(G294 19/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS8

(G294 19/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS8

DAY 272 (7th Nightal)(December) cont ...

They were taken to a the Western Watchtower at the weset town gates. It was a not a big building but the guards managed to find each of them a cell.

Mia started by talking to Billi as he seemed the most interesting, having admitted while he was being arrested to being under the influence of a devil.

When Billi mentioned the Vanguard of Sertrous she blanched, this was a name she'd hoped never to hear again in Kingsholm and having heard it now she sent for 'the expert'.

Billi didn't know it of course, but the young cleric of Gond that arrived was Freddorick, one of the adventurers that had initially breached the Forgotten King's Barrow.

When the story began to come to light she stormed down to Fenrir's cell to demand the truth, but he was so silver tongued she came to think that Billi was lying or the gnome was simply mad.

Just then though, the interrogations stopped when a messenger arrived and she was called away.

'Just keep them quiet Sergeant!' she growled. 'And don't let them talk between the cells.'

About half an hour later Cavu, with a big supply of Gaseous Form potions went from cell to cell giving each of them a potion and saying,
'Take this and escape! Meet me inside the Cemetery gates, by the compost heaps! If you get lost follow the smell of the rotten flowers.'

Durz pretended to be a ghost and scared off a guard long enough to gather his gear and simply walk out the watchtower. He noticed that there was a big commotion going on in the poor quarter, something not far away from a riot and figured this was a diversion that Cavu  had somehow set. He got to the cemetery gates without incident.
Fenrir arrived by wing and Arahel by a hundred little legs in centipede form.
They were short one gnome though.

'Where is Billi?' hissed Cavu to the others.
'Er.. he may be meeting that devil slut of his,' grumbled Durz.

DAY 273 (8th Nightal)(December)

Fenrir was the first to arrive at the gate, he flew invisibly to the top of a tower and waited to see what would happen. The others walked up to the gate from outside and Arahel, still a centipede and scuttled in unseen by the guards.

Billi was waiting in the shadows and at the appointed time he was approached by an  old man. The man talked for a while, then revealed himself, or rather herself to be Erin and made to take the gnome away.

Arahel the centipede turned into Arahel the Beholder and once more she did her best to catch or kill the erinyes. Despite the efforts of Arahel, Billi and Fenrir though she flew beyond the range of the anti-magic field and teleported away.

When they returned to the Cemetery, Cavu gathered them close and said,
'Good, we are all ready to go then. Listen, Gertrude, well she speaks in riddles most of the time, but now she is clearly telling me that if it cannot be done quietly then at least do it quickly! It has to be done tonight. If we don't get out of here tonight all hell will break  loose and I mean that literally! The big players in this tend to drop dragons on each other  when they get excited. We could easily end up with Kingsholm in ruins! If the Vanguard work out we are after the Forgotten King's Barrow then they will drop and army of devils on the place.'

So, duly warned they go on with the task of grave robbing.

First, they arrived at the graves of Bokk, Wulfgar and Banjax. You may or may not remember who  these people were, but just as a reminder then.

Two years ago a band of adventurers came to Kingsholm, through a yuan-ti portal from Waterdeep.
They were met by the locals who had trouble in the graveyard and more or less defeated the evil yuan-ti that were breaking into the Barrow of the Forgotten king there.

Some of them died in the adventure though and they were buried here by the others. The Barrow was sealed magically by the ghost of the Forgotten King and the Sword and Ephod that would be required to open it again was buried in the graveyard. Now, no one knew exactly where they were buried, but each of the adventurers took a single clue to its location, for instance
'East Section' and 'Upper Yard'. For reasons that are not completely clear the three dead adventurers were each buried with a clue also.

Now Fenrir, Arahel, Durz and Billi found themselves, hired by Cavu the Cursed to gather the last of the clues and open the Barrow once more.
'Start with Bokk,' said Cavu, glancing around in the dark to check they were not being watched,
'Then Wulfgar. Leave Banjax to last. Make haste.'

They started by Arahel turning into a badger and digging down into Bokk's grave. She scratched through the wood and rooted around in the coffin. She soon sniffed out a piece of velum scroll that the corpse had laid on its chest and brought it up to the others.

'Row Twenty Six', said Cavu as he read it. He then folded it up and put it in his pocket.

