Party:
Iskren / Rollo / Vultha / Elkon
Eyjafjallajökull's Scribblings
It came!
It came alone!
The one clad in shrouds!
The one of dubious gender!
The prophecy foretold it!
This proves I am not mad, no matter what I say!
It came.
It talked to the Golden.
It made friends with the Cursed.
Great Urbrogren let them escape.
ALL THREE.
And the turtle.
Fate. It can save us...or doom us.
Or all three.
Iskren meets up with sentinels outside of the Gruul camp after his guide abandons him.
They exchanged pleasantries and come across a strange shaman, who appeared to shout gibberish at the four.
Eventually
Urbrogren, the new clan chief, summons them and proceeded to tell the
four their mission: to clear out an old tower for some coin.
They take a massive travelwurm to their destination, which lies outside of the more civilized parts of the core districts.
Upon arriving, they are greeted by Gitev, an Orzhovian operative, who gives them more details on the Aerie and the town proper.
Gitev's notes - 1 Xivaskir
It had been a long day before the new arrival came in by wurm from the encampment of Clan Slitz, a group of highly mercenary Gruul. I spent some time scouting the surroundings and can only find myself concurring with the Obzedat. The old Aerie would be a magnificent place to start spreading our influence from. The guildless that have taken up residence there are problematic, but considering the eagerness our representative and his assistants show, I have faith in a positive outcome.
The guest in the inn is currently well fed, and has expressed no urgency to depart.
They head in; carefully scouting at first, but noticing the civilians
giving them wide berth, approaching the local inn, the Griffon's Wing.
Entering
this place, they find and dispose of a couple of corpses in the main
room, search through the storage areas, defeat a strange spirit that
popped up and head to the basement.
In the basement, a well-dressed man warns Iskren to go about his duties. Seeing themselves out, the party proceeded to do that.
Zara - In a letter to an old friend
We are on the run again. The maester is dead, of that much we are sure.
We played along, for they were too strong.
They took the young ones.
If we had had a couple days more, it would have been fine.
We could have made it.
They killed Tuktuk. And Suffi. And Ludvig. And Grabba.
Whatever became of Lae or Pereyas, I do not know.
I beg of you.
Do not let this go unavenged.
They enter the Aerie and trap a goblin named Tuktuk in an illusionary cage. After securing his cooperation and pumping him for information, they head upstairs, where two armed men confront them. Two women initially hide their children before also joining the fray. Tuktuk, seeing a chance to run, turns but is struck down without mercy, as are the two men and one of the women. Seeing the danger to the children, she surrenders and is sent up to the top to get Maester Orbin, the leader of the guildless squatters that have taken over the tower.
Using the children as bait to open negotiations, Iskren learns of Simic involvement and launches a surprise attack on the mage, eventually slaying him.
With the disguising magic of the bard, the party then makes its way up the tower, bypassing the other defenders and avoiding too much attention. They reach the top of the tower, defeat a horrific froggish creature, which regenerates as they are pilfering eggs from a leafdrake nest. Killing it again (with fire), they then leave with the eggs and tell the others to go to the inn and hide.
Syndic Medvel - Report
The barbarians have been paid. I spread the coin evenly between them and our agent.
I have requested they join the restorative efforts in the Shademurk and they eagerly complied.
A bit of additional coin let the hunting turtle rejoin the ranks of the Slitz, so we have a contact there if we ever need one.
I would recommend letting the agent we used for this mission join up to the Shademurk as well. His familiarity with the barbarians could come in useful to check the location.
Your servant,
Medvel
They depart by wurm back to the Gruul encampment after delivering the children to Iskren for Orzhovian safekeeping. Once they arrive there and get their pay, a dour faced Orzhovian cleric talks to the three lizardkin.
Elkon gets his reputation as a hunter slightly upgraded and is allowed back in, while both Rollo and Vultha are sent to a place called 'the Shademurk' to help out with a 'matter in which they are competent'.
Whatever becomes of Iskren remains to be seen.
Because of his hard work, feel free to go take a look at:
Iskren's notes
