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Apple Lane Again - 03 Feb 2020 12:33
Tags:
Season, Week, Day
The Tail End of Earth Season
Dramatis Personae
PC
Jorrim
Finarvi
Serala
Ivalla
Arim
NPC
Leika Blackspear
Nameless
Various members of Blue Tree Clan
Two cats with very big teeth
Events
Having returned alive from dealing with the dragon, the group once again found themselves in Leika Blackspear’s schemes. Leika wanted to grant them land in Apple Lane as it was nearer to Blue Tree tula than the steading by the falls. Finarvi and Serala managed to tempt her with the idea of turning the falls steading into a waypost for trade, as it would be better for Finarvi’s planned Wilmskirk trade route.
Serala sought permission from the Feathered Horse Queen to involve herself in the newly-rediscovered Ernaldan sub-cult of Orgovale Summer. A letter was sent.
Jorrim and Finarvi worked on planning and organising the new trade route, and curing the dragonhide. Jorrim also arranged for a shipment of apples to be sent to White-Eye the Troll, and located a priestess who specialised in pre-Dragonkill mythology. She knew more about the cult of Orgovale Summer, a granddaughter of Orlanth who founded Clearwine. He was unable to have an in-depth talk with her before he set off with Serala on a mission.
Serala had a herd of ponies in Blue Tree to collect. Ivalla had a herd of cows to take to Blue Tree. Finarvi muttered something about arrangements to meet Berra and Varanis in Blue Tree in the coming seasons. Jorrim and Arim both wanted to return to the temple of Orgovale Summer. They therefore made arrangements to travel together at least as far as Apple Lane.
Finarvi and Serala proved quite effective at herding the cattle. The others were at least not an active hindrance. They found themselves shadowed by elves past Tarnasil’s Grove, but arrived in Apple Lane with the cattle without incident. When told they could pen the cattle in the orchard, Finarvi made sure the place was swept clear of any fallen apples as he didn’t want to be faced with a herd of colicky kine in the morning.
The next day, the party headed towards Blue Tree. Their progress was slowed by false alarms, so they made camp in the wilds. Jorrim set up a warding while the Grazelanders hobbled the cattle and set a watch for potential cattle thieves. The night passed peacefully, but early afternoon the next day, the cattle became restless. Everyone except Arim detected movement in the undergrowth from a pair of sabre-cats that were stalking the herd. The Grazelanders guided the herd out of ambush range of the predators. They pushed on for a few more hours before making camp, cautious about still being in the big cats’ territory.
That night, Jorrim’s wards went off accompanied by the yowl of a big, angry cat on the far side of the herd. Ivalla used Cat’s Eye and Serala cast Light, and both saw two sabre-cats running up the hill away from the bright light. Both had their bows to hand and brought down one of the cats. Ivalla harvested what she could from the carcass in the way of hide, teeth and claws.
The hobbles prevented the cattle from fleeing and there were no further disturbances that night.
The last leg of the journey to Blue Tree passed uneventfully until the group entered the tula and were greeted by a band of warriors from the clan. The band’s leader sounded a horn to let the clan know of their coming and at the noise the cattle, who had been fairly manageable up to that point, decided to stampede.
Serala and Finarvi managed to ride ahead of the herd and head off the charge before it got up to speed. They rounded up the herd and brought them to a halt. The leader of the warriors looked slightly abashed and helped them drive the cattle into Blue Tree, where Ivalla was quick to point out that they were a gift from Queen Leika’s royal herd and not, in fact, raided.
A party ensued. This time, nobody ended up in the rafters.
After staying a few days, they headed back to Apple Lane with Serala’s remaining ponies. Remaining, because she had found out that some of her horses had already been sent to Henderost for breaking as no-one in Blue Tree could manage them. On returning to Clearwine, Serala got a positive reply to her letter for the Feathered Horse Queen.
Jorrim decided to settle as a scribe in Apple Lane, helping the aged Lhankor Mhy scribe there. Arim spoke to Nameless who told him they would be sending Sigurd, an old veteran, to be Apple Lane’s new Thane, and wanted him to be the Sword to back him up and to tend and guard the shrine of Humakt. Arim accepted in the short term, knowing that the Apple Lane locals needed to be taught how to fight. Finarvi and Ivalla planned to return to Blue Tree for Dark season to practice leathercraft. Ivalla offered to put Finarvi up at her cottage, in return for teaching her to craft leather.
The group returned to the temple of the goddess Orgovale Summer to investigate the old cult. They found an extra room they had overlooked on their first visit, an antechamber off the dragon pedestal room. Orgovale Summer’s statue moved again when they entered, smiling upon them and speaking to them. Orgovale Summer was looking for a priestess to link to, but none of the people before her were Ernaldan, so she had to be less picky. Jorrim, Serala and Ivalla decided to initiate into the cult of Orgovale Summer. Jorrim attempted to negotiate positions within her Cult, as they together added up to about one Priestess, but the goddess was having none of it.
Notable Moments and Quotes
- Comments: 0Headology - 12 Jan 2020 15:32
Tags: 1626 arim dragon earth finarvi ivalla jorrim serala
Season, Week, Day
Dramatis Personae
PC
Arim
Jorrim
Ivalla
Serala
Finarvi
NPC
A dream with delusions of godhood
Events
Faced with a dragon convinced it was a beautiful goddess, Jorrim stepped forward and tried to tell her that she was, in fact, dreaming. The dragon-goddess did not take kindly to this, and even less kindly to the general lack of bowing and worshiping taking place. She transformed back into a fearsome dragon.
Ivalla mastered her fear of dragons and grasped her spear, eager to fight (rolled 100 on Fear Dragon). Finarvi, on the other hand, had the opposite reaction and cowered behind the Hero King’s massive shield (rolled a Special on Fear Dragon).
The dragon breathed out a green, acrid cloud of poisonous breath but Jorrim released the air elemental from the bag of wind Queen Leika had given him. The gale funnelled the cloud of poison out through a hole in the temple’s roof.
Arim drew his sword and attacked the dragon, wounding its left hind leg. Serala maimed its wing so badly it could not fly. Enraged, the dragon struck out and clamped its jaws around her head, biting through her helmet.
Seeing this, Finarvi gave in to his urge to run and bolted to Serala, who was lying unconscious on the ground with large dragontooth-sized holes in her skull. He healed most of the damage, enough for Serala to rejoin the fight.
