Continuing onwards........


Turn 11

Arial finishes up the services, and your party mounts up. Arial doesn't have a horse, so she for now rides on the wagon with Gregory. Stirli rides a little to the right of the wagon, once again mildly chit-chatting with Gregory. Volum rides a little ahead, while Darien takes the left flank.

The day clears out, and the previous morning chill is gone, replaced by gentle breeze. The birds are chirping, various animals are out searching for food. The nice day turns into a nice evening. "Aye," Gregory says, "We ought to camp here." Pointing to a grove of trees. "Shelter from the elements and a good place to hide a wagon." You do so....taking turns on the watch and talking to each other.

This continues for 2 more days. Nothing much happens. You pass by a merchant and his guards. They 've reported no bad news from the mountains and hills, which is about a 5 days ahead.

On the fouth day outside Tilverton, in camp, Gregory turns to Stirli. "Aye, I don't mean to be nosy, but what's that in the box? It's not luggage......and it's got no lock on it, at least what I can see."

He lights a pipe up and waits for an answer........

Things that go bump in the night.....


Turn 12

"Well, Gregory," Stirli says without hesitation, "I carry in this my last possessions. A spare shirt, a few tools for repairing, oil for my bow, my tooth-brush and my pipe and tobacco of course.' His face gets really sullen, "I hope you respect a bit of my privacy, it is the last thing I got left"

Gregory says, "Aye, I meant no harm from it." He looks into the fire, contemplatingly.

Stirli gets up and walks to the chest. His back is to Gregory. He pretends to take the pipe out of it, but pulls it out from under his cape. He walks back to the fire and lights it up.

"I dunno," Gregory says after a bit. He turns to your group, "I've got a bad feeling about this trip. Feels like we are just pieces in a game of chess." You also notice that Gregory has downed a pint rum. He sighs heavily and then goes to sleep.

On the next day, around noon, you leave the forest, and the road is now surrounded by vast plains. Gregory stops and begins to get some grain for your horses when Ariel pulls off her hood and lets her hair blow through the wind enjoyng the sun as she watches her new companions who she recently has been refering to as "The Boys"ruffle with the grain on the wagon.

"You know, it's a sin to steel. You don't want to make me angry. Ever see a woman beat up a man?" She smiles and begins to laugh a bit looking at Gregory. "I have plenty of food to share with you boys. We are only a few days away. Put the grain back. It's for needier people."

"What ever you say, m'lady."

The next two days you encounter no one else on the road, and the weather begins to darken up a bit. Stirli has been supplying some meals by catching rabbits and even a few birds. You look ahead, and see mountain peaks. Gregory says, "Well, they're about a half day's ride, so we should camp here before it gets to dark."

Everybody settles in for camp, when suddenly you hear war cries. Everybody gets up and you see a small group of humanoids, you can't tell what kind, but they are short......and charging. As they get closer, you can tell that there are 6 figures, and they are about 150 feet in front of you, heading straight towards the grain................

Round 1-Things that go bump in the night.....


Turn 13

In the mass confusion, you finally recognize the shapes.......goblins.

"PROTECT THE WAGON!" Areil says....as she pulls out her crossbow and arms herself with an arrow. But before she has the quarrel loaded, Volum cries out "Don't let them get to that grain or what ever they are after." He then makes some gestures and mumbles a few unintelligble words, and points at the first goblin running up. A small white globe shoots forward, striking the goblin full on the chest. The white energy of the ball envelops the goblin quickly before it fades out. The goblin stumbles forward and is out. Volum then draws his sword and moves towards the wagon.

Darien follows, drawing his 2-handed sword and standing guard. Stirli takes aim at the closest one, and misses short. Ariel takes aim with her crossbow, and misses left. Stirli quickly draws another, hitting the closest goblin in the chest.

The goblins are now closing, although they lost 2 of their party, they seemed unscaved by the losses.

Round 2-Things that go bump in the night.....


Turn 14

Gregory hops down from the wagon. You here him mutter something bad about goblins under his breath as he pulls out his axe.

One goblin charges Volum, short sword drawn. Volum moves first, with his blade whirling through the air, Volum moves towards the goblin, as his blade gains speed, the sword starts to make music. Volum starts to sing a wordless tune. He intercepts the goblin, and cuts him down.

Another goblin tries to cut between Darien and Stirli, but Darien steps forward and swings, missing. Stirli's been forced to draw his short sword. As the goblin moves through, Stirli stabs at him striking the goblin's arm. The goblin, pulling up, sees that if he rushes past, he'll be attacked again. He stabs at Darien, hitting his leg.

A different goblin moves up to Stirli and strikes, but Stirli dodges in time. The fourth goblin runs wide of Ariel, and appears to be trying to get to your horses.

Volum moves to cut down goblin menacing Stirli and Darien, still singing and spinning his sword, but misses. Darien, grimising with pain, swipes at the goblin practingly taking off the goblin's head.

Stirli turns to face his other attacker. He runs him through with a quick thrust of his sword.

Arial cocks another arrow, "Nice, very nice, first attacked by wolves....ruin my funeral....and now Goblins." She pulls the trigger, hitting the goblin clean in the chest.

Your party looks around some more, finding no evidence of any other attackers. "Aye, that was close." Gregory says. He proceeds to bandage Darien.

Clean-up-Round 2-Things that go bump in the night.....


Conversations

Ariel walks over to Darien, laying her hands upon him. "Boys, not that I'm in a rush or anything, but if that was a small party, there might be a big one behind them. I recommend we move on here."

