Date: 5/18/05

XP Awarded: 2,065 (to 7th level characters), 1,600 (to 8th level characters)

Start: The Evermoors, late Eleasis

After looking through the coins Iax retrieved from the lair in the chasm below, the adventurers continue traveling to the north along the Howling Canyon. As Iax crests a small rise to survey the surroundings and get his bearings, he spots a group of humanoids in the dell ahead. Signaling to the rest of the party, they cross the ridge to see the ogres and orcs readying themselves. Iax charges forward to meet the enraged orcs as Fei throws a fireball that incinerates most of them. The two heavily armed ogres stay behind to throw boulders at the party members, and a group of orc archers uses a chain of slaves for cover. Theodar lowers his lance and charges, badly wounding one of the ogres. Celowin’s arrows take out several of the orc archers as Theodar spins his horse and charges again, taking down the ogre. Iax finishes off the orc barbarians and engages the last ogre, who quickly falls under the combined assault of the group. After the battle, Iax loots the giants, and finds their equipment to be good steel weapons of the same high-quality craftsmanship that the hill giant had been carrying.

The prisoners turn out to be half barbarians, mostly of the Red Tiger clan, and half orcs, but also include a human monk of Ilmater named Illok and an eastern-looking human dressed in black named Vladek. Theodar is suspicious of him after overhearing him telling an ogre that he would destroy his soul, but sets him free since he detects no evil intent. Illok says he is a scout from Silverymoon who was captured by giants and that he was taken into a giant stronghold. While he is able to sketch a map of part of the inside of the stone keep he was in, he can’t say where that keep was located. The group gives him information to take back to Silverymoon, and he heads off into the Evermoors alone. Meanwhile, Vladek explains that he was flying over the Evermoors from Nesmé and was captured when he landed to rest for the evening. Since he is looking for adventure, and the party seems to be on a good quest, he asks to help the party out on their scouting mission, to which the party agrees.

Travelling onwards, the chasm that the party has been following becomes shallower and then disappears as the adventurers ride down a slope to the top of a towering cliff. A thunderous waterfall cascades down into a small lake wreathed in fog. Since the sun is riding low in the sky and no obvious path down is visible, Iax finds a nearby location to encamp and the group spends the night.

The next morning the group awakens to find the valley below smothered in a thick fog, preventing any view of what is below. Vladek flies around the top of the cliffs and discovers a well-traveled path leading down. Proceeding cautiously into the grey mists, the adventurers make the relatively easy climb to the valley floor. After some debate, it is decided to follow the base of the cliff to the north. After a few hours of travel, Iax hears something that sounds like a giant in a thick fogbank. The adventurers take cover in the rubble at the base of the cliff, and before long, an ettin appears out of the fog near Iax. Several orcs and another heavily-armored ogre approach, but Fei incinerates many of them with a fireball. Theodar charges the burned ettin and kills it, but the ogre reaches him and takes a swing. Iax drops the last of the orcs around him just as a heavily armored fighter and a barbarian charge him, wounding him badly. The adventurers hear spellcasting in the fog, and a fireball erupts around Fei and Vladek. An archer appears and fires two arrows at Iax which turn into eagles that slash at him with their talons. Fei turns invisible and flies towards where the spellcasting came from, and Vladek flies in that direction far enough to see a spellcaster in the mist. Celowin gets a lock on the archer and hits him with a bolt of silvery fire from his bow, outlining him in a silver fire that makes him easy to spot. As he turns to flee into the mists, Theodar rides him down. Meanwhile, Iax kills the barbarian with his stone pick and turns to deal with the heavily armored fighter. Vladek tries to fry the mage with a blast of eldritch power, but he dodges aside at the last minute only to be scorched by a bolt of fire from the invisible Fei behind him. A cleric in the mists uses a wand to summon a griffon to attack Vladek, but the warlock quickly realizes it is merely an illusion and turns his attention to the priest. The cleric casts a spell of sanctuary, preventing the party from attacking him, and flees into the thick fogbank. Galloping ahead, Theodar finds him and brings him down in the middle of a rocky stream with a flying tackle from the back of his charging warhorse. Celowin helps Iax finish off the well-armored fighter, and then the battlefield is eerily quiet again.