Once again life returned to the world. Having finished off the Zhentarim assailants, our heroes hit the road again, on their journey to Noanar’s Hold. The rest of the day went by without any exciting encounters.
During the night, however, Jayr heard what sounded like loud wailing. Without awakening the rest of the party, he decided to head off and investigate. After travelling for half an hour, he came across a bloody, severed horse head. This was too much for Jayr. He ran as fast as he could back to camp, crying and screaming, waking the rest of the party. Our heroes learned that they had a cleric with a fear of ghosts…quite an oddity considering clerics are normally experts at vanquishing the undead. Wanting someone strong to protect him, he asked Kida if he could sleep next to her. She agreed, although said it may be tight, considering Seraphina and Kida were already sharing a tent.
A few days later, our heroes arrived in the small village of Calling Horns. The town didn’t consist of much besides a nice, high class inn and the villagers’ homes and farms. Our heroes met Tamalin Zoar, owner of the inn. After inquiring about our heroes’ destination, she shared some dark history about Noanar’s hold: In the past it had been a hunting lodge that served the rich. Unfortunately, the hunts were not of beasts but rather of “lower class” people. Although this stopped sometime ago, rumours have it that those who ran the lodge now haunt the local area.
Learning this history, and more specifically the rumours about ghosts, caused unease in Jayr. Tamalin picked up on this and suggested some liquid courage. Jayr thought fighting his fear of spirits with spirits was a great idea. The cost of a barrel of quality elven wine, however, was more than our heroes were willing to pay. Tamalin suggested perhaps a trade, a horse for a barrel. Xeric turned around and left as some of the party attempted to bargain. In the end, no agreement could be reached, and the party had decided to leave. Tamalin however had taken interest in Xeric and took him aside to talk. He returned to the group informing them that he had managed to come to an agreement with her.
The party was given 3 rooms for the night as part of the agreement. Xeric wanted a room of his own and paid extra for a 4th room, and Mitsui slept outside. In the middle of the night, Xeric was making ghostly sounds to scare Jayr. When Jayr awoke, he ran scared to Kida’s room. There was a loud crash around the same time from outside as Jayr crashed through the door, only to have a sleepy Seraphina toss a dagger at him. Thinking the loud crash was from the door being opened, Seraphina was going back to bed after dealing with Jayr in her own fashion. Kida, though, insisted that the noise came from outside..
Having been sleeping outside, Mitsui saw the source of the loud noise: two trolls breaking into the stable for a midnight snack. Mitsui quickly engaged, calling out to the trolls, “MY FOOD!”. It took a bit longer for the others to arrive, with Kida charging in with Jayr under one arm and Seraphina on her back. The party started hacking away at the trolls but the wounds just kept on closing up. They finally managed to take one down, but even then it just came right back to life. Seraphina played peekaboo with the second troll shortly after it had killed one of the horses, running in between its legs and hiding behind its back. Luckily, trolls aren’t the smartest things in the world and didn’t realize what had happened.
The first troll was downed and regenerated a second time. Mitsui, tired of this nonsense, shoved her long sword through its head while it was “dead” and stuck it in the ground. While it regenerated, the sword kept it pinned to the ground. Luckily, Hark remembered something from his days as a lowly goblin lackey: trolls will stop regenerating if they are hurt by fire or acid.
Jayr finished the first troll off with a Green Flame Blade attack. The second troll was soon also downed, and Seraphina lit its hair on fire. Having heard that eating ice troll hearts can grant powers to people, she suggested Mitsui eat these trolls’ hearts, to which Mitsui happily complied.
The party then heard a slow clapping sound. They turned around and saw Tamalin. She had seen them fight and was quite impressed. She walked over to Kida and gave her 14 gold, the cost of the 4 rooms and food for the group. She also told them they could have the horse back that she had bought as payment for the horse that died.
She then proceeded to tell them they’ve had a few more issues with trolls than normal. If they’d investigate it for her, she’d be happy to provide food and lodging until they resolve the problem, as well as enough feed for their horses until they reach Everlund. Jayr and Xeric started arguing about what to accept, Seraphina and Mitsui had no interest in this and wandered into the barn.
Jayr wanted a permanent percentage of the profits for payment, which Tamalin was not willing to give. Xeric was interested in getting a letter of recommendation. The two kept on arguing. Jayr pointed out they needed money, not just right now but continually, and this could be a good source of revenue. Xeric commented that there’s more than money in the world, and the letter of recommendation could be very useful. Jayr scoffed at this, “she’s nothing but an innkeeper in a small hamlet that they would probably never return to; having her as an ally wouldn’t do much good for them.” In the end, Xeric negotiated for Tamalin to cover the cost of operations, 25 gold, and the letter of recommendation.
Meanwhile, in the barn, Mitsui and Seraphina were not getting along. Mitsui wanted to eat the dead horse. Seraphina pointed out how terrible this would be. It wouldn’t be right for the other horses to watch their herd member be consumed right in front of them. Mitsui pointed out it was dead now, it was lucky, it would be lucky in her belly. Seraphina called Mitsui a monster. Mitsui said, “Not Monster,’ then proceeded to say something in a language Seraphina did not understand before leaving the barn. Seraphina found a blanket and proceeded, by herself, to clean up the remains of the horse.
The group went back to bed, and in the morning, attempted to track the trolls. Seraphina was not used to tracking outside the mountains and was unable to find any troll prints. The party had been informed that the trolls had come from the North and started to head that way. They did come across some larger tracks and followed them to the west.
Off in the distance, they noticed a fire giant and a troll. Seraphina told the group to hang back as she would go investigate. Xeric asked to come along, and when Seraphina asked why, Xeric turned invisible, shocking the group as they weren’t aware that he had this ability.
When the two snuck up, they saw the Giant smacking the troll around and ordering it to get her some food. They also noticed a large rod that the giant was touching occasionally, as she wandered back and forth. Thinking back, Seraphina remembered a giant back in Triboar had one as well. Seraphina and Xeric started to discuss what to do next when time came to a standstill once more.
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