The party found themselves within the hollowed-out cellars of the lighthouse ruins, recuperating from their already numerous battles of the day. With daylight quickly fading, the group decided to stay where they were.

They did receive a small amount of down-time: Brubar offered tattoos to anyone that wanted one. He first propositioned Ya’an a tattoo using some of the orc blood from the fallen enemies. Overhearing the offer, Perrin inquired further: “What kind of tattoo can you make?”

Brubar, excited by finally feeling useful, enthusiastically replied, “Really into tribal right now.”

Ya’an now felt it necessary to learn more: “Is that it? Anything else?”

“Uhhh…Oooh!” Thinking of the orc shrine at the end of the room, he pounded his chest with the hilt of his shiv and exclaimed, “Make eye of Gruumsh!”

Ya’an was hesitant before, but now the idea of the vengeful One-Eyed God permanently depicted on his chest was downright offensive to his heritage and certainly his sense of style.

Perrin, however, was unfazed and absolutely down with a new tat. He even assisted Brubar by using one of the nearby orc-bedrolls as kindling to start a fire with flint and steel. Brubar turned the blood into ink over the fire, and with his shiv began stabbing a tribal design Perrin’s left arm.

On the other end of the room, Ruari was inspecting the draft coming from behind the statue, when Sandy (aka Sandifoot aka Gazu Zilzu of Jorpip) approached to seek his opinion. Sandy was eager to get to the thousand-year secret gnome celebration, and was interested in borrowing Amy the Pony from Orvyn. Ruari cautiously agreed to help plead the case, and Oryvn was open to the idea, assuming Amy was alright with it. Sandy made his way back to the outside of the lighthouse. After some whinnying from Amy, the surroundings grew quiet.

Minutes later, the party began to hear what sounded like an orc casting a spell. Perrin quickly stamped out the fire leaving the room in almost total darkness. The rest of the group hoped they had been mistaken. Then just outside their room, in the antechamber, the sound of stone on stone grinding, then a loud thud. Something was just feet away from them.

Just outside the double-doors to their encampment, pairs of dark eyes reflected from the smoldering embers. Then dozens of glowing red eyes of skeletons and zombies. Then a large orc came up behind the undead.

A loud, menacing chant began: Stay, dear friends, and work for me. The pay is little and the pain is deep, the days are long and you’ll get no sleep. You’ll rise for me and toil past death, sold for stones in darkest depths.

Brubar, Alaric, Perrin and Ruari were completely enthralled by the chant, wanting nothing but to stay right where they were, listening intently. Ya’an, Orvyn, and Darrana were unsure of how they should proceed.

Oryvn attempted to return his allies from their brainwashed state, including enchanting his morningstar with magical light and waving it before his new allies, but to no avail. Ya’an decided that he would try and carry Perrin away in hopes that distance might break the chants hold. Upon Ya’an’s attempt, Perrin insisted on staying for the chant, and resisted. In the ensuing rustle, Perrin managed to elbow Ya’an in the eye. Oryvn then channeled Istus and projected positive energy towards the skeletons in hopes to turn them. While unsuccessful, the chant stopped, which seemed fortunate. The affected party members regained their faculties.

While the formerly-enthralled party-members were becoming aware of their surroundings, the large orc behind the skeletons began casting again, then demanded, in the common tongue, “COME TO ME!” Brubar violently shook his head in denial, shuddered, and rushed to the back of the room as far as he could from the voice.

The orc then cast a spell, this time summoning a spear-shaped force that appeared before the group. The force impaled Brubar through his chest. Blood poured down from both sides of his body, and he slumped to the floor.

The orc leader started yet another spell, and then suddenly grew to double his size, after which a great pounding on the foundation was heard and felt. This had the side effect of shaking the ceiling loose above the entrance to the chamber and the ensuing rubble managed to block the orc and undead from reaching the party.

Ruari pushed the orcish shrine/statue aside, while Orvyn was able to heal Brubar just enough to stabilize him. Alaric then provided Brubar with the last of his goodberries to get him back on his feet.

