Session 46 – The Pretenders

Written by KoshcheiBessmertnyi

General Summary

Brandon sets off from Toothymaw, to try to meet up with Adrie and the rest of the group. He duly gets lost in the forest, and wanders aimlessly for a while in the dark, following confusing goblin paths. After finding shelter, he continues on in daylight, and finally finds himself at a bluff with a curious pattern of concentric pentagons worked into its side. Nearby, there is a strong smell of decay, so Brandon leaves it behind quickly, making a mental note to mention it to Adrie, who is bound to be interested in such things.
Soon after, he finds his way out of the woods, and sees a ribbon of a large river to his north. He approaches it, and finds a goblin village, not dissimilar to the one he just left, nestled among the pines across the river to his left, and, incongruously, a warship, anchored near the opposite bank to his right. Seeing that he is clearly west of the orc encampment, he follows the bank to the east, until a small falcon swoops down from the sky, and, speaking in Adrie’s voice, tells him where he may find her.

* * *

After Adrie departs for Claymore, Theobald waits at the mill for a while. He soon notices a crow perched on the roof of the mill. Unable to figure out if it belongs to Enmul or to Amando, he decides to swim across the river to get away from it. He hides himself in a tree, and covers himself with illusory foliage before going to sleep.
Early the next morning, he is awakened by orc voices. They seem to be returning from Triboar, based on their conversation. They say they have won a great victory, and burned the town down. They are bearing fallen and wounded comrades, however.
The orcs find boats hidden in the reeds along the bank, and row them back to the opposite side, apparently heading back to the forward base. Two boatloads pass Theobald in this way. Finally, he sees other boats, apparently rowed by humans, coming upstream from the east. Theobald swims across to the opposite side, and sees Adrie and Miletus being unloaded by armed Harper men. He explains to the men why he did not follow them back to town, and they say that they view him as a danger, but that his companions likely have news for him. Then they depart.
Miletus and Adrie explain Predicant Lorenz’ plan to seize the ring of the dark elves, while Theobald relates what he heard the orcs saying earlier in the morning. It is decision time. Several of the companions express concern that they are pretending to do too many things – pretending to get a consort for Humbaba, pretending to undermine Claymore for Amando and the White Hand, pretending to supply the goblins with weapons, and pretending to procure the ring for Lorenz. Since their initial plan was to descend down to the Underdark anyway, they decide to proceed with pretending to get the ring for the time being, especially since people’s lives are at stake in Claymore. They are skeptical about what Lorenz would do with the ring, just like, Theobald says, he is skeptical about what his ancestor Theodoric, who also is looking for it, might do with it, but that doesn’t seem like an immediate problem.
The thing to do is to round up the scattered troops, so Adrie sends a hawk to look for Brandon, and a bird, as well as a crawling animal to look for Balam up in Baghtru’s staircase, and the group sets off for the destroyed Dire Wolf camp while avoiding the orcs – a good place to rest and regroup.

* * *

Balam departs the forward base with instructions from Enmul to climb the Staircase, and ask the crew left behind to guard the main base what they know about Miletus and his escape, and to report back.
Balam travels through the night and into the morning. As he proceeds up hill, he discovers three goblins and a hobgoblin hiding out in a crater. A negotiation proceeds in broken orcish, and Balam learns that the goblins want information on the orc defenses up at Mt. Hotenow, where he is heading. He declines to trade the iron dagger given to him by Humbaba, but he does except some (purportedly) medicinal moss in exchange for promising the give the goblins information on his way back down the Staircase.
By evening, he reaches the base, and barely avoids a (possibly) warning shot by the guards up on the pylon. The guards are skeptical of his story about being gifted the iron dagger by Humbaba (partly, because Balam asks if Humbaba is there at the base, and the guards assume this is something Balam should have known about), and skeptical of his story about being sent by Enmul to ask about Miletus. But the orcs do tell Balam that Miletus killed one guard and wounded another, before escaping in daylight. They also say that they sent out a search party to find him, but the party never returned. Balam thanks them for the information, but then asks if he can rest the night at the camp, since he’s come a long way. After he tells them about the goblins who were asking for information about how many of them there are (Balam sees about half a dozen, and one dire wolf), and offering them the goblins’ moss, they agree, and give him Miletus’ old cave.

* * *

Adrie, Miletus and Theobald find Brandon fairly quickly, but do not find Balam. Brandon rejoins them, and relates his story about finding himself in Xibalba after the incident with the circle of mushrooms. He says that Clofoel Lhingril treated him well and showed him around, before bringing him to Toothymaw. He also relates that he ahs agreed, with the Clofoel’s encouragement, to supply the Dire Wolves with weapons. Last, he says that Lhingril and Glitterstem struck a deal, and that Glitterstem will be the shaman of the Dire Wolves. Last, he tells Adrie about the concentric pentagons in the forest, and the smell of decay.
The party manages to avoid orcs, and finds its way to the old Dire Wolf camp, uninhabited. Miletus is set up in the dilapidated roundhouse. Adrie retires to the sweatlodge, to look around and to meditate. She hears Lorenz’ voice in her head, telling her to seek out Theodoric.

Report Date

18 May 2018