Journal of The Southern Campaign
This is the journal of the in person gaming campaign set on Havne in the world of Verden and based out of the Kingdom-Principality of Pais starting March 21, 2003.
News From Afar
March 21First gaming session
Bronwyn and Miguel meet in Novo Asilo on March 21 400 ADH (after discovery of Havne).Miguel is travelling and showing his son Pedro a bit of the world. Miguel is a strong burly blacksmith and has been paying his way by doing the odd blacksmithing work on borrowed forges while travelling.
Bronwyn, a mercenary fighter, has sought out a blacksmith to help her with some armour and sword repair that require the service of a forge and smith. Miguel is the smith that she meets.
While Miguel and Bronwyn work and Pedro assists, an acolyte messenger, Manuel, from the Cathedral arrives with a message. Miguel is asked to come to the Cathedral and meet with Father Tomas. Father Sanchez is the Bishop of Novo Asilo.
Father Tomas tells Miguel that a message has just come from Masa Sierra about Miguel’s grandfather. Grandfather, Miguel (same name as his grandson) has gone missing. He has a farm near Masa Sierra, but he will often go walk-about and prospect in the Hellmonts. Grandfather Miguel is past due for the anniversary of his Wife's death and this is not normal. Miguel’s Mother has sent for Miguel to come and search for his Grandfather. Miguel’s siblings are tied to obligations of farm and family and cannot leave at the important times of lambing and seeding and moving flocks to spring grazing.
This message has come via the Johnarion order of Church Knights’ communication system. It is not known exactly what method is used, but the Church Knights seem to be able to pass messages between their Chapter Houses at need overnight regardless of distance.
Miguel and Pedro set off immediately back home to Masa Sierra. Bronwyn decides she wishes to accompany them. She is not on any contract at the moment and perhaps there is will be treasure involved. Miguel realizes that there is safety in numbers and a mercenary fighter should be able to take care of their self.
The journey from Pais to
Masa Sierra is one of 1000 miles. The first leg of their Journey
from Pais, the Coastal Capital of Los Principado Del Pais, takes them 500
miles up the Rio Penetratante to Ricamente, where Miguel de Valencia’s
deceased wife makes their home. They arrive in Ricamente
on April 8, 400 ADH having made good time at 30 miles a day. This
part of the boat is by riverboat which travels upstream at nearly the same
pace as travelling the road would, but having the benefit of not tiring
the traveller. The 500 miles from Ricamente to Masa Sierra, Miguel’s family's
homeland is better done by foot as the Rio Alma is more difficult for the
riverboats and they travel up it at a slower pace than can be made on
foot, time being of the essence. They spend 2 days in Ricamente with Miguel’s
Wife's Family leaving April 10. They arrive in Masa
Sierra 16 days later April 26. Miguel’s family have a large farm estate outside of Masa Sierra and Miguel and party stop there to find out more details. They go through Grandpa Miguel’s room and discover a map. One of the ones he has used in his prospecting. It shows some of the routes and camps he frequents, though obviously is not his best map.
It is decided that they follow one of Abuelo Miguel’s routes into the Hellmonts to one location noted on the map. Donkeys and provisions for the journey are procured and Pedro, Miguel, and Bronwyn prepare to travel up the Rio Fantasma to the small town that is Abuelo Miguel’s jumping off point on that route. They leave Casa Miguel Wednesday May 1, 400 ADH.
Out to the Hellmonts
April 4
Second gaming session
Bronwyn, Miguel and Pedro head west up the Rio Fantasma
leading 6 moderately laden burros. They leave Masa
Sierra May 1, 400 ADH. headed for Casa Rio
Fantasma 500 miles East on the road that crosses Flujo Largo and then
follows Rio Vuelta to Rio Fantasma. Casa Rio Fantasma is a small town near
where they plan to cross Rio Fantasma and head to a hidden pass across the
mountains.The road west from Masa Sierra follows the floor of the river valleys and winds its way along the river. The river valley is a mixture of meadow and islands of wood and the road snakes it way between the copses of trees and bush.