The party then made their way down the tunnel behind the statue, guided by Oryvn’s illuminated morningstar. It was a well-carved, wide stone path with frequent steps leading further down, with each step the ceiling higher, and the scent of saltwater stronger. Suddenly, moss, fungi, and long vines were common sights by their torchlight.

While navigating deeper further inward, Darrana noticed among the vines on the right next to a pile of torn bits of cloth and hard-bits, a vine-like creature she knew to be an Assassin Vine, and warned the others to keep their distance.

On the wall opposite to the dangerous vegetation, about twenty-five feet up, a shadowy hole was visible by the light of the magically-lit morningstar. The hole appeared to be about one-foot wide and 3-feet tall, or roughly, gnome/halfling -sized.

Darrana, the most confident in her climbing abilities, attempted to climb the wall the twenty-five feet to the opening. After a few slips, with some effort and patience, she was able to climb to the opening with the lit morningstar strapped to her, only as soon as she reached the opening, a group of bats fled the hole, startling the halfling, and she fell back down by the rest of the group, injuring her severely. Rather than attempt this again and risk greater damage, the group decided to press on. The morningstar’s magical light had run its course, and so the party lit a torch.

At the end of the passageway, their passage turned to be a large slowly-curving staircase leading downward as the group found themselves in a large open room. While the others could only hear the sound of water below, Brubar was able to use his darkvision to point out multiple doorways, and the sizable section of stairs that had been broken, and could clearly see the water, below. He also noted that writing was on the walls.

By the torchlight, the Elven-literate (Ruari, Ya’an, Alaric, and Perrin) noticed that some of the wall’s inscriptions were in Elven and one other language. Ruari recognized the second language as Aquan, spoken by many intelligent underwater creatures. Ruari, having been raised in the Elven district of Troutbeck prior to its ruin, had studied the language of the Aquatic elves. He fluently read the Aquan, which translated as “The Porpoise welcomes the Longsword“. The Elven was also translated for the group as, “The Longsword welcomes the Porpoise.“. Additionally, there was the repeated Elven inscription, “May the beaches of our trade be gilded.” Ya’an theorized they were in an old secret trading post for Aquan-goods.

Perrin lit another torch and ventured down the steps and leaped into an open doorway opposite the broken section in the old carved path. Oryvn and Alaric followed suit. Perrin then jumped down to the second section of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, Perrin found himself at a dead-end. To his left, a sealed stone doorway. Straight ahead: water. To his right, a small beach, in which the wall above it read an inscription in Elven:

Walks in the wind
Runs in the rain
Makes dry oceans in the sun
Counts time, stops clocks
Swallows kingdoms, gnaws rocks.

Throw it in the water.

Yelling the riddle up to the rest of the party, Ruari was able to deduce that the answer to the riddle was ‘sand’. Upon Perrin’s tossing of the beach sand under his boots into the water, the stone doorway that had previously been sealed began to open.

Meanwhile, Oryvn continued down the corridor at the broken path. Despite a pungent odor of rotting flesh, he could detect no undead, so he navigated his way deeper and deeper with Alaric and Honey Badger Bill in tow. When they were met by a closed door, Oryvn pushed it open. The click of a faint mechanism was heard — the door was boobytrapped! By the light of his torch, he saw a wooden box on his left; the side of the box facing him slide down into the stone of the floor. What emerged was the source of the scent of rotting flesh. Eight writhing tentacles protruding from the head of a clacking mandibles and tooth-filled maw, with a ten-foot long segmented body of a multi-legged creature he distinctly recognized as a Carrion Crawler!

Honey Badger Bill panicked and ran. Orvyn and Alaric stayed to fight; Ya’an and Ruari ran up to assist. As Ruari approached, his keen Elf eyes noticed a hidden secret passage. Darrana rushed to join, but she was unable to jump to the passageway, and fell a great distance to the water, below. Her riding dog, Grumpus, jumped down the steps to find her.

