Party break camp and continue along the trail deeper into the Drachensgrab Hills. About midday the party encounter a company of orcs who demand a toll. The party pay toll. Less than an hour later the party encounter another company of orcs who also demand a toll. The party refuse to pay and argue with the orcs. The orcs escort the party to their village to answer to the chief. The party explain the situation to the chief but soon suspect the first group of orcs were not of this tribe. The party try to intimidate the chief with threats as 'slavers' without success. The party pay the toll and continue on down the trail. At sundown the party make camp. Saab and Marcus go off foraging and are captured by Wildmen who believe the party are slavers. The rest of the party are captured and all are taken to the village of the Wildmen. The party convince the Wildmen they are not slavers and discover the Wildmen planned to trade the 'slavers' to the orcs in exchange for Wildmen held captive by the orcs. The party agree to help by going ahead with the trade, as the orcs still believe the party work for the slavers. Rondo is guided back to the orc village to report of the capture of his group and the hostage swap. The rest of the party is guided to the exchange location.
At dawn the Wildmen swap party for the hostages held by Kerella orcs. After swap orc warband sent after Wildmen. Orcs escort party to Kerella orc tribal village and talk to orc chief. Toll is refunded. Party rest briefly then are escorted along the trail toward the stockade. Party and escorting orcs travel all day along the trail and make camp at sundown. Party make a couple of attempts to covertly contact Wildmen but presence of orc escort causes issues. Party recover their mule but draw suspicion of orc escort. Orcs dispatch messenger back to along the trail.
Pre-dawn party attack orc escort, all killed but three orcs that were out on patrol. Party make contact with Wildmen. Wildmen report killing two orcs near party campsite. Party relocate to nearby Wildmen camp and rest until sunrise. Wildmen guide party to within site of Stockade then leave, this takes most of the day. After briefly observing the stockade the party retreat a few miles back from the stockade make camp.
Just after midnight a pair of wolves attack the party camp. One wolf is killed, the other flees. Party relocate camp further away from Stockade and take precautions so other wolves cannot track party by scent. Encounter Wildmen scout later that morning, pre-dawn. Sunrise. Party relocate to yet a new campsite to recover from injuries. Early afternoon Saab and Marcus go hunting and return with a goat. Camp for the the night.
Party break camp and travel through the wooded hills to the stockade. Encounter stockade scouts a couple of miles from stockade. Party claim to be slaver agents from Highport with message from Alforaz. Scouts escort party into stockade. Party given quarters in stable. Icar takes Tellius to report to Markessa. Tellius reports that there has been trouble in the temple at Highport and that the shipment will be delayed. Party rest for a few hours before being put to work repairing the stockade rampart. Rondo gets into fight with one of the guards over objection to being put to work. tribes on the trail. Marcus mingles and gambles with guards to gain information on the stockade. Saab holds conversation with one of the guards. Blackthorn talks privately with Tellius and asks further questions about the trouble at Highport and with the orcs on the trail. Blackthorn gives party keg of drugged ale to drink. Most of the party drink from keg and are drugged. Blackthorn leads ambush on party resting in barn. Party captured and taken to keep dungeons. Party tortured and interrogated. Blackthorn does not believe the party work for Alforaz or are slaver agents.
Torture and interrogations continue to early hour of the morning. Saab gets dream-vision from Telchur of prisoner being walled up in Saab's cell. Saab uses sharp rock to breach walled in area at back of cell. Saab finds skeleton of prisoner.
Rondo constructs sleeping 'dummy' using his shirt and straw, hides from view and ambushes gaoler when door is opened to distribute food. Guards from nearby room rush to help gaoler Lucien picks lock to his cell while guards are distracted and unnoticed frees other party members. Party quickly overcome gaoler and guards and grab their gear from torture room before following Saab through secret exit in cellar. Saab carries a human skull and is behaving strangely. He seems to ignore the party most of the time. Saab's strength and spell abilities appear more powerful than usual. The secret exit leads to a narrow tunnel than spirals downward. The tunnel ends in a cave that opens to the outside. The cave appears to be a large wolf lair though only two wolves are present. Tellius and Rondo engage the wolves and send them fleeing from the cave into the night howling.
