May 25th: Eaglesford
Before we left, I went to Graystone again, to let him know that we were off to Three Oaks. He seemed concerned and puzzled. Asked why we were heading there rather than going to Alder's Look. I didn't answer very well, I'm afraid. I don't understand - does he think Alderslook might be too much for us, or does he want us to go there right away?
Right before we left, Thaile asked Darmon to bless our journey. A nice custom! But she must not have included herself in the blessing: We had been riding for several hours when suddenly, out of the bushes came a huge insect (a praying mantis). It decided that of all of us, Thaile looked to be the most juicy and tasty and grabbed her off of her horse and nearly killed her.
I cast an entangle spell which did not work as I intended. The mantis was not affected by it, but the horses and some of the party members were entangled, like Riva. (Oops!) The horses that were free of the entanglement bolted, so I spent all of my time chasing after them. (I managed to catch and calm them later). Riva had dismounted at the first sign of trouble, but he had to make his way around the entanglement zone, which took a while. By the time he and Garret managed to get to the beast and kill it, it had mangled Thaile pretty badly and killed her horse. The cost of the horse, Garrett pointed out, would come out of my portion of any monies we got.
After getting Thaile healed up (Garret, a potion, and a spell from me), we were on the road again, Thaile riding with me. As we rode, I recalled that the Mantis is a swamp creature and the only swamp nearby is on the other side of Eaglesford from here. Very strange.
Twenty minutes or so farther down the road, we found a smashed wagon with a bloody harness and no horse or farmer around. The blood was a few days old and there was, nearby, an area where something large had bedded down (maybe an eight foot insect.....). We refilled our feedbags from the bags of grain in the wagon and went along our way.
Evening found us near Keprok. We camped at a campsite near the road.
First Watch: Thaile/Tieran: far off howling
Second Watch: Rowan/Garrett: Howling, closer and off to the West. Not wolves, Rowan said.
Third Watch: Riva/Bavic: Far off howling
May 26th: On the Road Again
About mid-morning we saw the ruins of Keprok in the distance. We made our way through the woods toward the ruins, leading the horses since the forest was too dense to ride. After a while, we saw a single wolf loping toward us.
As it came closer, we noted that the wolf was black, emaciated, and breathing fire. Definitely not your normal doggie. I worked on controlling the horses (the wolf spooked them), while Riva and Garrett dispatched the creature. Thaile helpfully dumped water on it.
Tieran told us that this was a creature from another plane, again, not normal, not good.
Ascending the ridge to Keprok, we got our first real view of the ruins as we passed low mounds of rubble, and huge blocks of worked stone. Low walls and larger mounds that may have once been buildings surrounded us.
The woods end 60 feet or so from what was once the gatehouse. Beyond, the ruins were massive, going on for quite a distance to the next hilltop. We decided to move on to the next hilltop to get a better idea of what we were seeing and to get an idea of where Laiden might meet us.
As we moved on, we saw more piles of rubble where buildings once stood. Over to our right side was a much larger pile of rubble than the others. Thaile wanted to check it out, but we promised her we would stop on our way back. As we moved farther into the complex of ruins, we passed a pit to our left. It had an angled drop-off and Riva could tell that this had been used recently as a quarry. The rock was good quality limestone.
After a bit we reached a large, open, flat area, about 500 feet square. The remains of many campfires were here, and a few large trees still dotted the area.
Past the open area, the debris was much heavier, huge discs of stone, with fluted sides lay everywhere. We found that we needed to go around this area, since the horses could not go through.
Skirting around, we noted that the disc debris was scattered for about 600 feet. Near the crest of the hill was the partial remains of a tower, remarkable because it was almost intact. There was a recognizable doorway, and our path disappeared into the archway. We went around the tower and continued to the hilltop. More debris was there, but we got a good view of....well, large trees.
To get a better view of the countryside, Tieran cast Spiderclimb on Riva. Yes, a dwarf in a tree, remarkable sight for the rest of us. Most unnatural. Riva did get a good view of the countryside and the vast ruins. We stood in the center of three large foundations in a large circular area. Jumbled piles of rock marked where buildings had once stood. It looked to have once been a large complex of buildings with a wall around it.
After Riva climbed down, we made our way back to that mostly-intact tower and went in through the arch. Riva was eager to explore. Inside was a large circular room. A stairway in the center of the room led down into darkness, though it looked as though there had been recent work done here (fresh wood shavings). To the left, a circular staircase went partially up the wall, but had collapsed. Directly across from the entrance, another doorway, leading to a corridor beyond.
Riva moved forward to explore farther and found passageways and corridors, one tunnel collapsed, and as he moved on farther, stairs going down into, again, darkness. As he moved farther, he also found a 30 foot circular chamber with five exits. We decided that, intriguing as this was, we were not quite ready to explore any farther, being on a mission and all. So, we left the tower and headed back toward the large building that we had promised Thaile we would look into.
