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)

Caravan Ambush (Session 4) - Sehnir 3, 888 F.S.

Secret Hideaway: East of Gaddor’s House
We question Cabra concerning Degarn. Cabra’s lord is Degarn, who is another half-orc. Degarn is not with House Vollis. He lives up north. Their next task is to raid the next caravan coming into Laendersberg. This is all to further Degarn’s “cause”, which is to rid Hronn of all humans.

The Village of Laendersberg
We take Cabra to Laendersberg to see if we can lay a trap for the caravan that Cabra was going to waylay. We meet with Laender. Laender, possessing an extreme hatred of all orcs and half-orcs, has Cabra hung.

The Village of Stahl
Laender sends us to Stahl (where the caravan is coming from) to talk with Theoneus (a half-elf, who is the leader of Stahl). Laender’s wife (Aislyn) comes along with us to vouch for our story. Laender hopes that this will cause Theoneus to send more troops to help squelch the raids.

We meet with Theoneus. He can send more troops. He’s pretty sure there’s a spy involved, hence the note concerning the timetable of the caravans. Djamal is a half-orc that runs the Sleeping Griffon (a local inn), and Theoneus, although thinking well of Djamal, says that he’s gone at odd times of the day.

Flick and Estenel agree to case Djamal while Theoneus sends an armed escort with the caravan. Estenel doesn’t find out anything juicy from Djamal; Flick finds nothing after casing the Sleeping Griffon.

We go visit Crolin, a merchant in the village that is sending his goods on the caravan. Crolin says that the Coelnut caravan. McCain is the courier who delivered Crolin’s ship schedule to Laendersberg concerning this caravan.

The Sleeping Griffon: Village of Stahl
We head to the Sleeping Griffon to try and find McCain. After Estenel spills beer on a patron, Djamal points out who McCain is. Estenel strikes up a conversation with McCain. He tells that Brenwyn is the name of the receiving merchant in Laendersberg, and that his communique between Stahl and Laendersberg is sealed upon receipt and upon delivery. So, if McCain is telling the truth, then the spy is somewhere within Crolin’s ranks or within Brenwyn’s.

As we are eating breakfast in the morning, we fill in Aislyn as to what we found out the night before. A runner bursts into the inn and informs Aislyn that her husband (Laender) was assassinated in the evening. We notice that Djamal’s wife is serving us. We find out that Djamal left town late in the evening. We ride quickly to Laendersberg with Aislyn to try and find out the details of her husband’s murder.

On the Road to Laendersberg
As we get about 3/4 of the way to Laendersberg, an ogre jumps out of the bushes and charges the party on an intercept course. A moment later, a second ogre steps out of the bushes and chucks a spear at Yukon. Then, four orcs join the fray with the two ogres.

Aislyn takes a couple spears, but fights through it. She ends up being pierced twice more by spears, and falls to the ground unconscious. Melee ensues. Estenel gets legged and then pummeled into dreamland.

One of the ogres drags Estenel back a bit, holds Estenel above his head, and one of the orcs says, “Yield now, or the elf dies.” Yukon yields, but Flick is still invisible and hides behind a blade of grass. One of the ogres sits down and passes out due to wounds during the fight. One of the orcs checks on Aislyn, says, “bah.” and kicks her nonchalantly.

Flick finds a place to hide. The orcs and ogre gather their wounded, Yukon, and Estenel. They put them on the horses and head off. Flick checks on Aislyn. She’s very dead. Flick follows the group back to their camp. The ogre and orcs blindfold and gag Yukon and Estenel, and tie them up to trees. They then begin to bandage the other ogre.