Though Orvyn and Alaric were slapped by the beast’s poisonous tentacles many times, only once was Orvyn unable to resist monster’s paralytic touch. Thankfully, the Carrion Crawler’s goal was to focus on paralyzing its prey before devouring; Alaric, Ya’an, and Ruari were able to beat the beast back until Orvyn finally came-to, and the four finally crushed the skull of the foul abberation.

During the battle, above, Darrana quickly swam to the beach where Perrin seemed to be relaxing, admiring the unseasonably warm air. Along the way she noticed an empty cage in the water that she was forced to swim around. At the shore, Perrin and Darrana saw a large dorsal fin in the water: a shark’s. The water-logged halfling then peered into the stone doorway that was previously sealed, and saw what appeared to be a dining table with mostly-broken chairs around it. The table had two bits of rope, each tied to the two separate legs of the table. Atop the dining table was a dark stain, possibly from blood of some sort. Two old braziers and a pile of wood rubble were along the walls, and this room revealed three closed doors.

With the large dead crawler in front of them, Orvyn’s torchlight revealed the room. On the wall across from him, a hole, about one-foot wide and three-feet tall. Two long tables were also in the room. The first sat a second dead carrion crawler, split and splayed open on its back. Behind that table was another, atop it was:

• An Elf skull with a spherical black onyx sitting in its eye-socket, and two dull pearls used to replace two teeth.
• 
• Under a black cloth, a silver coin covered in a bright, heatless flame. On the coin was the symbols of oar crossed over blade; Ruari recognized it as an old Troutbeck coin.
• 
• A corked ceramic vial with a marking of a white bird with an X for its eye.
• 
• A book with a title in Aquan: “The Journeyman’s Guide to Carrion Crawler Dissection”
• 
• A clear, corked glass vial of viscous liquid that Ya’an determined was simple oil.
• 
• An unused Sunrod, a bright six-hour light source when struck.
• 
• 4 Tindertwigs, used for quickly creating a flame.
• 

Orvyn detected magic in the room: The coin emanated evocation, the magic of energy manipulation and creation; the ceramic vial abjuration, the magic of protection.

As the party gathered these things, Brubar began walking to rejoin the group, only to be slapped around the throat with a long tendril, making a crushing sound. He appeared to be pulled into the shadows. Orvyn peered into the hole in the dissection-room, and was able to make out what appeared to be the half-orc’s foot, pulled away into the shadows by a dark, tentacle-like hand.

Orvyn described what he saw to the group, and the description nudged Ya’an’s memory of a story from the Llandry monks about creatures that lurk in the shadows and attack weak humanoids. Unfortunately, the details of the creatures in the story, to Ya’an’s recollection, were fuzzy at best.

After the emancipation of the half-orc slave, Brubar, the party saw two sets of tracks from their location. One was a small set, most likely gnome-sized. The other was the shuffling from a group of creatures, most likely the freshly deceased orcs around you.

Darrana Howlcrusher successfully tracked the small set, as expected, to the ever-dusty old Gnome cleric, Gazu Zilzu of Jorpip aka Sandifoot aka Sandy.

The tracks led Darrana and the party Southwest to an ruined stone keep. Upon entering, the party detected the strong scent of sulfur. The animals: Darrana’s riding dog Grumpus; Alaric’s faithful Honey Badger Bill; and the Orvyn’s pony Amy — all snorted and pulled away in near synchronicity.

Within the ruined stone keep, a spell was heard cast, which Orvyn Silvershaper determined was a prayer for an Obscuring Mist. Carefully, the party searched the dilapidated guard-rooms at the front of the keep. Within one was found the spell’s caster, Sandy, aka Sandifoot, aka Gazu Zilzu of Jorpip. In addition, a set of humanoid bones were found aside a small-sized longbow which Daranna took to replace her recently-sold bow. Unfortunately, though, no accompanying arrows were found.

Directly across from Sandy in another unused guard-room of the keep was found Perrin Long, a short and young human male, armed with bow and two identical shortswords. Though pale, he appears healthy, with brown hair and green eyes that seem to betray intelligence. Perrin cautiously joined the group on their adventures in orc-slaughter among the ruins of Troutbeck.

