Campaign Journal

[Sorithar]

An open thread for active players to keep relevant notes on the campaign.

Please create one post per character and/or topic so as not to turn this into an alternative OOC discussion thread. Thank you!

[Sorithar]

Roll of Days

1362 DR - Year of The Helm

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16th of Marpenoth

Cromm Manor assaulted by lizardmen from the Lizard Marsh. As militia, you travel to the Lizard Marsh, meet the lizardman chieftain "Redeye" and retrieve Baron Cromm's ring.

19th of Marpenoth

You are summoned by Commander Spearslayer and asked to travel to the Way Inn to gather news of the Trade Way south to Baldur's Gate for a Thousdandheads trading coaster headed south from Waterdeep.

20th of Marpenoth

You leave for the Way Inn. Encounter a beleaguered farmer and fight an ankheg.

21st of Marpenoth

You awake at Liam's Hold and continue your trip to the Way Inn. You encounter the Hounds of Secomber and slay one of theirs. That night you are accosted by Jocko the "Wily", and his bandits.

22nd of Marpenoth

You successfully hunt down Jocko the "Wily", and his bandits. You then ride to Bowshot.

23rd of Marpenoth

You arrive at the Way Inn, meet Dauravyn "Redbeard" and are introduced to Meldar "Far-Wander", the merchant, his daughter and his team.

24th of Marpenoth

You leave the Way Inn with Meldar and his band having been hired to escort them to Daggerford.

25th of Marpenoth

You encounter a stack of goblin and orc skulls left as a warning by wild elves. You encounter a hermit by the name of Dwergrim who warns you of goblinoid activity out of the Misty Forest and the Laughing Hollow. That night you are attacked by orcs and the Hounds of Secomber, you lose Baron Cromm's ring.

26th of Marpenoth

You encounter Klargath and his band of goblinoids. You manage to talk your way out of a fight. That night you stay at Liam's Hold again.

27th of Marpenoth

You find a dead rider and are ambushed by a band of bugbears. You defeat them and retrieve a massive hidden on the rider, along with a few gems, meant for one Halia "Sweetsickle" from a Healbur Tarthan.
You reach Daggerford, having safely brought Meldar and his troop with you. You find the Thousandheads coaster parked outside the town on the caravan grounds. You later learn that Baron Agwain Delantar also arrived in Daggerford this day, at the same time as you did.
You report to Commander Spearslayer, where you meet Brom Greysteel, a captain of the Thousandheads Trading Coaster. Meldar repays you for your efforts with an enchanted dagger, which you later learn is called Nowe Tinechor and is of a style crafted in ancient Myth Drannor, a potion and map that appears to show the location of the lost entrance to the dwarven hold under Mount Illefarn.
Later that night, at Derval Ironaxe's you establish the Wardens of the Way.

28th-29th of Marpenoth

You take some downtime to pursue personal matters. You pick up many rumours.

30th of Marpenoth

You regroup. An earthquake shakes Daggerford. You save the lives of several dwarf stonemasons. You meet the halfling bard Halia "Sweetsickle", having delivered the note you'd found to her earlier, she now asks you to keep an eye on Baron Agwain's son, Garmont Delantar, and more specifically on his doings in the Black Stone Inn.

1st of Uktar

You attempt to sneakily scout the Black Stone Inn and inquire about Garmont Delantar. With little success, you leave the inn and are ambushed by am unfamiliar half-elf and two men in dark armor you had earlier seen at the Black Stone Inn, who warn you to mind your own business, but otherwise leave you be.
Without much luck pursuing other leads on Garmont Delantar, at Dolan's advice, you search out and hire Wheldor "the Stiff", the seneschal of house Hothemer of Waterdeep in Daggerford to aid you in your task. He agrees, if you, in turn, do a task for him, ridding his employers of a "problem" named Ulmyn Andalor in Bowshot.
On your way back to the Black Stone Inn, you are attacked by a band of brigands led by a Stormlord of Talos, who mentions the "Wormridden" and the "Rustworm" as he demands you hand over the map gifted you by Meldar. A battle ensues and you are almost killed before a couple of lawswords, led by the Duke's Lawsword, Rauthgar Thundersworn, fortunately intervene.
You do some reconnaissance outside the Black Stone Inn and realize that some people leaving the inn have riverbank mud on their boots. That evening, at the Lady Luck alehouse, Wheldor meets you and informs you that Garmont Delantar has been seen in the Duke's keep for the past two days and that something suspicious is going on with the Watermen's Guild and a rumour of trolls in the sewers. You retire to the Daggerford Inn.

