Adventure 15: Part 3, Back on Derren's Trail
Heading North
There was a short break while Formil took in some training, and during this time the others tried to learn a little of what the people knew of vampires. This proved fruitless for the most part - even the church knows little of these powerful undead. They sought extra information about Derren too, but few marked his progress through Kennington, it's easy to pass through such a cosmopolitan city of this size without being noticed, even as a foreigner.
Eventually they set off towards Cumbria, and the mountains separating Logres from the lands of Saxony beyond. Moving through the civilised lands was uneventful, and the lands seemed to crawl by. Progress was slow, and the monotony of the journey was only matched by the responses of the townsfolk and villagers they met along the way, who had seen little of any passing Gaul foreigner. Their eventual arrival on the north coast of Logres was met with rain, the pleasant spring weather finally gave way as they approached the mountains.
Making prudent enquiries soon assured the party that there were no 'safe' passes across the mountains. It is a dangerous journey, and too narrow in places for caravans to pass easily. Being the hardy sort that they are, the party felt that a journey of such danger would make a welcome change from the tedium they'd experienced on their route northwards. Searching the local shops, they purchased blankets, tents and wet weather gear which they felt would be useful in the crossing of the mountains in late spring.
Across the Mountain Pass
For two and a half days the party trudged up the mountains. The weather grew wetter and cooler, and it began to dawn on the party why traders did not like this route. The pathways were becoming narrow in places, with no room to run the horses. The last night before reaching the flat height of the pass was the coldest they'd experienced since arriving in Logres.
Passing through the long thin trail which wound between peaks up here proved the most interesting section of the journey. As they left the narrowest place, an ambush by mountain giants was sprung. Unusually, nobody really spotted the incoming giants until the last minute - normally such creatures are visible from a long way off. The fight, however, was short and brutal. Fireballs flew and Formil's axe darted left then right, and in just a few seconds, the ambushers were felled; the party were now showing their real teeth in such situations. They continued their journey, leaving the bodies of the dead giants strewn over the pass as a warning to others that might set up ambushes in this place.
Another three days were needed for the party to travel down from the highlands to the foothills of Wurttemburg, where they arrived at the Saxony town of Manah. Here the party spent their first night in civilisation for a week. Manah was a mining and charcoaling town, and had a grimy, soot-encrusted, almost greasy feel to it. It rested in the shadow of the mountains to the south, which meant it was a cold place too. A few questions were asked about the passage of Charles Derren, and a few vaguely recalled seeing him two months ago. At least the party had confirmed that they were moving on the right trail.
North through Saxony
They moved north from Manah, and passed through Schuren the following evening. This seemed a nicer place to stay, the locals were mostly farmer and woodcutters. There was also the recollection of Derren passing through here too, so the party continued along the same route, and moved on to Hobsch which was another large farming village.
The next place they arrived at was Daval, which was much larger than the other places they'd seen so far in Saxony. This place had a magic-user's guild, which took Randy's attention. They had clear recollection of Derren's visit here as he had been staying with the local baron. He spent some time visiting parts of the baron's estate, and had also spent time looking at the spells available in the Magic Users Guild. The party decided to try and gather information from the local barony; they visited, claiming to be messengers seeking Charles Derren, and that they had a message from his assistant Yanneg. They looked foolish, however, when the officials pointed out that both Derren and Yanneg had left the barony together only two months previously, and they did not know why Yanneg would try to contact his friend in this way. Feeling rather foolish, the party moved on.
The next stop along the trail was at a place called Corama, which is another agricultural town. Here they also had a watermill on the fast flowing river that passed down here from the mountains to the south which processed ores and produced metal from which they produced fine weapons. Passing through this place, the party hardly noticed the weapon-making tradition; they found little here to suggest that Derren had passed through, but they kept going along the trail.
The party moved into Luzemburg and arrived at the sprawling farming community at Sugriev. Here the people seemed to be spread out over a large area, making the most of the fertile farmlands in this plain. There was some difficulty finding suitable accommodation for the evening, but they eventually found a large enough inn among the spread-out villages of the region. Here, once again, people were unsure about whether a Gaul traveller had been through; some had vague recollections, but nobody was prepared to say they had definitely seen Derren.
The next town was the district capital, Genova. Here they had a magic user guild, something that pleased Randy. Here they confirmed that they were still on the right track. Derren had visited the guild, and had been looking at the magical spells that they had available. From here the party headed north through Domarius and Frankstirol, keeping close to Derren's trail; and they then headed into Nurnburg arriving at Halmstadt.
