Attack of the Trolls! (7th - 9th of Bearguard, Rose: 47)

Play continued in the afternoon of 7th of Bearguard, Rose: 47.

Rescued hostages were cared for and looked after.

• Tye, a Freewoman of Rhackdalia, a regular stationed at Inverness, says that Shyn-Preen is in danger if they’re cutting the overland supply routes through the pass. Once they’ve heard Inverness has fallen, Civilians will flee into the Pastore Hills and Highlands; Shyn-Preen has no standing militia. They’re sitting ducks.

• Lharya, a Freewoman of Rhackdalia, a regular stationed at Inverness, has the start of hypothermia in her left hand and feet; her extremities are blackened. Siegride loaned her Ring of Warmth to Lharya to help.

• Lorya, a Freewoman of Shyn-Preen, a regular stationed at Inverness. She is very religious, a devout soul. She prays to Dhyane. She asks for retribution. War. A reign of death on these adversaries. She begs Dhyane for an opportunity to fight, to kill, these aggressors in Her name, and to protect her family from them.

• Whycka, a Freewoman of Shyn-Preen, a laborer tasked with helping the trading caravan through the pass. She plays with a deck of playing cards. She hid the deck from the guards. She is casting a question. What need I know now to survive? Past, Present, Future; the inquirer card is placed below. She cast a question for Ma'yah.

• Ghayle of Shyn-Preen, a merchant, useful information. She’s able to give specific timelines relative to the capture of Inverness. She can also tell the party what happened at Inverness.

Not wanting to be observed from the ridge of the Pass, the party pressed on for another 3 hours until dusk and made camp further away from their last fight. That night, the party was attacked by three trolls - two females, one male, and the male had an extra malformed head jutting from its ribcage, all slobbering and apparently very hungry. They were sniffing the air and following the apparent trail of yummy former hostages through the snow. It was a vicious battle, many of the PC's got slapped around, and there were comments from the players like, "Should we just roll-up new PC's now?", but, with some oil, fire, and a couple of lousy die rolls from the trolls, they survived. Whycka used a Healing skill to help stabilize and restore Tolman after he was mauled by a hungry troll. Regrettably, Tye ... became ... Tye Food ... for a hungry troll.

On the 8th of Bearguard, the party slow-marched on the Pass back the way they came, back towards Overreach. Mid-afternoon, a squad of six guards arrived from Overreach who saw them on the pass - carrying food, clothing, shelter, and medical supplies. The party and guards escorted the freed hostages back to the Overreach.

Back at the Overreach, Unna waits for reinforcements from Rhackdalia. Still in touch with his contact, Twyst, in Rhackdalia, Twyst indicated that the runner from Overreach arrived and went immediately to the Magistrate, who then called an emergency meeting with the Matrons of three Houses: Brix, Witherdew, and Ennen-Tayle. As a response, the Magistrate dispatched 40 guards to the Overreach.

The party cringed! The Magistrate obviously has no idea about Inverness and the ~90 half-ogres that occupy it, and sent a force to simply reinforce the Overreach - which, if pressed, could support 50+ guards, but really isn't outfitted to sustain such a deployment for long. The Magistrate is woefully ill-informed! And the Halfling boasted of his infinitely better connections as member of Ashes and Omens than city managers.

Unna said she needs more information. She fears her and the Overreach will be the last bastion of protection from an aggressor storming out of the Pass. She needs to know more about what's going on at Inverness; the activities of the occupiers; potential leadership and purpose. She needs a fact finding mission, and asked the party for their help.

The next day, looking at the map, the party borrowed rope and climbing gear from the Order and set out north of the Pass, along the mountain ridge of the Mherisan Melts, in order to gain access to Inverness from the north, and hopefully unobserved.

That's where we'll pick up again, on the 9th of Bearguard, Rose: 47.
R

Ice, Snow, and Blood at Preen Pass (6th - 7th of Bearguard, Rose: 47)

Play continued in the early morning of the 6th of Bearguard, Rose: 47.

