Rurik's Mission X

 New Recruits and the Ranger Weapon Revisited

    It was a prosperous time for the Warriors of the Eclipse.  The fortress was coming along nicely.  Many skilled workers had arrived to help make the finishing touches and set up shops at the fort.  A permanent trade caravan had been established with the Dwarven Isle.  Winter had just broken and a new sense of peace had fallen over our little patch of wilderness.  Lord Lucasson conveyed the title of Lord to me, Seamus, and Rigel.  While I could not hold any real political power in Lucresia, it was a powerful gesture of alliance to the dwarves.  But the title did give Seamus and Rigel the power to start giving out land grants near our stronghold.  We had already given out several of these land grants so that lesser nobles were starting to build their own settlements on the new frontier we had established.  New volunteers and recruits were arriving daily, hoping to join the Warriors.  With so much going right, it was only a question of when they would start to go wrong.

    Unfortunately, with the large number new people around the Fort, I was bogged down with a seemingly endless amount of paperwork and official responsibilities.  I had to maintain records of population demographics and provisions for the defense of the fort.  I spent most of the day running from the barracks to the granary to the stables to the smithy, making sure we had the supplies necessary to outlast a siege and procuring the supplies we were lacking.  I did get some time away to work in the smithy.  It was always a welcome break when Kreger and I would work the forge to help construct his new war hammer.  If there is a tougher metal than adamantine, I don’t think it would be possible to work, except by magic.  As it was, we worked that hammer for the whole winter and it was still a formless lump, although slightly less formless than when we had started.  With the spring thaw, we could start more frequent patrols, so the work being done in the smithy returned to the more mundane tasks of armor repair and maintaining our supply of bolts for the crossbows, with the occasional bout of work on the hammer between patrols.