Party exit cave and evade pursuit. Wolves heard howling in the distance from multiple directions. Party flee South toward the mountains and stop at midday to rest in a gully. Watch spots a small group of wolves tracking party. Party relocate to defensible rocky crag and prepare defenses. Wolves catch up and attack. Party kill all but 2 wolves, the largest reverts to a human form when killed. Marcus badly injured in attack. Saab renders first aid to Marcus. Party construct stone defenses and camp on rocky crag until the next morning. Edgaar searched unconscious Marcus and observed about 50gp
Saab uses magic to heal Marcus's. Party head South. Camp at midday in cave Saab and Lucien go off hunting and encounter two giant humanoids. Remain in cave for until the next morning. At dark encounter 3 giants.
At sunrise head East looking for trail to Sudderham. No sign of trail. Camp for night
Continue East at sunrise. Mid morning find trail. Head South East along trail. Early after noon spot small caravan (10 mules, 7 guards) heading NW along trail. Party shadow caravan for rest of day until caravan makes camp just before dark.
2 Hill giants join arms caravan as party is closing in to attack. 3 Stone giants make contact with party and join forces with party to attack arms caravan.
Prisoners taken and interrogated, then killed by stone giants. Human prisoner is named Greptha. Merchant's name is Timot (half-orc). Party and Stone giants strike deal. Party will report back on any information about Hill giants co-operating with slavers. Stone giants lead party to secret entrance to Sudderham. Party rest for the night
Stone giants lead party to cave entrance. Arrive at sundown. Party enter cave. Giants wait nearby in rocky crag. They will wait 1 week for party to return with information on Hill giant activity in Sudderham. Party encounter and kill dragon in caves. Rest overnight.
Party travel for miles underground and emerge on island in middle of lake in volcanic crater. (Noon) Party exit mine and hide in forest on mountain slope overlooking island until dark. During the day party experience a couple of earth tremmors. At sundown party go to edge of forest and observe walled city. Guards stationed at gate, corner towers and patrols along top of wall. Party relocate and observe keep for a short while before relocating again to edge of slum town. Tellius goes into town while rest of party hide nearby. Tellius meets the bartender Oric and evetually reveals the party's plan to oppose the slave lords. The party is taken into hiding at the Henderson residence (hovel) and hold conversation with Oric.
Oric tells party of a guard in one of the walled city towers that is bribable and has affection for a young lady of slum town. He also tells party that big slave auction is probably due as there have been no merchant visitors for a while and slave stock in the walled city is at a high. Party tell Oric of secret tunnels under mountains. Party wait out rest of night and next day in safe house (hovel) while Oric organises slum town inhabitants to escape via secret tunnel the following night.
More earth temmors during the day. Shortly after dark the slum town evacuate. A few stay behind to make it appear town is still occupied.
About an hour before dawn the party enter city by bribing a guard that is known to be sympathetic to the slum town inhabitants and has affections for a young lady of the town. The guard and woman rush to join the escaping town inhabitants.
The party wander through the city and try to locate the residence previously mentioned by a captured arms merchant caravan guard. They soon discover the infomation was false. Shortly after entering a tavern in the Thieves Quarter an alarm is sounded. ...
The party executed their plan to infiltrate the citadel grounds.
Lucien and Tellius sneaked from the Blacksmiths to the citadel wall while Edgaar and Rhondo remained in the Blacksmith’s covering the two with bows. Lucien stealthily climbed the wall and ambushed the guard on the north-east tower, killing him instantly and silently. With the guard dispatched, Tellius, being the one most resembling the guard in stature and garb, mounted the tower and posed as the guard while Lucien hid himself and Rhondo and Edgaar joined the two on the tower, also hiding themselves from sight of the guards on the wall towers to the west and south.
Now being able to see into the grounds, Tellius noticed that, while there were no guards around the citadel, the grounds were patrolled by roving 15’ long lizards. Two of which were now attracted to the scent of the dispatched guard’s carcass. Tellius nudged the corpse over the edge and the lizards proceeded to feed on it. The commotion of the feeding lizards at the foot of Tellius’ tower attracted the attention of the guard on the southeast tower some 100 feet away but Tellius was able to successfully pass off their behaviour as them having cornered a rat.
