| Forgotten Realms Campaign 2001 6 August, 2001 |
Player Characters
Taking their leave of the Zhent caravan, the party headed southwest along the trade route that ran from the ruins of Tilverton to Scornubel in the Western Heartlands. They travelled through the frontier-like "no mans land" between the Sunset Mountains and the Stormhorns.
3 days after leaving the caravan, on 30 Eleasis, the party arrived at a small village built at the crossroad of two caravan trails about a half-day's ride north of the Marsh of Tun. The village was called Oligo, and it was rebuilding itelf after several bad months of little to no trade, heartened rumors of renewed trade.
Lodging at the Sunrise Inn, the party's news that a large caravan was coming through soon made them popular for the evening.
The owner of the Sunrise Inn offered the party a job helping to clear the trade route between Oligo and Darkhold. There had been rumors of manticore attacks on the road through the Sunset Mountains, and that could be very bad for business. Another party of adventurers had been hired a month ago to take care of the problem, but nothing had been heard from them since then. Since they were headed that way anyway, and since at worst it would only extend their trip back to Silverymoon by a tenday, Fraugh, Hoshi, Mills, Sam and Thartok agreed to take the job.
On their second day out of Oligo, on 2 Eleint, walked up on a group of bandits holding up a 3-wagon caravan. Sam and Hoshi sneaked into the woods to one side of the trail as the rest moved into full view of the wagons and bandits. The leader of the bandits warned the party that it was not their affair and they could just keep walking.
Mills and the bandit swapped words, and then Mills cast hold person on the bandit leader. The bandits attacked the party, but it went badly for them. 2 of the bandits escaped into the forest, while the rest were beat down.
After the scuffle, the bandit leader was questioned by Mills, assisted by Sam. Mills asked questions, and Sam poked the bandit with his dagger when the answers weren't as forthcoming as the halfling thought they should be. Berimir, the leader of the small caravan, said that his guards had been killed by a couple of giants about 20 miles back. The bandit leader admitted he knew of the giants, but didn't know about any manticores.
The five surviving bandits were bundled onto the wagons to be taken back to Oligo for trial. Berimir, a tailor in Oligo, told the party they could have custom-made outfits should they return to Oligo.
Not wanting to take on the giants today, the party went only 10 miles further along the trail before setting up camp.
The next day, the party sneaked up and attacked 2 hill giants that were guarding a narrow bridge. The battle was over quickly, though Hoshi, Mills, and Thartok had to chase down one of the giants to finish him.
After the battle, a man climbed up from the deep gorge that the bridge crossed over. He said his name was Finglos and that he was the only survivor of a group of adventurers that had been sent to take care of the manticores. He had just escaped while the manticores were out hunting, but he was excited to find the party. He told them that they could help him avenge his dead comrades if they would come down and help him ambush the manticores.
Mills detected that Finglos was under an enchantment, and the party refused to go down the cliff with him. Upset, Finglos headed back down the cliff by himself, claiming that if he had to die trying, that's what he would do.
The party moved a couple miles down the trail and setup camp for the night.
During the first watch, 2 lanterns came to life, illuminating the party as they slept, providing just enough light for the manticores flying overhead to be able to shoot their tailspikes at them. Sam, who was on watch, saw a dark form fleeing into the night as the party awoke.
It was a confusing battle, as the manticores preferred to stay aloft, in the dark sky. Eventually, though, between magic thrown upwards by Fraugh and Mills, a dagger thrown repeatedly by Sam, and a few arrows shot by Thartok, the party prevailed.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully.
Everyone received 4000 XP. Mills and Sam became Level 9. [an error occurred while processing this directive]