fell under the icy breath of the second winter wolf, shielding Dakkar from its breath.
When Troll failed to scare the second winter wolf away, the rest of the group returned to help Troll fight the winter wolf and rescue Torvald and Dakkar. The fight was a desperate one, but with numbers on their side, they killed the winter wolf, but not before Manivar also fell. Grumok, Troll, and Tahmeena collected their fallen comrades and the winter wolf bodies and returned to Barrierton. There, they alerted Captain Ralmid to the thread of the frost giants and their queen.
When the group returned to Retreat’s End, they were rewarded with some liberties, including Troll being allowed to keep one of the winter wolf pelts.
GM: Holy-K |GM BeltofTirva/BjarnfellGrumok, Kraz, Muddy, Tahmeena, and Dakkar were pulled out of The Pit. King Foldrid Runegate sent them to Kiglodir. Seven villagers (they called them slaves) escaped into the hills. The orders were to bring them all back or take their punishment in their place. For each returned “slave,” 5 gold was promised.
On the road to Kiglodir, the group was attacked by a large bear. After they killed it, they reached Kiglodir. The local Runegate commander chastised the group for the delay. They presented a woman they had beaten into submission. She told the group that Sven the hunter’s son led the escapees north around the hill to the west. They planned to make it to the coast, hoping to steal a boat and escape Bjarnfell.
The group decided to cut across the large hill to the west to head off the escaped villagers. Near sunset, they encountered another large, hungry bear. After prevailing, the group camped for the night. During the night, a troll approached their camp. They hurriedly collected their possessions and ran. The troll was about to catch some of the group when Dakkar turned back to slow it down. The troll clawed Dakkar into unconsciousness. Muddy quickly lit a torch and charged at the troll, driving it off.
The group revived Dakkar and traveled out of the area. Then, they camped again, sleeping into the next morning to help everyone recover from their first day’s ordeal. Pressing on west to the edge of the hills, the group saw it was snowing heavily in the tundra. After a brief debate, they decided to head south, looking for signs of the villagers.
Later in the day, the group found signs of an ambush. It looked like a group of people were attacked by another group of people. The victors dragged the survivors west towards the tundra. Following the trail, the group found an orc camp where only three of the villagers were still alive. Orcs had killed the others and were preparing to eat them. Several orcs had strange mutations, including wings on one and an extra head on another.
The group prepared an ambush and volley-fired on the orcs, killing two of them. Unfortunately, they didn’t account for the aggressiveness and speed of the orcs, and they were soon surrounded. Dakkar fell first. Muddy fell soon afterwards. The other three fought with desperation until Tahmeena could slip free from the melee to stabilize Muddy. She gave her healer’s kit to Kraz who stabilized Dakkar. Then, they finished the remaining orcs and awakened Dakkar and Muddy.
Sven and his companions told their tale of woe and how first a troll killed one of them, attacking their camp in the night. It was likely the same troll that nearly killed Dakkar. Then, the orcs found them and killed all but Sven and the other two men who could handle themselves in a fight. They begged to be released. Dakkar refused, advising them that they needed a plan that would work if they truly hoped to succeed. The group dug a grave for the villagers the orcs killed. Dakkar brought Sven and his two companions out to help say words over the grave. The Nepurnians committed their loved ones to their gods, and they called on their gods for deliverance and vengeance.
As the group struggled to make their way back to Kiglodir through a blizzard, Sven incessantly begged to be freed. He and the other two villagers were clear they would rather die than return. Their pleas weighed on the group but not as heavy as the fear of what Clan Runegate might do if these three were not returned.
The group camped in the hills southwest of Kiglodir. Early in the night, a group of ogres approached the camp. Tahmeena didn’t understand what they were saying, but since their speech reminded her of Grumok, she woke Grumok. The four ogres knew each other. The three ogres (Klaris, Tryken, and Zonzor) were happy to find Grumok. They tried to convince Grumok to come with them, but Grumok reluctantly declined. He sent them to look for the remains of the orcs the group had killed, promising them they could eat them and take what was left of their camp. In the end, Grumok’s three friends did not understand why he wouldn’t go with them, and they were angry with him.
Later in the night, the people on watch heard a terrible mixture of crazed voices drawing closer to the camp. Alerted to the danger, the group scrambled to defend themselves. A thing out of nightmares advanced on Grumok, who was frozen in place with fear. Kraz charged it, but he was swiftly defeated. Hearing what was happening, Sven and his companions begged to be set free to fight. Dakkar could not deny Sven any longer. He was able to cut Sven loose with his rapier before the horror froze Dakkar with fear. Sven took Dakkar’s rapier and charged the horror. He struck it with a mighty blow. With Sven’s help, the group was able to kill the horrible creature.
Holding the unconscious Kraz hostage, Sven made his case for his companions and himself to be freed. Dakkar agreed with Sven, urging the group to let them go. He warned Sven that without more information and resources they were doomed to failure and death. No one in the group seemed happy about letting the villagers go, but no one had the will to prevent them from leaving.
The group concocted a simple story about how all the villagers they could find were dead and how they nearly all died as well. Then, they returned to Kiglodir. The commander there seemed to accept their story, and all five were whipped mercilessly, receiving the punishment the villagers would’ve received if they had returned.
The group was sent back to Retreat’s End where they were stripped of their gear and weapons and thrown back into The Pit.
