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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greyhawk" data-source="post: 4588243" data-attributes="member: 40355">Chapter 8 - To Skull Gorge <a href="http://www.greyhawk.org.uk/galaths2/img/045kothmap.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.greyhawk.org.uk/galaths2/icon/045kothmap.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></a> Rested and re-equipt party set out again hoping that they will reach the bridge over Skull Gorge before the Hobgobins horde. Crossing the ferry they mount up and head North along the Dawn Way towards the gorge by way of Jorr's cabin. Feng has been asked by the townfolk to remain behind and to help training the local militia. Reluctantly he agrees and waves the rest of the party off. Before too long the party are in trouble again as a huge Dire-Boar emerges from the roadside thicket and attacks. Quickly Nosibor unleashes a spell that he able to convert into a ball of super-heated fire, a Nosniball! The Boar dodges but doesn't escape the full force of a spiritual weapon from Beltain. Limara, Elinor and finally Beltain move to suround the beast which confuses it and it fails its attack and falls to the ground. Solid hits from all the three fell the hog despite its ability to continue fighting even when below 0 hit points. After the combat with the boar the party soon arrive at Jorr's cabin and warn him of the impending attack by the horde convincing him to leave his cabin and goto Drellin's Ferry. As he begins to pack up he tells them "Dont think there is anyone else to warn in the witchwood cept me, the Twisttusks left some while ago i think. They were a group of forest giants..lived north west of here. They were not aggressive, at least, not to normal folk. Just follow the big road, then use the track that goes west..thats were they lived, about 30 years ago!" <a href="http://www.greyhawk.org.uk/galaths2/img/048witchwood.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.greyhawk.org.uk/galaths2/icon/048witchwood.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></a> Beltain asks the old forester if it was the giants that attacked Vraath Keep. "Ill tell ye as best i can" he responds "A ambitious young man named Amery Vraath had inherited control of the keep. Amery laid claim to the entire Witchwood and sought to rid his new domain of its evil reputation. Firstly he targeted the Twisttusks. They mostly kept themselves to themselves but raided merchants on the Dawn Way from time to time. The brash young lord gathered together a impressive group of mercenaries and adventurers, and early one summer day led his force against the Twisttusks. The battle was furious, but in the end Amery's men won the day and forced the Twisttusks to flee into the mountains. The soldiers burned the giants steading to the ground and returned to Vraath victorious. Yet their victory was short lived. One week later, the surviving Twisttusks returned and attacked Vraath Keep during a tremendous thunderstorm. The giants bombarded the Keep all night long with hurled boulders and massive poisoned arrows. When the sun rose, four of the Twisttusks lay dead amid the ruined keep, but none of the keep's soldiers or residents remained. Those who had survived the battle were taken away to be eaten by the giants in their own victory feast---all except for Amery Vraath. The young lordling retreated into the vault below his keep after he was shot by the forest giants poisoned arrow, hoping to elude death, only to perish slowly of his poisoned wound." "We have indeed seen the keep you speak of oh Jorr." says Nosnibor "It is trully desolate and the giant skelingtons lay where they fell to this very day. We discovered no underground vault with a fallen hero however. Do you know which part of the keep this cellar would have been in?" "Maybe we should go look for this vault under the ruins?" suggests Rizzit, eager for more loot. "Jorr, one more question, before you go." asks Elinor "Do you think the Twisttusks would be likely aligned with goblins, or do you think we could persuade them to fight against the invaders? " <a href="http://www.greyhawk.org.uk/galaths2/img/047effergy.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.greyhawk.org.uk/galaths2/icon/047effergy.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></a> "I'm sure there are more in the mountains..." says the old man "I cant see em liking gobbies!...who likes gobbies?" The party leave Jorr, travel back to The Dawn Way and continue North. After a while they come to he Causeway, then the turning to VRaath Keep but they press onwards The forest grows more ominous as the Dawn Way winds deeper into the woods. After an hour or so the party come to a spot where a wide track leads away from the road, heading west. A large effigy of some kind stands here, a 15ft tall humanaoid shape made from a sagging, moss-covered frame. The thing looks almost like a crude giant-sized skeleton. Birds nest in the massive barrel that served the effigy as a head.</blockquote>

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