Journey to the Scarlow Mountains

The Party travels to the Scarlow Mountains to investigate where the Red Claw Ale is coming from. They run into a caravan along the way.

The party prepares to head out into the mountains. Moz sends a Three’s protocol message to the ship to tell them to rendezvous with us before we travel up into the mountains. They decide to bring Highwing and Moz takes point.   Gilly gets the feeling that Highwing isn’t quite ready for her to ride him yet. He’s just overwhelmed with new input, so riding him would be a lot of keeping him on track. She lets him go hunt and explore, but makes sure he knows he has to stay close and come back. She even tells him not to eat the ferret nugget that Bobushio tosses him, until she gives it back to him.   Moz turns into a rather large cockatoo MOZATOO! She goes flying off to scout ahead. The rest of the party travels the road. Bobushio takes point, while Thuniel and Gilly bring up the rear on Meera. The party finds a broken Redclaw bottle by the side of the road at some point.   The second hour, Moz finds several more broken bottles. It seems there was a caravan that was mobbed at some point. For the next twenty miles, there are empty bottles, broken kegs, and such. They get the impression that the caravan was met by a bunch of addicts who bought out the supply and just drank and dumped it. But haven’t seen any indication of anyone waiting along the road.   Moz and ISAC both descend and say there are three wagons traveling toward us about a mile down the road. They are heavily armed, with two hulking figures. We’ll meet them in maybe twenty minutes.   The party backtracks along the road to give Bobushio an hour of time to set up an explosion that might shatter some kegs when the wagons roll over them. Bobushio also sends a message to Captain Kollias to tell him that the shipment is on the way.   The plan is to hide off road while they pass. The party will then return to the road and Moz will change to a bloodhound to track back to their compound. The party moves into the woods, with the help of Moz’s pass without a trace. Bobushio will cast a glyph of warding on the ground to thin out the group.   The caravan nears, as they hide in the thick jungle. Highwing is not really hiding, but he kinda blends in. The caravan is led by a short hooded creature that looks like a Jawa. There are two huge ogres next to him. The wagons are loaded with one massive barrel each with hastily painted Redclaw logos on them. The direweasels are driven by Kobolds. Three Kobolds driving, a leader Kobold, and more Kobolds hanging out in the back of the wagons. They seem on high alert there’s one more hooded Kobold in the back.   Bobushio estimates that each barrel is 79 gallons. The creatures are very smelly, stinky with their scent, but with brimstone as well. As the caravan crosses the glyth the explosion ignites the barrels and all the flamable equipment on all three wagons. The direweasels die. The kobolds ALL die except the hooded guy at the very back who turns tail and runs, and the ogres confused flee as well.   Thuniel and Gilly take out the ogres from cover, and Bobushio leaps out and catches the kobold by the neck. Bobushio tells him that we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Gilly calls Highwing over for intimidation factor.   The kobold asks what we want. We ask who is in charge of the curse on the ale. “The Great One, Tuckerrath the Agitator, lives in the mountain of fire. The great red one that dwells amongst the rivers of fire. He is not the greatest, but he is.” (So he’s not an ancient dragon) “Take the ale one last time to gather money, they we’d move to another place and do the same things elsewhere. The victims would wither and die from wanting the ale.”   Gilly asks for some and the kobold pulls out a flask. Gilly and Bobushio make a grab for it. It drops to the ground and Thuniel telekinesis’s it to her hand. She dumps it out and both Bobushio and Gilly are both super angry. Moz asks if the kobold has tried it and he says he did before it was made to make a swelling in the bosom. It is cursed by magic and can only be undone by magic. Moz and Highwing are hanging out in the back.   Bobushio starts reading the kobold’s mind and gets the impression that he’s about to try to cast something to escape. Bobushio tosses the kobold to Highwing, which breaks the kobold’s concentration. The kobold is still alive, but barely. Thuniel leaps over and tries to grapple him, but misses. The kobold casts fog, and now we can’t see him. Bobushio casts Suggestion and tells him to stop fighting and tell us about the base. “There are many kobolds in Tucker’s lair. We will not make it out alive. We must find the river of lava and then will find the entrance. There’s a lot more Redclaw in there and many, many traps. Go to the Basilisk’s Spine and when we find the river of lava, we will find the entrance.” His name is Zem.   They let Zem go, and he levitates off the path and into the trees to try to escape. Gilly sends Highwing to finish him off. He gets to eat him a Kobold. Now the party has a little better idea of where to go.