Part I.

Slowly, gradually, the sounds of a summer’s late morning return to the grassy clearing—-grasshoppers' whirring, song sparrows' calls, the cry of a far-off loon, the irritated chirruping of a Douglas squirrel on a nearby pine.  These homey sounds are punctuated by the harsh breathing of the survivors of the battle in the clearing, and the death rattles of those who were not so fortunate.  Orc bodies, ogre bodies, and the bodies of the fallen blink dogs litter the open grassy space that surrounds the ancient, mossy stone structure standing in the middle of the clearing.

Garryn wipes the sweat from his brow, forgetting that his rapier hand is covered with ogre blood from wielding his weapon.  Forehead smeared with a mixture of sweat and gore, the rogue reflects on the road that led them to this clearing.


The journey back to Borderton was both necessary and unfortunate.  The encounter with the gnolls had gone badly—very badly.  Both Villhalas and his half-brother Totmacher had been brutally killed, and the rest of the party had suffered grievous wounds.  The retreat from the site of the caravan massacre had been a critical necessity.

Along the way, Garryn had sighted a lone rider in the distance, to the rogue’s dismay.  Another hostile encounter would likely prove fatal to the rest of the party, and the rogue was worried—-worried all the way to the gates of Borderton.  Fortune favored the party, however, and the presence of a lone rider did not result in another battle.

Once inside the gates of the frontier town, the party sought out divine aid as well as more mundane accommodations at the Sparrow and Briar inn.  The bodies of Totmacher and Villhalas were arranged in simple state within the Mithran shrine to Mairya-canha, and the party retired to the inn.

Once within the comforting confines of the Sparrow and Briar, the surviving party members ordered drinks and began to relax.  A strange dwarf approached Garryn and Caylin as they stood at the bar, and engaged them in an odd conversation.  The opening topic concerned the party’s recent forays into the Central Wilds—-the dwarf seemed to have some knowledge of the party’s adventures in that untamed region.  Soon enough, the strange dwarf—-one Gilrak Kilring by name—-came to an offer.  Apparently and for his own reasons, the dwarf was in search of the same brigands that had ambushed the caravan.  Gilrak offered to join the party, and the companions agreed to consider his offer.

The following day, Pater Erik, a Mithran priest of the sect of Cautes and a recent arrival in Borderton, was contacted by Perrato and the local clerics.  Pater Erik agreed to the Blessed Ceremony of the Reintegration of Soul and Corpus—-but only on Totmacher, as the party lacked funds for raising both of the half-brothers.  The ceremony was arranged for the next day, while the party went about re-equipping themselves.  Following another supper at the Sparrow and Briar—-and an agreement to accept the dwarf Gilrak as a traveling companion-—the party retired to sleep and prepare themselves for the dawn ceremony to bring Totmacher back to life.

The next day, the party arrived at the small Mithran shrine, meeting with Pater Erik to begin the Blessed Ceremony of the Reintegration of Soul and Corpus.  The ceremony took some time, but was successfully completed.  Totmacher was brought back from beyond, albeit in a weakened and semi-conscious state.  Perrato applied his healing arts and magic, bringing the barbarian back to full strength.  As thanks, the half-orc removed the severed head of his half-brother, tucked it into a sack, and simply left—-leaving the rest of the party scrambling to explain or excuse this sacrilege to the Mithran clerics.  Only the presence of Perrato calmed the brothers, but the party was required to remove the now-desecrated body of Villhalas from the shrine.  They did so, taking the headless corpse to the burial grounds outside of town, and interring the body in a shallow grave.  Totmacher did not help in the burial process.  Along the way and as planned, they met with Gilrak, and the dwarf joined the party.

The party, already outside of town, elected to leave on their journey back to the site of the caravan massacre.  The day was quite warm and pleasant for those who did not travel in metal armor, and somewhat less pleasant for those who did.  Nonetheless, mounted and ready, the trek to return to the Wilds began.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:11, Fri 07 Oct 2005.

Part II.

The first day out of Borderton was warm, sun-drenched, and uneventful.  Goatherds and shepherds could be seen among the rolling hills and dales near Borderton, but all traces of human habitation vanished some ten miles or so to the northeast of the town.  The day stretched out from morning to a drowsy afternoon, and settled into a long evening and twilight.  The companions made camp in a defensible location, eschewing a campfire and opting instead for trail rations.  Bedrolls were laid out, watches were set, and the party retired for the night.  The summer’s night passed with no greater disturbance than the orchestra of night sounds from the small creatures of Arret—crickets, cicadas, nightjars, foxes, coyotes, and the little prairie chorus frogs.  Soon enough, a new day dawned and the party breakfasted and departed their campsite.

