After we caught our breath with a short rest, we started searching around. First, we talked to the human miners who were still hiding in their hut. They didn’t know what to think. Assuming we believe them, and we have no evidence to the contrary, they were hired by the stonemason to mine this gold vein and the orcs were here to guard them. They were unaware of the orc attacks on the village nor that the stonemason did not have ownership of the mine and was not likely paying taxes on it. We decided to take them back to town rather than leave them unguarded up here. We also looked for loot. We found, in the assayer’s office, a couple more boxes of raw gold ore but no written records that could be used as evidence. The orcs had miscellaneous coins and we also found a potion of speed which the Monk won on a dice off amongst the melee guys.
Lastly was the magic maul. We used several methods to gain insight into it. INT rolls to remember the command word, Lore and History rolls, Identify spell, research in Long Bridge and talking to the Fighter’s mother also in Long Bridge. It all totaled as follows. This is a near artifact level item that would require attunement to unlock. It was once possessed by a great Orc who united the tribes of Fire Peak in ancient times. His name and its name escapes me. The command word was not learned and it was clear its full powers will be revealed during gameplay. The Monk suggested as an Orc artifact, it probably needs to be bathed in the blood of your enemies or some such. Needless to say, the Fighter took possession of it to start the attunement process.
We made it back to town and reported to the Lady first thing. With our evidence and the Ranger’s support, she believed us and thanked us for our services. Since it was late, we spent one last night before heading out in the morning. At the bar, the stonemason came by to re-plea his case but the Lady had already decided on exile for him and he was dismissed. She gave us a pile of gold in the morning for our troubles. We made it back to Long Bridge and took care of a few things. The Swashbuckler Paladin picked up his custom armor. The Paladin looked to resize the Orc chieftain’s half plate but we realized that would be medium armor and wouldn’t work with his heavy armor feat. So he traded it in and borrowed a bunch of money from the other players to buy platemail. Research was made on the maul as stated above. The Wizard, Rogue and Monk went to the mage school to inquire about buying spells. Basically only if you spent a bunch of time doing apprentice work but we’d earn more experience just adventuring. We also put our name out there as “men that can get things”. There was a Wizard that might be interested in such men but he was currently out of town.
Lastly was the magic shops. On the street, the best you could do was herbs and potions that, if you had enough money, could be an actual low-level magic potion. Anything beyond that was not available, on the open market anyway. We did find a shop that had a strong bow for the Fighter. That shop owner offered to “ask around” for anyone that was willing to sell magic or knew of where it could be found. (I.e. via ruins, not robbery.) We had offered the archery bracers as an enticement but now that the Fighter had a bow, we held onto them. So we established some contacts but it looks as though magic items will have to be earned. We decided to keep the horses and ride back to Jailynn. A couple of days down the well-traveled road we came upon a familiar looking pond with hexes drawn of the ground.
We started talking to two women who seemed to be traveling alone without horses. They were asking more and more invasive questions and soon enough the Paladins’ evil alarms started going off. Initiative was rolled and they revealed themselves as Sea Hags. (Pond Hags?) They had a fear attack when first seen that got the Paladins and the Rogue. They had an evil eye that instantly dropped the Swashbuckling Paladin who missed his save down to 0 hp. But it was 7 against 2 and the fight didn’t last very long. The evil eye was more like a Command and the Paladin recovered with all his hit points intact. They had no treasure, being a random encounter, and we made it to Jailynn without any other trouble. Next time, we’ll probably look further into this organized crime ring unless something more pressing presents itself. In theory, that would be on March 6th however Andy’s got a lot going on at the moment so we’ll see.