Meanwhile, Arim had severed one of the dragon’s legs, Jorrim had thrown both his javelins, including the magical one, and Ivalla, abandoning the shield she can’t lift on her own, joined the fight too. The dragon dodged the javelins and enthralled Arim to stop him doing any more damage, but then Serala repaid her dues by stabbing the dragon through the chest. Ivalla slashed through its right foreleg and it fell to the ground, unable to maintain the enthrallment.
Seeing the dragon was down, Arim drew the dragonnewt’s klanth and used to deal the deathblow, severing its head just as Jorrim’s magical javelin circled round to bury itself in the dragon’s heart.
The severed head opened its eyes and spoke to Jorrim, offering knowledge if he kept it from being returned to the traitorous dragonnewts.
Disliking this greatly, Finarvi dug some leather straps out of his pack and bound the head’s jaws closed.
After the battle, the statue of a woman on a dragon in the room seemed to come to life and spread her arms, saying “You have freed me from the wyrm-friends' magics.” The statue bowed to them before freezing back into immobility.
Later, the group returned the head to the dragonnewt plinth. The dragonnewts’ speaker told them they had earned a boon from the dragonnewt’s master, and need only place purple Nardas flowers on a plinth for the master to come.
They then travelled back to the tomb of King Berenvenos to return his dragon-fighting treasures. Jorrim asked if he could keep the javelin so that he could tell the king's story. After some buttery persuading, the king agreed.
Back in Clearwine, Queen Leika offered the group a reward of land and 20 cattle. The land was the steading near the base of the waterfall where the dragon had first attacked. Ivalla accepted the cattle and land for the Blue Tree clan. Though initially disinterested, the Grazelanders were soon warming to the idea of turning the steading into a guest house for the portage up the falls, somewhere that both visiting Blue Tree clan and Finarvi’s new trade route could use as a stopping place.
Jorrim decided to settle in the area of the temple and the goddess they had freed, in order to do some research on the old Ernalda sub-cult. Finarvi found himself with a surprising amount of dream-dragon hide and claws to turn into something useful, and Serala received a lot of unhelpful suggestions about how to repair her dragon-damaged helm.
Notable Moments and Quotes
- Comments: 0Dragon Lady - 01 Dec 2019 16:55
Tags: 1626 apple-lane arim earth finarvi ivalla jorrim serala
Season, Week, Day
Dramatis Personae
PC
Arim
Jorrim
Ivalla
Serala
Finarvi
NPC
Henderost the Horse-Master
Korina, God-Talker of Orlanth Thunderous
Queen Leika Blackspear
Ghostly King Berenveros
Dragon-Newts
Dragon!
Events
The evening in Apple Lane was spent being feted with cider.
The Grazelanders, including Henderost, left to check on the horses from time to time. Not one for crowds, Serala found an excuse to drag Finarvi and Ivalla away from the party. Henderost went with them and gave them a tour of his beautiful stables and grand house. Henderost’s house was effectively a Guildhall with a sleeping area large enough for guests and trainees.
Jorrim spent the evening improving relations between Sartar and Tarsh, having to institute a queue system for all the Ernaldans who wished to share his cultural understanding, and also finding time for a religious discussion with the Priestess of Uleria. The next morning, some people had sore heads from all the cider but Jorrim was brimming with vigour.
Ivalla had persuaded Korina to guide the party to the mound she believed to belong to King Berenveros. She was willing to guide them there but not accompany them inside. She led them to a hill with a double burial mound (large mound with a smaller mound on the top). Jorrim was persuaded to stop staring and making nipple jokes by the rest of the group.
The side of the smaller mound had disturbed earth, a spoil heap where earth had been dug out of a hole in the side of the mound and a large stone had slid down, revealing a tunnel. It looked to be a few seasons old.
The party thanked Korina and entered the mound. Inside, a desiccated corpse lay on the floor of a smallish room, its attitude suggesting it died crawling to get to the outside. Its garments were Lunar. Bronze grave goods were scattered around, and a blackened silver chalice lay not far from the corpse. Ivalla reached for it, and Jorrim tried to stop her but his desperate grab for her reaching arm missed. Ivalla lifted the heavy chalice and placed it back with the other vessels before pouring an offering of cider into it. Jorrim watched, looking irritated but making no further move to stop her. They added food and drink to the plates and cups there.
They proceeded into the next chamber. The first was round and small; this one was larger, with a stone dais and a large pottery urn. A warlike panoply surrounded it - blackened helmet, a massive shield, two spears, one heavy and one light, and an electric blue cuirass of enamel over some strange metal. As they stepped into the chamber, the air shimmered and the figure of a mighty warrior faded into life. He wore a silver helmet with a horsehair plume, the blue cuirass and held the bigger of the two spears in his hand with the other sheathed over his shoulder.
The spirit bellowed, “You dare disturb my rest!”
Jorrim leaped to the fore. “King Berenveros! We have a dragon problem!”
Jorrim went on to praise the legend of King Berenveros and explain why it had drawn them there. The ghostly king was mollified by the grave gifts and that his legend was remembered.
The King agreed to lend his aid in the form of a loan of his panoply, but in return he wanted regular worship from peasants (sing his songs, refresh his grave goods). Jorrim negotiated 10 years of worship, and Arim pointed out that the people could not sing his songs if they didn’t know them. At Jorrim’s request, the King related the song of his final battle and death.
The Loan of weapons and armour was conditional on never compromising on fighting dragons.
Silver helm (6pts armour plus Demoralise spell matrix.)
Iron cuirass (blue enamel)
Shield (Impervious to Dragons)
Spear, Chestbreaker, (double normal armour points, pierces dragon armour)
Javelin, Andrinor (If it misses, it keeps attacking until it hits)
Arim took off his vambraces, put them in his helm, and handed them to Jorrim. He tried the silver helm on for size. He shrugged off his linothorax and tried on the iron cuirass too, but it was too massive on him (SIZ 15 Arim and armour is SIZ18). Regretfully, he left the cuirass.
Serala took the heavy spear, Jorrim picked up the javelin and looked surprised. The party left with Berenveros’ blessing. Ivalla and Finarvi between them wrestled the giant shield out of the barrow.
The group returned to Apple Lane for the night and debated what to do next, with Finarvi opining that Red-Eye the Boar might be easier to deal with if they had magic spears and javelins that never missed. They decided instead to return to Clearwine, as the magic of one of the spears was linked to dragons, and they were not fully prepared for the boar. Next day they paused at Blackspear and asked if there had been any further sightings of the Dragon, and were told it was still somewhere in the Thunder Hills behind Blackspear and Tarnasil’s grove. Arim polished up his helm and Finarvi crafted a new crest for it from the hair of their horses.
