Session 29 - Lost Male

2 Klarmont 1010 - 4 Klarmont 1010

General Summary

The party does some last day chores, and gets some additional information about poor Stefan, then heads east down the road. They are making a casual pace, and encounter a local farmer headed to town with a cart full of vegetables. They hail the farmer, and ask if he's seen anyone matching Stefan's characteristics along the way. The farmer replies that he has not, but while they are in having the conversation, they peruse the vegetables in the cart, and pick out some travel snacks for the road, which they purchase for a silver. Their haul, which goes nicely into the Bag of Colding, includes some green beans, which are great for munching as they go, some turnips, and some potatoes. They thank the farmer, and keep on headed toward Luln.
Tork takes the lead, with his heightened senses, and as evening approaches, he hears something deep and boisterous ahead and to the north of the road. Tork breaks off from the party to scout the situation, and is able to sneak up to a camp of ogres. There seem to be four ogres, and a dire wolf, and they seem to be eating half a horse, or perhaps have already eaten half the horse, and are preparing to eat the second. Tork retreats to the rest of the party, and brings them up to speed. The party decides these Ogres likely are a hazard to traffic on the road, and decide to test that case by splitting into two groups, with Leo and Ellincia hiding a bit back and in the woods, and Tork, Seraphina, and Stavos singing their way down the road. If the Ogres are hostile, the party will be ready of course, and take them down to protect future travelers.
Stavos and Seraphina start singing a song, and loudly marching, and this of course attracts the attention of the Ogres. One comes out and takes their measure. Seeing Tork, the Ogre asks what they are doing. Tork asks what brings the Ogre so far south, as this is not an area an Ogre would be expected. The Ogre explains that there's good business kidnapping pinkies and bringing them to the "Brain." They continue to discuss the situation, and the ogre invites them to come have some horse meat, after explaining that they scared off some traveler, and captured the horse. The pinky ran away and probably shit himself, "Hahahah."
The party, expecting a trap, come in to the camp as invited, with Elincia and Leo staying out of sight. It seems the party is going to let the Ogres make the first move. Tork maintains a casual conversation as he comes in, but is on alert. When the Ogre makes a move to attack, the party has been ready. Leo casts Hypnotic Pattern on the Dire wolf, and two of the ogres, though only one ogre and the dire wolf are affected, stopping in their tracks, dazed. The remaining Ogres attack, but are now severely outnumbered. and are taken down quickly. The party decides to tie up the remaining Ogre to a log, and restrain the Dire Wolf.
Elincia tries to befriend the Dire Wolf, but it is very upset that "Clunky" has been killed, and seems inconsolable. The party decides they will let the wolf loose on the region, right or wrong. Once the Ogre snaps out of the hypnotic pattern, they begin questioning him. They learn little more than they already had, but it seems there is a significant raiding and slaving operation going on in the region, likely enabled by the Black Eagle Barony leadership, but at the center is Tork's good buddy, Langdedrosa Cyanwrath, the half dragon that lead the raid on Greenest. The party decides they will take the Ogre with them to Luln as a prisoner, and the Dire Wolf will be released with instruction to get out of the area.
They depart, after taking double-watch shifts during their night in the ogre camp to make sure both nothing surprises them from outside the camp, and that the prisoners don't escape their restraints. Tork checks out the contents of the saddlebags, which provides some information about the likely owner, who clearly was not their missing courier.  On the Ogres they find 60 gold.
By now they are only half a day out from Luln, and on the road, they somewhat quickly come into contact with a military patrol, apparently out from Luln where the scared passenger of the Ogres' dinner must have escaped back to. They explain what they found at the Ogre camp, and hand over their prisoner (who is immediately dragged into the woods and executed). And hand over the saddlebags to the troops. The troops continue on their patrol, and the party heads on to Luln.
Arrival at Luln finds a larger town (than Saltmarsh), with a defensive perimeter, but during the day the gates are wide open, and easily passed through with commercial traffic. The main stretch of the Westron Road, that goes to Radlebb Keep, and eventually on to the capital Mirros lays on the eastern exit from town. The Westron Road continues on north out of the town, splitting between the Westron Road proper to the north and west, continuing through Greenest and Riverfork Keep, and the "old road" that runs much near the border with the Black Eagle Barony and ending at Saltmarsh.
They speak to the guards at the gate, explaining that they are looking for signs of the missing courier Stefan, and the guards recognize the description and say he is a regular passing through every week or two, but no they have not seen him recently.  The party asks if they can speak to Sascia, but are rebuffed as she is quite busy and the guards are not sure where she may be.
Moving on into the town, there are three inns, each serving different prospects. One seems a bit seedy, one a bit fancy, and one that seems modest, but safe. The party guesses that Stefan would likely choose the middle option to minimize expenses and risk, so they decide to check The Growling Griffin. They speak to the innkeeper, and arrange for some rooms for the night, and also inquire about Stefan. It turns out they are correct, he has been a regular here, but the last time he was in was about one and a half weeks ago, which is confirmed with the guestbook. This is a clear indication that he did not get to Luln on his way back West from Mirros. They check out the rest of town, have dinner in the inn, and talk up the barkeep to see if he has any insight to what could have happened to poor Stefan, but all indications are that Stefan was a diligent courier, and didn't seem to get himself into trouble.
The party makes plans for a couple courtesy stops in the morning, before heading east to try to pick up the trail of Stefan.

Report Date

02 Oct 2020