Synopsis
- The party woke to find Cassie missing. Evidence suggested she bolted in the middle of the night, and Aiden's continued tracking found she'd hardly erred to avoid trees and bushes (ripping apart a blouse and clawing up her vest and pants in the process). Strange no one heard her. And the stride, depth, and placement of the tracks intimated a truly magnificent agility. Could it have been the work of an enchantment?
- In the hunt for the missing explorer, the party came to a ravine cutting a line through woods. The only way across appeared to be a bridge, one guarded by a tethered, overfed bear. On the other side of the bridge, snoring loudly, were two ogres. Perhaps they were keen to exact tolls from passersby, or perhaps they were set here by striga to discourage travel at a key crossing point. Either way, Cassie's tracks cut through their camp and eastward. To circle wide and try to pick them up again would have proven an extremely difficult task, if impossible.
- It was decided best to lure the bear away from the bridge with scraps of food, a job for which Aiden volunteered. While he did so, Ilshana and Roza crept over the rickety, wooden suspension. Though the bridge creaked suspiciously, neither crossing disrupted the ogres' slumbering. Aleksi hid in the brush, watching as Nel dragged her leg over the undulating boards.
- Roza had noticed in her approach a curious thing in the trees, blue but not a bluebird, one of the diminutive fey. She generalized it as some sort of winter sprite, one quite cognizant of its power over them while nestled right above the ogres' heads. One sound could be the pebble which sparked an avalanche of violence. Nel tried to reason with him, but the efforts were wasted on the mischievous creature. Ironically, in her efforts negotiating the bridge and negotiating with the fey, the death priestess made just enough clatter to wake the giant-kin.
- Grahsin and Gohrin, as they were known, groggily rose, Ilshana finding herself nearest to the pair of flabby, hirsute, foul-smelling brutes. They spoke only Jut (Giant), elated breakfast had arrived.
- Roza, who happened to speak their language, pointed to the sprite in the trees in hopes of turning their aggression feyward. The winter sprite winked out with a cruel chuckle, as fey are wont to do at inconvenient times, rousing Grahsin's ire.
- Ilshana attempted an epic verse to confound and browbeat the pair, but unfortunately neither ogre had any idea what she was saying. Sounded impressive, though. Then again, she was very small and her cheeks, still plump with youth, looked absolutely delicious. Gohrin hammered the poor girl with a meaty fist. The winter sprite reappeared, looking genuinely distressed.
- Roza gave the ogres a cold ultimatum, which really only incited an even more violent and gruesome response than had already been given. It would be a horrid fate should the girls be captured. Their rejection of her terms inspired the young sorceress to demonstrate her true power, a sudden and shocking explosion of lightning and howling winds which blanketed the area and struck her enemies in full. The raw power was enough to give most in the group pause, certainly the winter sprite as Roza willed an errant bolt to crackle up the tree and fry him on the branch. He fell dead in a blackened, smoking crisp.
- Ilshana managed to hold Gohrin by herself, taking a giant heel to the chest and then some in the process. Wondering if she'd survive the next few minutes, Nel answered with a backward heal courtesy The Judge of Souls. Ilshana got to experience all the pain leading up to her impending death, while her wounds magically closed. It was an experience the bard never, ever wanted to feel again. Such was the sort of interventions the goddess of death offered to those who should rightly die. Nel was certain the goddess did not like to be cheated in such a way, especially by her follower, but that did not stop her.
- Aiden surged over the bridge and landed a sharp kick in Grahsin's throat. The monster gagged and stumbled backward, giving Roza an opening to dig a dagger through his elephantine hide and into his chest. If that wasn't enough to fell him (it wasn't), Nel berated her goddess and supplied the ogre's death in recompense for Ilshana's survival through a very horrid wilting of life and limb. When Grahsin was reduced to a withered husk, his corpse collapsing under its own weight, Aiden rushed to Ilshana's defense and landed a finishing blow on the affronting giant-kin, punching the bridge of Gohrin's nose into his brain and killing him instantly.
- In the aftermath, Ilshana wondered if the sprite really deserved to die. Roza thought so. Nel hobbled over to frisk the corpses, coming away with an eclectic mix of bartered goods and coin... quite a lot of coin for rural ogres, in fact. The bones of dogs and masters suggested a past ambush, perhaps. Or maybe the one who placed them on the bridge paid well. Or was it the tolls collected by those who could pay coin, the rest murdered where they stood?