In the early morning, the Order of the Pass was up to the grizzly work of hacking apart the enormous body of the ogre and throwing its body parts over the side of the cliff-face. They were also chopping wood and preparing a funeral pyre for Jhannel, their fallen comrade. Unna, a Freewoman from Rhackdalia, a soldier of the Order, was taking charge, and asked the party for their thoughts in securing the Overreach from future aggressors.

Then a curdling scream erupted from within the Overreach. It was one of the soldiers who discovered the body of Helyne of House Brix, hung from the guard tower; she apparently committed suicide in the early morning hours. Unna, still trying to control the situation, set her team to creating another pyre.

Unna delivered a eulogy before the party left the Overreach for Preen Pass. Prepared for the travel and with the expert guidance of Elan, the party traveled through most of the pass to arrive perhaps ten miles away from Inverness. The pitched camp while Elan went on scouting ahead.

On the first watch, Vongur told a story about how the cliffs reminded him of a time where he and his cousin had a run in with magma drakes. Tolman received words from his contacts in Rhackdalia and later on shared them with the party. During the second watch, the party's rest was frightening disturbed by giant centipedes who attacked them in their sleep, drawn to their heat; Ma'yah was knocked unconscious and paralyzed for an hour. The ponies were killed. During the fight, Tam felt blackened hate spread through her body, and her temper got dark and short; she became more and more angry with every swing of her new battleaxe. And Siegride discovered her cloak of starlight has pockets!

Meanwhile, Elan discovered two distant camp fires on the horizon and scouted the first one, finding another ogre raiding party with 10-15 women hostages. Returning, Elan herself was being tracked and she tried hiding in the trees, but the half-ogres had a good sense of smell and tried to root her out. She managed to kill one and flee the other, outpacing it on a sprint back to the camp.

Upon her arrival back the camp, she discovered the recent battles. Everyone uprooted and traveled for two hours to an icey patch along the narrows of the pass to pitch another camp and rest up. Ma'yah revealed information she gleaned about frost giants from the book. Around mid-day, recuperated, the party attacked the 10 half-ogres and freed 14 out of 15 hostages; one hostage lost their head.

The hostages are mix of guards from Inverness and merchants from Shyn-Preen. They beg for water and food. They barely have clothing to protect them from the elements. All of them women, they're badly beaten up but not so much that they couldn't travel, and, none of them were assaulted. The guards from Inverness, however, say they were lucky. After Inverness fell, their commanders were rounded up and taken who knows where, and the regulars could hear their commander's screams through the night. They had just left Inverness the morning before (on the 6th of Bearguard); they don't know where they were being taken to.

Searching the raiding party, the half-ogres carried nothing of value except for a similar stone staff with writing on it, and, the half-ogre commander seemed to have a falcon-borne message of his own; all in Giant, Ma'yah would have to cast another ritual to read the writing. The staff reads: "Take Post. Claim Hostages. Falcon." The message reads: "Regroup to Mid-Pass. Surrender command to Gazetch-Dee."

The guards describe how Inverness fell. 2 huge ogre giants attacked the gates directly while these half-ogres scaled the walls and battlements; 40, maybe 50 half-ogres, they said. Inverness didn't stand a chance; they knew exactly where to hit the guards, striking when the shifts were in rotation and scouting parties were afield, and the ogres made for a structural weak spot in the gate and ripped it from its hinges. That was three and a half days ago.

Before attacking Inverness, the half-ogre raiding party set upon a trading caravan from Shyn-Preen weeks ago, and the remaining hostages were from that caravan. All of the men were slaughtered and set on pikes but the women kept.

Hostages at Preen Pass (5th of Bearguard, Rose:47)

Play started on the 1st of Bearguard, Rose: 47.

We picked up a new player character (Ma'yah), 3rd Level Wizard.

The party left Rhackdalia for Preen Pass with about 20 days of supplies on the 2nd of Bearguard, Rose: 47.

