So now the party was good and depressed, but there were no obvious constructive steps to take. Frankel was curious about the tribe of centaurs the dwarves had seen in a nearby valley, so the party went out after them to find out what they were looking for.
- Silvana:
- "The centaurs might have come here seeking help. I don't want to say too much about the matter, but the demise of the forest had to do with our party, Tremere, and a nasty black dagger that cast defoliate on the region."
- FBD:
- "The dwarves didn't mourn."
- Silvana:
- "The dwarves almost gave Tremere a medal."
Armed with a rough map of the area, the party headed out on summoned mounts (except Frankel, obviously) for the far end of the valley, planning to hike down the valley and intercept the centaurs. After about an hour, Frankel and Silvana noticed some small humanoids, probably goblins or kobolds, shadowing the party, but they couldn't keep up with the party.
At the far end of the valley, Frankel found a small trail leading down; it was plenty wide for small folks like goblins and dwarves, but somewhat treacherous for large folks like equines. Checking the dirt, he found a wide assortment of tracks, including some heavy boots (probably dwarves), some light boots (probably goblins), some dog or wolf prints, a set of human prints, and a recent set of 3-toed prints.
Most of the humanoids dismounted, and Stealth headed down to scout the trail. A turn later, he sent out a "trouble, come" signal on his armor, and the party headed in to find a stockade under a large overhang, an ettin inside the stockade, and 20 goblins out front, all shooting at Stealth. (The goblins all been praying before Stealth was spotted.) A short while later, the goblin leader, shaman, and sundry others were dead, the rest were neutralized by an aura of terror from Silvana, and the ettin decided it wasn't keen on dying.
- Frankel:
- "Okay, where are they?"
- Ettin:
- "They are inside."
- Frankel:
- "Have you harmed them?"
- Ettin:
- "Why me harm them? You harm them!"
- Frankel:
- "Not the goblins, you fool. The horse-men."
- Ettin: [pointing further up the valley]
- "I not harm horse-men. They that way. They have demon."
- Frankel:
- "Describe `demon.'"
- Ettin:
- "Like giant troll, drool blood, cough smoke. Not mine business."
- Frankel:
- "Do you have prisoners?"
- Ettin:
- "You buy prisoners?"
- Frankel:
- "The coin I offer is that you and your people will not be more hurt. Not by us."
The party followed the ettin in to retrieve the prisoners (except Stealth, who stayed guarding the entrance). At the back of the cave, they saw roughly carved statue of a huge fat woman, with a pile of bones and skulls around its feet.
- Silvana:
- "How many ettins live here?"
- Ettin:
- "We live here alone. We is looking for some mates."
- Frankel:
- "Are you male or female?"
- Ettin:
- "We is male. Very handsome male."
The rightmost passage from the back of the cave led to a small chamber with a cage, which contained a human woman sleeping (actually feigning death), two badly beaten female halflings watching alertly (and later kicking the human when she wouldn't move; spoke Western Common), and a female gnome chuckling softly (unresponsive to conversation in gnomish).
The cell key was outside on a dead goblin, so Silvana picked the lock. While she did this, Ganeth tried to get some information out of the ettin. He learned that the statue was, "Mommy. Only one head, but very smart." The ettin and the statue had both arrived a few days ago, after the statue told him to come. When G asked if the statue was Mommy or just looked like her, the ettin's heads started arguing with each other, which basically ended the conversation.
When the cell was open, the gnome lifted the human and walked out, followed by the halflings. When they reached the cave, the gnome tried to throw the human at the statue, Frankel tried to block the shot, they both fumbled, and the woman landed on the ground. The ettin tried to whack the gnome (or perhaps spriggan, but probably nuts either way), but she parried easily. And then everyone walked outside.
- Ganeth:
- "Does Mommy do anything special when someone touches her?"
- Ettin:
- "You have to be special to touch Mommy."
- Ganeth:
- "Was the human woman special?"
- Ettin:
- "We are special."
At this point, Frankel decided to give the ettin 50gp for the prisoners, over everyone else's objections.Ettin: [to Frankel] "We already have job. Thank you for gold." Ganeth: "What job are you on now?" Ettin: "We listen to dead goblin. Good job. Job easier now." Ganeth: "Why did the dead goblin come here?" Ettin: "He have big plans raise army. He work for Employers." Ganeth: "Did you meet these employers?" Ettin: [to G, then Frankel] "We answer much question -- you give gold? You give more money, we get prisoners for you?"
So much for that conversation. The party took whatever items the goblins had (which ended up including a +1 short bow), plus the leader's head, and moved a bit down the path.
The gnome stopped her insane muttering to note that the "demon's gonna eat ya" (in Western Common) but had nothing else to say on the subject. Silvana searched the human, finding thieves' tools, a patch on the bottom of her foot, and rags. Silvana removed the patch, and the woman woke up.
- Human: [W.C.]
- "Where am I?"
- Halfling 1:
- "She's lying!"
- Halfling 2:
- "She's evil!"
- Human:
- "Just because I'm evil doesn't mean I deserve death."
- Silvana:
- "Who said anything about killing you? That would be too quick."
