Session 12:
The party realizes they are going to need steel, otherwise they are going to be sending peasants with little more than tools and clothes to fight for them. They are reminded of a small mining outpost south of their home village, its a gamble as its a military outpost as well.
Taking the gamble the party sends Homlet, Determined, and Ilanth to the outpost, with the vast majority of their pine knights. When they arrive the guards seem to be a little shaken by the superior force but the commander, a human named “Gunt” advises that this is a well positioned outpost and they wont be taking it by force. He invites the party and only the party to come in under a white flag to negotiate terms of surrender. Commander Gunt may be one of the emperor’s men but his first loyalty is to his own men. He tells the party that he could probably give them a lot of trouble while the imperial army makes its way out here but he thinks he would lose a lot of good men, he agrees to surrender his fort under the condition that he is given control of the fort and the party purchases the iron from him, at a reasonable rate of course. The party, decides this is better than going to battle and losing time and agrees, finding that Gunt is well liked by his troops and a decent man, though no one here will talk about what they did to get sent to such a backwater post with no chance of advancement.
The party realizes with the iron, they will need fuel, they consider cutting down the forest, lord of the rings style, before settling on trying to secure a place known as “the dead wood” to take the dead trees for fuel. It seem the dead wood has this name for a reason as all the trees the party finds are long dead and there is an ash hanging over this place. They find a small village, the source of this evil, and explore. They are attacked by a horrible creature known as an ash specter! It takes turns possessing them and forcing them to attack one another before finally they are able to use holy power to dispel this thing and find its remains, salting them and laying it to rest.
With the dead wood secured the preparations for war can begin, forges are lit and iron is smelted. The party gathers again in the druid’s circle to plan their next move.
Session 13:
To gather intel Colossal, Squawk, and Prodigious the goblin all travel to the waystation on the main road to search for wanted posters of themselves, hoping to send a party into the capital to gain intel and return the armor to clan Buryn. They find that the wanted posters are wildly inaccurate and they realize that the only reports of their appearances are from their frienenemy, Jagh-Deesh.
The party trades out a few members and sends Homlet, Atreyu, Colossal, and Jar to investigate the capital. Deathrattle revealed himself in the city, ambushing the party with a collection of dire corbies in an alleyway. The party responds quickly, engaging with the corbies in the street. Homlet reaches into the swirling chaos of magic and draws out a color spray to distract the creatures. Unfortunately the unpredictable and dangerous magic used by Homlet kills seven people, causing the guards to be summoned. Colossal tells the party to cheese it and she will handle the guards.
When the guards arrive Colossal cries her eyes out and blames the corbies for the death of the townspeople. The minotaur guard assumes she is a child and she makes no efforts to dispel this. He takes her back to the guard post in order to help her locate her parents. At the guard post a goblin guard takes charge, dismissing the minotaur to return to patrol. He tells Colossal that he knows she’s not a kid and offers her his wineskin and fungal cigar, a gesture to calm her down. Colossal takes the wine and explains the situation and that she lives outside the capital but nearby. The guard shrugs and tells her that this could be the story but he smells wine on her breath and she could be the killer. He tells her that he’s looking for a donation to the guard in order to let this situation slide. Colossal agrees and takes the guard out of town, but not before he can inform one other guard to look for her if he doesn’t come back. Colossal leads the guard around the slums until a rain of rocks kills and eventually buries the guard. It seems a local kobold gang, known as the Black Backs, have come to Colossal’s aid, mostly because they wanted to kill a guard who was in their territory alone. Colossal works out a deal with them to get back into the city and deal with the guard who is supposed to look for her. Its a difficult negotiation but the kobolds talk her down from the large sum of ten gold to the larger sum of six.
Inside the city, Atreyu, Homlet, and Jar make their way to the Buryn clanhold. After Atreyu explains their reason for being there and the minotaur are taken aback by the gesture. The trio are taken into the hold and given rooms and told they will have to wait for the elders to meet with them. After a few hours Atreyu is summoned to the elder’s chamber where he meets Cormac, Sorcha, and Dagdah the elders of clan Buryn. Atreyu presents the armor and weapon of the fallen Minotaur knight and when asked what he would take as a reward he asks for his companions to be given hospitality in the hold, a courtesy they would already be extending, and a simple map of the area around Four Oaks. Additionally they offer the fallen knight’s shield to Atreyu, a great honor among minotaur. When he is dismissed Atreyu decides it is best to wait for Colossal to show up at the hold.
Eventually Colossal does show up at the hold and is re-united with the party and decided to bunk with Jar in order to study this strange new type of ooze she has created.
The trio begin the trip up to Four Oaks, having spent only a few days in the capital. As they get close to Four Oaks they encounter a strange wizard on the back of a giant scorpion who quickly becomes offended and flies off.
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