Dolgold

Returning to Ristenby the party find that Perkin wants them to investigate disturbances at Dolgold as soon as possible. They must leave at dawn the next day leaving them a few hours to re-equip and enjoy the taverns of Ristenby. Chaal intends to return to the Northern Plains with her father but Krug persuades Perkin that his youngest daughter, Kaala, should join the merchant adventurers guild. Kaala clearly favours her mothers side and would be considered very attractive by most men (well those who like their women to have the build of an Olympic athlete and fangs). Other mannish attributes are a greatsword as a favoured weapon and excellent horsemanship. Her armour on the other hand looks suspiciously elven to Lura’s eyes.

The party tool up for their visit to Dolgold. At the local exchange insurance rates to cover accident, property and life in the Dolgold area suddenly quadruple…

Sergeant Cannock of the Ristenby watch on the theft of the gold shipments from Dolgold:- ‘It must have been seven weeks ago when the first shipment was taken en route to Starstone. What happened was between the dwarves, Brinn who provides the escort and the Baron who gets the money. The Baron, however, asked men from Ristenby to investigate - which meant us. We weren’t keen and by the time the council had agreed to it two days had gone by and the trail was cold. I reckon the Baron thought the money had never been sent and that Brinn was in league with the dwarves but it obviously had - we established that much. Its no good sending my lads out into the wilderness anyway – you need proper rangers for that. People say it’s the lack of patrols which has led to so many problems in the county but patrols by regular foot soldiers are only for show. What we need is a proper ranger service as we had in the days of Risten.'

'Anyway its clear that there are bandits in the area and some one needs to go after them. They say that hamlets have been massacred and Dolgold itself was attacked just before the gold shipment went missing. I’m not surprised another shipment has gone missing and perhaps now the Baron will do something about it. Mind you two gold shipments and the one bandit they caught escaping is sloppy work by Dolgold. Brinn wouldn’t have allowed it at one time but the talk, and its only soldier’s talk mind you, its that his mind’s not on the job these days – domestic problems I understand.’

The party set out at dawn and have an uneventful journey to Dolgold (Dindle by magical pony and Roc and Midge on Kaala’s horse). Roc accepts the dwarves invitation to stay at the mine and is immediately taken into their confidence when they realise that the popular Torfur who used to work in the mine was his uncle. He finds that the beginning of the feud between the dwarves and the quarriers lies in the mistaken belief by the latter that they are just about to find the ‘other end of the gold seam’ in the quarry and the belief that the dwarves are out to stop them. The quarriers have accused the dwarves of killing their watchmen and stealing their livestock. The dwarves fear that the quarriers may have kidnapped three of their kind missing after a night’s drinking in the Sir Tristram. The dwarves also describe a little job the party might want to undertake after their current assignment and hint that they haven’t quite taken Baron Granik’s imposition of unjust additional taxation lying down (‘after all, Roc, we’re dwarves and we’re only dealing with humans here’).

Meanwhile the rest of the party book in at the Sir Tristram. Identifying a human, Calin, as a ‘stranger in town’ and therefore highly suspicious Brand buys him a drink or three. Shortly before Calin retires to bed slightly the worse for wear he blurts out his employers name, Lord Moreth, and a further name, Erin, ‘whose mess I am clearing up’. Midge fails to pick Calin’s pockets as he stumbles upstairs but covers the bungled attempt well. Sadly a search of Calin’s room as he lies snoring reveals no interesting documents.

A chat with the barman Gilbert Broadbelt reveals not many of the local burgesses who drink there believe the dwarves are behind Dolgold’s troubles. They believe that the bandits who attacked the village several weeks ago are behind Dolgold’s misfortune. Brinn, the castellan, has been less than impressive in his attempts to catch the bandits. Gilbert believes he is missing his wife the Lady Dulcinea.

A later conversation with Gilbert reveals he was at the disastrous battle at which Sir Tristram died pursuing the killers of Risten into the Northern Waste. Their scouts failed them and they were ambushed by faceless warriors in black who seemed to get stronger as the battle wore on. Only a heroic rearguard action by several knights who sacrificed their lives allowed any to escape at all.