Having cleaned his sword, Volum replaces it in its scabbard. "Well, I couldn't agree more, even though I enjoy removing these small evil creatures from the Realms, we're not enough to handle a big party of them. Lets move on"

Stirli begins to search the bodies, finding 25 silver pieces and about 12 days worth of rations. He then proceeds to search the place where the goblins charged from for any marks or traces that could give them a clue of anything. From their ambush point he notices that they've been camping there for a couple of days before they arrived. Another thing he notices is that these goblins carry no evidence of being envolved with a clan or tribe. He then moves towards Darien. "And, Darien, how are you feeling. Are you ready to travel along or should we rest for a while?" He looks at everyone before continuing. "We did kick some goblin ass here! Hahaha"

Trek to the mountains....


Turn 15

Gregory listens to you talk. "Aye....only a few more hours till dawn anyways...." He looks to the north. "We better get to the mountains before that storm."

You see several silent peels of lightning to the north, almost fitting for the dead silence that has setled down over the area.

After gathering your camp and burying the dead, you continue on the trail. The storm is slowly getting closer, but appears that you'll get to the mountains first. Daylight is now blanketed by the dark clouds.

You begin you climb upwards on the trail. The rain begins to fall in large plops.

"There should be an overhanging or maybe a cave we could seek shelter in if it gets too bad." Gregory shouts over the howling wind. Almost on cue, the heavens open up, letting the rain fall in sheets.

After a day of hard travel, Gregory gathers your party together at camp. "This weather is terrible.....and now I think we need to be careful. That wizard an his orcs were said to be in this mountain range. We need to be really careful. The road's in bad shape.....but the horses are healthy."

ATTACK!!!


Turn 16

Gregory nods his head in approval at your plan. Darien rides up front with Volum. Stirli rides behind the wagon. Ariel is pearched on the back of the wagon, for she still has no horse. The rain continues to fall heavily, but the trail is still good, and steering the wagon is no problem.

You then round a bend in the trail and wind up in a canyon, forcing you to ride single file, with Darien up front, checking for traps or loose rocks. Gregory shouts out the group, pointing to marking in the wall. "Aye....look it there." he yells over the roar of the rain and occasional rolls of thunder. The marking is glowing, obviously from a fairie fire spell cast long ago. "It is an ancient elven marking for "rough travel ahead".

You emerge from the canyon, on top of a plateau with few trees and no boulders, showing that there should be no fear of attack. You begin to wonder if that symbol was put there by mistake.

Then you see it.......another plateau ahead of you, but about 40 feet higher. You see the trail cut staight up to the top of the next plateau. As you get closer, you see a cliff, about 50 feet across. And in the gloom, you can't see how deep it is beyond 100 feet. The trail crosses the rift....but not by a man-made bridge. A natural rock formation cuts across the great rift, just wide enough for the wagon and 2 feet on either side.

Across the rift, there are no trees or strange rock formations for people or things to hide behind.

"Aye.......rough travel indeed."

After a long pause...he shouts out, "Look here...it's either now or never. The longer we spend in these mountains, the more likely we'll get attacked....." He then guides the horses across the natural bridge.

You begin to cross, slipping slightly, but making it safely. Still with Darian up front, Volum behind him, the wagon with Gregory up front driving and Ariel in the rear guarding, and Stirli rounding off the line. You begin up the narrow path to the next plateau.

You hear a rumble, and notice that it is not from thunder, you look up just in time to see a large boulder falling on you. Panic flashes across all of your faces. But it appears that the boulder had a target, as it smashes onto the horses pulling the wagon, killing the animals instanly. The force of the impact breaks the front axel of the wagon and throws Gregory, now unconscious back ontop of the tarp covering the grain. Arail is bounced about, but hangs on to the edge. Under dry conditions, the wagon would just lay there but it now begins to slide on top of all of the mud....BACK TOWARDS THE RIFT!!!

Round 2-ATTACK!!!


Turn 17

The wagon continues it's slide towards the cliff.

Stirli shouts back "I'm ok, I have some rope!" He takes out his 50ft rope and throws it over the wagon towards Volum and. "Tie it to the wagon and see if you can hold it!"

He tosses it over and Volum grabs it and ties it to the wagon. Pulling it by himself is nearly impossible, he looks over towards the boulder, which is now several large rocks, to maybe get it tied to something.

Darian moves slowly up the trail, looking up the shear walls to see what happened.....he sees someone...or something.....look over the edge and then move away. It was a humanoid, but can't tell if it was orc, human or anything else. It would take about another 5 minutes for him to get to the top of the plateau to get a really good view.

Ariel crawls to the unconscious Gregory. She throws her equipment to the side and grabs ahold of him around his waist. Stirli, who has dismounted Bill, runs between the wagon and the wall to help pull Gregory off.

You look back to see the wagon is only about 5 feet from the cliff!!!! Suddenly, the wagon lurches. The rope has stopped the wagon...but you hear a poping sound.....the rear of the wagon bursts open, sending a majority of the grain onto the bridge and over the edge. Arial keeps her hold of Gregory and Stirli grabs hold of Ariel.

You pull Gregory off the wagon and head towards the boulder. Volum and Darian look up to watch for any more boulders or people. You look at what's left of the wagon.....and find several large sacks inside. You open them up.......to find them filled with GOLD!!!......but each one is marked with the symbol of the Cult of the Dragon.

You gather around as Gregory wakes up......"Aye...what happened?"

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