The party together searched every remaining room of the old keep. Every room appeared sacked and broken, until the old store-room along the Western wall was searched. This room was different in that it appeared to have a functioning door.

Alaric Dondarrian grabbed the handle, only to feel the sting of a trap! His hand felt moisture and then a burning. He focused on the words of his grovemaster, Tanyl Umenan saying, “Shake it off!”, and successfully willed himself from the poison’s pain. Upon group examination of scent and appearance, the poison on Alaric’s hand was deemed carrion crawler brain juice.

The door opened. The ambient light from the stairs peered into the darkness and revealed a hideous monster: a zombie bugbear! Carrying a rusted morningstar, the creature shambled towards the living seeking the solitary evil purpose of adding to the hordes of the dead.

A quick battle ensued, and the party prevailed in destroying the zombie with a barrage of bolts, blades, and blows. During the attack, Orvyn Silvershaper showed the ability to channel his god Istus and turn the undead in fear. However, it was also learned that the turned undead could be turned right back around with the scratch of a honey badger’s razor-like claws. Perrin showcased an ability to sneak-attack! The party as a whole seemed to practice a no-man (or badger-) left-behind policy, as Honey Badger Bill, in a bloodlust frenzy, was crushed under the weight of the hideous undead bugbear’s morningstar, and quickly healed by Orvyn’s divine magic.

The keep thoroughly searched and removed of undeath, the party followed the second set of tracks west, where moments before, the slaver-orcs came from and were heading back towards.

The tracks led them to the old Troutbeck Lighthouse, at the Northwestern most point of the ruins. The lighthouse had fallen into the base of its structure. Rocky rubble was strewn everywhere, though the steps to the lighthouse still allowed the party to have a slightly elevated view of what was once the grand city of Troutbeck.

Unfortunately, very little appears to remain from the remains of the tower: The ruined keep the party just explored to the immediate East; beyond it at the far East, another keep in the Elven district where Ruari Athir was raised, and just Northwest of the lighthouse was the Temple to Ehlonna, still standing. Seeing no movement or noteworthy events, the party descended to the base of the lighthouse.

Under the rubble of the lighthouse, Ruari Athir, in the corner of his Elven eyes, noticed some hidden stairs. The party carefully examined the stairs and while walking down them, uncovered a crudely camouflaged pit trap, which, guided by Perrin Long’s quick feet, they easily walked around.

Beyond the pit trap were double-doors. Listening at the doors, they overheard Orcish voices. Attempting to surprise the Orcs, the party burst open the doors. There they found four orcs moving towards them with javelins and an elevated platform in the back of the room with a menacing Bugbear armed with javelin and morningstar.

Another battle, this time leaving the party entirely unscathed. The clumsy movements of the orcs were easily dodged, and each monster was quickly taken down with the party’s pointy-bits.

After the fight, the party examined the room: It seems to be a filthy orc camp. One side of the room is the raised platform where the Bugbear was stationed. On the other side is a half-dozen crude sleeping mats of cloth scraps and hay. At the end of the room is a crude rock pedestal about 5′ tall and 3′ wide, atop of which sits a stone-carved slanted eye. There is a slight draft from behind the statue that revealed a poorly-hidden passage.

Small bits of food and drink were found at a table on the raised platform, along with 90gp in a small wooden box. A small piece of parchment with a hand-scrawled note in Orcish: “Beware the ghost”, which Orvyn read with Istus’ magic translating into his mind.

The day draws dark, snow is falling outside, and the shelter of the lighthouse-cellar is looking pretty comfy about now…

The son of peasant farmers in the Penca Vale, Perrin grew up knowing he wanted to be something else, never to know the suffering that his parents endured year after year. He could see the burden having to feed him caused, since there never was much to eat, and when he was 10 snuck out one night never to return.

Initially he made his way to Frostford, as it was one of the larger cities in the vicinity, and while he didn’t know what to expect, he figured that was as good a place as any other. However it wasn’t before too long that his fantasy devolved into a stark understanding of reality. With no skills to offer, he had to resort to stealing to survive. He didn’t take pleasure in it, but didn’t want to return home in defeat, and came to terms with having to do it as a necessity.

