What follows is
the result of a couple of slow sessions. 15th of Marpenoth, 1492 (Afternoon) Alatar and Naisys , having just
killed off the last of the half-orc anchorites , both look to Pell to make sure the stableboy
was alright. They see Pell was white as a sheet, shook to his core as he very
nearly escaped death thanks to the two elven siblings. Alatar decided it would
be a good idea to offer the boy some ale, but upon sniffing the skin, Pell
scrunched his nose, and he pulls away a bit. Alatar shrugs at this. “More for
me!” Alatar begins dragging
the body out of the boy’s room while Kia and Briar head towards the stables to check on the
horses. Once they arrive there, they find Alatar dragging the half-orc body out
of the building, stopping at the sight of their brother. They ask him if
everything was alright, and Alatar nods, “The kid is shook up a bit but alive.
he will be fine.” As he explains this, Naisys comes down the stairs to regroup
with her siblings, not realizing Pell had followed her down. Naisys heads
towards the northern yard to ensure everything was ok, finding Ivaran pulling
bodies from the main building into the yard. Kia spots Pell, and she goes to
him; seeing the frightened of the boy state, she offers to take him to see
Falcon, letting him know it’s all ok now, to which he nods, and he takes her
hand. Leading
Pell back to the central part of the lodge, Kia reunites Pell with Falcon and
Corwin, who both breathe a sigh of relief at seeing him alright. After some cleanup
of the orc bodies, Falcon thanks the group graciously, offering his best rooms
to them any time they wish, as well as a feast in their honor. Happily
accepting this, the party eats until bursting, happy and sated after an evening
of celebration before turning in for the evening. The
party wakes up after having a very restful evening, coming down to meet with
Falcon before heading out. Kia and Ivaran had announced that they had started a
relationship together, so Ivaran happily joins the party as a more permanent
member. Thanking Falcon for his hospitality, the party begins to get ready to
head out before finding out that Briar had been busy the night prior. Just
outside the lodgings palisade walls stands a small army of orcs, but unlike before,
these orcs did not have the same look of determination and rage as before.
Briar steps forward and orders them to follow the cart, and the group watches
as the orcs, and half-orc anchorites obey his order. “Wow, you raised all of
these orcs?” Kia asks as Briar looks back at them with a grin. “Yeah, my power
grows each day.” The
party makes the several-day treks back to Phandalin as they manage to avoid the
hunting dragon once more, seeing it hunt just a few miles away near the old shrine
ruins. The party hastily makes it to the safety of the town, Briar breaking off
a bit early so he could take the undead army he’s amassed and hide them in an
old abandoned manor he’s seen at the edge of town. Meanwhile, the rest of the
family starts to dismount the cart, Kia noticing the cart having been through
quite a bit and seeing the wear beginning to show itself from that. “Perhaps
we should consider getting this thing repaired and may be upgraded with better
armor? Maybe armor for the horses too while we’re at it since this is a dragon
we’re talking about.” The party agrees as Briar returns, sharing this idea with
him; he checks the funds for the party. “Um, give me a moment, and we can get
that done.” Briar
heads to the miner’s exchange, selling off some gem’s he’s found along the way
before he exchanges one of the notes. He collects about 500 GP figuring that
would be enough to handle everything before he heads out to rejoin his
siblings. As he does this, Kia contacts the blacksmith while Naisys talks with
the woodworker to get the armor and the cart fixed up, and after some negotiations,
they pay 110GP for the cart repairs and reinforcement and 150GP for the horse
armor per horse. After making those purchases and Briar issuing out allowances from
the exchange, the party decides to take the next few days as personal days
while their orders are fulfilled. Part
of those days included joining in a dwarven fight ring at the Sleeping Giant
Inn, getting to have some fun sparring with the local miners, and making some
extra cash doing so. Alatar especially made a surprising amount of money from
the tavern keeper, making about 600 GP off bets alone. To celebrate, he buys
rounds for the tavern. Naisys utilizing her time, heads to the nearby town of Liolin
to purchase a ram as a pet. Why she did this? No one could say, but she did,
and Kia regrets letting her as she gets to wake up to the ram beside her every
morning since. The
day finally came when they’d be ready to head out again; the horses armored up in
shiny new armor, the wagon repaired and reinforced with iron sidings and iron-plated
wheels, even the canopy got some plate scaled protection along its sides. Now
ready, the party mounts up, Briar on the back of Marrow and his undead army
behind him; Kia taking point with the horses and wagon makes way for the Sword
Mountains. Particularly a little-known fortress up in the Icespire peaks called
Icespire Hold. Along the way, they spot the frozen remains of an ogre with a
massive bite taken out of its side—a foreboding sight for what lies ahead of
them. Briar spots something among the remains, and he hops down. With the aid
of his siblings, they dislodge some items from the ice, gaining three
additional potions of healing. Happy with this outcome, they trek forwards into
the foothills of the mountains. As
the cloud cover shifts and clears a bit, they spot the fortress high up in the
mountains and a treacherous winding path that leads its way up towards it.
Finding the trail too narrow for the wagon, they leave the horses behind and
continue on foot. After a couple of hours through the howling winds and stinging
cold buffeting them, they finally come within sight of the gatehouse to the
Icespire Hold. They can see the fortress has seen better days as parts of it were
already beginning to crumble, letting the frost and snowfall into the interior
of the building. Pushing on, careful of the fallen rubble, they make their way
silently towards the gatehouse, where they lead inside to spot a row of stables
all occupied with horses and an owlbear, a particularly familiar owlbear.
Beside these animals was a familiar druid looking at them with a rough-looking
individual. Before they could react as realization sets in on why they looked
familiar, Rod Grin , the bandit leader that jumped them a couple of tenday’s
back, rounds the corner with a mighty grin. “Well now, small world~.” Session paused 25th of Marpenoth, 1492 (Afternoon)