Jean says, “Now that we know Sasha Gillemet is really just a thug, it is unlikely we will be able to work with her. We may have bought a month from my gift of a map, but it is just a matter of time until she comes looking for the dagger and the mask. As for Hauptner, since he is in bed with her, we will probably also have a difficult time convincing him to help us. That leaves Giovanni. If you look at the map you will see that Gillemet controls all of the most direct routes south, both by river and by road.

“We will probably not be able to sneak by her to get to Giovanni if we go that way. However her forces are not well organized. It is unlikely that she has much control of the western part of her lands, once you get away from the roads and inns. If we can find and chart a path through the Black Crags we can bypass her stranglehold on the region.” He traces the dotted line on the map.

“This could have large trade implications for Giovanni, and is the reason we came to the Border Princes in the first place. For the dwarves, we may find some of your kin in the Crags, or at least some green skins and giants to slay. And for the elves, what better way to see more of nature. Once we discover it, we would not be able to protect or improve the way by ourselves. But if Giovanni is looking for more trade, and is worried about the threat to his north, then he may help us with the manpower to do that. What do you say?”

We complete the planning for our trip to see Giovanni. We will circumvent Sasha’s lands (and patrols) by going to the west, but we will visit the dwarves first to get our armor.

We head south to the Crossed Lances and announce our intent to leave the area and go to the east, to give any potential spies incorrect information. We gather supplies for the trip including food, tools, horses and a mule.

We set off to the east as we had told people, then turn south to go and visit the dwarves we had previously met and pick up our armor and weapons. After a few days we arrive there unmolested and let them know of our plan. The dwarves let us know that there is an abandoned dwarven keep in the mountains.

The next day we come across a group of hill people. We decide to approach them to see what they might know about the area. They speak Kislevite (Russian) and then switch to Tilian (Italian). Only Maruviel knows Tilian but he is able to converse with them. They say that no dwarves have been in the area for many years, but there is a keep about half a day’s march south and west of here. It has been abandoned for many years. He says that a few people have come through here recently, a few dwarves, but not many others.

We ask if we could stay around here for the evening and they point us to a spot which is a flat dry riverbed. They say that sometimes night goblins and bears come through here otherwise it is mostly safe.

After we start our camp, we notice a light off in the distance. It is a light moving up and down like a lantern. As they get closer we see four humans carrying torches and lanterns. They are all armed.

They approach and see us, then call out to ask who we are. They say that they are mercenaries who do business with Giovanni. Jean explains who we are and they decide to come and share the fire with us.

Vincenzio is the leader, along with Nunzio, Giancarlo and Antonio. They are friendly but a bit wary of us so they do not want to share much info on Giovanni except that he is fairly hands-off.

Suddenly Brokk hears a sound like the beating of wings. A giant winged creature with the head of a lion alights on top of a nearby standing stone. It is a manticore! It roars and flies down, impaling Nunzio. Brokk is petrified. The others take care of it with a few swipes.

Maruviel lets the rest of us know that the tail of the manticore is quite poisonous, and they are born of chaos so they are prone to other mutations. This one is fairly standard. The poison gland can be useful, however we don’t know how to find it. We decide to push it off the edge into the crevasse.

The next day we continue moving, saying farewell to Giovanni’s men.

We arrive back to the keep and find that the guards are not on the battlements and the portcullis is up. We advance in, on our guard. We see a person strung up and dead, we recognize him as one of the workers from the Crossed Lances.

Heading inside, we see a wagon with supplies from the Crossed Lances on it. This may have been a “Trojan Horse” to let them gain access and then attack. We do not hear the sounds of battle, though. The kitchen has food that has gone cold and Sleeves is not there. The horses are fine.

Heading down to the jail, we see that Sleeves and Thomas are down here in a cell. We release them and they say that Geeves has gotten stranger with his behavior in the last few days, and has invited some people here. They were chanting and taking their clothes off. Thomas is completely catatonic. We mention to Sleeves that his stew is on the fire and he goes to check on it.

We head upstairs and on the stairwell we see Otto and Reinhardt. We hear an orgy going on behind them. They warn us that there is a sacred ritual going on and we can’t go in. Brokk says that he wants to go in but they aren’t buying it. They move to attack us and Vedasi tries to disable them. Jean shoots and arrow right through Otto’s eye, killing him instantly.

Brokk ascends the stairs and sees a disturbing scene of the orgy, and Geeves en flagrante with one of the barmaids from the Crossed Lances, but it doesn’t seem to be exactly him — his skin has a pinkish sheen and his tongue is elongated. He has a huge lobster claw where one hand should be, and goat’s legs. He reaches behind him without breaking stride and grabs a marionette. He manipulates it and causes Tobruk to attack Maruviel.