Two days out of Masa Sierra they meet a Pilgrim coming South from Sierra on a secondary road coming out of the North. The Pilgrim is grateful to come across people. He has been walking south without meeting anyone for weeks. He says he has given up his name and property to take up a pilgrimage to the Hellmonts and possibly take up the life of a Hermit for a while. He is dressed in dusty clothes with a warm cloak and wide brimmed pointed soft hat. He carries an iron shod staff that has a metal hook on one end that is reminiscent of a shepherd's crook. From the hook hangs a bundle with what possessions he keeps. He also has a blanket roll slung under his arm and under his long dusty cloak.
The Pilgrim says that they can call him Christophe. Christophe is perhaps 30 – 40 years old. Through the journey with him it can be noted that his clothes while worn and dusty were not always so. At one point they were rather expensive. Christophe’s hat has scallop shells decorating its hat band. These shells are the sign of a person on pilgrimage. Christophe explains how he is heading to the Hellmonts because the prophets and pilgrims of historical times would take their hermitages in desert wilderness. The Hellmonts should be trying.
After travelling a couple of days in good weather, there is a day of rain that soddens the road causing the party to take to the verge on the side of the road. The next day the road weather is dryer but the way still wet. The road comes to an area where the river follows closer to the valley slope. It also is in better shape for wet travel and the party can return to using the roadway. The ground though along the road is muddy and difficult and trees grow close to it. The roadway is now along a path cut through the woods.
In these narrow confines the party comes upon a large two wheeled cart pulled by two draft horses yoked side by side. Two men walk alongside the houses and there is a third hulking, towering man on the cart. All are muddy from the waist down and the wagon has obviously slipped off into the mud more than once. The wagon is loaded with baskets at the front and hay and other fodder in the back. The men are rather dour in expression, but their mood lightens as you step off the road to let them pass.
They tell you that they had slipped off the road 10 times already that day, often because of people not giving way. In gratitude they give you a fat white duck from one of the baskets on the wagon. The farm they are from has had a bad year with poor crops and they sold what they had to buy fodder for the animals they still had and ducks, chickens and piglets to replace what they had had to eat to make it through the winter.
Later that day the party comes across a travelling Priest and his Acolytes giving an impromptu service at the side of the road to the farmers and locals of the area. He travels a circuit seeing to the needs of those too far from civilization to have a local Church. The two young Acolytes help him tend his 6 burros and other duties as needed. The Priest will normally hold a religious service followed by various sacraments and such as needed. Blessing marriages, Christening babies, giving prayers and comfort to those who had lost loved ones and such. In general caring for the religious needs of the people on his circuit which he completes once a month or so. The Acolytes are young boys around 12 or 13 who are fostered to the Priest in exchange for an education for them.
The party discovers that the Church Knights are travelling in larger groups now. Rather than the pairs who would patrol a route they now are travelling in groups of 4 or 6. They complete a circuit every month or so. There should be a group behind the party by about a week or so. There are also rumours of bandits in the Hellmonts, though that seems odd since there is little traffic there to warrant it.
Later that day Pedro goes missing. He has gone to the side of the road for nature’s necessities and while doing so the duck has gotten away from him. He eventually catches the duck, but in the process sprains his ankle badly. When he is found, at dark, Christophe takes care of Pedro’s ankle.
The next day they actually reach Casa Rio Fantasma. It has taken 15 days and is May 15. There they can re-provision and rest a bit before challenging the mountains on Abuelo Miguel’s secret mountain pass. It also gives Pedro’s ankle a chance to heal, though it is doing so remarkably.
Rio Fantasma is named for the fact that it appears and disappears along its course above the town. This is due to many landslides that have happened across the river's course where the river now flows under the surface; it at the first of these that the party will cross the river and head to the mountains.
This mountain range separates the semi arid lands of Pais from the torrid valleys and mountains of the Hellmonts.
