Walking in a Winter Wilderland

With winter hard approaching, our heroes did the prudent thing and holed up til fairer weather, taking mundane jobs to raise a little more coin before the next campaign season. (Gabrielle a Watchman, Jadazh a Brewmaster at the local, and Borash plying his clerical trade through spells on the cheap, and Chas a smith)

Winter was far from dull, with many an event taking place to break up the monotony of small-town, snowed-in days...not the least of which being the marriage of the Castellan Dal Lago to a "political ally" from the southeast, whom nobody seems to really trust, and more than a few people suspect of being behind something fishy, since the marriage was announced and carried on with suddenly.

The arrival of two powerful groups in town punctuated much of the rest of the winter, the first being a cadre of Black Adders, the Emperor's secret police (more the SS than KGB), who were "summoned" to the city for the various odd happenings/"open" crimes therein. In deed, one of their number, an agent named Sai'a joined the party for the duration of the open case of the Fey Gate and disappearance of Elomir the Sage.

The second group was a more curiouser one...a band of brigands and outlaws led by the notorious Bandit King Aldem, who wintered his men in the keep, with a promise to stay his and his men's hands at the plying of their trade. Gabrielle had a short conversation with him, and he intimated that keeping Dal Lago in power around Bugbear Falls was something he wanted. What this means to our young paladin, and how the Bandit Lord and the Castellan are connected are still up in the air.

The earliest days of the thaw saw the drawbridge leading out of the city collapse, halting travel into and out of the city for 3 weeks while construction of a new one is completed. This was devastating, as due to a fire consuming most of Tak Shire, building materials needed to be cultivated, as all manufactured had been diverted there, and it needed to be done quick since bandit activity in the early months of winter had food stores running thin, doubling the price of all food.

With the thaws, our adventurers went to check on the Gnoll tribe they have befriended, and learned that Brakish and Grahyip, nor any of their honor guard, had returned from the temple some 5 months earlier, and that the bitches of the tribe were planning to name a young pup as the new "King" and have the eldest female be regent til he is old enough, trusting that the errant "King" and "Prince" would return.

Further discussion led the party to venture into the Goblin caves to rid the area of that menace so that the surviving Gnolls (what little there are) would be able to compete for food in the region, since the Goblins breed and mature so much faster.

This gave the band purpose, and having been going stir crazy holed up in town for months, they unleashed the Hells upon the Goblinoids, decimating the numbers of Goblin and Hobgoblin, alike.

When we last left off, the party had just routed the Goblin tribe and had avoided confrontation with the Hobgoblin commander and were regrouping with their new charter members (prisoners/food) rescued from the Hobgoblins, about to discuss what to do next, since they have many injured party members, including a crippled Borash.

Cast of Characters
Borash, Male Half-Orc Cleric 5 of Gorum - Taylor
Chas DeLong, Male Human Fighter 6 - David B.
Gabrielle Dianthe, Female Aasimar Paladin 3 of Iomedae - Angela
Jadazh Gr'tea, Male Human Duskblade 5 - Steve C.

Sins of the Flesh (Golem)

Last Friday, after weeks and weeks of delving into the Crypt of Sayn (an ex-human king of no little fame and wealth,) we finally reached his burial chamber and its guardian...a flesh golem!

The tedium of traps and exploration had worn our resolve, as well as our nerves, but our band jumped to face the abomination of flesh that stood before us, with Chymond and Kedereckt moving in to directly confront the thing, and Oth and Xulira adding in magical (and for the most part, ineffective) artillery.

During the assault, our quarry made his presence known, and to our surprise, Sayn turned out to be a Lich, and the Lich turned out to be a Warlock, and pelted us with abyssal rays at his leisure while his brute smacked us around good.

Kedereckt fell shortly to the construct's meatpaws and then the thing was disabled itself, leaving the Lich to make his fight alone, which our arcanists ended quickly, with Sayn doing a good BBEG laugh and telling us we had unleashed him onto the world. Something for us to deal with later, and later, and later...until we find his phylactery, that is! ...not that any of us know that about Liches...

During the looting of the burial chamber, we discovered that Kedereckt was indeed farther beyond help than we originally thought, and had apparently succumbed to a poison that none of us knew was in his veins.

Here, we left off...without the ability to raise our comrade (Steve vetoed the raising, though I had just attained 5th level and could have done it,) and wanting to return to the delve of our dwarven patrons as soon as possible.

Cast of Characters
Chymond Veg "The Bronze Vassal," Dwarf Cleric 9 - Me
Oth Ixen, Kobold Wizard 9 - David B.
Kedereckt, Human Rogue 5/Assassin 4 - Steve C. deceased
Xulira Shiesril, Drow Warlock 5/Demonbinder 2 - Angela