One day, he was inadvertently careless when trying to smuggle some cakes into his pocket at a local general store. Unbeknownst to him the shopkeeper was in the next aisle over and caught him redhanded. The proprietary immediately began to yell at him for being a thief and was able to grab a hold of one of his arms. Perrin was able to wriggle away, but not before another young man, who had been casing the joint took notice. He ran after Perrin and was able to catch him a few streets over.

He called after “Hold up there flash. You can’t be so sloppy”. Perrin looked him up and down, and seeing that he looked well off retorted “What the hell do you know, it’s not like you have to worry about food”. The boy scoffed “Heh, not too long ago I was just like you, scared and lost. That was until my mentor, showed me a better way”. They continued to chat for a while longer, and eventually the boy was able to convince Perrin to meet him the next day to help him survive. “By the way, my name is Robert, but everyone calls me Crow”.

The next morning Crow brought Perrin to a back alley door. When they entered the building, Perrin was immediately struck by how many young men and women there were reading, doing physical training, and the like. “What is this place?” he inquired. “It’s a sort of school for kids like you and me, but I think Father Mike can explain it further.” Just then a man came over, Perrin noticed he had a kind face, but one that was weathered as if he had lived a tough life and had a deep understanding of the world.

Mike explained to Perrin how he started the school as a way to help young children develop the skills they would need to survive in the all too cruel world. He also explained how this wasn’t a charity, but that Perrin would need to earn his stay. Mike set him up with a bed and some decent clothes. “When you’re settled, why don’t you find Crow and he can give you something to work on”.

Over the coming days Perrin began to understand that the school in reality was teaching them to be proficient criminals. It was up to each of the older children to tutor the younger ones in specific areas, deception, cons, and even martial skills. While Perrin wasn’t enamored with the prospects it was better than starving, and as Father Mike had explained, before too long he would be more than self-sufficient, which Perrin thoroughly longed for.

Through the training, it was clear Perrin had a latent talent for this line of work, and the more he trained the better he became. While he excelled in almost everything, he became particularly enthralled with swordplay, which just so happened to be Crow’s class.

After a few weeks, Crow decided to take Perrin with him on a job to give him some real life practice. As Crow was walking him through what should have been an easy score, a stranger overheard their plans and confronted them. It was only through quick thinking that Perrin was able to come up with a convincing lie to get them out of it. “Oh that’s just my older brother trying to play tricks on me. He’s always thinking he can get me into trouble so Mom will believe he’s the good one”. The man bought it and they quickly moved on and found some easy marks to take down later in the day.

For a while there things were going quite well, and eventually Crow and Perrin broke off on their own. They started being able to pull bigger and bigger cons, and it seemed that there was no end in site to the kinds of jobs they could pull. That was until the day they tried to rip off one of the local warlords. Robert thought it was too risky, but Perrin convinced him they could do it. All they would need to do is lift a key off one of the henchmen, make a copy, and then return later to break into their safe. The first part of the plan went well, but when it came time to return, the intel they had was wrong. Instead of the hideout being deserted they walked right into an ambush. Perrin was able to fight his way out, but Crow was fatally wounded. Unable to return, and now pursued by the warlock’s men, Perrin had no choice but to once again abandon his home and venture forth to a new land. He swore to himself that he would be more cautious in the future and never let anyone get that close to him again.

For the last several years he’s been roaming from town to town, forced to move on whenever things don’t work out. He’s been growing more and more tired of this routine, and feels like maybe he is finally ready to try and find somewhere to belong.

Perrin had most recently heard that the port city of Troutbeck was no longer civil. It wasn’t terribly far — He could easily camp nearby and take an expeditions to see what riches have yet to be plundered. Only slightly south along the coast, just on the edge of the Starleaf Vale. Any moment now, and the road should have an old sign to point the way…

This muscular, savage humanoid stands 7 feet tall. Coarse hair covers most of its body. Its mouth is full of long, sharp fangs, and its nose is much like that of a bear.

