Session 5x6

Session 5x6 occurred on 8 Apr 2021. The players were jschlies8 (Esroh), Cbum (Tolgyrd), StEsteban (Aravor Enfiel), Swargula (Arland) and PsychoXer0 (Romeron). Their goal was to learn more about the mission to Wailer's Hold, and learn how they could aid the dwarves of Wolfstone Redoubt.

## Summary

The party spent some time among the dwarves of Wolfstone Redoubt to learn how they could aid the dwarves' efforts. They drank among the Canides, Romeron and Tolgyrd's kin, in the Stonestead quarter. While Romeron and Tolgyrd continued socializing, Aravor, Arland, and Esroh set out to find Delkash. He told of a Stellarium the dwarves hoped to reclaim, where some sort of tool exists to safely work a rare type of metal. The metal is otherwise dangerous to handle, as Arland learned when he was blinded for several hours after grabbing hold of Delkash's sample of this material. He recovers overnight in time to continue the journey.

Meanwhile, in his drunken attempts to sell a dwarven bridal comb in his possession, Romeron unwittingly proposes to a dwarf named Shush of the Crombes clan. She is a skilled tracker, and offers to join her fiancé on the mission to find the Stellarium, rumoured to be located in the hills of the Begrand Valley.

The party sets out along the road to the southwest of Wolfstone Redoubt then south into the mountains. Shush spots a troll while scouting, which seems to be eating the remains of another troll. The party slay this troll and loot its lair, finding an oddly clear spring of water within. Traveling further south, they find hot springs, and follow them to a large glacier, upon which they see the Dwarven Stellarium. The party also discovers a dragon scale within the hot spring, a curious material with properties similar to steel and glass. They return to Dryvault to tell of all they discovered.

## In-character tales

### Aravor's tale

We began our journey in Dryvault. Romeron and Tolgyrd, two dwarven companions whom I hold in high regard, wished to set out to see what we could do to aid the dwarves of Wolfstone Redoubt in their mission to retake Wailer's Hold. I offered to join them, as did Esroh, a mutual acquaintance of Tolgyrd and I from our harrowing journey to find the Wendigo lair. Finally, I was introduced to the halfling rogue Arland, who immediately proved his worth to the group by cooking us some delicious vegetables he had foraged. I must admit, traveling with Valdenar and now Arland has spoiled me; such exceptional food really ought to be the exception rather than the norm while traveling!

After our brief stint in Dryvault we made excellent time reaching Wolfstone Redoubt due to the road our companions had constructed. Romeron and Tolgyrd led us to Stonestead Quarter, where their clan, the Canides, made their home. We spoke with Torgryn, a leader among the Canides, who estimated that the dwarves would not be ready to retake Wailer's Hold until Summeswane. Romeron and Tolgyrd spent the night drinking among their clan, while I followed Esroh and Arland to meet with Delkash of the Merromanians.

We asked Delkash what we could do to aid the dwarves. Arland, rather suicidally, wanted to scout out Wailer's Hold itself, but we were quickly dissuaded from doing such a thing. Delkash spoke of a Dwarven Stellarium which was lost to his people. He showed us a piece of a special type of metal he wore on a chain. This metal was an extremely bright white, nearly to the point of being blinding, with lovely hints of blue throughout. Arland, to my shock, reached out and swiped the necklace. Thankfully Delkash was not offended, but we did learn why the Stellarium was of such import to the dwarves: this metal is unsafe to handle without its special tools, and Arland was stricken blind by touching it. Luckily, he recovered by the morning, and hopefully learned from this experience.

I was also surprised to learn in the morning that Romeron, deep into his drinks, had attempted to sell a dwarven ceremonial bridal comb. He had somehow inadvertently proposed, and was now engaged to marry at the start of Summerrise. He is now wearing a beard ring made of bone. He went to see his fiancée, and I accompanied him, offering to stand as his best man but being rebuffed. After all we've been through together! Finding his bride to be drinking alone in a tavern, we approach her. We know she is a tracker, part of the Crombes clan, named Shush. Shush wears a breastplate made of the skin of a thunder lizard, and bracers made of gryphon leather. She has a reputation of being righteous, yet cruel.

