Session 13

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## Game 13 (Day 24)

The group of humans and their elven compatriot left the wizard’s tower in the dubiously reliable hands of the local fey, and began to head north to meet with Lazzier’s ship. In exchange for ownership of the tower, the nymph and her court had gifted the group with faerie horses. These horses are fast, lean, somewhat intelligent and have silver-gray coats with pure silver manes and tails. They’re surprisingly easy to ride, even if you’ve never ridden a horse before.

The group rode north for just half a day when Lazzier spotted some movement coming out a forest your path was about to take you into. All of you dismounted and hid in the very tall grass you had been riding through, while out from the forest emerged a squad of large, loathsome looking humanoids pulling a wagon. Sam and Lazzier recognized the bulky creatures as ogres, and they were armed and armored like a hunting party – thick, studded leather armor, spears, javelins and either axes or swords were carried by each of them. The creatures argued among themselves but were far too far away to overhear any of their conversation or even make out their language.

The group of friends kept low and waited for the ogres and their odd wagon to pass by. Once the strange procession was about two football fields south of them (after about 15 minutes), the group hopped up, mounted their horses, and raced for the forest! A shout went up from the ogres, who hurled javelins uselessly after the humans. Then, a burning bead whistled by Dave’s head and a fireball exploded in the midst of the riders. Miraculously, everyone managed to stay mounted in spite of the painful burning awfulness, and suddenly they were away into the dark forest.

They hung back to make sure that the ogres weren’t following them (the ogres proceeded south, heading toward the wizard’s tower), and then made their way carefully through the forest, following a map that Maggey had copied down in the Wizard’s tower.

After a day’s travel through the forest, they found themselves along a dark and stinky bog. Lazzier and Erin noticed a shape move out in the bog, and for some inexplicable reason, everyone stopped to look. Very quickly, they recognized the form of a black dragon uncoiling itself by the trestle roots of an ancient tree. It slithered purposefully through the murk toward the humans, and proceeded to interrogate them from about fifty feet away.

The dragon called itself Rosum Atratus and wanted to know what they were. It mostly ignored the elf, focusing its questions on the humans. It did not seem to know what to make of the pale, tall, oddly dressed creatures. It informed them, with a tone oozing danger, that there was a toll for crossing through its territory. The group gladly handed over the golden breastplate they had picked up underneath the wizard’s tower, along with some gems and coins. Rosum Atratus seemed to be excited by the breastplate, and waved them away once they set it down by the bog.

It wasn’t until the dragon had slithered back into the swamp and the group had started north again that it dawned on them that for a dragon, Rosum Atratus was not very large, maybe just bit larger than a motorcycle with a tail and wings.

“Did we just get hustled by a pre-teen dragon?” Greg asked. Yep.

The group found a place to safely camp, and in the morning picked up the trail again. The horses were visibly unhappy in the forest, and clearly longed to be in open ground again. Most of you felt that way. While the forest between the orc village and the wizard’s tower was spooky and scary, this one was positively menacing.

Finally, around noon, you came to a break in the tree canopy and found yourselves looking out over a broad, slow-running river, with thirty foot high bluffs on either side. A stone-and-wood trestle bridge spanned the two hundred feet between cliff faces.

On the opposite side of the river lay a small town of one-story stone buildings. Humanoid figures  went about their business in the town, so far oblivious to the interlopers. The town seemed to control the only access point across the river for miles on either side of the river.

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