Geeves rears back and spits gobs of blue-green blood out of his mouth toward us. Tobruk is still charmed and starts attacking us. He finally snaps out of it and the elves and Jean light up Jeeves with arrow shots until he falls back, bleeding from both arms.

The villagers close in on us and start stabbing. We take a few of them out but there are too many. Brokk is stabbed in the leg and passes out on the floor, bleeding. The fight comes to an end and Jean tries to help Brokk but is not able to do anything. He is unconscious and breathing steadily.

Jean looks around and sees only three people that he recognizes; the rest must have been picked up on the road. We take the bodies out and burn them.

We go up into the tower bedroom and Geeves has redecorated there as well. A strange symbol is here, it is the symbol of Slanesh. His armor is discarded in a pile. Maruviel takes it. His backpack is here as well. It has some healing draughts, poultices, fey eyes, and someone’s actual eye.

Brokk tries one of the vials that says “Cure All” on it but it’s a spoiled potion and causes a strange condition for him. He decides to rest up.

The rest of the group buries the mask and the dagger that Geeves had in a branch off of our secret tunnel. And after cleaning up the keep, we plan on visiting Giovanni.

It takes us about an hour to get things ready and then we head upriver. In the evening we decide to camp rather than push through, at the captain’s recommendation. We fish off the boat and have a shore lunch.

That evening, we hang out by the fire and take watches. During the third watch, Jean sees some things creeping across the shore. They are goat-men and centaurs with bows and arrows. Vedasi wakes up and kills one immediately with two arrows. Gottfried tries to shoot one of them with his pistol but the thing explodes, blowing his right arm off. He screams in pain.

Tobruk is gored in the chest by one of a Bestigor, a minotaur-cow thing. He puts his axe right in the thing’s spine and it expires. Brokk runs up to the centigor that is near Gottfried and leaps at him like Brad Pitt from Troy and stabs him in the side of the head, killing him instantly.

We kill the rest of them, and Brokk heals both Tobruk and Gottfried although his hand is certainly gone. We talk about getting him a nice hook with different attachments. We search them and find some armor and weapons.

We head out and make it back to the keep by midday the next day.

We each take one healing poultice from Geeves and head upriver to Groghaven. It takes us several hours but is uneventful. The town is right on the river. This is a silver and iron mining town that has smelters and forges. It smells quite bad.

A government functionary greets us and asks us for a docking fee. He charges us 5 silver per day to dock which Tobruk pays. He tells us that the best place for us to drink being Dwarves, not the Drunken Shitpit, but Snotling Fondlers is our best option.

Our options for lodging is The Wicked Trickster or the Gypsy Lodge (where the decor is a little strange). The Trickster is run by halflings and we decide to go there. The owner is pretty theatrical and gets dinner ready for us.

We head to the forge which is huge with a lot of stock, but we quickly realize that the prices are quite high. There is reportedly a dwarven forge out of town a couple of miles with really good quality stuff, so we decide to head there. Vedasi is looking to sell the diamond that we got from the inn.

The dwarves are brothers, named Dhumaad & Grourford. They are not impressed with Brokk’s sword but go crazy over Tobruk’s axe. They actually weep when Tobruk lets them hold it. Because of this we are able to haggle with them better. Brokk is talked into getting a really nice hammer ordered and buys some other things. The others buy custom armor for a pretty penny. It will take the dwarves a while to make all of this.

They give one caveat — if we are monster fighters, we must watch out for the one inside the keep. They ask if we can put the screws to the Boss if we can.

When asked about the gem, the dwarves suggest going to the dwarf Regnard in town to sell it for a “fair price.”

They offer to have us come back and drink with them, and they roll out a barrel of Bugman’s finest which is very good beer. The elves and Jean partake as well. We are now immune to fear tests but it is like drinking 4 regular beers.

They tell us about the Boss. She wants to take the entire area over and take out Giovanni and Hauptner. She will probably take out Giovanni first with Hauptner’s help, and then take out Hauptner as soon as she has no use for him. He is smitten with her and they are lovers. She also dislikes elves with a fiery passion, the dwarves suggest that they stay home when we go to meet her.

We head back into town and they try to charge us, but Tobruk intimidates them and they back off. The next morning we get up and go to the gem store to try and pawn the blue diamond. The old dwarf here takes no notice of the customers until Vedasi slams the diamond down on the counter. He looks at it and seems to want to buy it. Vedasi haggles with him and is able to get 2100 crowns for the gem, silver platter and some other items.

Jean and Brokk go to see the Boss. She is in the mid-40s and is in good shape, very athletic, however she is not extremely beautiful. Her guards have pistols and there are a half-dozen men with her in very good armor and well-armed. She is very casual but says that we have made a lot of waves around here and she wants a cut. She asks for 10% of our earnings and says that we have two items she wants — the ornate dagger and the mask from the boat that we took over.

Jean puts his best game face on and says that he doesn’t know about the dagger and the mask, but he will ask the others in our party about it when we return to the keep. She believes him. Jean gives her the map that he made for her. She is very impressed and says that this will count as our tax for the next month.

It’s now about noon, so we get on the boat and head back north. On our way, Jean determines a way that we could visit the dwarves without going through Groghaven and overland rather than via the river.

Maruviel and Vedasi do a perimeter check one mile around the keep. Near the Winter’s Keep Pass, they come across a group of woodsmen cutting down trees. There are about a half dozen men  and a dozen children here. Continuing on, they find evidence of wood-elves in the area. There is a small grove of trees where they appear to be.

The elves go to the grove of trees and sees that they are “deep wood scouts.” Normally elves don’t care about anything outside of their forest, but the evils in the world have gotten worse and some elves have branched out to try to help in other wooded areas.

A male comes to greet them and Vedasi says that they have come to “meet the neighbors.” The elf says that they’ve noticed that the keep has new tenants, and that they travel with strange folk. Maruviel says that they have rooted out the evil of the black arrows. Vedasi says that his lord asked that he be a bodyguard of a mapmaker. The scouts visibly relax as they are discussing, though they say that it seems a waste of talent to defend one person. Vedasi agrees but he says that it’s in order to understand this area better.

The elf’s name is Thioros. There are several others who seem younger than him: Corlolvath, Koladoc, Thilvoth (males), Syrissen, Ylana (females). Vedasi mentions that we have river transportation and also the skaven, ogres and woodsmen are discussed. The woodsmen may work for Hauptner. The area that we’re in is the Hvargar forest.

Thioros gives them a quiver of arrows that are “signal arrows.” He says to light and fire one of them into the air if we need help. He also asks us to be on the lookout for their signal arrows.

The elves return to the keep and we decide to head back to the tunnels. We head in but are not able to navigate very well. There are at least nine branches off of the main tunnel so far and we see that they keep spreading out. Maruviel suggests that we flood the tunnels, but Tobruk says that this would be a temporary measure. The other options would be to collapse the tunnels manually (needing lots of laborers) and to plant explosives. We decide to cut our losses and head back to the surface. Any plans against the skaven will have to wait.

We decide to head to the Boss’s castle via the river, but first we head to the woodcutter camp. We ask them to provide wood for the construction of our various efforts. The man says that his name is Maxwell (the others are Rolf and Theodore) and he explains that the wood belongs to Hauptner. He seems quite well learned for a woodsman. He says that he went to the university to learn to be an engineer, but. He says that we can’t have their lumber because it is promised to Hauptner. We offer them the ability to live in the keep and work for us, but Maxwell says that he will compromise for now because he doesn’t want to take the risk. They will do some work for us and assess the keep, but they need to keep doing work for Hauptner.

Suddenly we hear a crunching sound as something is coming through the woods. We see a group of forest goblins coming from the northeast. We start to fend them off and the woodcutters back away quickly to protect their families. Suddenly a huge spider descends from the trees and a goblin is riding it! He holds a wand of some kind and casts magic at us.

The spider advances on us and the goblin continues to attack. Arrows suddenly protrude from the spider’s thorax as we see Thioros and the other elves come to help. The spider goes down and some goblins that tried to escape are taken out by the elves.

We assure the woodcutters that the threat is done. The elves say that it’s strange for the goblins to be this far. Perhaps word that the Black Arrows have been removed has caused them to become more bold. In a stunning move, Tobruk thanks the elves. They say that they were merely protecting the area.

Maxwell says that he will come back to the keep and begin moving their sawmill to the river. The elves say that while we are in Groghaven they will make sure the keep stays safe.

Realizing that people are using these caves, we think about putting a watch here and either charging tax or kicking people out and letting them know that this place is under new management.

We head to the next area and see evidence of people climbing up the embankment of the gorge. It is quite rocky here and there are other caves above us. Vedasi free climbs up and ties a rope so the rest of us can go in.

Upon entering we see old bedrolls and a circle of stones for a fire pit. There is also a knapsack here with 5 gold and a small dagger. As we are looking around, Jean smells something strange, like a wet musty odor coming from the left wall.

We take a look and see a hidden fissure covered by stones and netting only about a foot wide. The air is clearly coming from the next cave over. We head over there and check the right wall of that cave. It smells much stronger here and gets worse toward the back of the cave.

There is a red flash and Tobruk dodges out of the way as a jagged curved blade comes out of the wall. It is a skaven, a man-rat, and they are wearing black armor and wielding swords. Several of them swarm from other entrances toward us. One has a globe of strange liquid and runs toward us. It explodes and three of the skaven are caught in the blast, as well as a few of our party. Brokk gets a big whiff of it and feels intense pain, vomiting and doubling over. He runs away from the fight, hacking and coughing.

The others continue fighting as more skaven come out, at least ten of them. They secrete a horrible smelling musk when they are scared or injured. We fight them off and one gets away. Before pursuing them we try to heal up, but Brokk completely fails at it, even with a poultice.

Picking through the skaven belongings, in a pouch Tobruk finds three pieces of glowing green rock, three nuggets of it. He is not sure what it is at first, but Vedasi realizes that it is refined Warpstone. It’s very dangerous, but common for skaven to use and even eat.

We head back to the keep and heal up, then sleep through the night. The next day Jean remembers that he took a book on skaven from the house we recently visited. It mentions the way that skaven wage war and an “under empire” which is where they live, including a city called Skaven Blight. They have a large empire underneath the ground. His other history books mention nothing of the skaven at all. Tobruk relates that they are second only to dwarves when it comes to engineering and that at least one dwarven hold was destroyed by the skaven. Vedasi relates that Britonia held back an attack by skaven long ago, and the wood elves fought against them other times as well.

We decide to undertake an effort and check around the keep to see if there are threats around. We take some of the cloaks and swords and spread them around the lower caverns so it looks like they were hit by skaven and this is why the rifles and such are missing.

It’s determined that the skaven are the gravest threat. We start planning a trip to a nearby city to get help in defeating them. We haven’t decided where yet — either to the Boss, Hauptner, or someone else.

After leaving the house, we notice that no time has passed which is very strange. We are exhausted and head to the Muskrat for a few drinks. After this we return to the boat and the crew is ready to go. They have returned with some supplies.

As we head upriver, we break down the stage and lash the wood to the deck for future use. It gets late and we have to stay the night on the river at a place the crew chooses.

In the morning, we leave at around 10am. In the early afternoon we see four small, fast boats heading downstream toward us. We get nervous and ask the crew about it. They say that it’s likely “tax collectors” who are employed by the Boss and they are going to ask us for money, or even take our ship.

Gottfried, our captain, says that usually they just collect money and let people on their way. We heave to and they board, two boats on either side. They have crossbows and one person with a longbow. They come aboard and ask us what our business is. The man’s name is Gunther and knows Gottfried. We tell them that we are bringing supplies north for the people in the region. Jean tells him that we got the boat because the previous owners were killed in the troll attack.

Gunther says that he heard about the troll attack and that we were instrumental in helping. He says that because of this, his boss Sasha would like to see us. This can be at a time of our choosing in Groghaven. We agree and say that we’d like to pursue partnership.

He asks for us to pay the tax and we convince him that if we’re going to work for his boss, he may not want to be asking us for money. Tobruk looks menacingly at him and Gunther decides to take his leave.

As we continue, Jean starts a very detailed and ornate map of Sasha’s area that he plans to present her when we meet. Upon reflection, he adds more strategic details to the map.

We stay the night again on the river and the crew cooks for us. Vedasi stays up and starts hearing some noise from the woods, a big crashing sound. He goes to investigate and sees a seventeen-foot-tall giant lumbering through the woods. It seems to be quite drunk.

Vedasi shoots the giant in the same leg twice. The rest of us try and creep up on it. It passes out and almost falls on Tobruk but he is able to leap out of the way. He grabs Brokk and slams him on the ground. The others continue attacking and finally after getting up and falling down a few times we finally kill him.

There is a halfling in a cage at the giant’s waist. We find the key and unlock him. The halfling’s name is Thomas, and he is a farmer. We ask him to come along with us and he agrees. Vedasi takes the giant’s head and testicles as souvenirs.

We head back to the ship and explain what happened to the crew, and they are pretty incredulous. The head of the giant is mounted on the bow and testicles are mounted at the stern. The next day we travel back to the keep and introduce Thomas to Sleeves and the others.

We decide to check out the caves. There looks to be a staging area and some storage here. We go back and check the one at the level of the riverbank. There are similar things here.

We come across twelve greatswords that are marked with the symbol of Averland, which is used by their military. They must have been plundered. We find another long crate that is sealed. There are three Hochland rifles in here. Sylvia seems to know what these are, and they are worth 600-700 gold crowns.