When the wandering monster came up twice, I had one with a passing Rock Drake at some distance away that the party easily avoided, and the other came up pilgrims. Here, in the wilderness? A fast check showed them to be lawful of bent and the wandering dwarven troupe working for the Andeers Mining Company was born. It's not often that wandering monsters come up as a group of good people willing to trade, so this was a nice change.
Write up follows:
The group spent a serious amount of time discussing all our options before daring to leave Damlagast’s Tower. It was finally decided that we would check out the north shore of Broken Tower Lake and see if there were any signs of kobold crossing or tracks in the area. We had been through there before with Teamster Trentis but had not looked for anything like what we were doing now.
We shut the Tower door for the last time and boarded our canoes. With great care we paddled our way across the water until we arrived at the muddy shore on the other side. We disembarked and spent almost 30 minutes looking around before we came across ruts in the banks that looked like what a canoe would do. There were at least half a dozen of them and they ran almost 40’ from the bank before disappearing, leading us to believe the kobolds’ ported their canoes as well.
At least having an idea where they cross we looked north from here and there was a natural valley between two ridges that rand north of here to the rising hills and mountains. We did not want to go an explore it and instead made our way back to the canoes and paddled carefully back. Once there it was a long 6 hour walk back through the shores and grasses and slopes of the foothills until we arrived once again at the Base Camp.
We were passed on through and then returned the canoes to the Store Houses. We then met with the Bailiff and informed him of our discoveries. We learned that the Camp had been taking our warning to heart and every barrel was filled with water, over two tons of stones had been brought in for ammunition and repair, every easily planable hardwood that was already down had been harvested, stripped, and cut to boards. And the hunters had been out almost thrice a day bringing in whatever wild game could be found. As it stands now, the Base Camp can withstand a siege for over 2 weeks if need be, over 3 if they needed to implement reduced rations.
The next concern was the K’Morat intercepting the caravan returning and killing our companions, the teamsters, the oxen, and getting the supplies for themselves. It was imperative that we do what we could to prevent that so we were going to head out early tomorrow on Workmonth the 12th and try to intercept the returning caravan near the east side of Broken Tower Lake. We hit the Mess Hall where Ruhilde outfitted us with whatever food stores he could. From there we went off to the barracks and dropped off to sleep.
We awoke early by 5:30 where whatever spells we needed to adjust we did so, prayed, and ate breakfast. By 7 we were at the gates where we took the canoes again and left the Base Camp amidst well wishes from those still here. Once again we were walking but today was hot. Very hot. With a high humidity. Within 2 hours we were drenched in sweat and were forced to swap the canoes about, giving everyone a chance to rest often. Because of this we were not making the same speed we had made yesterday and a few days ago.
At one point we heard the shrill cry of a Rock Drake and we took off to a copse of trees where we hunched under the canoes and waited for it to fly away. Soaked and exhausted we continued on and broke for lunch still some miles from Broken Tower Lake; disappointed in our progress to date.
At was at this time that we heard “Hail the Camp! May we approach?” What the hell? We had no idea there was anyone else out here. The voice was decidedly dwarvish and we gave permission, seeing a group of 7 tired dusty and travel worn dwarves emerge from the south and trudge towards us. Their leader was named Piso Deepcleft and he and his troupe were prospectors for the Andeer’s Mining Company in Sorton looking for new easy possible sites for future iron mines.
We invited them to sit and we shared a light version of our story with them, saying only we were hunting kobolds for bounty and had been here for some time. They had travelled south first and were making a circlet north hoping to find the Enderlyn River and follow it back to Sorton, or maybe with luck the rumored camp that House Illytch had out here. We downplayed the camp idea and let them know they were ½ a mile from the river.
We shared food, ale, and even did some horse trading with potions for draughts with them alchemist an Odinian priestess names Damillius. We talked for some time and the mining troupe were more than willing to walk back to Broken Tower Lake with us as well as travel with us east; including helping us port the canoes through the wilderness. At the end of all things it was about 4ish when we arrived at our desired crossing and shook hands, wishing the troupe a safe trip back.
From there we paddled once again across the lake to the heavier treed side and found a place to blaze some of the barks to mark where we were going to stash the canoes. We then travelled off to the east and around the nearest bend in the river we had the opportunity to see the approaching caravan where we made our way to them, shook hands with our counterparts, and filled everyone in on what the situation was at base camp and why we had come out this far to meet them.
No comments:
Post a Comment