Roll Call: Draelic, Josey, Kendrick, Laurus, Maximus, Sendar
We start off at the Keep, where the party divvies up some of the treasure they found in their previous escapades. They also take a good long look at the map they took from the gnolls, and, after they deciphered the language, found that the southern area of the moors is positively riddled with gnoll tribes, troll lairs, a couple of dragon lairs, and an ominous site labeled “Death things”. There’s also a place marked “ruins”, and that gets their attention as well.
The party takes the map to the Explorers Guild and talks with Kalindra, the female halfling who runs the guild and has been keeping a lot of company with Josey. She’s impressed with the map and offers them some good solid coin for the right to copy the map into the guild’s archives. But this will take some time, so the group decides to kill some time by killing some trolls.
Recalling a position on the map, the group sets off for one of the marked lairs. Later that day, when they arrive, Kendrick does the scouting thing, and hears at least three distinctive voices. The party decides “what the heck” and charges on in, coming face to face with FOUR trolls. We’re talking about the party being seriously outmatched here. At the very least, they surprised the trolls.
And that turns out to be the decisive factor. In the surprise attack, Josie catches two of them in a Burning Hands, and Sendar hits one with an Orb of Fire. Maximus gets a critical hit on the worst burned one, and Laurus dispatches it, then cleaving at the next one in line, inflicting a critical hit on it.
Kendrick launches a sneak attack on that very troll, and dispatches it. Draelic casts Moonlust, causing the third troll to just sit there with a blank expression while all Hell is breaking loose around it. The remaining troll tries to counter-attack, critting Maximus. But Draelic cures Maximus while Kendrick does a critical hit sneak attack and drops the troll. This leaves only the Moonlust troll, and the party dispatches it quickly.
The group obtain some troll blood for Aunt Batty the alchemist back at the Keep. They return to the Keep, and Josey goes on a date with Kalindra.
The following day is characterized by staying inside the Keep and taking care of mundane business. The only thing that happens of note is that Draelic goes to the one place in the Keep that is generally considered a “mercenary and warriors” establishment, and begins to gamble with some drunk mercenary, basically cleaning out the judgment-impaired guy. Eventually, this taproom full of drunken soldiers, fighters, and mercenaries realize that Draelic shouldn’t be here, and certainly shouldn’t be taking advantage of one of their brethren, and decide to beat the living Hell out of him. Before they can do this, Laurus, who has been following Draelic in order to make sure he doesn’t get into trouble, enters and sort of vouches for the Tymoran cleric. The mercenaries respect Laurus’ past mercenary affiliation (the Silver Army) and decide to “release” Draelic into his custody, provided the fighter removes the cleric from the premises immediately.
Next day, the group decides to go after another group of trolls. This time, they find a trio of trolls in a hut. A savvy application of spells and steel take down this trio, again, catching them by surprise. They hunker down at the ruins of the Wolves’ Den inn, then head to the Keep the following day.
It’s a good thing they get to the Keep. A hideous blizzard blows in, effectively shutting down the group’s operations for the next day or so. Finally, the group is able to leave on the 13th and heads off, determined to explore these “ruins” listed on the map.
Since it takes two days’ travel to reach that spot, the party sets up camp at the halfway point. During the night, they actually see a Zhentish caravan approach, heading east to Boareskyr Bridge. They exchange a few words, but little more.
Next morning, the group sets out into the High Moor and finds the ruins. It appears to be some sort of small walled manor house with a few other buildings, plus towers at the corners and a gate house. Unfortunately, the swamp seems to have seeped in, flooding the courtyard and causing several parts of the structure to collapse.
The group checks out the northwestern tower, and disturbs the sleep of a juvenile white dragon, who seems to resent the intrusion. A brief but furious battle ensues. Kendrick sneak attacks the dragon, while Laurus charges in to the attack, flanking with Kendrick. The little dragon breathes on the party, hurting them, but not knocking any of them out. Sendar and Josie hurl fire-based spells at the white dragon, and Stinkpaw gets into the act, attacking the dragon with a nasty bite. The dragon lashes out with claws and fangs, but another sneak attack by Kendrick fells it.
The group picks up the modest little hoard the dragon had accumulated and beats feet out of there, making a beeline back to the Keep.
