• Traftar returns from scouting and finds his prized winter-wolf pelts missing.
• Sandru finds that the blacksmith has turned the pelts into a pair of magical boots. After first trying to distract the smith with bardic music (and failing), he then considers trading his adamantine mandolin, before resorting to playing on the smith’s compassion. Finally, he manages to re-purchase the skins, now made into boots. Sandru gives the pelts-turned-boots to Traftar, who takes them and promptly throws them back to Sandru.
• The Spivey and Youxia form a plan to take the dragon egg to the surface of the glacier and return it to the dragon, though Spivey is far more interested in destroying the egg.
• The group head to the surface of the glacier to deal with the dragon. Apart from Ignatius who is tired and cranky and finds a place to rest after making a deal to rid the village of the dragon for a caravan load of cooking-supplies.
• The dragon egg is placed on the sacrificial alter of the wind spirits. Traftar magically illuminates the dragon egg and he and Sandru head back down to get some much-needed rest, while Senja, Shaelelu and Spivey stay to keep watch.
• The plan works surprisingly quickly, and the dragon is spotted approaching from the North. Shalelu sends Senja back down to the village.
• Senja has trouble rousing the grumpy Ignatius from his sleep, who threatens to roast the person banging at his door. Spivey magically commands Ignatius to follow, preventing the fiery outburst (temporarily).
• Meanwhile, Shalelu is spotted while spying on the dragon. The dragon recovers her lost egg, and then charges at the elf. Dragon-fear and self preservation kick in a burst of adrenaline and the elf manages to avoid becoming a dragon snack, by leaping down the tunnel to the village. The dragon breathes down the narrow tunnel, blasting the hapless elf and propelling her towards the village. Shalelu escapes with 3rd degree frostbite and bragging of her survival.
• The party declare to the villagers that the dragon is not likely to return now that it has recovered its egg, and are once again hailed as heroes.

After deep discussion with the Hearthmistress Sonavut the party conclude that Nagun, a local warrior who hasn’t been seen in some days, has most likely been possessed by a Fey spirit. He is most likely the unstoppable warrior that the party previously encountered.

Koya explains that Fey spirits are vulnerable to cold iron, a rare metal that is cold to touch even on the hottest summer day. Fortunately, it seems that this cold metal is relatively abundant in the icey crown of the world.

The town blacksmith has an impressive selection of magical Erutaki-style arms and armor that he has crafted and displayed for sale. This includes 5 cold iron arrows and a cold iron longspear, which Sandru barters for in exchange for in exchange for all the winter wolf pelts and 5 units of Ore.

Youxia managed to locate Nagun’s home, and searching it found his longspear. Another cold iron weapon, which the Fey possessed abhor.

The investigation of Tunuak’s abode revealed more than just information. Ignatuis took it upon himself to strip down into the buff and reveal his half-elf-pride to the village in a raucous comedy act, which drew many snickers of shrinkage from the local Erutaki women. Using the distraction the Senja and Shalelu sneak into Tunuak’s home. They group discover that Tunuak has not been maintaining the wind-spirit-shrine.

After repeated foot traffic in and out of Tunuak’s home Shalelu is eventually noticed by the local villagers. Things came to a head with another visit to the chief’s tower. Hearthmistress Sonavut inspected Tunuak’s home and agreed that there had been some necromantic magic performed in the area.

After a nights rest to clear the head, the group headed into the ice cave’s to the find Naagun and arrest Tunuak.

The battle with Nagun quickly went in the partys favor. Shalelu was able to fell Nagun with a cold iron tipped arrow to the eye, which revealed the fey-spirit that had been inhabiting Nagun’s body. Senja then made quick work of destroying the spirit with a deadly flurry of kicks. Nagun’s life was saved by a quick thinking Senja who healed him with his bardic magic.

Pressing deeper into the ice caves they found to the door to Tunuak’s lair. Dispite the warning from the grateful Nagun, Shalelu forgot to check for traps and fell into a deep pit lined with Icey spikes. Tunuak was waiting for them in the pit with two hoar-spirit warriors hidden in the ice. Tunuak magic allowed him to soar and vanish into the frozen wind. There he summoned a mist to further obscure the hero’s vision.

Sandru resorted to casting silence on himself to prevent Tunuaks magic. However, without sight or hearing the hero’s had no idea where the evil shaman was located.

Never one to worry about friendly-fire, Ignatius began launching fireballs into the pit. This turned out to be highly effective as he managed to destroy hidden enemies without them ever springing an attack on the hero’s. However, Ignatius was beset by an animated sword of magic that chased him away from the fight.

Tunuak, resorted to beating Sandru (ineffectually) with his staff as the brave bard struggled to climb back out of the pit. Ignatius launched his last fireball, blasting Sandru back down into the cliff, but also killing Tunuak.

After the mist cleared, the hero’s discovered a bone-altar to the demon-lord Sithud at the bottom of the pit. On the altar, they found a white dragon egg, which was cold to the touch.

The party are welcomed as hero’s for rescuing Nagun and defeating Tanuak’s plot to overthrow the village chief. They are presented with Claws of the Ice Bear and a great feast is held to honor them as warriors.

The party are allowed to stay for one night within the Icey walls of Iqalait. However, many villagers are convinced that the presence of outsiders will anger the spirits of the wind, and cause the dragon to once again attack the village. Kumar, however, must spend the night outside the walls.

The hearthmistress Sonavut asks the heros to see if they can deal with the problem of the Dragon. Sandru introduces the hearthmistress to Koya and the two women spend some time in deep discussion in the fortunetellers wagon.

Sandru gives the party members their missions; to investigate Iqlait and avoid trouble with the locals. Sandra plans to speak to the Chief to discuss trade and the road ahead.

Shalelu has the job of finding their accommodation in the village. She approaches the old shaman and asks him to show her where they will be staying. The kindly-old shaman ‘Tunuak’ laughs and offers to show Shalelu to the special accommodation for outsiders. He leads her on a long winding tunnel that leads to the surface of the glacier. Sensing an ambush Shalelu launches an arrow at the Shaman, as he uses his ice magic to collapse the tunnel, leaving Shalelu on the windy and exposed Glacier fighting a weapon of pure magic. Shalelu flees the fight and hides near the Glaicier cliff. There she finds an ice pick and chains and briefly considers climbing down the Glaicier. She decides instead to build a shelter to get out of the freezing winds.

Wondering where Shalelu has gone Sandru sends Traftar to look for her. Traftar turns into a husky and begins to sniff out the elfs trial. Trafar is accosted by locals who think that he is a sled-dog who has escaped the kennels. Trafar then turns into a bear and scares away the locals.

Meanwhile, Tunuak has returned to the village. Sandru approaches him and seeks to win him over the hero’s cause. Tunuak’s merry laugher turns out to be a power-mad cackle, as Sandru realizes that the Shaman is drunk with power. He asks Sandru to provide him with a caravan load of victims to be sacrificed to the wind-spirits.

Sandru and Traftar-Bear follow the Shalelu’s trail through the ice passage. They discover the arrow and blood on the ice where Shalelu and Tunuak fought. In bear-form Trafar is able to dig out the ice to reach Shalelu on the surface.

Tunuak launches another ambush. While his magic is powerful, the old man is physically to weak to fight the group of heros. He retreats to a secret passage hidden in the tunnel wall. The hero’s follow but they are forced to flee Tunuak’s minon, a powerful Erutaki warrior, who is protected from physical attacks.

The hero’s regroup and seek the Chief. Shto convice the chief that there is an impostor pretending to be the shaman and that this threat needs to be taken care over.

After battling trolls, wolves and hunger, the weary caravan finally arrives at the base of the crown of the world. Finally you realise why it was named that way. A glistening glacier juts out of the tundra, forming a sparkling wall that bars your way Northward. Great waterfalls crash down from the high ice adding a cold spray that causes ice droplets to appear and freeze on the caravans. Every now an then you hear a might creak and groan and wonder if the Glacier may break away end your insignificant existence.

The village of Iqalait is nestled in the steep cliff of rock and ice. The village itself is formed of rock and ice and seems to be protected from the movements of the glacier by shamanic magic.

The Hearthwoman Sonavut welcomes Ulf and seems to respect the talisman he holds. The hearthwoman says that the travellers have arrived in times of trouble. A white Dragon has attacked the village in recent months. Since that time most of the greatest warriors and hunters have died trying to slay the Dragon.

A mob of villagers gathers outside the Hearthwomans home. The leader of the mob is an old man; the village shaman Tunuak. Tunuak declares that the outsiders will incur the wrath of the windsprits who will send the Dragon to attack them again. The only way to appease the wind spirits is to offer Kumar as a sacrifice.

After a fierce debate between Sandru and Tunuak the mob is mollified enough that they don’t call for Kumar’s immediate sacrifice. However, they call for the outsiders to leave the villiage.

The hearthmistress apologies for the behaviour of the villagers, ‘they are scared of the Dragon’. She asks the heroes to find a way to stop the frequent Dragon attacks, which would restore the village to a peaceful state.

The hero’s left Rimikak village in good moral. However, the resolve of the caravan staff seems to waver, as they are unhappy with the presence of the monstrous Kuma. On returning to the caravan the first thing that Kuma did was rummage through one of the trade goods wagons. Pulling out the Giant sized axe and armour that Sandru recovered in the Giant ruins, and making a horrible mess in the process.

Sandru continues working himself hard as he tries to improve the moral of his staff, while hiding the fact that he was suffering from ‘cold-sickness’ since his plunge into lake Rimikak. The caravan is stocked with fish from the lake, which should be enough supplies to reach the settlement of Iqalait on a direct route.

The Rikikak tribesmen who had been living off the land since losing their village had stripped the region of the Gaarjuk Hills around Lake Rimikak bare. The caravan was ambushed by a hungry Artic Chimera, which triggered an avalanche burying the caravan in snow. The Chimera seemed determined to steal their wagonload of fish. However, it fell quickly to the onslaught of magic, axes and arrows. Traftar butchered the creature for the parts he thought would be valuable. Sandra had to wonder if it might not have been better to keep the pelt together instead of hacking it to pieces. Ignatius proceeded to experimentally ‘cook’ those parts that Traftar left behind. (The result 1 is store of food supplies, and 0 stores of trade goods). However, the hero’s find a treasure horde in the creature’s lair.

Given the shortage of food the caravan decide to head directly through the lands of the Silver Martin Tribe to save three days of travel, despite the warning from Ulf that the local tribes practice cannibalism. Arriving at the Silver Martin Village, the tribe and the attractive head-woman, have prepared a feast for the caravan. The negotiations seem to go well until Sandru’s lack of understanding of the local languages causes the villagers to take offense. It’s all too much for Sandru and the caravan makes a hasty retreat from the Silver Martin lands, which costs them an extra two days of travel.

The small Erutaki village of Rimakak lies at the edge of Lake Nallishoot, and might offer a haven to rest and resupply the caravan. Ulf Gormundr has visited Rimakak in the past, but when the caravan arrives they find Rimakak’s lodges and huts deserted.

Instead they are accosted by giant sized aquatic women (Merrow) who call a creature known as Arnaalak “Mother”. The escaped slave Kuma, charges into battle armed only with his trusty long spear and goes claw-to-claw with Arnaalak. He is dragged into the water, and presumed drowned.

Sandru heroically dives into the freezing waters to rescue Kuma, and comes out of the lake dragging a giant merman, which is wearing Kuma’s clothing. The battle goes badly, and the group are forced to retreat. The plunge into the frozen lake has left Sandru with a lasting cough that saps his strength.

Back at the caravan the group encounter the men of the village. Who explain that their village was cursed by the water-spirit Arnaalak, for a small slight during the harvest celebration. And that the women have been turned into horrible aquatic monsters.

The group launch another attack on Aranaalak. Throughout the battle Kuma resists the urge to change sides and attack his rescuers from slavery. The battle was briefly paused as a large winged shape flew high over the battlefield, its wind gusts causing Traftar-eagle to plunge into the freezing lake. The outcome of the battle is close, with Sandru receiving horrific injuries after taunting Aranaalak into leaving the depths of the lake.

One of Shalelu’s arrows strikes the final critical blow, the kill-shot piercing the eye-socket and brain cavity of Aranaalak.

