Officially we rolled into the 2nd module, A2 - Secret of the Slaver's Stockade. A bit different than A1, as the group does not have a fall back town to work from. Write up follows:
Birthmonth the14th, 6:30 PM. We left the Temple of Uller swiftly, hoping to get to the Temple of Gruumsh before Captain Vauli and the Dragoons showed up. Once there, we picked the lock at the gate and made our way inside, stringing the chain back in place behind us. We had discussed it earlier and decided the path through the cemetery would be the fastest, but we’d have to contend with the ghouls there.
As we drew up to the Woodcutter’s shed and made our way in, Yandr reached out and felt…nothing. That was odd, last time we had 3 or 4 ping ghoulish detection pings from beyond the door. We stopped at the door to the cemetery and tried again, getting…nothing.
We opened it up and entered with care. The garden had overgrown some time ago, trees were tall, vines were everywhere. There was a narrow sort of path through the mess. We guessed which way to the mausoleum we had seen from below the day before and Sylas led us along. As we went closer, the ranger noted that one of his hand axes had gone missing! But nothing was in here with us except all the plants.
Then a tree branch fell for no reason. And then his belt pouch was taken, just barely glimpsed by a vine snaking away with it. Damn – the plants were robbing us. We ran for the stone structure and forced the fence open, filing in and then taking the stairs down.
The thought was the ghouls might be down here, so we had a Hide from Undead spell put in place and dug through the fallen dirt. Once able to, Gun and Rhareli and Sylas crawled through and around to the original place that Hrimvir had seen the slaver leader – but now the place was empty and quiet. No lights, stuff was missing, orc and weasels were gone. They came back (7:50) and we had a bad feeling that the slavers had left already.
We headed back to the pens and sure enough, they were empty. The space beyond the pens was another pen chamber and it too was empty. Signs the slavers had been here were about, they were gone now. We pressed on, crossing the slave pits and came to a catwalk and a door there. A check showed nothing but when we opened it, the gasses within caught flame and burst out, burning part of the party.
We switched to a light spell and went on but when we came to a long quiet corridor where the sewers ran under the city itself we were wondering what the hell we were doing and turned back around. On our way back to the slave pits Captain Vauli and the rest of the mustered men had arrived. The Captain was not happy that we did not wait and they entered at 8, following our original direction to get down here.
It was obvious the slavers had moved on but Carl had the map of the Stockade in the Drachensgrab Hills, deep in Oricand territory. We all left together, getting back to the surface by 20 to 11 that night. We rested well and met with Lord Keleborn the next day (15h). We were able to arrange the getting of a wagon, some hordes, spare wheels and the like. Some of us went off to buy food and others refilled weapons and gear, knowing we were going to be 5 days from civilization and little chance to get supplies barring what we could find or steal from the Slaver’s Stockade. Cara was going to be doing the main driving and Gun had the best feel for the map. There were many markings and guides on it, but they were innocuous and if we veered too far from location to location, we would be lost.
We were off on the 16th, heading north and northwest, riding the Conestoga wagon into the wilderness. The first day was not too bad, Gun had to back track us about 4 miles at one point but we had made good time. Day 2 was a bit more of a mess and there was more backtracking involved, cutting out momentum forward in half from the day before. Some grumbling followed but Gun was adamant that he was working the best he could with someone else’s map.
Day 3 was even more fucked up and after getting lost a few times, we had only progressed about 4 more miles from Highport – making our total journey over 3 day a mere 48 miles. We had to do better. During the watch that night, Rhareli had 2 bugbears show up, a mated pair, Aso and Rarksa. They had been a group of 8 but were now down to 2. Orc territory, they were not welcome so were surprised to see the fire and wanted to share. Let us know about gnolls out there as well. Rarska wanted to rest, at one point there was talk with Aso about killing Yandr the paladin and also killing Rarska since they are both assholes. But Gun who had woken up and heard all this put it to bed and said no one was killing anyone.
Aso led Rhareli to a quiet hill and had her way with the gnome while Gun flat out killed Rarska at the fire. Then when the gnome returned he made sure that Aso was killed as well. “Damn it boy,” he muttered, “We don’t have time for such nonsense,” he said to Rhareli as they dragged the dead bodies away from camp and continued on watch, coldly looking out.
We awoke on Birthmonth the 19th, learned about the visits and murders during the night, and Gun gave the entire group a stern glare while cleaning his bloody daggers. “I’m gonna go back to reviewing the maps as we ride on. No one is gonna have any more problems with me?”
“As long as you don’t get us lost some more,” Sylas replied with his gravelly rolling voice.
“I don’t know what the hell you just said,” Gun answered as we mounted up and were ready to ride off at 8:30 am.
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