When looking ahead on my weather rolls I ended up with "Special" on my random checks (typically 1 in 30) I gave a short glance at my possible listing and ended up spot picking Aurora Borealis (we're in the right latitude on my world to have one). Don't think I've ever had one at the table for this group in this area and it was nice to go through the effects of it. Since we're in a Norse Mythos area, I'm pretty big on the entire Bifrost/Asgard/Midgard thing and the consensus is that the Aurora is typically the reflection of the underside of the Bifrost - meaning one or more of the gods or their avatars are striding the earth at this time.
Ok, nothing more than that.
Then it's the next day and I run a spot check ahead again and AGAIN get special. Ok, weird. Two in a row? The temp is within a few degrees of the same so I "assume" the Aurora is lasting 2 days instead of picking again. But this time they are camping about half a mile from a Rock Drake lair I have on the map and the wandering monsters are limited in this area - most of them will come up Rock Drake or kobold hunting party.
I end up with Rock Drakes, Wolves, and Men.
WTF? I'm going to discard the Men roll when on a whim I roll to see how many men are in the area (1-20) and get 1.
And right there, Odin (or an avatar of) sprung into being to bid the group a hello, get some shelter for a bit, advise them to move on because of the Rock Drakes, and impress upon them the 4 Courtesies: Exchange of Names, Exchange of Drink, Exchange of Company, and Exchange of Farewells. A few small blessings were passed on to the group and then he was gone just as soon as the Aurora ended.
Some DM's shy upon gods in their games and for the most part, I agree - however - there are two mythos in my world where I would allow them to show up: the frozen north and the Norse gods, and the Ostara Desert and Efreet/Djinn powers. My thought is the North gods are on the edge of the world and are always aware of the end of things - Ragnarok is there, coming, and inevitable. They take a vaunted interest in the world and strive always to keep the great end back as long as they can. The central part of the world, the Great Irog and Ostarian Desert and the Caliphates around it tapped into the elemental plane of fire and air on accident millenia ago and blasted a huge area of my world into sand, sun, and wind. The gates closed but the fabric was weakened and the spirits of fire and air are always nearby, waiting to come over if at all possible to sway the balance of men.
Long and short - Odin showed up, it wasn't planned, and the dice made it happen. :)
Write up follows:
By 10:30 AM the exhausted party had the chance to rest and catch up on the missing sleep they had lost sneaking across the scree field on the slope below the Spire Keep Pass early that morning. Most everyone took advantage of the respite and a few party members scribed a few scrolls to pass the time before resting as well.
It was around 2:30, after lunch and feeling rested, that the group discussed our approach to the Valley beyond the Beacon House. The valley entrance there wasn’t very large and the base of Whitetop Mountain was steeper than the surrounding ridges and mountains, not giving as much of an area to hide. If we crossed the valley or the grasses to get to the base of the other mountain, we would be seen by the Beacon House – and that would be the end of that.
Surprise and stealth were our watchword and this was no time to let that slip. So we left the cave and decided to make our way east to the next valley and a bit out of view of the Beacon House. Staying in the treeline and a good 1,000 feet off the ridge floor, we made our way with slow deliberate care through the dense foliage until we went north…and then south and east into a natural “V” shaped set of ridges and valleys. Just a bit under 2 miles on each leg of the V, we looked for a cave to sleep in, finding one about 1,500 feet over the valley floor and then set about cleaning it out and setting up bedrolls and relaxing.
It was about 7 when we set up 5 sets of watches and the group settled in to get some rest. It was about 10:30 when we noticed a faint greening to the light filtering down from the stars above, and as the night progressed it spread out from horizon to horizon as the Aurora Borealis took place overhead, the panoply of lights and grandeur had a quelling effect on everything. The sound of the night animals faded and even those on watch were loathe to disrupt the midnight air with any noises. The aurora rose and crested around 2 where it faded as the night and early morn swept on.
Those on watch did hear the sound of creatures moving through the woods much further down slope but the wind was in our favor and they did not come up to investigate. And the same happened an hour or so later when a larger group, heading east to west this time trod through the forest primeval. The second passing had us figuring based upon the noises and sounds that it was bears. Lots of damned bears.
Yeah, we kept quiet.
It was Workmonth the 20th and we had all wakened by 5:30, studies, prayed, and broke our fast, ready to move on by 6:30. We traveled the same as before, part of the way up slope, 1,500 feet or so over the valley floor, following the “V” east and then north to the end of the other point. Once here, we looked out, being it was 9 AM, the sunlight gleamed off the glass and metal sides of the other Beacon House near the valley entrance to Whitetop Mountain and the suspected Warren. Darius had been very good at picking these places out, but based upon the angle of the Beacon House, he suspected there was another one unaccounted for on the western slope of a large ridge to our east. The way the sun was shining, we’d never get a glimpse of it. He suggested we wait till afternoon and when the sun was on the other horizon, it should pick up the gleam of the other Beacon House.
The group agreed it’d be stupid to step out and try to cross only to be seen by the K’Morat and the Warren alerted. Care and luck had been with us so far, so we decided to wait. This meant our food stores was getting low so hunting was once again on the menu. We went back to the “V”, returned to our cave, and then Grygmiir, Einar, Barb, Avulstein, Thalin, and Darius all went out to hunt once again and return with what they could.
They got lucky and a small standing of pronghorn deer fell to the hunters after a few hours, netting 5 or 6 of the herbivores. Ranging from 85 to almost 200 lbs, we roped our quarrey and made our way slowly back up the slope until we arrived at the cave.