The fog over Kuma and the village women is lifted and their minds return to their own. However, Koya’s magic is unable to lift the curse and it seems those afflicted are stuck in their cursed forms. The villagers are gratefully and fish-out treasures from the bottom of the lake, which they reward the hero’s with.

Notes:

Rewards from the villagers.
2 heropoints used by Sandru.
1 heropoint used by Kuma.
Kuma gained 1 hero-point for roleplay.
Rimakak Village is once more a trading stop for the caravan.

The caravan left the heights of the spine of the world and followed the path into the Giant Downs. Named so for the ‘oversized ruins’, the remains of some Giant civilization.

Ulf advised the party not to disturb the ruins to avoid angering the ghosts of the Giants. Sandru immediately set about surreptitiously looting the ruins of valuable giant artifacts.

The ruins were tricky to navigate with such a large caravan, and quickly the lead caravan got stuck. The party couldn’t decide between breaking down the caravan and breaking down the ruins.

A ghostly voice warned the party to turn back and leave the ruins.

Traftar transformed into a bird to scout ahead. Shaelau did the same on foot. They encountered a raven, which flew off, but not before causing an earthquake, that destroyed may of the ancient buildings. The earthquake turned out to be an earth elemental.

The ghostly voice turned into a roar of outrage and an angry Frost Giant and his pet winter wolf came changing out of the snow.

The battle that ensued was deadly. Shalelu Andosana narrowly avoided death twice, once she was rescued by Youxain [1 heropoint used] and then being frozen to death by the winterwolf [2 heropoints used].

Ulf was accidently killed by a fireball from Ignatius Napalm

However, the grace of the Amatasu Seal was able to return the essential guide to life. However, its powerful magic is now completely drained.

Hero Points
*Youxian used one heropoint to save Shalelu Andosana

• Shalelu used 2 heropoints to avoid death

The city of Turvik appears to be full of worst that Ulfen society has to offer. Taxes on caravans are high, and the guards seem to regularly take bribes. The worst is the open and legal slave trade.

Sandru takes it on himself to free a shipment of slave using his bardic magic. First disguising himself as a guard and then putting a slave merchant and guard to sleep.

The party also re-encounter Kuma, the escaped prisioner. It seems he was taken as a slave. Sandru offers Kuma sancturary in the caravan.

The gate out of the city is heavily fortified. The guards seach each weapons. Senja pays the heavy tax. As the captain of the guard keeps a watchful eye to make sure their is nothing untoward going on. The escapee Kuma slips out under his nose, disguised in plain view as just another slave.

Ulf leads the party through the storm spear hills and over the mountains. Their are two paths to take. One going through the giant ruins the other through the forest. The party choose to take the path through the ruins.

The caravan arrives at the gates of Turvik to find them closed under lockdown. A trio of prisoners had recently escaped from the fortress-city. The guards convince the party to look for the prisoners and return them.

Travelling through the snow in the freezing night they track the escapees to a cave mouth at the base of a large twisted oak tree.

Ignatius immediately sets the tree on fire. A horde of rodents flee the tree as it burns in the night. Ignatius follow up the fire with a massive explosion aimed at putting our the fire. However, the fire rages on covering the entrance to the cave.

Traftar uses his water and ice magic to create a break in the fire wide enough for the party to enter the cave. Meanwhile, Ignatuis and Ulf stay outside to cook stew, and capture any fleeing prisoners.

They spot two Tien men inside, who then flee deeper into the cave. Screams are heard. In the depths of the cave Traftar and Senja find a Tien woman’s body, another escaped prisoner… And the tomb of a giant. They quickly find what killed her wrathful dead giants, angered to have their resting place disturbed.

The group would have been overwhelmed if not for the help of the prisoners in fighting off the undead. One of the prisoners escaped into the snow after the battle. The other surrendered then fled during the night.

The caravan passed through the small village of Nowhere. It seems the village had suffered the last few years as the path of the Aganhei was less travelled due to the dearth of suitable caravan guides. The locals were very welcoming (or suspicious), with a local merchant who called himself Jason (or James) helping Sandru do a roaring trade and then taking a cut for himself. Jason then spent all his recently earn’t gold on some “Trollbane” from the local ‘healer’ to pay for his passage on Sandru’s caravan.

The local rumours were that their were trolls on the east side of the river and wolves on the west side. The caravan decided that wolves would be safer than trolls, in the off-chance that the “Trollbane” didn’t prove effective. Jason was nearly thrown to the wolves, but in a change of heart Sandru made him the caravan manager so he could focus on playing his flute.

Travelling on the west side of the river, the caravan was struck by a pack of winter wolves one snowy evening. Fortunately the bulk of the pack was scared off by the magical display of fire and noise by Ignatius and Sandru. The two remaining wolves were blinded with a pyrotechnic display. Meanwhile Traftar transformed into a Diretiger and mauled one wolf. Youxian joined the fight on horseback and lanced the other one.

After that excitement the rest of the journey to Turvik passed without event.

Loot

Holding interviews in the pig and poke inn, the party recruit two new members for the caravan. A Tian knight alternatively called Youxian , Youxia and often just You. And an Ulfen man named Gundar.

Sandru spend a day purchasing new wagons and restocking the caravan supplies, and a night entertaining the merchant woman who sold him the goods.

Ignatius spend a day of prayer (and 500gp in diamond dust) in the temple of Sheyln to recover from his traumatic death and resurrection.

The magical sword Suishen, revealed that it was sentient, and together with Ameiko Kaijitsu the sword was able to fill the party in on the history of the Oni of the Five Storms.

The caravan left Kalsguard and made the rivercross to iceferry without incident. As the procession left the town, the local were treated to a performance by Sandru (playing with the gnomish children) and a firework display by Ignatius. They left a memorable impression on the crowd.

The trip had just begun when they encountered a group of bears feeding on some dead horses. With magic they managed to fight off one bear and avoid the others.

Sandru, Traftar and Senja lead the caravan back to Kalsguard.

Koya overcome with grief at the death of her adopted son Izati has secluded herself in her caravan. A Desnian service is held for Izati, and his armour is enshrined to Desna at a local temple of Sheyln.

A traditional Ulfen longboat-pyre funeral is held for Traftar’s cousin Kelda Oxgutter, who died gloriously in battle.

With the assistance of the guide Ulf the party prepare to cross the crown of the world by caravan. They have come to the realization that they will need to recruit more members for the caravan to replace their fallen comrades.

The next session will begin in the Kalsguard tavern the “Pig N Poke Inn”, where the Party are hoping to recruit potential additions to the caravan.

A shadow of weariness hangs over the group as they make their way back to Kalsgard from Ravenscrag. A funeral service is held for Izati, who is buried outside of Kalsgard. While Kelda is given a Ulfen warriors send-off, and sent to rest in the Rimeflow river onboard a blazing funeral ship in full battle gear. Tempers are short and Sandru and Traftar argue over what should be done with Izati’s gear. In the end his armour and spear become part of the the display at a new shrine to Densa within the rebuild temple of Sheyln.

The next few weeks are spend in Kalsgard. Reparing and outfitting the caravan. Selling spoils from their adventures and commissioning new armour and weapons.

Loot
https://jade-regent-mostly-online.obsidianportal.com/forum

The party has explored the lower dungeon, finding a treasury bursting with riches, and a pantry stocked with equal parts Minkai delicacies and rotting human limbs. The path onward leads to a large door flanked by statues of exotic Minkai samurais. When they react to the party’s presence, Traftar presents them with the jade raven tokens of the Frozen Shadows ninjas, and the stone sentinels resume their places.

The party finds the inner sanctum of the Frozen Shadows and inside stands Thorrborg Silverskor, the leader of the Rimerunner’s Guild. But having found Thorrborg’s body earlier, the party investigates this mystery by launching into attack immediately. Surely enough, the doppelganger sheds its human facade to reveal the hulking daemon Kimandatsu, an oni of the Five Storms tribe of Minkai. Backed by tengu ninjas with deadly poisons, the oni overwhelms the party with powerful magic. Kelda and Senja become seriously poisoned and Shalelu’s arrow fire is returned in kind with giant flaming arrows the size of javelins. Shalelu is grievously injured and when Kelda is felled by one, the party attempts to retreat. At this vulnerable time the stone samurais approach and seize Kelda, attempting to drag her away, but Senja’s quick thinking allows him to intervene and wrest her away and back to safety. The party retreats to rethink their strategy.

The party’s preparations begin with two very important points. They agree to:

1. Lock Lute Haggersly in the treasury to silence his whinging
2. To give Senja a magical immunity to poison and then smear the tengu poison on his fists

Returning to Kimandatsu’s lair, the party find it now populated by flocks of ravens that set upon the party and blind Senja by scratching his eyes. As the party fight off these attackers, an invisible enemy from the darkness once again begins to assault the party with giant flaming arrows and blasts of freezing magic. When Kelda is put asleep by daemonic magic, Traftar resolves to clear out the birds besetting his companions. His natural magics in full force, he summons an air elemental to scatter the birds with its whirlwind attacks, dashing them against the cold dungeon walls and floor. He then summons a swarm of poisonous frogs into the room and focuses his attention into the darkness to observe where they land. He exerts his druid senses to their utter maximum, to truly heroic levels (and burns a hero point) and achieves a full awareness of the spacious and pitch-black cavern. Noticing a frog hanging seemingly in mid-air, Traftar blasts the location with his faerie fire and the daemon Kimandatsu is lit up, as easily visible to everyone as the brightest bonfire.

The glowing silhouette is affronted and begins to relentlessly blast the party with freezing magic. Kelda is felled but quick action from Koya puts her on her feet. Enraged by the magic and seeing the location of the adversary, Kelda charges in full barbarian rage towards Kimandatsu. Unfortunately her injuries make her slow and her approach is intercepted by a powerful sweep of the daemon’s weapon. With a sickening crunch Kelda is slain, even beyond the extents of Koya’s divine interventions.

When Senja becomes seriously injured, he retreats to recover. Traftar’s animal onslaught has not finished, though, and he summons a leopard, and then a hyena, and then a wild dog, all to assault Kimandatsu. Their charging of the powerful oni seems completely futile, and indeed they are effortlessly crushed one by one, but this sustained distraction keeps the daemon occupied while Koya and Spivey keep the party strong and fire attacks are used to keep their enemy from healing.

Combat is joined again and in the brutal war of attrition the daemon is now the one that becomes too injured to continue the fight. Her glowing silhouette morphs into a gaseous form and drifts towards room’s rear to attempt escape through the water source of the room’s ornamental fountain. Koya realises this type of magic and directs the party to focus on magical attacks, and the fleeing gaseous form finds itself savaged by magical arrows and shurikens. When it has almost completely escaped, a pair of earthfire shurikens launched by Senja strike true and the cloud ignites into flames, draining the creature of the last of its stamina. It’s magic giving way, the daemon reverts first to solid form and then to visibility and its helpless body plummets into the water and then floats to the edge of the fountain. With silent command, the burning and helpless foe is torn into pieces by Traftar’s summoned beasts.

The head of the Frozen Shadows has finally been overcome, but at the cost of the brave Kelda, who had accompanied the party for so long and helped with so much. Traftar is the closest relation of the party, but he shows little emotion as he notes his cousin’s demise, and it falls to the rest of the party to give respectful final words and arrange the carriage of the body to give it a proper Ulfen send-off.

The party enters a coal room that the murderous trolls had been guarding. In the ceiling is a door that opens to reveal a coal chute leading up to a higher floor, and through it the party hears footsteps and careful voices. While debating what to do about the chute a smoke bomb is dropped into the room and out of the obscuration a ninja attacks Ignatius. When the party realises the threat and fights back, the ninja escapes back up the chute. The party attempt to jam the door closed but find themselves unable to, and decide to move on.