2nd of Uktar

You take a job to explore the sewers and retrieve a token from the corpses of some adventurers hired to explore the sewers before you, following rumours of trolls in the sewers. You encounter and slay "Petal", a denizen of the sewers and retreat from a pair of wererats you encounter but not before Trammel is bit by one of them.
After a quick visit to Morninglow Tower and a purchase of silvered weapons from Durval "Ironeater" Ironaxe, you retire to the Daggerford Inn.

3rd of Uktar

Close to dawn, while you sleep, you are attacked in your room at the Daggerford Inn by two wererats. You defeat them, but not before one of them gets a good bite of Trammel. The corpses that remain after the battle do not look familiar to you. As a result of the battle and ensuing mess, you are banned from staying at the Daggerford Inn.

You return to the Watermen's Circle and sewers beneath them. Making your way back to where you had previously encountered the wererats, you continue down the now vacant passage, which Trammel identifies as an older, better constructed passageway. The passage turns out to be a short one, ending in a solid stone wall. Here you find a secret door leading to a stair that, in turn, leads you into a cold storage room through a hidden floor hatch. Some quick reconnaissance by Dolan reveals this is a cellars with three chambers, a cold storage room, a dry storage room and what was previously a wine cellar now turned shrine to Cyric, the Dark Sun. The area is guarded by zombies and skeletons, but you manage to avoid triggering them into action. Dolan narrowly avoids a trap to discover a stair leading up and out of the cellars but locked from without.

Briefly after discovering a concealed door in the main chamber, you encounter two dark clad warriors and summarily defeat them, skulking into the passage hidden behind the door from whence they arrived. This narrow earthen passage narrows even more where it is blocked by a portcullis, which Dolan discovers is trapped and manages to disarm, though he never discovers what the trap is. Where the passage reveals a kennel-like chamber, you encounter a half-orc dog trainer and his rabid guard dogs, all of which you narrowly defeat in combat. An adjacent chamber holds two captives, a female halfling priestess and a male human priest, Roslee and Baldin by name. Rescuing these captives, who turn out to have belonged to the missing adventuring group you were hired to discover the whereabouts of, Dolan traverses the remainder of the passage to discover it ends in a locked portcullis opening into a damp, dark cavern. Mud on the floor here reveals this is likely the source of the mud on the boots of people exiting the Blackstone Inn you'd spied.
After some efforts, unable to open the portcullis, you all head back towards the earthen cellars where you are ambushed by a priestess of the Dark Sun named Darkwave and he undead minions, zombies and skeletons, two of which are former companions of Roslee's and Baldin's and two more of which are the dark clad warriors you had previously defeated and left unconscious in the cellar.

Combat quickly turns in your favor and you overwhelm Darkwave, but not before Roslee manages to set fire to the Dry Storage room and destroy most the goods in the room as well as rush you back down to the sewers, at Dolan's behest, to avoid smoke inhalation. Trammel and Roslee manage to retrieve a modicum of items from the burning room before joining the others in escape.

Making your way through the sewers slowly, you eventually manage to find the way back to the Watermen's Circle. Your wounded state and the state of Roslee and Baldin's unconscious body, cause your contact there to urge you to seek care and return for your payment the following day.

Leaving the Watermen's Circle with one of their carts, you head for Morninglow Tower, in search of healing, fully expecting to hear shouts or see smoke coming from the direction of the Blackstone Inn. You do not however, and at Morninglow Tower, you are greeted with surprise and relief by the Lightlord Sunmist, delivering Baldin's unconscious body to the temple. You report to the prior your suspicions and adventures and he expresses great concern about the shrine to the Dark Sun and Darkwave, but is nevertheless somewhat dismissive about your request to convey said information to the Duke.

Next, you travel to The Lady Luck, to report your findings to Halia. Only Olaria and Dolan enter to do so, but not before Roslee, exhausted and wounded, parts ways with you. The Lady Luck is busy as ever. As soon as you report your findings to Halia however, she thanks you, pays you her promised reward and then rushes off without an explanation.

Exhausted and wounded, you decided it is time to call it a night and retire to the Dragonback Inn, no longer welcome at the Daggerford Inn as you are. Roslee stays at the Daggerford, where she is overjoyed to discover the proprietor has kept her equipment intact.

4th of Uktar

You each spend this day pursuing your own agendas, crossing paths from time to time.

