Fuinahiir (Session 19) - Sarimiere 31, 888 F.S.

Crucible of Thurn
We arrive at Fuinahiir after a five day travel via horse and cart from Kentigern Castle. The rental cost for usage of the library at the Crucible of Thurn is 100 cp per day. A fat half-elf at the entry to the mage's guild (named Jodus) takes Estenel's order for spell scrolls and leads Estenel to the library. After a day of research, Estenel comes up empty trying to find information that relates to a "fish's tail" and nearby mountains.


At the Inn
The party heads to the inn in Fuinahiir for the evening. Estenel prepares to entertain the guests of the inn, and performs horribly. Estenel sulks off the stage. A human named Gregory approaches Estenel and strikes up a conversation, asking questions concerning Hronn. Apparently Gregory is a mercenary who is looking for excitement, and wants to travel to Hronn with the party, claiming to want to "hunt". Gregory leaves the inn. Jollin tries to shadow him, and loses him.

In the night, Guillamette wakes up, hearing someone trying the knob on the door. She gets behind the door as it opens and a man comes inside. As a second individual is entering the room, Guillamette stabs the first man and then the second man. By the time the rest of the party wakes up and gets to Guillamette's room, there are two dead men lying at Guillamette's feet. Jollin hops out the window and looks for any other suspicious people outside. The innkeeper runs up to the room, we explain to him what happened (he doesn't recognize either of the men), and he runs off to get the town guard. Yukon draws pictures in the dirt, trying to ascertain the history of one of the dead men's boots. He finds out that the man wearing them traveled from 100 miles away, arrived in town just the prior day, and seems to work alone.


Back to the Crucible of Thurn
The next day, we head to the Crucible of Thurn to hire a mage to speak to one of the would-be thugs' corpse. Jodus informs us that Celdan is the mage in the guild that knows necromancy, and perform the services, but he's away from the guild at the moment. Yukon buys two powerstones at guild; Sophia buys some potions.

Celdan arrives back at the Cruicible. He meets the party at the constable's office to Speak with Dead on the two corpses. The party hires him to Speak with Dead on the two assailants. What we find out: 1) He was hired by Dalok to kill the party, 2) Dalok was hired by some priests, 3) Dalok was in town, 4) the thugs were targetting Estenel and Sophia in particular, and 5) they were supposed to meet Dalok in the alley outside the inn after the job was done.

Yukon and Estenel heads back to the Crucible to research. Yukon begins singing to himself. It annoys an anti-social NPC who goes off to get yet another anti-social NPC who casts silence on Yukon.

Jollin asks a cleaning woman at the inn if anyone by the name of Gregory has stayed in the inn. She points him to the room that he was staying in. Jollin enters the room, finds it unmade, and grabs the chamber pot in order to get some of Gregory's urine. (No, I am not making this up.) Jollin believes that Jollin and Dalok are one and the same. Yukon seekers the piss and finds the pisser on the road to the northeast. Jollin hops on his horse with only his bow and some arrows, and beats feet to try and catch up with the man seekered by Yukon. Yukon goes back to his wall-of-silence research.


Northeast of Fuinahiir
Jollin rides for an hour and catches up with a wagon. He asks the people riding in the wagon if they've seen anyone who matches Gregory's description. After riding for another hour (and not coming across anyone), Jollin turns back and comes across the path of the wagon again. Jollin stops and talks with the rider in the wagon again, but does not determine that he's lying when he says he's not seen anyone else all day. Jollin gives up and heads back to Fuinahiir.


Fopasado
We wait until the end of the week, pick up our magic items that we had commissioned, leave town, and travel to the port town northeast of Fuinahiir in order to buy passage to Fopasado on Hronn. Three days travelling by land to the port town, and three days on a ship to Fopasado. We get to Fopasado. Estenel casts seeker for Gregory, with the aid of the urine, and comes up with nothing.

We spot an Ice priest on board one of the two Black Dawn ships that are in port. They are loading slaves. Sophia strikes up a conversation with a fisherman on the dock to see if they know of an area that is known as "The Fish's Tail". Nada.

We find a track that is being used by the Black Dawn to haul slaves to the dock. We track inland a mile and set up camp near the track, awaiting a wagon to come by. Six days later, a wagon comes down the track. The entourage consists of seven wolfen, two horses, a wagon, and unknown contents in the wagon. The party hides and springs upon the wagon. Combat ensues. We whack the wolfen. The wagon is full of slaves: several humans and four goblins. We broker a deal with the slaves to have them continue to pose as slaves so that we can infiltrate the ice coven. Estenel sings a most compelling sonata that soothes the humans and goblins; they go along with the idea, given the agreement that they go free when all is said and done.

The Black Dawn (Session 8) - Emmanir 14, 888 F.S.

North of Schnorking
The city of Schnorking sends 3000 men north toward Gurdikar to see if they can take it back. This force is led by Lord Hallibank. The party travels along with the troops. They send a dispatch of 50 scouts ahead to see what is in Gurdikar, Laendersberg, and Stahl. Gurdikar is leveled, as was Laendersberg. Lord Hallibank retakes Stahl and sets up a base of operation there. Stahl is still fairly intact. However, the invading forces appear to have retreated back to the north.

Lord Hallibank sends a detachment north to seek out this invading army. The party goes along with them. The party breaks off to head over to Degarn’s Keep. Estenel finds the rock where Flick had entombed his man-at-arms. Flick un-entombs his man-at-arms. Yukon cures his Goblin Fever.

Flick then notices, a quarter mile in the distance, a dust cloud being raised by wagons heading west away from us. Flick sees that they are carrying shields with a marking of a sword through a crescent moon on a field of blue and black. These appear to be the same people who had kidnapped the water sprite. We decide to follow them until they set up camp, and then investigate them under the cover of night.

Night falls. The wagons make camp. We watch the camp. After they get done eating, they get a couple people out of the wagons, hand them swords, and force them to fight to the death. The guards hoot and holler, exchange their bets, then put the victor back into the wagon, and toss the corpse outside their camp.

We make a plan to assault the camp, using the wagons full of hostages as a diversion. Flick heads to the wagons and begins to release the hostages. A few seconds later, the rest of us approach the camp to take the guards. We get to within 200 yards of the camp, when Flick hears one of the wolfen alert the captain, who says, “Yeah, I see ‘em.” Apparently, the party’s presence has been discovered. Two of the wolfen go toward the picket line of horses and a few of the others begin to snuff the fire out. Meanwhile, Flick picks the lock on the door of one of the wagons. Yukon uncorks a fireball on some of the guards. Unfortunately, it torches one of the wagons with captives inside. Mayhem ensues.

In the end, the party prevails. We tie up the captain of the thugs, heal him (he passed out during battle), awaken him, and question him. He says they’re coming from Gurdikar with the slaves. The wolfen have the heraldry of the snowflake. The humans have the heraldry of the Black Dawn. They have a ship to the west called the Gale’s Teeth. One of the pirates (humans) says that their leader, Red Francis, sells the slaves to Stormbrother Garrin. One of the other pirate leaders that also makes runs to Hronn for slaves is a man by the name of Priamo, who sails the Flying Tiger. They also tell of a third pirate by the name of Captain Preetu who runs slaves. The wolfen says that Ididerac is now in the Frozen Citadel. They tell that they will most likely meet up with Stormbrother Garrin on this shipment of slaves due to its size. When they meet up with Garrin, it is outside of the town of Fopasado (the seaside village where the port is located).

The party decides to continue heading west on the wagon’s timetable, with the hopes of catching up with Stormbrother Garrin.