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Session 23, Moving North From Stonebridge

Paldegora 

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Session 23 – 2023-07-01

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==== Summary ====

The party had just learned of Angelique’s experience from the night before. Cal-El searched the area and eventually found the place where they had taken her. The only tracks around were from one person. Just as before, Morgan and Marline left no footprints. When the only tracks present left, they trailed of a little ways and then stopped. No sign of how that person left.

The morning was cold with a little sleet and snow falling. They broke out the winter weather gear and bundled up for a miserable day’s hike. The feeling was that they were walking up a gentle but steady incline. The took a break around noon, built a small fire to warm up a little and ate. While checking on Angelique, Symon asked if she thought they gave her something or took something from her. She felt they had removed blood. After a little rest, they picked up and moved on. The weather grew colder and changed over to a mixture of sleet and snow. Xor hunted while they moved north and got a couple of squirrels. Eryn tried her hand but only got one. They found a place to camp for the night, cleaned and cooked the squirrels with some of their other supplies and made a decent meal of it. Xor donated his tent to be used as a lean to and a barrier against the wind. They turned in with Angelique and Cal-El set up watch. 

During the watch, Cal-El spotted the glow of another campfire to their west, He woke Xor and showed the light to he and Angelique, then he and Xor took off towards it. As they got closer, Xor stayed back while Cal-El approached from the top of a ravine. Looking down, he spotted three goblin scouts dressed much like Duzzt. They were muttering something to themselves and were unhappy. They also kept looking over their shoulder to the north like they were watching for someone or something. Cal-El couldn’t understand what they were saying. He backed out, collected Xor, and headed back to camp.

Cal-El explained to Angelique and Xor what he had seen, in his special way. They woke the rest and explained what they saw and decided to go have a chat. They moved to the top of the ravine where Cal-El had spied on them earlier. Eryn took up a flanking position and one with which to keep an eye on the northern path. Symon taught Xor how to say “Friend” in goblin. Xor, Cal-El, and Cassandra moved around to the opposite side of the camp and the walked in with their hands raise while Xor repeated “Friend” in goblin. The goblins grabbed their weapons and backed up, surprised to see them. Symon spoke from the rocks above and behind them telling them to drop their weapons as they were surrounded. They dropped their weapons and begged them not to kill them.

Symon entered the camp and spoke to them, finding out they were scouts. There were at least three others with them, their leaders. They were out but due back anytime. They learned about a much larger group coming down from the north and that they were about two days behind them. They learned it was all commanded through Grish-ta-nak. Part of what they did was secure food to Grizzolo. Symon tried to convence them to quit and leave or to join us to fight them. They were terrified of either option as if they did either of those, their whole tribes would be killed. The Company eventually left, covered their tracks and headed back to their camp where they rested the remainder of the night while Eryn took the watch.

At day break the ground and and everything in the area was covered in a lite snow. It was very pretty remarked Eryn. They ate and while they packed, Cal-El moved back to the ravine to see what had happened to the goblins. There were new footprints there and they headed off to the south. He returned to the rest and they set off north. They travelled till noon and took a break. That night they set up camp and Xor hunted a fat rabbit and they ate that with some of their supplies. The night passed without incident. They watched for fires in the distance but didn’t see anything.

The weather had cleared a little but there was now at least a couple of inches of snow on the ground. It was windy and extremely cold. They ate, broke camp, and headed north. After a few hours, they spied something in the road. It was a grayish furry lump, with a little steam coming from it’s breath. Cal-El moved up the road slowly while Eryn moved out to the east and flanked him. As they got closer, Cal-El stomped once on the ground but nothing happened. He packed a snowball and threw it at the object. That got it’s attention. The winter wolf stood and faced him. 

At the same time, three bugbears and a bear charged out and down on Eryn. A couple of the hand axes thrown at her hit. Being one against 4, she went into full dodge and tumble mode. This allowed others to join and forced the enemy to separate and face multiple opponents. She fought a bugbear and bear while Xor and Cassandra worked on two bugbears. Angelique fired on the bear. Cal-El and Symon took on the winter wolf. After the first round, one of the bugbears on Xor was down and the wolf had taken a pounding from Cal-El. Another group of three bugbears and a bear charged out of the western woods. Symon stopped the bugbears with a web spell. Eryn, Xor, Cassandra, and Angelique finished off the eastern group and joined the fight on the bear wolf and western group. Pretty quickly they all finished them off. They skinned the wolf and searched the bugbears finding only a little coin. They were patched but no papers on them. They continued north. 

They reached the end of the day and set up another camp, a little more off the road. They set up as they had been. They found nothing while hunting, so it was rations or whatever they carried for supper. They turned in with Angelique and Cal-El on watch. About an hour into the rest, Cal-El spotted some torch light coming from the north. There was a lot of noise as a large group was moving south. Angelique doused the fire and they waited and watched. An army of patched bugbears came into view, hundreds of them passed. At the rear was a hobgoblin leader barking orders. They remained still and waited for tHem to pass. Afterward Angelique relit the fire and they settled in for the rest of the night.