A visit to the Constibulary reveal that the Duke's Lawsword and some men had raided the Blackstone Inn the other night after a report of your suspicions and discoveries from Morninglow Tower. They uncovered the cellars, found evidence of your claims and proceeded to empty the establishment and seize it in the name of the Council of Guilds and the Duke. Some of the items they retrieved were determined by the Council of Guilds to be awarded to you for your information and work in dispatching the Cyricist and her warriors and undead minions. Among the items they managed to salvage, were Roslee and Baldin's holy symbols.

You collect your reward from the Watermen's Circle and Dolan manages to trade the gems Halia had gifted to you for an enchanted amulet. Roslee and Olaria manage to decipher the workings of the rest of your enchanted baubles and equipment and Olaria begins to learn a new spell even as Dolan and Baldin discover it'll be harder to unload the fancy armour Darkwave was wearing then they might have thought.

5th of Uktar

You continue to pursued your own agendas as you get to know Baldin and Roslee, who are very grateful for your rescue and who express interest in joining the Wardens of the Way. Olaria manages to scribe her newly mastered spell to her spellbook.

Sadly, Sheldon announces that he will be leaving the Wardens for an undefined amount of time, as the Lightlord and the Morninglord have called him to other duties. He does so however, glad in the knowledge that you have accepted another dawn priest into your ranks in his stead!

6th of Uktar

At the early hours of this day, long before even godswake, you are abruptly awoken and summoned by members of the militia to the barracks. Once there, you are surprised to find Commander Sherlen Spearslayer waiting for you outside her office. After a brief warning, she shows you into her office, where you find yourselves in the presence of none other than the young Duke Pwyll "Greatshout" Daggerford, his Master of the Hunt, Kelson Darktreader, Sear Llewellyn "Long-Hand", his Master at Arms, the aged and surprisingly well looking, Court Wizard Gwydion pen Dafwyd, and Lightlord Sunmist. Baldin is also there, having been brought by the Lightlord from Morninglow Tower.

The duke informs you his sister has been kidnapped by none other than Baron Agwain Delantar and he wishes your aid in retrieving her. Her lays out a three pronged strategy for doing so and explains that your task will be ride to the Laughing Hollow and pursue the Baron and his men there if that were where they chose to travel, an unlikely route. You accept the task.

After a brief visit to the Duke's armory, arousing Roslee and having her join you, you converge on the stables, where you each receive two light warhorses from the Duke's own to use for the pursuit.

You mount and ride for the Farmer's Gate, but before you leave, you are encountered by Halia Sweetsickle, who seems to be waiting for you and knows your task, even though you were sworn to secrecy on the matter.

Halia reveals that before the constabulary had raided the Blackstone Inn two days prior, she'd infiltrated it and retrieved some documents form Gildamesh's quarters, including a letter from Lady Bronwyn Daggerford to Baron Delantar that strongly suggests the two were secretly communicating and actually attracted to one another.

With that news, you ride off in the direction of the Hollow, bent on catching up to the Baron and his men!

After riding most of the day through the plains and low rolling hills at the feet of the Illefarn mountain range you encounter a contingent of the Baron's men, who peacefully, though aggressively, convey the Baron's wishes not to be followed and warn you to turn away, back from whence you came.

You do so, only to realize that if you try to approach the Hollow from another direction without a trained tracker, you'll have a hard time picking up the Baron's trail again and so, you decide to try and ambush the Baron's men.

The ambush is successful, though some of you have reservations about your actions in slaying the Baron's men. Nevertheless, they do not respond to efforts of parley and in the end, you are forced to slay all but one of them who manages to escape you after fleeing as a result of an incantation by Olaria.

Searching the bodies of the fallen soldiers reveals nothing new or of much value and you mount and continue your ride to the Laughing Hollow following the only path you've been able to establish with any degree of certainty.

That evening, you make camp not far from the treelike edge of the Laughing Hollow, the towering cliffs on either side of the hollow north of the River Shinning.

Early this evening as you are dinning on your rations and preparing to sleep, your camp is visited by unexpected guests, Gwydion pen Dafwyd, the Court Wizard to the Duke of Daggerford and a massive dire wolf. A brief conversation ensues, highlighting Gwydion notorious disdain for 'common' people, in which the Court Wizard impresses upon you the importance of returning Lady Daggerford to the town. He then vanishes as suddenly as he had appeared.

7th of Uktar

The following morning, you make your way towards the outer edge of the cliff bound forested boughs and dells of the Laughing Hollow. On the way, you run afoul of a pack of brown bears, fleeing from or fighting off a swarm of bees around what appears to be the large stump of a dead tree trunk. Deciding that letting the bears be would be the better part of valour in this case, you carefully ride away from the precarious situation.