The First Pass
April 11Third Gaming Session
The groups start off at Casa Rio Fantasma on May 15th. It is decided to rest up for three or so days to give Pedro’s sprained ankle a chance to heal, to re-provision, to rest the donkeys, and to scout out any information that might be of use in tracking down Abuelo Miguel. Miguel, Pedro, Bronwyn, and Christophe settle down at the Dusty Hollow (Posada Hondonada Polvoriento), an inn of moderate station.On the first day (16th) in town they check out the Map of Abuelo Miguel with the local Church Knights station in town and find it to be moderately accurate. The station manager recommends that they steer clear of the Hellmonts. They are not safe in the best of times, but are even more dangerous than normal now. On the night of the 16th they hear of the for the Healer named Hazel. Hazel is the young widow of a respected older gentleman who studied herbology and was in the area of Casa Rio Fantasma researching desert plants that might be of medicinal value. Hazel has some talent as a healer and has been doing a good job. But her penchant for taking on the more difficult cases has led her into trouble. Because she deals with the hardest of cases she also has many failures. This is leading some to believe that she is allowing some to die for some evil reason of her own. Thus disgruntled loved ones of those who have died are hunting her down as a witch. They want her either torched, run out of town, or brought to the Church for inquisition.
The townsfolk fail to find Hazel. Further news is that a number of donkeys have gone missing in the night.
On the 17th of May a worse for wear Trollkin sells Bronwyn three maps. One is to the hidden Dwarf City, the second to Paradise and Hell, and the third to the meadow of the Unicorns. A quick trip to the Church Knight station confirms that there might be value to these maps.
The party leaves Casa Rio Fantasma on the 18th under clear skies and fresh spring morning dew. They cross the Rio Fantasma in one of the number of places the river disappears underground. The trek to the secret mountain pass of Abuelo’s is around 100 miles journey eastward. It should take 5 or 6 days to get there. The first two days are uneventful relatively. Some local animals, plants, and reptiles are spotted. On the third day (20th) after having crossed Rio Fantasma they find the tracks of two or three donkeys and one or two people heading the same way they are. The tracks are perhaps a day, maybe two old.
The morning of May 21st, the 4th of their
trip to the pass, the sky is red with dawn. Through the day it grows hot
and very still and when they are about to make camp around 7 pm near sunset,
they spy ominous clouds over the mountains. They prepare for a spring storm
and possible flash floods. The storm hits around 11
PM with a vengeance. Rain pours down, winds whip. The tarps set up
for rain protection are nearly blown away. The party is glad they chose high
ground for their camp as flash floods ravaged many areas. The storm breaks
by dawn. Water has reshaped much of the ground surface during the night.
By noon though the land is a multi coloured carpet of flowering plants
and greenery. The desert lands have bloomed after the storm.The rain has wiped out all trace of the tracks that had been being followed.
On the evening of the 22nd they reach the foot of the great mountain range. The ridges over a thousand miles south-eastward and thousands of miles north-westward to the ocean without known break other than the secret pass. Abuelo Miguel’s map leads them to the correct gully to lead them up to the pass that is hidden from sight from ground level. They make camp at the foot of the mountain. The sent of wood smoke gives reason to believe there is someone else relatively near who is also camping that night, though they can not find what direction with the fickle winds off the mountain.
The 23rd of May, the 6th day out of Casa Rio Fantasma they climb up the mountainside using the gully. It takes them most of the day to climb onto the shoulder of the mountain at the foot of the hidden pass. There are signs that someone has camped there since the storm. Hoof prints of two donkeys and one person are found and lead into the pass. The party makes camp. The next day, the 24th, they travel into the hidden crevasse that the pass takes. The shoulder of the mountain was nearly a mile high. The pass's summit over a mile high. The peaks still reach half a mile or more above. Lunch is spent at the summit and then they start down into the first valley of the Hellmonts. The path follows switch backs down the mountain ridge. This side is much steeper as well as much drier than the other. They still find signs of the person ahead of them. Around 2 PM, turning around a switch back they find that recent storms have weakened the path where it clings to the mountainside. There is a 10 foot gap in the path without an alternate route. Though quite possible for the people to cross the gap carefully and with the aid of ropes, there is need to get the donkeys across as well. After a day's consideration and work they manage to ferry the burros across the gap. Camp is made shortly a bit further down the path where it widens a bit. During the night the faint light of a campfire is seen far down below. Is this the mysterious stranger they are following?
The Morning of the 8th day out of Casa Rio Fantasma they find the day dawning with the morning sun beaming bright against the next range of mountains perhaps a further 100 miles distant.
