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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tor Bladebearer" data-source="post: 571129" data-attributes="member: 4939">(Run 5 begins)March 26, 295 YFThe party returns to the apparent exit, determined to try and find a way out past the lines of glyphs radiating from the statue in the center.  Torix tries the direct approach, and boldly steps across of one of the lines.  As he does, a the shimmering curtain of energy above the glyphs brightens, and he is sent sprawling backwards.  Tala’s keen eye notes, however, that after discharging, the curtain of energy disappears altogether for a few brief moments.  Firing a crossbow bolt, they are able to watch the “gap” more closely – it is definitely there, but is a dangerously short window of time to attempt a crossing.  The less agile members of the group are definitely concerned about their ability to make it through without having the energy curtain reappear while they are halfway across!Not yet willing to risk the group crossing the 4 lines of glyphs on either side of the statue, the party decides to spend some more time searching and experimenting.  They discover a small recessed 5-pointed star, the same size and shape as the one they found outside of the chamber of bones on the lowest level of the ruins.  Remembering the promises of the Rat King, there is some discussion of returning to him to try and claim their reward of protection agains the “bony men”, however they decide the risk of treachery is still too great.Tardok and Ug, experimenting with the books, try opening the two books on this side of the field at the same time.  As before, blinding light sears into their minds, rendering them blind!  Torix notes that as they did, he could see light streaming out of the other two closed books on the far side of the room.  Aha!  Tala and Milo, being the quickest,  decide to try and make their way across.  Using a handful of pebbles, they activate the glyph lines and begin to nimbly leap across before the shimmering energy reappears.  They easily make it across the first three lines, but as Tala is making the last leap to safety, she misjudges the timing… and the field reappears as her foot is still over the glyphs!  Fortunately she’s almost full on the other side and while she takes a nasty jolt, she is not seriously injured.The two halflings quickly scout ahead and confirm that the sunlight ahead is in fact the exit!   With a halfling positioned at each of the far books, and the two already-blinded fighters at the near books, they open all 4 books at once.  Light flashes out from the books, and the glyphs fade to dim etchings on the ground.  The rest of the party quickly heads for the sunlight, escorting the blinded pair as they go.Sunlight and fresh air!  After 3 days in the stale and dusty confines of the ruins, blue sky and a cool breeze is a refreshing change.  The party has emerged into what appear to be the rocky foothills of some very large and imposing mountains.  Off to the North, they can see where the foothills turn into more gentle terrain.  The entrance to the ruins itself appears to have old recently been opened, and with a great deal of force.  Shards of rock have been flung outward from the entrance, as if someone had blasted their way out.  Just outside the entrance to the old ruins are some very ancient statues, almost completely weathered away.  There is faint writing carved into the statues and several of the stones nearby, but it has been rendered completely illegible by weather and time.  Tala scouts around a bit, and finds the tracks of one man on foot, only a few days old – presumably sign that Lazarus came this way as well.  With the sun still high in the sky, the party begins to trek down the path, away from the ruins.  The path to the ruins is barely even a trail along the side of the rocky hills, but soon meets up with a larger and more travelled route.  As night falls, the party can see a large campfire further down into the hills.  The party decides to play it safe and make camp for the night rather than approach and investigate.  The evening passes with incident, and the party is glad to be able to camp under the stars for a change.March 27, 295 YFThe next morning, the party proceeds further down the trail, towards where they saw the camp.  Before they are even halfway there, they are rudely surprised by a hail of crude nets and spears!  A band of goblins leaps out of the rocks above the trail and attacks.  Despite the initial advantage of surprise, the small group of goblins is no match for the rested and refreshed adventurers.  Color Spray and Magic Missiles fly from Fargo’s fingertips and make short work of most of the group.  Seeing the rest of their number cut down, the last two goblins flee for their lives.  One is cut down mercilessly as he flees, and the other throws himself to the ground, begging pathetically.  The party decides to let it live and Ug knocks it unconscious.Milo scouts ahead and finds a larger goblin camp, with at least 20 or 30 goblins, with more watching over the camp from the hills above.  They have a small group of human captives, mostly young children and teenagers.  