The Elvencourt campaign (Me an' my brother)

[Raidkillsbugsdead]

Introduction:

From The Official History of Elvencourt and the Eastern Kingdoms by Sollan Banitryn, High Sage and Chief Historian of Elvencourt:

“...and so, with one final, mighty swing of the Goldenblade, did Ellon strike down
the wicked demon lord Kulak on the slopes of Mt. Firoth, ending the reign of evil
that had plagued the Eastern Kingdoms and beginning a period of peace and
harmony for the many peoples therein...”

“Peace? Harmony? Bah! ...if yer an elf maybe. 'Ya ask me, id' be better if that demon 'ad lopped off the king's 'ead rather'n the other way 'bout it. Sixty-seven years've elf rule, an' I fer one don't feel no 'armony. No peace neither. Stinkin' elves. Since they been runnin' things 'round 'ere, can't a dwarf leave 'is hole not 'avin t' see some reminder o' who's in charge now, what wit' th' elves patrollin' all th' roads an' all th' stinkin' elf laws tellin' ya' whatcha can an' can't do. Can't even go up th' road nowdays without payin' a toll or 'avin some elf ranger askin' yer bizness. Even worse fer them wizards an' spell casters. I 'ere they gotta register wit' the local elves jus' t' practice their magic. No freedom, I tell ya'...them elves wants it all done their way...thinkin' they're so great. Bah! I gotta mind t' stomp meself on down t' that 'alfling village down yonder and bust down that statue they built 'n 'onor o' th' stinkin' elf king. Course then they'd come an' take me away y'know. I 'eard some 'alf orc done somethin' like that over 'n Yellowknife, 'an them elves came down on 'im like stink on an 'otug...'eard they claimed 'e hadn't resiter'd wit' th' elves an' they took 'im away to that Harney Peak Prison. Least we dwarves don't gotta register wit' th' elves like th' 'alf-orcs do...least not yet. Me cousin Oskar says th' elves got it in fer all'a us...Me brother says 'e's crazy, but I think 'e might just be on t' somethin'. You just wait n' mind my words, someday soon we'll all be regrettin' they ever took over.”

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Impressive, most impressive. I await more.

 

[Raidkillsbugsdead]

Our first gaming session will be this weekend, so I should have something up by early next week.

 

[Raidkillsbugsdead]

More introduction material

Looking back, I guess you could say it was Amaali's letter that started this.

We had met at the Gold Lion to get in a few games of Antac...you know, a bit of friendly wagering to pass the hours on a hot, summer afternoon...

Of course, as usual our “friendly wagering” got a bit heated itself. Let's just say that Ortuk was having his usual streak of bad luck with the dice and his “happy” side was beginning to show it's pretty little head.

I remember this one time, he was playing a bit of the Scally at the Little Bear Inn...doing just great, too...I swear he was pulling nines on half of his rounds. Had a great big stack of coins in front of him on the table. It didn't last, of course, and things went south quickly as they always tend to do whenever Ortuk games. Four straight zero-outs in a row turned that stack of coins into one coin and then no coins, and that's when he turned that table right over and sent it flying about ten feet across the common room, nearly taking out half a dozen drunken halfling farmers. Now I know he's a big pup and all...three hundred fifty pounds of half-orc makes quite an impression, but I never would have thought that anyone could send one of those tables at the Little Bear flying like that; you know how big those things are. Suffice it to say that the rest of the night was spent in a drawn out chase through the back alleys of the city with the watch right on our tails...I'll spare you the sordid details, but I will tell you this, that's the last time I stick around when Ortuk is on a hot streak like that. Only bad things can come of it...

Anyway, like I was saying, the five of us were a number of rounds into our game that afternoon when in comes an elf of the Courier Order asking for Amaali. It seems he had an “urgent letter” for her. Well, you know we all just had to see what was so urgent about it, so we demanded that she crack the seal open right then and there so that all of us could get a look at it. It's not too often someone gets official letters handed to them by a member of the Courier Order, you know.

Now mind you, it's been a while since I've actually seen that letter, so I obviously can't tell you what it said word for word, but basically what it did say was that Amaali had some great uncle, Lord William Wheloon I think it was, that had kicked the bucket, and that Amaali was the only known heir to his “estates and holdings” known to still be alive. It said she had two months from the day of her uncle's death to “have an audience” with the local magistrate in White Mountain County, which is up north at the foot of the Bear Tooth Mountains.

