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Ater decided to interrogate the dragon cultist he captured with a charm spell a little more, as this was now personal for him, really personal. Ulfnaar and Ameiko felt better but the memory of the feeling of cold steel in the belly still made Ulfnaar a little uncomfortable. They learned that there was a huge camp some three days to the west, south of the village of Greennest, in the middle of the area called Greenfields. While Ater saw to the prisoner that was held in an iron cage in the dungeons, the rest stocked up on rations and equipment and saddled the horses. It was time to get even.
When the horses were saddled, rations packed and the group of adventurers ready to take on yet another daunting adventure, Ater said: - “I wonder if it will be difficult to track them back to where they came from? The Greenfields is a quite large area and probably very difficult to search.”. They decided to search around Fandalin to look for possible trails, and at one point someone said “I think I see some tracks leading west.” Ameiko thought for herself, “How hard are these tracks to follow?”, then she looked at the tracks, and realised that even a blind could follow them. Everything as totally tramped down and the track was like a 20 foot wide road.
On the evening the second day, they all smell smoke from a fire in the air. They looked around, and saw a flickering light i the distance, about a half mile away. Merisiel decided to scout the situation. She quickly and silently disappeared into the darkness and the high grass, and she was gone a good while before coming back. She reported that it was a camp, most probably stragglers from the main force. It was two small tents and four humans around the campfire, and a bit away from them was another tent with a group of Kobolds. The men was in a long dispute, arguing about the best way to grill a prairie hen. Merisiel said she decided to let them live, and that the group should move quickly around them and far enough not to get any nasty surprises.
Early the morning after, Ulfnaar, as usual, did his morning weapon practice. It had been slacking as he had been wounded and he had been enjoying life a little too much, but reality and a foot of cold steel in his guts had made him more motivated than ever before.
Ulfnaar was not the only hero to practice his skills. Merisiel kept refining her skills with her throwing daggers. Standing on one leg, with her eyes closed, she still hit two mushrooms with one throw with two daggers.
The third day, then the party was riding in canyon like terrain, Ameiko suddenly spotted a face that looked over the cliff edge about 15 yards up. She didn’t say anything, she just stood up on the back of her horse and jumped all the way up to the cliff, where she first saw two people about to roll down large boulders on the unsuspecting travellers. She quickly kicked each of them off the cliff with her mighty martial art kicks. Then when she saw another man with a crossbow, aimed at her, and the crossbow fired, she caught the bolt in a gracious move and returned it to the sender, hitting the surprised bandit right in the eye, and he fell down. A fourth person, looking like a dragon cultist attacked her with a knife, but she took him down as well with a flurry of fast blows and kicks. The other the realized something was a foot and stopped the horses and started to climb the cliffside. One of bandits on the other side dropped his rock and it tumbled down and knocked Garnek off his horse. Ameiko sings “It’s raining men..”
The crossbowmen on the cliff on the other side of the road fires and one hits Ater, the other bolts barely missed Garnek, who is falling off his horse, or gracefully dodging, depends who you ask. ASter casts a sleep spell on the hill where there still are enemies and two of the mercenary bandits falls asleep. Merisiel and Ulfnaar jump off their horses and starts to rush. Merisiel who is fast as a leopard reaches the hill and kills one bandit. Ameiko sees that one of the ambushers on the other side is running away and she makes a jump over the chasm and rushes to him. She sees that he is putting a horn to his mouth and he makes a sound right before Ameiko stops him with a well placed foot.
The group kept moving, but beside the main track, and after some hours they came to a large hill. The decided not to follow the main trail but sneak up to the top another way. What they saw was unbelievable. The whole hill was like a horseshoe, and below, where a huge camp with hundreds of tent. Ater’s invisible little friend climbed down the 150 feet steep side and came back after a while and reported that a band of mercenaries, Garnek’s old band, was among the many groups in the camp. By tying three 50 feet ropes together, they got a rope that would go all the way down. Merisiel decided to climb down first to scout, and Garnek came second, to try to find some of his old soldiers and ask them what was going on. When he reached the bottom, a mercenary coming out of a tent to take a leak, Garnek has never been so silent in his whole life, and Merisiel just quietly hid in the shadows.