Next was the grave of Wulfgar and Fenrir and Durz began digging with shovels that Fenrir had gone back to the tannery to get. Durz was a powerful digger and it did not take long. They opened the coffin and saw that the corpse of the dwarf also had a piece of scroll laid on it.
Durz handed it up to Cavu who read,
'Column Thirty-five.'
This too he folded up and put in his pocket.

Finally, all together, they dug up the grave of Banjax. It did not take long, but when the coffin was opened it was found to be empty. Cavu looked down at the exhumation and rubbed his chin, 'That's ok. We are done now.'

Durz shrugged and hoisted himself out of the grave then helped out Fenrir.

Cavu took six pieces of velum from his pocket and read them in the darkness.
'OK, North Range. East Section. Upper Yard. Row Twenty Six. Column Thirty-five. Five Stones.
And finally ... ah ... Eight Stones East. Let's go.'

The final grave, where the clues lead to, was marked simply with 'Unknown' and once more they dug up the coffin. To Cavu's utter amazement and horror though it was empty.
'The Sword? The Ephod?' What is going on? How can this be?'
'Found this,' said Durz and handed up a ring.
Cavu and Fenrir leaned in to take a look. It was a tiny ring, as if for a child. It had a symbol of a scroll on it that Fenrir felt was familiar.

It was Billi that worked out most of it though. The ring had a symbol of Ogma on it and was just the right size for a gnome. Cavu knew that their was a small temple to Ogma back in
Kingsholm and that the cleric there was a gnome and also known to be light fingered.
In all likelihood he had somehow got hold of the sword and the ephod.

Arahel, Billi and Durz stood and talked for a long while, on how best to get the items from the cleric. They took so long that Fenrir sidled off, flew back to town, located and broke into the temple (which was just a converted town house) before they had made a move.

As Fenrir was skulking around inside Arahel turned up as a bird, landed, then turned into a gnome and banged on the door.

The little fellow in his night gown and cap who answered the door was not interested in taking in random strangers, even if they were gnomes,
'It's the middle of the night! Go away!' he said as he slammed the door.
Arahel knocked again and showed the ring to the cleric. He may have known what it was but Arahel did not pick up on his reaction as he slammed the door once more.

She knocked a third time and turned into a tree. The gnome opened the door again and grew even more puzzled and concerned. Five minutes later he had his coat and boots on and was taking off into the night.

After he had gone, Fenrir skulked downstairs and checked out the main altar room. He detected magic coming from under the altar but before he could get at it he had to shoo off the little old lady gnome who was dotting about, an old servant of the cleric who was at a loss as to what was going on.
'Your honour?' she called, wondering where her master was, 'Where did he go? I'm all a flutter!'

Fenrir chanced his arm and from the altar, and still invisible he boomed,
'This is the voice of Ogma! Good and loyal old gnome, there is godly business transpiring this
night! Go to your room!'
She squeaked in awe and fear and fled to her room.

It was all too easy then for Fenrir (terror of old ladies everywhere) to move aside the  altar, retrieve the sword and ephod and fly back out the window he had broken in through.

Arahel, none the wiser, felt a waft of wind as the warlock swooped past, still invisible.
Spying the broken upstairs window she put everything together and realised her boreal services were no longer required. Only an alley cat noticed the tree eventually turn into a bird and  flap off.

With the Sword Merthuvial and the Ephod of Authority finally in his possession Cavu, with great reverence, took them to the entrance of the barrow and stood before the large iron bound stone doors.

He donned the ephod and held the sword aloft. There was a grinding of stone then a gasp of air as the doors opened and the Barrow was unsealed. The sword gave off a red glow, enough to light up the entrance and the upper barrow chamber.
'Finally,' whispered Cavu. 'You've no idea how much effort it took to get even this far.
And for you my friends, the adventure is just beginning...'

(G293 11/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS7

(G293 11/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS7

DAY 271 (6th Nightal)(December) cont ...

To continue then, the fellows from Waterdeep were comfortably ensconced in the Coronet and Cabbage. Berum, feeling rather out of place in a human tavern, pulled the hood of her cloak up and kept to the shadows.

Arahel was in the form of a dwarf, but let the imagine down by just ordering milk to drink from the bar.

Fenrir wandered over and talked to the owner, Ian Turband. Part of the plan that Cavu had concocted was that a house or similar would be found to use as a discrete base of operations. Fenrir did not really do discretion, but tried his best and gained from Ian the name of one Adrenin Boor, who apparently owned an old school house in the east side of town that was not being used.