Valley of Death
April 25Fourth Gaming Session
May 26 ADH, the 8th day out of Casa Rio Fantasma Bronwyn, Miguel,
Pedro, and Christophe climb down from the mountain and reach its base.
The discover traces of the encampment they spotted from high above. They
feel that their own fire the night before was not observable from ground
level however. From the base of the mountain the trail to the pass is much
more identifiable than from the far side. This in part is due to the fact
that there is so much less precipitation on this Hellward side of the ridge
line. The trail down from the pass might be 5 years old or 500. It was
constructed of native stone and other than the washout just below the pass
is in good shape.It appears to be around 100 miles across the trench (I really should give some names to these features) between the first and second pass on Abuelo’s map. They expect to be able to cross it in between 5 and 7 days if all goes well and depending on the condition of the trail like how many gullies and gulches it might cross. This side of the mountain is much drier than the other, where on the other side of the ridge the barren lands have flowered with the rain, in this gorge there are only patches of green where the hardiest of desert plant survive in the little moisture that reached this side of the ridge.
Camp is made a ways from the trail to get a fresh start on the crossing between the passes. Water resources are topped up at springs on the way down to the bottom. Trails run from the base of the mountain along its base in either direction and across towards the far pass, the direction of Abuelo’s trail.
May 27 ADH the party sets out across the dry expanse following Grandfather's mapped trail. Most travel is done early morning and late evening with a siesta between 11 am and 2 pm or thereabouts. Tarps are stretched across gaps in relatively common copses of desert bushes which for the moment have green succulent needle leaves between the sharp thorns. The bushes average 5 foot tall, but at the centres they reach up to 8 or ten feet. Desert hare and other small creatures can be found living among the thorn bushes. Around 11 am just before the siesta dust clouds are spotted on the horizon. Or at least beyond the next rise a mile or so away. The party follows the trail and they draw up parallel to the dust, now much less apparent. It appears to be around a mile or so eastward down a gully that the trail crosses. The gully is about 100 feet wide. and at most 20 feet deep. The trail crosses it at a place where a small ravine entered the gully, exiting it on the far side where a similar ravine is.
At the bottom of the ravine where the trail starts across it
there are signs of a struggle. The foot prints
of the person or people with donkeys they have been following meet up with
the foot prints of others, perhaps 5 - 10 larger booted folk who apparently
had been waiting in ambush. The footprints
stand out in places where dust and sand have drifted.After crossing the gulch the party travels eastward a pass to find the source of the dust clouds. Miguel and Bronwyn go a bit ahead when the get closer to the disturbance. They find three men cornering a donkey in a side gully. They are not having much luck with the spooked creature. Listening they hear one extolling that catching the donkey is a waste of time and they should get back to the others. They leave the three to their comedy of errors trying to catch the burro.
Travelling another mile further they find foot prints and burro hoof prints scrambling out of the gully. The foot prints match that of the person they had been following in the footsteps of.
Bronwyn and Miguel return to Pedro and Christophe and then as a group return to Grandfather's trail fearing going cross country back to it they backtrack along the gully. The continue through the heat of the day and make camp. They take guard shifts all night considering what they have seen.
The next day, May 28 they break camp and continue on hoping to put some distance between them and the ambush site. They are quite surprised to discover they no longer have 6 donkeys. They now have 7!! The 7th burro apparently was scared off in the ambush and sought the company and relative safety of other donkeys. It doesn't have a pack, but is still wearing its harness.
The party travel through an uneventful morning travelling. After siesta at 2 pm they find signs of a small hidden camp and the trail is rejoined by the footprints of whoever they had been following before and at least one donkey. Whomever they are they are taking some pains to hide the signs of their passing. Even to the point of gathering the donkey droppings rather than leaving them on the hard packed trail.
The night of the 28th the party decides to hide their camp somewhat, making camp in a side gully and sweeping away signs of their passing. this seems prudent as the next morning, the 29th, they find fresh tracks leaving the gully and back onto the trail from the East. It could be the tracks of 2 or 5 men in boots on foot.
The 30th is uneventful other than the far mountains growing noticeably closer.