What happened next is too long to write and to difficult describe and make images to as it’s all dark, but to cut a very long story short, the party freed Leosin, and took him to the closest town, Grenest. They now learned that Grenest had been raided during the night but most of the people had survived hiding in the keep. Master Leosin tells the party that he will go north to a town called El'Turiel, to meet a Paladin friend, and that the party should come there soon. With the information Garnek learnt in the tent, they knew that the huge group of dragon cultists were about to leave their hiding place, and the group returned two days later, to try to take out the dragon eggs they believed was hidden in a cave where the huge camp was located.
The group returned, and fought a long battle with Kobolds, cultists and weird monsters, and finally destroyed three dragon eggs and killed a high priestess of the cult. Ater saw some maps and learned that they group was moving a caravan up to Baldur’s Gate, and further north along the coast road of the Sword coast. The group decided to travel to El'Turiel to meet Master Leosin and the Paladin with the new information they had, but first, a bath at the inn and a good meet with lots of mead.
On the way to El'Turiel, Ater calculates using the notes found at the dragon cave, that it will require five carts to transport the amount of loot, and that the travel time would be up to thirty days, giving the group time to talk to Leosin and the Paladin in El'Turiel and still have time to arrive to Baldur's Gate before the caravan arrives.
During the ride on the road looking at the endless fields of high grass, Miriel suddenly spots movements in the grass, looking like something was moving fast in their direction. They stopped, and suddenly a flock of scared deer crossed the road just a head of the group. Ulfnaar said "Something scared them, we need to look if we can spot that something.".
Merisiel keeps looking, and sees a small smoke pillar rising a couple of hundred yards away, and the travellers remembers that there is a good camp spot beside the road there. Merisiel scouts ahead through the high grass while the rest of the group continued on the road.
She finds the remains of a camp, trashed boxes and wagons, and a burnt down tent. Suddenly she hears a sound, she looks closer to the grass edge, something is there, something shiny. Careful as she is, and cunning, she pokes that with a stick to see if it is alive.
Merisiel poking the thing in armour with a stick
Inside the armour, Merisiel found a wounded dwarven warrior, her name was Jarhild Stoneforge, and she was from the same clan, the Rockseekers, as Garnek. Merisiel called for Garnek and the others to hurry. When Garnek saw her, he said “What are you doing here?” Garnek and Jarhild had as young warriors attended the same warrior college. Garnek used his healing powers to heal the wounded Jarhild, and when she came back to her senses, Garnek asked what had happened. Jarhild explained that she was guard together with two more dwarves on a caravan with three stone builders on their way to Phandelver. They were attacked last night by a group of four Ogres, and she was knocked unconscious and don’t remember much. As the other dwarves, and the horses were missing, they suspected that they had been taken by the Ogres. Some rather easy to follow tracks left the camp site, and the party quickly followed them, and came up on a small hamlet less than a half mile away. Merisiel as usual scouted the area. They could all smell the smell of grilled meat.
The group decided to for once be tactical. Ater, Merisiel and Ameiko snuck around to attack from through the broken fence between the buildings, while Ulfnaar, Garnek and Jarhild attack through the broken front gate. The attack was to be started by Ameiko, making the sound of a mating coconut-Parrot, Kah-kaaaah!
The attack began with Ulfnaar firing his shortbow and Jarhild her crossbow and Garnek some magic, then Ulfnaar charged as crazy, while Merisiel threw daggers from the barn roof and Ater cast some spells. Quite fast, Ameiko, Ulfnaar, Merisiel and Ater took down three of the Ogres and wounded the fourth one, before garnek and jarhild had really realized the battle was going, and when they came rushing against the last standing Ogre, far behind Ulfnaar, Ulfnaar picked up one of his hand axes and threw it right in the forehead of the Ogre, that fell dead to the ground.
When the battle was over, they found and freed three tied up Dwarven stone cutters and the horses in the stable. The also found evidence that the Ogres had consumed the farmer family that had lived on the farm. The two dwarven guards were dead, and Garnek used his divine magic to preserve the remains so they can be brought to the temple for proper burial. After the battle and taking care of the dead, Garnek told his friends that he had made a decision, he would leave the adventure group for now, and join Jarhild as a guard for this caravan. They came from the same clan, it was his duty to his clan.
