Adventure Recap

[badams30]

Characters:
Zapolas: Elfin Wizard
Kane: Human Monk
Albrecht: Human Priest

NPCs:
Theo: Human fighter

The party travelled for several days on foot, arriving the small village of Moosburg, the only town of significance in the sleepy Moosburg Barony. The area is in the shadow of some impressive snow covered peaks and dense nordic forests, and is bisected by a meandering river. Since the war over 200 years ago, the barony has been in slow but steady decline in population, but the area is ripe with opportunity and rumors of adventure and strange things lurking in the shadows.

While getting settled in at the Moosburg Gasthaus and meeting the burly proprietor Rudi, they are directed to pay a visit to the semi-retired wizard Sigfried, and they meet him at his eccentric and goat-overrun yard. Sigfried told the party of a wizard named Anora the Grey, a mage of moderate skill with a penchant for collecting magics and dabbling in experiments. Anora resided in a small, secluded tower about a days journey from the village, and she had disappeared without a trace over 100 years ago. Sigfried told the party of a unique magic tome that Anora was rumored to possess, and how he would like to hire them to search for it and retrieve it for him, assuming it was there. Any spoils would be theirs to keep, and he'd pay each member of the group 500 GP if they returned with the tome. The party agreed, and the wizard gave them a small bit of coin to purchase some sundries.

The group was introduced to Theobald (Theo) a young but quite obviously strong local farm lad turned swordsman. Finding the humble warrior to be a good fit, the group marched out in the direction of the tower ruins. After an easy trek, they located the ruins of the tower in a forested depression, and were also puzzled to find a skeleton torso crawling about, and seemingly able to only speak telepathically with Albrecht, asking to be relieved of its suffering, and mumbling about a stone - in ominous tones. The group put the skeleton out of its misery and continued into the ruins and found a trap door leading down into some old ruins. They also located some relatively new skeletal remains and a cryptic note that said:

This deposit should cover your services, get what you need, but do not hire any locals and keep your party limited in size, we can't afford to draw attention as we're so close to our goal. And stay away from that damn town, the Burgomeister is a brainless fool, but we can't risk the wizard catching wind of what we seek. My contacts have informed me he is looking for the book - you remember, the one we discussed. The tome is of no use to me. If you find it, I'll pay you for it, but you must focus on the stone. Once you've located it, make haste to bring it to me at Corbah. But as I've told you - DO NOT REMOVE THE STONE FROM ITS BOX. The glyphs restrain the powers within, and if you tamper with it, you have no idea of the mess it could create.

Depart as soon as you can. My sources tell me the wizard is close to finding out the book is at the tower. Once he does he'll have some one going for it, so time is of the essence. My benefactor is very anxious to move things along, and he'll see to it that you and your men are handsomely rewarded for your efficiency and secrecy. Best of luck on your journey, and remember to destroy this once you've finished reading it. We've come too far to have any locals interfering now.

The group ventured under the tower ruins and after finding little of interest, but obvious signs of fairly recent visitors being in the cellars. Finding a ruined workshop/lab, the group had some good fortune, finding some magical items, books, many notes of the missing wizard Anora and eventually the book that they were seeking. After a nights rest, they headed up to depart, and hearing some commotion from outdoors, they met up with a scared, old halfling hiding from some goblins that were outside the ruins searching for him. Introducing himself as Hopwood of Mountainshire, he stated that he was captured by the goblins while out foraging, and they were taking him to their lair when he managed to escape, and they followed him here. The party decides to bum rush the goblins, and with some well placed arrows and a lunatic charge by Theo, they easily dispatch the gobs and hide the bodies. The party then withdraws to the cellars of the ruins for the night, hoping to avoid the certain arrival or more goblins, which they overheard the other creatures saying were being called.

Making their way back up to the surface in the morning, the group finds obvious signs of searching upstairs, presumably by the other goblins, but nothing and no one remains onsite. The party decides to leave and get back to the village, bringing Hopwood back with them. As the party made it to the river about halfway to the village, they were surrounded by some kobolds in bearskin cloaks, and met Chief Gruk, an older kobold with a bear skin cape and bear head hood. Hopwood speculated that these were the Grizzly clan, a solitary and small group of kobolds who have made peace with the settlements around and who generally keep to themselves. Upon hearing that the party had killed some goblins, the chieftain told the party he'd like to partner with them to kill the viper goblins. The chieftain offered to send some of his best warriors with the party to kill the vipers, and he also dangled a carrot in front of the party - a promise to reveal the location of an unspoiled ancient tomb in exchange for their sword arms and spells. He also told the party: the men who were at the tower before you arrived went east, about two days to the ruined temple in the hills. A holy man in black robes killed two of the three men and had his men take the other one with them in ropes. They also went through all the mens belongings, only taking one thing, leaving much behind.. The party told the chieftain they were currently on a mission, but would consider his offer. The kobolds told the party to come back to the clearing if they decided to help them against the goblins, and then bid the party farewell.

Returning to Moosburg, the party enjoyed some good food and drink, treating anyone who'd listen to tales of their exploits. Sigfried joined them for dinner, and happily took the book and some of Anora's notes and bid the party meet him in the morning at his house. Morning arrived and the Halfling had departed for home (presumably) and the party met the wizard, who seemed very pleased to have the tome, but more interested in seeing if the party had seen any signs of the oft mentioned stone/orb. Sigfriend mentioned to Albrecht that his order would certainly know of this orb if they saw it. Zapolas also shared the note he found in the ruins, and after reading this and getting a complete debrief of the adventure from the party, Sigfried seems quite nervous and worried. This is where we left off...