On the May - June Feast day they reach the base of the second mountain ridge after a day of climbing the foothills. The afternoon is spent seeking the proper coulee leading up to the mountain pass. Night is passed in a nearby coulee with a spring issuing from one side. Not enough to create a stream at the base, but enough to replenish canteens and skins.
The morning of June first Bronwyn hears a stirring in the bushes on the far side of the coulee their camp is in. It is near dawn and turns out only to be rabbits. But Christophe hushes Bronwyn and Miguel pointing to a quietly walking figure leading a horse across the entrance of the coulee. He doesn't seem to notice the party's encampment, but it does seem odd that there are so many people in this desolate place. (note that June 2nd is the full moon)
The party starts up the mountain on June 1st. The climb is on the North side of the mountain so it is mostly out of the Sun and it is possible to travel through the whole day. They reach the base of the actual pass between the peaks at dusk. There is a small area obviously used by people crossing the pass for camping. There have been signs of recent passage by familiar tracks they have followed the past week.
Breaking camp at dawn of the 2nd the party
crosses the summit of the pass around 9 am and are through it by
10:30 am. The view of the next stretch to the third pass looks imposing.
The past trench looked like paradise compared to the last. The route
also looks much longer perhaps being 400 miles diagonally across this wider
desolation.It is figured that there are enough provisions and water to make it across to the next pass and then back again to the spring in the coulee they had spent the night the day before starting the climb. That is if there is no chance to replenish their water supply. If they are careful and not held up anywhere there might be a few days to seek whatever is marked by the question mark on the map. It is time to ration water and food even though at the moment there is plenty.
The Long Trek
May 9, 2003Fifth Gaming Session
June 2nd ADH 11
am looking across the second desiccated plain in a
trench between the Hellmonts.
Christophe ponders the wisdom of climbing down the steep mountain face in
full sun. It is decided to travel down while it is still slightly cooler
and stop for siesta 2 pm - 6 pm and then continue after 6 while the day cools
slightly hopefully making it to the base by night. The trail down is similar
to the trail up to the past and down from the previous pass. It is built
up skilfully with flat stones and no mortar. The trail could be 5 years old
or 500. It is very skilfully made. It is the nearly full moon so there
is light after sunset. The Moonlight is much brighter on Verden than on Earth.
Dark falls at 9:30 pm with the last rays of sun illuminating the peaks above.
The base is reached at 10 pm. The night is passed peacefully.June 3rd ADH the morning is clear and bright. Camp is broken quickly so that as much travel as possible can be done in the cooler hours of the morning. There is little life to be seen at first. The plants are not the succulent cacti of the barrens behind, but are thin with thin waxy needles or leaves. There are some stunted cedarlike trees, but looking more dead than alive. Later insects are noted and lizards that feed upon them. As normal siesta is spent from 2 pm until 6 pm. The rest if the day is quiet as well and near dusk a hidden campsite is found in a dry gully branched off one that crosses the trail.
June 4th ADH camp is broken without incident and the party is off down the trail that runs mostly southward diagonally across the valley. It appears that it will take a total of 2 weeks to cross the valley and gain the next pass where Grandfather's map has the question mark on it. About 30 miles are travelled each day. Approximately 12 pm strange footprints are found. The tracks are coming towards the party along the trail, but they leave the trail where they are met up with. The tracks seem birdlike, but very large. Not unlike the prints of giant roadrunners. There appear to have been between 10 and 40 creatures travelling some time ago. With the dry climate it is difficult to judge how old the prints are. They vary from 4 to 12 inches across with 3 clawed toes forward and 1 backward. It is decided that it was good fortune not to meet the makers. There are signs of the prints throughout the rest of the day, though eventually they vanish when the party goes one way around a hill and the tracks come from another way. The rest of the day is quiet and the night uneventful, though as normal the party makes a camp hidden from the trail and takes pains to hide the point of their leaving the path. The night is uneventful.
June 5th - 8th ADH are passed following the pattern of the previous two days. Occasionally there are signs that they are following a lone traveller with one donkey.
