Blackmoor campaign, recap pt.2

The time had arrived to leave Boggybottom. We had accumulated a fair bit of treasure, much of it in the form of magic weapons and armour, which had to be sold off. So, we headed back to Vestfold. We hoped to learn more about the Frog, but our contact Walter was not familiar with the name. After spending some of our blood money on wine, women and song, we were on the road again. We headed to Lake Gloomy to seek out Yanos Hunter. Since Lake Gloomy could be accessed by land from Vestfold, we decided to buy horses, or in the case of the gnome, a mangy, ill-tempered riding dog. Lake Gloomy was weird, to say the least. The town was immaculately clean, from its polished bronze gates to its litter-free streets. There was a definite Potemkin village vibe in this place. We had no luck finding Yanos Hunter in Lake Gloomy, but we did hear that servants were being hired in large numbers to work on the new fortifications in Ram's Hold, a fort on the far western edge of Blackmoor territory. This sounded suspicious, so we headed west to see what was going on on the Afridhi frontier.

We encountered a group of "merchants" heading east along the road, who we promptly killed. Not surprisingly, they too were slavers, either that, or they were planning to sell shackles and rope in Lake Gloomy. We also found some unusual silver ore in a hidden compartment in their wagon. Another enlightened discussion with the recently departed indicated that this latest group of slavers was recruited in Southport. Yikes! That be Afridhi territory. This was turning out to be big.

We continued on the road toward Ram's Hold when we encountered a large company of mounted knights. We briefly considered our options and decided to keep a civil tongue. Good thing too, for it turned out to be the personal entourage of the Baroness of the Lakes. She had been inspecting the repairs of the fortifications in Ram's Hold. We learned that no new fortifications were being built. As we suspected, the Lake Gloomy recruitment drive was a sham. Stupidity can be a harsh mistress.

We continued to Ram's Hold and our worst fears were realized. The place was crawling with halflings. Ugh! By this point, we knew there would be no point looking for information on the slavers since they bypassed this town, but we were able to gain some information about the silver ore we had recovered. A local jeweler suggested it probably came from a place called Tiger Island. We had a decision to make. Follow the clue about Southport or Tiger Island. In the end, it was decided to go to Tiger Island. It was closer and it wasn't in Afridhi lands.

We hired a local fisherman to ferry us to the island, then promptly killed him and seized his boat. Hey, that's just how we roll. Our warlock did some airborne reconnaissance and found evidence of a large settlement in the high ground at the west end of the island. The next day, we headed west, then noticed some sentries, who also noticed us. We knew they would come for us, so we prepared an ambush. Once the enemy appeared, we demonstrated our usual tactical brilliance by breaking cover and charging blindly. It was a tough fight. They had spellcasters among their ranks and many hit points were expended. Khaeliss, our fighter, even hovered briefly at death's door, but ultimately we prevailed. As we gathered the dead and looted their remains, one unmistakeable conclusion was drawn. These were Afridhi warriors.

-Rognar-