ragath9

Queen Varmer thought for a moment after Dagmar had finished reading and said aloud, "since the stones are not ours to give, the choice is yours to make."

Dagmar consulted the party and they debated the situation for half an hour.Finally, Dagmar addressed the queen: "Since we believe the soul stones too evil and powerful to fall into Albereth's hands, we believe they must be taken from here. We hope that Albereth's army will follow us in pursuit of the stones and spare the clan."

"Then we must prepare for battle," said Queen Varmer and the audience was dismissed.

While the party packed their belongings and headed for their boats, the dwarves prepared for battle. Armor was fitted and battleaxes were sharpened, crossbows loaded and tables turned over and positioned for cover.

"We have equipment that we cannot take with us, the clan is welcome to any and all of it," said Jacen.

"Good luck," said Xendra.

Jacen, Dagmar, Xendra, and Triblet took two boats and sailed down river toward Volsplat.

After the sun dipped behind the mountains the party portaged around the falls that emptied into Emerald Lake. Not wanting to stop, they alternated paddling and sleeping every four hours. Two days later while changing rowers, Xendra detected the tell-tale shimmering of a scrying sensor above Dagmar. As she alerted the others, it vanished. In another day, they reached southern Volsplat.

The party went to the bank to exchange their heavy treasure for lighter gems and coins and went their separate ways, agreeing to return in a couple of hours.

* * *

Jacen talked to Nilma, a half-orc with a patch over one eye that trained large wolves to hunt in the foothills.� As Jacen wandered the pens, two winter wolves that had been barking and howling suddenly became quiet.

"I haven't seen those wolves be anything but vicious with strangers. You've sure got a way with them!" said the trainer.

Jacen looked them over, found them in good health, and paid for them. With the wolves happily wagging their tails and walking at his side, he headed back to their rendezvous spot.

* * *

Xendra found a small magic shop and was able to identify some of the scrolls she carried. Gamin, the gnome that ran the shop also mentioned that he detected a very strong magical aura on something she carried with her. After a bit of searching, Gamin determined that it was a small red book in one of her robe's pockets.

"Oh, I'd almost forgot about that," she said pulling the book out of her pocket. It gave me a real headache the last time I looked at it.�

The gnome turned the book over in his hands and opened it carefully.

"Small book 14 pages and only the one has writing. It looks like a very powerful spell though. It also seems to be magically protected somehow. I'm not sure what it is, but it will take a few days of research to figure out I suspect," Gamin said as he put the book back on the counter and Xendra put it away again.

* * *

Dagmar entered the Temple of Moradin to find a single dwarf in familiar clerical garb polishing an anvil in the center of a small stone room.

"Greetings, traveler!" said the dwarf, "what can I do for you."

"I've come to tithe and ask the head priest for advice."

"Great. I'm the head priest, ask away."

Dagmar eyed the priest's garments for rank and was sadly disappointed. "What can you tell me about Norda?"

"Who is Norda?" responded the priest.

"What is the most powerful good temple in this town?" replied Dagmar, realizing this wasn't going to work out.

"Oh, the Temple of Heironeous," replied the cleric. "Ask for Sabalone."

Dagmar prayed to Moradin for the Clan of Ragath and left a sack of gold for her tithe.

Dagmar arrived at the Temple of Heironeous to find a tall cleric in gold braid-trimmed robes waiting for her.

"Come in, I've been expecting you. I'm Sabalone. I'm sorry to hear of the loss of your Clan. We should speak alone about the other things inside my study."

The walked through the ornately decorated temple and headed to a small room to the left of the altar area.

"I know what you have with you and I know what you wish to know. Heironeous wills that I help you," he said with a smug expression.

"You must take the items to the Forge of Unmaking to the west of Dirole to destroy them. Math may be able to help you in some way, so you should consult him."

"What happened in the battle at the Ragath Mines?" asked Dagmar quietly, hoping against hope that the dwarves had triumphed.

After a few seconds in silent prayer Sabalone replied, "All that stood have fallen."

Dagmar sighed and thanked Sabalone.

Feeling the weight of her oath to defend the Clan of Ragath, Dagmar returned to the Temple of Moradin for penance.

* * *

A few hours later, Jacen, Xendra, and Dagmar returned the bank. It was then that Jacen noticed that the bags of gems he had been carrying had been sliced open and the gems were missing. They all quickly checked the rest of their items, but the gems appeared to be the only thing missing.

Jacen then pointed out that Triblet was not there and probably stole them. Dagmar quickly jumped to Triblet's defense and they began arguing. In the middle of the heated argument, Triblet returned looking a little roughed up.

"Where have you been?" demanded Jacen.

"I had to pay my taxes," he replied sheepishly flexing his fingers.

Dagmar took Triblet aside and told him that they had been robbed of most of their gems and whether he might know anything about it.

Triblet said he didn't know of anything, but for a 100gp or so, he could probably find someone that did.

Jacen grumbled and Dagmar parted with 100gp.

"We'll be at the inn near the docks," Xendra said and they parted once more, but this time very wary of pickpockets.

Later that evening at the inn, Triblet returned with news.