June 9th ADH 10 am there is a sulphur smell coming out from a valley the path will pass through. The party enters warily. The path follows the steep east side of the valley which is a couple of hundred feet across at the bottom. Slightly off the beaten path is a particularly sandy area that smells strongly of sulphur. Miguel recognizes that smell from his work at times with high sulphur iron sulphate laden ore as a black smith. The compass is not very accurate anywhere near this small valley. There are many places in the larger valley between mountain ranges where the compass is useless. However shooting the Sun at dawn, noon, and dusk as well as taking note of the pole star at night allows the party to calibrate for compass variation. The sparse vegetation seems a bit more lush, or at least less desiccated around the area where the sulphur smell is strongest.
June 10th ADH 2 pm dust is seen in the distance camp is made warily well off the trail that night. The party has passed the half way point to the next wide pass where Grandfather has a question mark on his map.
June 11th ADH Many footprints of various sizes of the bird/lizard variety are found which have travelled down a valley adjacent to Grandfather's trail. On midnight watch loud footsteps can be heard coming north along the trail which is hundreds of yards distant from the encampment. Bronwyn investigates and notes a lone manlike figure running quickly down the trail oblivious to the night or dangers that might be on the trail including Bronwyn herself. (The moon is 2 days after the last Quarter.)
June 12th ADH Long paced footprints are found of the large bird type. The figure was probably travelling 3 times as fast as the party with their donkeys is. Assuming the figure is travelling the same sort of hours it likely is covering 90 miles per day.
June 13th ADH Around 2 pm sulphur smell is detected issuing from a small valley the trail passes through. On the west side of the valley is a sandy area much like that found on the 9th with sulphurous smell issuing from it. On the horizon about 1/4 day ahead haze can be seen. There is a camp made on the far side of the sulphur sand.
June 14th ADH all is quiet. Party is now within 20 to 30 miles of the mountain range to the west that the party has been approaching obliquely.
June 15th ADH. Large dust cloud spotted ahead on trail. On third watch some sort of patrol passes on the trail at night. Many birdlike foot prints left on road. This is the night before the New Moon and so it is very dark.
June 16th ADH. At the end of the day the top of the pass is reached. This pass is around 30 to 50 miles across and not very steep. It is notable because it is a gap between two miles high ridgelines separating one great hellmont valley from the next. The question mark on the map is 2 or 3 days travel southward. The next large valley can be seen in the distance.
Pinnacle Pass
May 23, 2003Sixth Gaming Session
June 16th ADH 9 pm At the top of the broad third pass on the Grandfather's Mapped Trail. At 1:10 am Miguel who is on watch hears a screaming and howling coming from the distance south of the camp. The party has been camping a distance off the main trail in hidden gullies. The sounds come from the south further down the road. Perhaps a mile, perhaps further depending on how loud the sound actually is. This is complicated by the quietness of the area. Sound travels a long distance. Miguel wakens Bronwyn and Christophe. It is decided to keep two people on watch for the rest of the night. Over time the screaming turns into squealing and growling dying to nothing over the next hours until 5 am. The sounds are not unlike what you might expect from a herd of swine in a feeding frenzy. Then at 5:30 am before the sky really lightens noise starts up again. This time the squealing starts like a sound of pain changing to squeals of alarm! There is growling and screaming and then by dawn at 6 am silence.June 17th ADH the party is on the move at dawn, which hits at 6 am. The land is rugged badlands type terrain. Moving carefully around any blind curves on the trail eventually a sulphury carnal smell is detected. Rounding the corner the party comes across the aftermath of some sort of massacre around 7 am.
There are bodies all around of lizard like creatures. They range in size from that of a large dog through man sized with a couple specimens larger than even mercenary Bronwyn or blacksmith Miguel. There are signs that two of the dead have been butchered or scavenged. The injury marks on the rest of the bodies are mostly those of lance or spear thrusts with occasional slashes and strange deep punctures appearing to have been made by some sort of scimitar shaped thrusting weapon, perhaps a foot deep and 4 or 5 inches across.
Weapons, apparently the lizard creatures’ are pole arms with a curved axe like blade which joins a spear head at the end. The blade is somewhat crescent shaped and is joined to the haft at the centre and the spear tip. Some are also attached at the end of the crescent that is about halfway down the haft. They are in different sizes relatively matching the size of the lizard creatures. The blades are definitely metal, but the hafts are difficult to decide on the composition of. They don't seem to be wood and are not metal. They do seem a bit like polished blackened bone or perhaps laminated wood with a lacquered finish.
