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.