Zoom 2023-05-30 21:00

Our trip across the bay is . . . exciting. The wind whips up and both weather mages are hard strained to keep control of the vessel through a storm. Furthermore, Brokev detects flashes of Wild just within his detection range – as though a school/pod/shoal of Wild animals were shadowing us with very brief incursions into our detection range.
However, the ship safely reaches its destination - an isolated village called ‘Tower of the North’ – the eponymous tower being situated a bit inland, and missing its top. The flashes of Wild disappear as we approach land. The village is populated by humans and native orcs (population about 300), and is independent of any main faction, and appears quite prosperous given its isolated position. The ship was just going to offload/pick up some cargo here, but now needs to stay for a day to effect repairs caused by the storm.
The weather mages – who are exclaiming that that is the fastest that they have ever crossed the bay – tell us that the weather was not natural, but whatever spell caused it (some kind of super call-lightning or similar) was not aimed at us, and in the end, they just ‘ran with it’ rather than fight it.
While Wun helps with the boat repairs (and gets to learn from some experienced carpenters) the rest of the party go off to the local tavern, where the innkeeper is happy to chat as there are no other customers. We ask about trade and where it comes from, and are told that it is mainly stuff from the Nomads – but there is some evasion in his answer. We then ask about the tower, which he says was built by their forebears, with the stones being re-used for local housing. But no-one goes there anymore as it has become unsafe, and they hope it gets blown down so they can scavenge more stone from it. Joshua detects that he lied at some point. Later on, we ask RiffRaff to check out with the innkeeper if there is any Cinder Oak available, but he get short shrift from the innkeeper who has nothing to do with that sort of thing.
We decide to go and visit the tower – and pick up Wun to accompany us. The tower is almost as described – ie not particularly safe, but it is not actually in any immediate danger of falling down. We cast a ‘Stone Tell’ on the lintel stone, and it tells us that many humanoids passed through (outwards) before dawn, carrying three small heavy chests – they had come in some time before. We go in, and using tracking/scents we see lots of footprints and to one side, three (small chest sized) depressions in the ground. Tracks show that there were probably two guards who had stood/walked around there – though their footprints seem heavier than normal. The scents are all of humans and orcs. In a corner, Kirsten gets the scent of Dwarves – two or three – and indeed, finds some old dwarven blood there that is several months old. The are some dwarven runes scratched into the wall, which Bazin translates as ‘Help!’.
There is nothing else of interest within the tower, even under TrueSight – just the remains of a chimney and an old unsafe staircase going up the wall. No cellar entrance.
We decide to have a look around the outside of the tower, but as soon as we get outside, we see our ship, the Lady Cloud, about 3 miles out from shore and sailing away. A ‘clairaudience’ to the ship’s helm gives snippets of conversation about how long it will take to get back, and ‘I’m going as slowly as possible’. As we are discussing if one of us could shapechange and get to the ship, a gull lands nearby and transforms into Hasber Qorak (the ship’s battle-mage and carpenter) who explains that the ship was ‘run out of town’ by the locals. They had loaded on three small, heavy chests due for Norport – a quite normal occurrence at this village – but he didn’t know what was in them. The captain has said that he can pick us up at a cove about 20 miles down the coast (in 68.008) if we get there within 48 hours. (We reckon we can get there in 20 hours, and the ship would get there in 24 hours.) Hasber warns us not to trust the locals, and then flies back to the ship.
We decide that we may as well complete our inspection of the outside of the tower, as we have time before setting off for the rendezvous. We find a cellar entrance that has been blocked up with stones and rubble – there is no way that we can easily clear it, but another Stone Tell informs us that there are two ‘Dwarf but not Dwarf’ bodies in the cellar below, and they were brought in about 6 months ago by humans and orcs. The ‘not’ dwarves had probably just been killed as they ‘leaked a bit’. The stones were then used to block up the cellar entrance.
As we complete our interrogation of the stones, we see a group of soldiers coming up the hill towards us from the town. They don't look as if they want to be friends.