Romeron's conversation with Shush is awkward and somewhat painful to watch, and she asks me if he's always like this. I attempt to talk my friend up a bit, telling Shush of the time he charged into the Blood Mist to rescue me, our successful mission to cleanse the Shrine of the Elf Queen. Whether she disbelieved me or felt I was exaggerating these tales, I am not sure, but she took an immediate dislike to me. Ah well, what to do? In the end, she insisted on accompanying Romeron on our mission. We were grateful to have a skilled tracker join us, although her personality led to... some conflict.

We leave Wolfstone along the same road we entered before heading south into the mountains towards the Begrand Valley, where the Stellarium is rumoured to be. In the mountains we spotted a cannibalistic troll currently in the process of cooking one of its kin. From all the lore I know of trolls, this is a strange occurrence. We discussed putting an end to this loathsome creature, and Arland rushed ahead, hoping to leap upon the troll and distract it while the rest of us attacked the creature.

My clumsy feet, however, gave away our ambush, and we were spotted by the troll. Nevertheless, Arland leapt into action! This halfling's bravery cannot be faulted, to be sure. He grabbed hold of the noxious troll's hair and clung tightly to it, though it was clear its stench was having an effect on the little rogue. Tolgyrd jumped down after him and rushed the troll, cleaving into it. Romeron followed, rappelling down the cliff face, while I trusted my dexterity considerably less and ran down the switchback road we were on, arriving last to face the troll. All the while, Shush and Esroh were firing arrows at the troll, causing it grievous harm. Arland attempted to distract the troll by shoving a large carrot up its nose, and to our disgust, the troll simply snorted... and the carrot was gone. Despite the failure of this distraction, the troll's lunge for Tolgyrd was clumsy and easily dodged. Romeron rushed in and, with a vicious blow, finally felled the monstrous creature.

Arland, curious beyond reason, moved in to inspect the troll's corpse. He was immediately sickened, and began vomiting. He looked pale, and had a sheen of sweat upon him - I feared his death would soon follow, given his frail constitution. I searched the nearby woods for healing herbs, and found five bunches of Hareheart, a medicinal herb of some utility. I placed a bunch of it in a circle around Arland and burned it, chanting an incantation as Mez had taught me, and was pleased to see my first attempt at using healing magic was successful. Arland was back to his usual self, for better or for worse. We explored the troll's camp and found some goods we could sell, although nothing of great value. A book seemingly detailing rat anatomy was found here, and despite the others' looks of disgust, I took it with me in case it should prove useful. We also found a suspiciously clean spring within the cave - I have heard stories of the dangers of water which appears too clear, and warned Arland against testing his luck further, but he still drank from it. Seeing him face no ill effects, I refilled my waterskin.

We set out the next morning, and I was almost saddened to leave the little camp I had made. Romeron elected not to sleep, and was being henpecked by Shush a fair bit. I jokingly suggested that her parents had named her ironically. She did not appreciate it, and if I turn up mysteriously dead or missing... well, her threat against my life was rather overt. Luckily, the tension disappeared when we found a hot spring in the high mountains, keeping us warm despite the altitude and the harsh wind. Esroh found a translucent scale within the water, which we believe to be a dragon scale, possessing properties of steel and glass. Esroh also spotted some hand wolves watching us from the distance, but they did not approach.

Following the stream a while, we found its point of origin: strangely enough, it poured forth from a massive glacier. Atop the glacier was a tower, a beautifully shimmering construction which looked to be made of glass or ice, through which filtered through a luminous blue glow. There was no doubt we had found the Stellarium! We returned to Dryvault in good order, and I decided it would be unwise to speak to Shush for the next little while.

