The Lady & The Wyrm Session 5

Our adventurers hit the open lands, heading for an ancient place that once flourished with flora and fauna, but now desolate, void of all life. All in hopes of locating the King's old friend...

The party makes their way out of the city for the first time since their arrival. Inka, after some deep discussion with her horse, had decided to give her new traveling friend a name. The horse forever now known as 'Sir Clops A Lot'. They all rode hard in formation keeping each other close. It was a rainy day for their first jaunt out into the wilds. Alternating between heavy showers at times, light drizzle at others. A constant breeze does blow in many directions as they travel on horseback. Luckily it is warm out as summer is soon approaching so they wont catch the dreaded Final Chill. Since they are not taking main routes or roads, they do not encounter anyone during their first day's journey. They cross through grasslands, some hilly terrain, lightly forested areas and the like. A couple ponds and streams where they pause to fish. Pip scored a nice and hefty Sunfish for lunch. They pass a few abandoned homes & similar structures, crumbled & lost to time. All around they do witness many wild animals and birds through their travels but nothing threatening(or at least none that any of them couldn't easily strike down if approached). The best part of the trip so far is seeing out to the horizons and spotting far off locations, both man-made and natural. A sign that these brave adventurers are not yet leaving the entire world they knew behind.

Eventually the day winds down, & the dread of dusk arrives early due to the overcast skies. Ahead the party sees there is a large dark mass on the ground. As they get closer, they come upon an overturned cart. The two horses pulling it lie dead from gash wounds across their throats and bodies. From atop their own horses, the group sees there are no other signs of life at the cart. Deciding to take a closer look, the party dismounts and investigates the area. Around the back side of the cart, there is a blood trail found that goes off into the tall grasses and up over a ridge out of sight to their left. The cart itself is in shambles and is found to hold nothing of value besides some basic traveling supplies. Whatever was being hauled must've already been offloaded. Sendak is the first to decide, on his own, to follow the blood trail through the tall grass. The others remain behind, but keep an eye on their Goliath friend. He makes his way through the grasses and up over a ridge where he sees below a small outcropping overlooking the Tethyrian expanse, and built into it off to the right, a small cave. And about 50 feet straight ahead, a creature is feasting on what could only be the occupant of the cart.

Wait. Is that a...no wait! That's a...umm...what is that?!

Sendak sees a large creature that he simply cannot explain. It is really big and built like a bear, but it has the head of...an owl? And its entire body is covered in feathers! Whatever this abomination was, it had already sensed the Goliath approaching. It paused from it's meal and looked up to meet Sendak eye to eye, its maw stained blood red, sinew hanging from its beak-like mouth. In this moment, call it his primal instincts, Sendak knew what had to happen. This was predator vs prey. As slowly and and quietly as he could, with his left hand he withdrew his new light crossbow. With his right, he raised it up high to be in view of the party and signaled for them to approach. Seeing this, the remaining party members cautiously made their way. Except for Maiya. For some reasons known only to her, she made her way also but in the completely wrong way as she walked off to the right, perpendicular of the cart and into the grasses further away! As the party arrived to their friend, they all were in awe at what they were seeing. And then some were racked with fright as the creature rose on its hind legs and sounded off with a ferocious and loud screeching roar that echoed across the land. It was time to fight to survive as the massive creature approached it's new targets.

This is when Maiya revealed why she went in the direction she did apart from the group. Seeing the dangers facing herself and her new friends, she closed her eyes. Pulling from deep within her, the Druid of the Seas began to glow, her entire body becoming luminous. Her joints glimmering like stars, and glowing lines connecting them as if from the star charts she was so well known for guiding Capt. Svedra. She took on the form of The Archer, and from this form she shot forth a beam of star light in the shape of an arrow, & it struck the mighty beast causing it to howl and screech in great pain. The rest of the party felt empowered and proud at this as they all prepared to strike. Then, they felt nothing but dread as the sounds that this feathered monstrosity made called forth from its cave, it's mate. The second feathered beast that was watching from its hovel, allowing its mate to feed. It sauntered out to join its partner and stood with its own scary war cry and stomped the ground, ready to defend. The battle was on.

Oh great! Another one...

Claws tearing through chainmail. Beaks gnashing through flesh. Clouds Of Daggers tearing through feathers. And beams of the Moon at dusk made for quite a battle. In the end, the party stood around the two feathered bodies of their enemy. Catching their breath, and their imagination of the monsters, Pip was the one who decided whatever these things were, they had to be of value to someone. So he began removing parts of the beasts. The claws, one of which he gave to Sendak who proudly adorned his necklace with it. The eyes, a couple of leg tendons, and the tails were removed and stored. Now the party seeing the darkness of night having arrived, and being in the middle of nowhere, decided they needed to make camp. And now that they had a perfectly good and empty cave to sleep in, they made it home for the night. Once they cleared it of course. Sendak took a tour of the small cave just to find piles of bones, old blood pools, and claw marks in blood along the walls. He found he was able to count these marks and they numbered well over 60! Assuredly someone out there in the great wide world will be relieved to know these monstrous bear-owl like beings were put down. Or were they owl-bear like? That was up for discussion. So was the fact that seeing the bones lying all around them in piles inside the cave, got the party thinking of a name for their adventuring group. The Bone Collectors? This was the discussion had as the party's eyes closed to a well-deserved sleep.