    Along with the general maintenance of the fort’s defenses, the job of organizing the new recruits into patrols fell under my purview.  Most of the patrols had already been formed up and sent on their routes when a rather large group of volunteers arrived at the fort.  There were almost enough to make up two patrols from this group, but after reviewing their records we decided that they should work together as a single unit.  There wasn’t a single warrior among them.  There were a couple of clerics, but neither of them was particularly militant in their outlook.  The rest were various casters.  Two were warmages, so at least there would be a military presence in the group, otherwise we probably would not have sent them out at all.  As it stood, they had a fair amount of firepower within the group, as long as a large force of warriors didn’t get in close, they would be an effective unit.  We sent them on a few training missions.  Despite a few casualties, they were surprisingly effective.  This group was reassigned to other patrols to help fill in for losses and missing skills.  It was at this point that a runt of a gnome, going by the nickname Ridge, informed me that one of his patrol-mates was actually a Peloran.  While this Peloran, Adoras, was hardly a physical threat to anyone, the concept of a spy in our midst was disturbing.  I brought this information to Seamus and Rigel and we decided to investigate the matter before taking action.  Adoras was to be allowed to continue with missions so as to not arouse suspicion while we searched for the reason for his presence.  This turned out to be a decision I regretted later on, but if we were to live our lives based on hindsight, we would all fall of into the abyss.
Our investigation revealed Adoras’s contact to be a trader living near the fort.  We were able to capture him, allowing Rigel to interrogate him.  It was discovered that Adoras was being blackmailed.  His family was held hostage by the Peloran Chuch as heretics and he had to infiltrate our ranks and relay information to the captors or his family would be executed.  We made preparations to remedy this situation, but then the furnace door blew off their hinges.  Adoras returned alone from his latest patrol.  He claimed that the halfling, Ozzy, had abandoned the group during a battle and that the rest of his group had be killed as a result.  A few days later, Ozzy arrived at the fort with stories of Adoras being a murderer and traitor, having killed Nialla and attempting to kill him in his sleep.  I immediately placed Ozzy in the prison and went to find Adoras.  I arrested him and confined him to another cell until the stories could be sorted out.  After a few hours of work by Rigel, we were finally able to make sense of the stories and reconcile them with what we knew.  Adoras was convicted for his crimes of treason, murder, and assault, but the mitigating circumstances allowed us to temper the sentence to one of atonement.  He knew we had an eye on him and we were actively pursuing avenues to rescue his family.  He would continue his work on the patrols until his atonement was complete, then we would discuss the options from there.  A summons was sent to Gorin on the Dwarven Isle to come down to raise the body of Nialla, who had been killed by Adoras.  While all of this was going on, the elves brought back news that the situation with the rifts were getting worse.  We had to split our forces between a rescue attempt for Adoras’s family and a mission to close a large rift far to the south.  Arcadius had the lead of this group, taking Kwarthian, Ozzy, and Adoras with him.
After several weeks, Adoras returned to the fort.  Again, he was alone.  He reported that the rift was closed, information that had already been confirmed by the elves.  During the closing, the other three members of his party had been killed by the blast.  Knowing that we were still suspicious of him, it took a lot of bravery for Adoras to return.  He had me convinced of the way events unfolded, which was soon confirmed by Rigel.  Gorin was asked to bring back the fallen Warriors while we tried to regroup.
Soon, it became apparent that we would have to investigate Skull Port, the vile pirate city far to the south.  The elves found evidence of an evil cult based in Skull Port that was the source of the negative energy that was opening the rifts.  We needed to learn more about this cult and what they were doing.  We sent Arcadius, Kreger, Baridin, Ozzy, and Adoras to find out what they could.  It was going to be a very dangerous mission.  We enlisted an elven ship to drop them off, but there was no way the ship could remain in the hostile waters long enough to give them passage back.  They agreed to the mission and gathered their supplies.  They left for Rema the next morning.
A few weeks later, a fiery streak shot across the sky and landed in Fort Eclipse.  It was Arcadius.  He reported on the death of Adoras, who had fallen to a band of goblins that had ambushed the party, and his own death to the venom of a phase spider.  However, as his soul drifted away to the plane of the dead, he had been saved by Corellan Larethian who had given him a special quest to stop the negative energy rifts.  Arcadius was granted many powers to complete this task, and had to rest and meditate to prepare for his new mission.  With the loss of two clerics before even reaching the city of Skull Port, it seemed like the mission was a failure.  I hoped the dwarves would have enough sense to call it off and find a way home, but it was not to be.  Seamus attempted to scry out the position of the remaining Warriors.  He found Kreger in dire straits at the bottom of a lagoon.  Seamus quickly teleported out and brought him back.  We learned from Kreger that Ozzy had been captured by a thief guild in Skull Port.  It took some negotiating and a large sum of gold, but we were able to purchase Ozzy before he was put to death.  Baridin was never found. Meanwhile, the other strike force that was sent to rescue Adoras’s family was successful.  His wife and son were brought to Fort Eclipse along with a number of druids from their village.  As a symbol of thanks, they gave us a large supply of protective amulets emblazoned with the sigil of the Warriors of the Eclipse.  It was hard to inform them of Adoras’s death.  His son, Xaufire, did not take the news well.  He quickly volunteered to join the Warriors.  We cautiously accepted him into the group, but I knew that we would have to keep an eye on him.  He just seemed like he had something to prove, and that makes for a very dangerous situation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

    Thankfully, the summer was finally fading.  Autumn brought the turning of the leaves, and hopefully our luck.  The coffers of the Warriors of the Eclipse were empty and our debts were quickly piling up.  We were greatly in debt to Gorin for his services and our taxes to Lord Lucasson were coming due.  While we should have had some income from the nobles who had settled our land, it was still far too early to expect them to be profitable.  In fact, only Lord Trent, a noble who had settled a patch out to the west, was able to pay his taxes this year.  As a result, we had a lot of ground to make up if we were going to have a financially successful year.  There was no way that we could make enough income in the remaining year by normal means.  Even with the smithy turning out armor and weapons at top speed, production of potions and scrolls by the mages, and other activities, we could never come up with so much money in time.  We would have to find an alternate means to acquire it.  Eventually, we came to a decision:  The Forest of Souls.

