Goblin Fever (Session 7) - Sehnir 18, 888 F.S.

Heading Back to Degarn’s Keep
We tie up three of the wolfen and head back to Degarn’s Keep. It’s a four-day trek back to the keep. We rest for the night and set up a rotating watch. Not much to report. The next day, as the party continues its journey back to the keep, a body lying in the road is spotted. Sophia flies ahead to inspect the body. It is human; blond hair. Sophia espies tracks heading west (the way we’re going) that consist of booted feet and heavy wagon tracks. The person on the ground is a woman. She is unconscious, but alive. She has no shoes on, and not much for heavy clothing. Sophia holds on to her as they ride the mule. Four hours later, she wakes up, starts to thrash around due to confusion, and she and Sophia fall from the mule. The woman gets hit on the head when falling, knocks herself out, and is unconscious for the rest of the day. We camp for the night.

During the night, she wakes up. Estenel gets her settled down. Her name is Gidnia. She says that she is from the village of Orb and says that men wearing blue and black kidnapped her. She says that they said something to the effect of “I thought they only wanted elves.” to which another thug replied, “Well, she’s close enough, don’t you think?”

The party decides to send the wolfen to Degarn’s Keep with the footmen. The rest of the party heads with Gidnia back to her home village of Orb. Estenel sets up a telepathy schedule with Ecran so that the two parties can keep in communication with each other.

Estenel’s ping to Ecran the next day: Ecran says that Tevarius and Gilman are not feeling very good and that they are stopping their travel for a bit to rest.

On the Road to Orb
Gidnia’s health worsens. She remains unconscious for the next day and her breathing is beginning to get shallow. We arrive at a small lake. It is at the location that Gidnia pointed to on the map as being where Orb is located. At this point, we are unsure to what “Orb” refers. We had assumed it is the name of a town. But, it might be the name of (in this case) a lake. Flick pours some water on her and feeds her some water. Both appear to help her condition a bit. She wakes up briefly and utters: “Put me in.” Figuring that this means “put me in the lake”, Estenel lowers Gidnia into the lake. She sinks. Sophia enters the lake and holds Gidnia up in the water. The frigid water doesn’t seem to bother Sophia. Flick finds some firewood and builds a fire.

At the Lake of Orb
Sophia continues to hold Gidnia in the water for twelve hours. Gidnia then wakes up. She thanks us for saving her life. She says that she was absconded from her laboratory. She leads us to her lab. She swims along the edge of the lake. She takes us to a path that leads to a grove of trees where there are smashed benches and containers. Gidnia is a alchemist. She has a few potions and elixirs still intact that she gives to us in payment for saving her life. Gidnia, as it turns out, is a water sprite.

Pinging Ecran, he describes the symptoms of some of the men-at-arms that have shown signs of not feeling well. They have chills and are experiencing a loss of memory. Estenel relays that information to Gidnia, who says that the men need to get magical healing right away. The symptoms are that of Goblin Fever, which is lethal to humans. The party tries to devise a way to get magical healing to the men-at-arms as quickly as possible. The plan is for Yukon to fly back to Degarn’s Keep and try to provide healing to the men-at-arms.

Gidnia tells us that there is a fort about half a day’s hike to the north of Orb: Fort Bex. She says that there is a changeling by the name of Captain xxxxx runs the fort. We talk to Gidnia about the sudden blast of wintry conditions that we experienced at Degarn’s Keep. She says that she’s heard of occurrences like that in the area recently.

Gidnia tells the party that there were other prisoners on the cart on which she was held captive. She says that she overheard the men saying that they were heading to Falkasado, which is four days’ travel to the east of Orb.

Sophia and Estenel stay with Gidnia for a day. Estenel beds Gidnia.

Flying to the Rescue
Yukon has Hawk Flight cast on him and he begins flying back toward the men-at-arms who are suffering from Goblin Fever. His plan is to fly until the spell wears off, then teleport the rest of the way. Yukon reaches the men-at-arms. He then attempts to heal them via rune magic. Yukon is able to heal all men-at-arms except for Flick’s sidekick.