Of course, Amaali had no clue what “estates and holdings” meant, given that she didn't even know she had any great uncles...It could have been a castle on a thousand acres, or it could have been a dead imp's carcass, but it sounded interesting enough. With the exception of Orutk's crummy job down at the docks and my gig working night watch detail at the salt warehouse, our little group had no real prospects around Westhaven anyway, so there really wasn't any question of whether or not we'd all go along with her to see just what these “estates and holdings” were. After all, it was only a few weeks travel north along the Front Road...it's not like there'd be too much risk involved with it, right?

 

[Raidkillsbugsdead]

On the Road

It was a simple plan...simple, but it worked.

We had left Westhaven during the fourth week of Highsummer, giving us almost four weeks to journey to Falkirk and make our audience with the magistrate in order to see what Amaali's great uncle's estate comprised. Our travels started as smoothly as one could hope, to be sure. Ortuk and Lydia left their dead end jobs behind, and the five of us gathered what little gear we had and set out along the Front Road north to White Mountain County.

Naturally, the elves manning the gates of Westhaven gave Ortuk a bit of a time when we tried to exit the city. Their propensity to harass those with orcish blood is well-known, but his papers were in good order, and we were able to start off along the stones with only a small measure of hassling. I've heard tell of half-orcs in some parts of the east being denied leave of the cities by the elves under the guise of “security”. It seems more and more that half-orcs such as my friend are being delegated to non-citizen status by Elvencourt. I've even heard word that in the Elfwood itself, those with any known measure of orcish blood are being denied residency due to their lineage, and that some are being driven out of their homes to live elsewhere in areas less near to the heart of the empire.

Our first setback came upon reaching the Dunwater Bridge. It would have been pleasant for the gate guards back in Westhaven to have informed us that the main span over the Dunwater was out. It cost us half a day's backtracking to one of the side roads...they're probably still laughing about it back at the gatehouse even now. As much as I appreciate the order the elves have brought to us here in the east, sometimes their prejudices and haughtiness can be a bit bothersome. Lydia often struggles to apologize for the nature of her blood kin.

After going back several miles to the fork of the Heidelford Track, we left the stones of the Front Road behind us and set out along the somewhat overgrown track leading us through the scrub forest surrounding the hamlet of Heidelford and its river crossing. It may have been a bit less risky to cut through the farming village of Rylan and use the stone bridge there, but travel by that route would have entailed another half day of extra backtracking on top of the fact that we'd have had to deal with the Rangers securing the bridge there against attacks from the denizens of the nearby forest. Our annoyances in leaving Westhaven were enough for the time being.

We should have known straight out that something was amiss...even on the backpath that the Heidelford trail was, we should have encountered some form of traffic going one way or the other, given that the Front Road bridge was out. Of course there was none, but it just didn't seem to register with us at the time.

It was about five miles along the path, halfway to Heidelford that we saw the body in the middle of the road.

 

[Raidkillsbugsdead]

So what about that body in the road?

It can be good sometimes to be this big. Ripping someone's arms off and beating them to death with their own arms because they hurt your mom real bad can be good. It can be real easy to find jobs, too. People always like to use big guys like me to pick things up and move them. Like barrels, or crates, or drunk people.

Sometimes it can be not so good to be this big. People think that you're dumb, even if you're not that dumb. And it's hard to hide, like when you want to stay out of the way of some of those bad elves so they don't bother you all the time and stuff just because they don't like you.

Not all elves are bad elves. Some of them can be nice. But it gets me so mad when some of them just won't leave me alone. Like when all I want to do is buy a loaf of bread from the market or something but they just won't leave me alone. And I get all mad. And I can't do anything about it.

And they make me carry around these dumb papers because mom was treated bad by an orc this one time and she kept me because she loves me. She's so nice. I wish she wasn't dead now.

The body in the road? Yeah. I can tell you what happened.

We walked back on that smaller road because the big bridge was in the river.

Amaali said that something was in the middle of the road ahead. It was a body. It was face down on the ground and looked like a person. There were some arrows in its back.

We wanted to see who it was, so we walked up real slow. We tried to be sneaky by walking in the woods on the side of the road but it didn't help much. We made a lot of noise.

When we got close to the body, it looked like it was a dead lady lying on the ground but she wasn't really dead. When Amaali went up to go see who she was, the lady jumped up real fast and shot at her with a bow and it's good that she missed.

Then this other guy jumped out of the bushes and tried to hit Torgen with his hands. He had real sharp claws. He didn't miss and after he got hit the dwarf couldn't move or nothing.

The dead lady tried to shoot at Amaali again but she missed again and then Amaali walked up and stabbed at the lady with her sword. She stabbed her real deep.

I ran up to the guy who jumped out of the bushes and hit him real hard with my sword. I hit him real hard and he looked real hurt. He didn't look like a real person too much. He looked like an orc. But he looked different too.