Beyond the coal room is a spacious training hall, with ritual items and Tian markings on the wall. The party tentatively enters the room and find themselves beset by Frozen Shadow monks that had been hiding in the darkness above the rafters. The monks throw explosive stones that deafen Ignatius and limit his spell-casting abilities, while pummeling the party with stunning fists. Traftar hears Kelda’s voice and realises she is locked in a nearby holding cell, and he frees her and lends her a spear. Senja and Ignatius become badly injured in the fight and attempt to retreat from the hall, only to find their escape blocked off by ninjas who had descended the chute and now threaten the party from behind. The ninjas dart forward with supernatural speed and nearly kill Senja, who fights them off with high-flying kicks and impressive acrobatic prowess. Koya and Spivey’s healing spells are pushed to the limit as the dark monks and ninjas continue to devastate the party, with Lute and Koya knocked unconscious and Shalelu isolated and backing away while loosing relentless arrows. Traftar spots a weakness in the monk’s unarmed combat style and transforms into a giant porcupine, and although he suffers a continued beating from the monks, his deadly spines take a savage toll on their exposed hands. After a gruelling fight the assailants are finally defeated but the party is badly injured and exhausted. Senja takes the ritual cleansing bowl from the training hall, such that it might know the training of more honourable warriors.

A search of the other holding cells finds the decomposing body of a young woman, dressed in fine clothing. Kelda identifies this as “Kimandatsu”, the woman who had been training the Frozen Shadow monks, but Lute Haggersly announces that this is Thorborg Silverskorr, the head of the Rimerunners Guild.

Looking for a place to recover, the party discovers a bedchamber littered with magic scrolls and with a demon circle drawn on the floor. Hearing a skittering, Traftar notices that there is a resurrected giant’s hand hiding under the bed, waist-high and rotting. The party debates whether they should attack it or not but decide to leave it alone despite Koya’s summary of the situation (“Someone’s summoned an evil creature to protect a demon shrine!”). But when Senja attempts to read a scroll, the hand attacks and although the party defeats it, Ignatius manages to set half the room on fire with his magics. Traftar summons water that douses this fire but also ruins the scrolls in the room. Koya, sensing that the demonic energy is faint and distant, decides that this room is safe enough for the party to rest for the night. Lookouts are rostered but the door is not secured and the party finds themselves attacked by a group of Frozen Shadow thugs before they finally get a good night’s rest.

The party continues pressing into the dungeon, finding rough hewn steps that lead to a darker, deeper level of the dungeon. As they descend, a voice calls out from the depths, claiming that it can feel their presence. The party is confronted by Goti Runecaster, a half-troll sorcerer, who claims that he can see the future and must stop the Amatatsu heir at all costs. More worryingly, he claims that he does not sense Ameiko nearby and reasons that she must be at the caravan while her heroes are all here in the dungeon. Goti is surrounded by a dozen hulking ulfen zombies but these defences did not account for Koya and Spivey. With healing magic acting as a shocking disruption of the undead’s dark energies, Koya and Spivey flood the area with powerful bursts of positive energy that flatten the shambling horde in an instant. Despite the powerful magic of the half-troll, he clearly had counted on keeping the heroes at bay and without this protection he is brutally and swiftly overcome.

The party’s situation is precarious. Although they have scavenged a night of rest in this tense environment, they are accompanied by two recently-released prisoners, one of which is sorely unsuitable for combat. Their pressing deeper into the dungeons means they are now seperated from the caravan from not only a day’s travel through a dangerous swamp, but by all the unknown terrors that may be waiting for them when they re-emerge from the dungeons. The party has little knowledge or control of their surroundings, and this weighs as oppressingly as the continual ambushes and lingering demonic aura.

The party have found themselves in an alchemist laboratory with a strange ulfen man trapped in a glass case. The party take advantage of a rare moment of calmness to thoroughly search the room. From behind a locked door comes a voice, who confirms he is the imprisoned Ulf Gormandr. The key to his freedom lies with the mercenary captain, Jorgan the Axe, whose quarters can be found halfway up the tower. The party navigate to this room and then surprise Jorgan, who manages to buy enough time to transform into an imposing Werebear and charges the party. The party close and attempt to brace the door but Jorgan’s immense strength breaks the door apart and combat is joined. Between Senja’s powerful punches and Shalelu’s relentless arrows, Jorgan is eventually brought down, but not before landing a savage bite to Senja’s shoulder. Although Senja overcomes this injury, a bite from a Werebear is always a worrying sign indeed.

Having obtained the key from Jorgan the Axe, the party returns to the laboratory to rescue the imprisoned man. A skeptical Koya pressures the captive until he admits that he is not Ulf Gormandr, but was pretending to be so the party would rescue him. The man is actually Lute Haggersly, a rich and powerful merchant on the Rimerunners Guild high council, who had seen the Rimerunners gradually transition from its usual trading activities to extorting and assassinating its business rivals. He had decided to confront Thorborg Silverskorr, head of the Rimerunners, and discovered that the guild had been warped into little more than a front for a murderous group known as the Frozen Shadows. With this knowledge he had been captured and imprisoned, destined to be offered to the nightmarish Hellwasp Swarm that now infested the man in the glass case. Lute counsels that the Swarm should never be released into the world.

The party decides to retrace their steps and sweep the first level of the Ravenscraeg great hall before proceeding. But deciding that her strengths lie in solitude and tracking skills, Shalelu slips off alone to investigate the dungeons below Ravenscraeg. Ignatius is the first to notice Shalelu’s disappearance and doubles back to search for her. The rest of the party, then noticing their dwindling numbers, return to the laboratory and track the missing heroes to the dungeon, where they have discovered a subterranean water channel that provides a barrier to further progress. Spying a heavy wooden board on the far side, Shalelu and Senja nimbly launch themselves over the channel but find themselves encountering a passing troll that questions their presence. Rather than continue the conversation, they retreat back over the channel, pursued by two enraged trolls.

The trolls wade across the water channel, seemingly unstoppable as the party’s relentless attacks inflict wounds that seem only to rapidly heal again. Ignatius’ searing fire magic appears to cause lasting damage and slow the creatures’ regeneration. The first troll is slain only after taking hold of Senja and wrenching at him with powerful arms, nearly pulling the monk in half. As Senja retreats to take care of his greivous injuries, Ignatius finds himself unexpectedly on the front line. Deciding to press the attack, even at this great personal risk, Ignatius douses the lumbering monster in roiling flames, only to have the burning creature seize Ignatius in his arms. Ignatius is subjected to crushing bites before the troll pulls apart with all its strength and Ignatius is wrenched in two, his body then discarded onto the cold dungeon floor.

Horribly injured, the troll only makes small further progress before it is brought down by the party, though at this great loss. Grief rises within the party, but Koya’s is held strangely at bay as her memory wanders to tales she heard long ago about the saving power of Desna. Willing to try anything to save her friend, Koya kneels beside the body of Ignatius, gathering his scattered limbs together, and beseeches Desna to make whole this ruined body, and to send back Ignatius from the afterlife to continue his works of goodness in this world. At first a trail of smoke emerges from Ignatius’ mouth, and then a cough of fire and then air as Ignatius’ body returns to life, the savage wounds smouldering like embers as they gradually heal over. This process is not easily endured, and Ignatius feels himself permanently weakened by the touch of death, but his sorcery and cooking skills shall survive in this world for yet another day.

(Koya has burnt a hero point to cast the higher-level spell Raise Dead. Ignatius is restored to life but has accrued a negative level)

The fortress Ravenscraeg towers imposingly above the party, high up amongst the rain-slick mountains with only a narrow wooden staircase for access. Traftar imbues the party with the stability of spiders and they scale the very cliff-face itself towards the fort. The party aren’t the only inhabitants of this steep, rocky cliff as their presence awakens a giant Spider Eater that flies out of a cliff-side cavern and begins sizing up the party as potential morsels. The party attempt to quickly clamber up to the fort but as they reach its wooden balconies they find themselves beset by the blades and shurikens of corby ninjas that were expecting their approach. The combat is perilous and desperate as the party attempt to deal with these threats before the climbing magic wears off. Several party members find themselves slashed with poison-slick katanas, and Ignatius climbs down to the cliff bottom in an attempt to hide. When the Spider Eater pursues him he turns invisible and doubles back to shake it, but as he climbs up the wooden staircase he finds himself alone with a deadly ninja and with deadly slices Ignatius finds himself at its mercy. At the prospect of certain death, Ignatius plans to die as gloriously as he lived and he summons his energy together into a massive fiery conflagration that blasts the ninja and surrounding staircase into charred wreckage, and he plummets to the snow like a shooting star. He is drained, poisoned and near-death but ultimately alive, and it is all that is needed for the grace of Desna to later restore him to health.

Ninety feet above, the party begin to gain the upper hand against the tricks of the ninjas. Senja summons a giant wasp to occupy the spider eater but this buys the party only precious minutes while the wasp finds itself outmatched and torn apart. This time is spent wisely as the party finishes the remaining ninjas, aided greatly by Shalelu’s hail of arrow fire, and finally they are able to focus on the spider eater and defeat it. The party had intended to approach Ravenscraeg unnoticed, but had found themselves in a savage fight for survival without having even entered the keep. Worse than the cold was the strength drained from within, as sharp blades had carried a virulent posion into several of the party members. Ignatius, Senja and Traftar were victims of this invisible enemy, and had felt their strength and energy abandoning them. Although the poisons have now run their course, their merciless toll had left these heroes struggling to stand beneath their armour.

With healing support from Koya and Spivey the party are able to heave their aching bodies further up the walls of Ravenscraeg, up onto its rooftop. The tower of the Blood Feather Raven juts further upward into the night sky, and it becomes quickly clear that this rooftop is no place for respite as flocks of slashing, blinding ravens soon descend on the party. Shalelu swings through a smoke hole into the main hall of Ravenscraeg and after shooting out a roof tile begins to haul her friends inside the safety of the building. With cooperation the ravens are defeated with blasts of Ignatius’ fire and a web-slinging spider summoned by Traftar. Now inside the hall proper, the party finds it curiously deserted, and so they quickly find a safe haven to hole up and recover. A room of soft winter clothing and bales of wool is discovered and, after securing the door and organising a watch duty, the party are finally allowed to heal their wounds and overcome some of the deadly ninja poisons.

Upon the party’s waking the hall is still empty despite the lazy sunlight shining in through the smoke holes of the main hall. Ominous raven calls from outside remind the party of the constant possibility of sudden danger. The party’s exploration discovers that Ravenscraeg is stockpiled with equipment, weapons and food, some rotting, all evidence of its previous owner, the “Mad Reaver” Snorry Stone-Eye. The party also discovers that most doors appear to be locked inside the hall, but acidic magic from Ignatius is able to melt this obstacle and continue the party’s exploration.

The eerie silence further inside the fortress seems to indicate no Frozen Shadow activity, and indeed no other living presence until the party discover a sort of arcane laboratory and, trapped within a tall glass case, there stands an Ulfen man in apparent great pain. The man bangs on the glass and pleads to the party in a droning, unfamiliar language that nobody is able to understand. His motions are jerky and horrible bulges appear to move around, underneath his visible areas of skin. Traftar determines to free this hapless victim, no doubt some subject of experimentation, but as he readies a powerful swing at the glass he notices a bulge move towards the man’s eye and reveal itself to be a wasp that crawls out and then flies back into the man’s ear. Unable to make sense of this development, but preferring caution over all else, Traftar withdraws from the glass case and the party begins to discuss this unexpected development.

The party has returned to Sandru’s caravan but Ignatius is not there waiting for them, so the faerie Spivey is despatched to find Ignatius and tell him of the party’s location. Feeling for his aura and racing in the direction of the Rimerunner’s Guildhall, Spivey finds Ignatius tearing through the busy morning streets, on fire, being chased by a guard. Ignatius’ horrific appearance scares some cityfolk out of his way and he deftly dodges around others while the less nimble guard finds himself obstructed. This commotion is noticed by a huscarl and more town guards who begin their chase of Ignatius. Spivey reaches him just as Ignatius performs his secret escape maneuvre – he throws his disguise in the air and infuses it with magical energy. In an instant the burning rags become an enourmous conflagration that engulfs the entire street and fills it with billowing smoke. The pursuing guards are first startled and then find themselves blinded and coughing on the cobblestones. Unnoticed by Ignatius, Spivey is also caught in this disabling spectacle but manages to find her way free and after a short moment of searching nearby she is able to find Ignatius and direct him to the caravan.

