Hugo Tuya’s guards are traveling from Miselea to Estala, and on the second day of their journey were ambushed by raiders. They defeated the foot soldiers sent against them, but were unable to stop the leader from fleeing on his horse, and could not catch the archers who had harried them from the bushes beside the road. After the battle they caught their breath, Calim healed their minor injuries, and they discussed what to do. The roster for this session:

  • Bao Tap, human stormcaller
  • Calim “Ambros” Nefari, human rimewarden
  • Itzel, elven astrologer
  • Kyansei of the Eilika Tribe, wildling barbarian
  • Quangbae, wandering blacksmith
  • Yoog, Changeling scoundrel

Regald’s Necklace

They faced some indecision now about whether to follow the raiders and risk further battle, or to let them go and proceed on their journey. Raiders this far from the Valley of Gon were unusual, but if they did come this far it was likely they had traveled in some force with a purpose, usually looting small towns and taking hostages for ransom. Given that the guards’ plan that evening was to spend the night in Ell’s Hamlet they guessed the raiders might have been targeting it, and if they had already raided it might have hostages who could be freed. They decided first then to investigate the raiders’ actions so far. They woke the sole surviving footsoldier and after some threats and promises managed to gain his cooperation.

The raider, injured and sullen, told them grudgingly that they had come from the Valley of Gon to Ell’s Hamlet to find a man called Regald. They did not know anything about this man, just that they had been given instructions: find him and bring him back, they can take anything he has but they must bring all his documents and any necklaces he owns straight to their leader in the Valley. However, when they arrived at Ell’s Hamlet they sent in a scout to investigate, and discovered that this man Regald had died about a year ago, and his daughter had disappeared at about the same time. After this initial scouting mission they had been returning to their camp to inform their captain so that he could decide what to do, but seeing Hugo Tuya’s caravan had decided to deviate briefly from their mission for what they thought would be easy money.

Calim’s ears pricked up at this story. This timeline of events sounded like it matched exactly the probable death of the elven traveler and the human woman with him, killed by deepfolk not so far from here about a year ago. In the remains of that camp they had found a necklace of a strange design, and had planned to use the necklace to track down the woman. Could it be that these raiders were looking for the same necklace and its owner, this Regald? Perhaps his daughter had left Ell’s Hamlet with the necklace after the death of Regald, to meet with this elf for some reason, and had been killed by deepfolk before she could hand the necklace over to the elf? Why then would raiders from the Valley of Gon want to find this Regald, and what did the necklace mean?

They decided to find out.

The Raider camp

In exchange for mercy the surviving raider footsoldier explained to them how to find the camp, and they set off. The footsoldier told them that their raiding team was led by a thug called Rimgalt, delegated to lead the team here by their leader in the Valley of Gon, a petty warlord named Argalt. Rimgalt was slightly crazy, probably because of the magic axe he carried, and would be hard to kill, they were warned. He was camped by a small pond under a waterfall, but the rest of his crew were stationed a little distance away, guarding a crossroads trail that led to the pool. They would have to pass this gauntlet first to get to Rimgalt at the pool.

They approached cautiously, Yoog scouting ahead and Bao Tap sending his familiar, a weasel, to scout the area. From this they soon found a squad of four more footsoldiers camped out in a small stand of bushes near the road, unaware of their approach. Yoog and Quangbae moved quietly up behind them while the rest of the group marched along the road, ready to spring a trap on the footsoldiers’ own trap.

Their plan worked perfectly, and they caught the footsoldiers in a nice little vice, but they were themselves ambushed by a squad of archers who had been hiding behind a tree further down the road, and who they had not seen. They had to split up to attack the archers, and the battle was still in full swing when four more footsoldiers advanced from the southern road to the crossroads, drawn by the sounds of battle. Although the odds were stacked against them they prevailed through surprise, magic and sheer force of will, finally vanquishing all 12 men and their thuggish lieutenant. Injured but alive, they prepared to advance on Rimgalt himself, and learn the answer to their questions about the necklace.

Image note

The picture at the top of the post is taken from Clement Mona.