Garnek took one of his axes from his belt, and gave it to Ulfnaar and said: - “We are brothers in arms my friend. I let you have the greyaxe, treat her with respect.”
The group all took farewell of Garnek, who was now heading for Phandelver, but they all knew that their paths might cross again. Garnek waved good bye and his last words to the group was “I’ll be back”.
El’Turiel, the strange city with a glowing globe over it, protecting the city. They were to meet Leosin and Onthar at the Gauntlet, a tavern in the city, located close to the southern gate. While Ater went to meet his old master, Ulfnaar tossed his gear on a table and went to the bar. Merisiel and Ameiko also went to the bar for a refreshing mead. Ulfnaar, who, really missed the old days, thought this was the time and the place. First time in ages he had come to a city that wasn’t on fire, wasn’t plundered or under siege, it was time for a good classic tavern brawl. He placed himself close to the biggest man at the bar, a bald man with a red beard, ordered a tankard of meat, the he got the man’s attention, pointed at him and said: - “You are really ugly, were you born that way or did something happen to you?” The man, quickly turned in fury, told Ulfnaar that was about to be thrown out. The brawl lasted longer than the red bearded han had thought, but finally he got Ulfnaar out, after they had trashed half a dozen stools and tables. Ameiko and Merisiel were shocked, and tried to discreetly pay the barkeeper who refused to take the money.
After they had been outside for a few minutes, Ulfnaar, and Onthar the Paladin came back in, laughing as best of friends, and they spend the rest of they day, the evening and a large portion of the night, drinking, singing and laughing.
The morning after, not too early, the group when they comes down from the inn floor down to the tavern basement, they are all shown into a private room in the inn. Ontharr Frume and Leosin are already there, and on the table is a large map, and several tankards caters of wíne. Ontharr seems to be in an exceptionally good mood, it might be because he has talked Ulfnaar into joining the Order of the Gauntlet, to apply for Paladin Training, to see the light and the right way of doing things.
They discuss the matter at hand, the caravan with the loot and the dragon cultists, and they agree that the group should take the boat down to Baldur’s Gate, and there wait for the caravan to reload. No caravans are allowed to pass through Baldur’s Gate, all goods has to be carried through. As Ater put it, “The Teamster union at Baldur’s Gate is very powerful”.
The trip to Baldur’s Gate would take about three days, leaving the group with about of week for preparations.
Sailing to Barldur’s Gate really cheered Ulfnaar up. To be back on a ship, even on a river was a good thing. He just couldn’t play the role of passenger, but climbed around helping out and his help was appreciated by the captain, Ulfnaar was an experienced sailor.
During the journey, Ulfnaar could not stop thinking of what might have happened to Ater. Where had the old, colorful Ater gone and where did the dark, black and pale Ater come from. He never really wanted to ask though, as the reply might be too disturbing. Ulfnaar also thought alot of how he looked at the world around him. His recent encounters with evil, made him more firmly believe in good, and that the group is more important than the individual. he had always been on the good side, but more selfish, which was natural for a pirate.
In Baldur’s Gate, Ater brought with him Merisiel for a little expedition to the outer city, Kharm Sham to find a Grimoire he was looking for. They went to a small store on a small street, and Ater seems to be talking a lot to himself. Well in the store, Ater asked for it with some kind of keyword, and when he got the book, and paid one hundred gold pieces for it, he walked away together with Merisiel talking even more to himself. When they turned around to look at the store, it was gone. The door was gone, it was only a plain wall. Ater didn’t look bothered at all, but Merisiel was a little worried.
Ameiko introduces her friends at her tavern, The Rusty Dragon, they get free room and food. Then changes from adventure clothes to more proper clothes for a highborn. She meets an old friend and when she asks him how we should handle this caravan business, he tells her that caravans often travels together north of Baldur’s Gate the road is full of dangers through the Troll hills. As it happens, a caravan of his, will be going north soon together with a few other caravans, and this dragon cultist caravan will most likely join them. Ameiko told him to keep ears and eyes open.
