Before tiring for one last sleep before the Wintersbreath expedition, Mudgol heads out to purchase more pearls so that he might identify items on the journey. The group cleans Floivin Keep out of all available endurance elixirs to help fight the potential extreme, unnatural weather of the North, and Luz decides to return to his old stalking grounds, the Gnarlbottom family manor, and spy what might be magical there. Whether or not Monch or one of the other Gnarlbottom's spies the 'dead' criminal lurking about the area is unknown.
Essel, Malarous 25th, 838 ID
The PCs awaken and gather at the Last Eidolorn Armory, where they meet several of the expeditionary mercenaries for the first time. Roost is already waiting for Baro, and he gets a cold introduction to the others, one of which (Mudgol) he takes a specific interest in. Longjohns jokes around with Luz while Slab's mercs arrive, and all are introduced to 'Cannon' Mack Roy, 'Handsome' Harlan and Tulk Rothek. Baro notices something peculiar about the bird-masked man. Inevitably the entire group has arrived, Odd Jon cheerful to set out, offering the company some fruit for their morning breakfast (Slab taking his in liquid form). After Lt. Teckle, Private Glass arrives, and the misogyny begins, while a number of players joking around with Captain Langston over her presence, including the very 'forward' Harlan and the daft Mudgol.
Stuckle leads the group to the Well Runner, a two story, scummy barge with eight oars, six of which must be in use for the barge to move at a steady clip against any normal river resistance. Balard Winch leads the few dwarf followers of Moradin (himself, Flake and Odd Jon) in a prayer, which Luz attempts to interrupt with a mighty fart. Unfortunately, Balard is so damned loud that no one notices, not for the sound OR smell, which frankly is only a minor accumulation over the half-orc's scent in general. Langston begins to organize the expedition into three shifts of six for rowing/watch duties, while Ginkwrench and Polk, the two smallest members of the expedition, decide to crash together down in the low-ceiling hold beneath the lower deck.
The going is extremely slow, and several of the company wonder if they'd have been better off walking to Wintersbreath. Further passes are made at Private Glass on deck, who quickly moves to the shelter of Captain Langston. We get to see who can row and who can't (Mudgol and Glass aren't having a great time of it, and when Roost takes a turn begrudgingly he seems even wimpier). Vondort informs Langston that they might make decent time cutting straight across the Well and following Greataxe Isle towards the mouth of the Pinewater, but Langston decides to take the safer route along the shoreline. It takes well into the evening before the group rows itself past the Crown Pasture and Frail Forest up to Cedarway, where they decide to dock and possibly take rest.
Mudgol uses a clairvoyance to scout out the remains of the Wintersbreath vessel the PCs destroyed in their battle against the undead here some weeks past, and then it's decided that Slab will perform a solo stealth recon around Cedarway, which looks empty (of kobolds and all). He finds little of interest but some letters at the Eidolorn Customs building, and Pinewater Suppliers razed half to the ground by fire, but once he enters the Skunkside Tower, he turns up some corpses of the few Last Eidolorn that must have been stationed there. When he hits the roof, he finds a strange crow sitting on one of the battlements, and as he approaches it, he is shot in the face by a sniper from somewhere below. While he attempts to remove the arrow from his face unsuccessfully, and rush back down the tower in pursuit of his assailant, another arrow, flaming and covered in pitch, strikes the Well Runner on the dock.
Slab calls out to the woods north of the Skunkside, and the only response is distant, mocking laughter and the snarls of some predator. Suspecting that he's been marked by a member of the Score, he moves back to the barge. Langston has removed the arrow with his hand, his burns then healed by Balard Winch. Once the dwarf rogue has returned, the Captain decides against sending a team to pursue the sniper, instead ordering the crew to oars. After a few more hours, as they near the river's pass through the Vernal Wall, they once more moor the craft so the expedition can sleep in a more comfortable environment and the spellcasters can regain anything they used the previous day. During one of the watches, Cannon and Langston spy a quartet of troglodytes traveling south to the east of the Pinewater, but they are moving so hurriedly that they are left alone.
Ivric, Malarous 26th 838 ID
In the morning, the expedition takes to oar again, until they run into some ice floes that are choking up passage through the river. Finding it strange, Luz decides to detect magic and notes that not only the ice, but the very air itself nearing Wintersbreath is littered with some traces of alteration. Since the party's fire magic won't necessarily work well in the river, they decide to break into two groups to either side of the narrow ford, and chip away the ice floes with brute strength (while several of the archers play lookout). After a few moments of hard toil, a pack of strange, large beasts with shells come out from some nooks and caves in the nearby foothills and announce hostility towards the expedition. Mudgol identifies the things as glyptodons.
Though they manage to knock out Tulk Rothek, one of Regg's mercenaries, the expedition pretty easily dispatches the creatures. While they're healing the bird-masked warrior, they realize that it is in fact no mask. Mudgol discovers that Tulk is in fact a kenku! Not that Rothek was necessarily keeping a secret, and a few of the PCs had noticed his 'costume' was quite elaborate. Luz presses Odd Jon to carve out the beasts and make a meal of them, but the dwarf doesn't think there is enough room on the barge. He cuts off one flank from a creature's flesh and wraps it in cloth, thinking to do something with it. The expedition rolls on, soon noticing that the temperature is sinking rather fast. Once they've passed the Vernal Wall, it's gone from a good 75-80 degrees down to near freezing, and some of the less clad voyagers (fat Harlan in particular) begin to complain. It's all right, Odd Jon says there should be an outfitter at the first stop, Tretcher.