Another day’s travel lay before them, and this proved to be as uneventful as the previous day’s.  At the close of the day, the party drew near to the site of their encounter with the gnolls, and the place where the caravan had met its untimely end.  Unable to investigate the site of the caravan massacre by daylight, and unwilling to do so in the failing light of the evening, the companions elected to bed down for the night.  Once again, watches were set and those not on watch went to sleep.  However, sometime during the night, a young and inexperienced bulette attempted to mark its territory—beginning with driving off or eating potential rivals.  Gilrak, on watch, woke the rest of the party as the creature hurled itself into the camp.  Capable of inflicting serious damage, the bulette was nonetheless killed as the party took turns drawing the creature’s attacks and inflicting their own damage against the thing.  Soon enough, the heavily carapaced creature lay in the tall prairie grass, its blood still flowing sluggishly from its mortal injuries.  While incurring numerous wounds, the companions nevertheless had successfully defeated the bulette.

The following dawn arrived, and Perrato set about healing as many of his wounded companions as he could.  The party set off to investigate the trail that led away from the site of the caravan massacre.  Gilrak ascertained that some 30-40 medium creatures and 4-8 large creatures had made their way to the northwest, leaving behind a trail that could be followed—with some difficulty—even some eight or nine days after it had been made.  Riding along and following the trail, Gilrak determined that the quarry he was tracking had split up, with some of the medium-sized creatures and all of the large creatures continuing to the northwest, while a number of medium-sized creatures had diverged from the main body and traveled north.  The party decided to continue their pursuit of the northwestward trail.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:35, Sun 09 Oct 2005.

Part III


The northwestward trail led back out of the grassy plains, returning the party towards the Blackthorn Hills.  As the companions made their way out of the grasslands and began to climb into the hills, they noted that they were not alone—large, canid forms were observing the party from a distance, partially hidden by the tall grass and scattered copses of trees.  Initial alarm gave way to curiosity, as it seemed that the wolf-like creatures were not intent upon stalking or attacking the party.  Perrato, drawing on his knowledge of the natural world, recognized the creatures from Vagranian teachings as “wolves that weave between the empty spaces”—a species both intelligent and respected by the Vagrani sect, and commonly referred to as blink dogs.  Perrato attempted to communicate with the creatures, and was successful in establishing a rapport with the alpha male.  During the course of the interspecies dialogue, the party received the information that the pack was concerned with and tentatively following a group of ogres and orcs—Perrato established this when the blink dogs brought him the femur of both an orc and the far larger and more unwieldy femur of an ogre.  An alliance of sorts was formed, and the party set out with renewed confidence and purpose, as the blink dog pack spread out to hunt in the hills.

Soon enough, the companions arrived at the terminus of the trail they were following.  A small lake spread out from the wooded fringe of the hills they had been traversing, and it appeared that a cave in the cliff of the opposite shore was the entrance to wherever the ogres and orcs had hidden themselves.  A lone ogre sentinel was seated upon the cave's ledge, drowsing in the summer sunlight. Of the blink dogs, there was no sign, but the party assumed that their allies were still with them.

After a brief confabulation, the companions decided to circle the lake and try to gain the heights above the cave, and descend to the cave’s ledge from there.  The wizard Aidrin, accompanied by Totmacher, made his way around the margin of the lake—in the hopes of coming to the ogre sentinel unnoticed and enspelling the creature.  The two managed to make their way to the cliff above the ogre’s cave, and Aidrin’s Suggestion spell was cast, but the brutish creature managed to shake off the effects of the spell.  With a bellow, the ogre alerted its allies within the cave.

What followed was a race around the lake’s margin by the rest of the party, coupled with an extended melee.  Orcs and ogres appeared, coming through the woods, and a running battle was joined, culminating in a slaughter around an odd obelisk.  There, it appeared that the blink dog pack had taken a stand and fared badly—although they had taken many orcs and ogres down with them.  The party arrived at this killing ground, and engaged the remaining orcs and ogres, killing all of them in the process.  As the last of the creatures fell heavily, its lifesblood spilling to further muddy the bloody ground, the party remained standing, albeit wounded.  The sole remaining blink dog is the alpha male of the pack.  A weird obelisk stands at the center of the clearing, with a doorway through which the ogres and orcs had emanated.  Bloodied, wounded, but triumphant, the party considers its options, while the blink dog sadly noses its slain pack members.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:13, Tue 17 Jan 2006.