In Clearwine, Leika considered the virtues of appointing a new thane to Apple Lane, and Jorrim immediately pointed out how tragic it was that everyone else was on the move all the time and it would be terrible if that were offered because they’d be so terrible at it. She noted that at any rate, it should wait until the dragon is slain, as having to appoint two thanes in close succession would not look good. Jorrim worked hard to persuade her Law-Rememberer that none of them wanted to be Thanes, and that an economic reward such as a monopoly option on the trade route would be much preferred.
Riding out they encountered a group of Dragon-newts on the road ahead, some riding giant birds. One approached the party, laid down its wood and stone sword and addressed them, asking them to liberate the dream from its prison by cutting off its head with a special tool, the stone sword. They then needed to bring the tool and the dream’s head to the nearest Dragon-newt plinth and place them on the plinth. If the humans were to do this, they would get a boon.
Jorrim had all sorts of fun with the concepts of the dragonnewt’s attempts at Heortling. He asked if it could guide them to where the dream was trapped. The speaker conferred with its leader and said the wandering dream lay curled around the legend of a queen, at the ruin of an ancient tower near a standing tower. The legend of summer. Ivalla said she knew of a landmark tower in the area, and talking with the Dragon-newt Speaker, learned that the new tower stands but the tower of the queen did not stand in this time, but it was still there, buried. So the dragon was underground, in its foundations. The place Ivalla knew of was Aelbard’s Tower, the ruins of a fortress.
It just so happened that Ivalla also knew of a burial mound near that tower called the Queen’s Tomb. She led them to it. It was a lot larger than the tomb of King Berenveros, carved into the solid rock of the mountaintop. Even Arim looked impressed. The remnants of a road led to an entrance to the West. Above the entrance a terrace held 10 huge seated statues, weathered and headless (the heads lay on the ground, broken and defaced, each a metre tall.) Beyond the entrance, a tunnel led down deep stairs.
Ivalla carried the Dragon-newt’s Klanth. Finarvi had the bag of wind that Leika’s Law-Rememberer had offered them. The chamber was empty except for paintings of runes and spirits on the walls. A staircase led down into the next chamber, which was roughly symmetrical with doors to left, right and ahead. Dozens of niches lined the walls, once held decorated urns. Some broken, cups with food or plates. There was a feeling of unquiet spirits, to Arim.
Jorrim peered in through the first door on the left. Serala made sure she was keeping him safe, and peered through closer, as the scribe was in a gleeful trance of note-taking and might have done himself an injury. The room beyond had more niches and urns with funerary offerings, and they could hear the whispers of a language even Jorrim did not understand. Another door in the same wall led back into the next room. The next room showed deeds of Orlanth and Vingkot in well-painted religious paintings and history of the people of the area (Vingkotlings). Another exit led back to the previous room. Jorrim studied the paintings, fascinated, and had to be dragged away by people less fascinated.
The rooms led to one central, circular room with one other exit leading deeper into the hill. Dominating this room was a large circular pit 2 metres across carved in the centre. At its edge stood a small statue of a woman with a crown of 5 serpents, riding atop a draconic serpent, in a niche.
The bottom of the pit was littered with thousands of offerings of ceramic snakes. There was also the glint of gold and bronze down there. After discussion, the group decided it could be a hero or goddess from the Empire of the Wyrm Friends and that it would probably be a good idea to leave it alone.
They examined the last doorway. Beyond was the largest chamber yet. Its walls were also painted, like the mural room. In centre stood a large stone cube with a statue of a goddess wearing lapis lazuli and copper. But, this was the second thing they noticed about the chamber because curled around the base was a dragon, long and serpentine, and as they peered in, the dragon opened its eye.
Then the air shimmered, the dragon vanished and a beautiful goddess appeared, proclaiming herself to be a past and future goddess. Jorrim cast True Speak upon her…
Notable Moments and Quotes
- Comments: 0Piggy Rank - 01 Dec 2019 16:43
Tags: 1626 apple-lane arim earth finarvi ivalla jorrim serala tusk-riders
Season, Week, Day
Dramatis Personae
PC
Ivalla
Serala
Finarvi
Arim
Jorrim
Uhnta
NPC
Henderost of the Golden Wheel Clan, Horse-Master of Apple Lane
Korina, God-Talker of Orlanth Thunderous
Gooseberry, a Doughty Durulz
A Lone Spearman
A number of old Humakti with varying numbers of arms
Eight Tusk Riders with varying numbers of legs
Events
Meanwhile, back in Blackspear, Serala and Arim questioned the resident Humakti on the art of dragon-fighting, and somehow ended up recounting the Battle of Queens to the elders. They got a good description of the land around the tomb they were seeking, and headed on to Apple Lane to rendezvous with the rest of their party.
Seeing smoke, they arrived in Apple Lane at a gallop expecting the worst, but found the smoke was coming from a single hut to the east. Serala joined Finarvi and a group of locals who were discussing what to do about the Tusk Riders.
The villagers recounted that the Riders had come down the North Road, looped around the settlement and fled northeast when the Horsemaster (the Grazelander horse breeder Serala had heard about back in Clearwine) cast Shining Light on them. The priestess of Ilyria stated they would be back. The fyrd had been sent for, but not yet arrived. The locals were, on the whole, not fighting types. Henderost, the Horsemaster, sent a stable boy on horseback to Blackspear for help.
Ivalla scouted the area, finding the tracks of 8 large boar. Serala sent her hawk up and spied eight Tusk Riders lying in wait down the track.
The Grazelanders drew on their past experience fighting Tusk Riders as part of the rebel army, knowing their morale could be quite brittle. Jorrim began casting Warding around the Tin inn, judging it the most defensible building in Apple Lane, and the three Grazelanders determined to engage the Tusk Riders on the road to buy them more time to prepare. Arim laid out for Jorrim where the warding should be, and patrolled the village to make sure he knew it.
Ivalla and Uhnta climbed the tower of the Temple to All Gods with her bow, and on her recommendation, the remaining villagers who could not fight fled into the woods.