    Soon after we had first cleared the forest, a small company of dwarves was dispatched to hold the area and prepare for a mining operation to be started later this year.  All was going well until a tribe of giants attacked and murdered the dwarven miners.  Now seemed like a good time to reclaim the forest and recover what we could in treasure.  Hopefully it would be enough to cover our debts and refill the vault with coin.  We assembled all of the able bodies we could find:  Arcadius and Kwarthian, Rigel and Scout, Kreger, Nialla and Ozzy, even some new volunteers in Kaup, a rogue of some abilitiy and Xaufire; and started on the road to Merryvale.  From there, we would take the old mining road out to the forest and reclaim our magic mines.  The trip out to Merryvale was uneventful.  Soon after leaving Merryvale, we encountered a pair of manticores.  They had formed something of a nest in some rocky debris.  We managed to drive them off and collected the trinkets they had collected.  We quickly returned to Merryvale and sent our newly acquired good back to the fort.  We then continued on our way to the forest.  We arrived at the forest, really a large flat ridge, like a set of stairs within the cliffs.  We approached from the upper cliff and were instantly greeted by two guards and their hurled boulders.  We managed to approach and engage these enemies.  I managed to knock one off the cliff, while the other was flung from the cliff, and then levitated down to the surface of the forest.  They retreated into a cave at the base of the cliff.  We made preparations for an assault on the cave.  First we made plans to drop down to the cave on ropes.  No sooner had we prepared to do this than we were ambushed by six giants that had approached us unseen.  The assault was vicious.  I managed to hold the left flank against a particularly tough giant in plate armor.  We traded shots, neither of us able to land any damaging hits, while the rest of the group battled the other giants.  Soon, the giant I was facing became frustrated and tackled me.  Using his greater mass, he managed to put me in a strangle hold and then moved towards the edge of the cliff.  Arcadius was near enough to help with magic and cast a spell that left me feeling light enough to float away.  Fortunately, I was able to break free from the giant and reclaim my proper place with my feet on the ground.  While the giant and I had been distracted with our grapple, Nialla had taken a rope that had been lowered for our planned descent and had attempted to entangle the giant.  The giant, being a giant, was able to snap the rope from its moorings and used it to entangle and tie up Nialla.  I tried to distract him while he worked to finish his knots, but this only encouraged him to use the rope to tie me up, too.  Fortunately, the mithril plates of my armor withstood his strength and the coils around me were loose.  I was able to maneuver out of the rope and was once again free.  Unfortunately, Nialla was unable to break free, and the giant began to swing her around, using her as an improvised flail.  I quickly recovered my glaive while the giant came at me with his new Nialla weapon.  We continued to battle and the giant finally landed a solid hit against me.  I could hear the groan as Nialla smashed against my armor.  Finally, the rest of the group had finished off the other giants and they were able to come over and offer support.  Now that he was vastly outnumbered, we were able to drop this last giant quickly.  As life left him, he lost hold of the rope he had been swinging and Nialla went flying over the cliff.  Arcadius and Rigel were able to use their powers to stop her descent and bring her back to solid ground.

    We gathered what we could from the giants we had defeated and returned to Merryvale.  We found a place to store our newly acquired items and rested for a day.  I approached Rigel and discussed a concern I had with our battle tactics.  While fighting, we had no one guiding our effort.  We needed someone to watch the battle unfold, someone to point out where help was needed or where the threats were coming from.  I asked Rigel to take over this responsibility.  He would be the battle commander for this next assault.