The next morning, the rest of the group learned of the passing of the bugbear army. They gathered their supplies, packed, and headed out to the north. They began reaching the summit of their climb and the ground leveled off. There was smoke coming from fires ahead. They moved forward and what they saw was a wall with a gate blocking the road. The firers were coming from the top of that. They could see bugbears, gnolls, and another hobgoblin. There was no way around the wall, the only way to get to the other side was to go through or over the wall.

That is where it ended.

Please start the recorder! 

==== Detail ====

The party had just learned of Angelique's experience the night before. While everyone else slept, even those on guard because of the poison they'd decided that Morgan and Marlina used on them. Angelique suggested that Cal-El searched for tracks around the area. They had taken her from here, so there must be signs of it. Cal-El nodded in agreement and began to systematically search the area for any signs. He didn't find anything at first. His frustration at that was evident on his face. He kept increasing the circle outward and finally found an area where there were many footprints. He also found a spot where it appeared that Angelique had laid while they performed whatever process they did on her. The other truly odd thing, but expected by then, was the absence of two sets of prints. There was only one person there based on the footprints. It would appear Morgan's and Marlina's footprints were nowhere to be found. By now, he'd come to expect that. He followed the one set of prints to see where this person went. After a short distance, they disappeared. There were no other prints. It was like he just vanished. Cal-El returned and explained, through mouthing the words and through gestures, what he had found. 

The morning they woke to was cold, with a little sleet and rain falling. The party brought out their full winter gear and dressed for a miserable day. They headed down the north road. Cal-El and Xor took the lead and moved down on either side of the road. The landscape changed a little as more and more of the trees were furs. There was the feeling of steadily climbing, though subtle. They were increasing their altitude. Nothing unusual happened. Around noon they took a quick break. They found a spot off of the road that offered a little cover. Symon checked on Angelique. She said she felt fine. He asked if she felt that they had given her something or if they had taken something from her. She felt that they removed some blood from her. They settled and had some food. After a short rest, they continued northward.

Later in the afternoon, the weather grew worse. It got colder and the precipitation changed over to a mixture of sleet and snow. It was beginning to coat the ground. Xor pulled out his bow and searched the trees and ground for any sort of game. He spotted a squirrel and took a shot at it. He killed it and collected it for later. Eryn found a squirrel and took a shot at it as well. She missed it though. Cal-El gave her the look of shame for missing a simple squirrel. She went out and collected her arrow, looking for any signs of trails off the path before returning to the group. She found nothing. A little further down the road and Xor spotted and nicked a squirrel but it got away. Eryn spotted another squirrel and took it out, collected it and they continued on. As they neared the end of the day's journey, Xor found and killed another squirrel. Eryn didn't see any more game. Xor skinned and cleaned his two squirrels.  Eryn watched him clean the first one, then she skinned and cleaned her's in a like manner. Angelique built a good fire and they set about cooking the squirrels mixed in with other food they carried and made a decent meal of it. Xor took out his small tent and they set it up like a lean to in order to provide protection from the winds. The watch was Angelique and Cal-El. Angelique wrapped up in a blanket for additional protection.

During the watch, Cal-El noticed the small glow of another campfire in the distance to the west. He woke Xor and pointed out the fire. They let Angelique know and then moved off that way to check it out. As they got closer to it, Xor stayed back while Cal -El moved up to the top edge of a ravine that overlooked a camp. There were three goblins down by the fire. Cal-El couldn’t understand them but could hear them grumbling and muttering to one another like they were unhappy. Occasionally they would look over their shoulder to the north through a narrow ravine like they were watching for something. They dressed more like Duzzt did, like scouts and not like the elites. They didn’t appear to be patched. Cal-El backed out of the area and made his way  back to Xor and then back to Angelique at the camp. He, through mouthing the words and using sign language, eventually explained what he saw out there. He indicated that he couldn’t understand them but that they were muttering and appeared to be unhappy. They also kept looking north as if watching for something or maybe someone. They discussed getting the others up and maybe going there as a group. They woke everyone up and told them what they’d discovered. They discussed how to approach them and went through several tricky ways to talk with them but in the end decided to take the basic approach. They moved off to the west toward the camp. 