Here the party had other confirmed sightings of Derren, and they also heard a little more about what his plans were. Derren had visited the local baron here, Baron Cedric Pfeiffer, and had mentioned visits to both the Volkstan estate, which is to the west of Lingoze (where Halmstadt is) and visiting the former elfish home at Temara, away to the northeast, higher in the mountains. The party now had two places to visit.
Heading to Volkstan, the party went first to the run-down village of Lubgart, which is on the edge of that estate. People soon told how the place had been without a feudal baron for three years. The next town was Emmesch, which is the seat of the Barony. Derren, it seemed, spent a week here in discussions with the local Steward. The party could not find out what Derren was doing here with the steward, or why the local Graf had not appointed a new baron yet. The party passed next through the village of Ohnekorb, which is north of Lubgart, and on the way to Temara. Derren stopped off here, but the dates they heard from the locals were a little mixed up.
Next the party went up into the mountains to the old elf-dwelling at Temara. It was still possible to feel the elfish presence here, although it is many long years since they moved out. The party spent a few days here, trying to work out what Derren was looking for. There were some level platform areas, with shelter from the east, but which had a good view westward over the plains of Bavaria and Luzemburg, and to the setting sun beyond the far mountains. The party also detected a brooding presence here, something that would probably force the elves who lived here before to move on. This place no longer carries the special marks that attracted the elves in the first place. Once again, the party moved on, heading north once again.
The next place they encountered was the thriving market town and agricultural community of Grole. The party heard of the passing of Charles Derren through here, and followed the trail further northwards. The next town was a small mining and ore marketing town of Zorff. Here they handled shipments of ore coming down from several of the mining colonies up to the east, and shipping out to the south to Grole and Halmstadt, and to Graddon in Bavaria to the north. Few here recalled Derren, but the party knew they were on the right trail.
An Invasion in Town
After staying a night in Zorff, the party left early in the morning. They continued north up the road, and by early afternoon were meeting peasants passing southwards, refugees carrying their possessions on handcarts and packed onto mules. These people told a harrowing story - of giants invading their town, killing their guards and taking over their town, Konas. These poor people had escaped with little more than the few items they carried; they had no money, no food, and no homes. The party were incensed at the barbaric giants (and, it should be noted, a little excited at the opportunity to fight them) and hurried north.
Not far from the town, the party encountered a column of dwarfs who were on much the same mission; they'd heard of the invasion and were coming to help their neighbours of the town - a purely altruistic gesture, of course. They agreed to work together with the party; the dwarves were mildly amused by the prospect of using 'tactics' in a rumble of this size, but were willing to humour the party and let them devise a plan. They camped overnight and moved in close for an assault the next morning.
The giants, it would appear, had been busy. The town was originally defended by diked banks, but these were spaced over. The giants had taken stones from the outlying buildings and closed in any gaps in the dike defences. This would be a more tricky assault than the party had originally expected. The giants were dug in and expecting attack. The quickly formulated plan involved Fax approaching the new constructions in the shape of a small mammal, and using his Stone Shape spell to pull out part of the new wall constructions with the hope of making it fall. They carried this plan out, and the wall fell away, not as much as expected, but enough to leave a nice gently rise which the others could climb.
The party and the dwarves moved quickly over the clearing and up the wall, where some fighting took place. As planned, the party broke to the left and the dwarves to the right at the top of the bank. They encountered more resistance, and this continued as more giants moved from the other side of the town to aid the defence at the breach. Eventually the dwarves and the party had stopped all the giants who had been defending the walls; one of the younger and less experienced dwarves had fallen in the fighting, but Insorce and Fax helped out by sharing out their healing.
The fight had not provided any clear group leaders; they soon discovered that the church building in the middle of the town had been barricaded shut. With many of their healing support spells gone, the party decided to watch over the church and rest. Whoever was inside, they figured, was going nowhere. They organised watches between themselves, and asked the dwarfs to help out. They occupied buildings overlooking the church entrances, and rested. Partway through the night a couple of giants squeezed through the smaller back entrance to the church and took a quick look around. The giants soon went back inside.
Early in the morning, the party assembled for an assault on the main door of the church. There was no easy way in, they just beat their way through the entrance, eventually pushing the barricade aside. Inside the giants were waiting. The fight was brief, the dwarfs and the party swamped them quickly.
