The Third Warren.
After much long winding road and extended trip to get to it, the party has finally come upon the 3rd Warren.
And as written, it's not a place then can knock over and wipe out.
Well defended, blocked off in cells, walls and guards and kobolds in the hundreds plus tons of other goodies - it's not the kind of place you just march into and "F-Pwah!" everyone with a heartbeat within.
Write up follows:
Since it was so late in the afternoon and we can hear the echoing sounds of industry (saws, hammers, and the like) the party decided against going to see the Warren now, instead wanting instead to find a cave and hole up while we still can. So we started looking at higher elevations on the trailing ridge running off the western slope of Whitetop mountain until we came up a crack in the stone. Vertical for 8 feet, obscured by trees, it was difficult to enter for Negan and Einar who had to remove packs and armor, but once inside it ballooned up to 20’ tall, ran back 70 feet or so, stayed around 8’ wide, and had a natural chimney running up 60’ or so towards the rear giving us a constant source of fresh air.
The group spent a half hour cleaning the cave up before setting up bedrolls, assigning watch, and getting some much needed rest.
Workmonth the 22nd broke early and by 6:30 the party woke up, broke their fast, and decided to go from the cave and investigate the Warren. We stayed in the tree line as we made our way East, forced due to uneven and greater sloping rock to head to lower and lower elevations until we had made it as far east as we could go. Still some 500’ from the edge of the “Warren” as there was no more trees to hide behind, we had a chance to see the place in its entirety for the first time.
There was a walled town and keep on a plateau some 100 to 150’ off the valley floor, butted up against the sheer sloping “L” of Whitetop itself. A series of cuts and runnels ran down the steep slope and spilled into a cistern and aqueduct, feeding fresh water to the city and to the fields on the eastern side of the plateau. There were caves cut into the eastern edge of the plateau into the mountain itself and we could hear echoing mining in there. The city itself was pretty sizable and although there were larger building within, everything was in good repair.
The passage up to the plateau was a cutback road on the east side with 4 guard towers at each cut. A large forested area was beyond it and we could hear the whine of a timber saw and many whacking sounds of axes. A line of kobolds were walking back and forth from the city to a mountain lake a bit over a mile north of here, making a path in the tall grasses. We continued to look about. The base of the plateau had a smaller walled section of rubble and battered former buildings, a slope ran from the walled section up into the city above. Wandering the walled section was a humongous large fat pig. Like 4 ton, wheezing, and miserably fat pig.
Closer still was a “+” shaped building with two large statues of Odin and Frigga in front of it, and 3 smaller statues of guards with spears. It appeared to be a temple with a small garden outside of it and it looked as if behind it there was a cleft in the steep valley that led to a cave.
Everywhere we looked we saw kobolds. Dozens, scores, hundreds of them. There were also slaves – something we didn’t normally associate with K’Morat since they typically eat everyone and everything. After watching for an hour, we decided it was folly for everyone to be out here so we sent half the party back to the cave to avoid detection while we scouted the and observed the Warren.
The trips back and forth to the lake was a constant, with many of the kobolds coming with the odd fish or two, bundles of reeds, or even buckets of clay or dirt. The fields were worked often and there was a leeching pool between the walled part of the plateau and the fields – providing fertilizer. As for the Temple, we did see two K’Morat come out and take care of the small garden there but they went back in and the area has been quiet since.
The pig was in poor shape, had a hard time breathing, and moved real slow and rested often. Many of the K’Morat had colored sashes which we assumed were factions to the 7 shaman in the area. At 11, a group of 20 K’Morat came out of the city and tossed food and similar down the slope to the pig who waddled up and let forth a large enough cry to alert everything in a 2 mile radius it was so loud. The two frost giants eventually left the city and made their way with lots of friendly hellos and goodbyes back towards the mouth of the Valley and gone from sight. There was movement on an off all day and at 5, there was shift end or change as the industry slowly wound down. Slaves were moved and groups of 10 K’Morat came out and exchanged places with other K’Morat who returned to the city. At 6ish, throughout the area, one by one, 7 or 8 flying animals were let out and sent to fly in differing directions, finches and starlings and bats and ravens and crows – each eventually returning within 20 minutes or so. Scouting – Shaman totem animals scouting. Shit – even more of a reason to remain hidden.
By 7 we had returned to the cave before it got too dark and once there we shared what we had learned and discussed the Warren and possible ways to assault it.
It was a stupid idea all around.
Too many of them, well dug in, multiple guard areas, and well defended . We were not going to be able to “flush” them out like we had done the other warrens and the other thought of going after the High Shaman was difficult since it seemed to stay in the city proper. How to get up there? Through the pig area, sure. Up the main road? Not likely. From behind the temple? Possible. We needed to scout some more.
So We had a sacred guardian spell cast on a mouse that the sneaking team would “kill” should we be in trouble and around 9 PM, we left the cave, snuck down slope to the forest floor, and made our way as close as we could to the temple area.
Dizzy went to scout. The area around the temple was raked with stones that made it obvious if anyone walked upon it. The main door was closed but there were two windows there, the class long busted out. There was no way to sneak around the back of the temple as fallen rocks had blocked that off long ago, but he could sneak up to the crossed part of the “+” to look in the windows there. He crept very close and didn’t want to risk looking around and being seen via infravision. He did look at an oblique angle and saw a long arcade of columns, some main prayer room of the nave, and at least 4 kobolds in there. BUT, he heard decidedly more through the tall echoing chamber – 10 to a dozen? More?
He snuck back to the group and we decided to hold off on assaulting the temple until we went and checked out the wooded area next. During the shift changes and what not we estimated 10 kobolds and a dozen or more slaves, maybe 20. And one of them was a cyclops with its eye put out. They did not go up the slope and into the city so we hoped to check that out next.
We crawled through the tall grasses and made our way to the flattened area. With less than a half moon and clear skies, we snuck across the lack of cover one at a time. All went well until Connal tripped on an uneven ridge of earth, fell, but rolled to a quiet stop braced off the ground as we held our breath and waited.
Nothing. No one heard us.
So we all reconvened and started making our way to the edge of the tree line to scout the lumbering part of the Warren operation next.
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