They approached the ravine above the camp and Eryn moved across the ravine to be in a position to block the ravine. Symon taught Xor the word “Friend!” in goblin. Cal-El, Xor, and Cassandra moved  around the southwest side of the camp and then approached the goblins. As they walked in, they held their hands up and Xor said, “Friend”, in goblin. They did this a few times while the shocked goblins jumped up in surprise at their appearance. They grabbed their weapons and backed up a little bit. Symon spoke from the rocks above and behind them and said, ”You are surrounded, put your weapons down.”. Then he] came down from the ravine and entered the camp saying, “We are goblin friend!”. The goblins wanted to be left alone and asked not to be hurt. Then they asked what the unwanted visitors wanted. Symon found out there were only three of them here but there were at least three others, leaders, up the northern path that would be returning at any time. They told the party that they must leave or they’d be killed. They were scouts, scouting ahead, south to the human town. They were scouting ahead like this because the leaders made them. The leaders where the patches. They are part of Grish-ta-nak’s forces. There were many more coming. Symon asked why they don’t leave and got the same answer as from Duzzt. If they leave, their family’s, their whole tribes will be killed. When asked how many there were, they answered, “Many!”. Asked if Grish-ta-nak was with that group, they answered, “No! He send them! Take, take! Must feed, must feed Grizzolo”. Grizzolo is not here, according to the goblins but he comes. He comes to feed. They kept saying, “They come, they come south!”. 

Eryn let them know that she saw nothing to the north from her vantage point up the ravine a little ways. Symon asked how far behind them were they and they told them, “Two suns”. Symon asked, “You are two suns ahead of the group?”. They answered, “Yes!”. Symon, based on his knowledge of the goblin language knew that to mean two days. So that meant the group coming south is two days behind them. The “at least three“ leaders are close at hand though and might show up and any time. Symon tried to convince them to fight with us but they said if they fought, their whole tribe dies.They do want to leave and go back home to the mountains but if they did, their whole tribe would be killed. It appeared in the end, that the only way to free them so they could leave would be to stop Grish-ta-nak. Probably meaning kill Grish-ta-nak. All of the goblin tribe seemed to be with Grish-ta-nak working in the mines or assisting the miners in some fashion. Angelique wanted to leave before the leaders came back. Symon explained to her the quandary of leaving them now in order to spare them but in doing so, allow them to continue on to the human cities where many would likely die. He felt this was basically a loose, loose, loose situation. They tried to get an idea of a count of this army but goblins don’t count well so had no way to define it. It appeared that there was an army heading south while we were headed north. Symon let them know that we were going to do what we could to free their families. They were grateful to hear that. He continued to try to convince them to join us and when he lost that argument he let them know that they need to keep our visit a secret so we can help their families. They said they would. The goblins told us to head out quietly to the east. Cal-El and Eryn used brush to dust away the tracks. The snow fall will take care of the rest.

They left made their way back to their camp. Once back there, they still had more time to rest so everyone went back to sleep except Eryn who sat watch for the rest of the night. Angelique covered her neck and upper back with her backpack to help prevent any surprises from Morgan and Marlina. The sleet and snow mix changed over to snow. The temperature continued to drop. They woke the next morning to a beautiful snow covered area. They got up and had a small breakfast and packed up to go. While packing, Cal-El took the time to go back to the goblin camp to see if they were still there but they had gone. There were additional tracks there. They had headed out south. Cal-El returned to the group and they set out north on the road. They went till about noon with the snow tapering off and the temperatures dropping some more. The path was a steady incline. They made a small fire, ate and warmed up a little before heading out again. Later that day the snow returned, The temperatures continued to drop. They picked a spot and set up a camp. They set up Xor’s tent as a lean to again. They hadn’t seen any indications of movement in the area and no fires off in the distance. Xor hunted rabbit and got one which was a fat one. Angelique fixed a nice meal out of it and they ate. Xor took first watch and Cassandra took the second watch. The night passed uneventfully. They never saw any fires in the distance. 

The weather had cleared a little but there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground. The winds were out of the north and it was extremely cold. They ate, broke camp, and headed north. After a couple of hours into their journey, they spied something in the road ahead. They weren’t sure what it was. It was a kind of grayish lump that didn’t appear to belong. There was a little steam coming off of it, like it was a creature breathing. Cal-El made his way up the path while Eryn moved off the path to the east and tried to stay parallel with him. As he got closer he could see that it was gray and furry. Cal-El wondered if it was big enough to be a winter wolf. But thought it could also just be someone wearing their fur. Eryn stayed outside the east of it and couldn’t tell for sure what it was but started to think it was a wolf. They both saw that it had it’s back to the party. Cal-El, stomped his foot but it didn’t react. Eryn moved up a little more and Cal-El packed a snowball and threw it at the lump. It stood quickly and turned to face him and was indeed, a winter wolf. At the same time, Eryn was assaulted from the east by three bugbears with a bear that they released to attack her. The bugbear’s threw hand axes at her. Two of them hit her. Symon ran up and hacked at the winter wolf, doing quite a bit of damage. Xor moved up and attacked a bugbear near Eryn. Symon stepped up and fired his slingshot and hit the wolf. Cassandra ran up and attacked Xor’s bugbear and hit it. Angelique stepped up and fired at one of the other bugbears hitting it. The bear attacked Eryn and thankfully missed. A bugbear attacked her as well and missed. Another bugbear attacked Xor and missed. Cal-El was attacked by the winter wolf and missed. Xor took his second hit on his bugbear and dropped it. Angelique fired again at her bugbear and missed. About that time, from the western side, another group of bugbears with another bear poured out of the woods. The bear was released and headed straight for Cal-El.