Using Farsight, Serala confirmed the Tusk Riders were not armed with bows, and chose the perfect ambush spot to make full use of their horses’ maneuverability to harry them. Serala rode forwards to engage, and Henderost and Finarvi wheeled and retreated, readying their bows. Serala’s arrows speared the lead Tusk Rider, causing him to drop his lance and halt to heal his wounds. She turned and galloped past Finarvi and Henderost who engaged the remaining Tusk Riders, felling one. The attack managed to enrage the Riders enough that four of them were drawn into chasing the annoying Grazelanders, but their leader, having healed himself and cast haste magic on his mount, rejoined and led the rest of the charge into Apple Lane.
Up in the tower of the temple, Korina joined Ivalla and offered to give her a better vantage to engage in the battle. She floated Ivalla into the air on a column of wind above the unsuspecting boar riders.
At the inn, Jorrim finished casting Warding and retreated inside the inn’s gate, where Arim, a lone spearman and a Durulz named Gooseberry stood ready to defend. Arim and the others had constructed a hasty shooting platform at the inn’s wall with a barrel for Gooseberry, who wasn’t tall for a duck.
The remaining three Tusk Riders, including their leader, barreled down the road to Apple Lane. The four chasing the Grazelanders fell foul of the horse-mounted archers’ tactics of ‘shoot and scoot’. They ran rings around the less nimble boar, but the Tusk Riders’ large shields proved effective against the Grazelanders’ arrows. Finarvi shifted tactics, circling to attack the one chasing Serala and catching him by surprise.
From atop her tornado, Ivalla shot another of the Tusk Riders in the head. It didn’t slow him.
The three lead Tusk Riders charged into Apple Lane. At the inn, Gooseberry and Arim let rip with their slings, Jorrim’s javelin destroyed the shield of one of the Riders. His second javelin pinned the Rider’s leg to his boar, which squealed in pain and ran blindly into Jorrim’s Ward. The Rider was knocked off the pig - all but his leg, which was still firmly pinned to his mount. The pig kept going. The second Rider charged through the ward and rammed the inn’s gate, which held.
Arim drew his greatsword and engaged the remaining Tusk Riders, backed up by Gooseberry and the village’s lone spearman. Jorrim severely wounded one of the Riders with an axe and Arim finished it with a decapitation so impressive the head was not found afterwards. The last Rider veered away, blowing a horn, but none of his comrades rallied. Just outside the village, Ivalla and the three Grazelanders were finishing off the last of his band. He fled.
The villagers returned jubilant, and an hour later, the fyrd arrived. A little while after, some Humakti turned up too. Apple Lane hosted a feast to celebrate.
Jorrim spoke to Korina the God-talker and the Ernalda initiates about Red-Eye the Giant Boar. They thought the Tusk Riders lived up there too, and regarded Red-Eye almost like a god. Killing the Tusk Riders should make dealing with Red-Eye easier. He asked the Ernaldan initiates how best to propitiate Ernalda.
Notable Moments and Quotes
- Comments: 0Tuskan Holiday - 26 Oct 2019 17:58
Tags: 1626 apple-lane arim earth ivalla jorrim red-eye tarnisil tusk-riders
Earth Season
Dramatis Personae
PC
Ivalla
Jorrim
Finarvi
NPC
Priestess of Maran Gor
Hastor the Grey Sage
Aldryami Queen of Tarnisil’s Grove
Red-Eye the Boar, distantly
Tusk Riders, inconveniently
Events
Having delegated the dragon problem, Queen Leika instructed her Grey Sage, Hastor, to brief the party on the history of the Second Age dragonslayer whose tomb they were hoping to raid. Hastor agreed with Jorrim that the dragon they had seen was a dream, given its small size, and like the dragon Orlanth battled, it had poisonous breath. He gave them a bag of wind to use against the dream dragon’s breath.
The hero Berevenenos was himself a descendant of dragonslayers and used his father’s enchanted armour and weapons to kill many dragons. Hastor believed he was interred in one of the burial mounds northeast of Apple Lane, on the edge of Malani lands. He thought the mound was still undisturbed, as no-one had shown much interest in it, except for one Lunar official who had seemed interested in the tale back during the occupation.
After hearing they had all shared the same dream of being worshipped as a goddess, Hastor felt it would be worth them seeking the advice of ancient immortals who might remember that age, like the Aldryami, while Arim suggested the Dwarf of Dwarf Mine. Hastor recommended speaking to the Queen of Tarnisil’s Grove, as the local Ernaldans were on good terms with the Aldryami.
While Ivalla and Finarvi were being instructed on Aldryami etiquette in the Ernaldan temple, Jorrim and Arim learned the particulars of Berevenenos’s tomb from Hastor. There were three tombs the Grey Sage thought were most likely, which included the one he had described to the Lunar official. He had records of grave goods, including the helm, cuirass, shield, sword and javelin used to fight dragonkind. Hastor added that it was unusual for dragon newts to speak to humans, as they had to be surgically altered to even try. The fact a group of dragon newts were deliberately going round talking to people was very unusual, and best heeded.
Finarvi and Serala retired to the stables to check on the horses and mules, and found them were much improved since their last visit to Clearwine. There was even Grazelander-style tack in use. The stable lads explained the horsemaster of Apple Lane had taught them how to do it right. Serala mentioned the Master of Horse had mentioned a Grazelander horse breeder in Apple Lane horse.
Ivalla visited a shrine to Yinkin and communed with her god, hoping to find some hint of where the dragon had gone. She learned that game had fled from the east side of Nymie vale.
The party decided to head north to the tombs, with Finarvi, Ivalla and Jorrim paying a visit to the Aldryami on the way. Arim needed to spend a few days at the Humakti temple so he and Serala arranged to meet the others in Apple Lane before going to look for the tomb.
Jorrim hid his axe in his backpack and the trio head into the Aldryami grove. They are escorted to the Queen of Tarnisil’s Grove, where Jorrim remembered not to stare and smoothly brought up the matter of the dream dragon. She seemed happy enough to help, provided they first prove they were heroes by dealing with a tree-wrecking giant boar. The goddess Ernalda had visited the boar on some of her followers in punishment, but the boar still remained.
Ivalla scouted for the boar and found tracks and a trail of shattered trees in a steep-sided little valley. Though distant, Red-Eye the Boar was so massive and powerful she could clearly see its passage through the wood. The terrain was mountainous woodland, very steep and rocky. They would have to draw it out of there to have any hope of fighting it.
They quickly decided that the best way to deal with the boar was to ask Ernalda to tidy up after herself. Deciding there must be a shrine to Ernalda in Apple Lane, they headed there directly, only to find smoke billowing into the sky and a panicked rider shouting about Tusk Riders.