Meanwhile it was noticed that the guard on the north west tower had left his post (massively under-ended perception roll). Lucien took the opportunity to sneak the 100 feet to the northwest tower with a view to ambushing the guard when he returned. With both the northeast and northwest towers free of guards and the lizards distracted with their feeding, Edgaar and Rhondo decided to take the opportunity to make it across the grounds on the north side to the citadel to try and climb into one of the windows. There being no windows on the first level of the three level citadel, the two would make for a second level window (10’ up the citadel wall) from which no light was emanating.
The two moved half way along the north wall. Edgaar jumped the 10 feet from the wall to the ground, Rhondo passed his shield down to Edgaar and climbed down. They then sneaked the 20 feet from the outer wall to the citadel wall below the window. Rhondo gave Edgaar a boost up, and while standing on Rhondo’s shoulders Edgaar picked the window latch with some wire, opened the window and began to climb in. At this moment Rhondo noticed a third lizard round the northwest corner of the building 50’ away, see him and charge toward him. Rhondo hissed warning to Edgaar as he tumbled into the darkened room. Edgaar immediately reached down out the window to offer to pull Rhondo up but Rhondo was already readying hammer and shield to meet the charging lizard.
Rhondo’s plight was noticed by Tellius, still on the northeast tower posing as a guard, who cast a distraction spell on the lizard to hinder its imminent attack on Rhondo
Rhondo fended off the lizard while Edgaar loaded his crossbow and fired at the lizard from the window, negating its second attack on Rhondo. Meanwhile this commotion attracted one of the two lizards feeding on the dead guard 50’ away at base of Tellius’ tower. It saw Rhondo and moved to attack. Edgaar reloaded and fired into the second lizard, hitting it in the leg and interrupting its charge, Rhondo stunned the lizard on him with a hefty blow. Edgaar dropped his crossbow again reached down and offered his hand to Rhondo, who in turn dropped his shield and with Edgaar’s help clambered up the wall through the window and into the room.
In the darkened room, which Rhondo could see was for linen storage, Rhondo stood guard at the door while Edgaar went about retrieving Rhondo’s shield that was left at the base of the wall. Using rope and grapnel, Edgaar managed to snare an arm strap on the shield and reel it into the room.
Meanwhile outside on the east wall, Tellius, maintaining the ruse as tower guard, moved along the wall toward the guard on the south-east tower. Unfortunately this guard recognised Tellius not to be his colleague and began to shout alarm. Telllius engaged the guard.
Over on the west wall, the guard that Lucian was waiting to ambush, did not return but was chinwagging with some other guards on a gate in the middle of the west wall (overlooking the docks). As Lucian tired of waiting, the sound of alarm from the south east tower drew some this group of guards away. Lucien took advantage of this distraction to progressively sneak up on two guards in succession and kill them instantly and silently as he did the first guard on the tower (ie all 100 on E puncture table thanks to good crit rolls plus ambush mod).
Back on the east wall Tellius was still engaged with the south –east tower guard with little success as the guard was parrying while re-enforcements arrived. Thus Tellius abandoned the combat by leaping from the wall to the citadel roof.
Meanwhile back in the dark linen closet, Edgaar and Rhondo could hear the shout of alarm and Tellius calls for help from what they presumed to be the east wall. Having no vantage from this room’s north facing window, the two checked the corridor was clear and proceeded to the east end of the building with the intention of getting into a east facing room and perhaps lend bow support to Tellius from an east facing window. The two approached a room which they assumed to be occupied as candle light spilled from under the closed door. In order to preserve the secrecy of their presence in the building, the plan was for Rhondo to open the door, whereby Edgaar would fire his cross bow at any occupant inside and Rhondo would immediately follow up with war hammer while Edgaar closed the door behind them. Hopefully dispatching the occupant before any inside alarm could be raised. Accordingly, the plan was dispatched successfully. The chambermaid didn’t know what hit her.
The party members in the citadel encounter guards and some of the slave lords and battle ensues. Tellius enters the citadel and joins the battle. Victorious but faced with the prospect of facing more guards and slave lords the party exit the citadel via a secret underground tunnel. The party exit the walled city and hide in a nearby copse of trees. The party are secretly contacted by one of the slave lords and a deal is struck in which the party are given the sword they seek in return for leaving the hidden valley. Unfortunately Tom Fisher, Saab and Marcus are dead. The party agree and depart.