Session 029

## New Enemies

**Age of the Wolf, Year 5, Summer, Laelun Toil 1, day 10**

*The party waits until midnight, and ambushes the Duergar camp. They emerge victoriously but are now faced with the question of what to do with the slaves they have acquired.*

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## Player Characters Involved

* Nygäär the Dark the Fey Blooded Rogue/Fighter/Dualist played by Dana
* Esbjörn Sigvardson the Giant Blooded Barbarian/Cleric/Surtr's Chosen played by Greg
* Brydd Hjarta the Jörmung Human Sorcerer/Marshal/Sand Shaper/Incantator played by Jason

## The Plan

The party puzzled over the best way to approach the duergar camp and wondered whether or not to strike at all. Waiting until the middle of the night, they contemplated the scene:

*As you stand upon the mountainside, perhaps one thousand feet up from the valley floor below you, you stare intently at the Duergar camp before you about a quarter of a mile away. There is a steep ravine that will lead you to the vale below you and allow you to approach the corresponding cliffs that the dark dwarves are camped above. To the east, as you well know, there is no easy approach without a perilous march perhaps a day or more back the way you came. The cliff stretches off into the distance to the west, you know not where or for how long. The night is bathed in the blood-red light from the small moon Laelun. It is a cold but clear night, and the sounds of the slaves suffering and huddling together for warmth reaches your ears, along with that of their gruff dwarven captors. Some of the Duergar have clearly settled down to rest, although the discipline of these dark dwarves and the number of them who have been ordered to remain on watch is troubling. As the witching hour approaches, you contemplate how you might invade their camp. They seem well-armed and prepared for an assault. You know from consulting your map that the Brann Grottoes, the lair of the Fire Giants, is not far away. If you choose to strike, now may be your last opportunity.*

 Ultimately, the party decided they must strike. They needed to understand the connection between the dark dwarves, the Umbrians, and the Fire Giants in order to defend their homeland. A decision was made to scale the lower cliff, a three hundred-foot climb, and creep by the huddled slaves using invisibility to strike at what they assumed to be the duergar leader. Brydd would increase Esbjorn and Nygaar's strength through magical means, and Brydd would use summoned creatures working together to reveal any dwarves that were invisible. That decision made, the party moved down into the valley below and approached the cliff face.

## Ambush!

Using his prodigious strength, Esbjorn once again threw Nygaar and Brydd upon his back and began the arduous climb. The rough stone of the mountainside gave ample hand and footholds, and Esbjorn's long limbs allowed him to scale the distance within a few moments. With Esbjorn's servant Droog reporting that the leader sat awake in front of a fire that burned with a black flame, but that the dwarves on guard seemed tense but bored, the heroes felt confident their approach was not being detected. The party made it to the top of the cliff, creeping invisibly by the suffering slaves huddled in a large mass. As the party took up their positions, Nygaar crept towards the Duergar leader. Unfortunately, his skills as a rogue creeping through the dank recesses of the Skald Academy back home proved rusty - upon his approach his boot scuffed some mountain stones and alerted the dwarven leader to his presence. Fortunately for Nygaar, his speed allowed him to maintain the advantage, and along with Esbjorn, they dispatched the leader with little difficulty. But Esbjorn had whipped himself into a frenzy, in order to intimidate the leader, and this sent the camp into an uproar!

The duergar were well-organized. The lieutenants began barking orders, and the dwarves began to disappear all around the party. Those that were sleeping leaped into action, with the exception of a few who were put under unnatural and magical sleep by a creature Brydd had summoned. With Brydd's summoned creatures pointing out invisible dwarves (who had also enlarged themselves following becoming invisible) and casting faerie fire upon them when possible, it seemed this might be a manageable battle for the heroes.

Unfortunately for Nygaar, the dwarves had other plans. He was rushed by two umber hulks, four-eyed monstrosities with massive claws, thick armor, and horrifying physical aptitude that the dwarves had unleashed, and two invisible dwarven lieutenants appeared out of nowhere to flank him and bash at him viciously with warhammer strikes. Nearly dead from the combined strikes of the enemies that surrounded him, Nygaar withdrew to heal himself, thankful that he had planned for this eventuality by equipping himself with a new belt of healing. While a swarm of bats summoned by Brydd harried the dwarves, the party fought furiously, chopping down a number of the dark dwarves best. Eventually, seeing further battle was a losing proposition, the remaining dwarves retreated. The party estimated nearly twenty of the foul dwarves escaped, running in both directions up the mountain pass. They breathed a sigh of relief that their enemies had not chosen to fight to the death, and that victory, at least in this battle, was theirs.

## Victory Brings New Problems

The party now turned to the huddled mass of nearly one hundred slaves shivering before them. As the party gathered up their spoils from the fallen dark dwarves, others identified a few familiar faces in this wretched group. Karsid Skelison, one-time headman of Visby was spotted, along with Arne the Mute and a pair of Gormi Goutison's slaves that Nygaar had freed following their owner's violent demise. The party was well aware that the Fire Giants were expecting these slaves, and they wondered what they should do next. The battle had ended quickly, but now that they had won they looked at one another questioningly over how to proceed. The group of slaves represented a substantial amount of wealth; the question was what to do with this newly won treasure. To their east lay the duergar mine. To their west lay the Brann Grottoes, the cavern stronghold of the Fire Giants.

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