The next morning the sun shone clearly. The breeze blew gently on a beautiful day. After breakfast and gearing up, the party mounted their horses and took off southwest, ever closer to their destination. Itself which was beginning to peak in the distance. A large and ominous dark design on the land. The Spires Of Mir. It's a bit faster going today as the terrain is nice and smooth the further they went, the wind whipping at their hair. As the sun began to rise towards its overhead position of the sky, the party all see ahead of them a small herd of…something they aren't yet able to identify from this distance. As they grow closer, they now see they are fast moving in their direction. Eventually it is seen that they are not horses with riders, but rather very large lizards with riders! Five human men and one woman all dressed in long brown coats & wide brimmed hats pull up in front of them. "Ahoy there," says the man in the front of the group. He dismounts from his giant lizard and approaches slowly, hands in the air showing no ill will. The others remain where they parked upon their mounts. "Would you happen to be traveling south of here?" he asks honestly.

That's a funny lookin' horse you got there, Sir.

The man's name is Tarvin, of the Tethyrian Survey Society. He told his story as "We were recently assigned by our superiors at the TSS to record any environmental changes to the Spires of Mir since the last survey about 13 years ago. The data assists our cartographers, & even the Royals in keeping up with their land claims. Unfortunately we didnt make any progress this time as we sadly lost three of our company to hidden traps, and the rest of us were chased off by…something." This last statement made the female rider in their group scoff audibly. "Tch, come on Tarvin, you know who it was. We all do!" She looked around at the remainder of the riders who all but admitted this fact without saying anything. Tarvin continued. "Yes well, no fact until evidence as we say." A sheepish smile crossed his face as he removed his hat and wiped his brow. "Well I suppose we best be getting on. Another day or so ride til we hit home. You all take care of yourself if you end up at The Spires. Never was a very natural place." The man tipped his hat to the group, and he mounted his lizard and the company of TSS agents charged off north, back to the city.

After a couple dozen more miles of riding, the tragic but grand Spires Of Mir rise before the party. Reaching hundreds of feet in height in some spots, the stone structure looks puzzlingly wrong compared to the forest it once was. In the ten years of The Spellplague's wrath in ages past, the land here was turned, warped. From what was once the southwestern section of The Forest Of Mir, is now the desolate, dry, void of life stone structure that looms here. It was rumored years later that there was a stronghold built deep within, but none asked in this day and age could ever verify that, therefore the landscape remained as it is.

Once a lush forest, now nothing more than a stone monument to the power of The Spellplague laid upon Faerun

The gaping tear through the rock before the party seems to be the way inside this structure. And maybe to Fissok Sherstryk, if he found a way to survive within this behemoth of a structure. And if the TSS agent's tales were told true. The party advanced to barely 30 feet inside the façade, when already they came upon a large pile of rubble, seemingly caved in from either side of the walls. And with their passive perception, they can see the dried blood of the poor souls that were crushed underneath. This clearly is one of the traps they were told about that the TSS lost three of their own to. Proceeding on with caution, there aren't many different paths to take through here in this space. After walking for what feels like over an hour, the group starts to hear off in the distance somewhere ahead a voice. A deep voice. And is that…singing? Laughing? Clearly now they are not alone inside the Spires as they continue on. Soon enough as the spaces around them open up in varying widening ways and depths and heights like numerous caves that have been put together at random, they now are clearly hearing the slurring drunken voice of someone else far up ahead. Along with the unmistakable sound of metal clanging and banging against metal and stone. The party looks too see way up high, a cave like entrance, lit by the dance of fire flames. And the way up there, is nothing more than an old rickety rope bridge that cascades its way up to the lit up area.