The documents from the Rimerunner’s Guildhall provides all the direction the party needs and Sandru joyfully announces the party’s departure from Kalsgard. The caravan travels southwest towards Ravenscraeg, an appropriate destination as the party continue to find themselves followed by the Blood Feather Raven. At nightfall the caravan makes camp while the party discuss their plans, where it is observed that the maps show a thick swamp between Kalsgard and Ravenscraeg; certainly no terrain for a Rimerunners caravan to take Ulf and Suishen through. It is at this moment that the ever-vigilant Traftar notices an intruder at the outskirts of the campsite and sure enough a Frozen Shadows ninja is found poisoning the food in a covered wagon.

Upon her discovery, the ninja darts nimbly past Shalelu and delivers deadly sweeps with trained fists and a poison-tipped dagger. Traftar remembers the earlier pursuit of a mysterious sniper and is not prepared to let this assailant escape either. Just as the ninja performs a technique to cloak herself in shadow she finds herself immediately illuminated with Faerie Fire and becomes easier to see than even the campfire. Shalelu looses deadly arrows after the fleeing ninja but once again Traftar aids the party’s pursuit by animating the forest grasses and roots to become a writhing, grappling mass that immobilises the hapless opponent before she is blasted by Ignatius’ fire beams and covered in Traftar’s swarm of summoned spiders.

The next morning Traftar takes to the skies in bird form to solve the mystery of the missing caravan path. He observes that there are no caravan tracks nearby except from Sandru’s own caravan. He flies over the swamp to get as close to Ravenscraeg itself as he safely can and observes no gentle entrance at all from this side of the mountains. Instead the entrance appears to be a narrow, wooden stair, clung precariously to the cliff face, climbing in a series of switchbacks up to the front gate. No caravan could arrive at this entrance.

The party convenes and it is decided that unless a better route to Ravenscraeg is discovered, the caravan will need to stop at the edge of the swamp and the adventurers proceed on foot. Ignatius, Traftar, Shalelu, Koya, Senja and Spivey are chosen as the brave adventurers who must take the day-long journey through the swamp and then begin the assault on Ravenscraeg. It is not long after their departure that the true danger of the swamp makes itself known. As the party investigates a human skull and spinal column, a colossal ochre jelly arises out of the stagnant water and attempts to smother and strangle the party.

Ignatius quickly finds that his fire breath is effective at fighting off the gelatinous hulk and so Traftar joins the elemental assault by summoning a mighty bolt of lightning to strike the beast, but finds that the electricity simply flows harmlessly around it into the swamp water. Shalelu’s arrows also do little to damage the jelly but instead it’s mighty impacts being to split the creature’s amorpheous bulk until it becomes two seperate entities that attack the party autonomously. Traftar finds himself engulfed and slammed by one such half but manages to fight his way free before finishing it off with a deadly icicle attach, while Ignatius melts the other half with deadly fire.

Items Obtained
From the Frozen Shadows ninja:

• Unknown poison (2 doses)
• Tian-style dagger with a blue metal blade
• 2 shurikens with inscribed fire runes
• 5 other shurikens
• High quality ninja bodysuit that blends into shadows

From the Swamp:

• Necklace with black pearls (900gp)

The party find themselves under assault in the hallway of the Rimerunner’s Guildhall. Guild guards attack them from three directions and valiant fighting from all adventurers keep the guards at bay, although the unarmed Uksahkka is heavily injured by the attackers. Hirohito presses the attack up the main staircase where three guild guards wait for him in ambush before attacking him all at once. Hirohito is pressed heavily but his armour protects him from heavy blows from the double-bladed axes while he unleashes well-trained katana swings to fell these attackers. Increasingly covered in blood, Hirohito is distracted by the sound of fireworks firing up the chimney, exploding loudly above the city undoubtedly as a distress signal. The party’s time in the guildhall is now severely limited.

Hirohito dives back over the railing of the staircase and decapitates the last remaining guard as he lands. The guildhall now appears eerily calm, though muffled talking and quiet sobs behind locked doors indicate that the building is far from empty. Shalelu and Traftar keep careful guard of the entrances and notice that Ignatius’ distraction has come to an end and indeed Ignatius appears to have been chased away.

Koya explores upstairs and soon discovers a small room with wooden walls and heavy desk, much the same as the location shown to her by Helgarval’s visions. But whereas the vision showed scrolls open upon the desk, the actual room has a heavily locked strongbox. Uksahkka’s considerable strength is not enough to open the strongbox or break the lock and the sounds of fighting downstairs indicate that Shalelu and Traftar are again busy holding the line. Hirohito and Koya break into a locked room to discover a well-dressed guard official and his personal thrall. The thrall cowers pitifully but the guild official stands proudly, refusing to diminish himself even at his likely death. Hirohito, towering, drenched in the fresh gore of a half-dozen men, glowers down at the official and demands a key to the strongbox. The guild official hesitates but is then defiant, calmly informing the party that they are trapped and will soon all meet their deaths when the guildhall is overrun. He is then surprised as Hirohito throws him a hand axe and tells him to defend himself. The confused official has barely enough time to adjust his grip on the weapon before he is brutally sliced in half by a lightning-quick katana. A quick search of the official finds a loop of keys and the strongbox is quickly opened to reveal a collection of scrolls that Koya stuffs into her pockets.

By now Shalelu notices that the building is surrounded by large numbers of town guards, Rimerunner guild guards and even powerful huscarls from several important nobles. The huscarls are commanding the other men, coordinating when to storm the building all at once. The party gathers downstairs and just when Shalelu indicates the men are about to storm the building, Traftar throws upon a side door and unleashes an obscuring mist between the building and a crowd of townsfolk. The party dashes out of the building and around a couple of guards who lash blinding at the sounds around them. Traftar again takes to the skies while Koya, Uksahkka, Shalelu and Hirohito dart through the crowd to lose any pursuers. After some distance they find refuge in an alley where Koya douses Hirohito with magical water to wash his blood-soaked appearance. They blend in with the city folk and meet Traftar back at Sandru’s caravan, although there is worryingly no sign of Ignatius.

After a rest, an examination of Koya’s stolen documents comes up with the lead they were looking for. Thorborg Silverskorr had personally bought a large fort, Ravenscraeg, from Snorri Stone-Eye “The Mad Reaver” shortly before his death. A manifest shows that a caravan had recently left for Ravenscraeg with a cargo of a “Tian Antique” as well as a “Wild Animal in Crate (not to be disturbed)”. Interestingly, Uksahkka seems no longer interested in pursuing the trail of her friend Ulf Gormandr. Her time in Kalsgard has been a repeated string of gruelling hardships and she announces her intentions to wash her hands of it all and head back north to be with her people.

The party dispatches the faerie Spivvy to find Ignatius and inform him of their location. They decided they must set off for Ravenscraeg, weary at this seemingly endless pursuit, yet oddly feeling stronger and more capable than they’ve felt before.

All party members have now levelled up!
This brings the characters to level 5 (except Shalelu who reaches level 7).

Additionally the party has the following loot as been found over the past two sessions.
– Blessed Songbird Token of Shelyn (+1 to artistic activities), held by Koya
– Fishbone Token of the Varki Gods, held by Koya
– Sack of 2000gp from the guildhall strongbox, which Sandru wishes to claim for the caravan
– 15gp of coins and jewellery from the guild official, held by Hirohito

The party enters the ruined basement of the Temple of Shelyn to find a worrying discovery. The signs of a recent struggle indicate that Uksahkka has been kidnapped. The resident priest of Shelyn, Yin Po, recognises the party’s goodness for defending his temple and imbues Koya’s Token of Shelyn with the blessing of his goddess, granting a +1 bonus to any artistic activity.

The party’s goodness has also been impressed on the mysterious flying helm that has accompanied Koya since the journey to the Funereal Ship. The helm approaches and communes with Yin Po. Previously it had withheld its full power from Koya, concerned about overwhelming her mind. Now, with Yin Po representing a second bearer of great holy power, the helm feels it is ready to impart its knowledge. Yin Po lends his mental willpower to Koya and together they are assaulted by a great spiritual force that crashes and reverberates throughout their minds. The helm teaches them the following:

- The helm is Helgarval, an angelic servant of Desna that is temporarily trapped on the earth and wishes to do good deeds before it returns home.

- The Rimerunner’s Guild is now a front for the Frozen Shadows thieves’ guild, nefarious agents from far off Minkai and servants of the evil oni that seek to oppose Ameiko’s return.

- Ulf and the sword Suishen are kept in a remote unknown location, and clues for this location can be found in the main Rimerunner’s Guildhall in the Fire Quarter of Kalsgard.

- The Blood Feather Raven is a familiar of a powerful spellcaster who is close to a powerful merchant called Thorborg Silverskorr, who is the head of the Rimerunner’s Guild.

This mental connection heavily drains Koya but she prevails and informs the party of these observations. After their encounter with the elemental, the party seek a new inn to rest and plan out a raid on the Rimerunner’s Guildhall. In the early hours of the morning they begin their plans. Ignatius stands outside the guildhall, dressed as a homeless person, while the party sneak around the back of the guildhall. After a pre-arranged amount of time Ignatius creates a diversion – he sets fire to a trading wagon loaded with valuable goods and the commotion draws a large crowd and draws some guards out of the guildhall. The party hears this commotion as their cue to break into the guildhall.

Traftar shapeshifts and flies through a window to open an unguarded back door to let his companions inside. An early search discovers Uksahkka, kept bound and gagged as a prisoner locked away inside the guildhall. The party’s early success is interrupted when a guild official wanders into the hallway and finds them. Hirohito springs into action by tackling the official into a wall and knocking him unconscious, but the official’s cries of surprise and then pain are enough to bring the attention of guards. The party is discovered and now have to complete their mission in a building full of hostile guildsmen, in the middle of a busy city in broad daylight with a crowd and rapidly gathering town guards.

After returning from their ordeal aboard the Funereal Ship, the party returns to Kalsgard. Having to pass through the Bone Quarter on their way to the city proper, they check in on Sandru’s caravan. Sandru informs the party that his preparations for the journey north are now completed and he is eager to leave as soon as the guide Ulf Gormandr is found. The faerie Spivey recognises the flying golden helm that has been accompanying Koya, identifying it as a fellow servant of Desna. The party takes the opportunity to rest in the relative safety of the caravan.

The party’s next destination is the Temple of Shelyn, offered as a safe-house for the party by the Varki tracker woman Uksahkka. On the way to the temple the party notices the Blood Feather Raven perched ominously nearby. After scaring it off with one of Shalelu’s arrows, the party is rocked by a thunderous crashing. Panicked citizens flee the area and as the crowds clear the party see that the entire facade of the temple had collapsed, crushing innocent bystanders. A colossal earth elemental had been recently summoned and has smashed its way through the front of the temple, slowly searching within.

Shalelu springs into action by scouting the temple’s damaged perimeter for an alternate entrance. Climbing to a high window, she notices an unconscious old man inside, dressed in the colourful vestments that indicate a priest of Shelyn. Shalelu dashes to the old man’s aid as the gigantic monster approaches ever closer, but a celestial crow summoned by Koya comes to the rescue and flies around its head to keep it distracted. As Shalelu pulls the priest away from the earth elemental, Traftar summons an obedient ball of fire to scorch at the creature’s feet and direct its movements. The blazing flames crack the stones at its feet, showing to be a highly effective weapon. Indeed the creature is so damaged that it turns to notice the party, pulling down a nearby stone wall that Hirohito and Ignatious have to scramble to avoid being crushed

With the entrance to the ruin obscured by rubble, the elemental smashes its way through a side wall into the street where it catches Traftar off-guard. Hirohito comes to his defense but is greviously crushed by the creature’s unstoppable stone fists. As Traftar scrambles to work his healing magic on the injured samurai the elemental burrows through the ground to appear beside them both and with a massive sweep of its arm both heroes are clobbered with a single brutal cleave. Hirohito retaliates with his katana but fails to land its blade, but then re-focuses his mind on this vital task (and spends a hero point) to unleash a second, unexpected katana swing that cuts heavily into the assailant’s rocky arm and deals it a greivous injury.