After a couple of hours of riding, you finally find yourselves under the canopy of the hollow. Under the trees, the hollow is bathed in a perennial twilight. Riding through the magically serene and dense wooded paths, the sounds of living creatures somehow seeming dimmed in their volume, your path winds around a few small, light filled dells.

It is in one of these dells that you come across the gruesome sight of a fallen soldier and his mount being devoured ravenously by a pack of three shrivelled humanoid creatures that might once have been dwarves, but were now most definitely undead abomination, identified by you as ghouls.

They do not first notice you, consumed as they are by their hunger, and using this advantage, Baldin calls on the Morninglord to eradicate them before they even manage to turn their hunger on you.

Beyond the ghouls you find their likely den, a small, open iron door inset into the side of a rock face. A tunnel leads into darkness beyond and choosing to explore it to insure no more undead lurk below to surge out into the hollow, you follow it to a dead end and a small empty chamber save some rotting and rusted equipment and a single dwarf skeleton. The skeleton seems to be staring off into eternity, a waraxe on the floor at its side. Curious, you enter the chamber and as soon as Trammel steps into the middle, runes on the floor flare silently to life, illuminating the small chamber as if by enchanted torchlight.
Olaria and Roslee are both able to identify the runes as part of a rune circle, likely of dwarven make, but neither can fully decipher the functioning of its enchantments. After retrieving the waraxe, barking from without urges you to leave the chamber and as soon as Trammel exits, the light fades to darkness again.

Outside, you find half your mounts missing as Shuck barks at an unseen menace that is laughing and giggling audibly in a childlike tone. You soon find yourselves confronted by these unseen assailants in a language only Olaria can understand. After a few tense moments of parley, the fey, who have identified themselves as children of the Hollow, but did not show themselves, leave you be. Before they do so however, they inform you that the non-elves among you are not welcome in the Hollow and that you should make haste to remove the other interlopers, presumably the Baron, Lady Daggerford and their entourage, and leave the Hollow. They also mention in passing that the Baron and his men are led by a strange and ugly gnome and that they will report your presence and actions to one Melandrach.

Once they have gone, you go about your business, including learning that the waraxe you liberated from the dead dwarf warrior is called Arglarnoror. Before leaving the clearing, you decapitate the corpses and bury them, saying a prayer over the grave. You then mount and ride off, but not before making an effort to seal the iron door to the chamber.

After a short while longer of riding, some of you barely manage to spot elven figures in the woods, following your company. For clothing they wear little more than loincloths and furs around their breasts. Strange and complex tattoos cover their skin alongside dark warpaint and they carry bows and other, crude melee weapons. Though you spot them, they move with the silence of stalking cats.
Olaria attempts to sooth their hostile, challenging attitude by speaking to them, and though they do not reply, your decision to refrain from inciting combat seems to keep them at bay. Soon enough they disappear. After a short while longer, you come across a pile of severed goblin heads, all pincushion with arrows, not unlike the one you had come across when riding the Trade Way a tenday past.

It is only short while later that the sounds of combat reach your ears and riding into a large clearing, you find the Baron Agwain, his Captain at Arms, Lord Eldan Ravensgar and one of his soldiers, beset by goblins, some mounted on large wolf-like creatures. You immediately spring into action and it is not too long before you've managed to help them route the goblins, killing all but one and his mount, who escape into the woods. A brief confrontation follows, during which you learn that the Baron and Lady were ambushed and Baron Agwain sent her off to safety with his son Garmont and their guide, a gnome by the name of Delfargo "the Baitseller". Explaining who you are and why you have come after them, you join with the Baron and his Captain at Arms to follow in the Lady Daggerford's footsteps, leaving your mounts and theirs with the soldier in the clearing.

Soon after, you come across Lady Daggerford, fleeing invisibly from Garmont Delantar, whom she claims tried to charm her. Before you can get to the bottom of this, Garmont makes his appearance and contradicts the Lady's story. The ensuing conversation leads nowhere and combat erupts when Garmont unleashes an assault alongside a charmed Delfargo, a foul smelling, hairy red haired, yellow skinned gnome, who turns out to be a sprigging and quickly grows to the size of an ogre. Though Dolan and the Baron are eventually stunned and blinded and Dolan is dropped unconscious, you manage to overcome Garmont, who in death, is revealed to be a doppelgänger. In some of his final words, he revels contempt for the Zhentarim and suggest his faith might lay in the Storm Lord.