### Esroh's tale

We made our way to Wolfstone to meet up with that adventuring party we had met awhile back. We were greeted by Torgryn of the Canide clan. As Tolgyrd and Romeron made merry with their long lost brethren. I took a stroll around the town in an attempt to track down Delkash, I asked him how we could help with the assault on Wailer’s Hold. He mentioned the Stellarium again, seemingly obsessed with finding it and insisted it would make the assault on Wailer’s Hold a piece of cake. He showed me this blindingly bright rock and told me it was made at the Stellarium under focused starlight. It’s a metal unlike any other, not only does it create extremely powerful weapons, the weapons also glow with this bright intensity to blind foes. He also mentioned gathering as many willing fighters as we could. It will take some time for all the banners to reach Wolfstone. I told him I’d do what I could to assist him in this endeavor. Having relayed this information to my party we agreed to set out and look for the Stellarium. We set off due south, passing near Weatherstone when we came across a monstrous troll dissecting and stewing one of its kin. Our ambush attempt failed but we rallied and our combo of Tolgyrd, Romeron, and Arland in close combat with myself and Shush at range we quickly felled the troll. Arland decided to smell the stew and was immediately and copiously vomiting everywhere. He was looking like he was on deaths door but Aravor quickly sprang into action and performed a miracle of healing. In an instant Arland was back to his old goofy lovable self. We continued south when it suddenly turned cold and snowy. The presence of a very warm stream felt unnatural. We followed it uphill when we finally discovered the Stellarium! We did not explore as we heard rumors of an ice dragon in this area. Alas we headed back to Dryvault to inform our fellow adventurers of our findings. Now I must decide how to present Delkash with news of our discovery of the Stellarium, if at all?

### Tolgyrd's tale

Tolgyrd's journal is filled with a new set of notes
I met up with Torgyn alongside Romeron in the Stonestead Quarter (Canides) of Wolfstone Redoubt. We drank wine in Huge's honor together and told tales of our travels on the road. He told me that the most important resource that the Canides need to claim Wailer's Hold is more bodies. Unless something changes, it'll take until Summerwane before an offensive is launched.

Note to self: Recruit more people. Get someone more convincing to recruit people to the cause.

Later on in the night, Arland and Esroh tell me that they met up with a Merromanian by the name of Delkash. He claims that he seeks to take back the Stellarium. I kept my mouth shut about this two my two friends, but his story doesn't add up. The Stellarium is too old to be of Merromanian in make. I think "the Elders" have a hand in this, and I do not wish to dishonor them, should we meet.

I'm so damn proud of Romeron! The bastard got drunk and proposed to one of the Crombes. I nearly soiled myself laughing when I heard he thought he was selling that comb! Apparently he went around shoving it in peoples faces, one accepted it, handed him the dowry, and he walked away like it was a done deal. Nevertheless, Shush is good folk to have around. She curbs his more psychopathic tendencies, she's a skilled scout, and she actually seems to care for his health. Not to mention the yucks I get from seeing her put him in his place.

Note to self: Romeron and Shush are due to wed at the start of Summerrise.

With a rough idea of the Stellarium's location, we headed into the Begrand Valley's Eastern edge from the North. Along the way, Shush sensed a troll ahead of us. Looks like the bastard was cannibalizing its own kin. Making a rancid stew of him, even. Arland got the bright idea of jumping on him, so we tried to get as close as we could before he could sense us. However, Aravor slipped up and gave away our position.

That didn't stop Arland, however, and he leaped onto the trolls back. I followed shortly behind, leaping down to his feet before rushing in for an attack. Romeron repelled down the cliff face as Shush and Esroh's arrows stuck true. The beast tried to grab me, but got distracted when one of the arrows went into its nose. Arland tried distracting it, but only ended up feeding him a meal through his nostril. Romeron decided now was the time to land the finishing blow, and ran in for a mighty cleave into the troll's artery.

A quick search of his lair revealed a shockingly clean water spring. Perhaps the water source has magical properties? Following the hot spring water up the cold mountain, we happened upon a glacier with a hole in its side. Our eyes became sore before we realized that we'd found our destination. Buried within the glacier is a glowing blue light that emanates from the Stellarium.

## Notes

1. ↑ Previously encountered in Session 5x5