Wilf and Jason were keen to get another trip out of their river boat this year. Away from the far North, there was still a month or so in the campaigning season left in the Ice Year. So the party decided to take a trip along the West Otanga again, and continue west rather than take options to the north. So once more Galiena and her crew were engaged to do the rowing. There was a mysterious lack of elves around so Grettir invited along his huscarle Adderbarg, a skilled hunter with some small druidic power. Though no substitute for Girindor as a weather mage, Ubaron did have the spells to command the wind.
The first major encounter is with goblins. Previous expeditions had left them with the impression that the goblins in were richer, braver and somewhat better organised than around the Chittagong area (see Harvest Festival – B38). The second and third points are admirably illustrated as Grettir is led into an ambush by a goblin captive who sacrifices his life to do so. Several score goblins, hobgoblins and wolves descend upon the group. Sadly for the goblins this is an insufficient force. Grettir is trapped in a pit for most of the fight and emerges in a fury. After a bit of healing, the party pursue the goblins to a lair. This appears to have a great deal more building and engineering than they are used to seeing from goblins. However, it is no match for the magic and sheer brute force the humans can bring to bear. Luckily for the party they also brought along a dwarf. Ranulf soon detects that the tunnels they have forced their way into are rigged to collapse. They retreat. Clearly this is not the main entrance. Scores of goblins and hobgoblins are dead, but no significant treasure has been garnered. They return to their boat which the crew are repairing after a prang with a submerged log, and decide it is not worth pursuing the goblins further. They note a signal beacon has been lit on a nearby hill.
Necessary repairs made to the boat, they sail on up a long thin lake. Over the next few days they are attacked by two river serpents, closely observed by some giant eagles and shot at by more goblins and hobgoblins. The second serpent is a whopper and causes some damage to their craft which has to be repaired again. Eventually they spot some ruins that look interesting – some Old Imperial fortified villa, they think. The periphery is defended by hobgoblins who shoot arrows to some effect, but they cannot stand against the arrival of the boat at a stone-built jetty. They are slaughtered or flee. Unfortunately, the boat is damaged once more in the process of landing. It being late, the party make camp before exploring further.
That night they are troubled by a spectre. Ubaron and Wilf are on watch and find they cannot rouse their companions. Only Jason responds to Ubaron’s Awake spell. He tries to attack the spectre but is gripped by an unnatural fear and flees into the night. Ubaron is then possessed by the spirit and tries to attack Wilf. Eventually Wilf manages to wake Grettir who invokes Osiris to exorcise the spirit from Ubaron. It reappears later that night and Grettir tries to speak to it. He gets little sense from it but he forms the view that it is more restless and distressed than evil. It is evidently female. Once more he invokes Osiris to banish her, but though she sinks into the earth he does not believe that she has departed permanently.
That day they explore the villa and its grounds which are defined by a ruined curtain wall. They find them to be infested with hostile plant-life and various of the party are entangled and burnt with acid juices. It becomes apparent that a single vine is manifesting all these attacks. They set to with fire and eldritch blades and the vine sinks into the ground. They harvest some narcotic blooms that subsequently proved to have a street-value in Chittagong.
Ubaron quarters the area systematically casting detect magic. He finds an area with several pings and Kolgrim excavates it with a Move Earth spell, assisted by Ranulf using more mundane methods. Amongst a considerable number of hobgoblin bones they find the remains of seven dwarves, together with their equipment, some of it magical. They surmise that the dwarves had been the victors in a mighty struggle with a large band of hobgoblins. Tragically they lay down to rest in a grove full of narcotic vines and never woke. The party reckon that the remains are decades but not centuries old. There is a distinctive bluish tone to the steel from which most of the armour and weapons have been wrought.
During the rest of the day, the sorcerors ensure that they will be able to teleport back to this location. Meanwhile the rest of the party gather up the loot and transfer it to the once more repaired river boat. The return journey to Chittagong is relatively uneventful and, with the benefit of the current, quite swift.
Once back in Chittagong, Grettir has Kolgrim teleport him to the Dwarven city of Katelgroth. There he seeks an audience with Dain Ironhelm, the King, and shows him the dwarven artefacts. Dain immediately recognises them as the products of the Mines of Azov, another dwarven city lost in the Great Destruction some seven centuries ago. If these remains were but a few decades old, it suggests that the Mines of Azov may still be operating. This news is of great interest to Dain.
F-31a and F-31b
OE Date: August 694
Characters: Grettir, Wilf, Ubaron, Ranulf, Jason NPCs: Kolgrim, Adderbarg, Galiena and the river boat crew
Real World: October 2003 and January 2004; Where: Surbiton
See also Ubaron’s Diaries
N.B. This trip was started in October 2003 but held over until the next game in January 2004 with the same attendees.