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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 1454139" data-attributes="member: 3649">Ashes of ZarhanEpisode 16: The Iron RingThe party consists of…Vorz, male Litorian Totem Warrior (Wolf)3/Litorian3Sellik, male Verrik Mage Blade5, Verrick 1Kyran, female Verrik Iron Witch4/Mage Blade2Mont Nuyen, male Human Unbound Unfettered6Alayah, female Loresong Faen Greenbond6Na-Vilarus, male Giant Giant 3, Warmain 3 Rizz, male kobold Expert3Shan Greensong, male Human Akashic3The group rises from the inn on the island, and catches the ferry back to the city of Whitebridge. There, they spend a nice morning looking around, browsing in the markets for trade goods (they find a particularly interesting form of windchime, some kind of native folk tradition, so they buy several for sale later). Mont talks to Shan about his craft a great deal, sitting and walking with the youth for some time. Leaving the city, the group begins the long journey back. No ships were going to Runestone from Whitebridge, so they think to try their luck back in Blackgate or perhaps sooner. Now that they no longer have to worry about the apprentices, they feel sea travel may be safe for them once more. Leaving the civilized areas around Blackgate, the group swiftly finds itself pacing a cavalry group that passes by them. Later, Vorz decides to track the group where it took a turn in the road; he smells blood, and then the faint sounds of combat come to the group. Racing to see what’s the matter, the group finds an ambush site that has taken out at least half the small 12-man armored troop. Racing ahead, the group comes upon the remnants of the cavalry troop.. in combat with a pair of tremendous armored hill giants! A gimr battle is joined as the giants destroy the rest of the troop before turning on the adventurers: only a few from the troop live, and of those, only a Litorian sergeant, Kzinalak, remains in the combat. Vorz actually manages to kill one of the giants simply through the power of his blows alone, scoring terrible shots to the monster’s vitals (death from massive damage). Finally, once the giants are dispatched (Mont makes several souvenirs from giant parts, including their huge teeth and tusks).Kzinalak tells them about the raids coming down from the mountains to the north; the count has commissioned a newly-formed mercenary company to deal with the threat posed by the marauding creatures: the Winterhawks. Returning to the farmhouse that lay at the beginning of the path, the group and the remaining calvary officers lay up for the night. Scouting the area, Vorz and Na-Viloras find dire wolf tracks that surround the farmhouse, and markings scratched on trees that are obviously meant to be guides to very tall creatures. Tracking back via the signs, they find that the signs guide the giants along a gully-like depression that would keep their movements hidden even from most of the hunters and woodsmen in the area, and hide tracks. The signs go back towards the mountains in a roughly straight line. Disturbed by the discovery, the group sets a watch that night. The next day the group returns with the remnants of the troop to Whitebridge to meet with the Count’s captain of the guard and relay the message, acting as official emissaries from Runestone. Returning back down the road, the group stops to rest for the night at the same farmhouse. As evening falls, a visitor comes walking down the road towards the door. Suspicious at the non-scent from the young woman, Vorz confronts her. She smiles sweetly up at him, this elaborate sword held carelessly over her shoulder. "You are Vorz?" she says to him, and he nods. "I am here to kill you.." She tosses the sword away disdainfully and punches the huge Litorian, crushing bones under her superstrong fist. She lashes out quickly with bare fist and kicks, dealing him terrible damage while he misses her most of the time, or barely scores a hit. Magic washes over the woman like water, so the group finally opts to surround her even as she’s about to kill Vorz… and they all jump her. All of them together are barely able to keep the woman down, but it’s obvious that simply overbearing her does no real harm to her. So they stay holding her while Vorz uses his acid blade to gradually dismember her. Then they start burning the body parts. Once they manage to chop parts of her off, Sellick and others realize just what she is: a flesh golem. Sent specifically to kill the group. Object loresight even gives that as the primary function of the ‘item’. She was over a hundred years old, built by a Mozh Magister.. who lived in the Tower of Fangs, the place far to the north that has been linked to the demoness Khaz-Hadrath.A little unnerved by the appearance of a specific assassin, that could track them down in the middle of a supposedly secret mission, the group spends an uneasy night. Dealing with a dire bear that come sniffing around the farmhouse (they basically bribe it to leave, giving it the braised super-dense flesh of the golem), the group departs in the morning for Blackgate. Travelling to the village where they dealt with the vampire, Mont unveils his newest trade good as a gift to the innkeeper: the Queen’s Measure cup, a shotglass made from the massive canine of a hill giant. Leaving there, the group once more encounters an odd group of wagons. This time, though, Vorz smells the scent of flesh gone bad, human waste, and other unpleasant things.. apparently coming from the boxed and crated merchandise. Alayah, still becoming used to her ability to constantly see the nature spirits that surround us all, sees that there is a large ‘bubble’ around the caravan where no nature spirit will approach. The outriders, guards and the robed caravan master give the group leeway to pass, and make as to continue on to Whitebridge. But clever eyes see a bit of corn fall from the back wagon at regular intervals. The group realizes these people must be some sort of slavers, and make to attack. The guards and outriders respond as expected, but then the caravanmaster reveals himself as a chain-covered demon! The fight against the monster and the chains it commands is hard-fought but at last the group wins. Taking the long crates out, they find several human slaves. Some have died. All but one (the girl pushing her packing material out of the loose bottom, hoping someone would get curious and search the crates) are drugged and only semi-conscious. And four… four have The Plague. They were kept in a specially marked box.Alayah manages to cure the diseases the plague victims carry, forcing the corrupt spirits from their bodies. The group sends to Blackgate, a mere two hours away, for healers and transport for the would-be slaves. As the adventurers get the wounded and weakened people to the river for clean water and bathes, some of them also interrogate the only survivor of the group, a mercenary woman named Deliza. She tells the group about how she’s been with the slavers for some time now, but only recently has the… demon been around. Since then, they’ve run slaves but they also do other, darker things. She confesses all, certain now that she will die. She simply doesn’t care anymore. The group finds out about them selling tainted feed to the ostlers and the poor, the disease victims sent into cities to spread death and chaos… all in a long line up and down the forested coast area. There are other groups but she doesn’t know any specifics about them. She does know about the contacts in Blackgate, one of whom is the hide merchant the group dealt with earlier.Vorz gets to Blackgate to find the city sealed, and the black flags of Plague flapping in the spring breeze. Several dozen people are outside the walls, charged with keeping those inside from coming out. Smoke rises from the walled town where houses full of infected are locked and burned in an attempt to contain the disease. Riders and wagons are sent back for the former prisoners, as well as a couple greenbonds to aid in treating the sick and injured, though they are nowhere near Alayah’s skill or power. They relay the infor about the traitors to the militia captain, who sends word back into the city via arrow. </blockquote>

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