Fenrir sauntered down to Adrenin's address and was met by a footman at the door. Adrenin was not in, but his son Terek was who explained his father was expected home the next day. Fenrir left his name and said he was at the Cabbage and if he wanted to strike a deal on the School House Adrenin would find him there.

He then went to the Stinky Ferret tavern, a tavern in the northern poor quarter of the town. Billi was also there, as they had both heard there was a disused tannery across from the tavern that may be for sale.

The proprietor of the Ferret was a larger than life fellow called Captain Varkin Shemlock who styled himself as a retired nautical cove. Fenrir talked to him, while Billi approached a quiet group of gnomes.

When they left they both had the name of Grannie Umpie as the lady that owned the deeds to the tannery. Fenrir also later discovered his pocket had been picked and he was lighter by twenty gold or so.

Fenrir went down the hospice where old Grannie Umpie resided and was so charming and urbane that she gave him the deeds to the tannery without asking for a penny.
'Oh young man! Take the deeds, I've no need of them!' she declared.

Meanwhile, Durz was back at the Cabbage making sweet orcish love to his new bride. So much so that the neighbours started to complain to the landlord and he sent one of his men up to request a little more decorum.

Durz answered the door naked, 'WOT?'
The person that had knocked was a fellow half orc who did not give his name but said,
'The boss says you've to make less noise. Understood? Less noise!'
Durz grumbled and slammed the door, but was a little less raucous from then on.

Later, around seven o'clock, they all met and went up to find Cavu in his room. It was the best one in the inn with a separate living area and bedroom. For his own reasons he was eating his meals here.

Once they were all in he said,
'Well, since you lost all the money I gave you, and your cleric to boot, things are going to go a bit differently. I'll have to hide out in the inn while you chaps do the things that need doing. Here is the plan then. Firstly, I have written down all the clues for where to find the graves you'll need for the final clues. Once you have the last clues, this will give the location where the sword and ephod has been put.
Dig them up and  bring them to me.
How you do this is up to you, but try not to draw attention to yourselves!
After that, we will start thinking about getting past the Forgotten King and down the rabbit hole that the Vanguard of Sertrous disappeared down two years ago! I'll deal with your cleric situation, in the mean time, here are some things that will help alleviate his loss'

He handed each of them a magical healing pine cone, that could be used to heal wounds once a day.

He carried on, 'What else do I need to tell you? Ah yes, there are agents of the Vanguard in Kingsholm so try and avoid them as much as possible. Keep a low profile. Also, Dwerry has just arrived, but she caught a cold out in the snow and is warming up in her room.'

An hour later Fenrir and Arahel flew out to the Kingsholm graveyard, a massive complex of graves, tombs and crypts, far larger than the town of Kingsholm required and of ancient origins.

Here they soon found the three graves, of Bokk, Wulfgar and Banjax, who were all buried together in a quiet section. All was as they expected. They noticed a single light, some distance away from a guards hut or somesuch but other than that the place was deserted.

Billi and Durz, good companions and wanting to help, but not always thinking things through went down to the tannery to check it out. It was dirty and full of junk. They borrowed some brooms from the Ferret and started to tidy it up.

Eventually they all met up back at the Cabbage. Billi was so taken with the idea of the hospice that looked after the old people in Kingsholm that he asked Iain about it. Since Iain was on the town council Billi gave him 200 gold (the gold he had received from Jolly Underdown you may recall) which Iain informed him would do a lot of good.

That night Fenrir talked to Iain some more about the old school house and revealed to Iain that he had the deeds to the Tannery.

Durz made yet more noise with his new bride but did calm it down a bit when he was told he would be asked to leave unless he was more considerate for the other guests.

DAY 272 (7th Nightal)(December)

That morning they had breakfast, then Billi went to the general store to get more equipment for the cleaning and repair of the tannery.

Both he and Durz then went there to fix it up. They brought Berum with them. Arahel turned into a donkey to help out (although in truth there was not much for a donkey to do) and mischievously Billi went to the store again and returned with a harness to put on her.
You can imagine that the sight of a gnome chasing a talking donkey with a head collar drew a crowd and it did. People from the Stinky Ferret and nearby houses all came to see what was going on at the tannery. So much for maintaining a low profile!

