409 - AUG 31
The session starts at 1430 on 31 August.
As the party rested after its exertions against the moose eating giants, a Dwarf Cleric rode up. He introduced himself as Commick Shattershield, a Cleric of Vulcan. He reported that his High Priest had ordered that Norry return to Trajectum forthwith and that he take Norry's place.
With a resigned shrug, Norry bade his comrades adieu and headed back to Trajectum.
After a welcome hot brew for Commick, the party header out towards the hill fort of Constantine.
As had been the case previously, the Druid addumed wolf form and scouted 100 feet ahead.
It was not long before she detected a group of 8 hobgoblins walking down the trail in a southerly direction. They were actually at ease and were idly chatting. They appeared to be the relief team for the outpost the party slaughtered earlier.
Warning her comrades, the Druid and the rest of the party took up ambush positions along the trail.
The Hobgoblins never had a chance and were butchered in a matter of seconds.
Resuming the march the Druid next encountered a colossal centipede wrapped around a tree trunk. The centipede hurled itself at the druid slamming into her and delivering a painful bite. The Druid was fortunate to avoid being affected by the horror's poison bite, but some og the venom dripped on the wolf's leg and burned painfully.
The Druid feld and tried to draw the centipede on. The vermin pusued briefly, but seeing that its lunch was too fast, returned to its ambush position.
Displaying a total lack of respect for the sanctity of nature and the fact that the centipede was a peaceful forest creature the party moved up to butcher it.
Combat ensued. The centipede proved to be remarkably tough, but was slow and the party murderer's managed to inflict ghastly wounds (Taryyn and Dell being particularly vicious). The centipede did manage to welcome Commick to the party by biting him and causing hims some Dexterity damage with it venom. This was quicly remedied and the poor critter was cut to bits. A semi-digested Hobgoblin was found in the creatures gut.
Scorpius retrieved 4 pints of venom from the centipede and Dell cut off one of the 7 foot long mandibles.
The party moved on and came across a large hill. It was steep and covered in loose rocks and stunted shrubs. It is about 400 feet high, sitting on top of it is a wooden hill fort of German design consisting of the following:
- A square stockade of (360' on each side) made of logs sharpened at the top. Wall is 30' high. There is a walkway on the top of the wall, with guards patrolling along the top (they are behind 2/3 cover).
- Entrance is via a 20' wide gate made up of two large wooden doors secured by an internal bar.
- The fort is surrounded by a 20' wide ditch about 10' deep.
- Three wooden buildings are inside the fort with thatched roofs. Smoke drifts out of them through ventilation holes in the roof.
- A horse corral is located at the rear of the fort and is 300' by 240'. It has 250 horses in it.
- There is a cleared radius of 300' around the fort. Some of this cleared area is being used to grow some sort of crops (probably root vegetables).
- The walls have a number of guards pacing up and down. People are constantly moving about going in and out of the fort. The gates are left open in the daytime.
- Two Harpies are constantly circling
The party hid in the forest and observerd the fort. Scorpius unpacnked his paint box and executed an oil painting depicting the fort.
At 1800 two Harpies flew up to the fort from the north west. They joined the other two Harpies which, after a brief period, flew back the same way. The Druid (in Hawk form) followed.
After a journey of two miles the Harpies were seen to fly into a cave on top of a 300' high crag. A terrible racket was coming from inside the cave and the Druid guessed there might be 20-30 Harpies in there. The Druid looked for other exists but found none, though she noticed the area around the top of the crag was covered in excrement and garbage (OOG - this is an unusally large collection of Harpies that rarely roost in numbers bigger than 10 - 12. Something powerful must be compelling them to stay organised. Also disciplined patrolling such as seems to be happening at the fort is not typical Harpy behaviour).
The Druid returned to the rest of the party to report.
Nothing of note happened at the fort for ther rest of that day and the party retired for the night.
That night, during the first watch, Dell and Aradec heard a racket coming from the fort. Voices could be heards plus the sound of a lot of movement. The noise appeared to be coming from the rear of the fort.
On the 1st September as the party were taking breakfast they heard more noise from the fort.
Taking the form of a Nut Hatch, the Druid flew to the fort to investigate. This is what she saw:
- There was sign of previous considerable movement in the ground behind the corall. The ground was churned up.
- Inside the fort could be seen a large quantity of sacks and barrels.
- An impromptu stage had been set up. An impressive looking man in Germanic armour mounted the stage and proceeded to address a crowd made up of a few hundred Franks, a couple of hundred Hobgoblins and a 150 or so Roman Heavy Cavalry. Aicen had no idea what the warrior was saying but it seemed to be a rousing speech to boost the morale of the Franks. The seemed to like what they heard and cheered raucously. The Romans looked bored.
- Next and impressive middle aged man in the armour of a Roman Legate took the stage. Aicen recognised him as Constantine. Standing behind the stage was a tough looking Roman Soldier (a Tribune) and a Priest of Jupiter.
- Constantine spoke in a mix of Latin and Hobgoblin. He told the crowd that the fort was being threatened and some personnel had been killed in the forest. He was aware of the lost Hobgoblins and the two dead Giants. He told everyone to be vigilant and that patrols would be sent out including aerial surveillance by the Harpies. He concluded by saying that he would be consulting Korkemonos.
Reporting back to the others, Commick had a vague recollection that Korkemenos was some sort of evil Spirit / Demon / Devil that was associated with evil cults, but he wasn't sure of the detail.
Session ended 0930 on September 1 - the weather is overcast and storms look likely.
