Session 4x5

Session 4x5 occurred on 27 March 2021. The players were wizefool (Devran Sly), Hakuin (Morradin), Artemis (Haunt), Ghost (Harlac Wayfinder) and Silvyr (Valdenar). Their goal was to enable easier travel north by building a road to Cragfall and harvesting wood to turn into watercraft.

## Summary

The group spent the first day in Dryvault interrogating Rust conscripts, trading for tools and armor, and preparing food. The next day they set out and built a road up through hex 013.023 and into the mountains in 014.023. Their progress there was interrupted by a troll lying in their path which they slew with some difficulty. After completing the road they made camp but rest was interrupted by the arrival of the Blood Mist. The group was able to escape back along the road to Dryvault and slept there.

Their third day was spent making a round trip to transport the heavy silver arm-rings of the troll, after which they set out to Cragfall and completed the road into hex 015.022 by the end of their fourth day. That night they were interrupted by a Rust Brother patrol led by an Iron Guard commander. After the commander was dispatched from ambush by Harlac, the rest of the conscripts fled or were captured. The group, wary after all their battles, left the task of harvesting wood and building boats to another day and returned to Dryvault without incident.

## In-character tales

### Harlac's Tale:

Session 4x5

**Day 1** A day in town while Devran interrogates the rust brother conscripts we brought back. Fishing, shopping, and other such sundries. valdenar showed Devran and I some tricks to distributing the weight of our packs better, making them feel lighter.

**Day 2** We start building a road towards cragfall, but in the mountains we come across a troll! It is sleeping so we try to sneak up to it, but Valdenar is no Goblin, and the troll hears us coming. It's a tough fight, especially on our frontliners. That thing stank so bad it was sickening to them [1 automatic agility damage to all in arm's length at the start of the Troll's turn]. We finish building the road into the mountains and set up camp, but at night I smell the copper of the bloodmist. We struggled to flee from it, exhausted and wounded from the fight as we were, and Devran stumbled and fell behind. Valdenar dropped his pack and sword and ran back into the mist, hauling out our companion. Braver than I, that one. We limped back to dryvault, having left the road incomplete and the heavy silver arnbands the troll had been wearing behind.

**Day 3** Sleeping in the morning is usually a luxury, but in this case it was necessary. We returned to the mountain and reclaimed the silver armbands, and proceeded to continue building our road to cragfall. The hydra corpse was heavily decayed - much more quickly than is natural. Months of decay occuring over the mere few days since it had killed. Devran decides that swimming through the vile corrupted waters to examine the alchemist's lab is not a good idea. We set up camp for the night in the ruins of ne of cragfall's buildings, but the stench of the rotting hydra was too much and no one could sleep. Perhaps that was for the best, as it meant we were all awake when our camp was approacched by a Rust Brother patrol, led by an Iron Guard mounted on some sort of horse-wolf hybrid. Devran was on watch and alerted us, and we readied an ambush. This time the rusty's incompetance was greater than Valdenar's noisiness and we successfully got the drop on them. We planned to take out their leader first, hoping that the ten thugs with him would give up or flee after he died. Luckily for us, the leader entered first, and I dropped him in one shot with a well placed arrow through the eyeslit of his greathelm. Half the thugs and the leader's mount fled immediately, but the other half of the thugs were cowed by Valdenar and convinced to return with us to Dryvault as laborers and guards. We divvied up the posessions of the Iron Guard - I paid Devran two gold to let me take the elven ruby ring instead of feeding it to his demon flower. That thing creeps me out, and the ring is no mere bauble, it is a person.

### Morradin's Tale

Just to add: the Troll appeared as a small hill or a boulder, so we were lucky in spotting it on time. And during that fight, the Troll was throwing rocks and even our comrades at us, whom he just grabbed from the frontline - and the impact hurt both, the man-missile and the target a lot, as I can tell you. And the rumours are true, the Troll regenerates his wounds in an amazing speed.

### Valdenar's Tale

With the Hydra dead, we set out in hopes of establishing a safe way into the mountains and then building some canoes to take the river north to Cask and Deerscar. I had a sense that our path might be hindered and so purchased some extra armor for my companions along with the tools necessary to complete our task.

Our progress was checked by a Troll, which we perhaps foolishly decided to attack as we had caught it napping. The creature was incredibly strong, picking us up and hurling us at our companions. What wounds we could make through its tough hide closed in front of us and its foul stench was almost impossible to bear. I was able to slay the beast, although I believe it was Haunt's blade that bears the most credit. Fortune was not with us for as we tried to rest that night, tired and wounded from our battle, the Blood Mist came upon us. We fled along the road we had made but to our horror Devran had lagged behind. I will not let the Blood Mist take more from me; casting down my gear I turned to the mist and was able to find and aid Devran. Raven's wings surely shielded us that night as we fled back to Dryvault.

After retrieving the spoils of our battle against the troll we set out once more for Cragfall. We completed our work on the road and made camp only to be interrupted by a Rust patrol. We steeled ourselves for yet another battle but before Morradin, Haunt and I could leap from ambush, Harlac loosed an arrow and slew the commander in a single shot. The rest fled although we liberated some. We had hoped to capture the commander's horse but were dissuaded by its monstrous wolf-like form and it fled before we could catch it. Taking the great opposition against our progress as a sign, we felt we had accomplished what we could and, having taken the commander's armor as ours, we returned once more to Dryvault.