The feet of these lizard like creatures are birdlike and match the birdlike footprints seen previously. The smallest creatures have long lizard like tails. The more man sized have little or no tail and the two large creatures have short heavy tails.
The ground is very disturbed and there are not many identifiable footprints. But Bronwyn skirting the outside of the area where the massacre took place finds footprints leading from all directions inwards. These prints seem to be bear like and have five stubby fingers with small claws. They also appear to be the footprints of a quadruped. While the prints enter from all directions, they leave as a group towards the southwest.
Scavenging flies and insects have appeared and swarm over the carcasses. So do small lizards that eat the flies and birds of prey that chase the lizards.
The party decides to leave the area quickly not wishing to meet up with anyone or anything that also might be attracted, perhaps more large lizard like creatures, or perhaps whatever massacred them. They take the trail south, perhaps relieved that the ambushers have taken a southwest tract 7:30 am.
The trail here at the top of the gradual pass is through more badlands type terrain. By the 2 pm siesta time the rough terrain ends at the edge of a plain gradually sloping to the wide dry valley beyond.
While the trail here is smooth for an area between 20 and 30 feet wide, on either side the going would be much harder going due to low ridges. The ridges are between 6 inches and a foot high and run between 10 and 30 feet long. They seem somewhat familiar and sometimes meet each other at a right angle. Investigating Miguel discovers them to be man made, perhaps the tops of walls.
It is decided to do some investigating. While Christophe wanders a field Miguel and Bronwyn dig small pits in areas towards the middle of areas with ridges around them. The digging is difficult with large hunks of broken rock, much like that of the walls, mixed with the hard clay, sand, gravel mix cementing the rubble like mortar. They can dig their 3-foot wide pits about a foot deeper every hour. Stone flooring is found about 2 and one half feet depth. Some fragments of shiny black ceramic with black shiny glaze are found. It is decided to go back to the shelter of the rough terrain near to the north and make camp for the night, as it is 5 pm already. The characters are uneasy about actually camping in the open on the site of the ruins. Also you can see for miles and miles to the south down the sloping plain.
Around 2:20 am Miguel finds the donkey’s stirring uneasily. Pedro and Christophe’s sleep seem restless. Miguel wakens Bronwyn and they both take watch. Pedro had started watch with Miguel but fallen asleep. A mist starts to rise over the ruins. It appears like mist rising and lit by the moon, but it is near new moon with only the stars above illuminating the plain. The mist itself is glowing in the dark.
Around 3:30 am Miguel catches in the corner of his eye an image of a ghost city where the ruins now lie.
June 18 ADH. The donkeys’ are settled down again by dawn and the party decide to move on and not linger. Still this is close to Grandfather’s mark on the map. Perhaps this was the fabled lost city of dwarfs? But first to look for Grandfather! Starting at 6 am and travelling south for 2 and a half hours the southern edge of the ruins is found another hour further south at 9:30 am a rise is found, perhaps some sort of earthworks. It is discussed whether the city might be of human origin. It seems that the walls are not in the process of being buried, but are eroding out of the earth after having been buried a long time, perhaps 500 years, perhaps 1000. Humans are only known to have been on Havne for the past 400 years, though the dwarves may have been here first. Also the Trollkin were around when the humans and dwarves showed up and their traditions are that they always have lived on Havne.
At siesta time, 2 pm, the party takes stock of their water and supplies. It has taken longer than expected to reach this point. It is probably a day’s travel to the point marked on the map. That makes it a 17 day trip where they hoped it would be 14. That means that they have 6 days fewer supplies and will only be able to look around for 2 days before heading back north. That is unless some source of water is found. If there are problems it is decided that they can start killing the donkeys as they go. But they can only search for around 2 days after the next day's travel. At 6 pm at the end of siesta the party decide to head up to the mountains to the west in order to take in the lay of the land and perhaps get a clue as to where to go to seek Miguel’s Grandfather.
In Search of Grandpa
June 6th, 2003Seventh Gaming Session
June 18th ADH 6 pm| Web Site
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