Following this harrowing confrontation, you try your best to convince the Lady Daggerford to return with you to Daggerford, but are thwarted by her resolute will to forge ahead to Delantar with the Baron and her inexplicable trust of the gnome Delfargo. With some resignation and no consensus among yourselves, you somewhat reluctantly follow the Baron, Lady and wounded Man at Arms back to the clearing where the soldier awaits with the horses, having decided that if you cannot bring Lady Bronwyn back with you, you should at least safely see her to Delantar.

Leaving the horses behind at the Baron's behest, you travel now into a new, thickly grown, portion of the Hollow, following Delfargo's lead. It is not long before you come to a small area in the Hollow where the tress grow sparser around a massive grey-white pine beside a small pond. Hearing a welcoming voice in your minds, you find yourself faced with a guardian of sorts, a mist seems to rise out of the pine and lazily coalesce into the form of a huge hybrid elk-like form. The translucent phantom has elven facial features and a feminine torso on the body of an elk with small, goat-like horns. Its eyes are almond shaped as it stares at you all, lingering on no one in particular. It has a most ethereal beauty about it.
A brief matter of conversation follows before Lady Daggerford, followed by the Baron, his Man at Arms and the soldier, all explain to the guardian why they need to use it's "path" and receiving permission to do so, step over the pond and silently vanish into thin air! Delfargo refuses to follow them and sensing you could not force the guardian to send Delfargo through its "path", you agree amongst yourselves not to follow and have Delfargo instead lead you back to Daggerford to report to the Duke. Delfargo, though you do not much trust him, agrees to guide you back through the Hollow and to Daggerford.
As you set off, darkness falls and a heavy, stormy rain comes down. Soon, you find a place to hide from the rain and restlessly pass the night.

8th-9th of Uktar

Guided by Delfargo, who constantly reeks of fish, you find your mounts again and are led back out of the Laughing Hollow and back towards Daggerford through the foothills of Mount Illefarn. It is stormy, cold and overcast the whole time, with almost none-stop rain.

10th of Uktar

Midway through the day, as you ride alongside Delfargo on the trail that runs parallel to the River Shinning, you run into a militia patrol from Daggerford. They turn to ride alongside you back to the 'ford and as the sun is setting you arrive at the Farmers' Gate. Delfargo slinks off into the rainy, stormy night and you learnt that the waters of the Delimbiyr have turned a bilious green and are the probably cause of the deaths of livestock and crops upriver and in Daggerford, prompting a decree that they are not to be consumed or used until further notice.

With this unfortunate news, you head for the Happy Cow alehouse, where you'd last found Halia Sweetsickle, to relay to her your adventures in the Hollow. The warmth of an alehouse if very welcoming, but you find that Halia has left Daggerford with only a parting note remaining for you at the Happy Cow.

11th of Uktar

After reporting to the Ducal Castle in the morning to inform the Duke of the events of the Hollow and return his horses, you collect your just reward and decided to look into the taint of the river waters, travelling to the Harvest House. It is here that you learnt the taint ruin deep and is not some simple poison. It is also here that you learn that Harvestmistress Maerovyna has communed with the Lady of the Harvest and received from here only a cryptic message: "Water pure runs deep, but taint runs deeper still. A scourge seeks a wild home, with vileness to fill."
The rest of the day is spent tending to personal errands, including Dolan's efforts to join the Thieves Brotherhood and a later visit of his to his old mentor Bohle. During his visit, Dolan learns of some elicit goods stored in a warehouse on the docks.
Later that evening, the Warden's agree to aid Dolan in retrieving the items for his mentor. Roslee parts ways with the Wardens to care for mourning halfling family and runs into Bando the Lame for the first time.

12th of Uktar

After a day or personal errands, you gather later in the night, close to Shar's hour, to sneak into the cellars of a warehouse on the town docks, at the behest and with the aid of Bohle, Dolan's old mentor. Sneaking into the cellars, you discover a secret chamber and after facing off with several of undead, including enchanted skeletal guardians, the remains of Bohle's old partner and a couple of shadows, you manage to retrieve the cursed items Bohle had sent you to retrieve, but not before you are confronted with the same Stormlord and brigands that had confronted you just a tenday past in search of the map of the doors of Illefarn you had been gifted. This time you manage to lay the brigands and Talassan low and escape the cellars mostly unscathed, in no little thanks to the gifts of the Morninglord channeled through Baldin.