The party split up by size to pick up further rumours round the town. At the Bluebell the owner, Priscilla, affords Midge a private conversation after he reveals that his ‘Aunt Leta’ is a mutual acquaintance. The party discover that a middle-aged bearded man who matches the description of the magic user who stole Bumbleby’s manuscripts was in the village about the time the troubles started (and the last time Dulcinea was seen). Further he was sought unsuccessfully by the castle garrison after he had made a visit to the castle. Priscilla agrees that a league between this man and the bandits and a kidnapping of Dulcinea is a good, if unproven, conspiracy theory. The most notable local adventurer, the hobbit Prando, has gone off into the wilderness recently so there has been a lack of resource to investigate Dolgold’s problems.

Other maybe unrelated gossip is that Walter Boatman was killed by giant otters on the lake or so says his brother. A barrel marked Ibra Sowerbutt was also found in the lake. Given that all beer in Dolgold is brewed at the back of the Sir Tristram no-one can understand what a barrel from a Ristenby brewer should be doing floating in a lake miles from anywhere.

At the rowdy Trollfires tavern where the quarriers gather after early misgivings the drinkers take to Kaala as she wins several arm-wrestling contest. The party learn that Heinrich Stanner the landlord has formed a ‘Brotherhood of the Pick’ militia to protect the quarriers from the dwarves. He thinks Brinn should be dismissed. Simkin Slater, the night-watchman was killed in the quarry 69 days ago and ‘little Ned’, his youngest, the only survivor of the attack said it was the dwarves. A further death and raids on the livestock prove that the dwarves are intent on scaring the quarriers away and stopping them mining the gold that is probably waiting to be found in the quarry. The dwarves also left a carving of Simkin’s head one night in the quarry as a warning. The quarriers, however, are not easily scared and have had two confrontations with the dwarves setting fire to the locksmiths shop, ‘that dwarf-lover Tarquin Bolt’, during one of these riots.

The next morning Midge goes off to talk to Roc (in full sneak mode). In addition to the gossip Roc has already found out he discovers Prando left with a dwarf Thorin Horisson on his wilderness trip. Rakri was surprised Thorin left so abruptly but it was typical of the whimsical Prando.

Meanwhile Lura, who reveals that Brinn was her father’s friend and that her father met an untimely death in the area not long ago, goes to the castle. She offers Brinn the aid of the party and Brinn, clearly tempted enquires both about their discretion (she lies) and whether their magic user can dispel magic. She is invited back that evening while he considers the offer.

As the party turn their attention to the ‘old villagers’ (the druidic community) Lura greatly impresses the chief druid, Coltsfoot, and is invited to their midday ceremony at the ‘holy stones’. Bits of gossip picked up are that three stones are missing (new villagers suspected), a giant otter was killed and skinned (William Vurnier who subsequently disappeared suspected) and Coltfoot’s dog was killed at the holy stones (quarriers suspected). A druidic hunter is missing and is believed to be the victim of cockatrices in the east wood. Two ‘stone statues’ were found there but their features are unclear (not even race or sex can be inferred).

As Lura approaches the stone circle with Coltsfoot at noon an old villager comes running from the circle with news that the body of a dwarf has been found there. Lura examines the body and finds no sign of foul play and more puzzling no dwarven tracks in the area. She sends a message to the castle and Brinn’s deputy, Celindel, appears and identifies the body as Ergoin one of the missing dwarves. While waiting Lura points out to Coltfoot that some of the stones have been moved and he begins to suspect that they have in fact been replaced.

The body is taken back to the dwarven mine where a ‘speak with dead’ spell reveals that Ergoin has no memory other than returning along the road to Dolgold and having a heart attack at the holy stones at night.

The party re-unite for a cockatrice hunt Midge’s misgivings being over-ruled by Brand and Kaala’s enthusiasm. The party are given directions to the stone statues (now increased to six – perhaps they’re breeding) and an aggressive cockatrice duly appears and is brought down in a hail of missile fire. Dindle magically scans the stones and those back at the circle – there is a clear difference between those in the wood and the older stones at the circle but the suspected replacements in the circle match the aura attaching to the stones in the wood. The mystery deepens as those in the wood have clearly been dragged into place while those in the circle show no trace of that. To satisfy Kaala and Brand’s claim that they think better while killing things the party go back and bag the other cockatrice which Dindle plucks (I told you he was weird).

