11th day of Tarsakh

Leaving Agatha’s hut, we return to the ruins of Coneywood, but as the day is yet young we decide to press on and see what the problems at the Old Owl Well are. We find a trail heading that direction and follow it – soon it becomes apparent from the tracks that prospectors have been using this trail recently. I stop occasionally to see if I can hear or smell any traces of orcs nearby, but am unable to.

Around midday we reach an untidy campsite next to a stream occupied by a number of human and dwarvish prospectors and miners. They talk to us, and welcome us when we mention that we have been sent by Sildar to investigate their problems at the Old Owl Well. The explain that they were prospecting up their recently, and wanted access to the well there (which is the source of the stream we are currently standing by) as a water source. However there is a man there in a tent, and when they approached him, he set a pack of zombies on them. We offer to go and try and resolve the issue. They also mention the problem of orcish raids, and we say we will look into that as well.

Garrett and I scout ahead of the clank brothers to have a chance of coming on this man unawares. We reach the crest before the old tower and see it for the first time. It is obviously very old and very ruined. The tower is only 15-20 feet high now and surrounded by rubble. There is also the low ruins of a curtain wall around the top of the hill as well. We can see a colourful tent pitched in the bailey. We wait for the clanks to come up and have a brief council of war. I am in favour of circling around the hill and ambushing the occupant of the tent from all sides at the same time. Aramil however suggests that we should talk to the occupant first, which is an interesting approach, but one we decide to go with. I still circle around the hill with Garrett though, while Aramil and Elaina approach frontally. When they reach the bailey, the door of the tower opens and a horde of zombies comes shuffling out. Aramil waves his holy symbol at them, and all but one go back into the tower. A man has emerged from the tent by this stage and Aramil engages him in conversation. Obviously impressed by our ability to dismiss his zombies, he talks to us, and explains that he is a wizard from Thay called Kost and the zombies are his servants that he uses to protect him from the orcs while he investigates this tower. He is interested in knowing who built the tower, and offers us some money if we will ask Agatha the question for him. We suggest that he should give her a present, and after initially demurring, he provides a jewelled box to give her. He also offers to reward us if we will deal with the local orcs, and we agree to do that as well. We get an agreement from him that he will not harm the prospectors and will allow them to mine near the tower provided that they don’t disturb him. He agrees and we return to the prospectors and explain who is is and what he wants (mainly to be left alone).

We return to Coneywood and then back to Agatha’s hut. Garrett enters again, singing a song, but she throws him out because he had already asked a question this morning. Aramil enters instead, and she accepts his (Kost’s) gift and tells us the name of the wizard the built the tower (the name is meaningless to us).

It is late in the evening now, so we return to Coneywood and camp for the night in the same place. This time, we are attacked by stirges in the middle of the night. Only Elaina, who is on watch, avoids being bitten and manages to kill hers. Garrett and I also kill ours quickly, and Elaina attempts to help Aramil killing his with her sword. She is rather enthusiastic though and her sword blow, while killing the stirge, does quite a bit of damage to Aramil.

After the excitement, we settle back to enjoy the rest of the night, which is uninterrupted.

12th day of Tarsakh

In the morning, we head towards Wyvern Tor to find the orcs. It takes us most of the day (Wyvern Tor is a long way away) before I start to sense the presence of orcs in the wind and through the earth. We find that they are encamped in a cave in a ravine, and I feel that there are probably only a few of them in this raiding party. We spot a lone sentry, who doesn’t spot Garrett or myself, and I manage to kill him with a single arrow, albeit enhanced with Hail of Thorns.

Garrett and I then sneak up to the cave mouth, and see another 6 orcs, including one who is obviously a chief, sitting around a fire inside the cave. Garrett and I prepare spells while the clanks join us. As they do, Garrett and I step into the mouth of the cave. I fire another arrow on which I have cast Hail of Thorns at the chief and the two orcs on either side of him, while Garrett casts Shatter on the fire. Aramil and Elaina then step forward to protect us from the orcs attacking us. The orcs are suprised, and we attack again – I shoot another arrow at the chief, killing him, while Garrett casts Sleep, which drops all but one of the remaining orcs. However the ear-splitting noise of the Shatter spell has awakened an ogre who was obviously sleeping in a niche that we hadn’t seen before. He rushes us an strikes Elaina, although the blow is stopped by her armour. We engage in battle with the ogre, and manage to kill it without loosing any of our numbers. The last orc manages to escape in the confusion though. We loot the cave for treasure, and decide to camp the night here as we are so close to sunset.

13th day of Tarsakh

Next morning, we return to Kost and tell him his information, and collect our reward.