The date is Friday, 15th September
The time is 8:00 AM
We set out for the north accompanied by
Odlief the druid.
A few days later we reached his home in the
Mosquito Marsh. We left him there and headed on further north. We were now further from home than we had ever been before.
At Odlief's instruction, when the
Chalky River turned west we headed out north-west, then to return to the river again a few days later.
The date is Sunday, 24th September
The time is 11:00 AM
The ground had permanent snow on it now as the Autumnal Equinox had passed and we were heading further north.
Ahead the river rounds a high spur of land, from beyond can be heard the sounds of battle! Loud roaring can be made out and the very ground seems to shake.
Chi and
Fyren snuck up to scout out the battle. They saw four dwarves being engaged by three huge frost giants with ogres and wolves assisting them.
Fireballs flew and ogres and a hill giant died before they had much effect on us. But two frost giants remained. And we'd got their attention.
Sellis called upon the wrath of nature but the battlefield was so large that the monsters easily avoided the area and moved outside of it. Fireballs continued to rain down and Tinnan slaughtered with his axes.
It turned out to be a relatively simple fight and soon the giants were all dead.
The dwarves at the refuge were called Stormzy Heavyhead, Thulgran Ironhand, Ebrum Stonearm and Gwynmil Runecarver. They told us their companions in nearby (three and a half days northeast of here) hunting grounds had been attacked by frost giants and they don't know what happened to the other ten dwarves. They asked us to go and see what happened to them.
The refuge was one of those created by the Gothi in ancient times and was covered in dweomers of power.
Stormzy agreed to head off to the camp with us whilst the others headed home towards Balinburg.
The date is Thursday, 28th September
The time is 9:00 AM
Three days later we see some low hills in the distance with a wide, low valley running through it. Rivers and streams ran through it which bubbled with geothermal springs. As such it was a very popular place to hunt - both for the dwarves and for other dangerous hunting creatures.
Stormzy led us on to the camp where the dwarves were attacked.
A few leather tents stand on a small flat plateau that lies between gorse covered hills. Crates, drying skins and other paraphernalia clearly mark this out as a hunter’s camp. Water from a spring splashes into a nearby pool and a handful of fallen, moss covered stones can be seen protruding from amongst dense brambles.
Unfortunately, the camp was well and truly occupied by four hulking giants and their pet wolves. Battle began!
Tinnan rushed in and was bitten by a nasty bear trap! He retaliated by throwing his new magical javelin at the giants which struck three of them with a bolt of magical lightning. Very cool.
As usual fireballs blasted the morning air and caused their usual destruction. Sellis lit up some of the combat with her faerie fire and Tinnan slashed with his axes.
Soon all the foes were killed and silence fell. Stormzy searched the camp for his companions, and find the remains of some but he suggested there were still some missing. We found the golden teeth of a dwarf and a quality backpack. The pack was magical. Some sort of bag of holding, perhaps? Stormzy said that Rolly used to own it and he's likely dead.
Whilst we rested a bit Sellis cast around for tracks and found four dwarf sets going north west which was in the direction of both the dwarves' base camp and Balinburg.
Stormzy says the valley is called the
Gronndalr Valley.