    We also needed a new plan of attack, a way to defeat a company of giants that was much larger that we had expected.  We decided to try information gathering to find out exactly what we were up against.  We snuck back to the forest and were prepared to attack any sentinels.  As before, a pair of guards was waiting for us.  Rigel managed to dominate one of the giants.  With this new ally’s help, we were able to quickly defeat the other sentinel before he could raise the alarm.   I interrogated the giant.  This was something new for me.  I have neither the stomach nor the temperament to be a good interrogator.  But there was a language barrier and I was the only one able to speak with the giant.  The effects of Rigel’s domination were still quite clear, and the giant was patient and even friendly as I asked him about their purpose, numbers, and routines.  It was rough going at first, but then Arcadius cast a spell on me that allowed me to understand the giant beyond my basic training in their language.  Unfortunately, it did nothing for my ability to speak the language, so it was still difficult for me to convey messages to him.  I eventually worked out that there were eight more giants in the cave.  Their leader, Torblach, was a caster of some power.  He had led the others here to reclaim this land from the dwarves so that they could benefit from the wealth buried here.  For the most part, the giants patrolled the main area of the forest, sending out pairs to make sure everything was quiet around their cave.  The sentinels up here above the cave were changed several times a day by way of a ring of levitation.  Torblach would monitor the change to make sure it went smoothly, and then would take back the ring until it was time for the next change of guards.  This seemed like the best time to isolate him, so a new plan was formed.  We waited until the guard was to be changed.  When the giant appeared at the top of the cliff, he gave the levitation ring to our ally giant.  Then, Arcadius cast a spell of silence and we attacked the new giant.  We managed to defeat him before he could react.  Our ally put on the ring and went down to face Torblach.  I still felt that we should have been down there at the lower level, ready to attack, but the others feared being detected by the patrols.  When he reached the bottom of the cliff, instead of handing over the ring, our ally attacked Torblach and we jumped.  Arcadius had cast a spell on us so we would fall slowly and controlled.  It was safe, but I didn’t like being caught in mid-air while the battle started below us.  Torblach was to be silenced so as to prevent him from casting while we were vulnerable.  Unfortunately, the spell was misplaced and Torblach was able to cast spells at us as we fell.  Furthermore, the other giants in the caves heard the commotion and rallied to help their commander.  As we approached the ground, I took a swing at a nearby giant.  I then tried to wade through the battle to find Torblach.  Unfortunately, things were already much too chaotic.  Our group was soon scattered around the battlefield.  Instead of concentrating on one target, we had several individual battles going on.  No one was guiding us or directing the troops.  Suddenly, in the middle of this chaotic melee, a voice popped into my head and asked if we should offer the giants a chance to surrender.  The battle was still swirling as three giants continued to fight.  I heard a couple of shouts of “Aye” but I noticed that Xaufire had fallen and a giant was standing over him, readying to finish him off.  I shouted my dissent and charged the giant, dodging past the others in my way and calling at him as best I could, trying to distract him with questions about his parentage.  It worked and the giant turned on me while Kreger went to Xaufire’s aid.  Rigel, however, was quite upset about the continued fighting and vanished from the battlefield.  The battle wound down soon after that.  One giant managed to escape by jumping off the far cliff.  I chased him to the edge, but there was nothing to be done.  He had escaped.

    Victorious, and fortunately all alive, we searched our defeated foes and their lair.  We collected what objects we could and retreated back to Merryvale because could not hold this land.  The giants had reinforcements coming and we did not have the manpower to hold both Fort Eclipse and the Forest of Souls.  Once again, we had to relinquish control over this site that we had fought so hard to regain.  Once in Merryvale, we collected all of our spoils and returned home.  Each of the warriors was given one of the recovered items while the rest were put into our vault.  We were able to repay our debts and pay our taxes in full and still enough over to have funding for the next year.  It was a very successful raid.

    While I wish this was the end of this chapter of the Warriors of the Eclipse, it was not.  Eventually, Rigel returned to the fort.  There were many harsh words.  Accusations of murder, injustice, cowardice, and treachery flew like arrows.  Much harm was done, but there was also growth.  We all came to understand each other a little better, something that would not have happened if we had not faced these differences of opinion in the open.  And here we are now, settling in for another winter at Fort Eclipse, new wounds opened, but bandaged.  I hope, for all of our sake, that the bandages hold and the wounds do not fester.

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