As we reached the large clear area, we were very surprised to see people with horses headed toward us. They seemed pretty surprised too. As we drew closer, we recognized Laiden, and two gnomes. One of the gnomes was familiar to us, Kale Burlywire, granddaughter of the innkeeper in Eaglesford and a known n'er-do-well. The other was introduced to us as Erkey Merryfeet from Woodston.
Laiden then took Tieran off to speak with him privately. He did not seem to like that we were all there. Afterward, Tieran said the Leiden had asked him to join his group. Tieran had said no.
As Laiden and Tieran spoke, Kales and Erkey stood awkwardly with us, trying to make small talk. They were quite evasive about where they had been and what they had been doing recently. They did seem pretty excited to hear about the battle with the fire-breathing wolf though.
As Tieran returned to us, three more people were coming across the cleared area, A human fighter type, large and burly, who was introduced to us as Eric; a female elf named Drashi who said that she was an apostle of Zeinkeif; and a halfling, Cade Gregson, a relation of the Gregsons who were attacked by centipedes.
As night was fast approaching, we needed to make camp. We camped away from Laiden and his group, near the disc rubble area. We could see their fires from where we camped. Laiden and Eric came over to speak with Tieran. He told him that he knows of a secret entrance to treasure troves. He wanted Tieran (and the rest of us could come along, though he was not enthusiastic about that prospect) to join his party in exploring the ruins. We noted that Laiden is poorly dressed, poorly equipped, and really has very bad taste in wine, not exactly someone who one would think is able to find vast riches. He said that he had already located a magic item of great value, though he would give no farther details on that.
Garrett said that we all have urgent business, in Three Oaks and back in Eaglesford, and asked how long the exploration might take. Laiden replied that it would take a week or so, maybe more and would be much more exciting than stopping goblin raids on Eaglesford or whatever lame things we were doing. He tried pretty hard to talk Tieran into joining him, but in the end, we all decided to stay together on our mission.
When questioned, Eric said that he had fought orcs in the South, but like the others was quite evasive about where he had been and what he had done.
Watches: Thaile/Tieran
Rowan/Riva
Bavic/Garrett
May 27th: Leaving Keprok
The night passed uneventfully and we all woke up. Laiden's party seemed to be waiting around for us to leave before they broke camp, so we headed out before they did.
We began making our way out the ruins of Keprok with, of course, a stop at the large building we had spotted on our way in. Thaile wanted very much to check it out.
It was a large, ruined building, a curved structure twelve feet or so high, mostly collapsed into large piles of debris.
As Thaile moved forward a sinkhole opened under her, but she danced away with catlike grace. She moved forward again, looking for an entrance to this large mound. She found a stone arm sticking out of a pile of rubble, the workmanship was exceptional for a statue. Hoping to help, Riva climbed up on the rubble of the wall and fell back down, but being Riva, he climbed right back up again.
Another sinkhole opened up at Thaile's feet. This time, she was unable to jump back in time and fell into the hole. Once she was down there though, she was able to see an archway that we might be able to enter through. Riva climbed down to join her, his descent slower, and with less accidental tumbling.
As Riva reached the bottom of the pit, both he and Thaile were attacked by something that threw sticky nets over them. Both of them found themselves stuck to the ground as large spiders moved in to attack them.
As soon as the rest of us realized that this was happening, we moved into the pit to aid our friends. Bavic and Garrett were webbed as they went in.
Garrett burned the webs, freeing himself, Thaile, and Riva. Riva killed one, but was bitten.
I, as usual, attacked ineffectually (this time with a sling).
Thaile tried to retreat (run away, that is) but kept falling back down into the pit. She fell down and rolled back into the pit three times!
Riva and Garrett managed to kill two of the four spiders and the remaining two ran away.
Everyone climbed out of the pit (even Thaile finally made it out) and we began moving on out of Keprok and toward Three Oaks.
Around noon we reached the road and arrived at Three Oaks shortly thereafter. It was the largest town any of us had ever been in. It was encircled by a stone and wood wall with the gates open. We were able to enter with out being challenged. We went to an inn near the gates, the Bird's Claw and rented two cheap rooms for the night, as well as stable space for our horses. At the inn we asked about Moira and were told that she could be found in the tallest tower in town. We also received directions to a jeweler and an armorer.
Garrett and Thaile decided to visit their respective temples first.
Good thing they're taking notes!
), and odds-n-ends of the sessions between now and then. There's some great stuff in Three Oaks I'd like to get to, especially the meeting with the Sage of the Ruins....but we'll see if I'll fit it in or not.
) I'm looking forward to Ride-by Attack and spells in the next couple levels to add even more flexibility.
...something else [EDIT: Gentleness! 
] and Wisdom) and his gifts are related to Life and Guardian [EDIT: Correct!]. As such he can't Smite and he can't Detect Evil. I've honestly never played a Core Paladin, but watching several in action and DMing one currently, Garret is very different without those abilities; fun, but definitely different.