That evening Brinn comes clean about his part in recent events. The magic user, Nordegai, had enquired about local artefacts and tunnels under the castle and became angered when Brinn could not tell him anything. He turned Dulcinea into a troll and escaped. Brinn has locked her in one of the dungeons and is worried that she is becoming more troll-like. He has asked for help from the temple of Kord (his brother is the local priest) but the arch-priest from Ristenby was no help and rather discouragingly told him he would need 5000gp to hire an arcane magic user. He tried to borrow the money but has been rebuffed. He let the bandit they captured escape in order to make a deal with the bandit leader to rob the gold shipment and share the results 50/50. The first hijacking went well but the second was a disaster - two of the garrison were killed and two more were kidnapped by the bandits. The bandits themselves accuse Brinn of keeping the gold. He now regrets dealing with the bandits – they are ruthless and may be responsible for a massacre at the village of Branstead. He is due to meet the bandit leader in 2 days time and the leader is threatening to kill the men he holds if Brinn can’t provide him with the gold.

If the party dispose of the bandits he will let them keep 10% of the gold ‘unofficially’ as well as negotiating an ‘official’ 10% reward for them. He would also be grateful for their help in ‘curing’ Dulcinea (Kaala appears to have ordered a Dispel Magic scroll over her own private internet).

The party make plans for attacking the bandits. Meanwhile Midge who had earlier visited the hobbits that had taken over Prando’s hole (‘did you come alone, Midge?’) and categorised them as ‘too good to be true’ has his suspicions confirmed by a note from them (‘come alone – do not tell anyone’) inviting him to a midnight meeting at the stones. Dindle’s familiar is sent to spy on the hobbits but they are not at home…

Brinn agrees to keep tabs on the hobbits while the party make for Owl Wood where the bandits are believed to be hiding out. The idea is to attack them while the leader is away. By dint of ‘speaking with animals’ and use of Dindle’s familiar to scout the terrain the party quickly locate the bandit camp. They also find out where the lookouts are and move carefully through the wood to avoid them. The trick with the attack will be to avoid any of the prisoners being killed. Midge invisibly infiltrates the camp and craftily cuts the bonds of the two guardsmen who have been tied to stakes without the bandits noticing. He then positions himself carefully in the tent where the women and children have been held captive.

Meanwhile the party have readied themselves for an assault. As they attack the order is given for the prisoners to be killed. The bandits are no mugs when it comes to combat and a fierce fight ensues with Ralph in particular being severely wounded despite his plate mail. Nevertheless the party have the edge; the prisoners are rescued and the bandits killed or captured. The gold is liberated (and, most importantly, Tarquin the locksmith’s boxes).

Brinn had detained the bandit leader and his companion is captured on the road while returning to the camp. Brinn is very grateful and keeps his promise as to the reward for the ‘bandit problem’ and the healing of Dulcinea. The bandits are executed after confessing to the Branstead massacre (the women and children held in the camp were from that village). They also confessed to be Toxandrian deserters who, straying into Carandor with the idea of setting up a smuggling operation, were captured near the border and dumped in Starstone County.

The party decide to do a little shopping and return to Ristenby. The local news is that Vurdi, the gnome ally of the goblins, who was being held in the Ristenby prison was killed by his own mother when she was allowed to visit him. She took her own life (by poison) shortly afterwards. Inspired by the party's heroic efforts a band of local adventurers have formed led by Hathol (ex-sergeant of the Watch) to supplement your activities. Perkin has asked them to investigate the circumstances of Vurdi’s death.

Midge is tipped off by his contacts that assassins had have been hired to dispose of the party. Lura discovers that there is no Assassins Guild in Ristenby (on account of falling foul of the Thieves Guild). She also gets her father’s ring back and learns some 800 year old history concerning the time the evil mage-priest Dolgar terrorised and enslaved the local population. Roc remembers that the dwarven miners had a little job for the party requiring discretion so the party head for the mine (first checking that the hobbits in Prando’s smial haven’t been up to anything).