Back to Degarn’s Keep
Flick heads back to Degarn’s Keep. Within a half-day away from the keep, the ground is covered with a foot of snow. In the keep, everyone is dead and body’s are hanging from the walls. Apparently, the Goblin Fever infected everyone within the keep, they went mad, and started killing everyone.

Reuniting the Party
Yukon, Flick, and the henchmen leave Degarn’s Keep and head back on the road to meet up with Estenel and Sophia. On the way, a small army of 50 wolfen led by a big bald red-moustached human head (Ididerac) are heading on the road toward Degarn’s Keep. Estenel has his weekly ping with Lord Futenmoth and fills him in with the recent happenings. The resolution is to burn Degarn’s Keep to the ground. The party rejoins on the road midway between Orb and Degarn’s Keep.

Back to Degarn’s Keep (again)
We head back to Degarn’s Keep. Ididerac and his wolfen are NOT there; the keep is empty. We burn it to the ground. The statue with the gem in its hand, however, is still standing. The snow around the keep melted due to the heat.

In Search of a Healer
After leaving the keep, we begin looking for a healer to be able to cure Goblin Fever from those that have contracted the disease. We head to Stahl. Gibbet enters town (since she is free of the disease) and announces that she’s looking for a healer to cure Goblin Fever. The people of Stahl run her out of town under pain of death, telling her to take her Goblin Fever with her.

We then to head to Schnorking and try to find a healer there. Gibbet talks with the leader of Schnorking (Ybilaron), informing him that she is free of Goblin Fever, but is in need of a healer to cure the party. By bribing Ybilaron (sleeping with him), a healer is provided. The healer meets the party with an armed escort of crossbowmen at his side who covers the party until the healer declares us clean. The healer then cures the entire party and then teaches Yukon the spell Cure Disease.

We then notice that the military of Schnorking is mobilizing. Estenel talks with Ybilaron to find out why. He says that Ididerac has sacked Stahl, Gurdikar, and Laendersberg. He says that Blackston and Fort Sakka have been notified, which are banding together with Schnorking to either launch a counter-offensive against Ididerac or mount a blocking maneuver against him.

The Rout of Degarn (Session 6) - Sehnir 14, 888 F.S.

Degarn’s Keep
We go back to Laendersberg and inform the Duke’s men about Degarn’s fortress. They agree that he must be neutralized. So, we head back to Degarn’s fortress with the Duke’s men and lay siege. On the second day of battle, the orcs of Degarn’s fortress surrender and allow the Duke’s men to occupy the castle. Huzzah!

Ragnak, Racker, Gorack, and Degarn all fled before the fortress was taken.

Estenel questions the remaining orcs if they know what caused the drop in temperature earlier. Flick instructs the orcs to take us to Degarn’s room, which they do. They take us past the center of the keep, where a statue of a large giant with a hammer is positioned. There is a large white gem in the side of the head of the hammer. The orcs said that the statue was not there two days ago. The gem in the hammer head is magical.

Scrounging through Degarn’s items: letter between Degarn and Ididerac (snowflake army). It discusses military issues. There is another and a piece of paper that is a letter between Stormbrother Garrin. The latter is an agreement that if they continue to wage war, that the Ice Queen will continue to supply the gems needed to continue the winterization of Hronn. We grab and orc and ask him about Ididerac and Garrin. He says Ididerac has been at the fortress. He’s a big human bald, bushy red moustached guy. The orc believes that Ididerac is an Ascommani. He further says that he’s the one that, five days ago, brought the gem that is in the hammer head of the giant. The orc says that Garrin also arrived with Ididerac five days ago. Garrin wears sky blue robes, and is also human, but probably not Ascommani.

We get a couple orcs to pull the white gem out of the hammer head. The orc reaches to pull out the gem. As soon as he touches it, the orc screams that it’s freezing cold. Ice shoots up his arm and freezes it solid. As the orc pulls back, his arm breaks off at the shoulder and falls to the ground and shatters.