- Comments: 0Enter The Dragon - 01 Oct 2019 18:48
Tags: 1626 argrath arim blue-tree boldhome clearwine dragon earth eril finarvi herengvot ivalla jorrim leika serala
Season, Week, Day
Earth Season
Dramatis Personae
PC
Jorrim
Arim
Ivalla
Serala
Finarvi
NPC
Feathered Horse Queen
King Herengvot, bewanded
Some chap with a white bison calling himself Argrath
A large gathering of worthies
The Blue Tree Wyter
Eril the Pleasant
Rondrick
The Master of Horse in Boldhome
Two likely Humakti lads
Two unfortunate peasants
A handful of slightly more fortunate peasants
A silver dragon-shaped thing
Queen Leika, eventually
The Shaker Priestess
Events
A couple of days after the battle, the Feathered Horse Queen’s army was at Alda Chur. The Lunars had fled North on finding the city’s gates closed against them. A gathering of tribal chiefs took place in the palace to discuss their next move. All the clans of the Alda Chur region were represented, but the tribes of Alone - Tres, Amad and Bachad, were missing. There was also no sign of Queen Leika or the Sartarites.
The Feathered Horse Queen shared news that Leika had departed to take Kallyr’s body for burial. A messenger sent from Boldhome had returned and the Sartarite army departed shortly after. Herengvot gave a flowery speech about Kallyr’s return from death, though it was clear the situation displeased him. He had his green glass wand hanging from his belt.
Herengvot advised there was a new chieftain in Alone, but he did not know who. As if on cue, a horn sounded, the doors of the hall burst open and a man riding a large white buffalo entered. Argrath greeted the assembly and thanked them for driving the Lunars from his ancestral home. The other leaders accepted him into their council without challenge.
The chiefs decided to send scouts after the retreating Lunars and that messengers should be sent to Boldhome and Leika. When the discussion came around to the Colymar, eyes turned to the only Colymar in the room, who happened to come equipped with a scribe and a handy Humakti bodyguard.
The party were despatched to bear a message to Queen Leika in Clearwine. Of all the roads they could have chosen, the intrepid band decided to brazenly take the Boldhome route, swinging by Blue Tree Tula on the way.
They found Blue Tree abuzz with wild rumours concerning Leika, Kallyr and Dragon Newts, who had been oddly active. One group of dragon newts had even stopped to talk to humans. Rumours from Boldhome suggested that Leika and Kallyr had fallen out.
The party stayed a couple of nights in Blue Tree and Serala, Ivalla and Finarvi visited the Wyter. Ivalla asked it if the dragon newt activity was a problem for her people, and the Wyter replied that the dragon newts looked to the problem, but that nothing in the Blue Tree lands concerned them.
In Boldhome, Jorrim hastily took advantage of his ageing news from the Front and Alda Chur and spread the tale that Serala had called the charge that won the Battle of the Queens. He also spread the song of Arim at the Ford.
Arim headed to the Humakti temple, where people were tiptoeing around the not-quite-High Sword and calling him Eril. Gossip in the temple had it that Eril left the battle before Kallyr fell, supposedly on a private mission. And that Leika and the FHQ won the battle. Nobody knew what the mission was, except it involved a Heroquest. Nobody knew where D’Val was either, but it was rumoured he was also on a special mission.
The Grazelanders visited Rondrick’s, only to be told that their friends had left town hastily some time ago. They headed to the Grazelander embassy and touched base with the Master of Herds, who gave Serala a name to look up if she was interested in establishing breeding stock - Henderost had set up a breeding program in Colymar lands, near Apple Lane.
Ivalla headed to the Colymar embassy, which was deserted and boarded up. She picked up an escort of two large Humakti lads from the Royal escort in the process, who followed her around town ‘for her own safety’.
Comparing rumours, they establish that a heroband affiliated with Leika and maybe Kallyr had been told to leave town quickly and had headed to Nochet in a hurry. One was large, riding a bison and took lots of beer.
Serala sought an audience with Eril as the last she had seen, he’d been riding hell-for-leather back to Boldhome where their friends had been involved in a Heroquest to find out what he’d stolen. Eril met with her and assured her that all matters resolved satisfactorily and Sartar would triumph. He gifted her an ornate lance.
The party continued to Wilmskirk without incident and on to Clearwine. Coming through the mountain pass, Finarvi spotted what was most definitely a dragon flying in the clouds. It swooped down into the valley out of sight. Arim pursued it at a determined trot, and when the others caught up they saw the silver dragon lifting from a burning steading with two people in its talons.
It started to rain, and by the time the group had reached the steading, the fire had been doused. The steading was small - a longhouse, animal pen and a singed barn with a partially collapsed roof.
The barn contained a deceased ox under the fallen roof, plus two dead cows and a nasty odour like swamp gas. In the longhouse, two people were unconscious and three more in a panic. Smelling the gas on them, Finarvi ordered the unconscious farmers carried outside and helped to heal them. The survivors told them the dragon had smashed the barn, eaten half their cattle and asked them to carry word to the Queen.
The Grazelanders rode at speed to Clearwine while Arim guarded the steading in case the dragon reappeared. They returned with a detachment of warriors and healers, who took care of the farmers and escorted the group to an audience with Leika at Clearwine fort, where a Shaker priestess hailed them as ‘the dragonslayers’ who had been prophesied.
Dragon notwithstanding, Jorrim managed to persuade Leika to hear news of Alda Chur, the Lunar army and the Trolls first, and then let Serala do the actual telling. Arim added that Argrath now led the Alone clans, which came as news to Leika. Jorrim added that Argrath had formed a town ring in Alone and no-one had made a fuss about it.
Leika agreed to consider sending messages to Alda Chur, Herengvot and maybe Argrath, and neatly brought the meeting back on track by introducing the Shaker priestess.
The priestess told them the prophecy had been given to her by Dragon Newts, who had come to the Shaker temple warning that a dragon would come seeking flesh, and heroes would come with news of its first attack and bring them its head. This was not a true dragon, but the semblance of one, she said, and the Dragon Newts insisted it must die.
She instructed them to fight with cunning, not force. She told of three legendary heroes who had fought dragons using magical shield, helmet, armour and spear, but after the heroes died the dragon-killing weapons disappeared, buried with their ashes. She proposed a spot of grave-robbing, to everyone’s discomfort.