With the giant hulk injured by blade and fire but still endangering the injured party with its fury and incredible strength, Ignatious sees he has an opportunity to intervene to end the fight and save his friends. Noticing the effectiveness of fire on damaging the elemental, Ignatious summons a huge gout of fire within his lungs. At first he cannot find a good angle to spray the flames without hitting his friends but when an opening occurs he rushes forward and bathes the elemental in a hellish gout. The creature moves to avoid this attack but is badly positioned and finds itself immolated. The creature’s magical nature is unable to continue sustaining this greatly damaged shell and expires, and the creature begins to fall apart, the bulk of its body collapsing sideways into a nearby building that crashes around the burning remains.

With this unexpected but dangerous threat overcome, the party enters the ruined temple to find Uksahkka.

Place holder for

• exploring longship and fight with undead longship captain
• finding winged helm and fight with ninjas on burning longship
• heading to temple of shayelin (god of beauty) and fight with earth elemental

The party find themselves with a day of investigation before they need to meet the Varki woman Uksahkka outside Kalsgard. After their hasty exit from the inn, the party returns to the Amber Quarter to meet the old Ulfen trader Fynn Snaevald. He regales them of the history and reputation of Snorri Stone-eye “The Mad Reaver”, and offers the party his services as a trader. Fynn confidently offers 2200gp for around 1500gp of the party’s treasures, provided they return to him in a day or so to give him time to find suitable buyers.

With this time to spare the party heads to the waterfront of the Fire Quarter to see what they can observe of the funeral ship. The Rimerunners Guild has a strong presence here, and the party overhears two Guild Guards mention how the Rimerunners are taking caravans full of magical items to a place called “Ravenscraeg”. Koya’s investigative skills come to the forefront as she not only arranges a blessing of a large trading ship in exchange for 20g, but also converses with a trader and learns how to identify the better quality trade goods available in Kalsgard.

The party eventually finds the impressive funeral ship, but stowing aboard seems unlikely due to the teeming huscarls from Snorri’s personal honour guard. Nearby a temple hosts the body of Snorri, and Koya and Izati detect a strange negative magical aura emanating from the body. However the sun is setting and there is little time to investigate this.

Uksahkka meets the party at a deserted riverbank downstream from Kalsgard and instructs the party on the use of the “kayaks” of her people. Although the vessels are easily mastered, the practice is disrupted when a giant Shark-Eating Crab emerges from the river in search of prey. Shalelu and Ignatius attempt to fight it off, but their attacks enrage the colossal beast and it savages Ignatius and Uksahkka with its crushing pincers. Traftar quickly recognises the nature of this beast and chooses to keep his distance, expecting that it will become bored when it finds no food and then leave. When the party finally follows his lead, this prediction is confirmed as the Crab tears a few kayaks apart before sinking back into the river. Uksahkka’s injuries are healed by Koya and she informs them to find her at the Temple of Shelyn after their return, presenting Koya with a small clay token of a songbird for this task.

The hulking outline of the funeral ship appears from the fog so the party paddles out to intercept it. Unfortunately the kayak of Traftar and Ignatious overturn and they are emptied into the frozen river water. Traftar’s rugged northern background keeps him safe from the strength-sapping coldness but Ignatious would be in grave danger if it weren’t for an Endure Elements spell cast by Traftar to keep him safe for such an occasion. When the party climbs upon the funeral ship, Koya puts out the burning embers to prevent the ship catching alight. When she investigates the funeral bier, however, she discovers that the covered body is not Snorri Stone-eye but a wooden mannikin. She then heads below decks and discovers a magestic valuable winged helm that emits a strong positive aura of divination, but also senses the negative magical aura she felt previously on Snorri Stone-eye’s body at the Kalsgard temple.

As Traftar and Shalelu clamber through the cramped hold they discover an iron chain wrapped around the mast that leads into the darkness of the far hold. As they peer over a final pile of stacked funerary goods they discover Snorri Stone-eye, but not as they expected him. Instead they find him standing, ragged and bent unnaturally, moaning terribly. He stands with pale skin and gaunt features, and then shambles towards the party, focusing on them with his remaining sunken eye.

The hidden sniper continued to loose magical arrows from the darkness of the forest while the party fights off the last of entropic leopards. When these magical beasts are defeated, the sniper begins to make her escape, no doubt intending to wait for yet another opportunity for a deadly ambush. But with Hirohito nearly slain in this encounter, and with a time-critical quest to complete, the party intends to give the sniper no further opportunities. Just as a potion of invisibility is downed by the mysterious assailant, Traftar lets loose a magical faerie fire upon her – she is now invisible yet her location lit up clear as day. The sniper flees into the dense forest to distance herself from the party who take pursuit after the retreating light. Koya and Izati use their mastery of the Domain of Travel to dash effortlessly through the undergrowth, and the sniper is overtaken and surrounded. Koya entreats the assailant to surrender, but like a cornered animal she lashes out at her pursuers, loosing deadly arrows with skillful dexterity even from point-blank range. Izati forgoes diplomacy for his spear, and soon the surrounded and outmatched sniper is cut down, her menaces brought to an end.

Ignatious searches the undergrowth for small animals and chases a rabbit to no success.

On the party’s return to Kalsgard they are intercepted by the guide Ukshakka and relate their ominous news about her friend Ulf – that he is likely to be launched aboard the burning funeral ship of the deceased ring-giver Snorri Stone-Eye. Sensing a heavy fog that will not abate until nightfall, Ukshakka presents the party with a plan for Ulf’s rescue. They should find her near nightfall at a point just outside Kalsgard, where she will provide them with kayaks and training on their use. The party might then intercept the funeral ship and search it under cover of fog, thus hiding this interference from the nobles of Kalsgard. Until nightfall the funeral ship is berthed at the Kalsgard dockfront, although under heavy guard from dozens of Ulfen warriors and Snorri Stone-Eye’s own elite huscarls.

The party returned to their quarters at the inn to find it thoroughly ransacked, with a telltale feather left from the Blood Feather Raven. They also meet Kelda, who presents them with 1800gp from selling the captured longboat, after taking a 200gp cut for herself. Apparently the sale was easy to arrange once the Rimerunners guild had learned of it, as they immediately sought out Kelda and offered her such a generous amount. The party then leaves the inn to find a commotion – bypassers are gathered around a body laying dead in the streets, wondering if there was a murder and who was responsible. Judging there was enough intrigue to deal with, the party make quick their exit before they are noticed.

Items taken from the sniper: (I am happy for the party to have these identified as a matter of course while in Kalsgard)
+1 Chain Shirt
+1 composite bow
(7) Arrow
(3) +1 Seeking Arrow
+1 Cloak of resistance
Masterwork short sword

It turns out Ignatius had been travelling with the party, silent and passive. When a thrall enters the room and observes the intruders, Ignatius springs into action, surprising the party by reminding them of his presence. A sleep spell flashes out from Ignatius’ hands and the thrall is dropped. Traftar, unwilling to tolerate the precarious situation any longer, sets about binding and gagging the other servants and warriors in the room. The physical shifting and binding would be enough to wake any man, but the endless supplies of Ulfen ale had resulted in an unescapable drunken stupor for the hapless warriors.

Izati, Koya and Traftar examined the rest of the farmhouse. Entering a kitchen area, they surprise some thralls minding a cooking pit. Izati attempts to silence them with his spear but before he can cut them both down a scream rings throughout the farmhouse. Ulfen warriors burst through from another room to deal with these intruders. A guard also enters the main hall from the bedroom and Ignatius finds himself all alone and set upon. Keeping his cool, he breathes roaring gouts of flame throughout the farmhouse, setting the guard alight as well as wooden furniture and the farmhouse roof itself.

The rest of the party returns to the main hall just in time to be confronted by a woken Asvig Longthews and his witch wife Helva. Asvig demands a blood oath on the party, to be settled by a personal duel. Unfamiliar or uninterested in Ulfen tradition, the party set upon him in force. Asvig is forced to deal with slashing katana, thrusting spear, crushing shillelagh and powerful magic. Despite the best efforts and powerful curses of his wife, Asvig is cut down and the blood oath of Fynn Snaevald is satisfied. The party agrees to leave his wretched, sobbing wife alone with the body, but not before extracting the information that they need. They also question thralls and a visiting trader from the Rimerunners guild before they make their leave.

Despite their efforts at deception and combat, the party has left without the prizes they had sought. The magical sword Suishen is nowhere to be seen – Helva admitted that Asvig indeed stole it but has no idea where it must have been. More ominous is the absence of the kidnapped guide Ulf Gormandr. Asvig had stolen him too but now claims that he has been sent to join the “Mad Reaver” Snorri Stone-Eye, Asvig’s own ring-giver. Snorri Stone-Eye’s current location is a funeral ship in Kalsgard, as the farmhouse gathering was intended in honour of Snorri’s recent passing away. The party scours the farmhouse to find the following treasure:

Asvig’s Farmhouse – Treasure

Returning to the path to Kalsgard, the party reaches the lion-head posts and finds that the runes have been scratched away – the posts are active! While studying the situation they are fired upon by an unknown archer beyond the posts. Koya hurries to redraw the runes but is interrupted by an arrow that strikes the post beside her, breaking it in half. The summoning magic of the posts is unleashed and the party is occupied by four entropic leopards that assault them while the unknown arrows continue to fly.

While protecting Koya from one such leopard, Hirohito is struck by an arrow in the back that surges fatal magic through his entire body. Wracked with supernatural pain, Hirohito reaches the verge of death before the mercy of Desna descends upon him and fills him with renewed strength. The leopards are now mostly dealt with and the summoning magic dissipated, but the party still finds themselves in a dangerous environment with an unknown assailant.

Uksahkka has told the party of the location of Asvig Longthew’s farmhouse and now the party intend to travel there to find out where the magical sword Suishen is, what has happened to the guide Ulf Gormandr, and why Uksahkka copped a savage beating for asking about it. Located uphill and to the south-east, the farm house is an excellent location to scout the party’s arrival, however their journey is unremarkable considering the stream of travellers that also appear to be heading to the farmhouse. It seems that there will a big gathering at Asvig’s farm, but the presence of guests does not deter the party from their goal.

Deciding on their plans in the forests before the farmhouse, the party notices a series of wooden posts with carved lion heads, positioned in an unbroken ring as far as can be determined. Sensing dangerous conjuration magic, the party is reticent to interfere with the lion-head posts and wonder how to proceed. The plan is hatched: the party hides in the undergrowth and waits for more travellers to pass. Trafter hides amongst some foliage and observes the arrival of a trader and his retinue of guards. Avoiding the notice of a particularly watchful guard, Traftar notices the trader interacting with the dirt path, and after the retinue has long gone it is noticed that some runes have been hastily drawn on the path and smudged out. Izati rises to the challenge of identifying these runes and, after having redrawn them, the party passes through the lion-head posts without incident.

The party arrives as Asvig’s farmhouse to find it completely without sentries or watchmen. It seems all in attendance are inside the main hall in boisterous celebration that carries through the night and masks the party’s actions. The farmhouse appears to be in the sheep business, and the party wait in a store-room and hide amongst piles of wool while they wait for an opportunity. The raucous gathering breaks into shouting, drinking contests, fighting and eventually a traditional sombre Ulfen dirge. It seems someone of note has died.

Two Ulfen warriors eventually emerge from the farmhouse – one wanders obliviously past the party to urinate outside, another has passed out and was dragged outside by a thrall. Both are savagely attacked by the party (one lethally) and their clothing and armour is borrowed. As the sounds and fires die down, the party realises the celebration is coming to an end and, hearing that the farmhouse doors might be barred, the party acts quickly to force themselves in the main hall. The stolen outfits are enough to confuse some still-awake Ulfen warriors while the party knocks them unconscious.

Unfortunately the servant thralls in attendance realise the ill-intentions of these invaders and begin to shout, potentially rousing the dozen sleeping Ulfen warriors the party find themselves near. Izati calms the situation by thrusting his spear through a warrior’s throat and waving the bloodied spear towards the thralls, threatening them into submission. With the last of the waking warriors knocked back into unconsciousness, the party find themselves in a delicate situation, with a tense silence the only barrier between safety and a being outnumbered by ruthless Ulfen warriors.