After I hurt him like that, he tried to run away into the woods. Brennan and Lydia tried to keep him from getting away. Lydia took out her bow and shot at the guy, but she missed. Brennan shot one of his magic arrows at the guy from his fingers and he hit him. But the guy still tried to run away.


The dead lady tried to shoot again at Amaali, but she missed. I'm glad she couldn't shoot real good. Amaali tried to stab her again, and she hit the lady in her arm.

I chased after the guy from the bushes and hit him real hard again with my sword. He fell down dead. I felt good about that. I was worried about Torgen. I hoped he would be ok and not stay like that forever. He didn't.

The dead lady tried to run away too. But Amaali caught up with her and stabbed her again and the lady fell down.

We thought she was dead but she wasn't dead.

I picked the dead guy up and was walking with him back to my friends when the dead lady stood up again and tried to hit Amaali with her hands. Amaali saw her moving and got out of her way and stabbed her again. The lady fell down again. Then Lydia and me went over to her and cut her into little bits, and then the dead lady really was dead.

 

[Raidkillsbugsdead]

I met them on the road to Harney Peak.

It had started one week previous. The captain had summoned me to tell me of my new assignment. It seems that there was a convict who needed to be taken to Harney Peak in order to be interred there. Usually such tasks are given to Ranger patrols rather than just one of us, but it seems that securing the arrival of fifteen trade ships from the West coupled with protecting the taking in of the corsberry harvest sucked up much of our manpower. Besides, I was told, this prisoner was not one who needed much in the way of an escort anyway. I found out why soon enough.

The Bug was more of a threat to himself, I think, than to anyone else. Small even for a kobold, he was skittish and nervy. It was almost a bit hard to believe that he had been charged and convicted of breaking and entering and theivery at the High King's palace itself. As my superior informed me, it seems that he had been a house slave or such there and had somehow broken into some of the most secure rooms of the palace. More about it, I don't know, since the Bug certainly doesn't talk about it, or anything else for that matter. He seems to have as much trust for us elves as he does size. Throughout the entire journey from Westhaven to Angelspire, about all I could get out of him other than bitter looks and sideways glances were yes and no answers to the most basic of questions regarding food, drink, and bodily functions. Not much of a travelling companion, you might say.

We had taken the side road through Rylan in order to avoid the fallen bridge over the Dunwater. Fortunately, we avoided the Heidelford route, as I was later to learn that travellers by that way had been ambushed by monstrous thieves or something like that. I trust my skills in the blades I wield, but would rather not have to use them if I can avoid it.

The Bug and I were camped at one of the waysides along the road north to Anglespire when they approached us. They made an eclectic grouping: an enormous orc-spawn, a halfling mage, a cantankerous dwarf of the Order of Pelor, and two females, one human and one half-blood. They seemed pleasant enough and unthreatening, so I offered to share camp with them for the night. Like I had said, the Bug wasn't much of a traveling companion, and it did tend to get rather lonesome on the road.

I soon found that they too were travelling northwards, though farther to the north than I and my charge. It seems that one of their number, the human woman named Amaali, had a relative who had passed on and left her some kind of estate or such. She did not provide many details, and I did not ask for them. After some discussion into the night on trivial matters, I did offer to have us join numbers through to Angelspire...it would be a positive gain for all of us...more security for me and an easier go at the gates when we got to the city itself for them. I was sure that the orc-spawn would undoubtedly run into some trouble when trying to enter the city, and having a member of the High King's forces support his entry would surely help their cause.

We split up watches for the night and made our rest shortly after moonrise. It was not long into my watch with the big fellow that we heard the horrific scream of a woman from somewhere to the north on the road. I set out to investigate and told the orc-spawn to wake his companions.

 

[Raidkillsbugsdead]

Don't mess with Halflings

Ha! Stick that in your wurtleweed pipe and smoke it, Silas Buckthorn! Tell me a halfling wizard'll never make it, huh? Well, nyah to you and your funny nickname which makes you run crying to your mommy every time you hear it.

One shot, that's all it took. One shot from the best halfling wizard this side of the Front Range! (Never mind you that I'm probably the only halfling wizard this side of the Front Range.)

Like pop always said, “If you want something done right, find a halfling.”

Yeah, so after Ellian had left up the road to find out what that woman's scream was all about, Ortuk tried to wake the rest of us up...not too much luck there, though, because he only got a chance to shake me and Amaali awake before that sleep spell put him down and left the rest of our little group sleeping like babies.

Amaali had just enough time before that wizard guy appeared right in front of her and sprayed a blast of light on her to dodge just enough to avoid its effects. Not that it would have mattered anyway, though, because like I said, all it took was one shot.