On hearing that these great heroes were sworn dragon-hunters and might aid them if properly beseeched, Arim decided this was the more honourable approach and pledged to fight the dragon. The others agreed to support him in this endeavour.
Afterwards, they were treated to a fine meal and given beds, and they all dreamed the same strange dream, of standing on a hilltop in front of a town while the masses bowed down in worship to them. The archaic weapons and dress in the dream led them to believe it was a very long time ago.
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, they set off to desecrate some graves.
Notable Moments and Quotes
- Comments: 0Gone With The Wand - 01 Sep 2019 17:33
Tags: 1626 arim earth finarvi grazelands ivalla jorrim serala
Season, Week, Day
Dramatis Personae
PC
Serala
Finarvi
Ivalla
Arim
Jorrim
Uhnta
NPC
Jeepol
Some Crafty Lunars
The Feathered Horse Queen
King Herengvot
Some unfortunate Lunars
An obligatory one-eyed, three-legged dog
Events
The party left the Troll lands and returned to Ironspike with the mule train. Jeepol and Finarvi got the supplies unloaded and the drying of the giant mushrooms started, while Ivalla and Uhnta scouted the area under the pretence of hunting. They soon spotted a suspicious clump of bracken on the ridge that hadn’t been there last time, and which turned out to be hiding a pair of Lunar scouts.
Ivalla reported back to Jorrim in the village that the inn was being watched Jorrim asked about strength in depth. They told Arim, and he took the direct approach, drawing his sword and advancing on the ridge while Ivalla and Serala tried to circle around in opposite directions in a slightly more stealthy manner. Meanwhile, Finarvi took advantage of the distraction to hide the glass wand in the privy.
Faced with a large, grim Humakti with a colossal sword, the bracken clump sprouted legs and made a run for it. Ivalla and Serala watched the two Lunar scouts throw off their camouflaged cloaks and scarper towards a larger force of 20 Lunar peltasts who had been concealed by the ridge. The Lunars retreated hastily back around the mountain. Gaius was not spotted among them, but they had the look of his men.
They returned to the village and discussed what to do next. Jeepol felt they needed to negotiate with King Herengvot, and summoned Garath to lead them through the woods. Finarvi felt the wand would be better coming from the hand of a Queen than a scruffy trader, and so he and Serala raced each other over the mountain pass to take the wand (now thoroughly sanitised) to the Feathered Horse Queen.
Jorrim, Arim, Ivalla and Garath travelled back to the fort of Herengvot to let him know the Feathered Horse Queen would present him with the wand in return for the safe passage of her armies. Heading through the Lady’s Wood, the party was shadowed by Aldryami but their guide was not concerned and nothing untoward happened. On nearing the glass-walled fort, it became clear the Lunar army had mostly pulled out, leaving a much smaller force reinforcing the earthworks and pretending to be a much larger force, with campfires and tents for a larger army, plus helmets propped on sticks near the palisades. From the tracks, they deduced the rest of the army had headed towards Alda Chur the day before, possibly in response to the Luminous Stallion King’s force causing trouble.
From the fort side of the earthworks the ruse was obvious, but it likely looked a lot more convincing from the direction of Sartar. The Feathered Horse Queen’s forces were mustered in force just outside the pass, but it was noted that the Colymar were not with them. The party also noticed that Herengvot’s war machines had moved, and were now aimed to cover both the pass and the Lunar encampment. A group of riders emerged from the fort and ushered them into the presence of King Herengvot.
Meanwhile, Finarvi and Serala were met by a squad of Grazelanders and escorted to the Feathered Horse Queen’s camp. Serala made the formal greeting and presented her queen with the gift of friendship the Mistress Troll had given her, and the message that they would stand together in the fight against chaos. The gift was a prancing horse of crystal which glowed with an inner light. The Feathered Horse Queen said that Leika had returned home with the Colymar, Kallyr lived, and the Sartarites were busily embroiled in politics.
Finarvi explained Herengvot’s terms for helping fight the Lunars, and presented the wand.
The Feathered Horse Queen said she could not give Herengvot access to the Jonstown ring but she could give him the wand. She summoned a scribe and dictated a message to Herengvot, that if he opened the way, the Grazelanders would remember and support his people in their liberation, whatever route they chose in the future. She gave her word she would give him the wand herself when the Lunars had been dealt with.
Serala and Finarvi rode back to the fort and delivered the message to Herengvot. They and Arim reassured him that the Queen had the wand in her possession and would keep her word. Herengvot ordered his Humakti to attack the Lunar defences. Catapults hurled barrels which magically exploded, destroying the empty sections of the earthworks and knocking down the palisades. The Lunars formed up and abandoned the camp, marching quickly towards Alda Chur.
Jorrim and Serala questioned why Herengvot’s attack seemed to be aimed to avoid harming Lunar soldiers. The king replied that the Lunars could not capture the fort nor hold the pass, so why should he bother killing them? He would not waste a drop of his soldiers’ blood in so futile a gesture.
The Grazelander army were ready to take advantage of the breach and advanced, cutting off the Lunars’ retreat. Arim and many Grazelanders offered challenge, but the Lunars refused, choosing to fight and die as one.
Notable Moments and Quotes
- Comments: 0Trolls and Tribulations - 14 Aug 2019 16:50
Tags: 1626 crabtown earth finarvi jorrim mistress-race serala trollkin-one white-eye
Earth Season, Early, approaching Mid.
Dramatis Personae
PC
Finarvi
Jorrim
Serala
NPC
Arim
Ivalla and Uhnta
Garzack
Some Troll Guardstrolls
A troll Innkeeper
An audience of cheering trolls
An audience of well armed and armoured trolls
A Mistress Race Queen
Not Cragspider
His Magnificence the Luminous Stallion King, Huzzah!
Endars
White-eye the Troll
Trollkin One
Events
Back at the guest mushroom, the group slept most of the day. They were woken in the evening by a great commotion of chanting and grinding outside. Peering through a window, they saw hundreds of Enlo dragging a monstrous net down the street and singing. Garzack arrived and explained the fishery had caught a giant crocodile.
At that point, several large trolls on giant beetles arrived and accused Garzack of breaking the rules by letting humans into Crabtown before they had passed the tests. The lead troll insisted the party pass the test immediately as the Queen wanted to see them. Jeepol spoke up, saying he had passed the test many years ago, but the troll stated that as the rest of the party were not of his family, they still had to take the test.
Jeepol looked grim, and warned them all not to let the trolls serve them powsey.
