Cresting the Hill of Regret

Friday was game night...for my Wednesday night crew. We've played once in the past two months. Schedules didn't jive. This week we were able to find an alternative time to game. So Friday night we got our game on.

Finkas Snotrags - halfling - played by Ken

Johann Swartz - cleric - played by Rob

Brimstone - magic-user - played by Chris

The party left Hounds Head on a mission to assist a young landless knight. Sir Janus Bantock asked the party to retrieve an artifact from a Northmen ruins. Before leaving the hired two new recruits. Erna, a female fighter and Connor, a fragile Parson of Possimius.

Their journey was plagued with the inhabitants of the Komor Forest. As they made their way north they had no idea they were being tracked by a pack of wolves led by Drogous, a dire wolf. It demanded tribute in the form of food. The party offered a substantial amount of food. The encounter ended without violence.

The party decided to stay put and set camp. They got very little rest. Within the first watch, the camp was attacked by a bugbear hunting party. The bugbears surprised the party with their stealth. Three attacked from the east and two waited to the west to attack from the rear with bows. After the initial surprise, the party was awake and meeting the bugbears head on.

Hans took a few horrible wounds, but stood his ground. However, the same cannot be said for the fragile Connor. The parson suffered two deadly attacks by longbow strikes. The party killed two of the bugbears, one fled into the forest, captured one, and Brimstone charmed one.

After a bit of role-playing, they discovered the charmed bugbear was named Rock (I resisted the urge to do a Chewbacca yowl). They questioned the captured bugbear who was intelligent and could speak their language. Rock made it clear his allegiance was with Brimstone as he threatened to slit the throat of his former bugbear companion.

A game note: Rock failed his save by a large amount, combined with his low intelligence, I judged his dedication to Brimstone is substantial.

The party questioned their captured bugbear, who they discovered his name was Sharp. The bug bears have a tribe in area with five other hunting parties about the size they attacked with. Sharp offered to guide them to the ruins they wished to find. While the party had the map he could help them around the things that were not on a map. They agreed.

In the morning, Brimstone successfully charmed Sharp. They set off for the ruins that was only a short distance from the camp. Sharp returned from the crest of a hill shaking his head. Told them they'd need to see for themselves what they were about to get into.

After a few moments of stunned silence the game ended.

Loose Ends

• The party is current with items and creatures

• bugbear tribe

• dire wolf pack