There was more fighting to be done downstairs - here they found the giant leader who had holed up in the under-croft. He was a tough opponent, but the conditions were not good for him. Also down here, they found that many of the townsfolk had been rounded up and locked away in one of the crypts, they'd had no food or water for two days and were looking poorly. They were rescued, and the town saved. Fax needed to train, and the townsfolk had plenty of rebuilding to do. Runners were sent north and south to ask the refugees to return, and the party headed west to a town which had a small druid shrine outside.
Another Feast of Glory
When they returned from their training expedition (they'd been away for two and a half weeks), they could see how much work had been done. The dwarfs had stayed around and helped with the building work, and the town was looking much more normal by now. A huge feast was held to honour the glory of the party and the dwarfs who had freed the town. The party liked this kind of attention.
The feast gave them a chance to ask about Charles Derren. With all that had happened, nobody seemed to recall events from before three weeks ago. The party drew a blank on this line here, but it didn't mean they were on the wrong trail. The following day they continued on their journey north.
Back on the Road North
The next stop along the way was Kinnerhaus, which was the last town before they entered Bavaria. Kinnerhaus was an agricultural and mining town, with some industrial output too. The party headed out northwards from here, arriving at the mining village of Johant the next evening. Here they picked up the trail of Derren again; a few had seen him pass through several weeks before. The party are directed down to the west into the valley and into the barony of Darmech.
The party arrive first at the town of Bernech which sits on the edge of the barony. Nobody here seems certain that Derren came through, but they do tell that that the baron of Darmech died three months ago; nobody is aware of a surviving heir to the land.
The party press on westwards to Graddon, which is the largest town of the region, and the seat of the heir. Outside of the castle nobody knows why Derren was here, but people do remember seeing him. To find out more the party paid a visit to the steward of the barony. He was a professional man, looking after the estate's affairs earnestly. At first he would not disclose why Derren was here, or why he'd spent the best part of a week looking at the lands of the barony.
While the Steward was professional, he was also pragmatic. Some well-levelled bribery bought information from him. He definitely didn't tell the party that Derren was looking to buy a barony, or that he'd spent time in this place looking around the building, meeting the staff, and touring the grounds. He couldn't tell them that he'd already seen other baronies to the south, or that he was looking at others further to the north too.
A Feathered Messenger
After spending a couple of days in Graddon the party prepared set off for the next town, Balcom. That evening, however, they're disturbed by a small bird knocking at the window, it seemed to be looking for Fax. Once the Druid had let the bird inside, it swooped and circled around the Druid, until he uses his druidic abilities to converse with the small creature.
The little bird turned out to be a messenger from the druidic grove the party left only a week or two before. They were issuing a summons for help from any nearby; they had a problem. The party made an immediate change of plan, and turned round upon their journey. Fax sent the bird back to inform the druids that he and his friends would be along shortly, and the next day they set off southwards.
Several days later they once again passed through Zorff where the locals were pleased to see them, before they headed down into the valley and to the grove.
Abominations
The head druid was very pleased to see the Elf and his friends. He filled them in about the problems he'd encountered. Nearby, there was an old ruined tower; it has been deserted for some time, but recently it seemed a wizard had moved in. He'd been creating abominations from the local wildlife, mixing creature species in a completely unnatural way. The druids find this very distasteful, and an affront to the way of nature. They ask for help - they'd go themselves, but the druids at the grove are very inexperienced, and the leader needs to train them before he could undertake any kind of task like this.
The party needed no convincing; they agreed to do the job immediately. Abominations are not needed here or anywhere else.
Setting out for the tower, the party crossed the rolling foothills; they had a good view of the crumbling ruin from a long way off, but this meant they couldn't cross the intervening land without being seen. The tower was clearly old and in poor shape; it was once surrounded by a high wall which had crumbled to nothing in places, and tower itself seemed to have little more than one or two floors left above the ground.
The area around the tower was patrolled by a type of creature that seemed to be a cross between a horse and a bear; there was a small herd of them. With some effort, the party neutralised these. Despite the ruined nature of the tower, the door looks in good condition and the tower was heftily constructed. Using the druids Stone Shape spell, they managed to open a small tunnel next to the door. The wall was thicker here than they'd anticipated, but they broke a hole through to view the area behind the door. They were surprised to find the presence of Dire Bears in the room, and so retreated to put a plan together. They decided to use the Druid's spells again; this time he learned Warp Wood and used it to spring the heavy wood door. Randy's Magic Missile seemed to really annoy the front bear who charged straight at him, overrunning Formil and Insorce who tried to hold their line at the entrance. The two dwarfs were knocked to the ground by the charging beast who raced over to attack Randy at the back. The others turned against this bear, while Insorce got up and Formil fought the other bear from the ground.
