Riders on the Storm

Adventure Journals

From the hand of Mica -- Swordmaster

19 Raquas: Day four of our journey through the underground rivers. Nothing really eventful happens til what we figure is late afternoon (it's so hard to tell time down here) when we spot a glowing figure on a sandbar. It turns out to be a statue of a t'skrang. The pale ones travelling with us say it is a statue of Garlen. Who are we to argue with them? We make camp for the night. Ulm catches fish. Dora sings.

20 Raquas: Still at the large lake. (Did I mention the lake yesterday?) We find an empty raft adrift. There are scorch marks and blood on it (I don't remember doing anythign like that, so it couldn't have been us). Tomas studies it , but all he is able to discover is that it has been adrift for several days (at least). We take the raft in tow.

Around midday we spot an island with several structures on it. Upon closer examination, the shore has been churned up by many feet, and the huts have been partially destroyed by fire. There are lots of dead bodies -- around 25 non-t'skrang (dwarves mostly) along with plenty of t'skrang. The pale ones say there are fewer than a village this size would support. Tomas's analysis suggsts they were killed in battle by spears, and all within about 45 minutes of each other. Could the non-t'skrang be the other party sent this way?

Silar tries to use Direction Arrow and gets nothing.

After discussing things with the pale ones, we toss the bodies in the lake for the fish to eat.

21 Raquas: We find two more devestated villages, the second one still smoldering. More pale ones dead. We dispose of the bodies once more.

22 Raquas: We find another island village, this one populate by pale ones. As we land, we are approached by a female t'skrang who challenges us to ritual combat. Silar takes up the challenge and wins easily.

We then follow her up to the meeting hall, but before we can enter raiders arrive and we head back to the beach.

Raiders on board a riverboat fire fire cannons at the village while pale ones on rafts come ashore to attack. Silar and I drop two with bolts before the fighting becomes a general melee. After a time of hard fighting, we are finally able to drive the raiders off. Casualties on our side include 10 villagers and our two guides.

Our party is invited by the locals to the meeting hall, where we are thanked for our part in driving off the "Ragool Raiders." There follows a ceremony of stories and questions where we find out that our best course is to exit the lake through the Dragon's Jaws.