A gaggle of Monks

Part the Second, Our characters receive their mission.

After a good sleep in the hut for the night, the next day breaks overcast but clear. The party carry on their journey and make reasonable time. Following the track they eventually spot a natural opening in the mountainside just off the track and decide to investigate.

Readying a lantern and drawing some weapons, Drok'drin peers inside. At the back of the cave is a midden made of leaves and they disturb the creature within. Panicking, the creature launches itself towards the dwarf and begins biting and clawing to get past.

The strange, but viscous, rat creature is as big as a dog and the dwarf sustains some minor scratches in the scuffle before grabbing the creature by the neck and plunging his dagger into it until it stops moving. They have no idea where it came from, but this weird rat creature may have something to do with last nights events?...

Satisfied that there is nothing else in the cave they continue and, after a short while, climb a rise to see La MaisonTaal in a fertile valley plain below.

Approaching the monastery they are greeted by a junior monk who takes them to an audience with the master, Jean-Louis Dintrans (after Heinfried has a slight mishap with some cheese that did not agree with his stomach).

Jean Louis explains that he has been writing a book on local history for a while and is now on the last chapter and requires help with it. This last chapter is on an infamous outlaw band called the Blue-blooded Bandits (who were all nobility) that were quite powerful around 400 years ago and were eventually defeated by a small army of knights led by the Duc du Parravon.

He wants them to search for the burial mounds of these bandits, which are hard to find because they disguised them by copying ancient mounds of the area. They are to document and map the mounds and return the information to him for payment. He has several groups out covering a large area and gives our party the Frugelhorn Valley.

The party are allowed to stay the night and are given bed and board in the monastery. The characters decide to gather some information and, as such, speak to junior monks and farmers, as well as the cantankerous old librarian, Padre Pierre.

Whilst moaning about wasting the Monastery's time and resources, Pierre lets slip that the old master, who died about a month ago, was also interested in these burial mounds and now the current master is too. Some of this information is corroborated by some locals (scout groups started turning up about a month ago, while the old master was on his death bed) and junior monks (the old master defeated some powerful enemy in his youth and before he died he had some sort of vision). 

The local farmers also provide a name for the figure they keep seeing in the mountains; the ghost of the crags. The figure had been seen wandering in the mountains around here for about a month now...

Jean-Louis dismissed most of this as rumour and wishful thinking; the old master was well-loved and all sorts of tales are told of his exploits, but, yes, he did share his interest in history with the old master as he has been writing the book for many years.

The characters decide that something is not right at La Maisontaal, but decide not to press the matter.

The next day they set off for the village of Frugelhofen which they can use as a base to scout the Frugelhorn Valley. It should take them about a day and a half. The weather is clear and they make good speed. The characters spot the ghost of the crags again, in the distance about a day away. 

When night falls they make camp under a rocky over-hang and they are joined by some dwarfs from Gimbrin's Mine; a dwarf gold mine that is starting to run dry but they make some money selling rose quartz for cheap jewellery to human merchants. They eat food, gamble a bit and then set watch.

During the night, Thalgrim rouses the group to witness something of a lightning storm. However, as they watch they begin to realise all is not as it seems. The lightening is coming from a clear sky and, rather than usual lightening strikes, these are more like single strikes coming at regular intervals. The dwarfs point out that its coming from the far end of the Fruegelhorn Valley. After about 20 strikes, it stops. The dwarfs seems a little perplexed but not overly concerned and return to their bedrolls.

In the morning the dwarfs bid them farewell and the party continue on to Frugelhofen. After the path climbs a waterfall and crosses over the river, the party descend into the valley and see the quaint village of Frugelhofen ahead.

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That is the end of the current session. See you in the next session write-up.