The woman then spun the following tale:
- Human:
- "A group of bandits recently found a long-lost item, known to many as the Lamp of Bokenja. Unfortunately, they encountered a band of belligerent centaurs, and in their incompetence, fled from the night attack, leaving the Lamp behind. The Lamp has corrupted the leader of the centaurs now and is leading them to an ancient ruin in the mountains. I expect to recover the item from these centaurs before it is too late. By helping me, we will free the centaur tribe from its curse."
- Ganeth:
- "What marks the onset of `too late'?"
- Human:
- "The Lamp grants increasing powers with different rituals. Once the ritual of Bonding has been undertaken, the Lamp cannot be stolen from its owner. I see no point in hiding the truth from you. This item is of no use to you, and you are powerless to destroy it."
- Silvana:
- "How do you know?"
- Human:
- "If Bokenja couldn't, I doubt that you can."
Nobody bought this story, and the party decided they didn't want to take these random people on their mission, so they decided to head back to the "village" to decide what to do next. Beeel and G flew up to make sure the horses were all right (they were), the gnome headed off down the path (nobody felt inclined to try to stop her), and the rest started walking back up the narrow path. On the way up, Frankel lost his footing and went over the cliff, taking the human with him. They both survived, but it was a long walk along the valley to find somewhere to climb back up. Frankel found some centaur tracks at the bottom; it appeared that one centaur was dirving the others through the valley.
Up top, the halflings told the party their version of the story. The human, whose name was Lotus, had hired the halflings in the Banditlands. She'd said that she was a rich Auramkil noble, and she'd been robbed by some bandits while traveling with a caravan. They'd made off with a family heirloom, a magic lamp, and she was offering a big reward if they'd help her track it down. So off they went, until one night the halflings started poking around in Lotus' stuff. They found some thieves' tools and a small black crystal ball. They looked into the ball (maybe one of them is named Pippin?) and saw what looked like a vampire on the other side. After that, they started losing memories, waking up tired and injured, and so forth. Fortunately for them, the possessions (or whatever) stopped when they were captured and the crystal ball was taken away. They met the gnome in the cell; she never ate, never slept, and was generally very weird.
G made the halflings a rough copy of the dwarves' map, the party gave them a bit of money, and the halflings headed off on one of the mounts. They never arrived at the dwarven caverns.
Frankel and Lotus eventually had to climb out of the valley with ropes lowered by the others, and after about three hours they were back up top. Lotus, figuring out that the "village" was the mountain dwarf stronghold, decided that she wasn't going back with the party and walked off (leaving her equipment behind).
Open question: Lotus could probably have picked the lock on the cell and left whenever she wanted to. Why didn't she?
The return trip was uneventful. Silvana asked FBD to safely dispose of Lotus' equipment, and the next day the party interrogated the goblin leader's dead head.
- Silvana:
- "What were you hired to do?"
- Head:
- "I was hired to manage goblin troops, sub-leader/shaman, ettin in this outpost. My mission was to defend the stronghold, watch for dwarven activity, and await further instructions."
- Silvana:
- "Who hired you?"
- Head:
- "I was hired by a person known to me only as IronHelm."
- Silvana:
- "What was the purpose of the ceremony you were performing just before we attacked?"
- Head:
- "The shaman was leading the troops in a ceremony to Maglubiyet, to brace them against the powerful seductions of the Chaos statue."
- Silvana:
- "How did you acquire the people you were holding?"
- Head:
- "The human and halflings were brought to me by IronHelm's wizard. The gnome wandered into our stronghold several days ago and was captured without incident."
Silvana wondered aloud if IronHelm could be an Abbathor dwarf, but FBD claimed that even they don't work with goblins, and the name was more likely a deliberate insult. The dwarves have heard rumors of a half-elf in the area with a particular dislike for dwarves, which might be connected.
While checking over the goblins' items, Silvana found a note written in Western Common inside the shaman's scroll tube. Ganeth read it: "Your leader is being subverted. Writing more would be dangerous. Talk to me on your shift." The paper was high-quality stationary, but the writing was in charcoal and appeared hurried -- perhaps Lotus keeping busy in the cell.
Know history on the leader's dagger gave a vision of a halfling in Silverton during its glory days, being told by Hajmola that the dagger was especially good (only -2 penalty) for called shots (missile or melee) and could grant one wish (which would consume the item). The dagger itself was gaudily runed in proper Haj style.
Silvana also finished identifying Drakos' items, which you can read about here.
And Silvana fired off a sending to Horon, who's believed to be working undercover in Banzeel.
- Silvana:
- "Speculation: LE recovering Deadlands power sources from spiders for quest spell on Banzeel, against both Westerners and revolutionaries. Need info on Kharnzeel, cloud over Banzeel."
- Horon:
- "Kharnzeel location unknown several months. Rumor: cloud Unholy Rain; hope speculation false; innocents vulnerable. Infiltrating Inner Cabal for reliable info. Speculation: Tremere in Banzeel. Why?"
(For the record, chances are that Tremere is either still working on setting up a Western HQ or trying to find and rescue Tubbins.)