The Orphans
My companions:
- Rayleth the Entertainer - human Rogue/Bard, CoSL
- Thraxinus Exelsinor - 'Gentleman Adventurer' - absolutely stupid pompous bossy arsehole
- Jomm Tomes - Disciple of Milil with a dog, CoSL
- Duncan Felbourne - human Paladin of Torm
- Eldarreth - half elven mage/cleric of Corellon
E HAD SEEN
A SIGN advertising for six citizens to go on a scouting mission, and we
met at the Town Offices at noon like it said. Anvil was there, and told
us that two druids had arrived with a message this morning. They'd rescued
2 elven children from an attack by great flying beasts. The children were
at their sanctuary in the mountains, but they wanted us to bring them
back to Sarbreenar for safety.
The druids were recovering at the gardens of enlightenment so we went there to speak to them. Their sanctuary was on a craggy island in the middle of a large lake. One of the druids was prematurely silver-haired and unconscious, the other one that was talking to us seemed a bit thick. He said that 'Jack' had teleported them here, but that they'd been attacked by a big flying thing and men.
Duncan sorted out the loan of horses for those of us without, and we decided the best route was to go south to High Haspur then turn west through the mountain pass. We stopped the night at the Merry Mage Inn. The barkeep hadn't heard of the sanctuary but said the gnomes in High Haspur would know where it was. Thraxinus was being very snobbish the whole evening, going on about nobility and the labouring classes, which provoked Rayleth into a long song about the stupidity and inbreeding of the nobility, which wound Thraxinus up somewhat. At High Haspur we went to The Elf in Armour Inn. The gnomes had some fun with us doing illusions, and Rayleth ad Jomm gave them a song about Paladin's bits getting stunted by their armour. It sounded like the sanctuary was indeed where we guessed it to be, in a valley to the west.
The next morning we had to backtrack a bit to get to the westbound trail. After a while on this we heard the sounds of fighting across the crest of a hill. It looked initially like 2 people with a wagon were getting attacked by goblins, but then I noticed the banner of the Da Hood tribe, our goblin allies. Duncan mowed down a goblin with his horse, and only then checked and found that it was only the 2 humans that were detecting as evil. I asked the goblins what was happening, and one replied "Da Hood's not here, we's just attacking these bad people." Eldarreth did something that made the humans start laughing uncontrollably, but Thraxinus started attacking a goblin before Duncan could shout for him not to. I knocked one of the people unconscious, but Thraxinus hadn't stopped hitting the goblin, and Eldarreth had to sleep the other human and some of the goblins to stop things escalating. Duncan bullrushed Thraxinus to stop him, and in the end Eldarreth had to command him to stop fighting.
I had to apologise to the goblins and explain that Thraxinus was an inbred mad nobleman paladin as some sort of reason for his behaviour. The humans were okay but bound. Their wagon was loaded with various general supplies and weapons. Eldarreth suggested that they answered my questions. They were on their way to the edge of the lake. Drav their boss had sent them. They didn't know where he lived but did know he worked for Dark Omen. It appeared they were part of a plan to invade the island but they didn't know why. (Drav was a powerful spellcaster, who had a strange flying beast with antlers that ate peoples' hears - Eldarreth thought a Peryton.) The goblins told us Da Hood had told them to attack the wagon but not why. They left to go back to Da Hood, taking the wagon and the prisoners with them.
We
continued to the lake. Duncan was very unhappy. Seems that his killing
the goblin out of hand had upset Torm and he'd lost some of his powers.
The lake was big – about ten miles wide, and we could see the island
in the middle, about three and a half miles wide. Eldarreth's rat went
scouting while we went to the clearing where the wagoneers were supposed
to hide their weapons. Thraxinus wanted to stay here to attack and tried
ordering me to scout, but we just ignored him - the rest of us thought
it better to go over to the island carefully. We built 2 rafts and hid
the horses.
A couple of hours into the journey across to the island we saw 2 eagle-like creatures overhead with boulders in their claws. I started shooting, and Eldarreth cast levitate on one of the dropped boulders while Jomm cast Water Walk on us all just in case. The other eagle was just circling and didn't attack: we reached the island okay.
HE SHORE
quickly led to bluff-like cliffs with a door at the bottom and an eagle's
nest at the top. Out of the air an old guy in a brown tatty robe walked
towards us, wild unkempt hair and eyes, wineskin in hand. He didn't seem
to want to trust us, but eventually told us that the elven children were
of the Brinwood royalty. A hawk flew in and told Jack that the attackers
were on their way. We said we'd help. He started apparently walking on
air, but Eldarreth said there were no invisible stairs, so we climbed
to the top.
Up here it was lightly wooded with many animal trails. Jack was already up there and seemed to find it a lot easier to get through the terrain than we did. We came into another clearing with another door in the rock - the Sanctuary. Jack said we needed to meet someone otherwise we wouldn't live. He led us down stairs into a cave. A small elven boy and girl were flanked by 2 huge tigers. They didn't seem to like Thraxinus and me - I apologised to them (were they the eagles?)
We reckoned we had about half an hour before the attacking boats landed. Our plan was basic - pepper them with arrows as they came up the cliff, then go hand-to-had. I lent Rayleth my Fey Bow and we got into position. Out on the lake there were spread out boats, and 2 plate-armoured guys walking on the water, with a Peryton flying above. This seemed to be staying out over the water. As soon as they were within decent range I started shooting at the plated guys, getting a good hit on one of them, but then the other one put up a windwall which stopped that plan!
They landed, and a sonic boom came up at us that stunned Thraxinus. I stepped through the windwall and started shooting them, but had to retreat as I was peppered with arrows myself. One of the plated guys started walking on air and his greatsword burst into flame. The others had been rolling boulders down at the invaders as they climbed up the cliff, but now we had to start retreating through the trees. Don't know where Thraxinus went but he wasn't near the rest of us as we got into position round a clearing.
As they came into the clearing we attacked with weapons and spells. I was fighting one of the plated guys: he said "by Bane I will kill you" and hit me with his morningstar - and suddenly I was blinded. We were all in telepathic contact with Jomm so I told him I couldn't see anything as I kept trying to hit the guy. Duncan charged in to help, but I heard him fall over, then I got hit and went unconscious. I missed the rest of the combat but we prevailed. Jack had apparently come out of the doorway to say "do you want my help?" before healing us. Then he stood casting something for ages before lightning appeared out of nowhere and torched the Peryton into little bits where it was still guarding the boats.
The attackers had had some nice kit - including masterwork studded leather and magical full plate, although that detected as evil. The others thought that one of the plated guys had been a helmed horror. When Rayleth picked up the morningstar it blinded him too, but Jomm sorted that out for both of us. We rested on the island overnight.
Next morning we took the boats back across the water with the children, to be met by a complement of about 20 Brynwood elves. They left us a treasure chest as a thankyou and took the children. The chest had various bits and pieces in. I took a Forest Walker's breastplate. There were also gold and gems there which we split.
1374DR (Battlemasters 2002)
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