Session 5x3

Session 5x3 occurred on 5 Apr 2021. The players were Ivy (Otsa), jschlies8 (Esroh), PsychoXer0 (Romeron), Cbum (Tolgyrd), and Big Spoon (Tyriok). Their goal was to head west and fight Rust Brothers.

## Summary

The group mended their gear before departing for the river North of Gardentop. Upon reaching the river, with everyone's assistance, Tolgyrd created a sturdy bridge. Later on, the group was ambushed by Rust patrol. Tolgyrd's empathy was broken by a spell, but Otsa managed to snap him out of it. The group killed the two Rust Brothers, and captured two of their marauders, bringing them back to Gardentop's dungeon. The captured marauders gave the party information about the general Rust Brother activity:

* Most of the patrols are North of Deadhook towards Feywater.
* There are forest encampments in the valley West of Deadhook.

The group headed back towards the valley, fought off some undead, made camp, and then were forced to abandon their camp due to the encroaching Blood Mist. Otsa had a close call, but Esroh helped her overcome the forced march. They ventured into the mountains towards Deadhook, as the Blood Mist failed to dissipate within the valley. Romeron and Tolgyrd both broke due to a swarm of bugs, but recovered shortly after. The grouop scouted out Deadhook, and returned back to Gardentop.

## In-character tales

### Romeron's tale

Otsa, Tyriok, Tolgyrd, Esroh and myself decided to travel from Gardentop to the valley behind Deadhook Fortress. We started by making a walk bridge over the river (008.023-008.024), it was supposed be a simple walkway but Tolgyrd decided to flex his creativity and build a sturdy long lasting walk-bridge.

We were so impressed by his craftmanship that we didn't notice the ambush that had been laid out for us. Nine Marauders and two Rust Brothers attacked us with maces, bows, staves and spells. The fighting was rough but it took not long for us to dispatch the mace wielding fools after which one of the Rust Brothers set himself on fire and died, which made the archers panic who ran away. We captured the two with staves and interrogated them once we made back to Gardentop, they gave us lots of detailed information and we allowed one of them to reside at Gardentop helping out. The other one's crimes were too great to ignore and I executed him outside the main building and then burned his body.

The next day we set out once again toward the valley we wanted to see, which we now knew had undead working on lumberyards. We killed some of these undead but during the night we were set upon by the bloodmist and had to retreat. In the morning the bloodmist still hadn't vanished from this wooded valley so we changed course to scout out some of deadhook mountains. Heard harpies squabbling about loot, ignored them stealthily and found a road that led straight to Deadhook Fortress. The fortress seems impregnable without serious manpower or maybe we could find some other way to infiltrate the fortress...

### Tyriok's tale

We set out from GardenTop, heading north. Our first challenge was the river which Tolgryd handily solved by hewing some rocks we found and built a stone footbridge over the river, I’m not sure even a Stone Singer like Skarn could have done better. We were ambushed by a Rust Brother patrol, after a hard fought battle we were able to kill the two Rusties and most of their minions, capturing two conscripts. We returned to Gardentop to lick our wounds. Setting out the next day, we moved up along the same route into the wooded valley behind the Deadhook Mountains.

The Rusties are using undead to gather lumber from the forests, we killed some as we moved in, clearing out some of the area and we made camp. During the night Otsa smelled the copper of a blood mist moving into the valley and we ran out of the forest into the plains, Otsa falling behind slightly until Esroh doubled back on his horse “Roach” and scooped her up and carried her to safety. We camped in the morning, and were going to head back into the wooded valley, but strangely the blood mist was able to withstand the daylight and still hung thick in the valley. Instead we moved up into the mountains, being assaulted by mosquitos and gnats as we did move, finding a rear entrance into Deadhook, though still well guarded. It is going to be a tough nut to crack, probably going to need an army.

### Tolgyrd's note

*A scrawled note is placed on the Gardentop notice board.* Beware the valley West of Deadhook and South of Alderstone! Undead roam the area, and it shows a natural affinity for the Bloodmist.

### Otsa's tale

e have learned of what happened in Feywater. The Rust Brothers drove out the demon there, but did not slay it. As they expand, I believe that they are spreading themselves thin.

While on the road, we had a chance to scout out their keep, Deadhook. It is a mighty fortress, but it can be besieged. I have quite a few ideas as to how a stone singer or two could bring the whole thing down.

If anyone is looking to strike at the Brotherhood, now seems like the time. You'll have any help I can provide.

### Esroh's tale

Setting out from Gardentop we were immediately caught unaware by a rust brother patrol. Chaos ensued and it’s hard to remember much other than my horse Roach almost fell in battle but wheeled away at the last moment to save himself. One of my arrows felled a rust brother as he was trying to escape. Tyriok was on fire, Romeron was taking punishment, Tolgyrd was broken, Otsa scrambling to save everyone. Pure chaos but in that chaos every one of their blades were swift and true, felling the marauders until there were none. Continuing into the forested valley behind dead hook we encounter undead laborers but we were able to avoid them to make camp until the blood mist rolled in. We scrambled away, just. Instead turning into the mountains and finding a road that leads to dead hook’s back door. We felt we’d save that for another adventure with many more adventurers by our side. Nevertheless, a successful albeit crazy adventure. It’s what I’ve come to expect from the Ravenlands.