The trolls took the party to a hut labelled ‘Grog Shop’ and ushered them inside, where six barrels were laid out in a row. They were told the rite of passage to enter Crabtown was to finish three drinks chosen from the barrels. They could choose one drink, the big troll would choose one, and one drink would be chosen by an onlooker, of which there were many. Any number of them could drink.
The six barrels were labelled Erosian Ouzo, Drive Careful wine, Old Rotgut, Skullbuster, Rainbow Delight, and Powsey. Jorrim recognised the wine and Skullbuster and whispered what the effects were to the others.
Serala stepped forward and chose Skullbuster. She chugged a stein of it down to a round of applause from the audience. A clay-based being in the corner offered to sell them information, but the barman said this was not according to the rules. The being also bet against Serala, and Jorrim took up the bet and made some bolgs.
Finarvi volunteered to go next, and the big troll served him a mug of Powsey. Finarvi gamely started drinking the fizzy, acidic brew, making it most of the way through before passing out. Luckily, Serala was ready and caught him and the mug. Ivalla healed him enough to finish the powsey to a huge round of applause and cheering from the trollkin.
Jeepol stepped forward, stated he wasn’t part of the group so he would be the third chooser. This caused some shouting but was not against the rules, and so it was allowed. He chose Rainbow Delight and as he passed the mug to Jorrim whispered not to drink it when it was purple. Jorrim took the mug, watched the drink slowly changing colour and waxed lyrical about the way each colour smelled and looked. Yellow smelled lemony, red briny, and purple was caustic like lye. He stalled until it turned yellow again and began drinking, finding it chewy. Red was liquid and savoury. He got two thirds through before it started to change colour, so he paused and talked some more until it turned yellow again.
The large troll announced the group were now Trollfriends and welcome in Crabtown. He led them and Garzack through town past a giant crabshell temple to a great crystal building, where the humans were given black cloth bags to wear over their heads. They were led by trollkin into the presence of the Queen, where the bags were removed. Serala bowed to the Troll Queen and introduced the party.
The Troll Queen stated the omens showed the time of the Hero Wars was here, the End Times, when Chaos must be slain. She said that though Kallyr’s funeral pyre burned, Kallyr herself was not in the Wonderplace. She would walk again, and wanted to know what Serala thought of Kallyr. Serala told her Kallyr was honourable and would seek to atone for any wrongs in her past. When the Queen asked about Serala’s own Queen, Serala spoke with devotion and loyalty.
The Troll Mistress gave Serala a small package to give to the Feathered Horse Queen as a gift of friendship between two queens, and stated she would once more become Queen of Dragon Pass, as had her predecessors. She wanted friendship between their people to fight chaos. Serala agreed and vowed to carry the gift to her Queen.
They were dismissed, and once outside again, Jorrim noticed a hawk circling in the sky, the same kind of hawk as Serala’s. Serala recognised it as her brother’s hawk, and Jorrim suggested they note its direction. The bird flew North-East.
Garzack treated the party to a meal at Gobbleguts restaurant to celebrate, with Serala taking the vegetarian options and Jorrim trying jellied herdman. Halfway through, they were disturbed by the sound of more troops moving in the street outside. Finding a full army mustering, the party retrieved their horses to go after them. They headed North, the way Endars’ hawk went.
On a plain outside Crabtown, the troll army formed up against a force of Grazelander cavalry that had invaded Troll lands. Serala forged through the Troll lines to speak with the Grazelanders while the rest of the party talked the Troll generals into waiting for a parley.
Serala rode out to greet a small band of mounted warriors led by the Luminous Stallion King, intent on rescuing Serala from the trolls. At the rear of the small group was Endars, trying hard not to facepalm. Serala took the LSK by the arm and suggested discussing strategy with Endars. They agreed to ask the trolls for permission to pass through their land to attack the Lunars from the rear.
The Trolls and LSK negotiated passage through Troll lands and stole a march on the Lunars, reaching Ironspike by dawn. Serala and Endars worked out a plan to attack the Lunar baggage trains and harry their Pentian raiders, to bottle up the Lunars around Alda Chur. Then, if they could persuade Herengvot to turn his weapons on the Lunars, Sartar’s army would be free liberate Alda Chur. It was clear they needed the glass wand urgently. The party picked up more bags of apples on the way for Trollkin One and headed back to Crabtown.
Jorrim, Finarvi and Serala made their way to White-eye’s place with the apples, to find Trollkin One bruised, despondent and tied up, and White-eye sitting next to him. Jorrim and Finarvi dodged out of sight down an alley but Serala froze as the delayed effects of a stein’s worth of Skullbuster started to make themselves felt. Finarvi decided to brazen it out, walked up to White-eye and introduced themselves as traders and trollfriends. White-eye was unimpressed, but invited them into his hut where he pointed to all his belongings, told them they were his and to not take any of it, and that he would fight them if he tried.
Finarvi listened, feigning polite incomprehension at the suggestion they were thieves, and explained their Queen would marry soon and they were looking for a suitable wedding gift. They could offer many things in trade for the right piece. White-eye seemed mollified by this, stated he had been told the wand had been a wedding gift once, and he wanted a supply of fresh fruit and vegetables delivered to him for two years in return. Finarvi agreed, and when White-eye insisted he wanted them to swear an oath, Jorrim stepped in and mentioned the Humakti trolls. He got Garzack to arrange the oath-swearing and White-eye handed the glass wand to Finarvi.
Finarvi and Garzack finalised their own trade agreement, securing a new source of luxury goods for Nochet, knocking thousands of miles off the journey of the existing trade route to the Lunar Empire and potentially depriving the Lunars of a fair bit of Esrolian wealth.
Before they left Crabtown, Serala commissioned Jorrim to write a letter.
Notable Moments and Quotes
- Comments: 0Stones and Glass Houses - 05 Aug 2019 14:59
Tags: 1626 arim earth finarvi grazeland ivalla jorrim serala
Season, Week, Day
Dramatis Personae
PC
Jorrim
Ivalla
Serala
Finarvi
Uhnta
NPC
Arim
Garzack
Jeepol
Trollkin One
Events
On arriving in Crabtown, the crew were met by a Troll trader and his two hulking Great Troll guards. The trollish merchant was expensively dressed and seemed beamingly happy to see human traders.Jeepol explained they were looking to restore his old trade route and introduced Finarvi, and the caravan was escorted into Crabtown. Some of the Great Trolls that had turned out to greet the caravan were Humakti, and these saluted Arim.
