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.
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