Formil's bear died first, he was barely scratched by it. Insorce moved over to help Jim fight the other bear, and that one was finally killed when Formil made his way over to it.
Now the party could now go inside. The stench in the tower was stomach-churning; there was animal excrement mixed in among the straw on the floor. Several smaller animals were also found on the entrance level - small creatures that seemed to be an odd cross between wolves and ponies. These posed little threat to Formil, and they pressed on to the stairwell. They made a quick search upstairs, but it was rotten and collapsed upper floor, and so they made their way underground.
Downstairs they found the animal storage room. Small animals were caged in one room; a set of animals that included badgers, foxes, cats and similar sized beasts. Randy tried to converse with the 'burrowing mammals', that is the badgers, and didn't get very far. They desperately wanted to be released, and promised to answer all his questions if they were set free. Randy argued with them; an argument that he didn't win. It seemed the badgers were really more interested in preserving themselves than helping the gnome. When they'd finally decided what they were going to do, that was leave the beasts in their cages until the party had made the tower safe from the wizard, he'd wasted his minute of conversation, and couldn't tell them of the plan. He felt sure they were talking about him in their badger language as the party moved on out of the room.
On the other side of the tower the party found another animal storage room, this time containing large creatures; these were in more substantial cages and were boarded off from each other. Among the large creatures was wyrm-like lizard, larger than a man, a couple of large cats - probably panthers, and some large wolves. The party also found some more stairs down - and down there the smell of animal was even stronger.
The broad and shallow steps lead down into darkness. The party found themselves in a small stairwell which led to some kind of workshop. As he opened the door here, Formil was greeted by the sight of a large cage containing a bear, and a wizard casting a spell. The Magic Missiles hit Formil full on, and the wizard very quickly became invisible. Formil charged over to where the wizard had been and swung his axe. Nothing.
The others piled into the room; Fax spotted that the cage was ajar, they could be pounced on by a large bear at any moment! The metal cage lock peg was not here, so Formil handed him an arrow, which he jammed into the catch. Only just in time as the bear leapt forward trying to get out of the cage; the arrow head didn't quite fit the catch, and Fax struggled to keep the arrow head forced in to hold the cage closed.
Formil moved over to cover the far door, which was still closed, and when he heard the wizard nearby casting another spell, he let fly with a couple of arrows. The wizard had summoned a Shadow Mastiff, which appeared next to Jim and Fax, and immediately began fighting. Randy repeatedly tried to dispel the magic that the wizard was using to remain hidden. Next the wizard appeared briefly when casting Ice Storm, then used his Invisibility once more quickly to disappear from sight. Now the party had an idea where he was; Randy hit him with a Web spell, which covered the bear too, and held him in place. He still couldn't be seen, but now they knew exactly where he was.
Formil stepped away from the door and into the web. He swung his axe. One swing connected with something, just as he was hit with another Magic Missile spell. The wizard appeared and this time had no Invisibility left. He fell in a hail of axe blows. Formil tugged himself through the web and over to the bear; which died in a similar manner to the wizard.
Quiet descended; the party were able to catch their breath, and search the body of the wizard. They found a magical dagger and a magical ring. These they put away for later. They continued their exploration, but down here they found only another storage room for live animals (which was empty) and the wizards bedroom. There was a chest in this last room though, and Jim managed to find and disable the gas trap that had been placed upon the chest. He completely missed the magical Fire Trap spell however, which blew up in his face when he opened the chest. Inside was the wizards spell book, and a large bag of gold coins.
With all the danger clear, the party turned their attention to how they were going to release the caged and trapped animals. The small animals were simple enough, the Druid's affinity with them really helped. They released the big cats too, the Druid's Charm Animal or Person spell came in useful here. The other creatures, however, were the subject of some debate. None of these were truly natural animals; the party were uncomfortable letting them out as there were farmlands within a few hours walk of this tower - it could cause suffering for the local inhabitants. They decided that they would try to put the creatures down - to kill them with as little suffering as they could manage.
They headed back to the Druid's grove and informed the senior Druid of what they had encountered and how they'd dealt with it. He thanked them, and they stayed overnight in the grove.