5/6/2006

Chris: DM
Kathi: Tanji & Krysylys
JC: Neysa & Ana

After a quiet night we awaken to a hot breakfast of trout and flatcakes cheerfully provided by Tanji who, because of her reduced need for sleep, was able to spend an hour or so fishing in the river just before sun up. The day is clear and we start out along the south side of the river hoping to soon spot the tall solitary peak and patch of forest that shows on the map. The elevation continues to rise and by mid-morning the path is becoming more rocky and difficult and our pace slows as a result.

"We've got to be getting close." Ana says to himself, thinking back to the map as he pauses to look ahead to the next bend in the trail.

Sure enough, as the group rounds the corner we can see a lone mountain peak almost directly to the north and the island of trees ahead on the path. Just beyond the edge we stop for a quick Create Food & Water lunch and then continue until reaching a ford in the river. Albeit small, almost more a stream than a river, the water is lively and quick. At 30' across and probably 4' to 5' deep in the center it will require some care in crossing.

After a brief consultation Krys throws her Rope of Climbing across commanding it to tie securely to a think trunk on the far side, which it does with a quickness and efficiency that only comes from the magical arts. After the rope is secured on the near side as well Ana makes the first attempt. He grips his mount firmly between his legs and crosses on the upstream side so that the current will push he and Charger into the rope instead of away from it. The tactic works smoothly and horse and rider make their way across without incident as do Neysa and Magelica after them.

Tanji, not wishing to risk getting swept off a crossing horse, crosses hand over hand easily with only one slight slip at the very end when she's beyond the danger. Krys unsecures the rope on her side wrapping it loosely around her arm and gathers it in as she crosses. With a word the rope loosens it's hold on the tree and coils itself back up.

"We a blessed to have such a useful item." Neysa says to her friend as Krys tucks it back into place. "Something tells me that would've been considerably more difficult without it."

Krys nods and smiles as she pulls Tanji back on to their shared mount. "You got that right!" The halfling pipes in.

As we make our way through the forest and emerge on the far side the temperature slowly drops as we get further and further up the side of the looming slopes. As usual the conversations are mostly between Tanji, Krys and Neysa until one point mid-afternoon when Neysa stops abruptly and gazes intently into the distant sky.

"There." She points for the others. "What is that?"

A distant black dot in the sky grows slowly larger and closer until it's obvious that it's a winged humanoid monster with horns and claws flying strainght for us. Bows are quickly drawn

MELEE

Not waiting for it to attack we all take the last few seconds to get of two volleys of arrows. Of the 12 arrows fired five hit succesfully and the creatures goes down before ever reaching us. Somewhat surprisingly it is Ana who wants to go check it out.

"You and Krys go." Neysa says. "I am tired of traveling anyway. Tanji and I will find a good place to setup camp while you investigate."

Due to the somewhat rugged terrain and indirect route Krys and Ana are forced to take to where they believe the creature went down it takes the two elves nearly 20 minutes to locate the body. It's a strange creature, mono-colored gray with rough leathery "skin" that looks like it's been moulded into shape complete with hair and clothing. Despite the evidence of the broken off arrows embedded in it's "flesh", and the small amount of similarly colored gray ichor oozing from the wounds, Ana has to touch it for himself before he is finally convinced that it's not made of stone.

"A gargoyle." Krys says. "It has to be."

Ana nods. A closer investigation reveals that the creature is actually wearing one item, a large satchel strapped over it's shoulder, which Ana removes carefully and looks in.

"By the sword of Lord Corellon." The elf exclaims in surprise. "Krys look at this."

The opening and inside of the satchel are noticably bigger than they could be or should be and as the two look in they can see a lot of silver pieces, more than could possibly be in there, and a couple of gems. [Note: A later Identify spell reveals it to be a Bag of Holding (Type 3) with an internal volume of 150 cubic feet which, while capable of holding 1000 pounds within, never weighs any more or less than 35 pounds regardless of contents.] Ana slings it over his shoulder and with a final look at the gargoyle the two elves depart.

By the time they return to the others with news of their discovery Tanji has found a good spot and is setting up camp a short distance off the trail in a small copse of scrub trees while Neysa sings softly to the horses to calm them as she brushes them down. After dinner a more thorough investigation is made into the contents of the satchel and in addition to the pile of silver coins, which we estimate to number in the thousands (14,000 according to the DM), we find four gems which Tanji appraises with a trained eye.

"The malachite is probably worth 20 gold pieces or so." She says handing it to Krys who looks it over. The moonstone is nice too, probably get 60 or 70 gold back in Silverymoon. This is pretty, such a good deep red for a spinnel." The halfling squints at the gem in the final rays of sunlight rapidly disapearing behind the mountain range. "A hundred easy too by my guess but this, this one is the good one." Tanji holds up a stunning black star saphire. "This one we need to take special care of."

Ana shakes his head as his diminutive companion almost involuntarily tucks the gem away. "What do you make of it's worth?"

"A couple grand easy." Tanji replies. "Now this trip is starting to pay off. See... I told you it's be worth it."

Given that the group now has some extra storage space we all take the opportunity to lighten our load by placing items into the satchel. All four of us offload 100 GP into the satchel and then Ana, who'll be the one carrying it, also puts in the bedrolls, the heavy winter blanket, both of his silk ropes, the tent, and his and Neysas' explorer's outfits. The net result of the entire procedure is that he's now slightly less encumbered than he was before, as are the others, which is always a good thing.

The evening is quiet and the night clear and cold. Tanji sings quietly to herself during her watch, much to Krys's dismay, and in the morning instead of dew there's a light covering of frost on the ground, a testament to the higher alpine elevation.

Breakfast is cold leftovers for us and conjured hay for the horses and then we continue on up into the mountains. The trail finally comes to a plateau where it seems to disappear altogether. In the distance to the west we can see several columns of smoke rising through and from behind the trees in the distance. After some discussion we decide that we must have taken a false trail and need to go back and figure out where even if it means backtracking all the way back to the campsite.

By mid-afternoon we get back to a point where there's a faint fork in the trail and despite the fact that the path we didn't take the first time seems fade in and out of existance, we decide it must be the correct one as it does continue north, the direction the map indicates we should go. Our pace slows to a crawl as we struggle to identify and pick our way forward. At one point we get out the map just to make sure and decide again that this must be correct and that the path we took the first time is the one the map shows curving away to the west.

Just as the sun is beginning to set we come to a small cleft or valley. The trail continue straight in and through and just as they start to pass Ana notices some stranges glyphs carved into one of the large stones. He stops (and stops the others) and it takes a few moment or two for him to decipher them.

"It's an old variant of orcish, similar to one of the ancient dwarven dialects."  Ana says after searching his memory and knowledge. "It says... 'Beware the dead walk, the stone moves. Do not cross the cursed hall.'. Either that or... 'Beware the walking dead, the moving stones. The hall is cursed, do not cross.' depending on how you interpret the viewpoint, which isn't clear."

"Let's find somewhere to camp." Tanji says. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that and would rather wait for the morning sun before continuing."

There is a general agreement and we spend a short time searching for a safe place to camp. Not really finding anything the decision is made to sleep in the relative shelter of the cleft itself. During Ana's watch several orcs come tromping along the trail as oblivious as oblivious can be. He wakes Tanji and then begins picking them off with bow shots to great effect. When they're all dead Tanji searches the bodies as Ana advances through the cleft to make sure there are no more coming.

End of session.

Next Session: 6/10/2006