Ulfnaar spends a few days in the harbour taverns to get some news from home. He learns that the cultists even have plundered villages on the islands. He decides it’s time to shape up his equipment and he strolls down to the merchant districts where he can find healing potions. Those will be needed now when Garnek left the party. Ulfnaar finds a small and interesting shop and asks for healing potions. He leaves the shop with a handful of bottles and over five hundred gold pieces poorer. It’s expensive to be the one taking all the hurt.
After about a week, the eyes and ears of Merisiel and Ameiko reports that a caravan has arrived at the south gate, and the group tries to get a good glimpse of them. They saw a sedan chair being carried through town, surrounded by half a dozen guards, and more guards had arrived before and came after, about 20 men in total. They guessed it was Ramirez. Later that day, Ameiko’s friend, Sandru Vishki reported that someone bought 5 wagons with horses plus another twenty horses, and want’s to join the caravan, the bait worked. He also reported that about ten men had rode ahead.
Tomorrow evening the caravans should be ready and all people gathered north of the northern black dragon gate, for an early ride even before sun up.
In the evening before the caravan will leave, a wildwood ranger approached Sandru Vishki, the friend of Ameiko and the caravan organizer. He said: - “My name is Celthor, Ranger of the woods. I had a dream, a message from the gods. I was to come here, and meet a group of four adventurers. A Mighty Wizard, a Fearsome Warrior, A Deadly Assassin and a Masterful Monk. I saw your colorful wagon in the dream.The gods told me there was an imbalance in the nature, a dangerous imbalance, I saw a five headed dragon setting fire to the mother tree. Can you help me Mr Vishki?”
Sandrow was shocked, but he also knew about the dragon cultists, and said: - “I am sorry sir, but I know of no such group..”, when he was interrupted but the group of four arriving to his wagon for a quick chat. Celthor introduced himself and told them about his visions. Ater was very interested in the visions, but when he realized they did not include bleeding or rats fighting butterflies he lost interest.
After the introduction, Celthor joined the group and they talked long and brought Celthor in on the story of the Dragon Cultists, which explained the dreams he has about a disturbance in nature. They went to bed early as the caravan was to leave before sun up,
Before dawn, a mighty caravan of twentyfive wagons and carts and seventy five persons left the Black Dragon Gate of Baldur’s Gate for a two month journey north to Waterdeep. After a few days of fair weather, they reached the dead fields and it started to rain. The air was foul and smelled of rot and decay. In the night during the night rest, the group heard strange noises in the air. Suddenly they all heard screams, and they left the warm and cosy cover of the wagons to see what it was. The ground was full of mushrooms, there was not there in the evening, and they grew fast, and if they were touched, or they grew large enough, the mushrooms exploded in a puff of smoke and a horrifying scream, and everyone near it started to feel bad, low and tired.
Celthor contacted the spirits of the land and felt a strong presence of evil, and he hurried everyone to quickly get the caravan moving to get away from this awful place.
The caravan steadily drove towards the first stop at Dragonspear, where it would halt for two days for maintaining the wagons and letting the animals rest and to stock up on provisions and water.
They passed several Dolmens on the road across dead fields. The place was named that after huge battles was fought here between gigantic magically empowered armies eons ago.
Celthor is scouting about an hour ahead of the caravan to spot any problems, and Ulfnaar being kind of bored by the slow pace of the caravan joins him. The lass into a more greener land with low hills, and suddenly they spot a lonely wagon. Crates and barrels and two men with crossbows defending against a group of seven hobgoblins. The hobgoblins just stepped up with shield cover, fired bows and went around to try from the other side, looking more like a training than actual combat, but they did hit one of the defenders. Under the wagon was a third person laying, and in front of the wagon lies a dead horse. Ulfnaar looked at Celthor who raised his bow.
