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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 190836" data-attributes="member: 11">Osilem, 16th of Dek – 564 H.E.With morning only a gray light came, as a constant slush seemed to move nearly horizontally through the sky.  Ratchis discovered that they had been moving too far southward and were not far from the Ogre Scar, so he redirected them north and westward.Kazrack was feeling a great deal better, but still felt a bit weak and foggy.  He hoped that as he made progress towards his goal, he would recover even more.By late afternoon the sleet had dissipated, and in the distance they could see the ridge.  Atop it they saw the fires of the cottages of Summit.  They were less than an hour’s march to it.  It was decided to stop in Summit and pick up the splint mail armor Beorth had paid for already.Martin was sent alone to climb the ridge and enter town, in case word of their pardon had not reached Summit yet, which probably had not.  He waved to the others and made the ascent while they waited in a nearby copse of trees below.Martin made his way straight to Maxel’s smithy, and the smith/constable was surprised to see him.“There’s been bad word going `round about your companions,” Maxell said, sounding concerned.“We have just returned from the capitol where it was all cleared up.  Word of it should come to the alderman in a few days, in the meantime they wait on the edge of town,” Martin explained.“Good to hear,” Maxel said with a smile.  “There has been so much bad news of late that some good news is welcome.”“Bad news?”“More people missing,” Maxell said, his grin melting into a frown. “Most recently it was twin girls only thirteen years old, and one of your dragon-hunting friends, um… Gwar.”“Oh.” Martin was surprised.Martin gave Maxel the second half of the payment for the armor, and took the bundle with the helmet on top and said goodbye to the smith.“I may be away for a few weeks again, but my companions and I will return,” he said.Outside, Martin ran into Finn, Carlos and Frank.“Hey, Martin!” Finn waved.  Carlos tried to shake Martin’s hand which caused the mage to drop the armor.  Carlos picked it up for him, “Perdona me.”  Martin explained what he was doing there and where he was going and Finn and Carlos insisted on escorting him back.“I’m going to give the perimeter of the town another turn,” Frank said.  It was the first words he had spoken  “He might have made his way close to town and be too hurt to come the rest of the way.”“Sure, Frank,’ Finn said, trying to sound reassuring.  “Just be careful, go get Josef and bring him with you.”“Yeah, okay,” Frank said softly and walked off.“I take it he is not taking his brother’s disappearance very well,” Martin offered.“Who would?” Finn shrugged his shoulders.Carlos carried the armor down the ridge for Martin, and soon they were all together.“Glad to see you guys are all right,” Finn said, joining the others round the small fire they had burning to ward of the cold.  “We heard rumors of a wild half-orc attacking guards in Ogre’s Bluff and we feared there might some confusion…”“Oh, there was no confusion,” Ratchis said, wryly.Finn looked puzzled.Martin mentioned Gwar’s disappearance.“How long has he been missing?” Ratchis asked.“This makes two days,” replied Finn.“Si, dos dias.  Two days,” said Carlos, looking sad and holding tow fingers up.“We were doing one of our patrols that we do to keep busy and make it look like we’re hunting the dragon, and looking into the disappearances,” Finn said.“Digale de los cabezas de perro feo,” Carlos said, nudging Finn. “Huh?  Oh!  Gnolls.  We ran into gnolls.  Three of them.  We killed them though,” Finn half-smiled and half-frowned, as if he were proud of himself, but still did not relish the memory of it.“You think the gnolls got to him?” Ratchis asked.“That’s what Josef says,” said Finn.  “But I’m not so sure.  There would have been a sign of struggle or blood or something, but there was none of that. It was as if he walked away and did not come back.  If it weren’t for the fact that he left his girl here in town I would have said he eloped.”“So, he disappeared from town?” Martin asked.“No, while we were out on patrol.  Sorry, I got side-tracked.  There is a hill that sticks up like a big toe just north west of town on the ridge.  We go up there and do what we call ‘compass points’ and each take a spot on the north, east, west, and south side of the hill, with one of us on top to act as called between the four.  We do this to get a good clear look around.  It’s like a crow’s nest, but better.  I found the place, but it was Frank that found the best trail up there. Anyway, two afternoons ago, we were doing ‘compass points’ and Gwar had the eastern one, but he never called or came to the meeting spot.  We went looking for him, but he was gone.  At first we thought he might have gone to the temple of Bast…”“There is a temple of Bast?” Martin asked.