The Journey to Rastor
You set out from Hommlet on a beautiful summer morning. The
fields, woods and meadows of western Manetheren are particularly fine in the early days of Kythorn, and despite the somber gloom of your mission, your hearts
are filled with hope for the future. As you enjoy the leisurely ride toward the nearing Thunder Peaks, your voices occasionally ring out with laughter as
friendly banter and stories are shared. But by mid-afternoon, you can see dark clouds looming over the mountains. The downpour strikes soon after, and though
you find shelter and the heavy rain only lasts for an hour or so, it is still enough to turn your road to a soggy, muddy mess. You continue on through
continuing light rain and drizzle, a chill wind seeking the gaps in your heavy cloaks to send shivers through your wet skin. You camp in a relatively dry
wooded area (found thanks to Xian's camping know-how) shortly after turning off the Tilverton road toward Rastor. The rain continues on into the night, and
supper is a cold and wet affair.
*Random Encounter Check*
Your second day of travel begins far less pleasantly than the first. The drizzling rain sputtered
off-and-on through the night, and it's not until mid-morning that the sun finally peeks through a break in the clouds. The rain finally dwindles and dies,
though the clouds stay on. Late on the second day of your journey, as you exit a small forested area, far ahead you finally see the village of Rastor nestled
in the lower reaches of the Thunder Peaks. The village seems to be a sad, dark blot on the side of the mountain, its buildings all somber stone and drab, soggy
wooden affairs without a single splash of color. As you draw nearer, you don't see anything to improve that initial impression; the entire hamlet looks to
be about 25 buildings, all sharing the same weather-beaten, downtrodden demeanor. Due to your westward travel into the mountains, it's well past nightfall
before you actually enter the village.
Few people are visible, but with a single question you can quickly learn that the Gray Lodge is the only tavern in town (and the only place that will offer beds to outsiders). You enter the dim, smoky room (aren't ALL taverns smoky?) to the somewhat surprised stares of about a dozen locals. The weary bartender, a balding heavyset man, sets down the dirty glass he'd been wiping and grunts a wary greeting.
"Awful lot of ye, ain't there?" Yarick drawls before launching an impressive mouthful of
chaw toward the nearby spittoon.
Elda and Freena are the barmaids; they're still maids because there's just not enough alcohol
in the world to make 'em pretty.
You're barely into your second mug when you're surprised to see several orcs enter the room! Even more surprising is the fact that the rest of the patrons seem to recognize and accept the orcs, judging by their cursory glances at the pair before turning back to their own drinks. The orcs are dressed in nondescript clothing, though one carries a hatchet on his belt. If not for their green skin, they would almost perfectly blend in with the other patrons of the Lodge.
Almost immediately after the orcs sit down with their drinks, a well-dressed elderly dwarf enters the room. He pauses, his eyes briefly scanning the room until they lock on your group. He makes a show of stomping the mud from his boots as he assesses your party, then with a nod to the bartender for a drink he approaches you.
"Well met. Name's Rerrid Hammersong. By default, I'm the town elder. Heard there was an army of adventurers invading. What brings ye to Rastor?"
As you're regaling Rerrid with your tales of high
adventure, another dwarf bursts into the room. She unsuccessfully tries to act nonchalant, but her panting breath reveals that she'd been in a hurry to get
here. She casually saunters over to your table, realizes halfway there that she's failed completely, and offers an embarassed mutter of greeting to Rerrid.
He chuckles. "Good evening Thandie, say hello to the adventurers who are passing through. This is Thandain
Deeperdark, cobbler and leatherworker extraordinaire, and one of Rastor's better citizens."
Questions for Rerrid and Thandain:
Where can we find Tal Chalmish?
"Tal Chalmish?? He's a hired hand. He does occasional drover work. What would you want with him? …Well, ye can prob'ly sit right here and wait for him to get here. He's in here drinkin' most nights. Ye can't miss him - he's the only redhead in town."
What's with the Temple of All-Consumption?
"The temple? Can't say I know too much about it, though 'most everyone around here knows it's there. They're not the most savory crowd, but then neither are we most days. They're a quiet bunch though. They send people down here to town once in a while, but usually all we see of 'em are the merchant wagons passing through. You thinkin' about going up there? You should talk to Tymerian before ye do. She's been up there, an' she's seen some stuff that may change yer minds 'bout poking your noses into that place. She used ta be an adventurer like yerselves, but know that her entire party went up there about a month ago, an' she was the only one to crawl back outta that hole. She's took up residence here ever since. Good thing too - it's kinda handy to have a wizard 'round town, though she tends to cry a lot."