Before that wizard guy could try anything else, I hoisted my crossbow from next to where I had just stood up and shot him right in the neck. Blood started gushing out of the wound, and I thought he would drop right then and there, but the guy had just enough left in him to try and back away before Amaali could get out her rapier and stab him through with it. He tried to cast something, I think, but dropped to the ground in the middle of it. Either that or he was trying to surrender, but it's hard to talk I guess when blood's spurting from your neck.

Like pop always said, “If you want something done right, find a halfling.”

 

[Raidkillsbugsdead]

I left the others back at camp in order to investigate the scream. Hard to imagine that anyone would be travelling at night, even on the main road; you never know what may be lying in wait, especially in these western wilderness areas. There are only so many patrols to go around, and the West is known as being more wild. Even the wayside camps have been known to be targeted often in these lands...too few patrols for too many stopping points.

I strayed a bit to the east of the road itself and made my way north in the direction of the scream, using the taller grasses and occasional brush as cover to hide my movements lest there be something bad ahead. I scanned the areas alongside the road in the vincinity of where the scream should have eminated, but found nothing...well, nothing other than the tracks of what appeared to be large antelopes or deer. This was a bit far south for the herds to be found, but they have been known to leave their common territories from time to time. Nothing pointing to there being any sort of human or humanoid figures though, and only the sound of the breeze over the plains met my ears.

After several minutes of fruitless searching, I made my way back to our camp. What I found there was a mild shock, to be sure.

 

[Raidkillsbugsdead]

Halfings uber alles

Let me tell you something. There are many ways that you can wake up from a deep sleep. One of them is to slowly and peacefully crawl out of your slumber while lying in a soft, warm bed. A second, slightly less pleasant manner is to be shaken from a drunken stupor by the city watch because you passed out in the alley behind The Lion again. Yet another is to feel the stinging shock of having your immature younger brother, who is no doubt up to no good at this very moment, douse you with icy water so that you toss him in the manure pile behind the shed out back.

But there is still another way to wake up from a deep, deep sleep...a much more irritating and scraping way than even the ice water bath, and that way is to have a runty halfling mage jump up and down on top of you and your companions screaming out, “I DID IT! I DID IT! BOW DOWN BEFORE THE MIGHTY POWER OF HALFLINGS!”

Of these options, the last one is now assuredly my least favorite.

That is how we arose following the “attack” on our camp by the mysterious wizard who had put us into our slumber.

It seems that as Ortuk had tried to rouse us following his and Ellian's hearing of a womans' scream in the night, the wizard, whose person or purpose were not known to us until later, hit us with a spell of sleep, taking down the half-orc and leaving those of us who had been sleeping deep in our restful states.

Apparently both the halfling and the rogue were spared from the magic, though unfortunately I cannot say that we were spared from the halfling. I will give him his due credit however for succeding in single-handedly fending off what seems to have been a much more experienced foe.

The elven ranger returned to camp shortly after we awoke, stating that nothing was found of the screaming woman he and Ortuk had heard other than some animal tracks that he chose not to follow too far from the road in the night. By the next day we would learn the solution to that particulary mystery.

Once the halfling finally began to settle himself, merely jesticulating rudely toward the corpse while muttering something along the lines of, “Take that Silas (unmentionable)-thorn, doo, doo, dee, doo,” rather than carrying on like a complete fool, we set about the task of searching the body for anything of interest. Let it be said by me now that although we are not commonly in the practice of looting from the random dead, it is common policy in these parts that if one is attacked by another, one is entitled to the spoils of victory should one come out on top.

If we had been looking for much of value, we were soon disappointed. Other than his robes and a pair of worn-looking boots, the wizard was devoid of any possessions. Thinking it strange that someone would venture this far from habitation with nothing more than the clothes on his back, we concluded that he must have had some kind of home or lair nearby, and we decided to have the elf search for his path. To our surprise however the ranger could not find any footprints left by the wizard in the dusty dirt of the camp area, an impossibility given the fact that he had obviously walked into our area in order to incapacitate us. After a short time of thinking, we decided to inspect his possessions further, and a quick divination by the dwarf revealed a slight dwemor about the wizard's boots. It seems that these boots would leave no tracks nor prints when one walked around in them. Very interesting for certain, and they had me wear them after we had deduced their nature.

We decided as a collective to wait until morning to have the ranger attempt to find out more about the scream and the animal tracks...no more sounds other than the breeze through the grass and our own voices would prove to be heard that night. After disposing of the wizard's body in a nearby gully, we set about the difficult task of once again returning to sleep.