The biggest and strongest of the goblinoids, bugbears are more aggressive than their smaller relatives. They live by hunting any creature weaker than themselves. The bugbear’s nose is the cause of its name, though the creature is not related to bears. Its hide and sharp claws also resemble those of bears. A bugbear’s hands are far more dexterous than a bear’s paws, however, and its claws are too small to make effective weapons.

Zombies are corpses reanimated through dark and sinister magic. These mindless automatons shamble about, doing their creator’s bidding without fear or hesitation.

Zombies are not pleasant to look upon. Drawn from their graves, half decayed and partially consumed by worms, they wear the tattered remains of their burial clothes. A rank odor of death hangs heavy in the air around them.

Two small groups of people eager to set for on dry land were formed: In the first boat was the halfling ranger Darrana Howlcrusher, her dog Grumpus, a swashbuckling elf Ruari Athir, and the bizarre gnome Gazu Zilzu of Jorpip (or ‘Sandy’ as he instructs everyone to refer to him). In the second dinghy was the human 1st mate of the Southern Girl, Em Morkuz, and a tattoo’d half-orc wearing a slave-collar who went by the name, Brubar.

Coming Ashore:

The two boats paddled towards the docks, where they were being spied on by a well-armed human druid and his Honey Badger hiding inside a rotting wooden structure at the docks, peeking through the broken wooden slits in the walls. Quietly behind him, a simply-garbed half-elf monk crept up to notice him. Unafraid, they greeted one another as friends, and watched the nautical parties, together.

The two boats came ashore within earshot of the monk and Druid. Noticing a dog among the passengers, Alaric put his trust in that the animal could only be honest with him, and cast a spell to speak with the riding dog named Grumpus.

Alaric asked the dog politely through the wall, “Are your companions to be trusted?”

Grumpus, who couldn’t remember a person ever speaking to him before, and in surprise perked his ears up and could only grumble out, to the Druid’s ears, “Hey! Whozzat?”

Abruptly interrupting the druid’s conversation with Darrana’s dog, Brubar the half-orc let out a long scream that the nearby recognized was Orcish. He repeated this shouting guttural phrase for several minutes, captivating his audience.

The half-orc’s chant was surely heard throughout half the ruins of Troutbeck. The noise caught the ear of a nearby gnome cleric and his pony, who came closer to investigate. From a separate path, four orcs in leather armor wielding falchions approached the call.

The four orcs seemed to recognize Brubar in some capacity. They weren’t acting overtly hostile, even though there were elves, halflings, and gnomes present. The leader of the four approached Brubar and began what seemed to be a negotiation.

Em Morkuz began whispering to Brubar, and Brubar would only speak Orcish to the orcs in return. There was a dispute over the value in the negotiation, and Brubar seemed visibly upset about it. He pointed at his eyes and in his orcish repeated the name, “Xig”.

Finally the negotiation ended, and suddenly the orc in charge of negotiating grabbed Brubar by the throat and pulled a rope through a ring in his slave-collar. The orcs started walking away, dragging Brubar screaming behind them closely. The poor fool Brubar didn’t understand that the negotiation for the terms of his own sale would not be a pleasant exchange.

Em Markuz quickly walked back to the docks, and began tying one dinghy to the other to take them both back to the Southern Girl.

Watching in dismay, Ya’an Ollis, the monk, shouted to the orc, “I’m afraid I can’t let this happen.”

“Ha! Afraid, YES! You should be!” replied the Orc. The orcs turned their back on their audience, dragging Brubar down the path the Orcs originally came from.

Ya’an quickly walked up behind the orcs, and roundhouse-kicked the smart-mouthed orc to the back of his head. The momentum flipped the orc from his feet; his head smashed the earth with the speed of Ya’ans kick. Blood drained from his ears and he was motionless save for the choking on the blood pooling in his throat.

Brubar, seeing the orc’s hand holding his leash go limp, abruptly stopped his moans of agony, and ran directly towards and past the party, to the docks where he began a new yelp, this time for help from the Southern Girl and Em, rowing away.