“Uh?  Oh yeah, just north of town,” Finn said. “Do you think you could mark its location on my map?” Martin asked.“Yeah, sure.  I can try,” replied Finn. “There is only one priest there, though, and he is not all that reliable.”“Are you saying he’s senile?” Martin asked.“No, he’s a young guy like us, and he’s a real priest. He can heal you any everything, but he seems kind of, I don’t know, flaky.”“Priests of Bast are like cats.  They’re like… well, like cats,” Martin said, by way of explanation.“You mean they lick themselves?” Jeremy asked with a grin.Martin frownedRatchis cleared his throat.“Oh, yeah, anyway, Gwar,” Finn said.  “He wasn’t at the temple.  He wasn’t anywhere.  Frank is really upset about it, and so is Cynthia; that’s Gwar’s girl.  We’ve been searching for him almost two days straight.  The rest of us have gotten some sleep, but I don’t think Frank has slept at all.”“You should be very careful, gnolls are crafty opponents,” Ratchis warned.  “I take it you have been practicing your martial skills?”“It’s more important than ever,” Finn replied.“Si, es muy importante.  Siempre estoy deciendo que debemos practicar mas,” Carlos said eagerly.  Ratchis furrowed his brow.Finn shrugged his shoulders.“Practice more,” Carlos said through a thick accent, trying to translate what he had just said.“Well, no time like the present,” Ratchis said, standing.  “Come on, Finn.  Show me what you got.”Finn was taken aback.  “I’m not sure I want to fight you.”“Come on, it will be just like the boat,” Kazrack said encouragingly.Ratchis sparred a bit with Finn and then with Carlos, and saw that both of their fighting skill had improved greatly, especially the latter – However, it was still no challenge for the half-orc’s own skill.Carlos and Finn sat down with the group to have a small bite before they continued en route to Archet.“I just wanted to let you know that we still plan to pay you back that money you spent to free us from the bounty-hunter,” Finn said.  (123)“The best payment to me would be for you to simply pass on the help to others whenever you can,” Kazrack said.“Oh, we do that too, but a debt is a debt and I don’t welsh on debts,” Finn said.  “You will get paid.”“You can pay us by supplying us with information,” Jeremy suggested.  “There is a lot going on in these parts and you guys can act as a n extra set of eyes and ears for us.”“Sure thing, but you will still get your money,” Finn insisted.  Carlos nodded.After bidding their former travel companions good-bye (and Martin making sure that Finn marked the temple of Bast on his map of the area), the party continued their journey towards Archet.  Beorth packed away his old scale mail armor and donned his new splint mail.  It felt heavier than he was used to and did not seem as well adjusted for a long march as his former armor had, but then again he knew the ins and outs of scale mail, but splint was foreign to him. (124)  He wore his large shield on his back until he needed it, preferring to walk with his quarterstaff in hand.Ratchis led Beorth, Jeremy, Kazrack, Martin and Jana on another two of marching through deep snow and through tightly packed trees along the south edge of the ridge westward to where they were told Archet could be found.There was some confusion, but eventually Ratchis found signs of game trails and frequent tracks, and was able to lead the part to a small clearing where a large log lean-to was standing.The lean-to had a very large brick hearth and several wooden benches.  There was a large pile of split wood beside the hearth. It smelled of ash, pipe-smoke and ale, but no one was inside.“Is this the right place?” Kazrack asked.“The elves said it was just a small trading post,” Ratchis said, pulling his hood up over his head to hide his heritage, remembering the rumors he had heard about the locals’ hatred of orcs.“No one is here,” Beorth said, as they all walked in out of the wind.  Ratchis began to chuck wood into the hearth.“Thomas, do you smell anything bad?” Martin the Green asked his familiar.  “Any bad creatures.”“No, but… augh!!! I smell squirrels!  Dead squirrels!” Martin stroked Thomas head reassuringly. “I guess we’ll spend the night here and see if anyone shows up to ask directions to the druids’ place,” Ratchis said.“Lookin’ fer druids, eh?” said a scratchy voice from the darkness of nearby trees.  An old grizzled man, with skin like leather and a white shadow of a beard.  He looked the party over with blood-shoot blue eyes as he came towards the lean-to.  “None of them `round here.”“Excuse me, sir.  We are looking for Archet,” Kazrack said, stepping towards the old man.  Ratchis got the fire going and then sat on the floor leaning on the wall.  He pulled his hood further down over his face.“Well, lookee that!  Is that one them there stone folk?” the man asked pointing at Kazrack.  “Don’t see them much if ever `round here, but this here is Archet.  You are in it, so to speak.”“This is Archet?” Jeremy asked, incredulously.