Day 110: Sunday the 6th, Abadius, 4708
I awoke this morning to Jonathan telling me that it was time to get up. He noted that we needed to cover a lot of ground today, to enable us to be within striking distance. Niddler was very worried about his chickens, and I told him that I would put in a question regarding their status from Savah this evening. Niddler seemed to be mollified by that, at least for the moment. I got up and got dressed quickly. Jonathan and everyone else was awake and ready. I really need to find some way to decrease the length of time I need to sleep if I am going to keep up with the rest of the group.
Jonathan placed a plate in front of me and Faunra told me that everyone was already packed up. I sent Niddler upstairs to check my room one more time and ate my breakfast while the four of us talked about our plans for the drive. It was going to be an hour and a half drive to get to Wolf's Ear, and then a four-hour drive to get to Ravenmoor. The Storval Stairs were a further four hours beyond that, but we needed to have a good amount of daylight to get us there with my driving, so we should start out early in the morning on the third day and get there by noon. I agreed, and asked if we had any business in Wolf's Ear or if we would be heading on through to our destination.
The group hemmed and hawed, but noted that if it was needed, we could stop for a bit to help out for any recovery, but that we needed to be in Ravenmoor for the night. I agreed and Niddler came back down with the platinum piece that I had left for the maid. He told me that he had found this, and was bringing it back to me. I smiled wryly and thanked Niddler, telling him to go get in the saddlebags. Jonathan offered and ran the coin up to the room while the rest of us went to get the bikes ready. Jonathan even managed to jump in my sidecar quicker than it took for the rest of us to get the bikes out and pointing the right direction.
We started off on our quickened pace, and were riding down the road. For an hour and a half, we spotted some sporadic evidence of the horde's previous passing. A campsite about a ten miles outside of Galduria, a signs of a destroyed caravan with nothing but destruction remaining, and broken trees where it clear that they were used as latrine stools. We rushed onwards towards Wolf's Ear.
Just before we got into town, Jonathan perked up like he was smelling something. I asked him what was up, and he just shook his head. I started to slow down and Jonathan came over the radio saying, literally, "We can't stop here. This is wolf country." With the proper cadence. I didn't question him, and just picked my way through the main street, avoiding those who might be out and about at this time of morning. All four of us cleared the other side of town and Faunra asked what he meant. Jonathan told her that he could smell the lycanthropes in the town and that they were not what we needed to deal with right now.
I shrugged and we continued on to Ravenmoor. There were more signs of giant occupation, from large size debris from a marching group to a scene where it looked like there was a stone giant cairn. The ground was still torn up from the struggle that led to it. We continued on, trying to make sure that we could push through to Ravenmoor. It took another four hours, but we made it there just shortly after lunchtime. Just in time for a much needed break. We pulled into town after getting to a much more reasonable speed, and stopped to see what all the town had to offer, especially in the way of accommodations.
I have to say, I was more than a bit disturbed by the town. It fulfilled every criteria as belonging in the backdrop of Pumpkinhead, and they kept stirges as pets. Now I try to be as accepting as I can about this, but the fact that they were feeding things like that blood just made me think of people having mosquitos as pets. Since Dame Rebekah was the most upstanding member of the group, we sent her in to what passed for a trading store for the town. Dame Rebekah came back out and shook her head. We all opted to get on our bikes and get a ride across on the Ferry.
When we got there, the ferryman, a crooked backed thin haired asshole who told us that his name was Skender Cardzi, told us it would cost three gold pieces to cross the river. He started to make some kind of threat about a water wolf and Jonathan just handed him a platinum to ferry all of us across immediately and not talk for the duration. He took that offer and we were across the Lampblack right quick. We got back on the bikes and continued on. We rode for another two and a half hours after that before deciding to stop for the day. I needed to look over both of the bikes and Jonathan wanted time to set up the shelters correctly.
While I was going over both of the bikes I found a couple of the bolts were loose and a few of the steam fittings were getting that way. After an hour or so of maintenance, with a fair amount of magical mending, they looked to be ready for another day of travel. Niddler popped out of the saddlebags and asked if there was anything that he could do. I handed him my cellphone and asked him to go up about two hundred feet and take a picture of the surroundings.
After I showed him how to do it twice, Niddler took off and took the picture. I thanked him and I took the phone to the others to show them what we were looking at. Jonathan, Dame Rebekah, and Faunra were all impressed by the capability of the camera to pick up even fine details at that height. We wheeled the bikes into an area between the two squat towers. Dame Rebekah summoned up the grove with either just allowing the doors of the towers in. I nodded and noted that this at least seemed semi-private. Faunra set up a campfire and Jonathan started preparing dinner.
I took the opportunity to talk to Dame Rebekah about what she thought about our chances against a large horde of giants. Dame Rebekah noted that we were heading into more dangerous territory than any other time in our brief history. I asked her if she thought if this would be the end of this and she shook her head. Dame Rebekah told me that she didn't think that we would be done until whoever was really behind this was gone. I asked her if she had any ideas about who might be behind this and she told me that she did not.
Soon thereafter, the food came and we all sat around a small table that was built up by Jonathan. We ate our fine rations and drank some elven mead. It was a good end to a day, or so I thought. I was just about to head into bed in the black tower, that I shared with Jonathan, when out from some nearby trees leapt a pack of four screaming, raging raiders. Before they even touched the ground, I could see one aiming himself towards me. Three rounds rang out and he dropped to the ground, unconscious. Another one touched down and took a stab at Dame Rebekah before she realized what was happening, and drew blood.
I thought that that would piss her off. Jonathan targeted the one who he saw was heading towards him with one of his trademark super blasts, dropping it unconscious. Faunra popped up and skewered the one that was charging her with three arrows, dropping it to the ground, and Dame Rebekah took a pair of swings at the one that had stabbed her. She must have been a little bit off, because she didn't completely eviscerate it in one hit, so I lined up a single shot and dropped it. With the threat abated, we went around and checked the pulses. Every single one of them was deceased, dead before they hit the ground. I wondered what could cause them to behave like that, and Faunra noted that sometimes people just did things like this.
Dame Rebekah gave them all a look over and found that they had scarification and branding that led her to believe that they were devotees of "Echidna". This figured and I hoped that she wasn't paying that much attention to them. Jonathan and Faunra did a quick inspection of them for magical and or valuable gear, and Jonathan offered to dispose of the bodies. I didn't feel like dealing with it so I went off to make my Sending to Savah. I didn't include anything about the fight in it, but I did make sure to ask about the chickens. They are doing fine. Getting the response back, I decided to head to bed early.