Ulfnaar also picks up his bow, but it’s a shortbow so he has to walk a little closer to hit as he isn’t very well trained with the bow. Celthor’s first arrow missed what seems to be the commander, but his second arrow hits one of the shield bearers. Ulfnaar hits the wounded shield bearer in the eye and he falls down, and his second arrow wounds one of the archers. The commander now shouts something and three arrows flies in the direction of Ulfnaar and two hits, just a fleshwound. Celthor now aims at the wounded archer, and kills him, and then he kills another archer. Ulfnaar first hits the last archer in the eye and kills him, the hits a shield bearer in the eye and kills him too. The hobgoblins decides to flee and escapes into the woods.
The man under the caravan stands up, he wasn’t dead, just hiding. Celthor and Ulfnaar walks down to the wagon, and Ulfnaar says: - “Celthor, this bow thing, they work very well don’t they? I hit three hobgoblins in the eye, did you?”
The merchant, introduced himself as Illidir, merchant from Waterdeep, is very grateful for the help and when he learns that the heroes are part of a caravan, he asks if he can borrow a horse to get his wagon back in the road and then buy a spare horse from the caravan? He also gives Celthor and Ulfnaar fifty pieces of gold each for their help.
One wagon in the caravan is a roving tavern and every night when the caravan stops, people gather there for mead and meat. Celthor hunted a deer or two and sold them to the tavern keeper. One night just when Ufnaar has went to sleep with his head full of mead, Ameiko came out from her tent, sleepwalking and she was pointing west. Merisiel was the only one awake who saw it.
In the morning the group discussed to ta a short detour to Brinewall, where Ameiko’s grandfather, according to some information, had buried the family treasure. They decided they would leave tomorrow morning, and be back before the caravan left Dragonspear after the two day stop.
In the evening, Ulfnaar and Celthor taught each other drinking songs from home.
Mead, mead wonderful mead, you are my love and devotion.
Mead, mead wonderful mead, you set the world into motion.
Slightly spinning around my head every evening,
spins so it aches in the morning.
I need to hold on to something,
like when the weather is storming.
In the morning they left for Brinewall, and in the night, Ameiko speaks in her sleep. She says: -”Grandfather is waiting, but he doesn’t know who he is.”
The next evening they reach Brinewall and they see the silhouette of the castle in the lights of the setting sun. The town is in ruins, but the eastern looking architecture is still visible on some buildings.
The scout around, and Celthor sees the Brinewall cemetery, which looks neat and tidy compared to the rest of the town which is overgrown ruins. He spots a little green haried being on the cemetery, Merisiel sees a large dead monster in the water, and two drakes chewing on it. The group decides to enter the graveyard, passing the gates with two large Gargoyles, one on each side of the gate.
In the Cemetery is a statue of Selûne, Goddess of the moon. Suddenly the moon turns full, and spreads its light over the cemetery, and Ater’s little friend warns him: - “Something terrible will happen!”. A little fairy with green hair appears on the head of the Selûne statue, and speaks with an extremely powerful and loud voice: - “I smite thee creature of the Abyss!” She casts a spell and something rat like becomes visible in the grass.
Spells flying across the tidy cemetery, flashing in the light from the full moon. The little rat that now is visible tried to run to the mausoleum but is hit a last time by a powerful spell from the little fairy. A scream is heard, then the lifeless body of Skitterfoot is teleported to the bowl in front of the statue. Ater staggers, and his dark appearance turns into the old Ater, except the beard that is still in place. Ater slams his palm into his forehead and says loud: - “Damn, damn damn! I’ve been charmed, under control by the creature I tried to make my familiar.” The fairy speaks to Ater, she sounds like a child with infinite wisdom. She says that she was summoned here by a ritual, and has been stuck here ever since. She tells Ater that there is winged evil in the castle.
The group decides to leave the peaceful cemetery and scout around the castle. When they leave the sacred grounds, the full moon is no longer visible, only a sharp of the moon is, as it was before they met Spivey the fairy. The castle is located on a cliff close to the water, with dense forest on one side. It looks in good shape, and light from the windows suggests it is occupied. Merisiel and Celthor scouts closer and around the castle, and sees guards on the walls.
The group begins to plan the attack. 5 people against a castle, the odds are not in their favour, but as Ater said, who remembers a coward?
Great story with wonderful pictures to go along. Can't wait to see what happens next. Read the whole think in one sitting lol