Session Thirty Four

The thirty fourth session of the Adventures of the Dragon Crag was on the 8th Novemeber 2022.

## Party Members Present

* Brandr Sigurdson (Late)
* Snorri Morgrimson
* Relnwe Adiath
* Professor Meino Osterhaus
* Aleksi Lehtonen

## Synopsis

### The Kislevi Kamp

#### What's this, loot for ants?

We once again found ourselves on the field of victory enjoying a few well-earned comforts. We were so comfortable that we decided not to pursue the two hunters who had escaped the fray, hoping that they wouldn't tell Dmitri who had been smashing up all his camps. We began poking around the tents. Rel and the Prof went straight to the tent that Spooky Bitch had come out of. It looked to be a vague attempt at a medical tent. Inside were corpses with large injuries to their chests - perhaps it was the Beast. Snorri looked in the big tent and found many things - linen, cloth, and wool. It looked very much like this was trade goods that had been plundered from the smashed up cart that we had seen on the road. There was not much loot to be found aside from a couple of healing pots on the Kislevi Captain's body.

#### Goats and Tents

Aleksi drank from the horse trough and ate some horse feed. He neighed. Then, he heard a faint 'baa, baa' coming from the woods. He quietly investigated and found two goats tied to a tree. "Ahah!" he said as he took the goats. Meanwhile, the Professor searched Spooky Bitches' body and found another purple Stone of Power. He tried to put it in his shoes, but the stone were too big (or, more likely, his feet too small). We wrapped up two tents and put them on All and Aleksi healed us nicely. Our work here was done.

### The Road to the Badlands

#### What's that Pokemon?!

We set off from the camp back to the road. As we approached the edge of the woods, we came across the bodies of the two cowardly hunters and the horse archer's horse. They had been horribly mauled - probably by the beast. Rel saw a trail of hooked claws of what looked to be a big cat, but this kitty could fly. Rel remembered a time when she was travelling in the far north of the Empire and saw a bounty poster for a similar creature - a large lion like baeast with wings and claws and teeth. A Manticore! The trail went off into the woods and we decided not pursue and continued onwards towards Valleyview.

#### Visitors in the Night

Darkness fell and we pitched out tents off the road in a small, conveniently placed, clearing. We set up a watch and tried to get some sleep. Onhis watch, Brandr heard voices approaching. He woke the rest of us up and we prepared our weapons. Two men stumbled out of the woods and into the clearing. They said that they came in peace and we lowered our weapons. They looked bedraggled and bloodied and they had naught but ripped tunics. They said that their caravan that started in Zenres was attacked by the beasts. They told us their names: Marius Hansen and Rudolf Dolf, both from Stirland. They were traveling to Karak Azgal as their was a labour surplus in Stirland created by annoyingly skilled Halfling labourers, but now they had nothing - not even the gate charge. We let them sleep in our clearing and in the morning we gave them a shilling each and told them that a man named Otto needed new farm hands.

#### Anders the Ranger

After seeing off our two guests, Snorri made bifocals out of a shiny dagger attached to his goggles so that the manticore couldn't suprise us from above. We hit the road again and came to the bottom of the valley where the roots of the great World's Edge Mountains met the dusty Badlands. About us was scrubland and we kept following the river. Eventually, we came to a place where the river split in two and ran into two deep, parallel gorges, creating a great island plateau in the middle. Here, Aleksi spotted a glint in the foliage and we went to investigate. When he got closer, a voice told us to holt and a man emerged from the bushes He asked if one of us was Aleksi, and the Professor went invisible. After calming him down, we told him that yes, this handsome stinker is Aleksi and don't worry about the vanishing dweeb. The man told us he was called Anders Liess and was a friend of Agnarr's. He had been expecting our arrival.

### In the Company of Rangers

#### Valleyview

Anders led us up a winding and very hidden path that led to the island plateau betwixt the rivers. We passed through thick bush and came to the top of the hill. There were a few building hereabout including a few wooden watchtowers and a larger hall. Anders explained that there were very few people here because most were out West fighting the beastmen. He said that he'll soon go west too. Anders took us to the hall where there were a few people eating and playing cards. There was also a fancy desk with a maps on it. Anders knocked on a door and a woman came out. She looked quite stern and told us that there would be no messing around in her camp. She was Lina Meyer, and she meant business. Aleksi asked her where Nikolai was. She said that he was out West with Agnarr, fighting beastmen. She said there was a real beastman problem - a Brayheard. The dwarfs hadn't sent enough men and took too long about it. She said that the rest of the rangers at Valleyview would travel west to help, but that first they had to stop at Reimar for supplies. We decided that we would go with them.

#### Reimar

After a nice sleep in the hall, we headed with the rest of the rangers to Reimar. With us were 25 rangers and a Priest of Rhya called Freidrich Behn. The Professor chatted to Lina about senidng messages to Otto and gave her a gold crown. She looked bemused but took the cash. It seemed that he wanted to build some sort of Empire of Information, but he chose Otto the Idiot Farmer as his primary informant. Eventually, we came to cultivated fields and we crossed a small wooden bridge into the village of Reimar. The villagers recognised the rangers, but seemed cold and distant. In the past, this place was well off, but no longer. Trade from the west had been cut off and the village was poorly defended. Lina went into the Headman's House and told us to wait outside. We, of course, did not wiat outside and followed her in. Inside, Lina was speaking to a halfling - this was Headman Theoderic. He told us they had no supplies. Trade from Libeck to the west had dried up, and the expected supplies from Deadgate had never arrived. Snorri said he thought he knew where they were - he told Theoderic of the Kislevi Camp full of supplies and the wrecked cart. It was then decided that he would send men out to recover the supplies, while we hunted down the pesky manticore (a feat worth 50 golden smackeroos).

#### Antipoison

We thought that Manticores might be poisonous so we went in search of antipoison. There was no apocathery in Reimar so we went to talk to Freidrich who lived in a house on the edge of town. Freidrich's house was filled with herbs but he said that he couldn't mix draughts himself. Fortunately, we had someone who could. Unfortunately, that someone had forgotten to bring his apocathery tools. Thus, Snorri knocked him up some rough equipment and Aleksi managed to mix some herbs to form a few doses of Antipoison.