Pursued by Longtooth the red dragon down the mountainside, Pathfinders kill him and escape, avoiding stone giant tracking party they make it back to Turtleback Ferry.
Two weeks later in a reprisal raid with the Grey Maidens, in the woods below Hook Mountain they encounter a strong Kreeg hunting party, killing 4 kreeg, 3 ogre mooks, and a hill giant. A captured kreeg gives much information prior to his execution. Apparently the gathering giant armies at Jorgenfist are led by one called Mokmurian, who the ogre believes to be a returned Lord of the Ancient Days...
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Quillax Journal
Journal 12-Feb
We were able to escape from the giants by good luck alone. We managed to group up together and sent Neril ahead to scout ahead to make sure we had a clear run of it.
It turned out instead we should have been looking behind. Despite leaving the air elemental to distract the dragon, it still gave chase and bore down upon us from the sky. As it dropped from the clouds, we had a clear view of a glowing bronze sehedron embedded in it’s chest scales.
�Sepheria kicked off blade song and then cast Fly on Claw. Jarrick cast haste upon himself and Claw floated up about 12 feet towards the dragon. As it seemed to be focused on me, I taunted it and then dropped underground, having still retained my earth elemental form.
The Dragon stayed airborne and breathed fire upon the group.
In response, Sepheria drew her wand of acid arrow and cast at it. Jarrick drew his bow and struck the dragon twice.
As the dragon glided overhead, we could see it had a golden amber ring on one talon and a silver armband. Claw flew up and attacked the dragon, landing a blow. I surfaced for a taunt and threw a rock but failed to strike it before ducking underground again.
The Dragon decided that Claw was a more threatening target and bit and scratched at him. Sepheria blew out a second wand of acid arrow on the dragon while Jarrick continued to strike with his bow, landing two more arrows. Claw, injured, managed to disengage from the dragon, landing on the cliff.
As we were at a disadvantage while it was in the air, I resumed human form and cast grasping vine, pulling the dragon towards the cliff edge so that we might get within range. However, the vine does not hold and the Dragon pulled away and flew over to land behind Sepheria. She quickly cast animate objects on the nearby stones.
Jarrick quickly crossed to Sepheria’s side and attacked the dragon, managing to balance on some very precarious rocks in an awe-inspiring display of balance. He struck with all his power, smiting the dragon but not killing it.
Claw jumped off the cliff and ran up to throw a javelin at the dragon. I tried to cast confusion as I was too far and too injured to engage in melee but the Dragon shrugged it off. It did appear to try to run but Jarrick struck hard and killed it as it turned to fly off.
We very quickly looted the dragon, grabbing teeth, scales, skin for armour and the trinkets it wore. The sehedron in its chest was cracked and smoking, having broken when the dragon died - a very quick look revealed the amulet acted like Mighty Fists amulet but it was now broker. Very conscious that the stone giants might be giving chase, we turned with our quickly gathered loot and ran.
[xp = 2500 each]
While the Stone Giants attempted to track us, we met up with Neril, who cast Pass Without A Trace and we were able to avoid them. We returned to town to rest and heal.
There, I spent some time drying the land and casting Plant Growth to assist the farmers while Sepheria researched her spells from the Giant’s Spell Book with Claw helping translate.
We hear that the Grey Maidens are recruiting and are calling other Grey Maidens to the fort via an encoded message. Sepheria raised a concern that the Maidens may not have completely honourable intentions in that matter and we decide to have them sign a conduct charter, to which they agree.
As we need to head to another area for our next investigations into the Shards and other Grey Maidens groups are known to be there (although a traitorous branch of sisters following Faceless Kade. We agree to offer her followers a chance to defect back to an honourable branch. Any who accept will come to the Fort with the pass phrase “The wolf comes down from the North” so the Maidens know they were send by us.
While we were speaking to the Maidens about the Charter, they expressed concern about the number of entrances into the fort. Although I had shrunk many previously, they wanted several closed off completely. I made the necessary changes in such a way that it would not impact the Shocker Lizards or other wildlife but that the fortress was protected.
We spoke to Orianna and expressed a need for backup as we went to take on the Kreeg once more. Aurianna assigned 2 corporals (Masde and Halanda) and three regular maidens (Eleene, Timandi, and Jora) as well as herself to join us in our raids.
We took the Ferry up to Bitter Hollow and went to pick off another hunting group. We spend a night by the lake and then in the morning, Claw noticed some tracks. Sometime in the night the Kreeg party had walked right past us but had not seen us either. We decided to follow them, despite there being approximately 12 in the party. We catch up and encounter 4 Kreeg, 1 Hill Giant, and 3 orgres.
Sepheria, blade singing, casts fireball. I cast wall of fire, splitting the ogre party. The Grey Maiden corporals charged forward and Claw moved up and prepared himself. Jarrick drew his bow and shot at them from a distance. The rest of the Maidens and Orianna charged forward behind Claw.
The Hill Giant approached the group and the Kreeg move up and engaged with Claw and also threw javelins at Sepheria, which she shielded against.
Clank moved up following the Maidens, ending up at Sepheria’s side. One Ogre move up and attacked Jarrick but the other two ran away.
Sepheria threw a fireball and I called Lightning. The Corporals managed whittle down the health of a Kreeg, which Claw finished off. Jarrick cast Fear on another Kreeg. Orianna moved up but failed to strike any blow on her target. The Hill Giant tried to attack her but she dodged the blows.
The Kreeg were mostly focused on Claw but the Ogres were focused on Jarrick. Sepheria cast animate objects and I called down lightning while the Corporals ganged up on the smallest Kreeg.
Jarrick killed the Ogre he was fighting while Orianna and the maidens target the various Kreeg and the Hill Giant. The Giant struck Orianna, who managed to stay on her feet although another of the Maidens did not when struck by the Kreeg.
In the mist of the fight, Clank managed to strike the mortal blow on the Hill Giant while Sepheria’s animated rocks took out a Kreeg. I continued to call down lightning and the Corporals killed another Kreeg. The final Kreeg surrendered.
I quickly changed form to Giant Eagle and gave chase to the two running ogres with Jarrick and Claw behind me. I killed both Ogres then flew back to the party while Claw and Jarrick checked the bodies for anything of importance.
Orianna intimidated the surrendered Kreeg horribly and he told us there were very few (if possibly no) Kreeg remaining in the stronghold. He did mention there may be some in the mines or in the woods but he hadn’t seen any in days aside from those we just killed. He told us Dorella and the Hags were arguing about leaving now the weapons were done and handed over to the Giants. He continued to tell us that the Old Masters were coming back, like Stone Giant King Mochmurian. These were not regular giants but powerful and smart, servants of the Rune Lords. They were said to be gathering at Jorgenfist, the Stone Giant entrance to Hell where the Stone Giant King resides, which would possibly be found in the Valley of the Black Tower in the Iron Peaks (due North of our location). It overlooks the Mushkall River or one could go up the Storval Stairs? He repeats that Mochmurian - an Old Master - is coming back to being back the old ways.
As there is no further information forthcoming, Orianna kills the Kreeg.
[xp 3000 each; 1500 clank]
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