With lodgings secured and Fynn Snaevald located, the party begins a brand new day in search of answers. What they find instead is the drunken belligerent Gorvald Thrimbyrson, who has been informed that it was Hirohito and his foreign companions that poisoned his beloved hunting hound. Demanding weregild and on the verge of declaring a blood feud, Gorvald’s rampage comes to an end due to a timely sleep spell by Ignatius. The party splits up to identify Fynn’s burglars and locate a caravan guide.

Hirohito finds fellow Tien Senja and together they search the Jade Quarter for clues. It becomes apparent that they are being followed by an urchin. The urchin is seized and admits to spying on the party for coins given by a tall, hooded man. Hirohito offers the child even more coins to report back on the hooded man to them.

They find the Tien merchants are comfortable in their presence and one has his Ulfen hired guards identify the thieves. Their yellow arm-bands and lion-head clasps denote them as bannermen of Asvig Longthews, an honourless local ring-giver who lives in a farm outside of town. Asvig is a tall man of ill-repute, and is himself a bannerman of a chief named Snorri Stone-eye. One merchant offers more information if the party forces a local trading rival to close up shop for the day. Hirohito is tantamount to accepting the offer before Senja’s honour can take no more and insists they leave.

Koya, Izati, Traftar and Ignatius investigate the Ice Quarter, the home of various shops and many trading guilds. They discover that almost all guides are kept on retainer by the powerful guilds and almost no independent guides remain. A trader named Willum bemoans that he can’t find a guide to take him across the Crown of the World, but the party brings him to agree that if they secure a guide then he will travel his caravan with theirs and reward them monetarily.

They approach a local outpost of the mighty Rimerunners Guild, having learnt that they command the vast majority of guides. The Guildsmaster asks many pressing questions of Koya, eventually offering to introduce them to a guide Ulf Gormandr if she brings all her caravan companions to meet him. She refuses and upon leaving the building the streets are clear and the party is attacked by a mysterious archer firing from the rooftops. They beat a hasty retreat back to the inn.

The two groups meet each other at the Inn and hire a private room while they plan their next move. Ingratiating themselves with the inn patrons reveal that an independent guide is currently in the same inn, drowning her sorrows in jug after jug of Ulfen Fire Brew. The guide Uksahkka is a Varki woman from the northern tribes, and a former business partner of Ulf Gormandr. Having burned many bridges by refusing retainers, Ulf found work recently by mapping new trade routes in the Grungir Forest on behalf of Asvig Longthews. He has not returned after visiting Asvig’s farm, and Uksahkka’s investigation earned her a beating and the claim that Ulf had never shown up at the farm at all. The party takes Uksahkka back to the caravan, aiming to learn the location of Asvig’s farm when Uksahkka sobers up.

After fending off a surprise Ulfen raid at the Skalsbridge, the party find themselves in command of an Ulfen longboat as well as a prisoner. This restrained Ulfen Reaver welcomes death; at first he proves unwilling to divulge any secrets, although the party decides he might be incapable of it due to magical control. He offers only the name “Kimandatsu” before the party releases him to enjoy death in combat to Hirohito, a fate Kelda suggests was too good for him.

Also under the party’s control are the survivors of the wrecked forest caravan. Although welcome guests, their theft of party supplies sees light and Yothan, having predicted this betrayal, suggests leaving them in the wilderness. The party instead takes them to Kalsgard and lets them leave, but not before discovering further theft of party supplies. Hirohito cleaves two fingers from the male survivor in front of his horrified wife and child and they leave on bitter terms, cursing that they ever met the party.

Yothan leaves the party on more favourable terms, thanking Koya for delivering him from a life of a gang criminal and offers to look up distant family in Kalsgard to be of assistance. Kelda has sailed the commandeered Ulfen longboat into Kalsgard to find a good price, which she will return to the party after taking her cut.

Sandru recommends the party find lodging in the city to reduce suspicion. He will stay with the caravan with Ameiko, Shalelu and Senja and prepare for the journey north. Traftar notices that Sandru and the rest of the party are being watched at all times by seemingly intelligent ravens. He warns Sandru, who immediately makes plans to keep these unnatural observers at bay.

The party has found accomodation in the Fire Quarter. Ignatious applies as the tavern cook by whipping up a hot chilli stew that overwhelms the barmaid and he is refused the job. The party notices the first occurence of commoners asking about the recent arrival of Varisian traders from Sandpoint with an old woman and Tien warrior.

The party launches upon the search for the magical sword Suishen by examining the Amber Quarter, trading hub for artifacts and fine goods. They encounter a blind beggar that delivers a warning, having smelt the boiled cabbage surreptitiously applied to them: “They know who you are and are coming for you!” Eventually it is found that Fynn Snaevald, the man who bought Suishen from Rokuro Kaijitsu, is still alive and well into his nineties. He tells them his house was recently broken into by men with gold lion-head armbands, men who stole only Suishen and left all else untouched.

Fynn clearly remembers buying Suishen and will even give it to the party, but only if they obtain his blood vengeance against the thieves that had killed a servant and stole from him yet have not admitted it and since offered no weregild. If the party is willing to find and kill these thieves, they will exact the justice of the Ulfen and restore the tarnished honour of this old man.

The party’s travel past Brinewall is surprisingly uneventful but the smooth journey ends almost as soon as they leave familiar lands. The unknown steppes of the Nolands seem to reject the party at once as the wooden bridge at its frontier presents an immediate challenge to the party. This bridge is uncertain and treacherous, and barely visible under the frothing, rushing river flooded far past its usual flow. This hazard is of no concern to Traftar who has found his way across the river somehow the party is unable to determine. Having brought a rope with him and stretched it across the bridge, Traftar allows the caravan to slowly negotiate a dangerous path over the submerged bridge, reaching the other side without incident.

The party enters the Nolands and finds much information from Yothan, who used to travel these lands with his parents before their unfortunate deaths that left him stranded in Sandpoint. At a very young age with no support, Yothan survived the only way he could by signing up with the local Sczarni gangs. Sandru becomes hostile and suspicious at this revelation, despite the fact that Yothan has stopped associating with the Sczarni for some unknown reason. At any rate Yothan’s warnings about the roaming bandit gangs that inhabit the Nolands induces the party to post a heavier nightwatch when making camp.

This decision proves prescient when thieves are spotted approaching the caravan, with Hirohito rushing to face them while Yothan wakes the sleeping caravan members. The party exhibits restraint while they subdue the thieves one by one – Koya magically holds one while Ameiko extends her imperial presence to intimidate them into submission. Shalelu’s form of restraint is to shoot one through the chest with an arrow, duly bringing him to submission. Senja leaps off a caravan onto a thief, smashing his head into the ground and holding him still while Hirohito beats him senseless with a shield. Seeing the remaining thief run to his horse, Senja then punches the horse in the face, nearly knocking it unconscious, much to Shalelu’s disapproval. Ameiko tells Senja to “stop horsing around” to which Senja replies with “neigh”.

With all the thieves subdued and (barely) alive, the party heeds Koya’s advice to let them live and return to their tribe, despite Yothan’s suggestion to kill the thieves since they will likely be killed in punishment when they return to their tribesmen anyway. The party relieves the thieves of their daggers and horses, eventually selling them for a good sum of gold.

This trading success was to wait, however, as the party pulls into Tomgruv and Ignatius attempts to assist the trading effort by entering the local tavern and treating the ladies inappropriately. As word of these shameful foreigners spreads throughout the town the caravan finds itself without willing buyers and moves on to the next town of Solskinn. There Ignatius’ drunken antics actually finds results, assisting the party by asking tavern patrons about what trade goods are in most demand.

The party leaves Solskinn along the winding caravan track that will take them around the periphery of the Land of the Linnorm Kings, with the eventual destination of Kalsgard. The steppe bandits and wolf packs of the Nolands have now given way to flocks of ravens that trail the caravans around these parts. Traftar notices one raven that is far bigger than the others and appears to have blood-red pinions on its wings. Kelda announces this is a “Blood Feather Raven”, an evil minion in the service of dark powers. Traftar has little time for her dramatic stories but notes that northern legends hold these birds to be at least a dark omen for the future. The party muses on this significance as the caravan heads into the darkness of the Grungir Forest.

Having discovered the secrets of Ameiko’s heritage, the party prepares for a grand journey to the north to reclaim her birthright: the Jade Throne of the Minkai Emperors. The party seeks to travel the path of Ameiko’s ancestors in reverse, heading up to the Frozen Lands of the Linnorm Kings and from there across the Crown of the World to reach the distant lands of Tian Xia. By taking this path, the party can discover the mysteries of Ameiko’s ancestors, they can return Kelda Oxgutter to her homelands, and most importantly they can recover the fabled artifact Shuisen – a vastly powerful magic sword that has guided the Amatatsu clan for generations but has been lost.

The party spends their time in Sandpoint wisely, making the preparations needed for an undoubtedly gruelling journey. Izati finds acceptable prices for several magical artifacts and Hirohito happily trades away a magical shield in exchange for a sorely needed caravan wagon. Despite the caravan-related activity, Sandru is little seen and his limited presence seems only to cause conflict. His reliability for the upcoming journey is uncertain.

Koya engages in fortunetelling to scry into the party’s future before she and Ignatius leave to seek out a map of the Land of the Linnorm Kings. A worried book-seller happily agrees to give them such a map in exchange for dealing with Yothan, a drunken town bully who has been demanding protection money. Investigating the Rusty Dragon Inn results in a meeting with Yothan who is promptly threatened and intimidated into stopping his behaviour. Devising a plan to ensure Yothan leaves town, and perhaps seeing an opportunity to turn a wayward life around, Koya insists that Yothan accompanies the caravan as an abusive drunken racist caravan guard.

Ignatius prepares a pre-journey celebratory feast that nobody dares to attempt except for Koya, who has the willpower to resist choking or gagging. The party takes a final opportunity to arrange the selling of exotic goods and purchase of the trade goods and food stores required for their journey – a task usually handled by Sandru. The party’s journey will take them north, and hopefully they are prepared for the unfamiliar lands that will await them once they pass Brinewall.

Nindinzego watched the adventurers flee. He had won the day. He knew he should hunt them down while they were weak, but his vision of doom stopped him from pursing. They returned less than a day later. Again he used his unholy magic, but this time they were ready. A giant wasp, where did that come from? When Hirohito leap upon him, and the Samurai’s blade pierced his brain cavity Nindinzego knew it was time to flee. Unfortunately for him it was too late. His latest vision was correct. Doomed.

The ghost of Rokuro Kaijtsu watched the invaders attack the vault once more. Kill them. Fight them to the grave and beyond. He would not relent. But wait… these were the allies of his son’s own child… He had a grand daughter… Someone to take up the legacy. He pointed them to the secret vault. Now they could take up the battle. Finally he could rest.

When Hirohito picked up the large rosewood chest by himself, the warding box spilled out. It bounced twice, and out of the warding box tumbled the Amatatsu Seal. The world stopped as the Kami were freed, free to leave Ameiko, and rejoin the royal artefact.

The hero’s received visions of the past and future. In the visions, they see an army of terrible fiends—with burning skin, glaring eyes, and sharp tusks, wearing strange armor and wielding exotic weapons—emerge in a storm from a vast forest, then descend upon a nation populated by Tian people. This vision is swiftly followed by another: a young man dressed in royal robes stands over a simple well, a friend at his side. Suddenly, the friend grows nearly three times in size and is sheathed in a frightening suit of jade armor. The jade warrior draws a sword and strikes down his royal friend, then holds the bloody sword aloft in triumph. A third vision follows, this time of a young Tian man handing a beautiful sword to a richly dressed Ulfen man in exchange for a bag of gold. Finally, this vision fades, and the heros see their friend Ameiko waking from her deep sleep, but she is dressed in the finery of an empress. She rises from sleep not in a humble Varisian caravan, but from a resting spot within the arms of a jade throne.

These visions pass in the span of a few heartbeats, and after they do, they impart knowledge to the heros minds. The heros know that the land they saw invaded by fiends was Minkai, that the man they saw murdered by the jade warrior was Emperor Shigure of Minkai. They know that Ameiko Kaijitsu’s true family name is Amatatsu, one of the five royal families of Minkai—indeed, the last surviving royal family. The heros recognize the young Tian man with the sword as Ameiko’s grandfather, Rokuro Kaijitsu, formerly Amatatsu Tsutoku, selling the family’s legendary sword Suishen to the Ulfen merchant Fynn Snaevald in the city of Kalsgard to finance his family’s flight and exile. They also know that Suishen is intelligent, and can impart much more knowledge of the Amatatsu family’s legacy if recovered. Further, they know that Ameiko herself is the heir of her line. Finally, the heros know all of the powers and abilities of both the Amatatsu Seal and its warding box— including the danger of leaving the warding box open, which would allow the oni of the Five Storms to once more track the Amatatsu Seal.