The orcs turned on the diverse group of humanoids, and readied their blades while the party prepared their ranged weapons.

The swashbuckler kept his distance, firing two arrows past the orcs, certainly scaring them.

The monk punched another orc in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Darrana slung a bullet into the pig-nose of the same orc. Blood sprayed backwards into his eyes from the impact, and he fell backwards into the wet sand-ridden path.

The gnome cleric, Orvyn SIlvershaper, who had yet to have a conversation with the party, felt it may be Istus’ fate to join this group and aid them in the destruction of these vile Orcs and their desires, readied a bolt in his crossbow, and fired it directly through the lungs of an orc, killing him within seconds.

The druid Alaric, fired an arrow into the shoulder of an orc, then Darrana slung a bullet into his chest, and with a crunching sound caved it in, knocking the air from the orc’s lungs, and he slumped to the ground.

Within seconds, the battle was swiftly decided, and a party of adventurers had worked together to defeat a group of foes.

Brubar was freed, and Ya’an informed him of such. With the promise of regular meals, Brubar was convinced. He rummaged through the corpses and began stripping the horrendous-smelling bloody studded leather from one of the bodies. Ya’an tried to convince Brubar to was the leather in the ocean before donning it, to rid it of its stench. Brubar was absolutely not convinced, and believed that the stench was part of its appeal! Brubar was now wielding a falchion and wearing orc-blood-drenched studded leather armor. If it weren’t for the party hearing his screaming in terror for the past few minutes, he would probably appear intimidating.

The group searched the bodies for answers: what was in store for Brubar? Who is Xig and why was he mentioned in the negotiation? What happened to Ruari’s father and his home city of Troutbeck? What did Istus have in store for Orvyn with these adventurers?

All that was found on the bodies were two gems, which were identified by the group as amethyst and garnet. Alaric did speak to Brubar, though, and asked him about Xig, and what he has to do with any of this.

Brubar replied that it was his Xig bloodline “Mother Father – Father Father!” that allows him to resist the daylight more than orcs are generally willing to bear. He squinted a bit, which may be a bit suspect, but he didn’t seem to be lying.

Something was amiss, the Ruari noticed; the sandy-footed gnome cleric of Fharlanghn, Gazu Zilzu of Jorpip, was no-where to be seen.

Tracks were seen in two directions. Small footprints that were most likely Sandy’s, and those of the dead orcs.

The newly-formed group of adventurers must decide on their next path…

This old dusty Rock Gnome seems ever-pleasant, even in the face of uncertainty. Perhaps it’s a trait that has served him well during his time on the road, to which he’s spent so much time. He’s a cleric of Fharlanghn, the god on the horizon, the god of the road, and the god of travelers. Over the weeks-long journey by ways of The Southern Girl with Ruari, he enjoyed telling tales from the road, singing, dancing, and laughing heartily.

Ruari first encountered Sandy near a small grotto underneath a bridge, near the docks of Lis-Al Onna after just escaping a harrowing situation involving a princess’s cursed underwear and the wrath of her father’s guards. After witnessing Ruari pull himself out of the ocean into the tiny grotto where Sandy was preparing for a voyage, the two became fast friends, and Sandy accompanied Ruari on the voyage to Troutbeck.

Sandy has since fought by the sides of the party for a day, but quickly got back on the road. Hopefully, he’s still alive out on the road with Amy, Orvyn’s pony. He said he’s on his way to Shotridge, a 20-day pony-ride away. He promised to give word to the party for when they leave Troutbeck, as well as to take care of Amy and ensure that she’s looked after at Shotridge until Orvyn comes to retrieve her.

He most recently negotiated his own sale to the Orcs of Troutbeck. Supposedly, he is of Xig blood, which has something to do with his eyes.

Brubar, Angry and Confused at the Docks of Troutbeck:

Em Markuz with the Southern Girl:

Orcs are aggressive humanoids that raid, pillage, and battle other creatures. They have a hatred of elves and dwarves that began generations ago, and often kill such creatures on sight.

It is well-known that Orcs are sensitive to light.

Orcs rushing into battle: