A Journeyman’s Tale,
Exploring Birch Vale
Part 7b – INTERLUDE – October 2022
The journal of Bori Ironhelm, cleric of Moradin and master of the forge.
Journeyman in the Explorer’s Guild.
We're Not Done Yet
We had been ambushed. The shame of it. Yes, these men seemed to be somewhat professional, as far as humans could be anyway, but after all we've seen and done, to be ambushed like this when we were so close to completing our mission? Shameful.
Grimnir sniffed the air. There was a smoky taint, but he remarked it had the smell of a corpse fire about it. Merla concurred that it wasn't a regular wood fire. As more of the hooded and armed men surrounded us, the obvious conclusion that they had been burning some fallen enemy was inescapable. Clearly, they were dangerous. And we were severely outnumbered. My cousin gripped his axe so hard that his knuckles were white, but even he knew that pressing these odds was foolish.
The leader of the hooded men addressed us.
"Come, let us keep this interview short, for I guess your names and purpose. Let me see if I am correct in my guess. Give me your names and that of the man that sent you on your journey so we can be about our business. If I am wrong... well, we shall have to see what tale you tell."
His words, lacking any sort of courtesy, almost caused Grimnir to lose himself in a rage. I placed a calming hand on his shoulder. Looking over at Merla, I could see she was both surprised and embarrassed to have allowed these men to sneak up on us in the wilds - this was, after all, her natural environment. I couldn't blame her though; we were all lacking in caution as we rushed towards New Mine. She was shrinking into the shadows as much as she could to avoid the humiliation. Though I sympathised, my main concern was checking she wasn't going to do or say anything rash - I wasn't sure I could control Grimnir and her should they do anything to further upset this situation.
I drew myself to my full height and responded to the man in a clear, commanding voice, conveying calmness and strength without malice or anger.
“We three travellers left Birch Vale less than a tenday hence, on the orders of Cydor of the Explorer’s Guild. We are certainly friends of that fair town and if you knew the half of what has transpired in the time since we left, you wouldn’t be so hasty to draw your bows on us. My name is Bori Ironhelm, the only proof of that I have is my letter of introduction to the Explorer’s Guild from my Dwarven Clan Hold. These are my associates, Grimnir Craghammer and Merla Goodberry. Perhaps you will give us your name, sir, and lower your weapons for we have no quarrel with you.”
"Yet," growled Grimnir. He just couldn't help himself, could he?
Reunited
My words seemed to be well received, as the leader of the hooded men apologised for his rude introduction, borne of suspicion, and introduced himself as Bruin Bjornson. He dismissed his warriors and invited us to join him for food and drink in front of a warm fire at the nearby Ranger Station that we had bypassed on our journey out onto the ice sheet. As we walked, he told us that Cydor and Omratin were waiting within to talk with us. He relayed that he and the other rangers had been engaged by Cydor to combat the growing orc and goblin threat in these lands - it seems we had begun to uncover this threat with our investigations in the caverns under New Mine.
Bruin told us that these blue-painted orcs and goblins had taken control of the Ranger Station, to use it as a staging post to launch a raid on Birch Vale. Fortunately for the folk of the town, the greenskins were waylaid by their preoccupation with the Frozen Keep and a desire to get across the ice to see what treasures might be there. Their dithering had allowed Cydor to rouse the ranger bands together and launch his own attack, which had successfully crushed the evil greenskins. Hence, the burning pyre of corpses. From the telling of it, this sounded like a battle worthy of remembrance in an epic bardsong and it was a shame we missed out on the chance to crush some greenskin skulls.
Anyway, by the time he had told us of what had happened, we had reached the small plateau where the Ranger Station proudly stood. There we saw our friend Omratin tending to the burning bodies of slain orcs and goblins, as well as their wolf and spider mounts. He returned our cheerful greetings with plenty of friendly back slapping, saying he knew we wouldn't have been felled by a few orc blades. Little did he know of what we had really seen since we left him at New Mine!
Though it was a joy to see Omratin again, we were keen to follow Bruin into the Ranger Station and reunite with Cydor so that he might help us unravel all that we had learned. We entered the tower and ascended several flights of stairs, passing many armoured men who were at work clearing the detritus of a hard-fought battle. It looked like they were also restocking the Ranger Station - perhaps it was going to be fully manned from now on? That wasn't our concern and we pushed on past the soldiers, up to a large chamber where Bruin left us to go about his business. We opened the door and saw Cydor standing beside three other figures at a large table strewn with maps and parchments. He looked up with a broad smile as we entered.
Cydor introduced us to his companions. It turned out that they were the Shadow Council - a body of free folk that work in parallel to the council of Island Town to detect and eliminate threats to the realm. They advise the Explorer's Guild and work outside of the normal politics. It would seem that our recent tasks had been guided by these four powerful individuals - hopefully they were satisfied with our efforts!
