Hammer 2, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
In the town of Bryn Shander, we reached the Town Hall, a two-story building. Sheriff Markham was there and he told us Speaker Duvessa Shane had travelled to Easthaven where a Red Wizard had been caught.
One of the dwarves approached us and presented Saritu with a black amulet made of brittle black crystal engraved with dwarven writing. We recognized it as Duergar make and Saritu read the writing: “Through the invisible art, new empires.”
I explained to my companions that this represented my worst fears, that the denizens of the Underdark were planning to ascend to the surface where they would assuredly enslave the populace of the Ten Towns.
We returned to The Northlook. Scramsax was there and introduced us to an old hermit named Ambrose.
Suddenly, the knucklehead trout on the wall, Old Bitey, began singing. Saritu mentioned magic emanating from it. I peeked in its mouth determined to see if this might be the same knucklehead trout that the old druid Raymala told me about. Steve offered to safely reach into the knucklehead’s mouth and, sure enough, withdrew a ring that Saritu said was the source of the transmutation magic. Unfortunately, the finger that had worn it was long digested. I put the ring on and later discovered that the cold no longer bothered me as much.
Gathering our things, we headed out of town to find the lost ingots, with Ambrose joining us.
After traveling for an hour, it began to blizzard, but we soon found a dwarven corpse. Nearby we found fresh tracks of a sled being pulled by half a dozen small footprints.
We soon came upon six goblins pulling the sled. We circled in front of them and surprised them. Within seconds, two polar bears pulling a magnificent wagon flanked us, apparently leading the troop of goblins. Archers shot their bows from the wagon’s windows, though the blizzard impeded their accuracy. Atop the wagon was a powerful leader, who commanded the polar bears to defend him.
It was a fierce battle, and Talyth was in danger multiple times, though her divine magic helped us persevere! In the end, one of the polar bears and two goblins escaped, but the rest were killed or subdued. Taimen had bravely engaged the remaining polar bear and slew the arctic beast with two mighty slashes of her sword!
We loaded the polar bear carcass and the tied-up goblins into the wagon and began to pull it back to Bryan Shander with the sled tethered to the back.
Six hours later, we returned to Bryn Shander and my companions delivered the recovered ingots to the Black Iron Blades.
Meanwhile, I skinned the polar bear's hide to make a magnificent cloud for Taimen. While I was working, the goblins awoke from their slumber. I could tell by their grunts that they were going to be nothing but trouble and I silenced them for good. I used some of the polar bear hide scraps to make myself a workable loincloth. With the remains, we hosted a feast for the patrons of The Northlook. Sherriff Markham Southwell and Priest Mishann were there.
Mishann told Talyth that his holy raiments had disappeared from his temple. Once the feast was over, we retired to the temple for the night where we found Dannika poking around outside. She said she was hunting elementals with her lantern but couldn’t figure out how to make the lantern work. She gave the lantern to Saritu, who immediately figured out how the gadget functioned.
I found some tiny tracks nearby and followed them to the town wall, where they disappeared. We briefly soon spotted the tiny snow creatures but they proved elusive. Steve laid out some soup to lure them to the temple.
That night, the tiny chwingas appeared. Though curious and tentative, they seemed as harmless. The lead chwinga was wearing Mishann’s raiments. Jojo tried talking with them, as usual, but they didn’t appear to understand him. All they did was mimic his movements. I produced a Goodberry and rolled it to them. They eagerly picked it up and ate it. Producing another, I moved closer, inviting them to mimic my movements. Once I was within reach, I sat down in front of them and removed my top. They did the same, removing the raiments. I gave them my clothing and they handed over the raiments. After some more mimicry, they departed.
We returned to the temple to rest for the night. In the morning, we were going to head to East Haven to warn Bryan Shander’s Speaker Duvessa Shane as well as the local speaker about Sephek Kaltro.
No comments:
Post a Comment