A smoking fire had been lit inside the cave with the hunstmen eviscerated the deer, removed the offal, and stripped the skins off. From there we dragged large swaths of meat to the cave where it was roasted slowly and smoked to make it last a bit longer. After many hours we had enough usable food for everyone for 3 days. Before we were finished, Thalin restricted as many of the bones as he could along with a head and some legs, raising the remains of a larger deer back to necromantic life.
The skeletal (mostly) pronghorn was a bit off kilter as it was not the original head and maybe legs, but it replied to Thalin’s call of “Rudy” and came with us after we buried the offal, skins, and unused meat in a hole and piled a few large rocks upon it. We headed back off to the north and east until we arrived at the end of the “V” again – and looking east, Darius was right – there WAS another Beacon House here – and looking at the map and line of sight, it was in view of not only the Beacon by White Top – but also a straight line view to the ridge where we assumed Spire Keep Pass was.
We would not cross now in daylight and would wait to hit up an area east of the ridge we were on and south of the newly discovered Beacon. We made our way through the trees until we came to where we expected to cross, waited until 8 or so, and then quietly made our way down the slope and over the valley, watching everywhere for any sign of trouble. At the other side of the valley we hit the tree line swiftly and made our way upslope to get away from the assumed to be killing floor.
We had heard the shrill cry of a Rock Drake earlier and were on guard for it. As we made our way up we came upon the smashed eaten remains of a mountain elk. The trees above had been smashed and branches were everywhere as if a large heavy creature slammed through the canopy above to hit the elk. The outdoors types assured the group the impact was a few weeks old as we kept heading upslope looking for a cave.
We found other areas of smashed branches and signs of Rock Drake hunting the further uphill we went. Some of them were older, others fresher. One was barely a week old. We grew nervous as we travelled and the few caves we found we inadequate for the entire group. We risked higher elevations and it was after a good hour of searching that we came upon a cave we could use. 2,500 over the ridge’s floor, it opened to the north and gave us a wonderful view of the slope with the Beaconhouse on it as well as Whitetop Mountain.
The cave was 20’ tall and 8’ wide at the entrance, 30’ deep, but the height only lasted barely 10 feet before it sloped down to about 7’ in height. If a Rock Drake came, anyone near the front would be an easy target. The party made sure they were ALL set up to the back of the cave. We were pretty tired and by 10 that night, finally rolled to sleep. Thalin positioned Rudy by the front of the cave with explicit instructions for the undead pronghorn deer to bleat if something approached him.
By 11, the Aurora was starting again but the group did not want to chance being out where Rock Drakes were in the sky. Every so often we heard the beating of wings but it was at 1ish in the morning when the sound of snapping trees and falling limbs woke everyone up just in time to see a ton and a half of angry Drake slam into the undead form of Rudy, grab the deer, and launch back into the sky with a raucous cry and a wailing fading bleat.
Holy crap.
We hunkered further back and stayed quiet while during the night we heard continuous sound of the Drake passing back and forth overhead. Each watch was a tense situation as we waited for the Aurora the end and the dawn to eventually come. It had to be about 4 in the morning when Gryg and Hjalgrim who were on watch heard the plaintive cries of wolves howling somewhere below and in the valley, the muting light of the Aurora coloring the area outside in a dying greenish light. No one wanted to go check as the wolves howled and we heard drake (s?) drop out of the sky and try to attack the wolves, screaming in frustration as they either missed or were outclassed by the wolves.
The noises continued for many minutes until we heard quite plainly a gravely male voice call out in Common, “Hail the cave! Can I come in?”
What the…?
Gryg gave the ok and striding in, looking up at the fading light was an older human male in his late 50’s or so. He was wearing well made yet worn grey and brown travelling clothes, many layers thick, and had a broad hat on his salt and light peppered bearded head. He thanked us, said he was known as “Traveler” and asked to share names with the two dwarves.
They spoke for a bit, he talked about the drakes and the nest being upslope from here only a half mile or so and that we shouldn’t tarry come the dawn. He then offered to share some ale which Gryg seemed to have gotten from somewhere and a pipe and some weed. The ale was hearty and damned good, and Hjalgrim’s smoking of the pipe gave him a brief glimpse of what he assumed was the K’Morat Warren. He couldn’t stay, saying he had to go as his road was on the way. But he thanked the group for their time, patience, courtesy, and respect, left just before the Aurora completely faded, climbed aboard some horse we hadn’t seen and was gone from sight.
The guess was Odin, or something like it. No one would believe us and we had no proof of it (ale and pipeweed?) but the Aurora was known to be the underside of the Bifrost Bridge so this was not outside the realm of possibility.
Workmonth the 21st by 8 AM had everyone up and we shared our stories of the night and then broke camp quickly, wanting to be gone and out of the Drake’s territory. We went downslope quickly to almost at the valley floor, stayed in the tree line for a mile or two, and then wound our way back upslope as we travelled north, climbing to 3,000 feet at least and coming upslope and behind the Beacon House. We saw no K’Morat and were happy to avoid them.
From there we were on the south slope of Whitetop Mountain, the top shrouded in clouds, the sides steep. We had to drop in elevation from 3,000 to only 750’ due to the sharpness of the slope and even then, we had to occasionally drop to 500 or even less when the angle grew too much for the party to navigate. The croup doggedly made their way west, getting closer and closer to the valley entrance.
If was almost 5 PM when we managed to make our way around the western most side of Whitetop’s Ridge, moved north, and then turned back to the east. We could hear the sounds of hammering like a smithy, many hammers banging away ringing off the mountain echoes. We could hear the chopping of trees and the sussurous noise of many creatures living together. There was a haze ahead of us, maybe half a mile away and dimly seen through the trees. We stopped to eat real fast and then a bit after 5, we were ready to go on and see the Third K’Morat Warren at long last.
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