Book 2: Chapter 2

 

“Wanders in the Wilderness”

 

GM: Dale Carroll

 

Characters:    

Jennifer Smith -            Ioreth, High Woman Magic User

Lindir, Silvan Elf Ranger

Melody Soice  -           Elari, High Elf Healer

Anarion, High Man Ranger

Kelvin Soice  -            Feor-fin, High Man Paladin

Crissaegrim, High Man Cleric

 

 

Session 2

Near naked and having no place else to go Feor-fin and Lindir set off in the night to find the place of the stones where their friends fell.  The road is found but after marching all night the remaining heroes are briefly lost.  But Feor-fin trusts in the benevolence of his god and around noon the battle site is found, none to soon as a cold weather front is about to strike.  Among the carnage of battle Feor-fin and Lindir are able to scavenge some weapons and equipment.  The body of the evil champion Frithgoth is found but scavenged and untended.  Two fingers of what appears to be female, perhaps human, are found on the ground.    Feor-fin thinks he remembers lurid stories of dark rituals involving mutilation, but … those are just stories.  Desperate for food they go into the cave to retrieve what is in Baranora’s pack.  After making the trek to the back of the cave they find Baranora’s pack, but not Baranora.  There is no sign of her body.  Returning to the mouth of the cave they eat and rest for 12 hours until around midnight.  Feor-fin settles in to think.

 

Session 3

It is still sleeting outside so Feor-fin and Lindir decide to wait it out until morning.  Just at sunrise Lindir hears the flapping of great wings, Lindir and Feor-fin duck back inside the mouth of the cave as some great carrion eater feasts on the remains of the battle.  After it leaves Lindir and Feor-fin hurry onto the road, marching south for the day.  Out of food Lindir attempts to forage, coming up with some amount of berries that turn out to be mildly poisonous and make Feor-fin miserably ill for the night.  It is the morning of day 16 and Lindir attempts to hunt.  Lindir spends time chasing after a wild goat.  Lindir abandons the chase when he smells the foul stench of orcs, and that they seem to be chasing after her.  The chasing orc turns out to be none other than Elari.  After Elari had lost consciousness in the battle she was apparently mutilated by orcs for a while until taking her for dead they lost interest and left her.  She woke up some time before Feor-fin and Lindir came to the cave and had been wandering the forest since then.  Needing food and equipment the three return to the original, burnt out, fort at the Spires.  Lindir enters first, scouting the place.  The burned out fort appears abandoned.  A section of ground caves in and Lindir falls in 10ft, cries of orcs heard.  Elari casts sleep on an orc standing at the top of the tower.  Not knowing exactly where Lindir or the orcs are Feor-fin runs for the most likely target, the tower.  Lindir finds that this pit is part of an underground tunnel that has collapsed.  Three more orcs and a leader go after Elari who decides to run.  Inside the tower Feor-fin fights briefly with a sword armed orc and two bow armed orcs.  Hearing another orc coming up the stairs into the tower Feor-fin withdraws and surprises this new arrival, upending him into the pit where Lindir is trapped.  But before Feor-fin can escape the sword armed orc catches up and gives the paladin a grievous wound.  Feor-fin also pitches off the stairs into the pit.

 

Session 4

Landing on top of Lindir is the orc, landing on top of the orc is Feor-fin.  Feor-fin finishes off the orc.  Feor-fin and Lindir duck into the side of the collapsed tunnel closest to the old ruined fort.  Feor-fin notes that the tunnel has been recently expanded.  Screaming orc voices call for “Burn them!” , something thuds into the tunnel from up in the direction of the watchtower.  Feor-fin and Lindir run further into the tunnel, Feor-fin lighting the way with his own holy aura.  After a while tunnel reverts back to just the old construction.  Get to the collapsed section and note that it has been partially cleared away, tools lying about.  Something is burning back up the tunnel and the air is getting bad.  A small recent hole noted in side of the tunnel.  Crawling into the tunnel hole leads to a small, short naturally formed tunnel that terminates in a hole in the floor.  Stake with a rope leading off into the hole.  Sound of moving water heard coming from hole.  Lindir climbs down hole, widens out to much larger cavern no bottom or sides seen.  Lindir finds a curving flight of steps going down.  Feor-fin takes some of the digging tools and comes down.  Steps curve back around, seem remarkable for having held up, dust on stairs noted to have been recently disturbed.  Meanwhile back up topside Elari has been trying to stay one step ahead of the orcs.  In various running battles using her power of sleep she has been able to kill two orcs but now finds herself just outside the fort two and orc archers are right in front of her and two more orcs are coming over the wall some distance away.  Elari charges the archers, an arrow flies …

