Lost City of Lull I: No
Good Deed… as told by Glaurung the Golden Sune's blessings on you all! As you recall the heroes who cleared the Dwarven Vault
stumbled across the ancient, dwarven city of Lull. Not once, but twice this happened and the
dwarves among us clearly took this as a sign. Whatever had befallen that proud
city, it was time for the dwarves to reclaim their lost glory. Assembled on the bright morn of the 9 th of Uktar
were four veterans of the dwarven vault; myself, fellow dwarf Orax Thunderfoot,
Larry Hornblower and the estimable Burglekutt. Missing were Frank McStank (sadly deceased)
and Reginald Tealeaf (no doubt enjoying the spoils of the Dwarven Vaults as
only a halfling can). To stiffen our ranks we were joined by the Borin, famously
the tallest dwarf in the West Marches and Gigi, a somewhat calorically challenged
bard looking to get herself back into fighting trim. Also with us were a magnificent collection of mounts to
better speed our journey and it was with high spirits we set forth for Lull. Our first day’s travel began smoothly though as usual we
wandered a little off course in the freezing swamps. That afternoon, however, we encounter three
large swarms of Stirges and the nasty creature were upon us before we could
react. We had a few bad moments with both
Larry and Gigi suffering terrible wounds but ultimately our magics and Borin’s
bravery prevailed. We pressed on, sighting familiar landmarks such as The Titan’s
rest in order to orient ourselves correctly.
We ended the day within 6 miles of our destination and made our camp.
The events of the coming hours would throw our plans into chaos. In the middle of the night, we heard the passage of four giantish
creatures herding a group of slaves. They passed us by without challenge but a
fierce debate ensued as to our course of action. The more mercenary of us wanted to ignore the
incident but by my and Borin’s argument we eventually convinced everyone the
right course of action was to affect a rescue. We armoured up and mounted up and rode in pursuit, finding
the giant slavers in short order. Here
Borin proved remarkably useful as his giant Goliath form stuck a kinship with the
brutes and in short order he was able to negotiate the purchase of the eight
miserable wretches being driven through the swamps. At a bargain price of 100 gold, I might add! We also learnt some useful intelligence of both the plans of
the Hill Giants to the North West and of the ogres (that is what they called themselves)
as well. In the morning another debate ensued as to whether we should leave
the slaves to their own devices, bring them with us into peril in Lull or escort
them home. Again, the more goodly of us
prevailed and we escorted them back to hope, a task that was cold, dangerous
and exhausting due to lack of supplies to fully equip all of the slaves. Two days of hard slogging saw us reach Hope at nightfall and
discharge our grateful wards. They were farming folk, by and large and should Castle
Bent Fingers be fully restored, they would make ideal subjects for working the
lands. After fortifying ourselves with a night’s dining and rest at
the Stuck Pig we headed once more for the city of Lull. We have worn a veritable path through the
swaps by now! Travel was swift and smooth and we reached Lull towards the
evening of the same day. Keen to make a
start we ventured through the tight passageways through the cliffs shield the approach
to Lull. Here it was that our luck
turned for the worse, for Lull has fallen into the hands of Kobolds and they
proved both fierce and cunning in the defence of their lair. We stumbled into ambush after ambush on our final approach. A deadly shower of poisoned arrows killed
nearly all our mounts in a slaughter of horse, camel and aurochs flesh. Only
Gigi’s mount survived the carnage. A few turns later a mighty avalanche was loosed upon us with
some of us taking significant hurts.
Worse, Larry’s scribe was slain, his quill and parchment proving little
defence against tonnes of rocks. Our hearts began to sink as we contemplated
just how much pain those little bastards had planned for us. Finally, as we made our final dash for the front doors the
Kobolds unleashed a pair of ballistae against us. Through terrible misfortune
one of the mighty bolds struck me full in the face! It was only my hardy dwarven and draconic
heritage that let me survive the blow. I pray that gentle Sune will eventually restore
my magnificent looks for now I bear a fearful scar as a reminder of kobold
treachery. On reaching the mighty gates Borin gathered us around and
called on the blessings of his god to heal us, as too did Larry. Much restored
we examined the entrance and keen eyed Burglekutt spied a trap. Worse, a mighty
barrier was slowly descending to prevent our ingress! Fortunately, the latter
was remedied by dragging in some large boulders to prevent its complete closure
but the trap beyond brough out expedition to a temporary halt. Enough tale telling for one night. We leave our heroes somewhat stymied but as determined
as ever to wrest back the dwarven city from the clutches of the kobolds.
I say again, Sune’s blessings on you all!
