Okay, since we have a new player coming in next week, and our cleric missed tonight's session, and you guys haven't been taking your own notes, so... RECAP time! I likely won't be so nice as to take your notes for you again.
SESSION 1:
The party began on a set of heavily armed merchant ships heading north down the Norhar River towards Silner. With 5 ballistae and the crews to man them, the merchant company felt confident that they would be able to get past the Wastes without attracting draconic attention, or to be able to drive any dragons off otherwise. After all, the previous three convoys made it there and back safely already under this principle. Two convoys ago, there had been a minor altercation, but a show of force made things safe enough.
Alas, the merchant company was wrong, and there was a dragon attack this time. Furthermore, the dragons came under cover of sandstorm, and were not spotted in time to ready the ballistae crews. To say it was a slaughter was to put it mildly. The convoy was burned. The crew decimated to only 10 survivors. The three dragons, a huge one and two smaller, carried off the cargo, which the captain assured us was nothing more than livestock and ore. The two smaller dragons were heavily injured in the process of picking off the majority of the crew, and the largest of the three vowed vengeance on those responsible.
The surviving crew and the party built a raft from the wreckage and headed north. The very first night however, 6 crew members vanished without a trace, leaving only the four party members alive. And then the next day, the big dragon returned.
This time, they were able to spot him (her?) from a distance, and saved themselves from being eaten via a magical spell to render them hidden. The dragon knew they were there though, and was able to hear the reactions of the local waterlife in order to follow. Random strafing of the river did not catch the party, and eventually the dragon decided to walk along shore, keeping up with the moving sounds indicating the party was nearby. Other things to note: the dragon refused to come within ten feet of the water, and also would not cross more than halfway towards the other side of the river. Granted, the other side of the river was close to the Sinster Range, known to be haunted, so that made sense.
It was about this time that the party discovered what the dragon was following. The elf wizard noticed that what had sounded like frogs was actually a cacophony of high pitched singers, singing in sundry languages. The part he was able to understand went as follows:
Frog Chorus wrote:The tanner, the dyer, the tailor, and the noble
A needle and thread to sew the tapestry
Sing a song of needle and thread
And sing a song of Mordants
Bring us the dyer
The dyer to dye
The tailor to sew
The tanner to go
And then the hiding spell wore off, and the dragon was able to clearly see the raft and the party, and would have eaten them all except for a sackfull of mind-altering drugs that was hurled into it's mouth. The dragon fell into the river, where it nearly drowned, fighting off something invisible in the water. When it made it to shore, it decided to take a nap.
Shortly afterwards, the elven wizard was able to notice a girl in the water, who none of the others could see. She convinced him to enter the river, where he nearly drowned. In fact, even though the others actively sought to bring him back onto the raft, he fought them off in order to stay underwater with the girl! Through significant effort, his life was saved, though at the cost of the raft.
At this point, the party decided to eschew the river, cut inland, and head straight north for Southwood Forest.
SESSION 2:
Crossing the Har Wastes was uneventful after this, and they were even able to hunt game. Entering the Southwood Forest was also uneventful enough, and it seemed likely that they would reach Silner within just another few days. More troubles befell them, however.
In the middle of the woods, they found themselves in a heavily trapped area. Hidden pits lined with spikes, tripwires, snares, spiked rods on springs, and even more elaborate stonefall and woodfall traps were everywhere. Carefully manuevering around them, the rogue made his way past a few hills to encounter a tribe of kobolds, apparently worshipping an ancient dragon skull.
The party decided to attempt to circumvent them by climbing a nearby cliff, thus leaving the trapped area. Alas, the cliff itself was also trapped against climbers, and the resulting rockslide made enough noise to attract warriors, and their priest.
The kobolds spoke a strange pigeon language combining common, drow, and draconic-- with an emphasis on the draconic, which no one understood. There was quite a bit of excited shouting and chanting by the kobolds... not much of which was understood. This is what was heard:
Kobold Priest wrote:"(something something) you are (somthing) and (something) in the dirt! (something) off the (something) of others! But the (something) will rise!"
Wer darastrix geou lleisgar!
"(something) we (something) even their (something) the littlest (something), and for what (something). See his many (something something)! See his *ixenmitne saurivic*! (something something) swallow (something) whole (something) give (something) to us!"
"(something) children (something) fear (something) crops (something) cattle (something) fatten (something) bellies! See (something) *ixenmitne saurivic*!"
There was more, about children, little things, big things, and so on.
The party fought them off and back, slaughtering all who attacked, including one of the kobold priests, holding a crystaline orb apparently taken from the eye of the dragon skull. The party's attempts to pick up the orb proved difficult, as illusions hid it's location.
Instead, the party sought the kobold's home cave, and in the process of trying to smoke them out, tripped a trap at the entrance causing another rockslide to block off the entrance. At this point, they decided to hide behind magical shelter again.
Shortly afterwards, dozens of kobolds began scouring the woods, looking for something. The party hid while they did so. Eventually, another kobold priest found the crystal orb, shouted "
Ixenmitne Saurivic!" and all the other kobolds began worshipping it in dances that resembled an attempt at ritual magic, if they'd only heard about the ritual via repeatedly garbled oral repetition over centuries. The party decided that the strange thing they were shouting must be the name of the dark dragon god they worshipped.
Eventually, the kobolds set up camp, and after sunset, the party's magical hiding place faded away. They investigated the kobold's camp, and found that there were a number of religious totems set up, apparently dedicated to someone known as the "Woad Witch". It was at this time that they started slitting the throats of the sleeping kobolds. But each throat they slit caused the weather to get colder... strange, given that the more north you go, the warmer it gets, and this should have been sub-tropical weather. It is autumn, of course, but still. Eventually, a snowstorm broke out, and the elven wizard noticed a strange humanoid "hollow space" moving through the falling snow. The humanoid shape did not stay long.
The kobold priest woke up, and was lured into a trap by the party, whereupon it was slaughtered-- but not before shouting alarm to the rest of the kobolds. The snow seemed to affect them worse than it affected the party, however, and it was almost disgustingly easy to slaughter them all.
The crystal orb was recovered, as well as a magic mirror, and some golden trinkets-- including a 12 pound golden idol.