What do you know about Tharizdun?
"Tharizz-what? Never heard of him."
Why are there orcs here?
"Orcs? Yeah, there's an orc town 'bout half a mile over thataway. Been there so long that.., (Rerrid leans back and yells at the orcs at the bar) everyone's gotten used to the smell - yeah, I'm talkin' to YOU, Uggrot! (chuckle) Odd, I know, decent folk an' orcs livin' peacable, but ain't there an entire orc kingdom somewhere up north? I guess times are changin'. Anyway, the orcs are farmer types. They ain't spoilin' for a fight, and it seems they like havin' access to easy trade when merchants come through. It may be weird, but it works for us."
What do you know about the Hearthammer/Saltheart Clan?
"Not much, I'm afraid. I've lived here in
Rastor for 'bout twenty years, so all that happened a long time before me. I've heard tell that a coupla Hearthammer dwarves came through town and
bought passage for themselves an' about fifty dwarf children, headin' fer Shieldgaard."
(I'm still trying to second-guess probable questions that the party'll ask, so I'm welcoming suggestions.)
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Tymerian's Story
"I was part of an adventuring group. We called ourselves the Order of the Jade Fist... It was a joke really, between Erdso and Vister. Erdso was a disciple of the Jade Falcon, and Vister was a paladin of Torm, and they came up with the name one night while we were on the road, sitting around a campfire...
There were six of us. Vister, Erdso, me, Jurrikath, Flan, and Brother Maynard. We'd heard the story about the old dwarven mines up there, and how the clerics chased the dwarves from their home years ago. It sounded like a great adventure - Jurrikath kept singing songs about how we'd become rich and famous like the Band of the Hand or the Heroes of Hommlet, but... *tears well up*
Sorry... it's still not easy for me to talk about it. We'd done pretty well adventuring, until we went up there. I had a flying carpet we could all ride... it gave us a really good look at the whole place before we went in. It was supposed to be easy.
We bypassed the mines themselves and went straight for the center island. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. *sketches a map of the overview* There were three bridges from the crater's rim across the water to the middle island, and there were towers all around the island that we didn't really notice at first. But in the middle of the island was this jet-black tower... Vister wanted to go straight for it, so I brought us in low. We barely cleared the crater's rim before the first lightning bolt hit us from one of those towers. I managed to turn the carpet and avoid the worst of that one, but two more hit us cross-wise and I just couldn't get us out of the way. The carpet was falling apart. It was all I could do just to steer us onto one of the bridges rather than crashing in the lake. We barely survived the crash, but Brother Maynard healed everyone and Vister led the charge to the island. We made it all the way there without any more trouble, but there was a huge door at the end of the bridge. It wouldn't open. Maynard and I tried some spells, but then Jurrikath spotted a whole bunch of guards - and hill giants - coming our way from the other end of the bridge.
I think we could have beaten them if we were given the chance. The door opened. We thought we were ready for anything, but we didn't expect to see a RED DRAGON waiting for us! Flan and Vister charged it with their swords, but it breathed fire and Flan died right away. Vister was on fire and he jumped in the lake, even with his armor on and everything. The dragon told us to surrender, and with both warriors dead we had to do it. The dragon reached down into the water and pulled Vister's body out. The guards took us inside, and a man in red and black armor was waiting for us there in the dragon's lair. He laughed at us and called us fools.
He asked me questions. I didn't have answers, so he came up close. It wasn't until he was staring me in the eyes that I realized he was a vampire. I saw his teeth. He didn't bite me, he only touched me and I could feel him taking away my life energy. He did the same to Erdso and Jurrikath, but then Maynard tried to use his holy symbol and drive the vampire away. The vampire bit out his throat and killed him... it let him bleed out onto the ground until he died. I was terrified. I didn't want to spend eternity as a vampire's undead slave... I knew my necklace would keep me alive underwater, so I ran out onto the bridge and jumped in before anyone could catch me.
They didn't chase after me, and I hid underwater for a long time. By the time I came back to the surface to see what was happening everyone was gone and the door was shut again. I swam to the crater's rim and I was almost discovered by a patrol of fishmen, but I turned myself invisible and they swam right by me. I waited until nightfall, then I climbed out of the crater and slowly made my way back to Rastor.
I didn't save my friends, I just turned and ran. They're still in there and I'm not... I hope they're all dead, and I feel horrible for thinking that. But they'd be better off dead than in that monster's hands. I still haven't ever regained the strength that vampire stole from me, and he only touched me. What has he done to my friends??" *starts sobbing again*