While they look miserable they don’t appear to have been hurt seriously.  The party discusses possible tactics for taking on the camp.  The two halflings propose trying to scare the goblins away, possibly by throwing a severed goblin head into their camp.Tardok: “What is it with you halflings and your dismembered body parts?”Eventually the party settles on a two-pronged plan of attack.  A few members of the party will climb up above the path, engage the goblins there while distracting the main force while the rest of the party charges in to rescue the captives.  The top group is able to move stealthily into position, and sling stones and Magic Missiles quickly dispatch most of the goblins lying in wait.  As the camp is rousing to figure out what is going on, the main party comes barreling into the camp.  Fargo tries to catch a large group of goblins with one of his ever-present Color Sprays but the goblins almost entirely resist.  Ug throws a volley of spears at the mass of goblins but misses with every single one.Ug:  “Here, arm yourselves, goblins!” After the opening missile exchanges, the two groups meet in a thick melee.  One particularly large goblin charges into the combat, clearly better armed and armored than the crude spears and nets most of the goblins carry.  He and Ug square off, and while Ug takes him down with a few mighty blows, Ug in turn falls after taking many spear wounds.  As the battle rages, the prisoners shout to be freed, but the party is too deeply engaged in combat to be able to do so.  But once the goblins begin to fall the rest quickly break morale and try to flee.  The party hunts down most of the fleeing humanoids, but a few manage to escape.  Searching through the bodies of the goblin leader, Torix finds a crude map and a wooden token with a curved sword on it.  The map appears to be a scouting report of some kind, with some of the mountain paths drawn on it and the location of several small settlements in the valley below.   The rest of the goblins have little of value, though they do have some small polished beads that look like they may be worth something.  It suddenly occurs to the party that usually Milo searches the bodies, and somehow suspicously never finds anything…The party frees the prisoners, and learns that they are a small group from the nearby town of Hillshire, just down in the valley below.   Their leader is Mauri, a woman in her early 20s wearing (now somewhat worse for wear) clerical robes.  She explains, that she is a priestess of Helias, the protector, and god of the sun.  She was leading a group of younger kids from the village into the mountains to find some rare healing herbs.  While there are rumors of goblins and other humanoids from time to time, they have never come so far out of the heart of the mountains.  When the goblins attacked the small band was taken by surprise, and captured before they were able to flee.Also among the prisoners is a teenage boy named Athel who continues to maintain they could have escaped on their own and didn’t need any help, and Dagger, a brooding young woman in her late teens who appears to be an expert tracker and fairly skilled with her namesake weapon.  Milo immediately takes a liking to Dagger, trying (and failing) a few times to make conversation with her.  The rest of the group are younger children, including a cute pair of 10 year old twins who don’t say much but are clearly in awe of the party.Mauri is quite curious as to the identity of their rescuers.  Torix explains that they are trappers, while Fargo explains that they are chasing someone.  The rest of the party merely makes jokes.  While Mauri is clearly still a bit suspicious she agrees (over Athel’s objections) that they should accept the party’s offer of protection until they return to Hillshire. As they begin the journey down into the valley, (with their captured goblin still in tow) the party talks with Mauri further about where they are.  She explains that they are in the foothills of the Stoneshield mountains, in the Southeast corner of Valoria, more commonly known as the Shining Kingdom.  She asks the party for more information on where they came from, but the party doesn’t really answer.  Torix dimly recalls hearing of the Stoneshields, as a mountain range in a land far from where he grew up.The journey down into the valley passes fairly uneventfully.  Tala and Mauri compare notes on herbal lore, while Dagger and Torix hunt for food for the group.  Torix is quite eager to learn of new gods from the sun priestess as well.Torix: “So, Mauri, if there were a fight between Helias and Neris, who would win?”The first night of their journey back, Athel approaches Tardok on his watch in the middle of the night, and proposes that they kill the goblin while everyone else is sleeping, then say that it tried to escape.  Tardok simply tells him to shut up and go to sleep with the rest of the children.  Athel angrily goes back to the camp.  Milo sees this and tries to strike up a more friendly conversation with the teenager, angling for information about Dagger, but doesn’t get very far with him.(end of part 1)</blockquote>

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