Day 177 - Trip to Vendor, then onto Forges

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Vale Of Vendor
Day 177 (8th August) 
The party travels up to Vendor
Day 178 (9th August) 
Vendor exploring – cut short by some timeslips and a bad experience, followed by an encounter with some nasty Lizardmen.
Day 179 (10th August) 
The junior shadow clan scout opts to accompany you on the journey to the Forges, the journey passes uneventfully but whilst the scout is friendly and communicative, he is obviously very low in the chain of command and knows little of value.
Late afternoon sees the party in the foothills, and the travel becomes a lot more arduous, but your guide explains that it is about 2 hours to a decent campsite, where hopefully you will meet up with other clan members.
In the event, the guide is pretty much spot on and 2 hours later the party arrives at a secluded site that looks as though it might have been a small quarry at some point. Sheltered from the wind and with a stream running off to one side it is a perfect place to camp for the night.
Already here are 3 Shadow Clan members, two trolls and one lizardman. One of the trolls is obviously quite old, but heavily muscled – and it comes as no surprise when he is introduced as one of the senior Clan Blacksmiths. Introductions are exchanged and once the party has set up their camp, people settle down.
The new characters are:
*Anatol (Male Troll) – Elderly, skilled Blacksmith
*Goatswan (Female Troll) – Warrior, generally sticks with Anatol as a bodyguard
*Thagoaner (Female Lizardman) – Senior scout for the area
Your guide however, after a discussion with Thagoaner is sent back out to pass on the news about roue Lizardmen still hanging around and needing to be watched at a minimum.
Over food there is much discussion around the events in Vendor.
Anatol: “I don’t recall anyone ever encountering a male human in Vendor, although to be honest I don’t believe anyone has entered the place for at least a couple of years.”
Thagoaner: “The throat ripped out bit reminds me of some tale or other told by Shadowspeaker, I am sure it will come to me.”
Thagoaner: “Anyway I have sent word that Vendor is strictly off limits for now, we might need to investigate but I don’t like the sounds of time disappearing.”
Anatol: “Probably the safest move, who knows – maybe those Lizardmen from Ur’rah disturbed something, although we never saw them get any closer than about 40 yards from the outskirts.”
Thagoaner: “Yes, but they weren’t always under close scrutiny, and we already know that they had the capability to mask their activities through illusion. We never considered that we would need to keep them under close and magical observation.”
Anatol: “Thagoaner, when was it you first reported the glow at night from Vendor?”
Thagoaner: “At least 5 years ago, might actually be 6 now.”
Goatswan: “The Terror of Vendor”
Anatol: “Eh?”
Thagoaner: “Well remembered, yes that was the tale, now I remember it.”
(Legend: “The Terror of Vendor”)
Anatol: “Anyway, an early start tomorrow, we will fire up the forges in a day or so – the charcoal has already been transported up. Unfortunately all of the trees in the area are long gone, I know there has been discussions about regenerating the forest there but nothing has ever come of it.”
Day 180 (11th August) 
The group sets off just before dawn, up the valley and into the foothills of an impressive mountain range. As Anatol alluded to last night, there was obviously once a forest here, but from the occasional rotting remains of a tree stump you would guess that no trees have been here for at least 50 years, more likely longer.
(Fact Sheet: “The Vale Forges”)
There are about 15 clansmen already at the forge, most are simply involved in relaying charcoal up the river but a couple have started firing up one of the forges.
Anatol: “We only ever use the first two forges nowadays. The forge at the back is way beyond my skills to use and obviously has some ancient enchantments on it. My old master told me that once there was an attempt to forge some simple spearheads using that station, just to try and benefit from any magical effect. But iron just shattered on the anvil and could not be worked….”
Goatswan: “Please do note, no tools are to be removed from here, we trust you – but worth reiterating”
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