As the party rested after its exertions against the moose eating giants, a Dwarf Cleric rode up. He introduced himself as Commick Shattershield, a Cleric of Vulcan. He reported that his High Priest had ordered that Norry return to Trajectum forthwith and that he take Norry's place.
With a resigned shrug, Norry bade his comrades adieu and headed back to Trajectum.
After a welcome hot brew for Commick, the party header out towards the hill fort of Constantine.
As had been the case previously, the Druid addumed wolf form and scouted 100 feet ahead.
It was not long before she detected a group of 8 hobgoblins walking down the trail in a southerly direction. They were actually at ease and were idly chatting. They appeared to be the relief team for the outpost the party slaughtered earlier.
Warning her comrades, the Druid and the rest of the party took up ambush positions along the trail.
The Hobgoblins never had a chance and were butchered in a matter of seconds.
Resuming the march the Druid next encountered a colossal centipede wrapped around a tree trunk. The centipede hurled itself at the druid slamming into her and delivering a painful bite. The Druid was fortunate to avoid being affected by the horror's poison bite, but some og the venom dripped on the wolf's leg and burned painfully.
The Druid feld and tried to draw the centipede on. The vermin pusued briefly, but seeing that its lunch was too fast, returned to its ambush position.
Displaying a total lack of respect for the sanctity of nature and the fact that the centipede was a peaceful forest creature the party moved up to butcher it.
Combat ensued. The centipede proved to be remarkably tough, but was slow and the party murderer's managed to inflict ghastly wounds (Taryyn and Dell being particularly vicious). The centipede did manage to welcome Commick to the party by biting him and causing hims some Dexterity damage with it venom. This was quicly remedied and the poor critter was cut to bits. A semi-digested Hobgoblin was found in the creatures gut.
Scorpius retrieved 4 pints of venom from the centipede and Dell cut off one of the 7 foot long mandibles.
The party moved on and came across a large hill. It was steep and covered in loose rocks and stunted shrubs. It is about 400 feet high, sitting on top of it is a wooden hill fort of German design consisting of the following:
- A square stockade of (360' on each side) made of logs sharpened at the top. Wall is 30' high. There is a walkway on the top of the wall, with guards patrolling along the top (they are behind 2/3 cover).
- Entrance is via a 20' wide gate made up of two large wooden doors secured by an internal bar.
- The fort is surrounded by a 20' wide ditch about 10' deep.
- Three wooden buildings are inside the fort with thatched roofs. Smoke drifts out of them through ventilation holes in the roof.
- A horse corral is located at the rear of the fort and is 300' by 240'. It has 250 horses in it.
- There is a cleared radius of 300' around the fort. Some of this cleared area is being used to grow some sort of crops (probably root vegetables).
- The walls have a number of guards pacing up and down. People are constantly moving about going in and out of the fort. The gates are left open in the daytime.
- Two Harpies are constantly circling
The party hid in the forest and observerd the fort. Scorpius unpacnked his paint box and executed an oil painting depicting the fort.
At 1800 two Harpies flew up to the fort from the north west. They joined the other two Harpies which, after a brief period, flew back the same way. The Druid (in Hawk form) followed.
After a journey of two miles the Harpies were seen to fly into a cave on top of a 300' high crag. A terrible racket was coming from inside the cave and the Druid guessed there might be 20-30 Harpies in there. The Druid looked for other exists but found none, though she noticed the area around the top of the crag was covered in excrement and garbage (OOG - this is an unusally large collection of Harpies that rarely roost in numbers bigger than 10 - 12. Something powerful must be compelling them to stay organised. Also disciplined patrolling such as seems to be happening at the fort is not typical Harpy behaviour).
The Druid returned to the rest of the party to report.
Nothing of note happened at the fort for ther rest of that day and the party retired for the night.
That night, during the first watch, Dell and Aradec heard a racket coming from the fort. Voices could be heards plus the sound of a lot of movement. The noise appeared to be coming from the rear of the fort.
On the 1st September as the party were taking breakfast they heard more noise from the fort.
Taking the form of a Nut Hatch, the Druid flew to the fort to investigate. This is what she saw:
- There was sign of previous considerable movement in the ground behind the corall. The ground was churned up.
- Inside the fort could be seen a large quantity of sacks and barrels.
- An impromptu stage had been set up. An impressive looking man in Germanic armour mounted the stage and proceeded to address a crowd made up of a few hundred Franks, a couple of hundred Hobgoblins and a 150 or so Roman Heavy Cavalry. Aicen had no idea what the warrior was saying but it seemed to be a rousing speech to boost the morale of the Franks. The seemed to like what they heard and cheered raucously. The Romans looked bored.
- Next and impressive middle aged man in the armour of a Roman Legate took the stage. Aicen recognised him as Constantine. Standing behind the stage was a tough looking Roman Soldier (a Tribune) and a Priest of Jupiter.
- Constantine spoke in a mix of Latin and Hobgoblin. He told the crowd that the fort was being threatened and some personnel had been killed in the forest. He was aware of the lost Hobgoblins and the two dead Giants. He told everyone to be vigilant and that patrols would be sent out including aerial surveillance by the Harpies. He concluded by saying that he would be consulting Korkemonos.
Reporting back to the others, Commick had a vague recollection that Korkemenos was some sort of evil Spirit / Demon / Devil that was associated with evil cults, but he wasn't sure of the detail.
Session ended 0930 on September 1 - the weather is overcast and storms look likely.