 

Session 5

…and misses.  Elari runs for her life with more orc arrows zipping past her.  About to round a corner of the fort she senses something amiss and veers off into the forest thereby avoiding two more orcs that had been waiting for her.  Meanwhile deep underground Feor-fin and Lindir reach the bottom of the winding staircase which turns out to be small square room of natural stone walls but worked stone floor.  Following the trail of disturbed dust leads to an iron portcullis blocking a passageway.  Trail of disturbed dust ends there, nothing but corridor can be discerned beyond the portcullis which seems to be firmly locked in place.  Carved into the opposite side of the room is the visage of a horrible gargoyle.  Approaching the gargoyle Feor-fin notices that his aura dims to nothingness.  Eventually Lindir approaches the gargoyle and , reaching blindly, pulls on it’s tongue which causes the section of the wall the with gargoyle to swing inwards.  Feor-fin enters and finds only a small alcove with no apparent features.  Feor-fin stays inside while Lindir stays outside and closes the door.  As he suspected, when the gargoyle door swings out of the way reveals a set of stone ledges up the wall leading to a dark hole in the ceiling.   Lindir, on the outside, has grown worried about being unable to signal Feor-fin and opens the door again …nearly crushing a surprised Feor-fin who had been examining the ledges.  When Feor-fin attempts to heal himself of his new wounds he feels his connection to Manwe waning and his healing less effective.   Realizing that any further investigations will take real light Feor-fin and Lindir return back up to the collapsed tunnel section and find it now completely blocked with rubble.  Casting about they do find some pieces of wood and to the utter amazement of Feor-fin, Lindir using only her bow and a few shards of wood is able to get a fire going and make a serviceable torch.  On the outside, after making a world class sprint for the tree line Elari leaves her pursuers far behind and finds a place to rest and recuperate.  Feor-fin and Lindir in the alcove behind the gargoyle find themselves stymied by a trap involving the touching of the stone ledges causing most of them to retract.  This trap has closed the door thus trapping them inside, dumped Lindir on the floor, then Feor-fin who breaks his arm.  Lindir tires of the complexity of the trap and attempts to outrun it, going up the ledges faster than the system can react … and succeeds.  After 100 ledges she reaches a metal hatch which opens downward, a small room with more ledges and another hatch in the ceiling.  Another 100 ledges up Lindir opens another heavy hatch out into the sunlight.  Elari sees Lindir and the two reunite.  The central tower in the fort noted to have collapsed.  Elari goes down the stone ledges to the bottom and heals Feor-fin, her own magical powers do not seem as blocked as Feor-fin’s are.

 

 

Session 6

Feor-fin gets out of the trap by triggering it then hurrying up while it is still resetting.  Elari tries to get up and fails, hurting herself badly.  Elari realizes that her magical healing power is fading as well seemingly due to a magical presence some feet within the wall.  In desperation of being able to heal herself she tries to attune herself to this magical presence and suffers horribly for it as electric arcs and fire burst out all over her body.  On hearing the explosion Feor-fin comes down to do what little he can for his friend who is now begging to be left to die.  Lindir comes down partway and is asked by Feor-fin to go find some rope or something to help Elari out.  Lindir tries to sneak into the fort, evading the few orcs about, and is nearly ambushed herself by an orc.  Running for her life she tarries in a storeroom for a moment too long and is blocked in.  Facing 5 orcs hungry for her flesh and a man in black robes outside who looks to be beginning the summons of evil magic power Lindir consigns her fate to the gods and attacks with abandon.  First one orc falls, then another, then another under Lindir’s righteous blows.  Taking advantage of one orc who is momentarily stunned  the by now seriously wounded Lindir leaps past the remaining orcs and charges in on the black sorcerer.  The black sorcerer evades Lindir’s attacks and eventually manages to use his magic to break her arm but Lindir still fights on.  Sick with pain, shield arm dangling useless, sword arm hurt <<1 hp left, L arm broken, -5 to OB>> Lindir dodges and stabs the black sorcerer low, running the length of her blade up through his leg into his groin.  Unable to touch the fey Lindir the two remaining orcs are no match for her as she sweeps the arm off one and smashes to the ground the last.  Meanwhile back in the well Feor-fin and Elari realize that they can now hear and feel a pulsing from the magic presence, a pulsing which may be getting stronger as it seeps what little magic power the two have left.  Figuring that Lindir must have been waylaid Feor-fin decides to wait until dark to leave and look for help. The exhausted Lindir rests for several hours to get her strength back, eventually searches the storeroom and finds all she needs, but notices that the body of the black sorcerer is now gone … and a trail of blood leading out the fort.   Using the rope Feor-fin and Elari are easily able to escape from the ladder trap.  Resting until morning of day 17 the three go to the location where the Egg was stashed.  Feor-fin prays to his god for guidance on the matter and receives no answer.