13th of Uktar

This morn sees the Wardens reunited with Roslee and running more personal errands while trying to find more information on the matter of the polluted River Shining. It is a sad day however, as Trammel informs you that eventide that personal developments have led to his decision to lay down his arms for the foreseeable future and aid his family in a time of need as the town struggles with the continuing debilitation brought on by the polluted waters.

14th of Uktar

On this morn, as you are enjoying a quiet and contemplative mornfest, you are summoned to the barracks yet again, where Commander Spearslayer meets you and immediately guides you to the Farmers' Gate, where a waiting wild elf has arrived with a message he wishes only to deliver to the ones who'd recently been in the Hollow, the Wardens, but refuses to enter the town.
Speaking elven only, this wild elf, one Deldragor Longarrow, relates that he comes from the Laughing Hollow with a message from its king, Melandrach. The earthquake from a tenday and a half past has released a river of bile and polluted waters into the Hollow and king Melandrach wishes to speak to the Wardens about aiding in resolving this problem. After committing to aid in this and follow the elf's lead to the Hollow, you informs Commander Spearslayer, who in turn, guides you to the Guildmaster's Hall, where you report to a waiting Council of Guilds and the High Lord, Duke Pwyll "Greatshout" Daggerford.
After a brief exchange, the council agrees that aid should be provided and you should travel with the elf and they promise to do whats in their power to provide you with provisions for this journey.
That highsun, Olaria goes to speak with her uncle, Kelson the Darktreader and is guided by him to accept the company of his protege, Karne Ravensgar in their coming journey and task.
That eventide, you are visited by Trammel again, who provides you with the map that Meldar Farwander had gifted you and amulets, with the Ironaxe clan emblem on them, as a gift from his uncle Derval, who believes you may have need of them.
A young messenger from the Council also brings you word that your provision requests have been mostly granted and will await you at the Farmers' Gate at godswake. Before she leaves, she leaves you a sack with some more provisions.

15th of Uktar

With Deldragor Longarrow leading the way, the Wardens set off to the Laughing Hollow to answer the summons of the King of the Wood. Their journey is an eventful one, accompanied by nasty storms, they encounter first a devil from the lower planes and then are ambushed by first a wyvern hunting for their horses and later that night, a small company of goblins, hobgoblins and and ogre! Despite all these challenges, they manage to make it through the night and into the next day.

16th of Uktar

Early the next day, the company reaches the edge of the Hollow, only to have a massive black dragon fly low over their heads, almost scattering the party to the wind with its very frightful nature. Recomposing themselves, the Wardens enter the Laughing Hollow, travelling through the dimly lit forest with storms still raging above the tree line. Later in the day, Deldragor walks them into an pristine glade, where they are met by Melandrach, King of the Wood. Melandrach explains to the Wardens that he believes the source of the poisonous pollution to the Hollow and the river is found under Mt. Illefarn, within the ancient dwarf hold therein, a lost door to which has recently been revealed in the earthquake, which originated at the mountain. He asks the Wardens to enter the dwarfhold, find the source of the pollution, and stop it any way they can.
For that night, he invites the Warden's to stay in the enchanted glade and assures them that whenever they leave the dwarfhold, they will be welcome back in the Hollow.

17th of Uktar

This day sees the Wardens find the lost doors to Illefarn and enter the ancient dwarfhold. Once inside, they discover evidence of old orc defacements and soon encounter a band of well armed warriors fighting a band of orcs and goblins. They aid the first band only to have them turn on them once the orcs and goblins have been vanquished. Barely defeating the warriors, they explore some more of the dwarfhold and fight a strange tentacled beast before retreating to the Hollow for the night. Upon entering the Hollow, they are tricked by a playful satyr into stumbling into a living plant, which does not hesitate to assault the Wardens, but they beat a hasty retreat.

18th of Uktar

Entering the dwarfhold again this day, the Wardens delve deeper, running into multiple parties of orcs and goblins, reinforced by ogres and even a troll, the last of which they retreat from through a prodigiously located secret door which Olaria's fine elven sight spots. The secret door leads them to a stair that delves deeper into the dwarfhold and they soon come upon a massive hall, in the center of which is an empty pool and running through which is a wide crack. Before they can explore it much, they encounter another troupe of well armed warriors, which though they defeat, still results in a spellcaster evading them.
Battered and wounded, the Warden's try to backtrack, only to find the orcs still at their tale and instead choose to delve deeper into the halls in search of a place to rest their heads...