Chapter 1-5: The Story So Far...
Chapter 1: The Journey to Darktower
Daergel, Bloodbeard, and Artex were on their way north to Darktower to seek riches and adventure, when they were approached in Duvik's Pass by a villager from Marek's Peak. The villagers had been stricken by a mysterious sickness, and they needed adventurers to find the source. The group explored the nearby silver mine, driving out a band of kobolds, and later an orcish haman. The villagers recovered and founded a church of Moradin.
Halfway between Duvik's Pass and Darktower, the group encountered a sudden storm and had to take shelter in an old crypt. There they met Hork, who was also taking shelter, and banded together to explore the crypt. The group met their match in a powerful, undead bugbear, who slew Artex with a axe blow. The rest of the party, weary and injured, was forced to flee and cuddle under Hork's winter blanket to survive the storm. They continued on to Darktower.
Chapter 2: Saving Uncle Kiro
In Darktower, they ran into Daergel's Uncle Kiro, who was in trouble for 'borrowing' a powerful magic wand from a wizard. He was tracked down to Darktower by a trio of experienced bounty hunters intent on returning to the wizard with the want or Kiro's head. Unfortunately, Kiro had sold the wand to an adventuring mage, who had left town to explore some nearby ruins and had never been seen again. The group agreed to go to the ruins, retrieve the wand, and save Kiro's life. Meanwhile, Daergel had become friends with a young elven monk named Sylasune. Sylasune's mentor sent him with the group to gain some real-world combat experience.
On the way north to the ruins, the party was attacked several times by hobgobling raiding parties, but managed to survive. They stumbled across a large hobgoblin fortification under construction as well, but managed to avoid detection and circle around. They reached the ruins that night and made camp.
In the morning, to Hork's grief, Bloodbeard had disappeared, leaving a message scrawled in the ground that he had had a vision from Moradin and must go on a holy mission. The party continued on without him. In the ruins, they discovered an unconcious, but alive, dwarf named Morgrim who then joined the party. After fighting a living vine, some giant rats, a choker, and a grick, they found the wand they were looking for and made their way back to Darktower. They handed over the want to the bounty hunters, and Kiro was set free. Sylasune left the party to continue his training.
Chapter 3: Crazy Like A Wendigo
Soon thereafter, the party found itself (by Daergel's actions) associated with the local thieves' guild. In order to join the guild, they were sent to retrieve a valuable ring stolen by a non-union thief who was in hiding in a hunting lodge several days' travel into the Black Forest. The PCs met the dwarves at the Dwarven Mine, fought several giant wolves, and fought the now-insane thief to retrieve the ring. Meanwhile, Daergel was being driven quickly insane by a wendigo that was stalking the party. As they were on their way back to Darktower, the wendigo finally revealed itself, but was quickly struck down by Hork's axe before even getting a chance to attack. The party returned to Darktower, defeating some ogres and celebrating with the dwarves at the Dwarven Mine along the way.
Chapter 4: Goblins on Giant Spiders
With the reward money Kiro gave them for his rescue, Daergel had custom-ordered a repeating crossbow. Unfortunately, as he learned on returning to Darktower from the Black Forest, the caravan bringing it to Darktower was ambushed by goblins riding giant spiders just north of Duvik's pass. The party decided to find the goblin lair and retrieve the merchants' goods and Daergel's crossbow. They trailed some goblins back to the lair (which seemed to be made in a blocked off section of a giant ant nest) and fought their way in. After springing several crafy goblin traps, fighting giant spiders and goblin thugs, they slayed the goblin leader, a stocky warrior wearing the armor of a local dwarven hero, Dardurin Battlehammer. After avenging Dardurin, Morgrim reclaimed the armor for the Battlehammer clan, and began wearing it. Afterwards, they returned to Duvik's pass to rest and recover. After healing up, they returned to the cave and fought a goblin druid and his pet Ettercap, which the goblins had been worshipping as a diety, and which controlled the giant spiders the goblins rode. At one point Hork was forced to rip her armor apart because the goblin had cast a spell causing it to burn her flesh. It was a tough battle, but they survived. Daergel cut through the obese carcass of the ettercap to retrieve his crossbow (the ettercap had fallen on top of the crossbow when it died). It's now permanently stained purple from the creature's innards. The party retrieved the stolen goods, dragged them back to Duvik's Pass using the carapace of a giant spider as a sled, and hitched a ride with another caravan bound for Darktower. After fighting off a warband of hobgoblins, they managed to make it to Darktower bloody and beaten, but alive.
Chapter 5: The Wizard's Tower
Before long, Jimmy had a new mission for the group. He explained that he had a new client who needed a few hard-to-get items, and the PCs' job would be to retrieve them. The first such item was a small collection of arcane tomes belonging to a reclusive wizard who was believed to be dead. Jimmy sent Crane, the guilds' resident wizard, with the party to help get them into the wizards' tower (located deep withing the Black Forest) and help identify the books.
On the way to the Black Forest, the party had another skirmish with Hobgoblins. They easily defeated them and captured one of them, but some others got away. The party brought their captive to the dwarven mine, where he was interrogated for information about the hobgoblin movements and plans. The PCs learned that the forces they had faced so far were mostly inexperienced soldiers, and the elite hobgoblin forces had yet to arrive at the front lines.
The PCs continued into the Black Forest, fighting ogres and stirges along the way, and finally arrived at the wizard's tower. There they fought a dangerous gargoyle, made their way through the wizard's trap-laden abode, and fought several suprisingly tough animated household objects. Eventually they made their way to the upper levels of the tower, where they discovered a partially-complete flesh golem and narrowly escaped several animated owlbear skeletons. Finally they arrived at the wizard's summoning chamber, where they found a gnome-sized demon or devil trapped in a summoning circle. It turned out the creature had the ability to damage other creatures around him by wounding himself. This is how the wizard who owned the tower had died. The creature let the PCs pass safely in exchange for freeing him. The PCs retrieved the books they were looking for, as well as most of the rest of the wizard's extensive library, and returned to Darktower. Along the way they hit a severe winter storm, but managed to survive thanks to Morgrim's ring of warmth and some helpful spells from Crane. Morgrim and Crane were almost slain by some sort of ice demon along the way, but the party managed to finish it off and make it home alive.
There the PCs discovered the town had come under attack by the hobgoblins. They had been repelled, but there were casualties. The commons were occupied with makeshift medical tents where the injured were being treated, and most of the buildings north of the Swiftcurrent River had been burnt down. With the hobgoblin war heating up, Kiro revealed to the party that he was planning on moving somewhere safer. He sold his house to them for a very reasonable price, in exchange for a promise to escort him safely to Duvik's Pass once spring arrived.