The know they are the Scions of Amatatsu.

Loot from Kikonu
magical kusarigama named Dancing Wasp – Senja

Loot from Nevikali
Scroll of Cure Moderate Wounds – Izati
Scroll of Dispel Magic – Izati
Scroll of Remove Disease – Izati
Scroll of Restoration – Izati
four +2 evil outsider bane arrows – Izati

Loot from the Armoury
Alchemist Fire – 3 Left – Hirohito
Masterwork Steel Shield – Hirohito
+1 Cold Iron Morningstar – Izati

Loot from Nindinzego
Ring of Ram – Senja
Perl of Power – Izati
Wand of Scorching Ray, 15 charges – Ignatius
Wayfinder – Sandru
Circlet of Persuasion – Sandru
+1 light fortification steel shield – Hirohito
Returning Starknife – Izati

This hoard consists of a +1 light fortification light steel shield bearing the image of Castle Brinewall, a +1 returning starknife, a pearl of power (1st level), a ring of the ram with 10 charges remaining, a wayfinder (Inner Sea World Guide 299), 1,320 gp, and 800 gp in jewelry and gems.

Loot from Brinewall Castle Vault
Warding Box – Ameiko
Amatatsus Seal (inside warding box) – Ameiko
Masterwork Katana – Hirohito
+1 Returning Starknife – Senja
+1 Agile Wakishasi – ? Sandru ?
Metal Mandolin (Masterwork, Adamantine) – Sandru
Head band of inspired wisdom +2 wisdom – Traftar
Tian Recipe Book (in Tian), Jar of Powdered Chilli Flakes – Ignatius
3 x Large Cherry Wood Chests
Tian Noble Clothing & Jewellery, 3xFemale , 7xMale outfits.

Other
All the wands of cure light wounds are used up.
The wand of identify (from the goblin adventure) has 12 charges left.

Nindinzego had been scrying the party for a while now. Ever since Nindinzego received its latest prophetic vision from Pazuzu; that it was to be attacked and slain by a group of adventurers, it had been extra vigilant for such creatures. The sea serpent had taken care of the Ulfen threat, and the corbies had captured the two determined survivors. But these Desna worshiping Varisian butchers had proved a serious threat. All his corbies had been slain and so too Kikonu and Nevakali.

The ploy of creating an illusionary avatar of the sickening butterfly winged Deity had proved masterful. They had walked into the range of his unholy spell like lambs to the slaughter. Now they were dying like flies. Crisping like bacon under the heat of his scorching ray. The were no true threat. Were they? His visions had never been wrong before. How could he be doomed?

doom. Doom. DOOM!

========

Ignatius – Unconscious and Stable – Bruising, Death Magic (not near party)
Izati – Unconscious, Stable, Near Death- Crisped by Scorching Ray
Traftar – Unconscious, Stable- Stablized Izati then got crisped by Scorching Ray.
Kelda – Hurt but raging- Throwing Javelins (one left)
Hirohito – In pretty good shape- Tossing Alchemist fire pots
Senja – In pretty good shape- Tossing shurikens, but not doing much damage.
Sandru – Badly hurt- Playing music

Most of the party dropped over a ledge into a cavern (apart from Sandru who came from another path, and Ignatius who was left for dead). Its pitch black (magically so), with glowing green motes floating in the air, which do nothing to improve the illumination. Somewhere flying above you is a creature from a nightmares, with a slimy mollusk like body complete with 10 tentacles (two of which ended in savage claws), a monstrous face, and large leathery wings. Every now and then the dark is illuminated by a burst of fire and another one of your companions is burnt to a crisp.

Finding no other exits from the Arena the group head back the way they came. Strangely someone has left a trail of stale food across their path. Was that there before? As Hirohito follows the trial to the north, a female ogrekin comes down the stairs to the South, apparently collecting the stale food items for a sandwich… She immediately charges into battle. The impossibly fast little fey rushes past the group, appearing from the door to the North-speeding backup up the stairs to the South, and taking a stab at Sandru Vhiski on its way past. It looks like the group are in for a tough fight, until Izati casts truestrike and promptly puts his spear through the ogrekin’s eye socket.

The Ogrekin was carrying a magical light flail, and a non magical spiked gauntlet (used to skewer her sandwich), that Traftar collected.

Pressing deeper into the dungeon, the group find the Dungeon jail. The giant two-headed Jailer seems surprised to see them, telling them they are not supposed to be here, unless they want to go into a Cage? Sandru lulls the giant into a sleeply state with his music. When it closes and locks the door, Sandru manages to pick the lock to the jail. He then puts the dimwitted creature to sleep. And convinces the group to kill it while it sleeps.

Izati obliged by putting his spear through its heart. Desna didn’t say a word.

In the jail the group discovered two prisoners: Kelda Oxgutter and Ignatius Napalm. Kelda it seems is Traftar’s cousin, while Ignatius appears to be a half-elf. Both were stripped of weapons, armour and clothing, and badly beaten. However, the wound are mainly bruises, and should heal quickly (subdual damage).

Leaving Nevakali the party discussed their next steps. Unsure of where to search, they decide to visit Ziaobie once more. After a harrowing visit Sandru quickly scampered down the stairs seeking access to the dungeons.

They find a strange room full of stuffed animals, and a few humanoids, all arranged in surprisingly sensitive poses.

While Hirohito was breaking through a door Izati became bored and wandered off. He discovered a large angry lizard when he opened the door to the barracks. Izati fled the lizard while the party were heading down the stairs unaware of his plight.

Sandru spotted a door opening by itself in this seemingly haunted castle, and sets an ambush for who ever is coming through. Izati ran past Sandru shouting something about a giant lizard. As he reached the stairs a small blur of a figure stabbed him in the calf and then zipped off leaving a puff of dust in its wake.

Distracted by the small fey the party gave chase and are ambushed by the Lizard from behind. The reptile brute is no match for the hero’s who quickly make short work of it.

Heading downstair they pass through empty rooms and another armoury (which they loot). Finally they set upon a well armed lizard-man, who puts up a token fight before being overwhelmed.

After resting over night the group made plans to storm the castle in the morning. Sandru plans to fool the Ogrekin into coming down off the castle wall and opening the gate.

Disguised as a wandering necromancer Sandru steps out of the forest path, while other stay hidden in the trees.

The plan starts off well, in that Sandru enrages the Ogres, but he quickly realises that Nevakali is lurking around hidden from sight through magic. The necromancer is not easily fooled.

Trafar raises a fog, while Nevakali summons forth darkness. In the dim-foggy early morning a chaotic battle enfolds.

Senja climbs the wall, while Hirohito charges the gate. The orgekin charge out the castle gate seemingly accustomed to the poor light.

Nevakali uses his horrific screech and stuns the combatants, enemies and minions alike… Senja falls from the wall and lies stunned, winded and with a horrific head wound on the ground. However, having the orgekin stunned turns the battle in the favor of the heros.

Nevakali flees the battle, while the hero’s storm the castle. The take a moment to heal then seek a way into room where Nevikali has fortified himself.

Breaking into the old defiled chapel to Desna the battle with Nevakali continues. Once more the neromancer summons darkness. But this time the numbers are too great and eventually the Necromancer is killed as he tries once more to flee.

The chapel contains a defaced statue to Desna. The group discover a small hidden prayer room that was not defiled. Inside they discover a small chest belong to the priest of Desna.

The group had barely recovered from the fight with the giant bat, and Sandru had just got his voice back when Nevakali came to investigate to sounds of the battle. The dire corbie priest, quickly began her chanting, first sending himself invisible, next raising a fog in the ballroom and finally raising the dead Corbies and Trolodyes (that had been strangely dressed and arranged as dancers) to attack the party from the mist. At great cost the Senja, Hirohito, Izati, Trafar and Sandru cut down the bizzarre undead minions. However, Nevakali had not finished with her magics, summoning darkness and then stunning the hero’s with a magical spell that finished with a bird-like screech. Nevakali was driven out of the ballroom and onto the castle ramparts, where it seemed the hero’s had the necromancer on the run.

However, Nevakali summoned assistance from the ogrekin who had been given the task of guarding Brinewall Castle gate. Senja fought bravely charging into the orgrekin. Hirohito, not one to be out done, leap onto the stone parapet and attacked the Ogrekin from the precarious balance, one wrong step would send him tumbling to his death… It wasn’t a misstep, but a well placed shove from an Ogre then sent Hirohito plummeting to the stone courtyard far below. The fall didn’t kill plucky Hirohito, just broke both his legs and his rib cage. He was a thread from death. Nethertheless the brave (or suicidal) Hirohito attempted to climb back up the castle wall. Halfway up his grip slipped from the blood that he was coughing up and he fell again. This time he didn’t rise.

Up on the parapet the battle continued, but in Nevakali’s and the Orgekin’s favour. Traftar healed Senja with Izati’s wand of cure light wounds but it was not enough. Sandra tried to climb down the castle wall to check on Hirohito, but he too slipped and fell. Senja was forced to retreat and tried to climb down after the Sandru, he fell as well. Izati seeing his companions injured and possibly dying channeled Densa’s engery to heal all, both friend and foe, and then climbed over the parapet and climbed and slid down the side of the castle, miraculously only suffering grazed hands and a slightly sprained ankle. His actions surely saved Hirohito’s life. Traftar seeing himself alone on the Ramparts with two healed orgrekin and a Necromancer, scampered down the castle wall with a surprising turn of speed and dexterity (hero point used).

The hero’s fled blindly through the dark night away from the castle, helping the injured and those recently brought back from the brink of death, while the Orgekin tossed rocks at them from the rampart.

- Its seems Kikonu had used all the larger fireworks from the chest he some how stole from the caravan.
- Traftar looted Kikonu’s still warm body and found a magical chain-and blade.
- Using the wand-of-identify in the re-recovered treasure chest they identify the weapon as the dancing-wasp, Senja claims this weapon
- Sandru Vhiski gains a strange circular key from Ziaobe, along with another mission to find a strange four winged statue… will this lead him to his goal?
- Sandru Vhiski and Hirohito lost their voice to attic whisperer
- The group discover a large bat in one of the outer buildings, Izanti single-handedly kills it.

After a night in the Graveyard the heros return to the caravan to discover that a thief has stolen the box of fireworks (and treasure) they found in the Brinestump marsh caves. They head back to the castle to find the gate closed and guarded. Kikono fires a firework at Traftar and leaves to allow his ogre-kin minions to guard the gate. Sandru Vhiski and Hirohito manage to trick the ogre-kin into open the gate for the party.

The group surprise Kikonu in his chambers. A running battle involving fireworks and trickery ensues. Kikonu use a Dire Cobry as a decoy and the fireworks as ranged weapons with hit and run tactics. Sandru seeks Ziaobie and asks her to summon Kikonu. By destroying the play-manuscripts Sandru manages to enrage Kikonu so much that he seeks to kill Sandru above preserving his own life.

Kikonu is finally slain by the fists of Senja.

The group rested overnight at the caravan. In the early light of the morning Koya led them in a prayer to Desna (except Traftar) and performed a harrowing for the group. The group headed back to Brinewall Castle, there they were greeted by a small lizard like creature, who invited them into the castle.

Inside the main hall of the castle Kikonu (a red face Tien man) was directing a play using the Corbie’s as actors. The play quickly turned violent with the Corbie’s attacking. During the bloody skirmish Kokonu vanished and a single Corbie escaped alive up the stairs.

The group pressed on and discovered some gruesome hauntings in the castle: blood dripping down the walls, and a suit of armour animating and attacking. Senja lost a piece of his soul to the undead guard captain.

Plunging deeper downstairs the group found the Castle vault. However, they were unable to make it past the portcullis that blocked the Vault.