A few miles south of town, Mudgol notices a shining light flashing in random patterns, further up the river. He informs Private Glass, who then tells Langston. As they row nearer to Tretcher, they note a tall column of smoke coming from somewhere inside the town, and that several of the surrounding farms on the Frogmarch have been severely damaged. Mudgol uses clairvoyance to get a closer look at the sort of the blinking light, which turns out to be a human in one of the Teeth of Winter, Fifth Eidolorn guard towers that grant the river traveler their first proper welcome to Wintersbreath. After some argument, Langston decides to send a small group to scout the man in the tower while the rest moor the barge and take cover. Flake Falloway notices something moving around one of the farms.
It turns out that the man in the tower is Eiger 'Cold Draft' Dodson, a drunk merchant who survived what he claims to be a 'savage' raid on Tretcher, by a pair of Vandrakki warbands. He was using the light to warn travelers and traders away, back to the south. He's difficult to communicate with, but he claims that the savages might remain in the village, and that they probably have captives, that one of the warbands earlier left the area with a bunch of the villagers' daughters in tow for breeding/raping stock. He claims that the Fifth Eidolorn stationed at the town were easily routed, but knows nothing about the fate of Regent-General Gurd Gnarlbottom or either of the Imperial armies that marched north to assist with the Vandrakki incursion. Says they can find out more if they head north to Vettlar, the sole city of the province, which he believes might still stand.
After returning Dodson to the barge, and squeezing him aboard, the group once again debates what course to take next. After another sighting, this time of some humanoid face gazing at the expedition over the wall of Tretcher, Langston wants to press on to Vettlar, giving up Tretcher for dead, but several others argue against this. Odd Jon wants to check out the village for survivors and to get cold weather gear which the party will need, and others want to clean out any invaders remaining. Ultimately, the Captain decides to moor the barge and send in the whole expedition together, with Mudgol's familiar leading a scout mission up front.
PCs: Baro, Langston, Luz, Mudgol, Slab
NPCs
'Cannon' Mack Roy (dwarf male): Rawly-Mack Roy, or 'Cannon', is a red-haired dwarf from the West who has traveled broadly across the Empire and eventually enlisted with the Braulish mercenary Regg Morland. He derives his nickname from his favored weapon, his pistol, which he has lovingly dubbed 'Dolly'. He's a rugged, proud dwarf, fond of jokes (even bad ones) and seems the most affable and 'kiss ass' of Morland's posse.
Eiger ‘Cold Draft’ Dodson (human male): This aging man of 40 somewhat years reeks of both ale and whiskey, and from the stains of puke and liquor running down his ruffled green shirt and tan breeches, he’s had more than his share. His hair is a pastiche of grays and browns, his nose snubbed from more than a few scraps, and a pair of scabbards hangs at his belt, the larger of which is empty, the smaller containing a short sword with a silver hilt. Eiger claims to be a merchant, and one of the few survivors of the Vandrakki sack of the town of Tretcher. The PCs encountered him hiding out in one of the Teeth of Winter towers on the Pinewater, flashing a hand mirror to the south to warn off traders and other travelers.
'Handsome' Harlan (human male): A flabby, pale monolith of man with a bullet-shaped bald head, Harlan's obese flesh covers a mesh of obvious muscle, and he wears spiked armor across his numerous bodily scars and sizable man-breasts. He fancies himself somewhat of a wrestler, having competed in many matches for sport and profit across the Empire, and eventually fell in with Regg Morland, who pays him to smash and crush things with his hands.
Private Glass (elf female): Green cloaked and only moderately attractive for an elven female, Glass wears the elven chain favored by her kind, short bow and rapier. She's got locks of gold and brown, and somehow manages to keep a straight face around the numerous sexual insults rained upon her by others on the trek to Wintersbreath (mostly Mudgol, Harlan and Slab). Glass was the individual assigned to Captain Langston by Commander Morrow, but little else is known about her aside from her ability to track.
Roost (human male): A warmage of the Wizards Elite, Roost was known to fly off the handle during his unit's confrontations with danger, so Commander Vhelok and Prepostero send him along with Baro on the Wintersbreath expedition, where he might be of use. He seems to admire great power, and takes an interest immediately in Mudgol and Baro, whom he has heard are both quite skilled. Roost wields a longsword and wears chainmail under a thick set of crimson/purple cowl and robes covered in arcane symbols. Has a rather snotty disposition, growing frustrated when he's expected to take a rowing shift on the Well Runner.
Tulk Rothek (kenku male): PCs first heard rumors in Floivin Keep of a man walking around in a bird mask, and it turns out the individual was one of Regg Morland's mercenary band. It also turns out that the mask is no mask...after being critically injured by a glyptodon while the expedition was trying to break some ice blockage in the Pinewater, his secret is revealed to all, though Mudgol and Baro had suspected something out of the ordinary. Tulk is a kenku, one of a flightless humanoid bird species known to inhabit the broader grassland territories of the Empire and beyond. He fights with a double ended dire flail.
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