Eryn attacked first and hit the bear. The bugbear and bear on her attacked and missed. Xor was attacked by the other bugbear and missed. Cal-El was attacked by the winter wolf and missed. The bear charged him and missed. The three bugbears threw there hand axes at Cal-El and all missed. Cassandra attacked the other bugbear on Xor and missed. Symon put up a web to capture the three bugbears on the western side of the battlefield. They were caught up in it and were slowed as they struggled to move threw it. Cal-El cut down the winter wolf. Xor attacked a bugbear, hitting it and killed it. Angelique missed her first and second attacks. Eryn missed her next attack. Cal-El attacked the bear and hit with both attacks. Symon used his slingshot to attack the bugbear on Eryn and missed. Xor attacked the same bugbear and hit it, killing it. Angelique fired on the bear on Eryn and hit it. Cassandra hit the same bear. The other bugbears struggled to make their way out of the web. Eryn was missed by the bear on her. Xor took out that bear. Eryn moved just outside the web and whacked at the northern bugbear hitting it. Cal-El took out the bear. Xor took a bow shot at a bugbear and hit it. Symon used his slingshot on the one Eryn was fighting and missed. Cassandra stopped just outside the web waiting on the bugbear to get close enough to hit. Angelique fired on one of the bugbears and hit twice in a row while Xor fired a second shot and hit his bugbear. Eryn hit her bugbear. Symon missed again. Xor hit his bugbear. Angelique missed hers. Cassandra can’t reach hers. Cal-El finished off his. Angelique missed her second attack and Xor missed his. Cal-El waited for the next bugbear to escape the web. Symon used his slingshot and killed one of the bugbears. Eryn fired on the last bugbear and critically hit it and killed it.

They skinned the white wolf. Cal-El scouted out the western area to make sure there weren’t anymore attackers. He didn’t find anyone. They found 15 gold pieces and 20 silver pieces total on the bugbears. Angelique healed Eryn’s wounds. There were no papers or orders on the bugbears. They all had the patches though. Cal-El and Eryn went out to the west and east respectively and found where the bugbears and bears came down from the north. There was no sign of a camp. They headed back up the road north again. It began to snow along the way and the wind whipped up and the temperature dropped again. As it got dark, they picked a place a little ways off the road and set up a camp. They built a fire and set up their lean to. Xor was unable to scrounge up any meat for the evenings meal. That’s where they realized that they should have taken bear and wolf meat from their last combatants. Cal and Angelique set up the watch for the evening. About an hour into the watch, they started hear noises coming from the north. Cal-El saw torchlight coming their way. Angelique doused the fire and they set up to see what was coming. After a little time, Cal-El saw a lot more bugbears marching in columns. They were well armed, carrying torches, booted. It was a very large group of them. Cal-El and Angelique stayed quiet and watched as several hundred bugbears and a hobgoblin leader passed. After they cleared the area, Angelique relit the fire. There was a little concern for the bodies they would find further up the road but that woudn’t be for several hours. They all wore the wyvern patch.

Those that rested woke the next morning feeling refreshed only to find out what passed during the night. They ate and prepared to go. They headed out north again. There was still a lot of snowfall. As they looked north, they could see some smoke. They were beginning to crest the elevation they had been moving up for the past few days. They spotted some buildings or a structure up ahead. The road seemed to be leading straight to it. Studying it, there were several fires, more like chimney fire and not like buildings burning. They moved off the side of the road and as they got closer. They could make out more detail about what it was. They saw a structure blocking their path. It was old and battle scared. It appeared that recently, parts of it had been restored. As they got closer they could see it was a walled structure with a gate in it. The gate was patched up and made functional but appeared weak. There were two towers, one on either end. The roofs of each tower looked as though they’ed been patched. It is torchlit with multiple fires coming out of braziers. There were bugbears and even a couple of gnolls. It seemed to be a guard post. There didn’t seem to be a way around it. The walls reached the mountain blocking the way around. It appeared the only way in was through the gate. The towers were two stories tall. The ramparts in front of those were about one story high. They also spied a hobgoblin up there as well. The hobgoblin seemed to be in charge. The trampled ground of the army that came down led straight up and through the gate. They came down through here.  

That is where we stopped tonight.

Start the recorder.  

 Xp = 599 or 659 with the 10%.

3 gold, 4 silver, and 4 copper.