The Hills

July 16, 2020

The group stands over Viktor's body.  His dead body.  They won.  They get to taking care of the bodies and soon the fires of Kossuth cleanse the bodies.  They grab some items and the horses then go back to their own horses.  They set up camp and discuss what to do next.  There is talk of the various town, such as Lowvale.  After more talking, they thought Lowvale was their best bet to find out about Viktor.  Now they have the sisters to worry about, whoever that is.  There are also the other camps, one orc and one goblin, if Esma is to be believed.  Not to mention some ruins.  They decide to head up to Elkwall.  

It takes them under a day to find it and they come in late afternoon.  The find the Broken Tail and go to get a drink.  A woman occupies a table and other than the bartender, no one else.  They say hello to the bartender, who is also the owner, Lev.  He's illuskan with dirty blond hair and blue eyes, around six feet tall.  He greets them warmly and they talk.  They ask about the mayor, a man named Jonas.  They also ask about selling things.  Lev helps them and advises them on what he knows.  

They go meet the mayor, Jonas.  He's worried about any orcs and does offer a bounty but at a mark a piece, it's low, even for out here.  Jonas runs the general store as well as being mayor and while he does have bows, arrows, and some daggers, most of his wares are tools for mining or building fences for the herds.  Not a lot of adventuring gear.  It turns out he has potions and they are cheap but probably take a long time to get in stock.  He then says that the orcs need to be dealt with, even if the sister at the Broken Tail says she's handling them.  They perk up at this and go back to speak with her.

At first, she doesn't say much.  They buy her some drink and find she can hold her own and that her name is Camilla.  She prefers cards to dice and has a deck.  They play cards and start with pennies.  Camilla ups the ante to marks to see if they will flinch and when they don't pushes it up to crowns eventually.  All break even over the long hours of playing.  Dio talks about the hammers and she knows about them.  Cajoled by Kaji, she takes out a bronze amulet, with an anvil on it and a hammer, to prove she does know who the hammers are.  She says she thought it was just to Moradin, until she heard about the hammers.  At one point, as Kaji and Rolen are talking to some miners about a vein of electrum they found, Camilla casually takes her shot and then wings the shot glass at the miner bragging.  This shuts them up and she goes back to playing cards as if nothing happened.  As Dio is interested in the amulet, he doesn't say anything.  However, Dio is too interested.  He offers a lot of crowns for it and she jokingly ups it more.  When he counters with a sword, Camilla stops and stares hard.  She realizes he's not joking.  She gets up and leaves, leaving her ante, of several crowns, on the table and goes to her room.  Kaji and Dio share glances as she is spooked.  

When Kaji and Dio tell the others what happened with Camilla, Rolen decides he needs to know more.  He heads out, just as the miners start arriving and ordering food and drink, and slips near Camilla's window.  He sees her talking to illusion of another woman that comes from a flat disk she placed on a table.  Rolen recognizes her as the one they saw in the orc camp!  Camilla reports about how interested Dio was and where she is at with things.  That's what it seems to be to Rolen, a report.  The woman says that Ana will be there to relieve her and it's time to go.  Camilla does try and talk the woman out of her having to leave but does this while packing and getting ready to go.  She lights two candles that spark up with purple light, and when the second is lit, a door or archway forms on the wall from the light and shadows of the room.  Then it turns into an actual archway and a woman walks through.  She looks similar to Camilla, dark hair, white skin, but not so close that they could be sisters.  Camilla says a few things and walks through the archway.  When she is thru, the new woman snuffs the candles with her fingers and the archway is gone.  She looks around the room and Rolen leaves.  

Rolen tells the others what he saw when he comes back to their table.  The miners are joking, laughing, eating, and drinking.  Someone is playing an instrument.  Badly  They decide to go talk in the grove.  In the grove, Dio isn't happy that Camilla left as he really wanted the amulet with the Hammer's symbol.  Rickard asks if he would steal it or lie for it.  Dio says no but there was a pause.  As it is still light out, they think their must be something at the mine and want to check it out.  Almost two hours later, they come back to town, dirtier and dustier than before and with not much to show for it.  The mine is just a mine.  A deep one, with a hand crank to get people up and down to the right levels, but nothing more.  They go turn in, although a few stay up to watch the locals.  

The next morning, as they are getting some food, it turns out the new woman left.  Lev didn't know the whole of it but she got what she needed and left early.  They finish up eating, find out which way she went, and follow.  At first, it's slow going because she was on the main road and it's rocky enough that Gorstag and Rolen don't want to lose the trail, which means slow going.  When she finally cuts off to go west, it's easier to follow.  By mid afternoon, they catch up.  They aren't sure what to do.  Rickard presses Dio how far he is willing to go to get what he wants, whether it's the amulet or information and again he says he won't hurt her or steal but there is hesitation.  As they see her, Rickard makes Gorstag and Rolen invisible so they can get closer to watch her.  The rest will be back with the horses.  

After another hour of traveling, but with daylight left, she stops in a small valley.  Gorstag and Rolen see a campsite that has been used before.  Rolen says he will stay while Gorstag gets the rest of them.  After Gorstag leaves, a group of orcs joins.  Rolen manages not to attack them on sight.  They go to the camp and seem to be expected and set up camp.  Soon, a fire is going, a kill is being skinned and cooked, and lean to's are setup.  When the group catches up, Rolen tells them of the orcs and is all for attacking.  Kaji suggests that they attack the orcs, say they were hired by the mayor to do so, and they thought she had been kidnapped.  Rolen loves it and they go into action.  

The woman refuses to be rescued.  As the group attacks the orcs, she runs off.  She tells the orcs, in orcish, that they want the item and to keep fighting.  Soon there are no orcs but the woman is gone.  They track her to where her tracks stop but find no sign of her.  Nor any magic.  She disappeared.  They go back to camp, gather up the new weapons of the orcs and put them on various extra horses, then burn the bodies.  They rest a distance away, trying to keep this known campsite in sight, in case more orcs, or others, show up.  

1200 xp

GM Notes

• I wasn't happy with accents.  Sloppy and inconsistent. 
• I saw the first sister, Camilla, especially drinking, as Karen Allen from Raiders.
• The new one was Margot Kidder from Superman.
• I do like how they search out authority figures for legal work.  I don't know if they intend it that way but that's what it seems they do
• I'm not sure I did well in conveying how much I see the three villages, and Ashriver, as helping each other. 
• Lowvale does the farming and shares in those goods. 
• Elkwall does herding and mining. 
• Westhold does the smelting and forging. 
• Between all of them, the area is reasonably self sufficient.   
• Got enough xp for fifth level.  Rolled hit points.  Got some decent results.  

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