- Aiden picked up his sister's trail again and made for the woods ahead, Roza following while Nel and Ilshana retrieved Aleksi and released the bear. Cassie wasn't far, nude and unconscious in a patch of feathergrass. Exposed, they saw several savage looking scars across her back and a few minor nicks and scrapes from her wild night. Aiden hoped she wasn't on drugs...
- Cassie awoke with no recollection of what had happened to her. She was intact and unspoiled, thank the gods, and mentioned something about strange dreams and a feeling of ultimate freedom. Aiden wrapped his cloak about her just as the rest of the group came by. At the sight of the bare explorer, Aleksi might have hit puberty. He bashfully offered her errant clothes he'd recovered along the trail. And when Cassie pecked a kiss upon his brow for the effort, he turned three shades of red.
- The party retrieved the rest of their things from the old camp while Cassie dressed. Nel had a quiet conversation with the girl during the downtime, and Aiden claimed an old, ugly cloak that could only ever hope to fit his tall frame from the ogre's things. Almost immediately he sensed it was something special.
- They spent the rest of the day traveling the mixed country toward The Holy Mountain, two days or so from the Etherian border. There would be Iron Guard in some capacity, but they would cross that bridge when they came to it. In the meantime, navigating the very southernmost tip of the Dawnspear Mountains brought they to a proverbial fork in the road: climb the rises, or risk the chasms beneath. Climbing was sure to take them where they needed to go, but none were well-enough equipped or provisioned for scaling peaks. Of course, the subterranean realm of Izolda had a notorious reputation mostly earned from the horror stories told about Tsojcanth. But these were not the lands of Tsojcanth, were they? The baronial lines between Baroness Drelzna's territory and Baroness Litka's woods were vague, different on every map in truth. Ilshana did not hesitate entering "The Icecaves of Dawn", the party following.
- Through several obvious tunnels, the party came to a spleen-shaped cavern bubbling with hot springs. A giant lizard squatted over a clutch of eggs, hissing in warning at being approach. Lizards were not uncommon in Izolda during the summer months, but none this size. Ilshana was happy to use her creative license in calling it The Dawn Lizard and a liondrake (dragon was pushing it), though Nel thought it far more mundane in a giant snow slink. The priestess tossed a few coins into the air, distracting the creature with shinies and simultaneously offending Aleksi's muzhik sensibilities. They pressed on to further caverns, yet another fork in the road in whether or not to take the flooded caverns or the dry, narrower passages.
- Roza opted the waters, warm mineral baths that did wonders to soothe aches and pains. The others quickly joined her, feelings of light euphoria washing over them. Aleksi was nervous (as was Ilshana) over having to swim any great distance. Aiden suspiciously examined the water from his dry perch, determining it tainted by mushrooms, the kind that make people feel funny and see things. So long as they didn't ingest too much of the stuff, they'd be okay. There was an underwater passage leading on, well wide enough to swim through. Perhaps there was a way out.
- While listening to Ilshana's unbidden advise, Cassie tied a rope to her wrist and gave the opposite end to her brother. She left her pistols and, knife between her teeth, dove under and made her way through. The opposite end revealed a stinky crop of giant mushrooms and their euphoric spores overwhelmed Cassie's better judgement. She lazily climbed onto the slimy shores to be closer to the fungi, crawling over the decomposing corpses of others who were more than happy to stay in dopey bliss until death. As it turned out, a greenish-gold gnome with deep, gem-like eyes was still alive. Cassie confused her with a leprechaun and much tickling ensued in the pursuit of the gnomes non-existent gold. Just as the gnome was caving, Aiden yanked the pair back through to the surface. In the process, both drank inordinate amounts of the tainted water.
- The pair were out of their minds, giggling, stumbling, confusing every other worse spoken to them. Ishana got a good laugh, but the others weren't so amused. No sooner had they all exited the water, bright, blue eyes flashed in the darkness of the exit passage. Kittens! Small, white, frankly adorable snow leopards bounded into the chamber. They hissed and spat and tried looking fierce, only succeeding when they summoned their giant-sized mother. They watched as the cats' eyes glowed the impossible cold and their faces peeled so far backward their jaws and skulls distended and slid into blood, dripping exposure. Not snow leopards after all, the party found as they fled back into the waters, but hellcats out of frozen eight ring of Cania.