 

Session 7

A fair amount of (human?) blood is noted on and around the Egg, no clear source seen.  Feor-fin gets the idea to try and ensure the Lady will uphold her end of the bargain by sending Lindir off with a message that the exchange will be held over the ladder trap.  Lindir runs off to the Lady, arriving in the afternoon finding the Lady, a heavily scared companion in dark robes, two skeletal orcs and a half dozen live orcs holding a bound hand and foot Anarion, Crissaegrim and Ioreth.  The Lady balks at this addendum to the original agreement and explains this by means of attempting to cut off Ioreth’s hand.  Having learned nothing in victory Lindir attempts to stop the Lady by shooting her in the hand … succeeding once again in spite of the odds … and is promptly frozen in place by the dark magic of the companion of the Lady.  After much wriggling, protesting, attempted spell casting and bashing on heads by all present the hand of Ioreth is cut off and presented to Lindir with the warning that they have one more day.  Lindir arrives back at the fort in the early evening.  Feor-fin, Elari and Lindir run throughout the night to get back to the site where their friends are.  Resting nearby for 4 hours on early morning of day 18 the Lady comes upon them and begins to discuss the situation with Feor-fin.  She will not disclose why she wants the Egg, which see refers to as “The Darkling Stone”.  She asks him to let the Order know that he was late and Feor-fin agrees to that, she asks him to let the Order know she said ‘Hello’ and Feor-fin agrees to that.  It now occurs to Feor-fin that this Lady may be the fallen paladin mentioned in a poorly recalled story about a female half-elfin paladin who fell in love 40 years ago, kept secrets and people died.  Feor-fin and the lady bargain.  She will get the stone, she will release his friends and 6 captive children and give back all of the party’s equipment and magic items.  In return Feor-fin promises not to pursue her for 10 days.  The Egg is noted to be the source of the blood and is bleeding much more freely now.  On departing heading South, over her shoulder the Lady tells the team that they can find their items and the children 2 days walk to the north.

 

Session 8

Resting and healing until late morning of day 18 our heroes make ready to return to the fort to re-equip their newly released friends.  Returning to the fort by late evening they approach the fort hear animal-like sounds from within the fort.  Withdraw off from the fort and wait until morning day 19.  Daylight party approaches, hears more animal noise.  Party comes to wall trying to make as little noise as possible.  Feor-fin steps on a twig, hangs head, everyone else in party glares.  Elari throws stones into fort  to see if can decoy whatever is making that noise.  Lindir jumps in to try and make it to one of the corner raised platforms and is immediately attacked by a giant boar that had been lying in wait for someone to approach.  Another giant boar is seen rounding the corner outside the fort headed for Crissaegrim and Feor-fin.  These giant boars prove to be terrifying foes as their tough hide is proof from all but the strongest of blows and their great tusks and massive bulk make for deadly weapons.  Ioreth manages to vault up to the top of the wall, all the more remarkable given that she only has the use of one arm.  Elari’s attempts to put one of the boars to sleep repeatedly fail.  The boar which had been inside the fort manages to force it’s way outside through a breach but suffers heavy wounds from the combined blows of Feor-fin, Anarion and Lindir.  Crissaegrim wounded, calls upon his god to aid him in getting up to the top of the wall before he is trampled to death and eventually manages to do so.  Crushed against the wall Feor-fin is badly stunned.