the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower ...
and the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...
while the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
19 February's roster:
Baby Face (thief 5)
with Frida and Alaina (normal women), Cadmus, Tyr, and Thorn (normal men), and Wallaby and Whesker (weasels)
Blackleaf (Elf 3)
with Johann Haybaler (normal man)
Koko (woman-ape 2)
Aethelwulf (paladin 3)
Our characters had several things to do in town before setting out on any adventure. First, Baby-Face tried again to smuggle for the local thieves' guild, but failed and only barely rolled above the threshold of getting caught--which is to say, he was nearly caught with the goods outside of town by Morholt's men and had to abandon the goods Han Solo style to get away. Nevertheless, the guild credited away a fraction of the debt he still owes them for throwing the wildest carousing party in Brakeridge's history.
Meanwhile, local blacksmith Aldir, Blackleaf's sometime squeeze, has almost completely lost interest in his affair with the Elf-woman. She hasn't been faithful in maintaining her side of the relationship, while he has become interested in converting to the Good cult of Adonai, Aethelwulf's god of justice.
Other than continuing his mentorship of Aldir (which really doesn't consist of much theology given Aethelwulf's less-than-mediocre mental scores ...), Aethelwulf also acquired some oddities for sale: a bottle of the mead of poetry, and a dagger fashioned from the stinger of a giant killer bee.
Finally, Baby Face hired a bunch of the mercenaries available for hire in town this week (Cadmus, Tyr, Thorn, and Alaina), and then everyone was ready to set out.
The party agreed to seek out Jaer the Windlord up on the Greyhame Mountain where the eagles have their eyries. There, they would offer the fifty orc heads they have gathered over the past few expeditions, which proof Jaer desired to see that the orcs in the Glimmervaults were diminished, and promised thence to grant the party a wish. After that, they hoped to find again a wyvern-lair that they discovered on their only other expedition to the eyries of the eagles.
To this end, Aethelwulf saddled up on his warhorse, while Baby-Face got ready his wagon and draft-horses, and with this equippage, the party moved out to the northeast toward the Greyhame Mountain's heights.
Now, at the end of this session nobody caroused, so none of the characters get blacked-out drunk and share the tales of their derring-do in excessive detail.
Nevertheless, there is no hiding the fact that the party rolled back into town bloodied but much richer, their wagon piled with the remains of two slain wyverns, a pile of treasure, and the bodies of the hirelings of Johann Haybaler and Frida.
Word gets around that the party ran into wolves on the way out--probably werewolves, according to rumors that they had to be slain with silver weapons--and Aethelwulf's possession of four wolf pelts (I think he intends to sell them) confirms an encounter with wolves at least. Johann is said to have died during this battle.
As to Jaer and the eagles, the party proudly proclaims that they found Jaer, that he accepted their offering of orc heads, and that their wish was for themselves and their friends to be haler and heartier. It's difficult to judge if that's the case; and truthfully, the woman-ape Koko looks rather haggard when she returns to town, and her wolf-bites seem sorely infected.
But, moreover, the party claims that Jaer has told them that the singing of the stars comes from star-things coming from across the sky, searching for something or someone. The Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have dabbled with something best not dabbled with, if Jaer is to be taken truthfully.
Finally--obviously--the party came across a pair of wyverns, probably in their lair if the lucre they've returned with is any indication of wyvern-hoards. Aethelwulf claims to have killed one by stabbing it with his bee-dagger, while Koko claims to have wrestled the other to death by finally breaking its neck in her hands. Frida died during this encounter--a black and swollen puncture wound on her neck/shoulder is gruesomely suggestive of the efficacy of the venom in the wyvern's tail-sting.
Out of the loot, Aethelwulf claimed a black sword, which he was clearly seen coveting in the bar before taking it out of town to seek the aid of the sage, Axxl the Mask, in identifying just what kind of magic dweomers are imbued in its dark blade ...
------
Remembrance for the Fallen:
Frida and Johann Haybaler (normal mercenaries), Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (dogs), Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal men), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc mastiff), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghosthound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)
and for those Enchanted Away:
Dol (fyrdman hireling)
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