Back at the tavern Fenrir waited for and met Adrenin Boor and began preliminary talks on renting out the old school house. Having two hide-outs is not a bad idea, but it was a pointless exercise as will be proved later.

Dwerry meanwhile was recovering from a chill she had picked up while out on the Thar and after he'd finished with Boor Fenrir spent the rest of the morning tending to her and turning on the charm. This, he had been instructed to do by Cavu. It was all part of a plan cooked up by them both.

The workers at the tannery returned to the Cabbage for lunch, then went back and worked until nightfall.

That evening, Billi and Durz sat drinking and talking in the common room. Billi noticed a young gnome wench giving him the eye and went over to talk to her.

'Hello, what's your name? My name is Hilda,' she said.
They flirted a bit, but Billi was still in love with Erin. When he described her to Hilda she replied,
'Perhaps I can arrange for you to meet her...If you follow me outside...'
Billi willingly followed her, but was held back by Durz who sensed something amiss.

Needless to say, it all kicked off. Hilda turned into Erin, for of course it was her and made to fly off with Billi once again. The others reacted too quickly though. Durz held her up long enough for Arahel and Fenrir to come down from their rooms.
Arahel, not familiar with the word 'overkill' turned into a Beholder at the foot of the stairs and caused everyone in the common room to flee for the doors and jump out the windows.

Arahel used one of her eyeballs to cast Finger of Death and came close to killing Erin in one hit, but the erinyes survived and made a run for it. Before teleporting out she whispered in Billi's ear 'Meet me at the east gate at midnight.'

[A side note: As a druid I am, of course, very impressed at Arahel's ability to turn into such a powerful aberration. They don't call them aberrations for nothing though, these beasts go against nature and on hearing this story my first reaction was 'she is playing with powers beyond her ken'. I think though, as will be learned later, I was misjudging her.]

Arahel, opening her central eye hit the area before her in an anti-magic field. It came too late to stop Erin, but did make a seemingly innocent bar patron turn into Karhad.

He tried to flee into the street but was caught and beaten up by Durz, Billi and Fenrir. While the eye was on him Billi was free of the charm and Karhad could not fly off.

Before they could question Karhad though, the Mia Desarna and the town guard arrived arrested the lot of them.

(G292 04/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS6

(G292 04/10/16 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK, NG) SS6

DAY 267 (2nd Nightal)(December) cont ...

Arahel as you may not be aware was not only a druid of moderate power but also an even rarer thing, in that she was a Master of Many Forms.

These types of druids specialise in shape shifting and as such there was very little that she could not turn into. How one so young came to have such power I have no idea.

As a result of this though, she could change into a Horrid Umberhulk and in this form she attack the leading edge of the attacking bears. An Umberhulk is a sort of huge insectoid horror if you are unfamiliar with the beast.

She killed one, then another, but was then swamped. Although she had the power of an Umberhulk she lacked its endurance and so she retreated, changed into a giant owl and fled the combat.

Durz, who was near Arahel when she changed, stuck his arms up and she swooped down and grabbed him. Together the flew south away from the ogres and bears, abandoning Veddic to his fate.

Veddic had already gained a lot of ground on the bears, but in the sparse snowy terrain of the Thar there was nowhere to hide.

Dwerry stayed with him, but when they were about to be overrun she vanished to be replaced by two small snakes that slithered into a snow bank.

Veddic used every spell in his arsenal to try and keep the bears at bay and summoned a  cascade of rocks and fire, a mini volcano, with an Earth Reaver spell that killed two more bears and injured many more of them.

He cast a Briar Web spell to delay them further, but the end was inevitable, with Arahel and Durz long gone and Billi away in the snow he had nowhere to hide and no means of escape.

Exhausted he was eventually surrounded by the maddened and bloody bears.

Billi, who watched from a great distance and saw the poor cleric's end but could do nothing to help. Though they were mere specks from where he stood he saw the bears crowd in and savage Veddic as the ogres arrived to finish off the hunt.

Meanwhile, inexplicably, Arahel and Durz made camp in the snow, not much more than a mile away.
It was not even noon.

Billi did his best to try and find them, he was a good tracker, but since his companions had been flying and the snow had started coming on again his task was a difficult one.

Eventually though he found them and joined their camp. Together they made a shelter from the snow, tunnelling into a snowbank in a sheltered gully.

At around three o'clock though they discovered the bears had not been sitting idle, but were still on the hunt and one approached the camp, sniffing and snuffling.
When it sensed them, it gave a mighty roar and they heard a hunting horn answer in the distance.

