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| "Wot's all this then?" |
August 15, around 3pm
Last time, Ivy Blacksword and her warband stormed the gnoll cave with their new allies, the disgruntled gnoll Widestripe and his two followers. There Heinryk the Hero’s battle-fury got the better of him, and the berserk first destroyed any chance of the cave gnolls surrendering after their leader was slain, and then turned on his allies in the midst of battle. After fierce fighting, Heinryk and all but one of the male gnolls in the cave were killed – the eerie warrior known as No-Smell. Outside the cave the fearsome owlbear was drawn to the smell of blood and fell upon the rearguard. It was driven off by the spells of Ambrosius the cleric, but not before it had killed the hobgoblins Dedbane and Golgob and sent the warband’s third hobgoblin, Wolfeye, running in terror. The beast was then killed when it returned a short time later to eat the carrion left by the day’s fighting. While Ivy and her champions were sorely wounded, the warband was victorious and they began feasting and roistering after the orc Mothclaw broached a cask of excellent beer that the gnolls had in their larder. Meanwhile the gnoll women butchered and roasted the owlbear, while others quietly attempted to give proper funeral rites to their dead (a process quite similar to butchering).
Elm Ringlad, Ranger 1
Oak Ringlad, Ranger 1
Flarkin of Toadmarket, Dwarf 3
Dunsell the Daring, Paladin 1
Deyla & Stonescale, Beastmaster 1 & 1HD crystal lizard
It was at this point that the Silver Daggers arrived in the area, having set out for the Haunted Halls. In a peek behind the curtain, I rolled for their arrival time. It’s a bit of a hike out from Eveningstar, and I assume that adventurers get a late start unless they’re unusually driven. They have to get breakfast, pack, get everybody together, go over their plans, re-pack whatever it is they forgot, maybe get lunch since it’s almost time anyway, and so on. The typical adventuring day has been hovering around 2–3 hours, during which the characters will risk their lives and potentially make several months’ worth of income, so I assume they’re rarely in a big hurry. I had their arrival time on the calendar before I played out the gnoll fight, in case things went long enough that they arrived in the middle of it.
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| A chance for the Rangers to do some Ranging |
THE LOG
The Halls are on the west side of Eveningstar Gorge, which happens to be the same side as the gnoll cave. Ivy’s warband are drunk and noisy, and they’re in a narrow part of the gorge formed by a small tributary stream that runs out of a spring in the Shunned Cavern to join the Starwater, so the noise is likely to echo. I didn’t roll to see whether the Silver Daggers heard it, it seemed reasonable that they would. The Ringlad brothers decide to investigate, leaving Dunsell, Flarkin, and Deyla by the entrance to the Halls in order to move more swiftly. Rolling at +2 due to the warband’s drunkenness, Oak and Elm each passed a Dexterity check (technically as Rangers I should’ve rolled a d6 for this, but the -2 penalty from the powerful ale in Keep on the Borderlands seems to assume a d20 roll) and were able to sneak up the gorge, using the heather and thickets of scrub. There they spied out the camp. They saw Ivy dressed in barbarian finery and presiding over a mixed band of humans, elves, goblins, and gnolls, all drinking and dividing plunder. The two rangers were concerned, but not immediately hostile. They don’t like Ivy much, having left her adventuring party after the first assault on the Temple of Evil Chaos, and as woodmen from the Border Hills their folk have often come into conflict with Stonelanders and goblins. However, it was possible that she had some good motive. There were dead gnolls there – could she have allied with some of the cave-dwellers to defeat them? Such things have happened before.
Not wanting to risk revealing themselves, the brothers slipped away and reported to the rest of their party. They discussed whether to return to Eveningstar and report the sighting right away, or to delve into the Haunted Halls first. They had a vote, using high/low d6 rolls for each character. Higher or lower numbers indicate the intensity of the feeling. Flarkin did not roll – I knew he would want to explore the Halls, because all he cares about is making enough money to retire from adventuring. Oak, Elm, and Dunsell all rolled 6s, strongly approving the plan to return to town, and Deyla rolled a 3 for soft disapproval. The dice results made intuitive sense, with the rangers and paladin all being motivated by duty, and their votes carried the day. The Silver Daggers returned to town.