- Luckily, it seemed the feline dislike of water was universal throughout breeds, and the hellcats stopped at the edge of the waters. The mother crouched and waited, her babes leaping around her in anticipation. Ilshana became to splash at them in a shooing fashion, until she realized the creature's bodies were so cold water became ice crystals as soon as they touched them. Mesmerized by the phenomenon, she continued until Aiden stopped her. If anyone could inspire a cat to willingly leap in water, it was Ilshana. Nel and Roza decided water wasn't the only thing worth lobbing and fired sacred light and searing fire, ranking number two and three on the list of elements the hellcats despised. They fled, certain easier prey lied elsewhere.
- The gnome assured the group they would not return and climbed out. Cassie and Aiden had a little heart-to-heart, while the others learned a little more about the gnome. This started with her name, Iorwinn. She was daughter of the Underdruid, the party in fact being in The Stonecages of the Underdruid, a kind of living dungeon of shifting tunnels and cells tied to a central 'dungeon heart'. It wandered throughout the earth, swallowing up rare specimens for its keeper.
- Iorwinn was willing to make a deal with the group, showing them the way out in return for the murder of her brother. After a little more conversation, however, Nel and Ilshana sensed Iorwinn didn't really want to kill him, she was simply frustrated being the neglected stable girl of a famous gnomish druid, having nearly died fetching a few mushrooms for a catoblepas, while her brother received all the attention and tutelage as druid's apprentice.
- Roza was quite suspicious of the girl, though, and Aiden hated all fey. Ilshana insisted the gnome come with them on their travels, earning several critical looks, including from Iorwinn herself. She'd heard the tales of clouds and trees, of sun and moon, and thought it all sounded horrifying. She'd never left the Stonecages in all her years, but with Nel and Ilshana's insistence, Iorwinn ultimately joined Aleksi as an unlikely member of the fellowship.
- But escaping the Stonecages wasn't as simple as backtracking. It would require risks, time, and most importantly trust...
Rewards
80 copecks (copper), 12 grivna (silver) each; mixed bones of dogs and their masters; small cask of molasses; wooden flask of vodka (half empty); a hatchet; small leather pouch of foul-smelling tobacco
The Ogrecloak (Aiden)
This large, road-worn cloak has weathered rain, snow, wind, and worst of all the cruelties of men. It's shielded the backs of the unwanted and persecuted, giving it a suspicious and overprotective nature. It has seen battle, hastily mended with ugly stitches and given several mismatched patches. It ranges wolf gray, storm cloud, and midnight in color. Ogre blood stains the fringes.
+1 disengage checks, Add Dexterity modifier to disengage checks
Quirks: Suspicious, Overprotective
Grahsin and Gohrin (slain): Ogres camping a bridge in the Izoldan Wilds, a few days from the Etherian border; unusually well-paid for ogres (who tend to barter, along with much of the muzhik population); kills go to Nel and Aiden
Winter Sprite (nameless, slain): Diminutive fey with blue skin, big pointy ears, and white moth wings; Threatened mischief during the ogre sneaking and laughed when the party was discovered; Seemed genuinely concerned with Ilshana's well-being, but didn't help; Roza fried him for the threat he could pose joining the already difficult battle
Iorwinn: Gnome daughter of the Underdruid Feyntorlen; Native of the Stonecages, a dungeon in the Dawnspears where her mother houses a number of animal companions; She's been designated stable girl against her will, quite jealous of her brother's druid apprenticeship; Iorwinn's never seen the surface and was frightened of leaving the Stonecages despite her hatred of the place, however Nel and Ilshana swayed her from the intended murder of her brother and convinced her to brave the wonders and horrors of the overland with them; Surprisingly fluent in Common
Notable Locations
Ogre's Bridge (Izoldan Wilds): Rope bridge spanning a gorge in the forests, once camped by an overfed bear and two ogres
The Stonecages of the Underdruid (Southern Dawnspears): Series of icy and flooded caverns filled with exotic animals and their young, companions of the gnomish Underdruid; Iorwinn claims the tunnels worm of their own accord, an unassuming cage for the beasts and the uninvited that only aedelsten (people of the earth in Gnomish) can decipher.
Gnomish Cusses
- molepoker
- "If you follow a fool, then he becomes wise." -Papa Nabozhy
- "Treat every woman as your friend, or she will surely become your enemy." - Mama Nabozhy
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