Date: 1/19/05

XP Awarded: 2,780 (to 4th level characters), 2,440 (to 5th level characters)

Start: The town of Beorunna’s Well

The adventurers spent a day in Beorunna’s Well preparing to accompany Hask Bloodaxe to Aelthas’ encampment on a rocky hilltop nearby. The next morning the party rides out of town with a small force of soldiers under Theodar’s command. After riding for a couple hours with Hask and his retinue, Magnus Helder (the priest of Tyr at the shrine in Beorunna’s Well) casts protective magics on Fei and Theodar. The adventurers split off and ride around the hill that serves as Aelthas’ encampment to approach from a heavily overgrown ridge. As dark stormclouds circle overhead, Kai uses magic to move the party quickly and quietly through the thick brambles and creepers. As the group nears the hilltop, a large number of barbarians can be seen moving about, and the crash of a nearby lightning strike is heard. The spellcasters cast several defensive spells, and Theodar summons his magical warhorse.

The party hears Hask’s horn - the signal to attack - and Kai rides out from the thick vegetation to find several surprised barbarians nearby. As he moves to engage, Theodar charges out to attack the pet wolf of another barbarian. A priest of Talos casts a spell on Theodar, but he resists. From behind a wall of creepers, Celowin lines up a shot at Aelthas, standing on top of a tall rocky promontory on the other side of the hilltop. His fiery arrows hit their mark, and Aelthas spins to face the party, calling down a lightning strike on Theodar and his mount. Flying just below the top of the trees, Fei launches a fireball at Aelthas. Although he isn’t badly hurt, a nearby priest of Talos is thrown aflame from the tower of stone.

As barbarians rush across the hilltop to block the assault from a new direction, a commotion seems to be drawing the attention of other barbarians on the other side of the hilltop. Several explosions are heard, and Aelthas can be seen calling lightning down onto something in that direction, out of sight.

Meanwhile, Theodar’s soldiers are bravely holding the line against larger numbers of barbarians, protecting Kai from being flanked. A swarm of rats summoned by Kai tears through the barbarian ranks, causing some to flee. Fei’s fire bolts bring down large numbers of swarming barbarians, and things are starting to clear up when a huge barbarian wielding a greatsword charges into the fray. On the other side of the hill, a druid summons several wolves and a bear, and they fight their way towards Theodar. Celowin’s fiery arrows are severely damaging Aelthas, but Kai has his hands full trying to keep Celowin’s line of sight clear. The barbarian with the pet wolf closes with Theodar’s soldiers and starts tearing through them, and the barbarian with a greatsword approaches from the other side.

A tremendous roar is heard from one side of the hilltop, and a furious dire wolverine appears, fully 12 feet in length. It charges towards the nearest barbarians, the ones in front of Kai. Meanwhile, Theodar has won free of the barbarians surrounding him and charges across the hilltop to impale the druid, just as a small horde of undead approaches from the other side of the rocky tower holding Aelthas. Another large barbarian with a greataxe tries to close with him, but Theodar’s mount is too fast. Near the undead, he raises his holy symbol of Tyr, and the skeletons crumble into dust in front of him. The zombies turn to flee, just as Aelthas crumples from one of Celowin’s deadly arrows.

This seems to take the fighting spirit out of most of the rest of the barbarians, who start surrendering or fleeing in large numbers. The exception is the dire wolverine, which charges blindly into a group of fleeing barbarians. As it closes towards Kai, Fei hits it with magic, badly hurting it. Kai rides Whisper into the fight, and Whisper’s heavy hoofbeats finally bring the raging dire wolverine down.

As the party disarms the surrendered barbarians and loots the battlefield, Hask and his retinue appear from the frontal approach and confer with the party. Most of the barbarians accompany Hask back to Beorunna’s Well, while the party searches the hilltop more thoroughly. In a cave under the tower of rock, Fei finds two chests full of trade bars from Nesmé stamped with the symbol of the merchant lord Tharlon.