| Forgotten Realms Campaign 2001 23 July, 2001 |
Player Characters
Realizing that they were going to have to travel back to Silverymoon, the party spent 17 Eleasis buying mounts and supplies for the road.
Bright and early on 18 Eleasis, the party left Shadowdale, heading southwest on the North Ride. As they rode, Fraugh spent the day studying one of the spellbooks that had been captured in Myth Drannor.
Staying at an inn the first night, Sam offended a wealthy-looking noblewoman for no apparent reason. Continuing on the next day, they passed by the Spiderhaunt Forest, finally stopping for the night just before the land sloped up to Shadow Gap.
Ettercaps and large spiders attacked the party during the night, webbing them up in an effort to get live prey. Hoshi was on watch when the ettercaps first attacked, but was able to wriggle out of the web that entangled him. Mills was "webbed" to the ground at first, but was eventually cut free. The surviving attackers ran off as the party proved too powerful for them.
Rain fell on the party as they followed the North Ride through Shadow Gap, finally easing up as they crested the south side of the gap. As night fell, the party was approaching the smoking black pit that used to be Tilverton. Cormyrian soldiers directed them around the pit, warning them to stay back from it.
Meeting up with caravan that was camped at Tilverton and preparing to head west the next day, the party hired on as extra guards for 5 gold per day. The following sunrise, 21 Eleasis, the party rolled out with the caravan, heading towards the Stonelands.
After lunch on the 21st, the caravan wagons all flew banners of the Zhentarim. Brakor, the leader of the caravan guards, explained, "We don't fly our banners in the Dalelands to keep from having any trouble. We're out of the Dalelands now, and in the Stonelands it can help keep away some of the worst trouble."
A little troubled about having dealings with the evil Zhents, the party nevertheless decided to stick it out, at least through the Stonelands.
The next morning, the caravan rolled into the rocky waste that is the Stonelands. The weather became drier and dustier as they travelled.
During the days that followed, creatures were spotted moving parallel to the caravan in the rocks on either side of the trail. Brakor upped the nightly watch.
On 24 Eleasis, the caravan came upon a small cairn built of severed human heads and torn Zhent banners. Brakor recognized one of the dead faces as a Zhent agent sent into the Stonelands to arrange safe passage of Zhent caravans. So Brakor upped the number of men on the nightly watch once again.
On the morning of 25 Eleasis, the caravan was attacked. Most of the wagons had already rolled out, only 5 remained to get moving. The party, along with 2 of the regular caravan guards, was stationed at the camp to guard the trailing wagons. The rest of the guards were spread out along the length of the wagons that were already moving.
A large group of gnolls appeared in the rocks behind the wagons, on the far side away from the party and guards. About half of the gnolls opened fire with their bows while the rest charged towards the wagons. The drivers and handlers on the wagons turned out to be the targets of the gnoll archers as the party rushed to defend the wagons. The guards with the party sounded the alarm before moving forward.
The wagons were so close together that the party members crowded each other as they tried to get past them. The gnolls that had charged the wagons, climbed up on the wagons and attacked the drivers and handlers with their battle-axes. Nearly half of the drivers were cut down in the first seconds of the battle. The rest jumped off the wagons and ran off.
The party engaged the forward gnolls and took a heavy toll. A gnoll back with the archers sounded a horn and the surviving gnolls on the wagons attempted to retreat. Hoshi charged after the retreating gnolls on foot, while Fraugh, still on his horse, charged the line of gnoll archers. Stopping about 40 feet from the gnoll archers, Fraugh unleashed his newly learned spell, ice storm, felling a number of them.
When the only gnoll to survive the ice storm quaffed a potion and disappeared, Mills used purge invisibility to reveal the gnoll running away. Hoshi then caught up to the gnoll and killed it as it ran.
Brakor and the rest of the guards came charging up at that point. While amazed at how well the party had done, Brakor had to yell at Hoshi for running off into the rocks alone.
5 drivers, 1 animal handler, and one of the 2 guards that were with the party died as a result of the attack. 2 wagons had to be emptied and abandoned, their contents spread among the other wagons. Sam made a snide comment about no longer having to pay as many drivers and therefore the party should be paid more. This greatly offended Frardof, the caravan master, especially since at least one of the drivers swore he had been struck down by the halfling with a thrown dagger.
Brakor pressed the drivers and handlers into standing watch that night so that there were 8 men constantly on watch.
The following day, the caravan was again being followed by creatures in the rocks, but there were no further attacks.
On 27 Eleasis, the caravan finally rolled out of the Stonelands.
The party decided to leave the caravan, so Frardof paid them off. Though he only owed them 35 gold coins each, he paid them 100 gold coins for their exceptional help in defending the caravan--except for Sam, who got the agreed upon 35 and a glowering look. Brakor presented Mills with a Zhent medallion. "That should lower the tolls for you a bit," the man told Mills, "especially around Darkhold."
Everyone received 4000 XP. Fraugh, Hoshi, and Thartok became Level 9. [an error occurred while processing this directive]