They rushed up and killed the bear, Durz being injured in the fight, but it was too late to remain undetected and they fled west, pursued by the sound of horns echoing through the falling snow.

About an hour later they found a cave entrance and sheltered there. More by luck (the snow came on much more heavily as the day passed) than judgement they remained undetected by the bears for the rest of the day.

DAY 268 (3rd Nightal)(December)

At dawn they exited the cave and headed west. It was slow going through the snow so Arahel shape shifted into a giant owl and carried Durz and Billi on her back.

It was tiring on her wings though so they took a break at noon. By evening they spotted another camp in the distance to the north, a haze of black smoke on the white horizon.
They landed and approached to take a look.

It consisted of about twenty yurts and the people were human sized but rough in appearance. They also had a great many dogs or wolves with them.

Billi snuck forward, undetected and saw that these people were orcs and he estimated there were about a hundred of them. He also noticed that the adults all had marks of daggers on their  faces.

When a dog sniffed the air and started to come towards him, he returned to the others.

He told the others what he had seen and after a little discussion, Durz picked up his axe and headed  straight to the camp by himself, thinking by now that this was their last hope of getting out of the Thar alive.

He was spotted and surrounded as he approached the camp and was met by a large aggressive looking orc who introduced himself as Narbat the Red.

When Durz asked for directions to Kingsholm they all laughed at him.
'You are lost. And you stink of human, half breed!' said the leader, but he was still impressed by  Durz's size and weaponry.

They eyed each other up for a few more moments and when neither made a move to kill the other the haggling began.

In the end Durz found himself losing a bottle of expensive wine and one thousand gold's worth of gems, but gaining an orcish wife who would, apparently, guide him to Kingsholm!

The ceremony lasted no more than an hour and Durz was welcomed to the family, more or less. The priest was orcish, and of Kossuth. These orcs were part of the Burning Daggers, the most powerful orcish clan of the Thar and loyal worshippers of the Fire God. It was just bad luck for Veddic (a cleric of Kossuth) that the first camp they had stumbled into had not been orcs but ogres.

His new wife was a fine orcish female called Berum. A little too old for the average orc to take as a wife though and the warchief had been anxious to marry her off before she got too old.
She was a tracker by profession and had lived in the Thar all her life so taking Durz and his companions to Kingsholm would be trivially easy for her.

She spoke common as well as orcish so could answer for herself when Durz brought her back. They were astounded at the outcome, but pleased that they now knew where they were going!


DAY 269 (4th Nightal)(December)

Since there were now too many of them to carry on the back of an owl they spend the day walking towards Kingsholm.

Berum lead them to the south east.

Berum spent a lot of the day berating Durz for being incompetent and not knowing how to find is way around the wilderness. She soon shut her mouth though when he gave her a  black eye.

That little episode didn't stop her crawling into his bedroll that night though, and ever night there after. Such is the way of orcish love.


DAY 270 (5th Nightal)(December)

Another day of travel for the companions towards Kingsholm.

It was still snowing so it was slow going.


DAY 271 (6th Nightal)(December)

They arrived in Kingsholm by mid afternoon.

They were met at the gates by Fenrir who had arrived the day before with Cavu
(Having come directly from The Devil's Brew Tavern with no mucking about).

Fenrir saw Arahel had changed into a dwarf and recognised Durz and Billi. He wondered for a moment if Veddic had been turned into a female orc, but he was later to learn of the cleric's end.

The gate guards had their bows drawn at the sight of a group containing orcs, but Fenrir, the master of charm, soon had them all friends and with a wink and a smile to Mia Desarna the captain of the guard he lead the party into the town, explaining that they were all part of a expedition setting up a new trade route from .. 'oh you know, from here to there!'

Later in the Coronet and Cabbage (a local tavern) he met Mia again and turned on even more of his charm. Alas, Fenrir, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, had given his really name to the people of Kingsholm and it was not long before  he was connected to Waterdeep and all his misadventures there.

Still, for that night at least, he was there to 'set the record straight' and paint himself in the best possible light. I presume he brushed aside all the murders and concentrated on incidents such as when he saved all of Waterdeep by using his wit, charm and guile to convince Obuld Many-Arrows and his northern horde to 'take the gold and bugger off'.

You could always count on Fenrir to work a room.