Let's be about it though, shall we? This isn't going to be long though.
On our way back to Oleg's fort we're fortunate enough to run into Lord Ty-Gyr of the Grig. He's overjoyed at having his daughter back, and as such, he's come bearing gifts! Everyone get's something that is "tailored" to their speciality. Me? I get bracers of beautiful fey manufacture that bestow a form of protection against attacks...And I look striking in them! (Bracers of armor +1)
We are also gifted w/ the true name of the faerie dragon known to us as Percival, it's Pervilash. And all we need to do, should we find ourselves in DIRE straights (not something like, "Darn, I'm outta beer..."), is to call that name three times and he shall arrive.
Oh, did I mention that Lord Ty-Gyr showed up on my watch? Yeah, can you believe that?
Once back at the fort we handed over the jar of honey to Teralisa Garlook and Durvil negotiated a doubling of the reward! Teralisa was not much pleased, but handed over the 100 pieces of platinum nonetheless. She did mention though that the Otterson name would be worth nothing upon her return. Durvil didn't seem to take much heed though, so I don't think that he imagines that;
1. She'll do it, or
2. It matters.
Our charge, Leyla was graciously taken in by Oleg's wonderful wife, Svetlana. I know that they'll take very good care of the young lady.
4 days later, after a much needed rest and relaxation, we head out for more exploration. This is the reason we're here after all.
And guess who we run into? Beaky! The owlbear put up a ferocious fight, but in the end it succumbed to our might. Ah, but I'm skipping some interesting details: It comes charging out of the woods and immediately snatches up the most tender of morsels for consumption, Ix. The mage, battered and bruised, takes exception and let's off a tremendous bolt of electricity which gives the feathered monster pause. (Critical for 27 hp of damage!)
Durvil finishes the beast off w/ a ferocious charge and declares the monster vanquished w/ a loud proclamation.
Three more days of exploration nets us the Grig home and an encounter with a completely nasty floating sphere of light called a Willow-wisp. Horrid creature really. Difficult to hit and charged with enough electricity to start its own lightning storm. Ah, but it's no match for my grappling skills. Who would've guessed? Not a wrestling match I want to revisit though.
XP for the session: 717
Total: 5971
Treasure:
-800 gp for alliance w/ kobolds
-100 pp for delivering the honey
Session 10:
While at Oleg's a messenger arrives, and guess who he's looking for? Yeah that's right, me. "Sigh". I guess that it's fairly widely known amongst my brethren that I'm out here in the wilderness doing Cayden's fine work. Anyway, the message is from some of those same brethren.
Seems that there's a brewmeister in Railford goes by the name of Zuxias, he's produced some of the finest brew in these parts. So fine in fact that there's quite a demand throughout the land. Well, his son, one Becher, has stepped in but doesn't have quite the touch that his father did and to make matters worse, the land that has been traditionally used for brewing, has flooded. Thus making growing the materials and brewing the beer just that much more difficult.
So, Becher has turned to distilling spirits instead of brewing. A noble tradition indeed, and far better than quitting altogether, but alas, not nearly what people have come to expect of Zuxias' heir. But this isn't all, Becher has now disappeared. Or at least he's fallen out of communication, and it's up to us to relocate the young man and see if we can possibly get him brewing in the tradition of his father.
Why not? So we pack up 18 days of food for the group and set of towards the tiny hamlet of Railford, which is located on the edge of Rostland, right next to the kingdom of Pitax.
The journey is tedious but offers nothing out of the usual and as such we arrive outside of Railford w/out incident. The weather is shit, it's raining and foggy when we come over the hills surrounding the wee place. And the first thing that greets our eyes is that the village is surrounded by small fires.
The place is under siege. By whom though? The populace is shacked up in the center of town and it's obvious that the besiegers could likely take it over at any time should they please. Why aren't they though?
On our way in, to get a bit closer, we're discovered by guard dogs, and a fight breaks out. We take down the dogs and two of the three guards. The third runs off yelling a warning though. This changes our plans of course...So we veer off the path into the swamp surrounding Railford.
Under cover of darkness we try sneaking through the lines while using Seelah's ability to make noises...well, magically create distant noises. Heck, I can make noises, THAT'S no special ability. Our effort falls short though as we're discovered on our way through, opting out of a stand up fight with 40+ armed men...we high tail it for town.
Our arrival into town is greeted by frightened, armed men. We convince them that we're no threat and ask to see Becher. He's apparently not available and we're ushered into a building to meet w/ the rest of Railford's citizenry.
In a nutshell we're told that Pitax wants this land and is not above annexing through force of arms. And it's only a few moments later that Pallard Fritch, who's in charge of the Pitaxian forces, comes with a retinue of soldiers to remind the populace of Railford of this very fact.
Well, again we ask, "Where is Becher?" And we're told that he's rabbited off to find his father's documents, in order to prove that this land is indeed owned by Railford and the brewery. OK, so I suppose that we're now expected to run off after Belcher. And that's what we do.
He's at his father's secret cask conditioning cave and the trail there is hidden well enough that getting through the Pitaxian lines isn't tough. But the ghouls guarding the cave are quite nasty. Yeah, ghouls. And of course I'm the first to succumb to their hellish ability. So there I lie, at the bottom of a mine, useless as a loaf of soaking bread.
This is where we ended it.
Quote of the night:
A discussion about Durvil's family crest, the otter.
DM: An otter's a common animal in the River Kingdoms...
Elsbeth: Oh...they're "common" alright!