Tracking Degarn north of the Fortress
We track Degarn to the north for 10 miles. The snow at this point has dissipated (i.e., no snow on the ground). We follow the tracks to a road. The tracks follow the road to the east. We follow the road. Ahead of us on the road, about 140 yards distant, we see about a dozen soldiers. The party gets off the road to seek whatever cover we can find. Estenel espies that they are snowflake soldiers. There is a camp near the soldiers with some horses. There is a guardhouse next to the road, where the snowflakes are posted. On the horizon, Sophia sees a keep. The soldiers guarding the road are bipedal dog-like creatures dressed in armor and snowflake heraldry. We advance up the road toward the guardpost with Flick and Yukon hiding off in the grass to the side of the road. The creatures espy us and six of them come out to meet us on horseback. They inform us that we are trespassing on Lord Ididerac’s lands and that we are not his slaves. We disagree with that assessment. They fire upon us and then charge. Combat ensues. In the end, we kill four of them, capture two more, and the other six blow a warning horn and head back to the keep. The guard shack is devoid of anything even remotely useful. We haul the two captured dogmen back to Degarn’s Keep to turn them over to the Duke’s men.

Degarn's Stronghold (Session 5) - Sehnir 6, 888 F.S.

In the Ogre Encampment
Estenel and Yukon are tied up and blindfolded in the middle of the ogres’ camp. Jollin and Sophia assault the encampment, raining down arrows from the perimeter while Flick nances about the ogres while invisible. In the end, both ogres and all orcs are either unconscious or dead.

We scout the area. This encampment looks fairly new; as if it is only a couple days old. We tie up the unconscious orcs; there are four of them. We kill the one remaining ogre.

We interrogate one of the orcs. Estenel casts Compel Truth and Mind Reading on the orc. In the end, the information gained is as follows: The orcs and ogres work for Degarn. They are down here to sack caravans between Laendersberg and Stahl. The orcs know that Degarn has some object that has something to do with the changes in the weather. They know nothing at all of House Vollis. One of the orcs, in his surface thoughts, was very glad to see Aislyn dead. He mentions that the village of Thaxt up to the north has not yet been raided by Degarn’s forces.

Laendersberg
We release the one orc that fed us information. We take the three remaining orcs and Aislyn’s body back to Laendersberg. We meet with Zellic, the interim mayor of Laendersberg. He is glad to see that we have returned with Aislyn’s body, to be buried with her husband’s. He informs us that there is a man here to meet with us. He is dressed in plate; his name is Sir Thancred. He is looking for Estenel... to deliver the troops that we requested from Lord Futenmoth back when we talked with the mayor of Schnorking. We inform them that they are needed here to garrison this village and protect caravans from raiders.

We then convince Zellic that we need to go through Laenders’ personal bedroom to see if we can find information regarding his murder. We find no clues to go on. Zellic tells us that a man by the name of Rin, who lives outside of town, is the person who found Laenders dead. The description Zellic gives us of Rin is that of the messenger that ran to Stahl to inform Aislyn that her husband was dead. We then suspect that Rin may have set up Laenders and Aislyn.

Rin’s House; outside of Laendersberg
We travel to the edge of town and go through Rin’s house. Searching it, we find a box with six phials in it. Inside the box, below the phials, is a piece of parchment that describes the usage of each of the six poisons. And we find a quiver with several crossbow bolts. Zellic mentions that Laenders was also shot with a crossbow. Further searching of Rin’s house reveals a letter that says, “Now is the time.” The letter is sealed with a blue wax seal that bears an image of a snowflake.

We had back and talk with Sir Thancred and ask him if he can spare a few troops to help defend ourselves on our travels. He gives us four men. We then start shopping for beasts of burden and equipment for travelling north as winter approaches. We buy a mule.

Gurdikar
We travel to Gurdikar and ask information concerning the location of Degarn’s stronghold. The bartender in Gurdikar asks, “Why? Are you looking to join up with him?” Incorrectly assuming that the bartender is amicable to Degarn, Estenel replies with “Maybe.” Then, all hell breaks loose with misunderstandings.

Degarn's Keep
We make our way to Degarn’s keep. We set up to observe the keep to see if we can determine who is Degarn and to determine what the defensive forces are at the keep. Then, all mages feel a tingly sensation as if all mana in the area is being sucked into Degarn’s keep. Then, we feel a cold wave being eminated from the keep, and the weather becomes like a big blizzard that is eminating from the Keep. It feels as if a .... (my notes end here, but I know there was something else I wanted to say that described what the mages were feeling)