Battered and weary they decided that spending the night in a haunted castle was not a good idea, and they headed back to the village cemetery.

There with the aid of Izati and a prayer to Desna Senja was able to recover from the incident with the undead guard captain.

• Whispering Shrike was given by Izati to Hirohito
• The group found a +1 longsword and an ornate dragon helm (worth 250gp)
• Senja and Izati each used a hero point

Sandru leads the group up into the top spire of Brinewall Castle. [Senja crept into the shadows to spy on the Humanoid spider and is forgotten]. There they find a mute bird-woman. She touches Sandru’s hand and speaks to him in the intimacy of the mind. She asks him to kill Kikonu, apparently he is a poor lover and play-write.

The group leave Zaiobe and fight their way through lizard-men and into the Castle Dungeon / Kitchen. They then fight a retreating battle back up the way they came with a horde of the lizard creatures following them. The battle attracts more repugnant reptiles, some who flee deeper into the castle.

The group fight their way out of castle [and find Senja in a battle with the man-spider] and flee to the sanctuary of their caravan.

Despite being almost gutted in the first encounter with the bird men residents of Brinewall Castle, the group quickly makes mincemeat of the fowl creatures. They proceed into the castle quickly killing a giant spider in the courtyard, but they avoid the ‘human’ spider lurking in the shadows. The bird men retaliate by firing the old Castle Balista. However, the ancient siege weapon backfires and explodes, the massive bolt strikes Izati a glancing blow. Sandru declares that they are heroes as he skewers the last of the wounded birdmen.

The road to Brinewall narrowed into a thin track through the forest and then disappeared altogether. The caravans were left behind as the group pressed on through the forest on foot. Ameiko Kaijitsu collapsed on the trail and started babbling in Tian. Koya determined that the coma was related to a spirit, and that the solution to the problem is likely to be in Brinewall. A smaller group consisting of Sandru, Traftar, Izati, Rostip and Senja pressed on, while the others remained behind to protect the caravans and look after Ameiko.

After cautiously scouting Brinewall village from the forest the group approaches a caracas of a sea dragon crawling with carrion feeders on the beach. After beating off octopuses feeding on the carcass they secure the horse-sized head of the great beast. How the will drag it back to the caravan is unknown… Sandru was cutting open the belly (with the magical sword whispering shrike), when the were greeted by a strange butterfly creature that introduced itself as Spivey. It claimed to be the caretaker of a Shrine of Desna that they discovered in the graveyard. While it didn’t attack them the group were suspicious of its motives and shooed it away.

Finally the group approached Brinewall Castle. Senja and Rostip scouted around the castle looking for an alternative way in other than the main gate. Senja believes he could climb the walls and he also found a cave down on the beach, that leads to an empty flooded cavern. Perhaps Rostip could squeeze through the arrow slits on the second floor? While he was climbing back up the cliff he dislodged a large rock that fell away loudly. Fortunately the noise was hidden by a loud grating sound from the castle. Unfortunately it was the sound of the main gate being opened.

A small hunting party of three black feathered Birdmen exited the castle by the main gate.

After agreeing to pay the taxes of Riddleport, firing the cook and rehiring the cook as a driver, the carvan continues North. The weather is against you and more summer storms lash the caravan. Hirohito is half drowned in the last storm (water elemental). But the party prevails over the elements.

After just over three days travel you are nearing village of Brinewall. On the fourth day Rostip assures you that just beyond the light forest is the village of Brinewall itself.

The caravan winds its way through the towns of Galdurian, Wolf’s Ear, Rodericks Cove and finally arrives in Riddleport.

Sandru is unwilling to pay for his permit to park his wagons in the common area and brought to the house of one of the local Captain’s. The Captain is dressed as a noble man, and has a small scar on this cheek. He quickly becomes board with Sandru and leaves the paperwork and haggling over price to his Sectary ‘James’, a burly man carrying a parchment board and stylus.

The next session starts with Sandru singing a lullaby to James.

The unexplored shipwrecks in the nearby swamp are not as interesting as the mystery of the settlement of distance Brinewall, did Ameiko’s family truly come from there, what happened to them?

Sandru marshals his friends and allies into readying the caravan for a journey to Brinewall. The fire-damaged wagons are repaired and a new covered wagon purchased.

Trade goods (glass, noble clothing, and trinkets), repair materials and food supplies are purchased, while drivers’ cooks and wainwrights are hired.

The hired caravan guide Rostip sets them on their path towards Brinewall.

After one false start (with the provisions left behind) the caravan finally rolls out of Sandpoint and heads North towards their first trading stop of Windsong Abbey.

One of the new drivers, Hirohito, seems to have trouble controlling his wagon, and breaks a wheel on the first day. He has similar troubles the second day. The third day brought a summer storm. Finally after five days they arrive at the abbey, already two days behind schedule.

Sandru spends many hours going over his supplies, and money books and realized he is bleeding gold. The delays are (literally) eating into any profit he makes selling glass to the nuns of Windsong Abbey.

Details of the caravan can be found here…

Sandru, Senja, Izati and Traftar return to Sandpoint and are given a hero’s welcome. A feast is held in the Rusty Dragon tavern and Sandru spends all the night telling the townsfolk of his heroic tale.

Meanwhile, Izati rummages through the treasures they discovered in the caverns. Izati spots one of the guards from the caravan, a Tian by the name of Hirohito and shows him the sword they found.

On examining the sword Traftar finds a secret compartment within it. Within a mithral scroll case they find a letter from Ameiko’s Grandfather that was intended for Ameiko’s father it appears they he never received it.

Ameiko becomes fascinated with her family history and that they may come from Brinewall. She offers Sandru 2000 gp to repair his caravan and take her to Brinewall.

Aided by a crude map found on the back of a Tian paper-fan, Traftar tracked the skeletons through the swamp and back to their lair in the Brinestump caverns. After receiving concussion from falling out of a tree, Sandru fearlessly leads his troop into the cavern. There he scared a spider back up into it lair, lead the group into an ambush by half a dozen skeletons. Senja found the last surviving goblin of the licktoad-tribe hiding within a treasure chest filled with fireworks. Feeling guilty over slaughtering the tribe members that survived they spared poor little Chuffy. Creeping into the final chamber Senja is challenged by the leader of the skeletons a skeletal samurai wielding wakizashi. A deadly battle follows, with the Samurai cutting down, Senja and then Traftar and Izati in quick deadly strokes. Fortunately, Sandru uses in wand of cure light wounds to great effect to save the lives of his companions. Chuffy used the distraction of the battle to make off with a small treasure chest (Koya’s jewellery box). Senja immediately over cover came his guilt on slaughtering a village worth of goblin’s and hunted down the fleeing goblin, who became a snack for a giant spider.

Treasure:
The skeletons have stored the whole cause of their obsession in this cavern, locked away inside a large jade and cherry wood chest. The chest weighs just over 50 pounds with all of its contents, and is worth 250 gp if undamaged. It’s obvious that many objects (mostly fireworks and potions) have been removed from numerous slots in the chest’s velvet-lined interior—
the handiwork of the Licktoad goblins. However, the chest still holds five potions of cure light wounds, two potions of cure moderate wounds, three potions of lesser restoration, a ring of climbing, a wand of identify with 19 charges, a masterwork chain shirt, a masterwork cold iron wakizashi, 11 Desnan candles, and four skyrockets, in addition to 3,820 sp, 421 gp, and various pieces of fine jewellery worth 560 gp total.

Traftar also recovered another masterwork chain shirt and a magical wakizashi (whispering shrike) from the undead samurai that you defeated.

Inside the Chief Gutwad’s throne Izati finds is a single beautiful red chest. This chest, is itself a work of art—if the mud and filth that encrust its lacquered sides and velvet interior are cleaned off. Traftar and Senja recognise the chest and its delicate etchings of cranes and frogs playing along a beach as being of Minkai manufacture.
Inside the chest lies the remaining treasure of the Licktoad tribe: six masterwork shuriken, 329 sp and 112 gp in loose coins, a long hairpin with a red pearl at one end worth 150 gp, and a gold-and-ivory fan depicting a gecko walking amid cherry blossoms. The fan is worth 80 gp, but a crude map has been painted on the reverse side. The map is messy but Sandru was able to decipher it. The map depicts Brinestump Marsh, along with the locations of two shipwrecks and a cave.

Traftar skilfully cuts the heads off the two creatures that are only known as the ‘Sandpoint Devil’, despite his skill with the hunting knife, Traftar is covered in gore and smells as horrid as the foul creatures. He bags the two heads as trophies and proof that they are heros.

In the pre-dawn light Sandru, Traftar, Senja and Izanti decide to push onto the Goblin Village. Traftar raises a concern that perhaps four heros should not try fight the entire Lickload tribe. Sandru suggest they heroically sneak in find Koya’s jewellery box and then run for it. With a boost from Izanti he climbs up the outside of the village wall to peer into a second story window. There he sees a strange sight. An unconscious goblin, surround by broken humanoid bones… the goblin strangely has a hand stuffed in its mouth.

The group discover that the village gate is smashed… outwards. They wander into the strangely quiet village and hide in the room with the unconscious goblin. They discuss its fate, should they revive it and try and befriend it, our should they kill it? Brother Senja suggest they seek a peaceful solution, Sandru says it is too dangerous and the goblin should be killed. Senja reaches down and shatters it ribcage with a single punch stopping its heart instantly.

While urging that a peaceful solution be found, Senja leads the party through the village. Firstly the party come across cowering goblins, which are promptly killed by well placed punches and calmly lethal kicks by the humble monk. Then the party encounters firmer resistance to their invasion of the village, a goblin grenade thrower… who is quickly dispatched by Brother Senja. Finally the entire village is roused and confronts the party, led by an irate female goblin wearing a bridal veil.

Hard pressed for a while the party regroups under a timely tune by Sandru, and they kill all the goblin defenders. They follow those goblins that flee to the last goblin refuge in the village, Chief Gutwad’s hut.

Senja rips the large double doors off their hinges and the final battle ensues. One-by-one Chief Gutwad’s minions are killed, leaving the chief surrounded by hostile hero’s. In a desperate move the Chief lights a large firework and prepares to go out in a bang. He is struck down by the hero’s, all of whom flee, apart from Traftar who tries to smoother the firework with the fat Chief’s corpse. The firework explodes, sending bits of Goblin blasting all over the throne room.

The real Warden of the swamp, Walthus Proudstump, came downstairs after the fight with the strange faceless swamp-creature was over. Badly weakened by the creature’s touch Walthus was grateful to the Sandru, Izanti, Amieko, Traftar, and Senja for saving him for the shape-changing creature.

After a safe night’s rest in Walthus house the group headed off in search of the Goblin Village. Traftar found some strange tracks from a large bipedal creature and the party followed them deeper into the swamp. They led to a small mound, with a shallow den within.

Inside they were horrified to find the grisly remains of a several murdered townsfolk and travellers. What ever lived in the den had been preying on travellers for several years. Fortunately it wasn’t home.

In the fading light the decided to press on and not wait for the creature to find them at it’s Den. Finally they stopped to make camp an hour’s walk outside the Goblin Village. The night was restless for Traftar and Senja, who glimpsed dark shapes out of the corners of their eyes. Senja was plagued with dark thoughts, feeling unwelcome in a strange land where he barely spoke the language.

During Izati’s watch the legendary Sandpoint-Devil appeared directly infront of him startling him from his prayers to Desna-the God of Luck. Fortunately Izati’s luck was with him and the creature impaled itself on his spear. Another creature emerged from the shadows and a battle was fought in the darkness. The hero’s were victorious and the sources of their fears and horrors laid before them in the pre-dawn light.

After his caravan was raided by firework-wielding goblins, Sandru gathered a rabble of adventurers from the Rusty Dragon Inn ann organised a Goblin Hunt.

Following the goblin tracks the group of adventurers headed directly into the swamp. After a boggy and difficult hour of trekking they turned back and followed the new fish trail into the swamp. The trail led them to the Wardens Hut; a two story building overlooking the lagoon. There they helped the Warden, a Halfling Ranger by the name of Walthus Proudstump. While helping the injured ranger with a group of snakes in his backyard, they party were attacked by the Walthus; whose appearance shifted into some strange faceless swamp creature.