The Shadow Council was chaired by Erlathan, who removed his hood with a flourish when Cydor introduced him. We were in awe as his features were revealed, as he was one of the Elven Folk. His perfect visage gave no indication to his great age (over 3,500 years apparently!), though his aura of wisdom was almost palpable. None of us had ever seen an elf in the flesh, few people had, so we felt honoured.
The remaining members of the council were an auburn-haired woman named Rohan and a black-bearded dwarf named Khardir. Cydor told us that Rohan was a renowned ranger, patrolling and protecting the lands north of Birch Vale. Her nickname is 'Wollen Foot' as she's stealthy as a halfling. Finally, Khardir was introduced as the liaison to the northern dwarf mines and a strong leader of soldiers. His grizzled and scarred face was in stark contrast to Erlathan and attested to his experience in battle. I could see Grimnir nodding his approval when they discussed Khardir's troops wiping out a force of over 500 orcs and half a dozen heavily armoured battle trolls that were seemingly from the same clan as those destroyed at the Ranger Station, so at least he had earned my cousin's respect.
The Next Quest
After the introductions and a fine meal, we got down to business. Cydor asked us if we had seen any more orc or goblin activity on our travels. I took great pleasure in seeing the look on his face when I told him that we hadn't seen any signs of greenskins at the Frozen Keep or in Eastport. There was stunned silence when they heard where we had been, which only deepened when we said that we had discovered the necromancer's true name as well as his mysterious benefactor, Felicia. It seemed that we had exceeded all expectations!
The fact that there was another pair of portals connecting the Frozen Keep and the manor in Eastport was welcome news to the Shadow Council. Erlathan wanted to redirect the portals such that they could all be accessed directly through the one near Birch Vale - without knowing if we had more enemies to be worried about, this would give us a sound tactical advantage to be able to move quickly between locations. There was a good chance that no one was missing Felicia yet, so the quicker we moved the better. We agreed that Bori would go the manor house with Cydor while Merla and Grimnir would travel back to the temple north of Birch Vale with Erlathan. Using the amulets we had recovered, they were confident in re-aligning the portals.
Following these preparations, the Council told us that they wanted us to investigate the Black Pyramid in more detail. This was to be a scouting mission, no more, but Erlathan made it clear that they needed to know more about this mysterious structure. Plans could then be made to decide how to deal with it.
It seemed that the various threads we had been pulling at were all part of one extensive tapestry, but we had only been able to see small parts of it at a time. We knew there was some connection between Felicia and a creature of darkness that possibly resided in the Black Pyramid, or at least had designs on it. Magical portals crossing huge distances across the land had something to do with Dovoulad but had also been corrupted by followers of the death cult. And greenskins were gearing up for war - not that unusual, but they were gathering in larger numbers. Were they part of this, or were they taking advantage of the situation like the opportunistic scavengers they were? I was sure there was more we weren't yet seeing, but for now the path was clear - reorganising the portals and then heading to the steaming jungles to scout out the Black Pyramid.
Rewards and Loose Ends
Of course, we agreed to help with realigning the portals and scouting the pyramid. We'd been though too much already, we wanted to know how this ended! And it was our duty as Journeymen of the Explorer's Guild!
However, we were Journeymen no longer as Erlathan rewarded our efforts thus far by formally inducting us as Guildsmen. We were awarded golden broaches to signify our status as having passed the Journeyman trials at the highest level. This was a proud moment for all of us. He told us to report to the Guild Master at Island Town once this business was finished with, where we would be given the best opportunities the Guild had to offer. In addition to that, he personally gifted us each with a star metal amulet embossed with a sigil meaning 'Elf-Friend'. The work was exquisite, clearly performed by a master smith and most likely Elvish work if my eyes didn't deceive me. We wore them with great pride and, as soon as I placed it about my neck, I felt the world seem slightly brighter and my feet fall a little lighter. There were some enchantments on these amulets that assisted perception and stealth, both skills that would be useful in our scouting mission.
With our new orders received and rewards bestowed, we were given leave to complete our journey to New Mine with Omratin so that we could spend some time with the rest of the dwarfs. We would return on the morrow to begin the next stage of our adventures.
In the meantime, I wrote a letter that I asked Cydor to get delivered to my clansmen at Khazad Dwemer. I dearly wanted to return and investigate the star metal forge at the manor house, but that wasn't going to be possible until our new mission was complete. I thought it was prudent to ask some of my kin to take my place in unlocking the secrets of the forge, and now felt like as good a time as any to get in touch with our family. Grimnir and I had been away for a long time and, now that we had been accepted fully into the Guild, perhaps we could begin to reconnect with our kin and wipe some of the stain of my cousin's transgressions. Moradin knew that we couldn't wipe the slate completely clean, but this seemed like a start.
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