Zoom 2021-12-07 21:00

**"To lose one Druid may be regarded as misfortune, to lose both . . . "**

Khurak had just come back to Quercuis feeling very worried - he had felt the big wake of an "invisible big flappy thing" that flew past him going West to East - it was going fast in a straight line, but did slow down as it went past him. We speculated about it being a Dragon, Drake or Giant Warhawk.

The party decides that there is nothing more that they can do at TarKeep, and that they should head NorthEast towards the mountains in search of Vendor.

After about 3 miles, we notice 4 'dots' flying towards us from the West. We cast strength/invisibility spells, then hunker down as best we can among the gorse and bramble, and watch as the dots resolves themselves into Giant Warhawks with riders - and they head towards TarKeep. The party discusses the likelihood of them being Alveran (given that he has the most Warhawks), but as they get closer, we determine that the riders are trolls. Once they reach Tarkeep, three descend while the fourth patrols the sky above doing 'lazy 8s'. The three landed trolls appears to investigate TarKeep for about 15 minutes, then remount their Warhawks and the four riders scout the area for about another 15 minutes (doing wider 'lazy 8s') before flying off West. The party can't believe that they - or the trail they had left - would not have been spotted, so wonder why the trolls apparently did nothing to investigate us.

We think it best to get further away from here and find some cover - so we carry on NorthEast and after about an hour find a clump of 30 to 40 stunted trees to hold up in. There is a large township (not showing any sign of smoke or life) about 20 miles to the North, bordered on three sides by forest. To the West, the hills continue until they reach the mountains.

Caradoc - who is still invisible - goes back to try to disguise our trail a bit. On the way back to the party, the invisible Caradoc gets a tap on his shoulder, and someone/something says:

Voice: '"Pssst - you with the Trolls?".

Caradoc: "Er, No"

Voice: "I come with you."

Caradoc: "Who are you? How can I trust you?"

Voice: "I didn't kill you. Call me 'Fred'. What your name?"

Caradoc "Caradoc"

Voice "Your real name? Brave little person!"

So Caradoc returns to the party, trailing his new found friend - and alerts the party to their presence. Twoo puts up his Det Invis and can see the two figures. Fred asks us to promise not to attack, which we agree to (unless attacked!). Fred breaks his invisibility and is revealed as a Lizardman.

We then have a conversation about what we are each doing here, which covers the following points:

* We made a lot of noise in 'GhostTown' (ie Tarkeep) which 'woke up' the Trolls. Fred doesn't know what has happened to GhostTown - he has never stayed overnight, and tends to avoid it.
* Fred is here with a party of other Lizardmen who have been ordered by GARM to look for the legendary 'drums' that will destroy 'The Five'. When we tell him that we have killed one of The Five already, he says it will return.
* The 'drums' are in pieces: 1 in 2 pieces, 1 in 3 pieces and 1 in 4 pieces. The pieces can't be destroyed unless they are put together, due to their special Dwarven runic magic. The pieces appear as mugs/tankards. They have found several pieces already.
* They have been here about a month, and covered most of the Vale. They have searched the castle to the North, and the township by the sea, but they haven't managed to get into Vendor itself (which is about 50 miles to the North.) When asked why not, Fred explains that whenever you start walking towards it, you just find yourself walking away from it. They have a 'Seeker' in their group, but they can't find a way around this.
* Most of his group are in Thricastle. He says that Thrisa and GhostTown are bad places to be because of the Undead. He then ostentatiously spits saying how much he hates the Undead.
* Joshua, who has been having a very hard time reading Fred, realises that this last statement is a lie - Fred had overplayed his supposed hated of Undead.
* The party explain that we are also looking for the drums, with the same aim - ie to destroy the 5 and any vampiric master. When asked if we have found any drum pieces yet, we rather clumsily deny having found anything fitting the description of a 'runic inscribed mug'.

Fred then suggests that we follow him to meet the rest of his group - we can join together to hunt for the missing pieces. He starts walking North, and the party follow him - with a group of us (Quercuis, Joshua, Francis, Garaf and Wun) hanging back to discuss what to do - we obviously don't want the drums to fall into the Lizardmens' hands. We put our runic tankard into the magic box for safekeeping.

After about 5 minutes, Fred suddenly goes invisible again, and demands to know where we put our piece of the drum. He says that if we hand it over we can go free. If not, well, we are seriously outclassed.

The party doesn't like this idea, and makes no move to give over the piece (despite Umar naively telling Fred who has it) - and the 'discussion' group gets engulfed in a fireball for their efforts. A second lizardman (Bill) is revealed by this hostile action - and while we turn to fight the newcomer, and locate Fred, Fred continues to tell us that we just need to hand over the drum piece to save ourselves. Twoo fires a cone of Meldorian Dust towards where Fred was speaking - but reveals nothing: Fred must have been throwing his voice. More fireballs follow (downing Joshua) - including one from a third lizardman (Ben) who then becomes visible from the other side of the party. Bill is held and entangled - effects which are then Dispelled by Fred - so Francis is able to complete his charge and start hitting Bill. Ben is attacked by Hamish, while multiple cures are cast on our wounded members by the clerics. As Bill is taken out by Francis and MM's from the mages, we are given another warning by Fred that our severely wounded party members will be taken out by the next volley of fireballs (which are being fired from wands - hence fast and uninterruptible.)  Caradoc has located Fred by this time (after his direction is determined by the wand of enemy detection) - and as Francis charges Ben, and Caradoc/Umar start taking on Fred, a desperate attempt is made to protect the wounded party members. More CLWs are cast, and Quercuis attempts to cast a Prot Fire on Joshua. However, two fireballs hit the group before she can complete the spell. Both Ben and Fred get taken out by attacks from active party members - but it is too late for Quercuis and Joshua who have both been killed by the fireballs. Garaf is on -11 hit points, but is able to be saved from death by the prompt action by the clerics.