“Sure it is,” the old man replied.  “Just a place for the local trappers and hunters to meet and trade their goods.  They call me ‘Toothless Jabnit’ `cause I ain’t got no teeth… Well, I have one left.”  He opened his mouth and leaned forward. “See? It’s all the way in the back.  It’s all black and stuff.”Jeremy recoiled as a stench as foul as death wafted from the old man’s mouth.“What can I call you?’ Kazrack asked.“Call me what ya like, just don’t call me late for dinner!” The old man burst into a laugh like a hacking cough.  “Oh, I kill myself!”  He slapped his knee, and walked over and dropped his huge pack on one of the benches and sat down.“I am Kazrack Delver,” Kazrack said.  He then gestured to each of the others in turn.  “This is Jeremy, Beorth, Jana, Martin the Green and that lump over there is Ratchis.”“He’s a big lump!” Jabnit exclaimed.  “He’s almost as big as Big Larry!” He turned and looked at Jana.  “And that’s a fine piece of maiden flesh ya carrying around,” Jabnit waggled his eyebrows at her and she sneered.“I’d be careful, Jabnit,” Martin said, stepping between then.  “You don’t want to know what she did to the last man who…  you know…”“Oh, wunna dem, huh?”  The man pulled some slated meat from a sack and began to gum on it.  “So, whatcha folks lookin’ for around here.”Kazrack explained that they were looking for the Circle of the Thorn and a wood called “Dybbuk Akvram”.  “Don’t know anything about that, but Siram prolly does,” Jabnit said.  “He’s as close to an alderman as we get in these parts.”“Where can we find this man?” Kazrack asked.“He don’t live far.  I can show ya,” Jabnit stood and walked over to the open side of the structure and pointed.  “Ya see that tree?  Over there.  Just call out for him.”As the party walked over to where the old man had pointed, Jeremy hung behind and slipped a silver coin into his hand.  Jabnit stuck it into his mouth and tested its authenticity against his sole tooth.They came to the tree and looked around, but could see no sign of a dwelling in or around it.  Above them the canopy of fir was so thick that in most places the sky was obscured.“There!  I see some kind of opening up in to the tree, but it is too high to reach,” said Ratchis.“Siram of Archet!  I am Martin the Green, watch-mage. I beg your leave to speak with you.”I voice called down from above, “What do you want?”“We were told you could help us. We seek the druids of the Wood of the Blood Sap.” Martin replied.“Oh, you mean the Circle of Thorns!  Well, I guess you can come on up, but no more than three of you!” The voice said.A rope-ladder came tumbling down out of the brush above.  Martin, Beorth and Jeremy made their way up.  They came through the snow covered brush and up through an opening in a wooden platform which created a kind of porch to a large hidden treehouse.  There were two large coils of hemp rope up here, and a perch with a hooded hawk upon it.  There was also a large barrel and drain fashioned from wood to allow melting snow to drip right into it.  A man appeared in the doorway to the treehouse.  He was not very tall, but had an air of strength to him, the graying ends of his hair belying the youth in his sparkling green eyes.  He wore a long sword at his side, and held a bow in his hands, but no arrow strung in it.“So what are you looking for the Circle of Thorns for?” Siram asked, looking over his three guests very closely.“We have been entrusted with tasks for Osiris, and it is there that two of these tasks can be accomplished,” Beorth replied.“Heh,” Siram said, and stepped back into the house. “Come in.”  The hawk on the perch ruffled its feathers.Beorth, Martin and Jeremy followed him in.  The interior of the treehouse looked very comfortable, with furs on the floor, and wooden fur-covered chairs.  One wall had several different long and short bows on display, while over a iron pot-bellied stove were over a dozen pipes of different designs on pegs.“Well, I wouldn’t recommend you go there,” pointing out two chairs they could use.  Jeremy sat on the floor.  “No one that goes there ever comes back out.”“How come?” Jeremy asked.“It is an immense wood surrounded by a wall of razor-sharp thorns,” Siram explained.  “Hunters know to avoid the place as there is no way in there, unless you happen upon one of the mysterious openings that just appears sometime.  But those who have gone in to explore or chase prey have never returned.  Not a single word, ever.”“It does not matter,” Beorth said.  “We have to go there, regardless.”“I had a feeling you’d say that,” Siram smirked. He stood and walked over to the wall of pipes and took down three.  “All you need do is go due west until you hit the stream, and then follow it north.  On the other side you’ll see a tall ridge with a wood on top.  Make your way up there and you’ll be on the edge of the Food of the Blood Sap. If you had a map I could show you more clearly.”Siram walked over to a table and packed the pipes, and passed them out, while he took a offered by Martin.He took a few moments looking over the map.  “What is this stuff?” Martin asked.“It’s a local herb.  It helps to clear the mind,” Siram replied without looking up.  Jeremy and Martin tried a bit, but Beorth politely refused.“Hmmm, the Ampitheatre, what’s that?” He pointed to a spot on the map in the northwest corner of Greenreed Valley.  “We don’t know. We’ve never been there.  Haven’t you?” Martin said.“I avoid Greenreed Valley ever since that misty area rose up a few months ago at the start of winter,” Siram said.  He looked back at the map.  “This place, Westhold, it was wiped out by gnolls eight months ago.  There ain’t nothing there anymore, but ruins and ashes.” “How’d you get this map?”“I made it from maps I was allowed to study at Aze-Nuquerna,” Martin said.“You mean the elf place?”“Yes.”“Didn’t know they let humans in there,” Siram said, still not looking up from the map.  “Some of the woodsmen around here trade with them, but it always takes place on the steps.  No one goes in.”“We helped them out of a jam,” Jeremy said.  This made Siram look up and eyes the three of them up and down again.“You guys a group of them dragon-hunters?” he asked.“Yes, but I work for the king,” Martin said.“We had a group of them dragon-hunters pass through here not too long ago and piss off some of the locals,” Siram said.  “They were led by a guy that looks a lot like you.” He pointed at Jeremy.Jeremy looked down.“There was a big fight. It was a mess.  They were finally driven away. Some folks wanted be to organize a party to track `em down and kill them all, but organizing folks against orcs or gnolls is one thing, but human business is human business.  I’m happy to mediate some disputes, but fights is another thing.  Plus, they had one them northern wildmen with them.  He was impaled clear through by a spear and still managed to kill six men.  What am I going to do?”“You’re lucky he stopped at six!” Jeremy said.“You know them?”“We had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting them once or twice,” said Martin.  “They seem like an unsavory lot.”“Well, if you see them again, make sure you tell them not to come back here again.”  He handed the map to Martin and gestured for the watch-mage to hold it open, and pointed to the top left corner.  “That is what you are looking for.”  He pointed south of there.  “You can find wild ponies in this area, but be careful.  I heard word of an owlbear hunting in them parts.”There was a pause as they all puffed on their pipes.“Do you have much contact with Ogre’s Bluff?” Martin asked.“As little as we can get away with,” Siram replied. “We are not an official alder-village, and thus we avoid a lot interference by the king and the aldermen, but that also means we are on our own most of the time, but we like it that way.  It was bad enough we had to deal with them during the orc skirmishes.  Delagon, the constable is a real son of a b*tch.  He gives everyone a hard time, like he’s the only one who had his wife and children killed by orcs.  That’s happened to half the people around here.”“Well, thank you very much for your help,” Martin said after he had put away the map.  He handed the pipe back to Siram after taking one last long puff.  He really liked the taste of that stuff, since the ring’s power had kicked in this was the first time he had tasted something and enjoyed it.Beorth and Jeremy stood as well.“Well, if you are going to the Circle I don’t expect to ever see you again,” Siram shook their hands.  “Good luck. And if you ever need arrow or the like, I am pretty good bowyer and fletcher, and make extra money that way.They bid Siram good evening and climbed back down the rope ladder.  “I thought this task was supposed to be the easy one,” Jeremy said, as they came to the bottom.“This is the easy one,” Beorth replied.  “We will be welcomed. Our grandfather, Osiris, will watch over us.“I hope so,” Jeremy mumbled.The party decided to spend the night in the lean-to where there was shelter.  There Martin and Beorth retold all Siram had told them.  In the morning, for better or worse, they’d make their way to the Circle of the Thorn.End of Session #29---------------------------------------------------------Notes:(120) The party rested here their first night outside of Gothanius castle, way back in session #14(121) Kazrack was suffering the consequences for a special type of Geas.  He was suffering a –2 penalty on each ability score for each day he did not make progress towards his goal.(122) Archet is the name of the place Ethiel of Aze-Nuquerna told then they could find directions to the Forest of the Blood Sap.(123) The party rescued Finn and the others from the bounty-hunter in session #19.(124) DM’s Note: Beorth has the feat Armor Focus in scale mail, but cannot benefit from the feat in any other kind of armor.</blockquote>

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