THE TALLY
Information of Possible Concern – 0 xp
DOWNTIME
Our conscientious C-listers went to report their findings to Lady Winter, who of course was too busy to help. Her tower house was a buzz of activity, and the Silver Daggers had to wait hours before they were granted a few minutes of the Lady’s time (7pm, by which point Flarkin and Deyla had already sloped off to the Golden Unicorn to drink and complain). A stone-faced Captain Gilbear showed them into the stables, where Lady Winter was tending to her white charger, Snowbell. The Ringlad brothers made their report. A reaction roll of 6 indicated that Lady Winter was brusque. While she thanked them for their concern, she was not troubled by the fact that some adventurer had allied herself with one group of cave-dwellers to go kill another. The goblin clans in Eveningstar Gorge often fight amongst themselves, but they know better than to trouble the town (everyone who didn’t met the sticky end of a Lightning Bolt years ago). Lady Winter and her knights were riding out tomorrow on a dragon hunt, in any case. A large red-brown bull had recently killed a shepherd, a couple of dogs, and devoured a flock of sheep that were grazing on the High Pasture, and that was her first concern. If a dragon that size were allowed to learn that Eveningstar is a low-risk source of easy meat, it will certainly return, especially since the creature is likely bulking up for the autumn mating flights. When Dunsell tried to protest, Lady Winter told him that her Captain Gilbear will be remaining in town to keep an eye on things. The Captain did not allow anyone to talk back to his Lady a second time, and the Silver Daggers were dismissed.
Crestfallen, they joined their companions at the Golden Unicorn, where they got into an argument over the day’s events. Fortuitously, this was overheard by the PCs – I rolled to see how many were at the inn’s beer garden and got the full party (minus Trigg, who takes his evening meals at home with his wife). The two parties discussed the situation. The PCs agreed that it was concerning that Ivy, Nogi, and her new cleric had not been back to town since the 13th, and that she had been acting oddly since the assault on the Temple of Evil Chaos at the beginning of July. While not fully recovered from their last adventure in the hobgoblin caves, the PCs decided to pay Ivy a visit on the following day. They tell themselves that Trigg could remain in town if his wounds were still troubling him, although nobody really believes that he will. The Ringlads and Dunsell agree to come along, and surprisingly Deyla volunteers as well. Flarkin flatly refuses, of course – there’s no profit in it. “That madwoman can do what she likes, since she seems so determined to die in a cave”.
BACK IN THE GORGE…
Ivy elevates Widestripe to the rank of captain and formally puts him in charge of the remaining gnolls. He doesn’t totally understand this, but is pleased to hear it confirmed that the “Black Bitch-Chieftain” is backing him as the gnoll clan chief, and that she’ll be giving him more treasure than the others get when his people fight for her. With Heinryk dead, Drunvir the wild elf begs to be named a champion in his place. He’s happy with Ivy’s leadership, and he wants the benefits of a privileged place for himself and his mate Reedle. Ivy accepts. The elf distinguished himself by volunteering to fight, and this appointment solves a leadership problem for her. She can put him in charge of the humans and the dwarf, which should result in fewer conflicts than having Mothclaw trying to wrangle everybody or making Ambrosius do it, and Reedle has proven her value as a second caster of Cure Light Wounds. Drunvir gets +1 to his Morale score.
A Morale roll of 2 (the best possible result) has Wolfeye the hobgoblin return to camp looking smug. I’d previously determined that he’d run off to his former home in the hobgoblin cave, and thought that we’d seen the last of him. It took me a minute to think of why he’d come back, but I figured it had to be something good that he thought might outweigh the expected punishment for cowardice and desertion. The hobgoblin reports that he saw two spies sneaking away from Ivy’s camp earlier, moving in a hurry. He’s certain that this will earn him some reward, and is correct. Ivy gives him a few gold coins and tells him to get some food and rest. She confers with her champions: it’s not really feasible to move either the drunken roisterers or the gnolls, but they set guards to watch throughout the night and bed down inside the gnoll cave rather than sleeping under the stars. Reedle casts Cure Light Wounds on Harg the bugbear, restoring 5 HP. The warband recovers 1 HP from rest.
Ivy stays awake late into the night, watching the moonlit gorge from the mouth of the cave and contemplating her next move. In Lady Winter’s tower Simion Silverbeard strums his harp and sings softly of cool waters and lost lovers, while the housecarls sharpen their dragon-spears. In the common room of the Golden Unicorn, the adventurers are settling their tabs and saying their goodnights. Trigg lies sleeping in his little house on Sunbold Farm, itching half-healed swordcuts.
Dawn comes early.