On the night of the 4th of Bearguard, Rose: 47, a wounded Rhackdalia soldier wandered into camp - Jhannel, a Freewoman of Rhackdalia and a member of the Order of the Pass. Very wounded.

Once healed, she revealed that her post was overrun and members of her Order were killed; there are maybe 11 hostages that've been taken by ogres and "half-men, half-ogres". The lay of the land was discussed and general ideas about the post revealed; she said there's at least 14 half-ogres and 2 ogres.

On the 5th of Bearguard, Rose: 47, the party prepared to scale the switchbacks on the mountainside along Preen Pass to climb up towards the Overreach post.

It was a treacherous climb! PC's were hit by wicked black javelins, cleaved by enormously cruel battleaxes, hurt from being shoved off of cliff-faces, and hit by rolling boulders. The Dwarves took the brunt of it: at one point, Gorbash was reduced to just 2 hit points and Tamrhook was knocked unconscious, just inches from the True Death; Cleric of Isthmeira also took a javelin to her torso; the NPC Jhennel was utterly destroyed by a "death-from-above" maneuver where a half-ogre threw himself upon her from 20' up. I believe Tolman, Ma'yah, Elan, and Llew were relatively unscathed.

At the end of it, 8 half-ogres were dead, one fled, and the party was left reeling and licking its wounds … The party continued to scale the switchbacks to the Overreach and battle their way through seven half-ogres and two ogres. Gorbash took the brunt of the damage but survived.

After the melee was over, the party discovered the hostages and their pitiful state. The wounded were attended to, everyone was fed, and rest was obtained. The party learned more about the possible motivations of the ogres.

Raid on Fenwater Abbey (11th of Low-Frost, Rose:47)

After recovering Yhandi of House M’lahn, the party prepares for an assault on an Abbey believed to be a seedbed of nefarious activity … the least of which, the Abbey is sheltering one of the masterminds behind the Careless Kidnapping. The party succeeded in killing Moonshade Phenelope of House Morley.

A Careless Kidnapping (9th -10th of Low-Frost, Rose:47)

Following training, the party accepted a writ from House M’lahn of Rhackdalia to locate and recover a kidnapped daughter of the family, Yhandie (17, 5th of 6 daughters). Dead: the girl is worth 3,000 Crowns; alive, 9,000 Crowns. The ransom letter was delivered by human (male) courier to the House on the 5th of Low-Frost. It reads, "Bad things will befall little Yhandie lest you surrender the Chalice, or 50,000 CR, by the 1st of Wolfguard. Test not our resolve. Send your word to Ardice." Ardice was a reference to a statue at Widetree Abbey that was apparently enchanted to allow for two-way communication. Using the Ranger’s tracking abilities and through acts of clumsy discovery, the party made their way to a beached ship 4 miles outside of Rhackdalia called The Sea Wyvern, where a group of bandits were using it as a hideout … the party attacked the brigands, recovered the hostage (alive), and took a large bounty.

Horror of the White Stands (1-~14th of Wintertide, Rose:46)

Following training, the party accepted another Snowy Owl Company job - and an encouragement from Sister Susyn of Shyn-Valour - to investigate the strange happenings in the White Stands. All of the party was second level. The adventure introduced more aspects of Northern Barbarian culture and deities; the corpse of the halfling hero Gammond Brandyford was found and looted; they recovered two artifacts, a staff and cloak, and a butter crock; the party needed to clear a demonic possession in the White Stands; after much trial and tribulation, the party banished the demon Agloolik by defeating its possessed mortal allies, digging up a buried totem pole and hacking, chopping, burning it.

Rescues and Rivalries (12th of Snowfall - 1st of Snowpack, Rose:46)

Accepting a job from the Snowy Owl Company, the party rushes into the Wilds to save the Matron of House Hawthorne from a barbarian attack. After dispatching the barbarians, the party escorted the Matron to the apartments of Augusta Pontius of the Commercium in Shyn-Khane. They defended the Matron from an assassination attempt by Ashes and Omens, and escorted the Matron safely back to Shyn-Valour.