"It seems that every member of the thieves guild is looking for the soul stones and there is a 50,000gp reward for the diamond being offered by the guild master."

"I think it is time to leave for Dirole," said Xendra.

In the night the party left their rooms at the inn and stealthily made their way to the docks. After talking to the harbor master they found a ship, the Sea Quake, sailing for Dirole in the morning. They paid the ship's captain, Aleham Salt, 5 platinum each to transport them with no questions asked.

As the dawn broke, the ship slipped from the harbor and journeyed south to Dirole. Once again Dagmar felt the familiar calling of the sea as she heaved her last meal over the rail and with a green complexion told Triblet about Dirole. Triblet, who had never left Volsplat, was excited by the sea. The gnome was always the first to volunteer for watches in the crow's nest. The sailing was smooth for the first week but early one morning Triblet called down to the deck to alert them that a ship was approaching from further at sea in the east.

As the ship approached Captain Salt ordered the marines and ship's crew to be alert and ready. The approaching ship raised a black flag with a white shark as it approached.

"What kingdom is that?" asked Triblet.

"Pirates," said the Captain, "we'll have to pay a tithe for safe passage."

Unfortunately the rest of the party was not around to hear the captain. As the pirate ship approached its captain fired a single arrow from his bow that stuck in the mast. From the arrow a rough voice spoke: "prepare for boarding."

The Captain gave a wave of acknowledgement just as the other party members let loose with arrows and magic missiles. The captain of the pirate ship was hit several times and fell to the deck. The pirate ship's crew was caught by surprise, but hastily returned fire.

Captain Salt tried to stop the firefight, but as he yelled for his troops to stand down he was caught in the chest by a ballista bolt and was sent flying off the deck and into sea.

Captain Salt's men fired lit arrows and the pirate ship's sails caught fire. As the pirate crew fought to save their ship, the Sea Quake was able to escape with only light damage. Dagmar tended to the wounded on the ship and the first mate, a red-headed Halfling named Miffle got the crew back in order.

They resumed sailing, leaving the pirate ship adrift with its sails aflame. After an hour they could only see the smoke trails in sky and soon these too were beyond the horizon. The Sea Quake continued to sail south with the shore in sight. At night they dropped anchor near shore as the sky was cloudy and they could not navigate in the dark.

Early the next morning, the party was awakened by a pounding on the hull and screams above on the deck. They quickly climbed the stairs to the deck and found writhing tentacles clutching the bodies of the crew. Grabbing their weapons, they hacked at the sea beast. Jacen burried his sword into a green tentacle and it released the crew member it was holding to the deck with a wet meaty thud. A loud creek and an even louder snap came from deep within the ship and it started to pitch forward. With a mighty swing, Dagmar hacked another tentacle from the beast and it slithered from the ship.

The sea quieted and the party and ship's crew stood on deck as the ship creaked and continued to sink.

"Everyone get your stuff, we're abandoning ship," Miffle said quietly, "Mr. Queg, help me get the shore boats ready."

The party gathered their belongings and helped get rations from the ship's stores and loaded the boats. The party and crew made it onto their boats as the Sea Quake's deck suddenly lurched toward the bow. The Sea Quake slide quietly below waves. Miffle sat for a moment and then ordered them to head for shore. After an hour the exhausted party made it to the beach and set up their camp.

"Well, that's the end of my naval career," said Dagmar, "I don't suppose anyone knows where we are?"

"I think we were about 3 days sail short of Dirole," said Miffle, "it's on the shore so as long as we head south, we should eventually get there."

The party trudged along the shore carrying their belongings and all the food they could. Jacen was able to hunt and find suitable food along the way. His winter wolves were ravenous with hunger from their voyage on the Sea Quake and ran ahead to hunt for themselves. Xendra sent Octavious aloft to scout ahead. After two days of travel, the owl saw a fishing village and the party cheered up considerably as they headed toward it.

When they reached the gate they were greeted by the familiar face of Hevvik. It was then they realized that they had stumbled upon Pesca Beach. Hevvik asked about Don, the town guard that had traveled with them. Dagmar related his valiant fight against the white dragon. They related their adventures to him and Hevvik provided them with horses. He would not, however, let Jacen bring the winter wolves into the town so Jacen set them free.

After relating their adventures to Hevvik, they retired and woke early the next morning. The sailors that accompanied them decided that they would stay in Pesca Beach as there was to be a ship in the port the few days and they hoped to gain employment.

After five days of travel on the south road the party spied the spire of the Dirole College of Magic above the trees and picked up their pace to the north gate. They quickly checked into the Smelle Inn and headed for Math's magic shop.

They entered the store, its interior significantly larger than the outside could contain, and spotted the golden-haired old man sitting behind the counter reading a pile of scrolls with orange ribbons tied around them. The sword that hung over the doorway gleamed sharp as ever with malevolent energy as they walked under its blade to enter the shop.

"What can I do for you, young adventurers?" he asked without stopping his reading.

"We've returned from Ragath Mountain with a bit of a problem," said Jacen.

Math looked up and raised a golden eyebrow, "Oh, yes, quite a problem, I'd say."