After being gifted the power of darkvision by Inka, one by one single file, the party makes its way across the treacherous bridge as it makes its way slowly upwards. Some of them have difficulties as the weakening structure begins to give way. Foot boards snapping and falling away into the dark abyss below. The rope supports, dry and brittle with age, fraying and snapping. It is hard to keep balanced on this thing. Slowly, they improve their abilities to traverse the unbalanced rope and wood planked crossing, soon enough making it across all the way. With a look back and breath escaping their lungs, the party hopes that is not the only way out of this doomed place! With that worrying thought pushed out of their minds, they move to the next area which opens up almost like a civilized home would. If that home were the inside of a mountainous structure. There are numerous rooms branched off of this main path. Almost as if they were purposely built. And well-built were they. Detailed walls and floors and varying sections. And ahead of them are the all too well known set of giant side-by-side stone doors. They are slightly ajar, which was letting out the escaping firelight they saw before. And within they could hear the singing voice, except this time it sounds like it is singing about the party themselves! Using a seemingly personal rhythm of banging, a voice sings out "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh how many more steps will they take, how many more feet will they break?! belchhhhhh HAHAHAHAHA" As unsettling as that sounds, it is worsened by the sound of metal clanging that begins to echo out in a pattern all around that vibrates them to their core. Cautiously, Sendak is the first to advance to the doors when he suddenly stops not 20 feet from the doors as his most recent footfall releases a 'clang! click!' sound beneath his foot. The Goliath froze. The rest of the party froze. Except for Pip. He began chanting, and using his sorcerous ability, he created a whirlwind of air that brushed away the surrounding rubble and rock all across the ground, including where Sendak stood. This revealed from the wall, and snaked across the ground in an intricate pattern to the trigger to the mechanism itself, the lethal trap holding the Goliath in place. Having no abilities or knowledge of traps, Pip still felt he had to act. He toiled and studied for over 30 minutes, and finally with a stroke of luck, was able to disarm the trap, allowing Sendak to step off, relieved. They then made their way through and into the next room.

Fissok Sherstryk, of the Frackfall Clan. And King Eurestel's old friend. According to the King, anyway.

The party enters enter a large room at least 100 ft in diameter, and at the forefront ahead in front of a massive roaring fire, back turned to them, is a aged Dwarf. A large hammer in one hand, a very large mug in the other. He turns dramatically slow, chuckling and belching as he does. Before them is the legendary stonemason of the Frackfall Clan, Fissok Sherstryk!

Alystn, who did not feel all that great to be here, sat at the large table set at the side of the space, and was soon joined by Maiya. The introductions were made, and the tales were told. And the drink was drunk. Pip for the first time tasted, and immediately felt, the effects of true Dwarven ale. Alystn sipped his, along with Maiya who surprisingly felt right at home. Fissok's eyes were immediately adorned to the quiet but exotic Inka, in that prideful and goal-oriented "hello there m'lady" kind of way! Pip drunkenly led the way telling why they were here. Their story of the dragon attacking Darromar and the suffering of it's people, including the Royal Pair. Yet it didn't really seem to imprint on the Dwarf as much as the party thought it would. Even the details regarding the damage, the loss of life, and the overall pall the attack left behind didn't faze the old Dwarf. But then when it came to the topic of the Royal's children, the Prince and the Princess, is when his attention focused. Particularly when the party mentioned Timo's rumor of the Princess gone missing. The castle needed repairs? "Harrumph," was the common reaction from Fissok. But the children of the estate? Now that was the the trigger the party discovered that would successfully get the old Dwarf back to the capital. And not for the original reason either. Whatever falling out the King and Fissok had, it paled in obvious comparison to the care and devotion he felt for the Royal children. The kids he watched grow. The kids he swore to protect no matter what. They saw not the fire from the cave in the old Dwarf's eyes, but the instinctual fire that burned in his heart for the love and honor to the Royal children.

No sooner did the party look at each other in silence to try and make their next move, instead Fissok made it for them. They watched in awe as the drunken Dwarf suddenly acting sober, began dressing for travel. And seemingly battle. He adorned his hefty armor from it's stand. His mighty axe sheathed across his back. His mountain smashing hammer gripped in his hands. Not wasting any more time he instructs the party it is time to ride! They all shuffle and start heading towards the door, fearful of the barely-there bridge that would lead them back out. Frustratingly, Fissok yells out, "NO! Not back that way fools, this way!" He tells the party to stand back as he gives an affectionate wink to Inka, and mightily swings his hammer, absolutely obliterating a section of rock from the wall, revealing his emergency exit. Taking a look inside its nothing more than a dark hole into nowhere via a steep vertical drop. "This'll get us out of this old hall much faster, and right to the door step of Ole Betsy!" Fissok exclamed proudly. The old Dwarf jumps into the hole, and the party can hear him as he hoops and hollers as if he is riding down a slide as a child would. With seemingly no other choice, they also made their way one by one into the hole in the wall to discover that is exactly what it was! A giant slide carved out of the mountain, leading this way and that, speeding them through the innards of The Spires of Mir. Hooting and hollering themselves, and maybe even joyfully laughing, the five adventurers eventually were dumped outside at the other end of The Spires from where they entered.

Old Betsy. The prettiest thing in all the land. Right? Right?!

And the sight they saw they wished they could have had made into a painting. There was Fissok Sherstryk, atop of what now the party knew was the Dwarf's mount. An ugly, fat, and downright scary looking beast! It was a boar. Yet it was way too big, and it's tusks wrapped long and thick, as if they could puncture through rock just like Fissok's hammer does. Old Betsy and Fissok turned to the party. "Try to keep up, ey?" the old Dwarf cried out as he took a swig from his waterskin. And so back on their horses, along with the greatest Dwarven treasure this side of the nation, the party and Fissok Sherstryk charged their way from The Spires Of Mir back home to the capital city.

FIN