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)