The troll trader introduced himself as Garzack and guested them in a large mushroom house with windows and a door. Getting into the spirit of introductions, Jorrim recited his lineage back to Grandfather Mortal while refreshments were offered by a trollkin.
Garzack explained the inhabitants of Crabtown were mainly fishermen, not friends of the Lunars but not their enemies either, though he lamented the impact the conflict was having on trade. The Skyfall Lake fishery was rich and they traded fish with the rest of the troll lands, but the amount they could produce was hampered by a lack of a ready supply of salt, since trolls had to fight Praxians to mine it, and drying the fish in caves was not ideal. Garzack showed off the finest goods Crabtown had to offer, dried mushroom, caviar, a very bitey wine, a way of making things cold, and shimmering spidersilk cloth. In return Finarvi and Jeepol talked salt, herbs and woods to flavour smoked and dried cuts. Jeepol mentioned peat bogs near Ironspike that could supply fuel to smoke food for export, and Jorrim gave Garzack a sip of each of his inks and made a note of the ones he liked. Jorrim also talked about smoking herbs for flavour.
Garzack hinted that they might get eaten if they wandered around town.
They are given beds for the night. Jeepol warned them that trolls may be listening, so they discussed only their plans for trade. Jeepol believed Garzack had the monopoly on human traders, having eaten the competition. Jeepol had wanted to trade Troll goods south to Nochet, but the Lunars invaded before he could develop the contacts. With Finarvi’s contacts in Nochet, he could handle the Northern trade and Finarvi the South. These goods (bitey-wine, spidersilk) would sell well in Nochet. Ivalla suggested apples and cider from her clan, new tastes for the trolls.
At night, the town came alive with fishing and business, the odd dark troll or great troll and hundreds of trollkin slaves. There were also lots of different kinds of beetles, some big enough for trolls to ride. Next day, Jorrim and Jeepol kept Garzack occupied with a tour so the rest of the gang could find White-eye.
Slipping away with a map that Jeepol had sketched, they made it past a Zorak Zoran march to the address Herengvot gave, which turned out to be a modest shack. A small, elderly trollkin sat on the porch, watching them cautiously. Finding he spoke good Trade talk, Finarvi and Serala got him chatting and learned he used to travel with White-eye in human lands and lived near Apple Lane. White-eye was now very old and spent most of the time asleep, but they used to have many adventures. The Trollkin, who gave his name as Trollkin One, took them into the shack and showed them White-eye’s souvenirs: old swords and spear points, broken shields, and a wand of black glass hanging on the wall. Asking about it, and keeping their voices down because it sounded like White-Eye was asleep in the shack’s only other room, they asked One about it. One called it a useless trinket that made things, and took them into the stone garden at the back to show them what it made.
The garden behind the shack had a few statues of green glass: two (former) trollkin and a large beetle (deceased). The garden was fenced in glass, and the shack’s roof was glass.
They asked if White-eye might want to trade the useless trinket for something that would be more useful to him, and when One said that White-eye didn’t like humans, they suggested trading with One instead. The trollkin thought about it, and agreed to trade it for a bushel of apples. Returning to Garzack’s place, they scrounged together a big bag of dried apples and an entire mustard ham to trade to One for the wand.
Notable Moments and Quotes
- Comments: 0I Fort The Lore - 05 Aug 2019 14:54
Tags: 1626 arim earth finarvi grazeland ivalla jorrim serala
Season, Week, Day
Dramatis Personae
PC
Arim
Ivalla
Jorrim
Serala
Finarvi
Uhnta the Shadowcat
NPC
Herengvot
Jeepol
Garath
Troll trio
Events
Finally rejoined by Arim, the heroes spent the evening feasting with Herengvot and taking stock of the situation. Despite the abundant wine, the atmosphere in the fort was tense. Jorrim recalled that Engered’s father, Harvast Ironfist, became king after the death of Harnost the Good, who had been of Herengvot’s tribe. He was unsure how the kingship passed from the Princeros to the Vantaros tribe. The Princeros used to be leaders of the tribal ring, but lost that influence. Jorrim resolved to find out why.
Serala observed that the fort’s catapults, ballistas and other offensive capabilities were arrayed against the Lunars, who were camped outside the fort. No Lunars were present inside the fort, only lots of professional fighters, and none of them were drinking to excess. There was a sense of readiness.
Jorrim found someone willing to talk about what happened to Harnost, who had been Herengvot’s son and well-loved around Alda-Chur. Herengvot arranged a marriage alliance for his son with the Jonstown tribal ring that would have been the making of the North, but before the marriage the wedding train to Jonstown was ambushed by the Four Star Band who killed everyone, stole the money, tribal regalia and other precious things and took them to foment revolt. The Four Star Band was led by Kallyr, who had killed Harnost herself.
Harnost had been a good man, but Harmast Iron-fist was not. He had a thousand spears and the Lunar armies at his back and named himself king and the tribal ring went along with it. Those who opposed him had ‘accidents’.
While the group were sharing what they had learned in private, they were summoned to a private audience with Herengvot. Their host had told them what he needed for an alliance with Sartar, now he told them what would delight him. One of the treasures taken when his son was killed had been a glass wand with the power to repair the walls of former Dragonnewt fortresses like Alda-Chur and the one they stood in. Hints and rumours suggested the wand had been traded to a certain troll in Crabtown, in Dagori Inkath. The wand was part of the Princeros’s tribal regalia, and if returned, Herengvot would support Sartar’s cause with no further requirements.
The following day the group left with the intention of heading to Ironspike and up to Skyfall Lake to find this rumoured troll trader. On the way, they noted that the Lunar encampment were sending a supply train back towards Alda Chur. Either they were going to break camp, or Alda Chur was in desperate need of supplies.
The countryside on the way to Ironspike was foraged bare, but the Lady’s Wood remained untouched. Jorrim spotted a badger watching them in an unnatural way, and waved to it. It stood up for a moment and then vanished into the wood. The band met up once again with Garath, and they returned to Ironspike together. Jeepol, the Headman, on hearing the news about Alda-Chur and Herengvot’s missing wand, offered to put together a caravan to Crabtown, as he was overdue a trading trip there. He was willing to introduce Finarvi as a new merchant looking to start a new trade mission but wanted no part in any deception. In return for his help, Finarvi committed to trading at Ironspike twice a year.
They travelled to Crabtown, where they were greeted by two huge Great Trolls and a merely tall troll in a hat.
